The second week that Aaron came over to give Erin her lesson, he let himself in with the key that David had given him before he took off on his West Coast book tour. The house was surprisingly quiet, and he wondered where the twins were, knowing that children filled a home with noise and laughter.

Frowning a little, he made his way to the living room, finding the lights off and the curtains drawn. And then he focused in on the sound of Erin softly weeping. Making his way over to the sofa, he sank down next to her, letting his guitar case slip to the floor softly as he reached out and took her hands in his. "Erin?"

"I called his hotel room, to see how he was doing in Olympia. Some woman answered, Aaron, and it was not a voice I recognized. You know him better than I do, please, is he having an affair? Am I losing him to another woman?"

She sounded so shattered, so heartbroken, that he couldn't stop himself from bundling her close, bringing her head to rest on his chest as he stroked her hair and crooned softly in her ear. "I wish that I could tell you with all certainty that he was faithful to you, but he doesn't tell me everything." She nodded and curled up against him, her fingers digging painfully into his bicep. "Do you want me to just go?"

"No, please, stay. I need to be with someone, the house is so lonesome when it's empty."

"Well, where are the twins?"

She sighed deeply. "He took them with him. He said that it was a good experience for them to start travelling so young. I wanted to go, but he said that I would be better off at home. That's never a good sign."

He winced before rubbing her back once more. "He might have just thought that you weren't up to travel. You do seem to be wasting away before my eyes. How much weight have you lost since we all saw you last?"

She pulled away and looked up at him, her eyelashes spiky from her tears. "I'm not thin enough. I've seen the way he used to look at Jennifer, at Emily. I can't compete with them, or any other size zero."

"And you're what, a size two now?" He had to bite his tongue in order not to yell at her that she was way too thin for her frame, as he didn't want to shame her or make her feel like she was failing. Somehow, he knew that that had always been one of her triggers, one of the things that had driven her to drink, and he did not want to push her into a relapse.

"But a two is not a zero," she said brokenly. "I love him, Aaron, so much it aches, and I want to be the perfect wife that he deserves."

He sighed deeply as he reached up to stroke her face, flicking tears away with his thumb. And he thought about how easy it would be to lean in and kiss her in that moment, to show her just how lovely he thought she was. And she must have felt something as well, since she drew back a little, seeming to draw into herself before his eyes. Needing to put a little space between them, he picked up her wrist and began to run his thumb over the infinity scar that she had been left with after her ordeal.

Finally, though, he had to say something, to set her heart at ease, and Aaron reached up and cupped her chin tenderly, lifting her face so that they would make eye contact. Erin's eyes were still swimming with tears, but she intentionally focused on him, waiting for him to speak. "You deserve to be happy, Erin, above all else. What you went through at the hands of John Curtis was enough to knock anyone for a loop. You clawed your way back from that and created something out of the ashes of your life. Do not compare yourself to JJ or Emily or anyone else, because you are you."

"I don't want to be me any longer." The words seemed to drop unbidden from her mouth, since she hurriedly broke her gaze from his to stare down at her hands. "I love being Mommy again, but that was not my dream."

Before she could start crying once more, Aaron pulled away and bent to open his guitar case. "How about I play for you for a bit? Until you feel a little calmer."

"That would be lovely, Aaron. Thank you."

He nodded and held the instrument close to his body as his fingers thrummed against the strings, the sound suddenly loud in the quiet room. Still, Erin let out a soft sigh as she scooted over to the far end of the sofa, curling around a pillow as she closed her eyes to listen to whatever he was going to play.

It was wholly inappropriate, but the first song that came to mind was David Bowie's Heroes, and he took a deep breath as he started to play. Deciding against singing along, he changed up some of the chords so that it sounded more like the melody of the song. It was only when he was about half way through that he realized Erin was murmuring the words along with his playing, and Aaron tried to not alter the volume he was playing at, since he didn't want to startle her or make her feel self-conscious.

As the song came to an end, he could feel Erin's gaze focus on him, and he glanced over to see her staring intently on his hands, watching the way he played, as if trying to memorise the movements. "Do you want me to show you how to play this song?"

"Yes? I mean, out of all the songs that you could have chosen to play just now, you had to pick my favourite Bowie." A tremulous smile turned her lips upwards, and he shrugged a little. "Well, as long as it's easy, we could go for it. I don't think I've gotten that much better since our last lesson, but with everyone gone, I've had plenty of time to practice."

Aaron struggled not to frown, but Erin sounded so lonely in that moment. As she stood to get her guitar off the stand by the fireplace, though, he allowed himself a tiny look of discontent, hoping that he had schooled his features enough by the time she turned back.

"Well, let's hear you tune, then."

She nodded and pulled out her phone, tapping away at it before revealing that she had gone and downloaded a decent tuning app. And he was impressed with how quickly and well she got her instrument into playing condition, and she gave him a small smile before settling back in the sofa, cradling the guitar close to her stomach. "That was actually the easiest part to get under my fingers. Restringing, though? That is a bitch."

The old Erin came out in those words, and he chuckled a little as he nodded. "Let me guess, you snapped one your first time tuning, because you tightened the pegs too tightly."

"Yes. And thank God for YouTube tutorials, otherwise David would have thrown a fit about the whole thing. So, I'm a pro at tuning and restringing, at least."

"It's a start, and a good one at that. But you can't play slumped back in the couch like that. Posture matters."

Erin rolled her eyes as she scooted forward and straightened her spine, giving him a slightly imperious look as she placed her fingers on the strings and took a deep breath. "Is this better, Aaron?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Much. If you want to be any good, you have to do things the correct way."

"I hate hearing myself coming from other people. I have said those exact words to my children before, and now I know how they felt about hearing them."

The off handed way she spoke told Aaron that she was concentrating on her guitar more than him, as he would never have expected her to respond that way to him normally. "It could be worse. I could have you balance a book on your head while you played."

"That would never happen." The ice in her words told him how serious she was, and he cocked his head to one side in agreement. "I went through enough comportment lessons when I was younger to know exactly how to hold my head."

"Good to know."

He hadn't meant to flirt, but the way she had said those words just opened the door for him. From the blush on Erin's face, she had picked up on it, too, and he cleared his throat a little as he readjusted how he was holding his guitar, his fingers stroking the strings. "All right, what chord do we start with for this song?"

For once he was grateful for her ability to turn on the consummate professionalism, and Aaron nodded swiftly before moving his fingers into the correct position for a D chord. "The introduction alters between a D and a G chord, like this…"