Completely AU, takes place, we're gonna say a year-ish after Emily joins the BAU. Hotch and Hailey are newly divorced, but they've been apart for some time. and they don't have any kids. Hotch just recently started dating Emily in secret so they don't get canned. Gideon already left, and Rossi's not too new anymore. Not that I have anything against Gideon, I just don't like how CM kinda became all about him toward the end of his time there, so Rossi's just kind of a fav of mine. Basically anything timeline-wise that doesn't match with the show, is AU.
Disclaimer: If I owned CM, I wouldn't need to write Fanfic to get the characters to do what I want. CBS or whoever own the pool, I'm just swimming in it.
Prologue
Something was up with Hotch. Derek Morgan couldn't explain how he knew, he just did. The normally strict, distant Unit Chief was unusually... Smiley. At least as smiley as a man like Hotch could get. Especially considering he had recently signed the papers effectively ending his marriage.
Everyone knew things with Hailey had been rocky even before she packed up and left while the team was in Milwaukee. Another one of Hotch's "last case"s. From what Morgan and his co-gossipers, Baby Girl and Rossi could tell, the Hotchner's just weren't in love anymore. And according to Garcia, Hailey had been getting insanely jealous as of late.
How the tech analyst got that kinda dirt about a man as private as Aaron Hotchner, Derek couldn't possibly fathom.
And still, immersed in paperwork a few seats over in the BAU jet, Hotch barely seemed fazed by his fresh divorce.
Derek's phone pinged with a text. He chuckled as he read Garcia's message, as it seemed she had read his mind all the way from Quantico.
Hey Chocolate Thunder :) I've got a theory: Maybe Bossman's getting laid!
Now that was an interesting theory.
Super short, I know, but the first chapter is done and will be up soon, so don't fret.