Author's Note: Things are progressing for our special family!

OMG! All of you are blowing me away with the reviews! I can't thank you enough! But hey! I've figured out how to send you a personal note back!

Chapter 17 – Moving Forward

The Monday before Christmas, the five of them sat around the table in the nook, finishing dinner. They were talking about their plans for the upcoming days. Matt said, "Are we going to have our traditional New Year's dinner?"

Hotch and Cait looked at each other. "There's going to be a change in plans for that night," Aaron said as the boys started clearing the table.

"What do you mean dad?" Matt asked.

"Your mom and I are getting married that evening." The three boys raced to Aaron and Cait and gave them hugs.

Christmas was wonderful. Jake, Cait's youngest brother, and on the same college schedule, had come the next day after Aaron's announcement to spend the holiday with them. So close in age to Cait's sons, he had a marvelous relationship with them. But more importantly, and even with the age difference, he and Cait were extremely close. And he and Aaron bonded as well. Yet, it was Jack he dotted on. And Jack, having USC's next starting QB as his uncle, loved every second of Jake's attention. True to his word, Shawn did bring Leslie with him. Haley's parents and Jess joined them for dinner, as well as Dave. They had a great time. Aaron told Shawn about him and Cait's plans. "I know it's a crazy night for you and you can't get off. But we just don't want to wait. I want to formally adopt the boys."

Shawn pulled his big brother into a large hug. "If that's the reason, I won't be upset. That is the greatest news in the world."

Aaron, Jack, Dave and Jamaal stood near the front of the church. The boys looked handsome in their suits. Aaron had rented formal ones for himself and the boys as a surprise for Cait. He looked at his watch again. "Aaron, you look at your watch one more time, I'm going to take it off your arm. Relax; she'll be here," Dave said as Jamaal rolled his eyes and laughed. He and Dave exchanged a glance; Aaron Hotchner was nervous. The boys, after lighting the candles around the altar, joined them.

Dave looked at Jack. "Hey pal, I need to talk to you a second." He took him and walked down the aisle a bit. He kneeled down and whispered something in his ear. Jack got a wide grin and nodded his head. Just then Cait walked into the church.

"Wow," Jack simply said as he looked her. She looked stunning. As she walked to the two of them, with Lisa, Dave grabbed her hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"You do look fantastic." He looked at Jack. "Pal, you and your dad are very lucky men." It was then that Aaron noticed her. She was in a beautifully fitted knee length cream colored dress, with shoes to match. Her hair was swept up and pulled to the back in a roll. A curled thread of hair hung by each ear. She wore diamond earrings, with a matching diamond necklace that showed in the V-neckline of the dress. Maggie had sent them with Jake, who had returned home for the rest of his break. "For your special day; I wore these when I married your dad – something borrowed," the entire note said. Dave offered his arm and walked her up the aisle. Jack held her other hand.

"Wow, look at my handsome men," she said, obviously pleased with Aaron's surprise. He just shook his head at how beautiful she looked.

"It was dad's idea," Mike said. "You look really pretty mom."

"You look wonderful, mom," Matt added.

Aaron reached out to take her hand and kissed her cheek. He whispered in her ear, "I don't know if I deserve this."

Cait looked him lovingly in the eye. "We both deserve this," rubbing his arm. He pulled her into a hug.

The pastor walked out of his study, dressed in his robe. "Cait, Aaron; this is your last chance," he smiled. They looked at each other and shook their heads. "Then let's begin."

Jamaal walked up to where he had the video camera set up and began filming. The pastor positioned Cait and Aaron in their places; Lisa, as matron of honor, stood to Cait's left. Dave stood at Aaron's right. The boys stood behind them.

It was a short, simple service, as Aaron and Cait wanted. The wedding rite over, the pastor said, "Aaron, would you like to kiss your bride?" He nodded and gave her a soft, sweet kiss. The boys closed the gap. Aaron lifted up Jack and they hugged together as a family. Jack held out his arms to Cait. She took him.

"Cait, daddy and I talked. I love mommy but daddy said she would say it was OK. I love you too. Can I call you mom like my brothers?"

Cait eyes filled with tears and a single drop escaped as she said, "Jack that is the most beautiful wedding present I could ever get." There wasn't a dry eye in the church.

For some reason, Aaron and Cait slept in a little late the next day.

As the team sat around the round table to brief new cases the first Monday of the New Year, Hotch walked in and said his usual "Let's get started" and sat down. He opened a file folder.

Reid was sitting on his left. "Umm, Hotch is there something you want to share with the class?" Dave leaned back in his chair and smiled. The rest of them noticed the gold band on his left hand.

Prentiss looked at Rossi. "You knew?"

"I was the best man."

"And you didn't tell us?" JJ asked.

"I had strict orders."

Garcia, sitting to Hotch's right said, "I knew it was going to happen. Just not when." Hotch raised his eyebrows in question at her. "I've had your and Cait's name is a search engine of marriage licenses in Prince William county since we were over for Thanksgiving."

"And you didn't tell me baby girl?" Morgan asked.

Garcia smiled and shook her head as she and Hotch shared a fist bump.

The team was in the same room going over the details of a new case they had just received. It was a Tuesday in the third week in January and the case was in Chicago. The detective in charge was Stan Gordinski. And the case was a monster. A dozen prostitutes had been killed in the past ten days. There was no signature or MO; this unsub was all over the map. The only thing in common was victimology.

Strauss walked into the room. "The Chicago case," she questioned. Hotch nodded his head. "I thought you would have left by now?" Since the Board of Inquiry, she seemed to have softened a bit when it came to Hotch and the team. Hotch could say he had a decent working relationship with her.

"Erin look around," Rossi said, also knowing Hotch and Strauss were getting along better. "This unsub is all over the place. We need a consult. Thank God Steiner is on vacation." Strauss arched her eyes at Rossi. Steiner was the BAU's psychology consultant.

"David, Dr. Steiner is on the BAU asset team."

"I know Erin. But he's worthless. We've got someone coming in." Strauss looked at Hotch.

"Agent Hotchner, you know the Bureau's budget…." At that moment, JJ escorted Cait into the room.

"You're budget will be fine Chief Strauss," Cait said. "I know who to send the bill to," she added looking directly at Dave. Aaron came to her and helped her out of her coat.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Dr. Barkley," Strauss said as she offered her hand, which Cait accepted. "And congratulations you two," she added looking at Aaron. "I had a phone call from the CPD Chief of Detectives. He hadn't received a notification that all of you were in the air. He was wondering if your past relationship with Detective Gordinski was posing a problem."

"Not at all ma'am," Morgan said. "We just need Cait's help."

"Let me know if you need anything. I'll call the CoD and give him an update. Good luck to all of you."

"Thank you ma'am," Aaron responded. "We appreciate that." As Strauss left the room, Cait walked to the chair next to Garcia, who reached out and looked at Cait's left hand.

"Five simple stones in the wedding ring," she noted. "That's so sweet," she smiled at Cait. Cait rubbed her shoulder.

Cait looked at them. "Start from the top." They began to brief her.

After an hour or so, Cait had helped them deduce they were dealing with a single unsub with multiple personalities. She further determined a pattern that led her to believe that three of the personalities were doing the kills. It was an eye opener for the team. Having only dealt with her in a social situation, it took some adjusting to get used to the professional side of Cait. Yet, it became very quickly clear that Dr. Barkley knew her stuff. And because of the educator in her, she took the time to explain her deductions to the team. "Cait, what is your read on this guy?" Dave asked.

"Dave, I'm not sure if I want to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to take you down the wrong path. Remember, I'm a wife and mother first. If I take you in a wrong direction that means you're out longer."

"Cait," Hotch said, "all we're asking is to give us your opinion. You're here and what you tell us will help us form our profile."

"Your unsub is white, which you probably already knew. With this many multiple personalities, they are usually female; but your unsub is male. And he's obviously been abused, more than likely by both parents. However, with the father it was physical only. With the mother it was physical and sexual abuse. That's the rage. We've noticed a trilogy in the killings." She pointed to the first victim. "This kill is significant. Look at it; to this personality, who is the dominate, this is personal. Why?" she simply asked.

"Because she represents the mother," Reid answered. Cait nodded at him.

"And each of the third person's victims is a female attacker. She had to kill, but it's gentle. One clean knife wound to the heart. What does that mean?"

"The transference from mother to daughter. The father more than likely abused her, with the mother watching. Which means there are siblings," Reid quickly picked up on.

"I'd say a sister and another brother," Cait nodded. "They all were abused."

"That would explain the three killing personalities," Reid confirmed. "The others are the buffers."

"And more than likely, they all ended up in foster care and were split up," Cait added. "That's more than likely the source of what caused the fractured personalities."

Morgan and Prentiss looked at each other, shook their heads, and then looked at Dave.

"I told you she was good."

"I can start looking at foster care records," Garcia said, writing notes.

"All of you are better at narrowing the age thing than I am. I only see the behavior and causes. And please know multiple personalities are more for a psychiatrist. This isn't exactly my field of expertise. Yet, I can tell you because the other buffer personalities do the protection, it could take years for it to become this violent. And that, Penelope, is where you may run into a problem. Chicago Public Schools, because of budgeting constraints, was very slow in getting counselors into schools. And the poorer the school district, the longer it took."

"I remember that when I was in school," Morgan commented. "I was in one of those 'lower' districts. It was a big stink."

"What do you mean, Cait?" JJ asked.

"Like I said, the age thing is your area. But this guy is probably in his thirties, maybe even early forties. The buffers have protected him that long. I do know, like all of you, a stressor is what brought this guy out of the woodwork. Yet, I doubt, because of the length of time, there will be any records from school districts, or foster care for that matter, that Penelope can search."

"Cait, you've given us an opening we didn't have an hour ago," Dave said. "That's all we needed."

"Cait, when we're in the office, I would love to sit in on some your classes," Reid smiled.

"Get going to Chicago," she answered. "When you get back, we can talk."

"Wheels up in 30 minutes," Hotch said to the team. To Cait "Can you stay and walk out with me?" She nodded. As the team headed for the Bureau vehicles that would take them to the jet, Cait gave them all a touch on the arm, as did Garcia. Cait gave Dave a hug and Aaron a kiss. "Please, be careful. All of you."

Aaron kissed her again. "I promise. Talk to you tonight." Cait wrapped her arm around Garcia's shoulder as they walked back into the building.

Friday afternoon, as she drove home from classes, Cait's cell rang. It was Aaron and he rarely called in the middle of the day when they were on a case. "Aaron, what's wrong?"

"Nothing sweetheart; just listen to me. We believe we've caught the unsub but don't have the physical evidence to put him away. We need a confession. But we can't get into his head. We need you here."

"Aaron, with multiple personalities, you need a psychiatrist, not a psychologist."

"But that could take too much time and we've only got 72 hours to hold him. You know this case. All we need is an angle to do the interrogation. Dave is working with Julia to get you on the next available flight out of Reagan." Cait knew that Julia was Dave's travel agent. "JJ is working with airport security at both Reagan and O'Hare to get you on and off as fast as possible. Anderson will get you to the airport. Bring your laptop. Garcia is going to send you as much video as she can from our first attempts of talking with this guy. You can review it on the plane. Can you arrange something for the boys?"

"Matt is old enough to handle things at home. They'll be fine. Call me with an update."

"And Cait, please dress warm. My scarf is getting a workout protecting my immune system."

Five hours later, Cait was walking into the 10th precinct with JJ and Detective Dennison, who had picked her up at O'Hare. They led her to a room where the team was assembled. "Are the boys OK?" Hotch asked.

"They're fine Aaron. Matt has got everything under control and the three of them are looking forward to 'guys' night." Gordinski raised an eyebrow.

"Detective Gordinski, this is my wife, Dr. Caitlyn Barkley," Aaron introduced. "She's the Associate Chair of Psychology at Georgetown; her specialty is criminal psychology." They shook hands.

"Stan," Morgan said as he put his hand on his shoulder. "Cait consulted with us on this case before we left. That's what took us a while to get here." Gordinski looked at him. "It wasn't you man. She's damn good; she consulted on Rossi's last three books. And we need her now."

Gordinski smiled at Morgan. "Thank you Agent Morgan," clearly showing Derek the respect he deserved, and earned. "Welcome Dr. Barkley and thanks for your help."

Dave pointed to a monitor. The unsub was alone in the interrogation room, pacing as he switched personalities. "Has Garcia been able to identify the parents?" she asked.

"She's working on it," Hotch replied.

"From the video I've seen, that's the key." Ten minutes later, Morgan's cell rang.

"Give me some good news baby girl."

"I've got them. Coming your way now."

Cait took one look at the pictures and said, "Emily needs to do the interrogation. She's dark-haired like the mother. If she can set the dominate personality off, it should get things rolling." The two of them went over strategy. Three hours later, with Cait guiding Prentiss through her earpiece, they had their confession.

Everyone shook hands and said their good-byes. "Thank you Agent Morgan."

"Anytime Stan," he said, shaking his hand. "And please, can call me Derek. But guys listen. My mom knows we're here and she wants to pay back some hospitality." Looking at his watch, seeing that it was past 10 pm, he added, "Do we have to go back tonight Hotch?"

"Why Morgan?" Hotch asked.

"A home cooked breakfast tomorrow morning."

"Oh, goody," Cait said as she rolled her eyes. The team looked at her. "Don't get me wrong. I would love to see Fran again. It's just that I know you have to double up on hotel rooms." Looking at her husband and Dave, she added, "I get to listen to two them snore." The team, along with the CPD detectives, roared with laughter.

And it continued the next morning at Fran's. They had a wonderful time together. Cait and Hotch talked with the boys as they sipped their coffees. Matt, as predicted, did a wonderful job with his brothers. Fran, with Sarah and Desiree's help, fed the team with two different egg bakes, compliments of Cait's emails of her recipes, as well as her cinnamon rolls. The team, especially Emily and Derek, gave Dave a razzing about "sleeping with the Hotchner's" as a way to get at Hotch.

"Hate to disappoint you," Dave commented. "As tired as we all were, and the scotch I bought them in the hotel bar," Dave smiled, "They didn't move the entire night "As they got up to leave, Hotch gave Fran a hug and kissed her cheek. "We needed this," he simply said.

The first Saturday in February, the group that was at Hotch and Cait's for Thanksgiving was assembled again, including Fran. It was a special occasion. Jarrod and Maggie, along with Shawn and Leslie had arranged a surprise reception to celebrate Hotch and Cait's wedding. Jamaal, Lisa, Dave and the boys were in on the plan. The gathering was small. Cait's brothers were there, and their wives, along with Jake. Cait's friends and colleagues from Georgetown were also there, as well as a number of their church family; Aaron had joined the church before Christmas. Haley's parents and Jessica were also in attendance. Erin Strauss and her husband, John had joined them as well.

And the planners did it right; Cait and Aaron did not need wedding presents. Instead, all of the invitees were asked to bring contributions to the local food shelf. The three boys took care of the sizable amount of the generosity.

Precisely at five, as the invitation stated, Jamaal and Lisa led Aaron and Cait into the room at the Deer Valley Country Club. As everyone assembled applauded their entrance, the boys gave their parents sincere hugs. "You two deserve this," Matt said, continuing to grow into a special young man. Mike and Jack filled them in on the large number of grocery store bags at the back of the room.

Jarrod and Shawn served as emcees and made extremely special opening remarks. Each of them spoke from the heart; Jarrod about his new son-in-law; Shawn about the lovely lady that had joined the Hotchner family and remembering his youngest nephew, also mentioned Haley. Cait and Aaron continued to stand at the back of the room with Jack holding his mom's hands against his chest and Matt and Mike draping an arm over each of their shoulders.

"As all of you know," Shawn said, "you were promised a special surprise. Thanks to Jamaal and his brother's video company, welcome to Aaron and Cait's wedding." The house lights dimmed as all of the guests got to see the entire ceremony. It was truly was a beautiful wedding. While the video was running, the country club staff poured each guest a champagne flute of the Barkley Vineyard best. The entire room "aawwwed" at Dave getting the two wedding rings out of Jack's suit pocket. As it ended and the lights came up, Shawn said, "I believe this where you take over, Dave."

Rossi stepped to the microphone. "As the best man, it is my job to give a toast. I've known these two for many years. I have no words to tell all of you how much I respect them. More importantly, how much I love them. This is very special for me. To see the two people I care about most in my life come together and get to this point is a dream I never even imagined could happen; but it did. And yet, after many attempts, I'm struggling for the right words. But, after seeing this video, and hearing again the wonderful words of the best Protestant minister I've ever met," Dave motioned to their pastor as the gathering laughed. "I'm going to take his cue. The bottom line of this relationship was just not about two people that love each other deeply. It is, as Pastor said, the joining of families. Please join me in a toast to Cait and Aaron." He raised his glass. "To faith, hope and love," Dave quoted from the pastor's sermon's text. "And, to family."

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