Anonymous Caretakers - Aaron Hotchner

07. Cookies

Aaron had a suspiciously quiet day at work. After being away for four days to catch a killer, the team finally arrived back in DC. Now it was the third day without a case, and he seriously considered that their phones were broken. The current record was four days without a case, and that was because Jason Gideon accidentally silenced the phones for two days. To this day, nobody knew how they didn't notice it. All he could do now was paperwork, but because of Reid, they were almost finished with that. 

So Aaron just sat in his office doing nothing, trying to figure out what to do. He thought about texting Samantha, but there was no reason to. They answered their daily job question already.

[Sam:] Morningg

[Sam:] So, I came up with the question. Is your job physical? Like do you have to use your body?

[You:] Partially

[Sam:] Partially? What kind of answer is that?

[You:] Simple. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. What's your answer?

[Sam:] My answer is yes.

[You:] Surprising

[Sam:]  Waaaait a second. Do I not sound sporty? What do you think I am, an old fragile woman?

[You:] Well I did recently find out that you're 10 years older than your sister was. Nathan told Jack once

[Sam:] Aaron, how old do you think I am? And you better don't say 50

[You:] I have to go

[Sam:] No, answer me

[You:] I smell gas

[Sam:] No you don't.

[You:] Bye

He still hadn't figured out Samantha's age, and he was scared to guess. In his mind, she'd been older than he was. Now he wasn't too sure anymore. He could of course ask Jack to ask Nathan, but he decided not to. It might give off a certain message.

Someone cleared her throat and he looked up from his phone. "JJ, how long have you been standing here?" She smiled innocently. "Well, you were very focused on your phone, so I didn't want to interrupt." Aaron nodded.
"Yes, I was re-reading some work-related messages from this morning." She raised her brows.
"Work-related, sure." Before he could react, she told him they finally had a case.

While they were flying to Cincinnati, Aaron thought about JJ's reaction to him reading texts. He wasn't even sure why he had lied. Maybe he didn't want her to draw false conclusions, but by her reaction, he could tell she'd still done that.

"Aaron, you're so absent, is everything alright?" Rossi, who sat across him, asked.
"David, I'm fine," he sighed. The past week, David kept telling him that Aaron acted differently. He claimed that he was more absent. But every time he talked with him about it, Rossi had the faintest smile on his face. And he wasn't the only one. Most team members pointed out that something was off with him, with Morgan and Garcia hinting towards a romantic cause. Which was ridiculous of course. There was no such thing going on.

-

Samantha let out a little scream when Jack dropped an egg on the floor. The three of them were baking cookies, but so far, everything went wrong. Nathan slammed the bag of flour on the counter, making the flour fly onto his face. She herself had accidentally pushed the pack of milk off of the kitchen, and now Jack dropped the egg. The kids had fun, but Samantha only wanted to leave. She pouted. "Friends, we gotta keep the kitchen as clean as possible. You do know that you have to help me clean it afterward, right?" 

"Aww," the boys whined at the same time. "C'mon, let's put the sugar in that bowl and cut the cookies. Then we'll clean up.
Samantha's bad mood slowly faded away as she watched Jack and Nathan having fun with the cookie cutters. She took a picture and sent it to Aaron, who immediately reacted.

[Aaron:] That's adorable

[Aaron:] Good luck cleaning that up though ;)

[You:] Did you, Aaron Hotchner just use an emoji?

[You:] That's so hot

[You:] But no, they're gonna help me clean

Aaron didn't react for at least a minute and Samantha started to think that her message might've been too much. 

[Aaron:] That's great :)

Her face burned up, and she was a bit ashamed that just one message from a faceless man did that to her. But she wasn't going to stop teasing now. Because that was what they were doing, just a bit of playing. Right?

[You:] Sweetie, don't do that to me. There are children present.

[Aaron:] Strange kink

[You:] Omg Aaron did that word really just leave your mouth? I'm losing it

*Message deleted*

[You:] Noooo

[Aaron:] What word 

[Aaron:] I don't know what you mean 

[You:] Kink

[Aaron:] You can't say such things, it's rude

[You:] I hate you.

The oven alarm went off.

[You:] Cookies r done, I have to go. 

[Aaron:] I have to get back to work

[Aaron:] Goodbye ;)

[You:] If only I knew what you looked like

[Aaron:] No