The Nanny

3.

Well that hadn't gone well!

It hadn't taken long for Garcia to spot the transfer request she'd tried to side step Aaron and withdraw it until he'd spoken to her, but even when she'd sent it Strauss had all but told him no, instead offering a week for him to get issues sorted and come back to the team. After all her previous pushing to remove him as section chief when it came to it the FBI simply had nowhere to put him just yet, if he was set on a white collar transfer he'd be waiting a while she'd said.

Egos on the team were feeling pretty bruised too, he'd tried not to let them know the severity of the struggle he was having at home, and even though they were profilers he doubted they understood fully how bad things had got, if they did Rossi would have been over to fill the freezer with homemade Italian food, and the others would have turned up to help clear up the mess that had accumulated over the past few week, there just never seemed enough time to sort it.

Aaron decided to use his week off to his advantage, between him and Jack they'd got this. Within a few hours Tuesday morning they'd enlisted the help of a cleaner who'd planned to whip the house into shape then return on a bi-weekly schedule. They'd dropped off vast amounts of clothing at the dry cleaners to pick up the next day and had managed to restock the fridge. 

Childcare wise however they weren't much further forward. Speaking to JJ on the phone while trying to catch up with the team, they were somewhere in Illinois trying to find a child killer, he admitted his defeat and fears he may have to leave the agency altogether.

'Have you thought of a live in nanny? You've got the spare room' JJ asked

Hotch opened up to her about his fears of finding suitable safe childcare for Jack, they'd seen such awful things that it was difficult to trust strangers.

Of course JJ understood that completely, 'look we've used sitters from an agency lots of times, they're background checked and I get Garcia to do a little digging once we have a name, we've never had any issues, surely it's worth a shot.'  Hotch was dubious but agreed to call.

He did just that the next day while Jack ate his breakfast. The woman on the phone had seemed polite and professional, although he knew that could be a front. She'd also understood when he gave a list of demands for a nanny, he thought it would be better to have someone middle aged, experienced, he'd explained they needed go be flexible, he wanted a live in nanny who wouldn't stay and be in the way when he was home with Jack, he needed someone who could be on call if he needed them but wouldn't take over his life or too much space.

She'd called back and set up a meeting for the next afternoon with a nanny called Janet. Garcia had done a background check and she seemed perfect, mid 40s, experienced nanny for 20 years and had her own place but was happy to sleep over as required, she could start pretty much immediately too. He'd really got lucky on this one, slowly throughout the day and the next morning Aaron started to relax, there would be a way for him to keep his job.

When they'd met in person at the park he'd been impressed enough that he'd hired her on the spot, he even left her and Jack playing in the park while he went to a local coffee shop to catch up on work emails and tell the team he'd be back with them before they knew it.

That night he went to bed planning on sorting out the spare room the next day, currently it was dusty and the drawers and wardrobes contained spare linen and winter coats. Maybe he could even paint it, Janet had been wearing a lot of pale pink, and while he wouldn't go that far he guessed something a bit more feminine would be appreciated.

But as always with the BAU, make plans and a case will come.

And that's exactly what happened. Aaron got the call at 4am, it was bad, it would include an over night stay of a least a couple of nights. He called Janet straight away, she'd be an hour tops, so just needed to pack her bag and drive over.

But by 5am she she wasn't here, 5.30 and Aaron was starting to worry, if he'd have known she wasn't particularly good at time keeping he'd have reconsidered, 5 more minutes and he'd call the agency.

By 6am Jack was awake and while eating his cereal there was a knock on the door.

'Jack, that will be Janet from the park remember, she's going to stay with you until I get back from the case okay. Give me a kiss buddy and I'll call you tonight' Aaron said as he picked up his bag and made his way to the door.

Opening it gave him a huge shock. Instead of the buxom middle aged woman he'd seen at the park, in front of him was a young woman, much shorter than he was at around 5foot, slim but curvy, she was wet through, he knew it had been raining but she looked like she'd just got out of a lake, her clothes hung to her and as she stood on the doorstep she shivered. 'Who are you?' He asked.