Work Text:
It has been years since his mother’s death. Jack doesn’t remember her, not really. He knows all the stories about her and his dad always tried to not let her memory die. He told him about her, about how they met, how they loved and how they worked so hard to get pregnant to fulfill their dream of a family and most recently he also told him how she died. He remembers that day, even though everything is a bit blurry. He remembers how his dad told him to work the case, he remembers a loud sound, he now knows that was the shot ending his mother’s life, he now knows that his father fought George Foyet with bare hands and punched him to death.
He remembers JJ carrying him outside, his head pressed against her chest and her heart racing. JJ back then, was just his dad’s coworker, now she is one of his many uncles and aunties, the BAU team took a more present role in his life after his mothers’ death, JJ babysat him quite often in the disguise of a sleepover with Henry. The younger boy now one of his best friends.
Dave took him to extravagant toy shops and always hosted all the almost weekly get togethers.
Derek helped him with practicing for the various sports he played over the years, one constant being soccer. And of course he was there for the inevitable questions about girls.
Penelope was always an accomplice of him more than an aunt, always there to talk, to cheer him up and always showering him with gifts.
Spencer isn’t around that much anymore, busy with another doctorate, teaching, the BAU, but when jack has questions or struggles with homework he can rely on Spencer, he will always pick up his phone for Jack and when he has time he will come around and will teach him one of his magic tricks.
And lastly Emily, she was gone for a long time, he now knows that she was in Paris dead to everyone but him, his dad and JJ. His dad couldn’t tell him the lie he told everyone else, couldn’t tell him that his Em’ly was dead, Jack is now sixteen and can say her name correctly but when he was little, he would never pronounce the i in her name. Emily isn’t a part of the BAU anymore she is now the Unit chief for the counter terrorism unit, but she is still around. Just like Spencer, Emily is there for Jack anytime he needs her. Sometimes he still uses that nickname but mostly he now calls her Emmy.
When he was smaller, he had a huge crush on Emily but now he just enjoys talking to her, they talk a lot about different books, and she helps him learn for his Spanish and French classes, the love for foreign languages sparked by Emily when he was younger, French being the first she taught him way before it was topic in school. But he also talked to her before he had his first date, he wanted to be a gentleman, wanted to do everything right and knew a female view would be helpful. He trusts his Emmy wholeheartedly and she is his go to next to his dad when he gets into trouble.
But all the support gets overshadowed by his worry for his dad, he sees his dad alone all the time, sees how it slowly is taking a toll on him, but his dad refuses to spend even more time away from Jack. Aaron is still with the BAU and uses all his free time on Jack instead of going out. Jack wants his dad to be happy so one day he and Henry decide to make a dating profile for his dad and play match maker.
“So, let’s see who wants a piece of your dad” henry jokingly says, Jack screws up his face “ew Henry!” “I’m just joking go on, pull up the app.” Jack rolls his eyes but pulls up the app and starts to make an account for his dad filling out everything, being careful to keep their privacy and puts in some pictures of Aaron with a lot of discussion with Henry. Henry takes the phone as soon as it comes to choosing which profiles to like and a few minutes of swiping just go by until Henry shrieks. “Dude! Emily is on here! I’m gonna like that one of course!” Jack jumps up, “Henry no! that’s gonna be so weird!” Henrry just chuckles “Relax she will never like your dad’s pro…” his face falls, “Dude we need to tell your dad, she liked his profile and wrote him something…”. Both are freaking out, but Henry quickly becomes the voice of reason and pushes Jack to tell Aaron about it.
Jack goes into the office where his dad is sitting and looking through case files. “Dad? I need to talk to you” Aaron closes the case file and turns around to Jack “What’s going on Jack?” his face instantly shows his worry because the last time Jack used that tone to talk to him, Jack was getting detention because he fought a student in one of his classes, granted afterwards Jack also told him about how that student was harassing one of Jacks female friends and even after repeatedly reporting it to the teacher in charge, who wouldn’t do anything, the kid wouldn’t stop, so Jack stepped in and used the years of self defense classes Derek gave him on that student, breaking his nose after the student made the first punch. In the end Jack didn’t get detention after Aaron got involved but still, he messed up.
“Dad, please listen to the end and then talk” Jack seems nervous, “of course buddy” Aarons calm voice and the nickname calms Jack down a bit, he took a deep breath and just started to talk how it came to his mind. “I am worried, you have been alone since mom died and I know its taking a toll on you and I talked about it with Henry and we came up with the plan to make you a profile on a dating app and we just did that, Henry liked Emily’s profile and she must have liked yours and now there is a match between you and and she wrote you something….”.
Aaron waits a bit to make sure that Jack is done talking, and to sort out his thoughts. “You were worried about me? Why didn’t you talk to me about it?” Aaron decides to concentrate on one part before going over to the other.
“I tried, but I never found the right words, just I know you use all of your free time to be with me and I love that, I love movie nights, our runs and everything, but I also know I will be moving out some day and I don’t know how to say it in a way that doesn’t sound dumb but I know you wont use the free time then to find a girlfriend, you will just work more again, but I want you to be happy again just like mom wanted you to be.”
Aaron takes his son’s hand “Thank you for worrying about me but next time please talk to me before doing something like making a dating profile for me. Now, get Henry down here the rest of what I have to say is something he can and should listen to as well.”
Jack nods shortly and goes to get Henry, he is still nervous about Aaron’s reaction. Both boys walk into the office looking unsure, both knowing Aaron isn’t one to get angry or anything, but they never want to disappoint him.
“So...” Aaron starts to talk once both of them sat down. “I know what you two did, you did because of a good reason but I want there to be a good understanding for the both of you that it wasn’t right, you two don’t know about my history with any of those women you matched with, having an open for everyone to see profile can also impact my privacy” Henry quickly interjects “we made sure to not write anything too private in it” Aaron quickly looks at him “I would appreciate if you wouldn’t interrupt me Henry. What you two might think is private and what is acceptable to share can differ with my view. I understand your reasons but would have appreciated if you two would have just talked to me. Henry, I will tell your mother about it once she picks you up and she will deal with it how she sees fit. But you, Jack, will set up the account on my phone and delete it from yours so that I can deal with Emily and you wont have your phone for a few days outside of school” both boys nod and go, after Jack set up the account on his dads phone, leaving his own phone in his dads hands.
The first thing Aaron does is to change the password to the account and then he looks at the chat with Emily, her first message gloomily staring at him. His feelings for Emily were complicated from the start, his initial distrust for the ambassador’s daughter quickly proven to be wrong and morphing into trust, in her, her abilities, her as a human. But there was more, even back when he shortly worked for ambassador Prentiss, at the beginning of his career with the FBI, the young woman enchanted him, ass she was just visiting her mother’s estate in the summer break. That didn’t change when he saw her standing in his office so full of life and wanting to earn her spot on the team. He felt guilty back then, thinking about her that way when he had Haley at home waiting for him, making him lash out more than normally. Over the years he learnt how to deal with that attraction towards her. And now he is confronted with this situation and doesn’t know how to deal with it. After pondering a while he decides to tell her the truth and see how she reacts since she liked his profile as well… right?
Emily: Hey
Aaron: Hey back, listen Jack made this account and matched with you.
Emily: I already figured that much, you wouldn’t put your job description and Jacks name into your profile, as well as some younger sounding sentences. Don’t sweat it I knew he would tell you about this once you matched with me.
Aaron: good... didn’t want this end up all messy
Emily and Aaron continued to write that evening just chatting about anything and everything. They didn’t stop the next day or the day after that, they continued to regularly write with each other shifting from the dating app, after Aaron deleted his account to SMS (or whatever people use that don’t use WhatsApp). Their conversations change after Emily, influenced by a night out with JJ, Tara and Penelope full of drinking, writes him.
Emily: You know when I first saw your profile, I was hoping it was really you, I mean there was always something between us, something more than friendship.
Aaron didn’t know she had been drinking otherwise he might wouldn’t have answered honestly.
Aaron: I know what you mean, I also was hoping that what Jack did would break the barrier.
Emily fell asleep in her own bed before she could respond and left an uncharacteristically nervous Aaron that night and the next morning, after Aaron heard about girls’ night from a hungover Garcia, he instantly feels anxious for Emily’s sober reaction, to their short conversation the day before. He is on edge the entire day until once they are on the jet where he gets a notification from Emily.
Emily: hey, I saw our texts from yesterday… you really mean it?
Aaron: yes, you okay with that?
Emily: yeah…
Their texts shift to something more intimate and after two weeks they decide to give each other a chance and go on a date at a small Italian place. Jack is at a sleepover, so they take their time eating and go to his afterwards, just talking and getting to know this new side of the other.
Soon Aaron and Emily make it official and of course the first to know is Jack and maybe a few years later on their wedding day… Aaron thanks Jack and Henry for the dumb idea they had.