Previous part of 2 + 1 = Love.

***

"Aaron, there is something we haven't talked about yet," Gideon said the next night when they were all back in his place. The day had been routine with paperwork and one meeting with Strauss to talk about the status of the team. She was willing to leave them as they were for the moment, but would be watching closely to see if they needed another profiler when they were back in the field. "What do you want to do with your house?"

"I don't know," Hotch said. "I don't ever want to go back in there, but at the same time, there's no one I trust enough to go in and box things up for me. It has to go on the market, but I just can't face it right now."

"You're welcome to stay here as long as you want to," Gideon said, rubbing Hotch's feet. "I'm not attempting to run you out, nor am I suggesting the three of us look for a house together. I just think it will help you move on to know that the house is no longer something you need to be worrying about."

Reid looked over from a file he was reading through. "Morgan and I could pack for you, Aaron," he said. "I know you don't want to ask and are worried about us doing too much in one day, but there's no time limit on when we have to have the house packed up. A couple of hours a day wouldn't hurt anything while we're here doing paperwork. Morgan would probably enjoy the chance to get a little exercise."

"You're right that I don't want to presume," Hotch said.

"At least let us make a start at it," Reid said. "Here, Jason, this is the part that's bothering me so much. Aaron, you know that your files will have to be packed up by someone with the proper clearance level anyway. I don't mind doing it and I agree that the less you have to worry about right now the better. You're losing weight again."

"I'm just not hungry," Hotch sighed. He rubbed his face. "All right, but only if Morgan agrees that he knows he doesn't have to be helping me. I don't want him to think this is an order."

"He wouldn't," Reid said. "I'll see about getting some boxes tomorrow and talk with Morgan about it. If nothing else, we can make a start on sorting through things and get you a few more suits than you have here."

Gideon looked over. "You can use the guest room closet for you clothes, Aaron," he said. "I would suggest a storage unit for all non-sensitive items, those can come here or to the Bureau, until you figure out what you want to do next. My suggestion would be that Reid and I help you find a house that we all like and can eventually move into once the attention of the local police have dropped off."

"They're going to want to know why I'm buying such a large house if it's just me," Hotch said.

"It's none of their business," Reid said. "I'm still pissed at them trashing my apartment like they did and if they want to stick their noses into our business again then I'll show them exactly how upset I am."

Hotch glanced up at Gideon. "The local police are about to learn the same lesson Morgan did, Jason," he said with a grin.

"Somehow I don't feel the least bit sorry for them," Gideon said. "Spencer, this section here doesn't belong in this report. I don't know what the submitting department did, but they have somehow mixed two cases up. You'll need to be in touch tomorrow and see if they can fax you over what you need, or tell them that you can't help with incomplete information."

"Thanks, Jason," Reid said. "I knew something was wrong, I just couldn't work out what it was. I'll call them tomorrow morning."

"How is your case load looking, Spence?" Hotch asked.

"I'm down fifty percent, Morgan is down thirty," Reid replied. "I'm probably going to take a few of his or get JJ to get me some others to work with just so I can keep busy while we're at home."

"I'm impressed," Hotch said.

"They've been easy, for the most part," Reid said. "At least for me. I think it helps that I have such a library of cases in my mind to reference when I'm working on paperwork. I've wondered many times if I shouldn't try and create some sort of database for the police forces around the world that has cross-references and key word searches so they would be able to read about other cases with similarities to the one they are investigating. It would certainly cut down on the number of profile requests we get every week."

"The forests of the world would thank you," Hotch said dryly. "You and Garcia could work on it together, Spence. It's not a bad idea."

"I'll talk to her once my desk is clean and I can see the whole thing again," Reid said. "How are you holding up, Aaron?"

"I'm okay."

"All right, let us know when you start getting sleepy," Reid said. He was worried about not only the lack of food Hotch was dealing with, but lack of sleep too. Not for the first time, he wished he had an answer for his lover.

***

"Reid, is Hotch really okay?" Morgan asked as he unlocked the door to Hotch's house. The two of them had picked up boxes, tape, markers and bubble wrap for their project and were planning to spend three hours a night boxing things up. "I got a look at him today, and he looks like he's not sleeping well."

"He's not," Reid sighed. "He's blaming himself for Jack's death and I don't know what I can do beyond be there for him however he needs me to be."

"He started talking with the counselor at work today, right?"

Reid shut the door behind them and turned on the light. "Yeah, I think so," he said. "I was in talking with Garcia about something for most of the morning, so I'm not sure what all happened."

"I wondered where you vanished to. Clue me in?"

"We need to start in his home office and get these files and projects boxed up and to the Bureau," Reid said. "It's just something we were talking about with Gideon at supper last night. Remember I got tangled up on that one case right at the end of the day yesterday?"

"Yeah and neither of us could work out what was going on," Morgan said. "I'll take the filing cabinets if you take the desk."

"Sounds good. Gideon was able to work out that there were two cases mixed into one and the department would have to resubmit their request for help with the correct forms in place," Reid said. "I made an off-handed comment that it's easy for me to find connections a lot of the time because I have such a large library in my head that I can refer back to and I'd thought about putting together a database that could be searched by keyword or case number to get into our solved files."

Morgan looked over. "Something the departments around the world could link into with the proper passwords and things?" he asked. "It wouldn't eliminate the need for profilers, but it would certainly help detail down reports."

"Right up until the point where an officer thinks they know enough to use our files to solve a case," Reid said. "Garcia and I were thinking about different ways this could be done that wouldn't endanger people or allow too much data to get to the police."

"I see your point," Morgan said. "Knowing all the information wouldn't be enough to necessarily help them solve the cases. That's our job. You're trying to streamline the request for aid portions of this."

"Yeah, but it sounds impossible," Reid sighed. He taped the box he'd been filling with files closed and labeled it carefully. "I mean, when you think about it, all it would take is one hot-shot officer that thinks he knows everything to blow a case using information he doesn't fully understand. It'd be even worse if he got someone killed during the investigation."

"Still, there should be a way to do this. Toss me that marker, would you?" Morgan said. "I'll think about it and see if I can come up with anything."

Reid smiled. "Thanks, Morgan."
****

"Hey, where's Jason?" Reid asked, shutting the door behind him.

"Food run for something," Hotch replied. "How'd it go?"

"We got your office cleaned out and the boxes back to the bureau," Reid said. He sat down and kissed his lover softly. "Unless you've got some case files or projects hidden in weird places, all the sensitive stuff is taken care of."

Hotch wrapped an arm around Reid's shoulders and pulled him in. "Thank you for doing this for me," he said. "I just feel so lost, I'm not even sure what all I'm supposed to be doing right now."

"Healing," Reid said. "Did you talk with the counselor today?"

"Yeah, while you were in with Garcia. I don't know how much help she'll be, but I'm going to do my best. You know how much I hate talking about my personal life," Hotch said with a sigh. "I know better than anyone that this can't just be swept under the rug though."

"I'm here, whatever you need," Reid said.

"I couldn't do this without you," Hotch said. "Both you and Jason."

Reid nodded. He didn't think he'd be able to offer as much support as he was if Jason wasn't part of their lives.

***