"I'm not sure this dress is right." Emily says, staring in the full length mirror in their bedroom. She straightens the strap on her burgundy cocktail dress, sighing.

"You look fine." Aaron says mildly exasperated. This is the third dress she's tried on and in Aaron's opinion they all looked more or less the same.

"Just fine?" She asks, teasing.

He gets up and wrapping his arms around her from behind he whispers in her ear, "You looking fucking hot, all I'm going to be able to think about tonight is getting you home and getting that dress off you."

She frowns, "Well that's not exactly the look I'm going for tonight."

They are having dinner at the White House to celebrate Seth's engagement. Just Kirkman, the two of them and Seth and Swathi. Emily claims she's not stressed, but it's not like her to hem and haw over clothing choices.

Hoping to get them moving along he zips up the back of Emily's dress. But then forgetting himself for a moment, he lets his fingers linger along her spine and presses kisses along her neck and his hand wanders from her back to her breast, holding her close against him, really not making it easy to convince himself that leaving their bedroom for dinner is a good idea.

"You can't grope me if we're going to have dinner with the President." She says lightly batting his hands and pulling away from him.

"Is that a rule?"

"It should be."

"Ready?" He asks.

She straightens an imaginary wrinkle from her dress and then with a look of anxiety on her face says, "Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

He kisses gently on the lips, "You'll be fine. This will be good." This is really as much a reassurance to himself as it is to Emily. Aaron has pushed and pushed for them to have dinner with Kirkman to no avail, but there was no polite way for Emily to get out of this. At first Aaron was excited, but now that the night is here, he is starting to have second thoughts. And not just his thoughts that tonight would be more fun in bed alone with Emily. He doesn't think there will be fireworks, or a blowout, but he's worried there will be nothing. Emily and Kirkman will be polite, more or less, and then they will go back to their lives as if everything's the same, and there will be no great moment of reconciliation and healing that he's been imagining.

He gives her hand a squeeze as they make their way to leave, and keep her hand in his. He's not sure if it's more for her benefit or his.


Even with Emily's earlier indecision they are at the White House early. Because there never seems to be enough time in the day Aaron sits down in the dining room and pulls out some papers from his briefcase to try to get ahead on work for tomorrow. As he sits in silence and runs through the numbers on immigration reform for the hundredth time he starts to think that meeting Penny's new bunny with Emily would probably be a better use of his time, because he ends up in the same place he does every time; not enough votes.

He's working through the math on pulling funding from refugee resettlement to border protection again, as if more moveable Republicans are suddenly going to materialize, when Kirkman enters. Even though Aaron sees him everyday he's struck by how worn down the man looks.

Kirkman almost seems to collapse into the chair next to Aaron asking, "Where's Emily?"

"Meeting your new pet." The bunny was the result of months of fighting between Kirkman and Penny, and Aaron was surprised when Kirkman eventually caved. He claims to hate it, but Aaron suspects he cares more for the bunny then he lets on. Either way Aaron likes to rile Kirkman up over the newest addition to his family.

"Ah." Kirkman says betraying no emotion.

"Did you want me to get them?"

"No, I could use a word with you first."

"Okay." Aaron drew in a breath. It was never good news these days.

"Mars thinks we need to scrap the whole climate deal, just no way to make it workable at this time."

"But Sir, without-"

"Trust me Aaron I know, but I've looked at the polling. Dead in the water."

Aaron thinks to continue arguing his point, but the look on Kirkman's face appears immovable. And he'd like to keep Kirkman in a good mood tonight, they can always come back to this tomorrow he figures. "Maybe after the midterms…"

With just the slightest hint of a smile on his face Kirkman says, "Sure." After the midterms is their constant refrain even though Aaron knows as well as Kirkman does that the chances of anything being reshuffled in any meaningful way are about zero.

"Was that all?"

"There's also-" Kirkman starts to say before he stops mid sentence and gasps, and then clutching his chest and sounding like he is choking, slumps over in his chair. Aaron is frozen for a second, before he jumps to his feet yelling for help. Secret Service agents pour in and Aaron is swept off to the side as they attend to the President.

Before he can fully grasp the situation Kirkman is being carried out of the room on a stretcher and he is being led to the Situation Room. Once there he is momentarily shocked by how quickly a group has assembled. Mars almost guides him into a chair and drops a heavy binder in front of him. "These will need to be dealt with urgently should the situation evolve." The situation will evolve one way or another Aaron thinks. The one thing that is certain is they will not stay in limbo forever. But he understands evolve was the polite way of saying if the President dies. If Aaron becomes President.

"Can we have some quiet?" There are too many individual conversations, rising voices and a pervasive feel of panic is spreading through the room. As if to underscore how abruptly things have changed the room falls silent and all eyes are on Aaron. He realizes now that he will have to speak. In a voice hardly feels his own, saying words he knows can't be coming from his mouth he starts, "Before we begin let have a moment of silence to keep our President and his family and loved ones in our thoughts." Aaron can't remember the last time he's done anything close to pray, even the Capitol Bombing didn't bring him to that point, even now he is really just following the template of what he believe the Vice President should do in this situation, his mind is racing too much to follow his own orders. But then he is taken aback to hear multiple people mumble 'Amen.'

He paused for a moment before barreling on, "Kirkman had been a stalwart leader through our country's darkest days. If he was here he would want us to carry on calmly, but with respect for the gravity of the moment." It's still not his voice, but he's gaining momentum, getting back on familiar ground. And then somehow everything starts to fall into place. Aaron had thought that he was very well briefed on everything National Security, but now an advisor is getting him up to speed on an urgent and developing situation in Russia. Mars and another aide are debating the merits of canceling the President's planned morning call with the Prime Minister of the UK, or sending Aaron as back up. And Seth is working through the messaging of the situation. Which is to put it mildly a mess. The media is already reporting that the President was airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center under 'unknown circumstances.'

Aaron watches as Seth does an initial briefing to the press once, a say nothing 'update' with a promise to return. Aaron thinks that this is Seth in his element, Seth he knows would claim otherwise, claiming his next job is going to be as spokesman for 'whatever the most boring group known to mankind is', but Aaron knows deep down they are similar. They both thrive in these high stakes situations.

Everyone moves as a well oiled machine and Aaron has no idea how much time has passed when he is being put on the phone. Expecting an update from the doctors he is shocked to hear Kirkman's voice on the other end. Weak and tired sounding, but his voice nonetheless.

"Aaron, how's Penny?"

Penny. To be honest Aaron had almost forgotten that she existed. But now that he forced his mind to think about her he had a mental image of her and Emily huddled in the doorway watching Kirkman being removed on the stretcher. "She's in the residence. I can check on her." At least he hoped she was, and hoped Emily or someone had stayed with her. It wouldn't be a good move leaving a child to face the possibility of her one living parent's death alone.

"Please."

Aaron stands up and finds his legs weak and shaky. Mars is on the phone with one of the President's doctors from the sound of it, so Aaron mouths 'Penny' to him and Mars nods, so Aaron leaves them to get on with it. As he is on his way upstairs Kirkman lets him know he has suffered a minor heart attack but is expected to make a full recovery. Aaron lets out a long breath. They've all been through too much. The thought of actually losing Kirkman was too much for him to bear.

When he arrives at the Residence he sees Penny curled up asleep with her head in Emily's lap. The room is dark and quiet, in great contrast to all the activity downstairs. Penny's face looks red and blotchy and it is clear she has been crying. Emily meanwhile looks almost stoic, Aaron decides he would take the stress of the Situation Room over dealing with the grieving family any day, this room seems much more daunting. Emily gives Aaron a questioning look and he does his best to smile and gives her a thumbs up. With that Aaron can see the weight being lifted from her shoulders as well.

"She's sleeping. Emily's here. Do you want me to wake her?"

"Can you put Emily on first?". His voice was still faint and thin, and despite his on and off animosity toward Kirkman over the last two years Aaron feels a swell of pity. It can't be easy to know you are relying on someone you are on bad terms with to take care of your kid. Aaron passes Emily the phone and then leans into Emily's free side, letting himself rest for a moment.

He listens to her side of the conversation and wonders if she was getting a different side of the story from what he'd just heard. He thinks the number of 'Oh Gods' are a little high for what was all in all good news; Kirkman is going to be fine.

Eventually Emily shakes Penny saying "Penny, your Dad's awake and wants to talk to you."

Penny's conversation is short and subdued, and before long she passes the phone back to Aaron and looking at Emily with wide bloodshot eyes says, "Dad didn't sound good."

"He's tired. But the doctors are taking very good care of him." Emily's voice is calm and controlled, Aaron wonders how much effort she needs to put in to sound so comforting.

"What if he's not okay?" Penny was almost whimpering.

"I'm sure he will be just fine."

"But what if he's not? Mom wasn't."

"That was a different situation, Pen." Emily reached out and wrapped an arm around Penny, running a hand over her hair. "Your Dad just needs some rest and I'm sure he'll be back here ordering us around in no time."

If that last comment was meant to get a smile it didn't work, Penny shook her head. "What's going to happen to me?"

"Trey and Sasha are on their way. They'll stay with you until your Dad's home."

"But what if he doesn't come home?"

"Well, I think that's unlikely. But I imagine you would live with your Aunt or Uncle."

"I don't wanna." And with that Penny began to cry.

Aaron realizes that he's been sitting here really for no reason since they'd gotten off the phone with Kirkman. He murmured "I should get back downstairs." to Emily. Immediate crisis averted, Aaron still did need to check in on things before he called it a night he rationalized trying to beat back the guilt over leaving Emily with a mess.

Emily just nods at him and whispers back, "Can you make sure someone updates the rest of the family."

"Of course." He hopes someone besides Emily did the initial notification, there was so much going on downstairs, and as Vice President a lot of the smaller details escaped him. He gives Emily a kiss and squeezes Penny's shoulder before heading out.

Back downstairs things were surprisingly calm. Mars briefed him on the news from Kirkman's doctor. Luckily it was mostly what he had heard from Kirkman himself. He was expected to make a full recovery. There was a chance surgery would be needed the next day, and if so Aaron would need to be officially made Acting President. No one had used that phrase out loud yet tonight and it left an acrid taste in his mouth. Everyone knew that the Vice President was one heartbeat away from the Presidency, but the reality of that heartbeat being a little weaker than they'd all thought left Aaron cold.

Seth got through another quick briefing with the press, this time with better news to report. With nothing else immediate that needed his attention Aaron decided he should head home to get some sleep. If there was one lesson he'd learned from Kirkman it was not to sacrifice sleep, at least too much. He has piles of evidence that he never makes good decisions on no sleep, and especially if things took a turn he might be needing to make a lot of important decisions.

Slowly he makes his way back to the Residence. Just like his legs feeling weak earlier, he is suddenly stuck by how tired he feels. The four hours they'd spent scrambling had passed like minutes, but now he felt just how long they'd been, every part of his body protested as he climbed the stairs. Once upstairs he finds Emily curled up alone on the couch, so Aaron assumes Penny has apparently calmed down and was convinced to go to bed.

"Hey, are you ready to head out?"

Emily looked at him confused. "I think I should stay here. Someone should be here for Penny."

"Oh, right." He says feeling a bit like an idiot for not realizing that on his own. "Mind if I crash with you?" There were no circumstances under which he wanted to be alone tonight.

"Of course." Standing and grabbing his hand she says, "I'm sure we can grab one of the guest rooms." It struck Aaron that there should have been more of a protocol in place. What after all were Kirkman's plans for his daughter other than hope Emily would be around. Although he supposed it was unusual for Trey, Kendra, and Sasha to all be out of town at the same time. He lets Emily lead him out of the living room and thinks that it feels nice letting someone else take the lead for now. "You need some real sleep anyway."

They enter a bedroom and Aaron has the realization that he's never seen this room before. He thinks it's probably one of the few rooms in the White House he hasn't. He's been on or given his fair share of White House tours. And he knows the West Wing like the back of his hand. But this nondescript guest room that could be in any home anywhere in America threw him.

Back when he was a kid and basically never went anywhere outside of his two streetlight town he used to be enthralled by the idea of places he'd never been before. Or more specifically stepping on ground he'd never been on, like he was some kind of explorer. Even the occasional trip to El Paso or his Dad's hometown in Mexico hadn't held much appeal. Those trips consisted of visits to the same relatives' houses that he eventually knew as well as his own, and he knew there was more for him out in the world. He would beg his Dad, with no success, to take him to the oil fields he'd worked in. Back then he'd imagined being just like his Dad when he grew up.

But he'd long since stopped being amazed by the thought of stepping on new ground. They're had been a few moments in his adulthood; his first time visit to the White House, first time in the Senate Chambers, visiting the Grand Canyon, but for the most part endless days and nights of travel had taught him to appreciate home more than anything. But something about this room brings back that slight twitch in his stomach. And then it wasn't so much a slight twitch any longer but a sinking feeling. He wonders if this was how Kirkman felt the night he'd been led to the White House, with the sudden weight of the Presidency thrust upon his head. If Kirkman had the same thought that all he wanted was the comforting four walls of home.

He crawls into bed, not even bothering to do anything more than take off his suit coat and tie.

Emily says, "I'm sure I can find you some sweats or something."

Aaron waves an arm and mumbles, "I'm fine."

Emily leaves briefly, before returning with a t-shirt that she then changes into. As she takes her dress off Aaron has the slightest recollection of his plans for their night, and then shakes his head, feeling like that thought belongs in a different universe. As Emily lies down in bed, wrapping an arm around him, he asks, "Do you really think he'll be okay?"

"I do."

"And if he isn't?" He asks, aware he sounds just like Penny did half an hour ago.

Emily doesn't spend the time she did trying to convince Penny that Kirkman would be fine, "Then you'll be a great President."

Aarons not sure he believes her tonight has left him anxious and pretty sure he never wants this weight on his shoulders again, but he doesn't say anything more and lets himself fall asleep to the comforting feeling of her hand rubbing his back. He's drifting somewhere between awake and asleep when he could swear he hears Emily whisper "I love you." But his head is too heavy and he's too tired for him to do anything other than nod deeper off to sleep.