Chapter 2

Aaron was up and down all night because he was either wet or hungry or both. JJ and Emily took turns tending to him and then getting him back to sleep.

When the alarm finally went off in the morning Aaron was still asleep and they managed to get ready and get him changed without waking him up. They prepared a bottle for Aaron and then headed down for breakfast with the rest of the team.

"Good morning ladies" Rossi greeted "How did you all sleep?"

"Not well, Aaron was up and down all night" yawned Emily

"He looks pretty relaxed now" observed Reid.

Prentiss handed the sleeping baby to Reid "well then genius boy, it's your turn"

Hotch woke up and found himself in Reid's arms. He looked up at Reid and frowned, he knew that Reid had no experience with babies and was surprised that he even wanted to hold him while he was like this.

"Don't worry Hotch, I brought a book on looking after babies yesterday on the way back to the hotel and read it last night so I'm confident that I know what I'm doing" Reid said as he saw Hotch looking at him. "JJ hand me his bottle please"

Morgan snapped a photo of Reid feeding Hotch and sent it off to Garcia.

When he had finished the bottle Reid put Hotch over his shoulder and patted his back until he let out a huge burp.

"See I told you I knew what I was doing" Reid said as the whole team watched him.

"Good job pretty boy!"Morgan laughed.

After breakfast the team made their way to the jet. Once they were in the air and Hotch was sleeping soundly in Rossi's arms they called Garcia to let her know they would all be staying at Rossi's mansion.

"Sounds good to me, we will need a mansion to have enough room for all the things I brought" Garcia said happily

"I hope you haven't gone too crazy Penelope?" Rossi smiled

"No I just got the essential items but with babies there are a lot of essentials" she replied laughing. "I just can't wait to see him so I can cuddle the stuffing out of him"

"We have to survive our meeting with Strauss first" Said Emily

When they arrived they met with Strauss in the conference room.

"How is this even possible?" She started as she walked over to look at Hotch who was lying in JJ's arms.

"Were not sure but we have sent the pieces of glass from the light bulb to be tested" Rossi replied.

"I just don't know what to think of this" Strauss said as she took the wide awake baby from JJ.

Strauss looked at Aaron who tried to return her look with one of his famous Hotch glares.

"Ok I believe you" She said after a few minutes. "The director has already authorized your time off until this situation resolves itself. I expect you all to get your paperwork finished and then you will be free to go. One of you may leave now to take Aaron home, I expect to be updated on his progress."

She looked at Aaron again, "Aaron, I can only imagine how hard this is for you but do try to relax and enjoy the time off not having any adult worries or pressures on you"

Strauss handed Hotch back to JJ and walked out of the room.

"The only person who doesn't have any paperwork to do is you baby girl" said Morgan

"That's fine by me, my baby bossman and I can go shopping for a stroller and then enjoy some quality cuddle time!" she laughed.

Aaron was happy they had been given some time off but he was not sure how he was supposed to enjoy this like Strauss had suggested. All of a sudden the baby part of his brain took control and he started crying, he was wet and was starting to get hungry again.

"Oh my little pumpkin, don't cry" Garcia said as she took Hotch from JJ

"He's probably just hungry, and he is due for a diaper change too" JJ said as Garcia tried to calm him down.

JJ took out a pacifier and gave it to Hotch; he glared at her but did not spit it out.

Garcia took him to her office to shut down all her babies and stayed in there to feed Hotch his bottle and change his diaper, then she went to Rossi's office to exchange keys with him.

"The car seat is already in my car and here are the house keys" he said

"Here are my car keys, all the essential baby items are in there so you can all help me unpack them when you get home" Garcia said and made her way out of the office.

The last thing Hotch wanted was to be out in public while he was like this but he reasoned that no one would recognise him so it would probably be ok. Garcia laid him in every stroller in the store as she tested them all out. She finally choose one that was surprisingly comfortable.

"Ohh, he's adorable!" the sales lady gushed as Garcia paid for her purchases.

"Thanks, we think so" Garcia answered.

The lady then started touching his hand and talking baby talk to him. That was Aaron's breaking point; he would not stand baby talk! He started screaming and Garcia chuckled

"Adorable when he's not screaming. Its ok baby, were done now" Garcia said softly to him as she gave him his pacifier and walked out to the car.

When Hotch woke up he was still in his car seat but he was inside someone's house, Rossi's house he presumed. He looked around and couldn't hear or see anyone and started to think that he had been left on his own even though he knew his team would never leave him.

As he started crying Garcia walked into the room holding a bottle.

"Its ok baby, we're at Rossi's place, I only left you in your seat while you were sleeping so I didn't wake you." Garcia said as she lifted him out of his seat and took him over to the couch so she could feed him. The whole time she was feeding him she talked about all the things they could do with him while he was a baby and all the fun they would have.

He knew that Garcia was trying to cheer him up but he was still feeling sorry for himself.

As if she could read his thoughts, "you just need to relax and let us take care of you, I know that you probably hate all of this but we love you and we are happy to do it. Think of us as your humble servants and you can be waited on hand and foot like a little prince!" she exclaimed as she kissed him on the head and cuddled him to her.

The team arrived home not long before it was time for dinner and while Rossi cooked, the rest of them unpacked all of the things that Penelope had brought for Hotch.

After they had all eaten too much it was time for Aaron to have a bath.

"Bath time Aaron" JJ said as she took the baby from Morgan.

"I'll help" said Garcia as she followed JJ upstairs

Hotch did not like the idea of being bathed my his team mates but there was no point in crying about it so he just glared at Garcia as she undressed him and JJ prepared his bath.

"I'm sorry honey but that look is just not scary at the moment" laughed Penelope.

JJ held him in the bath with one hand and washed him with the other while Garcia took some adorable pictures.

After he was washed and dried JJ put him in a blue and green dinosaur onesie that Penelope declared was "absolutely adorable" then they headed downstairs where Emily had prepared a bottle for him.

JJ took him upstairs and sat in the rocking chair with him while he drank his milk. The bath had really tired him out so he let his baby side take over as he relaxed in JJ's arms and fell asleep.

Hotch was woken up in the middle of the night by a crying baby. When he opened his eyes he realized that it was him crying and that made him cry even harder.

Before he knew it, JJ was there picking him up and putting his pacifier back in his mouth. Being in JJ's arms felt nice and safe and warm and before he knew it he was sound asleep again.

The next morning, JJ carried Aaron downstairs and passed him into Rossi's waiting arms.

"Good morning bambino! Come with me and see what Garcia has brought you" Rossi said as he carried Aaron into the living room.

The living room was filled with baby stuff, there was a baby chair that he could sit in and play mats on the floor as well as baby books and toys and stuffed animals.

"This way you will be able to have some time to yourself without being constantly held" Rossi said.

JJ had made a bottle while Rossi was showing Hotch his new stuff but as she entered the room, Morgan took the bottle from her "My turn" he said taking the baby from Rossi and sitting on the couch to feed him.

"Never would have guessed that I liked kids hey Hotch?"

Hotch started to wonder what else he didn't know about his team.

Once he had been fed and burped Morgan put him in the baby swing and carried him into the kitchen so they could keep an eye on him while they had breakfast.

Aaron listened to the team talking for a while but his attention started wandering before long and he found himself focusing on the animals hanging above him instead.

The rest of the day passed with Hotch alternating between lying on the floor watching movies or playing peek a boo with Garcia or sleeping.

Aaron woke up from another nap as Rossi was teaching the others how to make their own pasta. It was kind of nice just to be able to watch his team interact and have fun together.

After they had all finished cleaning up after dinner JJ spoke up "alright who's on bath duty tonight?"

Rossi and surprisingly Reid volunteered for the job.

"Really Reid?" Morgan asked

"Yeah I've been reading books on raising children so it might be good to get some practical experience too, this should be fun" Reid smiled

Maybe this could be fun, thought Aaron as a plan came into his mind.

"Hey Hotch I'm just going to take you upstairs ok?" Reid asked Hotch as he picked him up and started up the stairs with Rossi behind him.

Rossi prepared the bath then joined Reid and Hotch in the nursery; he could tell Reid was a bit nervous.

"OK the first thing you need to do is relax, if you are not relaxed then neither is he." Rossi stated.

"Come on bambino; let's get you in the bath"

Dave decided to let Reid handle bath time but he sat next to him telling him what to do.

Aaron started wriggling around and kicking his legs as much as possible, making it as hard as possible for Spencer to hold him and wash him at the same time. When Spencer finally finished washing him, it was time to get him out and dressed.

Hotch was tired after having a bath and was suddenly starving and Reid seemed to be taking forever to get him dressed, so he started screaming.

At the sound of Aarons screaming JJ ran up the stairs to see Rossi picking up the angry baby and trying to calm him down while Reid stood back looking a bit freaked out.

"Give him to me" JJ said taking the baby from Rossi "Dave can you make him a bottle please?"

"Its ok Spence, he's just hungry and grumpy, he's calm now, do you want to finish dressing him?" JJ asked

"I'd rather not, he doesn't seem too happy with me taking care of him" Spencer said as he walked out of the room.

JJ looked at the baby in her arms, " I'm going to assume you didn't mean to upset Spence but you really scared him, it sounded like someone was trying to kill you" She laid him on the changing table and finished dressing him.

Aaron felt bad for scaring Reid but he found it was getting harder to control his emotions.

JJ walked into the living room and handed Hotch to Reid as Rossi walked in with a fresh bottle.

"I'm not sure about this...I think that Hotch would prefer someone else to do this" Reid stammered

"Don't be silly Spence, I'm sure that Aaron won't mind you helping him, just try it" said Rossi as he handed the bottle to the young man. As Spencer fed Aaron the others finally agreed on a movie to watch and settled in for a quiet night.

Aaron drank the bottle and when he was finished Reid burped him and then cradled him in his arms as he watched the movie. For one irrational moment Aaron just wanted to be in JJ's arms as he fell asleep but he managed to control himself and relax back into Spencers embrace.

"Can someone please pass me a blanket?" Spencer asked

The team watched as Reid wrapped Hotch in the blanket and give him his pacifier.

After a few minutes of rocking, Hotch fell asleep and Reid took him upstairs and tucked him into his crib for the night.