Dave and Aaron were sitting on the grass waiting for the concert to start. Both of them enjoyed various kinds of music, though both hated rap. Still, they loved, easy listening and some of the rock'n roll from the 50s and 60s. Both men were dressed in casual jeans and shirts, as this wasn't the time for going fancy. They would've looked out of place had they showed up in slacks and collared shirts.
This was an easy listening concert from a group that both enjoyed.
The concert began and both men were silent as they listened to the music.
Both men listened and enjoyed the excellent band.
"This was a really good idea," Aaron said smiling once intermission came around. "We haven't just sat and listened to music in awhile. I know you can hear music when you go into restaurants and stores, but it's not the same."
"It's not music of your choosing," Dave suggested calmly. "And really, to be truthful, you hardly ever notice the music that is played in public places, because it's such a common thing."
"You learn very early to tune it out," Aaron agreed. "Of course, if it is terrible you take more notice, then if it is something you like."
Dave knew this to be true so nodded
Suddenly a lady plopped down beside them without a by your leave.
"Join us," Dave said amused
"Sorry I arrived so late. I really meant to be here before the concert even started, but I was unavoidably delayed," The lady said. The dark haired lady didn't say why she had been delayed, but it wasn't his or Aaron's business.
Aaron was startled by the soft voice, as it was oh so familiar and he turned to look at who had sat beside him. He still remembered what his wife sounded like even to this day. Her voice had usually been soft, as she rarely lost her temper, but she also had a very strong personality when required and could strip you down to size with a few well-chosen words.
"Berenice?" Aaron asked stiffening beside Dave.
"No, I'm sorry, my name's Emily," Emily said staring at the handsome man and she had sat down beside. "Emily Prentiss."
"I'm sorry, my lady," Aaron said recovering himself and giving her a half bow from where he was sitting. "You look so much like my Berenice, that you could be her twin."
Emily cocked her head curiously at this handsome man with his dark hair and eyes. "From the way you talk something must've happened to your lady love.
"She died," Aaron answered, not bothering to go into detail.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Emily sympathized.
"It's alright, it happened a very long time ago," Aaron said. When Aaron said it happened a very long time ago he meant that quite literally, as it wasn't just a few years ago, but centuries since his wife had died.
Dave watched this silently and was sure that this was Aaron's former wife Berenice, even if she did not remember being so. Dave knew something about reincarnation and he was well aware that sometimes all it took for whoever it was that had been reincarnated to get their memories back was to encounter someone that they had seen before, someone they had known quite well. That certainly applied to Aaron, because he and Berenice had been married for years after all and had been intimate with each other. From all reports they had been quite close up until her death. There had been no arranged marriage, which would make it easy for this Emily to get her memories back, if she truly was Berenice.
This Emily might not remember her life before now, but it would likely come back the more time she spent around Aaron. Dave listened silently as Aaron asked Emily for a date if she didn't have anyone to go home to and heard Emily enthusiastically accepting.
It was agreed that Aaron would go with Emily and they'd have dinner at a restaurant together, before Emily dropped him off it where he was staying.
"You don't mind do you?" Emily asked Aaron's friend whom she had yet to learn the name of.
"Oh, so you finally noticed me," Dave joked, smiling. "I'm David Rossi. Aaron and I have been friends for a long time. Don't worry about me, I'll take the car home and keep myself occupied while you two go on your date."
"It's nice to meet you, David," Emily said shaking the other man's hand politely.
"Just Dave will do, my lady, there's no reason to be so formal," Dave said gallantly, kissing the back of her fingers lightly.
Aaron glared at him and Dave winked. Aaron relaxed and knew that Dave was just being his usual charming self.
Emily giggled at Dave's fake gallantry, even as she blushed. She knew very well that Dave would never try to steal her from his friend, which meant he was just teasing her and likely teasing Aaron at the same time, by making him insanely jealous.
"You need to find someone for yourself, so get your own woman, Dave," Aaron told him firmly, but with a hint of a smile.
"I have yet to meet anyone that would meet my exacting standards," Dave joked.
"You also really haven't tried have you?" Aaron said. "Remember we've been best friends for a long time. I know very well you haven't tried to seriously find someone to settle down with."
"I'll have to try harder now," Dave admitted more seriously.
Emily watched the tennis match between the two men silently and knew they must be very close, because despite the apparent seriousness of the conversation they were mostly teasing each other if she was any judge.
Aaron wasn't really jealous or at least not much and Dave wasn't really trying to get her attention, not seriously at any rate. He wouldn't succeed, as the minute she set eyes on Aaron, she felt if she had known him forever. Years at least, maybe even decades. Dave had likely seen this to and so was only teasing his best friend.
The three finished watching the concert together and then walked slowly to the parking lot.
The cars weren't parked to far away from each other by sheer coincidence and so they waited until Dave got in his car, before and they started towards Emily's.
~~~Criminal Minds~~~
"So where is Aaron?" Aiya asked the obvious question, when Dave entered the house without the other man by his side.
"He met a Emily Prentiss at the concert in the park," Dave explained to Taro and his lady. "He was rather shocked when he looked over and saw Emily Prentiss looks like an exact duplicate of his former wife Berenice. Right now, they are on a date."
"This is wonderful," Aiya said enthusiastically.
"I wouldn't be too enthusiastic quite yet," Dave cautioned his friends, though that was mostly Aiya.
"Why?" Taro asked curiously.
"Because it's quite possible that this Emily Prentiss might be a near genetic duplicate of Aaron's former wife, might even be distantly related, but might not actually be reincarnated. If she is reincarnated there are ways to get her memories back, because she doesn't appear to remember anything of her past life yet, which is quite common."
"How?" Aiya asked before Taro could.
"Well, the way it usually works is that the more time she spends around somebody she was very familiar with in her past life the more her former memories will start to surface, which would definitely include Aaron, since they were married for years and had half a dozen children. I won't be surprised at all if she starts having dreams of her former life while she sleeps and the more time she spends with him the more her memories will start to return, as that's usually how these things work, though it is possible to have flashbacks when you're conscious too. Sometimes, physical contact is required."
"You're talking about sex," Taro suggested amused.
"Actually, I was talking more along the lines of a kiss," Dave shrugged, trying to keep himself from chuckling at Taro's assumption, though he couldn't really blame the man. "I know it's been written about in fairytales, but that doesn't mean that there isn't some truth to the old tales."
"So how will Aaron get back?" Aiya asked.
"Emily offered to drive him here after their date," Dave shrugged.
"So are you upset that your brother has finally found someone?" Taro asked.
"Not really," Dave said. "We'll still be best friends, even if this Emily Prentiss is his former wife. I'll have no trouble including her in our travels. Aaron and I already talked about this and I assured him I'm not going to abandon him, just because he might find someone to finally start a family with. If there's one thing you learn when you're basically immortal is patience. I know that Aaron wants a family and has for a long time, ever since he got over his original family's deaths.
"In fact, if Aaron settles down it will encourage me to try to find someone for myself. I'm not claiming that either one of us have been total eunuchs without women in our lives occasionally, it's that most of them would never deal with being immortal and they'd drive Aaron and I batty in no time. I'm not going to turn someone like that immortal. I'd have to be crazy to do so. I also want someone that's going be loyal to me and not cheat when my back is turned.
"None of the ladies that I had brief relationships with over the years fit that description, except for three and four of them and they'd never have handled being immortal. You have to know how to adopt to a lot of different situations when you're immortal. I've fought in wars and been part of strikes, I've seen the evil man can do, where they do their best to suppress their workers and instead of treating them decently, decent working conditions, decent pay.
"I've seen women struggle for more rights for a long time, wanting more freedom and not to be treated like objects or to be put on top of pedestals that men have placed them on, when men insist they aren't as capable as they are and have seen where they often prove they are more so."
Taro and Aiya listened as Dave described in detail some of his past experiences. Unlike a lot of people in the past he had never gone hungry, at least not to the extent that Aaron had before he had met Dave.
"I have to agree. There it is a large difference between a one night stand and a permanent relationship," Taro commented once Dave was done and Aiya nodded in complete agreement.
"Exactly," Dave said relieved that his friends understood what he was trying to say, but he really shouldn't be surprised because both were intelligent and Taro especially could not run his business empire if he lacked intelligence, a strong business sense and a certain amount of slyness that came in getting something over an opponent and beating him or her to the draw. It was these traits that made his friend such a success in business.
"It doesn't matter who we sleep with as we can't get any STDs, AIDS for instance or syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. Whatever it is about our blood takes care of anything like that so we stay healthy."
"That would certainly be something nice to have," Aiya said. "It sure would help a lot of people if they couldn't get any STDs from whoever they sleep with."
"I know that it's more dangerous to sleep with someone today than it was way back when I was originally born or even when Aaron was. A lot of those things didn't exist back then, though I think it's compensated in this century because before, you died at a much younger age, either from giving birth to much, or from some sickness or from working too hard until your body was just worn out. Very few lived past 40 in those days, and a lot of people died in their late 20s early 30s. This century there is updated medical technology that saves many lives every year. I know it can't cure everything, but it sure is better than centuries ago when medicine was very primitive. People often died of things that can be cured now, not just influenza."
"Which is why the women got married and had children as soon as they started their menstrual cycle," Aiya suggested a little boldly, as normally such things were not talked about, especially around men either one's own husband.
Taro looked rather embarrassed at the subject matter and Dave didn't blame him.
"She's right, my friend," Dave told Taro. "I know it's not a subject that you talk about to men normally, but women did get married very young back in those days, around 13 or 14 for most of them. Right after they started their period, as it's called. They needed to have as many children as possible, because so many died in infancy or as young children. The many diseases prevalent at the time carried off whole platoons of them."
"You'll tell us how it goes?" Taro asked, changing the subject.
"I'll tell you what I can," Dave promised hiding a smile. "If this Emily really is Berenice then I can see Aaron getting married to her, but he's also not one to rush into anything. It'll likely be a few months at least before we have to worry about being invited to a wedding."
"We'll look forward to it," Taro said formally while smiling. "I truly hope it works out, because I would like to see you both settle down before I leave this world."
"I can certainly understand that my friend," Dave responded. "I'll have no trouble settling down, with the right woman of course. Somebody I can love and cherish for the rest of my immortal life, someone that will drive me crazy occasionally, as that's just human nature, while I'll do the same, someone to cherish, to spoil and who does the same for me."
"That's the way it should be, Dave-san," Taro said smiling.
~~~Criminal Minds~~~
"So how did your date go?" Dave asked and immediately as soon as his friend knocked on the door. It was still quite early really at only 9 o'clock in the evening. The concert had been an afternoon one, so it had been over by 5 o'clock.
"It went great," Aaron grinned. "We ate this little bistro where the food was fantastic. Emily chose it, since I don't know New York as well as she does. She lives here, I do not, so I allowed her to choose the place."
"Well, good, I'm glad it went so well," Dave said. "So do you think...?"
"I know what you're asking," Aaron said his eyes sparkling happily. "And yes, I'm even more sure that Emily, is my lady love has come back to me. There are just too many things that remind me of my Berenice. Certain mannerisms for instance, the way she walks, the way she gestures when she's talking about something that excites her, even the way she sighs. I know my Berenice is reincarnated in the lovely, Emily Prentiss. The only differences at least at the moment is that her teeth are white. There was just no way to keep someone's teeth white back in the past. They would turn yellow with tartar if nothing else and also she's a little taller then my Berenice, but I suppose, I should expect a few differences."
"Nobody's reincarnation is exact," Dave told Aaron who nodded. "That's not to say that they aren't many similarities, and could even be a near identical copy of the previous one, but there's always a few differences. Like you said all the things you've noticed the only difference is that Emily is a little taller and her teeth are white instead of yellow with tartar. You're right, it was hard to keep your teeth clean in those days, especially for the very poor. There was no toothpaste or toothpowder back then."
Aaron was nodding at this, because Dave was exactly right. Aaron's teeth were white, because he had worked hard once whitening toothpaste had been invented to whiten his teeth.
"So does she know she's reincarnated?" Dave asked.
"Not from what I can tell," Aaron answered honestly.
"There are ways to make her remember," Dave assured Aaron.
"How?" Aaron asked, with such longing in his voice that it nearly broke Dave's heart.
"The more she hangs around you, the more she's going to start to remember. You're not someone she saw infrequently, you were the love of her life, just like she was of yours, trust me, that will help. The more the two of you to go out, the more that she'll believe she knows you. She probably already has a sense of familiarity with you, which is likely why she accepted a date from a total stranger immediately not even seeming to think about it. Your Berenice was likely guiding her actions, even if she doesn't remember being that person at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if she already feels like she's known you all her life. The more you spend time together, the more she'll start to have dreams, maybe even flashbacks from her first life. She probably won't remember it all at once, as seeing the whole thing at one time could be rather traumatic. She will likely remember her past in pieces, as that's the way these kind of things usually work. Also, physical contact will likely help."
"You're talking about a kiss," Aaron said, knowing how Dave thought by now.
"Well, you certainly did better in guessing what kind of physical contact than Taro did," Dave grinned amused. "I told them about you meeting Emily when they saw me came back without you when I had to explain where you were."
"So what was Taro's guess?" Aaron asked with an amused expression.
"Can't you guess?" Dave asked with laughter in his eyes.
"He suggested sexual intercourse, didn't he?" asked Aaron, his eyes twinkling in amusement.
"Yes, he did, though we really shouldn't be surprised at that. After all, if I didn't know anything about this type of thing my first guess probably would've been the same. It is a form of physical contact after all and it would be the first thing to occur to most men no matter how intelligent," Dave reminded Aaron.
"You didn't come straight out and say it, so one of them had to guess," Aaron said knowing very well Dave's sense of humor.
"I was actually trying to be polite in this case, as it's not a kind of subject you bring up when you're the guest of someone, especially not to someone like Taro and his wife. They're from a generation that generally don't talk about that kind thing and yes, I know that we are much older then they are, but when you're an immortal you need to learn to be flexible in every situation, as you well know."
"That's true," Aaron agreed.
"So when is your next date?" Dave asked.
"Tomorrow," Aaron said cheerfully.
"Well, good, the more time you spend around Emily the better," Dave recommended.
"You won't be too lonely?" Aaron asked his friend.
"No, I lived hundreds of years without a companion," Dave assured his friend. "I'll be perfectly fine on my own."
"Well, this is only going to be until lunchtime and we can do something together afterwards," Aaron said. "I'm supposed to meet her for breakfast at a little café, I know about. After that, she has some errands to run."
"That's good then," Dave said smiling.
"I told you I would never forget about the connection we share," Aaron promised him solemnly. "I don't want to lose you as a friend."
"I already promised you, you wouldn't," Dave said solemnly. "I was just thinking that once Emily gets her memory back you guys can get married and the three of us can travel for awhile. Of course, I know you want children, but all these plans are for the future."
"That sounds really good," Aaron decided. "There is no point of making any plans now until Emily has her memory back, but that's a good plan for later. If I turn Emily immortal, well, we might not want to have children right away. We'll just see how it goes. I'm not one to rush into anything, but I haven't been this happy in a very long time."
"I don't blame you for that and in fact, I'm very happy for you," Dave promised his friend sincerely. "Now, if only I could find someone for myself, we could all travel together before settling somewhere."
"I'll help you with that," Aaron promised. "It's only right that you also have a permanent partner. It's quite possible that Emily knows someone that you could fall in love with, but lets not get ahead of ourselves."
"No, let's not. We can worry about all that later, once you've had a chance to get to know Emily better and one she has her memory back," Dave agreed bidding Aaron goodnight, as Aaron left to go to his own room that was right next-door."
~~~Criminal Minds~~~