Hi there! New chapter coming up for you :) Thank you for the kind comments on the previous chapter, I hope you'll like this one! We are two chapters and an epilogue away from the end! In other news, I will be away from home starting next week and I don't know what kind of internet connection I will have where I'm going. So I hope I'll be able to publish next chapter soon, but I don't know. Please don't hate me if it takes more than a week to update.

Hope to see you soon :)
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CHAPTER 15 - Not the best kind of friend

With everything now being great between Aaron and Emily, it seemed that the time was flying by. Before they all knew it, Emily was already back to work, and Olivia was going to daycare. They had opted for this solution after considering all the others but realizing that none would ever perfectly fit their hours anyway. They would try to alternate picking up Olivia. Sometimes it was Emily, sometimes it was Aaron, it usually depended on their workload. Gemma too, was picking her up sometimes, but it was pretty rare. Olivia's parents were committed to raising her and taking care of her as much as they could on their own, even though of course, sometimes people close to them were helping too. Gemma's help was requested the most since she was living with Emily, but Nadia and Seth loved to take care of the little girl when they could too.

It had now been a month since Emily was back to work, and though she was overall very happy to be back in the adults world, it was much harder than she had imagined to adjust to everything. Working more than 12 hours a day and raising a 4-month-old baby in the meantime was tough. Added to this new relationship that she was continuously building with the father of Olivia, also working more than 12 hours a day, it was really hard to deal with everything. Of course, they were not yet living together and not ready for that, but it was also adding to the pressure as they were constantly running from one place to another. Emily had broke down more than once, exhausted with the weight on her shoulders. It's not that she was alone in this, or that she felt alone in this either, but it was just too much to handle. Rarely sleeping more than five hours a night, interspersed with Olivia's cries for bottles, was not healthy and she could feel it. She was jumpy. Sometimes, she was even snapping at people for nothing, especially at work where she had lost all patience. Everybody around could see it, and was trying to help her every way they could, but sometimes they were just afraid of how all of this would end up. It had even happened twice that her friends would ask her to calm down and take a break, sometimes forcing her to go home and rest, and leaving Phil with all the work at the White House.

Aaron too, was exhausted, but he was dealing better with the tiredness. He was always doing his best to help Emily too. More than once, he had taken over her, assuming the role of acting Chief of Staff to relieve Emily from the duty of a meeting, or help Phil out with the workload on the poor deputy's shoulders. Aaron was running on coffee most of the time, but everybody could see the shadows under his eyes too.

The most frustrated in all of this was Gemma. She was Emily's best friend, she had moved in with her to help her out after Olivia's birth, but she didn't know what to do. Emily was constantly running here and there, not letting Gemma help as much as she wanted, and now that Aaron was in Emily's life, it was hard to come forward and offer her support. She felt it wasn't her place to say anything, and she didn't want to intervene between Emily and Aaron. She could see how exhausted her best friend was, but Emily was not one to ask for help. Most of the time, Gemma was just there at night or when daycare was closed, and it was annoying her not to be able to do more.

That Wednesday was one of those days, and Emily had been a fury almost all morning. Seth had caught her yelling at a staffer for not doing a good job —even though he knew that was not true— and Aaron had caught her crying in an empty room after a meeting. So after lunch, Aaron and Gemma had agreed to force Emily to go back home for the rest of the day. Aaron had offered to pick up Olivia from daycare at the end of the day, and Gemma had said she would come home early to prepare dinner. Of course, Emily had resisted, saying she didn't have the time, that she couldn't leave Phil on his own once more, that it was not professional to take an afternoon off when she wasn't sick. Her best friend and her boyfriend had shared a look and sighed, and it's only after Aaron drove her back home that Emily was left with no choice but to stay out of the White House for the afternoon. They knew that she would text and ask how everything was going, but at least they were hopeful she wouldn't come back.

For Aaron, it meant his workload had suddenly become heavier. Even though he was not the Chief of Staff, he was considered the acting Chief of Staff when Emily wasn't there. Doing two jobs at once was tough, especially when they were high-profile jobs in the White House, and even though Phil was there and to handle the Chief of Staff's duties, it wasn't the same. The workload was always heavier when Emily wasn't there, and both men were usually caught up in back-to-back meetings. This is exactly what had happened during the afternoon, as Aaron had run here and there between a crisis and meetings. At 6 p.m., he realized that daycare was closing in an hour and he had to pick up Olivia, but he was nowhere near ready to be done with the work and started wondering how he would do all of this. He left work in a hurry ten minutes before daycare's closing time, packing things to do at home once Olivia would be asleep at night. Olivia was the only one left in daycare and he felt really bad, like a terrible parent leaving his daughter to be raised by some stranger most of the time. As he promised Emily, he took Olivia to his own apartment to leave her some time alone to catch up some sleep.

Taking care of his daughter was one of his greatest joys in his life. He loved babbling with her, feeding her, playing with her and rocking her to sleep. He lost track of time, and it's only when she started rubbing her eyes that he realized she should already be sleeping. It didn't take time for her to fall asleep, and when Aaron came back to the living room, he decided to pour himself a glass of wine and to work a little bit on a memo he had brought home from the White House. Though, he didn't have time to do much before someone knocked at the door. It was starting to be late and he didn't expect anyone, so he just figured it was Emily who could probably not sleep or did not want to stay alone for the night. Opening the door, his jaw dropped when he realized it was Ryan, his Californian best-friend who was there.

"Hey man, what are you doing here?" he said, hugging him.

"Coming for a conference in your town tomorrow, I thought I would surprise you." Ryan answered.

"A conference? Since when do real estate agents have conferences?" Aaron laughed.

"You would actually be surprised…" Ryan said, laughing too.

Aaron offered Ryan a glass of wine as they sat on the couch, catching up after a few months away.

"I thought you would be out finding a girl…" Ryan joked after a moment.

"Huh, no… I have stuff to do, it was pretty tough at work today. And Livy is sleeping right now…"

"Livy?"

"I'm taking care of her tonight…"

Ryan spit his wine as he realized everything.

"Wait, so you're telling me that your daughter is here and that you actually do that co-parenting thing you were talking about? With that bitch that betrayed you?" Ryan exclaimed.

"She's not…" Aaron answered, defending Emily. "And huh… We actually started dating a couple of months ago…" he admitted, not sure how to say that.

"Oh my God… What has she done to you, Aaron Shore…" Ryan sighed.

"Nothing, we worked things out."

"Come on, Aaron! She's a lying bitch, she betrayed you, she clearly didn't want you in this baby's life, and you're saying that you forgave her?"

"It's more complicated than that you know…" Aaron tempered.

"It didn't seem that complicated when you discovered you were the father a few months ago…" Ryan snorted, rolling his eyes.

Aaron continued to defend Emily and explain his point of view, but it didn't seem to change Ryan's judgement. The Californian womanizer couldn't get that Aaron had forgiven Emily and that they were actually together. He couldn't get that Aaron was settling with a girl. It wasn't very surprising though, since the former college football quarterback had never even imagined spending more than one night with the same girl. Ryan was 34 but refused to even consider settling with a woman. He had been betrayed, cheated on by his very first girlfriend, his high-school sweetheart, and had since then decided he would never fall in love again. From their football team, Aaron and Ryan were the last ones to be single, and seeing Aaron finally settle with someone was like having his last partner-in-crime abandoning him. Ryan really hated the idea.

It was a little after ten when they heard a knock on the door. Aaron joked, saying that Ryan had decided to bring the whole football team to Washington for the night, but it was Emily who obviously couldn't stay alone.

"Hey…" he said, kissing her softly.

"I'm sorry I'm coming this late… I couldn't sleep…"

"It's fine, don't worry. Ryan is here, he's in town for a couple of days so he decided to surprise me."

"Oh… Am I bothering you?" she asked, ready to leave.

"No, no, come in. Olivia is sleeping…"

Emily walked in the apartment but soon realized that Ryan was very cold with her. His glass of wine in one hand, he didn't even stand to greet Emily and the icy 'hello' he murmured made it clear he didn't want to talk to Emily. The atmosphere was more than tense, Emily feeling extremely uncomfortable and Aaron shooting death glares at Ryan, silently asking him to be polite with his girlfriend. Aaron wanted to offer Emily something to drink, but before he could pour anything in a glass, Olivia started fussing and he went to the bedroom to take care of her. It had only been a couple of minutes he was with his daughter when he heard the front door slam, surprising him and making him hastily come back to the living room with Olivia in his arms.

"What is going on?" Aaron asked when he saw Emily gone and Ryan still sitting on the couch, sipping his wine.

"Nothing…" Ryan answered, unable to hide the smirk on his face.

"Ryan… What the fuck did you say?" Aaron grumbled.

"Nothing…" the Californian answered, raising a hand in protest.

"Ryan!" Aaron finally yelled, making Olivia fuss.

"Just said the truth…" he finally admitted.

"What truth?"

Aaron couldn't believe it, he couldn't imagine that Ryan had actually been an ass with Emily to the point that made her decide to run away.

"The truth about her, and you… and that baby… " he said blankly, looking at Olivia with disdain.

"Get the hell out of here, Ryan." Aaron announced.

"Oh, come on…"

"I won't say it a second time… And don't believe that because Livy's here that I won't punch you." Aaron exclaimed a little loud, making Olivia fuss again.

Ryan snorted and rose from his seat, putting his glass on the coffee table and walking toward the door.

"You'll thank me, one day…" he said before closing the door on him.

Aaron's mind was racing, he didn't know what Ryan had said, but he knew that it was bad enough to make Emily leave suddenly. He didn't know what to do. All he wanted to do was run after her, but it was too complicated with Olivia here. It was really late and he didn't know how all of this would unfold. He was freaking out and Olivia could feel it, she had started crying in her father's arms. Rocking his daughter, he took his phone and tried to call Emily, once, twice, but she never answered. He tried to call Gemma too, even though he knew she would stand by her best friend's side. She didn't answer either.

Emily had heard her phone ringing, she knew it was Aaron, but she didn't want to answer. She couldn't. She was in tears, sobbing almost uncontrollably. Ryan had been the worst with her, insulting her, telling her everything Aaron had done and said when he had gone to California a few months ago. Ryan had even told Emily that that one day or another, Aaron would realize his mistake and leave her on her own.

She didn't even know how she managed to drive home with the tears in her eyes, and when she arrived, she rushed in her best friend's arms as soon as she entered their apartment.

"What is going on?" Gemma had asked, shocked to see Emily in such a state.

It took several minutes before Emily could say anything, uncontrollably sobbing in Gemma's arms. The red-haired was imagining thousands of scenarios: an accident, someone dying, Aaron breaking up with her…

"Emily, what happened?" Gemma asked again after a few minutes.

"I… I can't be with Aaron. I'm not good enough for him. He'll never forgive me for what I have done." Emily said, still sobbing.

"Why are you saying that? What did he say?"

"He didn't say anything…"

"What?" Gemma was confused. "Okay, tell me exactly what happened."

"I…" Emily started, jolting. "I went to his place, and his friend was there… The one from California. And… When Aaron left to pick up Olivia… Ryan told me that Aaron would never forgive me, that I was a whore, that he would realize everything soon and that he would leave me alone with Olivia, that it's the only thing I deserved… He told me that Aaron had hooked up with a lot of girls while he was with him in California a few months back, and that Aaron would never be faithful to me, because it wasn't how human beings were supposed to be and that I didn't deserve it anyway. And he also told me that I should have the decency to resign and move far away from Washington and away from him."

Her sobs had intensified during her explanations, she just couldn't stop. It was as if reality had hit her hard, as if she suddenly realized that she could never be happy with Aaron and their daughter, that she would never have that perfect little family she had started to hope she would have. She felt broken in thousands of pieces.

"What did Aaron say?" Gemma asked.

"Nothing, I ran away before he could say anything… He didn't even hear what Ryan told me…"

"Oh, Emily…" Gemma sighed. "You shouldn't listen to what some douche has to say about your relationship with Aaron…"

"But he's right… Everything he said is true, Aaron will never love me, he will never stay with me. I should just break up with him, and leave far from him." Emily answered.

"Are you out of your mind, Emily?" Gemma argued.

That's when Emily's phone rang again, and she knew that it was Aaron. It couldn't be anyone else, he had been constantly trying to call her since she ran away from his place. Still sobbing, she wiped the tears off of her cheeks with the hem of her sweater and with a big inspiration, answered.

"Em, I've been calling you for the past hour, what did he say to you? What is going on, please come back, let's talk. I'm really worried, please…" he begged, not letting her the time to talk.

"It's over, Aaron." she answered. "You and me, we're never going to make this right, it's over."