Title: Lessons in Gingerbread
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG
Word Count: 360ish
Prompt: Dec 01, Gingerbread
Warnings: not beta read, first time posting so ..yeah
Disclaimer: not mine, only have them out for a bit o’ play time
It is when Aaron Hotchner comes home and finds Reid and his son elbow deep in gingerbread while Reid recites the whole of ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ by memory, with voices and dramatics that he decides possibly the best choice he every made was to say ‘Yes.’ when Reid asked if he could treat Jack like a godson.
When his relationship with Beth went screwy and Jess went and got herself a fulltime job other than caring for Jack, he worried. He wasn’t ashamed to say he panicked when Jess announced her new job, nor to admit he kissed her when she informed him the hours matched Jack’s school hours and so wouldn’t interfere with her helping when they had a case. It wasn’t his best day.
But Reid…he smiled and congratulated Jess, and then want and asked if it would make a difference when he spent ‘faux godfather’ time. Jess beamed and they sat down and set out a better schedule that met her needs. Reid then went and told Jack of the changes he needed to make and Jack never even realized that they were for Aunt Jess, who he was a bit upset with for taking her job. Jack had been worried she’d be upset she still had to take him as well. Of course, it was also Reid who’d discovered that tidbit of info, go figure.
That had been a few months back though, and somehow it had all meshed together without any problems. And the bonus? When they were home, once a week, Reid…who was usually done with his work early… left in time to pick up Jack from his afterschool science and arts program and then spent time with Jack –doing homework and cooking dinner to boot, until Aaron got home. Last month he’d come home to lasagna and homemade garlic bread once. Tonight? Gingerbread and soup.
He watched as Reid pushed his glasses up his nose and smeared flour the whole way and tried to figure out why this felt more like coming home than when Haley had been alive and they’d been married and supposedly happy or when Jess and Jack where there to greet him.