#It would be ten times harder for her to get custody

[goldencherryskies]

Need to explore female Darry so bad

[luveline]

I would dieeee for some more of Spencer and bombshell after her getting injured😭 him taking such good care of her, the BEST doctors, researching every single option😭 reassuring her rhats shes just as pretty😭

—Spencer looks after you while you recover from a brutal injury. fem!reader, 1.1k

Spencer thinks it’s one of the team's more gruesome injuries. Hotch has been stabbed to mince meat and Emily half-killed, Elle got shot, and he’s had his fair share of violence, too, but he can’t imagine the horror of being hit in the face with a hammer. The pain so close to your eyes, your teeth, your brain, the fear and the sudden crack. He feels sick whenever he remembers the sound, and he was sick the first time he dreamt about the way you cried as it happened. Your strange yelp, the immediate drop to the floor. 

Spencer never hit somebody as hard as he did that UnSub. His gun whipped out possessed across the UnSub’s face, and then drove forward into their nose with a stomach turning crunch. 

They’re in custody, and you’re in bed recovering with some of the best doctors in the world. Spencer thinks you both won this round, even if it doesn’t feel like a win right now. 

“Shh,” he whispers, “shh, shh, it’s okay. It’s okay, don’t cry.” 

You cling to his chest as though worried he’s going to move out of reach, sobbing. You’re careful not to touch your face or his chest, the soreness too much, but the rest of you is clinging to him. You don’t have to worry, he’s not going anywhere. 

“Please, it’s okay,” he says, the tip of his nose to your forehead. “You can have another dose in twenty minutes. Just twenty minutes.” 

He supposes the pain reminds you of the full extent of the injury, your jaw fractured in two places, your gum traumatised, your face more bruise than anything else. You hate your appearance being out of your control, it’s making you panic —he can feel you shaking.

He’d sat down with your drink to find you already crying, he couldn’t have been gone for ten minutes, but it was long enough for you to fall deep into the throes of hysteria. You’d grappled for him as he sat down to hug you, your face hidden ever since, and now the shakes have started. He’s hopeless. 

But Spencer’s willing to do anything to make it better. “Can you tell me what’s upsetting you? Please?” he asks.

“It’s–” Harder sobbing, your tears dripping down from your chin to wet the thigh of his pants.

He has to calm you down.

Since you met Spencer, you’ve been the comforter. He can’t count how many times something has hurt him and you’ve rushed to save him. You’ve hugged and held and kissed him into smiling, you’ve never let him down, you’ve forgiven him after a hundred stupid mistakes, so Spencer doesn’t care that you’ve been inconsolable for days. He really doesn’t mind that he’s had to look after you this attentively. It’s his pleasure, and he’s getting better at it. 

He presses a few soft shushes somewhere in your hairline, his hand rubbing a circuit into your back with a firm pressure that never tips into roughness. He does it until his palm is numb. He could paint the slant of your back from muscle memory, fingers tripping down the creased fabric of your pyjamas, pulling back up to your neck. He’s never felt such tender sympathy. He hates that you’re in pain, but he doesn’t hate getting to rub your back. This is surely boyfriend territory. 

“You want something to drink now?” he asks quietly. 

You open your mouth to answer, sighing in pain momentarily. “Uh, yeah.” 

“Did you want the straw?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay.” He can’t force himself away. “You okay for me to move you?” 

“Yeah.” 

You can’t be blamed for short answers. 

There are surgeries to hold your jaw together when it breaks, and while you were unconscious (shock, rather than head injury), Hotch consented as your next of kin for the doctors to make sure things wouldn’t get worse, but it was Spencer who had to advocate for you afterwards. They’d wanted a metal connector to prevent dislocation. Spencer knew this could mean another scar, so he said no, because you might’ve said no had you been awake, and they should’ve asked you anyways. 

When you did wake up, you were vehemently against it. Which is fine, you can heal without it, but it’s scarier to do it unaided. Your jaw could dislocate if you do something wrong, which is not only horrifically painful, but a painfully horrific injury to have. You talk quietly. You take small mouthfuls of soft foods. 

Spencer looks at you now, tearstained, back arched like a kicked dog, and doesn’t know what to do. He wishes he were the one who got injured instead. 

He takes the hospital bed controls into his hand and presses the button to make the top of your mattress elevate. Tomorrow, they’ll send you home, and Spencer will have to construct a nest of pillows for you to sit in while you recover, but it’ll be worth it. Things won’t feel as intimidating when you’re in your own bed. 

“Lean back, beautiful,” he says. 

Your smile is a straight line with eyes lit up. “What for?” you ask. 

“Comfier. Less stress on your head.” You lean back. “Oh,” he adds, “and so I can get a better view of you.” 

Your eyes get impossibly brighter. “What do you think?” you murmur. Your voice sounds scratched to death from crying, tight from holding your mouth a certain way, but pleased anyways. It’s just as pretty as it always is to him. 

“You’re the prettiest girl in the world,” he says, reaching out to cradle your waist, his hand moving up and down the side of you tenderly. 

You have a bruise from under your left eye and bleeding down your neck, and you haven’t slept right for a few days, but you’re undeniably beautiful in Spencer’s eyes. 

You’ve been the most beautiful girl in the world literally from the day you met onward, with as much to do with your heart as your lovely face. He should tell you that, but he doesn’t. 

“Can I have water now?” you ask, covering his hand with yours. 

His confidence wobbles. “Oh, yeah, sorry. Sorry.” He grabs your drink, water spilling down the side to wet his hand. 

“Please don’t make me laugh.” 

“I’m not trying to,” he says pathetically. 

He holds the cup of water to your face and you guide the straw between your lips. Spencer’s sure he’s been in love with you forever, and it’s all but cemented now. 

[easwan]

Hey, so, an important thing for Americans to understand about the tariff stuff:

This isn't just about trade and taxes. Trump has been calling our Prime Minister "Governor." That is immensely disrespectful, not just to Justin Trudeau but to our country's sovereignty and the entire Common Wealth's system of government. Saying we should be the 51st State isn't a cute joke; it's a blatant disregard of our autonomy as an independent country, a slap in the face to America's closest ally, and a direct imposition on our laws and values that are contrary to Trump's administration.

Canada is the second largest country on the planet after Russia--the largest if you include our water. We have ten provinces and three territories. My province, British Columbia, is 944,735 km2 (364,764 sq mi).

Reminder that Texas is only 695,660 km2.

BC alone produces 43,000 gigawatt hours of hydroelectricity annually and 6.7 billion cubic feet of Natural Gas per day. We have 11.7 million hectares of protected woodland (29 million acres).

That's just a sliver of this country. And Trump thinks he can make the entire sovereign country into a State?

This isn't 'cause "we're so similar that it wouldn't make any difference." Canada is culturally different, contrary to popular American belief, and we are very different when it comes to our laws and values. Like, marijuana is legal for recreational use country-wide, and possession of small amounts of harder drugs is decriminalized in BC as part of our Province's efforts to destigmatize addiction and encourage recovery. We have social services like the single-parent employment initiative and expanded disability income assistance, not to mention our universal healthcare.

I'm disabled and chronically ill. I get regular bloodwork, CT scans, iron supplements, iron infusions, clinic visits, and emergency room stays. I've had emergency airlifts, multiple ambulance rides, week-long hospital stays, ultrasounds, x-rays—and even given birth, and the only money I've ever had to spend on medical care (other than over-the-counter Advil) is my tramadol prescription, which is $50CAD a month. My friends and family consider that preposterously expensive. The only actually expensive medical costs I've had to deal with as a Canadian on the poverty line are dental care and my brother's HRT. (A 1000mg/10ml of testosterone was around $100CAD, which is pricey when cheques aren't coming in consistently)

I'm guessing that's not the experience of a disabled single parent on Welfare in America?

In a more prescient example, I am the legal guardian of my younger brother, a transgender teen. I had to go through the Ministry of Child and Family Development and attend two years of court to get permanent custody from our mother. But, during that time, my brother was placed in my care, and I was swiftly granted interim custody because our mother was a danger to him due to her violent transphobia.

You see, his identity is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so I had legal protection and resources available to save him from a dangerous situation and get him the care he needed. His HRT is prescribed by a local registered nurse, and the social workers at the MCFD connected us with LGBTQI+ outfitters to get him a variety of chest binders. He is also now eligible for financial aid when pursuing further education after graduating through the government's safeguards to help former foster children thrive in adulthood.

Canada is far from perfect in these areas, but it is rated as one of the safest counties in the world for queer people, alongside Nordic countries such as Sweden and Denmark. If you want to say Canada is similar to any country, it would actually be more accurate to compare us to Scandinavian countries. Honestly, the thing we have most in common with the US is our over-dependence on cars.

But as far as legal protections for queer people? Night and day.

In fact, Canada has a long history of taking in LGBTQI+ refugees. Rainbow Railroads are very much a thing. American trans people can request asylum in Canada.

I imagine Trump, Musk, and their cronies don't like that.

Let's be very clear here, Trump is cozying up with other Imperialist War Criminals such as Netanyahu and Putin. The States has stalled international efforts to stop the genocide in Gaza, and now the States is extorting Ukraine while it's actively under attack.

I am Ukrainian. My grandmother is a First Generation Refugee. My mother's first language was Ukrainian. I have been following the slow colonization of Ukraine since before they annexed Crimea in 2014. Putin would call Ukraine "brothers and sisters" and say that Ukraine would be happier as part of Russia, and so on and so forth. Now I'm seeing the same warning signs in the way Trump is treating Canada.

This is bigger than some boos during hockey. These tariffs are the first step in weakening our country and desensitizing the American populace to the idea of annexation. He's normalizing flagrant disrespect towards our sovereignty, and popularizing lies about the dynamic between our countries to set the stage for annexation and the theft of our natural resources.

It has been genuinely gutting to see American leftists not taking this seriously. We're not just plucky lil' Canucks standing up for ourselves against a big bully. We're an independent nation and America's closest ally refusing to bow down to the new fascistic regime. What Trump is doing is not normal. It's imperialism. Call it what it is, and stand with us.

Canada is considering this a Trade War and preparing accordingly. The boycotts are country-wide—not just people opting to buy Canadian—but stores taking American products off the shelves and relabelling everything to make the boycotts easier. We're expanding trade with the EU, Mexico, China and South Korea.

Canadians are pissed and genuinely ready to fight. Sure, the US population is massive, and the country has an embarrassingly oversized military, but read up on what happens when Canada goes to war. There will be no victor.

Our government officials are treating this as an act of imperial aggression, and our Canadian political experts are calling it a prelude to annexation. We will not capitulate; we will not play. Canada is a sovereign country and part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

We will never be the 51st State. Canada is unceded Indigenous land that should be returned to the First Nations, not sold to a dictator and the billionaire Nazi who bought his presidency.

[witchygagirlwrites]

Broken Bonds-Part 30

Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz x Reader, Jay Halstead x Hailey Upton, Coparenting Jay Halstead x Reader

With a ticking clock there are no rules when it comes to Jay and Mouse finding you and Hailey

Warnings: TORTURE, MENTION OF RAPE (NO RAPE) LOTS OF VIOLENCE

The sound of Mouse’s cell phone ringing was nearly too loud in the marshal office. The guy Gwen had just dragged in was yelling from the holding but somehow the simple ring of his phone seemed louder. He glanced at the screen and the moment he saw Jay’s name he felt his world screech to a stop. He glanced at the time, ten forty five. The meeting was over. If Jay was calling…

“Jay” he answered and heard the other man take a ragged breath “Greg…” no no no, if Jay was calling and if Jay was using his real name? “Please tell me she’s not dead Jay. Please” he begged and Jay breathed “Greg….they took our girls”  “Who took our girls?” he asked, eyes meeting Xavier’s across the floor as he grabbed his gear and headed for the stairs. He heard his team one by one falling in step behind him before he ever hung up with Jay.

He looked over his shoulder at them all. “I don’t have clearance to go, you could be risking your jobs” Gwen shrugged “This is Kidd we’re talking about. Let’s fucking go”

“You fall in line and there aren’t any rules” he told them before heading down the stairs not looking to see if they followed. He had to get to the twenty first. The more time passed, the harder it would be to get a lead. Not finding them was not an option.

The drive across town, hell he wasn’t sure if any light he rolled through was red or green. You were in danger. Some assholes decided they were gonna put their hands on you, hurt you, take you. He wasn’t here the last time you needed him, he was now dammit and nothing would keep him from finding you.

The moment Mouse parked his truck in front of the precinct he grabbed his gear out of the seat and stormed up the steps. Sure enough his entire team had followed him. The moment he stepped in the door Trudy looked up at him from her place behind the front desk, he could see tears in her eyes “Mouse, you and Jay bring them home” he nodded, knowing she needed him to sound certain  “We will” she hit the button to pop the gate leading up to intelligence and he didn’t waste any time, taking the stairs two at a time.

The moment he hit the top of the stairs every set of eyes turned towards him. It seemed like Jay and Voight were mid conversation but he could’ve given a damn less “Tell me we have any damn thing we can track Jay. Give me something”  Voight looked at him “Mouse, you can’t be here” he cut his eyes at Voight “Me and Jay honestly don’t need the unit or my team. More hands and eyes just come in handy. Are you gonna help us get them back or stand in the damn way? I’ve got five marshals here to help your unit, take the help and get your detectives back or we’ll do it ourselves”

Voight raised an eyebrow then nodded “I’ll get it cleared for your team to be here. You and Jay run point” Mouse nodded then looked back at Jay who told him  “Kev’s running the plates. We got Phillip Jones in custody, best we can tell his brother Eric and his goonies grabbed them. We’re thinking they’re gonna contact for a trade” Mouse nodded and looked back at Gwen “Take the back stairs, tell Kevin you’re part of my team. Take over running these assholes down. Let’s find them before they ever have a chance to try to make a trade. Send Kevin up”

Gwen disappeared through the door Mouse pointed her in the direction of and Jay bumped his shoulder and leaned in “How solid is your team?” he nodded “Solid” “Like we can take Phillip down to the cage?” Jay asked and he nodded “Yeah, they’re that solid”

Jay looked back at Voight who nodded once “Do what you gotta do, I got the rest” that was pretty much clearance to do anything and everything. Him and Mouse had done some shit and that was for men in their unit but this? This was for the women they loved. This was for Addy. This was for everything that mattered, nothing was off limits.

Kevin walked back through the door about that time and Mouse cut his eyes at Jay before saying “Kev, go to fifty one and pick up Stella and Kelly. She needs to know” Jay nodded then breathed “After that I need to ask something of you that you aren’t gonna want to do” “What’s that?” Kevin asked and Jay shrugged one shoulder “Sit out of this? I need Addy safe and who better than her mom’s best friend. I need you to stay with her and Stella until we bring the girls home”

Kevin looked from one of them to the other “I can’t do nothing” Jay shook his head “Protecting Addy is everything” he nodded slowly “Promise me that you two aren’t stopping at nothing” Mouse nodded “You know us Kev. They’re coming home”

___________________

“What do you mean she’s been kidnapped?” Stella’s voice shook as she looked from Jay to Mouse. Kelly moved to put his hands on her shoulders and she shrugged him off. “Where the fuck is my little sister?” Jay swallowed hard “We’ll get her back Stel” 

Stella’s head whipped towards him “How the fuck did you lose her? How does a decorated army ranger, decorated detective manage to lose two fucking women on a damn undercover?” “There’s a lot of moving parts to things” Mouse tried and Stella scoffed “You’re defending him?”

Kelly pulled her back against his chest “Baby, you’re upset. You’re saying stuff you don’t mean” her hands shook and tears were shining in her eyes when she said “Just please get her back Jay. She’s my little sister. Don’t make me bury her and you know she loves Hailey too. Get em back, they both believe in you” then she looked at Mouse “My little sister loves you, get her back”

She took a deep breath, visibly resigning herself to the fact that this was reality not some horrible dream then said “I’ll take vacation time and keep Addy home until you get them back. Don’t worry about her. Just concentrate on my sister and Hailey, ok?” Both men nodded so she turned to Kelly and Kevin “Let’s go”

They watched her walk out and Jay took a deep breath “Thank you” “For what?” Mouse asked and Jay shrugged “For defending me even if I don’t deserve it, I was right there man…a few steps too slow…” Mouse shook his head “Don’t fucking go there Jay. I need your head on straight. Don’t think about what you could’ve done. Think about what you’re gonna do when you get those son of a bitches that have them in front of us”

Pain wasn’t a stranger to you. Hell in your life of work, you’d been shot, stabbed and in a couple car wrecks. That was all since joining intelligence. You could handle pain, it was the burning that made consciousness rush back into you with a scream being ripped from your lips.

“Looks like this one is awake, what about blondie?” you fought against the pounding behind your eyes to force them open. Blondie...Hailey? Memories of what happened flooded back to you. You’d run right into it, worse than that was Hailey had followed you step for step. You’d never seen those damn guys or those fucking shock sticks.

The last thing you could remember was Eric Jones telling someone to “Shoot that damn guy” was Jay ok? Where was Hailey? Hell where were you? The moment you managed to get your eyes open you were face to face with a man that was taller than Kevin and twice as broad “Damn, what did your mama feed you?” you blurted out and he chuckled “Oh I like her, she wakes up feisty”

You shrugged, looking around the room and cutting your eyes up to see you were chained by your arms to a pulley system that was attached to the roof. Explained why you couldn’t currently feel them, also why your feet were barely touching the floor. “Unchain me and I’ll show you just how feisty I am asshole” he grinned “Oh she’s gonna be fun. Is blondie awake yet?”

About the time he said it you heard Hailey’s voice and it sounded like she was waking up in the same mood as you. You glared at the mountain of a man in front of you “Sounds like it” he chuckled “See, my boss is wanting his brother back. He’s gonna use you two to do so. The thing is that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun in the meantime”

You felt your stomach churn at his words and it must have shown on your face because he shook his head “Oh no dear, we’re not animals. We wouldn’t take that from you…we just want to break you down in a little teeny tiny heap so when CPD releases Phillip they get piles of their detectives back. That way they know the Jones brothers are indeed untouchable”

“How do you plan a trade if we’re dead?” you asked and he grinned “Who said you’ll be dead?” and backhanded you across the face hard enough if you hadn’t been hanging by your arms you probably would’ve flown across the room. The coppery taste of blood filled your mouth and you turned your head to spit it out onto the floor “Should I start here with you or go to Blondie first?” you were shaking from a mixture of pain, adrenaline and fear as you said “If you touch her just remember I will get down from here eventually and when I do I will break your fucking neck”

“Tsk tsk tsk Detective. You’re in no place to make threats” you spit out more blood, damn your teeth must have sliced the inside of your mouth “Not a threat, it’s a promise I will make good on”

____________________

Hailey could hear you, she knew you were close. She couldn’t exactly call for you because you both didn’t know if these assholes knew your identities beyond being detectives for intelligence. When she heard you tell one of them that if they hurt her you’d break their fucking neck her eyes flew to the men in the room with her.

You had to stop fighting so hard. She could take it. She’d handled worse. You and her could make it through this. The unit would come, you just had to stay alive until then and you trying to take the focus off her wasn’t happening.The man in the room with her eyed her, your initial observation of “Damn what did your mama feed you?”  was pretty fucking accurate. Where the hell did the Jones brothers get these men?

“She your girlfriend or something?” he asked and she grinned “Or something” he nodded “You gonna let her take everything to keep it off of you?” she shook her head “Not on your life asshole” and he grinned “Always loved the fact that women are always stronger than men. They take twice as long to break” “Lucky us” she breathed, turning back towards the sound of your voice. She had no idea of knowing how much time had passed since you and her had been taken. How close the unit was to finding you two or what had happened to Jay.

Hank walked down the stairs with Xavier next to him, both men pushing Phillip in front of them. Mouse and Jay stood on either side of the cage. Hank shoved Phillip in then looked at Jay and held the keys out “You two got five minutes, make it count”

Xavier looked at Mouse “I got the exterior door. No one is coming in” then he walked off. The man had the nerve to smirk at Jay  “What’s wrong Jack did ya lose Veronica and Vivian?” Jay unlocked the cage and pushed the door open wide enough Mouse could walk in behind him. “I’m gonna ask you one time and one time only where would your brother take them?”

“Fuck you” Phillip told him and was met with a hard punch from Mouse. Jay nodded towards him “Did I mention one of the women your brother took was the woman he loves?” Phillip spit out a mouth full of blood, a tooth amongst it and shrugged “Let me go and you may see them again”

Jay cut his eyes at Mouse and held his hand out, Mouse laid his knife in it “Last chance. Give us a location” “Fuck you” Phillip repeated. “Suit yourself” Mouse told him and nodded to Jay who didn’t hesitate to slam the knife down into Phillip’s left hand, pinning it to the bench.  Phillip let out a blood curdling scream as Jay leaned down face to face with him “A location, now”

“I don’t- I don’t know” Phillip tried and Mouse grabbed the handle of the knife and twisted it “What was that? Talk up Phillip!” Phillip groaned “There’s three places! Three places! He’ll have them in one of those”

“Good boy. Luckily you’re right handed so here ya go” Jay handed him a sheet of paper and pen “Write quick and he’ll get the medic from his team down here to patch ya up before you pass out” 

He scribbled down the locations and Jay nodded then snatched Mouse’s knife out of his hand “Good talk Phillip” Mouse nodded “Very lucrative for us all” the two walked out and Xavier walked back in, eyeing the puddle growing under Phillip as Jay locked the cage “Guessing I should get Jonah?” Mouse nodded “Yeah, asshole doesn’t deserve to bleed out” then looked at Jay “We gotta get Gwen running these then we need teams hitting them all”

“What if he has more addresses?” Jay asked and Mouse shrugged “We hit every damn property he owns until we find them” Jay nodded “We gotta move fast and hit every damn place hard” Mouse nodded “We know how and we will. They fucked up laying a hand on her and Hailey”

Your ribs were aching, you were fairly certain you were losing circulation in your hands and your jawbone may very well be cracked or at the very least bruised deeply They’d given you one hell of a beating already. You heard the room next to yours open and knew they were going in on Hailey next “LEAVE HER ALONE DAMMIT! PLEASE, HURT ME NOT HER!” you screamed, groaning from the pain as tears slipped down your face.

You heard Hailey’s voice cut through the wall “STOP FIGHTING SO MUCH. I CAN TAKE IT” and flinched when the first blow landed on her. Tears streamed down your face as you listened to them beat her like they had you. 

_____________________

Hailey took the beating, grunting when they hit her and tears flowing again when she heard your sobs. This would be how they broke the two of you. She could take the hits, she couldn’t take hearing your pain and knew you couldn’t take hearing hers. They would use you against each other. The worst part was they didn’t even have any real use for the two of you beyond pawns to try to get Phillip released. This? This was just a bunch of sickos playing.

When they finally got tired and walked out of her room she sagged in her chains. “Hails?” you spoke lightly and she swallowed hard “I’m here babe” she could hear your voice shake “They’ll find us” “I know”

“Hit it fast and hard. Don’t give them time to alert anyone in case this isn’t the place with the girls. If it’s not we hand it over to patrol and move the hell on” Jay told the group and Voight cut his eyes at him “Unless there’s an issue. If so everyone go home and we got this because out of everyone I trust him to have my back and if goes both ways”

“Jay, we’re with you” Adam told him and Kim nodded. Gwen looked at Mouse “Let’s get Kidd and Upton back” the group surrounded the first location, waiting on Jay’s command. “Take it”

“CPD! US MARSHAL” The call sounded out and doors were kicked in. The guards inside didn’t have time to run. The group of men and women they had backing them were slamming them down left and right. They left them to cuff them while Jay and Mouse moved through the house, clearing it.

When it came up empty they moved back into the living room where Voight had gathered all the perps. “Who’s in charge” Mouse asked and no one replied so Voight kicked one of the men in the side and he grunted then pointed at one man “He is”

“Asshole” the man cursed as Mouse and Jay snatched him to his feet. “Kitchen?” Jay asked and Mouse nodded. Voight looked back at the team “Stay in here” then followed the two into the kitchen, hanging back. 

Mouse looked towards the stove “Oh look Jay, gas stove. Actual fire” Jay nodded and looked towards the man they were dragging between them “This asshole has a pyro streak. Picked it up in Kandahar Valley. The problem with electric stoves?” They dragged him over to the stove as Mouse turned one of the burners on high, the flames flickering up as he said “The burners man. It’s too clean. Actual flames. They fucking melt skin”

They both grabbed one of the man’s shoulders and held him down over the flames, just close enough the smell of burnt hair from his beard filled the air. Mouse leaned down close to his ear “Your boss Eric Jones?” The man nodded, eyes wide. “Does he have a place where he takes hostages?” 

“He’ll kill me man?” Mouse looked at Jay “Did you hear that? Jones will kill him” Jay nodded then shoved the man down just enough the flames burnt through his beard and he screamed in pain as his chin blistered then they pulled him up. Jay leaned in “Eric is not your biggest worry. You’re here so you didn’t actually have anything to do with. You can get by with a felony arrest. If you don’t tell us where your face is going down in this flame and I will fucking hold you in it until you stop kicking and swear we found you like that”

The man looked between them then nodded “It’s about an hour north..I…I can show you on on a map” Mouse slapped him on the shoulder “Attaboy!” then snatched him up by the burnt part of his beard “Let’s go”

You passed out at some point and when you came to you were being taken down from the roof and chained to a wall instead. You grunted from the pain in your side as they dropped you to the hard concrete floor. “What’s wrong killer, don’t tell me we already broke ya? I wanted you to keep some of that fight?” the man in front of you said. The way he looked at you made your skin crawl, then he reached to push your blood soaked hair back from your face “Not all of us have Dominic’s views on things. That fight may be fun, especially if we can rub that into CPD” you flinched away from his touch and glared at him “Go to hell” he grinned “Uh oh. There’s killer” and winked at you.

He walked out and a few minutes later Hailey’s limp body was dragged in and chained to a wall opposite you. You waited until the men who’d bought her in walked out then moved a little closer to her, straining your eyes to see if she was breathing. 

The slight rise and fall of her chest as a reassurance. If she was here, in the room with you that meant you could protect her. If this was all a play against CPD to get their attention to get Eric out, you would get their eyes on you the next time Dominic came in. After all, someone who loved you more than anything worked for the marshal service. Using you, hurting you could get the attention of both branches. They didn’t need to hurt her.

___________________________

You sat in the quiet, listening to her stir and knew she was fully awake. You’d made your decision and had come to peace with it. You just needed her to now. This was the only way for either of you to make it out of this. That slimy guy said “Not all of them” that meant more than one of them went against Dominic. How long could he keep it to Physical abuse?

You’d already endured more than you ever thought you could. These men had beat every inch of your body to the point of near breaking before they had stopped. How your heart was still beating and how you were still drawing breath was beyond you.

“Hailey” you barely whispered her name but knew she heard you because of the slight flinch ��Yeah Y/N?” you turned towards her as far as you could, the pain in your side feeling like it was tearing with every movement “Hails promise me you’ll be there for Addy” her head rolled to the side to face you, one of her eyes was nearly swollen shut but the other bright blue and wide as she stared at you “Always but why wouldn’t you be?”

You swallowed hard “I have to think about her instead of myself. Jay needs you coming home. I can’t break his heart again. So if it comes to me or you, get the hell out of here and get home to him and my little girl. Be a mom to her please” she shook her head, tears falling “I won’t leave you. I can’t face her and know I left her mom. I can’t look Greg in the eye and know I left you. You can’t ask me to leave you” you wrapped an arm around yourself, grunting from the pain but managed to get close enough to grab her hand “Hailey, I love you. I know you love me. I’m asking please if you get a chance, get out. Live for us both. Take care of my daughter, help Greg get on his feet. You’re so strong. They need you. I need you to live please live for me” 

She squeezed your hand “If I get a chance, I’m taking you with me. There’s no future for me without my wife in it. We’re a family, family doesn’t leave each other behind” 

You shook your head, tears falling “Listen to me dammit. Their goal is to completely destroy us. I can’t let that happen to you if I can stop it” she squeezed your hand “I am not leaving you, no matter what. We face whatever comes together”

“This is the place,” Mouse spoke, looking around at the team. “Surround it. Hit it hard. No one walks out alive” Voight ordered and everyone nodded. The teams going in were Gwen with Jay and Mouse. Jonah and Xavier with Adam and Kenny and Kim with Voight.

“If you can make it hurt, even better” Jay added then cut his eyes at Mouse “Let’s do this” 

___________________

Jay and Mouse moved together through the halls. The two men didn’t have to speak, they knew where each other was, on feeling alone. “Two offenders down” Mouse called over the radio, stepping over the bodies of the men he and Jay just killed, their blood still drying on his hands.

“From the blueprints I pulled the cellars are at the end of the hall” Gwen spoke low and both men nodded. She moved first, opening the door and they moved in, shoulder to shoulder. 

________________

You flinched at the first sound of gunfire “Hailey” you whispered, trying to nudge her and she nodded “I know” the door burst open and you would’ve preferred Dominic. It was the slimy guy. He looked from you to Hailey and smiled “Don’t have long but might as well have a little fun” you felt adrenaline rush into you and knew it hit Hailey too because despite your injuries you were both on your feet.

_______________

There was a door at the end of the hall that was open and they could hear fighting coming out of it. They ripped it open to find a man on the ground while you and Hailey had chains that appeared to be hooked to your hands wrapped around his neck, choking him.

Mouse called your name and Jay called Hailey. You both looked up and the moment you spotted them, collapsed. Gwen moved in, shooting the man without question and dragging him away from the two of you. Jay and Mouse started to step into the room but the moment they did you and Hailey curled into each other as far as your chains would let you.

They froze at the door. Mouse locked eyes with you “Sweetheart?” you barely met his eyes and shook your head “Please Greg” he nodded and hit Jay’s arm then tapped his com “We need you Kim” his eyes stayed on you but him and Jay didn’t come any closer.

Gwen slowly moved towards you and Hailey and the two of you let her unchain you but still didn’t move from your corner, wrapped around each other. Kim came running into the room and looked at them then at the two of you then ran over to you. “Oh my god” she crouched down in front of you and then looked back “Call a bus, specify we want Brett and Foster”

Mouse and Jay were forced to stand by while you and Hailey allowed Kim and Gwen to help you to stand and slowly make your way upstairs. A total of seven hours had passed. What had you two endured in that time?

They followed behind, watching as you and Hailey sat on the couch in the house, flinching if any of the men got close. Mouse had a pit in his stomach growing larger every time you or Hailey flinched.

Kim looked up and met his eyes and shook her head “No rape” she mouthed then squatted down next to Hailey while Gwen was squatted next to you. That took one horror off the table but the physical proof was still there.

The ride back to Med Jay was close enough to the ambulance Kim had called with a message from Emily of “Get off my ass Halstead” 

Mouse and he both refused to let you and Hailey out of their sights. It didn’t feel like you were safe. Not yet.

The hospital had already been called. Maggie, Nat and April were waiting to be in charge of yours and Hailey’s care and Goodwin had ensured you wouldn’t be separated from each other. That was all they could do for now.

_________________

Once they got to Med they both rushed in behind the stretcher but were stopped outside of trauma which they knew would happen. “Stay here. I’ll update you” Maggie promised.

The door closed and they were left on one side while you and Hailey were hurt and terrified of even their touch on the other. They barely registered their teams or Will walking up. “How are they?” Will asked and Jay shook his head “I don’t know” “They couldn’t bring themselves to even let us touch them” Mouse added.

Voight tapped both of them on the shoulders and they cut their eyes at him “Can we talk?” “Here” Jay replied so Voight looked at the rest of the group and Will nodded “I’ll buy everyone a coffee”

Once it was just the three of them Jay looked at Voight “How big of a mess is this?” Voight shook his head “What mess? You were working a joint task force, took down a crime ring and rescued our detectives. Good job” then looked towards the room “They’ll come out on the other side, those two are strong” “They look so damn broken” Jay whispered and Voight shook his head “Nothing is stronger than a woman’s will”

A few hours passed before their teams trickled out, telling them to call if they needed anything. The two didn’t move. You and Hailey got transferred to a private room together but had been sedated to allow for your bodies to rest so they simply followed the two of you to the private room.

It wasn’t until about six the next morning that Maggie approached them “Jay, Mouse” they glanced up from the seats they were sitting in and she held up two bags and pointed behind her to Voight and Adam “I have clothes for you two. You’re covered in blood and scaring the hell out of everyone in my hospital. Please let Hank and Adam watch over them for a few minutes and clean up”

They nodded slowly, standing to take the bags. “Don’t let anyone but Maggie, Nat or April in” Jay told them and Adam nodded “Believe me, I’m listening to you two. No offense but you both kinda scare me now” Mouse shrugged “Don’t mess with the two in that room or Addy and you have nothing to worry about”

______________

They were almost back to the room when Jay’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket and saw it was Stella. They’d called to let her know they’d got you back. He stopped and motioned for Mouse to get closer before answering “Hey Stel, what’s up?”

He could tell she’d been crying even if she was trying to make her voice sound cheerful “Hey Jay, is there any way I can video call you and Mou so little Miss can be assured that you two are ok and making sure mommy and Hayhay are getting their booboos checked?” 

Mouse nodded so Jay said “Yeah, I’ll hang up” he hung up and half a second later the video call alert came through. Him and Mouse locked eyes and took a deep breath before he swiped to answer it. Stella and Kevin’s face was first in the screen “Hey Jay” Stella greeted and he nodded “Hey Stel”

Kelly came walking up to the couch behind her with Addy and sat her down in Stella’s lap. Addy smiled big when she saw him “Hey daddy!”  “Hey baby” He greeted then turned the screen so she could see Mouse too and she giggled “Hey Mou!” “Hey sweetheart” Mouse greeted.

Both men were working to keep their emotions in check and that proved to be a feat when she asked “Where’s mommy and hayhay?” Mouse swallowed hard then said “They’re asleep sweet girl. They were tired” she nodded “I stay with Aunt Stel and Uncle Kelly till mommy and hayhay not hurt?” 

Jay nodded “Yeah baby, you’re gonna get to stay with Aunt Stel and Uncle Kelly. Daddy loves you so much. So does Mommy and Hayhay” “And Mou”  Mouse added and Jay smiled, tears in his eyes that he blinked away “And Mou” 

She nodded “Kay daddy. Love you! Love you Mou” then shoved the phone at Stella and wiggled down to go chase Kelly. Stella watched her then looked back at the screen, tears in her eyes “She’s ok, we got babygirl. You two get our girls healed up,you got me?” they nodded and she cut her eyes at Jay who shook his head “We’re good Stella” she smiled “I love you two idiots. I hope you both know that” they nodded “We do. Take care of Addy” after she hung up they headed back to their posts outside of yours and Hailey’s room.

You were semi conscious. Nat was giving you both pretty strong sedatives to combat panic attacks but Maggie had let you stay together. You reached out and could brush your hand against Hailey’s your beds were close enough. 

@desimarie12

You knew without looking that Mouse and Jay would be right outside of the door but you both couldn’t do that yet. It was too much, too soon. Hailey called your name lightly and you turned your head to look in her direction, she was already looking at you “Told you we’d make it out together” you smiled slightly “Now we have to face it together” she reached out for your hand and you slipped yours into hers, she squeezed yours lightly considering neither of you had a lot of strength at the moment. “For now, let’s just go to sleep” she whispered and you smiled “Deal” 

Part 31

@allisonargent144

@nevaehstreater18

@alexisquinnlee-bc

@courty-courtz00

[queeniecook]

June 3

Yesterday, after Caleb left to go see Lilith, Rahmi and I had an uneventful afternoon at the house. We watched all the Ghostbusters movies with her three kids. It was a much needed escape for the Watson family because today was the day of Rahmi and Thomas’ divorce hearing.

I went with Rahmi to the hearing, while Caleb entertained Rahmi’s kids at the Watson family farm.

Honorable judge Dallas Brown was the overseer for the day. I totally forgot that Mina married a judge.

Naturally, Thomas brought his “friend” along.

“Your honor, as stated in the papers Rahmi was served with, I don’t intend to try to take the kids away from her. I want visitation rights. She’s always been a great mother to them and I don’t want to make things harder on them during all of this.” Thomas started.

I wanted to awkwardly pregnant lady stand from my seat and yell at him. If he doesn’t want to make things worse for the kids, why go after the farm?! But, I kept my mouth shut. I’m sure Rahmi had the same thoughts as myself during his speech.

“The farm has been in my family for generations. MY FAMILY. Not hers. When my parents had their will written up, I’m sure they never dreamed of Rahmi and I parting ways. I never dreamed it would happen back then either.” He continued. Perhaps that was true, but he’s the one who strayed. 

“I just want what is my birth right. Of course the kids would all inherit it from me when I pass on, this isn’t about taking anything away from them. It’s about what’s been taken from me.”

I rolled my eyes so hard they almost fell out of my head.

Finally, it was Rahmi’s turn.

“Joe and Beverly Watson stated in their will that I would get the farm if Thomas and I ever got a divorce. That was their wishes, in black and white. Thomas didn’t object to them putting that in the will, he knew about it. He was fine with it. If he wanted to object, he should have done it back then.” Rahmi stated simply and sat back down. I had to hold myself back from clapping. 

The lawyers – Angela Pleasant for Rahmi and Kaci Sherwood for Thomas, were allowed to go back and forth with stipulations and compromises before presenting things to the Judge Brown.

Ten minutes later ~

“I have great news! Judge Brown sided with you, since it was clearly Mr. and Mrs. Watson’s wishes and they made them in  sound mind with witnesses, Thomas doesn’t have much of a case.” Miss Pleasant informed us. 

Rahmi breathed a sigh of relief as did I. I was fully prepared to open mine and Caleb’s home to the better parts of the Watson clan but the idea of their family farm being ripped from all of them was tragic.

“Everything else is settled as well. The divorce is going through as well as the custody agreement.” Miss Pleasant added, I zoned out after that because it was a lot of lawyer speak.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Watson, but what Rahmi said was correct. Your time to object to the will and actually be able to do anything about it would have been back when they were drafting it.” I overheard Miss Sherwood telling Thomas and Florence. 

It wasn’t long before there was a explosion.

“I can’t believe you let that trollop get the farm and all that land! Why would you ever agree to let something go to her?!” Miss Florence berated Thomas loud enough for all of us to hear it. 

“I thought we would be together forever like my parents! That’s why it wasn’t an issue!” Thomas snapped back. 

Florence’s face twisted in disgust. “Love doesn’t last. Only money does.” 

“You’re not who I thought you were.” Rahmi’s soon to be ex husband mumbled to his floozy. 

Florence huffed and with dramatic flair, flung opened the courtroom doors and stomped outside. Hopefully to never be seen or heard from again.

I shared a victory hug with Rahmi after Thomas left with his counsel.

We also celebrated with some food, because I was starving! I’m really glad things worked out for Rahmi and her family today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Credit for courtroom set goes to shelby628 on the gallery.

[kitkatt0430]

Talk Shop Tuesday: How did your Eobard vs Eobard series first come about?

Eobard vs Eobard (AKA the Herobard series ^_^ ) came in part from curiosity about what the future Eobard was trying to get back to in S1 was like now that he'd altered the timeline so much. Would Eobard's own life even have played out the same way he remembered or would it be different? And if it was different, could the Eobard of this timeline even be considered the same person as the Eobard of the OG timeline?

It also came in part because Eobard has a habit of getting in his own way over the course of the series and wouldn't it be funny if it was even more literal? Eobard isn't getting what he wants because a literal second Eobard is busy getting it all first - his own worst enemy is himself and he doesn't even realize it.

From there I looked back over the DC wikis to refresh my memory on the various comics Eobard backstories to decide how I wanted the new timeline Eobard's life to diverge from old timeline Eobard's. And I quickly decided that of course new Eobard was going to love his brother a lot - in fact part of his identity he built while recovering from his parents abuse would revolve around being a good big brother. Comics Eobard erased Robern from existence, something that EoWells will have done in his timeline, so it was important that new Eobard not only didn't erase Robern but was incredibly close with him.

Gideon was also someone I wanted new Eobard to have with him. EoWells has a Gideon so I wanted to keep that parallel. I wanted this Gideon to have a different origin point, so instead of coming from the Flash Museum via theft she became an AI companion Eobard's parents gave him in an attempt to fix his social development - it both helped with defining the kind of abuse Eobard primarily suffered from his parents - neglect and verbal abuse - but also meant that Gideon had been Eobard's closest companion from a very young age. About nine or ten, not too long before Robern was born, probably given by Eobard's parents as an attempt to 'fix' him before the baby arrived.

With Eo and Gideon - and I think that was about where I started calling him Eo because that became Gideon's nickname for him - established as having been together for so long, it made sense that she was more of a sibling to him than a friend. And Eobard was probably a little bit co-dependent with her and vice versa - Gideon was wary of risking Eobard's life to become a speedster, but at the same time she definitely wanted that because speedsters live longer than regular humans and she wants to keep him as long as she can - so he has a tendency to put his relationship with her first, though Robern is a close second as adults.

Meloni came about because Eobard and Robern needed an adult in their lives after their parents died. I wanted Eobard to still be young enough to need a legal guardian when that happened so it would make sense why he didn't get custody of Robern himself. But also old enough that he was believably college aged (early) and thus wasn't around enough to really see how his parents were treating Robern so the realization Robern wasn't actually the much loved child his parents pretended he was would hit harder after they died.

I picked Meloni to name the character based off the comics character, but while she's got a lot in common with that comics character... she's really much more of an OC with the same name. She looks a lot like Iris due to being a direct descendant of Iris and Eddie's - it took a while to decide on her having a much more direct relation to Eobard and Robern too since Eddie & Iris' descendants would be distant enough relatives that she wouldn't really have a legal claim if she weren't also more closely related to them too. By then, despite being descended of two branches of the same family, Meloni's parents would have been distantly related enough that it wouldn't be a problem of incest/inbreeding for them to have married. This worked since I had already decided pretty early that Eobard & Robern would not be Eddie's descendants, but Malcolm Thawne's (either a brother or a cousin at this point) - with Eddie saving the life of one of Malcolm's kids being the real reason why Eddie's survival is necessary to Eobard's existence and why Edward became a family name for the Keystone branch of the family.

Once I had these four characters built up in my head, I finally started writing the first fic of the series. Eobard and Gideon in the past (to them, present for the main action of the series) about to learn about the Reverse Flash - not included in the new Timeline's Flash Museum - the hard way. That was also when I decided that of course new Eobard would have a very different code name and color scheme, but that the color scheme would be a reaction to not wanting to have anything in common with someone who'd hurt the Flash.

Even when he doesn't realize he's doing it, this Eobard is constantly rejecting the path that would lead to the Reverse Flash existing in the new timeline.

[cynicalone94]

"You Lied To Me"

Read on AO3 here.

The timing couldn’t have been worse.

Hailey is six months pregnant and starting to get really frustrated with being stuck on desk duty.

And its a risky sting operation with a high chance of something going very wrong.

Which is why she had found herself in Voight’s office, begging him not to send Jay, not now.

But their trying to get to a white supremacist group and Adam has already been burned so Jay is the only option.

“I promise you that we are going to bring him home safely.” her boss had told her. “But I can’t not ask him to do this. Any more than he can refuse. We need to get those weapons off the streets before someone else gets hurt.”

They have to get Carl Rand off the streets before he can escalate to something worse.

She’d nodded, swallowing hard and then turning and stepping out of his office.

And now she’s sitting in the waiting room at Med with her brain playing back the moment that everything had gone wrong. All while she’d been stuck watching over camera from miles away.

Jay is inspecting the weapons, one of the supremacists counting the money while Jay makes sure it’s the right merchandise.

“Hey!” Rand shouts suddenly, slamming the butt of his weapon against Jay’s head and then dragging him back against the vehicle, a gun to the side of his head.

The vacant lot devolves into somewhat chaotic shouting as the team moves in, surrounding the supremacists, pulling off a few around the edges as most of their attention had been on Jay and Rand.

“It’s over Rand.” Voight shouts. “You’re not squirreling out of this.”

“Well maybe I take this pig down with me.” Rand shouts, the gun sliding down to press into the side of Jay’s neck.

“That will not help your situation.” Voight shouts. “Don’t be stupid.”

“Stupid was trusting this asshole.” Rand says, jerking Jay’s head to the side. “Stupid was letting you pigs get this close.”

“Let him go now and we can make a deal, maybe get you some more favorable accommodations.” Voight replies.

“Or maybe I go into the pen with a little satisfaction.” Rand snarls, pressure increasing on the trigger.

Jay twists, his elbow slamming back into the man as his shoulder rams upward, knocking the weapon away from himself and dropping to the ground, kicking Rand’s feet out from under him.

The team swarms in, taking Rand and the last few supremacists into custody.

But Jay doesn’t get back up.

Voight drops next to him, rolling him to his back. Blood is pooling on the ground, bubbling up from the side of his neck.

He’d been grazed.

“Get an ambo out here.” he shouts, pressing his hand over the kid’s neck. “He’s losing blood fast.”

Jay’s mouth moves but all that makes it out is a wet gurgle.

“Easy.” Voight soothes. “Just stay with me kid. I promised your wife that I would bring you home. Get you back to meet your baby.”

Something passes across Jay’s eyes and he presses harder.

And then paramedics are all over them, hastily prepping Jay for transport and then racing the ambulance toward Med.

“GSW to the throat enroute.” Voight shouts over the radio. “I want him at Med five minutes ago.”

Hailey looks up as her boss walks into the waiting room. He’d ridden to the hospital with Jay but been intercepted shortly after arrival by someone from the Ivory Tower with questions about the weapons, Rand and what the hell had gone wrong.

She’s got some of those questions herself.

“You lied to me.” she hisses as she walks up to him, unable to see anything past the blood that covers his hands and soaks up his sleeve. “You promised you would bring him home safely.”

“I know.” he says gently, hands coming up and then falling back to his sides. “I know I did and I’m sorry.”

“I have a baby that is due in ten weeks and her father is supposed to be there when she’s born.” Hailey snaps.

“He’s still going to be.” Voight tells her. “I know I messed up here but Jay is tough and he is not going to let this beat him, not when his little girl is almost ready to meet him.”

She shakes her head, staring at the blood.

He’d lost so much blood.

Voight steps forward, pulling her into a hug.

“I’m still mad at you.” she mutters, even as she lets him offer her this small amount of comfort.

“I know.” he says. “I’m mad at me too.”

She pulls back, sniffling and rubbing her stomach.

“I need him.” she whispers.

If Hailey thought these chairs were uncomfortable the last time she’d had to sit in them it has nothing on doing so while six months pregnant.

She can’t slump forward, resting her head on her knees like she wants to or tuck her legs underneath herself.

But standing up isn’t comfortable either so she’s switching rapidly between sitting and pacing and just getting more and more uncomfortable all the time.

Her daughter isn’t helping matters. She’s in constant motion, kicking and punching at Hailey’s internal organs.

The little girl can clearly tell that her mother is anxious, is feeding on those emotions.

“Hailey.” Will says, stepping through the doors.

“Anything?” she begs, walking over to him. “Is he…?”

“Nothing yet.” Will says. “I wanted to check on you. You’re stressing out and it’s not good for you or the baby.”

“So tell them to get my husband through surgery.” she says. “Because I’m not going to be able to stop stressing until I know he’s going to be okay.”

“Maybe not.” Will says. “But why don’t we get you lying down. Check your blood pressure.”

“I need to be here if there’s any news.” she says, shaking her head.

“They will page me the moment there is anything.” he tells her. “Please Hailey, he will kill me when he wakes up if I didn’t take care of you and baby Halstead.”

She sighs.

“Fine.”

He gets her settled in the doctor’s lounge, checking her blood pressure.

“You’re stressed for sure but it’s not too high.” he tells her. “Can I get you something to eat?”

“Just something small, please.” she says.

“Alright.” he agrees. “I’ll be right back. Try to rest.”

She closes her eyes, rolling onto her side and cradling her stomach as she tries to get comfortable.

She actually falls asleep after she eats and soon enough Will is shaking her awake.

“Hailey.”

“What?” she mumbles, struggling to sit up. “What happened?”

“Jay is out of surgery.” he tells her. “He pulled through. He’s still critical but he’s alive.”

“Can I see him?” she asks, stumbling to her feet.

“He’s in PACU but I pulled a few strings. Let’s go.”

She follows him through the hallways, walking as fast as she can until they are making their way through recovery to Jay’s bed.

Bandages are wrapped thickly around his neck and she swallows hard.

“The bullet nicked an artery.” Will says and she tries to shake off the deja vu. “They had a hell of a time repairing it and he lost a lot of blood.”

“Is there concern for brain damage?” she asks.

“We don’t think the damage impeded blood flow to the brain but we won’t know for sure until he wakes up.” Will tells her. “But he’s doing well so far.”

“Do they know when he might wake up?” she asks, taking his hand.

“Any time now.” Will tells her. “They’re not doing anything to keep him under so it’s all up to him.”

As if on cue Jay’s hand tightens around hers and tears fill her eyes.

“Jay?”

His eyes twitch a few times before struggling open. He opens his mouth but she’s quick to hush him.

“Don’t try to talk just yet.” she soothes. “Let’s not test the artery repair just yet.”

He blinks up at her but doesn’t try to talk.

“I am never letting Voight borrow you for a sting operation again.” she soothes, stroking her hand over his hair.

He offers her a weak smile and she returns it.

“But it’s okay.” she assures him. “You’re okay, I’m okay and little miss is okay. So it’s going to be fine.”

He blinks up at her. Once. Twice. Three times.

“I love you too.” she tells him, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

[silently-waiting-for-you]

Marvel

Trope: irondad hurt/comfort pt. 2

after all this time --

It took Peter longer to die than the others. Tony knows that. It only makes sense that he would take longer to reappear.

But he didn't take this long to disappear.

And Tony is getting impatient, dang it.

. . . . .

anything for you

Rhodey nods. “He raised her,” he pauses, a wash of emotion flashing over his face before he swallows. “Happy, and I helped. They lived in the Tower. You, ah, you left the company- well, Pepper left the company to Tony, and Tony left the company to Peter. So, he, well, he ran it.” “Kid’s a nut job,” Happy scoffed before sticking his fingers to his eyes, rubbing tears away or just hiding them, Tony doesn’t know. He’s not bothering to hide his own. “He finished high school that first year, when I had custody, and went to college in New York and- god, Tony, I know he’s not your blood, but- but. I’d- I’d come up to check on him, and he’s running ten holo screens at once at two in the morning with textbooks and parts littered all over the place, and Morgan’s just a toddler, fast asleep on his chest— one arm rubbing her back and the other directing Friday. It was- he’s a miracle of a person.”

Or

Tony and Pepper are both blipped, leaving their newborn daughter behind. When they return, they learn what happened in their absence.

. . . . .

better together

Pepper whispers into Tony’s ear how she’s never letting him out of her sight again. She threatened it before but she’s serious now. Especially if they’re going to make that baby.

Tony give a breathless little laugh before he passes out.

Or: Pepper faces the end of world with the love of her life, who is mourning the kid who had practically been his son, and is determined to never by left behind by him ever again.

. . . . .

follow the pipes

Tony wakes up at the bottom of a bomb shelter with a concussed Peter next to him, their only means of escape being a hatch 40 feet directly above them.

. . . . .

ghostly

From a short distance, Tony Stark sees a red and blue figure sprawled out on a dock, with something deep red trailing from it. It's none other than a bloodied Spider-Man.

. . . . .

hearts are empty (almost all the time)

“Boss… I can't find a heartbeat or respiratory rate.”

“What!” Mr. Stark nearly shrieks. His pushes Peter’s shoulder over so that he’s laying on his back and presses two fingers to his neck.

Peter notices that his hands are shaking.

“No, no, no, no.” Mr. Stark presses down harder, then pulls away like he’s been burned. Peter’s heart thumps weakly just a second after.

Keep checking my pulse, Peter screams in his head. It’s there!

OR Peter is injected with Tetrodotoxin B.

. . . . .

it can’t be you

Peter and Tony escape the Snap, but May, Pepper, and many other friends do not. After five months of creating a new life in a cabin on the river as unofficial father and son, they decide to help the other surviving Avengers with the whole time-traveling scheme. They have their missions. All Peter and Tony have to do is go back to space and track down the soul stone on Vormir.

Basically I switched Clint and Natasha for Tony and Peter because I don't know how to handle my emotions.

. . . . .

it traced us back (to where we began)

"It's from your mom," Tony blurts out. "I'm - fuck, she's saying you're my kid. My - my kid."

Peter goes silent, suddenly freezing. When Tony looks up, he's staring at him.

"What?" Peter whispers.

- - -

While going through old Iron Man fanmail, Tony finds a letter from Mary Fitzpatrick dated sixteen years ago. What's inside is something neither Tony nor Peter is expecting, and it threatens to change their relationship irreversibly.

. . . . .

mentor? that's my dad!

Tony switches places with another version of himself, a version of himself whose legitimate son was Peter Parker. Stepping into that role would be something new entirely, something he very much wished he had for himself.

. . . . .

peter parker and peppermint don’t mix

“The reaction seems to be in response to peppermint, boss.” Friday supplied. “Peppermint is known to repel spiders, and can be lethal in large quantities.”

Or

Peter gives Tony and the gang a rather festive health scare on Christmas Eve

. . . . .

riding to new york

If given enough time, the human body grows old. It wears, it slows, it comes to an end. It's just a truth of life. Everybody dies. And one day, so will Tony Stark.

. . . . .

shabbiness doesn't matter

Peter looked genuinely confused by that. His palms stretched upward on the table, “How will I learn?”

“Another way,” Tony answered, “Not by me beating the out of you.”

“It was an accident.”

“A screwup. Again, there’s a difference.”

. . . . .

sigh no more

“So if he wasn’t your son, what was he?”

Tony finally turns to meet the man’s gaze.

“Everything.”

---

In the first few years after the snap, Tony gets to know his neighbor.

(Written for Irondad Bingo. Trope: Post-IW.)

. . . . .

some i had to leave behind

Everybody else is moving on; why is Tony reluctant to do the same?

(aka the one where Tony is a ghost.)

. . . . .

the aftermath

In the aftermath of the decimation, Tony reflects on life without Peter Parker.

. . . . .

the breath before the dawn

Tony knows that he can't solve all of their problems with chocolate cookies by the lake at three in the morning, but it's a good place to start.  or: three times Peter makes them cookies, and one time Tony does instead

. . . . .

the lengths i'd go

Peter dies.

Tony traverses half the galaxy and wields the raw power of the entire universe to bring him back.

. . . . .

the world is not kind

The first time Ben Parker meets Tony Stark, he punches him square in the face.

Tony bites back a curse and ignores the way his eyes water as he looks back up at the man. Ben’s not angry, which is part of the reason the punch took him by surprise. They’re lucky the door is closed, or Happy would have tackled him to the ground.

“Did that make you feel better?” Tony asks, the sarcasm in his tone biting, but Ben takes it as a serious question.

“No.” If Tony didn’t know any better, he’d say the man almost cracks a smile. It’s hard to tell, and Tony’s never met a man he can’t read, but Ben doesn’t look angry (seriously, why doesn’t he look angry?), even though that punch felt angry. “...Maybe a little.”

***

Or, May dies instead of Ben. We’ve seen Ben’s legacy – but what about May’s?

Losing a mother is something different from losing a father, but either way, it hurts.

(Endgame spoilers, but it sure as hell ain’t compliant.)

. . . . .

this was not in the job description

“What,” Tony says flatly.

Pepper looks up at the screen and laughs. Peter is standing at the bottom of a staircase leading to a stage, with a bunch of other people dressed as Spider-Man clustered around him.

“Ned, I don’t think I should be doing this,” Peter’s hissing to his friend.

“Of course you should be doing this! It’s a Spider-Man look alike contest! There’s no way you’re not going to win,” Ned says matter-of-factly.

or

Sometimes Tony likes to check on Peter through the Baby Monitor Protocol. The results are usually amusing. (5 times Tony watches Peter through the Baby Monitor Protocol, and 1 time he intervenes.)

. . . . .

tree houses and high-tech loveys

Tony runs towards the sounds of her screams. They lead him to where he had last left her and Pete: the tree house. The same tree house that was in one piece an hour ago is now hunks of broken wood, shattered and scattered along the ground. And Morgan-

His daughter’s stuck in the middle of a web that’s suspended between the tree that the clubhouse was in and its next-door neighbor.

. . . . .

waiting

*** INFINITY WAR SPOILERS! ***

Everyone comes back.

Everyone that is, except Peter.

. . . . .

what we deserve

May visits Tony in the hospital after Morgan's birth

[byenycfm]

Roman Drake || 39 || #301 || Jake Gyllenhaal || Closed

Personality:

his self-loathing goes deep, and roman's not too concerned with hiding that. despite his early life ambitions, roman feels that he's managed to screw up every attempt at doing something good in life and that he's just not capable of playing the hero. he's got a variety of vices to keep him busy and won't shy away from casual sex--just don't expect to actually get to know him.

Biography:

roman was raised in the city of sin by a family that seemed to take the name a little too literally: drugs. jail. gangs. violence. there wasn’t much in the criminal underground that the drakes didn’t have their fingers in. the second youngest of six kids, roman was expected to do his part in the family business just as those before him had–but even as a kid roman had his doubts about the lifestyle; growing disoriented as family members came and went to county, their criminal records growing longer every year. he was twenty-three when he finally had enough of the bullshit. roman had known for a long time that his family weren’t good people, it just never occurred to him that he had the option to break the pattern.

becoming a cop hadn’t been his first idea, but at the time it was the biggest fuck you he could think of to send to his family. roman became more or less dead to the drakes, ex-communicated the moment he stepped foot into the police academy. he tried a few awkward attempts at reaching out to his sisters, but he never really knew birdie and mauve was busy trying to make a life of her own. eventually he took a page from mauve’s book, moving to california and starting a life of his own. marriage was hard, and having a kid on the way only made things harder. he took his job at cold cases seriously and made the wrong priorities in life; there are only so many long nights you can spend alone before you go looking for someone to fill the space left by an absent spouse. roman and delilah had been on the verge of ending things for a while, but the events that happened the night june was born ensured their relationship was over.

roman doesn’t remember the night in its entirety–only coming home to see his wife and a stranger in the midst of an argument, then flashes of a golf club swinging at him. when roman awoke in the hospital several days later he was terrified to learn just how much he’d lost in the attack: his marriage, his hearing, and quite possibly his daughter, who was now fighting for her life in the icu after being born months too early. the official report was attempted murder-suicide, a jealous lover who wanted to kill the woman who’d ended their affair. roman was devastated, knowing that he’d drove delilah away from him and nearly put her and their daughter into an early grave. they'd tried counseling. couples, individual, ptsd. fucking art therapy for a month--because he owed her that much. in the end they agreed there was no way to put the pieces of what they had back together. delilah would take june and go live with her parents, but roman could have shared custody if he promised not to get her hopes up of having a father in her life then ghosting. roman quit the force, went private. went dark. hurt people who hurt people, that kind of thing. he developed a reputation as someone willing to work outside the lines of the law and birdie was able to put him in contact with people who needed that kind of help.

he was in new york to meet with birdie and follow up on a new job when the city went into lockdown. he's taken up in an apartment on the lowest floor to keep an eye on things near the lobby, because he has a real bad feeling about how things are heading in the city.

Pre Outbreak Occupation: Private Investigator Previous Zombie Experience: N/A Martial Status:  Divorced Children:  June Drake - Ten Residence: Apt. 303 Years residing at The Wexley: 0 Connections: 

Birdie Drake - Younger Sister

Charlotte Rose - Girlfriend

[privmu]

CHLOE JEANNE BERRY

AGE: 24

BIRTHDAY: December 3rd, 2000

RELATION: Adopted

TYPE: Solo

GENDER: Ciswomen

PRONOUNS: She/Her

ORIENTATION(S): Lesbian

FACE CLAIM: Auli'i Cravalho

JOB/SCHOOL

JOB: Owner and stylist at To Dye For alt hair salon and owner and piercer at its sister business, Pierce My Soul.

ALUMNI?: Yes.

ABOUT

When Chloe was fourteen, Sophie, a newborn baby girl, was placed in the care of Hiram and Leroy Berry. Trusted and experienced foster fathers with babies and children often placed in their home however temporarily, this would've been nothing out of the ordinary, except this one shared Chloe's DNA. Placed in the Berry family herself at three years old and adopted shortly after, Chloe had had over ten years to begin to heal from the trauma of her first three—though a cochlear implant, from which a particularly violent incident left Chloe completely deaf in her left ear, will always be a stark reminder. Unfortunately, some things are just too horrific to be anything but ingrained forever, so Chloe immediately felt a keen level of protection for baby Sophie, the two sharing an instant bond. She remained with the family for five months, Chloe, who had never really liked nor cared for babies, insisting on helping with her care, before a judge deemed their birth mother fit enough to receive full custody of her. Chloe, imagining the horrors Sophie would go back to, protested hard, but the system is in place to keep birth families together, and despite her kicking and screaming, off Sophie went to a life of only God knew what, leaving Chloe to imagine the worst.

Chloe had never been the easiest child to raise, and admittedly gave her fathers the biggest headache for a long time, refusing to properly settle or accept their parental love, but they never gave up on her. Sophie going back to their birth mom drove a new wedge between Chloe and her fathers, Chloe insisting they should've fought harder, done something to keep the baby from going back there. She knew, deep down, there was nothing more they could've done, of course, and despite the crap she gave them for the next year or so, they still never gave up on her. Her fathers have always been her biggest supporters, in fact. Like when a teenage Chloe decided she didn't want to try to fit in, and wanted to shave her hair or dye it outlandish colors. Despite her young age, they supported whatever she wanted to do. They even signed off on her getting an array of ear piercings to decorate her cochlear ear at a younger age than would be advised. Their willingness to let Chloe be whoever she wanted to be truly shaped her future, and for that and so many other things, Chloe will always be so grateful to her parents, no matter how poorly a younger version of herself used to treat them.

Chloe was freshly eighteen the next time Sophie, then four, came to the Berry household. Unsurprisingly, their mother lost custody, and while the Berry's had every intention of adopting her, Chloe begged to do it instead. She had no intention of ever having children, but she felt so strongly about protecting her sister that she wanted her in her care, and her dads came through yet again in helping her to achieve that. They walked her through all of the legalities, stood in as character references, and after jumping through countless hoops, Sophie was signed to Chloe's care. Essentially becoming a parent (she does not allow Sophie to call her "Mom", she is very adamantly her sister just with parental rights) at eighteen put a dampener on Chloe's plans for college, where she had already begun her freshman year at PSU for Photography. Wanting to dedicate her time to Sophie, Chloe dropped out, and began working part-time at a hair salon, where she truly found her passion. Since then, Chloe worked her way to a license in hair styling, and with her fathers' help, has opened a hair salon, To Dye For, specializing in alt styles. Her more recent venture involved purchasing the building next door, where a newly qualified Chloe opened her piercing studio, Pierce My Soul, her two businesses combining her two loves and odes to freedom of expression.

[tomtenadia]

Thicker than blood  - 7

Here we go with another chapter. Things are starting to move a bit and develop...

Hope you will enjoy this chapter.

CW: language

MASTERLIST

Rowan had another shitty week. Since his visit to Connall he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about his friend. In his free time he had started investigating government reports and noticed a surge of numbers in the deviation centres but what frightened him was the high number of deaths recorded. All of that had started since the new mayor came into power. He was aware that vampires died in the deviation centres. The madness would end up consuming them… but such a high number? That was not possible. The difference from his predecessor was staggering. He closed the folder and sat back in the chair thinking. He wondered if the dead bodies were sent for autopsy. Wondered if the government cared enough to find out why they died. Lucky for him he knew an ME although he was not sure she wanted to see him. He hadn’t seen her around in a week and he was worried.

He stood and left his office and decided to go to the morgue before heading out to his patrol shift. To Lorcan and his friends he just said he was starting early. Rowan  hadn’t found the courage yet to tell Fenrys about his twin.

He arrived at the morgue ten minutes later and walked to her office. She was not there so he went to the investigation room and found her bent over a dead body all concentrated with the person’s liver in her hands.

“What do you want?” Yep, still mad.

“Do you have five minutes?”

She ignored him.

“Aelin…”

She glared at him “I am working.”

“It’s just five minutes.”

Aelin placed the liver gently back in the body “My job has a time limit. The more I wait the more the organs start to decompose and make my job harder. This body has been dead for almost 24 hrs and it will start to deteriorate very soon so no, agent I do not have five minutes.”

He sighed “I’ll wait in your office.”

Aelin swore and went back to her job.

It was two hours later when she finally closed up the victim. She would have to write a report to the police saying that the woman had died because of violent suffocation as expected by the marks on her neck but also internal bleeding. She had basically been beaten to death and suffocated. The police had the husband in custody and Aelin wished she was allowed to drink such monster and rid society of their presence. 

In anger she threw her gown in the bin together with the gloves and walked to her office.

Whitethorn was sitting comfortably on her chair scrolling through his phone. Aelin rolled her eyes in annoyance and finally got inside the room.

He looked up as soon as he saw her.

Damn she did not look okay.

“Comfy there?”

“Very much, thank you.”

Aelin dumped her folder on her desk and sat down switching her laptop back on.

“Are you okay?”

She stared at him in anger “okay? That woman on the table died because the fucking husband strangled her and hit her until the internal bleeding was so bad that she was DOA by the time paramedics arrived,” she growled “that is a fucking monster, but society paints me like the bad guy for how I feed.”

“He will pay.”

Aelin scoffed with sarcasm “he will be sentenced and in a decade he will be out on parole, because he is a warmblood.”

“You know that is not true.”

“Really? Because it seems like this government is going a bit too easy on humans.”

Rowan straightened in interest “what do you mean?”

She slammed her phone in front of him “these two guys, Cairn and Tern. Both had been in for heinous crimes. Five years later, they get out on parole and get a government job in a rehab facility and a deviation centre as a reward.” She scrolled to another article “This Grave guy, B&E in three houses where vampire families lived and torched them alive in their beds. Six adults and five kids between two and ten died. He got six months and was released yesterday.”

Rowan blanched in horror. He had heard of all those cases. The last one had caused great uproar amongst vampires. The killings had been bad, but having lost kids was an even bigger tragedy. Children were a blessing. Vampires could only reproduce if mates who had fully bonded, and even in that case was extremely rare and dangerous. Every new child was something to be treasured deeply.

“Things are going to shit again.”

Rowan sighed.

“The vampires will soon start revolt. And you know what? It’s about damn time.”

“No it’s not.” He had read the articles about a clan led by a woman who called herself Queen Maeve. She was provoking vampires into taking matters in their own hands. She professed the superiority of their race and claimed that it was okay for vampires to feed and even kill. The woman did not approve of all the half bloods out there and believed they were just as bad as humans and deserved to die. It scared Rowan. Maeve also wanted to take down the Galathynius and ban synthetic blood. The scary thing was that the movement was slowly gaining support.

“So you are a supporter of queen Maeve?’

Aelin flinched “only for the fight against synthetic blood. I do not approve of killing humans and half bloods. That will put them in the same league of those humans trying to kill us.” Her stare bore into his green eyes “but I want that synthetic shit gone.”

“That stuff allows us to live normally.”

“The fucking government is trying to make it compulsory to have vampires get blood tests every two days at work. Any trace of booze or drugs and that’s your one way ticket to rehab.”

Rowan had missed that. He had been so busy with Connall that he had forgotten the outside world.

“And my father is promoting all this shit with his grand project. Damn it, my family is doing the government’s job.”

Rage, there was so much rage and Rowan had a feeling that her rebellion went far deeper.

“You need to be careful.”

“Why do you care? Why bother about me? Do you feel charitable because we are mates?”

Rowan’s fist tightened on the armchair “one of my old friend is in a deviation centre. I went to see him last week and it’s bad,” for some reason he started telling his story in the hope it would change her mind “the night I was caught, my friends and I had been foolish. But where three of us stopped, Connall ignored us and drank until he lost himself. He slipped and killed. We could not save him and that’s when the paranormal unit found us. Fenrys saw his twin dragged away in a high security van in chains.”

Aelin was silent.

“That’s why I was here,” he looked at her and finally gave her the folder he had been holding for a while “these are the stats for the deaths in our main deviation centre. The numbers have been going up since Hamel became mayor,” he pointed at the stats “also, Connall is being starved. His body is covered in the blue lines typical of starvation.”

Aelin froze and stood and went to her cabinet. Rowan stared at her scrolling through folders until she dumped him one.

“This is the first and only autopsy I have done with this government,” she explained “before, I was always called at the centre’s own morgue and the deaths were all due to the sickness finally taking over. Natural causes basically. But it was once every few months,” she explained “But this vamp,” she opened the folder and showed him the pictures and Rowan froze. Starvation. That vampire had been starved too.

“He died of starvation but with the toxicology analysis I found traces of chemicals that were not the ones used to keep the prisoners calm. A strange cocktail of opioids. I raised the issue with the physician in the facility and I was told that the man had been extremely wild so that’s why the cocktail. After that I was never called again.”

Rowan was still silent thinking about what she had told him “any chance you can get in? Snoop?”

Aelin shook her head “They have their own medical team and no body ever leaves that place.”

Damn, cursed Rowan internally.

“But…”

He looked up.

“I have a friend in Perranth. She works in a smaller deviation centre as ME.”

“A friend? As in an ME club?’

Aelin snorted “sure Whitethorn. We meet every Monday and wear matching t-shirts reading autopsies are a dying profession.”

Rowan almost burst out laughing.

“I can call her, see if anything fishy is going down on her end.”

He reached in his pocket and fished out a business card “my mobile is there and my office phone too. Call me, and not just for work.”

She grabbed the card and her hand brushed his and he slowly took her hand “I am serious. If you need help, if you feel like you are slipping you call me. I beg you.”

The panic in his voice did something to her, she squeezed his hand back and gave him a tight smile.

Rowan then stood “I’ll let you work.”

Aelin looked at him and his green eyes were dark and she had a feeling it was pain. For a moment she saw a broken man behind the badge and then her mouth opened against her will “I will help you, Rowan.”

He bowed his head and left and she was positive that there had been the hint of a smile.

*

After he left Aelin he went back to his car and got mentally ready for another night of boring patrolling. The roof at the top of the club had become his favourite spot. But he had hated that recently he had occupied that place alone. Having Aelin there was yes, frustrating, but the sparring with her was fun. Invigorating. He could not hide though that he was terrified. She was far too stubborn on that front but if things were really changing as she said, he had to convince her.

The Vaults that night was quiet which was strange, that was one of the clubs that vampires preferred the most. He had no idea why, never bothered to go inside. With the centuries piling up he had started to loose interest in that kind of entertainment. 

He sat alone, legs dangling off the parapet and studied the crowd underneath when a familiar scent hit him.

Lemon and verbena.

He turned his head and saw Aelin standing behind him and stare in the distance.

Rowan patted the spot beside him as an invitation.

His mate hesitated but then accepted and sat down, their shoulders brushing gently.

He looked at her and saw she had her contacts on and a hoodie to cover he head too.

Slowly he extended his hand and pushed the hoodie down and smiled.

“Damn it Whitethorn, do not look at me like that.”

“Like what?

“Like a lovestruck teenager.”

He chuckled. She was stunning, he could not deny that.

“I can’t deny the fact that I have a beautiful woman in front of me.”

She groaned “Don’t.”

“What?”

“You do not want to get involved with me. I am bad for you, for everyone around me.”

There it was again, that deep pain.

“I understand your struggle.’

Aelin shook her head “you can’t” she whispered.

Rowan took her hand in his, she was slightly shaking “tell me, make me understand…”

Aelin sighed and for a moment he had feared she would refuse.

“Before my father came up with the idea of synthetic blood we used animal one like all of the other vampires. It was far more legal than human’s. The he started working on alternatives and after years of research he did it. What no one apart from my mother know is that he used me as a guinea pig,” she told him “he would force feed me the first few batches and then send it to Aedion to be fixed. Once, I had an allergic reaction so bad that I almost died. Then I became afraid but he did not stop,” she squeezed his hand back “the new blood would make me so sick but I was still underaged in vampire terms and I could not rebel. So while I was relegated at home I started studying anything related to the body to understand what was happening to me. Then it became a passion.”Aelin was silent for a moment “I went to uni and got all my degrees. By the time I became an adult he had perfected the recipe and did not need me anymore. I then fell in love with pathology, with idea of being able to investigate the cause of death, which probably sprung from my need to find out what was wrong with me.”

Her eyes found his “I got my pathology degree and I got a job straight away at the morgue. When I told my parents I was finally following my path in life, my father kicked me out. He called me a disgrace for the family name and a stain that had to be removed. An insult to the mighty Galathynius clan.”

Rowan was silent and had no idea how to react and console her.

“So I rebelled even more. Drinking from intoxicated humans was a way to insult everything my father did. His research, that almost killed me. Then I started feeling good after…”

He hugged her. His arms actually wound around her frame and held her tight and he was positive he felt her cry “I can’t drink it, Rowan…” she started shaking in his arms “I can’t.”

The trauma was so deep in her that the idea terrified her. Rowan felt sick, he had forced her to drink synthetic blood while unconscious and tried later on while awake. Fuck. Fuck. Her strong reaction was now more clear. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered with his lips firmly on her head “I am so damn sorry. Fuck, I fed you synthetic blood the night you almost slipped.”

“You were trying to save me, not using me as your lab pet.” She looked up at him and gave him a tight smile.

“Still…”

“Rowan, it makes all the difference.”

Now he wanted to help her even more. He looked at her and an idea came to his mind. A crazy idea at that. Totally insane but that might work.

“Bond with me. Fully. Legally. We are mates already, which means that you can drink from me and the blood from a mate is far, far stronger, you won’t have to be weaned off the spiked blood and it helps you with the tests at work.”

Aelin looked at him in shock “I can’t, that’s insane. Rowan you cannot bind yourself to me just to help me.”

“You are my mate.”

“We are not even in love. All we do is insult each others. We can’t do this.”

Rowan kissed her deeply and Aelin was surprised when her body responded in eagerness “we can make it work. We can learn to like each other.”

“That is not how the bond is supposed to be. It’s a sacred ritual, not something to do for convenience.”

He chuckled “oh, so you are a romantic?”

She slapped his arm playfully “I might be a rebel, but there are things in our culture that I respect deeply. The bond is one of them.”

He caressed her face “we are mates, Aelin. Somehow we are already meant to be, we are just speeding up the process.”

“You are crazy, Whitethorn.”

Rowan was about to reply when a scream pierced the night.

TAGS:

@rowaelinismyotp​ @swankii-art-teacher​  @whimsicallyreading​ @elentiyawhitethorn​ @aelin-bitch-queen​ @bruiseonthefaceofhumanity​ @acreativelydifferentlove @mis-lil-red​ @thegreyj​ @sailorsassley​ @leiawritesstories​ @clairec79 @morganofthewildfire​ @sv0430​ @heartless--aromantic @autumnbabylon​ @rowanaelinn​ @backtobl4ck​ @susumaus98​ @gracie-rosee​ @mybloodrunsblue​  @tanvee1231 @avenrebekah​ @whoever-you-choose-to-love​ @theywillnotsingforme​ @universallytreepost @black-daisy-water​ @goddess-aelin​

[idy-ll-ique]

Carnivals.

Pairing: Andy Barber x F!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: mentions of domestic abuse.

Requested: nope

Summary: Andy and Y/N meet for the first time at a carnival... or maybe it's the second time.

Author's Note: Hiya peeps! This is a Defending Jacob AU where Andy has one more kid, a 5-year-old boy called Liam. enjoy!

---

Andy stared at his son with a disappointed look on his face as the tiny 5-year-old threw a tantrum. "Are you done?" he deadpanned, which caused his son to cry harder. Taking out his wallet, Andy showed it to his son, again, saying, "Look, I'm outta cash right now! We spent it all on other snacks and games! I can't buy you the lollipop, bub." His son wouldn't hear it.

Andy was out at a carnival with his 5 year old son, Liam. Who was currently wailing at the top of his lungs since Andy was not buying him the very big lollipop they were currently staring at. After everything that happened with Jacob, Andy and his ex-wife Laurie had... fallen apart.

They decided that a divorce was the only best option so here he was now, single and had full custody of Liam. Laurie had chosen Jacob. "Liam, stop crying, come on..." Andy insisted with a soft sigh, kneeling next to his kid. "Dada! I want the lolly!" Liam sobbed, curling up against his father.

"I told you already, we spent all our money. If I go to get some more, it'll be too late. Just forget the candy, Liam, we have sweets at home," he tried. "No!" Andy pinched the bridge of his nose. "Excuse me." His head snapped up at the feminine voice and his eyes met Y/E/C. The woman had a soft smile on her face, and she was holding the hand of her own daughter.

The daughter was older than Liam, maybe 10-11 years old. "Hi there," he said with a smile of his own, standing up with Liam in his arms. He had momentarily stopped crying, also staring at the lady and her daughter. Andy really thought he had seen her somewhere, but couldn't put a finger on it. Where have I seen her?

"Can I ask you something, sweetie?" the lady addressed his son. Liam nodded. "Do you want that?" She pointed to the lollipop and Liam's eyes twinkled as he nodded once again, this time with excitement. "What a coincidence! My daughter wants one too, how about I buy one for both of you?" Andy's eyes went wide.

"You really don't have to, ma'am," he refused but she shook her head, a winsome smile that had Andy's heart melting gracing her lips. "I don't have to. I want to. Please. Your son wants it really bad, doesn't he?" Andy chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. "He does, been throwing a tantrum for the past 20 minutes."

Y/N immediately bought two of the big lollipops, handing one to Liam and the other to her daughter. "Camila, come on baby, introduce yourself," Y/N smiled. The daughter gave Andy and Liam a winning smile. "Hi! I'm Camila Y/L/N, nice to meet you!" Andy smiled back at her.

"Hi bub, I'm Andy Barber and this is my son, Liam." Liam wiggled in his father's arms and he put him down. "Let's go check out the merry-go-round!" Liam squealed as he took Camila's hand, leading her away from both the parents. "He's so cute!" Camila called out cheekily and Andy laughed. "Don't stray far, both of you!" Y/N shouted after them.

"Okay, ma!"

Once both kids were gone, Andy and Y/N moved to a nearby bench. "Do you remember me, Mr Barber?" she asked him all of a sudden and he froze. Shit shit shit, where have I seen her before? I knew it! "I, um, I don't seem to..." he stammered but Y/N shook her head, giving him a soft smile. "It's fine, I didn't expect you to. We met a long time ago."

"Where, may I ask?"

"Well, um, I was one of your clients, actually. You were my lawyer when I got a divorce from my ex-husband." Memories flashed in his head as he remembered her. "Y/N Y/L/N! Yes! Now I remember, it's very good to see you again!" Both of them laughed a bit. "It's been a nice few years."

"Camila has grown a lot, last time I saw her she was a baby," Andy smiled but it quickly faded as he thought of her ex-husband. He was a cruel man; abused his wife, took her for granted. Y/N was only 21 or 22 then, which made her around 30 now. Andy had seen her wounds a few times; she once had a swollen eye. "Mr Barber?" He snapped out of his thoughts.

"Right, um, sorry," he cleared his throat and looked away, running a hand through his hair again. "You went very quiet all of a sudden, all okay?" Y/N frowned. "Just thinking about that ex of yours. He hasn't reached out to you in any way, has he? Because if he has, that motherfucking asshole—" Y/N cut him off by laughing.

"He hasn't, don't worry. Camila and I are doing very well." He glanced at her. "No new boyfriend?" Y/N bit her lip shyly and shook her head. "Not really. It's a bit difficult to date when you're a divorcée and have a ten year old daughter. No one wants the package," she huffed. Andy took his time observing her. Gorgeous.

She visibly looked different. Her style had changed, her hair had grown... far from the young lady he met around a decade ago. She looked beautiful then, but ethereal now. Her smile was still the same, as were her kind eyes that made him warm inside even after all these years. Sure, back then, he treated her simply like a client, a friend maybe.

But now?

Something felt different.

When she smiled at him, a shiver ran down his spine. "So, how are Jacob and Laurie? Are they doing well?" Y/N asked him and he involuntarily tensed. Truth was, it had been a year since he last saw them. He had cut off all ties with them, starting a new life— just him and Liam. "I, uh... I don't know," he muttered truthfully.

"You don't...?" Y/N blinked at him. "Laurie and I, we... we got a divorce too, after everything that happened with Jacob." Y/N had heard of that, how the lawyer's own son got accused of murder. He ended up not guilty, but the damage had been done. "I'm so sorry, Mr Barber," she whispered apologetically and he shook his head. "Not your fault. And call me Andy, please."

She gave him another smile. "Andy." And butterflies flitted around in his stomach as his name fell from her lips. He liked the sound of that. "So, what was the deal with Liam? Were you not getting him the lolly on purpose or...?" He laughed and shook his head. "No no, I was ready to get him that, I just ran outta money. Spent it all on other snacks and the rides."

Y/N laughed along. "Kids, am I right?" Both of them fondly shook their heads and turned to where Camila and Liam were playing alone on the merry-go-round. The carnival was about to close, so not many people were left. Y/N stole a glance at Andy. When she had first met him, she had immediately taken a liking to him.

But it wasn't like she could do anything about it; he had a wife and a child— Jacob was only 6 years old then. Now, though... "Are you seeing anyone?" she blurted out and Andy turned to her, visibly surprised at the question. Mortified, Y/N turned away from as she bit her lip again. "Sorry, uhm, ignore me, I just, I—"

"No, I'm not seeing anyone," he answered and she looked at him. He had a soft smile on his face. "Dada! Dada, can we go home?!" Liam and Camila soon made their way over to them. "I'm also tired, ma," Camila yawned and plopped down on Y/N's lap. She chuckled and kissed her on the side of her head. "Let's go home."

"Dada, will I meet Camila again?" Liam pouted at his father. Andy and Y/N looked at each other, a deep blush gracing his cheeks as Y/N looked away from him with pursed lips and a small, embarrassed smile. "If Y/N wants," he answered finally. "I'd like that very much, Andy." Camila and Liam cheered. "Yay! Can she come over to our house?"

"Sure thing, bud. Come on, say goodbye now," Andy stood up with Liam in his arms. Camila hopped off Y/N's lap and held her mother's hand, waving at Liam. "Bye Y/N, by Cami," Liam murmured sleepily, already clinging to his father as he buried his face in his neck. "Bye, sweetheart," Y/N laughed, exchanging numbers with Andy.

"I'll text you later, yeah?"

"Sure thing, Andy."

---

"Cami!"

"Liam!"

Y/N and Andy grinned as the two kids ran towards each other, hugging each other tightly. "Let's go to my room!" Liam insisted and the two took off, running up the stairs. Y/N, who was still standing outside the front door, shook her head. "Fast friends, aren't they?" Andy called her in and she stepped into the house, taking off her overcoat. Andy took it from her. "Yep."

Y/N also took off her shoes and kept them near the door as she walked in. "You have a nice house," she complimented and he blushed again. He had thoroughly cleaned it out in the morning just because he knew Y/N and Camila were going to visit in the afternoon. "Thank you so much. Can I get you anything? Some water?"

"That would be amazing, thank you."

Soon, the two settled down on the couchs, a glass of water in Y/N's hand. "So, are you still at your old job?" Conversation flowed easily between them as they sat there, occasional squeals and giggles coming from Liam's room upstairs. "It's great how you're looking after Liam and managing being a DA at the same time."

Andy chuckled bashfully. "It gets lonely sometimes, you know? Liam asks for his mother sometimes. I know it's been a few years, he was a baby then, doesn't even remember her properly but that doesn't stop him. I have no idea what to say to him," he admitted. "Same case with Camila," Y/N grimaced.

"Sucks, doesn't it? Kids need both parents," Andy breathed out. "Sure does. My own parents got one when I was 16. I desperately hoped my marriage wouldn't end up like that but... well, it did." Andy frowned at her. "And don't you dare blame yourself for it. It wasn't you. You are the most perfect person ever, it was your stupid ex who didn't deserve you and treated you like shit."

Y/N smiled softly at his words. "I am the most perfect person ever, huh?" she teased and Andy realized what he had blurted out. But he didn't back down. "You are. You always have been. Kind, polite, caring, intelligent... a great mother, by the way... you are awesome. I may not have noticed it then but now I have."

"Can I tell you something?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart." Y/N gave him another shy smile. "I've always thought you were handsome. Also intelligent, wise... just overall amazing, ya know? But then, I meant it in the form of respect, a fleeting crush. Now, though..." Andy's gaze darkened as he watched Y/N, who looked away from him while biting her lip.

He shifted closer to her. "Now what, Y/N? How do you mean it now?" he whispered, tilting her head in his direction. Y/N shakily let out a breath and Andy smirked, catching her lips in a searing kiss. "Now I mean it in a completely different way," she whispered when they pulled away to breathe. "Glad to hear it, darling," he smirked.

"What about you, Mr Barber?"

"I like you," he blurted out, "Really, I do. Maybe you can stay for dinner tonight?" Y/N gave him a huge smile. "I'd love to stay for dinner, Andy!" He grinned at her and both of them turned to the TV. Andy leaned against the couch, Y/N snuggling into his side as he switched the TV on, settling on a Disney movie playing on one channel.

He put an arm around her shoulders, her head resting on his chest. Just as they relaxed, two people came tumbling down the stairs. "We thought we heard Coco!" Camila squealed before freezing at the position Andy and Y/N were sitting in. Y/N threw her daughter a nervous smile, which soon turned into a horrified expression as the younger Y/L/N's eyes twinkled with mischief.

"I'm sure they're about to change the channel, Li, why don't we go back upstairs?" Liam pouted at Camila, seemingly unaffected by Andy and Y/N. The two adults glanced at each other, eyes wide. "But I wanna watch Coco," Liam whined. Camila whispered something in his ear.

Liam then looked over at Andy and Y/N, a disgusted look on his face. "Ew! You two are gross!" he blurted out before running back up the stairs. "What did you tell him, little miss?" Andy huffed out a laugh. "Just that you two have been kissing," Camila smirked, "Enjoy your date!"

She went back upstairs as well. Y/N and Andy continued staring at each other before promptly bursting into a fit of giggles. "Ah, kids," Y/N wheezed, wiping away a few tears of mirth. Andy pressed a quick kiss to her temple and they settled down in front of the television again.

---

Days turned into weeks. Weeks into months and months into years.

Time flew by, only strengthening Andy and Y/N's relationship.

"Y/N! Honey!" Y/N's head shot up at the sound of whimpers and her husband's shouts as she walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Andy was carrying a crying Liam into the house, a cut visible on his knee and a few scratches on his arm. Camila soon followed in with Liam's bicycle.

"He fell," Andy sighed as he placed the 11 year old boy on the couch. "Aw, honey, hang on, I'll bring the first aid kit. Andy, can you take care of the food for me?" He readily agreed and went to the kitchen, a 16 year old Camila in tow as Y/N fetched the first aid kit. "Can I tell you something?" Liam muttered as she cleaned his wound.

"Anything," she smiled at him. "You're the best mom ever. I know you're not my biological mom but... but I... I met her once and I have decided that— that I like you better. Th-Thank you for being there and marrying dad. He's the happiest he's ever been, all because of you." Y/N teared up at his words.

"Liam, oh my God," she whispered and the boy pulled her in for a hug. "I love you," he whispered and Y/N cried harder. "I love you too, I love you so much," she sniffled, smiling as Liam wiped her tears off. "Dinner is sort— Y/N? Why are you crying sweetheart?" She felt a hand on her shoulder and pulled away from Liam.

"Nothing," she sighed, giving Andy a soft smile. He blinked and looked at Liam, who was desperately trying to convince all of them that his tears were because of his wounds. "Okay," Andy drawled, "Well, dinner is ready. Why don't we all eat? You'll feel better afterwards." A pause. "We can even have ice-cream."

At the mention of ice-cream Liam sat up straight, eyes twinkling. "You promise, dad?" Andy nodded. Liam cheered and got up, waddling towards the dining table where Camila already sat, busy texting on her phone. Andy and Y/N shared a laugh as Liam flicked her on the forehead, getting a slap on the back in return.

Once both the kids were busy, Andy turned to Y/N. "Why were you crying, sweetie? You know I hate to see you cry," he murmured. Y/N sighed and rested her forehead on his chest as his arms went around her waist. "Liam told me I was the best mom ever," she breathed, "And how happy he was to have me in yours and his life."

Andy rubbed her back, a huge smile blooming on his face. "He was right. I am one lucky man, you know? To have someone as gorgeous and wonderful as you. Still can't believe you said yes when I proposed," he teased, laughing when Y/N lightly slapped his bicep.

"It didn't work out well for both of us the first time, did it?" Y/N hummed. "No, not really. But now I'm not letting this family go," Andy spoke firmly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Y/N smiled and he instinctively reached down to kiss her lips, his hands sliding down to her butt. "How about another addition to the family, Mrs Barber?"

Y/N squealed. "Andy! The kids are in the next room!" Andy grinned. "Come on—"

"Mom! Dad! Are you done canoodling?! We're hungry!"

"Oh my— we're coming, just two minutes!"

Andy laughed loudly as Y/N hurriedly stepped out of his arms, face flushed as she entered the kitchen. He then crossed his arms and stood there for a second more; life gave him a second chance and he was, for sure, not going to mess it up this time.

---

A/N: I just realized Laurie might have come off as a bit of a... bad character in this one and for that I apologize, I'm sure she's very nice in the series. Thanks for reading, leave a like if you enjoyed!

[nerdzzone]

Once Bitten - Twice Shy

Summary: Raising a child is hard. Raising a child with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars is even harder. And raising a child with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars who you’re not actually in a relationship with is even harder still.

One of the challenges of sharing custody is sharing holidays which is something that Whitney Taylor found herself struggling with in the December of 2019. The prospect of spending Christmas without her son was dismaying, but the complications that come with the alternative might be even harder to face.

Chris Evans x OFC

Part One

----

Part Two

25.12.19

When I woke up in the morning, it took me a moment to figure out where I was and why the pillow my head was resting on was so hard and warm. Once I'd figured it out - that my head was not actually on a pillow, but on Chris' chest - I almost had to roll my eyes. Of course it was. Of course we'd ended up all cuddled together. Because life was just one big romantic comedy, right?

I sighed quietly, silently praying that Chris wasn't awake yet as I slowly slid myself away from him. He didn't stir until I was sitting on the edge of the bed so I was hopeful that he hadn't been aware of the position we were in.

"G'morning," he greeted me, rubbing his eyes as the sound of excited children echoed down the hallway. "What time is it?"

I quickly checked my phone on the nightstand before answering.

"Only seven o'clock," I told him before yawning. "But it sounds like everyone is up and bouncing off the walls already."

"I'm not surprised," Chris smiled. "They've probably torn into all the presents by now."

I laughed and nodded my head, knowing it was a good possibility.

"It probably wasn't super smart to leave Scott out there guarding them by himself," I pointed out. "Not after he spent half the night shaking his own presents trying to guess what was inside."

"Oh, it definitely wasn't," Chris agreed. "He was always the one who ruined things by finding his presents early and getting us all in trouble."

"Well, I should go see what they're up to or if anything can be salvaged," I smiled as I pulled a sweater on over my pyjamas. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be out in a minute," he assured me. I headed to the door, but stopped when I heard his voice again. "Hey, Whitney? Merry Christmas."

I smiled even wider as that happy, familiar Christmas morning feeling washed over me.

"Merry Christmas, Chris."

With that, I hurried out the door, trying not to focus too much on how content I felt and how right it seemed to wake up in his arms on Christmas morning.

-

When I got to the kitchen, I was surprised to see that everyone else was already awake, despite how early it was.

"Good morning," Lisa greeted me as I wandered into the kitchen where all the adults were congregating. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, everyone," I smiled before they all repeated it back to me. "Did I miss all the fun?"

"No, of course not," Carly assured me. "We've managed to keep them away from the presents so far, but I'm not sure how much longer we can hold them off."

"We're still waiting for Chris though," Scott pointed out as I grabbed a clean mug and headed to the fresh pot of coffee on the counter. "Have you seen him? He disappeared not long after we went to bed and never came back."

"Oh, yeah, he's in his room," I answered mindlessly as I filled my mug. "We ended up sleeping together last night."

I heard Scott almost choke on his coffee and noticed the sudden silence in the room, but it wasn't until Lisa spoke that I realized what I'd said.

"Whitney, honey," she said, speaking softly. "What do you mean?"

"Oh my god, no! Not like that!" I rushed to explain as my cheeks grew hot. "We literally slept together, like as in slept next to each other. Chris came into his room looking for a sweater because he was cold and had given away all his spare blankets so I offered for him to share the bed with me. That's all, I swear."

There were knowing smiles amongst the group and I wasn't entirely sure that they all believed me which made things even more embarrassing as I wouldn't want them to think I'd talk so candidly about things like that with Chris' mother of all people. Before I had a chance to continue desperately defending myself though, a voice from the doorway interrupted.

"What are you swearing about?" He asked, leaning against the doorway. "Why do I feel like I missed something good?"

Again, I was ready to explain, but someone beat me to it.

"Whitney was just giving us the update," Scott informed his older brother as he matched his smirk. "She was telling us how you two slept together."

Chris' eyebrows knitted together in confusion for a moment before he relaxed and let out a chuckle.

"Well, that's not exactly how I would have phrased it," he informed the group with a shrug. "But I suppose it is accurate. We slept and we were together."

"I just misspoke," I groaned. "I haven't had any coffee yet, I wasn't thinking clearly."

"A little Freudian slip?" Carly suggested as she joined in on the teasing, but I simply rolled my eyes.

"Chris probably wishes that was a peak into my subconscious desires, but I'm afraid not. Just a clear sign that I am not a morning person."

"I think we'll all need plenty of coffee to deal with the energy in that living room," Lisa interjected, putting an end to the discussion despite Chris' protests of my claim. "But we should probably go and join them before they open all the presents, whether they belong to them or not."

We all murmured in agreement and everyone topped up whatever beverage they were drinking before we headed to the living room to start the Christmas fun.

-

"Mama!" Grayson shouted as we entered the room. "Look! Santa came!"

"Of course he did," I smiled at the children. "You've all been good this year so it's no surprise."

They all nodded and agreed enthusiastically except Ethan who, now that he was almost ten, had figured out the truth. He was a good kid though and a loving older brother so he kept the secret, quietly watching them with a knowing smile now that he was finally in on the joke with the adults.

"Can we open them?" Stella asked, bouncing up and down from holding in her excitement. "We've been waiting for so long!"

"I wouldn't say so long," Scott chuckled. "Since it's not even eight o'clock in the morning yet!"

"But, yes, you can open them," Carly informed her children. "Just be careful and don't rush."

There was a flurry of activity as the kids dove into the presents, organizing whose was whose before settling down next to their little piles. I took a step back and sat on the couch next to Lisa, letting Chris sit on the floor behind Grayson. It was his Christmas after all and it felt right that he should be the one helping him open presents. Plus, this way I got a perfect view of the joyful grin that was plastered on his face. A grin that was perfectly replicated by his father behind him making my heart clench at the sight of them together like this.

I watched from my spot on the couch as the gifts were opened one by one and soaked in every giggle and shriek of glee from the children. Grayson was on top of the world and so grateful for each and every gift, it was delightful to see. Given our financial security, especially for Chris, it would have been easy to spoil him, but it made me incredibly proud to see how gracious he was.

However, one of the last gifts he wasn't so grateful to receive. It was from me and I knew there was a chance it wouldn't be his favourite, but his response was far worse than I could have imagined.

It was a decent sized box and he tore off the wrapping paper eagerly, intrigued by what could be inside. When he revealed that it was a foot and a half tall electronic T-Rex, his first reaction was one of amazement.

"Wow! A dinosaur!"

"Yeah," I smiled. "Take him out and see what he can do."

Chris set to work helping Grayson open the box before glancing up at me.

"Does he need batteries?"

"I put some in already," I assured him. "I knew he'd want to see it right away so I thought it would be easier."

He nodded as Grayson placed the giant T-Rex on the floor and looked at me expectantly.

"There's a button on his back, press it."

Everyone watched as he poked around until he got the right spot and the dinosaur came to life. He roared and his head moved around, but as the older kids cheered and clapped, Grayson burst into tears.

"Oh, dear..." Lisa smiled as she watched her grandson leap into his father's arms.

Everyone was chuckling at his dramatic reaction as Grayson buried his face in Chris' neck.

"Awe, buddy, I'm sorry!" I apologized. "Did it scare you?"

"Yes! He's scary!" Grayson's response was muffled by Chris' body and hard to understand through his sobs. "I don't wike it, Mama!"

I smiled at the little speech impediment that he inherited from his father - much like the one his cousin, Miles, had - but I did feel bad for how genuinely afraid he was.

"I'm sorry, baby. We can take the batteries out, okay? Then he won't be able to move."

The dinosaur had stopped moving on his own before I spoke and Grayson moved his head from where he was hiding his face, nodding as he did so.

"Yes, please."

"I bought it a while ago, thinking it was the perfect gift and then last week, he suddenly decided that T-Rexes were mean and I thought it might not go down so well," I admitted to the adults as I stretched forward to pick up the dinosaur and take the batteries out. "It's such a shame though, I think he's adorable. If you press the button on his tail, a little song plays and he does a little wiggle dance."

Chris smirked at me as he rubbed our still sniffling son's back.

"Why don't you take him home? Sounds like you might enjoy playing with him when Grayson isn't around."

He was making fun of me, I knew he was, but I didn't take the bait.

"You know what? I might just do that."

Chris opened his mouth to most likely make another teasing comment, but Ethan interrupted him.

"If Grayson doesn't want the T-Rex, can I have it?"

"I think you got enough new toys this morning," Ethan's dad warned him. "Don't be greedy."

"We'll let Grayson keep him for now," Chris agreed. "He might get used to him after a while if he plays with him without the batteries."

I passed the toy in question back to Chris and Grayson cowered away, whimpering against his dad's chest.

"Just leave it for now," I suggested. "We can try it again later when the initial shock has worn off."

Chris nodded and put the dinosaur behind his back and out of sight.

-

The rest of the gift opening went by smoothly and no more children were traumatized. Once every gift that was under the tree had been opened, we left the kids to test out their new things while the adults headed to the kitchen to start making breakfast. It was quickly decided that pancakes would be the easiest thing to mass produce for our large group of hungry people and while Lisa, Carly and I started mixing up a few bowls of batter, Chris and Scott whipped out the orange juice and champagne for mimosas.

An hour later everyone was very full and we were two bottles of champagne down.

"So, Whitney," Scott started as he loaded up the dishwasher. "Are you staying here tonight too or are you planning on making us spend half the day shovelling the driveway for you?"

His tone was teasing, but as I looked out the window at the deep blanket of snow that covered the ground outside, I was torn. I didn't want to outstay my welcome by staying another night, but I also didn't want to make the Evans family spend their entire Christmas day shovelling snow and there was no way that I'd be able to do it by myself.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "I wasn't planning on staying another night, but it does look like there's a lot of snow out there..."

"Just stay," Chris shrugged. "Even if we can get your car down the driveway, the roads are probably terrible."

"There's no need for you to rush off," Lisa agreed. "Stay another night and then you can just relax and enjoy the day."

"And you can drink if you're not driving home," Scott pointed out with a grin. "Chris and I stocked up on wine, beer, whiskey and gin, these mimosas were just the start of the party."

I couldn't help, but laugh at Scott's reasoning as I nodded my head.

"Alright, I'll stay. If you really don't mind, Chris?"

"Of course not," Chris assured me. "We're happy to have you."

"Great!" Scott grinned. "I'm glad that's settled, I think this calls for another round of drinks!"

Chris cheered and jumped up to help him while the rest of us smiled and shook our heads at their antics.

-

The day was spent soaking in quality family time, watching the kids enjoy their new toys and indulging in lots of food and drink. We called Chris' dad and my parents and even had an unexpected phone call from my Uncle Rob. He spent more time talking to Chris than me, his own niece, but it was nice to hear his voice even if he made sure to get a dig in about me confessing my supposedly obvious feelings to Chris.

Sitting around the table, eating a delicious meal with Chris' loving and welcoming family was quite a contrast to how I expected to spend the day and I was very grateful that Chris had included me. Grayson seemed to appreciate it too and he made his enjoyment clear as we tucked him into bed once all the fun and feasting was done.

Chris sat on the floor leaning against Grayson's nightstand, reading him his favourite bedtime story while I laid on the bed next to him and rubbed his back. He was drifting off by the time the story was finished, but he was fighting it desperately as he spoke again.

"I'm happy, Mama," he told us, his words muffled as he nuzzled into his pillow.

Chris put his hand over his heart as he mouthed an 'awe' at me and I smiled.

"You're happy?" I clarified quietly, my smile growing as he nodded. "I'm glad to hear that, baby."

"I like that you're here," he mumbled. "Daddy should come home with us too."

My heart clenched at that request as my smile faltered. I knew it was only a matter of time until Grayson paid more attention to the fact that his time was divided between two homes, but I wasn't ready to deal with it just yet.

"Maybe Daddy could come for a sleepover sometime," I suggested, stroking his hair back out of his face, but that wasn't all he wanted.

"He should come all the time."

I was never great at hiding my emotions and from the way Chris was watching me, I assumed my distress at Grayson's comments was written all over my face and I was grateful when he jumped into the conversation.

"But what about Dodger?"

Dodger's ears perked up from his spot at the end of the bed, but he settled again when he realized that Chris wasn't calling for him.

"He can come too," was Grayson's answer to that dilemma, but Chris had a response at the ready.

"C'mon, you think Dodger would have enough space in your Ma's apartment?" He asked. "He needs a big house like this to run around in!"

So then we could all just stay here would be the logical comeback to that, but it seemed our sleepy little guy was too tuckered out from the excitement to argue. He let out a little sigh of defeat, but said no more. We stayed quiet for a few minutes until his breathing shifted and he was soundly asleep.

Chris offered me his hand to help me climb over Grayson without waking him up and, after whispering a quiet request to Dodger to keep our boy safe, he led me out of the room.

"You okay?"

The question came as soon as Grayson's door was pulled to and we were in the hallway.

"Yeah, of course," I nodded, forcing a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Chris shot me a look that clearly showed his disbelief.

"You looked pretty downhearted in there."

"I just worry," I shrugged. "I don't want our situation to upset him and I know he's going to notice it more as he gets older."

"He'll be fine," Chris assured me, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder comfortingly. "He's got so much love in his life, he won't even notice that his family is a little different."

I wasn't convinced. He was obviously already noticing or he wouldn't have questioned it only moments before. I didn't want to start such a delicate, potentially tense conversation at the end of such a happy day though so I forced a more convincing smile onto my face.

"You're right," I agreed. "But I wouldn't be a mom if I didn't worry."

"Well, there's no time for worryin' on Christmas!" Chris claimed, followed by a grin as he dragged me off towards the kitchen. "What can I get you? Another wine? Maybe some gin? I might have some tequila kickin' around here somewhere..."

"No! No tequila!" I laughed. "Gin would be great, thanks."

Chris nodded and set to work mixing our beverages for the evening before we went to the living room to rejoin his family and I did my best to push any worries about letting Grayson down out of my mind.

-

After the kids were all in bed, the rest of the evening was spent playing games and sharing drinks. It was heartwarming, wholesome family fun and I was so glad that Scott had encouraged me to stay as the thought of rushing home to my cold, empty apartment wasn't at all appealing.

The only strange thing about the evening was Chris. We were teamed up for most of the games and it was quite amazing how in tune with each other we were as we won everything by a landslide. We'd been friends for a long time and knew each other very well so it was unsurprising to me that we had so much success, but the teasing comments that came from a rather drunk Scott implied other reasons than friendship for our harmony. I scoffed and rolled my eyes every time he cracked a joke about us, but Chris seemed to love it. He was a few drinks in and probably just feeling a little goofy, but the grin on his face after every suggestive comment sparked an odd feeling in my stomach.

It was around ten o'clock when everyone except Chris, Scott and I decided to go to bed. We bid them goodnight and Chris went to top up our drinks before settling back onto the couch beside me. By this time, I was definitely feeling it. I wasn't drunk, but I knew this drink would have to be my last as the flush of my cheeks and the happy, fuzzy feeling in my brain was telling me that it was time to wind it down for the night.

However, as Chris handed me another gin and soda, settled on the couch next to me, placed his drink on the end table beside him and pulled my feet into his lap, my mind suddenly felt surprisingly sharp.

"What are you doing?" I asked, a giggle slipping from my lips.

"Releasing some tension."

As he answered, he began a slow massage of my left foot and I couldn't help, but smile at how wonderful it felt.

"Releasing?" Scott snorted a laugh. "Sure, a foot rub is known for getting rid of tension, not making it worse."

Chris smirked at what Scott was insinuating, but seemed unbothered by it.

"Don't be jealous," he teased, but now it was my turn to smirk.

"Of what?" I questioned. "This foot rub? It's not that great, Scott."

Scott laughed as Chris gasped a tad over dramatically.

"Not that great? I offer you a free foot rub and you can't even be fuckin' grateful?"

Chris shook his head, but the smile on his face told me that he wasn't really offended. He did stop massaging my feet though and I whined in protest as he picked up his drink.

"A mediocre foot rub is better than nothing," I pouted. "Keep going."

Chris sipped his whiskey, the smile on his face morphing back into a smirk as he shook his head again, but he did let his hand rest over my ankles and I was happy for even that tiny bit of contact.

Scott changed the subject to some viral video he saw the other day and Chris laughed and chatted along as he absentmindedly let his hand drift up my shin, underneath the loose pyjama pants that I'd changed into shortly after we put Grayson to bed.

My mind was instantly taken back to another time when we'd shared such gentle touches. A time when his lips followed his fingers as they traced kisses up from my ankle all the way to the lacy edge of my underwear. A time when he'd then proceeded to pull that underwear off with his teeth before returning his face back to a very sensitive area.

"Whitney, have you seen it?"

Scott's question snapped me out of my racy daydream. I felt my cheeks flush with colour as I forced my gaze away from Chris' hand over to Scott, reminding myself that even though the look on Chris' face would make it seem otherwise, he couldn't possibly know what I was just thinking of.

"Uh, no, I haven't," I admitted, sipping my drink to try to cool myself down even though it was becoming apparent to me that I needed to slow down my alcohol consumption. "All I seem to watch these days is Paw Patrol."

Chris barked out a laugh and nodded.

"So much Paw Patrol," he agreed. "The kid's obsessed."

"Chase is on the case!" I giggled before changing my voice slightly. "Rubble on the double!"

"Oh my god," Scott laughed, a horrified look on his face. "We need to get you out more."

I shrugged as Chris continued to trace patterns on my shins.

"That's the life of a mom."

"Yeah, but what about when he's with Chris? You must have some sort of life then."

"Scott."

Chris' voice was harsh and warning as what Scott was implying could be taken as offensive, but I wasn't bothered.

"It's fine," I assured him. "I know I'm lame. I don't have much of my own life, I don't really know anyone around here."

"You have Allison," Chris pointed out. "You've mentioned her a lot. She's your friend, right?"

He was referring to my one and only friend in Massachusetts. She was also a photographer and we'd met at a camera store when I first moved here. She'd asked me a question about a new brand of film and we'd ended up having coffee to exchange tips. She realized quickly that I didn't know many people in town and had taken me under her wing.

"She is," I nodded. "But she has three kids of her own and she's married so she doesn't have weeks where she's child free like I do. We hang out when we can, but usually it's with all the kids, not like quality 'girl time'."

"I didn't know that," Chris frowned. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't feel bad for me." I nudged him with my foot. "I have plenty of friends, they're just in LA. I'm happy here."

"I'll take you out for drinks one day," Scott promised. "Even if you're happy, everyone needs to let their hair down a little bit sometimes."

"That would be fun," I smiled, tossing back the last of my drink. "But for now, I think I've let my hair down enough for today. It's time for me to get to bed before all these drinks go to my head."

I slid my feet off of Chris' lap and slowly stood up as he looked up at me.

"Are you cool if I bunk with you again tonight?"

"Of course," I nodded. "Just sneak in quietly if you two stay up too late."

"I'm ready to crash already," Scott informed us. "So, we won't be up much later."

"Okay. Well, goodnight boys," I waved as I headed towards the door. "Thank you for a lovely day."

They chorused a goodnight back to me before I walked down the hall.

-

I was just coming out of the en suite in Chris' bedroom after brushing my teeth when Chris strolled into the room.

"Hey," I smiled. "Ready for bed already?"

"Scott wasn't lying," he returned my smile. "He was half asleep by the time you made it down the hall."

I laughed as I crawled into bed and settled against the pillows.

"Well, it has been a busy day."

Chris agreed as he grabbed his pyjama pants and headed to the bathroom. I picked up my phone from where I left it on the nightstand, turned off the lamp on my side of the bed and answered a few text messages from my family, figuring I may as well wait the few minutes it would take Chris to get ready for bed before I attempted to get any sleep. When Chris reappeared, I locked my phone again, put it back on the nightstand and snuggled down under the blankets, trying not to stare too much at his chiselled torso. He wasted no time turning off the lamp on his side as well before slipping in next to me, shivering dramatically as he pulled the blankets up over his chest.

"It's so freakin' cold tonight."

I snorted a laugh, shaking my head even though I knew he wouldn't be able to see me until our eyes adjusted to the dark.

"Maybe if you put on a shirt you wouldn't feel it so much."

"Honestly," Chris started, the smirk evident in his tone despite his face still being hidden in shadow. "Usually, I just sleep naked so these pants are for your benefit."

I felt my cheeks flush as the words 'then by all means, take them off' were on the tip of my tongue. I forced them out of my mind as a long forgotten tingle rolled through my body and I focused on answering him.

"My point was that a t-shirt would provide you with extra warmth," I explained. "So, your point that you usually wear less clothing makes no sense."

The bed shifted slightly as Chris chuckled.

"Well, I can think of another thing that could provide some extra warmth."

"What?"

I felt my heart rate pick up, the blood rushing through my ears so fast that I hardly heard myself answer him as I wondered if he could possibly be implying what it seemed like he was implying.

"You." His voice was low, the same seductive tone he'd used all those years ago, and I felt my mouth go dry. "Come give me a cuddle."

For a moment, I thought I was a lot drunker than I'd realized and that I was hallucinating or in some kind of lucid dream, but that thought brought me to a different realization.

"Chris!" I whispered, my tone scolding and accusatory. "You're drunk!"

A burst of laughter came from the other side of the bed and I quickly shushed him, knowing Grayson was asleep in the room above us.

"I'm not drunk, I promise," Chris assured me as his raucous laughter came under control. "I just thought it was worth a shot. It's nice to have a little cuddle with a beautiful woman sometimes."

I felt another flush of heat run through me, but I rolled my eyes and, as I had the night before, I took a pillow and placed it between us, drawing a clear line in the sand even if that hadn't worked out so well the last time.

"Goodnight, Chris."

"Goodnight, Whitney."

I rolled over, closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

I did try. I really, really did.

But after almost ten minutes of thoughts whirring through my head, I knew it was hopeless and I turned back to face Chris. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the dark, I could see well enough to know that he was laying on his back so I carefully moved the pillow that I'd placed between us and slowly slid over towards him. I felt him tense so I knew he was awake, but he didn't question what I was doing so I continued until my head was on his chest and my arm was draped over his stomach. He stayed perfectly still, just long enough for me to start second guessing myself before he shifted slightly to put his arm around me.

We stayed like that, holding each other in silence, and I had to admit that Chris was right. It was nice to have someone to cuddle with. The physical contact was filling a hole in my touch-starved heart and I tried not to think about how fleeting of a moment it was or how things would be back to normal in the light of day. There was a strange ache in my heart at that thought and I knew I needed to get out of my head.

"Chris?" My voice was soft, just in case he'd drifted off in the last few minutes, but when he tightened his grip on me, I knew he was still awake. "Thank you for inviting me today."

"Of course." He squeezed a little tighter. "I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner."

"It's fine," I assured him, letting my hand lazily trace patterns on his skin. "You're under no obligation, you're allowed your time with Grayson without me."

"It's not about obligation. I'd never want you to spend Christmas alone even if Grayson wasn't in the picture."

"I was really dreading it."

My admission made me feel vulnerable as I'd spent so long trying to pretend that I wasn't bothered by the idea of a lonely holiday, but Chris didn't seem surprised.

"Really?" He questioned, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "The crying onto your steering wheel didn't give that away at all."

"Shut up," I mumbled, turning my face into his chest to hide my smile at his teasing. "I'm just trying to express my gratitude for your kindness."

"No gratitude is needed. It's been my pleasure having you here today and Grayson loved it."

He kissed the top of my head after he'd finished speaking and almost reflexively, I found myself stretching up and placing a soft kiss of my own against his collarbone. It felt intimate and the moment hung heavy between us. It felt right to me, but I knew instantly that I'd crossed a line. A comforting kiss on the top of my head was one thing, but what I'd done, kissing his bare chest, was inappropriate. My cheeks burned as I tilted my head up to look at him, meeting his eyes as they looked down at me. His expression was unreadable so I opened my mouth to apologize only to be completely shocked when he pressed his head forward and his lips against mine.

The shock quickly morphed into a feeling that could only be described as euphoria. There was something distantly familiar about the way his mouth moved on mine, but it felt strange and new as it wasn't exactly as I'd remembered - and I had spent more time than I'd want to admit reliving the last time we'd shared a kiss like this.

It wasn't until he pressed his tongue against my lips, in an attempt to deepen the kiss, that I snapped out of my daze.

"Chris, wait," I breathed out as I pulled away and stared up at him, my cheeks now flushed much more from excitement than embarrassment. "We shouldn't do this."

"Says who?"

The little voice in my head telling me that I'm about to ruin everything that we've worked hard to create. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but as he smirked down at me and licked his lips as if he was preparing for what was to come, I found myself incapable of logic and reason.

"Doesn't matter."

Chris hardly had time to acknowledge my answer before I dove back in for another kiss, moving to a more comfortable position as I straddled his waist.

He completely overwhelmed my senses. The inescapable scent of him surrounding me, the feel of his strong body between my thighs and the soft little sighs of enjoyment that he kept making every time our lips parted for us to take a breath. None of it was doing anything to ease the ache that was growing between my legs and my hands gripped into the sheets where they rested just above his shoulders as I pulled back to look down at him. I needed to see his face to remind myself this was really happening and who it was really happening with as it still felt so unreal.

Chris smiled up at me, his lips looking plumper already, and let his hands settle on my hips to keep me steady.

"You okay?"

I nodded and leaned down to peck his lips again before answering.

"I've never been better."

Chris' smile only widened at that confirmation and he moved his hands down to cup my bum, pressing my hips forward and giving me a moment of friction that I'd been desperately craving. I pressed myself up, pulling my upper body away from him as a gasp fell from my lips and my eyes squeezed shut. I was embarrassingly aroused from a few mere minutes of kisses, but it had been a very long time since I'd had any physical contact with a man and my body was already on fire.

I rocked my hips against the toned muscles of his abdomen, soaking in the pleasure that was radiating through me and I was debating whether it would be rude of me to continue until I reached the release that was quickly building inside me. Clearly, Chris was just as intuitive as I remembered as he let out a groan and effortlessly flipped us over so he was on top.

"Not like that," he smirked. "I've been thinking about this for too long, it's not happening like that."

I felt another flush of embarrassment as he could obviously tell what I'd been thinking about doing, but I nodded in agreement.

"But if this is really happening, we need to be quiet," I reminded him. "Everyone's sleeping."

"They're all upstairs, they won't hear," he assured me. "And Scott's on the other side of the house."

He was right, we'd be fine as long as we kept ourselves under control, but it didn't matter anyway as all my doubts disappeared when his lips pressed against my neck. I let my hands slide around his waist, resting on his toned back while his lips continued their trail down my neck and stretched the neck line of my shirt to expose my shoulder. His lips locked onto one spot just above my collarbone, sucking and nipping until I was sure there would be a bruise there in the morning.

"Chris," I gasped out, digging my fingernails into his back. "Don't leave a mark."

He backed off a bit, kissing gently against the now sensitive skin.

"It'll be easy to hide," he assured me. "And if I remember correctly, you enjoyed a few bites here and there..."

He opened his mouth to dig his teeth into my shoulder and an image flashed into my mind. A memory of me, bent over with Chris' thumb on my clit as the two fingers he had inside me stroked a particularly delicate spot. He'd placed a soft kiss on the cheek of my bum before sinking his teeth into my skin, sending me over the edge.

I couldn't help, but moan from the combination of the memory and the sensation of his teeth in my shoulder as my hips pressed up against his. Chris seemed to be spurred on by that action as he ground his hips against mine and quickly let his hands slide down to the bottom of my shirt. He lifted it up and for a moment I was lost in the bliss of the sensations he was providing, but as my shirt was raised just past my belly button, I froze.

"Wait!"

My voice firm and demanding and he immediately responded, stopping his actions and looking up to meet my eyes.

"What's wrong?"

I bit my bottom lip as I pondered how to voice my concerns. If I didn't say anything, there was a chance that we could get through this without drawing any attention to it, but I couldn't help but think it was better to point it out than have Chris notice on his own.

"I just..." I breathed out, trying to figure out how to articulate my thoughts. "I just look different now."

"What?"

Chris pulled back even further, looking down at me with genuine confusion in his eyes and my cheeks burned as I tried to puzzle out how to explain my feelings in a way that didn't make me look shockingly insecure.

"Since I had Grayson, since the last time we did this," I clarified, my cheeks burning as I brought my flaws to his attention. "I look different. Like, I have stretch marks and my boobs aren't as perky as they used to be."

Even in the dark shadows of the room, I could see Chris' jaw clench as it did when he was annoyed and trying to bite his tongue. Panic flooded through me as I wished I'd kept my mouth shut, but his next words astounded me.

"Get outta here," he huffed. "You think I care about that?"

I dropped my gaze to the tattoos on his chest as I regretted ever opening my mouth.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Lots of men probably would."

Chris moved back, slowly sliding his body down, away from mine and I wanted to scream, I wanted to stop him and hold him against me as long as I could, but I was powerless to do anything, but watch. My heart sank, thinking he was going to roll off of me any minute now, but then he stopped. His face was level with my lower stomach and turned his eyes back towards my face.

"This body," he started, placing a kiss on my stomach. "This stomach, these stretch marks." He kissed the faint lines that were now barely visible on my skin despite how vibrant they were in my mind. Then he continued up, lifting my shirt as he went until it was resting above my breasts, my nipples hard from the chill in the air and the anticipation I was feeling. "These boobs." He kissed and nipped at the delicate skin, tracing all the way along until he captured a nipple in his mouth, teasing it briefly with his tongue. "They changed because you gave me my son, the greatest gift you could have given me. I have nothing, but gratitude for that and you're still the most fuckin' beautiful woman I've ever seen."

He was exaggerating. I knew he was exaggerating. He saw and worked with Hollywood's most elite actresses and models, there was no chance that I was even close to the most beautiful woman that he'd ever seen. But he managed, again, to push all doubts from my mind as his lips set to work, this time focusing on my left nipple while he shifted his weight and freed a hand to stroke and pinch the right.

They were sensitive, they always had been, and the way that Chris was working them right now was almost too much. My head fell back and my hands dropped to the sheets as I tried to focus on enjoying the sensations and not immediately demanding for Chris to move lower, to give me more, to touch me where I wanted to be touched with increasing need. He was always paying attention though and before I even needed to voice my request, he let his mouth slip from my nipple and trail back down my stomach.

He nipped at the skin just above my pyjama pants before hooking his fingers in the waistband and pulling them down. I tugged my shirt over my head at the same time before laying back against the pillow, completely naked underneath him.

"Beautiful."

He'd muttered the word, almost more to himself than to me, but the sincerity in his voice flooded a new kind of warmth through my body. I tried to push it down, focusing on what we were doing, what this was and all it could be. Because yes, I loved Chris, but this wasn't that. This wasn't making love, this was a simple release of sexual tension. I didn't need my feelings getting in the way and making this complicated or I was going to get myself hurt.

I'd been so lost in my head that I hadn't noticed how my legs had fallen apart for Chris to settle between them or how he'd spread me with his fingers, opening me up for him to enjoy. It wasn't until I felt a slow, gentle lick right over my clit that I snapped back into the moment. With a gasp, my hips pressed up to meet his mouth, trying frantically to keep the friction now that it was finally there.

"Easy," Chris warned me, chuckling as he pulled back slightly, earning a whine from me. "We'll get you there, don't worry."

A feeling of desperation was building up inside of me and as he blew gently on the very sensitive parts of me that were in front of him, I was about ready to start begging.

"Please," I whimpered, moving my hand to his hair in case he got any bright ideas about pulling back any further, but I was relieved when he let out a groan and finally gave up on his teasing.

Suddenly I was aware of nothing, but Chris' mouth on me. My back arched as he licked up from the bottom of my core to the top, swirling his tongue around, exploring every little nook and cranny before settling his focus back on my clit. It was like he'd studied me, like he'd committed our previous brief encounter to memory and remembered exactly what I responded to as he licked and sucked with just the right amount of pressure and speed to have me panting as my grip tightened in his hair.

It had only been moments, but I could already feel the pressure building inside me, bubbling closer towards the surface. Chris, as if sensing this, eased off just slightly to slide his tongue a bit lower, pressing it against my entrance, dipping just barely inside, before replacing it with one of his fingers. I felt myself clench at the sensation, my body desperate for relief, desperate for something more inside me and Chris obliged, adding a second finger almost immediately.

"So wet, baby," he hummed, placing a kiss on the inside of my upper thigh.

I was too wrapped up in my own pleasure to formulate any kind of response, but Chris didn't bother waiting for one anyway before putting his lips back on my clit. The combination of his fingers and his mouth had me seeing stars and another whimpered plea slipped from my lips as he flicked his tongue against me. He was focused and determined, groaning against me after a particularly sharp tug on his hair when he angled his fingers inside me to find that one particular spot that made me see stars.

He stroked it once. Then twice. And on the third that coil that had been tightening inside me snapped. I covered my mouth with my free hand just in time to bite down and muffle the scream that Chris pulled from me as my hips thrust up towards him and I spasmed around his fingers as I fell over the edge.

Chris coaxed me through it, easing his attentions as I came down from the high I was feeling. He slid his fingers out of me, looking up to meet my eyes before licking them clean. I groaned, feeling myself twitch with arousal at the sight despite my heart still racing from the orgasm I had just had. He flashed me a smirk before crawling up my body and pressing his lips against mine again.

I sighed happily into the kiss, letting my hands slide down his back, just teasing the top of his pants as I reluctantly separated our mouths.

"Take these off."

My tone left little room for argument and Chris looked down at me with a smirk.

"Yes, ma'am."

He lifted his body off of mine just long enough for me to shiver from the loss of the warmth he was providing, but he quickly returned once his pants were discarded. He stayed slightly lower when he returned, turning his attention back to my chest, taking my left nipple in his mouth this time and using his hand to tease the other. My eyes fluttered shut at the sensation, but I fought the urge to simply lie back and let him do what he wanted with me. I wanted more, I needed more and I didn't want to wait any longer.

"Chris," I whined. "Please, fuck me."

Looking down, I could see his eyes widen in surprise at my blunt demand. He let his mouth slip off my nipple before giving it one last little nip, just hard enough to make me gasp from the slight twinge of pain.

"As you wish."

He reached down between us, taking a moment to slip his two fingers back inside me. He spread them out, gently stretching me and I was grateful. From my memory, Chris was thick and it had been approximately three years and five months since I last had sex (not that I was counting).

Once Chris was satisfied that I was adequately prepared, he pulled his fingers back and guided the tip of his cock towards my entrance. I tried to relax as he slowly stretched me open, but even as my mind revelled in the bliss I was feeling, a thought hit me that made my eyes widen and body stiffen.

"Chris!" I gasped out, gripping his shoulders to push him away slightly. "Condom!"

His head dropped down and he grunted as if he was using the last of his restraint to pull out of me.

"Shit," he cursed. "How could we forget that again?"

"I guess we don't learn from our mistakes," I smiled, despite the pang in my heart as the voice in my head chimed in again to say 'clearly not or you wouldn't be about to fuck him and break your own heart again'. "Do you have one?"

Chris nodded, rolling off me for just long enough to reach over to the bedside table. He pulled one out of the drawer, ripped it open and slid it on with impressive speed before crawling back over me.

"Now," he smirked. "Where were we?"

He looked down as he guided himself inside me again. The initial stretch wasn't as intense the second time around, but it grew as he pushed deeper and my breath hitched once he was fully inside. Chris stilled, sensing my discomfort as he dropped his head to kiss along my jaw until his lips rested just below my ear.

"You good?"

"Mhmm," I nodded, breathing out and shifting my hips as I started to adjust. We stayed like that, connected but still, for a few moments until I felt the tension ease a bit. "You can move."

"You sure?" Chris looked at me with concern on his face, but I nodded.

That was all the reassurance he needed as he began slowly moving his hips. He pulled his lips back from where they rested near my ear and pressed them against mine.

He kissed me deeply, passionately, as he created a steady rhythm, sliding in and out with his hips pressing hard against mine with each thrust. His biceps bulged and strained to support his weight through the movement and he eventually let his mouth fall away from mine as he could no longer hold back a groan. That noise, and the grunts that followed, made me twitch around him as if my body was doing everything it could to keep him inside me, to keep the pleasure that it had been craving for so long.

I could feel him dragging against every inch inside me, brushing against every nerve and stretching me just enough to keep me constantly impressed by how big he was. It was somehow too much, but not enough all at the same time and I hitched my leg higher up on his waist to help him get closer, deeper, if at all possible.

"Good girl..."

Chris' words hummed encouragingly against my collarbone where he placed another soft kiss before pulling back. He placed his hand on the back of my knee and lifted it even higher, opening me up for him even more.

My head dropped back against the pillow on the next stroke as his cock slid against that delicious spot inside me where his fingers had been only minutes before. He was watching, looking down between us to see me wrapped around him, see me taking him all the way every time he pushed in. I could hear him mumbling praises, compliments about how well I was doing, but I was too far gone, too wrapped up in the pleasure emanating from between my legs to do anything, but moan in response.

He slowed for a moment, leaning down, my leg catching on his shoulder and pressing it even higher as he reminded me to be quiet. He nipped my ear lobe, pulling a whimper from my lips before moving back and picking his pace up again. I knew he was right, but it was hard, next to impossible even, to hold back the noises that were bubbling in my throat.

I bit my lip and dug my nails into his skin as I attempted to control my volume and silently cursed Chris when he shifted his weight just enough to put the pressure of each thrust back on just the right spot. He moved his thumb down to brush over my clit, but it barely took a few strokes for me to fly over the edge.

It felt like my whole world exploded as I clenched around him, a low moan slipping past the lip between my teeth. The tingle ripped through every part of my body, every muscle quivering with pleasure, as Chris picked up the pace even more, with one final burst of speed until he stilled, letting out a deep, rumbling groan of his own before pumping in and out a few final times.

Once he'd stopped his movements completely, he let my leg lower to the bed, collapsing against my chest as he fought to catch his breath. I drifted my hand up to stroke the damp hairs on the back of his neck and soaked in the blissful feeling, a feeling I'd dreamt about since the last time I had the pleasure of enjoying it.

We stayed like that for a few moments until Chris reluctantly pulled back, letting out a soft groan as he slid out of me.

"I'll be right back."

I admired Chris' ability to walk already as all I had the strength to do was nod and shift back to my side of the bed. When Chris reappeared a few minutes later after disposing of the condom in the bathroom, I could barely keep my eyes open. He climbed back under the blankets and shifted over towards me until he could pull me right against his chest with our legs intertwined.

"That was nice," I sighed happily, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms as I nuzzled my nose into his toned pecs.

They shook as he chuckled and a giggle slipped from my lips as well.

"It was," he agreed, kissing the top of my head the same way he had at the start of this little rendezvous.

There was a heaviness in the air, the underlying unspoken words and the conversation that needed to be had hung between us, but I couldn't bring myself to ruin the moment. I'd spent so much time thinking about this, what it would be like to be in his arms again, I couldn't bare to say anything that might make him pull away and snap out of the moment of insanity we'd slipped into.

So, I didn't and neither did he. With one final, gentle kiss goodnight, we stayed tightly in our embrace until we drifted off into a contented sleep.

-

Part Three

[datleggy]

Let’s take “birth day” literally and have pregnant Buck go into labor someplace really dumb and/or inconvenient.

It's the hormones, Buck would like to say in his defense, but honestly, the omega would have done it even if he weren't nearly nine months pregnant....

The doctor's told him some light exercise will help, even with his due date being so close now, and so after picking Christopher up from school they'd decided to take a nice stroll in the park.

And it would have been nice if some asshole hadn't put his hands on his kid on the goddamn playground of all places! One minute Buck had been struggling to get up off the bench to see why it looked as though Christopher was in a seemingly heated argument over something or the other, with another little boy around his age, and the next said boy's mother was shoving Christopher away with a sharply pointed nail, poking at his shoulder and shouting obscenities.

And Buck was there in a flash, putting himself between Christopher and the woman and telling her to back off. "You don't touch someone else's kid like that, lady. If you have a problem, you come find me."

The woman looks flustered for a moment before raising her voice again, yelling about how she had barely even touched the eight year old, and about how maybe he shouldn't bring his son around other kids if he couldn't learn to play nice. "If you taught that boy some manners we wouldn't even be here right now!"

Buck knows he should have let it go, knows they were causing a huge and unnecessary scene, and this? This next part he totally blames on the hormones. "If your parents had taught you some manners and common sense we wouldn't be here right now!"

And that had only served to escalate the situation to the point where police had actually been called and arrived on the scene--and apparently the woman had been very convincing when she'd burst into tears and told the cops that Buck had threatened her with violence.

Which is how Buck ends up in a jailcell on a sunny Friday afternoon, waiting for Eddie to come and bail him out and worrying frantically about Christopher, who last he saw, as they'd cuffed him and put him into the back of their vehicle, was currently in the custody of a child services worker.

Buck puts his head in his hands and groans, beyond stressed. Not only is this humiliating as all hell, but his alpha is probably going to kill him for letting this shit happen. He should have ignored the woman and walked away with Christopher in tow. Instead, he'd made it worse and gotten arrested for an assault he hadn't even committed. "Jesus Christ."

"Buckley? Evan Buckley?" An officer calls out; he's older, maybe mid fifties, with a faint Southern drawl.

Buck raises his head. He'd only called Eddie fifteen minutes ago, was he really here that quickly? "Uh, yeah, that's me." he says.

"You're free to go; luckily a bunch of witnesses came forward with the same story--you weren't the aggressor here, son. Now c'mon, your kid's waiting for you right outside."

"Oh thank God." he breaths out, immeasurably relieved. But when he attempts to stand up Buck lets out a hiss and doubles over, face contorting in pain.

The officers eyes go wide and he rushes to open the cell, which is nearly empty, thankfully, except for Buck and a slumbering man in the corner, arrested that morning for public intoxication. "Whoa, whoa," the man's eyes go even wider, if possible, when he realizes what's happening. "Shoot, I think your water just broke, young man."

Buck shakes his head, even though the proof is on the bench and soaking his jeans through and through. He whines as the contraction continues, huffing and puffing. "H-hospital. Please." He pleads.

There is no way he's having this baby while still technically in custody at a police station. Hell, they're in a jailcell, for shit's sake. He'd rather give birth like a total cliché and in the back of a yellow taxi!

"I'm gonna have 'em call you an ambulance, but let's get you outta here first." the officer tries to help Buck stand but another contraction hits, this one harder and more agonizing than the last and Buck cries out, his knees buckling under him.

The officer manages to hold him aloft just long enough to reposition him on the floor as Buck pants and tries not to lose it. The contractions are way too close...

The officer radios his men and calls for help. "Need help in the holding cell on floor 2B, we've got a custodial here who's gone into labor. Urgent request for help in holding cell 2B."

Buck can't help but let out a sob--it's even worse than he'd imagined--he's going to end up giving birth inside a jailcell five feet away from some guy who smells like tequila and regret. Alone.

"What the hell is going on in--Buck?!"

Buck sniffles as he turns his head towards the door, where Athena is standing, mouth agape at the chaotic scene before her. "Athena!" he cries, reaching out for her, needy as can be and not giving a damn.

Athena doesn't waste any time, dropping to her knees beside him, letting him rest his head on her lap. She sooths back his curly locks, now sweaty, and look at the officer, asking sharply, "What happened?"

"He was being released when he went into labor--must be from the stress of the situation. Tried to get him up, but that baby's comin' and soon." he informs her, grimacing when Buck whines in pain as another contraction follows his statement, as if to prove the mans words true.

"Eddie," Buck clenches his teeth, tries to stifle another groans. "Need Eddie."

"He's right outside," Athena tells him, reassuringly. She nods at the officer. "Reyes, get me Eddie Diaz, he's a medic and he should be waiting down on the first floor for us. Hurry!"

***************

Eddie's at the grocery store picking stuff up for dinner tonight when he gets the unexpected call. He almost doesn't answer it, when he sees it's from an unfamiliar number, thinking it's spam, but something nags at him to take the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey..."

It's Buck. And he sounds upset.

"Buck? What's going on? Everything alright? Who's phone are you using?"

He can hear Buck gulp from the other end of the line. "I've been arrested. I need you to come bail me out and get Christopher out of police custody." he says, all in one rushed statement, like he'd ripping off a band aid.

"Wha--I'm sorry, what? Did you say you're in jail? And Christopher's with the police? What the hell is going on?" Eddie's not proud of the way he raises his voice, especially not in the fruit aisle, where a mother with her toddler gives him a dirty look on her way past, but he's so shocked and panicked he can't stop himself from blurting out, "Buck, what the fuck happened? You were picking Christopher up from school today! Where does jail fit into this?!"

"Eddie, I'm sorry." Buck sighs. "I swear I'll explain everything when you get here, but I don't have a lot of time left on this call and I'm kind of freaking out right now. Please, can you just--"

"Of course, yeah, sorry, I'm on my way, give me like twenty minutes, ok? I'm across town."

"Thank you." the line cuts off abruptly and Eddie's left to ponder what could possibly have happened to have led up to his almost nine months pregnant husband being arrested as he abandons his cart and runs out into the parking lot.

****************

Eddie nearly gets arrested himself, with the way he's speeding down the highway before turning onto the main road and parking right in front of the station, where only police vehicles are allowed.

The alpha finds his kid with a social worker, happily munching on a donut. “Chris!?” Eddie runs over and engulfs his son in a suffocating hug. “Are you ok? What happened?” 

Christopher pulls away slightly, nodding. “I’m ok. Bucky got in trouble ‘cause the lady at the park lied. Officer Reyes said he’s gonna bring him out soon.” 

The social worker explains the whole story to Eddie, “Thankfully there were a lot of witnesses who corroborated the events. Your husband should be out in a few minutes; it was all just an awful misunderstanding. The woman at the park is in custody right now for giving the police a false accusation and wasting everybody’s time.”  

Eddie’s shoulders slump in relief and he practically falls into a chair nearby, pulling Christopher onto his lap and holding him tight around the middle. “Is he ok? Buck is pregnant. He’s due in two weeks.” 

The social worker gives him a sympathetic look. “I’m sure he’s in good hands. Officer Reyes will have him out here in a couple of minutes.” 

****************

After a couple of minutes turns to five, turns to ten, Eddie starts to get angsty. Which is why it’s a good thing, when he happens to spot Athena rounding the corner and into the station. He calls over to her and she furrows her brows in concern before making her way across to them. 

“Eddie? Christopher? What’s going on?” 

“It’s a long story.” Eddie sighs, “But Buck is being held in a cell right now, they said an officer Reyes was supposed to bring him down here, that he was free to go, but that was forever ago,” he exaggerates. “Can you please find out what’s taking so long?” 

“Of course.” 

****************

Buck sobs openly when his alpha enters the room, “Eddie!” he calls out desperately. 

Athena holds Buck close and looks up. “He’s in labor. Contractions are less than a minute apart. He needs to start pushing.” 

Eddie doesn’t hesitate, though his brain feels like it’s about to short circuit if even one more insane thing happens within these twenty four hours. He drops between Buck’s knees and reaches out to squeeze his hand. “Hey, I’m here, I’m here, you’ve got this, ok? Cause I’ve got you.” 

“I’m scared.” Buck admits, tears sliding down face, and he’s shaking like a leaf, terrified that something will go wrong. “I don’t--” he groans pitifully against another contraction. “Don’t wanna have her in here.” 

“I know baby, I know, but she’s coming now, Buck. She’s not gonna wait for us to make it to a hospital. She’s impatient,” Eddie kisses his hand, squeezing again, comfortingly. “Just like you.” 

Buck huffs. “No, like you. Y-you never wait for your soup to cool down.” 

“My Tia’s sopa is worth the burnt tongue.” Eddie plays along, trying to distract him from the pain. “Baby, I need you to push, ok? I know this isn’t how we pictured any of this, but it’s time.” 

Buck nods through the tears and steels himself. 

“Good, good, now push, c’mon, you can do this. I’m right here.” 

****************

“You look handsome in your mugshot.” Eddie tells Buck, staring at the photo he asked Athena to send him on his phone.

Buck glares at the alpha. “Funny.” 

Eddie leans down to kiss the frown off his face. “Sorry, too soon?” 

Buck turns the other way in bed with an annoyed huff. “You’re on baby night duty for the rest of the week.” he shuts the lamp light off and then the room is dim with just the moon peaking in through their blinds. 

“Hey,” Eddie sits up, tilting his head. It’s been over a month since the incident, and sure, it hadn’t been pleasant, but Buck and their baby had made it through just fine, health intact, and in the hospital Buck hadn’t seemed too phased after the ordeal, mostly content with Christopher and the baby curled up against and on him. “That was a stupid joke, I’m sorry.” 

Buck gulps. He’s being way too sensitive about this. Everything turned out alright and shortly after the whole thing had passed Chimney had even teased him that of course only Buck would have bad enough luck to end up giving birth in a holding cell. And Buck had laughed it off. 

Mostly because he’d been relieved. 

And then of course with the new baby the last month has been a whirlwind of constant activity, of making sure all her needs are met, of making sure Christopher’s not feeling neglected, of debating on when he should start thinking about going back to work and--

Eddie’s heart leaps when he hears Buck’s sharp intake of breath. “Buck?” 

Buck sits up now, too, swiping miserably at the tears that suddenly won’t stop falling. “Sorry, I--ignore me. I didn’t--” he sniffles. “I haven’t really thought about that day since--everything’s been so busy with--you know?--and--” he cuts himself off with a choked off sob. “It’s the hormones.” 

It’s been four weeks now and his hormones from the pregnancy are still driving him every which way and he feels ridiculous right now, crying over something he should have processed a month ago already. 

Eddie wraps his arms around Buck and pulls him between his legs and against his chest. “Let it out.” he says. “I’m here. I’ve got you.” 

Buck curls into Eddie and releases all emotion he hadn’t realized he’d been keeping all pent up inside. The fear, the anguish--Buck lets himself be held, coddled, loved. 

It feels good. 

After he’s cried for what feels like ages Buck rests the side of his head on Eddie’s shoulder and exhales. “You know Christopher wanted to name her Tuubee?” he murmurs. 

Eddie, who’s rubbing up and down his husbands back, pauses a moment. “’Tuubee’?” he repeats. 

Buck half smirks against his shoulder. “Two B. The cell where she was born.”

.

[juniorgman187]

i ♡ u (Spencer Reid Imagine)

Summary: Reader and Spencer are trapped in the office during a storm. 

Category: Smut, Fluff Content Warning: cussing, unprotected sex/creampie, thunderstorm Word Count: 4.5k A/N: I don’t really like this imagine tbh so don’t be afraid to share your opinions

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

“It was a dark and stormy night just like this one . . .” Reid said with a spooky voice. Thunder clapped in the distance and lightning flashed, adding to the mood of the room. Reid waited for your reaction, but you didn’t have it in you. You pressed your fingers to your temples, hoping that moving them in a circular motion would somehow stimulate your brain and magically generate logical thoughts that weren’t clouded by your weariness. 

“Sorry, Reid. I’m listening. Keep going.” You didn’t want to discourage him with your fatigue. You were the only one who would consistently give Reid the time of day, and you never faltered in that. At times, you were the only one who’d let him finish speaking.

“You usually love my campfire scary stories,” You knew without even looking at him that Reid was pouting out of disappointment. “I really think you should go home. I’ll call you if I find something or if I need you.”

“No, no you shouldn’t be working on this alone. I’ll be fine.” You slapped your cheeks gently to wake yourself up and forced yourself to refocus on the case. 

Hotch and JJ had to fulfill parenting duties, Prentiss was away doing a custodial interview for a couple days, Rossi and Morgan both went home a few hours ago because they could barely keep their eyes open, and Garcia was most likely knocked out in her bat cave. The team had been working on this case for 24+ hours straight and it was draining, but you weren’t about to leave Reid alone to work on it by himself. It wasn’t a contest or a way to prove that you were somehow a better agent if you stayed up working with him, but you genuinely didn’t feel right delegating all of the responsibility onto him. It happened too often where Reid’s good heart and great work ethic was taken advantage of. 

“Have you narrowed down the comfort zone?” You sipped at your lukewarm coffee, wincing at the unpleasant taste but grateful for any burst of energy you could get. 

Reid nodded, drawing a large red circle. He was in the middle of explaining when his words started sounding like complete nonsense. “Interstate 55 miles true North latitude triangulate.” 

You almost thought you were hallucinating or something to that effect, but Reid saw the genuine fear in your eyes and quit his prank. “No, you’re fine! You’re fine! I was just saying random words to play with you. I thought it’d scare you enough to realize you need to get some sleep.” 

“Reid!” You chucked a pen at him that he successfully dodged. This only made him laugh harder. “You’re not gonna get rid of me that easy.” You told him. 

“When was the last time you slept?” He asked seriously.

It was a huge red flag that it took you somewhere around a minute to come up with the answer since it had been so long that you couldn’t remember. You waved your hand in the air to rid him of his concerned expression. He had no reason to worry. “Really, I’ll be fine. It’s less dangerous to be running on less than 8 hours of sleep than it is to leave one person to solve an entire case by himself. I’m not going home, Reid. I’m here to stay.” 

He noticed your stubbornness and thought of a new approach to neutralize the situation. “What if you and I both call it a night right now and then wake up in a few hours?” 

Now, this sounded like a plan you could get behind. Without any resistance, you set an alarm for 5 a.m and flopped onto the couch just beside the round table. Reid joined you, slipping into his rightful spot behind you. You’d had plenty of platonic sleepovers that constituted sharing the same couch/bed with him, so this was nothing new. With your back barely touching Reid’s chest, you shut your eyes. It didn’t take more than ten minutes for both of you to drift off. 

BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP!

A loud blaring noise filled the room. It made you and Spencer wake up at the same time. 

“What is that?” His voice was all raspy from where he just woke up. 

The sound was weirdly familiar, but you didn’t know where you recognized it from. That’s when you looked out the nearest window and saw that it was still dark outside. 

“I don’t know, but it’s not our alarm.” You pointed out. That’s when Reid eyed the clock on the wall. 

3 a.m. 

You quickly felt around in the dark, reaching inside your purse for your phone. When you pulled it out, the ear-splitting noise got louder, making you realize it was your phone after all, but you were right. It wasn’t your alarm. 

“It’s just a flash flood warning.” You relayed to Reid, squinting at the brightness of your phone. No wonder Reid didn’t know what the sound was - his ancient phone didn’t have the feature. You grumbled, falling back onto the couch. 

“There’s no way I’m gonna fall back asleep after that.” He groaned. 

You hummed in agreement. “Yeah, I’m wide awake now.” Stupid flash flood warning. 

You rubbed the sleep from your eyes while Reid stretched and got up from the couch. Checking the notifications he’d gotten on his phone, he said, “Garcia left while we were asleep.” 

“And then there were two.” 

Everyone was probably catching z’s while you two were catching the killer - or trying to at least. 

So, if it was just going to be Reid’s brain and your brain functioning to work on the case, you needed some coffee. 

“I’ll be back.” You walked down to the kitchen with your mug in hand and just as you were about to grab the coffee pot, a huge flash of lightning struck outside and suddenly the office went dark. The lights went out and the gentle hum of the generator shut off.

“Spencer!” You screamed out of fear. You heard the pitter-patter of his footsteps rushing to you. That’s when you saw Spencer using his archaic phone’s flashlight to find his way to you. He pulled you into a quick hug asking if you were okay, and you answered you were fine, just spooked. When you came down to pour coffee, you didn’t remember seeing anyone else, but now your stomach turned thinking about how someone might be in here with you - listening to you.

“Take out your gun,” He whispered. You did as he ordered you to, pulling your gun out of the holster. “Turn on the flashlight.” You clicked it on and handed it over to him, remembering that he didn’t have a flashlight on his gun because he had a revolver. 

“Stay behind me.” He commanded. You moved back, basically hugging him from behind. You thought you were actually going to pass out from fear if you didn’t hold onto him for dear life. He did a quick pass with the flashlight, revealing no one else was in the bullpen unless they were hiding. 

BANG! BANG!

You yelped in fear. “It’s just the thunder, Y/N,” He reasoned, reminding you of the ongoing storm. Oh right, there was a thunderstorm happening, too. Great. “Here take this and go back to the conference room.” He gave you his revolver and kept your gun, ushering you to walk back to the round table. 

“What? Why? Where are you going?” Your small voice had never sounded so shaky. 

“I’m gonna check the power box and see if I can fix it.” 

Your first instinct was to shake your head disapprovingly, but then you remembered that he couldn’t see you in the dark. “No way! You’re not leaving me alone in a dark room. I’m coming with you.” 

He didn’t argue against it probably because he was just as scared as you were. Reid did another quick survey of the room, using the beam of your flashlight to double check that there was no one else around. 

As you clung to Reid, you made yourself sick just by thinking of all the horrifying possibilities that could happen. For all you knew, a whole group of unsubs was waiting for you at the power box, knowing you and Reid would check there as soon as the electricity went out. Would whatever happened to you two tonight become a campfire scary story that other FBI agents would talk about just like how you and Reid talk about them? The odds were not in your favor. No lights. Storm outside. 3 a.m. Just the two of you, and no offense to Reid, but if this were a horror movie, he was probably the last person you wanted to be with. Top of the list was easily Morgan, because at least if Morgan was scared shitless by the predicament, he wouldn’t show it.

While Reid led the two of you through the pitch black darkness, both of your hands were holding onto his upper arm. You’d taken cover behind him, poking your head past his shoulder just far enough to see what he was seeing but only so far that you could duck quickly if you needed to. Frankly, Spencer didn’t even seem to mind that you were clinging onto him for protection. It kind of made him feel good actually. 

When you reached the power box, you released your grip on him, only realizing just how tight you’d been clutching him when you saw imprints left on his shirt from where you’d been holding on. 

“Take this.” He handed you the flashlight while he used both of his hands to pry open the box. 

You watched as his fingers grazed over the wires and fiddled with the buttons. Would it be weird to admit that his hands were kind of attractive? You’d never realized the largeness of them or how veiny they were, but there was something about them that made them so sexy to you.

He made a disapproving sound after further inspection.

“What’s wrong?” You weren’t actually wondering, but if you asked him, it would seem like you were actually paying attention to the situation at hand and not his hands. 

“It looks like the power shut off from a larger source, meaning there could be a blackout citywide. That also means I can’t fix it.” 

Hearing you’d be in the dark with no heat source was enough to snap you out of your trance. 

“I have an idea.” You led Reid to Garcia’s bat cave, after a memory of Garcia showing you her collection of glow in the dark figurines replayed in your mind. 

When you opened the cabinet, you smiled instantly at the sight of all the toys brightly lighting up the inside of the drawer. You knew that spending hours with Garcia listening about her toy collection would pay off eventually. Both of you carried all the toys you could and headed right back into the conference room. You placed them sporadically so that the entire room was dimly lit. Had these been candles instead of luminescent toys, it would’ve been ambient and romantic, but again - they weren’t candles. 

Unintentionally, you shivered audibly when a loud wind crashed just outside. The generator went out along with the lights, so it was awfully cold in the room.

Reid was about to give you his sweater when you stopped him by walking right up to him and stealing his body heat in a hug. Rather than embracing him around his sweater, you snaked your arms under the cardigan to really feel his warmth. And as if Reid was trying to kill you with kindness, he pulled the sides of his sweater to stretch around your back and swaddled you into his sweater with him. You smiled against his chest. Not much could make this moment sweeter.

“Better now?” He asked, peering down at your face.

You silently nodded, closing your eyes as if removing your sense of sight would heighten your sense of touch. You wanted to feel his affection as deeply as you could. 

“Tell me when you want me to let go.” 

“Not yet.” 

He laughed at your childish desire to be swaddled like this, but he was enjoying the warmth just as much as you were. 

“We can’t do much work with the power out so let’s just try to get some more sleep.” He walked with you to the couch, keeping his promise of not letting go until you told him to. 

With the storm outside and the flash flood warning, you two would just have to stay in the conference room until you had the all clear. You weren’t opposed to this entirely, though. There were much worse things you could do than listen to the rain in the arms of Spencer Reid.

“Okay, you can let go now but just for a second.” Your baby voice made him chuckle. He loved how you unabashed you were when asking for his attention. Reid laid down just as he did before, with his back on the backrest of the couch, and instead of having your back to him, you cuddled right up to him. While still wearing his sweater, he covered you in it again, drawing you even closer. 

For some reason, even though you were beat and you knew you needed the sleep, you couldn’t seem to shut your mind off and rest. You were awake for what felt like hours. You would’ve tossed and turned all night, but instead, you kept very still so Reid wouldn’t wake up. 

You’d be so focused on trying to fall asleep yourself that you didn’t even notice when Reid did. When you looked up, you saw his mouth was slightly agape, his eyes were shut and would occasionally flutter, and when you pressed your ear to his chest, he was breathing much slower than he was earlier. 

“If you stay still for 15 minutes, you’ll fall asleep. Just lay in the same position and don’t move.” He mumbled. So he wasn’t asleep? And he knew you weren’t either?

“I have been staying still, but it’s not working.” You whined. 

“Just try.” Reid murmured again.

You shut up and sighed, closing your eyes. This time, you made a conscious effort not to move a muscle. You even counted to 60 in your head 15 times, but after those 15 minutes, you were still awake. You weren’t even sure what was causing your insomnia. It was really peaceful to have the sound of the rain cascading down the window and the occasional boom of thunder outside. Being in Spencer’s arms was cozy, too, but there was still something keeping you up. 

“Spencer? Are you awake?” You scooted up so you could see his face. 

The only thing the moon was illuminating clearly was his lips. There was a distinct beam of silver light casting on his mouth, almost like it was lighting them up specifically. Like some sort of sign. A sudden urge possessed you, so without reason, you brought your hand up to his face and grazed your thumb over his bottom lip. Even with the gentle touch you were using, you were still able to feel how soft it was. You slowly dragged your thumb in a downwards motion, watching the elasticity of his lips cause it to bounce back up into its place. You nearly giggled at the sight. You moved your thumb to the corner of his mouth and followed it upwards to the natural curve of his upper lip. If you weren’t so observant before, you wouldn’t have noticed how Spencer very subtly parted his lips wider for you. Curiosity overcame you and you slowly inched closer to his mouth with your own.

“I think I want to kiss you . . . Can I kiss you?” You spoke in a soft voice, with each of your lips ghosting over his. 

A moment of stillness. Maybe he was asleep. Then, a small, very small nod of Reid’s head. You smiled as he let you take control. With your hand already along his jaw, you lifted his face slightly so you could feel the full force of your kiss. You pulled him in closer to relish the soft feeling of his puckered lips. He released his grip on the sweater that was still swaddling you so he could press the small of your back, forcing your hips to drive into his. The need to be even closer was translating into the kiss. It grew hungrier - more passionate and needy. Spencer raised up from the couch, propping himself up on his forearm so he could hover over you. You followed his lead and shifted to be underneath him. With his body over you, he was able to push off his forearms and onto his hands. They were on either side of your head, forcing you to sit up with him so your lips wouldn’t leave his. 

“Wait, wait,” He muttered, pulling away. You followed him with your mouth is desperation, until you couldn���t anymore, making you sit up entirely while Spencer backed away. 

“What’s wrong?”

“If we don’t stop now, I don’t know if I can stop later . . . I won’t be able to control myself.” 

It was in this moment you realize why you were often the only member on the team who’d actually listen to Reid. Nothing he could say would ever turn you off. Any word that escaped his lips was something you wanted to hear. His confession of being uncontrollable was no exception. 

“Do you know what I want to do?” There was a newfound confidence in your tone that shocked the both of you. 

“What do you want to do, Y/N?” Apparently, Spencer’s tone was just the opposite. He sounded like he was trembling with fear with anticipation. 

“Guess.” You flirted. 

Even in the dark, you could see Reid’s gears turning as he tried to find the right answer. He read your expression for a hint and made his guess by planting a chaste kiss on your lips.

“You’re cold.” 

He quickly caught on. You were making a game out of this. 

Hot and cold.

Reid made his next move with uncertainty. He slowly started moving forward to resume the position he had before he pulled away. As he came closer, you followed his lead and leisurely fell back. Every inch he would advance closer to you was an inch that you’d move back further until finally your back was pressed against the couch again and Spencer was hanging over you once more. With each of his hands beside your head, you smirked. “Getting warmer.”

This boosted his confidence. He was heading the right direction, and there was nothing Spencer loved more than to get things right. 

The same moonlight that was streaming onto his lips earlier was dancing on his eyes. The hazel color glimmered in the silver light. You could see they were asking, ‘Can I?’ You answered his look with a silent nod. 

Spencer reached behind him, following his hand with his eyes as he watched his fingers brush along your thigh. Looking back up at you for permission, which you granted, he peered back down, watching his fingers slip underneath the hem of your skirt. You lifted your hips up so he could raise the skirt all the way up. As if he was uncovering lost treasure, his eyes lit up when you were finally uncovered. 

“Fuck me.” He cursed under his breath. This made you ooze with confidence. 

You sat up to align your lips right beside his ear. With a breathy voice, you whispered, 

“Hot.”

He’d finally figured out what you wanted. 

The satisfaction he had in winning your little game gave him the confidence he needed to finally make a move. 

Hurriedly, he dragged your panties off, leaving prominent scratches from his nails on your thighs. He threw them somewhere behind him, while you frantically unbuttoned his dress pants. You almost giggled with glee when you saw just how hard he was. You barely did anything to provoke him, but he clearly enjoyed what little you did do. 

“I don’t have a -” You cut him off with a hasty kiss. 

“You don’t need to worry about that.” You needn’t explain more. He got the message when you reached down and gave his shaft a few shallow strokes.

“Oh-” He was immediately caught off guard by your forwardness. “Wait, wait shouldn’t I . . . um, help you first-”

You smiled at his stutter. “Spencer, please. I need you now.” 

There was that unabashed ask for Spencer’s attention that he loved so much. He made small movements until he was properly aligned with your entrance. 

“Tell me if I’m hurting you.” He breathlessly uttered, while gradually pushing in.

You thought you would’ve regretted not letting him finger you before in preparation but the bliss was far greater for some reason. 

The sensation was definitely new to Spencer when his eyes widened. “Oh fuck. You’re so tight.” 

Meanwhile, your face contorted at the feeling of him stretching you out. It was actually more painful than pleasurable. 

“Wait, Spencer - I need to change positions.” You panted. 

He instantly retracted, looking incredibly sorry. “Here,” He helped you up to your feet while taking a seat on the couch. You didn’t need an IQ of 187 to figure out how to position yourself, so you straddled Spencer, hovering over his erection. Taking charge now that you knew you’d feel more comfortable like this, you reached below you to align his length. Instantly, euphoria washed over you when you lowered yourself all the way until you were practically sitting on his lap. Spencer let out a heavy exhale now that you were able to take all of him in this new position. You moved your hands out from under you and put them on Spencer’s shoulders as a way to stabilize you each time you’d come up. After a few cursory movements, you found a comfortable pace. Spencer couldn’t contain himself, he had to grab your hips in his hands and buck up before, his pelvis meeting your ass before you could even fully lower yourself again. With the tempo of motion increasing drastically because of Spencer’s participation, you couldn’t even adjust to his length anymore. Every time he’d pull out was temporary relief for the ever-growing knot forming in your stomach. You bit back a moan when Spencer curled his hips to thrust into you at a different angle. This stroke mercilessly hit that knot in your stomach, forcing a strangled noise out. 

“Don’t stop, Spencer!” You were surprised at how you were even able to put together a cohesive sentence since your brain felt like it was short circuiting. 

With Spencer’s curved thrusts, the knot in your stomach grew bigger and bigger. You even felt yourself clench around Spencer. He felt it, too and his head instantly lolled back in pleasure. His eyes rolled to the back of his head with him. Your skin felt prickly as sweat started dripping from your forehead. If you didn’t know any better, the generator was working again because the heat in the room was thick. Spencer’s strokes were growing slower in anticipation. You picked up the pace for him and made a conscious clench around him to help him reach his peak. 

“I can’t control myself, Y/N. I need to pull out now.” He sputtered.

You made an indistinct noise that communicated your disapproval. It was the only thing Spencer needed to hear to know that it was okay if he came. 

“Cum for me, baby.” You moaned, knowing you were going to follow close behind. 

He dug his nails into your hips, bringing you back to reality as if it was his way of pinching you to tell you it was real. From the pain of his hands clawing into you, you almost couldn’t feel him coming, until you felt it dribble down your inner thigh. Suddenly, it felt like his warm essence made electricity surge through your body and course through your veins. With a speed faster than light itself, the knot in your stomach released. You cried out as his seed mixed with your own and cascaded down like the relentless rain outside cascaded down the window. The euphoria of your orgasm brought you to a complete stop. 

“Holy fuck.” You swallowed hard. The inside of your mouth was dry from where it hung open for so long. 

Spencer was at a loss for words. His silence was so unfamiliar you had to giggle. 

“You okay?” You lifted yourself off of his lap to gain some clarity. He gulped hard. 

“Am I dreaming?” He sounded genuinely dazed and confused, it was adorable. 

Garcia’s glow in the dark toys helped you to find a box of tissues. You took one from the box and wiped yourself before pulling your skirt back down. Meanwhile, Spencer zipped up his pants and ran his fingers through his hair. 

“Spencer,” You laughed a little. “You’re scaring me. Are you okay?”

He hadn’t changed his spot on the couch so you straddled his lap again, this time with more pure intentions.

You wrapped your arms around his neck, burying your face in his neck, while his hands rested on your hips again and his lips were pressing on your shoulder, leaving quick pecks. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long.” He confessed against your skin. You leaned back so you could see his face and kept your hands behind his head to play with the hair on the nape of his neck. Enjoying your soothing touch, he closed his eyes and tilted his head to lay against your wrist. He was so precious like this. With Spencer’s head cocked to the side, a distinct beam of light was revealed. This time it was shining onto your face, almost like what it feels like when you accidentally walk past a projector screen and look at the projector light. In this instance though, the light wasn’t nearly as blinding. It was soft and ethereal. It lit up the rain falling on the other side of the window. It even displayed signs of steam coming from the inside. You could see condensation running down the pane. It had gotten so hot in here because of you two that steam was produced. That felt like some sort of accomplishment. You mirthlessly chuckled and leaned forward. With this sudden movement, your chest was pressing against Spencer’s. He was forced to lift his head back up from your wrist when he wanted to examine what you were doing. You leaned past the backrest of the couch and exhaled a hot breath onto the window to make it fog up. Spencer watched you do this over his shoulder, trying to figure out what you were doing. With the glass fogged up, you started drawing a heart with your index finger. You lazily shaded in the heart and looked back at Spencer to show off your creation. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but it meant something. 

Spencer pulled a hand away from your hip to use his fingers to add to the drawing. To the left of the heart, Spencer drew a vertical line with a dot above it, and then to the right of it he drew a small horseshoe shape. You pouted your lips when you finally got the message. 

i ♡ u

You looked at him before blowing another hot breath onto the already existing fog to extend it. You drew a number right beside it. 

i ♡ u 2

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

[winterscaptain]

push.

Aaron Hotchner x Gender Neutral Reader

a/n: alright, team! this one covers cradle to grave and the eyes have it. i am so excited to share this with you, and we are that much closer to 100. ahh!! (i also mistakenly noted that infirmity was part three and it is in fact part four. while i can write, i made no promises in regard to counting.)

an ajf fic arc that happily stands on its own! (the pieces stand alright on their own as well, for the most part!) one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine | ten | eleven

words: 4.2k warnings: canon-typical violence and discussion of violence, language

summary: “if you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” - t.s. eliot. a shift, a transition, and a lie.

masterlist | a joyful future masterlist | requests closed!

Aaron meanders around the store, looking into the glass cases. There’s very little purpose, very little direction. He figures, just like the first time, the right one will make itself known. 

What are you doing? 

He takes a breath, ignoring that pesky little voice in his head, focused on the task at hand.

I’m listening to Haley. What are you doing?

Playing devil’s advocate because you shouldn’t be doing this right now. What are you thinking?

I don’t know. Fuck off. 

The man behind the glass greets him, asking if he’s looking for anything in particular. 

“Yes,” Aaron says, only a little startled out of his thoughts, “though I’m not quite sure what it is, yet.” His gaze wanders. “Can I see that one, please?”

He takes a close look, but it’s not quite right. 

He’ll find it. 

+++

You’re still at your desk when Hotch leaves JJ’s office, late. You throw him a little bit of a smile as he frowns at you. 

Why are you still here? 

You shrug. Work?

He snorts. Sure. and hops up the stairs to his office. There’s a moment where he stops short at the door. With a little bit of a startle, you realize Strauss is in there. 

How did I miss that?

JJ arrives in the bullpen with an armful of files, and you tip your head toward Hotch’s office. She works her distribution, setting folders down, her eyes glued to the window. 

When Strauss leaves, you both busy yourselves, looking up as she passes. 

She greets the both of you with your formal titles, and a chill runs down your spine. 

“Ma’am.”

“Ma’am.” 

You and JJ echo each other, throwing an approximation of a smile in her direction. 

What the fuck? 

You exchange a look with JJ once Strauss is out of sight, nod, and stand. 

Reaching his door, you note that he hasn’t moved. 

“Hotch?”

He’s still as he answers. “Yes?”

Something feels wrong. Really really wrong. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” 

You stand there for a moment as he turns over his shoulder and returns to his desk. He knows better than to meet your eyes - then you’ll know for sure he’s lying. 

Choose your battles. 

Protect him. 

How? 

Just try. 

“Goodnight, Hotch.” 

+++

“You’re kidding.” 

You look up from your file at Spencer, who has a manic little grin on his face. “What?”

“You’re not going to believe this.” 

“Try me.”

He laughs. “Someone started this blog called What Would Carl Sagan Do? and it’s so woefully inaccurate I’m wondering if this is some kind of 100-level school project, it’s -”

Derek walks in and you beam at him. He doesn’t return it. “What’s the case?”

“What case?” You ask, the smile falling from your face. 

“I just got three emails from Hotch about cases.” 

A little confused noise leaves you as you refresh your email once...twice. “I don’t have anything.”

Spencer follows suit. “I didn’t get any emails from Hotch, or did I?” He checks. “Nothing.” 

With a sigh and a huff, Derek puts his things down and walks purposefully toward Hotch’s office. Spencer looks back at you. 

“Wonder what that’s about.”

You hum, looking back at your file to hide your face. “I dunno.” 

What happened last night?

+++

“What’s with Hotch?” Derek catches up to you in the hallway on the way to your hotel room at the end of the first day. Naturally, he’s not at all out of breath. 

You frown at him. “What do you mean?”

You know exactly what he means. 

“You’re a shit liar.” 

You chuff at him and unlock your door, opening it and shepherding him in. “Alright. Fine. He’s stressed.”

“He’s...stressed? Really? That’s all you’ve got for me?”

Throwing your hands up, “It’s not like he tells me everything, Derek.” 

You do know, however, that Jack spent his fourth birthday in protective custody, with only a surveillance feed to satiate Aaron’s need to see his son. 

It sucks. 

“Yeah, but -” He pulls the chair from the little desk and sits backwards on it while you take your shoes off. “ - you know him.” 

“You’ve known him far longer than I have.” 

“It’s different. I’ve been working with him longer, but you know him better.”

You can’t deny that. “Well…” You search and search for a viable explanation. “...maybe he’s just more open to help than he usually is? He knows how good you are at your job, so…” Your mouth twists. “...I think it’s a compliment that he’s relying on you more and asking for your opinion on things.” 

He squints, thinking. He “hmphs” once before standing up, replacing the chair, and heading toward the door. 

“I’ll tell you if I hear anything.” 

No I won’t. 

The side of his mouth lifts. “No, you won’t.” Then, “Goodnight, kid. Get some sleep.” 

+++

Aaron hands him an aggressively annotated copy of the preliminary profile. “Morgan, in order for the profile to be useful it has to generate multiple scenarios about what the unsub is doing. Rewrite it.” 

You have to admit you’ve been looking between each of them like a particularly interesting game of tennis as they volley back and forth. 

It’s tense...and confusing. 

Derek looks completely crestfallen. You wipe the confusion off of your face as best you can and exchange it for something you hope is empathetic. 

Hotch pulls JJ aside to discuss her new findings while Derek joins you at the table. 

“What is with him?”

You shake your head. “I wish I knew.” Your gaze wanders over to him, where he’s watching the pair of you. You look away, focused on the profile Hotch returned to Morgan. 

Your next words are almost a sigh. “I know he pushes hard, but…I just...don't know.” 

+++

You take a deep breath as Derek snatches a piece of paper from the printer and stalks to Hotch’s office. 

Maybe this time, they will kill each other. 

Who would win? 

Hm. Catch-22. They both lose. 

Even then, you’ll always put your money on Aaron. 

You keep your eyes on them and you know JJ’s doing the same. Part of you is always ready to bridge a rift between Aaron and Derek. For some reason or another, they both listen to you when you tell them they’re acting like shitheads. 

So, they listen. Often. 

Hotch’s jaw tenses and, though you can’t hear him, you can tell he’s raising his voice, his tone growing harder. 

That’s it. 

You shove off from the desk and open the door without knocking, interrupting Derek mid-thought. They both look at you and don’t even have the good graces to look caught out. 

“Garcia needs to talk to us.” 

Hotch takes a talking breath, but you cut him off. 

“Now.” You tip your head. “Please,” you add for good measure. 

They brush past the both of you, Derek’s fingers brushing your sleeve as he passes. 

You catch the hem of Aaron’s suit jacket and tug. 

He turns on you - there’s still a lot of fire in his gaze and for a moment, you let yourself be intimidated, looking away from him and bringing your hand back. 

There’s a sigh, and you know he feels bad (just a little). “Yes?”

“You’ll tell me if you want help, right?”

He meets your gaze. There is so much going on behind those deep brown irises you don’t even know where to start. “Yes.” 

Liar.

I miss you. 

Not satisfied, but pacified for now, you turn and lead the way back to the table. You meet Derek’s eyes and shake your head just a little. 

Damn it. 

+++

When you’re done with Penelope, you find an excuse to get Derek alone. Your conversation, somehow, is already heated. 

“He’s just trying to challenge you, Morgan.” Your body language isn’t great, but you can’t bring yourself to care. Arms crossed, tight mouth - you’re the picture of frustration. 

He’s restless - shifting his weight back and forth. “I don’t understand it. He’s on my ass about shit he’s never been on my ass about before.” 

“Did you even hear what I said?”

“Yes, I did.” He stops moving, gesturing sharply with an open, flat hand. “Why is he challenging me, when he’s the one under the gun?” 

You close your eyes and press your fingers to the bridge of your nose. “Did you ever think, just once, maybe, he wants to make sure this team still functions if something happens to him?” 

Derek, finally, has the good sense to deflate. You follow suit, leaning on the desk behind you. 

“We almost lost him a couple of months ago,” you remind him. “If we don’t know everything his position entails, we will not be able to help him if there’s a next time.” 

You step forward, a fond little laugh in your voice. “Derek - you’re a natural leader, a great tactician. There’s no better person for him to build up, just in case.” 

He breaks your gaze, thinking. 

For good measure, you add, “He respects you a great deal. Remember when you said you tolerate him, just for me?” You hold his gaze as it returns to you. “I think that’s bullshit.” 

Another breath. He steps forward, meeting you in the middle of the isolated, small conference room. You offer him a small, closed-mouth smile. 

“Come here, kid.” 

You tuck into his arms with a little laugh. “How did you two manage before I got here?”

You can feel his laugh rumble through him. “You have no idea.” 

+++

Of course, under Derek’s careful tactical direction, everything goes according to plan. Textbook soft entry, no hostages, peaceful takeover, and four rescued victims by the end of it. 

“I love these ones,” you say, standing between Aaron and Derek in the precinct as a family forms before your eyes. 

“Which ones?” Aaron asks. 

“The ones where we all get to go home, and so do they.” 

+++

“Well, I guess it’s time,” Derek says, pushing back from his desk and rising. You’ve both stayed late for one reason or another, with the excuse of paperwork. 

Really, Derek was building his nerve, and really, you were waiting for Aaron. 

You furrow your brow. “Time for what?”

“Hotch wants to see me.” 

“What does he want?”

He laughs a little. “I thought you’d know.” 

You shake your head, so he shrugs and walks up the stairs, knocking twice on Aaron’s door before stepping inside. 

They immediately take a seat, but not at Aaron’s desk. 

Red flag.

You know it’s ridiculous to worry, but nevertheless, you pace around the bullpen as the boys talk upstairs. It looks serious, given the image before you. They both sit forward in their chairs, lit by the warm light from Hotch’s lamp, their elbows on their knees, their hands loosely laced. 

Other than on the plane, you’re not sure you’ve ever seen them sit so close together. 

Aaron didn’t close the door, but still you know to keep your distance. The coffee pot is scrubbed again, the mugs reorganized, and you return to your desk after you run out of tasks, still fidgety. 

“What?” You hear. “No!” 

Your head whips up to the office at Derek’s outburst. They simmer down again after a moment, but continue talking with low brows and lower voices. 

They rise after a few more minutes, and Derek swings out of the door and whistles for you. “Hop to, kid, let’s go.” 

Your brow crinkles, but you jog up the stairs and land in the doorway. “What’s going on?”

Derek and Hotch exchange a look. 

“Have a seat,” Aaron says, finally. You follow instructions, sitting gingerly on the couch. 

What the hell is going on? 

Aaron sits across from you, looking a little lighter than he did this afternoon. You’re hoping it’s good news. 

“I’m resigning as unit chief at the end of this week.” You open your mouth and move to protest with your entire body, but Aaron’s hand stops you. “Wait. Hold on. Feel free to get mad at me when I’m done, but I’m not done yet.”

Is he...smiling? 

No, but it’s close. 

You freeze, waiting. 

He speaks to you like a scared animal, likely remembering the last time he tried to resign and you chased him across the office. “Morgan will be taking over as acting unit chief until we catch Foyet. I will return to my post at the conclusion of the investigation.” 

You still don’t move as you ask, “You’re staying on the team, though, right?” 

He nods. 

So it’s not as bad as you thought. “Why?”

Aaron glances at Morgan, who sits heavily beside you. You settle down and mirror their postures from earlier, feeling a little like a co-conspirator. “I’ve shared this with Morgan and I’ll share it with you, but -”

“- don’t tell anyone. Got it.”

His lips twitch. “Right. The bureau thinks that my ability to lead this team has been compromised.” 

You blink at him, waiting for him to continue. 

“What do you think?” He asks. 

This is a trick. He’s tricking me. 

“What do you mean ‘what do I think?’”

His gaze is definitely a little amused as he watches you. “I mean, what do you think?”

“Hm. That’s helpful.”

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Derek’s head. 

He’s never seen two people more well-suited for each other. The fact that you’re giving Hotch shit right now to avoid answering the question speaks only to the closeness between you. You push him harder, give him more hell, and have the power to make him more miserable than anyone else. 

And yet, he loves you. It’s so clear. Why can’t you see it? Why can’t he see it?

You’re both profilers, for fuck’s sake. 

Derek’s eyes flicker back and forth, watching the raise of your eyebrows and the upturned corners of Aaron’s mouth. There’s a fondness between you - it rests in your eyes - as you wait each other out. 

God, they’re stupid. It’s written all over their faces. 

Aaron repeats himself, but slower. “Do you think my ability to lead this team has been compromised?”

You sigh, finally breaking his gaze to focus on one of the degrees on Aaron’s wall. “Alright, fine. I have been...concerned about some of your choices in the field the last few weeks.” You meet his eyes again. “Though, I believe I’ve told you as much in the moment, so that shouldn’t come as much of a shock.” 

He snorts and you swat lightly in his direction, purposefully missing him entirely. 

“But I don’t think there’s anyone better to lead this team.” You look over at Morgan. “Not to say you can’t or shouldn’t do it, but -”

Derek interrupts you. “- No, I agree.” 

You nod, turning back to Aaron. “Out of curiosity, what’s the alternative?”

His eyebrows rise for a moment. “The alternative is, I remain in my post until I am inevitably removed. In that instance, the team will be split and budgets will be cut.” 

“Oh.” 

“But,” he continues, “if I promote internally, we can avoid that.” 

It’s unsettling, to be sure, but not the end of the world. You think about it - what the team would look like with Hotch as just “one of you,” and Derek at the helm. 

Your eyes flicker to Aaron, taking in his suit, the strong set of his shoulders, the authoritative brow, the serious mouth. It wouldn’t be quite right, but it is better than the alternative.

God, he’s handsome.

We knew that. 

I know, but look at him. 

You’ve looked too long without talking. Derek noticed. He starts to think, already excited for Hotch to resume his post so he can start a betting pool on how long it’ll take for you two to finally give in to whatever...this is. 

Weirdly, though, he wouldn’t call it tension. It’s more like a blanket - covering the both of you in a kind of warmth that radiates to everyone in the vicinity. 

Derek has no idea how you got into Aaron’s good graces so quickly, why he trusted you so early on, but it’s made him a better leader, a better agent. 

He might even go so far as to say you’ve made him a better man. 

“I think,” you say, slowly, “given the circumstances, that Morgan leading the team until we catch Foyet would be a sound decision.” Your lips twitch into a smile. “And now I get to share the burden of being the one who gets pissed at you when you pull risky shit in the field.” 

Aaron almost smiles, but it’s enough. “Alright, then.” He stands and so does Morgan, so you follow suit. He crosses around to his desk, where two massive boxes of files are waiting. 

“If you intend on getting any sleep tonight,” he tells you, “I would recommend you leave now.” 

You suppress a smile. “And miss all this?” You gesture to both the file boxes and the boys. “No way.” 

+++

The next morning is...hectic, to say the least. 

Strauss stole Morgan the second he arrived, so naturally Penelope came up to the bullpen to keep tabs. “So, did anyone say why Hotch is stepping down?” 

You keep your eyes on your work, pretending to be only half-tuned into the conversation. There are eyes on you for a minute before you look up and cursorily shake your head. 

“All Morgan said this morning is that it’s happening,” JJ says. “Business as usual, I guess.” 

Emily’s not so easily appeased, sitting on the corner of your desk. “So we’re just supposed to move forward without any discussion?”

 Oh, there was a discussion. You just weren’t part of it. 

You look up for real and put your pen down. “I think we’d have to prepare for anything after Foyet, don’t you?”

The rest of you quiet down as Hotch descends the stairs. You’re the only one who keeps your eyes on him. 

No need to pretend you’re busy when he already knows you’re paying attention. 

“...I’ll have all my things cleared out and it will be all yours.” 

No. 

Your brow crinkles and you look up at the office. It feels...wrong, somehow, to imagine that room without its shelves of legal citation books, legal dictionaries…

Legal this, legal that. 

Could he be any more of a lawyer?

No. 

“Hotch, I don’t want your office.” Their voices are low, but they carry - especially to shamelessly eavesdropping ears. 

Strauss starts talking, but honestly, it just sounds like static. 

“All due respect, Ms. Strauss,” Derek says, “but both of you have trusted me to step in as acting unit chief. I’m asking you to respect my decision.” 

You drop your head down to your paperwork, a proud smile pushing at the corner of your lips. 

“I’ve decided I don’t want Hotch’s office. That’s where he belongs. If necessary, we can discuss this again at a later date, but right now, we really need to get started on this case.” 

He looks up, and you all pretend to be doing something else. It’s a ridiculous showing, really. 

“Guys. Grab Rossi.” 

Emily huffs, jumping off your desk. “I got ‘im.” 

+++

It’s weird at first as you all settle in and get used to looking at Derek more often. He’s doing well - asking good questions on the plane and stepping in when you arrive at the precinct. 

Aaron still looks like the authority in the room, but that’s just how he is. There’s more than one occasion where you’re forced to hide your smile as he intentionally and mindfully defers to Derek in front of the local officers. 

It’s not actually funny in any comedic sense, but the strangeness of it all gets to you a little bit. 

You’re driving (another perk of Derek being in charge - he lets you drive) while Hotch takes shotgun. You’ve just hung up the phone, where Hotch said again “It’s your call, Morgan.” 

It made you smile, and now you’re under fire. 

“What’s funny?”

You check (again) that you’re the only two in the car. You are. “It’s just weird. I’m getting used to it.” 

“What? That we’re the same rank?”

Honey, we’ll never be the same rank. 

“Sure,” you reply, dubious. “Like you and I are in the same league at all.” 

He shakes his head, playing off the twinge of hurt that doesn’t come from his freshly healing wounds.

In his mind, you’re right in more ways than one. 

That train of thought led him down a rabbit hole he’s now punishing himself for. Why he should even have half a thought dedicated to any of that is completely beyond him...

“What’s wrong?” 

He shakes his head. “Nothing.” 

You glance at him out of the corner of your eye. “You know I can tell you’re lying to me without even looking at you, right?”

A sigh. “Oh, yeah?”

DIdn’t think he’d answer that one. 

“You have a tell when you’re lying to me, specifically. It’s different from your other tells.” 

���Is that so?” He sounds skeptical. 

“Mhmm.”

You can almost feel him squint. “Are you going to elaborate on that?”

“Nope. If I do, you’ll stop doing it and I have to start from scratch.” You shoot him another glance and the corner of your mouth tips up. “And I don’t take orders from you, anymore, so you can’t make me.” 

His fond eye roll finally breaks you, and you laugh at the absurdity of it all. He doesn’t break himself, but it’s the thought that counts. 

Your laughter is the best reward to him, anyway. 

+++

Goddamn it, Aaron. 

If you had a dime for every time you’ve had that thought in the last eight weeks, you’d have...a shitload of dimes. 

You’re chasing after him, because of course he ran after the unsub without backup. It’s like he’s on a mission to give you hypertension. 

“FBI! Get off her!” You hear his voice, rough and authoritative (you, of course, ignore what that does to your anatomy) and round the corner. 

You find him grappling with the unsub, cuffing him. 

With a sigh, you take over - holstering your weapon and hauling the unsub to his feet. 

Derek walks over with Emily after you’ve passed the unsub to the local officers for processing. “What happened?”

“Hotch took him down by himself.” 

“You’re kidding.” 

You press your mouth into a thin, facetious line. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

Derek shakes his head with a huff that’s almost a laugh and returns to Hotch, who clarifies the aforementioned events. He looks over at you. “Did you tell him you were right behind me?”

You just stare at him. 

Derek takes over, saving you the trouble of getting too annoyed with Aaron. “You should have waited for backup.” 

Unit Chief Derek, in with the feedback. Very nice. 

You look unfairly smug, but the look drops off your face when Hotch answers, almost smiling, “Would you have?”

You're confronted with an image - Aaron, ten years ago, only a little older than you, a young, hotshot agent with a sarcastic streak a mile wide. 

Poor Gideon...

Derek just turns with another sigh, off to do whatever acting unit chiefs do. 

Emily manages to hold her laugh until he’s out of earshot. Hotch, passing her, just smirks. “What?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing.”

+++

Alright, that’s enough. 

You rise from your desk and pat Derek’s shoulder on your way past him. “Proud of you.” It’s casual, almost a throwaway line. If it was any kind of serious, you know he’d hate it. 

A little staccato hum leaves his throat. He’s still working, and you leave him to it. 

You knock twice on Hotch’s office door before letting yourself in. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replies but doesn’t look up. 

You sit at one of the chairs and prop your chin on the heel of your hand. “How late are you staying?”

“You should go home. it’s late.” His response is absent, at best. You’re not even sure he actually heard you. 

“Hey.”

He finally looks up, his brown eyes tired and bloodshot. “What?” His tone isn’t unkind, but it isn’t patient, either. 

“You should go home. It’s late.” 

He heaves a sigh and lets it out through his mouth, choosing not to acknowledge your use of his words against him. “Can’t.”

You hum, looking over his nameplate to the files on his desk. “He’ll still be there tomorrow, you know.”

“That’s the problem.” 

“Fine,” you relent. “Then let me help.” 

He doesn’t protest when you reach across the desk for the first case file, so you figure you have tacit permission.

Maybe, just maybe, if you learn this case backwards and forwards, too, something will change. 

Your love for the man across from you makes that lie easier to swallow. 

+++

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