A/N: HI ALL! I'm SO SORRY I've neglected this story, it's been a hectic few weeks with the holidays and all my siblings and relatives visiting and my godfather came and visited plus my internship offered me a job and then I went to California and I was only supposed to be here for two weeks but now I'm here for over four because they're letting me do some job training here…so I'm currently entertaining the idea of making LA my permanent home once I graduate…aghh! Anyway, I actually left my computer at home so typing this on my ipad gets frustrating, luckily my bff is letting my steal her laptop so I'll try to update a few more times before I get back to Chicago and then I should be back on track with my updating! Thank you so much for reading this and please leave me a review, they make me so happy!
xo, JJ
P.S. I met Kirsten Vangsness last week…it was amazing! She's a doll! Sorry, I just had to tell my fellow CM lovers!
Chapter 2: Youth Knows No Pain
"So come on honey cut yourself to pieces, come on honey give yourself completely, and do it all though you can't believe it, youth knows no pain." ~Lykke Li
Emily Prentiss sat idly next to Aaron Hotchner on the airplane bound for London. They had barely spoken any words besides their introductions to each other since they had left the Prentiss household. Emily wasn't sure what to think of Aaron, sure he was good looking, okay, he was great looking, but so far he hadn't smiled once. In fact, it was fairly obvious from his uptight posture and the frown on his face that he was brooding over something. Getting ready this morning she had been thrilled to finally be leaving for the summer. Her mother was driving her crazy and she couldn't wait to gallivant through Europe on her own. Except she wasn't alone, she was stuck with a man who looked like he was going to be a stick in the mud. Of course she should have expected that, her mother hadn't wanted her going on this trip in the first place so of course she picked someone who would prevent Emily from having any fun whatsoever. She looked out the window and sighed, she hated that her initial excitement was slowly turning to dread at the thought of spending her summer with this man. She turned back to face him, he was leaned back in his seat, eyes closed, and earphones in his ears. Emily took this opportunity to really study him. She knew he was only twenty-six but the lines on his face and his dark eyes made him look older, not old thought, just distinguished, more so than your average twenty-six year old. Even in his sleep he looked stressed, or burdened, yes she decided that was the better word for it, like something was weighing on him heavily. Not that she would ever find out what it was, he struck her as someone who playing things close to the chest. Emily sighed, maybe he would prove her wrong, but for now all she wanted was to get some sleep before they got to London.
Their plane arrived at Heathrow in the afternoon. Luckily they both had slept on the flight so Emily was eager to get the day started. She had been to London many times and therefore they were only spending one night there since Emily just wanted to take the opportunity to shop at some of her favorite store before heading to Paris the next day, she found it easier to pack light and shop while in Europe.
They checked into their hotel before heading out to shop and Aaron still hadn't said more than a few words to her. It was driving Emily crazy and making her madder by the minute. It was then she decided to test his resolve, see if she could make him snap. She had a reputation around her mother's security for being hard to handle, but that reputation was mostly due to her mother's strict guidelines for how she should act, it was also due to the fact that her mother always seemed to stick her with older security agents who had the same archaic ideas her mother held, specifically that children should be seen and not heard, but she wasn't a child and she personally thought that was a ridiculous belief. She knew Aaron hadn't been working for her mother for too long, he had been brought in to take over as head of security when her mother's current head of security was to retire at the end of the summer. This must mean he was good at his job, twenty-six was young to have his own command, she realized spending the summer with her was probably her mother's way of testing him to make sure he was cut out for the top position in her staff.
They met in the lobby of the hotel room and Emily put her plan into action. She walked up to him; he had arrived before her, and started talking. "I want to go shopping." She said, bluntly.
Aaron nodded his head, "Okay."
Emily rolled her eyes as she walked out of the building to the car that was waiting to take them to Top Shop.
They got to the store and she immediately started going through the store, pulling out anything she saw that she even liked a little bit and giving it to Aaron to hold. She was going to push him to the limit, she knew men hated to shop in general but making him hold her clothes and bags would make the whole experience even more terrible for him.
She gave him pieces and pieces of clothing and yet he said nothing, just walked around the store with her. The fact that he was being so easy about having to basically be her bitch was driving her crazy. She knew it was irrational to get angry about something so silly but his compliance with her requests was making her crazy.
She even managed to get him to pick them up a quick dinner in a café down the street while she paid for her items. When he came back to pick her up she had no problem handing off her bags to him, he didn't even say a word as he took them and opened the door to the car for her.
They both went straight to their rooms after they arrived back at the hotel, Emily didn't really want to eat her dinner with Aaron. He hadn't even done anything but he had somehow made her furious. She fumed as she ate her dinner and got ready for bed, it was fairly early but they had an early ride to Paris via the chunnel tomorrow morning and she wanted to get as much sleep as possible before arriving in Paris.
She didn't understand what his problem was, he had barely spoken to her in the whole day they had spent together, granted she hadn't given him much time to talk but still, she at least expected him to man up and refuse to just follow her around like a puppy. If this was any indication to how her summer was going to go she was already dreading it. At least if her mother had sent along some old fart she could have a good time driving him crazy, plus some of the older ones tended to let her do whatever she wanted as long as she checked in with them. Most of them knew she wasn't as bad as her mother made her out to be. But this Aaron Hotchner was something else, he was so compliant and so rigid, clearly why her mother liked him. She got into bed, she was going to figure out why he was so cold tomorrow, she wasn't going to be able to take a whole summer of this silent brooding man. Tomorrow she was going to get to the bottom of this.
They met in the lobby again early the next morning and made their way to the chunnel station. They had some privacy in their premier seating so when they finally got to the train and got situated Emily just let Aaron have it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" She fumed. "I was awful to you yesterday, I made you follow me around and carry around all my bags and wait on me hand and foot and you didn't even blink. You just took it all in a barely said a word to me. I get that this isn't the ideal way to spend a summer but seriously, what the hell happened to make you so pathetic?" She wasn't yelling but her voice was definitely raised as she spat this out at him.
Aaron just sort of looked at her in shock, as if he couldn't believe she was actually getting mad at him for helping her. He finally came out of his stupor and spoke, "Really, you're angry at me for being helpful yesterday?"
Emily threw her hands up in the air, "Oh my gosh, he can talk!" She said, sarcastically. "Yes, I am mad at you. I get that you work for my mother and that you probably don't want to be here right now but you don't have to act like my lap dog. You are allowed to have fun while we're here."
Aaron looked at her sternly, "Well, the purpose of this trip is for you to have fun, not me."
Emily rolled her eyes, "Seriously? Do you really think I'm going to have fun with you sulking around the whole summer? Whether you like it or not you are stuck with me and I know this may come as a shock to you, but my mother isn't going to fire you for having fun. But, then again you seem like a pretty smart guy which leads me to believe that there is something else going on here, so out with it. We are going to have a lot of time together this summer and I'm going to get it out of you eventually so you may as well get this painful process over with and tell me why exactly you are so content with being miserable this summer?" Emily stared him down, fully expecting a straight answer from him.
Aaron looked at her, he hadn't really taken a good look at her in the time they had spent together, her facial expression was dead serious, her eyes were cross and her lips tight. She was clearly used to people not being truthful with here and therefore had a peculiar ability to tell if someone was being withholding or not truthful with her.
He sighed, she was right; they had to spend the whole summer together so he should probably just explain to her the cause of his fowl mood.
Aaron took a deep break and started to speak, "A few weeks ago my high school sweetheart broke up with me. We had planned on spending the rest of our lives together and just out of the blue she decided that she couldn't deal with my career path, she didn't want to wait around for me to figure out what exactly I wanted to do with my life, she needed a sure thing."
Emily's jaw dropped, "Oh, Aaron, wow I am so sorry." She said, still gaping at him.
Aaron shook his head, "It just wasn't meant to be, I guess."
Emily turned to him and placed her hand on his arm. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to be such a bitch. I feel terrible."
Aaron looked down at her hand covering his forearm, "It's all right, really. You had no idea and I haven't exactly been forthcoming or even friendly for that matter."
Emily let a small smile escape on her face. "Well, I'm still sorry. It must be hard for you. So…is that why you agreed to be my babysitter?"
Now it was Aaron's turn to smile, "Pretty much, I just needed to get away and your mother offered me this. I figured what the hell, there's nothing tying me down to D.C."
Emily felt horrible for how she had treated him, she hadn't expecting him to divulge something of this sort. "Okay, well how about you try to have fun? I know traveling around Europe with me isn't the most ideal way to spend your summer but hey, we're in Europe, you don't have to deal with my ball-busting mother for a few months so I think you should definitely at least try to enjoy yourself."
Aaron laughed, making Emily laugh as well. "You're right." He said, "I should try to enjoy myself."
Emily grinned, "Okay, so we have a deal then, we're going to have fun and I promise I'll stop being obnoxious right now."
Aaron smiled back at her, focusing on her bright smile. "Sounds like a deal." He said, silently thinking to himself that he could find a million things worse than spending the summer in Europe with a beautiful woman.
Maya Angelou said, "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but try demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
REVIEW PLEASE?
OH and I'm just writing this story about things I like to do in these places…so Top Shop is my favorite store and therefore it is Emily's as well. This is set when they are younger but I'm writing it like what I would do if I was going to Europe today…I hope that made sense. Anyway…hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave me some reviews!
