A/N: okay as promised, here is the next chapter to my little twisted circus. They deal a lot with Emily's past. And as I said before, this is what I dreamt about after watching American Justice and eating a grilled cheese sandwich.
Chapter 6: Focus, Focus, Focus
Tonight's show was a disaster. There was so much tension in those three rings that it could have been cut with a knife. Everyone was on edge. Okay, that's not totally true. The show went off just like every other night. Legacy wasn't all clowns and animal tricks. Legacy definitely wasn't your typical Circus Gatti.
Legacy told a story. Each night JJ would sing a new haunting melody, Garcia was someone new every night and everyone somehow got the message as to what the story was. Tonight's show wasn't a disaster. Emily was the disaster. And the only tension was between her and Aaron.
Emily normally didn't have to focus on her routines with Derek. She just did them. Hell, she could probably do them in her sleep. Everyone still cheered (and the men still gawked). No one saw that she was off. All she wanted was for this night to be over.
After the show was over and they were about to take their bows, Emily moved as far away from Aaron as possible. He thought this was kind of adorable. She was so flustered and out of sorts, and knowing that he made her that way made him swell with a selfish pride. She was his and he had her in knots.
After the final bow, Emily ran from the tent, needing a lot of time away from Aaron and his burning eyes. He'd been staring at her all night, something he hadn't done since his first week with Legacy. It was driving her bananas! What in the hell was he playing at? What did it mean? You're out of your fucking mind! Why did you tell him you loved him? Now he's gonna get scared and run away and never talk to you again! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Emily had been pacing back and forth berating herself for going on two hours. She had never let a guy get to her like Aaron had. He was a distraction to her entire existence. He was so much of a distraction that she didn't hear the soft footsteps on the ground behind her. Not paying any attention to what was happening, she didn't notice when the evening air became quiet once again, except for the occasional four-letter word that escaped Emily's lips.
Then all of sudden she stopped pacing and cursing. She smelt the air and got chills over her whole body. She spun around to see who was there but all she could make out was the dark silhouette of a person about twenty feet away from her. She couldn't really see him, but she could smell him. A smell she hadn't smelt in thirteen years. It was a mix of Bourbon, body odor, human filth and iron. "Who's there?" She yelled out into the darkness not really expecting anyone to answer.
Emily wasn't stupid enough to wait around to find out if he would answer her back, so she took off running towards her trailer. She needed to change and go see him! Besides Aaron, he was the only person she trusted with her life. Sure, she trusted everyone at Legacy, they were her family, but she needed him. He was the only one who could help her. She needed to get away from here and that god awful smell.
She quickly changed into some jeans and her favourite sweater (which she stole from Aaron), hurriedly tied up her Chuck Taylor's and bolted out of her trailer only to be knocked flat on her ass.
"Geez girl! Where's the fire?"
"I don't have time for this, Derek. I need to go."
"And where, pray tell, are you going? Pen's got dinner all ready. Come on darling."
"NO DEREK! I. NEED. TO. GO!" She didn't mean to yell but she really needed to get out of here. She hadn't realized how loud she had yelled until everyone started coming out of the dining tent. She could feel Aaron staring at her and it made her want to leave that much more. She loved him, she'd already admitted that out loud, but she didn't want this to be how he found out about what had happened.
"Em, come on. What's gotten into you? You were distracted up there tonight and now you're all manic and shit! What the hell happened?" Derek was like Emily's big brother and seeing her like this was scaring him.
Emily brushed past him and ran to Rossi. "I need the keys. I need to get somewhere." Rossi stared down into her huge brown, terrified eyes. He put his hands on her shoulders and could feel her shaking. "I'm coming with you."
Watching Emily and Rossi drive away, the rest of the team was left there having no clue as to what was going on. It was Garcia who finally broke the silence after looking into each of their confused eyes. "You guys do know where we are, right?"
"Santa Anna. What does that have to do with anything?" For once, Reid was stuck. His genius mind failing to come up with any statistical facts about their present location.
"It's really not my place to say what happened here. And besides, I don't know all the details."
"Penelope, spit it out. What's got our girl so stirred up?" Derek was getting really anxious.
"I don't know, guys. This isn't my business to tell. I'm not even supposed to know."
"Penelope, PLEASE!" JJ was on the verge of tears. She was getting more and more worried. She loved Emily like a sister and it killed her to see her so upset. "We're a family Penelope. She's our family." JJ pleaded, tears escaping her blue red-rimmed eyes.
Garcia sighed and motioned for everyone to come back in and sit down. "You sure you want to know?" Everyone nodded, except Aaron. If this was about Emily's past, Penelope Garcia was not going to be the one to tell him about it. He got up to leave.
"Hotch, where you going? This is about Emily!" Derek had nicknamed Aaron 'Hotch' a few months after he started with Legacy and it seemed to have stuck.
"Exactly." He didn't say anything else. He just left the tent. In the year and a half that they had been dating, she had never once brought up her dark secrets. Aaron had started to open up to her more about his life. He knew that the only way she would eventually open up to him was if she completely trusted him. He knew that this was big and he also knew that she had told him that she would tell him when she was ready.
Aaron left the tent and went for a walk. He needed to clear his head. He didn't want to think about what was bothering her, or better yet, what was terrifying her. All he wanted to do was think about the fact that she was in love with him. He had been in love with her pretty much since he first saw her and now he knew for certain that she loved him back, he just wished he knew what was going on.
