PROMPT: Imagine your OTP has a newborn child. It was a long day at work for both Person A and Person B and they're exhausted. Suddenly, at 2 am, they both hear the child crying through the baby monitor (or just across the hall) and B nudges A to go tend to the child. A lazily walks through the hall, stumbles into the nursery, picks up the child (and after checking to see if it's fed, doesn't have a dirty diaper etc.) sits down in a rocking chair. They gently start singing "You Are My Sunshine", and taking a breath to simply admire the baby between each line. (changed up the prompt a bit but this was the original)
AN:/ My second Hotch/Reid fic! I changed the prompt up a little bit to fit them better but included the original. This was beta-ed by 6adb0y on tumblr & is gonna be cross-posted to my AO3 and maybe my writing tumblr too. I have a couple prompts & ideas for some more one-shots but if you guys have any requests, hmu!
Adopting a child had been something they had discussed at length and very almost decided against. After all, Aaron wasn't as young anymore, almost too old to be having another child, and, in the 3 years they had been together Spencer had already become a second parent to Jack. Of course, they also had the job to worry about, with both of them away on cases most of the time and neither of them really ready to leave the BAU, it was an issue. In the end, it had taken Jessica finding one of their pamphlets on adoption and just smiling at them, giving an offhand comment of her approval for Aaron to consider that it really was possible for them to go ahead with it. It still took a lot of discussion and thinking it over, figuring out how they were going to balance work with a baby, before they definitely decided to go ahead with it. And Aaron was so fucking glad they did.
They had adopted a little girl, Sammie, and neither could imagine a life without her now. While Aaron had been nervous about becoming a dad again, an older dad as it was, Spencer was beyond excited. Watching Spencer experiencing fatherhood with a newborn for the first time was something Aaron couldn't believe he had almost missed out on. Ever since Henry was born, Spencer had been good with kids and watching the way he got along so well with Jack always made Aaron's heart swell with love for the two of them. Watching Spencer with Sammie was no different; the way he would hold her so gently, the way his eyes would light up whenever he looked at her, the way he'd look at her like she was the most precious thing he'd ever seen, the way he'd whisper-read books to her from memory to put her to sleep; Spencer was meant to be a father and Aaron wanted to preserve moments like that forever.
Of course, juggling work and life at home was a lot harder with a newborn around but when it was time for the two of them to go back to work, Jessica was always happy to help out, and often stayed at their place when a case took them away. They had only been back to work a couple weeks, and their most recent case had taken them away from home for longer than they had expected it to. It had been a tough one and though no one on the team had been injured, it had still been a stressful, mentally and physically draining maybe case for all of them. And by the end they were all exhausted and desperate for home comforts, though they had gotten back late.
When they finally got back to the office, it was past nine and they were both beyond exhausted and hungry; so, deciding to pick up take out on their way home, they stopped to eat it in the car so they could go straight to bed once they arrived home. Both were silent as they ate, too tired to do much talking, but it was a comfortable silence; the two of them were enjoying the brief opportunity to be alone together, knowing that the case was over and they were headed home. While both of them enjoyed the relaxing silence of being alone with just the two of them, neither wanted to waste any time in getting home to Jack and Sammie so it didn't take long for them to finish their quick meal and drive home.
They knew the kids would most likely be asleep by the time they got home so it was no surprise when they stepped into the house, when Jessica told them the kids had been asleep an hour or so already. That didn't stop them from stopping into their rooms to check on them after they had thanked Jessica and set their go-bags down, being careful not to wake them as they said their goodnights. Exhausted and now reassured their children were safe and sleeping soundly, the pair let themselves fall into bed, cuddling close, falling asleep within seconds.
When Aaron awoke only a few hours later, he couldn't quite place what had woken him at first. He knew it wasn't morning since the room was still pitch black but had no idea what time it was until he turned onto his back and glanced over at the alarm clock that sat on his nightstand. 2AM. He didn't really have time to wonder what had woken him at 2AM before another cry came through the baby monitor that sat on the nightstand on Spencer's side of the bed, It seemed Spencer was already in the process of getting up, though the younger man couldn't have been awake much longer than Aaron. He was sat on the edge of the bed, a sleepy look still in his eyes as he turned to smile softly at Aaron over his shoulder when he noticed his partner had woken up too.
"It's okay. You can go back to sleep if you like." Spencer mumbled as he stood, his hair messy and getting into his eyes though he made no move to brush it out. Aaron shook his head and rubbed his eyes tiredly, sitting up as Spencer reached for his discarded dressing gown and slipped it on.
"No, it's okay. You go check on her, I'll go heat up one of her bottles." He said, smiling back at him as Spencer nodded and hurried down the hall to their daughters room. They'd found that it was a lot easier and quicker to ditch the whole 'taking turns' routine and simply both get up to take care of Sammie if she woke during the night, especially now that she was closer to sleeping through the night. It wouldn't take long to make her up a bottle and she always seemed to quieten down when Spence sat with her while they waited, so he wasn't too worried about Jack waking up. That night was no different, by the time Aaron had made it back up the stairs, Sammie had quietened down to the point where he could just barely hear her quiet sniffles and coos as he stepped closer to the nursery door, being quiet so he wouldn't disturb them or Jack. He was expecting to hear Spencer reading to her from memory like he usually did to soothe her, so Aaron was a little surprised when he heard Spencer singing softly, and he stopped by the door for a moment to listen. He recognised the song instantly, 'You Are My Sunshine'.
Smiling fondly, Aaron pushed the door open slowly, watching Spencer from the doorway for a moment, wishing he had his phone on him to take a picture at least. His partner was pacing the room, rocking Sammie in his arms gently as he sang to her, taking a breath in between each line as he looked down at her, not even noticing Aaron was there at first. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine - you make me happy when skies are grey - you never know, dear, how much I love- oh." Spencer sang under his breath, glancing up to see Aaron leaning against the door-frame just before he could finish the last line. "I didn't see you there." He smiled softly over at Aaron as he stopped pacing, still rocking Sammie gently.
"I only just brought the bottle up." Aaron shrugged, stepping closer and handing the bottle over to Spencer so he could feed Sammie, wrapping an arm around his partner's waist gently, glancing down at their daughter. He reached down to smooth down some of her baby hair gently, resting his hand on top of Spencer's where he was holding her, turning to kiss his cheek gently. "Love you." He murmured softly.
Spencer smiled brightly, leaning back against Aaron and turning to kiss him softly. "I love you too." He murmured when he pulled away, resting his head against Aaron's gently as they both looked back down at their daughter, smiling softly.
"You think she'll go back to sleep on her own or should we just bring her in with us?" Aaron asked quietly, glancing back down to where she had almost finished her bottle, smiling as he wiped away some milk that had dribbled down her chin. It probably shouldn't have done but the worried look on Spencer's face made him chuckle when he looked back up at his partner.
"I-in with us?" Spencer asked hesitantly. He set the bottle down when it was clear Sammie didn't want any more and handed her over to Aaron, biting his lip a little. He wasn't sure why but he hadn't been expecting Spencer to be quite this protective or worried but it was endearing and Aaron loved him even more for it. He got Sammie settled against his chest, her head resting against his shoulder as he patted her back gently, smiling over at Spencer and nodding.
"Yeah, in with us. We probably shouldn't make it a habit but just this once won't hurt if she's not gonna go back to sleep by herself." He said and shrugged one shoulder.
That wasn't what was worrying Spencer and the younger man frowned a little as he watched Aaron try to get her back to sleep, even though it didn't look like she was going to go back to sleep any time soon. "Not what I meant." He mumbled, shaking his head a little, "What if we roll over during the night and accidentally hurt her? Or- or what if-"
"Spence-" Aaron cut him off, shaking his head and smiling fondly at him. He leant over to give him a reassuring kiss on the cheek before he continued, "Trust me, she'll be fine. Back when Jack was a baby, sometimes the only thing Haley and I could do to get him to sleep was to have him in bed with us, and he's fine. Sammie will be fine in with us for one night." He could tell Spencer was still hesitating but eventually he nodded with a sigh and a tentative half-smile.
"Okay, if you're sure she'll be okay." Spencer smiled, kissing him softly before he stepped away to get Sammie's blanket and small cuddly toy from her crib. Aaron watched from the doorway as he waited for Spencer; he could tell Spencer was still unsure and probably overthinking all the 'what ifs' he'd been rambling about moments before and Aaron knew he wouldn't be able to stop Spencer from overthinking or worrying completely (he was a new dad, of course he was going to worry about even the basic things) but he could try to distract him from it if he could.
"Besides, with her in our bed, you can sing us both to sleep." He joked, and a soft smile, the one that only Spencer and the kids got to see, spread across his face when he caught Spencer blushing at the playful teasing.
"Oh, shut up." Spencer muttered, though he really didn't sound very offended at all, even as he rolled his eyes and blushed even more, laughing along with Aaron as they made their way back down the hall to their own bedroom with Sammie.