The Usual Rules

Chapter 22

JJ glanced over and smirked as she saw Rachel continually poking Morgan in the arm. Morgan dropped his pen and tickled her stomach to try to get her away. Rachel only side stepped him and went to poke his other arm.

"Rach!" JJ called out warningly. "Come over here and let him work."

Rachel gave JJ a mini version of her own glare which caused JJ to raise her eyebrows in shock for a moment before returning it full force. Rachel groaned, poked Morgan one last time, and trotted over to JJ. "I don't like being grounded." She announced as she slammed her head into JJ's shoulder.

JJ couldn't help but smile. "Yes, most people find they don't enjoy it."

"Can we maybe stop then?" Rachel asked hopefully. JJ looked across at her wife and shared a smile with her. Rachel had been taking this grounding much worse than the first one. She continually complained and grumbled about everything. A week did seem incredibly long to a seven year old, and JJ was almost just as thankful that it would be over tomorrow as Rachel was.

"No sweetie, one more day." She said for the third time that afternoon. "If you behave really well tonight and tomorrow, we'll do something fun on saturday."

"Fine." Rachel grumbled. "How much long till we can be done?" She asked.

"About two more hours."

"Ughh." Rachel slammed her head into JJ's shoulder again. JJ hid a smile and rubbed her back.

"Why don't you read some of your book?" JJ asked.

"Because I'm stupid and I can't read." Rachel moaned, her face still resting on JJ's shoulder. The blonde glanced back over at her wife and saw a frown mimicking her own. They hated when Rachel talked like this, she had been doing much better in school recently, but she never seemed to feel proud of herself.

"You are not stupid." JJ insisted. She pulled Rachel's face away from her shoulder and held her chin in her hand, forcing Rachel to look at her. "And you can too read."

"Okay, but I don't want to." Rachel said simply. "I want to play with Morgan."

"Morgan has work to do and you are grounded."

"I hate being grounded." Rachel said as she flopped herself down on the floor. She sprawled herself out and closed her eyes. "I'm taking a nap." She announced. "You people are boring."

It took everything JJ had not to laugh. She bit her lips hard and saw Emily doing the same. Morgan and Reid were not fairing as well. JJ decided to leave Rachel to it so she could get her work done faster.

Rachel opened one eye and glanced up at JJ, as she had hoped, the blonde was no longer looking at her. She closed that eye and opened the other one, looking over at Emily. Neither of them were watching. Rachel opened both her eyes, rolled over on her stomach and began army crawling away from the bullpen. She realized that she wasn't very good at it, but she pressed on anyway until she made it to the stairs. With a final glance back, the team were all still busy working, Rachel ran up the stairs and burst into Hotch's office, closing the door. Hotch looked up surprised as Rachel leaned against the door and pressed a finger to her lips.

"I'm escaping Mr. Hotch, can I hide in here?"

Hotch cocked his head to the side in confusion, frankly, he was amused and and happy that Rachel was okay being alone with him. "Umm...Rachel, I think you're supposed to stay downstairs." He began.

"Is Jack still grounded?" Rachel asked, walking forward and ignoring him.

"No, yesterday was his last day." Hotch answered as he watched Rachel push his chair back and climb under his desk. "What...what are you doing?" He asked as she got comfortable.

"Hiding."

"From who?"

"Emily and JJ."

"You know I can't really help you with that right?"

"Cause Emily and JJ are your friends?"

"Um...yes basically." Hotch said. Rachel was a very interesting kid. He wasn't quite sure how to act around her yet as she only recently started to feel comfortable around him.

"Mr. Hotch...can I ask you something?" Rachel whispered into her knees.

"Sure Rachel." Hotch said giving her a smile.

"You've talked to a lot of bad guys like my dad right?" She asked softly. Hotch nodded. "Are they all alike?"

"No, they're not all alike, but I guess they do tend to have some similarities."

"Do a lot of them have kids too?"

Hotch dropped his pen and looked down at Rachel, he had a feeling that he knew where this was going. "Some of them do."

Rachel bit her lip and pulled her knees in tighter. "Mr. Hotch, do...do the kids of bad guys become bad guys too?"

Hotch froze, he had a feeling that was what she was leaning to, but he had been hoping it wasn't. "Rachel, come up here." He said kindly. Reluctantly, Rachel crawled up and stood close to Hotch, not looking him in the eye. As he spoke, she played with the edge of his tie. "No." He said firmly. "Just because your father did horrible things to people doesn't mean you will grow up to do them too."

"How do you know?" Rachel whispered. "Cause...cause Emily and JJ say they love me and they want to be my moms, but if I'm bad like my dad they won't anymore. I wanted...I wanted to ask him why he did all that stuff to those women so I would know what not to do." Rachel began tearing up a little and she pulled lightly at Hotch's tie. "What if I'm bad too and I don't know? He wouldn't tell me, I got scared." Rachel was actively crying now and Hotch's paternal instincts kicked in. He picked her up and pulled her onto his lap, hugging her against his chest. Thankfully, Rachel leaned in and let him hug her. Hotch rubbed her back with one hand and snatched his phone with the other. He did his best to type out a text to Emily and JJ, in case one of them didn't have their phone with them.

"Rachel, I promise you won't turn out like him." Hotch said as he set his phone down. "I've talked to a lot of people, good and bad, and I've been at this job for a very long time. There is one thing that I know, if people are loved, if they have people in their lives who care for them, they can overcome almost anything." Hotch looked Rachel in the eye and she looked so worried it broke his heart. "I have also known Emily and JJ for a long time, I can tell you with certainty that they love you and they're not going to suddenly stop. You're a good person Rachel. People do have to work at being a good person, but I think you can do it."

"Really?" Rachel whispered.

Hotch pressed his forehead against Rachel's, something that always seemed to cheer Jack up. "Really." He said with a smile. He heard footsteps ascending the stairs and figured Emily and JJ were about to burst through, terrified. His text had been a little exaggerated. Rachel wrapped her arms around Hotch's neck and placed a kiss on his cheek as the door opened. "I like you Mr. Hotch." She said with a smile. "You're not scary at all."

He looked up at Emily and JJ, smiling to let them know the matter was somewhat resolved. Their faces relaxed slightly. "Are...is everything okay?" Emily asked, not sure how to react to Rachel hugging Hotch.

"I think so." Hotch said looking to Rachel.

"I think the grounding is too stressful to me and I should be ungrounded now like Jack." Rachel said hopefully.

"Where do you get this stuff Rach?" JJ asked with a laugh.

Rachel hopped off Hotch's lap and ran over to Emily, practically climbing up the brunette until she lifted her into her arms. "When Garcia babysits we watch too much television and she teaches me fun big words." Rachel said with a smile. Emily and JJ broke into laughter.

"Humm...maybe Garcia is going to need some more supervision then." JJ said as she looked to Hotch. The look he gave her made her realize he would explain whatever had gone on later, it didn't seem to be pressing now.

"Hey guys, you can go home." Hotch said. "Tell the guys too. I'll see you tomorrow at 9:30."

"Thanks Hotch." Emily said sincerely. He nodded to her and went back to his work smiling to himself. They were going to be fine.