"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not."
― Blaise Pascal
"I can't believe you guys brought me to a strip club." Derek mumbled, his cheeks reddening slightly. "Emily is gonna kill me."
Mackenzie shrugged and held the door open. "Doubtful because I overheard Tara and Penelope talk about going to a strip club in Atlantic City. Now get in there, I have some ones that need to get used up." She said, her eyes flashing happily.
Rossi sighed heavily and followed everyone else in. Mackenzie dropped into a chair easily and pulled out a wad of one dollar bills.
"You've done this before." Spencer commented, his eyes flicking between Mackenzie and the girl dancing on stage.
"Not recently." She commented. "Not since I've been married - and before anyone says anything about this being anti-feminist - I don't see how women supporting women is a bad thing."
Luke held his hands up and shook his head. "I didn't even say anything, querida." He said, lowering himself in the chair. He felt the chair fly out from underneath him and he hit the floor with a loud heavy thud. "What the hell?"
"Don't sweetheart me, Alvez." Mackenzie said, shaking her head. She turned back to Derek and gave him a grin that he didn't trust. She stopped a waitress and spoke to her quickly. A round of drinks arrived at the table and Mackenzie wandered off to go speak to the floor manager. A few moments later, an announcement blared over the loud speaker and Derek sighed. "You got me a lap dance?"
Mackenzie nodded. "Technically pendejo and I got it for you." She said nodding at Luke. A woman sauntered over and Derek winced as she started to circle his chair. Five years ago he would have loved this, but now he just thought of Emily. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes, feeling the woman brush up against him before dropping herself in his lap. He had been in this position before, hell, he had been in this exact same position with Emily before, but now this was so different. He felt her hands encircle his wrists and place his hands on her hips.
"Come on, enjoy it." She whispered against his skin, her weight heavy on his lap as her hips rolled and pressed against him.
"I'm engaged." Derek replied, his eyes focusing on her face.
"She's a lucky lady."
"No, I am."
The dance ended soon after and Derek gave her some of the money that Mackenzie had on the edge of the table. "Y'know, there was a time when I actually enjoyed those." He said ordering another round of the table.
"I'm sure Emily wouldn't get upset." Rossi reasoned. "She's a pretty reasonable woman." He watched as Luke and Mackenzie conversed in low tones and Luke got up and spoke to the floor manager and returned with a triumphant grin.
"Please don't tell me you got me another lap dance." Derek said softly, bringing his beer up to his lips.
Dimples appeared on Mackenzie's cheeks and she shrugged. "Well, it is. But not for you." She said leaning back and grinning as a blonde woman approached Spencer. The young agent turned scarlet and looked over at Rossi and Derek for help. Mackenzie leaned back in her chair, balancing it on two legs. "Alvez mentioned that Spencer had never had a lap dance. We fixed that problem."
The night started to wind down, Mackenzie spending her wad of ones that she had brought in. Spencer was wobbly on his feet, leaning heavily against Luke. They still had a 45 minute ride back where Rossi broke out cigars.
"Hey Rossi, you're gonna be one of my groomsmen, right?" Derek asked around the cigar in his mouth.
"Can I do double duty?" The older man asked, blowing out smoke. "Your fidanzata has already asked me to do something important in your wedding. So...I might have to make a late entrance."
Derek shrugged. "Um...guess that works." He mumbled, blowing out the smoke.
"Good, because I'm not backing out on Emily." Dave replied. His eyebrows arched as he watched Spencer attempt to light the cigar. "Which also, if you hurt Emily, I will kill you." The older man said seriously.
Choking briefly on his cigar, Derek shook his head. "You don't need to worry, Rossi." He said seriously. "Because there is no way in the world that I would hurt Emily Prentiss."
With the help of Luke and Mackenzie, Spencer finally got his cigar lit and he turned to Derek. "Speaking of Prentiss, is she keeping her last name or is she taking yours because I see Emily as a far more modern woman that wouldn't need, or necessarily want to take the last name of the man that she is marrying. The tradition actually started when legalities came into marriage in the 9th century…" He started coughing with the smoke in the limo.
Derek quickly cut Spencer off before the younger man had a chance to ramble. "Professionally, Emily is keeping her name." He said taking an inhale of his cigar. "But personally, she'll be Emily Morgan. I want us to be...a couple. It might be old fashioned, but…" He trailed off and shrugged.
Mackenzie inhaled deeply before exhaling the cigar smoke. "I get it. It's why Taala and I decided to hyphenate our last names. Shows solidarity."
"Solidarity? You're not storming the beaches." Luke commented rolling his eyes.
"Pendejo..." Mackenzie warned.
Rubbing his temples Rossi sighed deeply. "Kids, if you keep fighting I'm going to make Reid sit between you."
Spencer choked so hard Mackenzie had to hit him on the back repeatedly before he could speak. "No, Reid won't!"
It was a three hour trip to Atlantic City and the champagne was opened the minute the doors closed.
"I was going to buy us all matching shirts." Penelope said as she poured glasses of champagne. "But they only had ones with Bride Tribe written on it, and I found them vaguely racist." She explained passing the bottle around.
"Not even vaguely racist." Taala responded, taking a glass. They had three hours to get to Atlantic City that they were planning on filling with champagne and gossip. She turned to Emily and gave her a smile. "So tell me, how excited are you to be marrying Derek?"
Penelope laughed. "Oh honey, you haven't seen these two pine after each other for five years." She said, shaking her head. "Like they would have eye sex across the bullpen."
WIth her face reddening, Emily shook her head. "WE did not have eyesex in the bullpen!" She exclaimed. "Name ONE time!"
JJ and Penelope exchanged glances. "Before or after you started sleeping together?" The blonde retorted.
"I can name like eight times off the top of my head, and this is just since I've been here." Tara added.
"All of you should shut up." Emily muttered, rolling her eyes. "But to answer your original question, I'm so excited." She said with a fluttering smile. "I didn't think that happy endings were for me, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never get married and I was trying to be happy to be alone. And then Derek Morgan bodychecked his way into my life." The agents in the limo laughed.
JJ pulled out her phone and started to flip through it. "Okay, see this picture? This is like...way back when you first joined the team. Like you had been with us for a few months - look Gideon is still there. And look at the look that Derek is giving you." She passed her phone around and the picture had the team in it. She was sitting on the desk, talking to Reid and Derek was standing across from them behind the younger profiler. His attention was focused on Emily, a soft look in his dark eyes.
"Okay fine." Emily muttered. "Derek was pining for a long time."
"Derek?!" Penelope pulled out her phone and found a picture of just Derek and Emily. His arm was wrapped loosely over her shoulder while Emily leaned into him, her head against his shoulder. "This went both ways, buttercup."
They spent the next half hour flipping through photos that Tara, Penelope, JJ, and even Emily had on their phones. They were all the same. The same longing looks, the gentle touches, the sweet smiles.
"Okay okay okay, fine. There was mutual pining. If you guys all saw this….from like the second I joined the team….why didn't you tell me about this?" Emily finally asked. "Like Derek and I could've been married for years now!"
Laughter filled the limo. "We thought you both knew!" JJ giggled.
"Slow learners." Tara coughed with a laugh.
The three hours flew by and soon they checked into their two bedroom suite at the Ocean Casino Resort. Dropping off their bags, they headed down for supper before they started, what Emily called, their sin to win weekend. The group split off once they reached the casino floor, Penelope and JJ headed to the mini-baccarat tables, while Tara and Emily to the poker tables. Taala didn't gamble, so she sat at the poker table, happy to drink and people watch.
Her eyebrows arched when she spotted the pile of chips the two women had. "You guys are in it to win it." She commented, sipping her drink.
"Only way to be." Tara methodically ran her fingers through her chips. There were few women sitting at the table, Tara and Emily using that to their advantage for the first few hands. Soon Emily's chips started piling up, her dark eyes narrowed and focused. Taala headed off to find JJ and Penelope, leaving the two older women to play.
The analyst had already run out of the money she was using, meeting Taala at the bar.
"I think Emily is gonna win their honeymoon." Taala said, shaking her head. "Or like enough to take us all on their honeymoon with her." JJ appeared at her side and ordered a drink before turning. "Well, Em does this yearly. She's the only person who has ever beaten Spence at poker. Anyway, if I lose any more money, Will might divorce me." She said with a good natured shrug. "Anyone want to head upstairs and charge a ton of stuff to room service and watch trashy tv?"
Two heads nodded and followed JJ to the elevator. "I'll send Tara and Em a text to let them know where we are."
All of the junk food on the menu was ordered, and amazingly terrible movies were ordered on pay per view. The three women laid on one of the King sized beds, massages booked for the next morning in the pjs.
"I'd text them, but if they lose I'm not taking the blame." Penelope reasoned as she stuck her spoon in the giant ice cream sundae and took a huge bite. JJ nodded and picked at the bag of cheetos.
"Fair." Taala said, sending Mackenzie a quick text before grabbing another spoonful of ice cream.
Her phone buzzed obnoxiously and Emily cracked open an eye and stared at it. 930 am. Sighing, she flopped onto her back, a grunt coming from beside her.
"Fuck, Emily." Tara groaned rolling further over on the bed.
"Pen is texting asking if we got mugged." Emily said, her voice full of sleep. She sent a quick text before burying back into the pillows. A few minutes later the door opened and Penelope walked in, flopping on the end of the bed.
"You guys didn't get kicked out of the casino?" The blonde asked, wiggling herself between the two other women.
Silence.
"I'm hungry. We ordered room service last night, but I want breakfast."
More silence.
"Taala and JJ kicked me out of bed."
Finally Tara opened an eye. "I don't blame them." She mumbled sleepily. "What time does the limo come and pick us up?"
"Noon."
Nodding, Tara rolled over and buried her face back in the pillows. "Come back at 1130." She muttered.
With an exasperated sigh Penelope rolled off the bed. "Fine, but you two are buying us all brunch."
Silence filled the limo as they approached Virginia.
"How much money did you win anyway, Em?" JJ asked, opening her eyes and yawning.
The older woman gave her best friend a grin. "Enough that Derek and I won't have to worry about our honeymoon, or the wedding."
"Glad that you had your card on file for the room, then." Penelope said with a grin. "Because we charged a lot of room service."
Emily laughed and closed her eyes. "I think I'll be able to handle it."