The elephant in the room trumpeted in amusement at the tension between Mentor and Protégé.

"Dave," growled Hotch, eventually breaking the stalemate. "This is not an opportunity to go sailing down memory lane. The facts are what the facts are. I am the Unit Chief right now and I will continue to be the Unit Chief in ten minutes from and in ten minutes after that. We probably should have spoken about the intricacies of that before you came out of retirement and perhaps that oversight is on my head. The bottom line is that you don't get to Aaron me with that… look, anymore when I do something or don't do something that you don't like. Now I dealt with Reid. It's done. So, I think what needs to happen-"

"Shut up."

Hotch blinked.

"Say again?"

Rossi quirked a brow, supremely unaffected by the younger man's stern tirade.

"I said," he murmured softly. "Shut up. I am telling you to shut up. I told you to shut up the first day I laid eyes on you as a know-nothing rookie in the field and I'll be telling you to shut up until the day you hammer the final nail in my coffin. I have not forfeited my right to tell you to shut up. I will never forfeit my right to tell you to shut up. If, in the unlikely event that you learn to play well enough with others to run for and achieve presidency of this country, I will be at your inauguration telling you to shut up. Is that clear?"

Aaron was rendered speechless and Rossi threw his hands up in the air in exaggerated celebration.

"Excellent! Now you're getting it. Now, whilst you're internally stewing about all the different ways you're going to tell me all about your Unit Chiefness in the future, you can listen to what I have to say. Whether or not you have not dealt with Reid is, as you would have said in your DA days, irrelevant to the matter at hand. What is relevant is the grotesque delay between the beginning of that kid's spiral and the removal of your head from your ass. What is relevant is the complete and utter disregard for the position of Unit Chief that you seem to hold above all else in this world right now. What is most relevant is what the hell you have to say for yourself about all of the above."

Hotch felt his temper and hackles rise.

"What do you want from me, Oprah?" he snapped. "Do you want to self-flagellate and lament my obvious inability to lead this team? Don't you think I've done that already? Jesus, Dave, we don't need to reinvent the wheel on this. I screwed up, alright? I, Aaron Hotchner, screwed up. If you want that on Affidavit I am happy to oblige. I screwed up and I didn't take the kid in hand as firmly or as quickly as I should have. I have since recognised that and made amends. I do not need to have chapter and verse about my failure parroted back to me by my subordinate."

As soon as his last word was out of his mouth he wanted to pick it up, wedge it between two slices of sourdough bread and ram it down his throat. He watched in concealed horror as Dave's eyes took on a steely glint.

"Dave-"

"Your subordinate?"

"Dave, I didn't-"

"Your subordinate?"

"Damn it, Dave, it wasn't meant-"

"YOUR SUBORDINATE?"

"Aw hell," Hotch muttered under his breath, wishing the ground would just swallow him up. "Dave. I am finding it hard to reconcile being reamed out like a greenhorn whilst at the same time having all this… all this pressure. I'm sorry for saying what I just said. You know I didn't mean it. I just… I just don't want to have the conversation you seem hell bent on having and I can't understand why you won't just drop it!"

Dave snorted.

"Is that what kept Reid out of trouble for so long? You had to wait for his permission to deal with him? You had to wait until he'd done his deep facial and conditioned his hair? Or, alternatively, were you waiting for some kind of gold embossed invitation?"

He snapped his fingers sarcastically.

"No, that's not it. I have it. The kid simply said he didn't want to have that kind of a conversation and you said why of course, Spencer, continue to act like a prepubescent brat all whilst carrying a loaded firearm as an FBI Agent. I'll be here when you're ready buddy."

Hotch briefly considered becoming a chef like Sean. Sean seemed happy. Sean seemed happy and often smelled of smoked chorizo. He could be happy too.

"Alright, Dave," he sighed. "What do you want me to do? What will it take for you to get off my back about this? You want me to be tougher on Reid? I'll be tougher on Reid. There will be no repeat of what happened on this case. I assure you."

Rossi glared.

"How did you punish him?"

Hotch blinked.

"Huh?"

"Reid!" Dave snapped in exasperation. "How did you punish him?"

"Oh. I… well, I spanked him. He's grounded and he's getting another spanking in a couple of days. Plus cold case review etc."

Rossi was momentarily speechless.

"You… you spanked him? I beg your pardon?"

"Yes," said Hotch, a slight defensive note creeping into his voice. "Are you seriously going to tell me after all your lambasting that he didn't deserve to be spanked?"

Rossi shook his head.

"No," he said slowly. "I am merely surprised. Scratch that. I am shocked. I distinctly remember you telling me on numerous occasions that you would never use corporal punishment on any of your charges if you were ever in a leadership role. I, in fact, distinctly recall you labelling me as a barbarian when I had cause to tan your ass and that my methods belonged in the Neolithic era. You will therefore understand my confusion when you casually say that you spanked the kid and plan to do so again?"

Hotch felt a dull flush creep up his neck.

"Yes… well, things change," he spluttered. "I had to find my way with Reid over the last few years. I tried everything else, believe me. I tried write ups, field restrictions, additional assignments. Hell, I even tried PT with Morgan as a trainer. Nothing worked until I eventually had no choice but to try… your methods as a last resort which… well, which did work."

Rossi couldn't supress the smirk that crossed his face.

"Well, well, well… how the mighty have fallen. After all the crap you gave me I find it more than humorous that you are now reliant on my barbarian methods to keep your protégé in line. You conveniently forgot to mention this development."

Hotch fell silent. There was nothing convenient about it and both men knew it.

"Anyway," he said doggedly, determined to escape with at least one shred of dignity. "Now that you know Reid has been dealt with, I assume I am free to leave? The takeaway of this conversation being that I need to intercept poor conduct in a timelier fashion. I accede the point. You're right and it won't happen again."

He looked toward the door hopefully.

"Now can we go and get some damned steak?"

"Have you explained why you were tardy in intercepting the poor conduct in question? Because that is what I want to know and there will be no one leaving this office, for steak or otherwise, until I am fully informed on that point."

Hotch quivered in indignation.

"Why are you doing this? What do you hope to achieve? You want to knock a couple of inches off my height? I know I screwed up. I don't need to be repeatedly told that I screwed up or interrogated about it. I-"

"Do you need some help, Aaron? I think you need some help so let me go ahead and give you a hand here. I think the reason you didn't nip Reid's outrageous behaviour in the bud is because you put your need to be his friend above your obligations and responsibilities to him as a Boss. You didn't want to be the bad guy and so you took a step back in the hopes that the problem would just resolve itself and in the process you put that boy in jeopardy. How am I doing? Close?"

Hotch felt his head drop slightly despite himself and a heat rise in his cheeks.

"Dave, please-"

"Am I right, yes or no. Right now. Spit it out."

The younger man leaned back in his chair with a groan that would be more fitting in a labour ward and nodded in defeat. A tiredness was beginning to descend on him, dragging his neck and shoulders downwards. He needed the tirade to end and if giving Dave the truth was what it took, he was willing to pay that price.

"You're right. Contrary to popular belief amongst Reid and the others I struggle with being the bad guy. Ok? It's not pleasant and I tried to avoid it with Reid in the hopes that he'd pull himself together. When he didn't, I eventually stepped in but the situation could have been mostly avoided if I had done so immediately. I let him down. I know that. I have already had that conversation with myself and I am confident there will be no repeat performance. Ok? Can we please leave it at that?"

Dave digested this onslaught for a moment before nodding.

"That's better," he said softly, a soft praising note creeping into his tone. "You finally got there. It took you a lot longer and a lot of backchat to get there, but you got there. Look, Aaron, you think I don't know how much it sucks to be the Boss sometimes? To be the one who stops a conversation by simply walking into the room? It's hard. It's a hard pill to swallow that no matter how close you are with them, there will always be that wall of Boss and Subordinate between you. Luckily, the BAU has perhaps the least regard for this wall but the wall needs to be there nonetheless. You know Reid sees you as more of a father than his own father. You cannot be the one to let him down, Aaron. Ever. You understand that, don't you?"

Hotch swallowed and looked at the ground with a nod.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I understand that."

"Good," Dave muttered before taking a deep breath. "You finally seem to have grasped what I was trying to get at. Now that you understand the action, you will have an easier time accepting the consequence."

Hotch looked up in confusion, a sense of foreboding bubbling in his gut.

"The consequence?"

Dave settled back in his chair and mentally braced himself for a battle he had not fought in a long time.

"You're an intellectual, Aaron, but you always learned best by physical action. I have stood back for too long, biting my tongue about how you run this team. It nearly got Reid hurt, not to mention the rest of the Unit. I, for one, will not be making that mistake again. You have the makings of an amazing leader. You're loyal to a fault, brave and have a borderline unbreakable bond with each and every one of your charges, none more so than Reid. But you're a rookie when it comes to being the Boss. I am not a rookie when it comes to being the Boss and so until such time as I am fully assured that you can handle the responsibility of that Unit Chief position you talk so much about, I am going to reassume a more… hands-on approach with you."

Hotch stared with his mouth ever so slightly ajar.

"What… what is that supposed to mean? Hands on approach?"

The older man stood up and eyed his protégé with a terrifyingly familiar look.

"It means, Aaron, that Reid isn't the only one in line for a spanking that won't soon be forgotten."

…

TBC