Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers, I do not own any CM characters, I'm just borrowing them and will return them in the same condition as I found them.
MAKING PLANS
Hotch picked up his phone, it was after one and he finally had time to call home and check on Prentiss and Reid. For an office day, the whole crew had been flat out since they'd arrived this morning. Johnson's team had taken an out-of-state case that normally would have come to them, and had sent all their daily case assessments over in trade. He debated whether to call the house phone or Prentiss's cell, he finally decided on Prentiss's cell in case she had managed to find her way back to her apartment.
"Hey, I'm sorry 'bout this morning, by the time I realized you didn't have a ride, we were all at the office already."
Emily laughed, "Sure, we can go with that one. What's up?"
"I just wanted to see how Reid's getting along."
"Reid's fine. He's sleeping again. I'm fine. Haley and I are looking at paint colors online."
Emily switched the phone to speaker just in time for Haley to hear Hotch ask, "You're painting my house?"
Both women laughed, Haley responded, "No, you, Derek and Jason are painting Spencer's apartment."
"We are? Why?"
"He told Emily that you said he needed new furniture."
"He does. He's supposed to be getting some new clothes too, but how does Reid buying a couch equate to us painting his apartment?"
"Simple, when you get new furniture, you need to paint. Spencer obviously can't paint by himself right now, so we elected you guys."
"How -- but -- never mind." He knew this was an argument he couldn't win, "When should I tell Jason and Morgan to show up?"
Emily responded, "We'll paint Sunday. Can you have JJ and Garcia call me when they get a chance, and tell Morgan, we'll need him on Saturday to help at the furniture store?"
Hotch replied cautiously, "So, am I going to the furniture store, too, Prentiss?"
"If you want to, but Morgan can manhandle Reid in and out of my car easy enough."
"I don't know if I want to ask this or not, but why Morgan specifically, he hates shopping?"
"Reid's already pretty much picked out what he wants, but he's worried Morgan's going to tease him about his choices. If Morgan's there when Reid makes his final decisions, he can't bust his chops about it later."
Hotch laughed, "Don't count on that."
Emily and Haley both laughed, "Okay, he can't bust his chops as much."
"Sure, we can go with that one. Hey, is Jack up?"
"No," Haley grabbed the phone and headed for the living room, "But you've got to see this."
"Haley, no, Reid'll kill us."
Haley snapped the picture, and said, "Why? They're adorable."
Emily put her hand to her forehead and groaned quietly, "Because they're adorable."
Hotch pulled the phone from his ear in confusion, and burst out laughing at the picture on his screen. He didn't know about adorable, but Reid would definitely kill to keep this photo away from Morgan. Jack was curled up against Reid WITH HIS HEAD ON Reid's side and his thumb in his mouth, Reid had one arm wrapped around Jack, his hand resting on the child's back, and somebody, he assumed Haley, had covered them with the blanket from the couch.
He smiled as he said his good-byes and went off to tell his team they now had plans for the weekend.
&&&&&&
Hotch opened his front door wondering what he'd find tonight. He walked inside and called out to Haley to let her know he was home. When Jack didn't come running to meet him, he headed into the living room. Jack looked up from where he was sitting with Reid, a giant storybook in their laps. Hotch leaned down to give Jack a kiss, "Hi, Daddy. Me weed wit' Unca 'Pencer. Him weed good."
Hotch looked around his living room and smiled, there was a very large pile of discarded picture books lying in a heap next to Reid's chair, crayons and coloring books on the coffee table, Charlie the laptop was sitting on the coffee table with what Hotch assumed was the language program open on it, and Reid's crutches were leaning against the back of the chair, so Hotch assumed he'd been up during the day.
"Bonjour, Hotch, comment vas-tu?"
"Tres bien. Et toi?"
"Ca va. Anything interesting happen at work today?"
"Paperwork. I see you've been busy. Reading, coloring, studying French. By the way, your French accent is much better than your Spanish."
"Yeah, Emily's a drill sergeant when it comes to pronunciation. Made me recite the alphabet over and over for almost an hour, before we got to the first word."
"Well, it's working, so don't complain too much." Hotch sat on the coffee table and lowered his voice, "How is Emily today?"
Reid kept his voice lowered as well, "She seems a lot better, we didn't really talk about yesterday, I wasn't sure how much it's safe to say in front of Jack, but she's kept busy most of the day."
"I heard. Morgan, Gideon and I are going to meet and move the furniture and prime the walls Saturday after you and Morgan get back from the furniture store. Then everybody's going over Sunday to do the actual painting."
"I need primer? What is primer?"
"Have you ever done any housepainting?"
"No."
"Do you have any idea of everything that has to be done?"
"I'm beginning to think I don't. We don't just get a couple rollers and a can of paint?"
"Not even close. Don't worry about it, just look at this as a learning experience, Prentiss and I'll take care of the logistics, you sit back and learn how it's done. Deal?"
"You're sure you don't mind?"
"Reid, I wouldn't be doing it if I minded. Neither would Gideon and Morgan."
"Okay. It just seems like a lot of work. And I really can't do much but get in the way right now."
"Would you do the same for me?"
"Of course."
"There you go. It's part of being a team; we help each other out. Now, Emily said you have printouts of the furniture you selected?"
"Yeah," Reid reached over to the side table next to him and picked up the stack of papers. "What do you think?"
Hotch looked at his face and knew that however casual the question sounded, Reid was really concerned about the answer. He kept his face neutral as he took the pictures, he'd picked Emily up for work one morning when her car was in the shop and had been surprised to see that her apartment was very feminine, he didn't think she'd pick out anything like that for Reid, but there was always a chance.
The picture of the table and chairs was on top, "You decided to do the kitchen, too?"
"And the bedroom, Emily convinced me to go ahead and get everything at once, that way it all matches and I only have to do this once."
"It's a good idea. And everybody's coming, so you can get everything set up just the way you want it. These are really nice choices." He held up the color options, "I assume Emily's the one with the eye for color?"
Reid nodded. "I was amazed, it only took us a couple hours to do the whole thing. She insists I have to actually go try out the couches first, to make sure I like how they 'seat.' Hopefully by Saturday I'll figure out what she means by that."
Hotch looked around his living room, "Oh, I've been through this one. It means making sure it's comfortable. And since you're tall, making sure you can stretch out on it." Reid just looked at him. "Yeah, she's going to make you pretend to take a nap in public." Reid just groaned. Hotch laughed and headed for the kitchen, "What is it those Borgia people say in Star Wars? Resistance is useless?"
"Resistance is futile. And it's the Borgs in Star Trek."
Hotch walked out of the room laughing, "I know."
&&&&&&
Emily watched as Hotch came into the kitchen and immediately moved to kiss Haley hello. She tried to hold back a smile at how different he was in and out of the office.
"So, how did today go?"
"Fantastic. Emily's great company and you wouldn't believe how good Jack has been today. He has been glued to Spencer's side, ever since we got back from playgroup. We might have to adopt him."
"Yeah, I was going to ask when he became 'Uncle Spencer'?"
"Oh, um, well, that developed right after naptime."
"What happened?" Hotch didn't like the note of worry that had crept into Haley's tone.
"Well, um, you know he's not quite completely potty trained yet."
"He didn't?"
"Yeah, he did."
"Jack peed on Reid?"
Haley just nodded her head.
"How'd he take it?"
Emily laughed, "Remember the face he made when Morgan put lemon juice in his coffee? Kinda like that. Then Jack turned those big blue eyes on him, said, 'sowwy, Unca 'Pencer.' and Reid just patted him on the back and told him it was okay. Looks like your son is going to be a master manipulator just like his daddy."
"But on the upside, he did really well with the crutches, Honey."
Hotch glanced back towards the living room, "I hate to ask, but did he need --?"
"No, I put his ready bag in the bathroom and told him to yell if he needed help. He didn't yell."
"Like you'd ask me to help you get dressed?" Everyone turned to see Reid hobbling through the doorway, Jack following behind carrying two glasses. "As Morgan would say, 'ain't happenin' in this lifetime.'"
"Reid, you probably shouldn't be getting up, without somebody there."
"I'm okay, Hotch, the dizziness is gone."
"Still --."
"Hotch, I haven't had a dizzy spell all day and my head doesn't feel like it's going to explode anymore. And I did fine with the crutches earlier. I'm a little slow, but I can get where I'm going."
"All right, I give. Just be careful; okay?"
"I am. I will be. I just don't see any point in yelling for somebody to come in the living room when I'm perfectly capable of coming in here and getting a drink by myself." He looked at Jack now standing beside him, "Well, almost by myself. I haven't figured out how to carry things yet."
Hotch decided a change of topic was in order, "Jack, did you pick up your books?"
"Mm-hmm, me did, Daddy. Unca 'Pencer 'mind me to."
"Good boy. Thank you."
Jack walked over and handed the cups to Hotch, "More pease?"
"Sure." He looked into Reid's cup, "More of the same, Reid?"
"Yeah." Reid hobbled over to the table and sat down. Jack eagerly climbed up in the chair next to him. Hotch poured their drinks and set them on the table.
"Have they identified our unsub yet?"
"Yeah, we got a hit on his prints. James Summers, nineteen, he's had a string of arrests for drugs and various violent offenses going back to when he was twelve. According to his doctor he had ingested enough meth to K-I-L-L a horse, which explains why he was able to keep going after being S-H-O-T twice. They expect him to recover fully from the G-S-Ws, it's the head injury from the fall that's going to be the problem. He may have some serious brain damage, they won't know for sure until he wakes up."
"So, they expect him to make it?"
"He's still in critical condition, he could go either way, but the doctor was pretty clear that he would have survived without complications, if he hadn't T-H-R-O-W-N himself and Reid off the B-U-I-L-D-I-N-G. I brought home a copy of his report if either of you want to look at it. I've already sent a copy to the review board. We can talk more after J-A-C-K goes to B-E-D, because spelling out all this stuff out is a P-A-I-N in the A-S-S."
Emily and Reid laughed as Hotch went upstairs to change out of his work clothes before dinner.
Author's Note: Since I can't be the only one with very rusty high school French skills, here's the translations:
Bonjour, Hotch, comment vas-tu? Hello, Hotch, how are you?
Tres bien. Et toi? Very good. And you?
Ca va. Okay.
