snow day

Summary: The first snow of the year in Chicago falls on Hotch's birthday, and he's tired of being lonely so he goes out and enjoys it.

Pairings: none (future hotchgan)

Words: 3.1k

Warnings: nothing really, it's soft. some mentions of chronic pain and loneliness.

Notes: Comfortember Day 2: Sweater Weather & HOTCH'S BIRTHDAY! Epic combination baby. A few months in to WITSEC and he's tired of being sad and lonely. This might be the nicest fic I have ever written for his birthday guys. WHO AM I? I have another birthday fic planned for posting later this month that is even NICER...I think I'm broken. LOL

Two months. It was the longest Hotch had gone without work in his adult life. To say he was losing his mind was an understatement. He spent a lot of time on the balcony fiddling with his plants, the first of them having been a small potted boxwood from his handler, Tim. They weren’t exactly friends, but Tim knew a thing or two about how this went and how idle hands lead to breaking rules, so a plant it was. Keeping Hotch busy would make Tim’s life easier. Giving him something to care for, something he could look at and watch grow. It had been unseasonably warm in September and October, but now that November was turning the page things had begun to frost and his plants needed to be moved inside. He’d started with the one, and now he had what amounted to a small army of green things with leaves and flowers and dirt to play in. He’d never figured himself for a gardener, but then, he’d never figured himself for a man who would have to be on the run either.

His chair, though, he kept that outside even once most of his plants were inside. It was just him and his arborvitae that he planned to decorate for Christmas. There was a little basket he kept beside the back sliding glass door full of big, warm blankets so he could still sit out on the balcony and read with his morning coffee or his afternoon tea. It was the little things, Tim said that to him too. Tim was proving to be a good ally at the very least, he’d seen enough of this to know how it went and how it would destroy a person if they didn’t find ways to adapt and maybe, given enough time, even thrive.