Kirkman had told Aaron when Callie was born that blink and she'll be grown. She wasn't quite grown, but after a week away on the road, she wasn't the same baby he had left in Washington either. A few months ago he would have told someone they were crazy if they thought they could notice a difference in a baby after a week, but here he was. The first thing he noticed when he walked into the hotel room was she was laughing. The second he heard it he knew that a week was too long to be away from his family. Things were changing too fast, and he hated feeling disconnected from Emily and Callie.
It was worse with Emily then Callie. She hadn't even told him she was meeting her siblings today. He'd heard about it from Seth, when he'd asked her about it she claimed she was sure she told him, but he knew he would have remembered that. It was the type of thing she would want to discuss to death, playing out every possible permutation of how the afternoon could go. But apparently she was having those conversations with Seth, because her commentary on it to him was limited to 'Oh yeah, figured I might as well, you know?' Which was not a very Emily-like thing to say, so he assumed he was being blown off.
At least Emily left Callie with him. It was her first time leaving Callie with anyone, and he could tell she was wavering as she walked out the door, but to his surprise she went through with it. He liked to think he was in good company if he was being grouped with Callie, and it was preferable to considering that Emily hadn't even thought about asking him to come with her. It wasn't that he had any especial interest in meeting her half siblings, at least until Emily decided if she wanted them in her life, but he would have thought she might have asked him along for moral support. So he told himself that she needed him to stay with Callie, and not that she found the idea of him providing moral support laughable.
Angling Callie slightly upwards so he could look into her eyes, he asked her with mock seriousness, "What do you think baby girl? Do you think Mommy's found you a new Aunt and Uncles?" Callie just smiled that wide baby grin back at him and he felt his heart melt. "I bet Aunt Kayla would be a lot more fun than mean, old Aunt Alicia and Amy." Aaron loved teasing his sisters, and Callie instantly crying any time Amy had tried to hold her was his latest ammunition.
Turning at the sound of the door Aaron watched Emily walk in. She had said to expect her back in an hour, and it was getting close to an hour and fifteen minutes since she'd left, so he had been starting to assume that things had gone well. He'd be happy for her if things did work out. He knew it wouldn't be the same as siblings she had grown up with, but he could tell Emily longed for more family. "How'd it go?"
"Fine." She answered somewhat tersely. She crossed the room and took Callie from his arms and gave her a much more friendly greeting. "Hey, sweetie. Did you miss Mama?"
Up close Aaron noticed that Emily's eyes looked a little red and puffy, he was pretty sure she had been crying. Reaching his hand out to brush her arm he asked, "Em, you sure everything's okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine." She said pulling away from him. If she was upset her voice didn't betray it. "You need to get dressed. I'm just going to feed her, but we'll be ready in like half an hour."
"Okay." He really was getting sick of the endless parade of rallies and fundraisers he'd been attending the last few weeks. At least they'd be seeing Lyor today. If someone had told him three years ago that he would have considered Lyor's presence a bright spot, he would have asked them for some of whatever it was they were drinking. But two isolated years as Vice President did weird things to a person he figured.
Like clockwork thirty minutes later Emily was waiting for him at the door. Realizing Callie was in a bear costume he gave Emily a slightly confused look. "Not that she does not make the cutest grizzly bear I have ever seen, but did I miss the memo on the dress code?"
"Lyor sent it." She replied as they walked out the door. "Apparently America will find us 1.2 percent more likable if Callie is in costume. If you would like the detailed analysis on why a bear is the optimal Halloween costume for a female child between the ages of 0 and 6 months, he sent that over as well." Her voice was upbeat and cheerful, if she was still upset she was doing a good job of hiding it.
"And that's going to make my endorsement speech of Senator Abraham that much more compelling?"
"Based on how detailed the analysis was, I think he might see this as a backdoor interview for Campaign Manager."
"Campaign Manager? That would be a lot of Lyor."
Emily shrugged, "There are worse options."
"Oh yeah, who?"
He could see her thinking about it for a moment before she replied with a smirk on her face. "Lorraine."
"Are you ever going to let us forget you were right about her?"
"It's like you don't even know me Aaron." She replied, the smile on her face only growing. "Oh and before I forget, you take her." She passed Callie into his arms. Seeing the look on his face she added, "Your favorables dramatically increase if you are seen 'taking an active role in caring for the child.'"
"Is that so?" He stifled a laugh.
"I'm telling you, it's quite the detailed analysis I have upstairs."
"I'll take your word for it." He said, shaking his head.
He shouldn't have been surprised but Lyor was one hundred percent correct that people liked him more when he was holding a baby, an alarming amount more if he was being honest. When he eventually handed her back to Emily, it was like coming back down to earth and realizing that no, people did not actually find his presence that exciting.
After the speeches he'd lost track of Emily for a bit until he noticed her over in a corner talking to Lyor in what looked to be an incredibly animated conversation. Realizing her brow was furrowed and she did not look all that happy, Aaron excused himself from his current conversation and made a beeline for the two of them. The last thing anyone needed was Emily picking a fight in a crowded school gym.
"Hey guys, everything okay?."
"Things are great, why don't you let Aaron hear the rest of what you were telling me, I am sure he will find it just as fascinating as I do." Her voice was falsely upbeat, Aaron had heard that tone of voice from Emily before, and she was never more than five minutes away from screaming at someone when he did.
"I was merely stating that if it were not for your missteps as Chief of Staff and Campaign Spokeswoman you would have been even more well positioned to take on the eventual role of First Lady. Of course one might argue that a spouse who had-"
"My missteps Lyor? You don't get to comment on my missteps."
"On the contrary, I believe I am uniquely situated to comment on them having been a first hand witness to several."
"Yeah a witness, because that's all you ever were to them. Because that's what you do, you hang back and make demands, and put pressure on, but when push comes to shove you never do anything. Which is why I was left with the bag when Alex died. You all left me to figure that out on my own, you basically stuck me running a fucking country, but then when I made the decisions that I had to make just to keep-"
"Em. Not here." Aaron hissed, aware they were starting to garner attention.
"That's fine. I've said everything I need to. I need to get back to the hotel anyway, it's time for Callie's nap."
Aaron watched as she made a speedy exit, wondering if he should go after her. Seeing as she had not been in the mood to talk to him earlier, he decided he would give her some time to cool down. "Sorry about that." He said, turning his attention to Lyor. "She's had a rough couple weeks, and with her Mom's anniversary coming up… It's nothing to do with you." It sounded like the kind of vaguely reassuring thing you should say to someone when their friend just went off on them with zero warning.
"Oh, I know it's nothing to do with me."
"You do?" Lyor sounded much more sure than Aaron was, Aaron figured it was somewhat par for the course to want to kill Lyor after spending too much time in his company.
"You see, Emily is upset about a politician having a mental health crisis, and everyone expecting her to be the one to fix it. That much is true. But, seeing as the politician in question is not Kirkman, it is vanishingly unlikely that I am anything more than an unlucky bystander in this situation."
Aaron was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. He had no idea Emily was harboring any ill will toward anyone about people's actions, or lack thereof, after Alex died. Of course if Lyor was right, she really wasn't upset about that. She was upset with him. He didn't like Lyor's implication that he had a mental health issue, they'd seen each other for a grand total of ten minutes in the last year, so it's not like Lyor would even know if he did have a problem. Annoyed at the whole situation he let his mind wander back to those first few weeks after Alex's death.
Aaron walked past Emily's office, doing a slight double take when he noticed the light on. They'd all been working longer hours since Alex's death, but he figured he'd be the first one in at just before five. Knocking lightly at the door frame he let himself in. Emily sat at the couch, surrounded by folders and papers. She looked absolutely worn out, he figured she needed a good night's sleep more than he did. "Jeeze, you look worse than I feel."
She looked up at him and blinked a few times as if confused. The bags under her eyes were even darker than he'd originally realized. "Nice to see you too Aaron." It wasn't her normal impossibly perky voice answering him, but a sardonic one that would be more at home coming from him.
"Well it's true." He sat down next to her. "You hanging in there?"
She shrugged. "Don't suppose you want your old job back?" Maybe they'd all been relying on her a bit too much. She was the one that knew Kirkman best, so they had all just sort of left her to get on as best she could when it came to getting him through his grief. And since she was Emily she would never admit if she needed help, which it was looking like she did.
"That bad?"
She shrugged again, and sighed. "You up for a drink? For old times sake?"
"I'm not sure even I have the stomach for whiskey at 5am."
"Did you just say 5am?" Sounding forlorn she rested her head in her hands.
And then it clicked, Emily was not up early. She was up very late. "Em. When's the last time you slept?"
"Does catching twenty minuets on the couch count?" She smiled weakly.
"I think you know it does not." Now he was really worried about her. Everyone was feeling the strain with Alex's death, but he didn't realize it had gotten this bad for Emily. She laughed a little unstably. "Seriously, no one can keep up like this, not even you."
"What other choice do I have?" Her voice was high pitched. He could see now that she was on the verge of tears. "Kirkman won't listen to me. He won't do anything. We don't even have a Vice President. It's like I'm running the country, except without any power to run the country. Everyone is looking to me to fix him, and I just don't know how."
Moving slightly closer to her he reached out and gently rubbed her back. He didn't know what to say. She was right. They were all in an impossible spot. "We'll figure it out Em." He felt her back almost spasm beneath his hand as she tried to take a gasping breath. And then she was really sobbing. He pulled her into his arms and just held her. As she cried against his chest he selfishly wondered to himself where her boyfriend was in all this. He'd managed to reach a point of tolerable jealousy when it came to Emily and Seth by telling himself that Seth was a good man. A better match for Emily than he would ever be certainly. But he knew if it was his bed Emily was sharing, she sure as hell wouldn't be crying in another man's arms right now. It was a train of thought that he shouldn't allow himself to go down. Because the fact of the matter is Emily was dating Seth. No matter how much he might wish it wasn't the case. But it was easier to think about how hypothetically he would be a better boyfriend than Seth, then it was to think about what a shitty friend he was being in reality.
Eventually Emily's tears let up and her breathing returned to normal; she pulled away from his chest. Grimacing slightly at the wet spot on his shirt she whispered, "Sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for Emily. I'm sorry I haven't been around more. I should have noticed you were struggling sooner."
"I'm pretty sure that's my fault too. I'm the one who investigated you for mass murder. Put a bit of a damper on things I guess"
That was one way to put it, he thought to himself. But he was glad she was addressing it, it had been hanging like a cloud between them for the last year. "You did what you had to do."
"I should have figured something out. You didn't deserve any of that."
Finding that that one part of him that had been holding the slightest grudge was gone he asked, "Wanna make it up to me?"
"Really?" She sounded hopeful. "Yes."
"Get at least eight hours of sleep tonight."
She laughed and wiped her nose on the end of her sleeve. He figured he must really got it bad when not even snotty sweater sleeves diminished his attraction to her. "I'll see what I can do."
"And we will figure this out. It's not going to be all on you anymore. I promise."
"Thanks." She was looking up at him smiling. And there was just the briefest moment where he thought she might kiss him. Where he knew for sure that if he kissed her she would kiss him back. But she was taken, and vulnerable. And if anything was ever going to happen between them, it wasn't going to happen like that. So he settled for kissing her on the forehead.
"When's your first meeting?"
"Eight."
"Ok, get some sleep. I'll round up the gang and we can meet and figure something out later okay?" She nodded at him. "And then tonight?"
"Eight hours of sleep." She rolled her eyes. "I forgot how bossy you are."
"It's for your own good and you know it." With that he got up and left, shutting the door behind him. Walking down the hallway he made a mental note to track down Seth and let him know he needed to do a better job of keeping an eye on Emily. If he had to deal with the two of them dating, which it appeared he did, he was going to make sure Seth did a halfway decent job of taking care of her.
Groaning, he ran a hand through his hair. While the reality of dating someone was always different than your fantasy, the fact that he was shaping up to be a worse boyfriend to her than Seth was not a pleasant thought. "I gotta get out of here too."
"What are you doing?"
"Going to talk to Emily."
"Bad move."
"No offence, but I'm not going to take dating advice from you."
"Interesting fact; the last person to turn down my dating advice about Emily was single within twenty four hours of making that decision."
He felt a lump in his throat. He knew things hadn't been going great lately, but it hadn't even crossed his mind that Emily would end things. He had really believed they were in this for life. But he remembered that Lyor had known Emily for more then ten years, it sounded unlikely, but maybe he did have some valuable advice. Lowering his voice to a whisper he said, "You think she's going to dump me?"
"Did you know whispering is actually more likely to draw attention to an embarrassing or surreptitious conversation than simply speaking in a normal tone of voice?"
"Not helping Lyor." He grumbled.
"Emily's not going to dump you. But if you follow her right now she will say something to you that will make you want to dump her. So give her a second to cool down. And for everyone's sake, do something about this Prince of Darkness vibe you have going here. Even I can't get this elected president, and if Emily didn't have more abandonment issues than a shelter dog she wouldn't be considering marrying it."
Aaron blinked. Lyor was one of the bluntest people he knew, but he'd never heard him quite like this. "When did you turn into an asshole?"
"I've been stuck in Ohio for close to a year. Cut me some slack. Alright, I have to go stop Abraham before he manages to alienate the last idiots who might consider voting for him."
Aaron just nodded, watching Lyor walk over to his candidate. He spent some more time chatting up voters, but Lyor's advice, or maybe warning was a better word, was never too far from the front of his mind. He didn't know what it was, it wasn't anything he hadn't heard multiple times from plenty of people who honestly knew him a lot better. But maybe that was it. Maybe it was the fact that Lyor could see that something was very wrong in one afternoon, or maybe it was just how damn blunt he was, but for the first time Aaron could see getting some help as an eventuality he should get going on rather than something to be avoided.