A/N: A lot of people wondered what Emmett and Jasper were up to on Valentine's Day. I really consider this an outtake, which I wrote because it was in my head and because Packy asked me to. Heh, angst h00rs unite.

This is short.

My goal is to update Fly Away Home and By Proxy before Saturday. :D

Like most everything else about him, Emmett's love was loud. His displays of affection, public or private, were anything but subtle. Since he'd met the love of his life, Valentine's Day was one of his favorite days of the year. It gave him an excuse to make a grand romantic gesture. Bigger, as far as Emmett was concerned, was better.

That Valentine's Day, Emmett got off work first. As had become his custom, he made a beeline for the liquor cabinet before he even took off his uniform. Only after he'd had that first gulp did Emmett take off his gun. He tossed the belt over the back of the sofa. No point in securing it out of reach. There were no little hands to get into it.

Emmett downed the first tumbler, refilled it, and sat down in his armchair. Not for the first time, he thought about rearranging the living room furniture. From where he sat, he could see Katie's playroom. He tried to get the energy to stand up, but he couldn't summon it. Instead, he took another pull of his drink. He tried to find excitement for the coming evening out with his husband. That, too, was missing.

It was as though Emmett's volume had been turned down. Everything good-joy, anticipation, excitement-had lost its vibrancy. Try as he might to find pleasure in things that used to make him happy, he couldn't reach those emotions. Then again, it meant that he also couldn't reach that soul-rending pain that had ripped him apart while his baby was being slowly torn from his arms. It was like his insides had been burned hollow by that last stab of impotent fury. When the flame of his anger went out, it seemed to have taken everything with it.

The front door opened, but Emmett didn't move. He was still staring straight forward when Jasper came to stand in front of him.

"What are you doing?" Jasper asked, his tone steady.

Still, Emmett didn't glance up. "I think that's probably pretty obvious," he said, draining the last of his second drink.

"I thought maybe you could take one night off from the drinking." Jasper took the glass from his hand. "We're supposed to go out tonight."

"Yeah." Emmett wiped a hand across his mouth. "I don't think I'm up for it, babe."

"You promised Katie."

"So, we'll lie to her." Even as he said it, the words felt awful. He pushed up out of his chair and went to the liquor cabinet again, grabbing a new glass.

Jasper went and took that glass from his hands before he could pour. "Don't I get a say in this?"

Emmett finally looked up. "Come on. You always said Valentine's Day was a commercialized nightmare. Crowds. Cheesy bullshit. You're going to tell me that this year of all years, you feel like celebrating?"

"I feel like keeping a promise I made."

"We're not even going to see her for another two days." Old bitterness churned like bile in his stomach, and Emmett clenched his fists at his sides. "You think she's even going to remember to ask us? And if she does, so what? We tell her we had a good time, and she'll believe us. It's that simple." He yanked back the glass and poured himself another drink of whiskey.

An uncomfortable silence fell between them as Emmett sat back down. There'd been a lot of those lately-long, uncomfortable silences.

Jasper sighed as he sat down on the couch. "What if I wanted to go because I wanted to try?"

"Try what?"

"I don't know, Emmett. Something. Anything."

The anger in Jasper's tone irritated him. "Are you going to get dramatic on me just because I don't want to go out?"

"That's not what this is about, and you know it." His tone gentled then. "There's got to be a first step. If you don't want to go out, fine, but talk to me."

"What is there to talk about? I just don't feel like being out."

Jasper made a disgruntled noise and stood up, only to kneel in front of Emmett so he could look up at him. To Emmett's surprise, his eyes were much more scared than angry. "You're pulling further and further away from me by the minute." He took Emmett's free hand. "We're not going to make it, baby. We're not going to last if we don't figure out how we're going to get through this together."

Emmett's breath was ragged. He wanted to argue. This was overdone. It was just that, if they went out tonight, it would be a farce. They'd be surrounded by loving couples making stupid, goo-goo eyes at each other, while they…

While they sat across from each other, making painful small talk like they had been for months now. Like strangers instead of loving partners who'd been together almost fifteen years.

"It's like you've given up, Emmett. You quit therapy. You'd rather drink than talk to me."

Emmett set down his drink and ran a hand over his eyes. Words hadn't ever been easy for him. He stood and tugged Jasper up with him. He pulled him over to the sofa, to sit beside him, and wrapped his arms around him. He buried his face in his husband's neck, breathing him in. He loved this man so much, but that, like everything else, had lost its vibrancy these last few months. "I just want to think about it," he said finally. "I think about Valentine's Day, and I start to wonder if her fancy-schmancy school does the same thing as the elementary school. Did she make Valentine's cards for Edward and Bella?" His throat got tight, and he almost reached for his drink.

Jasper didn't speak right away. He ran his fingers through Emmett's curls and kissed his temple. "Last year, you remember how mad she got when you teased her about if she was going to ask any of the kids in her class to be her Valentine?"

Emmett's laugh was strangled. His lips quirked up as Jasper's words brought to mind five-year-old Katie, her face tomato red as she refuted his claims. It was such a precious memory, but God how it ached.

"Or the year before that we gave her a giant heart-shaped lollipop and before we knew it, her entire face was red and sticky?"

Emmett closed his eyes tightly shut. "Why are you doing this?" he whispered.

Jasper stroked the back of his neck. "Because I don't want to forget, Emmett. I don't want to put it away like it's something we don't dare talk about because it hurts too much. She's part of us. Part of our story."

They were both quiet again at that, but it wasn't an awkward, heavy silence as it had been before.

"You remember, I think it was the second or third date we had, when you got a call in the middle of dinner. You'd picked me up, so you didn't have time to drop me off before you rushed off to the hospital."

"Liam," Emmett said, an even older ache twisting in his gut. Liam had been a foster brother once upon a time. "Asshole got himself stabbed. He was dying, and he asked for me."

"Yeah. It was strange, you know? I could tell this guy was bad news, and you were a cop. What the hell business did a cop have with this guy? But I watched you hold his hand and tell him the things he needed to hear before he died."

Emmett straightened up a bit where he sat, staring down at their joined hands. "I thought for sure I'd never get a third date after that."

"You told me about growing up in the foster system; growing up without your parents."

The foster system gave kids a roof to sleep under, clothes on their backs, and attended to their basic needs. What the system couldn't promise, what it rarely delivered, was consistent, unwavering love.

"You said you wanted to adopt a kid out of that system," Jasper said. "You wanted to save one of them."

Emmett closed his eyes, but there was some comfort in the kisses his husband peppered along his hairline. Years later, when they'd started to plan their life together, they were both eager to start a family. They would have taken an older child. In many ways, Emmett prefered older children who were harder to adopt, but that wasn't the hand fate dealt. No. Their home came available just when Katie needed it, and they fell in love with her.

Jasper shifted and took Emmett's face in his hands. "Once, before I knew we would get her, I watched you with her. She was such a tiny baby. You had her on your chest while we watched TV. She looked like a kitten, curled up asleep with you." Jasper's breath shuddered. He kissed Emmett once, gently. "That was the first time I hoped they wouldn't find her biological family."

Dropping his hands to Emmett's shoulders, Jasper kissed him again and sighed. "Watching you be a daddy to our daughter has been one of the greatest joys of my life, Em. You were always so gentle with her. And I think having her healed some part of you, some part of your past, that I could never touch." He tilted his head so their foreheads bumped gently. "I think, maybe, that's what's broken."

Emmett shuddered and brought his hand up to cup Jasper's cheek. Was it possible this man had no idea what he'd done for him? They were grown-up boys from broken homes. In Jasper, he'd found the steady love and acceptance that had been missing most of his life. Jasper had believed in him, had walked with him. Often, like now, he was Emmett's voice, giving him the words he could never find. His husband was so good at reading him.

When he was a young boy, Emmett had vowed to himself that he would never let his family fall apart. Jasper was his family, and they were falling apart. Katie was still his family, and he wouldn't disappoint her either. He'd already lost something precious to him-the relationship he could have had with his daughter as she grew. He wouldn't lose this. He wouldn't lose his husband, too.

Emmett wrapped an arm around Jasper's shoulder and pulled him closer. "Hey, I know where we can go without a reservation on Valentine's Day. Have you outgrown Denny's?"

Jasper raised his head, a smile tugging at his lips. "I'm never above Denny's ."

Emmett stroked his cheek. He did adore this man, and he hoped he was still capable of showing it. They'd met at a Denny's in the middle of the night. Emmett had just gotten off duty, and Jasper had been forced out of his lab by the irritating human necessity to eat. Emmett thought he was adorable-hunched over a table-full of paperwork, glasses sliding down to the tip of his nose, muttering crossly to himself. He'd gone over to tell him to relax; no one should be that worked up at three-thirty in the morning. They were still there at five-thirty, Jasper's work long forgotten.

"Maybe we can start over," Emmett said. Then he grinned wickedly, remembering how, as their early morning conversation ended, he'd wondered if he could coax Jasper home to his bed. "Except this time, I'm fairly sure I can get laid on the first date."

Jasper grinned back at him, wrapping his arms around his neck. "So sure of yourself, are you, stud? I'm not easy. You're going to have to impress me if you want to get in my pants."

Emmett snorted. "I've got moves, babe. Don't you worry."

They kissed then. Slow, sweet kisses that were an apology and a promise. Rekindling a romance that Emmett hadn't even realized had slipped away while he was busy wallowing.

When their kiss broke, they sat panting, still wrapped up in each other's arms, their hot breath mingling in the air between them. Jasper brushed light kisses against the tip of his nose and his cheeks. When Emmett opened his eyes, he could see, for the first time in months, a spark of happiness and light in Jasper's eyes.

"We're going to be okay," Jasper said as though promising both of them. "Just stick with me, babe. We'll be okay."

Emmett winced. So much of him still wanted to lash out, to scream of course it wouldn't be okay. His daughter could never be his again. Their little, beautiful family was destroyed, and that would never, ever be okay.

He took a deep breath and kissed Jasper again. "Count on it," he said.

After all-hadn't the rest of his life taught him that there could be beauty again even after total destruction? He had his husband. Maybe he couldn't claim his daughter, but he would always be a big part of her life.

It wasn't what they'd planned, but they would be happy again. Together.

A/N: Oi. How are we doing?