Lexie goes on a little adventure in this chapter… enjoy!

Adventure Time

A little over a month had passed since Aaron's return from Cuba, and Emily was getting ready for her first official day back at work. While she was excited to get back, she was nervous about leaving Lexie when she was still so young. She knew normal mothers would take much longer than 18 weeks off after having a baby, but she was no normal mother. She was one of the highest officials in the White House and she had an important job to do.

She assessed her appearance in the mirror that morning, straightening out her skirt and taking a deep breath. She wasn't sure what her day would hold, but she was ready for whatever it was going to throw at her.

As she turned around, Aaron walked into the bedroom with Lexie resting comfortably in his right arm. She was becoming increasingly aware of her surroundings and at 18 weeks, she was constantly looking at her parents and blowing raspberries. Aaron and Emily were completely enamoured by her and suspected they would be for the rest of their lives.

"Hey, you look like a woman on a mission" Aaron said with a smile.

"I am a woman on a mission, a mission to have a great first day back."

"I have no doubt that you will." He said as he kissed her cheek. "And neither does Lexie, isn't that right?" he cooed down at his daughter. Lexie gave a toothless smile back at her father as he lightly kissed her nose.

"She is a daddy's girl already." Emily commented as she put her earrings in.

"Of course she is" Aaron said with a smirk.

"Are you sure you're ok to wait for the nanny if I go on?" Emily asked with a strained look on her face. They'd interviewed many people to look after Lexie while they were at work, and they eventually found someone, but Emily was finding it incredibly tough to leave her baby with someone else for the day.

"Yeah, it's fine, my first meeting isn't until 10am anyway." Aaron assure her.

Emily nodded and looked down at the little girl nestled in Aaron's arm. She ran her finger down her soft little cheek and frowned.

"No" Aaron said quickly.

"What?"

"No, you're not allowed to do that, you're not allowed to feel guilty." Aaron told her.

"She's so little Aaron and her mother is abandoning her." Emily exaggerated.

"You are not abandoning her, you have a very important job and as she grows up it will be good for her to see you work, seeing her mother work is how she becomes C.E.O one day. She sees mommy using her amazing brain, so she'll go out and use hers." Aaron assured.

Emily chuckled lightly at Aaron's high aspirations for Lexie. High aspirations that she no doubt agreed with. Their baby was going to be brilliant—and they weren't bias at all.

"Ok, ok—I should go. You know what to tell the nanny, right?" Emily said as she lifted her bag and went downstairs with Aaron and Lexie closely behind her.

"Yes, I've got this." Aaron said as Emily put her coat on.

"Ok, ok—I'm really going to go now." She said as she turned around and let out a breath. "Bye baby—momma loves you so much." She said as she kissed her daughter's head. "Momma also loves you" she said as she quickly kissed Aaron. "I'll see you in a little bit"

"See you" Aaron said as Emily left the house before she could start crying, which both she and Aaron knew was the next stage.

Her baby would be fine, she knew she would be fine, but it didn't make this moment any easier. She knew she had to take the day as it came, and when she got into work, so much would be thrown on her desk that she wouldn't have time to think about missing Lexie. Then she would be home before she knew it.

A short while later, Hannah walked into Aaron's office with some papers in hand. She eyed Aaron curiously, seeing he had his back to the door and was looking down at the floor behind his desk.

"Hey Aaron, can you read over these papers and get them back to me?" Hannah asked as he finally turned around, looking a little flustered.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, just leave them there, I'll look at them as soon as I can." Aaron said as gurgling sounds came from behind the desk.

"Is uh—is everything ok?" Hannah asked as she folded her arms.

"Yeah, just—excuse me, for one second." Aaron said as he turned and looked at the floor again. "Lexie, we made a deal, you stay quiet and daddy will give you some yummy milk—" Aaron whispered down at Lexie.

"Uh… what are you doing?" Hannah asked as she raised her eyebrow.

Aaron sighed and lifted Lexie's car seat onto his desk, to reveal the happy looking baby, sucking on one of her toys. "The nanny bailed, and my wife is otherwise engaged so—I'm on daddy duty."

"I see. Why not just call Emily?" Hannah asked, knowing that Emily wouldn't mind.

"Because it's her first day back and I don't want her to feel like she has to take Lexie home, that's not fair. I would have stayed home with her myself, but I have some important meetings today so I just—I snuck her in here." Aaron explained.
"What about day care?"

"Full." Aaron told her. Lexie started to fuss in her seat and Aaron lifted her out of her seat as she rested against his shoulder.

"What are you planning on doing with her when you have to go to said meetings?" Hannah asked, raising her eyebrow.

"I uh—I hadn't thought that far ahead." Aaron said with an awkward smirk, before having a light bulb moment. "Here, would you mind-?" he said, holding out Lexie for her to take.

"Oh, I am terrible with babies—" Hannah said before Aaron cut her off and set Lexie in her arms before she could protest any further.

"Now—my meeting." Aaron said with a smirk.

"Are you kidding me right now? I am not a baby sitter!" Hannah protested.

"You called yourself a glorified baby sitter in Cuba" Aaron reminded her.

"This isn't even glorified, it's straight up babysitting, I don't do dirty dippers-" Hannah said as she awkwardly looked down at Lexie, not finding the little girl quite as enchanting as her parents did.

"Half an hour, tops." Aaron assured her.

"Aaron—"

"You would really be doing me a favour and considering I really swung for you to go on probation and not get fired—" Aaron justified.

"Why is everyone in Washington a master manipulator?"

"This is manipulation for the good. You're an FBI agent, she's in the safest hands possible." Aaron said as he opened the door. "Just—make sure Emily doesn't find out she's here." He added before making a quick dash out of the door.

Hannah sighed and looked down as Lexie's bright eyes shone up at her. "You're lucky you're cute Shore."

A little while later, Aaron was rushing through the White House corridors to get to his next meeting. He knew he told Hannah he would only be half an hour, but he bended the truth slightly. Part of him felt bad, but he really was desperate.

"Hey" he heard his wife's voice behind him, as he jumped slightly.

"Hey, hi" he said quickly.

Emily narrowed her eyes; "why are you so jumpy?"

"Oh, I'm just running between meetings, not really thinking, you just—made me jump."

"Uh huh—why uh—why do you have Lexie's blanket in your pocket?" Emily asked as she pulled the purple material out and held it up.

Aaron's eyes widened; "oh I must have put it there before I left Lexie—with the nanny—and forgot to give it to her."

"Ok… and why—why do you smell like talcum powder?" Emily asked as she sniffed his suit. He'd changed Lexie's dipper in his office just before Hannah came in, that's why he smelt like the powder.

"Oh, you know how it is, when you have a baby you take on all their smells—the good ones and the bad ones." Aaron joked.

Emily furrowed her eyebrows; "Something's off."

"What?"

"You, you're acting weird." Emily said, standing in front of him and folding her arms. "Something you want to tell me Shore?"

"Nope. Nothing to tell." Aaron said with a tight-lipped smile.

"Right… I'll find out soon enough." Emily said, glaring at Aaron one last time, before walking away.

Aaron let out a breath, knowing he had to get back to Lexie and Hannah as soon as possible.

After what felt like a life time, Aaron was finally done with his meetings and rushed back to his office to take Lexie home. As he opened the door, he found an empty office and an empty car seat. He quickly lifted out his phone and called Hannah.

"Hey Aaron" Hannah answered.

"Hannah, where is my child?" Aaron asked rubbing his forehead with his hand.

"Oh, I had to go so I gave her to Lenny. She's the godmother, right? Probably should have left her with her in the first place, I am not your probation monkey Aaron, I'm not going to sit around and babysit your daught—" Hannah said before Aaron swiftly cut her off.

"Yeah, yeah ok, I got to go" he said, hanging up the phone before rushing out of his office to find Lenny.

Before he made it to her office, he ran into her texting in the corridor. Texting, and no Lexie in sight.

"Lenny!" Aaron said in a panicked tone. "Where is Lexie?"

"I had a meeting, so I gave her a bottle and then gave her to Seth." Lenny said, not looking up from her phone. "It was entirely convenient timing as well cause, she needed her dipper changed and I just don't do dippers—"

"No one seems to do dippers." Aaron mumbled. "Does Emily know she's here?" Aaron asked.

"No, I was given strict instructions not to tell Emily, which I passed on to Seth, don't worry." Lenny assured him as he dashed towards Seth's office.

When he realised he wasn't there, he took off for the briefing room to see Seth standing at the podium, answer questions, with no baby in sight. Seth spotted Aaron at the back of the room as he cradled his arms signalling a baby, and then raised his eyebrows.

Aaron watched as Seth mouthed Lyor.

Oh dear God. Seth gave his baby to Lyor. Lyor Boone. Crazy Lyor Boone.

Aaron gulped and glared at Seth who knew he would be paying for this one later.

Aaron turned around and saw Lyor walking happily down the corridor and quickly went after him.

"Lyor, where is my baby?"

Lyor stopped and pondered his question for a minute. "I don't know." He answered before walking on.

"What? What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean, Seth handed her to me and I can't remember what I did with her next." Lyor explained calmly, clearly not seeing the problem with his answer.

"Are you kidding me? You can't remember what you did with a human being? A tiny little human being?"

"Well that's the thing, they're so tiny they're barely noticeable." Lyor said. "Hey, do you really only use soap and water for your skin-?"

"Not now Lyor!" Aaron said as he turned the corner and walked into his office.

As if my magic, he stopped in the door way, and saw Tom Kirkman cradling a sleeping Lexie in his arms.

"Mr President, I—"

Tom shushed Aaron as he swayed gently to keep Lexie asleep. "I just got her to sleep, let's not wake her up."

Aaron felt a rush of relief run through him as he collapsed on the sofa. "I have been running around trying to find her—I can't believe I lost my daughter."

"You didn't lose her, you just trusted her with a few friends. Granted you weren't sure which friend. Every parent loses track of their kid every once in a while, it's a supermarket classic. Though, I never expected it to happen in the White House." Tom said with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry sir, it's been a hectic day from start to finish—"

"It's ok, I definitely needed a cuddle from this little girl today." Tom said smiling sincerely and warmly down at his wife's namesake.

"She does make everything better." Aaron said, smiling softly while looking at his feet.

Tom could tell that he was still annoyed with himself for not knowing where she was and knew a few words of wisdom were necessary.

"You know—the first thing Emily told me today when she came was about you and Lexie and how much this little girl adores you. How her eyes just light up when she looks at you." Tom told him.

"I love her so much but I—I worry that I'm going to let her down. That I'm not going to be a good father. I didn't have a good one and I just—it would break me if I failed her." Aaron confessed.

"If you think leaving your daughter with your friends in the White House is failing then you need to re-evaluate what being a father is. The best thing you can give her is unconditional love, and you've got that bit down." Tom assured him as he handed Lexie back to him. "She's in safe hands."

As Tom left the room, Emily walked in ready to ask Aaron about what he was hiding but stopped herself when she saw Aaron sitting on the couch with Lexie.

"What is Lexie doing here?" Emily asked as she sat beside them.

"I uh—it's been a long day." Aaron said simply. "and Lexie's been on a little bit of an adventure." He said with a chuckle, finally relaxing a little as he thought about who Lexie had encountered today. Three people he trusted implicitly—and Lyor.

"Oh really? Well we better get this adventure girl home then, you can fill me in on the way." Emily chuckled as the family of three gathered their things and left the White House together.