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"W.S. GILBERT WROTE, 'IT'S LOVE THAT MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND.'" Aaron looked up from his notecards containing his eulogy. He'd scribbled over words and sentences, and written entirely illegible words that got smeared with the spare tears he'd let fall during the process, before he had Jane rewrite all of them in her careful, practiced handwriting. "And if that's true, then the world spun a little faster with Haley in it."
She stood next to him before Haley's casket, leaning into his side perhaps unconsciously, because her body was still recuperating and she'd vehemently dismissed any ideas of attending Haley's funeral in a wheelchair. They'd argued briefly about whether or not she should even go, because Aaron was worried about her recovery, and no matter how old Jane got, she would never get used to someone caring for her in such a paternal way.
Hotch was used to it– he understood it, truly, but it made it no less hard to watch Jane put herself through hell just because she thought people expected it of her.
Haley's sister Jess was on the other side of him, Jack standing against her legs, looking around sadly but more so in confusion because of all the people mourning his mother. He knew the BAU was behind him, and Calvin was somewhere in the crowd, waiting to be a crutch for Jane while they went through the endless apologies and condolences from the other guests. Grieving so publicly never got any easier.
"Haley was my best friend since we were in high school," Hotch starts, trying to keep his voice even but not detached, like he tended to be in these moments. "We certainly had our struggles, but if there's one thing we agreed on unconditionally, it was our love and commitment to our children. Haley's love for Jane and Jack was joyous, and fierce. That fierceness is why she isn't here today. A mother's love is an unrivaled force of nature, and we can all learn much from the way Haley lived her life."
He takes a moment and collects himself, shuffling the cards in his hands. "Haley's death causes each of us to stop and take stock of our lives. To measure who we are, and what we've become. I don't have all those answers for myself, but I know who Haley was. She was the woman who died protecting the child we brought into this world, and the one we found along the way. And I will make sure that Jack grows up knowing who his mother was, and how she loved and protected him, and how much I loved her."
Jane lifts a hand up, clutching it onto his arm, and he pauses briefly, glancing down at her to make sure she's steadied herself.
"If Haley were with us today, she would ask us not to mourn her death, but to celebrate her life," He fell silent, watching Jane's shoulders shake and the white rose in her hand tremble as she kept her cries quiet. "She would tell us..." He trails off again, feeling emotion choke his words in his throat. He swallows roughly, voice shaking when he speaks again. "She would tell us to love our families unconditionally, and to hold them close, because in the end, they are all that matter."
