Based on something Aaron said to Hannah in 2x10…

Enjoy!

Here is Love

"As National Security Adviser, you don't think I know what people in this building are up to?"

Aaron sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Between dealing with a religious group who refused to evacuate from their cabin, and the possibility that Damien had been working against them this whole time, he was ready to be done with the day.

He would be lying if he said something else hadn't been weighing on his mind recently. He'd tried not to think about it, but it bothered him. As much as he would deny it to himself, it really bothered him.

He'd walked past Emily's office on his way home and he heard Emily and Seth talking. They were talking about the date they were going to go on at the weekend. Then, they kissed. It was quick and awkward, but it had happened, and Aaron was at a loss for what to think.

He'd walked on, part of him regretting that he now held this information, part of him thankful that he knew so he would forget about any possibility of things working out for him and Emily. It also explained why she had been weird with him for the past while. There was none of the same back and forth flirtatious behaviour that had characterized their relationship over the past year anymore. Everything was strictly professional. She could barely even make eye contact with him. She felt guilty.

It had been a couple of weeks since he'd seen them, and he hadn't said anything about it. He honestly didn't want to. He didn't want to hear it from either of them because he didn't know if he could keep a good poker face.

He didn't know what came over him that afternoon when she walked into his office. He'd just told Hannah that he knew what the people in the White House were up to, and he wasn't just talking about her and Damien. Seth and Emily were on the front of his mind, and all of a sudden, he found himself confronting the issue head on in a less than pleasant manner.

"Hey" she greeted as she handed him some files, and he mumbled a hello and thank you in response. She furrowed her eyebrows at his apparent bad mood; "Is everything ok?" she asked as she crossed her arms.

"I don't know you tell me" he responded as he didn't take his eyes off his computer.

Emily closed her eyes and sighed; "Look, Aaron, I don't really have time for passive aggressive comments, so if you have something you want to say, just say it."

"It's just a little strange you walking in here, actually giving me a proper greeting, rather than barking orders and also asking me if everything was ok, rather than just leaving." Aaron replied.

"I'm not a monster Aaron, though you seem to think otherwise." Emily replied quietly. "Where is this coming from?"

Aaron sat back in his chair and finally looked up at her. He looked hurt and she looked guilty. Like she knew he had every right to be mad at her.

"I saw you and Seth the other day" Aaron simply said as Emily slowly nodded once.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you"

"You don't owe me an explanation." Aaron responded.

"Then why are you so mad?"

"I guess it just hurt a little that you were never willing to give us a chance, but you were with Seth." Aaron confessed.

"Seth… Seth is different." Emily replied vaguely.

Aaron furrowed his eyebrows; "What do you mean?"

"It's uncomplicated. With Seth, everything is… easy"

Aaron scoffed, "That's not a reason to be with someone Emily" he said, raising his voice slightly.

"I know that"

"Then why the hell are you with him?!"

"I thought you said I didn't owe you an explanation? We didn't work out, Seth and I did, that's none of your concern." She said, raising her voice to meet his level.

"You're right, you don't owe me one. I guess it makes sense why you've been avoiding me like the plague for the past while."

"I didn't exactly plan for any of this to happen Aaron." Emily reasoned.

"Don't give me that Emily, I find it really hard to believe that you would just avoid one of your closest friends in the White House or that you would just accidentally start dating Seth!"

"At least Seth was there for me when I was going through all that crap with my dad!" Emily responded.

"I didn't know about that crap with your dad because you refuse to have a normal conversation with me!" Aaron responded as Emily shook her head and looked at her feet. "Is that why you're with Seth? Your dad was a dick and Seth was the first guy that came along and made you feel better?"

"You're an asshole." Emily said as she turned to walk away but Aaron was quick on her tail and spun her around.

"Don't walk away from me, I am sick of you walking away from me and leaving all this—this—stuff between us." Aaron said quietly as they were mere centimetres apart.

"Well that don't make dick comments about something you know nothing about!" Emily said through her teeth. "God, you make so mad." She said as she pushed him away from her.

"Yeah well ditto to you" Aaron replied.

Before anything else could be said, they heard a light knock on the door and Lyor was standing there with his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry to interrupt this little spat…" Lyor stated as Emily moved further away from Aaron as her cheeks turned red. "The President wants to see you Emily."

"Ok, I'll be right there" Emily said as Lyor silently nodded his head and left the room.

Emily and Aaron stood in silence for a moment, neither wanting to break and resolve this issue. Emily couldn't take it after a while and just shook her head and left the room.

Any tension that there was between them before was now blatantly obvious to not only them, but to some of their colleagues as well.

After meeting with the president, Emily decided to hide out in her office for the rest of the day. Her argument with Aaron had made her so mad that she knew she would snap at an undeserving victim at any time over the smallest of things.

Eventually, Seth came and found her. He wanted to know what was going on with her, especially since Lyor had told him he walked in on Aaron and Emily screaming at each other.

"Hey" he greeted cautiously as Emily looked up from her desk and smiled softly.

"Hey" she replied.

"Are you ok?"

"Fine, why?" Emily answered quickly.

"You haven't left your office since lunch time and… I heard you and Aaron were having a bit of an argument." Seth confessed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Who knew Lyor would be the work place gossip?" Emily half joked.

Seth merely smiled lightly in response, not sure how he should approach this topic. Lyor had told him a snippet of what he heard, so he knew it was about something other than work.

"What were you fighting about?" he asked.

"Oh, it was nothing. Just some work stuff." Emily lied.

Seth nodded and looked at his feet. If she had have been up front about it, he would have believed that it wasn't a big deal, but the fact that she lied? He couldn't help but have a bad feeling about it all.

"Emily… you and I both know that's not true." He responded as Emily remained silent, not sure how to approach this next. "Is there something going on between you two?"

"No!" Emily answered quickly as she stood from her chair and walked towards him. She realised that she wasn't going to get away with just saying no, so she took a deep breath, ready to confess. "But… last year… something almost happened but life got in the way. The White House got in the way."

"Right. I had my suspicions, but I think I chose to blank them out because I liked you so much." Seth confessed.

Emily smiled softly. "Aaron found out about you and me and it just brought up some unresolved stuff between us." Emily told him. "But it really doesn't matter, it was so dumb and we're fine—"

"Don't lie to me Em." Seth interrupted as Emily was moved to silence again. "I had always wondered why you two stopped talking over the past few months. You used to be so close and then all of sudden you could barely look at him."

"Seth—"

"I'm not going to be that guy Emily."

"What guy?"

"The guy that sits around, waiting for someone… who's never really going to love him in return." Seth confessed as Emily felt the tears pool in her eyes. She felt a sting in her heart, not because she was losing Seth, but because he was right.

"Seth, you mean so much to me…"

"I know. But I'm not him. It's obvious you have some unresolved stuff going on so I'm going to step aside while you work that out." Seth said.

He kissed her head before turning and walking away.

"Seth" Emily called as he stopped and turned to face her. She wanted to ask him to stay, she wanted to ask him to change his mind, she wanted to assure him that there was nothing to resolve, but instead, she found herself merely saying; "I'm sorry." Nothing could will her to stop him.

Seth nodded and looked down at his feet before walking out the door.

As he rounded the corner, he bumped straight into Aaron who smiled at his friend.

"Hey" Aaron greeted before looking down at his phone again and walking on.

"Hey…" Seth responded after a split second. "She's really amazing you know." Seth said as Aaron stopped and looked up.

"Who is?"

"Emily. Put quite simply, she's amazing." Seth said as Aaron merely looked at his friend confused. He knew Emily was amazing. He'd known it for a long time. Why was Seth telling him this? "Do right by her." Seth finished before walking away and leaving a confused Aaron in his wake.

It was approaching midnight and Aaron was glad to be finishing up the paper work that had landed on his table earlier that night. It had been a long day and he just wanted to forget about it, though when he saw Emily appear at his door, her face like thunder, he knew that his night just got a little longer.

"Emily—" he began as he stood from his chair, but Emily held her hand up.

"Seth ended things with me because he heard about our fight." Emily told him.

"I'm sorry."

"I have been sitting at my desk all evening thinking about what I was going to say to you, and anything I came up with was just full of anger." Emily confessed. "You had no right to blow up at me like that."

"You did a fair bit of shouting too Emily." Aaron responded.

"Oh my god could you please put your pride aside for once and just admit that you're in the wrong!?" Emily shouted. "My boyfriend just dumped me because of you!"

"I hate to break it to you Emily but if Seth wants to dump you over a stupid fight we had, then there are probably other underlying issues there that pushed him to do it. If he really wanted to be with you, he would have fought for you."

"You don't know what was going through Seth's mind when he made that choice!"

"Isn't that what you want though?" Aaron asked as he walked towards Emily. "Someone who will love you no matter what? Someone who will fight for you. Someone who will fight with you. Someone with so much passion and drive to love you, not someone who's going to give up at the first sign of a struggle."

Emily crossed her arms, trying to close herself off to Aaron and his words. "You're not exactly the sort of guy Seth would feel comfortable being up against."

"What does that mean?"

"You're 6ft2 of pure passion and drive Aaron!" Emily shouted, leaving Aaron standing stunned.

He smirked; "Is that a compliment?"

"Get your head out of your ass." Emily said with a deep glare.

Aaron chuckled; "I missed this."

"Missed what?"

"This weird flirty thing we do. How we somehow manage to insult and compliment each other all at once." Aaron said as he stood a few inches away from Emily. "I know what you had with Seth was straight forward and uncomplicated. And that's… nice… but that's not love. Love drives you crazy. It makes you do crazy things… like every word we have spoken to each other today."

Emily finally looked up at Aaron as he towered over her; "Are you saying you love me?" she asked quietly.

"I'm saying we deserve a chance to find out how crazy we're willing to get." Aaron responded. He then leaned down and cupped her cheeks before kissing her softly and sweetly.

"I'll see you around Rhodes." He whispered before lifting his coat from the chair and leaving a stunned Emily standing in the middle of his office.

What was Aaron Shore doing to her?