Aaron makes it to the end of the summer before he breaks down and does something he told himself he would never do; he asks his sister for relationship advice. They start their now weekly phone call with the usual topic of conversation, Jo and if she is still equal parts moody, angry, and standoffish. Which is mostly a yes, although with the date of her return to Texas drawing closer Aaron thinks she has gotten slightly happier. Although he is sure that is just because she is that much closer to being reunited with her boyfriend.
Lena's actually the one who brings up Emily to start with and in true sisterly fashion it has nothing to do with concern about him, "You better not screw things up with Emily. I've held my tongue about all your other relationships, but now you let my daughter get close to this lady, so this better not be the same bullshit as always from you."
Aaron can't recall his sister holding her tongue once, but he doesn't think it's worth going into. Especially because she has a point, he hasn't exactly been a great boyfriend in the past. "Don't worry, I won't."
Not listening at all Lena continues, "Because from the way Jo tells it she's not even officially living with you. So I don't know what you're playing at, but would it kill you to make some kind of commitment for once in your life?"
"Trust me I'm not the issue here."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I would marry Emily today if she'd let me."
"Wait? She doesn't want to marry you? Did you ask? Oh my God!" He's not sure if she's excited or upset or angry or all three at once.
"Calm down. I didn't ask. I just know she's not at that place. Yet." He adds the 'yet' for himself. He likes to think they won't in this holding pattern forever.
"What do you mean, you just know?"
"She hasn't said she loves me yet." He hates how it sounds coming out of his mouth. Pathetic and depressing.
"But you guys have been together for like a year."
10 months, but who's counting? "Yeah trust me, I'm well aware."
"Shit Aaron. What's her problem?"
Aaron smiles a little at his sister's sudden onset of affection toward him. It's nice knowing that in the end she will automatically assume the other person is the issue. "It's not that she has a problem…"
"But?"
"Well, her Mom died not that long ago, and her Dad walked out on them when she was a kid." He sighs, that's as close as he's come to psychoanalyzing her.
"I read about her Mom." Lena admits, with a slightly guilty tone in her voice. "It sounded rough."
He can only imagine what she read, some of the papers made it sound like some kind of sordid murder. "Yeah it was." He honestly thinks it has more to do with her Dad then her Mom. Or maybe he's fooling himself about all of it and it's just him she can't love.
"What's the rest of her family like?"
"I don't think there really is a rest of her family. There's an Aunt and some cousins, but they don't sound close." He isn't sure if they've never been close, or if it's a result of Emily's recent desire to shut everyone out.
"And her Dad's just gone?"
"As far as I know." Emily hasn't mentioned her father to him again, after that one conversation they had.
"We really lucked out with Papi didn't we?"
"Yeah, we did." He smiles, their Dad was one of those people who are just meant to be parents. He always seemed to know the right things to say, and as Aaron remembered even at his brattiest teenage years, he was just there for him. He couldn't help but feel guilty anytime he thought about how ashamed he'd been of his Dad back then. Between his Dad's heavily accented English, deeply tanned skin, and the broken down trailer his family was crammed into, Aaron had spent all his teen years practically pretending he wasn't related to his family. He liked to think he'd made up for things somewhat before his Dad died, but it was still hard thinking about it.
"I still miss him."
"Me too. I think he would have liked Emily. She has that same annoying optimism he did. Or she used to. I'm not sure anymore."
"You need someone like that, balance all your brooding out."
"Well it's not lack of trying on my part." Then feeling dejected he adds, "Any ideas?"
"Well I vote you don't give up on her. Jo likes her, which is basically impossible these days."
"Thanks."
"Maybe she and I can go out for a girls night when I'm up getting Jo next week. I can get the scoop for you."
"No. Absolutely not."
Luckily Lena is distracted from that trail of thought by his other niece, "Sweetie what are you doing out of bed?" He hears some giggling on the other line and then "You wanna say hi to Tio Aaron?"
"Hi" Comes the shy, high pitched voice.
"Hi Cami, did you have a good day?"
"Honey, he can't see you nodding."
"Are you coming to visit me soon?"
Cami doesn't answer that either, at least not verbally, and then Lena says, "All right I'm going to let you go, and get this one back in bed. Love you. Cami, tell Aaron 'Love you.'" All he hears is more giggling.
"Love you guys." Aaron says, hanging up the phone. He wonders if Cami is just shy, or if it's him. Jo he at least has a some kind of relationship with, but Cami was born after the Capitol Bombing so he really hasn't had a lot of opportunities to spend time with her, not he thinks ruefully that he's made it much of a priority.
He leaves his office and is shocked to find Jo actually reading a book when he checks in on her before heading to bed. Emily is much less shocked when she shares the news with her, she just puts down her own book on the bedside table and says, "It's one of the ones I leant her, from my Intro to Poli Sci class."
"Huh." Aaron was not aware Jo had taken any interest in politics. "Thursday I was thinking we could do mini golf." He's taken over, or at least supplemented, Emily's task of finding them endless family friendly activities to do together.
"Mini golf?". She doesn't sound remotely excited.
"Why not. It's summer. And DC has America's oldest continually operating mini golf course."
"You sound like a tour book."
"Just looking for something fun." Prior to this summer Aaron was basically clueless on things to do in DC that didn't revolve around government or alcohol.
"It's nice. Cute."
"Cute?"
"Mmm."
"So you in for mini golf?"
"Thursday, I can't."
"Plans?" He can't help but feel a little possessive. Other than evening classes Emily basically spends all her nights with him.
"I'm going to start going to my grief group again." She responds flatly.
"Oh, that's good." It wouldn't be his choice on how to work through things, the thought of talking about his feelings to a room of strangers practically makes him break out into hives, but if Emily thought it would help he was happy for her.
She shrugs.
"No really, you deserve to be happy."
"I don't know what's wrong with me."
"You're grieving. It's normal, a grief group sounds like it will help."
She lays her head against his shoulder, leaning against him, but doesn't reply.
"You know you can always talk to me."
"I know." She says, trying to smile at him. "But I need more than just you in my life Aaron. Not that you're not great, but you're one person."
Suddenly he feels guilty for how happy he'd been that Emily was always available. He'd never stopped to think about the other side of it, that she didn't have anything else going on. Or anyone else. "Seth misses you, you know. And he's planning on proposing to Swathi via skywriter, so he could use someone to help him reign that plan in." He doesn't tell her how jealous he was when he found out Seth was proposing. Seth and Swathi have only been together three months longer then he and Emily, and he doesn't feel like he's three months away from a proposal.
He thinks that will make her laugh, but instead she lets out a long sigh, "It's just been so long. And I always thought of him like family, and then he was gone."
"You know, even biological family don't get it right all the time. Lena and I once went a year without talking to each other."
"A year?"
"I was busy. She was mad."
"Still a whole year?"
"Not my finest moment. But look at us now."
"Hmm. And he's planning on proposing with a skywriter?"
"One of his ideas. Like I said the guy need help."
After a long pause, she says, "I'll call him."
"Good." He considered adding that Kirkman misses her too. But he thinks that relationship has always been a bit more fraught, and even though he was surprised at how quickly Emily agreed she would talk to Seth, he doesn't want to push his luck.
"We could do mini golf another night."
"Nah, I should try and get some one on one time with Jo anyway.
"One last chance to get a lecture in?"
"I don't lecture."
Emily coughs, sounding like she's trying to hide a laugh.
"Okay, maybe I lecture a little. I'd just like her to be old enough when she has kids that she doesn't name them after her favorite American Girl doll."
"That's oddly specific."
"Where do you think Lena came up with Josefina?"
"Maybe she just liked the name?"
"Those books were all she read for like five years."
"So is that a no to Felicity Shore?" Emily's really smiling at him now. Sometimes things seem so close to normal it's hard to believe how screwed up things feel otherwise.
"Was she the horse girl?"
"She was more than just a horse girl." She sounds almost offended.
"Hard no."
"That's fine, I have our kids' names picked out already."
"Do you?" He says, half choking.
"Mmm, C, works for a girl or a boy."
"C?"
"Seashore. And then we can have Lake and Ocean."
He grimaces, hoping he is right in thinking she is just pulling his chain. "Too late to go back to Felicity?"
She kisses him lightly on the lips. "As long as you admit I'm always right."
"Of course." He says, rolling his eyes. "You got any good names to go with Rivera?"
"Hmm. Nothing fun off the top of my head."
"Reason enough to change my name."
"Are you- Is that something you're considering?". She asks it hesitantly, as if she knows they are delving into sensitive territory.
"Maybe." He hadn't really been, but something about the thought of his kids having the name Shore doesn't sit right with him.
When he doesn't elaborate she says brightly, "Well either way Felicity still works."
"Right, how could I forget."
They leave the conversation there, but it's not until later that night after Emily has fallen asleep that he realizes this is the first time he's heard Emily talk about them having kids together as if it is a foregone conclusion.
Mini golfing with Jo is mini golfing, which is to say miserable in Aaron's opinion. Even though this course if free of most of the 'fun' obstacles most courses have these days he's well over par on an embarrassing number of the holes. Which is made all the worse by his discovery that his niece is apparently a golf pro.
The combination of kicking his ass and being even closer to getting back to Texas seems to be working wonders on her mood. When she finishes the game with a third hole in one she does a victory dance that is beyond over the top.
"Done?" He says, after what he thinks is plenty long enough for her to gloat.
"Jealous?" She retorts, looking far too happy with herself.
"Very." He answers dryly.
She holds out the score card to him. "Will you sign this? I need proof I killed you."
"You want an autograph?" He says, feeling his pants for a pen, they've already returned the mini pencil at the end of the course.
"Yeah, then people will have to believe your my uncle."
"Who doesn't think I'm your Uncle?" He asks, half amused and half perturbed.
"Monica Rodriguez's mom said you don't give a shit about us at all." She says testily. He feels like he has whiplash, just two seconds ago they were having a good conversation.
He shepherds her into the car, starting to think this conversation might be best to have in private. "Well Monica Rodriguez's mom can-" He stops himself, realizing he is talking with a fifteen year old. "Doesn't know our family."
"Everyone else says it too. They say you left the second you could and you never looked back or care about anyone back home."
He sighed, he was used to hearing that from his friends, his family, random people that didn't know him at all. But he didn't think they always saw the other side of it, he needed to go somewhere he could get a job. Maybe it didn't need to be DC, but he didn't remember anyone complaining when he was paying his father's medical bills, or buying his family an actual house. He knew he didn't always get the balance right, but he was tired of bring cast as some kind of villain. Trying to channel his inner Emily, she's always been much better at him at these kinds of conversations, he says lightly, "Well what do you think?"
"I think you only want us around so you have a family for when you run for office."
Maybe it wasn't such a great thing Jo was getting into reading Emily's course books. "Honey, not at all. You guys are my family, I want you here because I love you."
Jo doesn't look impressed. "You didn't care about us before." She says stubbornly.
"That's not true." He lets out a long breath. "I might not have always made the right choices before, but I've always loved you guys. And if I had to pick between you and all this crap, I'd pick you every time."
Still looking skeptical, she says, "For real?"
"For real. Besides, if all I wanted was easy points with voters I would have gotten a dog. Much less of a pain in my ass."
She cracked a smile at that. "I'm not a pain."
"Not at all." He says smiling. "Can I have a hug?"
He's surprised when she gives him a real hug back, he's been getting the cold shoulder for so much of the summer.
"I love you sweetie. And I know your excited to get back home, but remember you always have a home with me too, anytime you need it."
She mumbles 'Thanks' looking embarrassed. Either at her earlier outburst of emotions or what he just said. She starts flicking through her photos from golf, trying to find the perfect picture to send to her Mom to let her know about his defeat. He watches her, letting his mind wander a bit, happy as he thinks that even if things with Emily are still difficult, he's starting to find solid ground with his family.
