Work Text:
A place to carefully experiment with ghost pepper.
She’d ordered them online and had waited, almost patiently, for them to arrive. Ghost peppers weren’t something you could just buy anywhere, and she wanted good ones.
Once they’d arrived, Penelope had wanted to share them, but not with just anyone, no, she wanted someone who would truly enjoy and appreciate them. Striding through the bullpen, she took the stairs as quickly as she could, knocking on his open door before welcoming herself in. “Hello, Sir.”
Hotch looked up, both surprised and not at the interruption to his day. “Garcia.”
“I ordered some ghost peppers to try and cook with, but there really isn’t anyone who really appreciates spicy food like I do… Except you.” She smiled at him hopefully, bouncing on her toes. “I found a few recipes that are supposed to be just the best for cooking them.”
He tapped his pen on his desk and thought to himself before looking up at her. “At your place I presume?”
Garcia nodded vigorously.
“Would it be a problem if I brought Jack? He isn’t into spicy, but he’d still probably have fun.”
“Sure, that’s not a problem. When would you like to do it?”
He shrugged. “Friday night? Then we have the weekend, hopefully, to recover?”
Her face broken into a wide grin. “Great! It’s a date!” Her eyes widened. “Well, not a… date date. You know what I mean.”
Amused at her fluster, Hotch grinned. “Yes. Let’s just hope we don’t get a case.”
==
Jack sat at the counter and watched his dad and Penelope, dressed in gear that looked like it should be in a chemistry lab, discussing the appropriate amount of pepper to use in their first recipe. Jack was wearing his own pair of goggles, in part because Garcia had insisted on it and the rest because he wanted to at least look like he was taking part.
Aaron won out and they stuck to the recommended ‘half what it calls for to start’ plan and the pair began to cook.
Jack was mesmerized. Even doing something as simple as cooking, the way they could read each other and seamlessly pass tasks between them showed through. He’d seen it with other members of his dad’s team too doing other things like when they all turned up to build his treehouse years ago. There had been tons of laughter and talking, but Jack couldn’t’ remember hearing much in the way of ‘pass me that’ or ‘help me here’. They just knew.
Once the meal, and Jack’s non-spicy version, were finished, the trio sat down to eat.
Penelope watched, taking tiny bites mixed with her sips of milk, as Hotch dug in. She loved her spicy food, and planned on digging in soon enough, but experience had taught her to just hold back a minute. It didn’t take long. Hotch’s face began to turn bright red as the heat from the peppers kicked in and then he began to sweat, but still he tried to hold back any hint of just how much he was being affected.
A few more bites, and Hotch gave it, dropping his fork and wiping the sweat from his face, the other two cackling at him. He finally grinned as Garcia left and returned with a roll of toilet paper, wrapping it around his head.
“There.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She pecked a kiss to his warm scalp. “I take care of all my babies. Now. You going to finish that?”
“Of course!”
Jack laughed as he watched them both dig back in and eventually Garcia turned as red as his dad.