Author's Note: Good news and bad news folks. The good news is, I got one more for you tonight. The bad news is, I go back to work tomorrow. And I'm fairly sure that they'll be frowning on me continuing on with Emily and Aaron's adventures at the cabin during my paycheck hours. SO, unless I end up whipping up something super short, then I don't think I'll be updating this one again until Tuesday. Have no fear, my brain's still running right along, but again, my time to write just went back to it's generally curtailed hours. Which, you don't have to tell me, sucks. I'd certainly much rather be getting paid to do this tomorrow than what I actually will be doing.

So we're picking up with them after dinner.


Pretty Girls and Roses

After dinner, Aaron sent Emily upstairs to unpack her bag while he did the dishes.

He thought that was the least that he could do for her after she made that delicious smelling strawberry rhubarb pie that was taunting him from the counter. But before she'd left the kitchen she told him it was too hot to eat, and he had to wait at least another half hour before he cut a piece. And the way that she wagged her finger at him as she said it, it was so adorable that he just nodded his assent. He was trying not to burst out laughing.

It wasn't until after she'd left the room, that Aaron remembered that he was the one who was technically 'in charge' and therefore the one that was supposed to be doing the bossing. But . . . he rinsed the sudsy water our of the salad bowl . . . he supposed that if he was planning/hoping on engaging in any kind of personal relationship with her once this was all over, he was going to have to adjust his things. And by thinking he meant, that he'd better get used to occasionally having his power completely usurped. At least that had been his experience with Haley. And he imagined that to be true with most women.

Well . . . he tipped his head . . . to varying degrees anyway.

But all that really mattered for now was that for the duration of this assignment, Emily continued to run, jump, duck and hide immediately when he told her to. As long as she didn't question his authority in that area, then he didn't think her bossing him around the kitchen would really be a problem.

As long as nobody else was around to see it.

After he'd placed the salad bowl on the counter to dry, Aaron turned off the faucet and looked around the airy cooking space.

With the exception of the cooling pastry, everything else had been washed or put away. So he quickly wiped down the counters and then put the refrigerator back to it's original condition. After that, he transferred the contents of the cooler, onto the shelves.

It had been two hours since they arrived, so he figured the fridge would be cold enough now to keep the milk fresh.

Once he'd determined that the kitchen was again looking nice and tidy, he went over and flicked on the small light he'd plugged in by the sink.

The last thing he did as he left the room, was turn off the overhead lighting.

If there was one thing that he was not a fan of, it was a dark room. He knew Emily had thought that he was a little nuts, but before they'd left the city, he'd stopped and bought a small pack of nightlights to plug in around the country house.

As long as they were up here alone, he didn't want anything surprising him in the dark.

With that thought in mind, before he went upstairs to unpack his own bag, Aaron did one more check of the downstairs. After each turn through the rooms, he ran his finger over the window locks . . . the windows weren't bullet resistant, but they did have reinforced glass . . . and then pulled the curtains tightly shut again.

Nobody was seeing, or getting, in there that night.

As he was finishing up his security run, Aaron paused briefly in the small paneled space that he'd determined had been designed as a family office. His lip turned up slightly as he looked over the room. It had a beautiful maple desk in it with a matching book case and a large wooden hutch.

Someday he really would love to have a place like this.

Just as he was about to step back into the hall, a stack on the floor by the filing cabinet caught his eye.

Newspaper clippings.

After pausing to make sure that he didn't hear Emily on the stairs, Aaron stepped back into the room and stooped down to be nosy for a minute.

As he flipped through them he saw that they were mementos . . . all of them yellow and crinkling . . . of the major events in her family's life.

Some were barely a line.

. . . Robert Prentiss elected to first term as representative from the 5th district.

That one was dated twenty years ago . . . but others were full pages.

The day Emily's mother had been named as the first female Secretary of State was a big one.

He was just about to tidy up the stack again when he saw something that made his eyes widen in surprise. It was the day of the assassination attempt on her mother. They had been in a market in Johannesburg. The picture was black and white and showed the security team dragging the . . . at the time, ambassador . . . away from the body of the agent who had taken the bullet intended for her head.

It was a terrible picture. Her mother was obviously screaming, and even in black and white you could see the dark splatters of blood on her suit. Aaron had of course seen this photograph before, he'd been in high school at the time and it was front page news everywhere.

But what he hadn't noticed then . . . what he was just noticing now . . . was an image in the background.

It was slightly out of focus but as he stared at it he realized it was a little Emily being forcibly thrown into the back of one of the black sedans. Her handler's mouth was open so Aaron knew that he was saying . . . or more likely yelling . . . something at her.

Aaron hadn't realized she was there that day.

And the longer he stared at the image, the more he wondered what the man was saying.

Was he trying to comfort her? Was he screaming at her that they had to go? Or was he lying to her and telling her that everything was fine even though there was a man lying dead in the street not ten feet away?

His jaw twitched as he stared a moment longer. And then he heard the creak of the staircase and he quickly tidied the stack of yellowing papers and hurried back out of the room.

"Hey," he said nonchalantly as Emily appeared before him, "did you finish unpacking?"

She'd changed out of her short/tank top combo and into her candy cane striped pajamas. They seemed to be her favorite pair. A fact deduced because back home he'd noticed her wearing them more often than any others.

"Yep," Emily smiled, "all set," then as she walked closer to him she asked curiously, "hey, how did you know that was my room?"

It hadn't really mattered all that much who got which room, so she hadn't even thought to mention it to him when he said he was bringing the bags upstairs. But given that he'd had five options to choose from, she hadn't really expected that he would just correctly 'guess' where she usually slept.

"I don't know," Aaron's eyes crinkled slightly as he shrugged, "it just seemed like that one was yours."

Wow! He'd actually guessed correctly!

Feeling a little flutter in her stomach, Emily's expression softened slightly.

"When I was twelve I was really into ornithology so I asked my Grampa if we could do a room here that had a little border with starlings on it. Ever since then that's been my room."

Of all the hundreds of things that she'd said to him the past two weeks, she couldn't believe that some part of his brain remembered her telling him that story.

Aaron stared at Emily for a moment, and then he suddenly pictured her in the car the other day telling him that she and her grandfather used to go bird watching when she was younger.

He bit his lip as he took a step closer . . . apparently his brain had tucked that little factoid away and he hadn't realized it until he subconsciously interpreted the border as meaning it was Emily's room.

Huh.

Though he had no good . . . i.e. professional . . . reason for it, he put his arm around her shoulders as he walked them back down to the living room. Without a word, he guided her over to the couch and then turned back to the fireplace.

While dinner was cooking . . . boiling . . . he'd gone around and checked the fireplace flues to make sure they were all clear. Fortunately the family had a whole mud room off the front hall where they kept . . . not only coats and hats and whatnot . . . but also a bin of cut firewood.

And even though it was August, the house was quite cool tonight.

The humidity of the day had been washed away with the line of thunderstorms that continued to roll through. And he could see Emily rubbing her hands together as she sat on the couch watching him.

It was obvious that she was a bit chilly.

And though he hadn't made a fire since he was a Boy Scout . . . just over ten years ago, he'd gone all the way to Eagle . . . he was pretty sure that he remembered how the process went. The principles were pretty straight forward.

Fire + something flammable = heat

So he left Emily alone for a minute to back down to the mudroom. Once there, he'd hefted as much wood as he could carry, up into his arms. It was kind of dirty . . . and some pieces were a smidge sticky with sap . . . but the shirt was going to the cleaners anyway.

After he was loaded up, Aaron headed back down to the living room. Then he walked over to place the kindling into the gigantic mouth of the fireplace. And he did it in the old stack pattern that he remembered learning as a boy.

Sometimes you just didn't forget.

And just as he was about to push himself up to go get some matches from the kitchen, he felt Emily's hand on his shoulder.

He tipped his head back to see her holding the long blue box and an old newspaper. He'd noticed had been left sitting on the coffee table from the last time her family was there.

Though his heart ached when he looked down at the date . . . May 30, 1993.

Such a long time ago.

But he covered his sadness for Emily's sake, making sure to give her a little smile as he took the items from her hand.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Emily whispered back. Then she watched Aaron tear up the old paper into strips, before he began shoving it under the logs.

Her eyes started to sting as she remembered back to her father making her a fire the last time that they were there. Mother had said it was too warm, but Emily had wanted to make s'mores so she'd fluttered her lashes and said "please daddy," before she bit her lip.

It was a move she'd been making on him since she was old enough to know that he was the pushover.

And of course . . . as expected . . . he'd immediately grinned back and said, "okay jellybean." Then he'd turned to her mother, giving her his most charming smile . . . the one they used on the campaign posters . . . and cooed.

"Come on Lizzie, you know you love a good s'more."

Her mother had looked in exasperation between the two of them, before a hint of a smile touched her lips. "Fine," she'd said, "but I want an extra square of chocolate on mine." And then she'd kissed Emily's forehead before heading back into the kitchen to finish dinner.

That . . . the tears began to pool . . . that, was the last night that they were here.

Aaron tossed the match into the pier he'd just built. And as the flame caught on a strip of newspaper . . . immediately spreading to the dry wood . . . he felt a ridiculous sense of satisfaction.

Mankind had been making fire since their brains were the size of baseballs, and yet still he thought it was some kind of an accomplishment.

What a loser.

Then he remembered that he didn't actually 'make' the fire, he just struck the sulfur match against the flint and THAT made the fire.

That realization diminished his sense of pride just a bit more . . . but . . . he heard a little crackle come from the popping wood . . . only just a little.

After he pushed himself up and dusted off his shirt and hands, he turned around to tell Emily that he was going upstairs to change.

But then he stopped short . . . she was crying.

That ache in his heart came back again. And as he bit into his lip, he crossed over to the couch and stooped down to put his hands on her knees.

As Aaron walked over, Emily frantically started wiping her face in embarrassment.

'Geez, stupid tears!'

Then he leaned down in front of her and whispered sadly, "I'm really sorry Emily."

And she froze, staring wide eyed at him.

It took a moment for her realize that his apology was genuine, he really did understand. He knew why she was crying.

He knew why she was sad.

Nobody had ever paid her enough attention to see that far past the image she projected to the world. Oh God . . . she sucked in a ragged breath before slapping her hands over her mouth to keep the sob from escaping.

She hadn't meant to do this in front of him! She didn't cry in front of other people!

Prentiss' didn't cry in front of ANYONE!

And if not for that damn newspaper, and remembering making s'mores with her dad, she wouldn't have suddenly felt that horrible sense of loss.

The realization that she really no longer had anyone anymore.

Her parents loved her . . . but they had no time for her. None. They were both always traveling now. The President's focus for the year was hammering out another peace treaty in the Middle East. So her mother spent all of her spare time . . . of which there was precious little . . . meeting with experts on anything and everything related to the culture, history, religion and everything else under the sun that could that might give them an edge in the negotiations. Or possibly cause a problem down the road.

World peace was a noble effort . . . but it left no time for family.

And daddy . . . daddy had a serious challenger to his seat for the first time in over a decade. So he spent half of his time pressing flesh across his district, and the rest of his time wrangling members of the House on the new healthcare initiative.

Again, a noble effort that left no time for family.

When she was young they had always made time for her. But now that she was an adult . . . and they figured she had a life of her own . . . the time they carved out was less and less. But maybe if she told them that she had no life . . . the sob broke free . . . then they'd find a way to let her back into their worlds.

God . . . she sucked in another breath . . . what a loser she was!

It was only took a split second after Emily's pitiable gasp . . . she was trying to cover up a sob . . . that Aaron know for sure what he had to do.

So even though it was as about as far outside the manual as he could get . . . basically he'd just tossed the manual out the window . . . he got up on the couch beside her. Then he shifted slightly to pull her into his arms.

"Shhh, it's okay," he murmured softly against her hair as he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

And feeling her hot tears soaking through his shirt, triggered another ache in his chest. So before he could stop and think about what he was doing . . . if it was colossally bad timing or not . . . he tipped his head down.

"When this assignment's over," he whispered, "would you like to go to dinner with me sometime?"

That was most definitely NOT something that he was going to bring up until things were completely wrapping up. But he couldn't bear her being so sad, and knowing it was because she was so lonely. He just wanted her to know that she wasn't alone.

He could be there . . . even as just a friend . . . if she would only let him in.

Emily lifted her head to look up at Aaron, then she sniffled once before asking warily.

"Are you just asking because you feel sorry for me?" She started to pull away from him as her voice cracked, "because I don't want to be a pity date."

These stupid tears were ruining everything! She really liked him, and she'd thought maybe by the end of the month that he might haven grown to like her too. But now . . . her hand swiped angrily across her face . . . she didn't know if he was asking because he was actually starting to have feelings for her, or because he just thought that she was a pathetic loser.

Most likely the latter.

Seeing how low Emily's self-esteem was at that moment, Aaron's eyes began to sting as he shook his head.

"No, no Emily of course that's not why I'm asking." He gave her a sad smile, "I like you, really I do," then he tipped his head, "okay, granted, I wouldn't have asked you out tonight if not for . . ."

His voice trailed off as she pulled away from him. And as he saw her fold further into herself . . . her cheeks began to burn bright red.

And he realized then that he was humiliating her.

Christ, he'd already fucked up the breakup with Haley, how was it possible that he was screwing up asking Emily out too?

"No, no, no," he moaned in exasperation as he rubbed her arm, "I'm sorry, that came out all wrong."

So when she lifted her watery eyes slightly to look up at him . . . it was obvious that she was waiting for the other shoe to drop . . . he cupped her warm . . . wet . . . cheek with his palm. Then he tried again.

"Emily Prentiss, even though you drive me nuts sometimes, I think that you're smart and sweet and funny and I really, really do like you." His lip quirked up, "and I'm going to slap a 'period, end of sentence' on that statement before I stick my foot in my mouth again."

Seeing how sincere his words were, Emily's embarrassment slowly began being replaced by a cautious hope.

"Really?" She whispered back, "You mean it?"

This was much more than she could have hoped for.

"Yeah," he nodded seriously, "I mean it. You really do drive me nuts sometimes."

As he'd hoped, the joke elicited a small smile from her, and his eyes crinkled slightly before he sobered up again.

"Honestly Emily, I was planning on asking you out in two weeks, when my assignment was over. But then I realized that it was silly to wait to just ask the question."

Then he stroked the pad of his thumb along her cheek, feeling the stickiness of her tears. He had the sudden urge to kiss them away.

That was one urge that he firmly suppressed.

Emily stared at him.

"What about your girlfriend?" She asked with a sniffle as she sat up a little and wiped her face again, "what if when you get home you decide you want to get back together?"

If he raised her spirits, and then broke her heart all in the same month, she wouldn't be able to stand it.

She didn't want to be some rebound girl.

Aaron's eyes fell away from Emily's for a moment as he sighed.

Well, she did deserve to know the truth there. And she deserved to know even if it didn't necessarily reflect well on him.

Which it most definitely did not.

His gaze came back up.

"That is an excellent question. But I can assure you Emily, that there is NO possibility of that happening," he swallowed, hoping that she wouldn't think he was a real jerk by the time he was done explaining himself.

"Though I can see how it might seem like odd timing asking you out the same day that I break up with my longtime girlfriend."

Emily interrupted him then.

"How long were you going out?"

"Six years," he croaked

Seeing her eyes widen in surprise, he nodded quickly.

"I know, but trust me, I should have broken up with Haley, that's her name, Haley, six months ago," he gave her a sad smile, "maybe even longer. We met in college and things were good for a long time, but . . . well, we just grew apart. And then when I decided to leave the DA's office and join the Bureau, and she was so adamantly opposed to that, I started to see that we didn't really see things the same way anymore. But," he cleared his throat, "well, I know this might make me sound like kind of a jerk, but it was just easier to keep playing along like everything was fine. And I know that wasn't fair to her, it was just making things easier for me. But since I've been away," he tipped his head, "since I met you, I realized that I wasn't being fair to myself either. We should both be free to move on with our lives," his voice started to get a little husky, "I just wish I hadn't handled things as badly as I did with her on the phone today. She didn't do anything wrong and I know that I really hurt her."

His gaze dropped down to the candy cane pattern on Emily's knee. Then he added softly.

"But I can see though, how my behavior wouldn't really recommend me as somebody you'd want to get involved with. So I understand if you say no."

Really, what girl would want to go out with some guy knowing that he was potentially going to treat her like crap for no reason?

Feeling that wave of sympathy she'd felt for him earlier come back again, Emily reached over and patted his leg.

"Aaron," she said softly, "I understand that you made a mistake today, and I could see at the time that you really regretted what happened, so I certainly don't think ill of you because of that."

His eyes came back up and she gave him a watery smile.

"And I think that you're a really sweet guy, but," she swallowed, "six years is a long time, so maybe you should call her back and talk to her and let her say all the stuff she wants to say. And then," her voice got a little thick, "well, then if you still want to ask me out to dinner then I'll give you my answer, okay?"

Part of her brain was screaming at her that she was a complete idiot for not trying to snatch him up immediately. But the part of her that was afraid of being left alone again, was trying to make sure that he was really serious about this before she got too invested.

Six years was a LONG time to be with someone. And though she didn't know the particulars like he did, it just didn't seem like that kind of relationship would simply get washed away over a three minute phone call.

Aaron's eyes started to burn as he looked over to the crackling fire, and then back to Emily's pretty face. Finally he nodded.

"Okay, if that would make you feel better then I'll do that." But seeing the sad smile she gave him in return . . . though he was agreeing with her suggestion . . . he blinked away the tears as he reached over and brushed her hair back behind her ear. "But I'll tell you now," he whispered, "that it's not going to make any difference."

If he hadn't inadvertently slammed down the phone on Haley, he wouldn't have thought this was necessary. But Emily was right, his (ex) girlfriend deserved to have her say before he nailed the door shut completely on that part of his life.

Not that there was anything that Haley could say that would change his mind, but it was only fair. He shouldn't just get to decide something so momentous and then just walk out of her life without any consequence.

He looked back at the fire . . . and it wasn't fair to Emily to have something like that hanging there either. From her perspective, he could see that she might think that she was just a rebound or something.

Then his eyes widened as he thought of something.

"Wait though, I didn't think there was a phone here," he looked around, "I haven't seen one."

Emily pushed herself up off the couch and put her hand out, "come with me,"

Aaron took her hand and she led him down to the office he'd been in before she came down the stairs. Leaving him in the doorway, she went over to the desk where she stooped down and opened the bottom drawer.

A second later he saw her place an old square rotary desk phone on the blotter.

Then she took the end of the plastic wire and leaned back down, running her fingers along the wall under the bookcase until she hit the jack where she slipped the wire in.

When she stood back up, Emily saw Aaron looking at her curiously and she shrugged, "it's just for emergencies. Mother and daddy always tried to really take a break when we came up here, so they figured with the phone, out of sight out of mind. So they don't give the number out to anyone on their staff either. If there's some sort of genuine emergency where they need to be reached, the agents get radioed so there's no need to keep the phone plugged in at all."

She came back around the desk and patted his arm, "you make your phone call," she gave him a little smile, "and then you come see me when you're done. We'll have some pie and talk again, okay?"

His eyes crinkled slightly, "okay."

He was starting to see that maybe Emily was out of his league. She was six years younger and a hell of a lot smarter and more mature about relationships than he was. He was already asking out the next girl while the old one was sitting home probably crying into her second box of Kleenex.

And she had no way of reaching him and was probably cursing his name every five minutes.

He swallowed . . . yeah, this conversation was going to suck.

But . . . he watched Emily slip out and shut the door behind her . . . it needed to be done.

So he went over and pulled out the chair, sat down and dialed the number.

A few seconds later Haley's answering machine picked up and he didn't get further than, "um, it's me again. I'm sorry I uh . . ." before he heard the phone being snatched up and then her screaming.

"YOU BASTARD!! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU HUNG UP ON ME!"

And his head dropped to the desk.

Crap.

/*/*/*/*/*/

Emily sat in the kitchen nervously blowing on her cup of cocoa. He'd been in there an awfully long time. Her eyes snapped back over to the kitchen clock . . . almost forty five minutes. How long does it take to do something like this? She had no idea, she'd never really been in a real relationship. She'd only been out on casual public setting dates.

And those were few and very far between.

There was only that one boy that she'd ever seen more than twice. Patrick something.

But she didn't like him. At first he'd seemed nice, and he hadn't even let on that he knew who her family was. Not until the third date anyway. Then he seemed ENTIRELY too interested in who her family was.

It had given her the creeps. Not enough to actually report it to her mother's staff, just enough that she hadn't wanted to see him again.

And that was about the last time she'd even tried to have a social life. And three dates didn't really count as a "breakup." But still, she'd been smart enough to know that Aaron needed to deal with this Haley girl before he considered anything else.

Though she was seriously going to be kicking herself for the next thirty years if she just pushed them back together again!

Just then she heard the office door open and she looked up anxiously to see him practically stumbling into the kitchen.

Her eyes widened in alarm . . . he looked like he'd been hit by a bus!

His tie was hanging off of him, his hair was all sticking up in front, and the first three buttons of his shirt were undone.

"Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed as he flopped down in the stool next to her, "that SUCKED!"

It was horrendous! Worse than he'd possibly imagined. Not only was he a complete bastard and an asshole and all sorts of other choice words that he didn't even know that nice girls like Haley knew, but apparently he'd wasted her most fertile years! Like he was supposed to know that she was looking to have kids! She'd never mentioned wanting kids, and he wasn't a freaking mind reader! Maybe if she'd mentioned that two or three years ago then he would have started 'assessing' things a bit earlier.

But at least now . . . he scrubbed his hands down his face . . . it was done.

Emily bit her lip in sympathy as she reached over to rub his back, "didn't go well?"

He shot her a look out of the corner of her eye and her nose wrinkled, "sorry, dumb question."

And though she could sort of deduce that they still were broken up, she definitely didn't want to ask the outcome of their conversation.

Just in case it wasn't favorable to her cause.

So she started to stand up, "well, um, let me go get your pie."

Aaron caught her hand as she tried to walk away, "wait, don't you want to know what happened?"

He'd have thought that she might have some sort of vested interest in what happened on the phone.

Her eyes slowly shifted over to his, "well, if you think that I might be interested in the outcome then yes, I suppose I might like to know," she said softly.

His eyes crinkled, "I think you might be interested in the outcome yes. I am most definitely STILL broken up with my EX girlfriend."

Her face lit up, "really?"

That meant she wasn't the biggest idiot on the planet! Yay!

He nodded in amusement, "yes, really," he sobered slightly as he thought back on the end of the conversation, "uh, she's going to come over Wednesday and pick up her stuff and we'll do the key thing in reverse," he gave Emily an ironic look, "she's still pretty mad so if I don't come back Wednesday night maybe you could call the police and tell them to start dragging the Potomac."

Emily bit her lip to keep from smiling, "understood,"

Then she was quiet for a minute before she sighed dramatically. Now she knew that invitation to go out was technically still hanging there, but she really wished that he would ask her again.

It would be nice to hear it when she wasn't sobbing into his shirt.

Hearing the little sigh escape Emily's lips, Aaron's mouth quivered as he spun his stool around to face her head on . . . apparently she was waiting for the second invitation.

And he was very happy to oblige.

Given what he had to look forward to with Haley on Wednesday, it really would be nice to have something more pleasant to look forward to after that.

So he reached over and picked up Emily's hands. "Emily Prentiss, would you like to have dinner with me on August 17th?"

That was the evening her parents were expected back in town.

His assignment would be done.

She grinned, "I would."

And one of his dimples slipped out, "okay then, good."

Thank God! After all, she was proving herself to be much smarter about these things than he was. She could have decided that he needed like a cooling off period or something too.

He huffed to himself . . . Christ, it was just four hours ago that he had decided to ask her out. By the time this weekend was over he was probably going to be begging her for five minutes of her time!

Emily stared at him for a moment before asking somewhat shyly. "I know that things have to stay . . . platonic for two more weeks but, um, could I give you a hug? Just a quick one?"

This was kind of a big day for her. She'd never been asked out by anyone like him before. Somebody nice and sweet . . . pre background check cleared . . . who she thought maybe she could actually have a real relationship with, and not just a single cup of bad coffee at one of those new weird chain places.

Aaron looked at Emily for a second longer before his lip quirked up.

"I suppose one hug wouldn't hurt,"

Feeling a wave of ridiculous happiness fill her, Emily grinned as she stepped between his legs and wrapped her arms around his neck. And as he pulled her tightly against his body, she closed her eyes and sighed. "Thanks."

A hug.

She hadn't had a good hug in years.

Aaron's lips twitched as he rubbed his hand down Emily's back.

"No problem," he whispered.

A pretty girl asks if she can give him a hug and then she thanks him for saying yes. He was definitely in some sort of alternate universe right now.

And as he closed his eyes for a moment, he made a mental record of what it felt like to hold her.

The soft skin of her cheek pressed against his, the feel of her slim frame completely enveloped in his arms, and her hair . . . he inhaled . . . roses.

He murmured against her throat.

"The roses, is that your perfume or your shampoo?"

Emily's lips curved into a soft smile.

"Both," she murmured as she lay her head down on his shoulder, "I like roses."

"Yeah," he whispered back, "me too."

If he became any more fond of the roses then he was thinking that he might have to have himself taken off this assignment for the last two weeks of the month.

Right now he trusted that he could still do his job effectively. But . . . his eyes fell shut again as he felt her warm breath on his neck . . . he was definitely becoming more emotionally involved with her. At the moment that was probably enhancing his senses, his protective instincts were making him more aware of potential threats around them. But there was a certain point where the scale would tip, and then his feelings would become a distraction.

And distractions were bad.

Now though . . . he slowly exhaled . . . they were still good.

And he was still kind of hungry.

So he tipped his head down to whisper in her ear.

"Can I have my pie now?"

Emily started to giggle against his throat, "yes, you can have your pie now!"

She lifted her head and stepped back with a little smile.

"Do you want some cocoa too? The water's still hot."

Aaron smiled, "cocoa sounds fabulous," he pushed himself up off the stool, "I'm just going to run upstairs and change. How about we watch a movie when I come back down?"

Her eyebrow shot up, "can we watching something girly?" she asked hopefully.

The last two weeks, whenever he sat with her she tried to pick out movies that he would like too.

He nodded, "of course. We can watch whatever you want."

She grinned.

"Then Hunt for Red October it is!"

It took him a second to process what she said before he burst out laughing, "that's not a GIRLY movie! That's an ACTION movie!"

What the hell was she talking about?

"Are you kidding me?" she asked in disbelief, "Alec Baldwin AND Sean Connery, that's a chick flick in my book buddy."

As he started to chuckle, she pushed him towards the door.

"Go hurry up and change. Now you've got me all excited and I'm not pressing pause for you."

He snoozed he loosed.

"I'm going, I'm going," he huffed in mock exasperation as she gave him a gentle shove into the hall, "geez I really hope you're not going to manhandle me like this when we're DATING!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

It was really kind of funny. She was like a hundred pounds soaking wet and she'd been bossing him around pretty effectively all evening.

"You know you love it!" she yelled back from the kitchen.

Hearing him bark a laugh from the staircase, Emily grinned to herself as she went over to cut their slices of pie.

This was shaping up to be her best weekend ever.


A/N 2: There you go Chiroho, we got the real hug in buddy AND he asked her out! You were two for two :)

Seriously though, I didn't see any 'good' reason why he couldn't at least throw it out there. He knew why she was so sad and it really would have just been kind of inexplicable for him NOT to say something to her then.

Yes, Emily was taking a shot at Starbucks :) I know we're all used to them now, but it was very strange when they first started coming east. We have Dunkin Donuts here and back then they just served plain coffee and plain donuts. Starbucks and all their "choices" was just this weird thing that we had to get used to.

There was a request (or 2) to see the scene where Haley hands Hotch his hat for being a jerk on the phone. And I don't really think the story will take them to "Wednesday" (it would have been an epilogue slice) so I figured a little snippet from the phone conversation would do. Putting yourself in Haley's shoes, your boyfriend of six years breaks up with you on a payphone and then hangs up on you before you even get to say a word, she deserved to be pissed.

And I liked the idea of Emily being more mature about his breakup than he was. Again, they're still (both) pretty inexperienced with relationships, her more so obviously, but I still think (no offense Chiroho) that sometimes women just have a more innate understanding of how things should work. A bit more sensitivity. And he really did need to deal with Haley completely and maturely before he moved on to the next thing.

As to Emily being there the day of the assassination attempt, that wasn't my original plan. But I apparently wrote that little snippet in the beginning a bit ambiguously (it wasn't Emily that was the target, it was her mom) so as I read it over, I didn't see anything in what I wrote that precluded the idea that Emily was there too. And I thought that would fall into line with a number of other things I'm writing about her.

I actually got a little depressed writing the Emily flashback to her last trip to the cabin scene. Because, if you're younger you might not realize but all the stuff I had her parents working on, I wasn't just mimicking what's going on in the world today. Those EXACT issues were the main topics of the day in the early 90s. We had troops in the Middle East, we were working on healthcare reform, and a bunch of people were trying to hammer out a peace agreement for the same swaths of land. It's kind of sad that as much as the world's changed, it really hasn't.

Anyway, I think it's universally agreed, real life is quite depressing at times, that's why we're all here! I've actually typed so much this weekend that my fingers are swollen! I don't even know what the hell to do for that! Am I supposed to ice them or what? I guess it's good I'm going back to work. Well, okay, not really :)

Again, MAYBE something short here tomorrow (if my hands work!) but otherwise, back on Tuesday.

Thanks again for all the kind notes! I'm SO glad you guys like this one! Seriously that makes me happy because it does seem to be "cleansing the palate" of some of the nastier stuff going in canon. They really are kind of sweet as more innocent versions of themselves and I'm going to be really sad when I have to shut the door on them here :( Maybe I'll make it a little alternate series. Feel free to throw out some ideas for future stuff for them. Future as in past the weekend :)