Author's Note: For uncensored stories, visit me on AO3 or my blog, links to these are provided in my profile.

"Come on Hotchman, you need to get out sometimes." Derek slapped him lightly on the shoulder. They were sitting in the gym locker room after a joint police force-FBI training exercise.

"I don't know Morgan, I mean I just signed the papers today. I'm not really in the mood to celebrate. How about next week?" Hotch threw his sweat soaked towel towards the laundry bin then tossed his FBI vest towards his bag. Morgan made a face and Hotch could tell there was something more to it than just going out and letting off some steam. "Okay, what is it? That look tells me you want something."

At least the younger man had the decency to look sheepish. "Well … there's this girl."

Hotch rolled his eyes, "When is there ever not?"

"Just hear me out man! I know for a fact that she's going to be at this bar later tonight with some friends."

"When do you ever need me to go cruising for girls?"

"She's got a friend …" he trailed off.

It finally dawned on him. "You want me to keep her friend busy while you charm her pants off." The younger man looked away guiltily. "What? Is she really unattractive?"

Morgan grimaced, "Her friend's a he, and he's gay."

"Let me get this straight," Hotch winced at the unintentional play on words, "You want me to flirt with a gay guy so that you can get laid. You realise how bad that is, right?"

"Aw come on man! All you have to do is keep him occupied, and I know that him being that way won't bother you. He likes to talk a lot and as long as you act like you're listening he can go on forever. It's just that it's sort of hard to romance the lady when he's there cock blocking me. After I close the deal you can just let him down easy. It won't be that hard, he's kind of geeky and you've got the patience of a saint when it comes to listening to people ramble on."

Hotch sighed. It was against his better judgement and he wouldn't technically be leading the guy on. It was just a get together in a bar. And it wasn't like he had anything to do besides go home to an empty apartment. Haley had already taken all her stuff, and the bareness only served to remind him how little presence he had had in their marriage. Besides, what could it hurt? A few drinks and maybe some pleasant conversation might do him some good.

Morgan drove to the bar and Hotch listened with polite interest as he described the girl. Apparently she was some technical analyst for an up and coming new company and the bar was one of their usual haunts after work. He watched as they entered the college area. "I thought you said the company liked the bar."

"Yeah, they do, but it's one of the ones in between the campus and the office building. Her friend is a teaching assistant at Georgetown. Oh, we might see David Rossi there tonight too."

"The crime novelist? Why?"

"Apparently he is dating one of the company executives and if she shows up with Penelope he'll be there too." They arrived at the bar and found that the other party was already there.

"Hi Derek!" a bubbly blond woman with beribboned pigtails in a chartreuse suit practically bounced over to them. Hotch raised his eyebrows at the colourful ensemble. "Oh! You brought your friend, wonderful! Let me introduce everyone. This is Emily, she's the COO of our company, and I'm sure you all know David Rossi." Aaron reached out and shook both of their hands. "The couple dancing over there are JJ and Will, she's our Communications Director and Will works for the Virginia PD." They smiled at the group and Derek raised his hand in acknowledgement to the fellow officer. "This is my friend Spencer, he's an all around everything man, teaching assistant and genius extraordinaire at Georgetown. He works with Jason Gideon."

The young man smiled and waved hesitantly. He had shoulder length hair that curled at the bottom and honey brown eyes. Hotch noted that he seemed a little shy and so he didn't reach out to shake his hand. Instead he asked, "Jason Gideon? The criminal behaviour expert? I've seen him on the stand, he's ... interesting."

The younger man immediately perked up but Penelope cut in quickly, "Spencer, hold that thought, I want to meet Derek's friend first. I'm sure you do too." The college student blushed in embarrassment and nodded. "Derek, introduce us."

"Penelope Garcia, this is Aaron Hotchner. Hotch, this is Penelope the tech goddess."

"Pleased to meet you," Hotch took her hand and shook it gently.

"Oh! What a gentleman. Derek, you didn't tell me you had a tall dark and handsome friend like this. I should make you bring your friends more often!"

"Hey, hey there. Aren't I enough man for you?" The dark skinned man harped at her as she laughed coyly. He grabbed her hand and most of the group made their way to the table.

Aaron stayed leaning up against the bar and looked at the young man across from him with interest. "I suppose this is the part where I come clean and tell you we've been set up."

Spencer sighed, "Don't worry about it. I know." Hotch looked at him in surprise. "Derek's been trying to get Penelope alone with him for couple of weeks now. I'm just really not good with social cues so I kind of missed the fact I was in the way. She kind of clued me in he would bring someone to 'keep me occupied' as he put it."

Hotch frowned. "Well I hope you don't think that's all it is. I wouldn't have come if I thought I wasn't going to have a good time." Aaron paused as he realised that line came out a little more salaciously than he had intended.

Fortunately, Spencer missed it altogether and his eyes lit up as he understood that Hotch wasn't going to humour him for his friend's sake. "So you said you've seen Gideon in court. Are you lawyer?"

"Ah, I used to be a prosecutor. I recently switched professions and joined the FBI." The older man grinned as Spencer's mouth dropped open.

"Interesting, what prompted that change?" The agent took a deep breath and began to explain.

After a couple of hours, Morgan glanced over in consternation. Not only was Hotch still engaged in animated conversation with the young man but it seemed like he was actually flirting with him. Garcia interrupted his perusal, "Isn't that great?"

"What?" he said dazedly.

"That they are getting along so fabulously. I'm glad your friend likes him. I've been looking to hook Reid up with someone for ages but he always gets really shy when anyone shows him some attention."

"Yeah," Derek suddenly had a bad feeling about the situation. Hotch had just gotten divorced and he wasn't over it yet. The man was straight, right? He'd been married to a woman so Derek stood to think he was. However, Morgan knew there was sometimes a difference between how people conducted themselves around their friends and how they were in private. Of course, it could simply be a case of loneliness. Hotch had been on his own for quite a while. His separation with Haley had lasted months while she kept him hanging with her passive aggressive approach to his career change. He could see how a bit of attention could be attractive to the older man, especially since it seemed like Spencer was really into him. He decided he needed to go over there and nip this in the bud before Hotch decided in his post-divorce depression that he should try out for the other team.

Derek nudged Penelope's arm, "Let's go over there and see how they're doing."

They caught a snippet of conversation on their way over. Spencer was waving his hand in dismissal, "Yes, but a classic narcissist is overly self-confident so he wouldn't act like that."

"Hmm, that's true." Hotch paused as Derek and Penelope walked up. "Hey Morgan, everything good?"

"Yeah ... Penny and I just noticed you two having a ball over here and though we'd see how it's going." Morgan looked at him pointedly trying to convey he had it in the bag and Hotch could lay off now. The older man smiled at him and Derek felt a moment of unease.

"Hey sweet cheeks, Derek's friend treatin' you right?" Penelope smiled brightly, happy that Spencer seemed to be having fun for once. He wasn't fond of coming to bars with her and she knew it, but she always felt a little bad that he couldn't enjoy it as much as she did.

The young man blushed. "Yes, thank you. However, I really need to be going. I have to teach a class tomorrow morning and Gideon wants to go over the course materials beforehand."

"Oh, Derek and I are leaving too, let me go get my purse." Derek went to get the car as she went over to the booth and wished the other couples a good night. As Morgan looked back he saw the college student hand Aaron a slip of paper. To his surprise, his friend looked at it then slipped it into his wallet. Morgan rationalized that Hotch was just being polite and would throw it away later. He almost tripped when he saw Aaron lean over and write his number down on a napkin, smiling as he handed it to the young man. Suddenly, a small part of him wondered how much of Hotch's behaviour tonight had been an act.

Hotch had just walked out of the bar when Morgan pulled up to the door, "Hey man, you riding with us?"

"No, I think I'll take a cab." He leaned against the open passenger window when Derek motioned to him.

"So, what was up with you in there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the heavy duty flirting that was going on. I mean thanks for keeping him entertained and all but you were layin' it on kinda thick." Hotch scowled as Morgan's latent distaste for homosexuality was suddenly rubbing him the wrong way.

Aaron was about to reply with something nasty when Penelope came out of the bar. He opened the passenger door to Derek's SUV and helped her climb in. As he shut it he looked at the other man, "I'll see you tomorrow for lunch and we'll talk about it then." He walked away from the car not wanting to get into an argument in front of the young lady.