A/N: Finally got my computer fixed after my niece spilt her drink on the keyboard :( Do not know how I survived so long without it!
Thank you for all the positive reviews, hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to some lucky person with great ideas, who sadly is not me :(
Words: 1,556
Spencer mentally reprimanded himself for failing to realise earlier that the house was not unoccupied as it should have been. Great FBI agent he was.
Feeling extremely glad that no one had been present to observe his small jump and gasp of surprise, Spencer reached down to hook his hands underneath the armpits of the small boy currently wrapped around his knees and hauled him up to rest on his right hip. Spencer felt a wide grin stretch his face when Jack reached in and nuzzled their noses together.
"What are you doing home already buddy?"
Jack shrugged his small shoulders in response before laying his head into the crook of Spencer's neck, sighing with contentment and wrapping his arms tightly around Spencer's neck. He knew that was all the answer he was going to receive from Jack and so he placed him on the sofa and turned on the TV to one of the mindless children's cartoons that somehow seemed to keep Jack entertained.
"Behave for a few minutes, okay?"
"Yes Poppa"
The sing-song tone to Jack's reply made Spencer doubt its sincerity. Preparing himself for a mess when he returns, he ruffles Jack's hair playfully as he passes him and heads upstairs to find his aunt.
He found Jessica tidying up the toys strewn across Jack's room.
"Don't worry about them Jess, I'll put them away."
She spun around to face him with a startled expression before her lips formed a friendly smile and she nodded to him.
"Jack's preschool finished early because of it being the last day before the holidays."
Well that answered the question that Jack hadn't been able to offer him any help on, Spencer thought as he nodded in answer to the explanation.
This uncomfortable politeness was the attitude that always settled between them. As much as Jessica respected Aaron and still thought of him as family, she had never really wrapped her head around the fact that, as she saw it, Spencer had stolen her late sister's family.
After Jessica had said goodbye to Jack and left with another nod in Spencer's direction he finished tidying Jack's toys before settling his lanky form onto the sofa besides the small boy and asking him about his day.
"Well, we played outside, we read books, and I drawed Clooney a picture!"
"Really? That was very nice of you, should we take it over before we leave tomorrow?"
"Hmmm?" His attention had returned back to the screen once his story telling was over.
"Your picture? Want to take it over for Clooney tomorrow?"
"Nope, me and Auntie Jess went and putted it under Morgan's door for him."
Spencer hoped Jack never requested to see this picture of his as anything posted under Morgan's door was officially claimed by Clooney as a chew toy.
The phone ringing snapped Spencer out of his internal commentary on the inaccuracies of Jack's cartoon. Giving said child a warning to behave (which again earned him a giggle) Spencer rose to retrieve the phone from the side table before retreating to the bedroom to speak without the distraction served by the TV.
"Reid"
"Hey baby"
"How long? Should I plate up your dinner when me and Jack eat or just leave it on the stove for you?"
An exasperated sigh on the other side of the line made Spencer feel instantly guilty about his words as well as the tone he had used ot deliver them.
"Spencer, I'm sor-"
"No, I'm the one who is sorry, I know you would be here with us right now if you could be. Is it Strauss?"
"Yeah, I was just finishing up my last report when she decided that she couldn't possibly wait a whole week to get these files signed and filed away."
Spencer rolled his eyes, picturing their superiors stern expression in his mind as he cracked the bedroom door open enough to cast a quick glance at the small boy still staring contentedly at the television screen.
"I really am sorry baby but this is going to take me a couple of hours at best. Don't worry about my dinner, I'll just grab something from the fridge when I get home."
"How about I make something for Jack and then me and you can eat a nice dinner together once he is in bed?"
"That sounds incredible baby, as long as you don't mind?"
He could quite clearly picture the big brown puppy dog eyes Aaron was no doubt sporting as he said this, mentally pleading with him to not retract his offer.
A miniscule part of his mind pleaded with him to do just that as he recalled many nights either eating fish fingers with an over excited 6 year old or sitting alone across from a pathetically empty chair, forcing himself to swallow the cold dinner he had prepared hours ago whilst watching the candles slowly burn themselves down atop the romantically set table top.
Smothering those thoughts down as quickly as possible Spencer returned his attention back to the phone pressed against his ear.
"No sweetheart it is fine, it will be nice to sit down for dinner, just the two of us."
"Mmm, sounds perfect, shall I bring wine?"
"Red would be nice if you don't mind stopping for some."
"Of course not, but if this meal id ever going to happen then you are going to have to stop distracting me!"
"I think you will find that it was you who called me in the first place Agent Hotchner! And besides I can be way more distracting then this if I want to be baby."
The strained moan he received in reply to his seductive purr brought a coy smile to the young doctors face, a smile which quickly transformed into a soppy grin at his partners next words.
"I love you so much baby."
"I love you too, get back to work, I will see you soon."
Setting the phone back on its holder as he walked back into the sitting room, he was not even slightly surprised when he spotted the decidedly Jack-less sofa. Calling his name, Spencer quirked an eyebrow in moderate surprise when the muffled reply came from the direction of the kitchen.
He found the boy bent over in front of the freezer, with everything from his shoulders upward buried inside. Well, he certainly hoped that the rest of him was in there somewhere as he doubted that, even if he did occasionally comment on Jack being too much for him, Aaron would be especially pleased to return home to only a portion of the son that he had left behind fully whole that morning.
He pulled himself out of this strange thought just in time to witness Jack close the freezer door and turn around, an extremely satisfied and proud look on his face, with a box of chicken nuggets in one hand and a bag of fries in the other.
"I guess you know what you want for dinner then?"
He asked the boy with a chuckle as he ruffled his hair, taking the bags of frozen food out of his outstretched hands, reaching into the freezer himself to quickly grab some form of vegetable to go with the Jack selected meal, and walking over to set the oven to the appropriate heat.
Jack nodded enthusiastically as he scrambled onto a seat at the table, setting to work clearing the table of the colouring equipment spread across it, little face peering up at his poppa proudly, eagerly awaiting the praise he knew would follow his actions.
"Well done Jack, you are such a good boy for putting away your things without even having to be asked."
He praised the child as he finished placing the food into the oven and sat down opposite his young companion.
"Thank you Poppa!"
Spencer grinned at that, even though Jack had dubbed him his 'poppa' over 2 years ago it still sent an exhilarating shot of happiness through his heart whenever he heard it.
Jack gave Spencer his customary report on all of the things that had happened that day at kindergarten as they waited for his food to cook. As was tradition, far too many exciting adventures had occurred that day for the boy to possibly fit them in to such a short space of time and so he therefore was resigned to finishing regaling his poppa with the tale of Trevor's potato chip ("It looked like a Broomstick Poppa!") through a mouthful of peas while his poppa prepared his and daddies dinner.
Once Jack was finished eating and had assisted his poppa with washing up (his main contribution being the colossal bubble fight that escalated from the bubble beards he had fashioned for the two of them), both males cuddled together on the sofa, putting in Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone and wrapping a blanket around the two of them. Just as Hagrid burst through the little shack door Spencer chuckled as he kissed the snoozing head which was rested against his shoulder before closing his own eyes.
When SSA Aaron Hotchner returned to his home an hour later fatigues and tense, he could not help but let grin despite his exhaustion as he took in the sight of his two favourite people in the world.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading. Hope my Americanisation was successful! Typing the Harry Potter title that way felt so wrong so I hope my attempt at Americanising this fic worked!