Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The stone-faced bastard was keeping something from him.

And if Dave is worth any of his weight as a profiler, his guess is that ‘something’ is a special lady friend Aaron has yet to reveal. That just won’t do. He doesn’t have many tells, but Dave knows him well enough to spot the difference between single Aaron and infatuated Aaron. He’s certainly not the type to wax poetic and make a big show of his relationships, but there are other signs.

When Aaron’s personal life isn’t going well, he treats the job like a dog with a bone– chewing on it until he makes himself more miserable than he needs to be. This hasn’t been the case lately. He still works later than most of the team, grinding through cases as usual; but he’s not overextending himself. Aaron came into work this week right on time . That is to say, he came in late enough to not be the first person in the office. He also sends texts on his personal phone way too often for it to just be about Jack. Dave is pretty sure he even wore the same suit two days in a row and just swapped out the tie.

Of course, Dave has already interrogated him to try and ascertain who has entered his life to make him so hunky-dory. The man just denied, denied, denied.

Dave eyes Aaron as he towers over a huddle of uniform clad 8-year-olds in the middle of a patchy soccer field. The boys squabble beneath him as he attempts to get them all to listen to his instructions for the next drill. Dave should probably be over there helping him out…but it’s not as if it’s a game day; Aaron can hold down the fort while he chats with the ladies on the sidelines. Dave’s on a mission today, after all.

Dave sidles up to Trevor's mom, Denise. She peers up at him with a hand over her eyes to squint through the sun. When she recognizes him, she’s up in an instant.

“Oh, I have some news for you, Coach Rossi,” She says as she leads him out of earshot from the other parents.

“Do tell,” he replies, leaning in conspiratorially.

“You know how two weeks ago, Melinda made a big deal about bringing her new boyfriend to the practice, and then showed up alone the next?”

Dave nods. It had been a topic of much discussion– whether the boyfriend was busy, or if it had already broken off. Melinda had a reputation amongst the Moms. Rossi thought she was misunderstood, but he certainly wasn’t about to tell Denise that.

“Well, the break is confirmed because she made a pass at Coach Hotchner before practice began,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Christy and I saw it happen”.

“Oof, I should get here on time more often. I miss everything!” Dave says with a snap of his fingers, “Well, one of you ladies is bound to crack the code someday and he’ll say yes”.

Denise looks puzzled at this.

“Apparently not. When he turned her down, he said he was seeing someone. I thought you would know.” There is a spark in her eyes as she uncovers the trail of fresh gossip.

Dave’s gapes. He had intended to use Denise to see if Aaron had taken interest in any moms at practice. He figured this was one of the only places he could be meeting eligible bachelorettes, considering he didn’t get out much. This is an outcome he hadn’t anticipated.

“He said that?”

“Yeah, and he said it was someone ‘from work’ so I figured you’d know,” she narrows her eyes. “I find it really intriguing that you don’t.”

Dave is going to make his life hell for keeping this from him.

“Me as well, Denise. Me as well,” Dave says as he turns to stare at the man in question across the soccer field. The children are running in some sort of formation around him.

“Do you think he didn’t tell you because you know them?” Denise is on the case as much as he is.

“I don’t know,” he mutters, lost in thought.

Dave wishes he had a notebook to take notes like this was a debriefing. He now has confirmation of Aaron seeing someone. The work element is surprising. He is not the type to ‘shit where he eats’ as the saying goes, and it also dramatically narrows the suspect pool. There is, of course, the possibility that he made this information up to let Melinda down easily, but that’s really not Aaron’s style. He’s flat out rejected other soccer moms before. Why change that now?

Dave has a suspect and he has intel; now all that’s left is to interrogate. He ponders what approach to take. Perhaps a blitz attack? Aaron would be hard to build rapport with if he suspected Dave’s intentions.

Dave turns back to Denise and clasps her hands in his.

“Thank you for this, Denise. I will get to the bottom of it and report back to you with my findings, rest assured”.

She waves goodbye to him as he turns and trudges across the field to slink up beside Aaron. When he gets there, he realizes the kids have abandoned the idea of soccer and are now just playing some weird form of tag that Dave doesn’t quite understand. Aaron crosses his arms and quirks a brow at Dave.

“Ready to coach yet? Or are you still gathering witness statements about the PTA drama,” Aaron drones.

“Psh, the PTA drama ended ages ago, keep up.” Dave snarks back.

Aaron rolls his eyes and turns back to the kids. Dave lets him gain a false sense of security for a few moments. After he starts the kids on another round of tag, he strikes.

“So, when are you going to come clean to me about the office romance you’re having?”

Like he said, Aaron doesn’t have many tells–even fewer when he is anticipating the need to hide. Since he wasn’t prepared for this question, there is a brief flash of panic across the man’s features before the iron wall of his poker face comes crashing down. His hands clench where they are crossed across his chest. Denise was right on the money. Dave is going to have to play this interrogation expertly if he wants to leave this conversation with a name.

Aaron stares him down wordlessly. His mouth is a hard line, brow furrowed. Dave watches him make a conscious effort to unclench his hands and appear at ease. He swallows, and there is the briefest of flickers across his face. For one nanosecond, there is a downward cast to his gaze and an almost imperceptible tilt of his chin towards his chest.

Shame.

Dave can work with that.

“Look, Aaron, If anyone can understand your situation, it’s me. For Christ's sake, half of the fraternization rules should be named after me!” Dave pats his stiff shoulder as he says it.

“How did you find out about this?,” Aaron says through gritted teeth, then turns to mind the kids on the field.

“C’mon, son. Did the two of you think I, of all people, wouldn't notice?” Rossi lies, hoping Aaron is too panicked to catch on to his vagueness. Rossi doesn’t have the slightest clue who the other half of ‘the two of you’ could be. Jennifer in records maybe? She was flirty with Hotch on occasion. It's not like Aaron is some tom cat following women around the office.

Aaron scrubs a hand over his face, still not looking at Dave directly.

“Do you think the rest of the team has caught on? We were worried it would upset the dynamic to be involved,” he asks with a pained expression.

Dave’s interrogation grinds to a screeching halt as he reels from this information.

A teammate?

Derek would sooner bare knuckle brawl Aaron than date him, so he’s out. If Penelope is sleeping with anyone on the team, it’s Derek. JJ is married. He briefly considers the terrifying thought that an affair could be taking place, but that would be so out of left field for both of them. That leaves Prentiss and Reid. Dave would laugh out loud at the idea of Hotch and Reid together if he wasn’t trying to play it cool. So Prentiss it is. A weird pairing in Dave's opinion, but stranger things have happened.

“Well, Aaron, If you h–” Dave’s sage advice is interrupted by a chiming of Aaron’s stopwatch signaling the end of practice.

“Hold that thought,” Aaron says, looking grim, “We’re coming back to this”.

Dave’s never been so proactive in seeing the children off to their parents, desperate to get back to his and Aaron’s conversation. Denise winks at him as he ushers Travis over to her.

“Looking forward to next week, Coach Rossi,” she says, keeping a safe distance from Aaron.

“You should be,” he whispers back.

Once everyone is taken care of, Dave follows Aaron and Jack to the playground across the street from the soccer fields. Jack is walking ahead of them with two other boys from the team who are also taking advantage of the sunny Saturday morning. Aaron unleashes the boy once he locates a bench with a good vantage point of the playground equipment. Rossi settles down next to him.

“Ok Dave, let me have it,” Aaron looks like he’s heading to the firing squad.

Always the first to self-flagellate over any wrongdoing, Dave thinks with a roll of his eyes.

“You know, Aaron, I get that you’re the boss and all, but I’ll speak for myself and also the rest of the team when I say- we just want you to be happy. You don’t ever let yourself have the things you want,” Dave counsels, “So if this relationship is what it takes for you to ease up and enjoy life, then I wish you and Emily all the best”.

Aaron had been relaxing more and more the longer Dave spoke, but at the last sentence he blanches.

“Emily?” he parrots back, expression calculating until it dawns on him, “You have no idea who I’ve been seeing. You’ve been playing me this whole time”.

Dave blinks. This can’t be. He was going to have to turn in his gun and badge if he missed something this big.

“Please tell me you’re having an affair with JJ,” Dave pleads.

Aaron cringes in disgust.

“Seriously, Aaron! The kid?” He might be freaking out.

“He’s not a kid, Dave. I already feel gross enough about the optics of our relationship without feeling like a cradle robber. He is a thirty-two year old man- Jesus.” Aaron crosses his arms over his chest with a huff.

“And what are you?”

“An idiot, apparently. I can’t believe I let you trick me like this. Spencer is going to flip”.

It feels alien to hear the name in Aaron’s mouth instead of “Reid” or “Doctor”. They were the picture of professionalism in the office.

“How long?” Dave asks, afraid of the answer.

Aaron rubs his face, “Six months next week”.

Dave is aghast, mouth opening and closing wordlessly as a million pieces fall into place. Spencer and Aaron? Since when did Aaron even go that way? Spencer, sure. He’s always come across a little light in the step in some ways, but Dave had figured he’d let the guy reveal that in his own way. Never would he have guessed this to be the way for it to come out.

“And it’s serious?” Dave ponders.

“Very,” Aaron sounds offended, “We have been planning to tell the team for a while, but Spencer keeps getting nervous and delaying it. I would happily do it for the both of us, but I think it’s something they need to hear from him”.

Dave lets out a deep exhale. Yeah, he was right about that. Derek would have Aaron’s head on a pike if he thought there was any indication that Spencer was in a predatory relationship, and hearing about it from Spencer’s perspective would assuage him to some extent. Dave knew Aaron better than that, however. He’s seen murderers look less guilt-ridden than Aaron does at this moment, and it's pitiful.

“Are you happy, Aaron?”

“What?” He was clearly expecting more admonishment from Dave.

“With Spencer. Are the two of you happy together?”

Aaron averts his gaze looking at Jack as he chases his friend around the playground. Dave studies his face as he lets the question hang in the air.

“Yes,” he says quietly, still not looking him in the eye.

And it's touching, in a way. The light pink in the usually blank man’s face. Dave still doesn’t get the relationship in the slightest, but he does care about these two idiots, God help him.

“Ok. Then everything I said before still stands. Let me correct myself. If this relationship is what it takes for you to ease up and enjoy life, then I wish you and the Genius all the best.”

Dave smacks him lightly on the arm as he says it so Aaron will finally look at him again. He smiles meekly back at him.

“Thanks, Dave”.

They both turn back to observing the children as they holler and play with unrelenting energy. Dave has a lot to think about. And a lot more close observation to do when they are back at work on Monday.

Denise is going to throw a parade next week when she hears about this.

Chapter Text

“Thank God, you’re here!”

Derek hasn’t even had the chance to set his toolbox down and knock before Spencer wrenches his apartment door open with a harried look. He is still wearing pajama pants and a holey sweater, hair sticking up in every direction like he has been running his hands through it repeatedly.

“Good morning to you too,” Derek scoffs as he picks the toolbox up and slides past Spencer into the apartment, “Okay man, show me the damage”.

Already he could see Spencer’s living room is a wreck. Nearly every free surface is covered in damp books, pages open in a sad attempt at drying. Derek cringes at the sight, already catching on to what has the genius in such a fit. There is a pile of soaked clothing in a heap next to the door and lingering trails of water going to and fro around the apartment.

Derek had gotten the frantic call from Spencer an hour ago. The apartment above his had a plumbing issue that resulted in a bathtub overflowing and coming into his apartment through his bedroom ceiling. Derek mourned the loss of his Saturday morning kickback, but at the pitiful sound of the kid on the phone, he dug some tools out of his shed and hopped into his truck to help him out.

Spencer rings his hands and leads Derek down the hall to the bedroom, wet socks slapping against the hardwood floors. Derek is glad he wore his boots. Spencer steps in the room and gestures to the mess with a swoop of his arms before pushing his hair out of his face again.

“They turned the water off while they fix the leak upstairs, but the water all over my floor and the gaping hole in the ceiling are apparently my problem to deal with until Monday when maintenance can come,” He groans and then flops into the armchair on the dry half of the room, “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me”.

Derek can think of a few things he would rank higher on that list, but he is going to let it go.

“Alright. Let’s not go into hysterics yet, Pretty Boy. Let me assess what we got going on here”.

As far as apartment mishaps went, it’s rough, but it was nothing worse than what Derek has dealt with before on his renovation projects. A little mopping, maybe a wet-vac, and a tarp or two over the hole in the ceiling and it could be taken care of in a few hours.

That being said, Derek knew how sensitive Reid could be about his personal space. He likes order and regularity and was not afraid to correct anyone who disrupted that in his home. When Spencer had been shot in the knee, the team had spent the first few days rotating who would stop by to help him around the house, and he nearly bit Derek’s head off when he unloaded his dishwasher into the wrong cabinets.

Reid is now sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest so he can rest his chin on them dejectedly while Derek assesses the room.

“Derek, where do we even begin?” he whines.

“Listen man, this is nothing a few towels and tarping can’t fix. I’ll do all the hard work and then you can help reset the space and tell me where to put all your knick knacks and textbooks or whatever, Okay?” Derek urges, wiggling his fingers at the piles of clutter that have been haphazardly pulled out of the dampness.

Spencer doesn’t look happy, but he uncurls from the chair.

“Okay” he replies morosely, “Thank you for doing this, Morgan”.

“Anytime, Kid, anytime. Now are you still gonna freak out? Or are you gonna let me crank some tunes and do my thing?”

Derek sends him away to the living room to deal with his books and laundry, and gets to work in the bedroom. He has to run back to his truck for the wet-vac and his ipod, but once he has those on deck, the work is easy enough. Nas playing on his speakers, Derek gets into a rhythm moving Reid’s furniture and belongings around to get as much of the water with the vac as he can before he switches to towels. He’s not really putting much thought into what he is doing, lost in the mindlessness of the task like he usually is when working on a reno project.

Then he comes across something that makes him pause. He’s moving the night stand away from the wall to get a puddle, but when he scoots it forward, he stumbles upon a watch that has fallen behind it at some point. Spencer famously only ever wears one watch and this one certainly isn’t it. His oversized silver piece can be seen hanging off his skinny wrist or tucked into the front pocket of his messenger bag, never anywhere else. Derek would put money on him wearing it right now, even with the disaster of his morning. This mystery watch is gunmetal and has an entirely different face than his usual.

Derek shrugs and sets it on the nightstand before continuing his task. He wasn’t going to think too hard about it. It is probably nothing, and his profiler mind latches onto meaningless details all the time. It makes Savanah crazy sometimes.

After that, Derek has done all he could do with the wet-vac. He needs to move on to toweling off the remainder of the flood, but wants to check in on Spencer first. He heads out into the living room and finds Spencer spreading open more waterlogged books on his coffee table and floor.

“It’s coming along in there,” Derek informs him, “How's the mission out here going?”

“Okay I guess, these books are never going to be the same, but none of them are irreplaceable, thankfully,”

“Nice, man. You got anything to drink here?” Derek is parched.

“Of course, I probably have a few options in the fridge,” He says, standing.

Spencer quickly realizes he has boxed himself into his couch completely with all of the books surrounding him. Derek stops him before he can attempt to tip toe over them.

“You stay put. I’ll help myself”.

Spencer shrugs in agreement and settles back into his task. Derek wanders into the kitchen and peruses the man’s fridge. It’s pretty sparse, mostly takeout containers and condiments. There are a few sports drinks tucked in the back and a pitcher of water. There’s also a 6 pack of beer with two left in the cardboard sleeve.

Weird.

Reid is not much of a drinker. When he does, it’s some fruity concoction that Garcia has come up with that turns his tongue blue. When Derek pushes a beer on him, he turns up his nose and refuses to drink it. So what is he doing with a pack of IPAs from a craft brewery? Between this and the watch, Derek has a theory.

“You mind if I drink one of these beers?” Derek calls out, watching him from the kitchen.

His shoulders tense a little.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I don’t care,” Spencer says, overly casual.

Derek pops the cap and rounds the kitchen to perch on the arm of the couch next to him.

“Since when do you even keep this stuff around, anyway?” Derek prods.

There’s a brief pause as he watches Spencer worry his bottom lip with his teeth, a classic tell he was about to lie.

“I don’t. Those were left here by, uh, a friend”.

“The same friend who left his watch behind your bedside stand?” It might be a shot in the dark, but Derek is feeling lucky.

Spencer sputters in response. His eyes glance around the room. Derek follows his gaze, hoping to spot some of the other signs of this mystery man’s presence spencer is so clearly trying to find before Derek does.

“When were you gonna tell me you were getting some?” Derek waggles his brows at him.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Spencer deflects.

“Now don’t be like that. I’m happy for you, man. Just a little curious too.”

“Please just leave it alone. I can’t deal with this today,” Spencer delivers this plea directly into his hands where he is covering his face. Derek takes pity on him after the morning he’s been having.

“Ok kid, whatever. You got any dry towels left? I’m almost done cleaning up the water in there,” He changes the subject.

This doesn’t put Spencer at ease. He all but leaps over his sea of drying books to get ahead of Derek.

“Yeah, in my bedroom closet. I’ll get them for you,” and he’s off down the hallway.

Derek trails behind in hot pursuit. He enters the room as Spencer is hastily pulling towels down from the top shelf of his closet. He slides the closet door shut as Derek approaches. However, the genius is not fast enough to impede him from catching a glimpse of what Spencer is trying to hide from him.

Nestled amongst Spencer’s frumpy sweaters, patterned button downs, and tweed blazers were a few garments that stood out glaringly among the hues of brown and gray–two crisp black suits and stark white button downs. They looked like something Hotch would wear, not the professor-casual Reid was usually rocking.

So the mystery man is a professional. Finance guy or or a lawyer, maybe. He’s also not just a fling if he’s keeping a stash of clothes here. Derek had assumed that Reid didn’t wanna talk about it because it was casual, but now he’s thinking it’s the opposite. Reid doesn’t have a date, he has a boyfriend.

Derek takes the towels from Spencer and thanks him, choosing to bide his time and investigate more before reapproaching. Derek sets his beer down and starts laying out the towels. After a few moments of watching him get back to work, Spencer silently slinks back to the living room to continue his own tasks.

The towel drying doesn’t take long. He gathers up the now wet towels and returns to the living room to deposit them with the rest of Spencer’s laundry.

“I’m gonna get the ladder so I can tarp your ceiling and then we should be good to go,” Derek updates him.

“Cool. Thanks again for your help. I’m probably gonna run this laundry down to the basement and get it started soon”. Spencer replies.

Derek hauls the ladder up the stairs and passes Spencer on his way down with his waterlogged laundry bag. He’s just gotten himself situated at the top of the ladder trimming down the tarp, when his hand slips and he knicks his knuckles with the pocket knife he had been using.

“Shit. ow!” He yelps. The cuts are not deep but they’re bleeding a decent amount.

He climbs down from the ladder and goes to Spencer’s bathroom to run his fingers under water. He can’t help but clock the second toothbrush sitting by the sink while he does. Then there’s a razor with remnants of hair much darker than anything Spencer can grow. He also was not a cologne wearer, yet here a bottle sits.

Derek inspects his freshly cleaned cuts and concedes he will probably need a Band-Aid or two. He does a 360 around the room looking for a first aid kit and doesn’t see one anywhere obvious. Without really thinking about it, he flips open the medicine cabinet. Bingo. Right at the top there is a variety pack of bandages.

He reaches for the box and freezes.

Directly next to it is a pill bottle. Derek really wasn’t trying to be nosy and snoop through Spencer’s private things, but the label catches his eye immediately. He grabs a tissue to put pressure on his cut and uses his unharmed hand to rotate the bottle fully to make sure he’s reading it right. It’s a half empty bottle of a sleep aid. The name on the prescription is Aaron Hotchner.

The pieces fall into place–the watch, the suits, the beer. They all felt familiar because they were. Derek has seen them all at one point or another when he is with his boss. Even the cologne he can now recognize from when he and Hotch had to bunk together on cases.

Well isn’t he just cozy as can be in the kid’s apartment?

Derek is fuming as he finishes putting the Band-Aid on his hand. Almost as soon as the cuts are covered he hears Spencer’s front door close, signaling he’s back from the basement laundry room. Derek lets the paper wrappers fall on the counter and grabs the prescription bottle as he marches out to the living room to confront him.

“Hey, Morgan, can I help you with anything–” Spencer is cut short when Derek tosses the bottle of pills at him and he instinctively tries to catch it.

Never much of an athlete, the bottle glances off his hand and he has to bend to pick it up before he realizes what it is. He straightens and closes his eyes like maybe Derek will just disappear. Not happening.

“So you and Hotch, huh? How long has this been going on?” Derek starts, hands on his hips.

“Derek, I told you I didn’t wanna talk about this right now. Leave it alone,” Spencer’s voice is clipped. The pill bottle rattles as he clenches it in his hands and crosses his arms.

They are staring each other down across the living room like they are dueling in an old western movie.

“That was when you were just seeing some guy. This is a completely different dynamic. He’s your boss, Spencer, and he’s pushing 50,” Derek spits. Just saying it out loud puts a bad taste in his mouth.

“What do you want me to say, Derek? That Aaron told me he would bump me up a step on the FBI pay grade if I slept with him? Is that what you think of him? Of me, even?” Spencer snaps.

“Like you can’t see how this looks. Hell, you’re hiding the relationship like he’s keeping you his dirty little secret!”

Spencer’s hackles are up at this comment. That was too far, but Derek is so hurt by his secrecy he doesn’t care enough to take it back. Derek sees the moment Spencer’s eyes narrow and his mouth twists into snarl. He recalls how mean the kid can get when unwanted pressure is put on him..

“I’m not his dirty little secret,” Spencer bites, all venom, “Hotch would parade me around town if I let him, but I don't because of people like you”.

“People like me?” Derek scoffs, “What, people who care about you?”

“Yes, Morgan. You–and the rest of the team too. You all treat me like a child. Like I’m too much of a social reject to be able to make decisions for my own happiness. Guess what?” Spencer is yelling at this point, “I don’t need brutes like you defending my honor. I don’t need pity or guidance from people who think I don’t know any better. And I certainly don’t need skepticism and scrutiny from people who are expecting my relationship to end in misery like they always have!”

Spencer ends his speech by throwing the pill bottle into the couch cushions and storming into the kitchen with a huff of exasperation.

Now Derek felt like an asshole. Nope, no feeling about it. He is an asshole.

Any wind that had been in the sails of his anger is now gone. Now all that is left in its place is stomach curdling guilt. Derek sucks in a calming breath as he considers how to fix this.

Hotch wasn’t a monster. A hardass, sure. Derek knows he theoretically has the capacity to loosen up when he isn’t at work based on the few occasions they have gone out as a team after hours. Even then, the stoicism and authority are still visible just beneath the casual exterior. The man was able to convince at least one person to like him enough to marry him and have a child. So following that logic, he must have some capacity to charm, despite the fact that the existence of that ability makes Derek’s skin crawl. He could never see the man as anything other than an authority figure. Lord knows, he has a long history that would explain why that association makes him uncomfortable with the idea of Hotch having an intimate dynamic with the man he treats like a member of his family.

That doesn’t mean any of Derek’s personal feelings are true for Reid.

Derek sighs and cautiously steps into the kitchen. Spencer has his back to him where he is splashing water on his face at the sink. Derek clears his throat so as not to startle him.

“Kid–I mean Spencer, listen. I’m going about this all wrong. I made a lot of snap judgements about this and that wasn’t cool of me,” Derek begins.

Spencer is bracing himself against the edge of the counter, shoulders tensed up to his ears. He listens to Derek's words but doesn’t move or respond. Derek takes that as a sign to continue.

“I’m not going to pretend that I understand this thing with Hotch at all, but you’re right, and I should know better than to doubt your judgment or Hotch’s character. You may be the genius, but I’ll always see you as my kid brother sometimes, you know?”

Spencer wipes his face with his sleeve and turns to respond to him with a sigh.

“I know. Most of the time I appreciate that. Just, this is really special to me. I love Aaron and Jack. I understand from the outside looking in, we are a weird pairing and the optics aren’t great, but I have something with him I didn’t think was even a possibility for me. Every time I think about the doubts and how this could mess up the team dynamic or cost us our jobs, I feel like I'm on my way to losing it all,” Spencer delivers this confession to the linoleum flooring.

Derek steps over and clasps him by the shoulders.

“I’m sorry Spencer. I really am. I was wrapped up in my own shit and my reaction wasn’t based on anything real. If you’re serious about this, then I’ll try to respect it and I’ll do better to have an open mind,” Derek forces him to make eye contact as he says this.

“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean what I said about you or the team. I know you really do care about me and I wish I didn’t want to keep this part of my life from you all. I will come clean eventually”.

Derek pulls him in for a hug and Spencer returns it in his typical awkward fashion.

“Are we good?” Derek asks.

“Yeah, we're good”.

Derek ruffles Spencer’s hair.

“Alright let's finish this mess”.

Chapter Text

The first thing Penelope is aware of as she is pulled from her deep beauty sleep is the song ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua blaring from somewhere near her head.

She pulls off her silk eye mask and feels around her bedside stand until her hand comes into contact with her FBI issued cell. She’s not wearing her glasses so she has to squint to see the caller.

Cruz. Ugh, and it was barely 5 in the morning. She accepts the call.

“Hello, Director. I hope this is a butt dial,” she groans into the cell.

“I’m afraid not. We’ve just received word from the state department about a developing situation in Seattle and they specifically requested the BAU come out there ASAP. Please contact Hotch and gather the team. I’ll send the files over now to your drive.” Cruz drones with little room for questioning.

“Yes, sir. I’m on it,” She ends the call.

Penelope allows herself to roll and languish in bed for precisely two minutes before beginning to assemble the justice team. She glances over the files briefly on her phone just to prolong her time under the duvet. Another serial bomber is apparently on the loose targeting tourist destinations. She skims past the pictures of the rubble before closing the drive. There weren’t enough cat videos on the internet to deal with these kinds of cases.

She finally crawls out of bed and slips a robe over her pink nightie before settling in at her vanity to do her makeup while she places the wakeup calls. As always, she starts with Hotch first. She selects his contact and hits the call button. She decides on an icy blue eye look while she listens to the dial tone.

“Hello?” A groggy voice answers.

Not at all the groggy voice she expected to hear.

“Bossman, is that you?”

“What do you mean? You called me,” Spencer grumbles.

Penelope drops her eyebrow pencil.

“Boy genius? How are you on this phone?” She couldn’t believe her ears.

“What?”

Penelope pulls her phone back to make sure she’s not going crazy. Yep, She sees a picture of Hotch giving two thumbs up on the jet and “Aaron (Bossman) Hotchner” as the contact on the outgoing call.

“Spencer, I called Hotch,” Penelope sings.

“What!” Spencer yelps, now fully awake, “Fuck”.

Penelope could scream. In fact, she does.

“OMG. OMG. OH. M. G! Spencer, it’s five in the morning. I can only think of one reason you would be within reach of our fearless leader's phone!” she squeals into the phone.

As if answering her prayers, she hears Hotch’s gruff morning voice from next to Spencer, “That’s for me, isn’t it?”

She listens to the rustling mic interference as the phone changes hands and tries to calm her breathing. This discovery is better than a triple shot of espresso to perk her up this early morning.

“Sorry, Aaron,” comes Spencer’s muffled apology.

“It’s alright,” Hotch sighs as he brings the phone to his ear.

By the time the sound quality clears, Hotch is all business.

“Good morning, Garcia. I assume we have a case?”

She clears her throat, knowing Hotch won’t break until he has all the serious stuff out of the way. She picks up a fluffy brush to blend out her blush as she speaks.

“Yes Sir, the state department has requested our talents in Seattle ASAP, there has been a bombing,”

“Ok round table in 90. I’ll make sure the jet is waiting for us. Call the rest of the team, please.”

“You’ve got it, Hotch. It’s crazy to know you use your boss-voice even in bed with someone else,” Penelope doesn’t know what possesses her to say this. She’s blaming the surprise of the situation.

She can hear Spencer sputter next to Hotch.

“Inappropriate, Garcia,” Hotch admonishes. The tone is not helping his case.

“Sorry, Sir, you know I can’t help it,” she replies sheepishly, “I’ll get right on rallying the troops!”

Before she can end the call, Hotch cuts in.

“We will stop by your office to discuss this mishap briefly before the round table, but it goes without saying you should keep this between us for now,”

“My lips are sealed!” and with that she ends the call.

Unfortunately, everything within her wants to shout this newfound information from the rooftops. Her fingers ache to text Derek. Or JJ. or Prentiss. Or anyone for that matter. Instead she picks up her phone and follows orders to just wake them and inform them of their call time. Whatever. Hotch and Reid had better bring in an Oscar to award her for the performances she is about to give keeping this news under wraps.

About an hour later, she is in her office finishing up the slides for the debriefing presentation when there is a knock at the door.

“Enter.” she chirps and spins to greet a stern looking Hotch and a nervous looking Spencer. Spencer wordlessly hands her a latte and shuffles back a few steps with a tight lipped smirk.

“Delish! Thank you, Boy-genius. Now explain yourselves before I explode,” Her bangles jangle noisily as she waves them further into her lair.

Hotch closes the door to her office.

“After the mishap with the wakeup call,” Hotch side eyes Spencer as he says this, “I’m sure you have come to the correct conclusion that Spencer and I have been engaged in a romantic relationship outside of work.”

“Oh sir! I’m so so so happy for you both, I can’t believe it! Who asked who? How long has it been? Does anyone else–”

“Garcia, I’m not done,” Hotch cuts off her gushing, “This isn’t something we are prepared to share with the rest of the team and we need your discretion on the matter”.

Penelope pouts at this. She wants to protest, but Reid looks so nervous he could hurl and she would rather he not do that near her precious tech.

“Ugh. fine. Discretion is like so totally my favorite thing,” she groans, “Wait does this mean I am the only one who knows?”

Spencer finally speaks up from where he has been nearly hiding behind Hotch.

“Rossi has known for a month or two. Derek found out two weeks ago,” he peeps.

“Derek knows? That’s perfect! Do I have to be discreet to him and Rossi?” she asks.

“When you are in the workplace, yes,” Hotch interjects, “I suppose we can’t stop you from discussing it with them in your free time, out of earshot from anyone who doesn’t know”.

Penelope looks between the two gentlemen. They are standing a perfectly respectable distance apart, but they glance at each other and back then to her assessing gaze. She’s not certain, but it seems like they are having a silent conversation in the single look. It’s so cute!

Before they can object, she is up and out of her chair, wrapping them both in one of her signature bear hugs. Spencer yelps, but returns the hug when he realizes what is happening. Hotch allows a small smile and he gives her two restrained pats on the back before disengaging from the hug, ever the professional. She gives Spencer one final squeeze and releases him. He looks confused.

“So you don’t have a problem with this?” he asks nervously.

“Problem? This is like a dream come true for me. I worry about you both so much, and knowing that you aren’t both lonely and sulking about after work hours will be a load off of my finely tuned engine of a mind!”

Hotch quirks a brow at this. Spencer looks relieved.

“Wow, Penelope. That’s really nice to hear, actually. Thank you,” Spencer smiles.

Were Derek and Rossi giving them a hard time? Penelope ponders. She would be having a stern conversation with them the second this bomb business is taken care of if that’s the case.

“Yes, Thank you, Garcia,” Hotch clears his throat as he switches back to work mode, “Ok round table in 20”.

He turns to leave, urging Spencer to come along with him with a nudge of the younger man’s arm.

“Wait! Since I’m not allowed to gossip, can I please just ask a few little questions? Please!” She begs before they can reach the door.

They have their backs to her, but she watches them exchange another silent conversation. Spencer shrugs and they both turn to face her again.

“You can have three, and quickly,” Hotch acquiesces.

She claps her hands and jumps up and down a few times.

“When is the anniversary of your first date so I can add it to my Calendar?” She asks.

Hotch looks at Reid.

“February 10th,” Spencer supplies.

“Close to Valentine's, how sweet!” she enthuses.

“Next question, Garcia,” Hotch urges.

“Ok! Do I have to continue to call Reid for future cases or is it safe to say you’ll pass along the message?” She asks with a wink at them both.

Spencer blushes. Hotch considers this question, stoic as ever.

“I will indicate if you need to reach out to him at the time of the call for all future urgent cases,” Hotch answers, “Okay, final question.”

“Can I bake you a cake to celebrate your romantic union?”

“No.” They reply in unison.

“What! I promise I won’t give it to you at work!” Penelope whines.

“No.” They say again.

“If that wasn’t so dang cute, I would be seriously mad at this rejection”.

Both men smile back at her.

“Thank you again, Pen,” Spencer says, turning for the door.

Hotch nods at her and joins him.

“It’s round table in 15 now, Garcia,” He calls over his shoulder as he leaves.

“Bye, Boys!” She calls after them.

She swivels back to her screen with a dreamy sigh. Her eyes are immediately assaulted by the images of their upcoming case, but it is feeling easier to bear than it had earlier this morning. She has future anniversary party planning thoughts to keep her mind in a brighter place, after all.

They will be getting that cake whether they want it or not.

Chapter Text

“Mama, can you help me?” Henry’s high pitched voice carries down the stairs.

JJ trudges up the stairs with a laundry basket in tow. She leaves it at the top of the steps and rounds the corner to Henry’s room where the boy is supposed to be cleaning up the mess he and Jack made during their play date. She and Hotch trade off who hosts the monthly playdate to give the other parent a weekend break every once in a while. She had just seen Jack off to Hotch twenty minutes ago before she had started on her weekend chores. The two had done a number on Henry’s Legos and last she checked, it was as if a bomb had gone off in his room.

“What’s up, Hen?” She asks, poking her head into the still very chaotic room.

The little boy is lying on the carpet amongst the many pieces spread all over the floor. JJ hadn’t expected him to do the best job picking up after himself, but this was way less progress than he usually made.

“I don’t wanna clean up,” the boy whines.

“C’mon, you know the rules. If you make a mess you gotta do your part in cleaning it up,” JJ reminds him.

He rolls and looks up at her from behind his glasses with the most miserable face he can manage. The manipulation starts young.

“Will you please help me, mama?” Henry begs.

JJ sighs and rolls her eyes in disbelief, but settles next to him on her knees, carefully avoiding the sharp Legos on the ground.

“Ok, Hen, but you have to actually help me too,” She tickles the little boy's side until he sits up with a squeal.

Between the two of them, they manage to gather up all the little pieces back into the Rubbermaid bin where they usually live. The room could use more tidying, but JJ was willing to let Henry get away with just cleaning up the blocks. He is acting a little off. Tired maybe? It had been a long playdate for the two kids. JJ had listened to them running around and making explosion noises with their lego creations for hours before they lost steam and ended the evening playing Mario. Henry is looking a little droopy now that they’ve cleaned up.

“I think it’s time for bed, little guy.” she says, scooping up the six year old.

She urges the boy through his nighttime routine of brushing his teeth and changing into pajamas before tucking him into bed. She tries to read him one of his favorite bedtime stories to perk him up a bit, but he still is looking morose. She is about to kiss him on the forehead and turn out the lamp when he puts his little hand out to grab her sleeve. JJ sits back on the edge of his bed.

“What’s the matter, sweetpea?”

“Mama, how come Uncle Spencer has so many sleepovers at Jack’s house? He only stays at ours like once in a forever,” Henry asks with a sullen whine.

JJ is puzzled by this question. For one, Spencer comes over pretty regularly to spend time with Henry, so she’s not sure why Henry is making it sound like he’s never around. Two, on what planet would Spencer be staying the night at Hotch’s? Spencer spends time with Jack on occasion–everyone on the team does from time to time. As far as she knew, their outings were nothing Henry needed to feel possessive over. Spencer has been too busy lately to spend a whole weekend here, but he and Henry have gone to three different museum shows together since his last stay.

“Did Jack say that Spencer comes over a lot, sweetie?” she probes, hoping for more details.

“Yeah, Jack said he was helping him build a potato launcher with physics magic, but he only gets to work on it on nights when Uncle Spencer has sleepovers with his dad,” Henry explains, “I thought physics magic was our thing”.

These are more details than JJ had been bargaining for. She has to school her expression so as not to clue Henry in on how big of a deal this is. Of course the six year old is focused on the fun science project, and not the fact he just revealed her closest friend and boss were having sleepovers, innocently unaware of the context that has for adults. She pushes those details to the back burner for now and instead focuses on the part that has Henry feeling upset.

“Are you a little jealous of their time together, maybe? It’s okay if you are,” she urges.

Henry nods, bottom lip jutting out. JJ hums in understanding and thinks for a moment how best to assuage the boy.

“Well, bud, you know Uncle Spence is a science doctor, right? So he is going to do physics magic with a whole bunch of people because that’s what he likes to do. He’s even done it for me before a few times,” she explains.

“So it’s not because he likes Jack more than me now?” He's so quiet she can barely hear him.

“Oh, Henry, of course not! Remember, you can always make more love in your heart, but you can’t run out of it. Spencer can like you and Jack at the same time, sweetie, and you’ll always be his godson,” JJ tickles his little cheeks as she says this until he squirms.

“Ok, mama,” Henry giggles.

“How about this— You go to bed so you can have lots of energy tomorrow and when I see Uncle Spencer at work, I will ask him to have a sleepover with you soon.”

Henry nods enthusiastically. JJ smooths his hair back and kisses his forehead.

“Goodnight, Hen.”

“Night, mama.”

She turns out the lamp and shuts his door behind her as she leaves.

Once she is alone in the hallway, she lets the shock show on her face. What the hell, Spence? JJ can’t wait for Will to come home from work so she can discuss this news with him. She abandons the laundry in favor of curling up on the couch and trying to connect some dots.

Now with this new information, she realizes in hindsight Spencer had, in fact, dodged her last two attempts to get him to spend the weekend at her house. The first time he had begged off by citing that he had a ‘busy weekend’, but he never provided details and then changed the subject. The most recent time he didn’t blow her off completely and just came over in the daytime, declining to stay the night because he ‘wanted to sleep in his own bed’. JJ now has a sneaking suspicion he and Hotch had some quality time planned these two weekends.

On Monday around lunchtime, JJ slides up to Spencer’s desk and leans against it next to him. He acknowledges her with a glance, but doesn’t stop writing his report. It’s only when she dramatically clears her throat that he pauses and swivels in his chair to face her.

“Is there something you need, JJ?” He asks with fake sincerity, twiddling with his pen while he sways side to side in the chair.

“Why yes, Spence, how very nice of you to ask,” She says with the same disingenuous tone, “Got any plans this weekend?”

JJ watches him closely. She swears she sees his eyes flick to look at Hotch’s office, but he is so fidgety today it's hard to say with 100% confidence.

“Ummm, I guess barring a case, I don’t really ha–,” Spencer can’t finish his statement because JJ butts in before he can conjure up an excuse.

“Great! Well you’ll be coming over to mine for a sleepover,” JJ delivers this information with the same wide, impassive smile she used to give to journalists who wouldn’t leave her alone.

Spencer looks confused by her ambush, as he continues bouncing his pen off of his non-dominant hand. He cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes as he tries to figure out what her angle is.

“Am I forgetting some sort of occasion to warrant these surprise weekend orders? Not that I’m complaining or anything. I’ll eat all of your snacks and hang out with Henry whenever.”

“Well, speaking of Henry, last night a very upset little boy told me he was feeling a bit left out since you haven’t stayed over in so long,” she tells him, leaving out the other things Henry mentioned. That part will come later.

Spencer’s face crumples as he hears this. This time he definitely glances towards Hotch’s office as he looks around the room and sits with the guilt trip JJ is laying on him.

“God, I feel like an asshole. I’ve been so busy with...” he trails off with a sigh, “Tell him I will be there this weekend, so long as we are in Virginia.”

JJ smiles at him and nods her head approvingly. Success.

“I have it on good authority you can make it up to him with some classic physics magic,” JJ says with a wink before she pushes off his desk and leaves him be.

As she's walking away, she watches him pull out his personal phone and fire off a few texts. He’s been doing that a lot lately. She takes the long way to her office and passes by Hotch’s. The door is closed, but the blinds are open. She peeks in and sees him typing away on his personal cell also. Interesting coincidence. He glances up at her as she passes and she just smiles and nods.

They do end up with a case the following day, but luck is on JJ’s side because they wrap it up and are on the jet back home at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. As soon as they touch down in Quantico, JJ is out of her seat and cornering Spencer where he is nonchalantly sitting across from Hotch. He closes his book as she approaches.

“Don’t worry, JJ. I haven’t forgotten,” He says with his hands up.

“Good! Ride with me?”

His gaze flickers to Hotch before it comes back to her.

“Can’t I go home and get a change of clothes first? I’ve been living out of my go-bag for four days”.

He’s trying to negotiate, but JJ’s not in the mood.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do your laundry”.

She all but drags him off of the jet once the door is open. Hotch laughs as she ushers him along.

“Have a good weekend, Reid,” Hotch quips. Spencer rolls his eyes.

Spencer continues grumbling the entire journey about how pushy she is until JJ pulls into a drive-thru to get them both coffee and breakfast. Caffeine and calories change his mood completely, and by the time she is pulling into her garage, he is back to normal.

Spencer follows her into the house with his bag. JJ takes it from him and leaves it by the laundry room as they make their way to the living room where they can hear the sound of Saturday morning cartoons. Will and Henry are on the couch with the remnants of bowls of cereal before them on the coffee table. Henry turns when he hears them enter.

“Yay, Mommy is home–UNCLE SPENCER!” Henry squeals when he realizes JJ isn’t alone.

The boy scrambles over the back of the couch and runs towards Spencer with a hug so forceful he has to grab the doorjamb to remain upright.

“Oof. Hi, Hen,” Spencer greets as he hugs him back.

Henry is already talking a mile a minute and grabs Spencer by the hand to lead him to his room to show him his newest Lego set, breakfast and cartoons completely forgotten. Spencer is nodding along and waves a quick hello to Will as he is dragged up the steps.

“You have time to interrogate ‘em yet?” Will asks from the couch once Spencer is out of earshot.

She plops down next to him and grabs a handful of dry cereal from the box.

“No. I’ll jump him later when Henry’s tired him out,” she grins.

“Devious,” Will shakes his head, “Poor guy.”

JJ spends most of the day hanging out with Will and catching up on things around the house. She only sees Spencer at lunch and in passing as Henry runs him ragged around the house. Spencer delivers on his science project promise, doing some experiment in the kitchen involving alka-seltzer and food coloring.

JJ takes pity on him at dinner when she watches him restrain himself from nodding off at the table while Henry explains the plot of ‘Chicken Little’ in excruciating detail to Spencer, seemingly without breathing. She and Spencer have both been awake since 5am in order to catch the jet, but JJ had managed to sneak in a nap. After they’ve eaten, she pushes Spencer into the living room to chill on the couch while she and Will take over Henry’s bedtime routine.

By the time she is able to join Spencer in the living room, he is dozing on the couch. She flops down into the open space next to his feet with extra force so that it will wake him up. He startles at the sudden movement and rubs his eyes. He scoots up until he is seated to face JJ against the arm of the couch.

“Now that Henry is in bed you get to hang with me!” JJ teases.

“I can’t even keep my eyes open. Has he always had this much energy?” Spencer yawns.

“I think he’s been saving it up for you, since it’s been so long.”

“Yikes, I won’t be making that mistake again,” He sighs.

“You know, the other night when Henry told me he was missing you, he mentioned something else I’ve been meaning to ask about.”

Spencer presses his lip together in a way that tells JJ he has an idea where this conversation is going.

“And what was that?” He asks

“Well, it was after he and Jack had spent the day together. I think Jack might have inadvertently been rubbing it in that you spend so much time with him.”

“Rubbing it in? I guess I see him a fair amount, nothing brag-worthy though,” Spencer feigns carefully.

“Are the sleepovers that you and Hotch have anything worth bragging about?” JJ asks with a purse of her lips.

Spencer slaps a hand over his face, immediately bright pink.

“Jesus, I knew you were on to us, but I didn’t realize Jack blew our cover that extensively.”

JJ gapes at him. She had been expecting way more resistance in getting confirmation out of him.

“How did you know I suspected?” she asks.

“I’ve been worried about it since the playdate. I wasn’t sure what he would bring up, but I knew he would let something slip. Aaron is always telling me that Jack talks about me nonstop while I’m gone and I figured it would be no different here.”

“Aaron? Wow, Spencer. You two are like, serious,” JJ says, “It’s not like Hotch let’s just anyone get close to Jack.”

“I know,” Spencer agrees.

“Are you prepared for everything that comes with dating a man with a child? That’s a big commitment.”

“Yes, contrary to popular belief, I like kids. Aaron wanted to tell Jack right away, and so did I.”

“Clearly he took it well,” JJ laughs.

“Yeah, I was terrified Jack was going to hate me for some reason. He was a little weird at first, on account of the whole ‘Dad’s dating a man’ thing, but he’s warmed up. To my surprise, he’s actually been going through a phase, I guess, where he’s kind of…obsessed with me?” Spencer laughs a little as he says it. “It’s like a switch flipped one day and I went from just being tolerated as his dad’s partner, to him wanting to be involved in everything I’m doing. Aaron thinks it’s hilarious.”

Spencer is looking sleepily into the middle distance with a dopey grin on his face. She’s never seen him look like such a lovesick fool. It suits him, even if JJ thinks he’s moving a little fast.

“How long?”

Spencer hesitates.

“Almost 9 months,” he says timidly.

JJ blinks at him and reaches out to squeeze one of his skinny mismatch-sock clad ankles.

“And I’m only just now hearing about this? Why didn’t you tell me?” She says, aghast.

He tries to retract his leg from her grasp, but JJ just hangs on tighter.

“I’m sorry, JJ. At first we just wanted some time to ourselves, then we were nervous about the red tape of the anti-fraternization rules and how you all would take it. I just kept putting it off and putting it off, and now it’s nearly taken care of itself,” he cringes.

“Who else knows?”

“The only one left who doesn’t know is Emily,” Spencer says with his arms in front of himself in defense.

JJ’s jaw drops. She smacks his leg before sitting back.

“Spencer what the hell? I’m your best friend and I’m the second to last to hear about this?”

“Ow! I said I was sorry!” He yelps.

“I’m gonna need more than that,” JJ glares.

“I know, I know. If it makes you feel better, everyone else has found out by accident just like you. You’ll have to ask them to fill you in. I plan on just telling Emily next weekend at Rossi’s. After that, everyone will know and there will be no one left to freak out about us. Other than the higher ups at the FBI.” He grimaces.

Us. It was crazy to hear the word out of Spencer’s mouth. He’s always been such a loner, and JJ had assumed that was by choice. Secretly, she has always felt a little sad that Spencer didn’t seem interested in making a family of his own–it was why she made a point to include him in hers. She understands from even just this one recollection of his relationship with Hotch that she doesn’t need to worry as much anymore. She’s hurt by the secrecy. It stings to think about how long he kept this from her. However, she can already tell that she is going to forgive him, eventually.

Doesn’t mean she can’t give him shit for it in the meantime, however.

“Spence, I will try to look past you for keeping this from me if you tell me one embarrassing or lewd thing about Hotch the others don’t know,” she bargains.

Spencer pauses for a long moment with his eyes narrowed. JJ glares back.

“Ok, um…Not only is he a cuddler, but he prefers to be the little spoon.”

JJ rolls her eyes. She could have profiled that out of Hotch.

“C’mon, you can do way worse than that.”

“What? No I can’t!”

“Spence. I will call Emily right now,” JJ threatens.

“Fine! Aaron told me his fantasy is to have sex in his office, but the one time I tried, he got too scared and chickened out.”

JJ claps.

“That’s more like it!”

Chapter Text

Emily winces as the ambulance hits a pothole.

The raid on their latest unsub’s lair had gone tits up almost immediately. The unsub had gotten the jump on their arrival and pushed Emily backwards into a concrete wall, resulting in the tennis ball-sized welt on the back of her head. She is otherwise uninjured, but she had been forced to ride along in the ambulance to get checked out and also to look after Hotch.

Hotch was much worse off.

See, the unsub had pushed Emily out of the way so he could round on Hotch and donkey-kick him down a flight of stairs. He then fired one shot into his vest before Derek and Rossi were able to subdue him from the opposite direction. Medics had been on standby outside of the warehouse shortly after they began the raid, and as soon as the unsub was cuffed, she and Hotch were unceremoniously whisked away. The man the unsub had been holding in the warehouse was, unfortunately, dead on arrival.

Hotch is laying on the gurney in front of Emily while two EMTs look over him. He’s awake–good news considering how hard he hit his head—but he is out of it and agitated. The EMTs cut through his vest and dress shirt with trauma shears, Hotch protesting the entire time. His injured left arm is cradled to his chest above a steadily darkening bruise where the impact of the bullet through the vest has probably broken a rib. He’s using his uninjured hand to bat their hands away from himself so he can sit up. All things considered, he’s had much worse. For that reason, Emily is rapidly losing patience with his pigheadedness–and by the looks of it, so are the EMTs.

“Agent, I’m gonna need you to just sit still and relax. We’re 5 minutes out from the hospital.”

The EMT pins Hotch’s shoulder to the gurney so he can’t attempt to sit up again.

“Where’s my phone?” Hotch grouses.

Emily looks around pointlessly. It’s not like he came into the ambulance with a purse.

“Hotch, it’s either in your pockets or back in one of the SUVs,” Emily says.

He uses his good hand to probe around his person for his cell, but comes up empty. The EMT has to dodge his hand a few times while they are checking his vitals. Hotch grunts when he realizes he doesn’t have it on him.

“Prentiss, did you see if Spencer was alright?”

Spencer? Her memory may be foggy, but Emily is pretty sure he and JJ hadn’t even made it out of their SUV by the time everything went down. They were furthest from the crime scene and last to arrive.

“He’s fine, Hotch. Maybe worry about yourself right now?” Emily snarks.

“Will you text him for me?”

“And say what? You just need to relax and let these patient people help you,” Emily says with an exasperated gesture at the people surrounding him. Hotch doesn’t relent.

“Just ask him if he’s alright and let him know I’m fine,” he nearly whines.

“You’re literally in an ambulance.”

The EMTs are making eye contact with her that seems more like begging. Clearly, they want her to do whatever will make him cooperate. Emily rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone. It hurts her head to look at the light of the screen, but she adjusts the brightness and pulls up spencer's contact to type a message

E: How is the crime scene? Hotch seems to think you’re gravely injured.

S: ?

S:I am fine.

S: How is he?

E: Annoying. Almost to the hospital.

S: Let him know I’ll come by as soon as I can.

E: Okay???

Emily is under the impression she is supposed to be Hotch’s babysitter, but if Reid wants to waste some time sitting around with her, she isn't going to complain. She relays Spencer's responses to Hotch and it's enough to keep him at ease the rest of the ride. They pull into the emergency room ambulance bay and Hotch is whisked out of the ambulance and through the sliding doors of the hospital. The remaining EMTs help Emily down to her own gurney and wheel her in after him.

Emily is triaged by a throng of doctors and nurses. After a brief assessment, it's determined she has a mild concussion and will need to be observed for an hour or two before she can leave. She’s given an ice pack and instructed to wait in a hospital bed.

She asks for an update on Hotch and then kicks her boots off to get comfortable. She lays with her head against the ice pack for probably a half an hour with her eyes closed against the harsh fluorescent lights when she hears approaching footsteps.

“Hey, how are you doing? How’s Hotch,” Reid greets, looking a little frazzled.

“I’m good, just another concussion. They have Hotch back for X-rays and scans and will bring him here after.”

“Good, that’s good,” he rings his hands for a moment on the strap of his messenger bag.

After a deep breath, he sets his bag and what Emily assumes is Hotch’s go-bag on the floor next to her bed and then folds himself into the nearby chair to wait. Emily chats with him about how the case is wrapping up, but Reid is being uncharacteristically vague and distracted. He recollects the rest of the takedown in purely objective terms, but when Emily presses him for details beyond that he shrugs and says that the rest of the team cut him loose to come here.

Emily returns to resting her eyes, conversation going nowhere. She is listening to the sound of Reid’s leg bouncing up and down and attempts dozing off again. She is not sure how much time has passed when the door to the room slides open once more. A team of nurses pull Hotch’s bed into the room next to hers.

Spencer is up and out of his chair in an instant. He hovers next to the nurses as they situate Hotch in the room. The way that hotch is looking around the room in a daze leads Emily to believe the doctors have been extremely generous with the painkillers while they ran his tests.

“Hi. How is he?” Reid addresses the nearest nurse.

“Are you Dr. Reid?” she asks.

“Yes.”

The nurse smirks at him.

“He’s had quite a lot to say about you,” the nurse teases. “We could hardly get anything else out of him.”

Hotch lolls his head towards Reid and moves his freshly braced hand towards him like it is made out of lead. He loses steam halfway through the gesture and just clunks the brace against the railing of the bed. The nurse gently maneuvers it back to his side and readjusts the tubes coming out of his arm as she explains his condition.

“He’s heavily concussed from the impact to his head. The x-rays to his chest and arm show he has two broken ribs and only a sprained wrist. He’s on a pretty heavy cocktail of pain meds right now to keep him comfortable, but he will start to feel it in the next few days. We would like to keep him overnight for observation and get another scan of his head in the morning.”

Reid nods, looking at Hotch’s chart over the nurse's shoulder and no doubt memorizing the information.

“Great, we will keep an eye on him,” he says.

“Don’t rile him up, he needs to rest. Agent Prentiss, someone will be in to look you over for release soon.”

“Thanks,” Emily and Reid say in unison as the nurses leave the room.

They both turn their focus back to Hotch. Spencer steps up to the side of his bed and anxiously scans his person like he somehow has x-ray vision. Hotch stares up at him with a dopey smile on his face. He reaches out with his good hand and pulls him closer by the belt loop. Spencer lets himself be led, but guides Hotch’s hand back to himself with a squeeze.

“Feeling alright there, Boss?” Emily laughs.

Hotch rolls his head towards her with what looks like a great amount of effort. He is gazing at her with a droopy version of his poker face.

“Mhmmmmm,” he hums.

With the same sluggishness, he turns back to gaze up at Reid, who still looks pained. They look at each other for a moment and then Hotch is all crows feet and dimples once again as he smiles up at him. Spencer gives him a small smile in return.

“Hello, handsome,” Hotch croons.

Emily laughs harder and the motion of it hurts her head a little. Clearly, he is high as a kite if this is his idea of humor right now. Reid’s eyebrows disappear into his hairline and he blushes as he glances towards Emily.

“Hey, Hotch. Do you know where you are right now?” Spencer asks in a gentle tone.

Hotch frowns, bottom lip jutting out pitifully. He either doesn’t know or is just choosing to ignore the question, distracted by other things.

“Are you mad at me?” Hotch gasps.

“What? Why would I be mad at you?” Spencer asks, befuddled by the mood swing.

Emily rolls to her side in the hospital bed to better watch the conversation. She’s never seen Hotch like this before. He’s not one for showing emotion, let alone oscillating rapidly between them.

“You only call me Hotch when you’re mad or we’re at work,” he says, reaching out to play with Reid’s tie where it hangs down in front of him.

“We are kinda sorta at work right now,” Spencer reminds him as he gently removes the tie from his grasp.

“Oh, my bad,” Hotch blinks, sadness dissipating as he recalls the events that lead him to be in this hospital bed, “Did we apprehend the unsub? Are you okay?”

“Yes and Yes. Stop worrying about me. You’re the one that’s hurt,” Spencer reassures him.

Aaron furrows his brow and winces as if the sentence just reminded him that he was, in fact, in pain.

“My head hurts. And my chest,” Hotch groans.

Spencer frowns pitifully at him and reaches over to squeeze his good hand once. Weirdly, it seems to soothe Hotch and him both. Emily doesn’t know what to make of this exchange. It could just be the opiates talking, but these two are seeming more and more familiar with every passing second.

“I’m sorry you feel bad. Maybe you should just get some sleep?” Spencer says.

Hotch furrows his brow. No, Emily thinks with disbelief, he actually might be pouting.

“No, Spence. I’ll sleep when we get home,” Hotch says with half lidded eyes.

Emily looks to Reid. Did he mean ‘we’ as in the team or ‘we’ as in him and “Spence”? Reid blinks and pointedly does not meet Emily’s eyes.

“We are in Arkansas, and the Doctors are keeping you here overnight.”

“Oh, right,” Hotch’s demeanor flickers once again, now anxious, “Wait, Jack. Jess. They—someone took my phone from me. I need to call Jess.”

Hotch weakly fusses in the bed. He tries to sit up on his elbows, but hisses in pain when he puts weight on his wrist. Spencer shushes him as pushes him back and rests his hands on his chest to keep him there.

“Aaron, Calm down. I already talked to her and Jack. Everything is fine. Rossi even texted to say he found your phone in the SUV. You have nothing to worry about. Just relax and know you’re being taken care of.”

Hotch had been limply trying to move Spencer's hands off of him, but relaxes as he takes in this information. His distress melts back into his blissed out smile.

“Aw, thank you, love,” Hotch murmurs.

He then uses his unbraced hand to bring the back of Spencer’s hand to his lips. He presses a kiss into his skin and releases him with a sleep-laden sigh. He lets his eyes droop closed and thus can’t see Emily and Spencer staring each other down across the room–Not that he would have been in any state of mind to notice the tension in the room even if he could see them.

Emily looks at Hotch and then back to Spencer. Spencer looks like a deer in the headlights as he straightens from where he’s leaning over Hotch’s bed and clears his throat. This is got to be one of the top ten most confusing evenings she’s had in awhile. Emily raises her brows at him.

“Am I missing something here, Reid?”

Spencer pushes his hair behind his ears and grimaces. Now that Hotch isn’t focused on him, his careful facade is slipping. His gaze is unfocused, face splotchy. He looks drained.

“Yeah. Um, you might be,” he says more like he’s talking to himself.

“Holy shit. So I haven't hit my head harder than originally thought. You’re with Hotch,” she says with disbelief.

Spencer drops his shoulders and looks at the ceiling in resignation. Emily can practically see the stress of the day pushing down on him. He takes a deep breath and paces the length of Hotch’s bed, eyes lingering on his now sleeping form.

“How did this even happen?” Emily probes after a few laps.

“I don’t know,” he begins lamely, crossing his arms over his chest, “We’d been growing closer for years and at some point that turned into more than just friends getting to know each other. Once it started, neither of us felt like stopping.”

Spencer shrugs and pulls a chair in between the beds so that he can sit near Hotch and still see Emily in her bed. Hotch shifts in his bed and Spencer pauses with another worried expression until he’s sure he isn’t going to wake before he sits down. He tips his head back against the railing of the bed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes scrunched closed. Emily is guessing that the stress is pushing him into migraine territory. She shifts to sit cross legged on her own bed facing him. When he opens his eyes, Spencer avoids her gaze, instead alternating between looking at Hotch’s heart rate monitor and pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes.

“And how long has it been since this started?”

“Nearly nine months.” He finally looks at her as he says it, and his face is stricken with guilt, “Everyone has figured us out, but only in the past three.”

Emily blanches.

“Everyone?” she asks.

He nods.

Emily is stunned. She doesn’t move. She doesn’t say anything. She just stares back with a slack jaw, her bruised brain trying to puzzle through this news. Part of her is impressed. She sits next to him nearly every day and the only passing thought she had about him and Hotch was that they seemed like an odd duo to be such close friends. The other part of her feels a little hurt and extremely left out. Not just by Spencer and Hotch, but the whole team who apparently neglected to clue her in.

Some of the conflicting emotions must show on her face. Spencer breaks eye contact and drops his head into his hands.

“I’m sorry, Emily.” His voice cracks on her name, “You have every right to be upset with me. I didn’t want to sneak around the team for this long, but I dug myself into a hole and it kept getting harder and harder to get out of it.”

His shoulders shake and his breathing is hitched as he attempts to hold back the tears.

“I was going to tell you this weekend at Rossi’s, I swear. You can even ask JJ. I hate that everyone had to be blindsided by this. I’m such an idiot.” The tears fall as Spencer speaks.

Emily’s already sluggish emotional processing stalls completely in the face of Reid’s sudden breakdown. Encouragement and comfort are not skills that come naturally to her under ordinary circumstances. With decreased cognition acting against her, she has a moment where she doesn’t know what to do. She stares awkwardly as Reid sniffs loudly and sheds his tears. If she were closer, she might try to offer a stiff pat on the back, but she would have to clamber down from the bed and that feels weirder than doing nothing. Emily sighs. JJ would know what to do, but she’s not here.

“Reid,” She begins, “I’m not–”

“No, please don’t just say it's fine because I’m acting like this. I shouldn’t even be the one freaking out,” he cries, “I’ve been trying to keep it together since I heard the gunshots at the warehouse, but it's too much. I’m sorry.”

“Spencer.” Emily attempts to interrupt him to no avail.

“God, and you were in there and you got hurt too. You should be resting and not dealing with my shit, I ca–”

“Spencer!” Emily shouts.

He finally stops talking. They both freeze as Hotch shifts in his bed and mumbles something unintelligible, but he doesn’t wake.

“I’m not mad,” she says while Spencer is distracted, “I’m confused as hell, but I’m not angry with you.”

He sniffs at her with red rimmed eyes.

“You’re not?”

“No. If anything, we’re even now. Remember my whole faked death?” Emily sighs.

Spencer winces at the memory, but dabs at his eyes with the sleeve of his cardigan. Emily is no stranger to living a life of secrecy, but still has so much she doesn’t understand. She can’t help but be curious.

“How were you able to keep it under wraps for so long? You’re both surrounded by profilers all day,” She asks.

“I mean, not much has changed in our working relationship. It’s the stuff outside of work that’s different. In the office we are just Reid and Hotch and at home we can be together however we want.”

“Okay, I can believe that, but it’s clearly very different to see a loved one get hurt on the job and not just a coworker.”

“Yeah it really is. I can’t even think about how difficult this would be if I had to pretend he was nothing to me,” Spencer swallows thickly, ”The only reason I didn’t freak out at the warehouse is because Morgan and Rossi sent me away before I could make myself sick”.

“That would be rough. Luckily you have no one left on the team to hide from.”

“True,” He sighs with relief, “I really am sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner, Emily.”

“It’s okay Spencer. If anyone knows avoidance better than you, it's me,” She laughs.

Spencer doesn’t quite laugh back, but he does have a small smile on his face. Their conversation comes to an end as the door slides open and the attending on call comes in to clear Emily for release.

The team is able to fly home the following afternoon following Hotch’s release. Emily had slept nearly 14 hours after she went back to the hotel, but was still feeling sluggish as she stretched across two seats on the jet. They have another two hours left until they land back in quantico and the energy on the jet is low across the board.

Everyone seems to be content not acknowledging the elephant in the room that is Spencer and Hotch. The pair were relegated to the couch upon boarding. Hotch is not nearly as loopy as he had been in the hospital the night before, but he still has an air of bleariness as the painkillers linger in his system. He is laying flat on his back on the couch with his head in Spencer’s lap, dozing. Spencer is out cold despite the fact he is sitting upright with his neck bent at what looks like a painful angle. He probably hadn’t slept at all the night before. He looks like crap and is still wearing the same outfit he came to the hospital in.

Derek walks by them without a passing glance as he heads to the bathroom. Emily looks from the couple to JJ sitting across from her. JJ glances over her shoulder at them and shakes her head fondly. Rossi catches Emily’s eye from across the aisle and winks.

Smug assholes. Emily will find some way to make them pay for leaving her out.

Chapter Text

“Ok, crime fighter extraordinaries. The time has come to unveil my secret plot.”

Penelope stands in front of her flatscreen tv brandishing a pen with a fuzzy pink cat on the end. She has dimmed the overhead lights and turned on a few of her lava lamps to set a dramatic glow for her presentation. Emily, Rossi, JJ, and Derek all cram together on her tiny two seater couch looking confused as Penelope brandishes her remote at them.

“I thought we were having a girls night,” JJ complains. Emily nods in agreement from where she is nearly sitting in her lap.

“How strange. My invite promised cocktails,” Rossi chimes in from his spot on the arm of the couch.

“You just told me you wanted to spend some quality time with your Adonis,” Derek adds from where he is squished between Rossi and Prentiss.

Penelope waves away their complaints and steels herself for the presentation.

“Hush, all of you. The real reason you are here is now being revealed.”

She clicks a button on the remote and the first slide of her PowerPoint pops into view. It’s Reid and Hotch’s FBI badge photos side by side with a heart superimposed over them so that the two men are contained within it. The image is on a hot pink background with baby blue word art that reads, “Operation: Clear the Air”.

There is a chorus of confused noises and agitated groans from the couch. Penelope puts her hands on her hips.

“I said Hush! You all know this needs to happen as much as I do. We all may have found out about Bossman and Boy-genius’s relationship in our own special ways, but they are still acting weird. Fear not! All they need is our blessing!”

“Blessing?” Rossi repeats, “Are we all collectively their fathers?”

“Well no, Rossi, you’re the mom, of course,” Emily laughs.

Derek seems deep in thought, “I’m for sure an uncle, and so is Prentiss”.

They high five. Penelope lobs her pink pen that she had intended to use as a pointer for the rest of the presentation at them.

“It doesn’t matter who you are!” Penelope snaps, “All that matters is that we are a family and they need to know that we don’t have any problem with them being together.”

“None of us have any problem, do we?” JJ glances around at the group with a threatening expression as she asks.

Everyone shakes their heads in agreement. Derek scratches his chin as he considers Penelope’s angle.

“Ok, I’ll be the first to admit my reaction to them getting together was less than positive, and it was never fully resolved. They still sometimes act like they have something to hide. Hell, it took weeks for them to stop pretending they don’t carpool to work together.”

“Yeah and they are so obsessed with remaining impartial with each other at work. Hotch drops little treats off at Spencer’s desk like he is on a covert mission,” Emily agrees.

“We’ve always known Reid is the favorite child,” JJ laughs, ”Even before they got together.”

Penelope nods sagely and hits the next slide. After an animation of cascading hearts floats across the screen, a stock image of a party with a banner that reads “Happy Anniversary” is revealed. Below this image is more word art reading, “Official date: February 10th”.

This time the reaction from the couch is a series of ‘oohs’ and ahhs’.

“My proposal is that we throw them a slamming one year anniversary surprise party and, then once they see they have our full support, they can loosen up and just be themselves.”

“I’m assuming you already have a plan to bring this all together?” Rossi asks.

“Oh I have 32 slides of a plan. Are you all ready for your assignments?”

The four agents look between each other in disbelief.

“I think we’re gonna need those cocktails first,” JJ mumbles.

*-*-*-*-*-*

The team is acting weird.

Spencer and Aaron have really hit their stride in their relationship as they pass the one year mark of when Aaron had finally taken the plunge and asked Spencer out. Their first few months together were full of excitement and novelty as the floodgates of their feelings had been opened, but after the initial honeymoon phase, they have settled into something stable and comforting.

They spend most nights together. Most often they’re at Aaron’s for the sake of Jack, but occasionally they do Spencer’s when they get back late from a case or when Jack is with Jessica. They have a routine. They get ready together. They drop Jack off at school on the way to work. Aaron starts taking his extra paperwork home to work on in the evenings instead of toiling away in the office. Spencer and Jack work on the boy's homework together next to him at the dining room table while he does it.

In the office, Spencer and Aaron make every effort to keep their relationship on the down low. When they had first started dating and everything was secret it was torture to remain neutral towards one another, especially in the early days when they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Sure, they no longer need to hide from the BAU team, but other departments and certainly the upper brass did not need to know or question their situation until Aaron could figure out some way to mitigate the inevitable HR nightmare. He had long since switched Spencer’s case supervision to Rossi instead of himself for conflict of interest reasons, but other than that, nothing changed since their secret was revealed as far as team dynamics went. The team sometimes seemed curious, but otherwise took any indication of their relationship with little comment.

Which makes the sudden behavior changes all the more obvious.

*-*-*-*-*

Derek corners Spencer in the elevator while he is on his way back to the BAU. He seems to have the intention to use every second of the ride to grill Spencer on his upcoming anniversary.

“What do you mean you’re not getting him a gift, man?” Derek presters.

“I thought that was only a thing if you’re married. I was just going to pay him a little extra attention, I guess.” Spencer shrugs.

“Oh, are you now?” Derek waggles his brow suggestively.

Please, God. Make this elevator move faster Spencer thinks to himself.

“That is not what I meant. Like a nice dinner, Morgan,” Spencer snaps.

Derek holds up his hands in surrender, but doesn’t cease the unsolicited advice.

“If I’ve learned anything from the ladies, it’s that anniversaries are very important and a grand gesture goes a long way.”

“Well then it's a good thing Aaron isn’t one of the ladies. You know there’s actually a fascinating origin to the idea of giving gifts for the anniversary of marriage. It started—“

“Whatever, pretty boy,” Derek cuts off Spencer’s attempt to infodump his way of the conversation, “That’s just my two cents.”

Spencer all but runs out of the elevator when the doors open. Derek doesn’t bring it up again.

What he said does get under his skin, however. Spencer’s never been in this serious of a relationship and he guesses that he is better safe than sorry. He might not seem like it outwardly, but Aaron can be a little bit of a sap when it comes to him or Jack. During his lunch that day, Spencer scans the drawing he keeps tacked up at his cubicle that Jack had drawn of the three of them and orders it on a coffee mug. Simple, sentimental, but practical. Just enough to be a cute gift, but not so much Aaron will feel like an ass if he didn’t get Spencer anything in return.

It ultimately didn't matter because they weren’t even on the east coast for their anniversary. They were sent to Newburg, Oregon for an equivocal death investigation. So that night, they had just ordered fancy takeout to their dingy hotel room—or as fancy as it could get in the small town at 11PM. They ate the meal at their tiny desk with their knees knocking together and a fake LED candle on the table between them. They called Jack together and then went to bed with promises to go somewhere nice on Valentine’s Day if they were home in time.

Despite the ribbing from Derek about grand gestures in the back of his mind, Spencer wouldn’t have changed a thing.

*-*-*-*-*

Now that they are back in Quantico, the team is only getting weirder.

Aaron is in the break room waiting on the coffee machine, tapping his foot on the linoleum and thinking about emails he needs to send when Rossi slithers in next to him. He doesn’t need to turn to know it’s him because he could hear the man humming from 15 feet outside the door.

“Good morning, Aaron. Nice mug ya got there.” Rossi says with too much cheer for 9:30 in the morning.

“Thanks. Spencer gave it to me last night.”

“Very nice. Any special occasion?”

Aaron resists the urge to roll his eyes at the man’s obvious ploy to get some morsel of gossip out of him.

“It was our anniversary recently.” Hotch responds plainly, even though he knows Dave is well aware of this fact.

“You don’t say! Did you take him somewhere nice?”

“You were on the same case as we were, Dave. How nice could it have gotten?” Aaron deadpans.

Their night in the hotel was silly, but Aaron liked it and felt a warmth bloom in his chest when he thought about it. It wasn’t something he felt compelled to share with Dave and listen to him grouse over the lack of fanfare. It was perfect for who they were.

“What? No Juicy details? No romantic overtures?”

This time Aaron does roll his eyes.

“You know how we are. We kept it simple.”

“Ugh. Romance as we know it is dying.” Dave says with a hand over his heart.

“Whatever you say,” Aaron says as he refills his mug with the fresh coffee.

He glances out into the bullpen and can see Spencer doesn’t have a mug on his desk. He pulls one down from the cabinet and fixes a cup to drop off on his way back to his own office. Rossi chuckles at the ritual.

“Well since your datebook isn’t full of romantic outings, do you know what you will be attending this weekend?” Rossi nudges.

Aaron glowers, “Enlighten me.”

“The dinner I’m hosting at Casa Rossi this Sunday. Clear your schedule.”

“I’ll have to see if I can make some plans for Jack, but otherwise that should be fine.”

“Great. And don’t worry. I’ve already informed your beau to clear his schedule as well,”

Rossi claps Aaron on the shoulder and meanders out of the break room, back to whatever he had been doing before he decided to come harass him. Aaron shakes his head as he finishes dressing Spencer’s coffee, both at the sudden invitation and at the fact that Dave had followed him into the break room with seemingly no other purpose than to spring it on him.

Something was going on. He’ll have to mull it over with Spence later tonight.

*-*-*-*-*

That evening, Spencer and Aaron are making their way out of the FBI building to the parking garage to go home. Spencer takes Aaron’s hand in the elevator and is holding it as they walk to the car. They are chatting idly about Spencer’s current thesis paper when they round the row of cars and see the team standing in a conspiratorial huddle near Garcia’s bright orange car. The group had all trickled out of the office nearly twenty minutes before they did and the couple had expected them to be long gone by now. They all freeze when they see Spencer and Hotch.

“Everything alright?” Hotch asks.

There is a long pause as the group looks between each other in silent question.

“Uh, yeah,” Emily clears her throat, voice switching to a chipper tone that doesn’t suit her, “We were just discussing the latest Real Housewives reunion special.”

The other four members nod in agreement.

“It was a wild one,” Derek adds.

“And you are having this discussion in the parking garage?” Spencer asks, skeptical of Derek’s enthusiasm for the topic.

They all nod again.

“That was my bad. I got us all started in the elevator,” Penelope hits her forehead as if to say ‘oh silly me’,”Anyways we can continue this discussion tomorrow. Goodnight everyone!”

The team breaks apart to head to their respective vehicles with halfhearted goodbyes and quick steps.

Spencer and Aaron look at each other and then separate to get in Aaron's car.

Spencer is fiddling with the temperature controls as Aaron puts the car into gear, brow furrowed in thought.

“So they are definitely plotting something against us,” Spencer muses.

“Without a doubt,” Aaron sighs.

“Should we intervene or let it happen?”

Aaron taps his hands on the wheel and adjusts his sunglasses as they exit the garage. He had been considering this same question since his conversation with Rossi that morning.

“If we try to stop them I fear it will only make the outcome more extreme.”

“Agreed,” Spencer pats Aaron’s leg, “Here’s to hoping it’s not already extreme.”

The pair laughs as they leave the office behind them.

*-*-*-*-*

The next day isn’t any better.

Hotch is walking to the break room to refill his coffee and stretch his legs. He walks by Spencer’s desk and scoops his nearly empty mug from next to him without breaking stride. Spencer is so used to this daily ritual he doesn’t even turn his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hotch notices the door to JJs office open as she steps out seemingly in a hurry. He continues his mission and approaches the coffee machine, worried it could be a case. He refills the mugs and garnishes Spencer’s with the extra sugar and milk he likes. He is nearly finished when JJ pops into the break room.

Aaron is starting to think of this area of the office as a trap.

“Hey, Hotch.”

“Hello, JJ. Everything alright?”

“Oh, I’m all good. Actually, I was just wondering if you wanted to do a child swap this weekend? Will has been wanting to take Henry to the new trampoline park and it would be nice to take him with a playmate to save Will’s knees.”

Hotch grimaces in sympathy for Will.

“Which day? Spencer and Jack have plans to build a model spaceship together on Saturday and they are both very sensitive to their project time being altered.”

“Aww how sweet! Sunday would be perfect. Will can hang onto them and watch them while we go to Rossi’s in the evening also.”

How convenient. Aaron thinks to himself. However, he wasn’t about to turn down a Sunday alone with Spencer.

“That would be great, JJ. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, thank Will,” She laughs, “Is Jack still going bananas over Spencer?’

“It has subsided to some degree, but Jack does have certain activities with him that are firmly ‘no dad allowed’. Hence the spaceship.”

JJ chuckles and shakes her head as she leans a hip on the counter

“Does that make you jealous?” she asks, curiosity painted all over her face.

“Not really. That’s when I go running. And Soccer coaching is a ‘no Spencer’ activity so it balances out.” Hotch shrugs.

He needs to make an escape before more of this apparent covert intel gathering can take place. Aaron picks up the mugs and nods goodbye to JJ.

“I’ll text you about Sunday,” JJ calls after him.

Hotch drops a mug at Spencer’s desk. He turns to look up at him with a grateful smile and Hotch invents a reason to linger by him a little longer with his own coffee, asking him about a report he had turned in earlier in the day. Hotch can’t help but notice Prentiss and Morgan watching the interaction from the corners of their eyes.

What the hell are they looking for?

*-*-*-*-*

Barely an hour has passed when the meddling is shifted to target Spencer.

“So Spence,” Emily chimes from her desk.

Spencer looks up from the report he’s reading.

“Yes, Emily?”

“What sort of things do you and Hotch like to do together?” she asks.

Spencer has to shake himself a little at the abrupt question. He had been anticipating a work related query. Honestly, by now he should have known better.

“I don’t know. Boring stuff. Why?”

“C’mon there gotta be at least a few exciting things you like to get up to,” Emily groans.

Spencer doesn’t know how to answer, feeling a little put on the spot. Clearly Emily is fishing for something intriguing, like fun outings or date night locations, but truthfully he and Aaron don’t get out much between their jobs and Jack. They watch movies on the couch, go to little league soccer games, and sometimes if they are feeling lazy, the Italian restaurant around the corner from Hotch’s house. Spencer loves the routine of it all—thrives on it even—but it's not like he can tell Emily that without prompting a round of heckling. God forbid Derek listen in and join her.

“What do you typically do with a romantic partner?” Spencer tries to deflect by focusing her attention to herself.

“I have dinner and then afterwards I have sex with them,” She deadpans.

Spencer drops his Jaw, once again thrown off by her abruptness, but regains composure quickly.

“Well, I do that too, if that’s what you’re trying to ask,” He laughs.

“It isn’t. I was just trying to punish you with something shocking because you were trying to distract me,” she drops any pretense of subtlety, “Now tell me what little hobbies the two of you have, or else.”

Spencer huffs and drums his hands on his desk in thought.

“I don’t know. We saw a play recently, at Aaron’s behest. Sometimes we go to museums if something interesting is on view,” Spencer answers, hoping this will get Emily off his back.

It seems to work. She nods and then turns back to her computer monitor, typing furiously.

“Good talk,” Spencer mutters mostly to himself.

Feeling agitated, Spencer glances at the clock and decides it’s late enough to take his lunch in Aaron’s office. He spots Garcia hurrying into JJ’s office and doubles his efforts to get out of dodge before they can notice him and continue their blatant monitoring of his every move. He runs down to the cafeteria to pick up sandwiches for them both and keeps his head down as he crosses the bullpen back to Aaron’s office, aware of eyes on him the entire way. Once inside he closes the door and leans heavily against it. Aaron looks up from his tablet and raises his eyebrows.

“You okay, darling?”

“Yeah, I just need a break from the peanut gallery. I can’t wait for this weekend to be over so whatever they are plotting can just be done with. It’s like they are putting me under a microscope out there.”

Spencer plops into the chair across from Hotch and places the styrofoam containers with their sandwiches around his paperwork. Aaron thanks him for the food and glances out the window of his office in time to see three agent’s heads whip in other directions like they hadn’t been staring the two of them down.

“I can see what you mean. What do you think they are looking for?”

“They are clearly obsessed with our anniversary, but I am also getting the distinct impression they are focused on our relationship dynamic as a whole. I don’t understand it.”

Hotch leans back in his chair with his sandwich in hand.

“I’m sure I’m not getting it as much as you are because I am sequestered here and I am considered to be less approachable, but I have had interactions that have left me with the same impression.”

“Do you think our intent to be professional is backfiring by glorifying any slight instance of PDA? It’s like they want us to make out in the bullpen.”

Hotch flicks his brows with a flirtatious smirk.

“Well, if that's what they want…” He trails off with a chuckle. His expression sobers as he thinks more on the issue, ”As much as we don’t make a big deal about it, our anniversary could be dredging up a delayed reaction to the revelation of our relationship status.”

“Anniversaries as a trigger for inappropriate behaviors, just like our unsubs,” Spencer laughs.

“If you need me to put my unit chief voice on to get them to leave you alone, I can,” Hotch offers in between bites of his sandwich.

“Thanks, but I think my big scary boss boyfriend would only fan the flames. Besides, It's Friday. I only have to deal with it for a few more hours. I’ll just work in the conference room if they don’t let up, but I’m sure they already think I’m tattling and will leave it alone.”

Aaron makes a mocking impression of his customary furrowed brow and scowl, but drops it with a shrug.

“Fine. I’ll save it for the next LEs that bother you on a case,” he smirks.

“Yeah, you better.”

*-*-*-*-*

Sunday evening is upon Spencer and Aaron in the blink of an eye. Saturday went by quickly between soccer practice and model building time. They ended the evening with a viewing of Spiderman and one chapter of The Hobbit before Jack went to bed. After Jack was handed off to Will and JJ the next morning, Aaron and Spencer spent most of their day lazing about in bed, leaving only when their bodily functions demanded it. The domestic bubble was reluctantly burst when Aaron dragged Spencer out of bed to get ready for whatever spectacle was awaiting them at Rossi’s.

Spencer is drumming his fingers on the center console of Aaron’s car and worrying his lip with his teeth as he watches the fancy houses of Rossi’s neighborhood pass by. Aaron places his hand atop Spencer’s to stop the motion. He meets Spencer’s gaze with a questioning look for a moment before returning focus to the road.

“How embarrassing do you think this is going to be?” Spencer asks.

“For you? Monumentally I’m sure,” Hotch laughs.

Spencer pulls his hand out from under Aaron’s and swats his arm.

“For me? You honestly have no problem with the fact we are probably about to be put on display for the entire team to ogle us?”

“I love to ogle you.”

Spencer rolls his eyes at Aarons teasing. Aaron sticks his tongue out at him as he slows the car to turn onto Rossi’s long driveway.

As they pull into an open space in the drive, the pair can’t help but notice how suspiciously quiet it is on the property. Usually when they arrive at a team event, chatter can be heard all the way outside, and at least one or two people are arriving at the same time and lingering in the driveway. Spencer and Aaron are a few minutes late thanks to Spencer’s procrastination getting ready, but it appears they are the last to arrive which never happens.

The pair exit the vehicle and shuffle up the steps to Rossi’s door. Aaron reaches out to ring the doorbell, but Rossi wrenches the door open before he can push the button. Spencer jumps in surprise.

“There they are!” He greets as he ushers them in, “You’ve arrived just in time.”

“In time for what?” Spencer asks.

Dave doesn’t answer.

“Follow me,” he says over his shoulder and he walks out of the foyer to the back of his house.

Inside the house is even more silent than the exterior. There’s no chatter to be heard from the kitchen. No music from the overhead speakers. Not even the sound of something sizzling on the stove can be heard. If it weren’t for the cars in the driveway, it would seem like they were the only ones here.

Rossi walks into his backyard through the french doors off of his kitchen and the pair follows a few steps behind. As soon as they pass the threshold they are assailed by several voices.

“Surprise!”

There’s clapping and cheering from the gathering in front of them. The entire team is standing beneath a white banner with two cupids on either end. The text between them reads “Happy Anniversary!”. Penelope and JJ are throwing pink confetti. Prentiss and Derek are pumping their fists and cheering like they are at a football game. Will, Jessica, and the boys are in the huddle as well, clapping along with the team.

Aaron laughs as Spencer instantaneously turns bright pink and turns his back to the audience to press his face into Aaron’s shoulder to hide his embarrassment.

“I knew it,” Spencer groans into Aaron’s dress shirt.

The attempt at hiding has the opposite effect Spencer was looking for as he hears heckling from the onlookers at their embrace. He would consider fleeing if Aaron didn’t have a hand on him. Spencer finds the courage to turn back towards the group when he hears Jack’s voice hurtling towards them from where he had been standing with Jessica.

“Dad! Spence!” He collides into their legs like a wrecking ball, but Aaron keeps them standing, “I made you a card!”

He releases one hand from where he is clinging to Spencer’s leg to present Aaron with a slightly crumpled piece of construction paper. Aaron takes it and holds it so they can both see. There is a chorus of ‘awww’s from the onlookers.

The paper is purple and adorned with a multitude of stickers and many colors of magic marker. The front is composed of block letters misspelling “Happy Anerversery” with the letters getting smaller and smaller as he ran out of space on the line for the longer word. Aaron flips it open to reveal a drawing of the three of them. Spencer has long brown spirals to represent his hair and Aaron is depicted wearing a massive red tie. Jack is only identifiable by his significantly smaller height in comparison to the other two figures. They are surrounded by various doodles and stickers, some easier to decipher than others.

“This is great, Bud” Aaron praises, patting the boy on the shoulder.

“What’s this in the corner, Jack?” Spencer gestures to a seemingly abstract geometric shape in the background of the drawing.

“That’s optimus prime! Duh, Spence,” Jack says as if it was the most obvious image in the world.

This gets a laugh out of the crowd.

“Thank you, Jack. I’m glad he could make an appearance,” Spencer laughs along with everyone else.

Jack runs off to rejoin Henry and the rest of the group descends upon them. The pair get hug after hug and kind words from each of their friends and family present. By the time everyone has had their moment with the couple, Spencer has acclimated to the level of attention he is receiving and no longer flushes at every look.

“Ok everyone, let’s give them some space,” Rossi yells over the gathering, “Dinner time! Everyone take a seat.”

A table is set on the patio with a white tablecloth and pink accents. There are hearts and cupids everywhere, making Penelope’s influence of the table setting clear as day. Spencer and Aaron are ushered to the center of the table. Jack clambers to sit next to Spencer while Jess takes the spot next to Aaron. The rest of the team fills in around them.

Rossi made the smart decision of having the food catered instead of attempting to cook for this many guests. The dinner itself is much like the many others the team has had in the past. The wine is flowing, conversation is loud and raucous, but this time everyone is paying extra attention to the couple at the center of the table. Everyone makes a point to tell the story of how they discovered their relationship in the most embarrassing terms possible. They all laugh like they are hearing the tales for the first time, Aaron and Spencer included..

Jess breaks through the conversation after everyone has had their turn.

“You know, Aaron did formally inform me of their relationship status early on for obvious reasons, but not before I found the sappiest, most lovey-dovey poem written to Spencer in his pants pockets while doing Laundry.”

This story is finally enough to embarrass Aaron. He drops his jaw and then covers his mouth with his hand. Spencer is near cackling next to him.

“You’ve never told me that,” Aaron says, voice an octave higher than usual.

“Awwww that’s so sweet! Spencer, what did it say?” JJ asks from across the table.

“Which one?” Spencer elbows Aaron, who has his head in his hands.

There are jeers from every direction. Hotch’s stoic reputation is likely forever damaged. The commotion dies down as Derek taps his wine glass with a knife and dramatically stands at his end of the table. Everyone shifts their attention to him as he clears his throat.

“Ok speech time, because I’m the romance expert,” Derek says with a clap of his hands.

“I know we are all laughing and having fun at these two dork’s expense, but we are here tonight not only because of my baby girl’s meddling,” He winks at Garcia and she makes the motion of a cat scratching back at him, “but also because we wanna make sure you guys know you have the team’s full support for your relationship. I know there were some rocky moments, but we can see how good this is for you both, and we would never want to give you a reason to feel like you gotta keep hiding.”

Penelope stands and not-so-subtly excuses herself into the house. Spencer is about to comment on it, but Emily takes her turn addressing the table.

“Along with our verbal support, we would also like to give you a little gift,” she flings a pink envelope at the two of them. Aaron catches it, narrowly avoiding it falling into his unfinished pasta. Before he even rips it open, Emily cuts back in.

“It’s two tickets to the opera at the Kennedy Center, but here’s the kicker–I know the program director and he agreed to give me two flexible seats, so if we are called on a case he can bump you to another night.”

“Wow, Thanks guys,” Spencer says.

“You’ve thought of everything, Emily,” Aaron agrees.

JJ glances over their heads, “There one more thing.”

The couple turns just as Penelope is walking back outside with a white box. She gestures for them to clear a space in front of them and they both hand their plates off to the others. Penelope places the mysterious box in front of them and flips the lid to reveal a heart-shaped cake. It’s pink and white and has “Federal Boyfriend Inspectors: Boyfriend Analysis Unit” written in frosting in the center. Rossi snaps a photo of their puzzled expressions as they read the cursive text.

“Dessert time!” Penelope sings, “You had to know I was going to get you both a cake eventually!”

“You guys,” Spencer croons, “This is all so nice, really, but you didn’t have to do all of this. Aaron and I already know you support us. I didn’t think there were any hard feelings about us, and we’re certainly not trying to hide from the team anymore.”

“Yes, this is all incredibly thoughtful. I’m sorry if our discretion in the office is coming across as continuing the unfortunate secrecy of the beginning of our relationship. It is merely for professionalism and is not the reality outside of work,” Aaron adds.

There are some confused exchanges between the agents around the table, but most seem to accept what they say.

Rossi scoffs and yells, “Prove it!”

It’s hard to tell who starts it, but within seconds everyone at the table is chanting, “kiss, kiss, kiss!”

So they do.

Spencer rolls his eyes and turns to face Aaron. Aaron had already been looking at him, beaming with dimples on full display. They share a quick but firm kiss. Ro ssi’s camera flashes once more and the team cheers. They break apart and glance around the table. The love outpouring from their family is so intense it feels like a physical warmth surrounding them.

Maybe their meddling isn’t so bad.