Catch Me If You Can
Disclaimer: CBS owns Criminal Minds...
Summary: With a wedding on the horizon no one is thrilled at that fact...
A/N: A little something that was given to me, I hope you all enjoy it. Total humor piece, don't take too serious.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.
"Tradition is the illusion of permanence." Woody Allen
"If for any reason whatsoever on why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace" the reverend asked.
As the doors opened, JJ's head turned to look at her dark haired friend standing in the doorway of the church and quickly rushed to intruder, before whispering to Morgan.
"Please continue" Morgan said, after looking at the groom's face.
JJ stood in the middle of the vestibule watching her dark haired friend in the midst of a total meltdown while pacing back and forth while muttering.
She turned her blonde head to the inside of the church and saw Emily standing their looking at the reverend before turning her head to the groom-to-be.
Hotch stopped pacing and approached the door, looking in at the sight before him and started to move forward.
"What do you think you're doing?" JJ hissed, grabbing at his arm.
"I'm here for the wedding, of course" Hotch said, looking down at his friend, "After all I was invited."
"You're not going to stop the wedding?" JJ asked with a raised eyebrow, eyeing her friend's demeanour.
The dark haired man gave the blonde a look before saying, "I would never stand in the way of Emily's happiness."
Hotch wrapped an arm around JJ and led them into the church, while the soon to be newlyweds turned to the two guests.
"Sorry, I was stuck in traffic" Hotch said, taking a seat beside JJ, "Please proceed."
Emily bit her lip, before turning to her groom, "Are you ready, sweetie?"
"Of course" he said, turning back to the reverend, "Please."
Hotch clenched his fist together as Emily shot him a look but turned back to the groom.
"All right, I'll take it from the top again" the reverend started, "If for any reason you find these two should not be married speak now, or forever hold your peace."
Hotch could feel the eyes of the small wedding guests on him but he didn't care.
Standing up he made his way to the altar, ignoring the tugging hands of Morgan and JJ.
"Emily" Hotch said, "This is a mistake."
"Excuse me?" the reverend asked, looking over the bride's shoulder to the intruder, "But if this is your protest, I'll have you know that I've officiated over thirty seven wedding..."
"Stop" the groom said to the reverend, "I think that comment is directed to me. Is there a problem?"
"Yes" Hotch told the couple, "I know that this isn't the right time to tell you this, but this isn't traditional."
Emily turned to Hotch, "Can you please either sit down or leave? I don't care about tradition, Hotch. This is my wedding day and I just want to have some peace."
"Since when have you not cared about tradition?" Hotch said, "You know that deep down this isn't right. You want to get married for the right reasons, and this isn't the right reasons. You don't love him."
The groom turned to Morgan, "Can you please do something about him?"
Morgan sighed getting up, "Hotch, come on. Lets go take a walk..."
"No" he said, "Emily look at me, please."
Emily rolled her eyes, "Look Hotch, this wedding is what I want and there's no amount of pleading or side stepping facts about tradition that will make me change my mind. So either sit down or leave, but you can't stop this wedding."
Hotch felt Morgan moved him to the front pew and pull him down beside him and Dave.
"How the hell can she be expected to continue?" Hotch murmured to his friends, "She's in a church and she's not religious. She's marrying him and she's not in love with him. She's in love with me."
"You can't change this Hotch" JJ said, leaning forward to her friend, "You had your chance and you took it for granted. All you can do now is be happy for her, the way she tried to be happy for you and Beth."
"Beth was a mistake, and I've paid the price for that" Hotch muttered, not wanting to remember his ill-fated romance, "Did I miss my shot with Emily?"
"No" Garcia hissed beside the blonde agent, "There's still a chance. She hasn't said 'I do' yet, there's always a chance until she says 'I do'."
"Do you mind?" Emily said, turning to her friends, "We're trying to get married."
"But you haven't even invited everyone" Hotch said, "Where's the rest of our friends at the BAU? What about your parents?"
"Like I'd invite them" Emily snorted, "Hotch this is about me. Can't you just let me be happy?"
"I want you to be happy Emily" Hotch said, "But with him, really?"
"Hey, I resent that" the groom protested, "Look if you can't be happy for us then maybe you should go. We want this wedding to be a pleasant one and look around, I say we did a pretty good job up until now."
"Way to steal credit for my fast magic." Garcia mumbled.
"Emily, we wanted this wedding to be different from any other" the groom said, "But if you're having second thoughts or if you want to hold off to think things over..."
Emily looked out into the crowd shaking her head, "Lets just get this over with."
"Are you sure?" the Reverend asked.
"Yes" Emily said, taking a deep breath trying to focus her attention on the man beside her, not the one in the front pew.
Hotch leaned forward, "Emily? Emily, Emily, look at me."
"What?" she asked spinning around, "What Hotch, what do you want?"
"Don't do this in haste" he told her, "Think this over. Do you really want this to be your future? Married to him?"
"I'm not the bad guy here" the groom said, "I only did what you failed to do, which was go after someone I care about."
"But you're not the right one for her" Hotch said, "Emily, you can say you're not for tradition and that you don't want your parents here and I can actually believe all that but..."
"But what?" the Reverend asked, leaning forward.
"Aren't you suppose to be on our side?" Emily asked him.
"I'm on the side of the Lord" the Reverend said, "And surely you can believe that he'd want all your bases covered?"
Emily looked over at the groom, then at Hotch, "You might as well spill it, Hotch. What are you going to say?"
"You're always known to follow your heart" Hotch told Emily, "And I know that deep down in yours it's telling you that this isn't right. That if you listened, it would tell you that we're meant to be together."
Emily closed her eyes before taking a deep breath, "I've made my choice, you're just going to have to accept that. It's too late."
The brunette turned around and nodded to the Reverend, "I'm ready."
Hotch leaned back in the pew, watching the last shred of happiness slip away as the Reverend began.
"Do you Emily Prentiss take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?" he asked, "To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others till death do you part?"
"I do" her soft voice said, not once seeing the man who loved her wilt at hearing that.
"And do you, Spencer Reid take Emily to be your lawfully wedded wife?" the Reverend asked, "To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others till death do you part?"
"I do." Reid answered, grinning at the brunette bride.
Hotch woke up with a start, a slight gasp escaping his mouth as he sat up quickly. Looking around on the BAU jet he saw his team fast asleep.
He let out a low exhale as he turned to the brunette asleep next to him. Reaching over, he lightly placed a warm hand on her which made the brunette stir.
"Hotch?" she quietly said, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing" he whispered, "Go back to sleep."
Emily turned to face him, her eyes adjusting to the darkness in the cabin, "Hey, what's the matter?"
He looked at her dark brown eyes and saw the genuine concern in them, that made him feel a sense of ease and peace that he hadn't felt since he ended things with Beth.
"Just a bad dream" Hotch whispered as he took in the team once again.
Leaning back into the seat, he set his hands on the shared table and saw Emily reach a hand across touching him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Emily asked, "Hotch, remember what you told me about talking about bad days? Well the same thing goes for me about sharing. It's ok."
He gave a small smile, "No that's all right. It was just a bad dream."
"Ok, if you're sure" Emily said, looking at her watch, "I'm going to get some coffee do you want anything?"
Hotch raised an eyebrow, "I thought you gave up caffeine?"
Rolling her eyes, "I'm backsliding, ok. Well sometimes. Don't give me a hard time about it."
Hotch lightly chuckled as he followed her to the small kitchenette, reaching in for a small mug he passed the brunette a steamy mug of coffee. The two quickly turned hearing a small whimper coming from the small cabin.
Emily set the coffee down and wandered over to see Reid fidgeting, Hotch saw her tenderly touch the younger man's face and quickly flashed back to the nightmare that he awoke from.
He felt envy that it was Reid that she was comforting while he vowed to himself that he'd let his feelings be known to the brunette.
"Seems bad dreams are making their way through the team" Emily said picking up her coffee preparing to return to her seat when Hotch placed a hand on her elbow, "Hotch?"
"Can we talk?" he asked searching her chocolate brown ones, "It's kind of important."
"Sure" Emily said, turning to look at him then frowned, "Hey, are you all right?"
"About my nightmare" Hotch started, "You were in it."
"Oh?" she asked raising an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yeah. Now hear me out, ok?" Hotch started slowly watching her nod, "You were in it, and I couldn't stop it from happening."
"Stop what from happening?" she asked puzzled.
"The last few weeks I've..." he started, "Beth and I are over all right."
"Oh, sorry" she said, frowning, "But what does that have to do with me in your nightmare, Hotch?"
"I've noticed that my feelings... Well lately they've changed" Hotch quickly said, "For you. My feelings they've changed about you."
"Huh?" she asked, backing up startled, "Excuse me?"
Hotch set his coffee down on the counter and grasped the woman's shoulders to stop her from moving away from him, "Emily, I have feelings for you."
Her eyes widened, jaw dropping and the only sound that could be heard was the snoring of their sleeping teammates.
"What?" she asked again, "You what?"
"In my dream I lost out on any chance of us" he began, "I had to stand there and watch you marry someone else."
Raising an eyebrow at that, "I was getting married?"
"Oh yeah" Hotch said, looking over into the cabin towards the snoring Dave.
Emily frowned at that, but placed her hands on his cheeks turning his face towards her.
"And?" she asked.
"And I was in pure hell. Emily, please tell me I haven't missed my chance. That there's still hope for us to..." Hotch told her.
Emily covered his mouth with her hand, "Shh. Hotch, listen to me, ok?" she started into his dark eyes, "If you want a chance, all you ever had to do was ask me out."
Hotch placed his hand over hers that covered his mouth and removed it, "So there's still a chance?"
"All you ever had to do was ask" she told him giving him a smile, as he leaned in pulling her close to him, "Are you planning on kissing me?"
Hotch grinned and his dimples came into play, "I was thinking about it."
"Stop thinking too much" she said wrapping her arms around him and pulling Hotch into a deep kiss one that he responded to.
Hotch quietly moved Emily backwards to the wall beside the counter, giving everything into the kiss.
As he moved from her mouth to her neck he nipped on her collarbone, he felt a surge of pride run through him when he heard Emily moan at the bite, as he pulled her close to him they separated once they hit turbulence.
"Wow" she panted for breath, while Hotch eyed her kiss swollen lips and all he wanted to do was kiss her again, "That was..."
"Yeah" he finished, Hotch moved a strand of hair behind her ear, "When we get back to Quantico, I'd like to take you to breakfast, if that's all right with you?"
"Sure" Emily said, biting her lower lip, "I'd like that."
As the two moved back to their seats, Emily leaned forward, "So who was I marrying in your dream? Huh, was it some big famous actor?"
"No, more like someone we know" Hotch said, turning to glance at the still snoozing Dave, "What would you say if it was someone we see daily?"
"Probably wouldn't care, just as long as it isn't someone I'm close to." she said with a shrug, "So who was it?"
Hotch leaned in and whispered, "Reid."
"WHAT?" she shouted, waking up the team and looking over at the lengthy man who mumbling at the disturbance.
"Do you mind?" Dave said, "Some of us were sleeping."
Emily shuddered at that, while Hotch lightly pat her hand and put his professional manner back on. Now that he knew her reaction to his nightmare, he felt a lot better knowing that Emily was in his future.
"Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation it is a corpse." Winston Churchill
THE END
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