Hey Hey Hey!
Who is ready for another chapter?
I AM!
Aaron Hotchner was a workaholic. He wasn't afraid to admit that to himself. After all, what was the point in denying it? Everyone at the BAU knew that he was the first into the bullpen, and the last to leave the office, always had a bag packed ready to leave at the drop of a hat, and consequently hadn't spent much quality time with his son Jack. Even with this stinking hangover from Morgan's house party, he knew that he should take advantage of the free day he had, and take Jack out somewhere special.
Though he had no clue where.
Sitting at his dining room table, holding a mug of coffee and staring into space thinking (and feeling awfully like Reid), Aaron pondered about the places he could take Jack. The zoo? Cliché, and besides, the monkeys freaked Jack out. The cinema? There were no films that were in the least bit suitable for Jack to be watching.
In the end, Hotch settled for the good, old-fashioned picnic-and-football-in-the-park affair. Nodding to himself, he rose slowly to his feet, deposited his dirty coffee mug in the sink, and began his descent up the stairs to Jack's bedroom, where his young son lay sound asleep. Pausing in the doorway, Hotch regarded Jack's sleeping form. The way he clung to his bedcovers as if his life depended on it was absolutely adorable, his small face scrunching as the light, streaming in from the landing hit his tired eyes. Quietly, Aaron made his way across the room, and began to shake his son gently.
"Jack, buddy, come on, it's time to get up little man" he said. Slowly, Jack opened his eyes, staring expressionlessly for a moment, until his eyes focused on his father's face. He smiled, which quickly turned into a yawn as he stretched to wake himself up.
"Good morning daddy" he said, "do you have to go work a case today?" he asked, pouting slightly, and widening his eyes. Hotch chuckled to himself. Yep, definitely a workaholic.
"No buddy, I don't have to go to work today, so I thought you and I could make a picnic and go to the park?" he said. Jack nodded ecstatically, jumping out of bed and hugging his father's legs.
"Yay! Daddy doesn't have to fight bad days today. Can we take cookies?" He said happily. Aaron just nodded, and allowed himself to be pulled back down the stairs by his hyperactive son.
A few hours later
The picnic was finally complete. Aaron and Jack (who had somehow managed to get jam smeared across his forehead) stood looking at it proudly for a second, until it was time to go. Jack ran to the hallway, and put on his trainers, struggling to tie them accurately, but tying them nonetheless. He grabbed his dark blue coat with the fluffy hood that kept his ears warm, roughly shoving it on, before running back into the kitchen to grab his father's hand, tugging him into the hallway and thrusting his shoes and coat at him. Aaron took in his son's happiness, glad that such a simple trip could make him so excitable. He really should do this more often. Hotch quickly got ready to leave, grabbed the picnic basket, and they were away.
Once arriving in the park, Aaron allowed Jack to choose where they would eat their picnic. Jack (being his father's son) chose a sensible spot underneath a large tree. The pair had fun setting up the picnic; Hotch chased Jack around the park with the picnic blanket pretending to be a ghost, and Jack hid underneath the blanket, not before informing Aaron that it was, in fact, Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility.
The pair were having a blast. Hotch bit into his jam sandwich, his face turning quickly to disgust after a few mouthfuls when he realised that Jack had put a rather large dollop of Marmite in the middle of the sandwich. This caused Jack to roll around the rug in hysterical laughter at his father's expression. Luckily, Aaron could see the funny side of the situation, and politely told Jack that he'd pass on the rest of the sandwich.
Jack was in the middle of telling his father the story of what happened when Josie put a drawing pin on Miss Cooper's chair, when Aaron's phone began to ring. Hotch looked apologetically at his son, before answering it and walking away (though still keeping a line of vision on his son). Jack just shrugged, used to this occurrence, and continued eating his cookies, giggling when a small crowd of pigeons gathered to eat the crumbs. Hotch quickly returned to his son, cursing his job as he went.
"Listen buddy, I've gotta go for a while, someone broke in at the place where daddy works, and I've gotta go check it out, but I'm just texting one of my friends, they're going to come and play with you for a while, alright?" He said quickly. At first, Jack looked disappointed, but at the mention of Aaron's friends, his little face lit up. He hoped it was that Penny lady, her pretty clothes with all the colours made him laugh.
"Yay, Daddy's friends!" He chimed. Hotch laughed, before turning to his phone. This could be tricky, the team was supposed to have a guaranteed free weekend, and the team were bound to have friends. He scrolled quickly through the team's details. Emily, he knew, was visiting a friend in a nearby town. Dave was probably off trying to patch up an old romance, Penelope and Derek were visiting Derek's family, which just left Spencer and JJ.
Sending them both a text explaining the situation and begging them to come to his aid, Spencer Reid quickly replied, stating that he had nothing better to do, so he may as well babysit.
Hotch was immensely grateful, replying to Reid that he would get extra days off for this. After hitting send, Hotch received another text. It was from JJ.
"Great", Hotch thought to himself, "I can't exactly tell one of them not to bother coming, they've probably both left by now." He decided to just leave it. After all, who knew. Maybe this was just what they needed.
Twenty minutes later
Hotch and Aaron were playing football in the park, when Spencer rounded the corner, and made his way over to them. Jack, ever the excitable child, spotted him and ran over.
" 'pencer! 'pencer! Yay, you've come to play!" He shrieked, throwing himself at Reid's legs, who just tittered at his boss' son's antics. After agreeing with Hotch the 'what to do and what not to do's' of caring for his son, Aaron left hastily for the BAU building. Spencer grinned at the young boy, asking him what he wanted to play.
"I wanna play cowboys and Indians!" He yelled, "I'll be the cowboy and you can be the Indian!" Spencer laughed, but agreed all the same.
When JJ arrived at the park, she was amazed at what she saw.
Little Jack Hotchner was running around the park, screaming 'I'm gonna get you!', while Spencer Reid, the smartest person anybody could ever meet, was running around, fluttering his hand over his mouth to make Indian noises, dancing a traditional Indian dance on the spot. Whenever Jack got too close, he would run away, and then resume his dancing.
JJ laughed. She couldn't help it. She laughed so much that she had to sit down on a nearby bench. Spencer obviously spotted her, and alerted Jack, as he came running over to throw his short arms around her. Automatically, JJ put her arms around him and hoisted him up, so that he was sitting on her hip.
"Hey big boy! What are you doing?" She asked. Jack giggled, and pointed at Spencer with a chubby finger.
" 'pencer and me were playing cowboys and Indians!" He exclaimed happily. JJ smiled warmly. This little boy was so adorable!
"Yeah, I saw! Spencer is a good Indian, don't you think? What good dancing he was doing!" She said, winking at Reid, who visibly blushed, obviously under the impression that she hadn't see him doing the dance.
"No," Jack said, shaking his head solemnly, " 'pencer is a rubbish Indian!" He said. JJ held back a giggle.
"Oh, why is that buddy?" She asked.
"He needs a haircut. If I was a real cowboy, I wouldn't have chased him, because I would have confuddled him for a girl Indian!" He said!
Spencer visibly paled. There was nothing wrong with his hair...
Was there?
REVIEEEWW!
Also, this is the longest chapter so far!
Hope you enjoyed the interactions of one Aaron Hotchner with his son!
Let's see if we can make it to 60 reviews?
Paggle x