A/N: Thanks again for some very encouraging reviews. I should warn you that for anyone who is looking for a large amount of M content this probably isn't the story for you. They'll probably get there in the end but I don't really enjoy writing those scenes in detail and I don't believe I'm terribly good at it. Believe me; given my lack of skill in that particular area of writing, I'm doing you a favour by keeping it to a minimum. Besides I don't really think it would fit the tone of this story terribly well, but I am genuinely sorry if you were holding out for a lot of steaminess.

So to get back to the story, this is another chapter I've been leading up to pretty much since the start of the story. The truth about Emily's parentage has always been lurking in the background so it was only a matter of time before it came out. This is a topic that is very close to my heart as I have a wonderful step-father that I'm incredibly grateful for so I hope I do it justice.

Looking back afterwards Dan couldn't even tell you how he got rid of Sandra and Sophie. He was vaguely aware of himself trying to persuade Sandra that is was alright when he knew it wasn't. It wasn't like getting angry at her would have solved anything. Emily was the important person here.

Before he knew where he was however, it was only Blair and himself in the apartment with Emily. Sometime during his brief conversation with Sandra, Blair had moved to the couch and was sitting with Emily on her lap trying to comfort her, while his daughter still gently sobbed.

He sat down beside them and motioned for Blair to give Emily to him. Blair very gently unwrapped Emily's arms from around her neck and seamlessly moved her onto his lap. Emily's arms tightened around him and he felt sick at how nothing would ever be quite the same again.

"Listen Dan," Blair said softly. "I'm going to go for now. I really think this is should be a conversation the two of you have alone. Call me if you need me though, I'll be just upstairs and I'll be here in less than a minute."

She put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed ever so slightly before she spoke again.

"You can do this OK. I've got so much faith in you."

She paused again and directed her next comment at his daughter.

"Emily, can you promise me something?"

Emily looked up briefly to nod.

"Remember that you are the most important person in the whole world to your Daddy. Don't ever forget it, not even for a second. Can you promise me?"

"I promise," Emily whispered seriously.

Blair leaned over, gave Emily a quick hug and kissed him on the cheek. Then she was gone and he was alone with his daughter, facing the most difficult conversation of his life.

How had this happened? Less than half an hour ago he'd been the happiest he'd been in years. Now in a flash everything had changed. It just wasn't fair. This was a conversation he should have been having with his daughter in his own time. He should have had time to prepare. Now he was thrown in at the deep end and he wished he'd thought more about how to approach it. The truth was he'd always put it out of his mind because it was something that scared him. Besides how do you even explain the concept of a step-father to someone that age? Now he guessed he was being punished for being such a coward.

He untangled Emily's arms from around his neck so that he could see her face but kept her sitting on his lap. Having her in such close proximity helped him somehow.

"Now I need you to listen really carefully OK?"

Emily nodded, "Was Sophie lying? Are you my real Daddy?"

"No she wasn't lying, not really anyway. I am your Daddy because I chose to be but I wasn't your first Daddy. When I met you and your Mummy, you were already one year old."

"I don't remember that."

He smiled slightly, "Not many people remember anything from when they were one."

"What happened to my first Daddy?"

He felt an unreasonable sense of relief that she had abandoned her use of the phrase, 'real Daddy'. It was ridiculous but those words had really hurt him. The thing was he never really thought of himself as her step-father. She was simply his daughter.

This however was the bit of the conversation he had always dreaded the most because it had the most potential to hurt her. He'd obviously never met Emily's father, but nonetheless whenever he thought of the man he was almost overcome with anger at how he could have abandoned his beautiful little girl and her mother. How do you explain to an eight year old that some men should never be fathers? For Emily's sake he tried to put his anger to one side and answer as neutrally as possible.

"I think maybe he was just scared. Do you remember how scared you were when you first started riding your bike?"

Emily nodded.

"Do you remember why you were so scared?"

"Because I hadn't done it before but you showed me and that made me brave."

"Well your first Daddy had never been a Daddy before and I think maybe he just wasn't as brave as you, so didn't know what to do and he ran away."

"Maybe he didn't have anyone to make him brave."

Dan privately thought that was too kind an explanation for the man's behaviour but he had no wish to make Emily hate her father.

"Maybe he didn't."

Emily thought hard for a minute before she spoke again.

"That means Mummy must have been really brave. She'd never been a Mummy before either and she was left all on her own."

"That's true, but your Mummy was one of the bravest people I've ever known in my whole life and you are so like her. I think maybe that's why you're so brave. Remember how brave you were when I was sick? That was you being brave just like your Mummy was."

"But then she met you and she didn't have to be by herself anymore."

He smiled, "And neither did I. It was your Mummy that taught me to be brave too you know. I wasn't before I met her. It's one of the things that made her so special."

Not that he'd been very brave recently he thought. He couldn't believe he'd let Emily find out about him from someone else because he was too much of a coward to tell her himself. He had no time to dwell on that however as Emily wasn't finished with her questions.

"So after my first Daddy ran away when did you start to be my Daddy instead?"

Dan took a minute to consider that because it wasn't a simple question. He'd adopted Emily when she was three but it wasn't like signing a bit of paper had suddenly made him her Daddy. It had started long before that.

"Well, like I told you, when I first met your Mummy you were one year old and to begin with she didn't even tell me about you. You were so special that she wanted to make sure that I was good enough to meet you. After I did we spent a lot of time together. The more time we spent together the more I felt like your Daddy. It didn't take that long. You're pretty special you know. When your Mummy and I got married I signed a bit of paper that said I was your Daddy so that everyone would know it."

"So that made you my real Daddy."

He thought for a moment because he didn't want her to get confused about the phrase. The truth was after all that he wasn't her biological father.

"Do you know what? It's even better than that because I got to choose to be your Daddy. Most Daddies don't get to meet their daughters before they become Daddies. I already knew how special you were when I became your Daddy. I think that makes us even luckier.

"Me too," Emily replied although she still didn't seem exactly happy. He wondered if she maybe just needed some time to process everything. He pulled her towards him and hugged her for a long time before deciding that they maybe needed a break from the conversation.

He got to his feet and walked towards the kitchen.

"Now do you know what? I think we deserve ice-cream for dinner. What do you think?"

It was a shameful attempt at bribery but he just wanted to see his daughter smile again.

Emily nodded her head but she still looked very unsure of herself and there was clearly something still bothering her. He just wished he knew what it was, but he couldn't leave the conversation there when she still looked so upset. He decided to try one more time before he gave up for the night and waited to see if a fresh start tomorrow would get her to open up.

"You know that if you have any questions you need to ask me that you can, right?"

Emily nodded and whispered, "I know."

However she still looked doubtful so he prompted her one more time.

"Are you still worried about something?"

"You won't be mad?"

"Sweetheart, I promise I won't be mad. You can tell me anything and I won't be mad."

She spoke so softly that he could barely hear her but her response brought tears to his eyes.

"What if one day you decide you don't want to be my Daddy anymore?"

In that moment he felt what was almost a physical pain because how could she ever believe that was possible? Then he remembered everything that she'd been through in just one day and put his own hurt feelings to the side. He was the adult here and of course she was feeling insecure, her whole world had just come crashing down around her.

He knelt down to his daughter's level so he could look into her face as he replied.

"I promise that will never ever happen," he said with every ounce of conviction he could put into his voice. "It just isn't possible. Do you know why? If I had every single girl in the whole world to choose between, you'd still be the one I'd choose to be my daughter because you are the most special person I've ever met. There is nothing that could ever happen that would change that. I love you so much and I'm the luckiest man ever that I get to be your Daddy."

At those words Emily flew into his arms and hugged him tightly round his neck.

"I love you too Daddy," she whispered.

He squeezed her tightly and just held her for several minutes until she spoke again.

"Can we have ice-cream now?"

Just like that he had his daughter back. He wasn't stupid. He knew that it wasn't over and that there would be some tough conversations to come, particularly as Emily got older, but for now she had stopped crying, she still loved him and she'd called him Daddy. He couldn't really bring himself to worry about anything else right now as he went into the kitchen to organise some food.

After an entirely inappropriate dinner of sandwiches and ice-cream and a couple of board games chosen by Emily, Dan had noticed how tired she looked. It had been evidence of how much the day had taken out of her that, when he had suggested she went to bed, there had been no objection, despite it being long before her usual bedtime.

Now he sat beside her on her bed as he finished reading one of her favourite stories. Emily was now more than capable of reading to herself but sometimes she still insisted on being read to and he was actually glad. He'd always loved this time with his daughter and knew that he'd miss it when she finally decided she was too old for it.

As he read the last line he noticed her eyes were already closed, but when he got up to leave she opened them ever so slightly before speaking in a sleepy voice.

"Do you promise you'll be my Daddy forever?"

He leant down and gave her in a hug before he answered.

"I already promised you that."

"Just one more time."

He held her even tighter.

"I promise I will be your Daddy forever. Nothing will ever change that."

"Good."

When she finally let him go he stood by the door of her room but she was asleep within seconds.

He went back into the living room and collapsed onto the couch, completely exhausted.

He felt like he'd lived an entire lifetime in one day. One minute he'd been kissing Blair, the next he'd been comforting his hysterical daughter, who'd just found out the secret he should have told her long ago, and he felt completely wrung out. He wished Blair was with him right now. Being held by her would feel pretty damn good after the evening he'd had and having her to talk things over with wouldn't hurt either. He'd had to hold it together for Emily's sake but now that he was finally able to let himself relax slightly he felt on the verge of tears.

Suddenly what he wanted more than anything was to see Blair. He picked up the phone and dialled her number and she picked up after one ring.

"Can you come downstairs now?" he managed to get out before his voice broke.

He didn't even really register her reply but he moved towards the door and opened it so that he was waiting for her when she arrived two minutes later. She immediately gathered him into her arms and as he breathed her in he thought about how lucky he was.

He just let her hold him for several more minutes, allowing her presence to make him feel the calmest he had felt since Emily had arrived home that afternoon. When she finally let him go he felt almost human again. She took him by the hand and led him towards the couch.

"I owe you an apology Blair, everything was going so well and now you've just been sucked back into my drama. Today should have been perfect. You deserve that."

She looked down briefly and he watched her gather her thoughts before she raised her eyes and began to speak.

"All I care about is that you're OK and that Emily's OK. Everything else can wait. So whatever you need, I'm here. I need you to understand that. The two of you are the most important people in the world to me so you don't need to be sorry about anything."

He didn't think he had ever been more grateful for Blair than he was in that moment. If this had happened a few months ago he would have been going through it pretty much alone and that just wasn't something he wanted to think about. Having someone to support him meant the world. There had been something so isolated about his existence in the past. At the time he'd thought he was managing perfectly well, but now he realised he'd only just been coping, not really living. That was something he fully intended to fix. Emily deserved better than that in a Dad. He deserved better for himself.

It was strange but ever since Katie had died everything he had done had been for Emily. Despite how difficult it had been to keep going he'd done so for his daughter. However he'd never really considered moving on because he needed to, at least now until now. Looking at the woman in front of him he knew that he was finally ready to take that step for his own sake too. He'd known it when he'd kissed her and listening to her now he was even more certain.

"Hey, is everything OK?"

Blair broke into his thoughts and he realised he hadn't responded to her. He'd been so busy thinking about how lucky he was to have her that he hadn't actually spoken.

"I'm sorry. Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you."

She blushed and wouldn't meet his eye once more as she replied.

"The feeling's mutual, but how did it go with Emily? Is she OK? Are you alright?"

He settled back into the cushions and took her hand in his.

"I think it went as well as it could under the circumstances. I can't believe she found out like that. I've only got myself to blame though. I'm such a coward. I knew it was a talk I needed to have but I just kept putting it off. I just wanted so much to keep being her Dad and for nothing to change. Today when she asked if I was her real Daddy it almost broke my heart, because inside I've always felt like her real father, despite the existence of some guy who couldn't even wait around long enough to meet her.

He felt her thumb stroking the back of his hand comfortingly as she spoke.

"You know that hasn't changed right? You're always going to be her Dad. Remember back when you first told me about not being her biological father. Can you remember what I said about biology?"

He thought back and smiled slightly.

"You said it wasn't that important."

"Well I wasn't lying. Getting someone pregnant makes you a father but it doesn't make you a Dad. Everything you've done for Emily since you've been in her life is what makes you a Dad. Anyone who's seen the two of you together knows that and nothing can take that away from you. She's a smart girl. She'll understand that too, I promise."

"You also said I should tell her before she found out from someone else and you were so right. She should never have found out like that."

"Dan you have to let that go. You can't change that and you need to focus on making sure your relationship with Emily goes from strength to strength. You can't do that if you're spending all your time beating yourself up for a situation that you could never have predicted. I don't know how many times I have to tell you that you're a good Dad before you actually start believing it. Everyone makes mistakes. What's important is how we handle the fallout."

He leaned forward and kissed her before he spoke again.

"I'm not sure what I did to deserve you, you know."

She smiled, "If we got what we deserved I'd be sitting alone right now after the way I treated you in the past. Can you just shut up and kiss me again?"

For the next few minutes Dan completely forgot about worrying. He just lost himself in Blair. He couldn't believe they'd waited so long to do this. When he was with her everything just felt right. They just fitted together so perfectly. When they eventually pulled apart he didn't let her go far, gathering her into his side. He wasn't ready to let go of the feeling of wholeness that had come over him, so he also made sure he linked their hands together once more, just in case she thought she was going anywhere.

"Can you stay for a while?"

She snuggled more closely into him.

"I can stay for as long as you need me to."

Feeling a peacefulness that he wouldn't have believed possible earlier that evening, he let the exhaustion overcome him. This last thing he was aware of was the feeling of Blair's hand in his.