Paranoia - s.reid

One Week

6 days before the wedding:

Liz rapidly hit her knuckles against the hard wood door of Aaron Hotchner's residence. The door swung open before she could knock again, revealing a confused Aaron.

"We need to talk." He visibly gulped at her words, inviting her in. 

"Can I get you anything?" She shook her head. They were engulfed in silence once again. "You're actually marrying him."

"Yeah." He almost scoffed. She furrowed her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"Your relationship is so far from perfect. The amount of times he's neglected you-"

"Really? And what do you know about perfection and neglect, Aaron? How has he neglected me because last time I checked, I'm still with him. I haven't left him." She argued.

"After Tobias, he completely neglected you."

"How? He was recovering, we all need time to recover."

"Don't think I didn't notice the way you constantly shifted uncomfortably in your seat more, how you rarely got any sleep and often slept in the conference room to avoid being seen. How you'd constantly wear turtlenecks in the middle of summer. His sudden mood changes with you, I saw it all. You were exhausted. Tell me, Elizabeth, what were you doing? Were you cooking for him 3 times a day and letting him use you when he needed you?" She went silent as tears pooled along her waterline. That's exactly what happened in two weeks, she couldn't deny it. "You have the constant need to feel wanted, to feel like you're needed and you belong."

"He loves me." She croaked.

"Then why didn't he take care of you after Marceau? How come you still flinch when someone other than Strauss touches you? Why is it that you still squeal whenever water touches you? The only reason you didn't hesitate when he touched you was because you knew he was distant, you just wanted to feel loved." 

"That's none of your business. I'll have you know that after we had an adult conversation, we were fine. I progressed." Liz spoke with an uncertain sense of authority.

"I love you. How could that not mean anything to you?" Her breath hitched in her throat. "When we met and became friends we used to go to so many places together."

Liz looked down at her shoes, reminiscing and reliving the memories. "We would go to Folger Shakespeare library. You took me to the Moongate Garden at the Smithsonian once, during sunset. It was beautiful."

"If I weren't married, it would've felt like we were a couple. It still felt like it, anyways."

"I know." Aaron walked towards her, grabbing her hands. "We have to stop doing this to each other. Destroying each other. Let us be happy, Aaron."

"Even if it's not with each other?"

"Even if it's not with each other." She took a deep breath. "I want you to walk me down the aisle. Not as a father figure, of course, but as a way of letting go. I want you to give me away to him. You can walk me down, give me away and join the other groomsmen."

Aaron brought her right hand to his lips, leaving a gentle kiss on it. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"I'll walk you down the aisle."

5 days before the wedding:

"Penny, recite the entire guest list for me, including people coming to the reception."

The couple originally wanted a small wedding, but after Liz became friends with McCord, Secretary of State, and her entire family including the husband and kids, things became larger. And political. And that's how the president ended up on their guest list.