moon struck • a. hotchner

iv. fucking insufferable

CHAPTER FOUR | PRE 04.03

•••

he can't believe that she just shut the door in his face and after completely ranting about how hard this is for her? for her? who does she think she is? she's not going deaf! and he just knows that dave is gonna love this. she's gonna make a fool out of him in front of the whole team and dave is going to be insufferable but not as insufferable as agent quinn is. the audacity that woman has is going to drive him insane. he's sure of it.

he steps out of the elevator and walks through the bullpen. he can only imagine how angry he looks because anderson took one look at him and turned the opposite direction. the entire team are trying to hold their laughs. all except one.

david rossi is the bane of aaron hotchner's existence. he knows how to push the mans buttons like no one has before. rossi is a pest. he's like an annoying fly that as many times as you swat it away it always somehow comes back to bother you.

hotch walks up the stairs and is met by rossi who is openly laughing in his face.

"we could all smell the smoke as soon as the elevator doors opened up and i think anderson peed himself when you passed him. was it really that bad?"

hotch pushes past him and goes into his office and is closely followed by rossi who shuts the door after him.

"she's fucking insufferable dave. she shut the door in my face, she called me grumpy, and she acted like she was the one being burdened by doing this. it's not as if she's the one who's going deaf in one ear. where does she get off, huh?"

"aaron, aaron, aaron. do you even hear yourself? this woman didn't have to do this but she wanted to help you. also i heard she's getting her doctorate. are you sure you're not just mad that she's smarter than you?" dave smirks as aaron continues to fume over the soon to be doctor.

"get out of my face." hotch points at the door.

"aaron."

"dave. get out."

dave sighs and leaves the office.

"so much for aaron getting laid." dave mumbles not so quietly under his breath. as the door is closing hotch throws a book at rossi, a book that jsut so happens to be one of rossi's. rossi sticks his head back into the office with a very offended face.

"aaron, please, there's no reason to throw that around. that could make you millions when i die."

hotch says nothing and throws another one of rossi's books at said man and rossi barely manages to close the door in time. he opens it a crack once more to say something but hotch quickly cuts him off.

"if you don't watch yourself, i'm gonna be making millions sooner than you think."

hotch holds up yet another book tauntingly as rossi scowls.

"okay, maybe i should stop giving you my books."

"or maybe you should just stop writing them." hotch deadpans.

"i don't like your tone young man." rossi shakes a finger at hotch who just continues to scowl at him and this time rossi actually takes the hint.

"fine i'll leave, but only because i know i've forcefully given you every single one of my books and i'm too pretty to die this young. try not to suffocate on all the steam coming out of your ears." rossi quickly shuts the door as hotch angrily yells 'dave' from his now closed office.

•••

hotch gets home later that night tired as ever and just wanting to spend time with his son and then pass out in bed until his alarm goes off at 5 the next morning.

he says bye to jessica and makes his way over to jack who is falling asleep while watching harry potter.

"jack, buddy, it's time to go to bed." hotch gently tells his son as he goes to pick him up from the couch and carry him up to bed.

"but dad..." jack looks at his dad with sleepy eyes and messy hair that hotch just can't take seriously and finds completely and utterly adorable.

"i know buddy, i would love to finish this movie with you but we both need to get some sleep. plus i have to run something by you tomorrow."

"fine dad." jack sleepily rolls his eyes and hotch struggles not to audibly laugh at his adorably exhausted son.

"thank you, buddy. i love you so much and i'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"okay, dad. i love you too." hotch kisses jacks head and tucks him in before closing the door and heading to his own room to get ready for bed.

•••

when hotch wakes up the next morning, he feels surprisingly rested and he has time this morning to get jack ready and drive him to school. luckily jess packed jack's lunch last night before hotch got home because he can't make a school lunch to save his life. he can catch serial killers just fine but when it comes to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, no shot.

jack comes down the stairs with a terrible case of bed head, just like his father, and immediately wraps his little arms around his dads torso. hotch is almost brought to tears, knowing just how much his absence affects jack because it affects him just as much if not more. he kisses his son's head and goes to make him a bowl of cereal before school and throws some toast in the toaster for himself.

once the food is done, hotch sits down across from jack and puts on his serious face.

"jack, i wanted to talk to you about something. this relates to my ear and not being able to hear as well because of the last case that i was on. i started seeing an asl interpreter so i could learn sign language and so she can communicate with people for me on cases. she wanted me to ask you if you would be open to learning sign language as well so we can communicate when my ear is hurting. what do you think?"

"okay." hotch doesn't know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't jack to immediately agree to learning more as he often complains about school.

"okay just like that, huh? well do you have any questions?"

"is it gonna be hard? is the teacher nice? when do i start? does she have snacks?"

"no. yes. i don't know. i don't know. i'll have to get back to you on those last two." hotch checks his watch and stands up from his chair, clearing his and jacks dishes. "well, it's time to head to school buddy."

jack groans but grabs his backpack anyways and goes to the front door so he can get help putting his shoes on.

"i know buddy, i hated school just as much as you do." hotch chuckles as he helps jack tie his shoes up and they head out the door.

there's a bit of traffic while on the way to work after he drops jack off at school but it'll be fine because it's just a paperwork day in the office.

•••

when hotch gets into the office, everyone is there before him which is a very rare occurrence but he can't control traffic so what is there to do.

the team are all chatting at their desks and joking around which as hotch can't help but love despite his whole hardass exterior. the silently takes the asl learning sheets from his briefcase and passes them out to everyone. one by one they all look up at him confused. luckily garcia is out of her bat cave so he wouldn't have to explain this again.

"hotch, what is this?" morgan asks his grumpy boss.

"it's an asl learning sheet. agent quinn suggested that i give you all some tools to start learning asl so we can all communicate, especially when she will no longer be with the team."

"so, we have to learn all this too?" emily asks.

"you don't have to but it would definitely make things easier."

"i'm actually quite excited to learn asl. it's one of the few languages that i haven't studied yet because i've just never had a reason." reid rambles.

hotch nods at the team and heads up to his office for the day and probably won't leave until way past everyone else.