AU idea that I have to get out of my mind, so I've decided that you have to suffer too. ;-)
Sometime between Haley's death and Scratch Jessica uncovers a major case of embezzlement in her company, is a witness for the prosecution, therefore gets death threats and she's the one who now has to go into witsec. Roy is already deteriorating and Hotch still needs all the help he can get with Jack, and she doesn't know what to do. When she decides that this one time she has to prioritize her own life, what is the fallout? I'm pretty sure Roy will blame Hotch when he has a bad day, while Hotch tries his best to make sure Roy is being taken care of. That's the least he can do for Jess and he owes her big time for all that she's done for him and Jack.
Who takes care of Jack when they are on a case? Do JJ and Will offer their help? Henry is a bit younger than Jack but they already friends. Or does he hire someone?
Okay, I've read and re-read this so many times and it makes my heart hurt thinking about Jess in that situation. Already losing so much, and for her own protection (and the protection of those she loves) she has to go away alone until some unknown date in the future when she can take the stand. And until then she's just...alone.
And Hotch has to live without her. At this point, maybe Jack is old enough not to be much of a worry. He can stay with Will, I'd bet, but that's a lot for one person so maybe Hotch has to hire a nanny which would stress him out beyond belief. Someone who would have access to his entire life and Jack's, a personal nurse or a home for Roy depending on where Roy is at in this stage. He can handle all of it. He won't like it but he's capable.
It's missing Jess and worrying about her that's the hardest. Because at this point, they are close, siblings, and he can't protect her and he can't save her. He's been down this road before and he can't help thinking it'll end the same way it did before. And yeah, this one isn't on his head, but he'll put it there anyway because he's not keeping her safe.
With 4 and Hotch all I can think off is that the other person replies something like ‘It’s not me, you haven’t taken your meds today.’ 😆
Anyway…. Can I please get 38) "You're making it so hard to concentrate right now." "Good, pay attention to me." for Hotch and John Blackwolf?
Okay, yeah, 4 DEFINITELY is Hotch and his meds. "Take your pills and get back to me in an hour." LOL
As for the prompt, HERE YOU GO! It is kind of sweet and very angsty...because I simply cannot do love and fluff without a big ol' smattering of SAD with it.
Derek and Hotch have a major disagreement. Jack overhears his father saying that Derek’s going to break his heart. 2 days later Derek gets a letter, inside is a hand drawn heart, cut into several pieces. The letter just says: Can you please fix daddy’s heart? Love, Jack.
(~800 words // Inspired by but not exact because reading comprehension is lacking on my part...sorry // Hotchgan fluff)
**
It isn't a big fight, or even something to really fight about. It's just that they've worked two cases back to back with less than thrilling results, the brass is coming down on Aaron hard and Derek is asking him for too much. They're both running on fumes and tonight should have been the first real night off in weeks, a quiet night in – dinner and some board games with Jack, and then some adult time afterward except now adult time looked like laundry and an argument. It already felt too much like another failed marriage for Aaron's taste.
“I'm not asking you to wear a damn ring, Aaron,” Derek says, seated at the foot of Aaron's bed with his legs folded beneath him. Across the room Aaron is folding laundry, large hands shoved inside of Jack's tiny clothes, pulling at inside out sleeves while he considers the offer he's been given. It's huge, he's been milling it over all week in spite of being on a case. It's driven him to distraction more than once. “Aaron?”
“I'm just...not ready to get my heart broken again...” he says softly. Derek frowns, he knows Aaron didn't mean it as cold as it sounded, but it still hurt.
“That's what you think I'm planning to do?” He was scoffing, couldn't believe it really. “C'mon, you know me better than that.”
Aaron lowers his voice as he begins putting hangers inside button up shirts, working diligently with his hands to keep his mind in one place. “The last time...” he whispers, and he's trying to keep it down because the walls are so thin and Jack hasn't been in bed long, he shouldn't hear them argue and he definitely doesn't need to hear him bring up Haley. “I couldn't survive it again...”
It clicks then what he means – he's not talking about the divorce. “Aaron...” Derek says, standing, slipping his arms around the other man's waist from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. He digs it in, really gets in there and holds him tight. “I've survived goin' toe to toe with some big ol' baddies – believe me, if there's a sucker out there who wants you or Jack so bad they try to go through me, they're gonna be worm food and you know it.”
It's not enough to make Aaron concede yet, but he's almost there.
He's willing to entertain the idea of living together.
In the morning, Derek wakes to find an envelope on the nightstand beside him. It's addressed to him in big scrawling letters, thick crayon wax clumped in places where Jack's hand got a little too excited or he wrote over a crumb or a dip in the table. Derek sits up, rubs the sleep from his eyes, and opens the envelope to find small chunks of paper colored bright red (and a little blue because Jack loves the way it turns slightly purple where it gets extra thick) with a note that simply reads “PLEES FIKS DADDYS HART” and he notices his hand tremble, understanding momentarily how big it is that he's asking to be a part of this family. As much as asking Aaron to move in with him was about having him close, he hadn't really considered the magnitude of inserting himself into a family that would depend on him. Right now they were a small unit, and they had Derek and they had Jessica orbiting around them, there when needed but not part of the unit itself. Moving in would change all of that. He would be on the path from Derek to Dad.
He still wanted it. In fact, he might want it more now. Slipping out of the bed, he sneaks down the hall and to Aaron's office to begin working on mending the heart – but instead of simply taping it together, he cuts out two new hearts and pastes the mended heart atop the other two, scribbles a ribbon over the whole thing and admires his work. An art major he is not, but he's pretty sure that where he labeled one choppy heart with a J and the other with a D would convey his message pretty clearly – together they could fix daddy's broken heart.
He puts it on Jack's chair before he sits down for breakfast, and watches as he opens it with glee. Jack beams and Derek smiles when Aaron goes over to look at it, to listen to Jack explain how he'd heard part of their conversation last night and he didn't want Derek to break his daddy's heart.
“Hey, Jack,” he says, nudging the bowl of orange slices toward the boy. “How would you like to say goodbye to this tiny old apartment and go move in with Derek and Clooney at their big house?”
“I would never,” Derek says softly, pouring syrup onto his pancakes.
Aaron smiles, and considers that there is really never a good time to take a leap of faith, you just had to close your eyes and go for it. Hope you don't hit the pavement.
A plot bunny visited me while I was doing the dishes after I had almost set my oven on fire. Anyway….
It’s several months after Foyet. Hotch seems to be more or less fine. But then he gets a bad stomach flu, can’t keep anything down, least of all the meds he has to take after Foyet and the subsequent surgeries. The team is not consciously aware of the fact that he’s on several meds that keep him alive, so when he calls in sick, they’re not worried. For the first two or three days, he checks in with them on a regular basis. There’s no e-mail or phone call from him during the weekend, which is kind of odd, but they don’t mind a quiet weekend. On tuesday they break into his apartment.
What do they find? Hotch unconscious, barely alive? Or is it empty because for once in his life he’s listened to his body and checked himself into a hospital? Is he at home, getting nursed back to health by Jess/John Blackwolf? Is he dead, his phone just inches away from his fingertips?
If anyone wants to have a go at this, please tag me.
We have a lot of fic with Hotch dying, be it from cancer, in the line of duty or his poor heart giving out. He’s surrounded by his friends and the family he has left, Jess and Jack.
Now what about Jess dying relatively young? Maybe it’s sudden, a drunk driver. Maybe it’s something that has been killing her slowly from within. And only now, that the constant pain is too much to ignore, she sees a doctor. It’s too late for chemo, radiation or an operation. If she’s lucky, she’s got two or three months. If not, a couple of weeks maybe. They can manage the pain but other than that….
She’s angry. Hurt. Worst of all, she doesn’t know how to tell Hotch and Jack. They are her family and vice versa. Those two have already lost so many people and now she’ll be leaving them too. The thought almost kills her before the disease does.
How can anyone expect Hotch to take the news without going either berserk or completely shutting down? Or will he surprise everyone?
Or, to make it really bad for everyone involved: This happens when Jack and Hotch are in Witsec. They’re not even aware, no one’s telling them what’s happening. When they get the news that they can leave protection, they learn that Jess is long dead and buried.
If anyone wants to give this a go, please tag me when you publish it.
