~12~

Title: The Planets Bend Between Us
Rating: PG, maybe
Warnings: Cuteness and angst, all in the same chapter
Characters/Pairings: Sheridan/Luis, original character, mention of Hank
Summary: prompt: piggybank. Luis looked down at the words he'd written and never had the courage to say and decided the time for bravery had come and passed him by.

"Emma," Sheridan gently pushed her daughter's bedroom door open. "You have a visitor."

"Who is it, Mama?" Emma called, unaware of the two adults standing frozen at the threshold of her bedroom, their eyes locked on each other, only hinting at the words their mouths longed to speak. She gave her teddy bear Buttons one last glance and straightened the floppy pink bow drooping from Lucy's collar before turning around.

Sheridan felt a fierce pang seize her heart at the way her daughter's big blue eyes lit up upon seeing Luis, and she swallowed against a sizable lump in her throat before dismissing herself from their company. "I'll be down the hall if you need me," she told Luis.

"Mind if I join the tea party, Emma-bug?" Luis lingered in the doorway uncertainly.

Emma patted the small chair beside her in welcome and waited patiently for her favorite person in the entire world (barring her mama, of course) to fold his large body into the seat before offering him a tiny tea-cup filled with Kool-aid. "Careful, it's hot," she warned when Luis hooked his pinky finger in the handle and started to lift it to his lips. "Cookie?" she asked, small fist striking out to grab a chocolate chip cookie from a plate in the middle of the table and holding it out to him. "Don't let Lucy have none, though, 'cause dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate," she reminded him helpfully.

Luis took the cookie from her with a smile and set it down on the little plate patterned with pink flowers before him. He watched her play in silence for several long minutes, in awe of how much she'd grown up since that first moment she'd taken breath, when he'd held her in his arms and fallen into a painful kind of love that he'd never felt before. He smiled when she huffed a breath in exasperation at the honey curls tumbling over her shoulders with each move she made and reached out a hand to stroke over her soft hair.

Emma began humming under her breath, the tune known only to her, and she slid from her chair to offer a sip of tea to Buttons and Lucy in turn.

Luis opened his mouth to tell her dogs shouldn't have tea/Kool-aid either, but he needn't have worried. The German shepherd sniffed experimentally at the cup and disinterestedly turned up her nose with a whine.

"You're not drinking your tea," Emma noticed with a frown. Without preamble, she crawled into Luis's lap, wrapped her small arms around his neck, and stared at him with worried, adoring eyes. "It's not really tea, you know. It's only grape Kool-aid."

"I like grape Kool-aid," Luis soothed her frown with a smile and a sip from his teacup. Setting the cup back down, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug that made her giggle softly into his neck and dropped a kiss on top of her unruly hair. "You're getting so big," he murmured into her temple, not without a little bit of wistfulness.

Emma pulled back and beamed at him, her eyes bright with excitement. "I'll be five soon."

"Practically an adult," Luis teased gruffly.

"I know!" Emma exclaimed, scooting from his lap and scampering over to her big girl bed. "Mama says next year I go to kindergarden."

"I think it's kindergarten." Luis's correction fell on deaf ears.

Emma picked up a piece of paper and walked back over to Luis, glancing down at it and looking back up at him. "I made something. Just for you." With shy pride, she presented the piece of paper in her hands to Luis.

It was a drawing, a masterpiece in intent if not in results, and on it were five figures, one of them furry and obviously the hapless Lucy. Luis's brown eyes snapped up to meet Emma's earnest face as she started pointing out the figures' identities.

"The prettiest is Mama, the short one is me, and the one with the sticky-up hair is you," she grinned.

His heartbeat picking up speed, Luis forced himself to ask, "And this guy over here?" He pointed at the last, as yet unidentified figure, with brown hair and a lopsided, easy grin. "Who's he?"

"That's mama's friend Hank," Emma divulged matter-of-factly. "You know him. He's her boyfriend," she spoke the word like it was taboo (boys and their cooties and all that) and her nose scrunched up in slight disgust.

Her innocent words hit their target (his stubborn heart) with unerring accuracy, and Luis thought again of the decisions he'd made and the decisions he'd been too much of a coward to make, and he decided he might not have made the easiest choice, but in the long run, it was the best choice for the people he loved, all of them. Clearing his throat, he said, "You know Hank's my friend too. What do you think of him? Do you like him?"

"I guess," Emma finally nodded. "He's funny, and he makes Mama smile."

"Your mama's real pretty when she smiles." The words slipped out without Luis's express permission, but Emma didn't seem to mind and neither did she comment on it.

The little girl continued to flit around the room, humming a new song under her breath, and she returned before too long, her piggybank under her arm. When she shook it, the coins inside it rattled and tinkled satisfyingly, and she let him in on a little secret of hers. "I'm saving all my money for a present for Mama."

"It sounds like you got a lot of money in there," Luis stated. "Can I make a donation?"

Emma's eyes grew wide when Luis reached inside his back pocket and, withdrawing his wallet, pulled out a crisp bill. "Is that a lot of money?" she asked with awe.

The five-dollar bill was chump change to a former Crane like Sheridan, but to a kid, to a kid it was a lot, and Luis liked the symbolism of five dollars and five years of sharing a person's life. It could never be enough, not really, but to Emma, all he said was, "It is."

"Wow," Emma breathed, staring down at the bill intently as Luis scribbled something on it with one of the pens she wasn't supposed to have (from her mama's purse). "What's it say?"

Luis looked down at the words he'd written and never had the courage to say and decided the time for bravery had come and passed him by. Still, his well-intentioned lie left his lips with some difficulty. "It says Happy Birthday." Folding the bill, he placed it inside the slot and watched as Emma stowed the piggybank back in its safe place. When she came back this time, Luis pulled her back into his lap, and the little girl seemed to sense the pensive turn of his thoughts.

Resting her curly head against Luis's shoulder, Emma grabbed one of his large hands between both of her own and squeezed and stroked it comfortingly. She accepted the kiss he placed atop her hair and tipped her head back to stare up at his much beloved face. Pouting, she said, "You seem sad."

"I am," Luis admitted. "Just a little."

"Why?" Emma poked her bottom lip out even further.

Luis smiled slightly at the action, and Lucy stood up and padded closer to them. The dog rest her head in Emma's lap and stared up at the pair of them with mournful brown eyes, sniffing and licking at the little girl's restless hands.

"Is it something bad?"

"It's nothing bad, Emma-bug," Luis was quick to reassure her. "I got a new job."

Emma instantly brightened, her blue eyes shining happily for him. She'd inherited her mother's intelligence though, and Luis's influence in her young life had helped hone an already keen sense of intuition. The smile on her pretty mouth faded and the light in her eyes dimmed. "If it's not bad, why are you not smiling? Why is he not smiling, Mama?" Emma asked when she noticed her mother had returned.

"My new job is not in Harmony," Luis told her.

Emma was smart, sometimes too smart for her own good, but in her youth, her world still centered on the close-knit group of friends that loved her and her mama and the small town she'd lived in her entire short life. There was only one other place she knew of that didn't seem like some far-off, magical place. So her assumption was a natural one. "Is it in Castleton?"

"It's not in Castleton, Sweetheart."

Lucy lifted her head as Sheridan approached, her tail thumping against the floor as she wagged it.

Emma sat up straighter at her mother's reply and she regarded Luis with wounded blue eyes (mirror images of her mother's in that exact, unguarded moment). "Where is it then?"

One of them giving him that injured look was all Luis could handle, and he focused on the little girl in his arms, her big blue eyes starting to well with tears. Regretfully, he murmured, "I can't tell you."

Emma's lower lip quivered, "You said we don't have any secrets." One fat tear fell and slid down her cheek with a brand-new realization. "You're not coming to my birthday party? Or Mama's? You have to come."

Luis couldn't lie to her, but he couldn't give her false hope either. He settled for a quiet, "I don't know." The words felt like a betrayal coming from his lips, especially when Emma's tears started falling in earnest.

"Is it because I'm not always a good girl?" Emma lifted a small fist to her eyes, knuckling away her tears. "I promise I'll eat all my broccoli. And I won't ever stick my tongue out at mean ole Tucker again."

"Oh Emma," Sheridan sighed, kneeling between Luis's open legs and placing a comforting hand on her daughter's back. "Nobody's asking you to be a good girl all the time. Luis isn't leaving for good, and he's not leaving because of something you did or didn't do." Luis's hand covered hers over Emma's back, and their eyes connected and held.

"Your mama's right," Luis punctuated his words with another kiss to the top of Emma's curly head. "Grown ups don't always get to choose where their jobs take them, and this is a job I have to do."

"But why?" Emma stubbornly pressed.

"Emma Katherine Crane," Sheridan scolded.

"But Mama," Emma responded with a subdued pout. "I don't understand." Looking up at Luis with big, wet blue eyes, she asked, "Why can't you just keep your old job? Why can't you stay with us?"

"That's enough questions, Emma-bug," Sheridan decided, standing up and lifting her growing daughter into her arms with a small groan. "Luis can't stay here just because you want him to. He has his own life, his own family," she gently reminded the little girl.

"You want him to stay too," Emma sniffled into her mama's shoulder.

Sheridan didn't answer her, didn't look at Luis as she announced it was Emma's nap time.

"But Mama," Emma cried heartbrokenly.

"Luis isn't going anywhere yet," Sheridan murmured against the damp, fevered cheek. "He won't leave without saying goodbye," she spoke the promise without fully believing the words (because one time he had). Thankfully, though, she was just convincing enough for her daughter. Still, she wanted to offer a little extra reassurance to the child, and she forced herself to meet Luis's eyes again. "Will you?"

"I'm not going anywhere without saying goodbye," Luis gave his word. "To either one of you."

Sheridan watched him leave and ease the door shut, and she carried Emma over to the little window seat where she rocked her and sang to her until she'd cried herself to sleep, all the while wondering how she was ever going to be able to let Luis keep his promise.

Hit me, Shaun.

LOL!

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Poor Emma-bug.

What is Luis thinking?

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