"Where's Emily?" Matthew asked as he arrived in the main office area.

"Don't know. She just came speeding through here like a bat outta hell, looking a little ticked off," Thomas answered. "Did something happen between her and Tara?"

"I don't know, but we need to find her. Things with that crazy fat man just took a turn for the worse," the medic said, then filled them in on all the details. "I think it's in all our best interests to stay close together for awhile, at least until we know for certain that Tara's not going to turn into one of those monsters. We're also going to have to do something about the nut case, he's still got a rifle with him, God only knows how much ammo. We may have to take him out if we're going to survive."

"You mean kill him?" Thomas asked, appalled. "I know he's a bit off his rocker, but we can't kill a man just for being crazy."

"Look, I'm gonna go look for Emily, she shouldn't be alone right now," Aaron said. "Thomas,why don't you head on down tothe security office, get what ever weapons and ammunition we have left there, we'll want to keep them close until we get things under control with the fat man. Matthew, you should probably stick close to the other two, I don't think either of them are gonna be much for self defense."

"He's right, Tara was bad enough handling a pistol when she had both hands working, and Barry's even worse," commented Thomas. Matthew cringed a little bit, he hadn't quite taken Barry's reluctance over handling the gun he'd given him very seriously. Obviously not a wise decision on his part.

"I'm on it," the medic replied, retreating back towards the office.

"I'll try to locate Emily," Aaron said once more, hastily departing the office.

As he walked outinto the main corridor, he hesitated, not quite sure if he should try out the department store or the roof. Common sense told him she'd be hiding out in the department store, his gut feeling told him the roof. He followed his gut. Stepping through the access door, the first thing that greeted him was the bright sunlight streaming down from overhead, the second, was the smell of decay. He glanced around, placing his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun, not seeing her anywhere at first. Stepping more fully onto the roof, he spotted her at last, seated in what had become his favorite spot on the roof.

"I'd wondered where you disappeared to," commented Aaron, walking quietly up to stand beside her.

"I needed to get some fresh air after talking to Tara."

"Fresh?"

"Okay, maybe it's not fresh, but the stench of rotting flesh is definitely preferable to being in the same office with her right now."

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Something had to have happened for you to come up here all pissed off. The sun's at its zenith right now, making those things smell their worst I might add."

"Actually, even at their worst they're still an improvement over a skunk that's been hit by a car, if you think about it anyway."

"Maybe, but you're avoiding the subject."

"It's just really embarrassing Aaron, kind of takes me back to 1990 and my freshman year of High School. I was nothing but a walking cliché of every awkward teenage moment imaginable that year."

"Yea, 1990 sucked all right. I would've given my left nut to have been back in high school, though." The expression on his face was momentarily desolate, halting the laughter his words had threatened to inspire.

"That's kind of drastic, why would you say that?"

"I'll answer your question when you answer mine."

"But that's blackmail!"

"Blackmail's an ugly word, I kinda prefer extortion," he said grinning.

"Oh all right, but remember, you asked for it. Tara was regaling me with tales of your heroism and bravery," she said, getting a devilish glint in her eye when she saw his smile broaden. "Then she went on to tell me all about how you and Matthew are wildly in love with her and that as soon as she's healed up some more the three of you are gonna get your grooves on together. I think they call something like that a threesome, don't they?" she asked, doing her best, Marilyn Monroe dumb blonde impersonation.

"She said what!"

His horrified yelp had Emily laughing so hard that Aaron went in for the kill, pouncing on her and tickling her sides. "No, stop! Please!" she begged.

"Are you going to tell me the truth this time?" he demanded with a chuckle of his own.

"Yes!" she squealed, trying to dodge his hands.

"All right then," he said, sitting back on his heels so he could get a better look at her face, but still straddling her hips so she couldn't go anywhere. "Spill it."

"I was telling you the truth about the heroic tales and that she's under the impression that you and Matthew are totally hot for her. I just sort of, embellished the part at the end."

"God I hope so. If that's the case though, what had you all pissed off then? I swear, when you came stomping back through the office I thought for sure you were gonna kill somebody." His expression suddenly brightened. "You weren't jealous were you?" he teased with a grin.

"Absolutely not!" she declared, reaching up and grabbing a handful of his shirt and pulling him back down towards her. When his mouth was just a breath a way from her own she whispered, "That would imply that there was something between us." They looked into each other's eyes for a split second longer before their lips touched at last. After a few moments, Aaron pulled back.

"This really brings up the age old problem."

"It's not that old, Aaron, and I don't consider its being up a problem," Emily grinned, reaching for his belt buckle.

"No, that's definitely not a problem. It's just that..."

"What?" she asked, slightly perturbed when he moved his hands to still her efforts.

"After the other morning...I don't have any condoms left in my wallet," he admitted rather sheepishly.

"Oh," she replied, pulling her hands away and letting them fall limply to her sides. "That could be a problem."

"Yea."

"I wonder...Do you think that department store downstairs has anything?" she asked hesitantly.

He smiled. "Worth a shot. If all else fails, I'll raid the lockers in the security office, there's no telling what those guys left behind," he said as he slowly rose to his feet, reaching down to give her a hand up.

"Last one down the steps is a rotten egg!" she called, sprinting towards the entrance. He dashed after her, all thoughts concerning Jonathan and Tara, the real reasons he'd gone up to the roof in the first place, completely forgotten.

They were in the department store when Thomas finally found them. Emily was in the small pharmacy at the back of the second floor, casually flipping through the limited stock of antibiotics and other medical supplies. Meanwhile, Aaron had located a condom machine in the third floor bathroom, busting open the lock and grabbing a handful of them with a victorious laugh.

"Emily! Have you seen Aaron?" Thomas called out. Her face flushed red over the thought of getting caught searching for condoms.

"Um. No," she called out. "Not since before I went to visit Tara anyway." Mentally she crossed her fingers over the little white lie.

"What are you doing down here?" the guard asked as he walked closer.

"I, uh, thought I'd look for some pain meds for Tara. I mean, she, uh, looked pretty rough when I talked to her," she lied again, quickly grabbing a bottle of vicodin. If there was a hell besides the one that currently occupied the Earth, she was definitely going there, she thought.

"That's really nice of you Emily, but we've got something more important to worry about right now."

"What do you mean," she asked, genuinely confused.

"Aaron was supposed to find you and fill you in on this. Jonathan has completely lost it."

"I thought we already knew that."

"No. It's worse than we thought. He seems to think that we're all like those things down in the streets, that he's the only one left alive. Tara's his main target right now since she's injured, but it's only a matter of time before he tries coming after the rest of us."

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"Wish I was kiddo."

"Emily!" Aaron called out. "I found some..." he trailed off, spotting Thomas.

"Found some what?" the guard asked.

"Huh? Oh, I meant to say I found you, I hadn't expected to see you here Thomas," the other man replied, hastily stuffing condoms into his pockets before the guard caught sight of them. "Kind of took me by surprise you know."

"Right," the older man replied, looking at the couple in front of him. He suspected there was more going on then met the eye, but he wasn't about to say anything, at least, not yet anyway. "Well, we're gonna have to set up shifts to keep an eye on Jonathan all the time, I don't want to take the risk of him coming after us while we sleep."

"Good idea," Aaron said, honestly impressed over the guard's forethought.

"I also think it might be wise to move the girl out of that office, I'm sure the couch is more comfortable than one of those air mattresses for her, but I don't like the idea of our being holed up in such close proximity to Jonathan," Thomas added.

"You're right, you've put some real thought into this haven't you?"

"Just sort of came to me when I was securing the rest of our weapons. We should head back to the others, give them the lowdown," the guard said.

The three of them moved towards the store exit in silence, each lost in their own separate thoughts. Suddenly Thomas stopped, reaching down and picking up something from the floor in front of them.

"What was that man?" Aaron asked.

"Nothing much. I think I just found what you were looking for," he replied, shoving the foil package into the soldier's hand. Seeing the exchange and realizing what it was that Thomas had handed to Aaron, Emily's face went up in flames.

"Hey, I'm gonna go on ahead, take these pain pills up to Tara, you guys can catch up," she said, darting up the steps, taking them two at a time."

"I think you embarrassed her there, Thomas."

"I don't think I'm the cause of her embarrassment, and I really don't think this is the time or the place for you to be having a need for those things. You barely know the girl."

"Gee, thanks for the advice 'Dad,' but she's definitely not a little girl."

"That doesn't change the fact that you hardly know each other. I understand that emotions are running high right now, but that doesn't make it okay for you to try to get in her pants the first opportunity that comes along. You're taking advantage of being in a life or death situation, she probably doesn't know what she's doing. You saw how she reacted when she saw me hand you the one you'd dropped. That poor child must feel terrible right now."

Aaron started laughing, unable to help himself. Anger washed over Thomas' face at his reaction, and the soldier tried desperately to get himself under enough control to explain the situation to the other man. "I'm not laughing at what you're saying Thomas! Really. I understand that you feel a need to protect the girls, it's just that, I'm trying really hard to picture Emily as some kind of childlike victim and it's just not working. I don't think there's been a minute since we all got locked into this building together that she hasn't known exactly what she was doing. Believe me, she may be all woman, that I can't deny, but she also knows how to take care of herself."

"Oh Lord, you've already taken advantage of the girl haven't you?"

"Believe me, there was no advantage taking by anyone, it was strictly consensual, all three times," Aaron said with a smirk, knowing that he was playing with fire as far as the security guard was concerned. "But you have to admit that I'm right about her knowing how to take care of herself."

Thomas couldn't help but think about that first night, before Aaron and Matthew had even arrived. Emily had shown herself damn capable in the stairwell, terrified of what they might have run into in the stairwell, but accompanying him anyway, refusing to let him go alone. She also knew the ins and outs of handling a firearm too. But she was also so close in age to what his own daughter would have been, and he was helpless against the fatherly protective impulse he felt for her. "We'll discuss this later, in the mean time, I need you to start thinking with your other head and helping me make sure that that fruit cake upstairs doesn't kill us all," the guard said angrily.

Aaron decided to play along, seeing no reason to antagonize the older man any further, even though he was far from being a teenager deserving of such a lecture. They were all going to have to work together if they were going to get out of this thing alive after all, so there was no point in burning bridges he might need later.