Who is the Victim Here

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter Thirty-Seven.

Christmas Eve

He wakes up in a bed rather than at home in his crib and at first forgot where he was, then remembered that they were back in the hometown to go to Brian and Emily's wedding that night. He crawls out of the bed and goes downstairs to see if anyone else is up so that he can be changed, he is not very comfortable. He sees Sean in the dining room fixing the table for breakfast.

"Hi Sean."

"Hi Spencer, you're up early."

"Can you change me, my bum is itchy." Sean smiles and chuckles at the innocence of this remark.

"Sure let's go back up stairs." Upstairs, Sean changes and dresses the man in a pair of pants and a t-shirt with a sweater. They go back downstairs and Sean finished making pancakes while Spencer finished setting the table. When the blueberry pancakes were ready, Sean had Spencer sit and he put a bib on the sitting man and served him up a pile of cakes and syrup.

"Why do I always have to wear a bib, you make me feel like a baby when I wear one. I'm not in toddler mode right now and I don't make that big of a mess."

"I know that Spencer."

Momma comes in and says, "If that was true than why do we have a load of bibs to wash every few days."

"Because Aaron continues to spill his food when he eats." Says Spencer.

"Only I spill my food? " Says Aaron, walking in the door as he goes to the man and dabs at the dribble of syrup on the bib Spencer was wearing.

Spencer looks down and says, "Syrups are messy." He finishes his meal and the bib is taken off. As he gets up, he asks, "Are you going to make me wear a bib at the wedding tonight?"

A male voice answers, "Only if you keep whining."

"I'm not whining." When he turns and sees three firm adult faces looking at him. He gulps and says, "I think I'll go play in the living room.

Sean and Aaron sit for breakfast while Angie goes and takes a long, hot, luxuriously relaxing bath. Aaron is eating limited adult foods now and does chew food if it is not cooked too hard or long and it is not too tough. But he doesn't usually like to eat with people other than family because he does spill from his utensil every so often. His fingers like to shake sometimes. The doctors can't explain why and haven't found a neurological cause for it so it is another sign of the still troubled mental state of our gentle sweet man.

It has been three months since the last courthouse visit and three months before he sees the judge again. There has been improvement but our man is still mentally not strong enough to give some of the things that can still define him as incapable to do things. He is still in diapers, not weaned from the bottle and when at home feels most secure in his crib. At work, it is different. He has his weapons qualification and can carry one weapon with him. He feels naked however without his second gun at his ankle, but the judge only allowed one weapon. He goes in the field and works just as hard as ever he did before the kidnapping. The only difference is that he can only work ten hours in a twenty four period and that he needs to have his diaper changed and someone to remind him to eat. Otherwise he doesn't eat when he is around people while working. He goes daily on walks and runs to build up the strength in his legs and does physical therapy still for his chewing and eating abilities.

Tonight is the night that Brian and Emily decide to marry while they will be heading to a honeymoon for a few days before going to D. C. for the Ambassador's New Years Eve Reception for the newlyweds. Her parents are ambassadors and have a lot of political and diplomatic friends that Emily had known or met while growing up and would love to congratulate her on the marriage. When Brian was elected mayor of hometown in November, she has now entered small town politics which is actually quite different from the politics that she grew up with. It will be interesting for them.

The wedding will take place at the Catholic Church in town and many of the townspeople will be there as well as a few of the closest of Emily's family and friends. They will meet most of her side at the Ambassador's Reception. Her team and other agents will be at the wedding tonight.

At the Hotchner house, Angie had finished her bath and was rolling her hair while dressed in a silk and lace peignoir set that she would wear until the wedding. Emily was staying with them and was already prepared in that way and JJ and Penelope were also dressed like as was Emily's maid of honor, a friend of many years by the name of Sandy. Angie had bought all the women the peignoirs in order to feel like a woman today while they get ready for one of the woman's nuptials. Angie throws the men out and they head over to Brian's to see if they can help out the groom. It is definitely a different type of situation. Sean remembered to bring the men's suits for the wedding as well as a full days worth of food and diapers for his boys.

When Angie calls Sean in the early afternoon about how the boys were doing, he sounded frustrated because Aaron won't eat and Sean is talking up a storm about weddings and their statistics and the longevity of marriage and driving everyone else crazy. He can't seem to stay still and keeps moving all over the house being the excited young man that he commonly can be. Sean understands Spencer well since he is also can be an excited young man but since Spencer got inundated with that his excitability has just one hundred times more and he has energy until all of sudden he doesn't. Which is always a relief to the other adults around because then he takes a nap. Today he winds down at around 3pm sitting on Brian's sofa curled up next to Aaron with his head on Aaron's lap. Aaron stroked the man boy's hair and watched while he slept with his thumb in his mouth. Sean looks at the picture and is pleased except that Aaron hasn't eaten any lunch and really should be napping himself. The man refuses to take a bottle at Brian's place and is uncertain of his ability to feed himself well enough to do so and won't let Sean feed him. He just sits there and looks more and more tired until finally his head nods off and he falls asleep on the sofa.

When Aaron wakes up at around 5 pm, he discovers himself lying flat on the sofa with his head and upper body on Sean's lap who had been stroking his head and an errant lock of hair off his forehead. Spencer was up and having dinner on the coffee table next to the sofa with his bib on. Sean had a bib on Aaron and was just waiting for him to wake up. He had two bottles and some homemade soft food for him. Aaron starts to get up and says "No, I am not eating here."

Brian comes over and bends down next to the sofa and places his hand on Aaron's chest. The men look at each other. Brian says, "Aaron, I understand your reluctance to eat here. You still have difficulties, but this is my wedding day and I want you standing with me at the altar and you can't do that if you're faint with hunger. Eat or you can't come to the wedding and that would be a big disappointment to me and to Emily. If it wasn't for you we would not have met." Once again, Aaron feels that he has no control over what he can and cannot do. He lies back down and opens his mouth for the bottle that Sean puts in his mouth. An hour later, the men begin to dress for the wedding which takes place at 7 pm.

At the Hotchner house, the ladies have been doing a day of spa treatments and relaxation until they begin to dress for the wedding themselves, Emily was dressed in a Vera Wang dress from the fall 2008 collection called Calla lily with a sheath and mermaid train, lace and satin, and one shoulder bare with a swathe of flowers adorning the other shoulder. The dress is in a beautiful white and shows off her beautiful skin and ebony hair to perfection. On her upswept hair she wears a veil of fingertip length and is hand stitched lace in white. She carries a bouquet of white roses and calla lilies to match those on her dress. Her attendants are in lavender sheaths which are simple but elegant in their strength next to the beautiful bride. Her mother had arrived earlier and with the women enjoyed the day of spa pampering. She is dressed in an elegant suit of oyster gray and when her father arrives in his black tuxedo to escort his daughter to the church, they were ready. Emily had a long elegant lavender cloak made to cover her and dress as they take the limousine to the church.

The church was decorated in white roses, calla lilies and lavender silk ribbon. When Emily got to the church, the men had arrived fifteen minutes earlier and were prepared to be at the altar waiting for her and Father Thomas. As the wedding march begins and the bride walks down the aisle to her groom while being escorted by her father, she has only eyes for him. Next to him are his brother Gary and friends, including her boss Aaron, who sees the beautiful woman but is actually more interested in a woman sitting in the audience watching him and surrounded by the other members of his family and team. Brian does not take his eyes off the radiant lady coming toward him.

At the reception later, our team enjoys themselves well by dancing until the early morning when the bride and groom finally leave for the few days of honeymoon in New York City before heading back to D. C. for the Ambassador's reception after which they plan to spend two weeks cruising through the south pacific, visiting Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. When Emily threw the bouquet, Angie did not try to catch it, so Penelope did and gave it to her. Angie said that it doesn't work that way. Aaron took her back to the dance floor for once last dance before they head back to the house and go to bed. Spencer, Sean and Derek would come to the house an hour later, while David finally showed up and stayed for awhile to congratulate the couple. He had a very busy and long day somewhere else doing something for Angie. (Angie would play Mrs. Santa Claus to seven different children's hospital and long term facilities in New York. This year they had Santa Claus instead since the Mrs. is not seeing very well and didn't feel she could do the job properly.)

The next morning, our team heads home to D. C. early since they wanted to get there before dark. The van will hold Sean, Aaron, Angie, Spencer, David, Derek and Penelope. JJ and Will came with Henry in their own car. At the van, our agents get into the back sofa, Spencer got harnessed into his car seat and just as Aaron was going to get into his seat he turned and looked at Sean.

He asks, "Sean, would you let me drive?" Even though the judge allows Aaron to drive during the day and he does when he is on a case, Sean has never allowed him to drive the van. The men look at each other as the others looks at this interaction of big and little brother dynamics. Sean places the keys in Aaron's hands and gets into the van and sits in his brother's normal seat but he uses the regular seatbelt. The men clasp hands before Aaron closes the door and then assists Angie into her seat since its morning and she can't see through the fogginess of her corneas. He gets into the driver's seat and they head home. Several hours later they stop for lunch and when they get back into the van, Sean drives while Aaron is harnessed into his regular seat. They had talked about it and agreed that a few hours of driving was enough. Aaron still gets tired easily from too much exertion or repetitive actions. He is asleep in his car seat when they get back to the new apartment which the family had moved into a few weeks earlier. The rest of the group gets out and Penelope and Derek go to their vehicles which are in the parking lot and head to their own homes, while Sean gets out the stroller and puts Aaron in to take in, Angie pushes the stroller while Sean carries the sleeping Spencer into the house and David follows up in the rear with their bags.

In the apartment, Sean takes Spencer to the nursery where his and Aaron's cribs are kept as well as the changing table which is where he takes Spencer first and the boy wakes up while being cleaned.

"Hello sleepyhead."

"Are we home?"

"Yeah, we're home."

"Good, can I something to eat?"

"When I finish changing you and Aaron, we'll get a snack."

Spencer gets down off the table and looks for mommy, while Sean goes back to the find the stroller empty. He looks around and finds Aaron in the playroom and goes to encourage the man to come to the nursery to get cleaned up. The men go together to the nursery,

What was so interesting in the playroom that Aaron was looking at? A Christmas tree, the family had agreed not to give gifts to each other because they are actually adults and just don't feel up to it. If this was really the case than why are there a tree and many gifts under and surrounding that tree, explain that. When they had left for the wedding two days ago, there were no gifts and no tree.

Ding Dong, goes the doorbell.

At the door is Derek Morgan and he comes in and said that there was a note on his door at home that told him to come back to the Hotchners. Shortly after he arrives, Penelope also shows up. She got the same not as Derek. The Hotchner family and guests sit down for a dinner that Sean has cooked up of Pork Rib Tips and scrumptious sides, the food was tender and even Aaron was able to enjoy the meal. After dinner they went to the playroom and looked at the Christmas tree and nobody takes responsibility for putting it there or the gifts around it, but Spencer is very excited when he notices the exceptionally big box and it has his name on it.

The adults actually blame David because he spent most of the day before not in hometown, but he has proof that he was in New York at the different places that Angie sent him to. Spencer bounces around asking, "Can we open 'em? Can we open 'em????" He was like a Mexican jumping bean and couldn't sit down for the excitement in opening Christmas gifts. Our toddler Spencer has entered the house. Aaron tells him to calm down and that they will open the gifts when they have been handed out not as little children but as grown adults. Spencer was disappointed that he couldn't just go and rip open the big box, but sat down next to Aaron in the double rocker. Angie sat in the single rocker and the others either brought in a chair from another room or sat on the big blocks or the floor of the playroom. Sean got up and started handing out gifts to each of the adults that were sitting there. It seems that there was a least three gifts for each person, including Derek and Penelope. All of the gifts were addressed to the individual and was signed from Santa Claus. The handwriting did not look familiar so they couldn't tell who could have done this.

Spencer was so excited because he got three gifts in front of him plus the big box. The big box however is not from Santa Claus. That tag says Merry Christmas Spencer from Mommy. Spencer had already received and opened gifts from his mother and father from Vegas so he knows it isn't from them. Aaron looks at the box and then at Angie's and whispers across to her. "You didn't get him that thing that you had talked about several months ago." She just smiles at him. "Didn't I say he didn't need it?" She whispers back, "Who ever said anything about need?" Aaron groans. Spencer is so excited that he didn't hear any of this conversation between mommy and Aaron.

They began to open their gifts from Santa Claus, there were pieces of jewelry, watches, wallets, clothes and gadgetry. The only gift left was the big box to Spencer from Mommy and he ran to the big box with everyone watching him. He goes around the box in trying to figure out how to open it, Penelope got up and tried to help him and between the two of them they figured out that they needed to unclasp some hooks from the floor and lift the box. Spencer squeals when he sees the adult size rocking horse underneath. It was white with many colored ribbons wrapped around the brown leather saddle that hugged the back of the animal which looked almost real being covered with suede cloth with beautiful brown eyes and a real bit and bridle in its mouth. The cutest thing was the painted purple butterfly on its backside, just like the one on Spencer's backside. The tail was made of acrylic hair and flowed behind the animal which was set on a set of double rockers like a rocking chair. Spencer climbed on right away and started to rock away screaming, "Hi ho Silver away."

Angie and Aaron look at each other and remember another way of saying hi ho Silver and they watch their little boy play. They reach across the short distance between chairs and clasp hands. He begins to play with the fingers of her hand and kisses each finger and when he returns the hand to her, a ring is on the fourth finger, a ring of diamonds surrounding a perfect pearl. She looks at it and says, "May 7th okay for you?"

"Why that day?"

"Kathy's birthday."

"Perfect, at hometown in the garden you began to create?"

"Absolutely." She leans over and he leans over to lock lips.

"I thought you didn't want me unless I could eat surf and turf with you."

"I have learned that I want you any way I can get you."

Spencer stops rocking as he watches the two kiss and Angie reaches around Aaron's shoulders with a twinkling hand. He gets off the horse and walks over to the couple who does not see him and don't know he is there until he grabs her hand.

She says, "What the…?" as they break apart.

Spencer looks at her and says, "Looks like you got a special gift too. What day are you choosing?"

"May 7th."

"Can I give you away?"

"No, that is David's job." He pouts but accepts what she says. He looks at Aaron and the men smile at each other.