Chapter 21
The wedding day had finally arrived and the house had never seen such a flurry of people and activity. Caterers and florists were performing an intricate dance around each other as they hurried to set the stage for the upcoming nuptials.
The downstairs game room had become the dressing room for the men of the BAU and the atmosphere was decidedly more relaxed than the rooms occupied by the women. Jackets and vests were hanging from every chair and the air was redolent with the smoke from the cigars Dave and Aaron were enjoying before the ceremony.
Derek and Reid were standing in front of a full-length mirror trimmed in black walnut as Reid tried unsuccessfully to wrestle the bow tie into shape. Derek swatted his hands away and stood behind Reid taking the ends of the silver satin tie in hand he made short work of the task. "I can't believe you don't know how to do this pretty boy, you wear bow ties often enough."
Reid shook his head, "No I wear pre-tied bow ties. I seem to be all thumbs when it comes to tying one on my own. I understand the concept in theory, but in application, I always seem to fail. When I was younger my mom tied them for me."
Derek patted him on the shoulder and grinned, "I'd be happy to give you a lesson for a change."
Reid shook his head no, "I don't think anything I learn today would stick, I'm too nervous."
Derek made the final adjustments to Reid's tie, making sure the ends were even and stepped back, turning the younger man to face him. "You have nothing to be worried about my man, this is a cake walk. Just get JJ down the aisle without tripping her and you're golden."
Reid sighed. "Thanks, Derek, now I have one more thing to worry about." Derek smiled and clapped Reid on the shoulder. "Trust me, Reid, you'll be fine."
Upstairs the atmosphere was rushed and hurried as Elizabeth Prentiss split her time between the two brides, fussing over all the little details necessary to make the day as perfect as possible for her daughter and future daughter in law. Her own wedding was a dignified affair; with attendants, ensuring every element had been checked and rechecked before crossing them off their exhaustive lists. While Emily and JJ's nuptials were also dignified, this wedding would be less a merger and more a sharing of their love with friends and family. She couldn't really say that what she shared with Gerald was love, perhaps a mutual respect and admiration was the most they could have ever hoped for their joining. Those had fallen by the wayside long ago and now they had a strained and publically cordial relationship but in actuality hadn't really spoken a private word to each other in too many years to count.
She missed him today and wasn't above admitting it to herself. She had always imagined they would present a united front for their only daughter's wedding, but his philandering, and the very public scandal attached to it, made his presence neither required nor desired. Emily would never forgive him for indulging his baser instincts with her best friend and Elizabeth could never forget seeing them in her bed, the smug smirk on her face and the satisfied smile on his. The affair with the under aged girl was the ultimate betrayal of their life together. She had walked away, clinging to the dwindling shreds of her dignity as she made a life for herself and Emily, while he made a mockery of his.
Shaking her head to clear the negative thoughts from her mind she slipped the mask of poise on as easily as a comfortable pair of shoes and walked into Emily's room, and stopped in her tracks as Emily turned from the mirror to face her. The gown was a beautiful diamond white, off the shoulder with a tuxedo neckline and pleated bodice falling into a sheath of glimmering satin to the floor. The jeweled accent below the bust and on the right hip matched perfectly the diamonds dripping from her ears and necklace. In a word, her daughter was stunning. Her hair pulled back into a classic chignon studded with tiny diamonds, caught and reflected the sunlight streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows. She looked both classically elegant and traditionally modern at the same time, and Elizabeth thought, she'd never seen her daughter look happier than in this moment.
Striding across the room, she took Emily's hands in hers, brought those long elegant fingers to her lips, and kissed the knuckles. "You are the most beautiful bride I've ever seen darling."
Emily leaned in and lightly brushed a kiss to her mother's cheek, giving the slight shoulders a squeeze before releasing her. "Thank you mother, I'm happy to hear my nerves aren't showing because believe me, I'm a wreck on the inside."
Elizabeth patted Emily's cheek, smiling in understanding, "I can't imagine you'd be otherwise, but rest assured it doesn't show. Now, do you have all you need? Something borrowed and all that?"
Emily laughed at her mother's attempt to distract, "Yes, I have your earrings as borrowed, the garter is silver and blue, Gram's necklace is old and the bustier pushing my boobs into my ears is new." The look of shock on her mother's face did more to calm her nerves than anything else, she was always so amused at her mother's more prudish tendencies, unexpected when considering how world traveled the ambassador was.
Reaching into her clutch Elizabeth pressed a small coin into Emily's hand, "You're forgetting a sixpence for your shoe. As Emily studied the coin, turning it over in her hand, Elizabeth wiped a small tear from her eye. "This is the same coin that was used in my wedding and your grandmothers before that and her mother's as well, going back generations. This particular coin has been in our family since the fifteen hundreds. I hope one day you and Jennifer have a daughter of your own to pass it down." When Emily bent to remove her shoe, Elizabeth stopped her, "You wear it in the left one. Tradition says that if you wear this coin in your left shoe on your wedding day your marriage will be blessed with wealth and good fortune."
Emily stood and circled her mother in her arms once again, whispering words that came from her heart. "With Jennifer as my wife, how could our marriage be anything other than blessed with good fortune?" Elizabeth pulled back and nodded, "How indeed."
Garcia swept into the room breaking the intense moment between mother and daughter and shooed Elizabeth from the room under the auspices of getting the men in gear. She needed her own private moment with the bride.
"Now princess, do you have your vows written or are we going with the traditional?" Garcia asked as she fussed with the train on Emily's dress.
"We've written a few words to say to each other but we'll also use the traditional vows." Emily grasped Garcia's hands before they could touch her hair, "My hair is fine, why are you so wired? I'm the one who's supposed to be nervous." Taking a step back, she looked at Garcia's outfit. "Where did you get those robes?" The tech analyst was decked out in flowing pastoral robes of gold, silver, and white brocade, very official looking but not very Garcia.
"Craigslist, where else? Are they okay?" She asked turning in a circle. "I didn't want to outshine the brides but I wanted to look like a minister, no peacocking for your wedding."
Emily laughed, delighted at her friend's thoughtfulness. "You look very officious and they're perfect. You're perfect Garcia."
Garcia nodded and clapped her hands. "Good, very good, now it's time to get you in position. Chop, chop my lovely." She herded Emily so quickly from the room that the bride barely had time to grab her bouquet on the way through the door.
On the other side of the house, the conversation was not going as smoothly. "JJ I just don't understand why you have to marry her. Isn't living together enough?"
JJ ran her hands down the pleated front of her gown and barely resisted fisting them in her hair. She had been having a variation of this same conversation with her mother for hours now and her frustration level had reached its zenith. "I don't know how to make it any clearer Mom, I love her. With all my heart, with all my soul and with the very last breath in my body, I will love her always. She is the one for me, the only one I want to spend my life with and I want that piece of paper you so easily dismiss to make it official. It's a declaration of ourselves to each other that we've found our soul mates. I want you to be happy for me, but I don't need it to go forward with my life."
JJ turned her back on the woman who had given birth to her, nurtured her during the worst and best times of her life and now seemed determined to ruin the happiest day of it. She took several minutes to let the anger ebb and just watched the activity around the gazebo on the lawn below. In a few short minutes, she would be standing amongst the sprays of roses and baby's breath saying the words she'd written to the woman who'd made all her dreams come true.
Sandy sat on the small ottoman and worried a handkerchief between her fingers, trying not to cry and smear her makeup. She was perturbed at not being able to get her stubborn daughter to listen to reason and perhaps make a mistake that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Why was it so hard for JJ to see that she was rushing headfirst into a potentially monumental error in judgment? "Your father and I wanted more for you. Don't you want more for yourself?"
JJ turned from the window, incredulity dripping from every pore in her body. Barely able to rein in her anger she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not trusting that the first words from her mouth would destroy any relationship with her mother. "I have never wanted anything more than what I have with Emily, could never imagine wanting anything more than what we share now, in my wildest dreams I have never and could never picture sharing my life with someone who loves me as completely and totally as Emily Prentiss." When Sandy took a breath to reply, JJ held her hand up to stop the words before they formed. "If you say another word, any words other than how happy you are for the both of us, know that they will be the last words ever spoken between us. I have tried, Elizabeth has tried to help you understand and accept that this is my life now and I'm happy. I'm happy Mom, doesn't that mean anything to you? Doesn't it matter more than your shortsighted, narrow-minded beliefs, to know that your child has found someone who loves her, cares about her and will do anything in their considerable power to ensure that my life is as full and wonderful as humanly possible? What more could you possibly want for me that she can't give me, that we can't give each other?"
Sitting beside her mother, JJ reached out for the hands that had held her when she cried, soothed her when she hurt and healed her when she was injured. Strong, hard working hands that showed their age were now showing their despair with the mangling of the painstakingly embroidered handkerchief. "We may never see eye to eye, may never agree to disagree, but this is my life and what I want and need right now, is just for you to be happy for me, Mom. You don't have to approve, but I won't let you ruin this day for me or Emily. If you can't sit in the audience, keep your mouth shut and just be happy for me, then you should probably leave now. I want you here but I won't force you to stay."
Sandy nodded and patted JJ on the shoulder. "For what it's worth, you are a beautiful bride." She left the room and JJ wondered, briefly, if she would see her mother again. It hurt her at the deepest level, but she put it aside, it had no place being in her mind today. Perhaps later she would take the memory out and review it, think of things she should have said differently, but for now, her thoughts and energies belonged with Emily and their wedding, with the family they would make together.
Reid knocked gently on the door and eased it open, glancing in to make sure JJ was dressed before fully stepping into the room. "It's time JJ, are you ready?"
The smile she gave him lit up her face like the sun and she all but skipped across the room to take his arm. "I've never been more ready for anything in my life!" Snagging her bouquet from the stand by the door she allowed him to lead her from the room and into the rest of her life.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
From her spot inside the gazebo, Garcia watched as Jack walked down the aisle, tossing rose petals haphazardly in front of him, the grim determination of his task evident in the tight line of his lips as he concentrated on throwing the right amount of petals in just the right spots. She chuckled as he threw the last handful straight up in the air and raced to his seat.
Nodding to the pianist, she daubed at the tears that sprang to her eyes when Emily and Hotch took their first steps into the petal-strewn aisle to the wedding march. They looked like the topper on a wedding cake, and while she may have entertained thoughts in the past of what a cute pair they would be, she knew after seeing her with JJ they couldn't have been more ill-suited as a couple.
When JJ and Reid made their way to the altar, without incident, he breathed a sigh of relief and released her arm, taking his place to her left in the traditional bridesmaid spot.
Emily's breath caught and held as she watched JJ walk toward her, the blonde's shy smile warmed her heart and in that instant, unlike any other moment they'd shared, Emily knew that JJ would always be the one true love of her life.
Garcia cleared her throat and motioned the assembled friends and family to take their seats. Looking to Elizabeth she began the ceremony. "Who gives Emily to Jennifer?"
Elizabeth stood and solemnly replied, "I do."
Nodding to Elizabeth, she turned to Sandy, "Who gives Jennifer to Emily?"
Sandy struggled to her feet, but couldn't get the words to come. Waiting a few moments for the mother of the bride to find her voice, and realizing she wouldn't, David nodded to the others seated with him and as one Hotchner's team rose and said: "We do."
JJ looked at her mother in disbelief and then put it away, turning to Emily she smiled and eased the tension that etched a line in the perfect brow. "It's okay Emily, this is the only thing that matters."
Garcia picked up the Bible from the podium in front of her as the women turned to face her. "We will start this union with the vow that Ruth made to Naomi. Here are her words:
Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!
Emily and JJ have written personal vows they would like to say to one another, Emily." Garcia motioned for Emily to begin.
Passing her bouquet to Derek as JJ handed hers to Reid, they faced one another and joined hands. Emily's clear voice carrying over the crowd as she spoke to JJ from her heart. "Jennifer, from the first moment we met, I knew you'd be an important person in my life. As we became friends I knew that I would never have another that mattered as much or who touched me as deeply. When we became a family I learned the meaning of love, and what it meant to sacrifice everything you are, to allow another person to live so deeply within you, that you begin to live for them and not yourself. With you," she paused and touched a hand to JJ's face, cupping it gently, "I found a love that I never dared to dream of, never thought I deserved and can never imagine living without again. With all of my heart, I pledge myself to you, to our son and to the life we will build together." Brushing a tear from JJ's cheek, she lowered her hand to entwine their fingers once again.
Garcia wiped away her own tears and gestured for JJ to say her words. "Emily, my love," JJ reached out and cupped Emily's face as she'd done to hers, staring into the depths of Emily's eyes as the room faded away and it was just the two of them. "I've loved before and I've known love, but I never knew what it could truly be until I loved you. Until you loved me in return until we made a family. This is love, all that ever was and will be. This life we build together, this family we create, this is love. It is all I have ever wanted, all my heart's desire. You are everything I dreamed of and thought I'd never find. Right now, in front of our friends and our families, I pledge my heart to you, to our son and to the life we will build together." When she took Emily's hand once more, she felt the other woman squeeze it tightly and knew the unspoken words it conveyed. They turned once more to Garcia and smiled.
"And now if you'll repeat the traditional vows," Garcia said.
"I, Emily Prentiss, take you Jennifer Jareau, to be my lawfully wedded wife. I promise to always keep you in coffee, to rub your feet after a long day, to play outside with our children when you need alone time and to love, honor, and cherish you, that my days may be long upon the Earth."
As the chuckles died down, JJ's voice sweetly filled the air.
"I, Jennifer Jareau, take you, Emily Prentiss, to be my lawfully wedded wife. I promise to learn to love opera and jazz, to greet you with a glass of wine after a long day, to change the majority of the diapers for our future children, and to love, honor and cherish you for this life and any to come."
Taking the rings from Henry they placed them on each other's fingers and as one said, "With this ring, I thee wed."
Garcia looked out over the audience, "Is there anyone here who would dare object to these two joining in Holy Matrimony let them speak now or forever hold their peace."
JJ glanced at her mother, relieved to see her shaking her head no. "Then by the power invested in me by the internets and the great state of Iowa, I now pronounce you well and thoroughly hitched, you may kiss your bride."
Emily cupped JJ's jaw and drew their mouths together, kissing her gently as the guests clapped and hooted their approval. When they turned around, rice rained down on their heads as they dashed down the aisle and into their house.
After toasts were made, dances shared and gifts opened the brides were safely ensconced on the Ambassadors personal plane. The newlyweds were bound for Turtle Bay Australia, the small, private island Emily purchased for JJ as a wedding present. They would spend one solitary week enjoying married bliss in seclusion before being joined by Henry for a week of family bonding.
As the coupled settled into the plane, across the city Elizabeth took Sandy aside for a few choice words. "Mrs. Jareau, I spoke with Emily and Jennifer before they boarded the plane and while I can understand, to a point, your feelings on their union, I cannot understand a mother's need to place her own prejudices above her daughter's happiness on what should be the most joyous day in her life. I was under the impression you'd worked through your issues with them and were, if not happy, then at least at peace." While her words and tone implied calm, the fire in her eyes let Sandy know she was anything but.
Jerking the front of her jacket straight, Sandy met Elizabeth's eyes with a fire burning in her own. "She's my daughter and I have a right to say what I want to her. To tell her when I think she's making a mistake. To let her know she could have more. Now, before you get any more riled up, I also know when to step aside and let her make her own choices. She's done that and while I may not like them, they're hers to make. I love my daughter and I love my grandson, so if that means I have to learn to love your daughter and accept her into my life so that I can have a relationship with mine then so be it. I know she's happy, I would have to be blind not to see it, and," she sighed in resignation, all the fight leaving her slim shoulders as she slumped, "sometimes knowing that is enough to let everything else go. For as long as Emily makes her happy then I'll be happy for them. Penelope has given me a list of support groups back home, I'll join one and see if I can change my prejudices, I can't promise it will happen overnight, but I promise to try."
Elizabeth gathered the crying woman in her arms and offered what solace she could. "I'll be here if you need me, it wasn't easy for me either, but as you said, seeing their happiness is enough. At least it's a place to start.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
After two weeks of sand, sun, surf and family time, Emily and JJ sat in Hotch's office facing the man who rarely showed any emotion. "So have you decided whether you'll stay with the Bureau?" He asked without preamble.
"Yes," JJ said, taking Emily's hand. "As long as Strauss keeps her end of the agreement, and we can remain on the team together, we'll stay."
Hotch favored them with a rare smile, "Glad to hear it. I'm also sorry to temper good news with bad, but JJ I've heard from the warden at the prison housing Will. He was killed this morning in the yard by another prisoner."
JJ took the news calmly and thought not of Will and all he'd put her through, but of the boy who would grow up never knowing the man who fathered him. "Thanks for telling me, Hotch. We'll get back to work now." JJ stood and walked from the room and into her own office, and turned into the waiting arms of her wife. "Does it make me a bad person to say he probably deserved what he got?"
Emily hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. "If it does, then we're both pretty bad people."
Garcia rapped quickly on the closed door and flung it open. "Honeymoon's over my pretties, crime waits for no woman. Be in the conference room in five, we have a case."
THE END