Archive of Our Own ^beta

The FBI wasn’t very understanding of poor job performance, especially when you're the Unit Chief of one of the most prestigious units of the FBI. Even if you got assaulted by one of the worst unsubs said unit has seen.

Over the past three weeks the FBI had been repeatedly requesting, rather, demanding, ‘interviews’ with Aaron Hotchner in which they interrogated him about his mental state after being attacked by George Foyet. Despite his supervisors claiming that it was all for his own benefit, he was a trained profiler and knew what their ultimate goal was.

Get him to leave the BAU.

Tell him he was too unstable to lead the team and that they appreciate all of his hard work over the past decade he had worked for the unit. Tell him they were going to put him on a leave of absence. Frame it as being solely for his own benefit and mental well being.

But Aaron Hotchner was a man who couldn’t rest. He knew how horrible it was. To never take a day off. It was what had led to his divorce from his high school sweetheart, the mother of his child. But he needed to help people. Like a roaring fire inside of him that this life meant nothing if he couldn’t use it to help people like those who had helped him in his childhood.

He had been able to escape his father just before the start of high school and had worked hard enough to get a full ride into George Washington University for a BA/JD program. He had immediately got hired at the District Attorney's office. But that wasn’t even enough when by the time he was in the courtroom innocent people had already been murdered while all he could do was hope that he could make a strong enough case to put them in prison, make sure they never hurt anyone again. He had to get to the cases before they even got into the courtroom.

He couldn’t let that crumble. Everything he had worked for since he was a high schooler jumping between homes while his father was being investigated, while working everywhere in college trying to pay for his tuition.

It couldn’t all end here. Not because he was trying to recover from a crazy man attacking him. He had to power through.

That's what he told himself as he left the office of Section Chief Strauss. She’d made it clear. If he could not get his performance up, he would be forced to take a leave of absence.
—

The train from Vienna, Virginia to Quantico may only have been just under an hour but it felt like hours for Emily Prentiss. She hardly knew why she visited her mother anymore. It was the same painful script every time. She’d walk in getting a half hug and a kiss on the cheek from her mother. Get a nice warm cup of tea and some small talk before the inevitable question came up. “When are you finally going to find a nice man to marry darling?”

It was always met with a level of sincerity beyond what her mother actually had in her heart, at least if you asked her. Emily would give her mother a polite laugh, a joke about how there didn’t seem to be any suitable men in the market and give her mother another thirty minutes before insisting she had to get on her train back home. Of course not before she went to the gas station to get a pack of cigarettes to smoke once she got back home.

Elizabeth Prentiss knew her daughter was a lesbian. Emily had come out to her mother at age 18, shortly after she had moved out and went to Yale. She had gotten drunk one night and hooked up with a girl. After panicking the next morning she picked up some books from the Yale library and figured out what she was. What she felt.
She had waited a few months to tell her mom–correction–she wasn’t planning on telling her mom. She had been at Partners, a gay bar in New Haven. With a fake I.D., obviously.

By some godforsaken curse a friend of her mothers had also been in the bar that night and told her mother. After Emily’s mother cut off said friend she called her daughter scoldingly. Asking how she could disobey her family like this.

Emily Prentiss always knew her mother wanted her to be another version of herself. She had named her daughter with the same initials and told her she had to get into a top school to study a ‘respectable’ subject.
Or, as Emily Prentiss put it, training her to be a bored socialite.

So every time she visited her mother in one of the richest neighbors in the state she wound up pissed off with a pack of cigarettes in her purse. Everytime, without fail.

She was looking out the window trying to not take her anger out on an innocent passenger on the Virginia Railroad Express. She opened her cellphone seeing a message from a familiar phone number.

Aaron Hotchner - I’m aware you’re at your mothers but if you have the time today please let me know. I would like to stop by to discuss something. Thank you.

What better things did Emily have to do?

Hell, maybe Hotch would have an interesting story to share with her.

Emily Prentiss - Okay, I’ll be home around 5:30pm.

Aaron informed her he would come by around 6 o’clock.
—

Aaron knew how unprofessional this was. He had just gotten out of a meeting with some of the most important people in his organization and he was going to tell his co-worker about it. Not even one with similar authority or understanding in the BAU like David Rossi. For some reason unbeknown to him his fingers had gone to message Emily Prentiss.

He should have turned around, apologized for being so unprofessional and called someone else. Or, more likely for Aaron Hotchner, buried his anxiety about the meeting deep until his soul to never be addressed again.

But here he was, pulling up to Emily’s apartment complex, too late to turn around now.

He walked up to the fourth floor to room 421 taking a deep but silent breath before knocking on the door.

Emily opened the door with a cigarette between her index and middle finger and a lighter poking out of her pocket. “Well look who it is.”

“I told you I was coming.” Aaron said, slightly confused. “Did I not?”

“You did, I’m just messing with you.”

“Since when do you smoke?” He asked her as he walked into her apartment.

“Longer than I’ve known you.” She scoffs walking towards the open window letting in cold Virginia. She leaned her elbows against the windowsill placing the cigarette between her lips and igniting the lighter. “So why’d you come over?” She finally asked.

He sighs, was he really going to tell her about this? He was a professional man. One who never let the facade crack. Never showed weakness or fear. Not even when Emily visited him in the hospital after he had been attacked.

“I had a meeting with Strauss today.” He began, no going back now. “She said my performance has been poor recently.” It was a dramatic oversimplification of what had happened but he didn’t feel the need to say more.

Emily caught on as she removed the cigarette from her lips. “Of course it has been, you were almost killed.” She didn’t deny his subpar performance, she had never been one for sugar coating things.

“Strauss believes it might be reason to suspend me from the Bureau.” He told her, standing slightly behind her, as to not inhale the smoke.

“Well that's real mature of her.” She said sarcasm dripping from her lips before she placed the cigarette back between them
“She said it would be a ‘leave of absence’ but the last time she said that to an employee was three years ago.”

“And she never came back?” Emily finished the thought for him. She knew about an agent who came before her, vaguely. Nobody ever gave her details.

“Her file has that she left on her own accord.” He informed her.

“The Bureau wants you to take a leave of absence and then leave on your own violation?” She confirms turning her view from the Virginia landscape to her boss.

Aaron Hotchner nods, “On paper she can’t suspend me due to subpar performance after a traumatic event.” Rossi had informed him of that and considering he wrote the handbook Aaron believed him whole heartedly. “But she can make me take an indefinite leave.”

Emily flicked her dried up cigarette out the window before nodding in understanding. “I assume you're not just giving in?”

Aaron thought about it pausing his pacing on the hardwood floor. He’d hardly have enough time to devise a plan. He had just left the meeting and messaged her practically right away. For once in his life he hadn’t considered the next steps. “I need something to make them believe I’m stable in my personal life.” He concluded.

“Is taking care of a 4 year old not enough to prove that?” She asked.

“Hayley has custody of him most of the time. I see him on the weekends when I’m not on cases.”

She nodded in understanding, going to her fridge as she continued the conversation.
“What d’ya think will convince them?” She asked. Emily Prentiss wasn’t a woman who showed her support in words or grand gestures but in the silent moments that came between figuring out the next steps.

“To my understanding all of the choices seem as if they would take too long.” He informed her. He had mentally gone through everything that could be done. None of them wouldn’t be life changing. “The only thing I could do within such a short time frame would be to get wed.”

“So what are you asking for my hand?” Emily asked sarcastically as she pulled a bottle of whiskey from the fridge.

Aaron took a step back, “What? No, of course not.” It wasn’t that Emily wasn’t a wonderful and intelligent woman. But Hotch had already felt unprofessional enough going to her house to tell her about his issues, why would he even ask for her hand in marriage?

“Don’t say it like I’m horrendous.” She laughed while drinking straight from the bottle.

Emily wasn’t acting exceptionally out of character. Especially not in a casual setting. But the smoking outside her window and drinking straight from the bottle gave her away. “Is everything alright?” Aaron asked. “You were smoking.” He said, as if it wasn’t one of the first things he pointed out when he walked in.

“It’s a stress habit you act like I’m a chainsmoker.” She laughed.

“So what was the trigger?” Hotch asked, going through her like she was a case file.
Emily rolled her eyes before they landed on her ceiling. She had always prided herself in being a closed book. Still able to befriend people and make them think they knew everything about her. But never actually giving them the full picture. However she knew her stoic boss had shared his fears with her mere minutes ago. More importantly to her though, was that he was somebody who had a non zero chance of being able to figure it out.

“I visited my mother today.” She said, like that was all the information that she needed to provide.

Of course Aaron Hotchner waited for more. He had met Elizabeth Prentiss. She was a highly respected ambassador and had given the CIA some of the most important information of the decade when it came to the Middle East. But he had hardly ever spoken to her, never for longer than five minutes of small talk. Certainly not enough to understand why talking with her would lead to her own daughter smoking and drinking in her apartment especially after only a short conversation with her.
But Emily didn’t give more when left unprompted. Which forced him to ask, “And? How does that lead to this?”

Despite Emily not wanting to share her issues she thought, what would Hotch do? He had laid himself out for her to see so, despite her fears, she told him. “She’s just on my ass about marriage and settling down with a nice man considering I’m almost forty and I need to find someone before I’m an old hag or something like that.” She tells him with a laugh to convenience him that it didn’t affect her. The fact that her mother, despite Emily's disdain for her, still affects her. The fact her mother couldn’t accept that Emily falling in love with a man just wasn’t in the cards for her. It still broke a small part of her.

Now that he had thought about it, in the three years Aaron had known Emily, she had never brought up anyone. Sure they were co-workers but with the hours the team worked, hours that often were opposed to everyone else in their lives, it made it hard to keep every meaningful relationship. Which meant most of your friends were your unit. Which also meant when someone on the team met someone special, the team knew. “And nobody has caught your attention?” He immediately bit his tongue, had every bit of professionalism left his body?

Emily scoffs, “Not any men.” She said the words coming out before she could think of what she had just revealed.

Had she seriously just revealed to her coworker that she wasn’t into men. She didn’t know him like that. Hell, she didn’t tell anyone that anymore. But drunk cigarettes took away any filter she had.
She waited for anything. She had heard it all. Back in her early twenties when she tried to come out to people before deciding it wasn’t worth the screaming, the gasps, threats of eternal damnation. It wasn’t worth it to her.

But here she was. Cards faced up on the table with the poker face protected by sarcasm fell.

Hotch stood there, stoic as ever. Expression unfailing. “Are you feeling okay?” He said, his training picking up on the hidden panic from her.

“If you’re going to say anything, say it now.” She told him.

“What is there to say?” He asked confusion lacing his voice.

“Theres a lot you could say and I’d rather you say it to my face.” She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

That's when he realized she didn’t know. About what had happened after his marriage to Hayley ended. The night he’d caught up with one of his college friends that ended in hands roaming and lips never parting for more than a few seconds. The morning he woke up and the air smelled like sweat, whisky and regret.

“Emily, I'm not going to threaten your career over this. You’re not in jeopardy for anything by telling me.” He comforted.

She nodded, letting herself breathe again, her shoulders settling back to a normal height.

“Is that why you made the comment about marriage?” He asked once she had calmed down, his brain beginning to process that her lighthearted joke might have meant something more.

She laughed a smile finally coming back to her face only now thinking about the fact her subconscious mind likely had made the joke based on her conversation with her mother. “Maybe it was, Hotchner.”

Aaron chuckled with a nod, “I suppose it would work for the both of us.” Even when he made a joke you couldn’t tell by his tone.

In a rare moment behind the walls of sarcasm Emily spoke with sincerity, “You should be with someone who you actually love, and loves you. Not just marry your coworker out of desperation

Aaron looked at her hardwood floors with Serigos black cat fur spread across it. If Emily had revealed her identity to her the least he could offer was the same level of honesty. “Emily, I'm not going to be able to marry another woman for love.” He said vaguely.

Emily didn’t pick up on hints. “I know your marriage from Hayley was quick and you loved her but-”

“I didn’t love her like that.” He told her. “She was my best friend, my wife, Jack’s mother. But she wasn’t that. I thought she was.” He hoped she'd pick up on it. He had never said the words out loud. Not even in a quiet room to himself.

Emily raised an eyebrow taking her lighter out of her pocket before she dropped it, the words finally clicking in her mind. “Well that explains it.” She said not elaborating further as she bent over to pick the lighter back up. “Is that why you can’t get married to prove to them you're okay?”

Aaron nodded, taking the bottle of whiskey Emily had left on the counter putting it back in the fridge, out of her line of vision.
“Marshall-Newman made that impossible for me, at least for now.” He said, referring to the amendment from four years ago where the people of Virginia voted for the state constitution to define marriage as one man, one woman.

A moment of silence fell over them as Emily lit her cigarette walking back to her window, “We could kill two birds with one stone.” She jokes as she blew smoke out of the window.

Aaron paused. Trying to tell himself that it was simply a joke, that Emily wouldn't marry him, especially not to please her mother. “I suppose we could.” He murmured, trying not to give her a lawyer's defense on the potential social and financial benefits of a marriage of that nature.

Emily chuckled, her lightheaded high causing her to lose a grip on her typical demeanor, “Ya know, make when I was at Yale I had a professor talk about these lavender marriages people would do back in the day.”

“Is that what you’re suggesting?” He pressed furrowing his eyebrows.

“No but it would work.” She joked. “Get my mom off my ass and the big whigs off yours.”

“Even if we were to do that, dating within a bureau can be complicated, Prentiss. They can enforce unit changes.”

“Whats your other option Aaron?” She asked deadpan, the cigarette now mostly burnt up. “Losing your career? And what's my option? The same goddamn excruciating conversation with my mother every time I come to see her? I don’t want that life Aaron and I’m pretty damn sure you don’t want the alternative either.”

He sighed, she was right. Of course she was. Why on earth would he want to risk his livelihood, one that he took so much pride in, because of this?

“How would we even approach them?” He asked only now sitting on the couch knowing how long this could take.

Emily sighs putting on a fake dramatic voice, “That we're madly in love and were hiding it but now you’ve proposed we just can’t hold it in.” She laughs. “And then I flash my ring or whatever.”

“Do I have to buy you a ring for this?”

“No, I have some ones I’ve found in thrift shops. I never wear them anymore. Do you still have your wedding band?”

He nodded, “Do we have to plan a wedding?” He asked, trying to consider the logistics.

“We can just do a courthouse wedding. I don’t feel like doing the whole white dress, cake smashing, till death do us part thing. If we’re lying to the team we can just ask them to be our little party.”

He nodded. He had come to her apartment on a whim. Sheer desperation of trying to talk to someone who always seemed to have a solution. Even now.

Emily walked over to her bedroom where Sergio quickly ran into the living room jumping on the couch next to her now fiancé. “Oh you’ll also have to deal with him now.” She shrugged, finding one of her thrifted rings. She’d bought it for cheap. She was certain that it wasn't a real diamond but she also knew nobody would be looking at it that closely. It could definitely pass as real. She slid the ring on her finger. “We should get our stories straight.” He said as Emily sat down next to him on the sofa.

They decided the story was that they had met at work. Everything had been completely professional until eight months ago at Rossi’s house. That was when their relationship started. Out of respect for their co workers and concerns about ruining their reputation they had kept it a secret. However a week ago while on a case in Columbus they had gotten engaged on a whim and only bought the ring after he popped the question. They decided it was only fair to tell the team and their supervisors before the wedding.

They kept adding every detail one might ask. Did they want kids? What did they do together? Did Emily’s cat like him? What was their favorite thing about one another? They had to have gone on for at least an hour dissecting everything anyone would ask them down to the color of each other's bedsheets.

That's when Emily asked a question, “Do we have to live together for this to be legit or something?”

“Not legally speaking but it will certainly help the legitimacy in the eyes of others.”
Sergio meowed in protest as if to say, ‘You’re not getting rid of me dumbass.’

“My apartment isn’t pet friendly.” He sighs.

Emily picks up Sergio placing him on her lap stroking the black fur. “Well this is a one bedroom in case you couldn’t tell.”

“I can sleep out here on the couch if it makes you uncomfortable.” He proposed.

Emily sighed, she cared for him too much for that, “You can sleep in my bed, it's big enough just don’t try anything.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.” He reminds her.

She laughs, “Sergio you gonna be fine sleeping with this strange man.” The cat meows in protest once again. “Well too bad.”

“He sleeps in the bed?” He questions.

“I tried buying him a cat bed, but it didn't turn out well.” She paused before sighing.“He ripped it apart.”

“I can move all my things in within forty eight hours.” He told her. “We should inform the unit before we tell Strauss.”

“I have a girls night with JJ and Penelope in a few days, I can tell them then.” She told him. “Theres a chance Penelope tells Derek. If not I’ll tell him.”

“I can tell David and Spencer.” Aaron offered.

“I can tell Spencer.”
Aaron shakes his head, “I’ll do it.” He says firmly.

“So do we pop champagne or something now that we’re engaged?” Emily jokes, walking to the fridge.

“You have champagne?” Aaron asked. He had only seen Emily drink alcohol like whiskey.

“No but whiskey is the same difference.” She said, pouring him a glass. “To marriages that solve problems.”
—

Three days had passed. Emily had avoided wearing her ring at work. She didn’t want the team to find out because of the shiny ring on her finger. Even if it wasn’t a real marriage, her and Aaron didn’t intend on telling the team that. Penelope and JJ deserved to hear it from her.

That's what she intended on doing tonight.
Twice a month, if their schedule allowed it, the woman of the BAU would go to Penelope Garcia’s apartment, have a few drinks and gossip. Maybe gossip wasn’t the right word but it currently emulated the same energy they all had felt in high school.

Emily arrived at Penelope’s apartment with a bottle of red wine in her leather bag. “Am I late?”

“Never too late for the lovely Miss.Prentiss!” Penelope squeaks, “JJ she’s here!”

They all sat down on the couch passing around wine glasses. Penelope started talking about how she had found a guy on social media and how she had been doing a deep dive on him. Which in Penelope Garcia's world was a true deep dive.

Emily was only half listening to her, her mind repeatedly flickering to the ring she had in her pocket. Her mind trying to recall the story she and Aaron had put together. These girls were some of her best friends. What if they reacted poorly? She couldn't handle it. She could pretend like it wouldn’t affect her but she knew it would.

“Anywho! That’s all the major news about little ole me! What about you sweet little angels?” Penelope asked the others.

“I don’t have much with me.” Jennifer told them. “Just taking care of Henry. What about you Em?”

“Well.” She sighed, bracing herself as she reached into her bag attempting to find the ring. “I actually do have some pretty big news.” She took the ring out of her bag sliding it onto her finger watching as the blonde's eyes widened with shock at the insinuation of her action. “I’m engaged.”

The joy in her voice sounded manufactured. It wasn’t. Though it wasn’t the joy she knew she should be feeling, the joy of finding someone to be with for life. It was more a sense of relief that she had finally found a way to stop the constant derogatory comments at her sexuality.
But she hoped they couldn’t tell. That the relief read as joy.

Which it seemed it did.

“Oh my GOD! Emily Prentiss is engaged! Show the ring, show it!” Emily laughed, giving Penelope her hand.

JJ almost looked like she was disconnected, Emily could assume from the shock. After a few minutes of Penelope marveling at the engagement ring the media liaison finally spoke up, “To who?”

“Aaron.” She answered, reminding herself to keep her head on her shoulders.
Penelope gasped again. “YOU AND HOTCH ARE DATING?”

Emily simply nodded watching their faces find that same shock they had when she’d told them about the engagement.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Penelope squeaks.

“JJ did you see any signs? Did I miss something? I mean I know I’m not a profiler but-“

JJ cut her off her blonde brows furrowed, hands messing with her skirt. “No, I didn't see it coming either.” She finally smiles her blue eyes finally meeting Emily's dark ones,

“Congratulations Em, if you need any help with wedding planning I have some experience.”

“Thanks JJ.” She smiled resting her hands back on the couch.

The rest of the night went on as it always did. Rumors about people in adjacent units, complaining about the executives at the FBI, JJ telling some story about Will.
On paper, minus the engagement announcement, it was a typical girls night.

But JJ’s eyes would hardly meet Emily’s for more than a few seconds. The media liaison of the BAU who could give clear eye contact while fielding some of the most intense questions, couldn’t give Emily any eye contact that night.

But the ring currently saw Jennifer Jareus’s eyes that night.
—

Emily started wearing the gem stone to work after that. Hotch had moved into her apartment. Sergio would hiss every time he passed by but he was slowly winning him over with lickable cat treats.

Sharing a bed was an unusual experience for the both of them. Aaron was used to sharing a bed but he was also used to holding the person in his arms whilst laying in bed. Emily, however, wasn’t used to it at all. She was used to tossing and turning in the queen sized bed all night. She had learned to stop when in the midst of this routine she had punched her fiancé in the chest at two in the morning.

It was the first Saturday since they had moved in together. Which, in theory, meant the first non-working day of living in the same one bedroom apartment. They were slowly figuring out how to co-exist. How Emily would do the dishes because Aaron didn’t like the feeling of the wet food. How Aaron knew how to clean spaces Emily had never figured out in her time growing up with cleaners. The fact that Emily had recipes from all over the world. It fit together like puzzle pieces.

Emily was in the kitchen brewing herself a coffee as Aaron sat on the couch sipping his own. The silence in the room wasn’t particularly unpleasant. But it was broken once Emily asked, “Have you told the people you said you would, about the engagement?”

Aaron looks up from the dark beverage, “I told Hayley and Jack about it yesterday. They were happy for us.”

“I meant the team.” She said, like it was obvious, “Because I’ve been wearing the ring to work since I told my people. I assumed you told who you said you were supposed to. I know Penelope texted Derek.”

Aaron sighs, “I haven’t. But I presume they know if you’re wearing the ring.”

“They wouldn’t know it’s you Aaron.” She reminds him. “They deserve to hear it from your mouth and not from a wedding invitation at their door.”

He sighs, “I’ll call them now.” He grabbed his phone stepping out of the main room.
He glared at his contacts as if they were the most disdained task on his to-do list today. He decided to dial Rossi first. He had been married thrice and it was likely he would make some comments about how marriage didn’t always mean forever and give him a lavish gift at the wedding.

“Hello? Do we have a case? Because I’m about to board a plane to-“

“No, Dave. I just wanted to share something with you.” He takes a deep breath.”Me and Prentiss are engaged.”
He heard the slight pause before offering his most enthusiastic congratulations. They discussed wedding planning and how the higher ups would take it before concluding that they were both well respected and that it would likely be taken positively, or at the very least neutrally.

He offered another congratulations asking him to tell Emily as well before he hung up.

Which meant it was now time to call Spencer Reid.

“Hello?” The young agent answered, his voice still groggy. Despite Spencer being adverse to technology he did have a work phone after concluding it would be easier to get to him that way than via smoke signals.

“Good morning Reid. Is it a bad time?” He questioned trying to find a way out.

“Do we have a case? I can be there in thirty minutes if the train-“

“We don’t have a case but I appreciate the willingness.” He injected. “I just wanted to share some news with you if that’s alright.”

“Oh, yes. What is it?” Spencer asked, his bed creaking.

“Me and Emily are engaged. We’ve been dating for a few months now after me and Hayley separated.”

This pause was even longer than Rossi’s was. Aaron had to check that he hadn’t hung up.

Finally he spoke again. “Congratulations! To the both of you. That’s…that’s really amazing.”

“Thank you, I’m sorry for interrupting your morning Spencer. Have a good day.”

With both of his calls made he walked back into the living room where Emily drank her coffee with her cat on her lap. “Did ya tell ‘em?”

“I did. They both congratulated us.” He informed her. “Did you ever tell your mother?”

Emily groaned at the mere mention of her mother, like it was a reflex. “I haven’t.” She admits. “Not in the mood to deal with ‘I told you so’ today.”

“Well it seems like you haven’t been for the past week. You have to tell her eventually.”
She groaned once more holding the black cat on her lap as she reached over for her phone.

“Just make it quick, get it over with.” She murmured to herself.
She dialed her mother’s number praying to a higher power she didn’t believe in that her mother was sleeping in, or maybe she was having brunch with one of her fellow socialite friends.

Unfortunately that was not the reality for Emily Prentiss.

“Well this is certainly a suprise.” Her mothers voice came through the phone. “Has something happened?”

“No. Well yes I guess.” Emily says, she was calm and collected in everything else, in front of all the worst people in the world, but for some reason her own mother was the one who could get under her skin. “It’s good news. I got engaged.” She didn’t fake the enthusiasm she had with her friends, she didn’t feel the need to with someone she wasn’t fond of.

“Oh that's wonderful Emily. I didn’t even know you were seeing someone. Who is he?”

“His name is Aaron Hotchner. I work with him at the FBI.” Emily tells her putting on the faux polite tone she had mastered.

“Is he a good man? Does he have a good reputation?” Her mother questions, not wondering if this marriage would benefit her but only how it would look to her social status.

Emily can’t resist a sigh before confirming that he did have a good standing. Telling her vague details about how he used to be a prosecutor before becoming Unit Chief.

“Well that's great Emily. When's the wedding?” Her mother asked her tone still seemingly unexcited for her daughter's wedding.

Even if it wasn’t a wedding for true love, at least not in the romantic sense that hurt.
So she lied, “It already happened. We just eloped at the courthouse one day.”
Her mother let out a sigh and she practically see her mother taking off her glasses. “You couldn’t even think of inviting your own mother?”

“It was in the spur of the moment.” She sighs, not even this news seemed to satisfy her mother. “I have to go, bye mom.”

Her mother didn’t even say those words back before Emily heard the line go flat. She let out a humorless laugh as she shook her head before sitting back on the couch where Aaron had been listening to their conversation.

“Did I miss our own wedding?” He asked, referring to her lie about their elopement.

Emily finally let out a laugh, a real one. “No you didn’t. I just don’t want her there. You got an issue with that.”

Aaron shakes his head, finishing his coffee. “I do want to know why your relationship with her seems so treacherous though.”

“Conversation for another time.”