#EDIT: AHHHH MAYBE NOT | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

reidsbookclub · 1 year ago

Text

HERE WE FUCKING GOOOO

I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off | Part two

18+ Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader | Masterlist

Summary: D.C. law states that you can't file for divorce until you've been separated from your partner for 6 months without having sex with them... they never said you can't fuck your soon-to-be ex-husbands new girlfriend's ex-husband. (based on this post)

Warnings: divorce (i'm not an expert but i did my best research) flirting, teasing, blow jobs, almost getting caught, mentions of miscarriages, abusive relationships, past child abuse, tough childhoods, jealousy, falling in love at the worst time, mutual pining but thinking it's unrequited on the others part, bathtub sex, possessive sex, semi-public sex(bar bathroom), drunk love confessions, pretending not to hear the love confession. arguments, fighting, real love confessions

Word Count: 15.1k

He’s not there when she wakes up Sunday Morning. He left a note on her bedside table, however.

‘Stole your spare key from the key box downstairs. Have to head into work for a case and didn’t want to wake you, and even more so I didn’t want to leave a beautiful woman like you home alone with the door unlocked. Call me if you need me, but I’ll be in Kansas until further notice. Aaron.’

It makes her smile. He’s so sweet… and then she notices his ring. He took it off before he left, he placed it beside the note and when she flipped it over she read why.

‘I don’t know where to put this, I don’t want to wear it and I don’t have anywhere to keep it safe. Can you watch it? Put it wherever you’re going to be keeping your own until we can figure out what to do with them?’

The best place for them would be in the jewelry box that ended it all. She picks up his ring and opens the third drawer which is mostly empty. She places his ring in there and slips her own off of her finger. Turning the ring over a few times, she sighs. This is the end of a chapter… maybe even the end of a whole book.

She spends Sunday alone without that awful feeling hanging around her. She goes to the store, buys some moving boxes and bubble wrap, and puts James’ things in them. She cleans out the spare bedroom, does some laundry, orders food, and listens to her music as loud as she wants.

It’s wonderful.

She has a response from her lawyer that she got only a few minutes after she sent the video last night. “It’s the perfect evidence,” Cynthia praises. She’s going to draw up the divorce papers and get everything ready for her to file in 6 months. Because that’s the law. You have to wait 6 months after the last time you have sex with your partner to officially file for divorce. And James fucked her just two weeks ago. It was after a long dry spell, both of them had wine with dinner and he was home the whole weekend with her… mainly because that was a weekend Haley went down to visit her parents with Jack.

Her marriage was officially ending. However, the world doesn’t feel like it’s on fire as much as it did last week. She doesn’t even feel like she’s standing in rubble left in the fire's wake… she’s just surrounded by construction equipment in the vacant lot that is her future.

She could build whatever she wants here. The future is in her hands, what she chooses to do with it is up to her this time. Not her parents, not her husband. Her.

So she’s going to start living for herself, for real this time.

—

It’s when Haley calls her that she starts to feel that anxiety creep back into her stomach.

She’s halfway to work the next day when her cell goes off. She doesn’t check the call log until she gets to work, sitting in the parking lot, her stomach drops into her ass when she sees her name. But she calls her back.

“Hello?” Haley answers.

“Hey, sorry, I was driving,” she apologizes. “Is everything okay? Is Jack okay?”

“Yeah… yeah everything’s fine. I just thought we could talk?”

“There isn’t really much to say, is there?” She asks, her voice calm and low still even though she wants to scream a bit.

“There’s a lot to talk about. I just don’t know how to. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how it happened and I didn’t know how to stop it and then I didn’t really want to…”

She’s quiet for a moment. While she could snap, she could accuse her of ruining two perfectly fine marriages but that would be a lie. They were going to end eventually anyway. “It’s okay.”

“No, hon, it’s not.”

Hon.

She hated that. Haley had a way of comforting her in a condescending tone that stung a little deeper than any hurt she was ever complaining to her about. Like she either didn’t believe that it was a big enough deal to complain about it or she was so wrapped up in her own world that she couldn’t care less about anything that didn’t involve her.

“I was going to file for divorce anyway,” she lies. “I wasn’t happy. You knew that. And you weren’t happy either, I knew that. It’s fine. I don’t care. You can have him.”

“No, don’t do that, don’t—”

“Haley you literally fucked my husband because yours works too much and my husband fucked you because I won’t submit and be a good housewife. If anything, switching husbands was just the right thing for us to do,” she finally snaps. “Now if you’re done pretending to be my friend, I have work to get to. Don’t call me again.”

She hangs up before she can hear anything else and shoves her phone back into her purse. Shaking her head, she takes the keys from the ignition and gets out. She honks twice, ensuring it’s locked and makes her way towards the courthouse with a sigh.

How were they ever friends?

She shakes away all the worry and the anger and her smile comes back onto her face as she enters the courtroom. She has to go through the metal detector, her purse goes in a plastic basket and she waits in line. She goes through the detector, and it beeps because of her necklace and belt. The security guard knows her well so he approaches her with the detector wand and a smile.

“How are you today?” He asks.

“Good, Mason. How are you?” She smiles back.

“Pretty good,” he says, waving her down. “You’re all good here, have fun in there.”

She laughs as she grabs her purse, “oh, you know I won’t.” He laughs too. “Are you working till the end of shift?”

“Nah, I’m only on half the day today, Kyle will be on later to let you out,” he explains.

“Well, have a good rest of your day then, Mason!” She gives him a little wave, walking backwards for a moment before she heads to the elevators.

She’s still smiling ear to ear as she reaches them and Andrea comes around the corner. “What’s got you so happy on a Monday?”

“Hm?” She can’t help but smile, lips pressed together, trying so hard not to laugh. “Oh, nothing.”

“You’re giddy…” she looks her up and down as the elevator dings and opens. They let everyone out and then get in together. Andrea hits floor 2 and turns to her. “Didn’t everything with James go down this weekend?”

She nods, “Yeah, I kicked him out.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re literally glowing,” she can’t help but laugh out of pure shock. “Holy shit… you didn’t go home with someone else did you?”

“Nope,” she shakes her head, smirking, she can’t hold it in. “He came right to my house.”

Her jaw drops, “oh my god? I mean, good for you. You didn’t seem like the type to pay for sex but—

She laughs, reaches out and touches her friend's shoulder, “No, no, Jesus… but, I mean, if he ever did leave the FBI to work the corner, I’d be his best customer.”

“You didn’t?!” She can’t believe it.

She’s so happy she could literally scream, but the elevator steadies and opens with another ding and they have to get out. She wraps her arm under her friends, linked at the elbow now, and she leans in closer as they walk, “Oh, but I did.”

“And?” She wants all the details. “I need to know more, you can’t just say you slept with the sexiest man any of us has ever worked with and not share the details?”

She’s smiling so hard her cheeks hurt, she shakes her head and shrugs, not even knowing where to start. “Uh…” She brings her voice down, “Well… Seven. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Seven!” Andrea shouts, getting weird looks from the people in the hallway and she swats her slightly. “Sorry, but holy shit?”

“I know!” She whisper shouts, dragging her into Andrea’s office. “Seriously, he came over to see if I was okay Saturday night, after everything went down, and we had some wine and talked and let all he feelings out. And then I was scared to sleep in my bed again because it felt so tainted and he offered to help me change the sheets and I, a little drunk, said that sleeping in there would be easier if we fucked in that bed too. You know, even the score? And him being a profiler he knew exactly how terrible James was in bed and made up for it…”

“Wow,” Andrea can’t believe it. “You lucky duck, over her playing wife swap with the sexiest FBI agent at Quantico.”

Everyone in the office had a crush on Aaron Hotchner when he was a prosecutor, the women and the men. He was powerful, he knew what he was doing, he was captivating and brilliant and so very easy on the eyes. Everyone hit on him, either as a fun and flirty way of dealing with the day or because they genuinely thought they could get him even while he was married. Haley hated that, she would come in to give him lunch and kiss him in front of everyone to assert her dominance and make sure they knew he was taken. It might be why Haley only became friends with her. She wasn’t threatened by her. She didn’t think it was possible for Y/N to take Aaron away from her.

But Aaron isn’t at all like his soon-to-be ex-wife. He isn’t a cheater. He isn’t a gossip. He isn’t vindictive or cruel or jealous. He is kindhearted, he is respectful, he is a lover and a protector and a genuinely good person.

And now that he’s single, she has the chance to show him what it’s like to have a good woman care for him.

—

Hotch is whistling while sorting through papers, alone in the conference room of this random police station in Kansas. Happier than he’s been in a while, he’s just breezing through this case with new ideas and a chipper attitude that has the team a little freaked.

“Okay, man,” Derek enters the room, closing the door behind himself. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” He asks, pretending he doesn’t know.

“The smiling, the whistling, the chipper mood… You and Haley finally work things out?” He asks, cautiously. Everyone knew that things weren’t good at home, he hadn’t been okay since his suspension. Either sleeping at the office or in his guest room at home, he was on the brink of divorce and they all knew it.

His good mood fades and he lets out a sigh, looking down at his paperwork, he doesn’t know how to say it. “I’m sure Penelope told you.”

“That you got a weird email claiming your wife was cheating on you, yeah,” he shrugs. “But it wasn’t really her, was it?”

“She’s been sleeping with her best friend's husband for a year now,” he shares, watching Derek's face drop.

“Oh, man,” he takes a seat beside him. “Are you okay?”

He nods, “Yeah… we’re getting divorced for real. It’s not just a separation anymore. And I sort of… made things even between us.”

Derek's brow goes up, “seriously?”

He nods, smile returning, “I slept with her boyfriend's wife.”

Derek can’t help but laugh, amazed that Hotch had it in him. “well hallelujah, finally you’ve got something good going on in your life.”

“And I need to finish this case so I can go to my lawyers and draw up some papers and see what comes of this good thing,” he explains, letting Derek in. “She’s not just revenge… this isn’t just getting back at the people who hurt us. There was something special there, something I haven’t felt since I was a teenager. A spark.”

“In this profession, it’s really hard to think that things happen for a reason. Why do people die such terrible deaths? Why do people do such evil things? It’s sometimes easier to think that there’s a plan for everyone, made by god or fate or whoever brings you peace at night when you close your eyes. After what you guys went through together… if she makes you happy, there’s definitely a reason why she’s in your life,” Derek assures him.

“I really hope you’re right.”

—

She has an appointment with her Lawyer, after work on Wednesday. She arrives at the office to see a familiar face in the waiting room. She lets the receptionist know who she’s there for and takes a seat right beside Aaron, who’s been smiling at her since she walked in.

“Hello, there,” he keeps his voice low. “How are you doing?”

She crosses her legs towards him and leans on the armrest closest to him. “I’m good, how are you?”

“Better,” he looks at her lips and then back to her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here, I was going to ask Amelia— my lawyer if she could request your evidence from Cynthia.”

“I didn’t know you actually had a lawyer here, I asked Andrea— you remember Andrea right?” She asks and he nods. “I asked her and some of the others if they knew where you were going for your divorce and they had no idea you were even separated, but Andrea’s brother is married to Cynthia so that’s why I’m with her.”

“Everyone here is really good,” Aaron assures her. “We’re probably going to serve Haley on Friday.”

“Good,” she lets out a huff air, slightly laughing and shaking her head. “They’re going to be so pissed when they find out we’ve been working together on this.”

“Yeah, but I mean, they started it. They ruined everything,” Aaron shrugs, genuinely not caring how they’re going to react. “They’ve already done the worst thing they could do to us.”

Amelia comes out to grab Aaron first and he stands, “Can we possibly do our meetings together?”

“If you’re both okay with knowing the details of each other's divorce, I don’t see why now?” She shrugs.

“I don’t mind,” Aaron shares, turning to her.

“I’m good with it,” she smiles, standing with Aaron now.

“Okay, you two can go into the big meeting room down the hall and I’ll go grab Cynthia,” she says, opening the door for them.

Aaron leads her down the hallway, opens the meeting room door for her and lets her pick her chair before he sits beside her. “Have you guys written everything up already?” She asks Aaron.

He nods, “mostly.”

“And you said you have a prenup?”

“Technically it’s a postnup,” he shares. “When I came back from Scotland Yard, after the separation and the few people she claims to have slept with, I knew that I wanted a postnuptial agreement. I was making more money, she wanted to start trying for a baby, I was having a hard time trusting her already and so we made an agreement and signed it here with Amelia… and I really thought that by signing it she was agreeing she’d never break it.”

“So what does the cheating void in her contract now?” She asks, curiously.

“We went into the agreement with things that we wanted in the case of a divorce, if no infidelity occurred she would get half my assets and alimony. We agreed to a 50/50 split of any future children and regardless of the fidelity, she would always keep the house if we had children. I wanted them to be taken care of regardless of what happened,” he shares. “So that’s what’s in the complaint and if she signed it we will go through with an uncontested divorce. The only difference is that we will share Jack in an 80/20 split, I get weekends and 2 weeks in the summer. Every birthday and Christmas we get half a day each and we go back and forth on Halloween. She can have easter and Thanksgiving, seeing as she has the family who’d want to see him and I don’t.”

“Mine's not going to be that easy,” she looks down at the table and sighs. “we had sex 3 weeks ago, we need to have been separated for 6 months before we can file.”

“Ah,” he understands what that’s like. “myself and Haley have lived in the same house, just we haven’t had sex for over a year… and with me always travelling and being in hotels all the time I have a timeline of events and she’ll attest that we haven’t had sex since last September. So I can file this week.”

“And have you found a place to stay now that you’re not living with her?”

He nods, “I’m at a hotel right now, I’ve put in a few applications for apartments around the city and I’m just waiting to hear.”

“I cleaned out my guest room if you wanted to come to stay with me until then?” She asks, really hoping he doesn’t let her down too hard.

“Really, you wouldn’t mind?”

She shakes her head, trying not to get too excited, “No, it would be nice. And even when you get your apartment, you can still come over with Jack and he can use my backyard to play?”

“That would be amazing,” he places his hand on her shoulder and smiles, just as their lawyers walk in.

—

The meeting goes well, they go over the little details and she signs over access to the evidence that she collected and she listens as they plan how Haley will get served on Friday.

Afterwards, Aaron walks with her to her car and leans against it, “did you really clean out the spare room already?”

She nods, “I did it on Sunday after you left… you don’t have to use it, but it’s there if you want to save some money?”

“and James isn’t going to get mad that I’m in his house? If I remember correctly, his parents bought the place for you guys?” he asks.

She nods, “Technically they own it, but I moved in right after I graduated so I’ve been there for long enough and paid enough for the upkeep that it’s mine too.”

“Graduated as in college?”

“High school,” she clarifies. “I was 18, he was 21. We got married 3 years later. I befriended you guys a few months after the wedding.”

“I didn’t realize you were that young?”

“I’m only 3 years younger than you guys,” she reminds him. “I’m not a baby.”

“I always forget how young we all were,” he shakes his head. “Have I really known you for 11 years?”

She nods, “Yeah, you have… it’s wild to think we were only friends like 6 months before you switched careers.”

“I know,” he lets out a sigh. “That feels like more than 10 years ago… more like 20.”

“At least the FBI isn’t aging you like a presidency would,” she teases him. “They look ancient after 8 years.”

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Obama if he wins,” he smirks. “Do you want to go get dinner, we can keep talking in this parking lot but that would get weird.”

She laughs, “Yeah, I’d love to.”

—

Dinner is them flirting for an hour and then they have to drive home separately. He stops by his hotel to grab his things and check out and then he meets her at home, where she’s fresh out of the shower and in a cute little outfit and he’s all over her.

Bags dropped just beside the locked door, their clothes scattered all over the steps and those beautiful noises she made a few nights ago have returned.

He praises her, he gets her off again and again and then he worries about himself. Even after, he’s cleaning her up, cuddling with her, getting her a drink and laying in bed with her having a chat until she’s ready for another round. She hasn’t had this much sex since she was 19… and even then, it was nothing like this. She’d be lucky to get off once in the 3 times they had sex.

Now, she’s laying on him after riding him to her 5th orgasm of the night and he’s still inside of her. With her head on his shoulder, her forehead rests against his jaw and her nose is on his pulse point. He’s tracing his fingers over her back, down her sides and then back up to where her protruding side boobs are. It makes her shiver, she’s a little ticklish but she doesn’t mind because this feels too good.

“You cold?” He asks.

She shakes her head, “No, I’m okay.”

“Cause we can get a blanket?”

“No, no I like this. I don’t want to move,” she whispers, holding him tighter. She wraps her arms under him. “Unless you—

“No, I’m good,” he’s quick to calm her worries. “I like this. I feel so calm with you on me.”

“Like a weighted blanket,” she teases.

He soothes his hand over her back and turns his head to kiss her forehead gently. “Sexiest blanket I’ve ever had.”

She laughs and then presses a kiss to his neck, never wanting it to end.

— 2 months separated —

It’s like this every night that he’s in her home.

From then on, they have dinner together, they fuck, they sleep side by side and they smile. They laugh. They share secrets and facts and they watch each other's favourite movie, she shows him more music and he actually gets her to listen to the white album in full. He cleans, he does the laundry and she comes home from work on days when he’s had a mandatory 24 hours off, to a spotless house and a meal on the table.

It’s incredible.

Jack comes over for a few hours on Saturdays before the divorce is finalized and he moves to full weekends with his dad. But they get him for the night on Jack's birthday in November, they have cake and presents and they show Jack that he has a room of his own at his Aunty’s house. He loves it, he has a bunkbed and superhero sheets and a bunch of new toys and new clothes so that he doesn’t have to bring stuff back and forth.

Aaron’s “room” gets moved to the basement, once James comes to move all his shit out of this house and into Haleys. Aaron is able to move the queen bed from the guest room to the basement, he has a dresser down there and he builds himself a makeshift office in one corner so when he has to do some work at night he has the space. But he doesn’t always sleep down there, he sleeps in her bed most nights that he’s home or he sleeps on the bottom bunk in Jack's room. He’s a good dad, he doesn’t want him to wake up sad or confused as to where he is.

She feels as though she’s officially swapped husbands with her best friend and yet neither of them are even officially divorced yet…

Aaron has his hearing on November 23rd, the judge signs his divorce and a month later it’s official.

He’s a single man right around Christmas. So is his wife… the only difference between them is that she is proudly saying James is her boyfriend at all her Christmas parties and no one knows that Aaron is sleeping with someone. They know he’s living with her, they think he has a room at her house and that they’re friends who are going through the same thing so of course they’d support each other….

Only supporting each other really means having amazing sex.

Be it in her bed, Aaron’s room downstairs, the shower, on the stairs when he gets home, in the kitchen before work… they were fucking everywhere. She’s had more orgasms than she can count in the last 9 weeks.

— 3 months separated —

This time, they’re going to do it in the armchair in her living room having a quiet January night in front of the fireplace. He looked so good sitting there that she couldn’t help but crawl over and kneel between his legs. She rubs his thigh, looking up at him, hoping he’d let her go down on him while he just keeps sitting there, reading his book with that sexy, concentrating look of his.

He looks down at her with a smirk, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, go back to your book,” she teases.

She gets his pants undone, he helps her tug them down a bit and then she palms over his underwear to try and get him hard, which isn’t difficult in the slightest. She kisses him through the fabric and nuzzles her face against him. He makes her feel feral. The way he smells, his touch, how warm he always is… she would get lost in him for hours if she could. She just wants to sit down here with her hands on his delicious thighs and his cock in her mouth for as long as humanly possible. All night long and then she’ll go to work with him and live under his desk while he does his paperwork.

She slowly pulls his briefs down, the elastic wanting to spring back up to where it belongs so she holds it with one hand while the other rakes through his pubic hair. She traces over his skin, and under his shirt, she feels his tummy. The coarse hair of his treasure trail only excites her more. She pulls his boxers down and rests the elastic waistband under his balls to keep it secure. His cock stands tall, resting against his stomach, she kisses him right at the base and all the way up his shaft.

He holds his book with one hand, other hand comes down to pet her hair. She hums at the feeling, kissing back down his cock again, she grips him and starts to stroke him and pay attention to his balls. In all their sex-capades, she’s never had the chance to fully go down on him. She wants to see what he likes, she wants to show him what it’s like to come undone by someone's mouth. She wants to repay the favour…

She’s just about to take him in her mouth when they get a knock at the door and then they hear it start to open with the call of her name. She’s quick to her feet, blocking Aaron’s body in the chair while he gets his cock back in his pants. Shame all over their faces, they’re so nervous they’re finally going to get caught.

“James?” She calls out, knowing he’s the only other person with a key.

“Hey,” he whispers as he rounds the corner into the living room. Jack, asleep and slung over his shoulder, “I’m so sorry to do this but can you watch Jack tonight?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” she reaches out for him. He’s 3 now, bigger than he’s ever been and heavy as hell while he’s sound asleep. “What’s wrong?”

“Haley’s… she uh… we… um—” he doesn’t know how to say it. There’s a panic in his face that she knows isn’t good. “She’s miscarrying, it’s kinda bad.”

Aarons is right there, standing behind her now, “is she okay?”

He shrugs, moving back to the doorway with them anxiously in tow, “Not sure, we’ve gotta get her to the hospital but I can call with updates later?”

“Yeah, go,” she shoves him out the door and shuts it behind him. She lets out a sigh, holds Jack a little closer and snuggles her head against his. “Oh my god?”

“Here,” Aaron reaches out for him. “I’ll put him in his room.”

“Okay,” she hands him over easily.

He’s in his pjs under his coat and he has his boots on. It’s only a little after 8 so he hasn’t been asleep for long. They get him out of his outdoor clothes and tuck him into his bed on the top bunk. He wakes up just a bit, asks where he is and then goes back to sleep easily with a kiss on the head and the promise they’ll see him in the morning.

And then they’re alone in the living room again.

“That was—

“Awkward and unfortunate,” Aaron laughs. “We almost got caught with our pants down.”

“Not mine, just yours,” she teases, leaning into his side. She looks up at him and sighs, “You okay?”

He nods, “yeah… I mean… I don’t know?”

“They’re moving so fast,” she can’t believe it.

“Well, yeah, she’s almost 35. She had a hard enough time getting pregnant before, she’s not going to waste any more time when they both want kids,” he rationalizes it.

“But still, the divorce just went through and that’s on your end, ours hasn’t even started yet? They’re going to be super pregnant by the time it’s all over,” she can’t believe it.

“She wanted us to try again last year,” he shares, shaking his head like he can’t believe it. “I had this awful case, my co-worker had been arrested and he told us some pretty serious, pretty awful things that happened to him before we arrested a man he knew growing up for murder… and I came home and all I wanted to do was cry and look at my son and know he’s safe and he’d never have to go through that but she wanted to try again. I wasn’t able to do anything, I couldn’t even dream about having an erection after what we went through on that case and that’s when she started to accuse my job of ruining my life and the worst part was that I wasn’t allowed to tell her things. She never let me explain a case to her, she didn’t want to hear about the awful things I saw and she didn’t understand how it could affect me so much and I still wanted to go back. But I have to do this. I have to save little babies like my Jack from having these things happen and get justice for the little Derek’s of the world.”

“I’m so sorry, Aaron,” she doesn’t know what else to say.

“That was just after Jack's first birthday. We finally tried again the month after, but it didn’t work, she suggested we do IVF last October and I missed the first appointment and she never touched me again after that,” he looked down at his hands in his lap and twiddled his thumbs. “She didn’t even bring it up again until I was suspended. She said that it would be easier for us to conceive if I was home more… but she was already cheating on me. Part of me wonders how long this last pregnancy has been going on for because was she just asking to cover up being pregnant with his baby or was she actually going to stop it to try with me?”

“Honestly, I wonder that too. Jack was almost 2 when James and Haley started hanging out more, that’s when he stopped pestering me as much,” she shares. “It was so nice to not be bothered every day about how much I work and how long I’d still be on birth control and when I’d do his laundry… he was so much nicer to me with her."

“I still don’t understand why you stayed so long?” He looks at her so confused. “You were so unhappy for so long?”

“Because where was I going to go? I cut off contact with my family after high school cause they were awful and my only friend for the longest part of my life was my husband and then the one friend I thought I had kept telling me I was so lucky with James. She heard me complain about the pressure he put on me and thought ‘Wow that sounds like the best life let me take that husband for myself!’” She jokes because it’s the only way she won’t cry. “So I had no couch to sleep on if I left, no friends to support me, I’d have to find a way to pay for a new apartment and a divorce and you know it’s not cheap. I’m only able to stay afloat right now because Andrea got me a friends and family discount with her sister-in-law and you’re giving me rent money.”

He nods along, understanding just how hard it is to leave someone. He’s seen this at work, he knows abusive relationships— even the ones that aren’t physically abusive, are still hard to leave. You can’t just wake up one day and go, it has to come with a plan or something detrimental. Like catching him cheating with her best friend. “How long have you wanted to leave him?”

“I’m not sure,” she’s honest. Really thinking about it for the first time… “we went to Florida for the honeymoon, we were there all of 2 days when we had our first big fight about his expectations. Before that, we never fought. I’ve known him since I was 14, started dating when I was 16, he was 19… his parents liked me and took me in and I admired the way his mom was a stay-at-home mom but I never wanted to be her. I was always at their house because mine was a fucking nightmare and they knew I had troubles and I had said before I won’t have kids until I’m super stable… When they bought him a house after his college courses ended and he said I could move in after graduation I jumped on it because I needed an escape and we were so happy at the start. His mom helped us around the house and stocked our fridge and I was learning how to cook with her and then he dropped the bombshell on me on the honeymoon that It was time to suck it up and be a real wife.”

“Did you not talk about this stuff before the wedding?”

“Not really…? I mean we talked about the wedding itself and how nice it would be to belong to each other… I really wanted to be his wife. I was so tired of having my dad's last name and relying on them for money. James asked me to marry him on my 19th birthday, I was a semester and a half into college, and I only had 2 years of school, 4 semesters total. He said we could wait until I was in my field and fully employed to even start planning the wedding and then I found out that he and his mom had planned most of it and it was a month after my graduation. She did practically everything but buy my dress and write my vows.”

“And you didn’t think that was a red flag?”

“Oh, I thought it was insane but again, who was I going to run to? I was more afraid of being alone and broke and homeless than dealing with him every day because at least he wasn’t as bad as my dad. I felt like I had no right to run if he wasn’t beating me and maybe, just maybe… I could’ve changed him. I really thought the more I protested the more he’d settle and live with the fact I wasn’t like his mom.”

“What happened with your parents?”

“My dad is abusive and my mom basically has Stockholm syndrome,” she relays it quick. “If it was up to my parents I’d be a boy and a doctor but no, I was the 3rd girl and the reason my mom had a hysterectomy and there’s now zero males in the family line so… yeah, I can’t fucking stand my parents.”

“My dad liked to get drunk and scream… he only hit my mom the 1 time— that I saw at least when I was 8 and I stepped in. I was the punching bag from then on out. It was hard on my relationships, I was afraid that I’d go out on a date or have a team practice and my dad would hurt her while I was gone. And then I met Haley the same day my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.”

“Holy shit?”

He just nods, “yeah. So I thought maybe, just maybe… I could join this play, I could fall in love with the prettiest girl my teenage self had ever met and he’d be too tired from his chemo to hurt my mom while I was busy. And I was right, for a while. But there’s this thing that happens to people when they’re dying, they have 1 last good day…”

“I’ve heard about that.”

“And he used his last good day to scream and yell at my mother while I was at Haley's house. Sean called me, he said Dad was at it again and I needed to rush home… And Haley’s dad never really liked me, I mean who would like the boy who’s trying to sleep with his daughter?” He manages to smile for a moment. “But he heard the call, he heard the panic in Sean's voice and he drove me home and he came in with me to see my dad dead in the foyer. All that yelling, all that anger, it finally killed him. And her family took me in that night. And every few nights after that, I’d go over for dinner and sleep on the couch in the living room and I felt like I had a real family who loved me when mine fell apart.”

“God, I’m so sorry,” she can’t even imagine that. “It’s the craving for a family that got me, too. I thought I’d build my own with him and it would be fine but the longer I was with him the longer I realized I never wanted my own children to hate their father the way I hate mine. And my mom never left, my mom just turned a blind eye to the insanity that came out of his mouth and I never wanted to be that mom. I never ever want any child I have to think or know that their father is a terrible man and I was okay with it.”

“And I was so scared to end up like my father,” he whispers, so ashamed of those thoughts. “Part of me was glad when she couldn’t get pregnant, I thought I was saving my kids from what I went through… but she’s a good mom. She’s the best mom in the world.”

“She is really wonderful,” she agrees but her heart is breaking.

Part of the reason you shouldn’t fuck the husband of the woman who stole your own is because you can fall in love with him… and then two of the men you gave everything to only want 1 woman. The same woman. And she’s not you.

“I uh, I’m going to go to bed,” she announces, standing up quickly. “You’re probably going to go sleep in—

“I don’t have to,” he stands up to, placing his hand on her arm. “What’s wrong, what happened there?”

“Nothing,” she lies, shaking the jealous thoughts away. “I’m just tired.”

“Can I still sleep beside you even if we’re not doing anything?” He asks softly, staring her down with those beautiful brown wonders, making her heartache worse.

“Yeah,” she gives in easily.

So he helps her lock up and turn out all the lights, he checks on Jack once more and then they head to her room. They change, he strips down to his boxers and she has just a sleep shirt on and they get under the sheets together. She lays there, staring at the ceiling and he turns to her, there’s an awkward haze that takes over the room but he doesn’t say anything.

He simply throws his arm around her middle, snuggles into her side and goes to sleep. Leaving her with her thoughts until the wee hours of the morning when she finally drifts off too.

— 4 months separated —

Jack’s so used to his weekend schedule at his dad's place. He wakes up to find his dad on the bottom bunk and then a morning of snuggles before they come in to get his aunty and go have breakfast together downstairs.

Aaron got called out of bed in the middle of the night for what sounded like a pretty serious case. He was up and out around 2 a.m., and with a kiss to her head, as she lay there half awake, she promised to spend the day with Jack for him. That meant that when he woke up around 7, all alone, he showed up in her room, beside her bed, and he shook her arm to wake her up.

She startles awake, “Oh, gosh, Jack?”

“Where’s daddy?”

She sighs, “he had to go to work.”

“Oh,” he sulks. “Home?”

“No, no, you can stay with me today, your dad might be back tonight or tomorrow morning. Unless you want me to call your mom? Do you want to go home?” She asks, always wanting him to feel safe first and foremost.

He lights back up, “No, I stay.”

“Of course you can,” she smiles, sitting up more. “Wanna come up and cuddle? I know you love your morning cuddles with your dad.”

He nods, getting her help to bring her up onto the mattress, he sneaks under the covers and snuggles into her. “You cuddle dad, too?” He asks.

Her face heats up with a tinge of embarrassment. He has seen them snuggle before, on the couch downstairs, when he wanders downstairs a few minutes after being put to bed. In the beginning, he didn’t like his new room, so he’d do everything to stay up with them as long as possible before they could transport him up there when he was already sound asleep. He’s only ever wandered into her room to find his dad once before, he saw them all cuddled up together with her on his chest when he reached up and shook her arm, much like he did this morning.

“Yeah, sometimes I do,” she’s honest with him. “Do Mom and James cuddle?”

He nods, “and kiss.”

“Gross,” she teases, tickling his side and making him laugh.

He has no understanding of the situation, he probably barely knew that James and her were together before. They weren’t touchy-feely, he never saw them kiss, he’s just known them both since he was born. Having his parents break up is something he also couldn’t comprehend, so it’s normal in his mind now that James and his mommy kiss while dad and Aunty Y/N cuddle sometimes… and if things ever work out between them, if this is what she feels like it is… explaining to him that his stepdad and stepmom used to be married to each other is going to be a weird, incredibly awkward, conversation.

And if things don’t work out… part of her wonders how long she’ll be his aunty. How long will he know her? Is there going to be a day he hasn’t seen her for so long that he forgets she was ever his aunty? Is she just going to be some woman in the photos of his baby book that he points to and asks about? It breaks her heart to think about it.

She snuggles him in closer and kisses his head, “I love you, buddy,” she adds for good measure.

“I love you,” he snuggles her right back.

They were going to have a good day today.

—

They’re in the middle of dinner (dino nuggets and smiley fries and a small plastic cup of orange fuzzy drink because he was a good boy today) when Aaron walks in. “Y/N?” He calls out as he puts his briefcase down.

Jack comes running from the table towards him screaming “Daddy!!!” Only to jump into Aaron’s arms.

He holds him close, kissing his cheek a few times, “I missed you! How was your day?”

She smiles from the archway that separates the dining room from the main hall, it’s one hell of a sight… he was such a good dad. He made having kids look like a breeze and honestly, his kid is a breeze. He’s polite, calm and smart. He’s adorable and sweet and even at 3 and a bit, he still has his same baby smell that does make her want one of her own sometimes.

He explains to Aaron in his toddler babble what they did that day as he walks him back over to the archway where she is. “Really?” Aaron pretends to be shocked as if she didn’t text him all day with updates.

She nods, “We had a great day.”

“And you’re having dinner?” He asks, peering into the dining room. “Is that… she let you have some special drink?” He asks, bouncing him just the one time to make him giggle and not upset his almost full tummy.

He nods like a bobblehead, “Yeah!!” Lighting up with the biggest smile.

“Wow, you really did have a great day!” He cheers, “Can you guys set me a plate? I’m going to get changed and then come back and see you, okay?”

He hurries back to his feet and reaches out for her hand, pulling her back into the kitchen but she laughs, “One second buddy, I’ll be right there,” she lets him head in without her.

She steps towards him, away from wandering eyes and he pulls her in quickly, pressing a kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” she smiles. “I love that little boy you made.”

Aaron steals one last kiss before heading downstairs to “his” room to change. He puts his gun away in his safe, puts his suit back on a hanger and hangs it on the “worn but still clean” side of his closet. He changes into some sweatpants and a long-sleeved blue shirt that he rolls up to his elbows where it’s comfortable. He takes the steps back upstairs 2 at a time just as she and Jack are placing a flower-shaped plastic plate of dinner on his place setting.

Eating like a toddler is actually really fun, he’s so glad he managed to skip dinner with the team to come do this. They talk about the park and the movie they watched after nap time this afternoon, apparently, Shrek is his new favourite. Jack’s just happy his dad is home tonight for his bath and a book before bed, because he’s exhausted by the end of dinner. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he’s going to be out like a light right at 8 p.m.

Aarons got him out of the bath and into his pjs, reading to him while he lay in his bunk bed which is only a few feet off the ground. It’s not a big kid bunk bed, it’s a small, toddler one that he can’t really get hurt on and Aaron can comfortably stand beside it to tuck him in. Tonight, however, Jack doesn’t just want his dad to tuck him in.

Aaron calls her name from the top of the stairs as she’s doing the dishes, “can you come up here for a sec?”

She quickly drys her hands and hurries up the stairs to find Jack in bed and Aaron smiling. “He has a request.”

“Okay?”

“He wants to know if we can all cuddle together in your bed tomorrow morning,” Aaron asks for him.

“Oh,” she looks at him and then at Jack. “Really?”

He nods from his spot in bed. “Today was fun.”

“I had fun too,” she reaches over and pats his tummy. “You’re always welcome to crawl into bed with me whenever you’re here.”

“Dad too?”

She nods, “Yeah, if we’re having another sleepover like that last time you walked in on us sleeping, then you can join us too.”

“Tonight?”

“Are we having a sleepover tonight?” She looks at Aaron with a smirk.

“I’d like that,” he smiles right back.

“Okay, then I guess when you wake up in the morning, Dad might still be in my room, okay?” She assures Jack, “Have a good, long sleep before then, though, okay?”

He nods, “I’m tired.”

“I bet,” she leans in and presses a kiss to his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Aunt Y/N,” he smiles right back.

“Goodnight, buddy,” Aaron leans in and gives him a kiss too. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, Dad.”

They leave his room together, turning off the light and closing the door for the night. In the hallway, Aaron pulls her in close, brushes her hair off her face and smiles at her. “Thank you, again for today.”

“I’d hang out with him every day if I could,” she assures him. “Come on, I’ve gotta finish the dishes but—

“Let me,” he stops her. “You can get ready for bed, have a bath, I’ll get you some wine, just relax. I’ve got it.”

“Are you sure?”

He looks at her through his lashes, as if to say ‘Come on?’ Because she should know by now that he is nothing like her husband. He’s not allergic to doing the dishes, he’s not put off by folding laundry, and he’s not the kind of man to desperately need a beer in front of the TV while she worries about everything else.

“Go relax.” It’s more of an order this time than a suggestion.

“Okay, then I guess I’ll be in the bathroom,” she gives in with a shrug.

“Red or White?” he asks with a smile, leaning in to steal one last kiss before he lets her go. She picks a white wine and he taps her ass with his hand as she walks away.

Downstairs, he waits to hear the water running in her bathroom above the kitchen before pouring her wine. He finishes the dishes and drains the sink almost at the same time he hears the water turn off. He knows she’s in the bath now, hopefully, she had some bubbles or bath salts and maybe even a book or magazine to read. He pours her a glass of her favourite screw-top white wine and adds a little more than normal so she doesn’t run out before the bath water starts to run cold.

He heads back upstairs, into the room where he notices she’s set out her new pjs and underwear on the bed for when she gets out. He knocks on the ensuite bathroom door before entering, she softly calls out that he can come in and as soon as he enters he’s hit with a wall of steam.

“Is that the water that’s steaming up the room or you?” He teases, eyeing her up in the tub as she pulls the bubbles towards herself to hide her naked body. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” she mocks, reaching out for her wine.

“You know I think you’re beautiful, right?” He questions, kneeling down beside the tub so he’s on her eye level. “I don’t just say that to get you naked, I actually mean it.”

“Yeah well, you can mean it… Doesn’t mean I have to think it, too,” she says before taking a sip.

He fully sits on the ground now, resting his arm on the side of the tub and leaning his head against his hand. He gives her a look, one she’s seen many, many times. She knows he wants her to explain herself, he wants to get inside her mind. He wants her to tell him so he doesn’t have to profile her, but she’s sure he already has one going.

“Being appreciated for a few months doesn’t compare to 30 years of feeling like shit,” she explains. “You should know that.”

“You really feel this way?” He asks, wanting to know everything. “Did he make you think this? Did he ever tell you that you were nothing without him? Did he isolate you on purpose or did you not try and reach out for friends because—

“Aaron,” she reaches out for him with a soapy hand. “Hey, it’s okay. He wasn’t doing any of that, you don’t have to worry about what he’ll do to Haley. He’s always wanted her, I was just the first woman to pay attention to him and by being the person who took his virginity, he felt like he had to marry me. His parents are religious, even if he isn’t anymore, their opinion on that matters. Our marriage was one of convenience. He’s happy now.”

“That still doesn’t make me feel better,” he pouts. “He was with you for 16 years, he’s known you for 18… and he never complimented you? He never made you feel beautiful?”

She shakes her head, “No… but you’re helping now.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” he gives her a sweet smile. “I know it shouldn’t come down to another person's opinion of you, your self-worth should come from within… but you’re so special to me. You make me so happy, I think you’re so beautiful. Everything we do together is a gift.”

She looks like she could cry, but she nods and swallows sharply. “I know… If it wasn’t for you if I was completely alone right now dealing with all this… I would probably just slip under the water and—

“Don’t say that. I’m never leaving you,” he assures her, cutting into her thoughts and stopping them in their tracks. “Not because I feel bad for you or because I’m scared you’ll do that if I’m gone but because I’m having the best time of my life here. I thoroughly enjoy you and your company and your attention and your mind and your body and your time.”

She takes another sip of her wine and hands it back to him as she sits up, “get in here.”

“What?”

“You can’t just say that and not fuck me right after,” she looks at him like it’s a no-brainer. “Come on, there’s room.”

“Okay,” he doesn’t even think twice.

He puts her glass down on the sink counter and pushes his sweatpants to the ground before reaching for his shirt and taking it off with his arms crossed all sexily. She just shakes her head, wondering how the fuck she got so lucky. She moves to her knees, letting him have the space he needs to get into the tub and sit down in the hot water before she straddles his hips and sits on his lap. She cups his face with her wet, bubbly hands and smiles, “You know what I think about you?”

“Tell me?” He all but begs.

She leans in and kisses him gently on the lips, then his cheek, “I think…” she kisses over to his ear, “you’re so unbelievably sexy.” She kisses his neck as her hands spread down his arms. “You’re kind, and smart and sweet,” she keeps praising him. “You’re a wonderful, incredible, man… my favourite man.”

He tugs her back by her hair so that he can look into her eyes, “Say that again.”

“You’re my favourite man,” she repeats, staring between his eyes and his lips. “In the whole world.”

“I’m your man,” he assures her. Caressing her hair, his hand comes over to cup her cheek, he runs his thumb over her bottom lip while staring at it.

She runs her hands down his chest, raising her hips she goes for his dick, hardening as they spoke, and she starts to pump him under the water. He melts into her touch, adoring the way she makes him feel so taken, so secure, so taken. He wants to be hers and only hers for the rest of time.

“Say it?” He whispers.

“You’re my man,” she replies almost instantly. Feeling his cock twitch in her hand, she brings him to her cunt and slowly starts to sit down on it.

“Oh,” he tosses his head back slightly and then snaps back to look at her right in the eyes. Foreheads touching, he pulls her flush to his body so they’re as close as possible. “I belong to you.”

She kisses him deeply, breathing him in and it hits him. Really hits him. He’s known for a while that he has very strong feelings for her… He knows he thoroughly enjoys this life that they are building together and how being with her has made everything else in his life easier… but now he knows that he loves her. He’s in love with her.

He grips her hips helping her ride him without sending the water over the edge of the tub. Their kiss heats up as the tension builds, her hands are in his hair and he grips at her skin trying to pull her in closer. Like two atoms being fused together, they want to become one. Inside her, all around her, feelings her, loving her, it’s all so much.

“Mine,” she all but moans against him as they come up for air.

“Yours,” he breathes back, leaning in to kiss her cheek and jaw.

She tosses her head back, letting him kiss along her neck. She has work tomorrow, he knows that, but he still wants to mark her. He wants to suck a deep and delicious bruise into her neck and let anyone who sees her know that she’s being taken care of… at the same time, he’d love for no one to know. Her ringless finger allows for people to hit on her and thus she would have to say the words he’d love to hear. “Sorry, I’m already spoken for.”

He’s so tempted to tell her that he loves her like this but he knows she doesn’t feel the same way. She’s simply too nice to him. She lets him live in her house (he pays rent even though she doesn’t want his money), she loves his son like her own, she takes care of them both, she has sex with him, she makes him coffee in the morning and lets him talk about his awful cases at night when they’re eating him alive… she’s so kind to him in every aspect of life, but that doesn’t mean she loves him back.

He’s thought about this for so long, too. If she’s even capable of loving him back… is she still hung up on her ex-husband? Was the trauma so bad she’d never try to love again? Will it just take her some time and will she still want him around by then? Because he’ll wait. He’ll do whatever it takes to hear her say the words one day.

Till then, he takes whatever he can get in these precious, impossibly close moments where she feels like his. She can know he belongs to her, she can say it a million times, but it won’t mean much until she’s his to keep forever too.

She pulls him back to her mouth, both of them attempting to kiss but so caught up in the feeling that they’re more so breathing against each other. She moans, and he soaks it in, closing his eyes and tilting his head back slightly. She follows him, kissing the side of his mouth and then resting her forehead against him. “Look at me,” she whispers her demand.

He does, staring deep into her eyes, she cups his face. “Make me yours, too,” she whispers. “Take me, claim me, keep me forever.”

He whines and as if she is reading his mind she says everything he wants to hear. Well, almost. An ‘I love you’ would’ve thrown him over the edge way too quick.

“Mine,” he says before stealing another kiss, voice deep with pure need. “Mine,” he repeats as he kisses her neck one of his hands spreads over her lower stomach and his thumb heads straight for her clit. The third time it comes straight from his gut, “mine,” he growls as his free hand spreads over her back, tugging her in even closer.

She seems to go feral for it, making out with him in a way she never has before as her nails dig into the skin of his upper back. They’re making a bit of a mess with the water splashing but they couldn’t care less, so wrapped up in this little world where they belong to each other.

— 5 months separated—

He doesn’t text or call much when he’s on a case. Wrapped up and busy in saving the day, she can’t really blame him.

But suddenly she understands Haley’s feelings a little more. Falling for Aaron Hotchner meant missing him deeply. It meant craving him all the time and having to deal with the fact he loves to save the world… or at least the people in his small corner of it. He’ll never change. She doesn’t want him to. She doesn’t expect anything more from him, but that doesn’t stop her from missing him.

However, when he does text it’s often to say he’s on his way home. Either to ask her to put on some coffee or take off her clothes and wait for him… tonight it’s the former.

Aaron: just landed. This case was awful. We have a mandatory 24 hours off so the team is getting drinks and they won’t let me slip away without telling them what I’m really wanting to go home for. You. So I’m going to taxi home, I’ll go get my car sometime tomorrow so I can pick Jack up for my weekend time. I miss you, but don’t feel the need to wait up for me. I’ll see you soon.

She doesn’t want him to have to do that. So she gets dressed up, she calls a cab for herself and she goes into the bar with the intention of meeting his friends and driving him home in his big SUV. She doesn’t even think about if he wants her there, how weird it’ll be to meet his friends or what she would even say to him.

Before she could overthink it, she was there.

He’s easy to spot. In the back corner, he and all his friends have drinks in their hands as they stand around a tall, circular table. She walks right up, places her hand on his arm and smiles. “Funny seeing you here,” she teases.

“Hey,” he puts his drink down and opens his arms, inviting her in for a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“I got your text, thought I’d drive you home instead?” She says against his shoulder just loud enough for him to hear, holding him back for a moment longer than she should’ve. But it felt nice… and she missed him.

When she does pull away, all his friends are even more confused. Aaron notices it this time as well. “Uh, everyone this is Y/N, Y/N these are my coworkers. Derek, Spencer, Emily, Penelope and Jennifer. Dave was here but someone hit on him and then he was gone.”

She laughs, from what she’s heard that is very Dave of him to do. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she gives the rest of them a wave and a smile and they all say their pleasantries back to her over the loud music.

“So how do you know each other?” Emily asks.

“Oh, uh,” she doesn’t know if she can say it, she just looks up at Aaron who looks just as stumped. So she drops the bomb on them. “Well, um… my husband— well, my soon-to-be ex-husband is Haley’s new boyfriend.”

At the same time, all their eyes widen and jaws drop, “oh, oh damn?” Penelope is the first to speak. “You’re the one who sent the email?”

She nods, “yeah… it’s been a weird few months.”

“I uh, I’m going to get another drink,” Aaron announces. “Want to come—

“Yes,” she agrees right away, following him over to the bar and away from his friends. “Sorry, I didn’t know if you told them everything.”

“Derek is the only one who knows everything, everything,” he assures her. “They know of the email and the divorce and the new boyfriend. They don’t know that I live with you now or that we’re… what we are.”

She nods, “Yeah, I mean, that’s a little hard to explain when we haven’t even really talked about what we are.”

“I know,” he looks at her lips and then into her eyes and then to her lips again. She doesn’t know how many drinks he’s had, but definitely a few. “God, you’re beautiful, you know that?”

She smirks, shaking her head, “Okay, Hotchner, whatever you say.”

“No, no I mean it. You’re so beautiful, did you get dressed up for this or is this how you’ve looked all day?”

“I went to work like this,” she assures him. “Are you okay?”

He nods, smile widening, “Perfect now that you’re here.”

“Do you really need another drink?” She teases him, thinking he’s drunk.

“No,” he steps in closer to her and wraps his arm around her waist to bring her in even closer. “I rather have a glass of you.”

“So let me take you ho—

“Have you ever done it in a bar bathroom?”

She just laughs, “No, what? Are you insane?”

He laughs too, “I’ve missed you so much, I don’t want to have to go home just to show you…”

“You’re crazy,” she laughs, shaking her head with disbelief.

“That’s not a no…”

“You’re right,” she can’t believe him right now but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t crave him while he was gone all week. He’s so close to her, his thumb rubbing circles over her skin as he stares into her soul, not even caring if anyone sees them. “Your friends are going to know.”

“And?” He shrugs, not caring in the slightest. “I’m their boss, they can’t bully me, I’ll just give them more paperwork.”

She laughs again, leaning into his side she wraps her arm around him, “Lead the way.”

This particular bar's bathrooms are small. Single-use, no specific gender required, there are 4 of them down the hallway and 2 of them are occupied already. They take the one at the very end of the hall, Aaron is quick to lock the door before she’s got him pressed up against it, kissing him right away. She missed his mouth, she missed his touch and his smell and just him. She missed him so goddamn much and she was going to show him.

His hands search her back, down over her ass and then he gives her a good squeeze and groans. Kissing the side of her mouth, down her neck, he keeps groping her, “Love when you wear these jeans.”

She smirks, “I know, I know, they hug my ass perfectly.”

“Mm, boy do I wish I was a pair of jeans,” he teases before diving in for another, heated kiss.

He starts to back her up, moving her towards the sink, he goes to help her up when she protests. “Ah, ah, nope,” she pushes him back for a moment. “I do not trust this sink.”

“Oh come on,” he can’t believe it. “It’s sturdy it’s been here for years—

“Exactly, it’s old. That’s why I’m not sitting on it while you fuck me,” she fights back. “Both our weight is no match for this piece of plywood and some caulk.”

“But I like your weight on my caulk,” Aaron teases.

She swats him, shocked he’d ever say that even when slightly drunk, “You did not just—

“I did,” he cuts her off, moving in to steal another kiss. He kisses as if he’s breathing in her soul and then presses one more kiss to her lips. He kisses her cheek and her forehead, “just had to get a few more in before—“

He grips her by the shoulders and spins her around, moves her hair off her neck and starts to kiss her there. He takes a second to run his hands over her boobs and down her chest, he stops at the start of her jeans and unbuttons them. With her head lulled to the side, she softens and rests back against his shoulder.

“Aaron,” she moans, keeping her voice down as much as possible while still cheering him on the way he said he liked.

He gets her pants down, feeling up her thighs and around to her lower butt cheeks, truly loving how soft she is. He says it every time, he practically worships her every chance he gets. He starts to push her underwear down too, both them and her pants rest mid-way down her thighs. He bends her forward more, taking a second to massage her ass, watching in awe as her pussy lips open from the movement. She’s wet and glistening and he wants her so bad. “Fuck, you’re so sexy, baby.”

He quickly unbuckles his belt, pops the button and throws the fly open, she pushes back against him to feel his bulge against her ass with a groan. “Hurry up.”

He pulls himself out of his boxers and taps his hard cock against her ass, “what was that?”

“Please, Aaron,” she begs.

He slips inside her and his hands grip her hips, trailing forward to her stomach, one hand goes to her clit while the other stays on her stomach for balance. He kisses the side of her neck again, “honey, I’m home,” he teases, making all the hair on her body stand up.

He considers her as home.

She places her hand over his on her stomach and interlocks their fingers just as he starts to thrust. They’re small, light, beginner thrusts but still something. He goes to move his hand away but he brings her with him, he pushes her forward so she’s bent over the sink with one hand behind her back so he can still hold her hand. With her free hand, she rests it against the wall and catches a glimpse of him in the mirror.

The way he looks at her like this, so full of lust and want and need, it’s enough to make her cum right then and there. But he starts to get faster, his middle finger bumps against her clit and she moans again, “fuck, Aaron.”

“Missed this. Wanted so badly to roll over in the night and fuck you, wanted to wake up with you naked beside me, missed hearing your noises and kissing you everywhere… god,” he groans. He keeps his voice low as possible but he can’t stop himself. “Missed how you taste, missed your touch, missed your voice and your laugh… you’re my girl, want everyone here to know it.”

That does it for her, she’s right there on the edge and she knows he will be too. He’s said it before, the way she pulls him in deeper when she cums is his undoing every single fucking time they’ve done this. She loves it, she wants to feel him lose control and empty himself inside her but she knows how awkward that’ll feel when they leave this tiny bathroom.

“I can’t,” she whines, it feels too good for her sentence to come out all in one go. “Oh god, I can’t… I can’t go hang out with your friends with-with your cum dripping out of me.”

He drops her hand to grip her hair and he pulls her head back and to the side, where she feels his hot breath on her ear. “Who said we were going to go back to my friends?”

“They’re not gonna let you leave without saying goodbye,” she reminds him. Reaching behind him to grip his side, she’s so used to holding him so tight when they fuck that she misses it. She needs a handful of him at all times.

“So you don’t want me to claim you again?” He asks, making sure this is what she wants. “You want me to skip your favourite part?”

She whines, “no, no, I guess not.”

“That’s what I thought,” he smirks and takes a nibble at her ear. “I know you love it. You love feeling taken, and being claimed. You like being mine.”

“I love— it. I love it!” she moans out, almost saying she loved him but she caught herself in time.

They’re both right there, she knows she’s so close and she can tell he is too with the way his thrusts change. They’re powerful, snappy, deep and delicious. She grips him tighter, tosses her head back with one final, drawn-out moan and cums on his cock just as he says it.

“Oh, I love you,” he growls in her ear.

It’s barely there, he’s so caught up in his orgasm that he doesn’t even really notice that it slipped out. If he doesn’t acknowledge it, she’s not going to either. It was probably a mistake. He didn’t mean to say it, not like how she almost did. He’s drunk, he’s tired, he’s been through a lot this week… surely he didn't mean it.

He kisses her neck again, breathing heavily against her as he comes down, “holy fuck.” He wraps his arms around her, holding her in a tight hug, he rests his chin against her shoulder with a sigh.

Breathing like she also ran a marathon, full of both euphoria and anxiety, her stomach is a mess of butterflies and feelings. “Yeah…”

He pulls some paper towels from the dispenser and he’s quick to catch any fallout as he pulls out. Sober enough to not want to ruin her jeans but she still thinks he’s too drunk to actually mean that he loves her.

Those words are going to haunt her until he says them again. Sober. Looking into her eyes. Really meant it with his whole heart.

“There you go,” he coos, kissing her neck one last time. He pulls away to toss out the tissue and put himself back into his pants.

She simply takes a moment to pee, he washes his hands but she catches him watching her through the mirror. Sometimes he gets insatiable like this, he looks at her like a meal and he’s been on death row for ages. He looks at her like he’s the hunter and she’s prey and it always makes her stomach flip. It’s so raw, so real, so intense, she never knew someone could be so attracted to her… but she still doesn’t want to believe he really said he loves her.

Before they leave the bathroom he pulls her in close, chest to chest again, and he cups her face. “You okay?”

She nods, “Yeah, I’m just not used to fucking you and not being able to fall right back into my bed.”

He laughs, “I love how tired and cute you get after.”

“And now I have to meet your friends,” she shakes her head, nervous as hell. It feels a little unbelievable to her that she is meeting them finally and this is the state she’s in while she does so.

“They’ll love you.”

Like you do?

“Come on,” he places his hand on her arm and leads her to the door. They leave together without a care in the world who sees and makes their way back to the table his friends were once at.

They’re all over the room now, Spencer is talking to some man. Derek is leaning against a wall with a pretty woman standing in his personal space. Emily is leaning over another woman teaching her how to play pool and Penelope is at the bar, grabbing another drink with JJ. So that’s who they walk back up to, she watches carefully as the two women smile knowingly but invite them back into conversation.

“Where’d you two go?” JJ asks with a teasing tone.

“Nowhere,” Aaron shrugs, trying desperately to hold back a smile but he can’t. “We’re going to go home though, let the others know for me?”

“Home?”

She nods, “We live together.”

“Like wife swap,” Penelope says and then covers her mouth as if it wasn’t supposed to come out.

She just laughs. “Yeah, like wife swap.”

“What’s wife swap?” Aaron asks.

“It’s a TV show, where couples sign up to switch lives for upwards of a week so that they can see how easy they really have it. The husbands and the kids stay in their house but they exchange wives,” JJ explains.

“So I guess technically we played husband swap and we wouldn’t have been picked for the show because we already knew each other,” Y/N teases.

“You knew each other?” Penelope can’t believe it. Now she knows for sure Aaron doesn’t talk about this stuff at work.

They both nod, “we worked together,” she explains. “I’m a court stenographer and I transcribed at least 50 of Aaron’s cases before he left… Haley was my best friend.”

“Holy fuck,” JJ lets slip. Usually, she doesn’t curse, she can tell from the way Aaron’s brows go up. “Sorry, that’s just so insane to me?”

“Tell me about it,” she scoffs. “It’s been a crazy few months but we’re doing okay.”

She looks up at Aaron who looks right back down at her. His hand still on her back, he tugs her into his side. “Better than okay.”

“Well, uh,” JJ doesn’t even know what to say after that. There’s clearly something there that she doesn’t even know if they know is there, so she takes a deep breath and decides to let them go. “We’ll all have to get together again sometime?”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” she gives them both a smile. “It was lovely to meet you.”

“Can I have my keys?” Aaron asks Penelope who immediately starts to dig through her big purse. She’s the only one who carries a purse, so of course, all their things go in it when they’re out.

“Here you go,” she hands him the red carabiner that holds all his keys. His car key, Haleys house key, a key to Y/N’s house, his office key, his mailbox and the storage unit that holds all the shit he didn’t want to bring to her place.

“Thanks,” he takes them with his free hand, still holding her hip with the other. “Call me if there’s anything urgent or I’ll see you on Monday.”

They wave them off and head outside together. He hands her the keys to his SUV which is parked in the back lot. It’s dimly lit and even though it’s not the worst part of town, he still holds onto her like his life depends on it. When they reach the car, he opens the driver's side door for her and helps her in, he steals one last kiss and then hands her the keys. “Let's go home.”

— 6 months separated —

6 months on the dot after she walked in on Haley and James in her bed, she served him with divorce papers.

He signs the consent answer, and they meet once to go over their settlement agreement, and she brings the papers to the county clerk for date-stamped copies. She pays her $80 filing fee and now all she has to do is wait for the judge to give them a hearing date… and then she’s going to be free.

James and his parents meet her at a real estate attorney’s office not long after. They discuss the deed of the house which her name isn’t on, even though she’s lived there for 13 years and agree to sign it over. With the verbal agreement from James that she could have the house, he and his parents weren’t able to ask for any money in exchange. They sign the new deed with the notary present and she once again files the deed on public record.

Before he leaves, James pulls her aside for a moment. “Uh, I don’t have to come to the hearing, right? It’s just you?”

She nods, “just me. The judge has everything they need and they should sign off on it that same day. It’ll take a month to go through officially, but then we’ll be free.”

“Okay, cool,” he gives her a smile. “Thanks for making this so easy for us.”

“As in me and you or you and her?” She asks, feeling a little twinge of pettiness.

“All of us,” he corrects himself. He stares at her carefully, thankful as ever and it's evident on his face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t love you properly. I’m sorry for what we did… but I feel like everything happens for a reason. I had to be with you to meet her.”

She nods, understanding that more than he’ll ever know. Because she feels the same way about Aaron. “Are you going to marry her?”

He nods, “Yeah. It’ll be a fall wedding.”

“You’ve already asked?” She can’t believe it.

“We want to be married before the baby comes.”

Her eyes widen but she says nothing. She knew this was coming but it still hurts. “She’s pregnant again?”

“We did IVF, it’s really new but we’re hopeful this time with all the meds she’s on,” he shares as if they’re friends. As if this doesn’t hurt her feelings even more than before.

“Oh… congratulations.”

“Thank you,” he touches her arm with a smile. “I hope you find some happiness too.”

“I have a boyfriend.”

It just falls out of her. She doesn’t even know why she said it but the thing between her and Aaron felt so real, so intense… so important that she calls him her boyfriend.

“Oh?” He’s a little shocked. “But you’re living with Aaron? Does he like the guy?”

She nods, “Yeah, they get along well.”

“And he doesn’t mind him around Jack?”

She presses her lips together, shaking her head, “Nope… but I mean, he doesn’t come over on weekends unless Jack is asleep.”

“Okay, good,” he says, relieved. Treating Jack as if he’s his own son and he has a say in the people he’s around. “Well… thanks again. Maybe we could all get together sometime?”

“Maybe,” she lies. Knowing she’s not going to want to sit with them or see them happy or know them outside of what little she sees during Jack's pickup and drop-off.

And then he’s gone and the house is officially hers.

She gets the insurance switched over to herself, and she has the privilege of paying the land taxes every year now… which sucks. And she’ll get herself a home security system, but not before she changes the locks.

She bought a whole new door handle with a deadbolt lock and it sits in the front hallway for a week before she asks for help installing it. Aaron has a vague idea of how to change it out but he’s not 100% positive, so he calls Derek. Unbeknownst to her, Derek is a house flipper. He loves to demolish shit and bring homes back to their original beauty when he’s not kicking down doors at the FBI.

It’s a Saturday in April, so Aaron’s out back with Jack building a swing set when Derek shows up. This is only her 3rd or 4th time meeting him, she saw him at that bar a few months back and she’s had lunch with Aaron outside Quantico, but she’s never really talked to his friends.

“So,” Derek says between taking screws out of the old door knob. “How are things going with your divorce?”

“Good, I should have my hearing date soon and then It’ll be official,” she shares with a smile. “And I got the house, which you know because Aaron asked you to come help with this for me.”

“I’m sure he would’ve been able to do it?”

“Yeah but I wanted to be able to watch you do it in case I have to do it alone one day and someone had to be with Jack,” she explains.

“Do you not think you’ll be together long?” He asks, clearly thinking they’re dating.

“Oh, we’re not together,” she assures him. “As much as I’d love to date him, we’re not dating… at least, he’s never said the words and I don’t know if I could even ask I’m so scared he’ll say no and I really don’t know why I’m telling you this, sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” he reaches out and taps her arm, assuringly. “It’s part of my job, people feel like they can tell me things.”

With the door open so he can work on the locks, she can see right out to the street where there’s a black pickup truck pulling up. James gets out and she sighs, “Good, god, what does he want now?”

Derek lets her pass and she makes her way to the yard, “James?”

“Hey, sorry to just show up,” he apologizes. “I wanted to give you back the keys we had… is that him?”

“What?” She looks back at Derek. “Oh, no, that’s Aaron's co-worker. He’s a house flipper, he’s helping me change the locks.”

Then, from the backyard, she hears running. “Uncle Jamie!!” Jack's little voice is heard and James drops down to his knees to pick him up.

“Hey, little man!”

Aarons right behind him, “We thought we heard a truck pull up…”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m just bringing back my keys. Thought I’d get a glimpse of her new boyfriend,” he teases.

“Not the boyfriend!” Derek calls from the doorway.

“Yeah, no she’s not dating anyone?” Aaron says, mildly jealous.

“But you said—

“I did,” she presses her lips together with a burst of air from her nose. “It’s complicated.”

“We just don’t want James around a strange man,” James says, which really pisses Aaron off.

“Well he’s my son so I can make those decisions,” he reminds James, reaching out for Jack who reaches back out for him. “It’s none of your business who she dates or sleeps with or anything. And with my job, I know who’s a good man from one look at him.”

James scoffs, “Okay, man, I didn’t come here to fight.” He takes the keys from his pocket and hands them to her.

“No, you just come over to rub stuff in her face and make her feel like crap,” he gets defensive and puts Jack down on the ground again. “Jack, go see Uncle Derek.”

“Okay,” he says, running off towards the front door.

“I don’t want to see you here unless it’s pick up or drop off day, got it? Haley can call and bring him over if she needs help with something, but I don’t want you here if you’re going to start shit and upset her every time you see her. I hate the way you make her feel,” Aaron says, stepping into James’ space and asserting his dominance.

“You can’t control her,” he fights back. “You’re acting like you own. the place, but you don't! You’re just too cheap to get your own fucking house.”

“This is my house!” Aaron shouts.

“You’re insane, acting like her husband or some shit,” James just starts to laugh.

“I will be one day,” he spits. “I love her, I have loved her for months now. She is the love of my life, the best thing that’s ever happened to me aside from Jack and I will do anything to make sure she never feels even a smidgen close to how you made her feel for almost 2 fucking decades. You piece of shit.”

James doesn’t even know what to say, he just looks over at her, “What?”

“We’re… we’ve been… we’re together,” she simplifies it.

“How long has this been happening?”

“You don’t get to fucking ask that after fucking my wife for a year!” Aaron fully snaps. “You’re the problem here!”

“It’s been 10 years,” he pushes right back. “Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? I’ve been fucking Haley for as long as I’ve known her because you were never home. You were a terrible—

“Don’t even fucking dare!” Aaron yells. “Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you not realize that by filling in for me you left your wife alone? You were also a terrible fucking husband who ruined her self-esteem and didn’t deserve her.”

“Well at least we’ve got what we deserve now,” James says with a shake of his head before retreating back to his truck.

They don’t look at each other, they just watch him leave and stand there in silence. She doesn’t know what to do or say or how to act… Aaron turns to her first. “I’m sorry.”

“Did you mean it?” She asks, trying her best not to cry. “Cause if you just said that to piss him off I’m never going to talk to you again.”

“Oh, no,” He’s quick to place his hands on her arms, soothing her as he looks right into her eyes, “no, I wasn’t lying. I love you. I love you so much it makes me feel insane.”

She lunges for him, hands on his cheeks as she kisses him hard. He wraps his arms around her back and holds her tight. She peppers kisses to his lips and they both breathe out into little smiles.

“Oh, Aaron, I love you, too,” she finally speaks. “I can’t believe this?”

“Believe it,” he whispers. “I love you. I have loved you the whole time.”

“Like really?” She asks, letting the insecurity slip out. “This isn’t just because we’ve been through the same thing and we’ve only spent time with each other? Like this is real?”

“It’s real… but if you want, given what we’ve gone through— and I’m not saying this to be mean, but we could get couples therapy? We could talk out all these fears and issues and you can see someone to work on your self-esteem?”

She’s a bit shocked but that’s probably the most mature thing they could do. “Yeah, we can try that?”

“Cause I love you, I want this to work, I want to be with you as long as humanly possible,” he explains.

“I love you just as much,” she says, leaning in for another kiss.

“I’m going to love you forever.”

And oddly enough, she believes him.

General Taglist

@ncsls0515 @stevesmunsons @reidsbookclub @sweetyyhippyy @manuosorioh @mrs-dr-reid @k-k0129 @squishyturtle @katsukis1wife @buckleyhans @mrs-ssa-hotch

ILALWTWIATTGYO

@eddiemunsonguitar @angelmather1 @kneelforloki @balariie @arsonistlizard @appledressing @pastanoodles11 @thatqueerenby08 @rousethemouse @karinalight @sweetnothingsvulnerability @storybookholland @sailorholly @spottedzebrasinpartyhats @dreamsarebig @darknessgirlgachalifeoficieel @alyeskathewave @ultracherries @bunbunbl0gs @anukulee @thewitchsofart @misselenakate

#rbc recs #rbc recommends #emily omg #ahhhh Emily I cant #im so excited #aaron hotchner smut #rbc recs 🥵 edition #excuse me its too soon for you to attack me with “this is the end of the chapter maybe the end of the book”#Emily nothing can happen to her. please #ok but that law is bullshit #OH SIS SNAPPED. YES QUEEN #“over here playing wife swap with the sexiest FBI agent at quantico” OH MY GOD YES YEE EYS I LOVE THIS LINE #the whole convo with Derek my heart is bursting #stop stop stop I want an Aaron blanket now 😉#ON THE STAIRSm #now im not so sure I should be reading this at work #stop stop not her thinking Aaron still wants haley #Emily Emily Emily THAT BATHROOM SEEN holy fukcing shit holy fucking fucking shit #IM THEIR BOSS THEY CANT BULLY ME ILL JUST GIVE THEM MORE PAPERWORK #I cant I fucking cant im dying omg #TEN YEARS #TEN TEN FUCKING YEARS #wait wait wait .... IS JACK AARONS???

446 notes · View notes