Okay so this would be my first story for criminal minds. Well sort of i have a bunch of half written CM stories that aren't finished yet, this is just the first one i did finish. Its also written for the tv promt challange. And by the way i feel really werid posting it because i haven't posted anything in about a year. It may be terreible.
Prompt Set #4-One Nation Under Surveillance (which only sort of relates to the story)
Puppy Love and Brown Eyes
Haley scanned the playground of Jack's pre-school as she walked along beside the chain link fence to the gate. She was there to pick up Jack early and take him to his father's house for the weekend. She had to go out of town and her flight left at the same time she would normally be picking Jack up from school. As she opened the gate she spotted Jack's teacher, Miss Hill, sitting on a bench by the building entrance and observing the children, ensuring they stayed out of trouble.
"Meredith," Haley greeted, grabbing the teacher's attention.
"Oh, hi Haley" The young teacher jumped up from her seat to speak. "I got your note this morning, is Jack excited to be spending the long weekend with his father?" She asked trying to make light conversation.
"He's over the moon about it." Haley told her. "He tried to pack most of his room into his over-night bag." Meredith reached behind the bench where she had set Jack's backpack and the two of them started walking closer to the playground. They searched the playground for Jack and Meredith finally spotted him in the sand under the slide, building a sandcastle with a little girl from the class.
"There they are," she said directing Haley's attention to her son. "He and Rebecca have been inseparable all day."
"Rebecca?" Haley asked. She didn't remember a Rebecca on Jack's class list.
"She just started here yesterday," Meredith said nodding to the little brunette girl sitting next to Jack. "And I think someone has a little case of puppy love." The two women laughed before Haley called out to get Jack's attention. It surprised her when Rebecca got up and followed Jack to the sidewalk.
"Hi mommy," Jack said as he hugged his mother around her legs. "Is it time to go to daddy's house?" He asked eagerly.
"It is," She told him. "But first why don't you introduce me to your friend."
"This is Becca." Jack introduced her but was suddenly more interested in looking at his shoes. Her four year old was shy around the girl, it was unbearably cute.
"It's nice to meet you Becca." She kneeled down to shake the little girl's hand.
"It's nice to meet you too Miss. ... umm…Missus Jack's mommy." The girl replied taking the offered hand. Haley and the teacher giggled once more at the two small children. Jack said goodbye to his teacher and then to Becca before taking his mom's hand and headed to the car. After Haley had snapped Jack into his car seat and buckled herself in she couldn't help but ask Jack about his new friend.
"So Jack, tell me more about your friend Becca." Jack stopped struggling to reach his over-night bag and looked at his mom.
"She's really nice, and fun, and…" he went on for at least two minutes about ever detail he learned about the girl in the past two days "…and she has big brown eyes just like Miss Emily's."
That last comment caught her attention. As far as she knew none of Jack's teachers were named Emily, nor were any of the mothers she would talk to while picking him up after school. Her curiosity got the better of her and she asked him who Miss Emily was.
"She's daddy's friend." Haley had not been prepared for that response. She felt the car swerve slightly during her moment of shock and quickly reminded herself she was driving.
"Oh," was all she could really say. Jack had gone back to reaching for his bag and had finally latched his tiny hand around the shoulder strap. She did not want to focus on the subject her son had unintentionally brought up but the thought that her ex-husband was seeing someone was something she had not expected. And she had no doubt he must be seeing the women. Jack was smart yes but if he had only met this women one or twice it was unlikely he would have remembered her eye color and then make a reference to it. What had really confused her was that Aaron was not an extremely social guy; most of his friends he had know almost his entire life or he had met them through his job. Then something occurred to her. He worked with a woman named Emily. She even, vaguely, remembered meeting her once.
But that did not make sense. She had never asked many questions about his job but she knew through a few scattered stories that the FBI had rules against fraternization. And that would defiantly be fraternization. "Jack?" She found herself asking before she could stop herself. "How does your daddy know Miss Emily? Do they work together?"
Jack, who had pulled his favorite cars from the bag, stopped crashing them together to look up at her. Then an excited smile spread across his face.
"Yep, she fights monsters just like daddy." She smiled a bit. That was how she and Aaron had agreed to describe his job; at least until he was old enough to understand what he really did. But then her previous thoughts raced back to her. So it was the woman he worked with; but Aaron didn't break rules. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions and Jack had met the woman, along with the rest of his team, at random over the past year or so. It continued to bother her though. She glanced back at Jack in the rearview mirror. She wanted to ask more questions but she was beginning to feel like she was using him as a spy.
Again her curiosity won out.
"Sweetheart, where did you meet Miss Emily?" Jack looked deep in thought for a minute.
"At the park," he finally decided. Haley sighed. "But she's at daddy's house a lot."
Again all she could say was 'oh'. She had one more question to ask him to confirm the situation and she figured she might as well ask it; she already confirmed she was using her son as a spy.
"Does she ever spend the night," Jack thought carefully again before explaining that sometimes she was there for his good night story and then there for breakfast in the morning.
Haley was now positive that Aaron was dating the woman and that, despite the bureau's fraternization rules, they were quite serious. There was obviously something strong between them if they were willing to put their jobs at risk. She finally saw the sign for the apartment complex come into view and turned into the parking lot. By the time she'd pulled into the guest parking she was wondering why she wasn't feeling jealousy or anger or any huge, grand emotion towards them. She was just shocked. Maybe it was just proof that what had happened between her and Aaron was for the best.
Jack had climbed out of the car while she went over her thoughts and was trying hard to patiently wait with his hand against the door and his book bag over his shoulder.
"Mommy, can we go now." Haley quickly jumped out of the car, grabbed Jack's over-night bag from the back seat and jogged around the car to take his hand. His feet moved faster then hers and he was practically dragging her along behind him. He knew exactly which floor and which door lead to his daddy's house. Once they were in the correct hallway she released his had and he ran full force to the third door on the right side of the hall. He knocked rapidly on the door and it opened just as Haley caught up with him.
"Daddy!" Jack yelled as he ran into his dad's arms and Hotch willing returned the hug.
"Hey buddy, are you excited about this weekend?" He asked as he pulled away so he could see the smile that meant so much to him.
"Yep!" he responded, practically bouncing in place.
"Good because we're going to have a lot of fun." He said now picking his son up to give him another hug.
"Is Miss Emily going to be here?" Jack asked, his whole face was glowing with excitement but that last statement had caught both his parents off guard.
"Umm, yeah Buddy she will be." Hotch told him knowing full well he wasn't about to lie to his son. He did turn and look at Haley. The initial shock on her face had worn off quickly and he had a feeling that Jack had already told her about Emily.
For her part Haley gave him a small smile. She was okay with the fact that he had moved on. However it was still a bit awkward to talk about. "Will you be able to drop him off on Monday night?" She asked changing the subject to make the situation less uncomfortable.
"Umm, yeah." He said thankful for a change of subject. "Should be no problems."
Jack squirmed out of his father's arms to give his mom a goodbye hug before running off to the living room to dump his over-night bag and show everything he brought to his dad.
Haley watched him with a smile before turning to Aaron. "His teacher and I think he may have a small case of puppy love," she started "there is a new girl in his class who is apparently 'very nice and very fun and has big brown eyes just like Miss Emily's.'" Hotch nodded now understanding more clearly what had just happened. Jack had unintentionally told Haley that his Daddy was dating someone and she was okay with it. "It seems the two of you have a lot in common." She finished and waved to Jack before saying goodbye to Aaron and heading out of the apartment.
So i know its a little random being from mostly haley's pov but i couldn't help but write it down on paper. so tell me what you think and if i get any kind of positive feed back or constructive critisim i might be tempted to write more.
so please leave a review
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