Fic: Forward (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan, Hotch / Chad, Sean / Cain)
Title: Forward
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen,
Sean Hotchner / Cain Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Criminal Minds Main List
Big thanks to _nextboldmove_ and devon 99 for inspiration.
Chad lifted his eyes from his paperback long enough to check Hotch`s choice of bedtime snack. “I’ve warned you so many times, that I’m not even gonna bother.”
“Warned me about what?”
“That bran-yoghurt-whatever-mush. Every time you eat that, my night turns out to be very restless.”
“Oh….” Hotch considered the most tactful way to ask the next question. “Do I…. Do I do something embarrassing in my sleep?”
“You mean do you have some embarrassing bodily reactions to that crap. And no, nothing like that. You just keep twisting and turning all night and I can’t sleep.”
“There’s no connections between nightmares and my snacks. Besides this is very healthy. That’s why I eat it.”
“And sleeping on one of those spiky fakir rugs is good for your spleen, but I don’t see you doing that.”
“Thanks for that piece of weird health education. Can we go to sleep now?”
“Sure, but if you do something creepy, I’ll kick you out of the bed.”
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“Hotch?”
His eyes snapped open. The voice was familiar and so was the face attached to it.
“Elle? What the hell are you-”
“Shhhh.” She pointed at Chad who was still sleeping peacefully. “Get up, we need to talk.”
Hotch grabbed his robe and followed Elle to the second story landing.
“How did you get in?”
“Your fault, you watched the Christmas Carroll with Jack.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Ghosts of Christmases past and future and so on. I’m the ghost of BAU past and future.”
“You mean you’re….?”
“What? Dead? Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not even here. This is your dream.”
“Dream? So you’re not really here.”
“Check this out.” She landed a strong punch on Hotch`s gut, but her fist went right through him. “Cool, isn’t it?”
“So you’re not really here?”
“I just said that. And why exactly were you watching the Christmas Carroll at this time of year?”
“Jack likes it.”
“And you watch it with him, so can we just move on now? I don’t have all night.”
“You said you’re not even here.”
“That doesn’t mean I wanna spend my night inside your mind. When you were watching the movie you were thinking what your life would be like in the future.”
“How did you know that?”
“I didn’t, you did and…..” She let out a frustrated sigh. “Can we just do this?”
“Do what?”
“Look around.” She gestures down the stairs.
Hotch took few steps forward and peeked downstairs. The house looked the same, but then his mind started to notice small differences. Some of the furniture had been changed and the dark wallpaper looked different.
“What’s going on?”
“You wanted to know how things might go. This is one possible scenario. About twenty years from your time.”
“So I’m….?”
“Let’s go downstairs.” Elle marched down the stairs and Hotch followed. He could feel the stairs under his bare feet, but there was no sound of footsteps. Elle lead him to the kitchen. The table and every single surface seemed to be filled with food at some point of preparation, some of them were in large serving bowls.
“Some kind of a celebration?”
“Yeah, this is the day you’ll retire from the FBI.”
Their discussion was interrupted when two men walked into the kitchen.
“Is that….?”
“You and Chad.” Elle grinned. “Go ahead, take a look. They can’t hear or see us.”
Hotch took a step closer to the man who was currently chopping lettuce. The future Hotch was dressed in dark slacks and a white dress shirt with a tie, but he had rolled his sleeves up and loosened his tie. The twenty years were easy to see, his hair had turned silvery gray and he had obviously gained some weight.
“It’s called aging.” Elle comforted. “Happens to all of us sooner or later.”
Hotch turned to look at the other man. Future Chad look just about the same as his younger version. The muscular frame had stayed the same and so had the shaved head. The only signs of the passed time were the light lines around his eyes.
The future Chad wrapped his arm around the older Hotch and pulled him closer.
“Come on, babe. Everyone has to stop at some point.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to celebrate it. This was your idea.”
“That’s because I don’t need to worry about you anymore. You don’t get called to work at three in the morning and you wont get shot at by some Creepy Creeperson.”
“You never told me it bothered you.”
“I told you I understand the job, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t worry.”
“Come here.” Elle gestured. “You’ll wanna see this.” She went into the living room.
Hotch gave the couple one last look and followed her. Elle stood in front of a bookshelf checking out the long row of framed pictures.
“Recognise him?”
“Jack?”
“Yeah. That picture was taken on his first day as a boy scout. It was also his last day.”
“Why?”
“He only agreed to go because you wanted him to. When you were getting ready to leave he started crying, and that was the end of it.”
“What about those?” Hotch leaned closer to look at the next pictures. They were photos of Jack and Chad in sports gear, getting older frame by frame.
“Remember when Chad said he would turn Jack into the next Maradona?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it didn’t work out. Instead he turned out the to be the next DiMaggio. He got an athletic scholarship.”
“What is he studying?”
“Journalism.”
“Let me guess. Cain’s influence?”
“Yep.”
“Where’s Hailey?” Hotch observed the next picture. “That looks like high scool graduation.”
“She couldn’t attend. Or should I say she was too embarrassed to attend. After quite a few cancellations she finally married her fiancé. It lasted almost three years.”
“What happened after that?”
“She went through this newly single phase and one of her friends encouraged her to get some work done.”
“You mean….?”
“Yeah. Have you ever seen a really badly botched facelift? It’s not pretty.”
“So where is she now?”
“You mean why she wasn’t invited here now? She’s in Mexico, she got a great deal on some reconstructive surgery. That`s the fifth time they try to fix her face.”
“I don’t want to know.” Hotch interrupted. “What about all the others? The team?”
“I’m sorry to say, but Dave died couple years ago. But he did have a pleasant send-off.” Elle grinned. “This new young girl started in the administration and he kept hunting her for ages. Then she finally gave up and that same night Rossi died in his own bed.”
“Sounds like him….”
“It was pretty traumatising for the poor girl. His last words were: I’m coming, I’m coming, no wait a minute, I’m going.”
“What about the others?”
“Well, Garcia and Kevin got married. They have three girls now.”
“Three little Garcias?”
“She’s still working for the bureau. Kevin does consulting gigs from home so that he can take care of the girls.”
“And Prentiss?”
“Her mom blackmailed her to attend some diplomat event. She met a cute British diplomat and followed him to the other side of the pond. They would be married by now, but she doesn’t want to do it because it would please her mom.”
“Is J.J. still with the FBI?”
“Yeah, but not in the BAU. She got promoted few years ago.”
“And her kid?”
“He lives in New Orleans with his father.”
“So they-”
“Separated.” Elle nodded. “But come on, ask me.”
“What do you want me to ask you?”
“About Strauss.”
“Why would I want to know about Strauss?”
“Because it’s so satisfying….” Elle grinned like a cat who just devoured the canary.
“Okay, I’ll ask. What about Strauss?”
“She was kicked out twelve years ago.”
“Why?”
“Remember a certain former president who had a weakness for young interns?”
“Yeah.”
“Strauss had the same weakness. She made the wrong suggestions to the wrong person and she got suspended while the internal investigation handled the preliminary work.”
“And then?”
“The whole case leaked to the papers and they forced her to resign. The whole case was hushed to death.”
The sound of the doorbell interrupted her. The older Hotch hurried to open the door. Few minutes later he returned with a tall young man.
“Chaddy?”
“Over here.” The older version of Chad walked into the living room and Jack grabbed him into a big hug.
“You refuse to call me dad anymore, but you still call him Chaddy?” Hotch laughed.
“Hey, don’t blame me if I’m his favourite.” Chad replied. “I’m the one who taught him to pick up girls and play ball. On the guy scale that’s an unbeatable bonding experience.”
“Two sport nuts…. You two always gang up on me.”
“It’s a tradition.” Jack beamed. The doorbell rang again and he headed to the foyer. “I’ll get it.”
“Who’s coming?” Hotch asked.
“You’ll see.” Elle grinned. “I think you’ll know these two.”
She was right. Hotch recognised the two men as soon as they walked in. Time had been kind to both of the Christensen brothers, Cain looked pretty much same as he had before. Hotch´s eyes moved on to the man next to him and he had to take another look. Sean was deeply tanned and his hair looked like it had been turned almost white by a healthy amount of sunshine.
“What happened to them?”
“You want the short version?”
“Yeah.”
“Cain got an offer to do a story in South America, and he asked Sean to go with him.”
“And he did?”
“He quit his job and packed up his bags. Cain’s publisher recruited him to write them a series of articles about the local traditional cuisine.”
“So he’s a journalist now?”
“Something like that. He and Cain made a book based on the articles. Sean covered the food and Cain covered the facts about the country and local customs. It was a success, and they got an offer to do a travelling and cooking show for TV.”
“I can’t believe it….”
“Their audience consist mainly of horny women and gay men. It’s been a big success.” Elle giggled. “They’ve been travelling together for over fifteen years now.”
“Lets see if I got this right.” Hotch stated. “Sean is willingly travelling to hellholes all over the globe and enjoying it?”
“Yeah.”
“Some things really do change….”
“And some don’t.” Elle pointed to the direction of the foyer. Chad was guiding in the next visitors. “Remember them?”
“Reid and Morgan.” Hotch grinned. “Are they still at the BAU?”
“No. Reid got injured in the middle of a case. He recovered but Morgan didn’t want to let him back to the field.”
“That`s understandable.”
“They made a pact, and they both left.”
“What do they do now?”
“Reid teaches classes in Quantico and Chad got Morgan a job teaching martial arts and self defence classes at the academy. They both still work in the same building and they actually have regular working hours.”
“So they’re still together.”
“Did you have any doubts?”
“Not really.”
“And they still got Clooney waiting for them at home.”
“That`s not possible-”
“I should have been more specific. Clooney the Third, not the original."
Hotch took a good look at the couple. Reid still had a messy headful of hair, and his dress sense had stayed the same. He had lost some of the roundness from his face, and his cheekbones were more pronounced. Next to him, Morgan exchanged greetings with his arm wrapped around the genius’s waist. He was wearing thick glasses and walked with a slight limp.
“What’s with the limp?” He whispered to Elle.
“No need to whisper, I told you they can’t hear us.”
“Fine.” Hotch said with his regular voice. “Why is he limping?”
“Old job injury. Usually you can’t even see it, but today was rainy.”
“So….” Hotch paused, letting everything sink in. “This is the future?”
“This is one possible future.”
“Wait a minute. You said you’re alive too. What happened to you?”
“Girls gotta have some secrets.” Elle grinned. “All you need to know is that I’m alive and well.”
“You have to tell me, you’re a figment of my imagination.”
“You just asked me if I’m alive and I’m standing right in front of you!”
“But you said it’s all in my head.”
“This is your dream, how would I know what your sub consciousness has cooked up?”
“You knew what happened to everyone else.”
“You’re really getting on my nerves….” Elle smacked him on the back of his head.
“That hurt! How come you didn’t just go through my head?”
“That’s because you deserved it. I’m not gonna host your dreams if you have to make this so difficult in every turn!”
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“-and then I woke up.” Hotch finished. He glanced over the table. Chad was staring at him with a crooked grin on his face. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m serious.”
“I know.” Chad shoved the rest of his eggs into his mouth. “I warned you….”
“It had nothing to do with my snacks.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“But it was so strange. It felt completely real.”
“Maybe you got a sneak peek at the future. Sounds like you’ll have a pretty good life ahead.”
“Yeah.” Hotch fiddled with his fork. His breakfast was still untouched. “But if that’s what my future will be….I better start taking better care of my diet.” He gave up and speared a piece of bacon with his fork.