Thank you everyone for the reviews on Chapter 1! They were so motivating for me to keep writing. And apologies for all the typos, I'll get those fixed soon…

Disclaimer: I don't own Designated Survivor. If I did, Season 3 would be here already

-Aaron-

"Does anyone need to take a moment?" President Kirkman asked. Aaron watched Emily closely, noticing how goosebumps rose on her arms as the President delivered the news about the MacLeishes. Aaron's eyes hadn't left Emily since Kirkman began speaking. He scanned her face for emotion, a reaction, anything, but her expression remained as blank as it had been earlier that night before she had left him alone in the piano room. Had she gone home at all? Her pumps were the same as what she wore the day before, a phenomenon that Aaron had never witnessed before. Not that he was paying attention to little things like that. Feeling the President's eyes on him, Aaron turned back to Kirkman quickly. He had been staring for too long.

"Do we know why she did it?" Aaron's head turned automatically towards the sound of her voice. She looked so strong, so put together, as if the Emily in the piano room was just a figment of his imagination.

"No, not really. Right now, the working theory is problems in the marriage." Kirkman explained gravely.

"A domestic dispute? I don't believe it." Aaron cast a quick glance in Emily's direction and she met his eyes head-on, causing Aaron's heart to nearly skip a beat.

Did she remember last night at all? It had only been a few hours ago and she looked like a completely different person. He fiddled lightly with his shirtsleeves, willing his tired mind to focus at the issue on hand. Maybe Emily had paperclips in her office that he could borrow as cufflinks.

…

"He's taking this personally." Emily murmured, her voice barely audible over the clamor of the White House correspondents. Aaron gave her an even look, his expression hopefully as blankly professional as Emily's as he scoured her demeanor for something hinting at what transpired between them last night.

"Of course he's taking this personally. How else would you expect him to react?" Aaron reasoned, determined not to give in before she did. Man, this woman was strong. No wonder he admired her so much.

Emily led the way down the hall, "I mean, he's trying to bear the entire weight of this all by himself." She explained and Aaron was surprised again by just how intuitively she knew the President.

"Wait, Emily." Aaron took a furtive look around before pulling her into an empty conference room.

Emily sighed, crossing her arms as she looked up at him, her phone dangling from one hand. "What, Aaron?"

Aaron searched her eyes, trying to understand the thoughts inside her head. Did she regret last night? Did she still mistrust him and think he was a traitor? Was he the only one who felt their connection? A magnetism to each other that made Aaron question everything he ever thought he know about relationships and how deeply he could care for a person…

"Aaron," Emily repeated again, a little more impatiently this time.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, noticed a flicker of emotion cross her face before she regained her composure again.

"I'm fine." She responded coolly. "I'm sure everyone is all a little shocked and trying to process what happened to the Vice President." She added quickly.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Aaron pressed, but Emily was pulling away from him, her face still void of any emotion.

"Aaron, I'm fine." She repeated firmly, "Is there anything else?" She was closing him out. His closest confidante in the White House, his best friend, was refusing to meet his eyes.

"No," He whispered, but she was already slipping out of the room, leaving Aaron alone in an empty room for the second time in 24 hours.

…

-Emily-

"Mr. President? It's the Press Secretary, sir. He says it's urgent." Ava reported from the doorway. Kirkman glanced at Emily, who nodded and closed the file in front of her.

"That's fine, please let him in. Thanks Ava."

"Mr. President," Seth entered the room, his greeting echoed by another achingly familiar voice, one that she had been working hard to avoid all day. Emily turned on her spot on the couch to see Aaron walk in behind Seth and close the door behind him. Their eyes met for a second before Emily caught herself and quickly turned back around to face the President, her heart still pounding from the sight of his dark eyes locked on her. Behind her, she heard Aaron sigh quietly before quickly clearing his throat as if to cover up the escaped sound. She kept her eyes focused on the President as Seth delivered the news about Abe Leonard's prying questions. She jumped quickly to defend Aaron's actions in the PEOC without even giving it a second thought. It was second nature to her to have his back when he made the right calls, no matter what.

"Emily, Aaron, you were both in Command Ops when MacLeish gave the order. Find the leak, I want them in my office by nightfall." Kirkman ordered.

"Yes, sir." Emily said dutifully, quickly getting to her feet. When she exited the office, she turned but for the first time that day, Aaron wasn't right behind her, trying to decipher the emotions she struggled to keep at bay. Instead, he lagged two steps behind, his eyes fixed on the ground, lips pressed tightly together in deep thought.

"How do you want to go about this?" Emily asked, and he looked up, his expression guarded.

"I'll take care of this." He told her brusquely, moving to walk past her.

Emily hurried after him, "The President asked both of us to- ,"

"I said I'll take care of this, Emily." Aaron repeated, louder this time. Emily paused, shocked at his tone, so different from the one he had used earlier in the empty conference room. Then suddenly, a wave of anger washed over her and she stormed into his office, slamming the door behind her. She thought that out of all people, Aaron Shore would be the one to be able to clearly separate their personal matters from their professional work, but if he was refusing to civil then it was time for her to address this head-on.

"Look, if I knew last night was going to lead to this-," She started, unable to contain the anger in her voice.

"This isn't about last night, Emily." Aaron said tightly, throwing his coat on.

"Where are you going?" She snapped, willing him to meet her eyes, but Aaron picked up his landline, calling for a car.

"Aaron-," The Chief of Staff brushed past her on his way to the door but she grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her, "We need to talk."

They stood inches apart, locked in an intense stare, both wound up so tightly, either threatened to burst at any given second.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Aaron said coldly, his eyes hard as he towered over her. Emily's hand fell from his arm, taking a reflexive step back, his tone stinging her like a slap to the face.

"The President gave us a job. I'm going to go do it." He said, and with one last look at her, he walked out of his office. Emily drew a shaky breath, trying to process what had just happened. The entire day, Aaron's eyes had followed her around the White House, gentle and caring, seeking out any signs of a reaction while she struggled to keep herself professional, unwilling to let her guard down and let herself get hurt again. Even in the conference room, when he had pulled her in to check on her, all she wanted to do was sink herself into his strong embrace and let the shock and horror of what had happened to the MacLeishes consume her. But she had refused to give into that temptation, choosing instead to remain strong and not acknowledge what had happened last night until she could understand it herself.

Well, a fat lot of good that did her.

…

She saw him later, entering the Oval by himself, his shoulders squared, chin up but a sense of last night's dejectedness surrounding him. Emily waited for the call to join them in the Oval, but when she walked in, Kirkman was sitting at his desk, Aaron nowhere to be found. And as the President explained everything, she felt more and more like the biggest bitch in the world.

"Do you think this has anything to do with him surpressing the threat assessment memo?" She asked without thinking. It always seemed to come back to that… she kicked herself mentally for succumbing to those thoughts again.

"No, no I don't." Kirkman responded and Emily breathed a small sigh of relief. But When Kirkman mentioned giving Aaron time off, she tensed again. Wow, she really needed to find Aaron and set things right again before he left the White House. Who knew what he was going through in the last few hours and she even had the nerve to chew him out in his office for something so petty and unrelated.

"In the meantime, I would like you to be my acting Chief of Staff."

Whoa, what? She was turning out to be an even bigger bitch that she originally thought. So Aaron's prediction last night had come true. She hurried out of the Oval once Kirkman dismissed her, the only thought on her mind was finding Aaron.

"I'll come back in a second, Ava," She promised before making a beeline for Aaron's (her?) office.

…

-Aaron-

The knock was light, hesitant and Aaron knew without having to turn around that it was Emily. He began explaining everything as she walked in, not quiet meeting her eyes until he could control the expression on his face to a more neutral one.

"I'm sorry, Aaron." She told him sincerely, and he knew she didn't just mean about his job.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," he reassured her. The tension that always lingered in the air between them, their reaction to each other, wasn't something that could be helped. It was just another hazard of their jobs, the reason why love in Washington didn't happen every day. "The President is just looking out for me." He said mildly, hoping his voice was more convincing than his actual thoughts. He hadn't missed the way Kirkman avoided his eyes as Aaron left the Oval Office.

"And I'm sure you'll be back in no time." Emily responded, her eyes soft as she looked at him. Aaron paused for a second, his eyes drinking her in. Who knows when he would be able to see her again? His hands itched to reach out to her, to feel her lips against his again, the way her body melded into his like they were the only two people in the world and that was all that mattered.

"Curtis is the go-to guy for all matters Senate." He continued, stopping his thoughts before they could stray too far. He continued talking, but not before he caught the sad look that crossed Emily's face.

"Aaron-,"

He stopped at the sound of his name, turning back to look at Emily again. She was so beautiful, even with that mournful look in her eye, not unlike the look she had given him after he saw her in the piano room. Her eyebrows lifted hopefully and Aaron gazed back at her wistfully. Now was his chance. Love could happen in Washington, if they would just let it. But he wasn't ready to drag Emily down this uncertain path with him.

"Good luck." He told her, giving her a small smile. She visibly deflated and Aaron's heart ached at the sight of her sadness. He never wanted to be the reason she looked like that, but he was a liability right now. The leak in the White House that a Chief of Staff should never be involved with. Emily would be better off without him.

But was he better off without her?

With one last look around his office, the space he had worked so painstakingly hard for and been granted in the worst possible time in history, he turned away, steeling his resolve. The sight of her broken-hearted expression burned deep into his memory.

…

Men don't own sports.

Aaron groaned, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. He had been home for three hours now and Emily had plagued his thoughts for the past two. He thought the game would've helped to get his mind off her, but instead he found himself wanting to turn to her to comment on a good play, or complain about a bad call, like he had grown accustomed to doing whenever they could catch a break in their busy schedules to sit down and work through files together with a game on in the background. Maybe he should just be glad that with Emily on his mind, he wasn't feeling as devastated about being kicked out of his job as he normally would have been.

He almost didn't hear the knock on his door which stopped him mid-swig, his beer bottle paused in mid-air as his brow furrowed, mind turning over who could be calling at this time of night. Seth usually texted before he stopped by and none of his friends in DC heard about his suspension so they wouldn't expect him home this early.

A quick look into the peephole revealed a familiar brunette head, looking nervously down the hall as if contemplating a last-minute escape. Before she could change her mind, Aaron opened the door and her head snapped forward to face him.

"Emily," He said in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

She didn't respond, giving him a confused look as if she wasn't sure how she had ended up outside his door. Aaron stepped to the side, opening the door wider.

"Do you want to come in?"

Emily stepped inside and Aaron helped her out of her coat, setting it and her bag down on a nearby chair.

"You want a beer?" He asked but he didn't wait for her response before walking into the kitchen to grab her a drink from the fridge. When he returned to the living room, she was still standing where he had left her. He handed her the bottle and she took it wordlessly, setting it straight down on the coffee table beside her. Aaron's brow furrowed again and he opened his mouth to speak but then Emily was grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him down to her lips. His mouth landed perfectly on hers and without a second thought, his arms came around her, pulling her closer to him as he kissed her hungrily. This was the moment he had been waiting for all day, maybe with a little chat before the kissing began but he wasn't about to complain. This was all that he wanted, Emily safe and secure in his arms, no threat of prying eyes or guarded emotions that seemed to be all the rage these days.

But then he felt a droplet of moisture on his cheek and he pulled back just enough to see another tear escape from her eye.

And she finally spoke for the first time since she entered the apartment.

"You better be one of the good guys, Aaron Shore. Because I don't know what I'm going to do if you aren't. You just better be." She told him fiercely, brushing away another tear.

-Emily-

Aaron blinked down at her, clearly taken aback by her words. Then he sighed and brought his hands up, gently cupping her face as he planted a sweet kiss on her lips.

"I promise I am. Cross my heart and hope to die." He teased

Emily gave a watery laugh, a few more tears falling down her cheeks. She wasn't sure when she left the White House today that she would end up at Aaron Shore's apartment but she also knew that she wasn't about to leave things the way they had left them in his office. It took him turning his back to her as he walked out of his office to realize that Aaron Shore meant too much to her to let him walk out of her life like that.

He learned his forehead down to hers, their noses brushing as his thumbs came up to swipe away the tears in her eyes, "Are you going to tell me why you keep crying whenever you kiss me?" He whispered. Emily closed her eyes, her hand reaching up to wrap around his wrist, savoring the feeling of having Aaron so close to her.

"I'm scared, Aaron," She confessed, opening her eyes to look up at him.

He led her to the sofa where they sat, Emily with her legs tucked under her, Aaron with his body angled towards her, their linked hands resting between them.

"Tell me," He said simply, echoing her words from the night before.

"It scares me that there are people around us, people we work with, that were involved in blowing up our entire government and still actively trying to take it down. It scares me to think I considered that you were one of them. I'm scared of getting hurt again." Emily ended in a whisper, "I'm so scared, all the time now, and all I want to do is to come to you and have you reassure me that everything is okay, that we will get the people that did this, but I couldn't, not when your name was on that list."

Emily took a deep breath, raising her head to meet his eyes again as he watched her intently, his eyes sad, "But the President trusts you…And after everything we've been through…" She trailed off, not knowing how to finish, looking away again to hide her unshed tears.

"Emily Rhodes." Aaron lifted her chin up with two fingers, his face only a breath away from hers, "I promise you, you can always depend on me. I will do everything in my power to prove to you that I am one of the good guys and always will be. As cheesy as that sounds." He added after a beat and his lips met hers again, tenderly but hesitating, again waiting for her permission to go further. Emily smiled against his lips, shifting on the couch as she placed a hand on his shoulder, pushing him to sit back. Their lips broke contact for a moment as she hiked her skirt up with her other hand, straddling his lap in one fluid motion.

He smirked up at her, "Well, here we are again."

"Shut up." She breathed before crashing her lips against his, her hands running up his chest, stopping a moment to feel his beating heart before continuing up to the nape of his neck. Aaron moaned as she raked her fingers through his hair, his hands reaching down to squeeze her ass in retaliation. Emily stifled a whimper as his lips traveled down her neck and he nipped lightly at her skin.

"I better not go into my first day as Chief of Staff with marks on my neck." She gasped, her fingers still tangled in his curls. She felt Aaron smile against her neck and decided that she couldn't stay made at him for too long. Not when his lips felt so good against her skin. Emily tugged his head back up to face her again, "I'm serious," She threatened, but she was smiling. Aaron kissed her again, slower this time, more languidly as his hand traveled slowly up her thigh to toy with the hem of her dress. Deciding that she wasn't about to let him gain the upper hand, Emily began to tug at Aaron's shirt, untucking it from his pants before making fast work of the buttons. Triumphant, she pulled back from his lips to gaze down at his exposed chest. Aaron watched her, smirking, his hands around her waist as she leaned back to admire him.

"Hm," Emily pretended to contemplate before giving a small shrug, "It'll do." She announced. A mischievous glint appeared in Aaron's eyes but before he could move, Emily gave an experimental grind of her hips, causing Aaron to groan (the single sexiest sound Emily had ever heard in her life).

"Yes," She concluded, nodding as Aaron watched her with darkened eyes, "It will most certainly do."

But Aaron was not the kind of guy to let her have the final word (something she frequently noticed in their exchanges) so it came as no surprise when he suddenly tightened his hold on her and stood up, causing Emily to let out a squeak at the sudden change in altitude and instinctively wrap her legs around his waist.

Ever the gentleman, Aaron gave her a look, making sure she was okay before he did anything else.

"Yes," She whispered, her heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come and she pressed her lips to his in another searing kiss as he walked them in the direction of his bedroom.

…

After, she lay wrapped up in his arms, sleep threatening to consume her as he lazily traced a finger up and down the bare skin of her arm.

"I should go," She mumbled, but made no move to extract her body from his bed.

Aaron pressed a kiss to her head that was resting on his chest. "Stay," he said simply, but the logical side of Emily was returning to her. Reluctantly, she sat up, bracing a hand on his chest, holding the sheets up against herself.

"No, I need to go back, I've got to shower and get a change of clothes before tomorrow… I haven't been home in two days and that dress," She nodded to her black outfit, now a pool at the ground next to Aaron's bed, "was my last back-up outfit from the office."

"Or," Aaron smiled languidly, his knuckles tracing a delicious path down Emily's bare back, distracting her from her thoughts, "You could stay here, shower, and I'll drive you back to your apartment in the morning and then take you to work."

Emily paused, biting her lip, considering his enticing offer for a second before laying back down on her stomach so she could prop herself up on his chest, "Okay, you won me over."

Aaron smiled smugly at her as he leaned in for a lingering kiss. Emily sighed contentedly as he pulled away, fingers still tracing circles on her back. She could stay in this position forever, both of them unhurried, relaxed in the safe little bubble, their legs tangled together under the sheets.

"What will you do with your time off?" She asked softly, feeling his hand pause in its movements for a second as he digested her unexpected question. But Emily wouldn't be Emily unless she gave in to her burning curiosity.

Aaron's shoulders rose and fell in a small shrug, his eyes unfocusing a little as he pondered his response to the question that he must have been asking himself for the last few hours.

"Take the time off, I suppose. Maybe go see my family for a few days. Catch up with some buddies who I haven't seen since I started the job." He answered vaguely. His eyes returned to Emily, a teasing smile working its way up his face again, "See you at night after you've been worked to the bone so I can spread some cheer back into your life again."

A laugh bubbled out of Emily at his usual cocky humor as she relaxed back against him. Absentmindedly, she reached out and tugged on a loose curl that had fallen over his forehead.

"You, Emily Rhodes, have an obsession with my hair." He declared, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest.

"I didn't think you had a problem with that." She teased, leaning forward to press a kiss to his jaw, but Aaron turned his head and captured her lips with his instead. Her hand came up automatically to his neck but before it could move upward, Aaron's hand took hers and pressed it into the bedspread as his body turned to pin hers.

"Aaron," She laughed as he began to kiss down her neck, but the laugh turned quickly into a moan as his free hand began to wander.

"What's that now?" He whispered huskily against her collarbone, pulling away, a mock innocent look on his face. Emily took the opportunity to hook a leg around him and roll them over to she was on top. This time, she decided, they were going to take it slow and she was going to drive Aaron as crazy as he had made her in the last few months leading up to this.

And in the morning, she would wake up again to a flurry of texts and voicemails that the world was yet again on fire, but all she needed to get through the day was knowing she would end up back in steady arms of Aaron Shore.

Sorry it took so long to get this out! Reviews much appreciated… I don't fully love this version of it, so I might update unless I get carried away with the other prompts I'm working on at the moment ~