I can't watch this show anymore. Please keep writing great Emron and let me know if they ever fix this mess.

….

Welcome to Bermuda

Situation Four: The Decisive Drinking

Aaron Shore was not at all an idiot. He was a politician, and a good one. He could pick up on unspoken words almost better than the spoken variety, and the unspoken words tonight between Seth and Emily were making him uncomfortable.

They were flirting, and he was watching. Well, honestly he, Kendra, Lyor and the chick from the vase-gate disaster were watching.

He wasn't sure that Seth knew they were flirting, but Emily clearly did. It made his insides burn in a way that oddly only the gin he was tossing back could cool.

"You sure you want another?" Wright asked him on his way to the bar after Emily and Kendra and what's her name had skittered off to the bathroom to do whatever women do in there together. "You're pretty far ahead of the rest of us."

"Nah. I'm-." He shrugged. "I'm good for another."

Seth shook his head in one quick motion before leaving him with the weird little political strategist.

"I'm confused." The man actually pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose when he spoke.

"I'm not surprised." Shore sighed.

"I thought you and Emily were a thing." He continued, despite the way Aaron's eyebrows hit the roof. "But now it seems like you two just met like the rest of us."

"A thing?" He snarled.

"Yes. A couple; or an almost couple, one of those awkward office romances where the sexual tension makes everyone else in the room around them feel vaguely intrusive despite it being an incredibly public location." He looked him over appraisingly. "I'm not feeling at all intrusive or uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry about that, I guess?"

"No need." He waved off. "I know that you find her desirable, you look at her approximately 15 percent of her nonfocal point time."

"Her non-." The NSA director shook his head. "Boone, I've had ten fingers of gin over the last hour and a half. You're going to have to speak like a normal human."

"Time when she is not speaking. When another person should have your attention." Aaron looked down for a second. She always had his attention, even when it was counterproductive. "However, you're not giving her any laughing glance."

"Laughing gas?" He squinted his eyes shut, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Lyor I have no idea-."

"No not gas." He looked at Shore like the very idea of him was painful. "Glance."

"I'm confused."

"You're drunk so.." He lifted and dropped his left shoulder before scooting his chair closer. "When a group of people laugh, they each instinctively look towards the person in the group they feel the closest to."

"And she's looking at me?" He struggled to put the pieces together.

"75% of the time, yes." Lyor nodded.

"That's a lot." Shore decided.

"Except for when I arrived three months ago, it was an 80% average." He pointed at Aaron.

"Shit." He rubbed his face. "Wait, who am I looking at?"

"Your gin." The other man pointed at his empty glass, still clutched in his hand.

"Makes sense." Aaron pursed his lips. "And her?"

"She's given your 5% to Seth." Lyor tilted his head.

"Shit." He looked drunkenly at the ceiling. "How do I get it back?"

"For starters, stop looking at your drink when the group laughs." Boone told him simply, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Here." Seth said quickly setting another drink of the table before him. "You better let someone drive you home." Aaron nodded back.

Kendra, Insurance Girl and Emily returned and the group quickly went back to the earlier conversation. Shore waited, running his index finger over the rim of his whiskey glass. Was it really all that easy? Had he somehow ruined everything by just missing a glance here or there? Honestly, that really couldn't be all that it took could it? The laughter started, Aaron stopped moving his finger. What if she looked up and she and Seth were locked in an intimate gaze? This was stupid, he should-.

A swift kick to his shin from Lyor brought him out of it. His head snapped up, wide round eyes meeting Emily's. He watched the slight look of disappointment fade, replaced by her shy smile. It was his favorite of her smiles and he couldn't help the way his own cheeks arched upward in return. He vowed never to miss a laughing glance again.