*Chapter Three: Hoping*

Morgan/Hotch relationship established.

Slash Warning.

I do not own Criminal Minds or the characters therein, although I certainly wish that I did. I am not making any money off of this story either. It's just for a bit of fun.

Morgan walked onto the plane and sat down next to Hotch, pressing his knee to the other man's and taking his hand in his. "I'm sorry," he apologized again.

Hotch nodded and turned to look at him, the two of them ignoring the rest of the team as they all took their respective seats around the plane. "Can you tell me why this is such a big thing? Why now?"

Morgan sighed and rubbed his thumb across his lover's knuckles and spoke quietly, "I know that I have this playboy image Aaron, but I want forever. I want the big house, the yard full of kids, the family vacations, the date nights, the pets running in the yard, the pool parties…and I want it all with you. I know we have Jack, and I love him, but whenever I look at him, I see you and Hailey. I don't see us, and that's what I want. I want a child, children, that when I look at them I see us. I'll never stop loving Jack, but I want more Aaron and honestly, this seems perfect. Vee is right here and she's already pregnant and you know what? The guy she's pregnant from is white so the baby will be biracial so it will actually kinda look like us, like it could be ours."

Hotch nodded and squeezed his hand. "I get it baby. I do. I'd love to have more kids with you, but what about our jobs? Where do you see us having the time to actually raise a baby?" he asked softly.

"I know that we'll have to work some stuff out, but this isn't one of my usual impulsive decisions. I want us to talk about this seriously. Can you be open-minded about this?" Morgan asked, his voice soft, his deep voice like velvet on Hotch's senses causing him to become painfully aroused. He nodded and the two men turned to focus on the current case.

They'd talked. And talked. And talked. They'd talked until they couldn't talk anymore and then they'd talked to Vee. Then Garcia. Then Rossi. Then Prentiss. Then Seaver. Then Reid (yes, they'd even gone to Reid-who'd given them a list of statistics about children raised in homosexual homes, children who were adopted, the probability of them being able to adopt, how many nannies lived in their area, even which preschools they should consider-they'd both walked away with their ears buzzing). Then Morgan had called his mother and sisters and talked to them, after they'd finished squealing, they'd talked to him seriously. Then without even consulting each other, both men had called their former coworker JJ. She'd come over for dinner with Henry and Will, bringing all of Henry's old baby stuff saying only that they'd need it when they came to their senses. Neither of them had wanted to talk to Jessica, her disdain for their relationship very well documented, but they had gone to talk to her as well, hoping that she would agree to watch their new baby if they decided to adopt. They'd been shocked when she'd agreed, saying only that Jack had talked to her about how she needed to stop being mean to his daddies.

So here they were now, standing in the waiting room, four months later pacing as they waited for their new baby to be born. "Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick," Morgan muttered as he twisted his hands nervously.

Hotch laughed softly. "It's okay baby. That just means that you're ready to be a daddy." Morgan turned to look at Hotch at his words and smiled. "We're going to have a baby Aaron," he whispered and walked into the man's arms. The two of them stood wrapped in each other's arms and turned toward the doctor when she walked into the room and smiled at the two new fathers.

"Your daughter is doing fine and so is the mother. I can take you to go and see her now if you want," the doctor said. The two men looked at each other and smiled broadly. They turned to accept the hugs and well-wishes of their family and friends and followed the doctor from the room. As they appeared outside of the nursery the two of them stopped and caught their breath at the beautiful baby girl being held up for their perusal. "Baby Girl Erin Morgan-Hotchner" was absolutely breathtaking and her fathers were in love with her instantly.

"She is never going to be allowed to date," Morgan stated as he smiled at his new daughter.

"I completely agree. Maybe we should have her fitted for a chastity belt?" Hotch asked chuckling.

"I don't see a problem with that at all," Morgan stated with a smile. The two of them sighed in delight as Hotch stepped up behind his life partner and wrapped his arms around him.

"Marry me Derek," he whispered in his ear, chuckling when the man in question stiffened in his arms.

"What'd you just ask me?" Derek whispered back as he turned to look at his lover.

"I asked you to marry me. You can hyphenate your name too, just like baby Erin. We can fly out to D.C. and make it legal. But, I want you to marry me Derek. Say yes," Hotch persuaded him.

"But what about our jobs Aaron? How are we going to get married and keep our jobs?" Derek asked, his hands unintentionally coming up to clutch his lover's shirt.

Hotch smiled as he lifted a hand to cover the one on his shirt. "For the last few months, me and other Unit Chiefs and Leaders and Supervisors and Directors have been meeting and appealing to have the fraternization rule revoked or revised. And we succeeded about a week ago. I was going to propose then, but we were so busy getting ready for Baby Erin that I just decided to wait, but here with you now…it just seemed right. So, whaddya say? Wanna marry me?"

Morgan grinned broadly, "Why do you keep trying to make me the woman in this relationship Aaron?" he asked raising an eyebrow, laughing when his partner blushed bright red, "Yes I'll marry you Aaron, of course I will." The two kissed deeply and then turned to look back at their daughter, both of them excited about the next stage in their lives.

Please rate and review! I'd SO appreciate it! I hope you enjoyed it! Since this chapter was a little short I'm going to post two today. Thank you for the reviews so far!