Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.
This chapter is dedicated to nataliebianca and Sierra Clearwater
A/N: Sorry that the last chapter was so depressing. It will make sense in the future.
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It was early. Far too early for Emily's liking. Sure, she had to get up for work all the time. That doesn't mean that she has to like it. The clock said that it was ten minutes to six, and she had to be up. Of course she knew why she needed to be awake. She and Aaron both had to get ready, and drive over an hour to get to Haley's. Then they had to get to the rink in time for Jack to get ready, and practice with his team.
"You know that you don't have to come right?" Hotch said for the hundredth time. It's not that he didn't want Emily's company. He really did, but she just looked so tired. He hated seeing her so tired.
"Shut up." She said with a small smirk. It took all the will-power Emily had, but she finally threw herself out of bed.
"I'm so excited." Hotch said sounding almost giddy. He was standing on in the doorway of the bathroom, flossing his teeth.
"I can tell." Emily laughed. "It's nice to see you like this."
"Well, I'm sick of being a deadbeat." He sighed.
"Stop saying that."
"Riley's been dancing forever, and I've seen her once or twice at the most. I've never seen Jack play, and it's been two years." Emily didn't really know what to say. She'd told him many, many times that he was not a deadbeat dad, but there was no reasoning with Hotch. Once something was in his mind, there it was. His children were just like him in that way.
"I'd tell you that you were wrong, but you know the old saying. You can't argue with a Hotchner." Emily said, using her joke to try and avoid the awkward conversation that she and Aaron had so many times before.
"That's an old saying?" He laughed.
"No, but it's true. I could try and convince you that you're not a deadbeat, but it wouldn't work. I couldn't convince you that the sky was blue if you thought it was red today." Emily said, elbowing him in the ribs.
"Harhar. You're a regular Jim Carrey. We've got to go soon." Hotch said, looking at the large clock that hung on his wall. The clock was hideous. Hotch hated it with a passion, but Emily adored it. She was a good profiler, but she bought the clock almost a week ago, and still thought he loved it.
"You're right. Now, stop standing in the doorway. I need in there too, plus it pisses me off when you do that." Emily joked, wrapping her arms around Hotch, and kissing him. During their embrace, Emily had been spinning gently, and Hotch realized that she was literally spinning out of the bathroom.
"Are you kidding?" He laughed.
"What?! You're hogging the bathroom! If we're late for your son's hockey game because you wouldn't let me pee, it's YOUR fault!" Emily cried dramatically, and in return, Hotch laughed unbelievably hard.
Despite Emily's worries, they were not late for Jack's game. Actually, they were the second people at the rink, only preceded by the coach and his daughter.
"Jack, is this a co-ed hockey team?" Hotch asked, disappointed that he didn't know the slightest thing about his son's favourite pastime.
"No!" Jack snapped.
"Jack," Emily began, giggling slightly. "Does your team have boys and girls on it?"
"Yeah." he shrugged. "But is NOT co-ed." Emily buried her face in her hands, trying not to embarrass Jack.
"Sweetie, that's what co-ed means." Hotch said.
"Oh. I thought that it meant...well I didn't know what it meant, but it didn't sound nice." Aaron smiled at his son as he took his hand. Jack led his father to the boy's locker room while Emily went to the concession stand for coffees. The whole coffee idea went to crap when Emily realized that they had hot chocolate with whipped cream. In her books, that beat coffee any day. She bought two and went into the stands to wait for Aaron. After a while, he showed up. Emily handed him his cup and he laughed.
"Where the hell is my coffee?" He said with a smile.
"This is better anyways." She shrugged. Secretly, he agreed with her.
"They're going to have to skip practicing. The coach said that majority of the other team showed up late, and they want the game to still start at eight." Hotch explained and Emily nodded. After a few minutes of idle chatter, the ice was covered in small children, many who were having a hard time balancing.
"Which one is Jack?" Emily asked. She knew that Jack's team was red and black; he wasn't on the green and white team. But the helmets made it impossible to pick out who was who by their faces.
"Number fourteen." Aaron said, pointing out one of the only children who could stand up. "They have names on the back of the jerseys Emily." It was true. HOTCHNER was emblazoned in big white letters on Jack's back.
"Oh shush. It didn't occur to me to look at his back to find his identity." Emily hissed. Suddenly, the ref skated onto the ice and dropped the puck. A few of the kids fell over trying to skate to the puck, but one kid on Jack's team got there. HATTON was written on this child's back, and Hotch actually knew who that was. Jack's "girlfriend" was Angelina Hatton, and Hotch knew that she played hockey because Jack told him 100 times. He just never mentioned that they were on the same team.
"YEAH JACK!" Emily hollered out of the blue. Parents looked at her, but she didn't react. The game continued for a few minutes before a boy on the other team deliberately tripped Jack with his stick. This resulted in a penalty for the other team.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! CHILDREN'S HOCKEY OR CHILDREN'S ULTIMATE FIGHTING! KILL HIM JACK! KILL HIM!" Emily screamed and Hotch stared at her. "I warned you."
"You sure did." He laughed. Apparently Prentiss did get overly involved in sports games. Luckily, Jack wasn't hurt at all, and as soon as he got up, he took the puck back and scored the first goal of the game.
"THAT'S RIGHT! JACK! WOOOHHOOO!" Hotch cheered too, but he had nothing on Emily. The game continued well. Jack scored another goal, which got another eruption of excitement from Emily. Angelina got a goal too, and when Aaron explained who it was, Emily cheered again. One other kid on Jack's team scored, and Emily cheered louder than anyone.
It wasn't just the good events that had Emily screaming. Oh no, she was absolutely psychotic when something bad for Jack's team happened. The other team got a goal, and Hotch thought that Emily was going to kill him. The kid that hit Jack went back to hit him again, and Emily went ballistic. In the end, it was Jack who got a penalty this time because in retaliation, he punched him in the gut. Emily cheered for that too.
The game ended with a score of 4-1. When it was over, Hotch went into the locker room to get Jack ready to go to Riley's dance competition. Many parents glared at Emily, but it really didn't bother her. Their opinions of how she expressed herself were meaningless. In her own loud, obnoxious way, she was supporting Jack. That was all that mattered to her.
"Emmy!" Said Jack as he ran out of the locker room and jumped into Emily's arms.
"Hey Jack! That was awesome!"
"I winned! I winned!" He cheered.
"But what did we discuss?" Hotch asked in his most serious tone. Jack looked down at his feet.
"No punching people in the stomach," Jack said, quietly adding, "even if they are big fat meanies like Alexander Rich." Emily snickered and Aaron rolled his eyes.
"I don't think I said exactly that."
"Leave it to you to kill the spirit." Emily joked.
"And you miss!" Hotch said, turning to Emily with a goofy smile on his face. "I don't think I can ever take you to another children's sporting event!"
"I heard you cheering for me Emmy. I was glad." Jack said, with the exact same goofy smile that his father wore.
"Alright, but I did warn you."
"You did indeed. Next time, I will pay more attention to your warnings. We'd better get going though." Hotch said, looking at his watch.
"Yeah, we gotta see Riley shake her groove thing." Jack said, in a serious tone, making both Aaron and Emily laugh.
Alright, that's all for now! Please, please review :D I really want to know what you thought, good or bad. Thanks for reading!!