AN/

Sorry i'm later again. My mental health has been awful. Not much to say otherwise. ILY.

End of AN

"Hey, sis!" Hayden said cheerily, walking over to the table she sat at. She waved at her sister, receiving a smile in return. Hayden had called Liz to see if she could meet her for lunch after her appointment to luckily hear she could. Recently she'd been bringing a lot of take-out with the baby being so young but Franco was already watching her by himself so it worked out perfectly.

"Hey, Hayden." Liz said as Hayden reached her seat and placed her crossbody bag on the back of the chair.

"How's that cute little niece of mine and her big brothers?" She asked happily.

"Good. How's my little niece doing?" Liz counter asked.

"Great." Hayden smiled and nodded. "Except for the fact that she's so in love with Lauren now she wants a little sister."

Liz let out a small laugh. "Sorry."

Hayden shrugged. "Maybe she'd settle for her parents together."

"Oh my god you and Finn-"

"Aren't together….yet." Hayden sighed, curbing her sister's excitement.

"Oh." Liz said, feeling sorry. "I just assumed when you said that…"

"It's okay. As much as I am still in love with Finn I also wanna give Violet her parents together as one family. We never had ideal parents...I think she deserves better."

Liz suddenly remembered what she was going to tell Hayden at the mention of parents.

"Our Dad's actually in town." Liz said, unsure what reaction she'd get.

"Our dad? Jeff Webber's in town?" Hayden asked not sure she was hearing right. "I've never even met him and now he's here?"

"He said he's here indefinitely...I don't really know details." Liz told her. "It seemed weird to me. I'm not just gonna pretend he's the best dad but he showed up and seemed like he wanted to see me."

"What about me?" Hayden asked.

"He didn't say anything about you." Liz admitted. "Hell, I'm not even sure he ever got the message you're his daughter or that you exist."

Hayden just nodded slowly, a bit out of it. The information was information she never even thought of. She didn't ever really plan on finding Jeff but here he was and he found her. Almost. Was she supposed to go to him? Or ignore it?

"Are you gonna see him?" Liz asked, not able to read Hayden's reaction.

"Am I supposed to?"

"Do you want to?"

There it was. She was avoiding it. Did she wanna know her birth father. It never seemed like an option or possibility before so it was easy to ignore. But she had to face this now.

"Maybe."

"He's staying here you know." Liz told her referring to the Metro Court they were dining in.

Lunch went well and the sisters caught up as best as they could with Hayden's mind bouncing around with nervous questions. But she had made her decision. Soon as her and Liz parted ways she didn't go home, she went to the front desk and asked for Jeff.

She knocked, hoping he was in. She wasn't sure she'd have the guts to do this again. She knocked again. Nothing. She guessed he wasn't. She turned around and heard the door open behind her, her eyes going wide in realization that it was him.

"Did you just knock?" Jeff asked, seeing the back of a woman with brown hair, unsure of who she was or why she was knocking.

Hayden turned and faced him for the first time in...ever. She'd seen pictures but none were very recent and this was different. This wasn't a picture. He was real. Breathing and staring at her, waiting. She couldn't throw him back in a drawer and forget he exists this time.

"I'm Hayden." She said introducing herself. "Your daughter."

"Hayden…." He said thinking.

Hayden held her breath, so stupidly nervous about it all. She shouldn't care. But she did, clearly. At least to some extent.

"I heard about you….I was so busy...I meant to call-"

"Did you though?" Hayden stood her ground despite her stomach turning. "It's been years."

"I'm sorry, Hayden." He offered but it was distant. He was distant. They were strangers, that's okay, but this distance was cold.

"Don't be." She muttered, clenching the straps on her bag to hold back her urge to get angry or cry or both. It wasn't fair that she had two dads and both sucked.

"Look i'm in town and if you want to catch up…"

Suddenly there was a small crash coming from inside the room. Hayden lifted her eyebrows and Jeff instantly looked behind him before quickly turning back.

"Look now isn't a great time…"

"Do you have someone in there? What was that?"

"Nothing." Jeff said, starting to close the door again. "Look, I guess i'll see you around."

He slammed the door and left Hayden there. That was….weird. It was not the reunion people dream of but she wasn't expecting that. She just wasn't expecting such distance and secretive behavior.

She didn't trust him. She got a bad vibe and her vibes were almost always correct. That's okay. She had no dad yesterday, she had no dad today. She can protect herself and stay away. But this was different. Her father did give her one thing, something she needed to protect from him. She had to stop Elizabeth from getting hurt by him.