Chapter 9: A little less talk…

"Are you sure, obviously there was a good bit of evidence to the contrary." Hotch said evenly, resisting the urge to confirm that an error had been made. His curiosity over how she had reached this assumption at least temporarily winning out over the desire to go lick his wounds as he felt the hopes that had arisen earlier with her impromptu dinner invitation already hastily beating a retreat.

"It all seemed to make sense when we put the pieces together," JJ watched him closely still waiting for an answer as she could feel her heartbeat accelerating in anticipation of finding out the truth straight from the source.

"That's where I'm confused, the only thing I'm aware of is that Blake met a man named Paul when she came to my apartment, I'm surprised that's all it takes to cause women to jump to such conclusions." He said mildly, resorting to a calm façade to hide the emotions now whirling within, seeing her eyes widen at what he knew was a chauvinistic remark but it had slipped out before he had given it thought.

"That wasn't all," she finally blurted out, tired of his obvious avoidance of answering her question directly. "Garcia, Blake and I were eating at that new Chinese place and saw you and Paul hug. We tried to give you the benefit of the doubt but that did look pretty strange. Then Blake came to your house and Paul said you were in the shower and seemed to have made himself quite at home according to Alex." Hotch watched intrigued as the words seemed to spill out faster and faster as she moved to defend herself and the other women against the accusation. "Then she said Jack called him Uncle Paul, well, what were we supposed to think?" She finally stopped to draw a breath and looked at him hoping for some sort of response but only receiving a dark eyebrow arching quizzically as he obviously studied her as if waiting for her to continue, sensing that she hadn't quite finished. "He talked about the perks of having a boyfriend that could give him a place to stay as well as free legal advice for goodness sake." She recounted the key points of what Blake had shared with them, still not sure how they had been mistaken in connecting the dots yet still praying inside that he was going to refute the case they had made.

Hotch waited another beat as he watched her now waiting, obviously finished with what she had to say. Finally he decided to give in and end the apparent distress she was experiencing as well as any lingering confusion there might be over just who he was attracted to. "How about that he is Sean's boyfriend, they've been together since meeting at cooking school. I let him stay at my apartment, whether I'm there or not whenever he's in town. This visit he came to ask my blessing in marrying my brother and hugged me when I gave it to him. Jack calls them Uncle Sean and Uncle Paul. While I didn't think anyone would care, Sean is still very private about things outside of his own circle and I was trying to respect his privacy." Hotch explained calmly, watching the play of emotions over her face as he spoke, from interest to surprise to guilt and a mysterious half smile that he wasn't sure how to interpret before it disappeared.

"Oh," JJ's voice was barely a whisper as she realized that the scenario he had painted seemed much more plausible than what they had suspected. When she said no more he continued, now ready to address the many questions that had sprung to his mind ever since Will had dropped the initial bombshell.

"Why couldn't someone just ask me? Everyone's been whispering about this behind my back, making assumptions, spreading rumors. God only knows how far it's traveled at the bureau. Then setting up this little scheme to lure me in to confess to Will," he forced himself to maintain some control as he saw her cringe, her eyes now focused on the floor. He knew he sounded angry and tried to soften his tone to a more diplomatic one as he continued. "Would you guys have cared so much even if it was true? I thought we were all more open minded then that." He started thinking of the different behaviors he had witnessed and understood further why his brother remained so guarded about his lifestyle. After the rumor had begun to spread Rossi had been the only one who had not changed his behavior towards him and now he realized it was only because the older man knew differently as one of the few colleagues privy to Sean's lifestyle. He could now see how his short sightedness in shutting down his friend without asking why he felt the need to inform the team about Paul had helped cause all this and only resulted in Rossi taking advantage of the opportunity to just enjoy the whole mess as it unraveled. Truthfully he could deal with what his team thought, but he didn't want to give anyone like Strauss another weapon in her arsenal against him if she got provoked. He stopped, knowing JJ didn't need him to draw a picture of how this could blow up in all their faces and affect not only him but their team as a whole.

As he watched her seem to struggle but having nothing to say he finally sighed, resigned as he decided it was time to put the disaster of an evening behind them both and collect Jack to go home. "I hope you'll let Garcia and the others know about this little mixup and try to stop the rumor mill before it's over the whole building." He finally said tiredly, hoping she would attribute his emotions to the concern over his professional reputation instead of seeing the pain he felt from having his hopes for the evening so thoroughly dashed.

"I'll text Garcia right now." JJ promised, feeling small as she reached for her phone, still trying to focus anywhere but on the face of the man across from her before a nagging question returned to her mind. She decided to bite the bullet considering it seemed to be a night for clearing the air. Ever since she had left the airport she had started wondering about his quick acceptance of her invitation, she had been so focused on her own agenda and mission it hadn't occurred to her until afterwards that he had accepted based on nothing more than her invitation to come over for dinner. "You didn't even ask why I was inviting you over," she finally asked, her fingers frozen over the buttons on the phone.

"I didn't need to," Hotch answered honestly, feeling the atmosphere in the room take on a new weight as he considered his response and its implications, "I'm always here if you need me, all you have to do is ask," he answered honestly as he watched her blink as she absorbed his admission, before he followed her lead with his own question.

"I'm confused that you seemed to struggle more with the thought of me being gay than that of your ex-husband," He asked, watching as she averted her eyes again and bit her lip in obvious nervousness. As he reflected over the past few days, everyone's response had made sense now that he realized what they had been thinking, everyone except JJ's that was. She had seemed to take the news harder than the others, yet she was the first one of the team who had tried to reach out to him. Even though she had obviously jumped to the wrong conclusion it only reaffirmed for him the unspoken depth of their friendship that she was willing to try to help him even though she had been struggling emotionally.

"I don't mind if people are gay, I just didn't want you to be gay." She said softly, knowing what she was implying but not caring as she realized how tired she was of trying to pretend the only feelings she had for him were as a friend. Daring to make eye contact she could see in his eyes that he had not missed her meaning as she saw the briefest of smiles grace his features as she waited to see what he might say, if she could hear it over the pounding in her ears.

Of all the responses she imagined a kiss hadn't been one of them as she barely registered him moving towards her before his lips were on hers. She paused for the briefest of seconds before letting her eyes drift shut and letting her arms reach around his neck as she dimly registered how soft his hair was as she touched it for the first time.

The sound of Will clearing his throat repeatedly caused the couple to finally pull apart, looking embarrassed as they considered their little display and the bemused expression on Will's face. "Helluva misunderstanding but it seems to have worked out for the best." He mused as he watched JJ blush and bury her head in Hotch's shoulder. "Listen I'm going to clear out, let you guys continue talking, just remember there are children present." He teased lightly as he headed for the door with a wave goodnight.

At the sound of the door closing they looked at each other again. "We could talk," Hotch said agreeably, knowing there would be a lot of that over the next few days as he apologized to Rossi for not hearing him out combined with thanking him as he was already certain that despite the enjoyment he had probably experienced that he would have still used his influence to dispel the rumor before it made it too far out of their unit. He also anticipated having a talk with Strauss as soon as possible about getting JJ reassigned to a different supervisor, his mind started running ahead with all the steps he would have to take next as his hopes from earlier in the evening returned full force.

"We could talk, but I'd rather not." JJ's mischievous voice broke him from his planning as she pushed him back onto the chair with a smile, intent on enjoying the few more minutes they might have before the boys emerged from Henry's room. He offered no argument as he pulled her towards him for another breathtaking kiss as they relished the newness of this aspect of their rapidly shifting relationship.

"I'm really glad you're not gay." She whispered huskily after they broke apart again gasping for air. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

AN: Congrats to the few reviewers who figured out who Paul really was. Thanks to everyone who took time to give feedback, hope you enjoyed it.