"Do you want that last spring roll?" Garcia asked even as she reached towards the center of the table as JJ and Blake both motioned for her to take it. It was a rare day that the team members were not only on stand-down but that the three women had time to take a lunch break together.
"I think we should all leave early, Hotch is off today, Rossi is in his office working on his next book, it's not like anyone will notice" JJ suggested, already imagining being able to go home and spend some time with her young son. Will was keeping him due to his work schedule but she always looked for more opportunities to spend time with Henry. She was fortunate that her divorce from Will had been amicable. They had both finally acknowledged that the relationship was not working, only being held together by the child they had produced, agreeing that was too much pressure to place on their child and before deciding to divorce. Will had taken another apartment close by and they found they had gotten along much better now that they weren't trying to force a relationship to work and could just focus on being parents together.
"Speaking of Hotch, isn't that him?" Blake spoke up drawing the attention of the women to the restaurant window where they realized they were indeed seeing their boss walking down the sidewalk across the street in a discussion with a young man.
"I wonder who that is" Garcia couldn't help but speculate as their attention zeroed in on their unit chiefs companion. The man was obviously younger, muscular and with a blond crew cut. "He's good looking," she observed without receiving any dispute as the women watched the pair with interest. Hotch was in casual clothes and the two men seemed to be engaged in a friendly albeit intense discussion judging by the body language of what the profilers witnessed.
'"He looks gay," Blake finally stated after studying the younger man's mannerisms. As if to illustrate her observation three jaws dropped almost simultaneously when the man impulsively hugged their boss who appeared to return the embrace before stepping back and glancing around.
"Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Garcia gasped, still holding the half eaten spring roll in her hand. "Could Hotch have a boyfriend?"
"Hotch isn't gay," JJ hissed emphatically under her breath, "not that there would be anything wrong with it if he was." She hastily added.
"I wouldn't think so either, he's about as alpha male as you can get" Blake agreed even as she continued to survey the pair as they walked down the sidewalk and out of view.
"Ok, we're overreacting, reading too much into that." JJ said feeling her stomach flutter as she tried to deny what the interaction had looked like. She didn't want to even entertain the idea, not because she cared about people's sexual orientation in a general sense but in regards to the man she had harbored a secret crush on for years, she couldn't help but feel let down at the thought.
"Probably so," Garcia agreed with her friend, though the tone of her voice was far from convinced.
"Hotch was married, has a son, he's got a girlfriend." JJ continued still trying to rationalize.
"Actually he and Beth broke up, I thought you knew." Blake said startled that she knew something the others didn't.
"What, how do you know?" Garcia whirled wondering where this juicy bit of information had come from.
"I overheard him talking to Rossi, I didn't know it was a secret." It was Blake's turn to be on the receiving end of incredulous stares as two pairs of blue eyes were now fixed on her.
"We're going to have to bring you up to code on how the gossip cycle works." Garcia said conspiratorially as the waiter approached with their check, halting their conversation as they reluctantly prepared to return to work.
"I'm glad Hotch won't be there, I don't think I could look him in the eye right now." JJ said as they got in the SUV they had carpooled in.
"I didn't realize you were offended by things like that?" Blake said neutrally, doubting her profiling skills for a minute as JJ had typically struck her as an open minded person.
"Oh it's not that, it's just that she's had a crush on him forever and it will mess with her fantasies if it turns out he likes men." Garcia said bluntly causing an outraged yelp from JJ at having her secret revealed so casually, but not caring too much as she figured Blake probably already had a clue from her time with the team thus far.
"I'm going to see what Morgan thinks though when we get back, he'll know." Garcia announced causing another ripple of excitement through the van.
"We can't do that, then we're spreading rumors about our boss that could really hurt his reputation if not his career." Blake sounded the voice of reason as she halted the idea. "I think we need to accept that this is all a huge misunderstanding of some sort and let it go."
"Sure, after we find out for sure who that guy is and why he hugged bossman." Garcia said brightly, not the least deterred by Blake's attention to let the matter rest.
"I told him I would drop our daily reports by his house this evening, I'll just let him know what we saw and let him explain it." Blake suggested with a brief sigh, thinking the younger women were making this whole ordeal much more complicated than it had to be and already relishing the opportunity to explain a silly misunderstanding as she started the next morning armed with the facts.
AN: This is mostly intended as a light fic, not making any political statements or judgments, just having a little fun with the team. Hope you all enjoy.