Five men Emily dated and the one she married (alternatively, five times Aaron sabotaged her relationships and the one time he definitely didn't want to)

1: Nathan Zimmerman

They meet not long after she starts working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He frequents one of her favorite sandwich places near the White House and graciously lets her have the last oatmeal chocolate chip cookie one day. He's charming, well-mannered, and an ambitious young banker, someone whom Emily wouldn't be afraid to bring home to her parents.

At the end of one of their regular, 'unplanned' lunch dates, Nathan asks her out for a real date. The date is a success, so they go on several more, and all in all, Emily has a pretty great few weeks.

"Everything good in paradise?" Aaron questions, a touch sarcastically, as they pass by each other one day. "No lunch date today, I see."

Emily narrows her eyes at him. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes, everything is great," she says crisply. "How do you know about that, anyway?"

"It's my job to know these things, Emily. Oppositional research is useful." When she continues to glare at him, he yields. "You're not the only one who likes Arnold's Deli. It only takes so many times to piece together that you and Nathan had an understanding."

"How do you know his name?" Aaron better not be spying on her.

"I know him, unfortunately."

She can't resist asking. "How? And why 'unfortunately'?"

"We went to Georgetown together. As for the 'unfortunately'...you probably don't want to hear it."

Well, now she definitely wants to hear it. "Spill." He raises an eyebrow at her demanding tone. "Please," she adds overly sweetly.

"Nathan isn't a very nice guy."

Emily frowns. "What are you talking about? He's been nothing but nice since I met him."

"Because it serves his purposes to be nice to you. You should see his social media."

"I have seen his social media."

Aaron shakes his head. "The ones he keeps for public appearances, yeah. If you really want to know what kind of a guy he is, take a look at his real Twitter account." He scribbles out a Twitter handle on the back of a business card and hands it to her. "Honestly, I'm amazed he's managed to get away with what he says for so long without being caught by his employer."

When she gets home from work, she stares at the business card for a long time. She doesn't want to believe Aaron; her own experiences have told her that Nathan is an outstanding guy...even though he might occasionally say something a bit off. Sighing, Emily bites the bullet and looks up the Twitter handle.

Dear God. Aaron's right, how the hell has Nathan gotten away all these years with saying this crap online? Maybe it's not really Nathan? But upon closer examination of the profile photo, Emily resigns herself to the conclusion that it is, in fact, Nathan's account. She winces as she reads a particularly nasty tweet about illegal immigrants, and she seethes at one decrying women's reproductive rights.

A curt text to Nathan informs him that they will no longer be dating, and she avoids Arnold's Deli for a while. One day she returns to her desk, just before lunch, and finds her favorite BLT waiting for her.

2: John Lemon

He's an Elvis impersonator who beelines for Emily at the end of his show. His mother is a huge Beatles fan, he tells her laughingly, and she couldn't resist the play on his name. To her despair, he grew up to prefer the King over the Fab Four. Emily isn't sure if he has any secret social media accounts, but he's vocal enough about his views that she's fairly confident that he isn't privately a horrible human being. And he makes her laugh a lot.

Being an Elvis impersonator doesn't make much money, though, and slowly but surely Emily finds herself with an unexpected roommate. John crashes at her place more often than not and has a tendency to eat the contents of her fridge without replacing them. Whenever Emily tries to bring up the subject—she needs her space, her grocery bills are going up really fast—he distracts her with an Elvis joke or starts crooning "Love Me Tender."

Her aggravation steadily increases each day, and one afternoon, when Aaron makes a snarky comment, she snaps. "I just wish for once that people would leave me in peace! At work it's you, and at home it's John who seems like he's never going to leave—" He's silent as she rants, and when she finishes, she feels extremely chagrined. "Um...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. That was uncalled for."

"I'll say." He looks at her carefully. "So you have a boyfriend who's turned into a squatter?"

"Yeah," she mumbles, red-faced.

"And you gave him a key?"

"It was supposed to be a brief loan, when he needed to leave after me one morning—"

Aaron waves for her to stop. "Okay, I get the picture. You can't change the locks?"

"I'd have to ask my landlady, but I could. But before I resort to that, I'd rather try to get him to leave of his own volition first. I just can't figure out how."

He looks thoughtful. "How does he feel about dogs and cats?"

"He likes dogs, but I think he's allergic to cats."

The next day Emily brings home a cat. "I'm catsitting for a friend," she tells John cheerfully.

His eyes are already starting to water. "For how long?"

"They're on vacation for a month. You know, I rather like cats. I think I'd like to get one of my own."

He caves after three days of sneezing and itching. As he packs up his duffel bag, he tells Emily that he doesn't think it's going to work out between them.

Emily soon returns the cat to Aaron's friend, and when she sees Aaron himself at work tells him, "Thanks, Aaron. I owe you one."

"Just be less cantankerous and we'll call it even. Your bad mood infects the rest of the workplace."

3: Marco D'Antonio

Emily's mother is Italian, married young, and was a stay-at-home mother. As such, she's concerned about Emily's focus on her career rather than on marriage and believes that her daughter just needs a good Italian boy to turn her head. So she finds one for her. It's just her luck that her friend Maria's boy is in Washington as well…

Emily smiles awkwardly across the small table in the—you guessed it—Italian restaurant. It's not the most authentic place and a little overpriced, but it'll do for an arranged first date. "So what kind of law do you specialize in?"

"Tax law."

Fascinating. "Do you have any hobbies?"

"Bowling most weekends. When I can, I like to go fishing."

Okay. To each their own. But Emily personally hates bowling and fishing. "That sounds...fun."

By the time their main courses arrive, Emily is desperately searching for a way to end the date early. Unfortunately, this time she neglected to arrange something with a friend to feign an urgent phone call that can get her out of the place.

Several men in suits stream into the restaurant. Emily pays them little attention until she recognizes one of them. Great. The last thing she needs right now is for Aaron Shore to see the horrible, no good, very bad date she's on. He already knows about two of her past failed relationships; he's going to start thinking there's a pattern.

Or maybe…

Emily manages to catch Aaron's eye while Marco is rambling about fishing. Aaron pauses, surprised. His gaze flickers between her and her date questioningly. She puts on the most pleading expression she can before turning back to Marco, hoping Aaron got the message. "I'm going to run to the restroom for a minute."

She practically vibrates with impatience in the little corridor outside the bathrooms. When Aaron finally arrives, he cocks an eyebrow at her. "Fancy seeing you here. How's the date going?"

"You know very well how it's going," Emily mutters.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

She swallows her pride. "Aaron, if you could give me an excuse to get out of here, I would appreciate it very much. Pretend something from work came up, or—"

"Pretend? I'm not sure if I want to be involved in that kind of dishonesty."

Emily bites her lip. "Please, Aaron."

He tells her to wait for a call in five minutes. Emily nearly leaps out of her seat when her phone rings four minutes and fifty-five seconds later. "It's my boss, work emergency. So sorry, you know how these things are."

She never sees Marco again. The telling off she gets from her mother is worth it.

4: Kyle Bukoski

She and Kyle are good together. Comfortable. It's a safe, stable relationship, one less thing for her to worry about among the hecticness that is the rest of her life. Kyle's a doctor, so he knows what it's like to have a crazy schedule. They date for several months, closer to a year. He remembers important dates like her birthday, and he'll occasionally surprise her with flowers or chocolates. It's all very sweet and romantic, and she grows complacent with having such a good man in her life, even if their relationship might be tamer and less exciting than others she's had.

Then the Capitol bombing happens.

When he gets down on one knee before work one morning, rather than excitement and anticipation, she feels dread seeping into her belly. Kyle, usually adequately eloquent, stammers his way through an awkward but heartfelt speech about his feelings for her and his desire to spend the rest of his life with her, to cement their relationship after the great tragedy that's just occurred.

Emily mumbles that she has to think about it and rushes off to work.

Aaron's words needle her for the entire day. She can't help feeling there's a sense of wrongness to accepting Kyle's proposal, even though being with Kyle felt perfectly fine. There was no indication before the explosion that Kyle was even thinking about proposing, and while the bombing has changed many things, Emily doesn't think their relationship should have been one of them.

Love in Washington doesn't happen every day. The more she thinks about it, the more certain she is that what she has with Kyle isn't really love.

So she says no. Their relationship dies a natural death after that.

Aaron seems contrite about the effect his words may have had on her, but Emily feels liberated. If Kyle hadn't proposed, she suspects their relationship would've fallen to the wayside sooner or later anyway, now that her job has so many more responsibilities.

Today just isn't going to be the day that love happens in Washington. She glances back at Aaron as they part ways, and her heart twists with something she's afraid to identify as want.

5: Christopher Rochester

As the president's Chief of Staff, Emily comes into contact with many more high-profile figures in Washington than she did when she just worked for the HUD Secretary. One such person is Christopher Rochester—"Of the New York Rochesters," he told her with a blindingly white grin—from a wealthy, political family whose members appear on TV on multiple occasions.

He asks her out so abruptly that she's startled into accepting. Seth witnesses the event and stares wide-eyed at her as Christopher disappears, whistling cheerfully. "What was that all about?"

"I...I think I have a date with Christopher Rochester."

"But I thought—" Seth clams up.

"You thought what?"

"Nothing. I, er, just didn't think he was your type."

Emily looks amused. "What did you think was my type?"

(Tall, Mexican-American, sharp-tongued, and workaholic, Seth thinks but doesn't say aloud.) "Not a trust fund kid."

"Well...it's just a date. It's probably not going to go anywhere. He'll head back to New York before long." Still, Emily feels a mysterious pang of guilt, as if there's something wrong about going out with someone who isn't—never mind.

These things have a way of getting around, so Emily supposes she oughtn't be too surprised that Aaron somehow hears about it. "I guess Rochester must be a good guy after all, in that case."

"Just because I'm going on a date with him?" Emily replies. "You know very well that I've been a poor judge of character about these things in the past."

There's something a little sad about Aaron's eyes today. "Regardless, I hope it goes well, for your sake."

And the date does go well. Christopher is sincere, funny, and courteous. But at the end of the evening, he looks at her calmly. "There's someone else, isn't there?"

Emily stares back, unable to think of a response.

"It's okay. I should've known a beautiful, brilliant woman like you had someone." Christopher sees her to a cab and kisses her hand. "I had a great time."

"Me too."

"Night's still young," he remarks before he closes the door. "Maybe he's still up."

Emily sits in the cab for five minutes before telling the driver to go somewhere else. And that's how a bemused Aaron discovers her at his front door.

1: Aaron Shore

Life is full of "could haves."

They could have started dating earlier if, on her first day at the White House, he hadn't immediately started giving her a tongue lashing for spilling her coffee on him before even looking up at the beautiful girl who'd run into him and instantly regretted it.

They could have started dating earlier if, during their first meeting together, she hadn't picked an almost-fight with him that embarrassed both of them in front of their bosses.

They could have started dating earlier if he mustered his courage three seconds faster in Arnold's Deli and approached her before Nathan did.

They could have started dating earlier if she hadn't let Mary from Communications get to her and vehemently denied any attraction to Aaron Shore, thus quashing any contemplation she may have had about going out on a limb and asking him out.

They could have started dating earlier if instead of a fake phone call, he interrupted her date with Marco, slipped his arm around her waist, and said so sorry, but they were in a relationship and hadn't gotten around to telling her mother, and they didn't want to waste Marco's time anymore.

They could have started dating earlier if she followed through with that Elvis impersonation and listened to what her heart was telling her—Treason? Aaron? Never—instead of succumbing to her fear and uncertainty.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But this is the course they took, not any of the infinite alternate universes, and as long as Emily continues to walk this path with him, she's happy to never think about those "could haves." It wasn't easy getting to where they are now, but she wouldn't sacrifice it for anything.

It's a Saturday morning, and they're enjoying their last few moments of peace in bed before the goblins they call their children come running in search of breakfast. Ever since Kirkman's second term recently came to an end, life has been much calmer, even with small children constantly clamoring for their attention.

"You know," Aaron begins as he's stroking her hair, "Christopher Rochester called the other day."

"Did he? What did he want?"

"He said he wanted to make sure I was treating you right. Threatened to 'intervene' if he so much as suspected you weren't being worshipped like a queen. His words, not mine. I swear he still regrets not fighting for you after your one date all those years ago."

"Ooh, I hear he just purchased a house at the Outer Banks. Are you suggesting I give him a call back?"

"Absolutely not." Aaron pulls her closer, wrapping his arms around her. "Don't even think about it."

"It's only polite, right?" she teases. "Maybe he just wants to get back at you for sabotaging our date."

"I did not sabotage your date with him. That was only every other boyfriend you had while at the White House."

Emily sighs and nuzzles his chin. "I think he got the feeling there was an invisible third person on our date. Unintentional sabotage, then."

Scampering little footsteps rush down the hall, and then there's excited knocking on their bedroom door. "Mommy! Papi! We're hungry!"

"They know where the cereal is," Aaron grumbles, but they sit up anyway. "Time to feed the goblins?"

Emily kisses him, and they get up to join their family.

Thank you for reading! I've always liked these 5+1 kind of stories so I figured I'd do some Emily/Aaron-centric ones. I'll probably do more in the future as I get the inspiration/time to write them.

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Thanks again for reading, and I'd love it if you left a review. :)