The Ninth Year
They don't waste time. There's no point. They've been dancing around this for more years than she'd like to count and it's not like they don't know where they stand.
But that doesn't mean they rush things either. It's six months before he moves in with her – her place is nicer, there's an extra bedroom they both use as an office and Jack's in love with the park down the street – and while they talk about forever, a wedding doesn't come up.
Not in it's traditional form anyway.
They talk about getting away somewhere warm, promising forever on a beach. They talk about Rossi's backyard, how beautiful JJ's wedding was. They talk about getting married in the spring, in the summer. They talk about guests and food and themes. Hotch balks at flowers and Emily winces at bachelorette parties and dress hunting.
It's so painfully obvious they don't want to do this the "right" way.
Not that any of their relationship has really followed that path anyway. Long-distance quasi-friendship – because neither of them can lie and say there wasn't an undertone during those years – their little dalliance a couple of years back that was supposed to solve the problem. There's no sweet courtship in their history, just strange grand gestures and subtle affection.
But then one morning, a couple of days before Christmas, he wakes up to find her watching him in contemplation. He waits her out, of course, and gets rewarded.
"Let's get married."
"Okay."
"Today."
He blinks at her for a moment, interested, but wary. "Today."
"The courthouse. You, me, call Dave if you want, I'll call JJ and we'll just… we'll just do it."
No drama. No stress. Him, her, a couple of witnesses and who the hell is he to say no?
She wears green, not white and doesn't carry a bouquet. She lets Jack kind of walk her in, JJ and Dave both grinning widely off to the side. Everything about it is quick and simple, and though the team gives them grief on Christmas Eve, raises a toast to the newly married couple, both Emily and Hotch think they wouldn't have done it any other way.