Waiting. It seemed like that was all she had been doing ever since leaving the Metro Court Hotel. Waiting to find out if Nikolas was okay, waiting to learn what the fate of her father had been after he had been allowed to leave, and now, waiting for him to die.
Emily wasn't naïve; she was a doctor, and no matter how many times Edward kept reassuring her and Tracy (to reassure himself) that Alan was going to be okay, Emily knew that it wasn't. He beloved father was dying, and there was nothing she could do.
That was what frustrated her the most, she realized. That the man who was the reason she had become a doctor in the first place was dying and there wasn't a damn thing that she could do to help him! She let out a choked sob, quickly covering her mouth and standing. Tracy looked at her quizzically from where she was sitting in a nearby armchair. Emily merely shook her head and walked off towards the elevator as Tracy watched her go, understanding and not asking any questions.
When she finally made it out onto the roof, Emily allowed herself to collapse against the half-wall, leaning her weight on it and sobbing, tears that she had been keeping in too long streaming down her face. Her body shook and she leaned her head down on her arms. She cried for her father; she cried for her mother, who had been with Alan for so long that Emily wasn't sure if she knew how to live without him anymore; she cried because of that brief moment in the hotel lobby when she thought that there was no chance she and Nikolas were going to make it home to Spencer…that beautiful little boy who had already lost his mother so early in life and didn't deserve any more tragedy. But most of all, Emily cried for herself, because it was something that she hadn't allowed herself to do in quite some time.
After a few moments, she felt an arm slip around her shoulders and someone kissed the top of her head. She straightened up, sniffing, and smiled when she saw who her visitor was.
"What are you doing up here?"
"Lulu mentioned that she saw you bolt from the waiting area into the elevator, and I knew that there was no way you would leave Alan so I figured that it was either here or the chapel. I decided to check here first because being inside that hospital is driving me crazy." Lucky grinned. "Although…."
"What?" Emily asked, laughing slightly through her tears at his enthusiastic expression.
"Liz and I are back together."
"Lucky, that's terrific," she said, hugging him before she noticed that one of his arms was behind his back. She cocked her eyebrow at him. "What do you have?"
"Oh, just a little snack I picked up for you."
Emily sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not hungry, Lucky."
"Well, you really need to eat this, or I'm going to be insulted," Lucky said, sighing dramatically and leaning his side against the half-wall. "Do you know how hard it is to find these things in February?"
Emily gave him a bewildered look, then realization began to dawn on her. "Oh, Lucky…you didn't."
He grinned again, wider this time and pulled his left hand out from behind his back. Emily gasped, smiling for the first time that night. "Lucky…yay! Oh, I haven't had one of these in so long! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
She nearly took his hand off taking the grape Popsicle away from him. Leaning her head against his shoulder, she ate it happily.
After a few minutes, she spoke again. "Thanks."
"You already said that."
"No, I mean…thanks for coming and finding me. And the Popsicle…it means a lot that you knew what I needed."
"You're my best friend, Em. That's why I'm here."
"You're always here when I need you."
"Yep. Always will be."
"It goes both ways, you know."
"I know."
When Emily arrived back in the waiting area an hour later, Tracy couldn't for the life of her figure out why her niece had purple lips, but whatever had happened while she was gone, Tracy was glad that it had put a smile back on her face. With a sigh that was a mixture of anxiety and sadness, she settled back in her chair to wait for Monica.
