Author's note: Hi again guys, sorry for the delay but I have officially finished education (hopefully forever!). I'll admit I had difficulty writing this; it wasn't as easy as the last chapter. However, I have re-written a small part of the last chapter and included Emily telling Jack stories as it fits better with the overall story.(Also, Emily took Sergio with her to London). Hope you guys enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds. All mistakes with spelling and grammar are also my own.
It had been two weeks since their last phone call and Hotch sent Emily texts every few days to see how she was getting along. Hotch was secretly pleased to check up on and comfort her even if it felt like she were a million miles away.
July was nearing its end and Jack had finished school two days prior, bringing the flu home with him. Not wanting to leave him on his own, Hotch took the weekend of to spend with him, while working from home and luckily, the team hadn't received a major case so far.
It was Saturday night and the pair retreated to the sofa to watch one of Jack's favourite movies and eat some much needed ice cream. Jack began to sniffle, nuzzling closer to Hotch.
"Do you need some medicine buddy?" Hotch inquired.
"Yuh-huh" he nodded.
As Hotch gathered supplies from the kitchen, his phone buzzed and he heard Jack call out excitedly; "It's Miss Emmy, daddy!"
Hotch returned and read the text describing Emily's day; how it had been a surprisingly quiet but filled with a lot of paperwork from the previous week.
"Daddy, can we have one of Miss Emmy's stories?" Jack asked.
"Buddy, she's pretty busy, I don't know if she'd be able to right now."
He looked down to see his son staring at him longingly with those cute puppy eyes and couldn't resist. After sending a quick text to see what Emily's plans were for the evening, she replied with watching television and cuddling up with Sergio. He was not going to address that he was jealous of a cat.
"But if you want, we can surprise Miss Emmy?" Hotch asked, as he set up the laptop on the coffee table, seeing Emily was available on Skype.
"Yeah!" Jack replied, as he made himself comfortable in Hotch's lap, shuffling back and waiting for her to answer.
Emily had been microwaving her ready-meal when Hotch had sent her the text. She chose to ignore how her heart fluttered a little, but appreciated how he had been looking out for her with sporadic text messages. After eating, she settled comfortably on her sofa before staring at the very appealing notion of watching television as opposed to her open laptop, beckoning her with unfinished paperwork. Sighing, she wondered what Hotch and Jack were currently doing.
It wasn't that Emily was bored; work was more demanding than it had been at Quantico. Even though it was 9-5, somehow the extra paperwork seemed to finish past ten daily. Granted the occasional cases at odd hours were straining but it wasn't that she missed her old job so much as the old team and especially Hotch and Jack.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw a light appear on the screen, with "AH2005 calling" via Skype. In a moment of confusion, she answered curiously. Her heart tightened with happiness as she saw Hotch in his living room with an excited Jack curled up on him, beaming at the her.
"Miss Emmy!" Jack croaked as he waved enthusiastically.
Emily was taken aback to see the two on her screen but immediately let out a large grin; her eyes flickering between the adorable Jack snugly wrapped in his bathrobe and his father with a dashing smile.
"Hey Jack Jack! How are you buddy?" Emily replied delightedly.
"I'm not feeling great" Jack expressed, cuddling closer into Hotch.
Hotch tightened his grip on Jack and continued "Hi Emily, he just finished school and caught the flu."
Jack launched into describing his last days at school, the games they played and the chocolates they ate. He also added a list of things he'd planned for the summer vacation including the different places he'd wanted to visit (although seven countries was a little excessive for the holidays according to Hotch).
"Which I am sure were influenced by a certain kid called Billy at school" replied Hotch while Jack squealed as he tickled him lightly.
"But now he's feeling unwell, so we thought maybe one of your stories might make him feel better?"
"Of course Jack! Where did we leave off from last time?" Emily pondered.
"Prince Zach had just moved to America and he'd made lots of friends and they helped save the president and stopped baddies from taking over the world!" Jack beamed proudly.
Hotch smiled fondly at the pair and often wondered if Emily would settle down and maybe have children of her own. He knew after the Doyle situation she was sceptical especially since she had formed a bond with Declan, but time had passed and he only hoped that everything they'd done as a team could ease her back into the idea of family life. Realizing he'd drifted off, he attempted to join back into the conversation.
Jack was listening intently; becoming wide-eyed and gasping when Emily had recounted the story somewhat familiar to case of the bank robbers attempting to harm JJ and her family.
"… And then Iggy went after Jenny's family because they had the money tree and Jenny and Roger tried to stop her. At the same time, Zach was looking for Iggy's baddie friends in the new giant maze in town with the help of Harry, Simon, Morag and Emma while Gabby was flying the airplane and giving them directions" Emily narrated.
"Did they hurt Jenny and her family in the end?" Jack inquired.
"Do you really think that Zach and his team are going to let a silly old meanie stop them from saving the world?!" Emily asked playfully.
"Mmm, no because Zach is a superhero and he caught all the baddies in the world" Jack gestured at the whole room of invisible villains he'd caught.
"That's right! Zach parachuted into the market and knocked down the criminals, saving Bill. After everything was safe they went over to Roger's for a barbeque pool party" Emily smiled, reminiscing over JJ and Will's wedding.
"If the team all had boyfriends and girlfriends and families, did Zach have a girlfriend?" Jack inquired.
Emily looked up at Hotch and they shared a smile; Jack was already cute enough but if he looked anything like Aaron when he was older, he'd have no problems with the ladies.
"Well that depends because Zach is so popular and all the girls want to be his girlfriend, so he doesn't know which he should chose" Emily humoured.
"Mmm, he should find a girl who's nice and funny and kind, and it doesn't matter what she looks like because Daddy says it's not 'portant if you have a good heart" Jack beamed at Hotch.
Hotch hugged Jack tight in pride and replied "That's right buddy; having a big heart is more important."
"But if he has to leave after the party, won't he be lonely in another country if all the people he loves are somewhere far away? He has to have someone?" Jack thought as he yawned and moved to lie down.
Emily and Hotch shared a somewhat awkward glance as she realized this would be uncomfortable given the way they had parted before she left, and tried to reply as honestly as she could.
"No honey, he won't because even though he has to move he knows that he'll always have his friends and anytime he gets lonely he can call them up and they'll be at the other end of the phone. Plus, they're all so close they're pretty much family, right?"
"And just because you're far away from the people you care about, doesn't mean you stop loving them, right?" Hotch added to Jack before realizing what his words meant to Emily.
"Mm-hm, we still love Emmy daddy" Jack said sleepily.
Hotch turned to face Emily while she sniffed and attempted to cover up her emotions. Seeing Jack was asleep, he told Emily he'd be right back as carried Jack to his room; not before giving Emily a lazy wave, blowing her a kiss and the pair exchanging their good night's.
It took longer than expected and he wondered whether Emily would leave, but as he made his way to the living room he saw she was still there watching television and her laptop to the side.
"How are you doing Emily?" He asked, sitting back down.
"Honestly, I'm okay Hotch. Jack's such a bright kid and it felt really good to see you both again tonight."
Their conversation touched upon a list of possible cases for Hotch, both clearly avoiding the conversation which occurred before. Emily gave him some pointers and acted as a fresh set of eyes while they bounced ideas off another which he would look into and discuss with the team in the morning. Talk then turned to the holidays with Emily stating how relieved she was to be getting a four day weekend in two weeks time.
"I've got a week off with Jack since it's his summer vacation, so I think we'd be working on his bucket list for holidays. Although I don't know how he expects to get from mountain climbing in Asia to quad biking in the Middle East and then paragliding in Australia in a week" Hotch joked.
"You do have your work cut out for you Hotch; mind you me and Serg will also be doing fun and interesting activities, won't we boy?" Emily cooed at Sergio, as he inched closer to Emily, got his belly rub and wandered off to something more interesting.
"Of course, you can take him to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben…" Hotch replied with a smirk.
"Some company is better than none" Emily retorted.
Before he could ask her how Interpol was going, there was a buzz at Emily's door and they both wondered who it could be at half eight on a Saturday night. Hotch waited as he saw her leave to answer the phone.
"Hello?... Hi!... Really? Tonight? Okay, give me a second. Yeah sure, just make sure you get them all this time" he heard as she began to chuckle, making him feel slightly envious.
"Hey, sorry about that, it was Mark…Agent Abbott and we have a case" Emily stated, slightly disappointed as she returned to clear up and organize the paperwork on her sofa and table.
"He's one of the most experienced members of my team and needs to collect some of the case files before we go; I reckon this will be a tough one" Emily added, attempting to emphasize that it was purely work.
"It's okay Emily, duty calls. I understand" Hotch paused. "Thank you for indulging Jack, it really did make him feel better."
The knock on the door interrupted the two as Emily collected her bag, checking to see she had everything she needed.
"Hey I've gotta go. I really appreciate you video calling me; you and Jack have made my night. Thank you for being there, honestly. Speak soon, take care Aaron" Emily smiled sincerely before she hastily shut down her computer and left with Mark, without Hotch having a chance to reciprocate.
For a split second, Hotch was too interested in 'Agent Abbott' before he noticed that she called him Aaron.
So what do you guys think? Feel free to leave a review of what you thought, both good and constructively bad! Originally this was going to be more Hotchniss but now it's looking like a family fic, especially in the next few chapters; but who can resist the adorable little Jack? :) Also the username AH2005 is contrived from Hotch's initials and the year Jack was born (the inspiration came from JJ having a box with Henry's birthday as the code). Lastly, I thought it would be fun to include a spin-off of the BAU run by Jack or 'Zach', and the story references are to Hit/Run (season 7 finale, pretty much the first chapter). Thanks for reading!