I wish there'd been something like this in the actual episode! What happened was too similar to the Hankel case to let that go without even a passing acknowledgement. And you wrote it very well, from Spencer's defensiveness, Hotch reluctance, to the spark between them when Hotch finally comforted him and told he liked the hair. You really captured the essence of two damaged-but-still-standing people starting to find their way back to each other.