A/N: this chapter may be a little sappy but I felt like I needed to move things along a bit. I also want to dedicate this chapter to my sister who is a crazy-composting-grow-your-own-vegetables-cloth-diapering type of girl.

Chapter 4: You are Such a LOSEBAG!

It had been three days. Three days since Aaron joined Legacy. Three days of him shoveling shit into buckets and using it for composting. Aaron felt like he had entered into some sort of alternate reality. These people were bizarre circus performers who liked to compost and grow their own vegetables. They were crazy, composting, strip poker playing CIRCUS FREAKS!

But in all honesty, Aaron had never felt more at home in his life. Granted, if he stayed with Legacy, he hoped he could move up the ladder, so to speak, but he was beginning to see these people as his friends.

"Aaron?" A tentative voice snapped Aaron out of his reverie. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yah. I'm fine. Just deep in thought I guess", he replied scooping the last of the elephant droppings into a bucket.

"Must have been some seriously deep thoughts. You were standing there for like, five minutes, just staring off into space." Emily took a few cautious steps closer to Aaron.

Aaron felt something in the pit of his stomach. Was she actually worried about me? Aaron thought. "No, I'm fine. Thanks though. Just chalk it up to being exposed to elephant shit all morning and the fact that it's like, 9000 degrees in here." He shot here a half dimpled smile and a wink, hoping to relieve some of her concern.

"Well, good. Garcia was worried when you didn't come for lunch, so I offered to bring you something." She handed him a plate with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Did you do something to piss her off? We all got fried chicken for lunch and al you get is a stinkin' sandwich." Emily turned up her nose as Aaron took the first bite of his sandwich.

"I'm a simple guy, Em. I don't need much. I've survived on less." Aaron wasn't really thinking about what he was saying because if he had, he wouldn't have said anything at all. He didn't want to delve into his past, and Emily was the last person he wanted to share his sordid past with.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I don't want to get into it, if you don't mind."

"Well, why'd you bring it up then? If you didn't' want to get into it, you wouldn't have said anything." From the moment Emily saw Aaron, he had caught her interest and curiosity, and she wasn't about to let this go. He beyond intrigued her and if he had his own dark secrets, maybe she could finally talk to someone about everything she'd kept inside for all these years.

"Just DROP it Emily!" I don't want to talk about it! Leave. It. Alone!" Aaron pretty much spat the last three words at her. He wished he hadn't because the look in her eyes was murderous and it made him feel cowardly and about two inches tall.

"You know all I wanted to do was talk. Get to know you a little. You know, be your friend! But apparently, the Great Aaron Hotchner is above sharing his secrets with me! You'll talk to Derek, Rossi, JJ, and Garcia. God, you'll even talk to REID! So why won't you talk to me? I'm not good enough, is that it? Because I'm just a "little girl"? Well, listen here you self-centered, egotistical, piece of shit LOSEBAG," she jabbed her index finger into his chest with each adjective she spat in his face, "I'm not some bimbo chick you can flash your dimples at and get whatever you want. Don't presume to know the first thing about me or what I've been through!" With that, Emily turned on her heels and started out of the tent. She stopped at the entrance and shot over her shoulder, "Garcia wants the plate back." And without even looking back she left him there, rooted in place.

Aaron was dumbstruck. He'd had his ass handed to him on plenty occasions by his father, but this was worse. He had hurt her by cutting into her for no reason at all. This was the first time they'd actually spoken and now Aaron was sure that she'd never speak to him again.

It's not like he didn't want to talk to someone about his past. It was more that he secretly didn't want to forgive his father. He wasn't ready to let it go. Aaron had no one in his life so holding onto that hate was all he had. It didn't make sense he knew that. It was irrational and unhealthy. And it was clearly pushing people away. Somehow, he had to make this right.

Emily was beyond fuming. She had never in her entire life been so utterly pissed off. She was down right… GRRRRRRRRRRRRR! That was the only thought that was running through her mind. She was so wrapped up in how she was going to tear Aaron Hotchner a new one that she didn't hear JJ and Garcia walk up behind her.

Without any warning, a bucket of freezing cold water was dumped on her head.

"WHAT. THE. HELL. ARE. YOU. DOING?" Emily shouted at the two obviously guilty women.

'Just thought you needed to cool down." Garcia stated matter of factly.

"Yah, the trail of smoke that you left in your wake as you stormed past us got us a little worried." JJ added. "What's got you so heated?"

"THAT… ASSHOLE…" That was all she could get out before JJ threw another bucket of equally freezing water in her face. "FUCK you guys! STOP! What the HELL?"

"Stop yelling at us and we'll stop soaking you." JJ told her in an even, collected tone.

Emily stood there. She couldn't believe them. Then she looked behind Garcia and saw another bucket of water and knew that their threats were real.

"Good. Now tell us who this Asshole is so we can go tear his balls off." A huge grin spread across Garcia's lips, almost like she was hoping Emily would ask her to go through with the treat.

"Aaron." Emily sighed. "I went to give him his lunch… he said something… I pushed it… he told me to drop it… I didn't… he yelled," Emily paused for a moment, "I called him a losebag." Emily hung her head because as he gave her friends the fragmented version of their conversation, she realized that just as Aaron didn't know the first thing about her, she also didn't know anything about him. "Oh god. I feel like such a spaz. I ripped his head off for no reason. God I'm such a flake." She felt completely defeated.

"Well, just keep in mind that you came to this conclusion on your own. We," JJ motioned between her and Garcia, "did nothing to influence your self-proclamation." There was a pause before Emily reached behind them and subsequently dowsed them both with the bucket of cold water.

Shocked, Garcia said, "You are… in… so much trouble… missy!" Her teeth were chattering and her lips had already turned blue. Emily took off running because she knew that the treat was anything but empty.

Aaron didn't know how long he sat in the tent for. A lot of the things that Emily said were true. He really did only talk to Rossi, Derek and Spencer about personal stuff. They knew about his train hoping and dumpster diving, and they sort of knew about his father. He'd talk to JJ and Garcia too, but more about the psyche of the male mind. They would constantly pick his brain for new ways to torment the others.

But he never talked to Emily.

He knew why. He liked her. A LOT. And he didn't know how to deal with that. He'd see her doing her warm-ups with Derek and he'd sneak in to see the show, but he'd only stay for her act, then go back to cleaning. He knew she knew he did this because she would make fun of his antics later on in the evenings.

But what had him stuck in his thoughts right now was that she might be just as damaged as he was. She had dark secrets too, and that made him sad. He prayed that she hadn't had a father like his who would take things out on her, or an uncle who would sneak into her room at night. Aaron's heart broke a little bit with each horrible scenario his mind thought up about a beautiful little Emily as a child. With each heartbreaking though, tears started trickling down his cheeks and before his could stop himself, Aaron was full on weeping for whatever it was that had happened to Emily.

Lost in his thoughts and tears, Aaron didn't notice the figure standing just inside the flap to the tent. He didn't notice her quietly make her way to where he had slumped to the ground. He didn't even notice her sit down next to him.

When his sobs had finally stopped, she spoke in a whisper that was only meant for his ears. "Aaron, I'm not here to apologize and I don't want t you to apologize to me. I'm not here to say I was wrong. You were wrong to snap at me but," she paused, "I wasn't exactly right to feed you your balls like that either. I'm not saying I was wrong," she added quickly, "I'm just saying I wasn't right."

They both sat in silence for a few more minutes before Emily turned to him and locked eyes with him for the first time since Aaron had first seen her a few days ago. Emily placed her hand on his, sending shivers throughout Aaron's whole body. "I want to understand you, Aaron. I really do. If you don't want to talk about it that's fine, I get it. Trust me, I get it." She looked away from him, but didn't let go of his hand. "Rossi wants you to stay and travel with us permanently. Everyone does."

"Do you?" Aaron spoke for the first time since she saw him break down.

Aaron's gaze never left her and when she finally looked back into his eyes, he saw them glistening with tears on the verge of escaping her perfect brown eyes. She leaned forward and captured his lips in a sweet and tender kiss. That was all the answer Aaron needed.

Emily let go of Aaron's hands and stood to leave.

"Wait. Emily there's something I need to know." Aaron asked stopping Emily dead in her tracks.

"Aaron, please. I'm not going to push you so PLEASE don't push me back. Right now is not the time to talk about our dark and gruesome pasts."

GRUESOME! Great, now there are more images of you I didn't need to have. "No, Emily I need to know. It's been driving me crazy all day. Please!"

Emily just hung head and stared at her shoes. After a moment she nodded for Aaron to ask his question.

"Thank you. I really need to know and I really need for you to be honest with me." Emily was freaking out. She didn't want to talk about this, not right now. "I need for you to tell me what a LOSEBAG is."

Emily snapped her head up. That was the last thing she expected to come out of his mouth. Aaron was relieved that the tension was gone between them. But as Emily's fist connected with his diaphragm, there was a new sort of tension in his now constricting muscles.

"What the hell was that for?" Aaron asked once he was able to catch his breath again.

"Because that, Aaron Hotchner, is what you get for making get all worked up." She held out her hand to help him off the ground and he pulled her to his chest.

"Fine, but seriously, what does it mean?"

"I don't know it just came out. Now come on. Garcia heard that you LOVE Shepherd's Pie, so guess what she made for you?" She pushed away from him and started to walk off in the direction of the dinning tent.

"STOP. STARING. AT. MY. ASS! Perve." Emily laughed as Aaron just shook his head and made his way to catch up with her.

"You do know that I hate Shepherd's Pie, right?"

"Yup! But I told Garcia that you normally have thirds so you better thank her when you're done."

"I think I hate you right now, Emily."

"Meh. You'll get over it." She leaned up and kissed him again on the lips. As he trailed a hand down the to the small of her back, he realized he had it bad. And he was pretty sure she knew it.

A/N: wow, sorry this was a tad long. I was trying to figure out a way to bring them together and then this just came out of left field. And yes, Emily's past is pretty gruesome. I came up with the idea after having an exceptionally strange dream. It was a cheese-induced dream so needless to say it was beyond bizarre. Did you know that the reason cheese is so addictive is because it has small amounts of morphine in it that is produced by the cow's liver? Well, now you do!

Again, I love it when you read, review and recycle (used coffee grounds are great for composting… just saying)!