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“Jack, buddy, you have to keep still if you want me to be able to get the splinters out of your hand.” Aaron said with a frustrated sigh. Jack and he had been fighting over these damn splinters for what seemed like an hour now, and finally he had calmed him down enough to stop crying so he could understand what he was trying to say.
“I want Mr. Spencer to do it!” Jack cried as he rubbed his eye with this non-critically injured hand.
“Who are you talking about buddy?”
“Mr. Spencer, he lives next door, he always helps me and aunt Jess out when I get hurted.”
“Hurt buddy, not hurted, and I’m sure Mr. Spencer is already at work now, so we can’t go to him, just let me see your hand and I can do it just fine.” He said and sighed as Jack started screaming crying again before he pulled his hand away and ran out of the bathroom and Aaron let his head fall in defeat before he heard the front door of his apartment open and he rushed to stop his son from doing what he knew he was, but it was too late.
By the time Aaron had reached the apartment complex’s hallway Jack was already banging/knocking on one of his neighbors door’s.
“Jack, no, I said we can’t, he’s not home see, he’s already at work.” Aaron said getting Jack and starting to walk him back to their place.
“No dad, he said he would be home whenever I’m awake! He’s magic like the tricks he does daddy, I swear!” He said and as if right on cue, like the best trick of all the door opened and out walked a sleepy, just woken up, clearly barely had any sleep from his last shift at the hospital 20 something year old, God. No, Doctor. Close enough.
“Mr. Spencer! I told daddy you would be home! I got hurted.” Jack said cheering as if it was a badge of honor to be worn proudly.
“It’s hurt, Jack-Jack, not hurted, hey kiddo, how’s my favorite fire starter?” He said walking slowly but surely over to the two of them.
‘Fire starter?’ Hotch thought to himself while he looked over the continuously confusing neighbor he never knew he had who apparently not only knew his son, helped him out, but apparently had his own nickname for him.
“Sorry, hi, you must be dad? I’m Dr. Spencer Reid, I usually aid Jessica when you are at work. I work nights.” He said explaining himself a little bit when he saw how confused Hotch looked.
“Uh, oh yes, hi, I’m Aaron Hotchner, thank you for helping out…but really you can go back to sleep it’s okay he just has some splinters that he won’t let me look at.” He said feeling embarrassed that he couldn’t even seem to take care of his own kid. He could only imagine what kind of parent he looked like to the ridiculously young looking doctor.
“I’m sorry did you say doctor?”
“Oh, well that’s because you aren’t using the super laser vision to get the splinters out isn’t that right!” Spencer said and picked Jack up off the ground to carry him to his door. “Please, uh come in, I can introduce myself more.” He said and lead the two into his own apartment.
It was a mess of books and papers and old take out. It looked like Sherlock Holmes had exploded and mixed with a Thai take out place.
“Sorry it’s messy, now can you wait right here and be super good?” Spencer spoke talking to both of them at once.
“Yes!” Jack yelled excited for the lasers apparently.
“You’re fine, I really appreciate your help, now and apparently in the past.” He said talking out loud as Spencer came back out of his bathroom with a pair of tweezers that had something attached to them.
“Here we go! Off to Neverland!” He said in his best Peter Pan voice and Jack held out his hand and just laughed along and in no time they were finished and Spencer was sitting down, turning his laser pointer tweezers off and setting them aside as Jack ran back to their apartment.
“You’re great with kid’s ya know.”
“Thanks, I really love them so…
“I’m sorry I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Aaron said, jumping at his change to get more questions answered.
“You said you were a doctor, but you’re…”
“So young? Yeah, I get that a lot, I actually have a doctorate in Chemistry, Engineering and Mathematics, but I’m currently on my way to becoming a pediatrician, hence, the laser tweezers, just seems to make everything more fun for them.”
“Wow, that’s, a lot of school. You must be a genius or something.”
“Well, I don’t believe that genius is actually a quantitative term, I believe it is ever evolving and changing, almost an unreachable goal, but I do have an eidetic memory and an I.Q. of 187 and can read 20,000 words a minute…so some people say I am.” He said biting his lip and looking around quickly realizing he was still in loose fitting pajama pants and a two-small ratty old Star Wars shirt in front of the incredibly handsome FBI agent neighbor.
“Can I get you something to drink, I have coffee, or espresso? I have a bunch of different kinds of coffee I mean, from all over.” He said going to his kitchen and trying to clean up as he walked but he wasn’t sure if he was cleaning or just moving the mess. Right now he decided it didn’t matter.
“No thanks, but I’d love if you would come over for dinner sometime, as a thanks for all the help you do. If you have time I mean.” Aaron said stumbling over his words. Here he was in the presence of a genius who seemed to be half his age, who seemed to look impossibly perfect in pajama’s, and he was messing up his words. Awesome.
“Uh, sure I’d love that.” He said nodding as he smiled. He felt goofy, was that a scientific term? Who cared.
“Tonight?”
“Sure, sound’s good…
*****
They had eaten dinner and now were having some drinks while Jack played and showed Spencer his fake doctor kit that he was very fond of.
“Mr. Spencer can I ask you a question?” Jack asked not looking away from his toys. Spencer moved to pay more attention, setting his glass down.
“Of course.”
“Are you going to kiss my daddy?” He asked, only looking up when Aaron started to choke on his sip of beer.
“Daddy!” “Aaron!”
The concern for the man was overwhelming. He finally got over the coughing fit that followed and calmed down as he looked to Jack.
“Hey buddy I think it’s time to brush teeth and get ready for bed.” He said giving him the look that meant he was serious.
“Okay, but only of Mr. Spencer checks you out!” He said and Aaron blushed again while his son handed Spencer the stethoscope from his doctor bag. He made Spencer put the ear pieces in before he finally left to go brush his teeth.
Before he could apologize Spencer had moved so close to him and had the plastic blue contraption up to his chest over his heart.
“These are so easy to make that they basically work just as well as my real one’s did you know that? I can actually hear your heartbeat now…” He said looking up at him as he heard the thumping get faster. He licked his lips looking in his eyes and he couldn’t help but be a bit nervous himself, he had never done something like this before, hell he had never done this before!
Aaron took a chance and leaned in just the little bit that was needed before he was kissing this other man. It was crazy really, he did not need to be kissing his neighbor that he had only met today! Especially sense he had a son!
“I knew it!” Jack yelled and the two of them pulled away not realizing they had gotten so close, or were kissing so deeply.
“Bed Jack. Goodnight, I’ll be in in a minute.” He said as he rubbed his face.
“Goodnight Jack-Jack.” Spencer said and stood up.
“I had a really nice time tonight, I’d love to get to know you more.” Aaron said standing up and walking Spencer to the door.
“For sure. Now I’m going to go do some homework if you get bored once he’s asleep.” He said and turned to leave face palming once he was turned around. He didn’t mean for that to sound as dirty or as nerdy as it sounded.
Aaron shut the door and smiled as he went to kiss Jack goodnight and thank him for being such a pain in his neck.