Thank you everyone for reading this! I'm glad that you seem to be enjoying it. I know it's getting far fewer readers than some of my other stories but I'm okay with that because I'm enjoying writing again.

Also, of course, I have to address the end of an era with the cancellation of once. I am devastated because I have loved this show since it started and have fallen in love with these characters. I definitely wasn't sure that I was ready to follow the "reboot" but I was really starting to like where they were headed and I'm sad that we'll never get to see Eddy and Adam's vision played out to the full extent. However, I am really hoping that they give us all the ending we deserve and bring back all of the old characters for a final hurrah! I would love to see an older Neal as well as see how Snow and David react to having a great grand daughter. I also will not stop writing as long as I feel there is still stories to be told.

With that, please enjoy this next installment! :)

Chapter 4

The next day started off much like the last. Jack came and woke me up for breakfast. I think he has a vendetta against sleeping in. I trudged downstairs for breakfast. Emma was cold, as usual, but Neal had suddenly found his voice and was nowhere near ready to quiet down. He bounced around the kitchen asking a billion and one questions of the agents. From how old they were, to where they grew up to how many people they had killed. Obviously, this kid had seen way too many cop movies. Finally, he got around to me. "Are you really my sister?" He asked it with such innocence that I couldn't be mad at him. I looked up at Mary and David who gave me an encouraging nod. I wasn't sure what the party line was and didn't want to break the kid.

"Yea kid, I am"

"But my mom's not your mom. Why?" At this point I was starting to panic. David told his kid way too much.

"You know what Neal, all you need to know is that, brothers and sisters don't always have to have the same mom and dad. That doesn't mean that they are any less siblings" Mary jumped in.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." He said before moving on to the next person he wanted to question. I gave her a thankful smile and went back to eating my breakfast.

Emma got up and put her dishes roughly into the sink before storming out of the kitchen followed by Bobby. I decided that I had had enough of her attitude and immediately got up to follow her and was followed by David, Mary and Jack. "Emma" I yelled after her

"Go away!"

"We need to talk" I yelled back. By this point I had made it to the bottom of the stairs but Jack had his arm protectively wrapped around my mid-section, ready to jerk me away at a moment's notice. At the top of the stairs, Bobby was in the same position with Emma. I'm pretty sure both Agents were sure that we were going to be down each other's throats at any moment.

"What do you want!?" Emma yelled down at me.

"Emma…" David said trying to make his way up the stairs.

"Don't 'Emma' me dad. We all know that Sammy is the kid that you always wanted! You settled for me and Neal but she was always the one that you hoped would come back!" Emma spat, as she struggled to get away from Bobby. I on the other hand was in shock and total disbelief at what I had just heard. Why did she ever think that her dad would want me more than her and her brother? I was no one to this guy. He gave me up and never even planned to reach out to me to let me know he existed. How could she take that as him wanting me more?

"Emma, honey…"

"No Dad! You constantly talked about her and how you always hoped that we would get to meet her someday. You never let us forget it! We celebrated her birthday every-freaking-year and for what? So you could feel better about giving her up? Well now she's here dad! Go off and have the family you wanted in the first place!" She screamed with tears running down her face. When she finally stopped she crumpled into Bobby's arms while Mary ran up to be with her.

I felt Jack pulling me away from the scene which just left David to deal with the aftermath of everything his daughter had spewed at him. Then again, so was I. He knew when my birthday way? He celebrated it, even though he never knew if he would ever see me again? Why? Why would he do that? Why did he talk about me to the point where his daughter hated me enough to scream at him? I couldn't understand. Before I even knew it, I was sitting on the couch in a room I had never seen with Jack crouched down in front of me.

"Hey Kid, you still here with me?" He asked taking my face into his hands. I think I was in shock. That's what they call it right? When you can't think straight, and your body moves but you don't feel anything? Cause that's how I was feeling. I didn't even know where Jack had taken me. "Kid?" I heard him ask again. This time he sounded a bit more worried. "Sammy? Sammy, I need you to say something."

"Yea…yea, sorry. I'm here" I finally was able to get out.

"You scared me there for a minute. You okay?"

"Yea, fine. Sorry, not sure what just happened there. I'm good" I went to get up and leave, when Jack gently placed his hands on my shoulders to keep me on the couch in the unknown room.

"I don't think you are. Sit here a minute" He then went over to a mini fridge to my left and pulled out a can of coke and opened it before handing it to me. "Drink this, slowly" I took a few sips and then held it in my hands, staring at the floor.

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David watched as the agent and his wife took Emma up to her room and Jack pulled Sammy away from the stairs over to who knows where. Once he knew they were out of sight, he allowed his grief to overtake him and he crumpled on the stairs in tears. He hadn't even realized that, in his personal grief of losing Sammy, he had caused his other daughter to feel like a second-class kid, like she could never measure up to the child that was, and it was all his fault.

It was his fault that he had never bothered to see how his talk of Sammy effected Emma. It was his fault that he didn't pay enough attention to his daughter to notice how much his talk of Sammy bothered him. Why did he feel the need to constantly remind her and Neal about Sammy? He never planned on reaching out so why did it matter so much? Why did he always feel the need to celebrate Sammy's birthday with the kids? He could have done it on his own and never made a big deal about it. Instead he always baked a cake and made them sing happy birthday. He did it because he felt guilty. He did it because he wanted to make himself feel better.

He picked himself up off the stairs and walked toward his room. He needed to be alone for a minute.

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Emma allowed the agent to carry her into her room that she shared with Neal and put her on the bed before he excused mother and daughter to have a moment alone. Mary made her way over to the bed and gently moved Emma's hair out of her face before starting to rub soothing circles into her back. She knew that Emma just needed to let it all out.

Mary had mixed feelings about the whole thing. She knew that Emma hated when David would talk about Sammy, but she never realized that her frustration had grown into this. She just figured that she found his constant need to keep Sammy at the forefront of their minds annoying. She never thought that it had created a sibling rivalry before Emma and Sammy had ever met.

Mary always thought that David's seemed obsession with the daughter he gave up a bit odd. That was until they had Emma. At that point, she completely understood. Even though he never got to act as her father, she always had a part of his heart. However, she did try and talk to him about how he made them all celebrate her birthday but, every time she did, he would get upset and hurt. She had a level of understanding that the kids didn't, but she couldn't get him to see that. His emotions were blocking his judgement when it came to Sammy and her impact on the rest of the family.

Emma's breathing eventually evened out as she fell asleep. Mary tucked her in and decided to go downstairs and check on Neal, or rather, save agent Miles and Sue from Neal's badgering questions.

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Jack and I sat in a comfortable silence for a minute before he reached up and took the coke can out of my hands and set it on the coffee table behind him. He then moved to sit on the couch next to me. "You wanna talk about it?"

"If I say no, can I go?" I quipped back. Jack took a deep sigh before continuing. "Why did you go after Emma?"

"what?"

"you heard me, why did you go after Emma?"

"I was sick of her attitude. I figure, we're going to be trapped in this house together and we might as well have it out now instead of doing this cold shoulder act day after day"

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Well, I think you were there"

"Yea, I was, but I want to know how you think it went?"

"I think Emma finally got a chance to get her feelings out" I said meekly

"Also, true, but what about you, Sammy? What do you feel?"

"Jack, I…"

"Sammy, I know that talking is not your strong suit and you don't really know me, but after the way you reacted to all of that, I think you need to at least acknowledge what just happened"

"What just happened? I tried to confront Emma and ended up ripping their family apart. Is that what you want me to say?" I finally burst out. I couldn't take his pecking at me anymore. I know that my life had been turned upside down but, I never meant to do the same thing to them. At this point there are tears streaming down my face. I never would have even noticed had Jack not wiped them away.

"Sammy, none of this is your fault…"

"REALLY? Really Jack!? The fact that a father daughter relationship blew up on that staircase isn't my fault?"

"Sammy, there is no way that you could have ever known that Emma's 'cold shoulder' as you put it, was actually her way of trying to keep her anger toward David inside." I tried to turn away, but Jack took a gentle hold of my shoulders and kept me facing him. "You couldn't, Sammy. The answer is that you couldn't have known." I'm now sobbing. Thankfully Jack had enough sense to stop talking. He finally pulled me into his chest and held me while I cried. It reminded me of when I was little, and I would get scared, how my dad would put one hand on my back and hold me to his chest while cradling my head with his other hand. The guilt I was feeling was still crushing in on me, but Jack being there was helping a little.

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David put his face into his hands and allowed the sobs to rake through his body. His own brokenness shown on his daughters' face was what finally broke him. He knew, deep down, that the adoption had broken him, but he pushed it down and acted like it wasn't there. He covered up his pain by celebrating his lost daughter and never forgetting her. He thought that, by making her an invisible part of his family, it would atone, in a way, for what he had done. It would atone for giving her up.

At night he would replay the day that they handed Sammy over to Louise and Melvin over and over. Sammy was sobbing and calling out for them. She kept yelling "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" and it broke David's heart into a million pieces. He thought that, moving on with his wife, time would heal all wounds. Since that evening in Sammy's living room, he knew that phrase to be a lie. Eventually, David felt a soft hand rest on his shoulder before he felt the arm attached to that hand stretch across his back and wrap around him in a gentle embrace. He would know the touch of his wife anywhere. He leaned into her and allowed her presence to comfort him in a way that only she could.

He didn't know how long they remained embracing one another, but David didn't care. He had to allow the pain to finally come through so that he could begin to heal, not just for himself, but for his family. Finally, he allowed himself to sit up and wipe away both the new and the old tears that had stained his face before shifting to face his wife.

"I really messed up"

"We both did"

"Mary…"

"No, hear me out. When we first got together, I didn't understand why you couldn't get past Sammy's adoption. I know, I had met Sammy and I was there with you that day, but after that, you just seemed to always be stuck there. Then we had Emma. That's when I understood. Sammy was a piece of you walking around outside your body and you couldn't be there for her."

"But in that, I hurt Emma"

"You did. But you can also make it better"

"How? How do I gain back her trust? How do I let her know that I love her and that Sammy being here doesn't change that?" he felt at a total loss on how to move forward.

"You show her, just like you always do. You continue to love her and, you have a heart to heart conversation about how she feels. Most importantly, you validate her feelings. You let her know that it's okay that she feels the way she does. Then, you reassure her that, even though she feels that way, it's not the reality of the situation and you continue to remind her of the truth, that she is just as much your daughter as Sammy and remind her of the special relationship that you two have because you got to raise her, not in a way that puts her above Sammy, but that points out the unique part of your individual relationship with her."

"How did I end up with such a smart and beautiful wife?"

"Because you're hot" She said before leaning in to kiss him. They kissed for a minute and then Mary started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Before I came in here, I went to check on Neal and make sure that he wasn't giving Miles or Sue a run for their money, instead, Miles had flipped the script and started asking Neal questions. I just backed out and walked away, I figure it was time the kid got a taste of his own medicine!" She then broke into laughter followed by David. "That kid, I wonder where he gets the lung capacity to talk as much as he does" David chimed in.

"Probably from his father" Mary said giving him a look.

"Oh no, the amount of time you and Ruby spend on the phone, he definitely gets it from you" David argued.

"Then he gets it from the both of us" Mary said before moving in for another kiss

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Emma finally woke up and looked around the room. Because of the nature of where they were, the windows were all covered so, she had no idea what time of day it was. Her sinuses hurt from crying and she felt a headache coming on. She did her best to wipe off her face before going to the bathroom that joined she and Neal's room to her parents, blowing everything out of her nose that she could to try and relieve the pressure in her head. Finally, she felt a bit of relief and she made her way back to her room to find her dad sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Hey kiddo"

"Hey dad" she said a bit shyly. She tucked a small piece of hair behind her ear and shuffled her feet. She didn't know how to react to him right now. She knew that what she said wasn't really how she felt. She really loved her dad and she knew that he loved her. She was scared. She was scared of what having Sammy in their life meant for her. She was scared that, after all these years of talk about this long-lost sister that, it wouldn't live up to the hype of it all, that she would get hurt. She was broken out of her thoughts by the strong embrace of her dad.

David wrapped one strong arm around her and used the other to cradle her head close to his chest. He didn't know what words to say, but he knew that he couldn't just let Emma stand there feeling guilty for one more second. He kissed the top of her head and continued to hold his little girl in his arms. Within a few minutes, he could feel Emma begin to sob. "I love you baby girl"

"I love you daddy. I'm sorry" Emma said through her sobs. David pulled away just enough so that he could take her face into his hands.

"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for. It's okay for you to be upset. This is hard on all of us. None of us know how to handle this because none of us have ever walked through this before. And if anyone gets to be sorry, it's me. My actions, no matter the reason, were the reason that you feel that way."

"Daddy"

"No, hear me out. I felt like, if I was going to be the best dad I could be, that I had to keep Sammy at the forefront of my mind because, if I didn't, I would forget her, and I would be being a bad dad. In the process, I didn't think about how that would make you feel. I didn't realize that, in a way, I was creating a sibling rivalry before you two ever had a chance to meet." He said with a bit of a chuckle. Emma followed suite. She had to admit, it was a pretty honest description.

"Mom said the same thing and, I don't think I could have put it any better. I'm really sorry for what I said, I know that you love me and, as much as I don't like her, I know that she isn't going to take my place." Emma said

"Emma, why don't you like her?" David asked honestly.

"Dad, you already said it. This long-lost sister who I have heard about for years who was always just a possibility has now shown up here. I always felt a little jealous of her because she could do no wrong because she wasn't there to screw anything up."

"Emma, I've been a father long enough to know that every kid screws up. Granted, I do have some guilt on Sammy's part for giving her up. However, that doesn't' mean that I think she's perfect. As you've already seen, we have problems of our own. All I ask is that you give this a chance." David said smoothing down her hair with his hands before framing her face.

"I'll try. However, if she starts something I make no promises" Emma said crossing her arms.

"I guess that's better than nothing" "David laughed before kissing her forehead. "Now let's head downstairs. It's gotta be close to lunch time now" He then wrapped his arm around Emma's shoulders and led her down stairs.

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Jack held me until I had no more tears to cry. Eventually, I sat up and wiped my face before Jack put a Kleenex into my hand. "you feel a little better now?"

"A little, thanks"

"Sammy, I know you don't believe me, but I want you to know that you cannot carry around guilt for what happened today. You didn't cause the riff between David and Emma, you simply gave them the chance to realize it was there" I then rolled my eyes at Jack. Of course, he would say something profound like that to try and make me feel better. "Yea, whatever. Where are we anyway?" I asked looking around the unknown room.

"We're in one of the extra rooms that we use for some of the night shift agents, so they have a place to crash and don't have to wake the rest of us up." Jack laughed. What did he expect? Things had already gotten to touchy feely and I needed to change the subject. "You ready to go out and face everyone else?"

"If I have to"

"You don't have to" Jack said very seriously.

"Jack…"

"Sammy, I told you, my job is to take care of you, in any way that I can. If you aren't ready to go out there with everyone, that's okay." I took a minute to take in what he said. My whole life, I've always done something because I felt like that's what people wanted me to do. I never want to let anyone down or put anyone else out. With Jack putting me first and, ultimately, making me put myself first, I wasn't sure what to do. After a few moments, I decided to take Jack up on his offer.

"Can I just go to my room for a little bit?"

"Absolutely" and with that Jack got up and offered his hand to help me up and we were on our way across the living room to the stairs and up to my room. I was very thankful that David, or any of the other members of his family, didn't us come through. I really wasn't ready to see them, hence why I was wanting to escape in my room. "Do you want me to bring any food up for you?" Jack asked.

"Not right now, thanks" Jack gave me a look that said he was not happy with that response. "If it's really that important to you, you can bring me up a cheese stick and a cream soda okay?"

"You need more than a cheese stick, I'll bring you up a sandwich"

"If you were already going to do that then why did you ask?" I don't understand this man!

"Because I was hoping to see that you had taken my self-preservation speech to heart and start taking care of yourself. Until you get it through your stubborn head, I'll have to take care of you" He said with an annoying wink. What is wrong with a girl who is emotionally drained just wanting some cheese and a soda? Nothing I tell you! This guy was going to get on my nerves. I apparently already have two dads', I don't need a third.

Jack ignored my annoyed expression and went down stairs to fix my sandwich. I took the time to go into my bathroom and wash all the dried tears off of my face with a warm washcloth. It was very relaxing to have that off my face and let the heat soak i. I then went back to my room and put on a sweatshirt and waited for Jack to return with the sandwich he was trying to force down my throat. As long as he still brings me my cheese stick and my cream soda, I guess I don't care.

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David immediately went to Jack when he saw him enter the kitchen. "Jack, is she okay? Where is she?" He knew he needed to let her know that he wasn't mad at her.

"She needs some time. I'm gonna bring her some food and let her process a little bit and then I'm sure she'll be ready to come out and you can talk to her then."

"Jack…"

"David, I know you want to be there for her, and I can appreciate that. Give her some space and let her come to you. She'll come around"

"I just know she has to be beating herself up about what happened"

"You're right, she is. Just keep reminding her that you're there for her and, like I said, she'll come around"

"Thanks Jack"

"You're welcome. I'm gonna take this up to her" he said holding up the sandwich he had been making while they were talking. He also stopped by the fridge and grabed her the requested cream soda and cheese sick. He really appreciated that David was aware of how Sammy was feeling. He just hoped that he would take his advice and give Sammy her space.