THE NOSTALGIA

After their week of holidays, Emily and Aaron had been back to work and swamped into it since then. The last few weeks had been so crazy that they were rarely eating dinner in family, Aaron or Emily taking turns to stay at work until late in the night. Most of the time, since Aaron was more of a morning person, he would wake up early and be the one on "morning shift", going to work before sunrise. Emily would wake up later, enjoying early mornings with the girls before preparing them for daycare and going to the White House, helping out her husband during these long days. Aaron would leave work early, pick up the girls from daycare and take care of them in the evening, hoping for Emily to come back home before midnight. It was really frustrating, both Aaron and Emily wanted to spend time together with Inez and Cami, and not just taking turns. Sometimes it almost felt like they were divorced parents trying to spend equal time with their daughters, and they both hated that.

At the beginning of October though, they had managed to break this habit for a couple of days, just the time to celebrate Inez's and Cami's birthdays. As they would do every year, Emily's parents had come down for the girls' birthdays. Aaron had wanted for Javier and Eva to come, but they had not managed to get enough days off to come all the way from Mexico. So, only Emily's parents were there and they had celebrated two nights in a row. For whatever reason, it always felt weird to have two birthdays that close to one another. One day, Emily had talked about it with Aaron, wondering if they should celebrate both birthdays in one day, but had decided otherwise, it felt like they were picking one daughter over the other.

Inez and Cami had been covered in gifts again, from their parents, their grandparents, and even from their uncles who had shipped things from Mexico, Hartford and Boston. With them growing up, they were more and more aware of what birthdays meant, and it was really cute to see them. They had skyped with their uncles, thanking them for the gifts, babbling and telling them everything about how they had spent the day. Day by day, the difference of age between Inez and Cami was fading, and everybody could see they were growing closer. Of course, they would always be one year apart, but now that they were two and three, it was different from when one and two.

The morning after Camila's birthday, Emily arrived at work a bit later than usual. Her parents were still there, so she had enjoyed a real nice breakfast with them as she knew they were going back to Connecticut in the afternoon and they wouldn't see each other before. She had dropped the girls at daycare and drove straight to work, but her mind was somewhere else. When she arrived there, she was headed directly to her office and closed her door, not really wanting to be disturbed. Aaron was in a meeting, so she didn't take the trouble to close the door between their offices, but she was quite happy to be alone for a bit. She sat in her chair and closed her eyes, starting to cry softly. She felt stupid, because it wasn't anything important or dramatic, but she suddenly was feeling very nostalgic and tired of the job.

Before she could wipe the tears off her cheeks, Aaron entered her office with a file in his hands, ready to ask her something.

"Em, can you…" he started. "Babe… What is going on?"

Aaron quickly walked to her and sat on the edge of her desk, holding her hands.

"Nothing, it's stupid…" she answered.

"Em… I know you don't cry for no reason…"

"My parents just told me that they decided to move to California… They are selling the house." she said, sniffing.

Aaron raised an eyebrow, not really understanding.

"They want to live under the sun of California now that they are both retired…"

"It's great! Isn't it? Why does that make you cry?"

"Because they are selling my childhood home, I won't ever go there anymore. And it makes me realize that with this freaking job, I haven't gone there in like four or five years. And I'm never gonna be able to do it anymore…"

"Oh honey…"

Aaron helped Emily raise from her seat and took her in his arms. He stroked her back gently, trying to soothe her.

"Em… It's okay. It's not because your parents won't live there anymore that we won't go there, we can still go on holidays. And they just decided it, right? Nothing is done yet, maybe we'll even have time to go before they actually sell the house." Aaron reassured.

Emily chuckled, not believing Aaron.

"And Mike is still living not far…" he continued, releasing his embrace.

"About that…" Emily cut him short. "Mike and Ashley are moving to Chicago. She found a job over there. So nope, no Rhodes left in Hartford… And worst of all? Mom didn't even realize that she let it slip, but I think Ashley and Mike are expecting…"

"What? But that's awesome!" Aaron exclaimed.

"Awesome? I barely see our daughters, I see my nieces once a year, and my brother is going to be a dad and he's leaving so far away I won't see this baby grow…" Emily started crying again.

"Okay, Em… Come on, it's just a bad day."

Aaron pulled her tight in a hug and Emily started sobbing.

"Why are you so emotional with all of this? It's only great news." he asked.

"I know it's just a bad day, but I'm tired of all of this. I just want to go home and do nothing, I've been fighting in this White House for the past seven years, and I haven't seen them passing, and all of this is making me realize all that I've missed."

"I know, I get it. It's hard, but it's almost over. Can you realize, there is only one year left? In one year and three months, we'll be packing our offices. And we will finally have some time for ourselves, and we will finally spend time with the girls."

"One year and three months…" Emily repeated.

"Yeah, I know, it seems far like that, but we've been through seven years like this. Seven freaking years in this building, we can make it one more year."

"My parents will already be in California…"

"Maybe, but we will have time to visit, because I don't know about you, but after working eight years in here, I think we will deserve a very long break before finding another job, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Emily smiled softly.

"So, you know what? In one year and three months, we will do all these things that we have been pushing back since forever. We will finally go on our honeymoon, we will visit Dan in Boston, we will take the twins to Mexico with us, and we will visit Javier down there, maybe buy that house we've talked about. And then, we will take a trip to Chicago to see Mike, but only when the weather gets better, because I don't want to freeze my ass over there. And then, we will go to California, because your parents deserve a nice sunny retirement, but we deserve a nice sunny break too."

Aaron's little speech made Emily chuckle.

"You know, it's actually not that bad in Chicago… the weather…" Emily said.

"Em… I know you've lived in Connecticut all your childhood, but I lived mine in Mexico, we don't really have the same tolerance to the cold… Washington is already too cold for me."

This time, Emily finally really laughed. She wiped the tears off of her cheeks, her heart lighter after such a morning.

"And we will finally have time to spend with our daughters." Emily said, smiling.

"Absolutely!"

With that, Aaron kissed her softy, ready to continue their hectic day at work. Emily was really feeling better.

"What did you want me for?" she asked, remembering that Aaron had come to her office for a purpose.

"Oh! The Ambassador of Russia has gone and done it again… Can you take care of him? I have a meeting in the Roosevelt room in… crap five minutes ago, I'm going." Aaron said, suddenly rushing out of Emily's office.

"Will do…" Emily shouted.

Emily smiled and opened the file Aaron had dropped on her desk. She spent the day between meetings and paperwork, only having time for a cup of coffee in the afternoon. A little before six, Aaron left to pick up the girls from daycare and go home. Emily sighed, annoyed that she couldn't leave in the meantime, but they were behind on the schedule after going home early the past two days. It had been like that for almost a month and apart from the last two evenings, she couldn't remember when they had had a quiet evening just the four of them. The last months had been so crazy that it even happened often to go to work during week-ends, and as she was walking through the now almost quiet hallways of the West Wing, she was thinking about her life.

The White House had brought her so many things. Professionally, it had brought her to the best job in the world, the only one she could dream of. It had brought her to amazing countries, meeting with important people. It was challenging her everyday, pushing her to the best version of herself. She felt like she was doing something useful. She was really saving the world every day. Personally, the White House had brought her to Aaron. And though they had had a rough start, fighting everyday, hating each other, stepping on each other's toes all the time, they had finally found their way together. When she was thinking about it, she could say that it was obvious, that all this bickering could only lead to them being together. She didn't want to admit it at the time, but she had always been attracted to him, even when he was the worst with her. Yeah, the White House had brought her to Aaron, and being with Aaron had brought her to her children, these two beautiful smily girls that she loved more than anything in the world.

So yes, the White House had given her everything, it had fulfilled all her hopes and desires, but sometimes, she would think about her life before. When she was still Chief of Staff to Tom Kirkman, secretary of HUD, she still had her week-ends, she would come home to Connecticut a few times a year, she would go out in bars and drink with college friends, she would sleep more than five hours a night. She would see her family. And it's true, if the White House had not happened, Aaron wouldn't have happened, and Inez & Cami either, so yes she was really thankful for it. But sometimes, it was just hard. She was realizing that in the past seven years, she had gone to Connecticut only twice, she had spent time in her childhood bedroom only twice, and soon enough, she wouldn't be able to do it anymore.

She went home, late at night, or early in the morning to be more accurate, and curled up against her husband in bed.

"Can we go to Connecticut for Christmas? I want to spend one last Christmas at home before it's gone." she asked softly.

"Anything for you babe." he answered.