It's a rare summer day off, and Hotch stands in Rossi's kitchen with him, prepping food for the barbecue – everyone else is outside and he's left Jack with Emily and the finger paints and giant construction paper she brought for him. It's kind of a perfect day, really – everyone is more relaxed than he's seen them in a while, and Jack is loving being the centre of attention.
It doesn't hurt that Emily is in a swimsuit and sundress, her smiles frequent and easy, her laugh ringing from outside alongside Jack's delighted giggling. He's falling hard and fast, and the team figured it out before they had to figure out how to tell them.
"She's good with him," Rossi observes, massaging oil into a chicken breast.
He doesn't reply, because his smile is doing it for him, and then he hears Jack's little feet running down the path.
"Daddy!" Hotch looks up from the pepper skewers he's been threading and his eyebrows shoot toward his hairline. Jack stands in the doorway covered in paint, red and blue and yellow all over his hands, arms, legs and clothes, grinning widely. "I painted!" he announces.
"I see that," Hotch replies, nodding as Rossi laughs. He hears Emily coming down the path and adds, "You were supposed to be watching him."
She appears in the doorway behind Jack, also covered in paint, a blue smudge on her nose, and he shakes his head, smiling. "What makes you think I wasn't?" she says, and Jack giggles. "Are you going to come and see our painting or not?"