Airing Aaron (HotchxOC)

Lawyers of Consequence.

Work was barely over for the day when the BAU collapsed into their chairs and beds at home. It was another long Monday when their legs all gave way, and they happily welcomed the warm walls of their homes. Hotch, much to his own surprise, was home earlier than usual, and Jess was in the middle of dinner when he walked in. 'Not that busy today?' She asked jokingly as he stepped into the kitchen, and she noticed him tiredly watching Jack help her cook.

'I wish. I just thought I could get some paperwork done at home so I could put Jack to bed,' Hotch answered, but Jack shook his head immediately. 'What? You don't want to sleep all the time?' Hotch asked as he walked up to him and gave his son a big hug which was returned. Jess soon gave him the command to set the table up, and he quietly obeyed.

It had been four months since Alessandra last spoke to him, and he chickened out. A third of the year was lost without her. At first, the team noticed his immediate withdrawal from them, and then they watched as he slowly went back to working with them like before. The only difference was that he smiled less, and he got stressed more often.

Hope had sprung up in Hotch's heart at seeing her when their monthly review was delivered, but Donald, a training legal aid walked in, and he couldn't have been much different from Alessandra. Rossi had made comments from time to time about her absence, but the team spoke as if there wasn't much of a change. To begin with, she still went out with the team if they ever asked her to, and she knew Hotch wouldn't be there. But soon he learnt what she was doing and even when he acted like he wouldn't go, she somehow knew he would be there and left before he even arrived.

Hotch thought she had an inside man, but he couldn't be sure of who it was. Rossi was in the clear, and the rest of the team seemed to be unaware of their relationship, but someone was warning her. Even though the team said that they hadn't once mentioned his last-minute promise to come down, she was still getting away. And then, one day, he found out Mariah had pieced together the details of their relationship, and she was covering for Alessandra.

Selfish and predatorial. The two words Hotch would use to describe his behaviour when Alessandra was involved, she gave him a choice, and he made his bed. But then, he was throwing his toys out of his pram when he was forced to sleep in the bed he made. The analogy was growing more complicated as the time passed, but he didn't care because there were no words to truly explain his feelings and actions.

Just as Hotch was lost in his mind, moping around, Jess emerged with dinner, and they sat together for ten minutes when his phone rang. It was JJ. 'Hey, we've got a case. It's in Colorado. I've already told the team, and they are on their way. We take off in an hour. I've sent you the details,' JJ sprung on him, and the smile he was wearing fell. A case as rushed as that wasn't going to be one of the easier ones.

When on board, they started their profile, bouncing ideas off one another. The jet was still refuelling, so they waited patiently for them to be done. And they were a pilot down, so they had to wait for them to arrive too, but the late hour meant they wanted to get as much sleep as they could before landing. Judging by the time, they wouldn't land until gone midnight, but they needed to give the police advice and talk to the news before heading to bed and starting the next day.

The fuel was soon done, and moments later, the pilot arrived, and they got ready to set off. But as the door closed, they realised that someone else was there. Ginger hair was curled and left to sit around her face. For the first time since meeting her, she wore a full face of makeup, and the team suddenly realised why Anderson commented on how she was the unspoken, unanimously voted greatest 'milf' of the building. JJ was at first offended it wasn't her, but she then felt glad that she had lost out to such a great friend. When Reid had heard what milf meant, he went silent and didn't like the idea at all, but everyone else seemed unbothered, so he didn't argue with them.