Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N – The episode Damaged contains probably my very favorite "Hotch" moment. When that jacket and tie come off? Whew. I don't even want to admit how many times I've watched and hit rewind – let's just say a lot. This is how I wish that episode would have ended.
~~~CM~~~
Hotch took one last look at his signature signifying the end of his marriage. He knew that his marriage was over but he really hadn't thought it would end like this. He scrubbed a hand over his face then turned to see JJ standing in the door silently watching him.
"Hey, are you okay? Reid told me what happened today." She hadn't wasted any time hunting him down once Reid shared with her the events of the day. Whatever was going on the stress was evident in the lines on Hotch's face.
Hotch shouldn't have been surprised to find JJ at his door, she seemed to have a six sense when it came to the people around her. It's what made her so good at her job. He gathered the papers on his desk and put them back in to the envelope before answering. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm sorry that Haley called you." He tapped the manila envelope he just sealed. "I just signed the papers, she won't bother you again."
JJ looked at him puzzled. "I think we're talking about two different things." At his blank look she added. "I was referring to what happened at the jail." She watched as Hotch looked down at the envelope again before stepping into his office. "What's going on Hotch?"
He lifted the envelope. "Divorce papers. That's what she was calling you about. She was pissed because I hadn't signed them."
JJ was surprised by the flash of anger that went through her at his wife. "Oh gosh, Hotch. I am so sorry." What was she supposed to say at a time like this? Your wife is an idiot? She wished she could say the desire to console him took her by surprise but she'd been infatuated with Aaron Hotchner the minute she stepped into the BAU.
He shrugged it off. "It is what it is." Good lord, the man took stoic to a new level. He was obviously hurting.
JJ moved into the office fully, coming to stand near his desk. "So is that why you thought it would be a good idea to go a round with a sociopath?"
He glanced up at her, smiling slightly at her sarcastic remark. "Nothing happened, JJ."
"You got lucky." She growled. "You purposely antagonized him, Hotch. You actually took off your suit jacket and tie with the intent on fighting him." She still couldn't believe what Reid had told her. The fact that something could have happened to him, to both of them, sent her heart bumping.
"Reid has a big mouth." He grumbled.
"Reid is worried about you. I'm worried about you."
He sent her a smile meant to pacify her. "I'm fine, you needn't worry."
"No, you're not, you're acting recklessly." She laid a hand on his arm and before she could talk herself out of it offered, "Why don't you come over and I'll fix you dinner tonight? We can go over some files or we could even watch a movie if you don't want to think about work."
"JJ, I don't need you to mother me." His dejected posture said otherwise.
"I'm not mothering you I'm just being a friend." She argued.
Hotch sighed, "I appreciate the offer, but…"
"No buts." She laid her hand on the envelope on his desk. "Come on." Not taking no for an answer, she pulled him up from his desk. "This will keep until tomorrow."
~~~CM~~~
"How is it that you can cook like that?" Hotch sat back from the table in amazement, she managed to throw together a very quick, very good meal. It didn't hurt that she herself looked good while doing it.
"I'm a girl of many talents." JJ winked at him. "And I like food so cooking is a necessary evil."
Hotch grinned, he was enjoying this other side of his liaison. "You know, I know I said that I didn't need you mothering me, but this was nice. I would have just gone home to an empty apartment and probably hit the scotch."
JJ nodded. "Yeah, I know." She rinsed their dishes and placed them in the dishwasher.
Hotch chuckled at her immediate response. "You know we have a strict policy about profiling one another."
"Well then I guess it's a good thing I'm not a profiler." She replied sassily.
"I still think you could be." He moved closer as he handed her the leftovers from their dinner. "You have great intuition."
She smiled over at him as he leaned on her kitchen counter. "Because I can read you?" She smirked. "I hate to tell you this, Hotch, but you're kind of easy."
"Really?" He challenged, his look making it clear that he didn't believe a word she was saying.
She closed the dishwasher and copied his stance. "Really."
A smile blossomed over his face. He stared at the pretty blonde for a second then questioned in a husky voice. "Why don't you tell me what I'm thinking right now?"
"You're wondering if I have How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and rocky road ice cream." She deadpanned.
Hotch laughed, not only was she sexy but funny too. "Not exactly."
JJ frowned, "27 Dresses and cookie dough? The look for both is strikingly similar."
Hotch shook his head and decided to play along, they both knew damn well he wasn't thinking about a movie or ice cream. "Does that really help?" He asked curiously, not quite understanding female purging habits.
"It's good, but not as much as the margaritas and friends method." She glanced over at her phone on the table. "I can have Garcia over here in ten minutes."
He shuddered at the thought of Garcia knowing all his business but he also looked faintly interested, at the very least intrigued by the concept. "How does that help exactly?" He couldn't prevent himself from asking.
"We drink copious amounts of alcohol and then we rip the one that did us wrong, in this instance Haley, up one side and down the other." She grinned over at him a little saddened to see his smile slip. "It always makes me feel better."
"So you've done this before?" At her affirmative nod he asked curiously. "Recently?"
She straightened, strolled over to the refrigerator and pulled out an open bottle of red wine. Reaching into the cabinet she took down two glasses. "Last year, after that case in New Orleans, I went out with the lead detective."
He accepted the glass that she handed him and decided to humor her into believing that he didn't know all about the Louisianan lothario. "I may have noticed that you gave him your card."
"Yeah," she snorted, "That should be a rule, forget the no profiling, we need to learn not to mingle with the people we are there to assist. We need to make sure that mistake doesn't happen again." She took a sip of the wine. "He didn't rate ice cream and a movie, we moved directly to alcohol and ripping."
Hotch's eyes went flat at her admission, and she was reminded of yet another reason she found him so fascinating. "What happened?"
JJ winced, "I flew down to New Orleans to surprise him for the weekend and ended up with a surprise of my own. Apparently we weren't exclusive." She pursed her lips. "However, he forgot to share that little nugget of information with me."
"That asshole." Hotch stared at her for a minute then dropped a bombshell of his own. "I'm pretty sure Haley had an affair."
She hadn't been expecting that. The thought that Haley would cheat on Hotch was just staggering. "That bitch." JJ grabbed the bottle and Hotch's hand, pulling them into the family room. She slipped out of her heels, sat on the couch, tucked her feet under her and pulled Hotch down beside her. "Okay, spill."
"I don't know for certain." He grinned when JJ gave him a disbelieving stare. "Okay, I was home, the house phone rang, I answered it and the line went dead. It happened twice, and then her cell phone rang." He'd been in behavioral analysis long enough to know the significance of that happening.
JJ shook her head still trying to wrap around the fact that Haley cheated on Hotch. He was a walking, talking dream for Pete's sake. "I'm going to have to tell Garcia." She blurted, barely able to resist fidgeting, the news was so extreme.
"No." His refusal was firm and booked no room for negotiation.
JJ started pleading the minute he stopped talking. "No, I have to. Seriously. Your wife is an idiot." She finally voiced the words that she wanted to for such a long time. "How can she have you and cheat on you? And for what? My god, it's killing me. Can I please call Garcia?" She looked at him pleadingly.
His response was to change the subject. "What did you do when you walked in on…?" He paused and looked at her questioningly.
"Detective LaMontagne. Will." She provided, thinking if she cooperated and bided her time she could get the answers she desired. "You noticed I gave him my card but don't remember his name?"
"Oddly enough I was focused on you, not your southern suitor." He said dryly. "Okay, what did you do when you walked in on Will?"
She shrugged. "Nothing. I caught a cab back to the airport and changed my return flight." He didn't need to know that she sobbed the entire ride to the airport and most of the way back to Dulles.
"You didn't do anything?" He asked, incredulously, hoping that she would have at least slugged the bottom feeder. Hell he wanted to fly to New Orleans and slug him on her behalf. More surprisingly he wanted to know, "He didn't race after you to apologize?" Surely you couldn't let a girl like JJ just walk away without putting up some kind of effort to keep her.
"He probably would have had to stop what he was doing and I think he was at a kind of crucial stage." She shrugged again, feigning nonchalance, "At least I think so it was hard to tell over the moaning and groaning." She imitated gagging before turning it back to him. "What did you do about the phone calls, did you even question Haley?"
He avoided her question by taking a deep sip. "Oh, you didn't!" JJ accused. "Don't you want to know?" Then it hit her. "Oh my God! You already knew!" She read the admission in his eyes.
"I suspected that's different than actually knowing." Hotch reasoned, before adding, "She's nailing the lawyer that filed the papers." Then, while sighing heavily, he admitted. "I used to work with him."
"That whore! That rat-faced no good, lawyer schlepping, whore!"
Hotch laughed at her indignation on his behalf. It made him feel good. "You know what, you're right, this does help."
JJ's eyes lit up at his admission. "Do you want to cyber stalk them? Garcia taught me a few tricks." JJ asked.
Hotch groaned. "JJ, you do know that's wrong, right?"
"C'mon! I just want to see what he looks like." The blonde argued as she reached for her Ipad and scooted closer to him on the couch. I'll show you the skank Will was riding." When he still didn't budge she pulled out the big guns. "If you don't show me I'll be forced to go to Garcia."
He grabbed the device out of her hands and started a search. She glanced down at the page he pulled up when he handed it back to her. She was looking at a profile that was apparently from his old office's website. She wrinkled her nose. "Is this a good likeness?"
Hotch shrugged, not exactly sure what she was asking. "It looks like him."
JJ grimaced. "That's not a face I'd want to wake up next to every morning." She watched as he leaned forward and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture, so slight, had her pulse racing.
"Whose face would you like to wake up to in the morning?" He asked his tone deep and husky made her heart race excitedly. Before she could answer he asked her. "Do you know what I was thinking in the kitchen?"
JJ's body angled forward as a smile blossomed across her face; they'd finally arrived at the good part of the evening. "You were wondering if we were going to end up in bed." She replied frankly.
She watched as the sensual smile lit his face. "You're profiling skills are really good." He leaned in to her. "But I was wondering when, not if." Then his mouth covered hers and whatever reply she'd been about to make.
"Wow." JJ's bright blue eyes blinked up at him. "That was, wow."
"I kind of always suspected that it would be." He grinned down at her.
His response surprised her. "So you've thought about this?"
She was delighted when he nodded. "Yeah, I've thought about it. Before I had any right to think about it I thought about it. But now I'm free and you're free, and instead of just thinking about it I can act on it." He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the mouth. "And I plan on acting on it a lot." He informed her.
"This isn't just because your marriage ended is it?" She hated asking but she needed to know. "This isn't just about making you feel better?" She didn't want to be someone to help him through the night only to be forgotten in the morning.
"I can't deny you make me feel better." He held her glance for a moment. "JJ, I may have just signed the document to end my marriage but my marriage has been over for a while now. Haley has moved on and now it's time for me to do the same." His hand caressed the side of her face. "I'm attracted to you, I've been attracted to you probably since the minute I saw you. I've thought of kissing you, I've thought of making love to you, but where this leads is entirely up to you."
She swallowed hard. "Okay."
"Okay?" He tried to get a read on her and what was going on in her mind.
She managed to surprise him again when she said, "So Reid couldn't," she rolled her eyes, "Or wouldn't tell me if you looked as hot as it sounded when you went up against Chester Harwick."
Hotch frowned. "I thought you said it was stupid?"
"Oh, It was stupid," She wrapped her hand around the tie he still wore," But the thought of you taking off your jacket, then removing your tie and rolling up your sleeves and getting ready to throw down with him? That's hot." She grinned, "You know, now that you're safely out of there." Her hand cupped his cheek. "Don't do it again, okay?"
He laid his hand over hers. "You're pretty much a walking contradiction."
"I don't like the thought of you getting hurt or being put in a dangerous situation." She confided, making him smile at the admission.
"Like I told Chester, I'm not exactly a hundred pound girl." His hand entwined with hers.
"I know, and I fully appreciate that fact."
"Do you?"
"I do." She leaned in and pressed her mouth against his. "In fact, why don't you come with me and you can find out if reality meets or exceeds your expectations."
"You're sure?"
"I've never been surer." She assured him.
"This is going to change things." He forewarned, wanting to make sure this was what she truly wanted.
"I know," she grinned, "We're going to get to see each other naked."
And they lived happily ever after….
Thank you for reading. And seriously, if you have not seen this episode you need to check it out. There is a clip on YouTube – search for Damaged. Have something cool handy….
As always, for those that choose to leave a review I think you're awesome, it really does mean a lot to know that someone read something I wrote and enjoyed it. (Or not if that be the case! But I hope you enjoy.)