This idea has been in my head for so long but I just haven't had the time to write it, but now I do so I hope you like it!
Summary: When Jack finds a dog at the park, Emily and Hotch have to teach him a lesson in responsibility.
May 2016
The sun was shining, though it wasn't hot, and there was a light breeze. It was all in all a perfect Saturday afternoon. Emily had dropped Declan off at lacrosse practice and was currently with Jack at the park. One of his friends and his mom met them there. Hotch had volunteered to stay at home with Layla. The eighteen month old was recovering from a cold, and she was still a little congested, and neither parent wanted to keep her outside for too long.
Emily and Andrea, the mother of Jack's friend, were sitting on a bench several feet away from their children, making comfortable small talk.
"Mom!" Emily heard the unmistakable sound of Jack's voice. Before she could respond, he and his friend Luke practically ran into their mothers, too excited to slow down.
"What is it?" Emily asked. "Are you both okay?" She wondered, even though she could see they weren't hurt, she felt like she had to ask.
"Mom come look what we found!" Jack said excitedly, grabbing Emily's hand and pulling her toward the direction where he had just come from.
Emily laughed at Jack's enthusiasm and hurriedly followed him to a tree by the swings, Luke and his mother following closely.
Emily couldn't believe what was sitting under the shade of the large oak tree.
"We found a dog!" Jack said excitedly, reaching out and petting the dog's head. It was some sort of Collie mix, maybe a bit smaller than an average sized one. The dog had the perfect markings of a Collie dog, but was a little shorter haired than most.
The dog wagged its tail and licked Jack's face, causing the boy to laugh.
"He looks pretty well fed, and he doesn't seem to be scared of people," Emily noted. "I'm sure his owner's around here somewhere." She said, reaching down to feel for the dog's collar. The dog was wearing a blue one, but he didn't have any tags indicating his name or his owner's contact information. Emily wondered if it might've fallen off.
"Hm," Emily said as she patted the dog's head. "Are you lost, little guy?" She wondered out loud.
"Mom, can we keep him?" Jack asked excitedly, jumping up and down.
"Honey, I really think he already has a home." Emily said, she felt bad saying no, especially after she watched the smile fade from Jack's face.
"But he just wandered up to us, nobody followed him or called for him. Can't we at least let him stay with us?" Jack asked again. "Please?" He added once he noticed Emily was seriously considering it.
"I would ask my mom, but my dad's allergic." Luke supplied sadly.
Emily took a breath and let it out slowly before answering. "Jack, if we take this dog with us, you have to help me put up lost dog signs. If somebody claims him, we have to give him back." Emily said firmly, but gently. Jack was wise beyond his years, and had a good grasp on concepts a lot of kids his age didn't, but sometimes, like right now, Emily was reminded of just how young Jack still was.
His eyes lit up, the crooked smile returning. "Really? We can take him?!" Jack asked, enthralled at the idea.
Emily nodded. "But remember, I need you to help me look for his owner, alright?"
"Okay! Can we take him home right now?" Jack asked.
Emily glanced at her watch. "We still have a little while before we need to pick up Declan. We can go to the pet store and get him some food." She decided.
"Yay!" Jack cheered. "Can Luke come play with him tomorrow?" He asked.
Emily nodded. "Of course he can, if that's alright with you." Emily turned to Andrea.
"That's fine with me. Should I bring him over sometime after lunch?" She asked. Emily agreed, and the mothers parted ways with their respective child. Emily and Jack got the dog to follow them to their car with ease, the excited animal hopped right into the car once Emily opened the door.
"Can I tell Dad we got a dog?" Jack asked as he crawled into the back seat, sitting happily next to the panting canine.
"Why don't we surprise him?"Emily suggested.
"Good idea!" Jack said excitedly.
Emily had to smile at his excitement as she drove off to PetSmart.
They brought the dog in with them, because Emily was afraid he would get too warm in the car.
"Help me keep an eye on him, he needs to stay right with us." Emily told Jack. He agreed, but the dog seemed content to sit right by Jack's feet.
"Okay, we'll need to get him a leash so we can walk him. Wanna pick one out?" Emily asked, pointing to the selection of leashes in front of them.
"I like this one!" Jack said as he pulled out a light blue and white braided leash. "They're my soccer team colors!"
After that, Jack and Emily picked out food and water bowls, a bag of food, and a couple of toys. By then, they had just enough time to get Declan from practice on time, so they headed over to Declan's school.
A few minutes after Emily pulled into the parking lot, Declan hopped in the front seat.
"Hey, honey." Emily greeted.
"Hey," Declan said, before glancing back at Jack. His eyes widened when he saw what else was sitting in the backseat with his younger brother.
"Did we get a dog?" Declan asked hopefully.
"Jack found him at the park. He had a collar, but there weren't any tags on him, so we're going to take care of him while we look for the owner." Emily explained. "Will you help me and Jack put signs up later?" She asked.
Declan nodded. "Sure, I hope he finds his family. But he is pretty cool, if he doesn't have any maybe we could take him!" Declan said.
"Maybe," Emily said, hoping that the owners would claim their fur- member soon, because she didn't want the boys getting too attached to the dog. Heck, she didn't want to get too attached to the little guy. He was too cute.
XxxxxX
Once they arrived home, Emily had Jack put the new leash on the dog before they went inside.
"Don't let him jump on Layla, okay?" Emily told him for the hundredth time.
"I won't, I won't!" Jack said as he got out of the car and gently pulled the leash, leading the dog to the front door.
When they all got inside, Aaron and Layla were in the living room. Layla was watching The Little Mermaid, her new obsession. She watched it at least twice a day. The whole household could probably quote the whole thing from start to finish.
"Hey," Hotch greeted as he moved from the couch to greet everyone. "Uh- is that a dog?" he asked carefully, completely clueless to the whole situation.
"Yeah! I found him, Dad!" Jack said happily. "Me and Luke were at the park, and he wandered up to us! He doesn't have a tag, so we can't call his owners. Om said we could take care of him until we find his real family." Jack explained.
"Oh, she did, did she?" Hotch asked with a glance Emily's way.
"Why don't you and Declan take the dog to the back yard and play with him?" Emily offered. The yard was fenced in, so it would be alright to leave the dog off the leash. The two boys eagerly agreed and headed to the back door with the dog.
By now, Layla had torn herself away from the movie and toddled over to Emily. Emily picked up her up and bounced her on her hip.
"Mommy, dog!" Layla pointed towards the door.
"Yeah, sweetie. We're gonna take care of him for a little while, okay?" Layla nodded and entertained herself by pulling on the ends of Emily's hair.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Hotch wondered. He wasn't really mad about it, he loved dogs. It just wasn't like Emily to make a decision like this without him.
"Jack was just so excited, and I was afraid you wouldn't want to take care of the dog. I mean, they are a pretty big responsibility. I just didn't want to break his heart." Emily reasoned.
"Oh, you wanted me to play bad guy. I see how it is." Hotch said playfully. "I'll remember this in the future."
"Yeah, yeah." Emily said. "I just hope they don't get too attached. I really think that dog has a home somewhere. I mean, he had a collar, just no nametag or anything. He looks well fed, and he's not wary of people, so he's probably been raised around them."
"Did you just profile a dog?" Hotch teased her.
Emily had to laugh at herself. "Yeah, I guess I did."
XxxxxX
Later that night at dinner, Emily had to keep telling Jack and Declan to stop trying to feed the dog their broccoli. Since they'd gotten home, Emily had taken a picture of the dog and made dozens of lost dog posters. She, Jack, and Declan had gone about putting them up on bulletin boards and posts all over their neighborhood with their contact information should the owner see the signs.
The boys had taken to calling him Teddy, because he kind of looked like a teddy bear. Emily thought it was adorable. She knew naming him would only cause more attachment, but calling him 'the dog' for an indefinite amount of time didn't seem like the best idea, either.
"Since tomorrow's Sunday can we go take Teddy for a walk in the park?" Jack asked.
"Sure." Emily agreed. Maybe they would run into his owners there or something.
"Do you think I could take him for show and tell next week?" Jack continued.
"Jack, buddy, you know he's not really our dog, right?" Hotch said, making sure Jack understood what it was they were doing.
"I know he isn't. But he kind of is, until he gets to go home. I could talk about how I found him. It's a neat story, right?" Jack asked.
"It is, but I just don't want you to get sad when we have to give him back." Hotch said.
"It'll be okay, Dad." Jack replied simply. Hotch and Emily looked at each other, just hoping Jack was right about that.
XxxxX
For two weeks, Teddy was a part of their family.
The family took him for walks in the park on weekends, Jack and Declan played with him in the yard every day after school. The boys had been very responsible in feeding him and making sure he always had water. Hotch and Emily had even caved after three nights and let the fuzz ball sleep on their bed at night. Teddy was a good dog, he never bit anyone, and he never tried to jump on Layla. Everyone was just getting used to having the little guy around.
Until, of course, the Hotchner family got a phone call from Teddy's real owners.
Emily had been the one to take the call, and the young couple that called had been overjoyed that their pet had been found and was being well taken care of. Turns out, Carrie and Steve Williams had been away on vacation, and the dog had escaped when the person feeding him while they were away had accidentally left the back gate unlocked.
It also turned out, that Teddy's name was actually Cooper. Emily made plans with the Williams' to bring their dog back to the park where they found him the next day around 5, after Emily would be home from work and Jack and Declan would be home from school. She was sure the boys would want to go. Emily knew she definitely did, she'd grown to love the little guy.
Once Emily hung up the phone, she went back into the living room, where everyone, except for Layla who was already asleep, were sitting watching television.
Emily didn't even have to explain, she could tell they all already knew what that phone call was about.
"Was that them?" Jack asked sadly, reaching over to pet Teddy, or Cooper, on the head.
Emily nodded.
"We're going to take him back tomorrow afternoon. His owners are a nice couple that live a few miles away, but they just got home from a trip. Once they knew we were taking really good care of him, they agreed to let him stay here until tomorrow. We're going to meet them at the park. You guys want to go with me, right?" Emily asked.
The boys nodded eagerly. Since Emily had started talking, both of them had settled on the floor on either side of the dog and were petting him sadly. This had been what Emily was afraid of.
"It's okay, guys. He gets to go home where he belongs now." She told them, though truthfully, she would be sad to see him go as well.
Jack and Declan just nodded, and decided to go up to their room. The dog followed them happily, blissfully unaware of what was going on.
"I feel bad, they're crushed." Emily said as she took a seat next to Hotch on the couch.
He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head.
"I know, but we've told them so many times this would probably happen." Hotch replied.
"Yeah. I just thought he'd be here for a day or two. Now we've all gotten used to him." Emily told him.
"Maybe we should think about getting a dog." Hotch decided.
"I think we should wait until Layla's a bit older. The dog we found was such a good dog, but they're not all going to be like that." Emily told him honestly. He knew she was right.
"Maybe next summer we can get a puppy." Hotch said, after they were quiet for a few minutes.
"I'd like that. I know the boys would too." Emily said through a yawn.
At that, the two of them headed up to their room and went to bed.
XxxxxX
The next morning, no one really said much. It was a struggle to get Jack to get dressed and go to school. He wanted to stay home and play with Teddy all day, but Emily and Hotch knew that wouldn't be good for Jack. Declan was more understanding, while he was sad this would be the last day they had Teddy, he would be going back home, so it was a good thing.
Emily took off work early enough to pick Jack and Declan up from school and take them home to play with Teddy one last time before they headed out to the park. Emily had to admit, she dreaded having to take the dog back, mostly because she knew how sad it was going to make Jack. She just hoped he wouldn't get too upset.
"Are you guys ready?" Emily called from the door that lead to the back yard. Hotch was staying home with Layla, and Emily was going to take the boys to the park.
Reluctantly, Declan put the dog back on the leash, and let Jack lead him through the house and out to Emily's car.
Jack was quiet for most of the trip, it only took about fifteen minutes to arrive at the park.
Once they got there, Emily let Jack handle the dog and take him over to a bench, where the three of them sat waiting. Before long, a young couple approached them, and Emily knew instantly that they were Carrie and Steve Williams. The dog rose from his sitting position and instantly started wagging his tail, indicating that he knew the two people. Emily rose from her seat on the bench and greeted the couple warmly, shaking their hands. Declan did the same. Jack, however, was not interested in making new friends.
"Hi, sweetie!" Carrie cooed to the dog, reaching down to scratch the dog behind his ears.
"Thank you so much for taking care of him, we're sorry if he was any trouble." Steve said to Emily.
"Oh, you're welcome. He wasn't any trouble at all." Emily assured the tall, lanky, brunette man. Emily knew there was no way he or Carrie were any older than twenty five or twenty six.
"Looks like somebody's really gonna miss him." Carrie commented, nodding toward Jack who hadn't looked up to greet the couple, just held tightly to the dog's leash.
"Yeah, he got kind of attached to your little guy. Jack, can you give Carrie her dog back?" Emily asked gently, sitting back down next to Jack and rubbing his back soothingly.
"Okay," Jack said quietly as he finally looked up and handed the leash to the petite blonde.
"Thank you very much for keeping him safe for me, Jack." Carrie smiled, sensing this was hard on the young boy. "I think he'll probably miss having two boys to run around and play with. Would you and your brother maybe want to come and play with him sometimes? If that's okay with your mom, of course." Carrie offered.
"Really?" Jack's eyes lit up at the prospect. "Could we, Mom?"
Emily smiled. "Of course you guys can. We'll work something out really soon, I promise." She told the young boy, his mood was instantly lifted at the news.
"Okay!" Jack said as he pet the dog one last time before standing from the bench. "Thank you." He said to Carrie, remembering his manners.
"You're welcome, we'll see you soon!" Carrie said as she and Steve thanked Emily once more before finally taking their dog and heading home.
Emily, Declan, and Jack all piled into the car and started making their way home.
"I'm very proud of you, Jack. You did really good today." Emily told him honestly. She had been worried there might be some tears shed, or some kind of tantrum thrown, but there hadn't.
"That was nice of them to let us go see Teddy, I mean, Cooper sometimes, wasn't it?" Jack asked happily from the backseat.
"It was, and I promise you guys can get together with them soon." Emily said to Jack, but she also knew Declan would want to hear it too.
"Yeah! And when we get a dog, we can take ours over there, and they can be friends!" Jack exclaimed.
Emily just laughed, deciding to handle that debate later on.