Hurry Up, Make Your Choice [FanFic]
Title: Hurry Up, Make Your Choice
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Hotch/Prentiss, adult!Jack, adult!Henry
Rating: FRT
Summary: Hotch and Emily discuss Jack's future and Jack and Henry catch up some
Notes: This is part of my "20 to Life" AU set 20 years in the future from the BAU now, takes place directly after Debates and Discussions. Season 5 spoilers possible!
Over the years the grays had crept up from the tips of his sideburns into his head of hair that, by now, he was just happy was full and dark enough that he didn’t look ancient. Of course Hotch feared it’d be white soon enough if Jack didn’t let up on this profiler business. “He’s home,” the man announced as he stepped into the main bedroom where his wife was still up reading her favorite Vonnegut book.
Emily looked up from it with a small smile, “Oh good. Did he have fun?”
“It would seem so.”
“He didn’t talk about it?”
“Only in how it related to profiling,” Hotch sighed as he moved to slip under the sheets next to his wife of almost 15 years.
Emily couldn’t help but smile a touch, “He wants to be like his dad, he always has.”
“In my opinion he can be a lawyer if that’s what he wants. It’s a much safer choice,” Hotch replied stubbornly.
“And you were happy as a lawyer?”
“I was fine.”
Fine always meant the same thing to Hotch - terrible but never going to admit it. Emily saved her place and set the book aside before sitting up some, “You hated it, Aaron. Yes, maybe you were in a safer profession then, but it bored and frustrated you and I’m pretty sure it’d do the same for Jack.”
“But you don’t disagree, it’d be the safer move for Jack,” Hotch pointed out.
“Whether it would be or not isn’t the point, Aaron, so how about you tell me what is the point? Why are you standing in his way?” Hotch was always encouraging and supportive; it wasn’t like him to try and prevent any of his children from following their dreams, even the silly or potentially dangerous ones.
“I’m not standing in his way, Emily, not really. And I certainly won’t stop him if he goes ahead and joins the Academy anyway.” Hotch stated honestly. He wouldn’t like it, he wouldn’t pull strings or go out of the way to help his son, but he wouldn’t stop Jack from getting into the FBI either.
“You have to know how much your opinion, how you feel, and what you want, means to Jack. He worships you, he needs you.”
“I know that, Emily,” Hotch assured her. “And that’s part of my worry, that Jack’s too dependent on me still.” Something he’d acknowledge was likely his own doing, however unintentional. Jack had been his first born and, after losing the boy’s mother, he’d been terrified of losing the boy too…Hotch imagined, even if not obvious, the boy felt that and continued to stay close even after others his age began to pull away and grow independent. “He won’t have me if he joins the FBI, Emily. He won’t have either of us and we won’t be able to get to him a great deal of the time either. You know as well as I do that agents make life and death decisions, not just for themselves but of those around them.”
“Okay,” the woman replied simply as encouragement.
“And it feels like Jack’s asking permission to be an agent, not saying that’s what he’ll be doing. If he’s sure then he should be able to do it, he will do it, whether I give him my blessings or not.”
Emily couldn’t help but frown a touch, “So this is a test then?”
“No, not exactly,” Hotch frowned some himself, “well, maybe. I just…If Jack really wants to be a profiler, if he’s truly determined, he needs to get used to standing completely on his own, Emily.” He sat up some, “And he needs to know that I don’t have to agree with him on every decision. It needs to be so that, even if those close to him don’t agree, that won’t sway, or even prolong, his decision.” Otherwise it could lead to some major potential disasters if the young man were an agent. Hotch loved his son but, in order for him to be in the FBI, to be an agent, he needed to be able to make crucial decisions for himself and others quickly, without debate.
Emily nodded her understanding. It made sense; there were many times on their job that life and death decisions had to be made immediately and with complete conviction. “Then why not just tell him that, Aaron?”
“Because then he’ll know what I’m doing, take it as approval of his choice in being an agent, which it isn’t exactly, and then it defeats the entire purpose.” Hotch then smiled a little at her, “That and, well, if Jack eventually backs down and goes along with becoming a lawyer my hair might be able to retain the little blackness it has left.”
Emily laughed some, “But the grays make you look distinguished.” She began to play some with the tips of his hair, “Men are lucky that way, they get distinguished while women just get old.”
“You’ll never get old, Emily,” Hotch smiled more before moving to give her a kiss, “not to me.”
***
“Well why do ya keep askin’ him then?” Henry asked his friend more than a little annoyed that this was still an issue they were talking about; that Jack hadn’t already started to file the application papers to the academy like Henry could’ve sworn he was going to do after the last time they hung out.
“I don’t know,” Jack confessed with a shrug before taking a sip of his cola, “I just…I wanna know he’s okay with it.”
“Who cares if he is?” Henry nearly exclaimed before leaning back in his seat, “You think I asked Mommy and Daddy’s permission to get the DJ-ing job at college? Think I’ll ask them if they approve of my plans to DJ in New York after I graduate?” The twenty-year-old shook his head, “No. Because it’s not their life, it’s mine.”
“So you don’t care at all what your parents think?”
“Of course I do, Jack, but I don’t ask permission or let what they think rule out what I do.” Henry knew Jack was “the good kid”, even in a group of kids that were all fairly well-behaved, but the guy was almost halfway through his twenties and it was time to cut those proverbial apron strings that still linked him to his parents…especially his father.
Jack frowned some in thought but said nothing, choosing instead to sip more of his drink. He knew Henry was right deep down, but facts and feelings didn’t always match up. The fact was Jack needed to feel his father was okay with his decision before moving ahead on it and he didn’t yet. He was sure, eventually, he’d get over that need, but he wasn’t sure it’d be before his decision would be made for him by the default of time or not.
“Look, whatever,” Henry pulled Jack back from his thoughts as he moved to toss his empty bottle in the trash a few feet away before going to lean forward with a slightly wicked grin, “Tell me about the date with Hot Chick.”
“It wasn’t a date,” the other man smiled a little awkwardly as he tried not to blush, “And her name is Cassidy Keel, not Hot Chick.”
“She’s an artist, right?” Henry simply moved on, he wanted to get to the good stuff.
“Yeah, she is. It was some of her art being exhibited actually and that was how, I think, she got me into its opening night.”
“So what’s the art like?”
Jack paused for sometime before answering, “…Different.”
“Bad?” Henry chuckled some.
“No, not bad, just different.” He watched his friend’s smile grow before Jack took a breath, “Okay, maybe it’s a little dark.”
“Dark?”
“The exhibit’s suggested rating is adult.”
“Dark and adult, huh?” Henry thought a moment, “So…not sexual then, huh?”
“Well not for a normal person, probably not.” The two men shared a small, almost guilty, smile as they enjoyed a bit of dark humor before moving on, “The art style’s defined as Darkism, it’s all about…” he trailed off some, still unsure how to put it.
“Dark shit?” Henry offered, “Sex, violence, and general mayhem all mixed in together?”
“Yeah,” Jack smiled, “pretty much.”
“It seems a popular theme lately,” Henry noted with a shrug and a face that indicated he wasn’t completely sure why himself. Jack nodded before getting up to put his now empty bottle in the recycle container. When he returned his friend continued, “She a Goth?”
“No, just an artist who happens to make dark pieces, I think. Hers were actually pretty tame compared to most others in there.”
“And the best too, I bet,” Henry teased with a smirk before continuing, “Texted late last night.”
Jack’s blush threatened to return, “And?”
“Come on, Jack, give it up.”
“What?”
“After the opening…you get any?”
Jack rolled his eyes as he laughed, “Absolutely not.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.” He wasn’t. ”She, uh, she did kiss my neck though.”
Henry gave a slightly surprised look, then furrowed his brows some, “That’s new.” He smiled, “I like it. She sounds like a girl who could shake ya up, which is just what you need.” Among other things Henry was too much of a friend to mention at the moment. “So, you got her number right?”
“Of course.”
“Then call her.”
“Isn’t it, um, a little early to be doing that?”
“Not for you,” Henry smirked once more, “you need to do it before you lose your nerve.”
“I won’t lose my nerve,” Jack insisted, though it was possible he would.
Henry smiled some and stretched out to grab Jack’s cell from off the table, “Yes, you will.” He searched his bud’s address book and found the woman’s number before going to dial it and handing it back, “It’s ringing.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did,” Henry smiled wide and a little wickedly, “you better answer.”
“No.”
“You have to!” Henry started to laugh some.
Jack went to hang up instead, but stalled in thought before he heard a voice come through the speaker. “Hello?” the female voice asked for the second time as Jack scrambled to get the phone to his ear.
“Uh, hello?” Jack replied almost dumbly as Henry held back his laughter, “Cassidy?”
“Yes.”
“It’s, uh…it’s Jack. Jack Hotchner. From last night.”
Cassidy smiled some as she stepped away from her latest piece, “I remember you, Jack.”
“Oh, right,” Jack blushed, much to the amusement of his friend sitting across the table, “So, uh, I was wondering, maybe, if you weren’t busy sometime, you might, uh -“
“How about you come pick me up at the museum tonight after it closes?” Cassidy cut in, knowing exactly what he wanted to ask her and not even having to think about her answer.
Jack’s face lit up and Henry excitedly gave a thumbs-up with a questioning look, “Yeah, okay, sure, I can do that,” he replied to the woman on the other line as he nodded and returned the thumbs-up to Henry to indicate, yes, he was getting a date.
“Great, see you then,” Cassidy replied with a slightly bigger-than-normal smile, “later Jack.” She then hung up and went back to her artwork.
“Now that’s how it’s done!” Henry cheered once he was sure Jack was off the phone, offering his hand in a shake the two had shared since their youth. “Glad I made the call?”
Jack was blushing fully now, he had a smile that beamed and caused his dimples to cut deep into his cheeks, and his heart was racing wonderfully. He couldn’t be happier than he was in this moment, “Glad I didn’t hang up!” Jack confessed with a laugh that Henry joined him in.
"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." ~ Andy Warhol
Author: Tooks
Pairing: Hotch/Prentiss, adult!Jack, adult!Henry
Rating: FRT
Summary: Hotch and Emily discuss Jack's future and Jack and Henry catch up some
Notes: This is part of my "20 to Life" AU set 20 years in the future from the BAU now, takes place directly after Debates and Discussions. Season 5 spoilers possible!
Over the years the grays had crept up from the tips of his sideburns into his head of hair that, by now, he was just happy was full and dark enough that he didn’t look ancient. Of course Hotch feared it’d be white soon enough if Jack didn’t let up on this profiler business. “He’s home,” the man announced as he stepped into the main bedroom where his wife was still up reading her favorite Vonnegut book.
Emily looked up from it with a small smile, “Oh good. Did he have fun?”
“It would seem so.”
“He didn’t talk about it?”
“Only in how it related to profiling,” Hotch sighed as he moved to slip under the sheets next to his wife of almost 15 years.
Emily couldn’t help but smile a touch, “He wants to be like his dad, he always has.”
“In my opinion he can be a lawyer if that’s what he wants. It’s a much safer choice,” Hotch replied stubbornly.
“And you were happy as a lawyer?”
“I was fine.”
Fine always meant the same thing to Hotch - terrible but never going to admit it. Emily saved her place and set the book aside before sitting up some, “You hated it, Aaron. Yes, maybe you were in a safer profession then, but it bored and frustrated you and I’m pretty sure it’d do the same for Jack.”
“But you don’t disagree, it’d be the safer move for Jack,” Hotch pointed out.
“Whether it would be or not isn’t the point, Aaron, so how about you tell me what is the point? Why are you standing in his way?” Hotch was always encouraging and supportive; it wasn’t like him to try and prevent any of his children from following their dreams, even the silly or potentially dangerous ones.
“I’m not standing in his way, Emily, not really. And I certainly won’t stop him if he goes ahead and joins the Academy anyway.” Hotch stated honestly. He wouldn’t like it, he wouldn’t pull strings or go out of the way to help his son, but he wouldn’t stop Jack from getting into the FBI either.
“You have to know how much your opinion, how you feel, and what you want, means to Jack. He worships you, he needs you.”
“I know that, Emily,” Hotch assured her. “And that’s part of my worry, that Jack’s too dependent on me still.” Something he’d acknowledge was likely his own doing, however unintentional. Jack had been his first born and, after losing the boy’s mother, he’d been terrified of losing the boy too…Hotch imagined, even if not obvious, the boy felt that and continued to stay close even after others his age began to pull away and grow independent. “He won’t have me if he joins the FBI, Emily. He won’t have either of us and we won’t be able to get to him a great deal of the time either. You know as well as I do that agents make life and death decisions, not just for themselves but of those around them.”
“Okay,” the woman replied simply as encouragement.
“And it feels like Jack’s asking permission to be an agent, not saying that’s what he’ll be doing. If he’s sure then he should be able to do it, he will do it, whether I give him my blessings or not.”
Emily couldn’t help but frown a touch, “So this is a test then?”
“No, not exactly,” Hotch frowned some himself, “well, maybe. I just…If Jack really wants to be a profiler, if he’s truly determined, he needs to get used to standing completely on his own, Emily.” He sat up some, “And he needs to know that I don’t have to agree with him on every decision. It needs to be so that, even if those close to him don’t agree, that won’t sway, or even prolong, his decision.” Otherwise it could lead to some major potential disasters if the young man were an agent. Hotch loved his son but, in order for him to be in the FBI, to be an agent, he needed to be able to make crucial decisions for himself and others quickly, without debate.
Emily nodded her understanding. It made sense; there were many times on their job that life and death decisions had to be made immediately and with complete conviction. “Then why not just tell him that, Aaron?”
“Because then he’ll know what I’m doing, take it as approval of his choice in being an agent, which it isn’t exactly, and then it defeats the entire purpose.” Hotch then smiled a little at her, “That and, well, if Jack eventually backs down and goes along with becoming a lawyer my hair might be able to retain the little blackness it has left.”
Emily laughed some, “But the grays make you look distinguished.” She began to play some with the tips of his hair, “Men are lucky that way, they get distinguished while women just get old.”
“You’ll never get old, Emily,” Hotch smiled more before moving to give her a kiss, “not to me.”
***
“Well why do ya keep askin’ him then?” Henry asked his friend more than a little annoyed that this was still an issue they were talking about; that Jack hadn’t already started to file the application papers to the academy like Henry could’ve sworn he was going to do after the last time they hung out.
“I don’t know,” Jack confessed with a shrug before taking a sip of his cola, “I just…I wanna know he’s okay with it.”
“Who cares if he is?” Henry nearly exclaimed before leaning back in his seat, “You think I asked Mommy and Daddy’s permission to get the DJ-ing job at college? Think I’ll ask them if they approve of my plans to DJ in New York after I graduate?” The twenty-year-old shook his head, “No. Because it’s not their life, it’s mine.”
“So you don’t care at all what your parents think?”
“Of course I do, Jack, but I don’t ask permission or let what they think rule out what I do.” Henry knew Jack was “the good kid”, even in a group of kids that were all fairly well-behaved, but the guy was almost halfway through his twenties and it was time to cut those proverbial apron strings that still linked him to his parents…especially his father.
Jack frowned some in thought but said nothing, choosing instead to sip more of his drink. He knew Henry was right deep down, but facts and feelings didn’t always match up. The fact was Jack needed to feel his father was okay with his decision before moving ahead on it and he didn’t yet. He was sure, eventually, he’d get over that need, but he wasn’t sure it’d be before his decision would be made for him by the default of time or not.
“Look, whatever,” Henry pulled Jack back from his thoughts as he moved to toss his empty bottle in the trash a few feet away before going to lean forward with a slightly wicked grin, “Tell me about the date with Hot Chick.”
“It wasn’t a date,” the other man smiled a little awkwardly as he tried not to blush, “And her name is Cassidy Keel, not Hot Chick.”
“She’s an artist, right?” Henry simply moved on, he wanted to get to the good stuff.
“Yeah, she is. It was some of her art being exhibited actually and that was how, I think, she got me into its opening night.”
“So what’s the art like?”
Jack paused for sometime before answering, “…Different.”
“Bad?” Henry chuckled some.
“No, not bad, just different.” He watched his friend’s smile grow before Jack took a breath, “Okay, maybe it’s a little dark.”
“Dark?”
“The exhibit’s suggested rating is adult.”
“Dark and adult, huh?” Henry thought a moment, “So…not sexual then, huh?”
“Well not for a normal person, probably not.” The two men shared a small, almost guilty, smile as they enjoyed a bit of dark humor before moving on, “The art style’s defined as Darkism, it’s all about…” he trailed off some, still unsure how to put it.
“Dark shit?” Henry offered, “Sex, violence, and general mayhem all mixed in together?”
“Yeah,” Jack smiled, “pretty much.”
“It seems a popular theme lately,” Henry noted with a shrug and a face that indicated he wasn’t completely sure why himself. Jack nodded before getting up to put his now empty bottle in the recycle container. When he returned his friend continued, “She a Goth?”
“No, just an artist who happens to make dark pieces, I think. Hers were actually pretty tame compared to most others in there.”
“And the best too, I bet,” Henry teased with a smirk before continuing, “Texted late last night.”
Jack’s blush threatened to return, “And?”
“Come on, Jack, give it up.”
“What?”
“After the opening…you get any?”
Jack rolled his eyes as he laughed, “Absolutely not.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.” He wasn’t. ”She, uh, she did kiss my neck though.”
Henry gave a slightly surprised look, then furrowed his brows some, “That’s new.” He smiled, “I like it. She sounds like a girl who could shake ya up, which is just what you need.” Among other things Henry was too much of a friend to mention at the moment. “So, you got her number right?”
“Of course.”
“Then call her.”
“Isn’t it, um, a little early to be doing that?”
“Not for you,” Henry smirked once more, “you need to do it before you lose your nerve.”
“I won’t lose my nerve,” Jack insisted, though it was possible he would.
Henry smiled some and stretched out to grab Jack’s cell from off the table, “Yes, you will.” He searched his bud’s address book and found the woman’s number before going to dial it and handing it back, “It’s ringing.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did,” Henry smiled wide and a little wickedly, “you better answer.”
“No.”
“You have to!” Henry started to laugh some.
Jack went to hang up instead, but stalled in thought before he heard a voice come through the speaker. “Hello?” the female voice asked for the second time as Jack scrambled to get the phone to his ear.
“Uh, hello?” Jack replied almost dumbly as Henry held back his laughter, “Cassidy?”
“Yes.”
“It’s, uh…it’s Jack. Jack Hotchner. From last night.”
Cassidy smiled some as she stepped away from her latest piece, “I remember you, Jack.”
“Oh, right,” Jack blushed, much to the amusement of his friend sitting across the table, “So, uh, I was wondering, maybe, if you weren’t busy sometime, you might, uh -“
“How about you come pick me up at the museum tonight after it closes?” Cassidy cut in, knowing exactly what he wanted to ask her and not even having to think about her answer.
Jack’s face lit up and Henry excitedly gave a thumbs-up with a questioning look, “Yeah, okay, sure, I can do that,” he replied to the woman on the other line as he nodded and returned the thumbs-up to Henry to indicate, yes, he was getting a date.
“Great, see you then,” Cassidy replied with a slightly bigger-than-normal smile, “later Jack.” She then hung up and went back to her artwork.
“Now that’s how it’s done!” Henry cheered once he was sure Jack was off the phone, offering his hand in a shake the two had shared since their youth. “Glad I made the call?”
Jack was blushing fully now, he had a smile that beamed and caused his dimples to cut deep into his cheeks, and his heart was racing wonderfully. He couldn’t be happier than he was in this moment, “Glad I didn’t hang up!” Jack confessed with a laugh that Henry joined him in.
"They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." ~ Andy Warhol