Dear Gracie,

How are you sweetheart? I miss you. I miss you and your brother every single day Grace and the two of you are never far from my thoughts. I know you may find that hard to believe as the memories you have of me are barely existent as I was always preoccupied with work to be the proper father and husband I should have been. I also know that if I wasn't working then I was drinking. I was so caught up in all my problems that I lost sight of what was the most important to me; my family. For that I am sorry Grace, I am terribly so sorry as I should have never exposed you and your brother to that. The two of you and your mom deserved better than that. I hope you and Dean are doing well and not driving your mom crazy by arguing. I can only imagine what the two of you get up to these days but I imagine you still have a love of reading. I remember having to build you shelves because we all used to constantly trip over your books whenever anyone took a step into your room. I still have your copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, hopefully someday I'll be able to return it to you. I understand perfectly if you don't want to respond to this letter Grace, just know that I am here for you if you ever need me.

Love always.

Dad.

Grace looked at the letter in her hand, over the years her father had sent countless to and her brother Dean but neither of them ever read. The letters were all returned unopened except for this one. It was one of the first letters that Grace had received after her mom had moved them away from Toronto to Dallas. For some reason Grace had decided to keep the letter, she had snuck it past her mother and hidden it in her memory box away from prying eyes and most of her all brother. Dean would lose his mind if he knew that Grace had kept one of their father's letters. Grace had had this letter for about eight years but she had never opened it until after her father Greg had turned up on their doorsteps several weeks ago. It had been eight years since Grace and Dean had last seen their father and their memories of him weren't the best for a reason. Their father had been a workaholic and an alcoholic who had no time for him family, Greg Parker had practically pushed his family out the door. Their mother Melissa had moved them out of Canada to get Grace and Dean away from Greg and since then they had minimal contact with their father until he showed on their door. Greg had claimed her was different but it had kind of fell a bit on deaf ears and the whole thing didn't end well. But it didn't stop Greg from trying, which is what brought Grace and Dean to Toronto to seek him out.

"You ready?"

Stuffing the letter back into her bag Grace glanced at her twin brother Dean and forced a smile at her face as she turned her attention back on to the building they were about to enter. It was the headquarters of the strategic response unit where their father work and they figured that they would find him here considering one of the few things they knew about their father was that he was a workaholic. Grace could feel butterflies in the pit of her stomach as she glanced at her brother. Dean had been the one who had wanted to do this and Grace had just tagged along out of sheer curiosity. Grace could barely remember anything about her father and she was a tiny bit interested. Not to mention there was no way in hell she was going to let her brother do this without her. "Yeah, I'm ready Dean…"

"There's no need to be scared Gracie." Dean assured and Grace narrowed at her brother, her brown her eyes meeting her brother's identical brown eyes.

"I'm not scared Dean, I'm slightly apprehensive about this whole thing. There is a difference I'll have you know. I'm pretty sure you were the one who was freaking out about this thing more than I was." Grace corrected which caused her brother to scoff and she felt slightly better, a little less nervous about the entire thing and so after taking a deep breath Grace took a step forward. The first step seemed to be the hardest but after that Grace found her feet walking on their own accord, matching the pace of her brother's as they entered the building and followed the signs and got into the elevator which took them upto the SRU.

The SRU looked very high tech and fancy and as soon as she stepped out with Dean, Grace could hear the quiet murmuring of voices, which were mostly male. Grace could feel her stomach tighten as now she was really nervous and she made a point of sticking very close to Dean as she felt small and exposed in this huge place. It was rather daunting to Grace so she shuffled quietly along with Dean over to the front desk where a woman was clearly on the phone speaking on a handset until she noticed the two teenagers who were anxiously waiting.

"Hi, can I help you? The woman asked with a small smile and Grace looked over at Dean as she was pretty sure that of she opened her mouth, nothing was going to come out. The nerves were very overwhelming and coupled with Grace's innate shyness, it meant that she wasn't going to be able to get a word out yet.

"Uh... Yeah." Dean began and Grace could hear the nerves as clear as day in her brother's voice, sure she had been teasing him about it a few minutes ago but this was a very big and scary thing for them to do. Especially Dean who was taking point on this one. "We're here to see Greg Parker."

"Sure, can I tell him who it is?"

"Yeah… Um, it's Dean and Grace Parker." Dean announced sounding a bit more confident but Grace could still here the nerves in her brother's voice.

"We're his kids." Grace quietly nodded and the woman nodded her head at them with a small smile and Grace noticed that her eyes darted across to something next towards the left of them. Grace turned her head and saw their father was already standing there, clearly surprised to see the two of them there and Grace tugged on the sleeve of her brother's jacket to get his attention and eventually she got it and Dean turned to their father as well. He had less hair then Grace had remembered and he looked a bit older, then there was the uniform.

"Hey…" Greg quietly said almost whispering and Grace could see her father's eyes darting from her and Dean, practically taking in every possible detail of them that he could. Almost as if he was imaging the two of them being here. The shock was still clear on his face and Grace wasn't sure what to do or even what to say. She had only tagged along with Dean for moral support as there was no way she could do what they had come to do, she didn't have the courage to do it. Hence why Dean was going to be the one to break the news to their father. "Hey."

"Uh, hey." Dean replied and Grace just awkwardly looked around as it seemed like none of them seemed to be able to pull a full sentence together and get it out. All any of them seemed to do was babble in rather awkward manner which was kind of avoidable given their estranged relationship.

"What are you both doing here? I mean, it's good to… I just didn't know that the two of you were coming down. It's good to see you both here and together." Greg said, eventually managing to get a somewhat complete sentence out and Grace forced herself to smile. Then the last thing that Grace was expecting to happen, actually happened. Her father reached out towards them and pulled the two of them into a hug. It was weird, there was no doubt about it as for Grace it was like a random stranger was hugging her despite the fact that she knew that this man was no stranger, her was hers and Dean's father. Grace couldn't remember the last time she had received a hug from her father but regardless it still felt oddly familiar despite the awkward atmosphere. As the hug went on Grace could make out her father's breathing, him trying to keep a hold on his emotions as her and Dean's sudden appearance had clearly knocked him for six. When their father finally let go of them, he didn't move away much. Looking them over and resting his hands on their shoulders momentarily, overwhelmed by the sight of the two of them together. Grace just wanted to flee there and then but she found her feet stuck to the ground. It wasn't the whole fight or flight situation, she just froze.

"W-We're visiting Shelby, our aunt…" Grace chocked out and she watched as her father nodded at then both.

"I know who Shelby is, but why didn't you tell me?" Greg asked which caused Grace and Dean to simultaneously look at each other, they didn't say anything to each other. They didn't need to as their eyes did all the talking for each other.

"We… We didn't want to call first, I thought I might back out and Grace just tagged alone with me." Dean stated and Grace just looked at their father, he didn't seem like the man she remembered. Greg seemed different, he seemed much more soft spoken and not in a constant bitter and tired mood like he used to be whenever he came. There was definitely something different about him, the same kind of difference that Grace picked up on in the sole letter of his that she had kept all these years. Maybe Greg Parker had changed after all these years.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Greg asked.

"No, she… She thinks that we're at the movies." Grace sheepishly admitted as she played with the ends of her French plait, carefully avoiding her father's gaze in case he decided to scold them for lying to their mother and sneaking off to see him when they all knew she wouldn't be happy if she knew where they were. Then there was the fact that Greg was also a cop.

"She doesn't know that you're both here…" Greg slowly said and Grace shifted around rather uncomfortably as she felt really bad about this know, right from the start she knew that this was a very bad idea. But there was nothing that she could do now as they were here.

"Do you think there's someplace we could go and talk?" Dean questioned and Greg nodded in an enthusiastic manner.

"Yeah! Yeah, c'mon." Greg stated with a smile as he led Grace and Dean past the front desk and an open space gym like area before the three of them entered a large conference room. Greg took a seat and motioned for Grace and Dean to take a seat but only Dean sat down. Grace awkwardly stood a meter away from her brother an anxiously looked around, her nerves were really getting to her now. Grace's stomach felt uneasy like it was going all topsy turvey. "Grace, you don't want to sit?"

"She can't sit. Grace can't keep still when she's nervous." Dean explained.

"I remember." Greg noted offering Grace a small smile which she couldn't return but she was struck by her father's kind nature, it was something that she hadn't seen in a very long time. For the last few years Grace had this perception of her father as this uncaring monster who was so wrapped up in himself and had no care for his family. But the man in front of her who was smiling? Seemed like a shadow of that man, a much more kinder person than what Grace could remember.

"Um… I… Look, this is hard too say but I have to say it… I really appreciate that you want to be back in touch but, it just won't work out. Grace and I have a family that we love and we were going along just fine. Now everybody has gotten upset since you filed that suit." Dean slowly explained his voice crackling every so slightly and Grace looked down at her shoes as if they were the most interesting things in the world. "Look… We're sixteen years old and I don't want to be forced to have another father and I love him. We love him and I'm planning on taking his last name so I'm here asking you to drop the lawsuit. Please."

"Grace, is this want you want too?" Greg asked.

"I-I…" Grace stammered a she felt her face starting to burn up a sure sigh that she was blushing, It tended to happen when got embarrassed or flustered and now was a prime moment as she got flustered when she was put on the spot. This was what she wanted to avoid, this moment. Their father was hurt, it was clear in his eyes that he was crushed by the news. Grace wanted to be sick. Before Grace could respond to her father or be sick she was interrupted by the woman at the front desk calling out something before a loud alarm went off and her father rose from his seat and took off towards the door of the meeting room they were in.

"Winnie?" Greg called out.

"Shots fired in progress." Winnie replied and Grace looked up to see her father staring at her and Dean in a rather sheepish manner. She figured this was what their mom meant about their dad always having to take off because of his job. It was kind of the worst timing but what could Grace do about it? There was no point in complaining about it as it was already happening.

"I'm sorry, I've got to do this." Greg apologetically began.

"Yeah right. Of course you do, come on Gracie." Dean started as he rose from his seat and began to walk past their father and Grace slowly followed behind him. She didn't want to leave. Grace knew it wasn't thier dad's fault that he had to leave, he had a job and it wasn't like he could just take off an leave especially if gun shots had just gone off. Whilst most people's jobs weren't to respond to gunshots, Grace knew that it was her father's job to respond to them as after all he was a cop.

"No no, just wait here for me…" Greg pleaded as he kept up with the two of them and then moved so he was standing right in front of them. From the way he was looking at them as he pleaded for them to stay, Grace felt the tiniest of ache's in her heart. Their father wanted them to stay, he wanted to stay and be able to talk to them but he couldn't he had to go. Grace knew that Greg wasn't telling them to stay but rather he was asking them to stay, hoping that they would.

"We should really go."

"Please." Greg asked again with the same softly spoke tone of voice.

"All right." Grace answered before Dean could even say no to the idea, she wanted to stay and she knew that Dean wouldn't leave without her. So he was sticking around regardless of whether he wanted to or not.

"The movie's over in an hour." Dean added.

"All right, thanks." Greg replied with a small sort of relieved smile and Grace felt slightly better as her father turned to the female officer who was sitting at the front des. "Winnie?"

"I'll watch them."

"Feed me on the fly." Greg stated as he gave Grace a reassuring pat on the shoulder before taking off leaving her in front of Dean who clearly wanted an explanation.

"He deserves more than that. C'mon Dean, the least we could so is stick around until he gets back so we can all have a proper conversation about what just happened. We can't just turn up and have you drop the news on him and just leave. Greg's our dad and he's been making an effort so the least we can do is make a tiny effort with him on this." Grace quietly said, finally able to string a full sentence together without stammering once since her and Dean had stepped into the SRU.

"C'mon pull up a bench and hang with me." Winnie invited with welcoming smile and Grace accepted the invitation and began to walk over to the front desk to join Winnie with a reluctant Dean trailing behind her. And so the waiting began.