BAU: Behind Closed Doors

2. Rossi's Cooking

Pairing: Rossi/Hotch (M/M) hand, wooden cooking spoon

[In collaboration with Elenalovly, AO3.]

Plato wrote, "We can easily forgive a child who's afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

Quantico, Virginia

Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)

Federal Bureau of Investigation

It was a few days after the team had finally captured and shot the unsub from the bank robberies in L.A. Aaron couldn't stop thinking of the families ruined by Sheppard. His thoughts went to the bank manager who was forced to reenact Sheppard's own sick past out with his family. He supposed he didn't blame the man for erasing the tapes, but he wondered how they would go on with their lives.

Aaron had been pleased with Derek and Spencer's behavior on the trip. He sometimes wished though that he had a bottle of alcohol in his desk drawer, rather than the small wooden paddle that he had used on Derek. Aaron almost cracked a smile imagining that, but he would never drink at work. It was clearly against the rules.

"What in the world are you still doing here?" Dave Rossi thundered as he came to Aaron's open doorway.

"Dave? What are you doing here?" Aaron sputtered. He looked at his watch and cringed. He was dead.

"It's 3am and your wife has been calling! You should have gone home hours again. She's worried sick," Rossi scolded. The older Italian American man was steaming mad.

"Sorry, Dave. I had my cell phone off. I'll call Hayley now," Aaron replied calmly.

"I was at home and I told Hayley that your ass would be home within the hour," Dave informed him.

"Oh, it won't take me that long. I was just finishing up some paperwork here," Aaron offered.

"First of it, you did the paperwork on the plane. And second of all, I meant that I was gonna bust your butt for pulling this crap again. That's what's going to take some time, capisce?"

"Wait? No, you are telling me to go home, but then you want to keep me here for that? No way.. I am the boss now, Dave. If I want to stay, I stay...If I want to go, I go," Aaron said with an air of confidence. Dave couldn't just spank him anytime he felt he needed it. Aaron was a father now, married. A grown-up.

"I want to know why you are still here, Aaron?" Rossi attempted.

Aaron looked down at his file folder and made some notations, effectively ignoring Rossi, or so he thought. He exhaled in relief and decided he was in no rush to leave, Hayley was probably asleep by now.

Rossi left and came back a moment later holding a large cooking spoon.

"It's a little late for one of your cooking lessons, Dave," Aaron smirked. He did enjoy Dave's cooking, but he wasn't in the mode for the man's antics or to be bossed around. Aaron was the boss, he thought as he stood up and shoved his paperwork into his leather bag.

"Stand up," Dave insisted in 'the voice."

Aaron froze. "Dave, come on. You can put that thing back. I made a mistake. I should have gone home..."

Aaron had felt one of Dave's infamous wooden spoons on his bottom before. It then dawned on him that this wooden spatula that Dave was brandishing would probably sting like the dickens. His hands shot back to protect his rear end. Dave was not backing down. He had a temper and was best not pushed to the brink. Aaron was getting nervous. Afraid, even.