Another part of the sequence of stories I'm posting. The stories can stand for themselves, but still belong all together.
Thanks to REIDFANATIC and lovelover7891 for Beta Reading and the great advice.
Also thanks to all the lovely people, who leave me reviews every week. I really appreciate them and try to take them into account. One of them asked if there is going to be a wedding and I think I won't spoil the surprise by telling you the wedding will be posted on their wedding day (10/16/2012). So there will be another part next week and then on the 16th.
Criminal Minds is not mine (or Emily would still be there).
Overwhelmed
Emily smiled while leading Fran into the great hall where she had been told she would find her mother and friend. She knew the day would be stressful; after picking up her future mother-in-law, seating charts, programs, and flower arrangements were awaiting her, not even to mention trying at least three meal combinations and whatever else Elizabeth or Garcia would come up with. It had been a relief talking to Fran for the past hour since the woman seemed to understand that there were other things out there than the wedding. For the first time in weeks she had been able to just talk about a bad book she had recently read and the fact that Declan was improving on his language skills in school.
But the happy moment ended when she entered the big room and took in her surroundings. Her smile fell as she took in the bright red roses that were set on a table in four different arrangements.
"Emily what do you think?" Her mother hurried over, not even acknowledging Fran. "We were thinking this is the best way to place the tables, but of course now we have to change the seating charts." The older woman handed her a stack of papers, while her daughter looked at her with wide eyes. "I already started."
"You must be Mrs. Morgan. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Elizabeth moved on, guiding the other mother to the table with the flower arrangements. "Miss Garcia and I were thinking the second one, but maybe you have a different perspective on this. You know after working on this all day we really don't know what we are thinking anymore."
Emily stared blankly at the back of her mother, taking in the sweet laugh that followed. The real world had hit her in just that instance. She sank on one of the chairs, getting a glance at the arrangement her mother was talking about. Something Emily didn't want on any of her tables, but she had given up on arguing a long time ago, because neither her mother nor Pen would listen to her. She flipped through the first few pages, realizing that the list of guests had gone from 200 to 250 by now, adding another 50 names she didn't recognize. Her eyes then fell on a seating chart her mother had started to fill out. Thanks to the red marker she soon knew where she, Derek and the kids would be sitting, but then she didn't find many names that look familiar to her. All the tables around her own were filled with names that seemed to be important, as she had heard them before, but she couldn't put a single face to them.
"Mother, where are you planning on seating my friends?"
"I believe table 12 and 13 would be appropriate."
Emily looked back at the map and swallowed. The two tables her mother had just named were placed far in the back and she would probably not be able to see her friends all night long. She sighed trying to keep her frustration down and not fall back into fighting mode with her mother. She flipped to the next pages showing a humongous cake. "Chocolate Cake with Marzipan," she read to herself, her eyes wandering between the picture and the ingredients.
"What happened to the cake we decided on last week?"
Her mother turned: "I talked to a few people and it turns out chocolate is more popular with our guests." She smiled, before giving her attention back to Fran and the flowers.
"E, I was thinking we could have a laser show instead of the fireworks. I always wanted to do that." Garcia had made her way through the room to meet her.
"A laser show?" Emily didn't even listen to her friend's explanation but wandered further into the room, taking in all the arrangements that had been made while she had been gone. The more she looked at it the less she could find what she had actually chosen. The colors she had decided on as a twelve-year-old, mint green, a soft violet and white were completely replaced with pompous colors, red and gold – probably the choice of her mother. She came to a table where the programs rested, printed on the paper she had disliked from the first moment she saw them, but she smiled anyway and grabbed one to look at the small picture they had chosen to print inside, but when she opened the program, it was just another disappointment. There were two new pictures: still Derek and her, but rather than being together, they were in separate pictures. She took a deep breath so she wouldn't explode in the same instance as her eyes wandered over the page.
"October 20th, 2012" She had to say the words to herself to believe what she just read.
"Mother?" She slowly turned, hoping that the printer had made a mistake.
"Yes dear."
"These programs say the wedding is on October 20th, 2012." She was sure that she saw a bit of guilt on the older woman's face and knew immediately that it was not the printer who had switched the date.
"The 20th gives us almost a week more for arrangements, the band we wanted was not available on the original date, not to mention that a lot more people are available to come on that Saturday than on a Tuesday."
Emily stared at her. Her frustration was at such a point that she didn't even seem to be able to yell at her mother anymore. Her eyes went back to the piece of paper in her hands. Derek smiling at her would usually calm her down, but in this moment it didn't do any good. It just made her sad. Their big day had been transformed into a public event where everything mattered but her own wishes. At first, she had tried to ignore the fact by agreeing to move from the garden to the hall she didn't really like, but enough was enough.
"She is okay with the laser show by the way." As much as Emily loved her friend, she had to hold unto herself to not rip her into pieces. Garcia's timing couldn't have been any worse. The bride-to-be let go of the paper in her hand, not caring where it would go.
"Honey you are ruining that. We don't have many extras."
Emily couldn't have cared any less. She silently took a few steps back to where the group was standing.
"I assume the invitations are send out by now? Saying I'm getting married at the 20th?"
"Of course," her mother looked at her irritated. "The wedding is in two weeks."
"Well I guess you will have to call a lot of people and tell them there will be no wedding on the 20th."
"E, why are you saying that?" Garcia moved closer with wide eyes.
"Because on my wedding, I will have my friends sitting right by me. My wedding will be in the back yard. The cake will be strawberry, and these ridiculous pieces of paper..." she waved over to where the programs were placed, "…will be replaced by the ones Derek and I choose, there will be a firework show..." she glanced over at her friend, who opened her mouth to respond, but simply shook her head: "…I don't want to hear it Garcia, if you want a laser show go ahead and accept Kevin's proposal." She then faced her mother again, not able to stop herself from raising her voice on the last sentence: "But most importantly, I am getting married on October 16th and I don't care what your guests think about it, because it is MY wedding and we didn't just choose a date based on who can come or not."
Silence had fallen on the group, Elizabeth and Garcia were shocked by the outburst, while Fran just wasn't sure of what to say.
"If you'll excuse me now."
With that she walked past the women and left the room. She didn't really realize where she was going until she steered her car back into her own driveway. Then she followed her instinct, ran upstairs grabbing a big bag, and grabbed clothes for Derek and her that seemed appropriate for her plan, before heading to the kids' rooms and then doing the same. Within ten minutes, she was back out of the house heading to the schools. She was just done talking to the secretary when her phone rang. She rolled her eyes as she saw Derek's name. It had taken him excessively long to call.
"What's up?" She asked innocently while signing a few papers to release Declan.
"That's what I'm asking you. Penelope just called me in tears, saying you yelled at them that the wedding is off, then run out and now won't answer your phone."
Emily sighed, turning away from the secretary with a smile.
"I will explain that later. Can you get the weekend off?"
"Why?"
"I'm just getting the kids and will leave town for the weekend. If you are coming I will pick you up, if not I guess I see you Sunday night."
"That bad, huh?" She smiled at his interpretation of her words.
"Are you coming?"
"Sure. It's supposed to be our weekend off anyway and the paperwork won't run away."
"Good, I will be at Quantico in about forty minutes." She made out Declan walking down the hall and waved at him. "Oh and you might want to call your mom, tell her I didn't mean to offend her. She had nothing to do with this, but happened to be in the middle of it."
"Okay?" Confusion was clearly in his voice.
"I will explain later. Declan just came out."
"I love you."
"I love you too." She shut her phone and gave the secretary her thanks before she put an arm around her son guiding him out of the school.
"So you still love him, that's a good sign."
Emily glanced at the boy not sure what he meant.
"Last time you pulled something like this off I had to live with your parents for a week." He clarified. She smiled, shaking her head at his detective work.
"We'll just go to the cabin for the weekend and you are certainly not going to see my mother there, or I might lose it."
He grinned: "Did you finally tell them that you don't like masses of roses?"
She nodded slowly not wanting to go into too much detail.
"Did you also mention that the hall makes everything look like a funeral?" His face was so serious that she couldn't help herself to start laughing.
"You are definitely my son." She finally replied, giving him a squeeze.
They had reached the elementary school that was only a short walking distance from the Middle School. Minutes later, they left with a very excited and noisy five year old. With both kids buckled in she made her way out of the town to Quantico to pick up Derek. Not wanting to risk running into Garcia she simply called him to announce her arrival. She then turned to listen to her children discuss their favorite teachers. Finally, Morgan made his way to the car and they were ready to leave.
For the three-hour drive to the cabin, Morgan was doing his best to keep Annie busy, as the little girl got bored fast after her brother decided he'd rather listen to his iPod than her. He kept her busy with little games, until she finally napped off. When she didn't respond anymore he sank into his seat.
"I sent JJ to your mother's place to help my mom to fix what our two crazy ladies did." He still had no idea what had outraged her that much that they were leaving town, but he assumed that Fran would need some help to work through it.
"There is not much to fix. The wedding they are planning is not going to happen." He glanced over at her, not sure what she meant by that.
"They changed everything Derek. There is not one piece of the wedding left that either of us had in mind." She sighed pulling into a small road winding up into the woods. "And the worst part is that they don't even purposely try to ruin the wedding, it's just who they are."
He smiled as she was trying to defend her mother and Garcia although she had been so ticked off about them a few hours before. Now that they had reached the wood's it only took them a few more minutes until they got to the little cabin.
"You never told me about this."
"You never asked." She smirked, before getting out of the car. She went to the back to grab the bag she had filled with their clothes and a few toys for Annie as well as the book Declan was reading.
"Can you take Annie?" She looked over the car to Derek.
"No need for that." He grinned pointing to the door that just opened revealing a bright awake girl taking in her surroundings. Declan was already out of the other door heading towards the trees.
"I wanna come Declan." Annie jumped to the ground and run after her brother.
"Declan, I want you to stay close enough to the cabin that I can hear you yelling."
"No fun." He turned glaring at his mother.
"Sorry, I just have the wrong job to set you free." She half apologized but didn't change her mind.
She closed the trunk and then headed to the cabin, Derek right behind her. Inside the air was horrible, since nobody had aired the rooms in a while. She sighed and let the bag fall on the couch, starting to open the windows.
"We used to come up whenever we were in DC in the summer." She started to explain the place, turning from the kitchen window to where she thought he was standing. She yelped when he was standing right in front of her though. His toothy grin widened as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Sometime after this wedding we should come here without the kids."
"What good would that be?" She asked with a grin growing on her lips.
"Well..." He leaned in to place a soft kiss on her lips. "I'm pretty sure we can think of something."
She shook her head in amusement, before she wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer to kiss him again. They deepened their kiss as his tongue started to explore her mouth. Finally, he took a step away while taking a deep breath. "I'm afraid we need to save this for our honeymoon."
She shook her head again, before grabbing his hands with hers. "You still want to know what made me blow up?"
He pulled one of her hands up to his lips before turning it and placing a light kiss on her palm. "You mean besides spending hours, no days with your mom? What would that be?"
"The programs said the wedding was on October 20th. She changed my wedding day to some random day because more of her stupid politician friends can come on that day."
Derek stared at her quietly taking in the information she had just provided him. He had a few comments on his lips but none of them could fully cover everything he wanted to say. Lastly, he just pulled her into a hug.
"You know being gone for the weekend seems really good about right now."
She smiled against his shoulder.
"Anyway, I don't know about you but I'm getting married on that Tuesday and I really don't care what her friends think about it." She looked up at him after saying those words. "All I need is you and those kids out there."
He smiled kissing her temple before letting go of her. "I'm pretty sure Mama and JJ will fix most of those issues. Mama knows why we chose the date, in fact she kind of gave me the idea, and JJ should know most of our decoration and food choices, so does Garcia if she is not getting carried away." His finger ran over her cheek: "So I think I will just lean back and forget about it for the next two days. In fact whoever mentions the word wedding in the next two days should pay 5 bucks into Declan's college fund."
