Emily found herself bouncing in excitement four days later as she waited at Dulles for Aaron to deplane. She had the whole day planned out and felt very much like she'd gotten off lucky. Her father was the only one in town, her mother preoccupied with something in Eastern Europe, but that was perfectly okay with Emily. They had a few hours to themselves first before meeting up with JJ and Penelope for lunch. As the two women who might as well be her blood sisters and the people who knew the most about her in her life, Emily felt like it was extremely important for him to meet them.
Then they'd head to her father's penthouse where they were going to have drinks and dinner with her real blood family. Her sisters would be there, as would her father, who had sworn to his first born that this was something there was no way he was going to miss. So Emily was bouncing as she waited impatiently. His plane had gotten in 20 minutes prior, but Emily knew very well that between deplaning and threading yourself through crowds of people, it could take a while to get through baggage claim and then out to the exits.
She found herself squealing as she caught sight of his dark head. She'd promised herself she wasn't going to be like a woman greeting her man back from war, especially after only four days, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from racing towards him and wrapping her arms around him in a solid and secure hug. His bag dropped with a splat onto the floor as his arms came around her waist and he held on just as tight before pulling back and dipping her into a passionate kiss. She came up bright red, her eyes bright.
"Hi."
"Hi yourself," he said with a little laugh, retrieving his duffle and letting her lead the way.
She wrapped her arm around his back, giddy as a school girl. She mentally scolded herself. Who on earth was she? She was the strong stoic ambassador's daughter, not some twelve-year-old. "How are you?"
"Good," he answered. "Starting to get a little restless."
"Too long away from the office?" she teased.
Aaron chuckled. "Something like that. You don't think we could make a stop by the BAU today?"
"No way," she replied. "Doesn't fit into my plans and I refuse to be an enabler."
"You're no fun," he said, kissing her temple as they walked. "What is the plan for the day?"
"Well, we have a few hours," she answered. "Then we're going to lunch with my best friends, and dinner with my dad and sisters."
"No mother?"
"She's in Eastern Europe until next month and couldn't get a plane back."
"Too bad."
She quirked her lips. "Something like that."
"I would have liked to meet your mother," he said, linking his fingers through hers as he picked up his duffle.
"No," Emily replied with a little giggle. "Trust me. My dad is safer to meet."
"Did you spend more time with your mother or your father growing up?"
"Define time," she answered. "Whose house did I live in or who did I see more often?" When he didn't answer right away she looked up at him,
His eyes were filled with sympathy, concern and genuine curiosity. "Was it really that bad?"
"It had it's perks," she answered honestly. "The travel was great. I saw more places by the time I was sixteen than most people get to see in their lifetimes."
"That was the only good part?" Aaron asked as they started walking again.
"My sisters and I are close," she replied. "We grew up together."
"Moved together?"
"We weren't separated until I went to Yale. They came to my graduation," she answered.
"How old are they?"
She laughed, waving to a nearby vehicle and releasing his hand to fish keys from her pocket. "Get in and I'll tell you all about my sisters."
But her sisters weren't the first people he was set to meet. As they strolled down the Mall, killing time before lunch and getting reacquainted with each other, Emily had told him as much as she could about her two best friends. Jennifer Jareau – JJ, he'd been told – and Penelope Garcia were the two most important people in Emily's life. He knew the three of them worked together and knew they were extremely close. And, according to Emily, it was completely possible for Penelope to ruin his life should something go horribly wrong.
So, Aaron had been more than nervous as he'd climbed the stairs to JJ's apartment behind Emily. He knew this was the test he had to pass. Her family's opinion was important, yes, but nothing was more important to her than the thoughts of the two blond women he was sitting at the table with. So far, he'd gotten off safe. JJ had cooked – a surprise for the special occasion – and while Penelope didn't seem like she was exactly warming to him, he found JJ a lot like Emily, both warm and compassionate, but tight-lipped about personal things.
They'd given him the thorough third degree about his intentions towards Emily, the type of thing Aaron more expected from her family. Though, JJ and Penelope would know the type of man that was most likely to make their friend happy. He'd endured an interrogation worse than the one Emily had given him about his job, one that dredged up his most painful memories. Things he hadn't even told Emily came pouring out and an odd part of himself had been strangely satisfied that all three women were in tears by the time he finished telling them about Jason Gideon's case from hell.
He'd made it through dinner without a hitch and he was almost breathing a sigh of relief as Emily and her sisters, Ashley and Sarah, began to clear off the dishes. Both younger sisters, Ashley and Sarah had given him a toned-down version of the same interrogation questions JJ and Penelope had.
"Aaron, you a scotch drinker?"
Aaron smiled politely. "I still have half of my glass to finish," he said, indicating the wine from dinner.
Franklin "Frank" Prentiss, grinned. "So you do."
He saw Emily raise an eyebrow as she came back in to fill her arms with dishes once again. "You going to the den, Dad?"
"Aaron and I are going to have a conversation, man to man," he agreed, smiling at his daughter.
Emily shook her head and Aaron's stomach pulled tight. "Don't scare him, okay? I like this one."
Still, Aaron knew he had no choice and followed Frank through the halls to this 'den'.
"I hear your job is extremely important to you," Frank said, settling in one of the den chairs.
"It is," Aaron agreed, following the older man's lead.
"How important?" Frank asked.
"It comes first in my life," Aaron answered honestly. He had a feeling Frank Prentiss valued honesty as much as his daughter.
By the way the man shifted, Aaron had the feeling he'd said the wrong thing. "Aaron, do you care about my daughter?"
"I do, sir."
"Then there's something you need to understand. Because of my career and because of Elizabeth's career, my daughters have played second fiddle to everything else throughout their lives," Frank began. "If there's one thing, the only thing I want for Emily is for her to be the first thing in her husband's life. If you can't put her first, then break her heart now and let her find someone who will."
Aaron sat stunned. This was something he hadn't expected. When Haley's family had asked about his job, they'd made it out to be the glamourous thing he hated. They seemed so glad to have someone in his life that was so dedicated to saving the lives of others. They'd only reinforced his image of Haley as the sweet girl she'd been from the day he'd met her.
"And, Aaron, I'm going to give you a piece of unsolicited advice. Don't let your job take over your life. There's a lot of things I regret, a lot of things I missed because I let my job control my life. And there's nothing I regret more than missing Emily, Ashley and Sarah grow up."
Aaron's chest constricted with the pain and regret in Frank Prentiss' voice.
"I missed Emily's graduation," he said quietly. "And I mean from Yale. My oldest daughter, graduated with top honours and Yale University and I couldn't be there because I was working. Ashley and Sarah were her only family there to watch her walk across that stage."
Frank deliberately held Aaron's eyes, his face a mask of almost tortured remembrance. "There's nothing I wish for more than the ability to go back and be there for my daughters. Don't make my mistake."
There was a knock on the door and Emily poked her head in. Aaron took in her smile like sunlight after a long dreary winter. "Are you done scaring him?" she asked her father warmly. Apparently, regardless of the regret Frank lived with, there was no love lost between father and daughter.
"Just giving him food for thought, Princess," Frank replied.
Emily rolled her eyes. "Ash made cake and she's not taking 'no' for an answer."
Aaron saw the question in her eyes as Frank exited first, calling out to his youngest daughter as he went. He reached for Emily's hand.
"Everything okay?" she asked, brown eyes shining.
He pasted a smile on his face as he kissed her forehead. "Fine."
He could tell she didn't believe him.
He felt dread creeping up in his stomach as it grew closer and closer to his time to leave. He really, really didn't want to go. He was enjoying himself, not only with Emily but with her sisters too. He enjoyed this. Frank Prentiss was a good man who really did have only the best for his daughters at heart. Emily grew quieter and quieter as the time for him to go grew closer. When the laughter died down after another one of Sarah's crazy stories from the Prentiss Girls' childhoods, he sighed.
"It's time for me to get going," he said quietly.
Emily nodded, biting her bottom lip. "I'll walk you out."
He followed her, his hand in hers, as they made their way back to the entrance hall. She stopped them on the front porch. "What did you talk to my dad about?"
Aaron took a deep breath, this was something he very much didn't want to address with Emily, especially when there was all of ten minutes before he was going to have to leave for Miami and his date with Shaena. But he didn't have a choice. "My job is very important to me," he began quietly.
"I know that," she told him.
He had no doubt of that. "So important that I'm not sure you won't be taking second place to my job on a regular basis."
Emily nodded slowly. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to make sure you know what you're getting into with me. You deserve to be with someone who is going to spoil you silly, so much that you'll spend the rest of your life doing whatever you want to do, without having to worry about... well, anything. You won't get that with me."
She looked at him for a minute when he finished speaking and he found himself getting anxious and nervous. As much as he wanted what was best for her – something he was sure he couldn't give her – he would be sad to see her go.
"I don't think you will," she said finally. "I think the best thing for you to find is someone who you want to come home to, someone who makes your job second only because you love her and enjoy spending time with her so much that you don't want to stay at the office and work."
He found himself smiling slightly. "And you think you can be that woman?"
"I'd like the chance to try," she replied earnestly. She chewed on her lower lip for a moment. "I promised you I'd never lie to you. I'm falling for you, Aaron, something I definitely never anticipated. I'm falling hard and I'm falling fast and I don't want to stop now and feel like we never got the chance to see where this could go." There was a pause for a moment. "And I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't want to be here."
Aaron's hand came up to stroke her cheek. "You're... beautiful, fantastic, gorgeous... I can't see why a man hasn't swept you up already," he said as he leaned into her.
She chuckled into their kiss, fitting her body easily to his. He splayed a hand over her lower back, pulling her impossibly closer, losing himself in the taste of chocolate and coffee on her tongue. Eventually, he pulled away. She smiled, stroking her hands down his front.
"You have to go."
"I do," he agreed, kissing her forehead. "I'll see you in a few days."
"I can't wait," she said, kissing him once more before letting go and watching him get into the car that had been sent for him. He waved as they pulled away, watching until her figure disappeared, then he turned forward, settling back and losing himself in his thoughts. What on earth was he supposed to do now?
A few days later, after flying back to LA, Aaron was more than anxious as he looked at the two roses beside him. Three fantastic women were in front of him, each of them almost obviously nervous. He'd had a fantastic time on all three of his home town dates and while he'd hoped that meeting the parents of each of the three women in front of him would make up his mind, it hadn't helped in the slightest. He was still agonizing over who he was going to give these two roses to.
Haley was the sweetest girl he'd ever met. She was warm and she wanted a family. She was beautiful and though he'd given Emily the First Impression Rose because she was the one who had made the biggest impression on him, he and Haley had had a connection right from the beginning. She was bright and happy and he could most definitely see himself spending the rest of his life with her. At the same time, Haley was the one that he had the most reservations about when it came to his job. He didn't know how he felt about how much she looked at him as a hero and how much about his job she didn't understand.
Shaena was a gorgeous woman, something that wasn't surprising in the slightest. She was fun and she was absolutely hilarious. He enjoyed spending time around her and she brightened his day every time he saw her. She was smart too and she seemed like she was seriously trying to understand that his job wasn't about heroics. There were always victims they couldn't save. And yet, she was the most closed off. She was the one that had yet to open up to him. Yet, so had Emily and she had just opened to him when he gave her the chance to.
Emily was the one woman he definitely didn't want to hurt. She was the type of woman who deserved nothing more than to be swept off of her feet, to spend her days and nights being fed strawberries and whipped cream. At the same time, he felt something different with her than he did with Haley and Shaena. She inspired more in him than the other two women did and she had an uncanny understanding of his job. She'd opened up to him, told him that she could see herself falling for him, that she was falling for him, but he didn't know if that was going to be enough with his job. Understanding didn't equal knowing.
Chris hadn't been much help. Talking with him hadn't helped Aaron pick which woman he wanted to send home. Because he had the feeling that no matter who he sent home, he was about to break someone's heart. And he didn't want to do that in the slightest. Eventually though, he had to make his decision. He had to decide which two of the three women he wanted to meet his mother, his step-father, and his brother. And it was the hardest decision he'd had to make. So difficult, he found himself wondering if this rivalled his on-the-job decisions. He met their eyes, noticing the tears in Haley's eyes, the strong but tense set of Emily's shoulders and the way Shaena's hands twisted in front of her.
His hands shook as he picked up the first rose. "Haley."
She let out a little sob as she started toward him and he found a smile spreading unwittingly across his face as she reached him and breathed, "Oh my God. You almost give me a heart attack."
He found himself chuckling slightly. "Will you accept this rose?"
"Of course I will," she said softly.
He kissed her cheek and watched her walk back to the line of the other two women. Then he picked up the other rose, his breath catching in his throat. This was the part he didn't want to do. But it was the decision he had to make. "Emily."
She looked genuinely surprised and had to take a step back before starting forward towards him. "Are you serious?" she whispered to him.
"Very serious," he said with a huge smile. "Will you accept this rose?"
If he was honest with himself, when he'd made his decision, this was the part he was absolutely terrified of. She had the full right to say no, and though he'd been reassured by the way she expressed how she was feeling, she'd also had a few days to think about the things he'd said to her. He wasn't sure if she'd accept the rose knowing that there was a really, really good chance she wasn't going to be the first thing in his life.
"Yes."
Aaron walked Shaena to the limo, unsurprised that she wasn't crying. She turned to face him before she got into the limo, her eyes watering. "Promise me something."
"Promise you what?" he asked quietly.
"Promise that you're going to make a decision that's best for you," she said. "This isn't about Emily or Haley, this isn't about letting one of them go and keeping one of them. This is about who you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with."
He rubbed his hands up and down her arms as she took a shaky breath.
"Promise me that you're going to pick a woman who is going to try to understand your job, who is going to love you and care for you because you are you. Because that is what you deserve and nothing less."
He met her eyes head on, seeing the sincerity in them. It was a promise he wanted to make, no questions asked. "I promise."
Shaena nodded once. "Good. Then I can go home. Broken-hearted, but with the knowledge that one of those two women is going to make you so incredibly happy."
Aaron certainly hoped so.