So I’ve started a project of how I would rewrite criminal minds if given the opportunity and also the ability to research a lot of things
One of the main critiques is that everyone (Spencer) experiences an unrealistic amount of trauma that doesn’t progress them at all or makes them worse characters
This is how I would rewrite Hotch’s leaving, so it’s still traumatic but not in a senseless ‘way too many serial killers have attacked this guy’ kinda way
Jack has spent most of his life disliking that his beloved dad wasn’t there a lot but knowing that he couldn’t change this at all
He doesn’t want to say anything because he knows it’ll make Hotch feel bad, but sometimes he wonders if his dad doesn’t want to be home with him
He’s 11, and Jess tells him that Hotch is going to be late coming home again. He confides all that in her
She just tells Aaron that Jack has been having a hard time lately with the fact that Hotch is unreliable
He promises he’ll make it to Jack’s friend hangout because they all want to hear about him being in the FBI, but they had to reschedule twice
Jack starts being more distant with him
It all culminates when Hotch is working a case in New York and a snow storm is just starting to fall
It’s like 4 pm, and they’re not really getting anywhere in the case
Then Hotch gets a call from Jess saying that Jack just had a seizure lasting almost 6 minutes, and she already called an ambulance
Hearing this, he immediately drops what he’s doing, packs up his go-bag and takes one of the police cars to the airport
All of the flights are delayed because of the snow, so he starts driving in the snowy soon-to-be dark all the way to Virginia
Maybe an hour into the drive, he’s just crossed the border into Pennsylvania, there’s snow blowing wildly across the view of his headlights, it’s gotten a little bit dark, and in his desperation, he hits the car in front of him
*insert dramatic cut away to everyone else working on the case in show, except I have no idea what the case would be, so we’ll go back to the this*
It would later prove to only leave a little dent on both cars, but he put the car in park, gripped the steering wheel with whitening knuckles, and bashed his head back into the seat as hard as he can
He let out a sigh between gritted teeth and got out to greet the other driver
“One hell of a storm, huh?”
Hotch hummed. He didn’t have time to talk about the fucking weather
“Are you alright? You’re shaking.”
He’d hardly noticed. “I’m fine, but believe or not, I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I don’t mean to be rude, but I really can’t waste much time.”
“Sure thing.”
The two exchanged everything they needed to exchange before getting out of the biting cold, and Hotch resumed driving
He made it to the hospital around midnight
Jack’s doing pretty okay, but even if he knows Hotch couldn’t have gotten there any quicker, it still feels horrible that he wasn’t there for him for a very scary experience
Hotch decides to work from the office for the next couple cases, but it very quickly starts to make him antsy
A little over a month later, Jack has another seizure (this time 4 min but still) and gets diagnosed with epilepsy
Knowing that he hasn’t felt this uncomfortable in a job since his time as a prosecutor and knowing that he can’t have a repeat of fearing for hours that he might not be there for Jack, his favorite person in the world when he’s confused and terrified, he leaves the BAU
I don’t know how much of this v you’d be able to see in show, but I just like thinking about it
He starts working as a high school psych teacher in Jack’s school district (being near DC, there wasn’t exactly an opening for a criminology teacher)
He’s able to be a much better father to Jack, and he doesn’t forgive Hotch right away, but they slowly grow back together
With the reliable school schedule, Hotch is able to start attending therapy appointments and repairing the very bad everything about his brain functions
Jack convinces him to start a podcast about his BAU experience and basic profiling, and it’s fairly successful
Garcia finds it and shares it with the rest of the team
A couple years later, everyone has a sort of reunion, and Hotch seems happier than anyone’s seen him for as long as they can remember
