Mother
Disclaimer: I so don't own this.
Notes: I write this in tribute to my mother and all mothers, those still with us and those who have gone. You mean everything to us. And jupisan over at LJ for being so awesomely quick with answers.
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It was really too pleasant a Spring day in D.C. for people to be at such a quiet and austere place as a cemetery. But the hodge-podge group of people, from the sixteen year old Henry LaMontagne to entirely gray and seventy-five year old Dave Rossi, stood in a loose semi-circle facing the headstone of Haley Hotchner.
The Shasta lilies that Jack held clenched in his hands gleamed in the late afternoon sun. Odd that his last chance to visit his mother, at least for a while, was on Mother's Day. But college wasn't going to wait and there was too much to do. This was his idea and the rest of his strange family had decided that he shouldn't meet her alone. Happened every time he came to her, someone always volunteered to accompany him and it still didn't make seeing her any easier. Looking down, Jack brushed aside a stray tear.
His father's hand gently squeezed his shoulder. "We're here for you, buddy. Take your time."
Jack gave his father an embarrassed look before looking at the rest of the people who had come with him.
His step-mother Pen, standing by his father, Aunts JJ and Emily with Uncle Will and Henry between them, all at his right hand. Uncles Derek, Spencer, Sean, Aunt Jessica and Grandpa Dave at his left. All brought flowers, lilies, mums, carnations, roses. Grandpa Dave even brought sunflowers, which Jack knew his mother would have loved. Jack shifted uncomfortably. "Someone should say something… Formal…"
Derek took a very small step forward. "I will." He took a deep breath and gathered his courage, trying to find words that were elegant enough to do Haley justice. "We gather here to honor and give thanks to the late Hailey Hotchner, wife, mother, sister and friend. We thank her for giving us Jack, for giving him such a solid and lasting foundation of love and strength, before she was taken from us. Hopefully we've lived up to her expectations and raised her son as she would have wanted us to…"
Only Dave would interrupt such a solemn moment. "You mean like the time you taught Jack to brawl when he was fifteen, behind Hotch's back?" JJ gave a snort, trying to hold in a giggle.
"Hey now!" Giving a huff in Dave's direction, he answered with, "That bully wasn't just going to back off on his own! And that wasn't as bad as Penelope teaching him to tye-dye anything he could get his hands on when he was nine." Emily didn't try to hold in her quick bark of laughter.
Sean piped up. "Or when me, Henry and Jack almost burned down the kitchen trying to teach them how to cook?"
"Or when I came home one night to find my son covered in shoe polish?" Hotch offered a grin to the furiously blushing Jack. "Only to find out he was trying to shine my dress shoes like he'd seen Dave do?"
"Wait a minute, that wasn't as bad as Uncle Spencer trying to show Henry and I the correct dirt to water ratio for good mud balls."
"How about the time Aunt Emily had to sit us down for the 'sex talk' because she drew the short straw?" Henry grinned and received a glare from Will for being impertinent.
Finally, Derek tried to reign it in. "Anyway," he waited until the snickers and giggles died down, "knowing that nothing could replace a mother's care and guidance, we banded together and did our best to bring Jack and Henry up as respectable and well-rounded men. I think we did all right, considering, and if Haley were still with us, I'm sure she would have approved."
"Well, we didn't do to terribly, working under the 'takes a village to raise a child' idea." Spencer shrugged. "Besides, I think they ended up teaching this group of profilers more than we taught them!"
Smiles, ranging from wistful to mischievous, were shared amongst them.
And as Jack stepped forward to lay the lilies at his mother's headstone, he was suddenly grateful. Only his mother, watching over the whole mess of them, could have made sure that his father's team had stuck around long enough to see him grown. Watched over his best friend Henry too, for the same reasons.
He leaned a little further forward and kissed the top of her headstone. "Thanks Mom," he whispered.