chapter five / season four.

"WHERE'S AAR—"

Amelia paused as she held the coffee tray in her hand, she'd already dished out the coffees to most of the team but there was just one left. One for Aaron. Or, one for Hotch, so she should say in front of everyone else.

"Where's Hotch?" She corrected herself, although she felt like her mistake was already clear as day as Derek raised his eyebrows and shared an indiscreet look with Emily across the bullpen.

Amelia frowned at their look but tried her best to ignore it. She had other things to focus on than her slip up. Such as; where the hell was Aaron?

He was never late. (Even on that day when they had both been having a ceremonially bad day, Aaron had still managed to turn up on time, whilst Amelia had not.) Amelia wouldn't admit it aloud, but it did fill her with just the smallest seed of anxiety that Aaron was five minutes late.

If it was Derek, Amelia wouldn't feel so stressed. It was a miracle that Derek turned up on time to work any day of the week, five minutes late wasn't too out of the ordinary for the man.

But, for Hotch? For Aaron? Something must've gone wrong, Amelia thought. She had to place the tray of coffee onto her desk because the thought upset her so much. The last time Aaron had a bad day, she'd had a bad day too. And they'd really had a bad time then, hadn't they?

Amelia wasn't superstitious. (Maybe she was. Don't ask. Amelia didn't like talking about her beliefs in higher beings, even that of the supernatural.) But, you couldn't quite blame her for being worried that Aaron's bad day might turn into her own bad day. Or, maybe her fear that he was in trouble was starting to multiply—

"Sorry, 'M late."

There was that monotonous voice Amelia had been anticipating all morning. She turned to look at him and her eyes widened in surprise.

Aaron looked just slightly stressed (he looked like he was absolutely about to implode from stress.) and he'd clearly just ran up to their floor instead of taking the elevator, he wasn't out of breath much but his cheeks were tinged pink and there was certainly a light sheen to his forehead. His tie was slightly to the left instead of in the center and Aaron would've must certainly of lost count of the amount of times his fingers had ran through his hair on the way over.

He definitely looked stressed.

Had Amelia mentioned that little boy clinging to his neck and resting on his hip?

Had she failed to mention that yet? Because, yes, there was a little boy perched on Aaron's hip, clinging on to his dad's neck as if it was his lifeline in a room full of scary looking, grown adults. (Especially considering Penelope's loud gasp had essentially caused the young boy to jump in Aaron's arms.)

Jack. This was Jack. Clinging onto his dad, looking so small and cute in his dad's arms. He was shyly tucking his face into Aaron's neck and perhaps wishing for the ground to swallow him up whole as all the adults in the room stared at him with that look in their eyes; just like when Grandmas would stop in the middle of the footpath and pinch his cheeks, praising him for his cuteness.

God, Jack wished they'd keep their pinching fingers to themselves.

Even if he was shy, and was trying his best to hide away in Aaron's neck he couldn't help but notice the standout person in the room. The one person who wasn't looking at him with that look, but instead someone who looked like they'd never seen a child before and was so shocked she physically hadn't moved since she'd spun around to face them.

Amelia hadn't.

Because Amelia had never been around children before. She hadn't been lying to JJ when she'd said she'd need practice before her baby was born. It sounded a tad dramatic that she'd never been around children before, perhaps that was an exaggeration considering sometimes cases involved children and they found themselves drawn to Amelia and sought comfort from her, and Amelia had been a child herself once upon a time, surrounded by children her own age.

Just because Amelia had found herself in those situations, didn't mean she knew how to act. Amelia had no clue how to act around children. The children who sought comfort from her on cases were there for less than an hour and then she was gone. And it's blatantly clear that Amelia hadn't exactly been a popular child, but rather isolated from the people of her age group. Getting further and further away as they got older.

Oh. Amelia felt nervous. A child was in the office. A child. A little, teeny, tiny child, who was as cute as a button.

Aaron's child.

That mattered more than any other child who could step foot into this building.

What if she was made to watch Jack? Supervise him whilst he did some drawings or played with some tiny figurines? What if Amelia turned her back and he suddenly started choking on the coloring pencils or the figurines— what if she had to perform CPR on a child and break his ribs—!

What if Amelia just completely and utterly screwed up with Jack and he went straight to Aaron telling him how disastrous of a babysitter she was.

Jack had to not choke on the pencils or figurines first for that to happen.

This was so, so bad.

Maybe she'd just get lucky. Amelia thought, maybe Jack would take one look at her and decide he was better off to stay far away from her and spend time with Derek instead.

The poor child would be smelling of Dior's finest aftershave by the time he left the building.

Derek stood up from his desk chair, offering his fist out for Jack to bump, "Hey little man, what you doin' here? Planning on stealing your old man's job today?"

Jack knew who Derek was. He'd met Derek a handful of times, in fact he'd met all of the team a handful of times and yet he still felt nervous around them. So, he did what any child would do and (if possible) curled himself up tighter in Aaron's arms, even gripping on to the material of his dad's suit in a tight fist.

Amelia thought it was the damned cutest thing ever.

(And also hilarious that Derek had caused Jack to recede even further into his dad's arms.)

"Okay, okay." Derek nodded, pretending to hide his hurt at the rejection from the young boy. (It always stung more when a kid rejected your attempts to talk.) (Or, so Amelia supposed — she didn't know a lot about children.) He took a step back and stood beside Penelope, holding his fist out again for her to bump so he could feel better about himself.

Amelia laughed quietly behind him.

Rossi raised an eyebrow at the unit chief, "You're a sight for sore eyes this morning. Look like you've been runnin' round like a headless chicken."

Jack couldn't help the way his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, because his dad wasn't a chicken. Nor was he headless? So, what exactly did Grandpa Dave mean by that? Jack didn't get time to ask, or tug on Aaron's ear to whisper the questioned in his ear because his dad had started speaking.

And Jack was much more comfortable curling up silently in his dad's arms rather than speaking.

"Everything that could've gone wrong this morning did." Aaron sighed, using one of his hands to run soothingly along Jack's back. "Haley has this interview at a big corporate company, and Jessica couldn't babysit— the traffic was horrendous and the car nearly broke down—"

Aaron sounded like he was having a horrific morning. It caused Amelia to wince.

She hated when he had bad mornings.

She furrowed her eyebrows at her own thoughts. Was that thought specific to Aaron? Or, did she hate when everyone else had bad mornings too?

"We're here now." Aaron said with a tired exhale, "By some miracle."

Rossi offered an apologetic smile to his friend, "You could always go home, we don't really need you this morning, it's just a paperwork day." The older man on the team to the youngsters "Some of us are too far behind on our paperwork for another case."

Emily scoffed as Rossi's eyes lingered on her for far too long. And Spencer frowned. Derek rolled his eyes. And JJ smiled sheepishly.

Penelope smiled gleefully, considering she was ahead of the small mountain of paperwork she received and she didn't have anything to do today.

Derek's eyebrows furrowed, "Hold on. How is it possible that Little Miss Sunshine is behind on paperwork?"

Amelia's eyes widened at the call out from her supposed friend. "Nobody said anything about me being behind on paperwork."

Derek rolled his eyes again, "Rossi looked at you funny, just like how he looked at the rest of us. Therefore, you too are behind on paperwork."

"Not as far behind as you." Amelia retorted. She didn't like Derek insinuating that she was further behind on the paperwork mountain as him, considering she had considerably more time off then anyone else to get the work done, and also spent late evenings in the office with Aaron to get her paperwork done.

It was great the after hours they spent in his office. Amelia talked, sipped on coffee, tapped her pen relentlessly against her paper and completed one or two forms, whilst Aaron was clearing some backlog.

It was nice. It was great to see Aaron leaving earlier with every night that passed as the pile as becoming smaller and smaller.

Whilst Amelia's got larger and larger because she was seriously distracted by talking with Aaron every night, and she just had so much to say!

Derek whistled, "Feisty this morning, sunshine. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed or somethin'?"

Jack frowned in confusion again, he wondered why the only person in the room who hadn't looked like they wanted to pinch his cheeks was called 'sunshine'. What an odd name, he thought.

Amelia narrowed her eyes at Derek, "Don't make me kick you." She warned with a huff.

Derek only laughed in response, "You should probably refrain from any physical activity, Mama, y'know with that broken rib and all—"

Amelia glowered at Derek before turning to Rossi, "Let me kick him, please, please—"

"Children, children." Rossi scolded with humor in his tone, "Settle now. No need for violence or childish comments."

Amelia huffed again and turned away from Rossi and Derek, instead facing towards Aaron and Jack. Oh. Threatening physical violence in-front of a young child and your boss was probably the worst thing she could've done. How was she already messing up when she wasn't even interacting with Jack?

Useless, useless, useless—!

Amelia decided she should probably be as far away from children as possible. She sucked at this. Terribly. And she could only imagine what Aaron was thinking of her in this moment.

(She wasn't sure when she'd decided that it mattered, but it did. It mattered a lot.)

Rossi nodded his head, "Good. Now all the children are settled, we should probably get to work, huh? Considering some of us have a mountain of paperwork to do—"

"Derek Morgan shut your face before I get someone to do it for you." Amelia warned before Derek could even open his mouth to retort, as she headed straight for her desk.

Derek laughed in response, clutching at his stomach as he made his way towards his desk opposite hers, staring at her in amusement. "You really are something else this morning, sunshine."

Shut up. Shut up!

Amelia wanted to tell him as she sat down at her desk, tapping her fingers anxiously against the wood of her desk. She'd done it again. Physical violence. As a threat. Right in front of Aaron and his son. What was wrong with you? And why was Derek in such a teasing mood when she was very much so not in the mood! This was horrible. So, so bad.

Amelia didn't think she could possibly get any worse than this as Aaron made his way towards his office, with Jack still curled up tightly in his arms as the rest of the team were sitting at their desks and logging on to start their paperwork.

Amelia stared at her fingers tapping repeatedly against the wood of her desk. It was much more interesting than staring at Derek Morgan's annoying face as he laughed his head off.

Due to her stare being elsewhere, and almost looking as if she was in another world trying to decipher the wood pattern of her desk, she missed how Jack clung to material on the back of his dad's suit as he rested his chin on Aaron's shoulder, staring at the one woman who wasn't a crazy aunt or uncle.

Jack hummed quietly as he entered the unit chief's office still attached to Aaron.

Amelia glanced up once the door to the office had shut and her gaze was torn away from the detailing of the desk and her fingers tapping against it and back to reality. A reality where Aaron's hot coffee was no doubt going lukewarm at the edge of her desk.

A part of her didn't want to disturb him in the office he'd just entered to start doing some work. But, the larger, much more intense part of her knew he needed a cup of coffee to kickstart his day, a cup that was probably missing from his morning routine considering how rushed he'd been this morning.

Amelia trudged up the stairs to Aaron's office, the coffee in her hand still warm but not scolding hot as she knew Aaron liked it. She thought about putting it in the microwave for a short time span before she realized it was too late and her fist was already knocking delicately against Aaron's office.

There was a muffled 'come in!' from the other side of the door.

Amelia pushed the door open with a small smile, "Funny how you say that doors always open for someone to talk, huh?" Amelia joked. When had Amelia ever told a joke? What was happening? (Was the world healing?) (Or was it horrifically falling apart?)

Aaron quietly exhaled, and Amelia would take that as the sign that her joke went down well. "Certainly caught me off guard today." He replied, glancing back at his son sat comfortably on the couch in his office.

Jack had yet to pull the coloring supplies out of his backpack and was instead sitting patiently and silently on the couch, with his feet over-hanging over the edge of the couch and still not reaching the floor. (No matter how close to the edge Jack sat.)

Oh, Amelia felt her heart nearly exploding. Cute. Cute. Cute! She felt overwhelmed with this new found sense of finding someone cute, especially as Jack started swinging his legs back and forth over the edge of the couch.

Amelia nearly forgot about the coffee in her hands, before Aaron cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh— yeah, sorry, I got everyone coffee this morning— so, 's a little colder than usual 'cause y'know; you were late— but, that wasn't your fault, obviously!"

She was rambling.

Amelia knew that because Aaron was laughing quietly as he took the cup of coffee from her, their fingers barely touching as the cup was transferred. Their fingers must've barely skimmed one another, yet Amelia could feel how cold his fingers were, their usual coldness against her warm skin. It sent a shiver down her spine, and this pink blush to her cheeks.

"Thank you." Aaron said earnestly, sipping on the coffee before sighing in relief and smiling in gratitude at Amelia. (That smile was small, barely just curving his lips upwards, but Amelia had gotten so used to watching for the smallest of expressions on his face that she knew every smile.)

"'S no problem— I mean you must be stressed— and in need of a coffee— even though I didn't know you were gonna be late—"

Amelia was rambling again. Why was she rambling?

Despite all of the anxious traits that Amelia possessed, rambling seemed to be the one she adhered to the least. She never really rambled. Unless, or so she deemed it, she was extremely worried about something.

Amelia's eyes trailed to Jack.

It was unnerving to be in the presence of children, or so Amelia had decided. There was nothing easy about being by a child. Amelia felt like there was a sharper eye on her, watching her every move and every move she'd made since Aaron and Jack had felt like the wrong one.

She didn't know how to act.

That's why she was rambling.

"Yeah, just enjoy the coffee." Amelia said, offering Aaron a short, yet sweet, smile.

Aaron's eyes met hers, and he offered her that same short yet sweet smile.

As Amelia turned on her heel to leave the office, she thought that all of Aaron's smiles were short yet sweet.

Aaron watched his son suddenly begin to move, finally halting the swinging of his feet as Amelia left the office before actually jumping off of the couch and slinging his backpack over his shoulders. Aaron couldn't help but frown, "Where you goin', buddy?"

Jack simply pointed out the door Amelia just left out of.

"After Amelia?"

Jack thought her name was sunshine. So, he shook his head. Simply saying, "Sunshine."

Aaron laughed quietly, standing up from his desk to crouch down in-front of Jack, "Amelia," he affirmed, "That nice lady? She's called Amelia."

"Not sunshine?" Jack tilted his head to the side in confusion, frankly none of this was making sense to the boy.

"Not sunshine. Amelia."

Jack nodded. 'Melia. He thought. But, even then that felt too long of a name.

"You wanna go sit with Amelia?" Aaron knew he probably shouldn't ask considering Amelia had paperwork to be getting on with it, but he couldn't help it. There was this teeny tiny part of him so hidden away that couldn't wait to just look up out of his office window and see Amelia and Jack laughing with one another, coloring stick figures or drawing rainbows.

There was this need for Aaron to see it actually.

Jack nodded again, holding on tightly to the straps of his bag, already beginning the walk out of his dad's office and to descend the stairs to the main bullpen.

Jack was at that stage where he craved independence from Aaron and Haley at certain points in the day, yet craved to be held in their arms at other parts of the day, simply not leaving their sides until he decided he wanted to go be independent again.

By the clutching of his backpack straps, and how tightly Jack gripped onto the stair railing with his small steps down each stair, and his slow decent, Aaron knew the boy was feeling particularly independent at that very moment. So, his dad settled for watching him go from the doorframe of his office, clearly ready to intervene if things were to go pear-shaped but also more than willing to watch his son be independent with each shaky step he took.

Although, by the time Jack had reached the bottom of the stairs Aaron had felt his heart leap out of his chest about 6 times.

He was nearly grateful that Jack had now started the (small) treck towards Amelia's desk. The little boy simply bypassed Derek without so much as a glance, standing right beside Amelia's desk.

Derek frowned, a look of offense clear as day on his face. "Little man—?"

"Jesus Christ!" Amelia gasped before clasping her hands against her mouth and peering down at Jack stood beside her desk with wide eyes, "Where did you come from?"

Exactly how everyone spoke to children. Good job Amelia!

"Uh—" Amelia shook her head, scolding herself, "I mean— hi, what are you doin' here?"

Kid?

Kiddo?

Buddy?

Jack?!

"Jack?"

Amelia might actually explode. She was not prepared for this in this slightest, in fact she had never felt furthered prepared for something in her life.

She cleared her throat, because she had to get better at talking to children. Amelia surely couldn't get worse, right? That couldn't be possible. "You lookin' for Derek, he's right there, kiddo."

That was better, or so Amelia was self-marking. (And she couldn't quite help but think that 'kiddo' rolled so easily off her tongue.)

Jack shook his head, and pointed at her. "You."

Amelia pointed to herself with a quiet, nervous laugh, "Me?" She asked, just checking she'd heard him correctly.

"Sit with you." He said. Jack said it so simply. As if since walking in the office today it was all he had wanted to do. There was no question in his voice. His little voice, so little and innocent. Jack's eyes so wide and filled with child-like wonder.

Amelia had never pulled up a chair quicker to her desk in her life. She actually didn't think she'd ever moved so quickly.

(Emily had even chuckled quietly behind her palm. And Amelia had been too focused on Jack to even shoot Prentiss a glare.)

Amelia patted the chair, "'S not the most comfortable, but it's the best we've got. You gonna get up okay?"

Jack nodded, that independence shining through again as he tried to push himself up onto the chair with just hands but ultimately the attempt was a little lackluster.

But, Amelia didn't want to be too harsh on the kid.

"Why don't we take your bag off, yeah? Then you'll be able to be big and strong without all those—" Amelia didn't know what kids carried. So, she made her best guess. "Coloring books. Heavy things, ain't they?"

Her question went unanswered as she helped him slide the backpack off of his shoulders and down his arms, once it was held in her hands Amelia couldn't help but stare at it in amazement. "Woah." She gasped, staring at the green bag.

"Dinosaurs?" Amelia smiled widely, her attention spilt between Jack and the bag, "They're cool. I love dinosaurs, my favorite was always the flying one, you know what they're called?"

Jack climbed up onto the chair next to her with ease once his bag had been shed, sitting eagerly on his knees and pointing at the dinosaur she was describing on his bag, "Pterodactyl." He said with the perfect pronunciation that a child of his age could have.

"Are they your favorites?" Amelia smiled, "Or is yours different?"

Jack wanted to confess that his favorite was a T-Rex, because what else would be a little boy's favorite dinosaur?

But, Jack shook his head, pointing at the pterodactyl again. "My favorite too."

Amelia raised an eyebrow, she could tell he was lying. "Really?" She asked with extra emphasis on her 'e's.

Jack nodded, the corners of his lips tugging upwards, "Really." He mimicked with a little giggle.

Amelia didn't question him any further because that giggle made her heart burst. There might not be any sound greater than that of a child's giggle.

In an attempt to keep her cool and not let Jack in on the secret - that sitting next to him was simply enough to give her a heart attack - she unzipped his bag with slightly shaken hands, but only shaking enough that only she'd be able to notice and looked through his selection of plain paper and assortment of coloring pencils and pens. "Y'know what you could do f'me?"

Jack got even more eager at the question.

"I think you could draw me a pterodactyl, couldn't you?" She smiled, pulling out his supplies and setting them nearly on her messy desk. She pushed all the files and other crap out of the way, making a reserved space for Jack on her desk.

Much like how Aaron would make that reserved space on his desk after hours so that they could do paperwork together.

Jack nodded, sitting quite literally on the edge of his seat, as he made sure his paper had been placed correctly by Amelia on her desk and reached immediately for his blue pencil crayon.

Amelia didn't know how, but it happened, her smile got impossibly wider as she watched the beginnings of the drawings, "Alright," she nodded, "You draw, and I'll do some work so I don't get in trouble with your daddy, okay?"

Jack giggled again.

And Amelia glanced at her pile of work again with some apprehension. It was going to be a hard task for her to not pick up a pencil and start drawing with Jack.

Perseverance.

✺

It was decided, five minutes after Amelia had set Jack off on drawing, that she didn't know the meaning of the word perseverance. She had not persevered. She'd given up on the work pretty quickly.

Jack had been humming under his breath, his pencil making this horrific scratching sound against the paper (that usually Amelia might've felt like throwing up at, but she actually ignored) and swinging his feet back and forth over the edge of his chair. His pencil was constantly held correctly in-between his fingers, but he was happy.

He was happy.

Why was a child happy in Amelia's presence? She didn't know. How this was happening, she didn't know!

Amelia liked it.

She'd decided that 2 minutes after she'd given up on her paperwork and Jack had handed her a pink crayon to draw her own pterodactyl with on his sheet of paper, so that his and her dinosaur could 'fly around together'.

Again, Amelia's heart exploded.

She also couldn't help but quietly hum under her breath as she continued coloring in her pterodactyl's wings. There was honestly this contentment burning within her chest, a contentment she'd never explored or even felt before (much like when hers and Aaron's hands accidentally touched at the printer.). It was such a happy feeling, it made her feel like anything she'd touch would turn to gold and if she were to stand up she'd simply just bounce around the room.

Is this what having children felt like? (Amelia doubted this was how it felt all the time but appreciating this moment; her and Jack just drawing quietly... it was perfect.)

"Can you make a dinosaur noise?" Jack asked suddenly, looking up from his drawing to tilt his head at Amelia.

Amelia laughed. "Yeah!" She cheered, "But not just any dinosaur sound, tell me which one you wanna hear and I have it nailed."

It wasn't good to lie to children, was it? Amelia would reflect on that later. For right now, she wanted to seem cool to Jack and pretend she knew different animal sounds.

"A T-Rex roar!" Jack replied with budding enthusiasm, the drawing long loss in importance but rather hearing Amelia's roar.

This was going to be interesting.

"Okay," Amelia cracked her knuckles, sitting back in her office chair, "I've worked on this for years, so if you tell me 's bad I'll be really upset."

She'd worked on this roar for about 0.2 seconds.

"Ready?"

Jack nodded, his hands pressed together as if he was getting ready to applaud Amelia.

Amelia nodded too, psyching herself up for what she was about to do. "Roooooooar." She even added little T-Rex hands as she moved her neck towards Jack.

Jack was laughing.

He was not applauding, but giggles were spilling from his lips faster than he could possibly imagine, as he looked at Amelia.

Her face fell.

This might be the worst experience of her life. And she'd watched people get blown up.

"Why you laughin'?" She frowned, and Jack supposed that she was feigning offense, but the offense was very real. Oh, so very real.

"That was terrible!" He laughed, simply shaking his head and going back to his drawing. "Even daddy's is better."

Amelia scoffed. She refused to believe Aaron Hotchner had ever done a T-Rex roar, and better than hers. Although, it was very funny to imagine.

"Oh." She murmured, "Okay."

She too picked her crayon back up as Jack's laughter ceased.

"Mommy always says it's the taking the part that counts though."

Amelia was done was being offended. She wanted to explode again. There was something so cute and so heart warming about children applying little sayings to the wrong situations. But, then she froze. As a realization was setting in. "That was a competition!?"

Jack giggled again, "No, silly."

Amelia wiped her forehead of imaginary sweat, "Thank God, because believe me, I would've put a little bit more into my roar. Not that I didn't this time but y'know—"

"Ow." Jack winced.

And Amelia could've swore her heart sank to her stomach. (Much like it did with her anxiety.) "What's the matter? What hurts? What is it?"

Jack held his finger up closely to Amelia's eyes, a tiny paper cut on the tip of his index finger, blood just around the edges of the cut.

Amelia thought the world might end.

She wrapped her fingers around his with a gasp. A serious one. Not even those ones that you fake to make a child feel better about their injury. No, this was real. And her concern was real. "Holy crap—"

She immediately turned to Jack with wide eyes, "Sorry! Don't ever say that word, okay? It's a very, very bad word. And it gets you in trouble, pretend I didn't say it and pretend you've never heard it before."

"Daddy says it all the time." Jack frowned.

Amelia wondered how the hell he was talking with a paper cut that deep. "Doesn't matter." She replied frantically, "Do not say it."

"Ever." She shook her head, Amelia's grip still tight on Jack's finger as she searched through her desk for her first aid kit. You wouldn't believe how many office injuries Amelia and Penelope sustained.

Actually, you would believe it.

She searched and searched until she finally drew it out of the messy bottom drawer at her desk, "Aha!" She cheered quietly, placing the first aid kit on her lap.

Amelia did not need the team seeing this. Or Aaron. Oh. Aaron might kill her! (That was probably an extreme but he wouldn't be happy.)

(Aaron would, and will, laugh.)

"Can't believe I let this happen." She muttered under her breath, searching through her plasters, "I have hearts or unicorns, what's your choice gonna be, kiddo?"

Amelia noted that she'd have to get some dinosaur plasters in her box.

Jack stared at his paper cut. He was sure Aaron or Haley would've told him to run it under the tap and give it a kiss to make it better. Yet, Amelia was offering him a plaster. And you damn well bet a kid was gonna take advantage of that.

"Hearts." He smiled.

"Good choice. I always choose the hearts when I get hurt." She unwrapped the plaster from it confinement and applied it correctly around Jack's finger, making sure there were no bumps or the plaster would come off anytime soon. She did not want his injury getting infected.

Oh, God. What if he got sepsis?!

Imagine if Amelia did kill Jack.

Oh! The thought!

She shook her head, squeezing Jack's finger lightly, "You okay? Not lightheaded, dizzy, anythin' like that?"

Jack wondered what size paper cuts Amelia was having. "'M good." He smiled sweetly.

Jack's head then tilted, squeezing Amelia's finger back, "How many kids have you looked after?"

Looked after?! Jack! How could he see through her?! Why were children so perceptive for Christ's sake!

"Many." She lied.

This time she felt bad about her lie, so her eyes immediately widened as she leaned down closer to Jack with an apologetic smile, "None! You're my first!" She gasped, immediately looking sorrowful, "M rubbish aren't I? I really did try with that T-Rex sound but it was awful."

Jack giggled at the memory of it. "'S okay." He said.

Jack remembered what his mom always told him; if you don't succeed, try, try again. Somehow, he found that applicable to Amelia and her efforts in looking after children.

But, then he thought of something better to say. "We can work on it together."

Amelia felt like crying.

"Oh—" Amelia smiled, squeezing his finger again, "We can, can't we? That would be... that would be awesome, Jack."

"We'll be awesome." Jack said with such conviction.

Jack spoke with suck conviction that Amelia felt awesome already.

She smiled, ruffling his hair. "Don't tell your dad about that paper cut though. Yikes."

Jack giggled again, looking up at Amelia with a wide smile.

Or, should he say, looking up at his new friend with a smile.

✺

It had been a very long day. For Aaron at least. Being thrown out of his routine had made the day feel all out of sorts and completely and utterly scrambled. And as soon as he'd arrived at the office, Aaron had further felt the need to drive back home with Jack and just settle under the covers and never get back up.

But, then Aaron would've missed those giggles that had sounded from the bullpen, and the sound of Amelia's content laughter that would followed. Or, even just peering out of his office window to practically see the beaming smiles on their faces.

Aaron didn't want to miss that for the world.

He also hadn't missed the heart plaster on Jack's finger as they drove back home.

"Buddy?" Aaron raised his eyebrows, looking back at his son in the rear view mirror. Upon realizing he was being spoken to Jack stopped his quiet humming and looked up innocently at his dad, awaiting a question, "What's that plaster for?"

Jack's look of innocence was quickly gone, and his eyes widened at the thought of getting Amelia into trouble. He didn't want that. Jack wanted to spend more days in the office drawing with Amelia and setting her further back on paperwork.

That was fun.

"Nothin'."

Aaron gave his son a look of total disbelief and Jack knew that face all too well.

Jack huffed, crossing his arms across his chest, "Can't tell you."

"Why?"

"I'll get 'Melia into trouble."

'Melia.

Oh, Aaron could've fallen to the floor in total happiness then. (Not sure why, but he could've.)

"Oh, yeah? What did you two get up to?"

"Drawings." Jack said, "Dinosaurs."

"How'd you manage to get hurt there, buddy?"

"Secret!" Jack's eyes widened as he affirmed with his dad that it was a secret!

"Paper cut?" Aaron raised his eyebrows in the rear view mirror. Jack was a frequent visitor to paper cuts, so much so that the boy barely even winced anymore when he felt the sting on the tip of his finger.

Jack sighed, "How you know?"

Aaron laughed, "Intuition."

Jack wanted to ask what that meant, but he had other things to focus on, "You won't get rid of 'Melia will you?"

"Get rid? Of course not, buddy." Not over a paper cut. Not over anything.

That made Jack smile again as he looked out the car window. "Good. Can't wait to see Ami again."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
see what i did there 😝😝

also so sorry im like barely present on this app, i mainly just post my chapters and dip 😭 but year 13 is crazy and whilst i love ami and aaron i do actually have to do some work ☝🏼 i feel most for my tiktok moots who haven't heard from me since august stay safe over there 🙏 BUT. it's nearly everywhere, everything's one year anniversary so expect a GOOD chapter for that (evil laugh behind screen)

and warning that the next chapter was written with me listening to wildflower over and over again by billie ellish so just keep that in mind!