Debates and Discussions [FanFic]
Title: Debates and Discussions
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Hotch, adult!Jack
Rating: FRT
Summary: A now grown Jack discusses his future with his father
Notes: This is part of my "20 to Life" AU set 20 years in the future from the BAU now. Season 5 spoilers possible!
Jack had promised his mother he’d return to stay at his parent’s home at least until the end of Matthew and Eva’s school year so, should any issues arise there, someone would be available to take charge if their parents were unavailable. This wasn’t a problem for him; even when he’d moved out to live on his own it wasn’t more than a half-hour’s drive from all of them. Jack was always something of a homebody who preferred not to move to far from his family.
He stepped quietly into the house, making sure the alarm was set and secure before it went off and awoke the household. He pulled off his coat and hung it up before heading through the kitchen and dinning room into the living room. He smiled when he got there. “Mom have you wait up for me?”
“Of course not,” Hotch insisted with a vague smile as he looked over from the game playing on the screen.
Jack nodded some then smiled, “You know that’s a game from this past weekend, right?”
Hotch simply looked at his son a moment, then replied, “Is it?” He began to laugh, “Okay, fine, you caught me. Well, you caught your mother, technically.” The young man gave a small chuckle and went to sit on the section of the couch closest to his father’s preferred chair. “So, how was the exhibit?” Hotch asked, “That’s what it was, right? A new exhibit at the art museum?”
“Yeah, that’s what it was,” Jack nodded some, then smiled some to himself as he recalled the time he spent with Cassidy afterwards, “It was good…interesting I think art is a really great way to understand a person, you know? Understand their inner-workings and maybe even their mental state at the time the piece was made. Don’t you agree?”
“Sometimes artwork is just artwork.”
Jack frowned, “You don’t believe that.” He didn’t have any proof, but he knew it deep down…after all his father had been a profiler, was still a profiler at heart, and to a profiler everything had potential for a deeper meaning, especially a creation. “You just don’t want me bringing up that subject again.” That subject of his desire to become a profiler.
Hotch sighed some and confessed, “No, I don’t.” Because he didn’t want to fight with his son…well, debate heatedly. He never really fought with his children; never yelled, swore, or even glared all that much. A stern look and heated debate was as far as it went and, when frazzled and feeling his control over his anger slipping, Hotch let their mother handle things.
“Dad, I wanna join the Academy in the fall.”
“I thought we discussed this,” it wasn’t a question, not for Hotch, “you’re going to law school.”
“No, you discussed, I listened,” Jack countered with the same firmness that his father generally had, but something he only used on issues he felt very strongly on. “Dad, I want to, and can, do the job of an agent. Of a profiler.”
“It’s not a matter of your abilities, Jack, you know that.”
“I do?”
Hotch frowned some himself and moved to shift up in his chair, lean towards the young man a bit, “Jack, you can do whatever you want, whatever you set your mind to, but…” he tried to think of the right words to get Jack to understand why he wasn’t in favor of his son following in his footsteps, “you’ll never fully understand the sacrifices that must be made, the risks you take, as an agent until you become one and, by then, it’s too late.”
“I don’t want to be a lawyer, Dad. I don’t want to be the one cleaning up after the criminals, I want to be the one stopping them.” Like his father.
“It’s late,” Hotch moved to get out of his chair, “I have some meetings in the morning and, if it’s alright, your mother and I would really appreciate you driving Matt and Eva to school in the morning.”
Jack gave a defeated look, “Yeah, fine.”
“I love you, Jack, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,’ the young man slunk into the couch some. That seemed to be part of the problem. Jack knew that his dad was just looking out for him, that he felt Jack being a lawyer would be safer, but that simply wasn’t where Jack’s heart was.
“Night kiddo.”
“Night Dad.”
***
Jack stayed in the living room , mindlessly watching the rest of the game, biding time until he was sure his father would be asleep, before he turned off the TV and headed upstairs to his old room. He couldn’t help but smile just a touch at the fact that, even after years of living away from home, it hadn’t really changed.
It was just the appropriate amount of disorganized, not a mess but with posters and a number of shelves filled almost to capacity with various awards he’d won and knick-knacks his parents and others in the BAU had given him on their trips while working cases. The only thing that had changed with any consistency was the number of awards that went up and the sheets that, Jack believed, his mother washed every week whether anyone slept in the bed or not.
He changed into sweats for sleepwear and slipped into his childhood bed. Jack refused to let his father’s stubbornness on the subject of his future keep him from sleep…but a text from his best friend, Henry, did the trick.
Hang this weekend?
Sure.
How was date?
No date. Exhibit.
Hot chick there?
Yeah.
Date!! ;)
Haha, tired, night.
Call 2morrow?
Yeah.
Cool
Jack didn’t see the need to reply and so set his cell on his bedside table and quickly allowed his exhaustion to take him with a smile at the thought Henry LaMontagne had put in his head…a date with Cassidy. A real, official, one. …Now if he could only have Henry’s overall boldness rub off on him and he’d give her a call to ask for one.
"Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power - a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment." ~ Marsha Sinetar
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Hotch, adult!Jack
Rating: FRT
Summary: A now grown Jack discusses his future with his father
Notes: This is part of my "20 to Life" AU set 20 years in the future from the BAU now. Season 5 spoilers possible!
Jack had promised his mother he’d return to stay at his parent’s home at least until the end of Matthew and Eva’s school year so, should any issues arise there, someone would be available to take charge if their parents were unavailable. This wasn’t a problem for him; even when he’d moved out to live on his own it wasn’t more than a half-hour’s drive from all of them. Jack was always something of a homebody who preferred not to move to far from his family.
He stepped quietly into the house, making sure the alarm was set and secure before it went off and awoke the household. He pulled off his coat and hung it up before heading through the kitchen and dinning room into the living room. He smiled when he got there. “Mom have you wait up for me?”
“Of course not,” Hotch insisted with a vague smile as he looked over from the game playing on the screen.
Jack nodded some then smiled, “You know that’s a game from this past weekend, right?”
Hotch simply looked at his son a moment, then replied, “Is it?” He began to laugh, “Okay, fine, you caught me. Well, you caught your mother, technically.” The young man gave a small chuckle and went to sit on the section of the couch closest to his father’s preferred chair. “So, how was the exhibit?” Hotch asked, “That’s what it was, right? A new exhibit at the art museum?”
“Yeah, that’s what it was,” Jack nodded some, then smiled some to himself as he recalled the time he spent with Cassidy afterwards, “It was good…interesting I think art is a really great way to understand a person, you know? Understand their inner-workings and maybe even their mental state at the time the piece was made. Don’t you agree?”
“Sometimes artwork is just artwork.”
Jack frowned, “You don’t believe that.” He didn’t have any proof, but he knew it deep down…after all his father had been a profiler, was still a profiler at heart, and to a profiler everything had potential for a deeper meaning, especially a creation. “You just don’t want me bringing up that subject again.” That subject of his desire to become a profiler.
Hotch sighed some and confessed, “No, I don’t.” Because he didn’t want to fight with his son…well, debate heatedly. He never really fought with his children; never yelled, swore, or even glared all that much. A stern look and heated debate was as far as it went and, when frazzled and feeling his control over his anger slipping, Hotch let their mother handle things.
“Dad, I wanna join the Academy in the fall.”
“I thought we discussed this,” it wasn’t a question, not for Hotch, “you’re going to law school.”
“No, you discussed, I listened,” Jack countered with the same firmness that his father generally had, but something he only used on issues he felt very strongly on. “Dad, I want to, and can, do the job of an agent. Of a profiler.”
“It’s not a matter of your abilities, Jack, you know that.”
“I do?”
Hotch frowned some himself and moved to shift up in his chair, lean towards the young man a bit, “Jack, you can do whatever you want, whatever you set your mind to, but…” he tried to think of the right words to get Jack to understand why he wasn’t in favor of his son following in his footsteps, “you’ll never fully understand the sacrifices that must be made, the risks you take, as an agent until you become one and, by then, it’s too late.”
“I don’t want to be a lawyer, Dad. I don’t want to be the one cleaning up after the criminals, I want to be the one stopping them.” Like his father.
“It’s late,” Hotch moved to get out of his chair, “I have some meetings in the morning and, if it’s alright, your mother and I would really appreciate you driving Matt and Eva to school in the morning.”
Jack gave a defeated look, “Yeah, fine.”
“I love you, Jack, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,’ the young man slunk into the couch some. That seemed to be part of the problem. Jack knew that his dad was just looking out for him, that he felt Jack being a lawyer would be safer, but that simply wasn’t where Jack’s heart was.
“Night kiddo.”
“Night Dad.”
***
Jack stayed in the living room , mindlessly watching the rest of the game, biding time until he was sure his father would be asleep, before he turned off the TV and headed upstairs to his old room. He couldn’t help but smile just a touch at the fact that, even after years of living away from home, it hadn’t really changed.
It was just the appropriate amount of disorganized, not a mess but with posters and a number of shelves filled almost to capacity with various awards he’d won and knick-knacks his parents and others in the BAU had given him on their trips while working cases. The only thing that had changed with any consistency was the number of awards that went up and the sheets that, Jack believed, his mother washed every week whether anyone slept in the bed or not.
He changed into sweats for sleepwear and slipped into his childhood bed. Jack refused to let his father’s stubbornness on the subject of his future keep him from sleep…but a text from his best friend, Henry, did the trick.
Hang this weekend?
Sure.
How was date?
No date. Exhibit.
Hot chick there?
Yeah.
Date!! ;)
Haha, tired, night.
Call 2morrow?
Yeah.
Cool
Jack didn’t see the need to reply and so set his cell on his bedside table and quickly allowed his exhaustion to take him with a smile at the thought Henry LaMontagne had put in his head…a date with Cassidy. A real, official, one. …Now if he could only have Henry’s overall boldness rub off on him and he’d give her a call to ask for one.
"Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power - a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment." ~ Marsha Sinetar