Fic: Homecoming, Chapter 1/2 (Criminal Minds, Hotch / Chad)
Title: Homecoming, Chapter 1/2
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Criminal Minds Main List
The first thing Hotch noticed when he walked through the front door was singing. Very bad singing in stereo. He followed the voices to the living room, shedding his coat to the rack on the way. The room was dark except the light coming from the TV screen. Jack and Chad were sitting on the floor, surrounded by a mountain of cushions and blankets, singing along to the cartoon rolling on the screen.
“Hey.”
“Daddy.” Jack greeted with a wide grin and leaped up. He tackled Hotch`s leg and hugged it till Hotch lifted him up for a decent hug. “We got a movie night!”
“I could hear that. What are we watching?”
“That.” Jack pointed at the screen.
“Dumbo?”
“No.”
“Peter Pan?”
“No.”
“Hoccotus-Pontus?”
“Hucipuntas!”
“Pocahontas.” Chad corrected. “And if you wanna watch the rest of it, get back here. They’re gonna start singing again.”
Jack started bouncing and Hotch let him down. He wrapped himself into a furry blanket while Chad pulled Hotch out of the living room and into the kitchen. As soon as they were out of Jack’s sight, he pinned Hotch to the wall and kissed him.
“Welcome back.”
“Is something going on?”
“Why?”
“You’re not usually shy about kissing in front of Jack, I’m the nervous one.”
“You’ve been away for over a week, you can’t expect me to control myself enough to stay PG.” Chad chuckled and let go. “You want popcorn?”
“Popcorn and a cartoon… after the case we had that sounds very good.” Hotch loosened his tie while Chad shoved a bag of popcorn into the microwave. “Did something happen? Hailey was supposed to have him till tomorrow.”
“She’s in bed with a cold. She didn’t want him to catch it, so she asked if I could come and get him. I think she tried to call the office first, and when you weren’t there she guessed you were on a job.”
“When did she call?”
“Couple hours ago. I didn’t know when you were coming back.”
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay, we had a lot of fun. There was a hockey match on TV and then we put on the movie.”
“If he wants hockey gear for Christmas, I’ll blame you for that.”
“All boys like sports, especially one where most of the players are missing half their teeth. Coffee?”
“No, I want to have a good night sleep.” Hotch eyed Chad suspiciously. “Did you have something special planned for today?”
“No, why?”
“Well… since when do you wear turtlenecks?”
“You don’t like the style?” Chad grinned and glanced down at the snug red turtleneck that did very little to hide the body inside it. “I’m planning to take a side job as a librarian.”
“Librarians don’t look like that. This is probably the fourth time I’ve seen you completely covered outside of the office.”
“Hey, I’m always decent!”
“Yeah, but you can make a turtleneck look indecent.”
“It covers everything.” Chad pulled the popcorn from the microwave. “I was talking at a career day at school, someone I knew ages ago guilt tripped me so hard that I couldn’t say no.”
“Why couldn’t he do it himself?”
“She is working as a strategic designer for pest control company. She couldn’t find any child friendly way to say that she designs systems to kill small animals, so she decided to recruit someone else.”
“Did you mention that you’ve been trained to kill?”
“We’re trained to use weapons, hand to hand combat and so on, and how to use force if absolutely necessary. That is not training to kill.”
“True. So why couldn’t you wear your normal clothes?”
“She gave me strict instructions about it. No button-down shirts, no buttons because kids can get distracted, no suits because they can scare kids, no T-shirts because the kids will start complaining about their own school uniforms-”
“How long is the list?”
“About two pages. This was the most kid friendly thing I could find.”
“And you just couldn’t say no.” Hotch chuckled. “How did it go?”
“They warmed up to me when I showed my badge. They’re like birds, every shiny little trinket is fascinating. And I can’t exactly say no when my ex asks me to do that.”
“She was your ex?”
“Yeah, and wipe that look off your face. She’s safely married and has two kids, PTA member and everything. That’s why they lassoed her to get people for their career day.”
“I’ve never been asked to talk about my job.”
“Maybe your job’s not that child friendly. Don’t take it personally.”
“I don’t. This job causes enough traumas and neurosis for those who do it, I don’t want to spread it any wider than necessary.”
“You look like you wanna talk about it.”
“My traumas and neurosis?”
“The case.”
“No.” Hotch sighed and grabbed a handful of hot popcorns. “I thought we would have a quiet night and get a good rest and pick Jack up from Hailey in the morning. Not that I’m complaining, but Jack takes a lot of energy.”
“I got it under control. Besides, I think he’s coming down with something too, he’s been churning snot up and down for a while.”
“Did you take his temperature?”
“No, he didn’t feel that warm. I thought we’d let him sleep the night and see how he’s in the morning.”
“Probably a good idea.” Hotch agreed. “Thanks.”
“No problem. You don’t get that many chances to hear phlegm-covered rendition of Colours of the Wind.”
Chapter 2/2