Hi there! Thank you so much for the follows/favs and reviews on the last two chapters. I'm really excited you are reading and/or commenting.
Here is another chapter. It's the last one in which you don't see Aaron, I'm sorry for that cause I know some of you love him, but his character will start having more importance in the next few chapters. Hope you will like it, and I promise a little more action in the next chapters.

CHAPTER 3 - Falling Apart

Emily's life had taken a strange turn, this was the least she could say. She was just reaching the end of her first trimester, and morning sickness had already started to fade, which was something she was definitely grateful for. She had had long talks with Gemma, but had in the end decided to keep that baby. It wasn't really as if she had hesitated, even if she knew how crazy everything was, how of a mistake it probably was to raise a baby on her own with such a demanding job. She knew that it was probably her only chance to have a family of her own, to have her own baby, and that sole reason had made her keep the baby.

One evening she had called her mother, Karen, to finally tell her everything. This had probably been the hardest phone call she had ever made. She had spent a good hour crying over the phone, and despite asking her mother several times to give her opinion, Karen had carefully avoided to. She did, indeed, have an opinion: she would never wish this for Emily, but she didn't want to influence her daughter. She wanted the best for her, and she knew how hard it was to be a single mother, having raised Emily and her brother on her own after their father had left without a word. But again, just like Gemma, Karen could remember very clearly when Emily had been told she would never have kids, so she understood very well why she wanted to keep that miraculous baby.

Karen had taken a few days off to come down to Washington, spoil and cheer up her daughter. Emily had cried a lot during those days, but it had felt good to have her mother at home, preparing her meals, cleaning her apartment and just taking care of her. They had talked a lot too, and it had been very weird for Emily because her mother had confessed a lot of things about being a single mother, what it implied and how she, herself, had lived the situation. Of course, it was slightly different since Emily's father had been there at one point, leaving her, her mother and her brother without a word when she was only 7 years old. But for Karen, it had meant raising a child alone, and another one, teenager at the time, who believed Emily was the sole reason of their dad's departure.

Apart from her mother and her best friend, Emily had not told anything to anyone. She wasn't actually planning to. She knew that soon, she would start showing, people would start whispering, and that idea was already way too much for her. Despite how much she loved her job, the fact that it was such a public position in the small world of Washington D.C. was utterly annoying her. Gemma had advised her several times to tell Aaron. He deserved to know, and both Emily and Gemma knew that, but the Chief of Staff couldn't resolve herself to telling him. She had met him once in the hallways of the West Wing. That day, she had once again deflected and asked Phil to meet Aaron, but the meeting had taken longer than she thought and she had ended up bumping into him as he was going out. It had been extremely awkward, and everybody around them had seen it. Aaron was hurt that she had avoided him once again, especially as there was the definite proof she had no other meeting planned. Emily, for her part, had been anxious and had just stammered a few words. The silence had been painful and way too long, and after the basic "how are you doing?", Emily had escaped, inventing an urgent meeting in the Oval Office.

Hiding her pregnancy to her closest colleagues had been a tough one. She had been caught by Seth running to the bathroom several times as the smell of his coffee had upset her stomach more than once. She had faked the flu, had invented a new diet that wasn't working, but she had realized that it was much harder to hide it than she thought it would be. She had even asked her obgyn a few tips, but saltines and pre-natal vitamins weren't enough for Emily to really feel better.

Though with the weeks passing, she could definitely say that she was starting to feel better. She had been supported by Gemma more than ever, and she could feel more confident, more sure of her choice, she knew that she would make it. The previous night, however, all her doubts had come back like a slap her face. As often, Gemma had come to Emily's place for dinner but as they were chatting, the red-haired had suddenly become more serious.

"Em, I need to tell you something." Gemma had said.

"You sound serious, what is going on?" Emily had asked, sitting on the couch.

"It's work. They decided to move to New York. Everybody is moving there…"

"What? When?" Emily had exclaimed, panic in her voice.

"They plan to move everything in three months."

Emily had started panicking, raising from the couch and walking in circle around it, trying to think of something, trying to realize what was happening. She could feel the anxiety attack coming, taken of spasms, and tears coming to her eyes. After that, she couldn't remember much but the fact that she had barely slept from the whole night.

So, in the morning, she arrived nauseous, grumpy and sleepless. She knew it would be a hard day, but she didn't know how bad it would be until the first crisis broke. It was barely ten in the morning, and despite the make-up, everybody could see she was exhausted. The panic in her usually very steady voice was surprising everybody. She managed to keep it together until they resolved the crisis, but as soon as she closed the door of her office, she burst into tears. She had not even heard the knock, nor Seth peeping into her office, and she jumped of surprise when she felt him sit next to her on the couch.

"Emily, what is going on?" he said, his hand running on her back.

"Nothing… It's… nothing" she answered, her head in her hands.

"You've been acting weird for a while now, what is going on. You should tell me, I can keep it for myself you know…" Seth tried.

Emily knew it was over, that she couldn't keep this for herself any longer. Raising her head to look at the Press Secretary with her tearful eyes, she finally told him.

"I'm pregnant."

"You what?" he answered, surprised.

"I'm pregnant…" she repeated, even though she knew he had heard her well.

There was a silence as Seth took her in his arms to try and soothe her.

"Does he know?" he asked after a few minutes.

"He?"

"The father…"

"No."

Seth was far from stupid, he knew very well that Aaron was the father, even though neither of them had pronounced his name. In the few months they had worked together, they had become somewhat close, and he knew very well that Emily was single and wasn't the type of girl to hook up with a stranger. He had also seen both his friends getting close, and then build their walls back up, so he knew that something had happened.

"Don't tell him…" Emily pleaded.

"You know very well that I won't. It's not my place to. But, does that mean you are keeping it?"

"Yes, I know, it's crazy. But I have my reasons. I'm…" Emily sighed. She wanted to tell him but she couldn't. "It's too hard, I can't tell you now, but I'll tell you one day."

Seth nodded. He wasn't really the curious type of guy, he would never dare to ask even if he knew she wouldn't take it bad. He was just trying to take it all in, think about the fact that their friends were going to be parents but didn't talk to each other.

"How long have you known for?"

"A few weeks, more than a month actually"

"That explains why I suddenly met your best friend and she's coming around quite often"

Emily nodded, wiping from her cheeks the tears that wouldn't stop falling. But Seth had just pronounced the name that triggered another breakdown.

"She told me yesterday night that her NGO is moving its headquarters to New York." Emily said, sobbing again. "She was supposed to help me with all of this, and now I'm gonna be on my own to raise that baby…"

"You don't have to do this alone, Em." Seth acknowledged.

"It's not as if I really had a choice. Gemma is moving away, my mother is in Ohio, I don't have a father, my brother doesn't talk to me…"

"Can I ask you why you don't want to tell… him?" Seth didn't want to pronounce Aaron's name.

"He hates me…"

"He doesn't…"

"I cannot even bear seeing him without feeling terrible and wanting to run away…"

"Is it because of your undeniable chemistry that the two of you don't talk anymore?" Seth joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No…" Emily chuckled.

"That FBI thing that I don't want to know about because it makes my job easier?"

Emily nodded. Seth had clearly gotten that right. Even though he didn't actually know about the investigation, he had early on understood that something bad had happened between Aaron and Emily. Something bad enough that they had broken things off before they had even had the chance to try something. Being with them all the time, he had seen it coming, and had been more than surprised when they had suddenly been icy toward each other. It had hurt him too, because even though Aaron had resigned pretty soon after everything, working with them had been tough for the couple of weeks after the fallout. It had been hard too, after Aaron had left. It just wasn't the same, and secretly, he still hoped that his friend would come back to the White House one day.

"Seth, do you think you could do something for me?" Emily suddenly asked.

"I'm listening…" he answered, curious.

"Gemma, I think she could work with you"

"Huh?" he answered, curious.

"She is the Comms director of her NGO, she's worked in politics before, she knows how everything works. She could help you, don't you think?"

"As much as I definitely think that I could need a hand, you know that the Communications Director is a senior adviser, it's Kirkman you need to talk to, not me…"

Emily sighed.

"What?" Seth asked, not understanding why Emily suddenly felt so hopeless.

"With everything going on, he will never accept someone he doesn't know…" Emily explained.

"Hey, I'll back you up. We'll see how it goes, we can try it."

"I guess…"

"And if she doesn't work at the White House, she'll work somewhere else in D.C. Don't worry, we have plenty of contacts to make her stay in town…"

"You think so?"

"I know so!"

Emily smiled softly. Seth always had the best words to reassure her. He truly had become an amazing friend over the few months they had worked together and she knew she could count on him for anything. She suddenly even wondered why she had not told him earlier about her pregnancy.

"Does Gemma know, that you want to hire her at the White House?" Seth asked.

"No…"

"Maybe you should start by asking her, don't you think? And then we'll go to Kirkman, okay?"

"Thank you, Seth." Emily smiled.

"Hey, always there for you girl" he answered, taking her in his arms.

After a few minutes, Emily finally felt better and ready to tackle the rest of the day without a breakdown. Of course, she still couldn't help but worry about her best friend leaving Washington, but she really hoped that Seth was right, and that they would find Gemma a job in town.

That evening, when Gemma learned Emily's idea, it freaked her out. She was completely panicking at the idea of possibly working at the White House, but she also knew it was a chance that wouldn't come twice in a lifetime. A few days after, Emily and Seth had talked to Kirkman, and Gemma had met the president afterwards, impressed by a man she admired. Tom Kirkman had been blown away by Gemma's skills and state of mind, and had announced a few days later that he would give her a shot. Emily had let out a sigh of relief that she didn't know she had been holding for days. Her best friend would not leave the town, and she would still be here for her, no matter what.