So my friend MGGGirl and I had been shooting CM fanfic ideas back and forth at one another then decided to do a random prompt challenge with each other. We've both written a variety of fic in the past though not for Criminal we thought we would try.
We pick a prompt from a list then two characters at random and both have to write a one shot based on these..
This is the first one please read MGGGirl 's to when she posts!
Prompt: Sunset
Characters: Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner, William LaMontagne Jr
"Beer?" Hotch offered a bottle to Will as he picked up his own from the table enjoying the gentle warmth of the late afternoon sun.
"I better just check whether Jen is expecting me to drive or not..." Will asked turning from where he leant against the deck railing looking out over Hotch's vast garden, to where his wife sat with the other women talking and laughing near the house.
"Hey Cher... sorry to interrupt the gossip. Am I meant to be driving back home later?" he asked her with a soft smile.
"No, I'm on soft drinks for the evening with the kids so you can have your beer." she smiled widely and as she replied Hotch placed an open beer into his hand. They leant forward,beer in hand, exposed forearms resting against the railing once more.
Laughter surrounded the two men both from the women behind them and the younger men who were playing chase with their two small son's on the lawn.
Life was good.
"Hey Morgan please don't break my son!" Hotch called out with a laugh as Derek swung the eight year old Jack around like he was flying, Jack laughing loudly.
"I won't Hotch … just enjoy your beer. Uncle Morgan, Uncle Spence and Uncle Sean have these two under control …promise" Morgan grinned at his superior.
They were off duty now and when they weren't working,sometimes even when they were, the team were simply family.
They all had far too little family, or at least too little nearby, to allow themselves to be anything else. They needed each other.
"So, how are you all doing Hotch... actually managing to get any sleep..." The detective smirked at his friend.
"Actually yes … I mean she wakes up a fair amount she's still only a few months old but Ellie sleeps well. She is a total angel... OK OK I know I'm biased but she is" he added laughing as Will raised his eyebrows in semi disbelief that Ellie, with her parents being who they were, could be anything other than strong willed.
Will smiled, he had known Aaron Hotchner either in a professional or personal capacity for just over six years now and to be able to see the man laugh like this was good.
Hotch had been through so much. His job had destroyed his life, taken the women he had loved and almost taken his son from him permanently.
It some how hadn't destroyed him though.
It had broken him for a long time. When the hurt was too much to bear and life had only been dark but they had all watched as slowly the team helped him pick up and he began to live again.
He had started to see people the way he might have seen them from the start had bureaucracy, and a loveless marriage, not stood in the way.
Will not even a profiler had seen it,Jen had seen it,Garcia had definitely seen it, everyone had seen it but Hotch and Emily.
Then suddenly they had seen it and had gone from friends to so much more at warp speed.
Will stood contemplating this chatting with Hotch about life with a small child and his memories of Henry at that age.
Life would be different with a girl, for all of them.
She had family in abundance, biological or not but she would be loved and protected beyond the understanding of outsiders, she had the FBI's elite on her side, not to mention a police detective and a chef with sharp knives!
Later that evening the self created family sat on the deck watching the sunset. A myriad of pinks and oranges swirled across the sky as the light began to fade and they all simply enjoyed one anothers company.
They were all snuggled up in blankets, Henry curled sleepily between himself and his Jen. Hotch and Emily sat across from him,Jack almost passed out across their laps, Ellie sleeping on her fathers shoulder.
Will realised that life often followed the same rhythm as the passing days.
The sun set on some things in life and that often led to a long period of dark where things made less sense and things seemed to collide with one another but then the sun would rise again in the morning bringing new light and life to a situation. Admittedly a new day brought new challenges of its own but it was a cycle and as everyone knows a sunrise always follows a sunset even when the nights are long.