Chapter Text
It was Jack's birthday and Aaron and Haley had decided to host it together at the old home they used to share, which only Haley lived in now. He wasn't back there much besides the occasional visits to drop off or pick up Jack. Haley or Jess were usually nice enough to drop Jack off at work, making his life easier. A bunch of kids from Jack and Haley's Mommy & Me group were there along with their parents, Jess's family, and the BAU team were all there. Haley had been the one to suggest inviting the team and he realized it was so that he wouldn't feel alone.
You'd arrived fashionably late, dressed in casual jeans and sneakers and looking like you'd be right at home at a child's backyard birthday party. You'd had some trouble ringing the doorbell and when Aaron had opened it, it had been to a giant package with legs. He'd quickly helped you move the box into the living room and then led you out to the backyard.
As the two of you reach the backyard, you can see Jack playing in a large jump house erected to one side of the backyard along with a few other kids. You'll have to catch him later - he looked like he was having too much fun to be interrupted.
"Can I grab you something to drink?" Hotch asks, leading you to where the rest of the team is huddled around the food table.
"Oh, I'm alright, thanks," you say, smiling and greeting everyone else.
Derek and Emily were drinking beers and Rossi had a glass of wine in his hand. You raise an eyebrow at them. At a child's birthday party. Really guys?
"Don't give us that look, kid. Gotta make this bearable somehow." Rossi hands over his glass of wine to you, prompting you to take a sip.
You take a small sip to appease him before handing it back. You're too nervous to drink around all the suburban parents and their children. You hadn't actually ever been to a child's birthday party before and this all felt like some alternate reality of normalcy. Though you suppose Hotch had that effect - he was the person on the team with one foot planted firmly in this world. A world that you'd never get to have.
Right then, a blond woman whom you recognized from the photo on Hotch's desk when you'd first started, came up to all of you. The frame had since been replaced by one with a photo of Jack by himself.
"Hey you all, thanks for coming," she says, smiling at all of you. "You must be Y/N, we haven't met yet, I'm Haley."
You wave and greet her. So this was the ex-wife. You look at Hotch and observe how he holds himself around her. It's easy, laidback. They're comfortable with one another. She asks him to help with something inside and they leave to go do that, while you make your way to where the drinks are, running into some of the kids' fathers along the way. They were all incredibly friendly.
Aaron found himself back outside as the party was dwindling down. Candles had been blown out and Jack had smushed his face into a slice of cake. A lot of the kids had been taken home by their parents. He watched as you chased Jack around the yard as he still had quite a bit of energy left in him. You were laughing and running around and he loved seeing how easy it was for Jack to have fun with you. He'd worried that his and Haley's separation would make things harder on Jack, and in the beginning it had. However the last few weekends with Jack had also been weekends with you and it had made it easier. You'd made it easier.
"I wonder if you'd look at her like that if we were still married."
Aaron turns to see Haley standing next to him, her eyes watching you and Jack just as his had a moment ago. His brow furrows, not knowing what she's trying to say. He wasn't looking at you in any way.
"I think you would," she continues. "I think you'd look at her exactly like that."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he replies, his mouth forming a straight line. He didn't like what she was implying. You worked for him and he didn't think about you in any way besides the way one would think about a coworker.
"Sure. Except, you know, you used to look at me like that."
She turns and walks back into the house before he can say anything else. Aaron finds his gaze wandering back to you - there wasn't much else in the backyard for it to wander to, however. You'd crawled into the jump house with Jack and the two of you were bouncing together, your exuberant laughter dancing through the air.
Haley had watched you from the second Aaron had introduced the two of you. She knew that Jack had spent a couple of weekends with you and her ex-husband, playing at your place. Her son was incredibly enamored with you and your house and she'd found herself incredibly curious about the new agent who Aaron was willingly spending his free time with.
Aaron watched you. Not on purpose. Not with any intention. But his eyes followed you and someone would have to be blind not to see it. She hadn't expected you to be so young. All of the other FBI agents she'd met were closer to Aaron's and her age or older. You couldn't be more than twenty five years old.
She'd watched as you interacted with Jack. Her son who hung on your every word and patiently let you wipe cake off of his face and let you hug him for more than a second. She supposed she could tell why Aaron was captivated. He loved his son - no matter what happened between them, that was something she knew without any conditions. Aaron Hotchner loved his son. You seemed to make Jack happy, so of course Aaron would want you around.
Except, she had a feeling Jack wasn't the only Hotchner who loved being around you. She had a feeling her ex husband was going to have a problem on his hands very soon if he didn't already. Because the way he watched you was the way he'd watched her in the beginning - an earlier, adolescent version of that same gaze that had been hers alone.
Aaron was going to have a problem on his hands - you were twenty five and carefree and she'd watched as you talked to all the fathers at the party. They'd all leaned in a bit to you, they'd all offered to grab you a drink, joked with you, and you seemed to enjoy the attention. You were young and happy and Aaron Hotchner was anything but.
Aaron - when he did love - he loved completely, entirely, all consumingly. You were going to break his heart. Aaron Hotchner - in that capacity - was not a concept for you. To you, he was Hotch. He was your boss who was probably just a little grumpy but who had a cute kid that you loved being around. She had a feeling he'd never be anything more to you and that broke her heart.
She'd felt the need to warn him. Tell him how obvious he was. Him looking at you like that - she had a feeling it was inevitable. If it truly was or if it was just her way of making herself feel better about her own indiscretions, she wasn't sure. Aaron had never confronted her about it, though she was sure he knew. He was a profiler - one of the best - unless it came to himself. She wondered how much longer it would take for him to realize it.
If she set aside her own feelings on the matter, she had to admit that you'd be good for him. There was some jealousy there - he was hers for twenty after all. You were young and gorgeous. You were happy. You would get him all the time and she had never been part of that world.
You'd get everything with him.
If only you managed to see the way he looked at you.