Ok, so this is set after the episode "The Fight" and Emily was flirting a lot with Mick... so it's time to see how that went down with Hotch.
It's April 2010, Emily is 39 and Hotch is 44.
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"What is wrong with you?" Emily snapped the second she walked through the front door, Hotch not far behind her, at two in the evening, having just returned from the case they'd worked with the other team.
"Can we just drop this please... one of us has to pick up Jack soon." Hotch huffed, as he threw down his and Emily's go-bags in the corner, not making eye contact with Emily as he spoke.
"No Aaron, I won't just drop it, Jack doesn't have to be collected for another half hour, and we are going to talk about this... you've been giving me the cold shoulder since we left on that case." Emily fumed, the previous three days of frustration finally boiling over.
"No Emily, I've been giving you the cold shoulder since you started flirting with the British field agent we were working with." Hotch finally opened up sourly.
Flirting... with Mick?" Emily laughed. "Are you serious right now?" She questioned in dismay, when she realised that the look on his face meant he didn't see this as a joke.
"Like a heart attack Emily, you flirted with him from the second the plane hit the ground in San Francisco." Hotch informed her bitterly.
"That was not flirting... we just got along well." Emily informed him. "I talked to him the exact same way I talk to Morgan and you don't get jealous about that." She pointed out.
"Yea, the difference being that Morgan isn't an arrogant, sexed up, egotistical, British agent, and he also knows that we're dating unlike Mick." Hotch reminded Emily.
"Derek Morgan is the most sexed up man I know." Emily replied, snorting with laughter despite how angry she still was. "He's also got one of the biggest ego's I've ever come across, and you know that just as well as I do." She added finally sobering up from her laughing fit and putting her serious face back on. "So if you want to pick this fight with me... get yourself a better argument." She snapped, before turning on her heel and heading to the door.
"Where are you going." Hotch called after her, one what she'd said had sunk in.
"To pick up Jack, then I'm taking him to the park... once you've calmed down you can meet us there." Emily called back in response, before closing the door behind her with a loud snap.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Emmy, I wana go on the swings, and the slide, and the roundabout!" Jack listed off to Emily quickly, as he half dragged her into the local park across from the school.
"Well how about you go on one at a time, we can stay for a while so you can take your time." Emily laughed, as she let go of Jack's hand.
"Really... cool!" Jack exclaimed, his young voice brimming with excitement, as he immediately ran over to the slide, and stood beside a child he seemed to know, from the way they immediately started talking.
Emily laughed to herself at Jacks excitement, and made her way to one of the benches which had the best view of the entire playground, never taking her eyes off Jack as she went.
"Well hello there Ms Prentiss... or are you married yet?" A voice suddenly greeted from behind her, causing Emily to jump slightly, before she managed to match the voice to a face from her memory.
"No Mick, I'm not married just yet, though I am getting there, so let's do everyone a favour and back off." Emily sighed, not taking her eyes off Jack, who was now racing the same boy he'd been talking to earlier over to the swings.
"Spoil sport." Mick replied teasingly, sliding in beside Emily on the bench and leaning back, his arms resting on the table.
"Do you really have to talk to me?" Emily questioned. "Isn't there bound to be some single women in here to flirt with?" She asked in exasperation.
"None that are as pretty as you." Mick flirted.
"Don't even start." Emily hissed, moving further away from Mick as she spoke. "Why are you here anyway?" She sighed after a moment.
"I've got my son for the day." Mick replied with a cocky smile.
"Oh, and this parks not big enough for you to keep an eye on him from the other side of it?" Emily asked.
"Not when his best friends mommy is on this side of the park." Mick laughed victoriously, pointing to his son and Jack, who were jumping off the swings.
"So really you're using your son to pick up women." Emily summarised in dismay.
"Only if it's working." Mick replied with a sly smirk.
"It's not... you actually remind me of a guy I knew." Emily replied, still refusing to look at Mick even though she could feel him inching closer.
"Oh, well if I remind you of a man it can't be all bad." Mick pointed out.
"Actually it can be all that bad... the guy's name was Joe Smith and he was a serial killer in Milwaukee a few years ago... he used his son to lure his female victims." Emily replied bluntly, looking up at Mick for the first time and smirking when she noted the look of shock on his face.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Hotch sighed as he pulled his car into one of the few free parking spaces at the play ground beside Jack's school and stepped out, bringing a small bunch of flowers with him as a way of apologising to Emily.
She had been right, it had been rather childish of him to accuse her of flirting with Mick on the case... not only was she one of the most professional agents he knew, but he also knew that she loved him, and the more he looked at it, the more he realised that he may have overreacted.
He immediately spotted Jack, playing on the swings with a child who seemed vaguely familiar, and who Hotch presumed was a friend of Jack's from school.
It took Hotch a while longer to spot Emily though, and when he did he felt his, still not fully calm, blood pressure shoot back up through the roof, as he saw her sitting on a bench with none other than Mick Cunningham, a smile playing on Emily's lips as Mick sat with his back turned to Hotch.
"Emily." Hotch called, keeping his voice as even as he could, as Emily and Mick both looked at him for the first time, Mick smiling widely and Emily looking shocked at first, before plastering a smile of her own on her face.
"Daddy!" Jack called, running across the playground and into his father's out stretched arms before Hotch had a chance to say anything else.
"Hey." Emily greeted quietly, having gotten away from Mick as fast as possible once Hotch arrived. "I'm glad you came." She added softly, gently placing a hand on Hotch's arm, as she ran her other one through Jack's hair.
"Yea... I think I want to leave now though." Hotch replied, looking over Emily's shoulder, to where Mick was helping his son take his jacket off, still smirking in their direction.
"Oh... ok then." Emily agreed, deciding not to question her fiancés motive, when she could tell he was still not in the best of moods after earlier.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The car ride back was, to say the least, an extremely tense journey, and the atmosphere didn't lighten much once they were back home either, Jack being the only real source of noise throughout the evening.
It was after the young boy had gone to bed that Emily decided to tackle the issue, waiting until Hotch re-entered the living room, after kissing Jack goodnight, to speak.
"Have I done anything... anything to annoy you recently?" She questioned slowly, as Hotch sat on one of the seats across from her.
"No, it's actually me that's annoyed you." Hotch replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice that confused and shocked Emily a little.
"Excuse me?" Emily replied, now being more confused that earlier.
"Well I'm not called Mick... so that must annoy you, especially seeing as it's only people with that name you seem to want to flirt with." He informed her calmly, his tone never breaking its even level, even though there was anger in his eyes.
"Wait... what?" Emily asked in shock, feeling like she'd just been winded.
"Oh please, don't act innocent." Hotch finally raged, his anger being mixed with his rare yet overpowering jealousy. "First you can't get enough of Rawson on the case, and then you're all over Mick Cunningham, who may I remind you is your ex, when you're in the park looking after my son." Hotch fumed, obviously not filtering his words as he spoke.
"My son." Emily repeated quietly, almost as if that was the only part of Hotch's rant she'd heard.
"No Em I didn't..." Hotch suddenly tried to back pedal, realising the phenomenal error he'd just made.
"Oh no, don't raise your voice Aaron, you may wake your son." Emily hissed. "I'll admit, I flirted with Mick Rawson on the case... friendly flirting, but hey if you're enough of a Neanderthal to become jealous over it, so be it... and sure me and Mick talked when we were in the park, but only because you were here sulking." She reminded him, a fire burning in her eyes. "But don't ever say that."
"Emily I swear it was a mistake I..." Hotch cut in quickly.
"I wasn't finished." Emily snapped, raising a hand to silence him. "I may not be Jack's mother, and I know I never will be, because like it or not Hotch, Haley is dead... but to me that little boy is my son, because I love him, and I always will, no matter what, so just because I talk to men outside this team, does not give you the right to hurt me like that." She told him, clenching her fist at her side and trying to hold back tears.
"Emily, I know Haley is dead." Hotch hissed, hurt flashing in his eyes at the memory. "But you know I didn't mean it... I love you, and Jack loves you, and it was a mistake and I'm sorry!" Hotch exclaimed as he tried to pull her closer.
"I think... I uh, think I need to be alone right now." Emily whispered, pulling away from Hotch's attempt at an embrace, and turning on her heel to head towards the door.
"Are you coming back?" Hotch called after her, as she undid the lock.
"I'd never leave," Emily started, waiting until the door was open to turn and face him. "I just don't know if I'm going to come back for you or Jack." She added sadly, before turning once more and walking away.
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There, that took me ages to write. Believe it or not I've had this planned since I introduced Mick in chapter 4, so it wasn't that hard to write, I just wanted to know what happens next before I started, so that's what took a while to figure out. Anyway, thanks for reading and do tell me your thoughts.