((A/N: Just a reminder. NO I'm not making money off of anything CM. Dash is my original char. Expect to see her a lot around. Thanks to the producers and actors for bringing the characters to life in into our lives. R/R if you can spare the moment. Thanks))

A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.

Baltasar Gracián

Aaron Hotchner sat behind his desk and read and re-read the text on his phone for the tenth and eleventh times. He couldn't….she wasn't….damn. He sat back in the leather chair and ran a hand over his face. They'd just gotten back from a case in Georgia and he had been hurriedly rushing through the "immediate" paperwork so he could get out and go to New York to see her.

Fifteen minutes into the reviewing, he heard the tone announcing the text and when he read it…..his heart fell.

"Aaron, please don't come to NY. I can't do this any more. They were always right. Long distance relationships don't work. I'm sorry. Goodbye"

Just like that. He turned his gaze out the windows of his office and a heavy sigh escaped him. A year. Shot to hell because AGAIN of the job. He'd hoped this would have worked. She was a good person. She seemed to care about Jack. But obviously…..and another sigh left him. He turned back to the paperwork on the desk in front of him and he decided he could spend the time now. Dash and Jack understood and they'd have dinner waiting for him later.

Aaron was the unit chief of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. They got into criminal's minds to try and stop them before they did it again and catch them. Profilers. He'd been at the job for almost twenty years now. Two years ago, his ex-wife had been killed by the notorious serial killer, George Foyet, The Boston Reaper, and that left Aaron to raise his four year old son alone. His sister in law tried to help but his job sometimes would take him away for weeks at a time and Jessica couldn't take the stress and practically giving up her own life so she decided to cut ties with Aaron.

Stuck with no help in sight, Aaron was considering the offer of early retirement he had been given from Erin Strauss when Haley had been killed, but then one afternoon when he and Spencer had been at lunch at a small diner, they met Dash. She was working as a waitress but she seemed to have that instant connection with Aaron and he called her a couple of days later, met her at the diner again and offered her the position of babysitter for Jack.

She loved the idea and after Spencer had run a complete background check on her, Aaron took her home to introduce her to his son. That was where it was sealed. Jack fell in love with her immediately and the girl was hired and after a week, Jack would seem inconsolable when she left for the night and it came to Aaron's idea that maybe they could make her a live in nanny. Jack wholeheartedly agreed and Dash moved in the next week, giving up her small apartment in downtown.

Aaron couldn't believe his luck. Dash was 16, a transplant from California and her car had broken down on her way to New York to go to college there after she was orphaned and emancipated. She'd been working at the diner on a stroke of luck because she needed money to get her car fixed and a place to stay but she had grown to love the patrons of the diner so she decided to stay a little longer. That was four months later.

Then Aaron and Spencer walked in that one afternoon and everything for Dash AND Aaron changed in that one lunch. Dash adored Jack and Aaron hadn't seen Jack attach himself to anyone since the troubles with his dad and mom through the divorce and this heartened Aaron more.

Dash took care of Jack before and after school, dropping him off and picking him up. She cooked, cleaned and did everything she could which made Aaron's life all the easier and he felt that he could trust her implicitly so he didn't have any worries or distractions about Jack while he was on a case.

That rarely happened whenever the boy was with anyone else. Even his aunt.

But with Dash, it seemed like she just….fit. She fit into the family so easily and Aaron said a prayer every day for bringing her to them. And for the last two years of being able to have someone to actually rely on that he knew would die herself to take care of his son.

He picked up the phone and called home, Jack answering the phone. He was six now. Where did the time go?

"Daddy!"

A grin he couldn't stop from forming on h is lips every time he heard his son. "Hey, buddy. How're you doing?"

" 'M okay. We're havin' pisghetti n meatballs for dinner!"

"Really? That sounds great. Think you guys will have enough for an old BAU agent?"

"YER COMIN' HOME?"

Okay, that got him to chuckle and he nodded as he went on. "Yeah, buddy. We got in about an hour ago and if I can get this paperwork done, I'll be home for dinner. Sound like a deal?"

"Faithy too?"

Aaron looked over at the little Border collie curled up on the couch in his office across the way and a snort. "Of course. Why wouldn't I bring her home?" 'Faith' was a stowaway on the jet after a particular case in Texas about three years ago. Her owner had been killed when she was on a jog with the dog and it was actually Faith that the BAU used as a witness and she proved to be the best one they'd had. The killer was caught and convicted and when they all were halfway home, she came out of her hiding place on the jet and even Aaron's threats at her to send her right back home, he fell in love with the pup and took her home to Jack and they fell in love instantly. Faith became also the BAU's "official" K9 so she was authorized to travel with Aaron and the team no matter where they went or what they did.

"I unno. Wanna talk to Dash?"

"Yeah. Let me talk to her a minute. You behave, right?"

"I allus do, Dad…." Off the phone but he 'forgot' to put a hand over the receiver. "DAAAAAASH! DAD WANTS T'TALK TO YOU!"

Aaron had to hold the phone away from his ear a moment but he was laughing and a shake of his head when the teenager got on. "Hey, Dash, how are things going?"

"Same old same old. Jack's a brat and I'm blaming you."

But he heard the grin.

"How's it going there? I thought you were going to New York tonight and the weekend?"

"Case closed early. We're back now and I'm going over some pre-lim reports. Uh…Beth is….busy. This weekend," But he knew already she understood. He shook it off and went on. "Just wondering if you had enough dinner for a weary old agent?"

She did get it but she didn't linger on it. She laughed and there was that tease "Iiiiii don't know. I might have to make a new batch. That means a whole new bunch of work. I might have to have a bonus this week for all that."

"Yeah yeah. I'll be home at about 6. Take care." And he hung up the phone. Getting back to the reports again, so okay. Things weren't as bad as all that. But that was Dash's magic. Ten minutes on the phone with her and things were all ok again in the world.

In Aaron's world.

Two hours later, he and Faith headed for the parking garage and climbed into his car, a clean Audi sedan, and headed home. Walking through the front door, he was greeted by an overactive, rambunctious six year old that attacked and the smell of dinner throughout the house. If this was what the "good life" was supposed to consist of….then Aaron Hotchner couldn't complain.