Sean paced the living room of Emma's house. He'd dragged Craig back over there after his tattoo had come back to life and now they were just waiting. It was the middle of the night. Emma's family was upstairs, supposedly sleeping but Sean doubted it. Caitlin and Joey went to a nearby hotel. Manny was downstairs, having been forced by Spike to get some needed rest. Jimmy had left for his parents' place with the promise he'd be back in the morning. So that left Sean and Craig to do the waiting and the worrying.

"Dude, Spike will kill you if you wear a path in her floor." Craig said as he watched Sean pace from one end of the small room to the other.

"Spike will understand. Why isn't anyone calling?"

"Uh," Craig said, raising his hands in a questioning gesture.

"I know something is happening, I can feel it."

"I believe you," Craig said calmly, "but you need to relax. You know it's not the greatest situation over there right now. Maybe there are problems with communication. Can you just please stop pacing?"

"No," Sean said and then changed his mind and sat down beside Craig.

"Thanks. Now, do you want to watch some TV or play video games?"

"Do you ever wonder what kind of father you're going to be? Sean asked.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. I guess it's because now that I know she's alive I can see my future with Emma again. I think about us having kids and I wonder how I'll be as a parent. I mean I know my parents are alcoholics and generally neglectful. But then there's my brother and he also raised me. He's a good guy and he really worked hard to raise me. And then there are Jimmy's parents who became my parents. They're good people, although a little over-bearing. All those parents in my life, I just wonder whose example I'm going to follow."

"I don't know, man. I mean my mom died when I was young and my dad beat me. But then there's Joey. I'm the kid of his dead wife and he took me in when I had nowhere else to go. But my dad wasn't all bad, he just didn't know how to be a father. He was really smart and a hard-worker. I think I'd want to take all of their best qualities and morph into Super Dad."

"That's a good idea. Joey is a good guy. Snake has been a good father. Emma's not his kid but he treats her as his own. He's always here for all of kids and he's patient. I just don't know if I can be like that."

"Are you kidding? Emma thinks you're going to be a great parent, probably even better than she'll be."

"What are you talking about?"

"The last Christmas I was home I came over to your place while you were decorating the tree. You and Emma were babysitting Jack and Matty. Do you remember?"

"Sean, babies do not eat Christmas cookies," Emma scolded as she walked into the kitchen and spied Sean trying to feed nine-month-old Matty a cookie.

"He has teeth, why not?" Sean asked.

"But he's still only eating soft foods."

"Fine," Sean sighed and then grabbed the jar of food that Spike had set out for Matty's lunch. "But I'm not going to be blamed if he grows up hating us all for making him eat pureed pork and beans."

"Don't worry, we'll all tell him that you disagreed with his diet, okay? Now hurry up and feed him so that we can decorate the tree."

"Umm, Emma," Craig called from the living room, "I need your help."

"What's wrong?" Emma asked as she came into the living room. "Oh, I see." Craig's job was to untangle the Christmas tree lights. Somehow in the two minutes that Emma had been in the kitchen Craig had managed to get them tangled around him.

"Could you please get these off of me?"

"How did you do this?" Emma asked as she fought hard not to laugh.

"Me? I didn't do this! Find your little monster and you'll find the culprit!"

Just then the lights that surrounded Craig blinked on and began racing around Craig.

"Craig's a Christmas tree!" Jack shouted from his hding spot under the coffee table.

"Jack Simpson, you come out here right now!" Emma said sternly.

Jack came out looking shame-faced. "Sorry."

"Say you're sorry to Craig."

"Sorry Craig."

"Okay, now go into the kitchen and tell Sean what you did."

"Why did you send him to Sean," Craig asked as Jack shuffled to the kitchen.

"Because Sean is really good with him. I don't know, I guess it's like they speak the same language. Maybe it's because they're both boys. Do you want untangled?"

"Yes please. And Sean is also in there feeding Matty. Are you trying to prepare Sean for fatherhood?" Craig asked, his eyebrows raised in a questioning look.

"Yes, that's my evil plan. I'm going to make Sean fall in love with my brothers in hopes that he'll want to have lots of children very soon." Emma said sarcastically. "Come on, they're my brothers, he should have a good relationship with them."

"Fair enough. But don't tell me it doesn't make you think about the future."

"It does. But I'm always thinking about the future. I do see us having kids someday. But it's weird."

"What's weird?"

"It's like I always saw myself as this super parent. I would raise my kids to be wonderful, thoughtful, and conscientious people. They would be the ones who would save the world thanks to my tutelage. But when I see Sean with my brothers I can't help but think that he's going to be the better parent."

"Seriously?"

"Totally." Emma said as she yanked on a cord.

"Ow!" Craig whined as Emma's yanking tightened the lights around his chest.

"Be quiet, String Bean," Emma commanded. "Anyway, Sean's just going to want our kids to be happy. Day in and day out that is going to be his goal. Being happy is something that's so simple and yet it can be so hard to achieve."

"That's so deep, Emma." Craig said as he worked to loosen the cords that were cutting off his breathing.

"You two seem to better things in each other than you do in yourselves," Craig said as Sean turned to look at him. "But you also seem to fit together. People always see you as opposites but I never saw you two like that. You're both very loyal. Deep down you really care about your friends and family. And when you get hurt you both lash out. Emma might not do it in quite the same way as you, but she still does it. Emma likes to try and save the world, you work more on more of an individual basis. It still comes from the same need to help people. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think you're both going to be great parents."

"Okay, thanks Craig," Sean said, patting Craig on the shoulder and standing up. "I'm not really sure why you had to go through that entire speech but I appreciate it. Listen, I know you're tired so why do I turn off the lights and you can crash."

"What about you?"

"I'm not tired."

"Sean-"

"Go to sleep."

Craig didn't wait for Sean to rescind his offer. He quickly made himself comfortable on the small couch.

Sean listened to Craig's rather loud snoring as he sat staring out into the darkness. He was remembering that same Christmas.

"The boys had a lot of fun today," Emma said as she snuggled closer to Sean on the couch."

"Yeah, I did too." Sean said as he ran his fingers through Emma's long hair.

"The tree is so pretty," Emma said as she tried to stifle a yawn.

"Yeah," Sean agreed. He smiled when he realized Emma had fallen asleep. The living room was completely dark except for the muted light of the Christmas tree. The white lights had cast a glow over Emma, making her look like an angel. Sean knew in that moment that the only thing he truly wanted was a lifetime of Emma falling asleep in his arms.

The ringing of the phone startled Sean out of his reverie. He knew, he just knew, this was the phone call they'd all been waiting for.