A/N: I've always enjoyed works with Emily and Jack interacting so I tried to write one myself. I'm not sure I like how it turned out but I decided to post it anyway. I may do a follow up piece more focused on Hotch and Emily but for now, enjoy some lighthearted fluff with Jack and Emily.
"Miss Emily!" Emily turned at her desk just in time to catch Jack Hotchner as he jumped into her arms.
"Hey, Jack Jack!" She smiled, settling him onto her lap and ignoring the sure stares from Morgan and Reid. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"
"It's a half day for confences and Aunt Jess has to work so I got to come with daddy."
"Conferences," Hotch's voice corrects and Emily looks up to find him watching the two of them with a hidden warmth in his eyes. "Parents teacher conferences," he explains further.
"Yeah, those! And Miss Hendricks said I'm doing really good, right dad?" Jack looked to his father who nodded in confirmation.
"Glad to hear it," Emily smiled.
"Dad, can I stay with Miss Emily for a bit?"
"You have your own little space set up in my office, Jack. We don't need to disturb Agent Prentiss," Hotch said, his professionalism coming out.
"It's really no problem. The desk is big enough to share, Jack is more than welcome to pull up a chair and color or work on whatever he has in that bag," Emily said, nodding her head towards the backpack in Hotch's hand.
"You're sure?" Hotch asked.
"Positive, but first, I know someone else who would be very glad to see you," Emily said, looking back down at Jack.
He furrowed his brows for a minute, deep in thought. "Miss Penny?" He finally asked, eyes wide with excitement.
"Exactly right. Let's go," Emily ushered Jack off her lap and stood, taking his hand and leading him to Penelope's office. Penelope squeaked in delight at seeing the younger Hotchner. The blonde snuck Jack several pieces of candy and played a few rounds of Mario Kart with him on one of her many screens.
When Jack and Emily made it back to her desk, they found a second chair set up next to Emily's and Jack's colored pencils and paper set up on one side of the desk. Jack happily sat down and started coloring as Emily continued working on her pile of paperwork.
As Emily finished up the last of her files about an hour later, she glanced at Jack who was still busy coloring. "What are you drawing, kiddo?"
"Me and mommy ice skating," he answered as he drew what looked like a pine tree in the background.
"Oh yeah, that sounds like fun. Did you and mommy used to go ice skating a lot?" She asked, knowing Jack seemed to enjoy talking about memories with his mother, waning as they were. Unlike his father, Jack had reached a point where talking about Haley was no longer painful, but healing.
"No, but she said she was going to teach me this year." Jack bit his lip before asking, "Miss Emily, do you know how to ice skate?"
"I do," Emily nodded. "My grandfather taught me how to ice skate a long time ago when I lived in Russia."
"Can you teach me to ice skate?" Jack asked with a smile back on his face, one of hope and excitement at the possibility.
"Um, well," Emily chanced a look at Morgan and Reid, unsurprised to find them both immediately looking away and confirming her suspicions that they were listening in on the conversation. Emily had been getting closer with Jack in the months since Haley's death and with Aaron for longer but the team didn't know that. They weren't dating, per se, but the feelings were definitely there. "We'd have to talk to your dad about that," Emily finally responded.
"Ok!" Jack exclaimed, jumping up from his chair and running up toward his father's office.
"Oh, Jack I didn't mean…" now Emily finished in her head as she got up to follow him. She could hear Jack's voice talking a mile a minute as she walked up the steps to Hotch's office.
"Ice skating huh?" Hotch asked when Emily entered the room.
"Yeah it came up," Emily smiled nervously. "I'd be happy to take him sometime, if that's ok."
"Well, it seems like the team will be off this weekend. Do you have plans tomorrow afternoon?"
"I do not. What do you say Jack, you want to learn how to skate?" Emily asked the younger Hotchner standing beside her.
"Yes!" He jumped up with a fist in the air, causing both adults in the room to laugh.
"Alright, Jack, why don't you go get you're stuff together it's almost time to go."
"Ok, daddy!" Jack ran from the room and Hotch yelled out a warning to walk that went unacknowledged. Hotch shook his head, a small smile gracing his face.
"So, how about 2pm tomorrow? Meet at the apartment?" Hotch asked, turning back towards Emily.
"Can't wait."
####
The following day found Emily with the two Hotchner men at a local indoor ice-skating rink. Aaron knew Emily could skate but she was even better than he imagined and she was so patient with Jack.
"Hold on to my hands, sweetie," Emily instructed as she set aside the steel trainer Jack had used for the first couple laps.
"But Miss Emily, now you can't see," Jack said, referring to the fact that Emily was now skating backwards.
"It's ok sweetie, I can look around my shoulder when I need to, just trust me," Emily smiled and they slowly started making their way around the rink, Hotch following the two. "Good strides, Jack, see you're getting the hang of it."
As they made one, two, three laps around the rink, Emily's grip on Jack's hands loosened and by the fourth lap she lad let go completely, though was still skating backwards ahead of him. "Look daddy, I'm skating!" Jack exclaimed.
"I see that, you're doing great," Hotch smiled. Eventually, Emily flipped back to skating forward and Aaron took her hand as they let Jack skate in front of them. There were a few falls but Jack brushed them off with laughter and an endless eagerness to try again that only a child possesses.
About a half hour later, Jack skated into a wall with his hands outstretched, his method of stopping, and turned to Hotch and Emily. "I'm cold, can we be done now?" He asked.
"Sure, kiddo. What do you say we go back to the apartment for some hot cocoa?" Hotch suggested as he took Jack's hand, leading him to the exit. Jack gave an emphatic yes in response as Hotch sat him down on a bench to take his skates off.
When they got back to the apartment, Hotch left Emily and Jack to play in the living room while he made the hot chocolate. Emily was perfectly content to build train tracks and Legos with Jack but when he went off to use the bathroom, Emily took the chance to check in with Aaron.
Finding him at the stove, Emily ran a hand up his back to his shoulder as she stepped into his side. A peak into the pan on the burner revealed not the simple powdered hot cocoa Emily had expected. "Wow, we're getting the real deal," she noted.
"Sean made it for Jack a few months ago. The powdered stuff doesn't cut it anymore," he chuckled. Turning down the heat on the burner, Aaron turned to face Emily, lifting a hand to brush a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Thank you for teaching Jack today, he had a lot of fun," he whispered, leaning in closer.
Emily swallowed, the distance between them small enough she could feel Aaron's breath on her face. "He's a great kid," she replied.
"He adores you. So do I," he said before leaning in for a kiss. It wasn't heated, they both knew Jack could walk in at any moment, but it was still good. He pulled back with a smirk, turning back to stir the hot chocolate again. Emily rested her head on his shoulder, willing herself to remember to take things slow despite the intense feelings that had been growing for this man and his son the past several months.
When Emily heard Jack's footsteps coming down the hall, she stepped back. "I'll get the mugs," she said, opening a cupboard above the sink.
"Miss Emily, are you coming to the concert Monday?" Jack asked when he ran into the room.
"What concert?" Emily asked, holding the mugs up as Aaron ladled cocoa into them.
"The Christmas concert," Jack said, eagerly reaching for his favorite red mug.
"Tell Emily what you get to be for the concert, Jack," Hotch suggested as he pulled out the cinnamon sticks, plopping one in each cocoa.
"Rudolph!" Jack announced, practically vibrating with excitement.
"I've been getting previews of the songs for weeks," Aaron added, the slight exasperation in his tone forcing Emily to hold back a laugh. Somehow, she guessed, he'd be glad when the concert was over.
"Well, if I'm in town and the school doesn't have a limit on guests for the concert, I'd be glad to come," Emily smiled, ruffling the hair on Jack's head as they settled on the couch for a movie.
####
Sure enough, two days later with the team still grounded, Emily and Aaron found themselves in the gymnasium of Jack's elementary school after work. The kindergarteners sing first and Jack Hotchner is front and center for the first song, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. He looks adorable, the tip of his nose painted red, wearing khakis and a brown, long sleeve shirt with antlers on his head. His class sings two more songs before the first graders come on.
There's a short intermission after the second graders perform and parents can go pick up the younger kids in their classrooms. Emily is tackled immediately upon entering Miss Hendricks' kindergarten room.
"Miss Emily! You came!" Jack greets excitedly, hugging her legs.
"Of course I did. And you, Jack Hotchner, were a spectacular Rudolph," Emily smiled, picking him up and rubbing her nose with his.
The three stayed for the second half of the concert, Jack wanting to watch his fourth-grade mentor's class performance. He manages to stay awake to see Toby, his mentor, dressed as the grinch while the fourth graders sing You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. But by the time the fifth graders take the stage, Jack is asleep in Emily's lap, his head resting against her shoulder. To Emily's surprise, he doesn't wake when the audience applauses at the concerts end.
Aaron carries Jack to the car, not because Emily couldn't but because Aaron knows the dead weight of Jack's sleeping form is not as light as it used to be. Jack sleeps through the car ride back to the apartment and his father carrying him to bed. Aaron doesn't bother to change Jack into his pajamas, only pulls off his antlers and lays him onto the mattress as Emily holds back the covers.
As Aaron watched Emily tuck the covers around his son, his heart swelled with affection, just as it did every time the two interacted. She dropped a quick kiss to his forehead before exiting the room, leaving Aaron alone to finish tucking Jack in and say goodnight. When Aaron left the room, he found Emily gathering her things in the entryway.
"Don't go," he said, causing Emily to look up at him with wide eyes. She'd never slept over before. They'd been taking things slow, coffee dates before work, dinners or afternoon outings with Jack on weekends when they were home. It wasn't unusual for her to stay after Jack went to bed, for a beer or a glass of wine. Sometimes they would talk, others simply watch a movie and decompress, finding comfort in each other's presence after a hard day at work. Occasionally the evening would end with a heated make out session but she'd never stayed the night.
"Aaron…" Emily started, looking skeptical.
"I know, I know we agreed to go slow but that was largely because of Jack and let's face it, he adores you, Em. You've become an important part of his life whether you stay the night or not and I'd really like you to stay. Please," Aaron pleaded.
Emily bit her lip to hold back a smirk. It still surprised her sometimes, being able to see the vulnerable side of the stoic Unit Chief Hotchner. "Ok," she finally agrees, setting her purse back down on the entry table and stepping closer to Aaron. "I'll stay."