"You can't possibly marry her. What does she have that we don't?"
The three women had confronted Dave at the end of the day when he was going to collect Alex and leave for home. It was two days before their wedding. Dave and Alex had deliberately let it be known that the two of them were getting married and the rumors of course, had circulated through the college grapevine very fast. Most people were very happy for them both, but not the the three women that had been chasing both Dave and Aaron for years now. Those three were absolutely enraged.
"You should know what you have done by now," Dave told them in an unforgiving tone. "I've told you, Alex has told you, and Aaron has told you, that I don't like shallow women that are very persistent. Women who beg for attention are not my cup of tea or Aaron's either for that matter. All you have done over the last six years is annoy Aaron and I. We have been polite, because we didn't want you to take a complaint to the dean, but quite frankly, both of us are at the end of our patience.
"Alex told you that people like you only annoy the crap out of me and Aaron and I'd have to be absolutely insane or short of at least half a deck to marry one of you. I would very likely murder whoever I married in a short amount of time or divorce you.
"I couldn't trust you to keep a secret, as the whole college would know within hours. You will leave me alone, you will leave Alex alone and I'm sure Aaron will tell you to leave him alone as well. If I hear of you bothering Alex after we are married then I'll go directly to the dean. He knows about the situation, but can do nothing without a formal complaint. I have reached the end of my rope with the lot of you."
The three women looked as if they had been slapped. David Rossi had always been polite to them, but apparently, he was at the end of his patience.
"I'm marrying Alex, because I love her. We've been dating for four months now. We might have met by accident, but I don't care how we did meet. She is the light of my life. I don't appreciate the nasty looks you've been giving her or the fact that you cornered her to threaten her to break up with me, when she'd only been here a few weeks.
"You act like I'm yours to do with as you please and that is nowhere close to the truth. Quite frankly, if I could manage it I'd get every single one of you fired for unprofessional behavior, just so I wouldn't have to deal with you anymore. I've...had...enough."
The way Dave said those three words let the woman know that he was rather pissed at them. They had threatened his fiancée, even if she had only been his girlfriend at the time. They had done everything they could to get Alex to break up with him and hadn't succeeded.
"If you cause my soon to be wife a single instance of annoyance or pain and if I hear about it you will regret it. Who I date or who I marry is none of your concern. And no, Alex is not pregnant," Dave added seeing the ladies expressions.
The ladies expressions fell and Dave then knew they had been going to spread rumors about it. Spread rumors that the only reason Dave was marrying Alex was because she was pregnant.
"Alex and I figured that's what you would think, so we made sure she didn't get pregnant. If she gets pregnant on our wedding night I won't complain," Dave added giving the three women evil looks.
The three women believed him and they were foiled again before they could even start spreading untrue rumors.
"You might not think so ladies, but you're predictable. We can easily predict what you're going to do next and put a stop to it beforehand," Dave told them. "Alex, Aaron and I could easily move to another college and you are driving us into that sort of decision. Frankly, I'm sick of it and I'm sick of you. I am not yours ladies, I never have been and I never will be and, the way you keep being so persistent, makes me sick, quite literally."
The look of disgust that Dave shot them, made all three ladies finally realize that they had annoyed their target for the last time. If they took any action against his soon-to-be wife Dave would know who was responsible and would take action.
"That tape that Alex has...well, she left it with me, so if anything happens to my wife, I'll take that tape to the police. The charges might not amount to much, but it sure does show a disregard for peoples privacy and their right to date who they want. It shows that you're willing to threaten somebody you consider an interloper, even though I never dated any of you. It's not like she actually stole me away from you, as I never lowered myself to date you, because you annoyed me. Of course, that was then, this is now. Now you disgust me. I suggest you get out of my sight before I really lose my temper. I've had it! You've been warned what will happen if you don't leave us alone.
"Get out of my sight!" Dave roared and the three woman fled. They had never seen Dave truly angry before. He had always had monumental patience. Not anymore apparently. They had finally realized they had gone to far. They had lost. David Rossi would never be theirs now, but really he had never had been theirs in the first place.
~~~Criminal Minds~~~
"Well, Dave, I see you finally lost to temper with Daniell, Harcourt, and Finnigan," came a voice from his doorway.
Dave looked up and saw the dean standing there.
"Yes, I'm sorry, about that dean. I finally lost my temper with them," Dave apologized.
"I more than understand Dave," Dean James said in a sympathetic tone. "They've been annoying you for some time and I think you've kept your temper rather well. It was bound to come to a head eventually."
"They annoyed me yes, and Aaron too, but them cornering Alex after she been here for few weeks was the last straw. They had just discovered that we were dating you see. They tried to intimidate Alex into leaving me, but luckily, she's not one that intimidates easily."
"Why haven't I heard about this?" Dean James asked upset.
"It took place in a private little corner of the school, there were no people nearby, in order to witness the confrontation, though there probably were cameras. Neither Alex or I saw the point or bothering you with it when there was nothing you could've done. Daniell, Harcourt and Finnigan, will get what's coming to them if they dare threaten Alex again."
Dave's expression turned rather fierce James noticed, but then, he couldn't really blame the man or Aaron either, as they'd both put up with a lot of crap over the years and must have been very tired of it after all this time. Dave had handled it to a nicety until the recent incident. Apparently, threatening his girlfriend removed any restraint and the dean couldn't blame Dave for that.
"Oh, by the way, Alex and I are getting married this weekend," Dave added.
"I heard, but I wasn't entirely sure if I believed the rumors," Dean James admitted
"You can believe them," Dave said. "I proposed a few weeks back and Alex's mother has been planning the wedding. It's going to be very small, which is why we don't have to wait months."
"So no one from the college is invited?" Dean James asked with a raised eyebrow.
"This will be only 30 people maybe a few less," Dave shrugged. "If Alex and I could get away with about half that we'd be happy. About half that would just be Alex's family and mine. We will be having a reception afterwards. You will be invited to that along with a lot of the teachers."
"So where's the wedding going to take place?" Dean James asked.
"In Alex's hometown," Dave said. "The mother doesn't travel, so this makes her happy that she gets to see her daughter wed. We have a flight out tomorrow morning and the wedding will take place the next day."
What Dave said was only partly true, they didn't have a flight out as they were just planning on teleporting, which was pretty much instantaneous. However, he'd told the truth when he said that the mother didn't travel. She'd lived in Refuge all her life and never been to the outside world. Dave just let the dean assume that the mother wasn't fit to travel.
"No, honeymoon?" Dean James asked.
"We're going to take one in the summer after the school year is over," Dave said. "We don't want to go on a honeymoon for a weekend."
"You could wait to get married," Dean James suggested.
"We thought about it, but decided against it, as quite frankly, I've come close to strangling Finnigan, Harcourt and Daniell more than once lately. Alex and I are hoping that they'll give up once we are married."
"What do you plan to do if they don't?" Dean James asked.
"What can we do really? Except move somewhere else that needs teachers," Dave shrugged. "Somewhere by the sea, because Aaron, Alex and I all love the ocean. We might not all be able to find positions in the same college again, but Alex can concentrate on her writing or something and I'm sure Aaron and I will find something to do."
"I could give you some recommendations at least if that comes to pass," Dean James said looking rather upset at the thought of his best teachers leaving, not that he could really blame them considering. Both Dave and Aaron had had a rough time with those three women who had kept trying to get them to date one of them. You would think the three would've given up by this time, just like any sensible person would, but no, they had kept annoying Dave and Aaron.
"You know I can't do anything without evidence..." Dean James said. "It's not that I don't believe you, because I've heard the rumors of their persistence myself."
"I know," Dave sighed. "There is Alex's recording of their conversation though come to think of it."
"She recorded the conversation between her, between Finnigan, Harcourt and Daniell?" Dean James asked in surprise. "What was she doing carrying a tape recorder?"
"She said she used it to record her thoughts when she was writing a book, so she didn't forget what she wanted to say. She says a lot of businesspeople use them to remember important conversations. They're not illegal after all."
"That's true," Dean James agreed. "You could bring me the tape and should be enough at least for me to call them into my office."
"Probably not, no names were mentioned. You might recognize their voices, but still, it's hardly evidence," Dave said.
"But you can file a suit for harassment and so can Aaron. Quite frankly, it's something you should've done several years ago," Dean James suggested.
Dave considered that for a moment and then said, "I'll talk to Aaron and Alex, but I've had a gutful of their attitude. Maybe a warning from the dean of the college and threatening legal action will finally get them to leave us alone. They probably aren't even aware that you know about the harassment. I don't like to make waves, but in this case, I'm willing, because I've had enough, more than enough. Who I date or who I marry is no one's business."
"No, it's not," Dean James agreed. "It's your private affair."
"Quite frankly, I'm now glad that Alex and I decided to have this in her hometown, because those three can't interfere if they don't know where it's being held," Dave said.
"You don't think they actually try to stop the wedding do you?" Dean James asked startled.
"Considering how they've been so persistent I wouldn't put it past them," Dave admitted.
Dean James considered that, then found out he agreed.
"Do you know why they've been so persistent in pursing you and Aaron?" Dean James asked.
"Not really," Dave shrugged. "I know we're both handsome men and several other women have asked us out, but they took our no, for an answer and gave up. It's only those three that have been so damned annoying. The thing is that there are plenty of fish in the sea so what's so special about us?"
Dave didn't bother to tell the man that he thought that those women had just a touch of magic, just enough for them to be attracted to him and Aaron because they were selkies and not completely human. Selkies had magic of their own, though it was different from warlocks and witches magic.
"I will hate to see you go, if it comes to that," Dean James said sadly. "I do understand though. You can't have those three threatening your wife, especially when she's pregnant."
"Definitely not. She'll probably break their bones. She's warned me that members of her family tend to be really volatile and far less patient when they're pregnant. Those three ladies won't know what hit them if they dare come after her when she's with child. It will shock them to the core I'm sure. At the very least they'll get screamed at," Dave shrugged, not unhappy at that prospect at all.
"I wouldn't be able to blame her if she did yell at them," Dean James admitted. "They might complain, but I would make allowances for pregnant woman and I would tell them bluntly that they more than deserved what they got. So long as there was no actual physical harm I would have to report, well, other than a few bruises. I think we could forgive a few bruises if she was pregnant at the time. Any broken bones though, I would have to report to the police and the school board."
"Well, I would tell the board the real situation and if they did not understand that they had harassed me and Aaron for years and then threatened my girlfriend, when they found out I had one, well then, they need to be replaced. If anybody is guilty of a crime it's those three. Besides, everyone knows better than to threaten a pregnant woman or they do if they have any sense."
That was true, Dean James reflected.
"Tell me if you want to file a suit for harassment, sometime in the next week so," DJ said before he took his leave.
Dave simply sat back and thought about the conversation he'd had with the dean of the school.
~~~Criminal Minds~~~