(Hii so thank you for your comments and I've decided to go along with the Talia idea because I think it'd be interesting to explore and it adds drama, plus men's abuse is not nearly enough spoken about as it should be and especially not verbally and emotionally which is mainly what Talia is going to be like.
Also Jeid wedding is here :)
Emily had gone away on a case too LA yesterday, Aaron hadn't liked it and didn't feel comfortable about it, but he was in a better mood about it than last time.
It was a few days until the wedding, he was both nervous and excited as he was shook for them. Talia was here and was being surprisingly helpful, she hadn't spoke in a patronising way and he thought maybe she'd changed now he was used too her.
He'd spent the morning relaxing ready for psychical therapy which turned out to be the best session yet. In fact, he had improved so much his therapist had let him keep his Walker there to practice. Although, he could only stand and take a few small steps, it was a lot of improvement and he was finally happy he could even get a few steps in. When they physical therapist had left, Aaron decided to start practicing with the Walker. He gripped his hands tightly onto it, and got up shakily. Talia was watching, laughing softly at how ridiculous he looked, but he was trying to ignore it. As he took a few steps, he exhaled as he felt himself unable to take anyone, "Is that all you can do? Your therapist said that's..improvement?" She chuckled, raising a brow. He swallowed, "Uh-yeah." He said, it had degraded him and put his confidence down. He didn't feel like continuing.
"Try more, then I may be able to buy this whole 'doing well' thing" she said.
He nodded, he wanted to prove he could do this, he took a couple more but had started to shake. His therapist had said he shouldn't push it, he has only just started walking again.
Aaron exhaled, as he felt himself loosing balance and gasped as he fell to the floor, unable to take it. "See..I told you." She said, going down next too him to help him back up. "I should really leave you down here to see if you could get back over."
"P- please don't.." he said quietly, he was embarrassed he had fell, he was doing well earlier and this had really shot down his confidence. He should have known not to push it, it was his own fault, he thought.
"Sorry, what was that?" She said, raising a brow. It was like she wanted to hear him plead for it. "Please, don't." He said louder, as an almost plead.
Talia sighed and helped him back up onto his chair, "you should have known not to push it." She said bluntly.
"Y- you told me..to do it"
"No, I said do it if you've improved which you clearly haven't and you shouldn't have done it" he didn't reply, just nodding as he looked down. He used to be confident, maybe he would have spoke up and said that he only did it because he knew he has improved. But he didn't have the confidence to do that.
"Since all that, I think it's time you take a nap" she said. He nodded, "Okay." He said, as she adjusted his chair and put a blanket over him.
— The next few days, Talia didn't stop her calling him out, she would say he would fail at everything he did and that he wasn't improving, when in fact every therapist had realised an improvement in him. She would put him down when he got upset or had an emotional outburst that wasn't his fault, she would claim it was. He couldn't even think about telling Emily, it was too embarrassing for him, so he decided to keep it in. All the words she would call him would replay over and over in his head, to the point he had started to believe some himself.
—-
It was a good few days, without Talia there and Emily being back. He'd seen Jack and they'd all gone to the park, and it had been good. Today was the day of the wedding, after the week he'd had the last thing he wanted to do was go to the wedding, after everything he'd been told this week he didn't want to embarrass himself there. "Here you go" Emily said, passing him his suit shirt to put on. He put it on, managing the bottom buttons but not the others. She smiled a little, they were fiddley, she moved over and helped him button the last few. "You look good." She said with a small smirk.
He chuckled and looked at her up and down, "yeah but you look hot" he smirked, she was in a long dress dress and her hair was lightly curled. He still had never understood how he got so lucky.
"We should go, or we'll be late." She said, kissing him softly. He nodded, "Shall we bring your Walker? You've been making good progress and I'm sure it'd be nice for you to stand a bit at the reception.
He remembered what Talia said, how he wasn't improving, "I'm not..I'm not doing better"
She nodded, "Yeah you are, you stood up for 15 minutes the other day without even needing to sit down."
"Okay.." he exhaled, "But I can't guarantee I'll use it." She nodded understandingly and moved to get everything to the car.
—-
The ceremony was beautiful, JJ and Spencer had wrote their own vows to each other which involved Spencer going off topic at least 5 times with his statistics, or random facts. But it was cute,and the team cheered when they finally were officially married.
The reception arrived and the team were all on a table together, Aaron was unsure about the other guests, he didn't really know any of them. Except members of the bureau from other departments that had shown, which all ended in awkward conversations about how he was doing. After the dinner, speeches came and Rossi had obviously took this time to say something sweet about the pair. The first dance was played to a song they could both actually agree on their love for, which was unusual as Spencer's taste in Mozart was completely different to JJ's kind of music. "This is a lovely reception." Emily said to Aaron, as she sipped on her drink, her limit was one wine as she was driving.
He nodded, "Do you remember ours?" He asked. She nodded, "Of course, how could I forget when you almost made me collapse by spinning me around so much on the first dance." She chuckled. He laughed softly, "Don't lie, you enjoyed it." "Of course I did, but I didn't enjoy the feeling next day after I decided to go all out on the bottles of wine we had bought for the tables"
"Yeah, you was very..drunk, to say the least." He laughed.
She rolled her eyes, "I'd prefer to say...highly buzzed"
Derek and Garcia came rushing over to them, "Have you seen the kid?" Derek said, in between a laugh. Aaron raised a brow, "No, why?" "I think he may have done an Emily.." Garcia said, referring to how she was drunk on her wedding day. The pair looked to where they pointed and both started laughingly, he was merrily dancing around which was very out of character for Spencer. Or to mention the fact he was the worst dancer in history.
The rest of the night went quick, it was fun to be around everyone and amused the full team to see Spencer in such a drunken way. Almost everybody had gone, and Emily and Aaron were still there. The DJ was packing up, but had a slow song on in the background. "Aaron?" Emily said softly. "Yeah?" He said back, he had become tired by this point but was still awake.
"Dance with me.." she said.
He raised a brow, "How do you expect I do that?" He asked.
"Well...think of me as your Walker, you can stay up straight for a while with that..so hold onto me and we'll dance slowly."
He let out a sigh, debating it and was unsure if this would work. "Okay." He nodded, he trusted Emily and knew she wouldn't of said it if it was going to end disastrous. Emily had confidence in him, even if he didn't believe in himself, she knew he was doing good.
She offered her hand out and he slowly stood up, she helped him walk to the dance floor, it was a short distance. He gained his balance, shaking a little, "It's okay..focus on me." She said, as she put one hand on his shoulder, taking the other into her own. He nodded, placing his hand on her waist, they started dancing slowly but it was working. She was right, he could do it.
Emily smiled widely, "See..I told you, your doing amazing" she said, genuinely happy.
He chuckled, smiling back at her, he was proud he was able to do this. His confidence had been boosted despite being told all week he couldn't by Talia, maybe he didn't have to believe her. "I love you..Aaron Hotchner" she whispered into his ear.
"I love you too, Emily Hotchner...and hopefully, at the next wedding..I'll be able too dance with you properly."
She nodded, "I know you will be able to." She said with a smile, "And whos your bets on for the next wedding? Garcia and Morgan or Strauss and Rossi?" She raised a brow. He chuckled, "if Rossi wants to fork out for a fourth wedding..then Rossi"
They spent a little while longer dancing, it was sweet, and they had both missed being so close to each other. When Aaron admitted he probably couldn't hold up for much longer, they stopped and decided to go home. That night, they snuggled close to each other, it had been a good day. Aaron didn't even think Emily realised how much of a help she was too him, he had faith in his recovery because of her.
(The cute hotchniss scene at the end melted my heart to write, hope you liked the chapter :)
