Fic: Generous in Spirit (1/1 Criminal Minds)

[thefrogg]

Title: Generosity of Spirit
Series: Of Innocence and Empathy
Author: Frogg
Beta: None
Rating: uh. mention of a homosexual relationship? I hate looking the ratings up now.
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Damnit.
Challenge: 50episodes – Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid
Table: 2
Prompt: 45. Sinful
Word Count: 397
Author's Note: Occurs the day after Love in the World.

"Does Aaron know where you are?" Jason asked, maintaining eye contact as he took a sip of his coffee.

Haley smiled. "Yes, he does. He also," she went on, raising an eyebrow and forestalling Jason's next question, "knows who I'm with, and why."

"And that would be...?"

"You seem to think I object to your relationship with him." Actually, Haley didn't know what Jason thought of her opinion on the matter, but the time had long passed for them to have this discussion. She owed Aaron that much.

Jason's eyebrows drew together in a frown of confusion. "Shouldn't you?"

Lips pursing in a twisted smile, Haley shook her head. "I love him, Jason. Part of that is understanding that I can't give him everything he needs, no matter how much I want to." She paused then to take a sip of her own coffee, peppermint-scented steam floating upward in swirls. "Marriage isn't about monogamy. It's about trust - I trust him to be responsible, to protect Jack and myself from more than just the evil he faces out there with you and his team. I trust him to tell me what he can, to tell me if he needs more from me, or if he needs things I can't offer him."

Jason didn't respond for several minutes, nursing his coffee and studying Haley.

Knowing Jason was profiling her, trying to determine how much of what she'd said was the truth, Haley held her peace, bathing her face in curls of steam between swallows of sweet, minty coffee.

Finally, Jason sighed, tilting his head. "That's very accepting of you."

"I remember what Aaron was like when you left, after Boston." Haley paused, lips thinning to white, uncertain. "When you left, the man I married started slipping away. Before, I only knew in theory what you did for him. I still don't know, and don't want to know, any particulars, but don't ever think you don't give him something necessary. For all of us."

"Oh?"

Haley nodded, eyes going flat, hard. "If you and Aaron ever decide to...back off," she decided after a momentary search for an appropriate term, "it had better be because it's what both of you want, and not be because of me, or Jack. Don't even let me think that."

Jason chuckled silently, laughter trapped in his chest. "Is that a threat?"

"That's a promise."

~~~the end~~~

Previous:  Love in the World
Next:      Logical Discourse

Comments

[fireness.livejournal.com]

Hayley must be the must understanding wife EVER. XD <3

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

Either that or she really doesn't like Hotch when he doesn't have someone to balance him at work.

[jalabert.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

I've always been resistant to Hotch-related slash on the basis of his canon marriage to Haley. I've never bought into the idea of him cheating on his wife or breaking up with her in order to have Gideon, Morgan, Spencer or a happy meal combo. This is a clever way around the squick...I'm still not totally comfortable with it.

So where's the Morgan/Reid smut? ;)

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

First:

ROFLMAO!!!! Happy meal combo!! Squee!

Second:

Thank you very very much! You know what for. I'll have fun playing with it this weekend!

Third:

I have to believe that Hotch and Haley took steps to minimize the damage to their marriage that Hotch's dream of running the FBI (and the work ethic he has, and would be necessary to get there) would otherwise cause. Including: Hotch can't tell Haley a lot of what goes on at work, not even to protect her (Lessons Learned). He probably doesn't tell her/doesn't like telling her what he can, at least in my mind, because Haley and Jack are his, how shall I say, anchor to normality? A reminder of why he's doing what he does? He was tickled pink at being able to do housechores!!! in The Fisher King part 1... He doesn't want to taint her with the ugliness he sees, but he still needs an outlet and connection he can go to to deal with it. And I think Haley would be much more accepting of him having a relationship with someone on the team to give him that outlet than of a 'traditional' open marriage. I'm really really not going to get into why Haley's 'okay' with Hotch having a happy meal combo in the other series, I'm really really not.

I'm not 100% comfortable with it, either, but my muse wasn't cooperating in not adding a side-order of Gideon/Hotch, and this is what I came up with.

Fourth:

Next up for writing, provided my muse cooperates: Intentional Innocence. I have some polling to do before I can write the following two, because I want some reader input/suggestions first!

[byrons-brain.livejournal.com]

Oh I love it.....

[ivy-b.livejournal.com]

Umm, ok. I just can't see Haley being ok with it. This was a very fluffy version of slashing Jason with Aaron (I also have a problem with slashing Hotch, because of his marriage).

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

A lot of people do, including me, believe it or not. When I'm reading other people's work, I tend to kind of (maybe purposely) ignore things like "What would Haley think?" and "OMG! Hotch is cheating!::gasp::"

I really tried not to have a side of Hotch/Gideon in this series. I realy did. Unfortunately, my muse refused to listen to me, and that left me with the not-so-easy chore of trying to figure out "Just what DOES Haley think about this?" I really can't see Hotch being able to do his job effectively while cheating on her, and I didn't think either getting separated/divorced or killing Haley off would be much better, so she would have to know and either A) turn a blind eye to it for Hotch's sake or B) support it, for whatever reason.

I chose B.