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Spencer wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself when Aaron brought Beth over to introduce her to the team. He smiled and waved awkwardly but inside he felt like his stomach was being passed through a vice. His left elbow started to itch furiously and he was desperate to escape from the crowd pressed around him. He could probably find someone dealing in his old alleyway and if not he knew someone who could get him a number. He was poised to run as fast as he could to his car when a small pair of arms was suddenly wrapped around his legs.
“Spence!” Jack’s blonde head had barrelled into Spencer’s bad knee but Spencer couldn’t suppress the smile from his face. He kneeled down and pulled the boy into a big hug. That warm feeling chased the need for drugs away from him mind. “I missed you, Spence.” Jack mumbled into Reid’s neck.
“I missed you too, Jack-Jack.” Reid felt his heart ache slightly. He didn’t get to see Jack much anymore. It wasn’t like when he had been with Aaron and they had been awoken on a Saturday morning by the little boy bouncing onto the bed.
“Can we talk Spence?” Jack sounded so much like his father that Reid pulled away in surprise. He sounded so grown up.
“Sure thing.” He allowed Jack to pull him slightly away from the rest of the team and he sat down cross-legged next to the little boy on the grass. Aaron looked over at them and frowned slightly but he decided not to interfere. He figured it was best to look away from his son sitting happily on the grass with his ex-boyfriend. If he was looking away he could pretend that his stomach was just flipping from the adrenaline of the race and not because seeing Spencer with Jack was still one of his favourite sights in the whole world. He felt fingers lace with his and was surprised to find a small, distinctly feminine hand entwined with his own. He had been expecting Spencer’s long, thin, piano player’s hands but he smiled reassuringly at Beth in order to reassure himself. Spencer sat in silence and watched Jack start to make a daisy chain with the flowers on the grass. He wanted something to do with his hands since the itching was back so he followed suit.
“Dad says that Beth is his friend,” Jack began suddenly. He paused and looked around in the grass for another flower. “You used to be Dad’s friend.”
“I’m still your Dad’s friend, Jack-Jack.” Spencer said with far more confidence than he felt in that statement.
Jack moulded his features into a six-year old’s version of the Hotchner glare and used its full force on Spencer who actually felt slightly quelled, “You used to be Dad’s best friend. You had sleepovers and stuff but you don’t anymore.”
“I know, Jack, but we are still friends.”
“I don’t think I like her,” Jack muttered quietly.
“You’ve just met her, Jack.” Spencer stated trying very hard not to smile.
“Do you like her?”
The question was far too pointed for Spencer to ignore and Jack was staring directly into his eyes but he figured it was worth a try, “How’s school going?”
“Dad says that its avoidance when you answer a question with a question and you changed the subject so that’s like double avoidance.” The little boy folded his arms and let the flowers fall back to the grass.
Spencer smiled and inwardly cursed Aaron. “I don’t know her but she seems nice.”
“Yeah, too nice,” Jack muttered darkly but then he suddenly flung himself around Spencer’s neck and crawled into his lap. “I want you to be around all the time again. I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Jack-Jack,” Spencer repeated pulling the little boy closer to him. “You know I still love you right?” Jack nodded slowly. “Sometimes things just can’t be that easy between grown-ups and your Dad wants Beth to be his best friend now. I have to respect that. I’m sure you’ll grow to like her.” The little boy pulled back and shook his head furiously. Spencer looked up and saw that the entire team was looking over at him. He smiled and waved as he stood up with Jack still clinging onto him. He felt a twinge in his knee but he simply resettled the boy on his hip. “We’re going to get some food now. What do you want?” he asked walking over to rejoin the group.
“Ice-cream.”
“Just ice cream?”
“And a milkshake.”
Spencer chuckled, “you know that’s pretty much just more ice cream?”
Jack looked up from his shoulder and smiled, “it’s sounds pretty good.”
“Yeah, it sounds good to me too.”
They decided on a kid friendly diner restaurant and piled into a large booth. Aaron tried to settle Jack between him and Beth but the little boy protested and pulled Spencer down to sit on his other side and smiled contentedly once he was sandwiched between his father and Spencer. Reid flashed an apologetic smile at Hotch who shrugged. He was feeling a little nervous about Jack’s talk with Spencer. He knew Jack missed Spencer but if he was going to give this relationship with Beth a fair chance then he couldn’t have Reid in his personal life. JJ, Emily and Garcia perked up decidedly once Morgan appeared with three Bloody Marys and JJ even tentatively raised her sunglasses once she was half-way through the drink.
“Me and Spencer want ice cream,” Jack announced when the waitress came with the menus.
“Spencer and I,” Reid corrected absentmindedly.
“Yeah, Spencer and I want ice cream.” Jack happily repeated.
“You don’t want a burger, Buddy?” Aaron asked pleadingly. He was not going to allow his son to eat nothing but ice cream for lunch.
Spencer heard Aaron’s tone and knew that it would get nowhere with Jack. Part of him wanted to abandon Aaron to his parenting issues but he didn’t want to make a scene by clearing siding with Jack. “We could share something, Jack, and then we can get a dessert to share too. Listen to this: Super Sundae Delight. It’s vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cups, M&Ms, marshmallows and fudge sauce.”
“Awesome!” Jack shouted.
“Indoor voice, Jack,” Hotch and Reid said simultaneously which caused everyone at the table to look up in surprise. JJ coughed and Rossi smirked.
Spencer continued after a brief pause, “but first we apparently have to eat some real food.” He smiled at the little boy and stuck his tongue out at Hotch. He knew that he was crossing some kind of line but it just felt so good being silly with Jack again that he didn’t really care. One of the hardest things about breaking up with Aaron was losing his connection with Jack. Sure, he still saw him sometimes when he was babysitting Henry or if the team did something kid-friendly but it wasn’t the same.
“That sucks,” Jack said but agreed to share hot dogs and chips with the young genius.
The waitress brought him a colouring map and he set to work colouring a dinosaur who was dancing with two children while Reid explained that men and dinosaurs hadn’t actually roamed the Earth together. The little boy listened patiently and added that he thought dinosaurs were cool. Reid agreed that they were cool. Aaron found it hard to keep his eyes off the way that Reid and Jack were interacting. Jack seemed so happy and it made Aaron feel guilty about keeping his son away from the young genius. Hell, it would be great for his son’s education to have Reid around and surely he could ignore any nagging desires for the good of his son. Beth was talking with JJ and Emily while Garcia laid her head on Morgan’s shoulder and seemed to be close to falling asleep. Rossi caught Aaron’s eye and smirked in that annoyingly smug way in which only the senior profiler seemed to be capable. He knew exactly how Aaron was feeling right now and Aaron knew that Rossi thought he was a fool for having let go of Spencer, no matter how much the older man had encouraged him with Beth. Aaron felt that he was pushing him towards Beth just so that Aaron would realise what he had lost with Spencer. Well, Aaron would prove him wrong. He let his hand fall over Beth’s which rested on the table. She turned and smiled at him but Aaron couldn’t ignore how Reid stiffened on the other side of him. How the hell could he have thought that this was a good idea?
They ate and managed to avoid any awkward conversations. The three hung-over women perked up happily after a few more Bloody Marys and Garcia was far more like her perky self by her third drink. She praised the “Hair of the Dog That Bit You” method which Reid quickly spouted off some facts to refute and recommended water. Emily started to tell him to shut the fuck up which slurred into shut the front door at a tap from JJ and a gesture at Jack.
Jack and Spencer’s massive ice cream sundae arrived and Aaron wasn’t sure whose eyes got wider or whose smile broader at the sight of all that refined sugar. He sighed. Jack would be bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day. Both of them dug in and Reid’s moan of pleasure was remarkably close to one that Aaron knew very well and that shot straight to his groin. That ice cream did look really good and he had more than worked it off at the triathlon this morning.
“Hey, Buddy, can I get a spoon of your ice cream?” he asked his son with his mouth open.
“Sure, but only from Spencer’s spoon,” the little boy answered smiling.
Spencer shrugged and tried to pass Aaron his spoon but he was stopped but a small hand.
“No, Spence, you give Dad the ice cream.” Again the conversation lulled at the table and all eyes were directed at Spencer and Aaron. Spencer looked into Aaron’s eyes which were slightly narrowed. They both knew that it would be more a big deal if they refused and that could lead to an awkward conversation later with Beth. As much as that might please Spencer he was willing to be the bigger man but he wouldn’t make this easy on Aaron.
Spencer lifted his spoon and made sure to get a good chunk of peanut butter cup, which was Hotch’s favourite. “Come on then, Aaron,” he made sure to draw out the older man’s surname which sounded strange but familiar. It had been a while since he’d called Aaron by his first name. “Open up.” He kept his eyes firmly trained on the dark smouldering ones in front of him and he was pleased to see a slight fire of lust in them when he teased him slightly with the spoon. It felt as if everyone in the whole restaurant had fallen silent and that the whole world was focused on this exchange. Aaron couldn’t stop himself to responding to that languid confident look in Spencer’s eyes. The behaviour was engrained in him and he sucked the ice cream off the spoon letting his eyes slide closed like he always would when he licked that first droplet of pre-cum off Spencer’s cock. He hoped that only he heard the slight groan that rumbled from Spencer’s throat and he pulled back quickly as Rossi coughed breaking the moment. Everyone was looking slightly uncomfortable and Beth clearly had no idea what she missing about the subtext to this exchange. If she didn’t know better about Aaron’s sexual orientation then she would have suspected that Aaron and this strange, gangly boy had a history but she suspected that it was more likely that Aaron would have had something with JJ. The pretty blonde looked a little like the photos that she had seen of Aaron’s ex-wife.
Silence reigned until Rossi leaned across the table towards Spencer, “Can I have some too, Reid?” He opened his mouth with a smile.
“Sure Rossi,” Reid smirked, “you gotta practice for the old age home.”
Rossi slammed his mouth shut at that and Morgan guffawed slapping the young man on the back. Everyone was laughing but Jack just looked happily between Spencer and his Dad. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened but he hoped that maybe Spencer would come by for a sleepover with his Dad pretty soon.