The Honey and the Moon
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone in regards to Criminal Minds; the show and its characters belong to a bunch of people who aren't me. I am merely borrowing the characters for my own amusement. Dance puppets, dance.
Author's Note: This was written for the Wedding Fest Ficathon at cmrossiprentiss on LJ; my prompt was honeymoon. I started this a few months ago when I got stuck in Dulles Airport and just molded it to fit this ficathon. Massive thank you to Mingsmommy for the beta and for just being uber fantastic.
"This is all your fault."
Slowly raising his head, Dave gazed at his wife. "And how is torrential rain my fault?"
The corner of Emily's mouth rose. "I'm not sure yet, but I know you had something to do with it."
Dave grunted, returning his focus to the windows in front of him. "It looks like its letting up."
Huffing, she punched a few keys on her cell phone. "You said that forty-five minutes ago." When she looked up, the rain started to pound the cement again. "See? Your fault."
Fourteen glorious days of wineries, pastries, and making love awaited them in Italy for their honeymoon. Unfortunately, the weather at Dulles International Airport had other ideas. A series of thunderstorms delayed flights, leaving Dave and Emily stuck at their gate. To make matters worse, their plane had yet to arrive.
"I still think you should've talked to Strauss," Emily said.
He kept reading his newspaper. "Querida, I don't think she would have let us requisition the jet for our honeymoon."
"She would've if you'd asked her at the restaurant," Emily countered. "She was drunk enough she wouldn't have known."
Dave smirked. "I'm not so sure. She sure as hell won't forget dirty dancing with Morgan."
"And neither will Derek."
Dave leaned over slightly, watching her fingers fly across the keyboard. "What in the world are you doing?"
"Tweeting at J.J. and Garcia."
Sighing, he shook his head. "Is it really necessary to share everything on the internet?"
Without missing a beat, Emily replied, "I didn't tell them what we did last night." Then she laughed as he felt heat creep up his neck.
"Besides," she went on. "All I wrote was this…" Handing him the phone, he read from the tiny screen.
"'Stuck in Dulles. Grrrr,'" he deadpanned, giving the cell phone back. "Cute."
She grinned. "I thought you'd like it."
Time continued to march on slowly with no plane and no end to the rain. The rain poured down, pattering heavily against the roof. Lightning flashed, occasionally lighting up the darkened skies. Thanks to a computer programmer sitting beside them, carrying not one, but two iPhones, they found out the plane was coming out of Orlando and had been delayed due to service problems.
"Wonderful," Emily sighed, slumping back in the chair. "We get a two-for special with this trip."
Sensing her frustration, Dave stood up. "C'mon. Let's find go find the best ice cream the airport has to offer."
There was no need to consult a map as they followed the sweet aroma of baking waffle cones to Ben and Jerry's. Dave carried both of their carry-on bags as they trekked down the concourse. Emily found a table for them while he waited in line. She perked up a bit when he brought back a waffle cone filled with Half-Baked ice cream.
"To make up for my making it rain." He handed her the cone, settling into one of the hard plastic chairs. Dave shifted restlessly in the hard chairs wondering how in the world the manufacturers of the furniture thought the seats were comfortable.
She eagerly dug into the ice cream, and he managed to tease a few laughs out of her. His stomach flipped when she smiled that brilliant smile at him. The smile always reached her ears, and her eyes shone brightly. And the expression was meant for him.
Marrying Emily had been a last minute decision, but it was the best one he'd ever made. He'd waffled with proposing to Emily because the thought of the relationship possibly ending in divorce made him feel ill. But after Morgan's close call with Billy Flynn, Dave realized time was short and he should spend that time with her. He proposed as soon as they got in his truck to leave the airstrip. His heart dropped when she said no, but she made him promise to really think about it and ask again when they weren't stressed out.
But after a few days, he still felt the same. He wanted to fight with her over closet space, dedicate his next book to her as his wife, and wake up to that beautiful smile while he lay on the edge of the mattress. So three weeks later, he bought a ring and popped the question again one night as they snuggled in bed before sleep. Not wanting a big wedding production, they immediately applied for a marriage license, and planned to be married by Jimmy as soon as they could.
Three days later they arrived at the church only to find the team along with Will, Henry, Jack, Kevin, and Strauss waiting patiently in the pews. After the shock of surprise passed, Dave and Emily felt genuinely happy their friends were present for their wedding. Everyone later met at Dave's favorite Italian restaurant where Hotch had reserved a room. Emily doubled over in laughter as Jimmy recounted the days before where Garcia had stalked and pestered him into telling her the day and time of the wedding. Apparently through her computer savvy, she found the marriage license application. And Hotch told Dave Strauss had been invited to soften her up to two colleagues getting married and having the team step down for two weeks so the Rossis could go on their honeymoon. Strauss seemed genuinely happy for them…or it may have been the first bottle of wine she split with Reid talking. But truly, the day had turned out better than they could have imagined.
"Mmmmmm, that was delicious," Emily sighed contently.
Cocking his head, Dave smiled at her. She not only finished all of the ice cream, but polished off the cone as well. He gestured to the napkin sitting on the table in front of her. "I think you left a little bit of ice cream there. You want to be sure to clean that up."
His answer came as the sticky, balled up napkin hit him in the face.
Picking up their bags, Dave walked beside Emily back to their gate. A quick look at board showed their flight as still indefinitely delayed, but they hoped it would change by the time they got back. As they approached the seating area, Emily's phone rang.
Pulling the phone out of her purse, her eyes widened in surprise. "It's my mom."
Looking at his watch, Dave's forehead furrowed. "Isn't she in still in Hong Kong?"
"Yeah, and its eleven p.m. there." She frowned with worry. "Hello?"
"Hello, Emily."
The worry lines in Emily's forehead deepened. While her mother wasn't the warmest person, the Ambassador's icy greeting was unusual. "Hi, Mom. Is everything all right?"
Her question was met with complete silence. For a moment, she thought the line went dead. Emily was about to open her mouth when her ears rang with words that made her blood turn to ice water.
"I'm contemplating why my daughter didn't bother to tell me she was getting married," her mother replied obviously in a controlled rage. It was a tone Emily was familiar during her teenage years.
Emily's throat constricted, and her heart fell somewhere to the soles of her feet. She'd planned to tell her mother about eloping, really she had. But she made up excuses that her mother was busy with her latest assignment, and making last minute honeymoon plans had taken up Emily's time. Emily figured she would tell her mom after the honeymoon or two-weeks after that…or maybe a month later.
"Mom…" she started, but the Ambassador cut in.
"I was also contemplating why I never even knew about the man you married." Ice cubes jingled in a glass in the background. Emily guessed this was an alcohol fueled phone call. Her mother chose vodka tonics when something pissed her off.
Rubbing her now throbbing temple, Emily licked her dry lips. "Listen, Mom, I was going to tell you-"
"Oh, you didn't have to." The Ambassador spit out venomously. "Would you like to know how I found out? I found out from my junior assistant. Yes, she congratulated me after finding the pictures of you and your husband on Facebook. And then she asked me why I wasn't there."
Fuck, fuck, fuck echoed over and over in Emily's brain. This was not good, so not good. Not only did her mother find out about the wedding, but she found out through Facebook. Someone must have posted the pictures and tagged them, and the assistant who was on Emily's Friends List saw them. Black spots danced in front of Emily's eyes. Intense nausea settled in her stomach making her feel like she would vomit at any moment. Dave tilted his head at her, frowning with concern, but she ignored him.
In all of her life, and through all of the stupid things she had done (and there were many stupid things), Emily had never heard her mother so angry…and so hurt. Even through the fury, Emily could detect the pain in her mother's words. Profiling was sometimes a curse.
"I…I…I'm so sorry," Emily finally managed. "I never met for it to happen like this."
Short, deep breaths filled Emily's ears. "Do you have any idea what this looks like? It is professionally embarrassing for the daughter of an Ambassador to run off and get married without telling anyone." Now there was the mother Emily had known and grown up with.
"Not to mention how humiliating it is to find out something about your own daughter from a member of the junior staff!"
Then something surprising happened. She actually heard her mother's voice shake, and not from anger. "I know I wasn't the best mother to you, but I thought we were getting past this. I thought we were both trying to fix our relationship, but obviously I was the only one." It was hardly a sound, but Emily could've sworn she heard a sniffle.
"Emily, you have pulled a lot of really horrible stunts over the years, but this one really tops them all. Not inviting your own mother to your wedding…" A tiny sob escaped from her mother, and it made Emily's heart clench painfully. "That is about the worst thing you could ever do to me."
Her own throat was clogged with tears. "Mom, please I can explain."
"I can't imagine you would have any logical explanation for this situation, and I don't want to hear any more of your silly excuses. You don't have to bother." It was the last thing Emily heard before the line went dead.
As she listened to the dial tone her own breathing increased. Slowly hitting the end button, she staggered slightly, but Dave caught her before she fell. Taking her arm, he led to her to a nearby gate, devoid of people. He helped her sit down in one of the chairs. She fell heavily against the vinyl, causing the material to squeak.
"What happened?" He rubbed a hand up and down her back.
She sucked in a shaky breath. "My mom found out about the wedding."
"And I take it she wasn't very happy."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Emily closed her eyes. "No…she's pissed off."
He tightened his arm around her. "How did she even find out?"
"Fucking Facebook," Emily snapped out. "Someone posted pictures and tagged them. Her assistant found them through the status update list and congratulated her." Barking a hollow laugh, she shook her head. "My mother found out I got married through Facebook."
A moment went by and the weight of the situation started to settle. Emily covered her eyes so Dave wouldn't see the tears. She also didn't want to face him after that admission. She knew he had negative feelings about all the social networking sites she frequently used. "You should've heard her, Dave. She was so angry at me for not inviting her to the wedding, for not telling her about you. I really screwed up this time."
Gently, he asked, "You never told her about me?"
Slowly, she lifted her head to him. She didn't realize she'd blurted that out. While his expression remained neutral, she could see the hurt in his brown eyes. Deep down, she'd always been terrified she'd screw up the one most important relationship to her, and now it looked like it happened.
"David, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "It was nothing against you, I swear. I don't want you to think I was ashamed of us because I'm not. I-I just…" She chewed her lip, swallowing heavily. "My mother has never been happy with the men I date, not once. She'd always ask a million questions about them and then pick them apart. It didn't matter if it was his occupation or what socks he wore, she always found something to trash. And then if she met them…she would interrogate them, finding fault with every little thing they said. Then my insecurities about the guys would get the best of me and it would pretty much be over after that."
Blinking rapidly, she felt a warm tear slip down her cheek. "I didn't want her to do that to you. I didn't want her to tear you down and then I'd fuck it up because of that." She shrugged helplessly. "Too late for the me fucking it up part."
"Excuse me, but that's my wife you're talking about." Pulling her close, Dave kissed the top of her head, and warmth trickled down from the top of her head. "You have not screwed anything up." He brushed his thumb over her rings. "Till death to us part, remember? Besides, we have to make it at least twenty-four hours; can't have Strauss win the pool."
That earned him a watery chuckle, and eased a little bit of the weight in her chest. "I'm really sorry. I never meant to hide this."
"I know you are." He rested a cheek against her hair.
She allowed herself a moment to revel in the feeling of his arms around her. Pressing her nose to the warm skin of his neck, Emily inhaled his musky, masculine scent, calming her knotted insides. Then she pulled back, overwhelmed by the love for her husband and for how much he loved her. "Thank you." He kissed her lips before pressing his lips to her forehead. "Go ahead and call your mom back," he murmured, his soft goatee lightly brushing against her skin.
She wanted to laugh again. It was a little scary how well the man could profile her. Pulling out her phone, she immediately dialed back the Embassy. However, when she finally connected with her mother's office, the line went dead. She frantically tried several times, meeting the same result. Panic bubbled inside her chest. Each time she was met with the dial tone, Emily's heart hurt more and more. While she and her mother never had a perfect relationship, the thought of never speaking to her again was beyond imaginable. Even more so because it was Emily's fault. She didn't think she could live with that.
The eleventh time Emily got the dial tone after told she to wait for the Ambassador she slammed her phone down on the chair next to her. "She's not answering. I keep getting disconnected." Her head fell back. "What have I done?"
"Could she have already gone to bed?"
"I told the office it was her daughter and it was an emergency. She would answer." Her voice cracking, Emily felt an onslaught of tears. She didn't want to start sobbing in the airport.
Standing up, rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants. "I'm-I'm going to go for a walk. Clear my head."
"Do you want me to go with you?" Dave started to rise, but she stopped him.
"No, I'd rather be by myself. I'll keep an eye on the boards for our flight, and come back if anything changes." Protectively, she crossed her arms over her stomach.
He cocked an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Yeah, I won't be very long." With heavy footsteps, she started down the concourse.
It took everything Dave could do not to go with her. Leaning back in the chair, he let out a long breath.
Over the course of their relationship, Emily had told him about growing up with her mother. It certainly was the not the same warm upbringing he'd had with his family. Elizabeth seemed to have been preoccupied with her career during most of Emily's childhood. But they'd turned a corner over the last year. During the last few months, the phone conversations he overheard between Emily and Elizabeth had gone from stiff and formal to actually warm and friendly. Still, he understood why Emily hadn't told her mother about him. It took her a long time to trust people, even if it was her own mother. And God knows he didn't tell his own family about Emily until three months earlier. They both knew they'd finally gotten it right, and neither wanted to jinx it.
Tapping the armrest, Dave eyed Emily's cell phone on the chair next to him. He picked it up, thumbing through the call list. He found the number to the Embassy and before he could lose his nerve, he punched the call button. He asked to speak to Ambassador Prentiss. When the operator asked him to identify himself, Dave gave his name. There was a moment of silence before the operator softly told him, "One moment, please."
He held his breath waiting to be connected. Then the other end picked up and a rough female voice answered, "This is Ambassador Prentiss."
It occurred to Dave he had no idea what to say. How was he supposed to introduce himself? Hello, this is the man you have never met and never heard of that married your daughter.
He worked his jaw several times before any words came out. "This…this is David Rossi. I'm-I'm…." He paused, still not knowing what to say.
"I know who you are Mr. Rossi," Elizabeth quietly interjected.
He sighed, thankful he didn't have to actually say the words. He could stand toe-to-toe with the nastiest serial killers, but mother-in-laws still scared the hell out of him. "I called to talk to you about what happened."
"I don't think there's anything to talk about."
"Please, Ambassador. I'm just asking for five minutes of your time…for Emily's sake."
The silence that followed was unnerving, but she finally relented. "Okay, Mr. Rossi."
Licking his lips, he looked up at the ceiling. "Well, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I work with Emily at the B.A.U. and I'm sure you know our schedules don't really allow us to go out and meet people. Falling in love…just sort of happened. When we decided to see each other, we had to be careful so it wouldn't interfere with our work.
"And it wasn't only being careful with the job; we really wanted to protect the relationship all together." His mouth went dry for what he prepared to say next. "I've-uh…I have been married before." While he wanted to be honest with Elizabeth, he didn't want to be too honest and admit he'd been married three times previously. "And I know Emily hasn't had a lot of luck with men. I can speak for the both us when we realized we'd finally gotten it right, and didn't want to risk messing it up."
He looked out the windows where the dark clouds still continued to dump sheets of rain. "I didn't even tell my parents about Emily until this spring. I know that doesn't excuse it, but I hope it at least explains why we didn't invite people into our relationship."
"It does."
Her quiet, understanding tone bolstered him to go on. "As for the wedding…it was a spur of the moment thing. We decided we wanted to get married and not make a big production out it. The only reason there were other people at the ceremony is because our technical analyst found the marriage license and stalked our officiate until he gave up the time and place."
"You mean Ms. Garcia?" Elizabeth sounded dryly amused. "I only met her once, but she seemed capable of something like that."
"She's capable of things I'm not sure I want to know about."
This time a more comfortable silence stretched between then. Elizabeth released a relieved sigh into the phone. "I'm sure you know Emily and I haven't always gotten along. God knows I wasn't the mother she needed when she was growing up. And now…now." Stopping briefly, it seemed as if Elizabeth needed to gather what she planned to say next. "Now, I thought we were making progress. She finally started to open up to me about her friends, her work, her hobbies. And to find out she was dating someone she wanted to marry and I never knew about it quiet frankly hurts, Mr. Rossi.
"I saw the pictures of you and her on Facebook, and I have never seen her smile so much in a very long time." Elizabeth's voice started to wobble a little bit. "I just wanted her to be happy and seeing how happy she was in those pictures…I wouldn't have ruined that. I just wanted to know, I just wanted to be happy for her, too." Being a profiler and having known many women gave Dave the ability to detect when a woman cried even when he couldn't see them. And he could definitely hear the tears in Elizabeth's tone.
He nodded even though he couldn't see her. "I know, I know. It should have never happened like this and I am very sorry." He straightened up in the chair. "We certainly owe you a very nice husband-meets-mother-in-law dinner. Emily and I are on our way to Italy today and we'll be there for two weeks. If you can get a couple of days off, we would love to meet you for dinner."
He heard an indrawn breath followed by a prolonged silence before Elizabeth spoke again. "You're asking me to Italy? You're asking me to meet you two in Italy during your honeymoon?" She sounded incredulous.
"Yes, I am," he replied earnestly. Strangely, he didn't kick himself for making the offer. It was simply the right thing to do.
"You are very serious in making this right." She didn't ask a question, but rather stated it as fact. "I can see my daughter married wisely." Then Elizabeth shifted from hurt mother back to dignified diplomat. "That won't be necessary. I prefer not to interrupt your honeymoon. We can meet in D.C. when you and Emily arrive back."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Rossi." Her voice sounded warm and genuine.
"You're welcome, Ambassador, and please call me Dave."
"And Elizabeth to you."
Glancing up, he saw Emily approaching him again. "Emily is here. Would you like to talk to her?"
"I would, very much."
Holding out the phone, he told Emily, "It's your mother."
Her eyes wide with relief, she immediately put the phone to her ear. "Mom?"
After she sat down next to him again, his wife's tense shoulders slumped with the release of tension. She cried a little more throughout the conversation as she confirmed what Dave had told Elizabeth before and added more to his explanation. Emily told Elizabeth she was sorry she couldn't see her in Italy, but that she looked forward to meeting up with her when they got back. Finally, he grinned widely as Emily said to her mom, "I love you and I'll see you later. Bye."
Hitting the end button, Emily closed her eyes, releasing a massive sigh. Then she turned slightly to kiss Dave soundly on the lips. He made a surprised sound, but soon lost himself in the flavor and texture of her mouth. Her lips fitted firmly over his. Gently stroking her tongue, he found she still tasted of chocolate and vanilla from her ice cream. He reigned himself in before their PG kiss became R rated.
Placing her hands on his face, she brushed her thumbs over his cheeks. "You are a really good man, David Rossi and I love you."
He smiled under her palms, loving the warmth of her touch seeping into his skin. "All I care about is being a good husband."
Her brown eyes shone at him. "Well, you are starting off as an excellent husband."
His tone turned more mischievous. "You can certainly share that part of our honeymoon with everyone on Facebook and Twitter."
Playfully, she kissed his nose. "Don't worry; I will."