Work Text:
“Mom?”
Jack steps foot through the doorway of his childhood home, where its walls had seen utter horror, but also had been filled with laughter and happy memories.
Jack’s sigh shakes when he hears a quiet sob echoing from the living room.
When his father married Emily Prentiss five years ago, it was inevitable. Years of hidden love, unable to surface because of relentless events life countered them with. After Emily became Unit Chief and after witness protection, Aaron had found the courage to reach out and reconnect.
Jack remembers it vividly, the moment his Emmy walked through the door to their apartment, her eyes widening at how much he’d grown. She’d hugged him tightly, his head stretching above hers, and the familiar warmth of Emily Prentiss had surrounded him, and that’s when he knew.
His Emmy was meant to be with the two of them, the missing puzzle piece in their sadness.
One thing led to another. They were married, a small court wedding with only Jack and the team present. Emily had secretly kept Aaron and Jack’s old house, a property she had wanted to keep to not let their memories flee her mind.
She was at all of Jack’s high school soccer games, cheering him on. When Jack couldn’t figure out chemistry for the life of him during his sophomore year, Emily sat with him patiently until he could figure it out on his own. When Jack first stumbled home drunk, Emily had calmed his father and shared the best ways to cure a hangover. When his junior prom date stood him up, Emily had wiped his tears while Aaron seethed in the kitchen, whispering that they would kick the girl’s ass all the way to federal jail.
When Jack graduated, he waved his hat to Emily and his father, both of whom were showing the most emotion he’s ever seen come out of them publicly.
Jack knew his biological mother and loved her for what he knew, but Emily was his mom.
When he was still young, she was the one who put Batman band-aids on his knees when he scraped them, the one who showed up at birthday parties without fail. The one who knew his favourite stories and the name of every stuffed toy he owned.
She was there through thick and thin, even when serial killers hunted him and his father, even when she disappeared off the face of the planet.
She was the only one who could put that smile on his father’s face.
Aaron Hotchner was a formidable man. Jack knew his father’s smile and gentle hands, but there was no doubt that he was the leading man of the BAU. He had faced down the worst people on the planet, hunted them across state lines. Infamous for his hard stare and the unwavering set of his jaw.
Emily was his lifeline.
Jack saw it in the lingering touches, the way his father’s fingers itched to reach out for her. The way their gazes stayed on each other, long after the other had walked away. After all they’d been through, they deserved the happiness. They were ready to settle down. They both had stepped down into teaching positions at the Academy, able to be home by dinner every day, without fail.
And this is what they needed, deserved. They deserved peace.
But suddenly here they were, mourning the loss of the greatest man that had been in their lives.
Even in death Foyet haunted him. The scars had led to internal bleeding again and this time, the surgery went askew.
The way Emily had fallen to her knees made Jack shiver, the way her soft gasps had the rest of the team surging to her side, holding her up.
Jack could barely register anything, the words in his brain swirling, his stomach churning. He had just gotten back to the city, hopping on the first flight as soon as Emily had called, her voice panicky in a way he had never heard before.
“There was too much blood.”
“We couldn’t stop it.”
“We did everything we could.”
Jack went back to a hotel that day, unable to face Emily, who embodied everything that Aaron Hotchner taught him, unable to face the house without his father.
The funeral was a small thing. Held in Rossi’s backyard, who mourned the loss of his closest friend and murmured about how unfair it was that he would outlive him.
Garcia was hysterical, sobbing into both Morgan and Reid’s shoulder, their arms all wrapped around each other in a support of strength.
JJ stood by his mom, silent in her support for the other woman, whose eyes were bloodshot and puffy, her mouth turned downwards as she watched the coffin be lowered into the ground.
Now, Jack took off his shoes, neatly putting them in the rack, which Aaron had always admonished him for not doing. He walked slowly to the living room, finding Emily there, their wedding rings placed on the coffee table that Aaron hated , but bought because it had been Emily’s favourite.
Gifts, cards, and flowers overflowed the table, from students and colleagues who had had the honour of Aaron Hotchner’s presence in their lives.
“I remember some of these names,” Emily’s voice was raspy from crying, her eyes not glancing at him as Jack sat down next to her on the couch. “So many people knew him.”
“It’s a legacy he would’ve hated having.”
Emily let out a watery laugh. “He really did hate attention. Dave insisted on throwing him a goodbye party when he stepped down and your father threatened to demote him back to a desk job.”
The two shared a glance and started laughing at the memory of the stoic man. Then it was silent.
“Mom.”
The surprise and love Emily still felt whenever Jack called her that filled her body amidst the grief. He had been 12 when he first tried the moniker, testing it out as he introduced her to some friends he was having over. Emily had gone straight to Aaron and cried, mumbling about how she’d never thought she’d hear those words come out of a child’s mouth.
Much less the child of Aaron Hotchner.
“We need each other more than ever now, Mom,” Jack said softly as he touched her shoulder gently. “It’s just the two of us Hotchners.”
Emily’s lip trembled. “When did you grow up to be such a good man, Jack-Jack?”
“I learned from the best.”
“You did,” Emily said sadly. “He was the best, wasn’t he?”
Jack paused then pulled out the weight in his pocket.
Aaron’s wallet.
“The doctor gave this to me. I thought maybe we could look at it together.”
“There’s nothing in there but his I.D.’s- Oh.”
Emily went quiet as Jack pulled out photos, folded into the tiniest squares to be shoved haphazardly into the leather pockets. Several of Jack, several of the team, several of the three of them together as a family.
There was only one of Emily by herself, a black-and-white photograph. She was laughing, her hand holding bed sheets around her body and in the reflection of the mirror behind her was Aaron, holding the phone with the cheesiest grin on his face.
“Jack.”
“He loved you so much, Mom,” The young man whispered. “For all that I gagged when you two kissed in front of me or he slapped your ass,” Jack laughed when Emily swatted his arm. “I’m glad I got to witness it.”
“Oh, Jack.” Emily marvelled, swallowing him into a hug. She cried and he sat still, letting his mom rack sobs into his suit.
If this was one way he could repay her for all that she’d done, she could soak the damn thing to the bone.
After a bit, Jack smiled cheekily, pulling away from his mom.
“You think he made it to Heaven or Hell?”
“Jack Hotchner!”
It was the first real smile that cracked from Emily Hotchner’s lips in days.
That’s how Jack knew they’d be okay.