'Truths and Dares' (Chapter Six)
by Ennon
A/N- Same disclaimers as always I want to thank everyone for their reviews so far- especially Stacy's Mom (Karen). Feel free to keep reviewing (and ask/comment anything you want about this story)!
Paige and Hazel were walking through the apple grove.
" Your scarlet linen low-riders won't be finished until next week even with Manny helping me," Hazel insisted.
"Oh, that's not important," Paige shrugged.
"The flax crop didn't do all that great last. ... Paige, you usually pitch a fit if there's any wardrobe delay! You okay?" Hazel asked- as she felt Paige's forehead.
"Oh, I'm more than okay! I'm hot! See Jimmy over there brooding about Ash the Trash?" Paige asked while pointing to Jimmy absently kicking rocks nearby.
"Paige, you're not thinking of becoming the new queen! Spinner's been at your beck and call for. ." Hazel gasped.
"Don't be ridiculous! No way would I trade in Spinner. And I don't have to! With Ash out of the picture, Spinner being the Viceroy and me being Spinner's lady AND Sacrifice Squad Leader, I'm the highest ranking Degrassi woman! Nothing could spoil my day!" Paige gloated.
"Emma?" Craig gulped as Emma started to turn around from Salvatore DeGrassi's tombstone in the middle of the Degrassi Cemetary.
"Craig, are you one of. .them?"Emma asked with a shudder.
"You. .. know," Craig groaned- as Emma started to run out.
"Wait! Don't run off!" Craig shouted as he started to give chase then abruptly changed his direction.
"Craig, what are you doing here?" Sean asked as he and J.T. were putting up the lean-to with the filthy,perforated canopy from the dump.
"It's Emma- and she knows!" Craig shuddered.
"Of course she knows we've been exiled. She was there when it happened," J.T. shrugged.
"J.T. on the left hand trail there's some more vines about five hundred feet up the path. Fetch 'em!" Sean insisted.
"You're not my boss!" J.T. exploded.
" Don't argue with me!" Sean boiled.
"Everyone thinks they can run my life. Well, I've had it!" J.T shouted.
" Fine, do what you want- just get out of here!" Sean shouted as he threw pebbles deliberately short of J.T.'s feet.
"Hey! You'll be sorry! You'll all be sorry you picked on me!" J.T shouted back as he ran off.
"Shouldn't we see if J.T.. .?" Craig asked.
"That's nothing. We're chin-deep if everything hits the fan," Sean gulped.
"Sean, we've got to get to her before the others. You're the only one she'll listen to," Craig pleaded.
"Yeah, it could be the end of her if we don't reach her first," Sean gulped.
"And the end of Degrassi and the world itself if she returns to it now!" Craig insisted as they ran off.
J.T decided the only one who could help him was Liberty. All he'd have to do is pour on the charm, maybe offer to polish her boots once he found her in the cave lab.
"Which trail leads back to the Main Side of the Island?" J.T. gulped.
"Man, these readings don't look good," Toby groaned to Kendra as they were writing in the charts.
" I know but we need to get with Liberty about this before we share them with anyone else," Kendra groaned.
"Whatever happens, I want you to know that these two days with you have been some of the best I've ever had," Toby beamed.
" I was going to say the same thing!" Kendra chirped as she gave Toby a kiss on the mouth.
"So, Haze, didn't I say that things would work out? Manny's been about the best thing to happen in quite some time!" Paige gloated.
"She's been a good assistant," Hazel acknowledged.
"Terri. You think we have enough cacao beans to make hot chocolate tonight? I feel like celebrating," Paige beamed while putting her hand on Terri's shoulder.
"We have enough left from the pod harvest. No doubt Emma will love to learn how to make it from beans, honey and milk!"Terri enthused as she was carrying the basket full of onions.
" Say, where is that adorable one?" Paige sarcastically asked- as she took her hand off Terri's shoulder.
" I sent her to pick more wild onions for the soup about an hour ago but," Terri related.
"You let her go off by herself?!" Paige exploded.
"You know how Spinner loves all those extra onions in the soup," Terri tried to explain.
"Who cares! Am I the only smart one here? We've got to find her ASAP!" Paige insisted.
"There she is behind that rock," Craig whispered to Sean as they came upon Emma literally shaking from confusion.
"What'll I say to her?" Sean gulped.
"You'll think of something," Craig insisted.
"Em," Sean pleaded as Emma recoiled while making a cross with her right and left index fingers in front of her face.
"Stay away from me! You. . you! Vampires!" Emma gulped.
"We're no vampires! Do you see us avoiding daylight? And Spinner especially LOVES garlic!"Sean nervously chuckled.
"What about all those tombs? Adults! Children even!" Emma shuddered.
"Yes, those are some of the others' parents and siblings," Craig groaned.
"You killed them?" Emma gulped.
"No, they all died drinking the water," Sean groaned.
"What? How old are you?" Emma cringed.
"We're all the same teens we were when we each arrived here, "Sean insisted.
The conch made five very loud toots which could be heard all over the Island.
"Five bells! We're all needed," Ashley gulped.
"But I can't go over there," Marco insisted.
"With the Renaissance soup bowl cut and shave I gave you and Sean's extra set of clothes and mocassins that we'll get his okay on later, you'll fit right in!" Ellie insisted.
"Why are you doing this? I can't give you what you want," Marco gulped.
"Look, I met a few oddballs bootlegging with my sister. Even if I feel like makin' whoopee with some guy, that won't take change my wanting to stay friends with you! We're all in this together!" Ellie insisted as she clutched Marco's hand as they and Ashley started walking back over to the other side.
"What's that noise?" J.T asked himself as he entered Liberty's cave and found her nowhere around.
" As long as I'm here I might as well surf the 'Net a bit,"J.T. exclaimed as he threw on the light switch and walked in.
"Whoa! A First Edition Complete Shakespeare! Ms. Kwan would flip for this. I wonder if Liberty got this off E-Bay? "J.T. wondered as he picked it up and saw the inscription.
As a Canadian, he'd lived his whole life with everything written bilingual and he'd picked up a lot more French than he ever admitted to classmates or teachers (as it was considered a bit effeminate and vaguely 'unpatriotic' for by some Ontarian English-speakers to know French). Still, he was floored when he read and understood the French inscription
To My Brilliant Daughter Liberté from her Papa
Captain Willem Van Zandt, Nieuw Amsterdam, 1659
"Sean, they're onto her!" Craig gulped.
"I've got to get my friends and get the boat out of here," Emma gulped.
"No! We're over five hundred miles from the nearest spec of land. You have no navigating experience. You'd drown or die of exposure long before you reached it," Sean pleaded.
"Then come with us!" Emma insisted as she grabbed his arm.
"No! I can't! Remember how I told you that if you stayed here too long, you'd have no life to go back to? That's what's keeping all of us here," Sean groaned.
" Then run with me into the jungle! We can hide out together!" Emma cried as she pulled Sean.
"Spinner especially knows every square inch of this island. He'd find us in no time!"Sean shuddered.
"What'll we do?" Emma asked.
"There's only one way to do this and that's if you go with us to the Plaza where we can plead your case," Sean insisted as he, Craig and Emma let out major sighs before dejectedly walking back.
Everyone except J.T. had just arrived in the Plaza and Jimmy was stepping up to the gazebo when Emma, clutching Sean's hand for dear life and the two accompanied by Craig suddenly ran into the center of the Plaza.
"Seize her! Seize her!" screamed Paige and Hazel which prompted Spinner to walk towards the trio with his spear in his right hand then put his hand on her right shoulder.
"Wait! Don't push her down! She's a girl!"Craig pleaded.
"He's right, Paige. I can't do that to a girl," Spinner gulped.
"Fine! Haze and I'll push her down,"Paige sneered.
"I'll just kneel!"Emma groaned before anyone else could touch her.
"What are you doing to my friend?" Manny demanded as she came out of Hazel's hut/boutique.
" Your friend ran off farther than she was supposed to-and if she's with Sean, that means she's been to the Other Side," Paige snapped.
"So what! You make it sound as though it's the end of the world," Manny insisted.
"What's going on?"Toby asked Kendra as they were at the Plaza's edge.
" I'm not sure," Kendra honestly replied.
"It could be- and we'll all have softhearted and mushhead Terri to thank for that!" Paige boiled.
"I'm sorry everyone," Terri burst into tears.
" Don't pick on Terri like that!" Craig insisted.
"Yeah, leave her alone, Paige!" Spinner boiled.
"Little Goody Two-Shoes's taking up for," Paige boiled
"Ahem!" Spinner cleared his thoat and pointed to his feet.
"Fine, Goody Two-Feet,then! Why does your rare moments of chivalry have to kick in at the worst times?" Paige fumed.
"Can I go now?" Emma asked.
"No, you need to tell us what you know about us,"Jimmy insisted in a calm but threatening voice.
"I . .. I made a wrong turn and saw the cemetary. .and it's not Terri's fault! I was just picking more onions and trying to see how Sean, J.T, Ashley and Ellie are," Emma explained.
"What did you see?" Jimmy asked.
"I saw all these tombstones with dates going back centuries but all of adults and children. Your parents and siblings, right?" Emma shuddered.
"Yeah some folks' parents," Jimmy groaned.
" So are you people vampires who killed your parents and kid siblings to get immortality?" Emma gulped.
"No, we're all shipwrecked here," Terri calmly explained.
"Ahem!" Ellie cleared her throat.
"Except for her. She came by plane!" Ashley corrected.
"When we got here, everyone was so parched that we couldn't wait to drink the water," Jimmy recalled.
"But too late we discovered that folks past their teens and children under twelve were poisoned by it- and any food that had been watered by the Island's streams and ponds," Sean sighed.
"So how did all of you. .?" Emma asked.
"As best as my analysis can make out, since we're teens, our hormones are at their peak so our reactions have been that as long as we drink the water and eat the food, we never catch any illnesses, cancers or age- EVER!" Liberty gulped.
"You mean like how some folks get hyper but others get zonked by Ritalin?" Toby asked.
"Same chemical compounds can have very different reactions to different people of differing ages," Kendra explained.
"You mean, we'll never get any older and live forever! Oh, Emma! Isn't that wonderful?" Manny squealed.
"It's not right! It's not natural! There's a whole world out there for us," Emma pleaded.
"A whole world? Look at us! We all came from very different backgrounds and would be sworn enemies out there but the Island provides everything we need- forever," Spinner beamed as he held up his spear in a salute.
Kendra and Toby looked at each other and gulped.
"Emma how many times have you railed against the world and how the environment's getting destroyed? Everything here will be perfect forever and so will we!" Manny beamed.
"Haven't you enjoyed growing things?" Terri asked.
"Yes, Terri but I'd rather plant trees to stop deserts spreading in the Sahara. Besides everyone's telling me how selfish I am but how selfish are you people? Living here and keeping the fountain of youth and the cures to all diseases and cancers to yourselves!" Emma boiled.
"Can you imagine what would happen if word got out about this place?" Manny beamed.
"We can and we have!" Jimmy groaned.
" There'd be a mass stampede here of every teen in the world that would make Florida Spring Break look like a ladies' tea!" Paige shuddered.
"There'd be wars fought and every morsel of soil and rock scooped up to analyze and duplicate whatever formula there is," Liberty groaned.
"And we'd be probed and treated worse than lab rats!" Spinner growled.
"I wouldn't say anything," Emma sighed.
"You can't leave here," Jimmy insisted.
"But my mother is. ..We were all we had for so long," Emma burst into tears.
" I know how that goes," Terri sighed as she hugged Emma.
"But Mrs. Simpson's due next month," Toby insisted.
" And Snake's worried sick,too, no doubt," Emma pleaded.
"Snake?"virtually everyone else exclaimed save Manny and Toby said.
"My stepdad, Mr. Archie Simpson. He's a teacher but he got that nickname in junior high and just about all our friends and family call him that," Emma explained.
"Oh, I know that story all too well," Sean groaned.
"What are you talking about?" Emma asked.
"My brother Travis raised me and we started a new life in Nova Scotia while he restored mastheads after our folks landed in Debtors' Prison thanks to their drunkenness. .but then he married this girl named Sarah and they had a new baby. In no time flat, they made it clear that they had a new family and I was a fifth wheel," Sean groaned.
"He ran off and became a stable boy when he was fourteen," Craig insisted.
"That's when we met in Halifax. His father was a cod exporter but he constantly brutally beat him like a carpet," Sean groaned.
"So that's why you ran away here? Why didn't you tell the authorities?"Emma asked.
"Fat lot of good that would have done. Back then, parents could do everything short of murdering their children and the law couldn't touch them,"Sean groaned.
"Since Dad had taken me away from Massachussetts to get away from the War two years before, Sean and I decided to make our way back there to enlist to fight the Redcoats," Craig explained.
"Redcoats? You mean . .. the US American Revolution?" Emma gulped.
"A storm steered our tiny fishing boat way off course and we've been here since 1780!"Sean reflected.
Emma shuddered.
"Hey! If I could court girls my age, I would but there aren't any!" Sean chuckled.
"Besides, why take pride in planting something that will long outlive you when you can stay here, plant a tree and outlive it! I planted this sapling 305 years ago!" Spinner laughed as he suddenly threw down his spear, leapt off the ground and swung on a branch of the very large oak bordering the Plaza.
"Yes, oddly enough, the water has no effects on any other animals or plants here- just humans!" Liberty insisted.
"So you've all been here centuries?" Emma gulped while everyone besides Toby, Manny and Ellie nodded.
"Yes, before you pass judgement. Sit down and hear our stories," Jimmy insisted as Emma sat down.
" The hermit. .. Marco was here before me. I think he and his partner arrived in 1493. My Papa was from Holland, Captain Willem Van Zandt. As you can probably tell, my mother was African but he loved her enough to buy her from her owner and free her. They married and to honor her freedom, she insisted he name me Liberté or Liberty in English. She died when I was a toddler and we travelled all over but mainly lived in New Amsterdam until the English took it over and changed the name to New York in 1660. In our family , household and on board Papa's ship, I was treated as a princess and he encouraged me to be as brilliant as possible. We spoke Dutch, French and English in New Amsterdam back then but the harsh reality is that the rest of the world didn't share Papa's doting affection for me. After the English took over, we both considered ourselves Dutch through and through so we decided to move back to Amsterdam but a storm wrecked our ship. Papa and the entire crew drank the water and died in agony but that water has preserved me. .and ever since then I've been using the Island's resources and whatever wreckage the sea brings in to create my own corner of the world with all its good inventions and good works but none of its bad,"Liberty explained while Emma had long since sat down.
"Liberty's lucky. Her father acknowedged and doted on her - mine didn't! I was born in the Virginia Colony in the town of Jamestown about 1662. .and yes, my father was English but my mother was from the Yoruba nation in what's now Nigeria- and she taught me the language. She told me that she'd been a princess there and one day I could go back and be king. She died when I was ten but I clung onto the dream until I was fourteen when I could stand being a slave no more so I snuck into a fishing canoe and sailed down the James River out of the Chesapeake Bay Mouth into the open Atlantic Ocean hoping to reach the Yoruba. Instead, I landed here almost starved and dying of thirst in 1676. Marco took off at that point and I didn't see the point of persuing him. Liberty was never more than my kid sister showing me around and teaching me how to survive here,"Jimmy groaned as he finished his story and Liberty rolled her eyes.
"Terri and I came here from Scotland in when we were fourteen 1681- and while I had some fun times being Jimmy's queen, I can't say I want to go back to that!" Ashley groaned.
"I was born in the Portuguese colony of Macao back in 1671. As far as I know, my biological father was a Dutch sailor and my mother a Portuguese barmaid. Anyhoo, she put me in a Portuguese orphanage at birth there and they contacted the Wangs - tea merchants in nearby Canton who'd been told by an oracle to raise a child born of distant blood. So I was named White Falcon in Chinese (which is what Gavin means in Scots) then Kendra was born two years later. You think being of mixed ancestry on the streets of New Amsterdam was tough, Liberty? Try being European in Chinese silk robes on the streets of Canton back in the 1670's! Since the Portuguese were allies of the English, they recommended my father Tsai to demonstrate how to grow tea in the new English colony of Jamaica back in 1685. We were on our way there when the storm hit ! Only Kendra and I survived. Our folks drowned with all the others on board. Jimmy made me his Viceroy and Liberty enlisted Kendra's help. Kendra learned English before I did!" Spinner sighed.
"I haven't been able to speak my mother tongues with anyone in ages so English is now all I speak. My name is Hazel (originally Hadjah ) Aden and I'm from Mogidishu in what's now Somalia! In 1685, the Portuguese conquered our city and they captured my family. Since I'd been taught Somali, Swahili and Arabic, they didn't want enslave us outright but they sent us to the Azores Islands on the other side of Africa when a storm blew the ship to the Island and I alone survived. I no longer wear the hajib headdress of old but I still pray to Mecca five times daily and avoid pork as a per my Muslim upbringing," Hazel explained.
"I was a Ukranian princess back in 1718 when the Russian Czar Peter the Great enlisted my brother to accompany his entourage on a Grand Tour of Europe and our parents decided this would be a good way to learn to appreciate home so they sent me along! We travelled to London, Paris, Amsterdam but the Czar was totally out-of-line and when my brother Dmitry grabbed the Czar's hand to keep him from grobing me, we knew our days were numbered so we fled Amsterdam in a scooner determined to start a new life in the French colonial settlement of New Orleans (since we could speak French). Instead the storm blew us off course and we landed here. .and Dmitry proved to be too old so the water poisoned him," Paige groaned.
"But we found each other," Spinner insisted while he and Paige hugged.
" Let me see if I have this straight. Marco came in 1493 fleeing Columbus's crew, Liberty in 1660 leaving New York, Jimmy in 1676 to flee Virginia slavery, Terri and Ashley 1681 from Scotland, Spinner, Kendra and Hazel in 1685 from China and Somalia respectively, Paige 1718 from Amsterdam and the Ukraine, Craig and Sean 1780 from Halifax and. .." Emma tried to put together.
"We each added crops and technologies to our Island then came Ellie," Liberty laughed.
"I was the newest kid until you four arrived. Our folks died when I was baby so my big sister Millie raised me and was the biggest flapper around! Yep, back in the 1920's- and flappers were called that on account of them wearing their galoshes unbuckled to conceal illicit booze bottles! Anyway, Charles Lindbergh flew solo to Paris in June '27 so Millie got this idea that we could fly across the Atlantic as the first women pilots- and we could smuggle in as much European booze as possible since customs would be too awed by our feat to inspect the luggage. We set out in August but Millie didn't count on the biplane needing more fuel with extra strong winds so we ran out of juice and crashed here. Millie was too old for the water and didn't survive but I did and I updated things a great deal- with my phonograph record, radio, newsreel camera and my hairdressing skills,"Ellie laughed.
"I thought I'd remembered reading about two sisters named Millie and Ellie Nash trying to fly across the Atlantic but getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Triangle! So this is what's been happening to all those missing boats and planes over the years!" Emma beamed.
"And fifteen years ago, an abandoned cargo ship with tons of computer equipment got here and we've caught up even more to the outside world!" Liberty insisted.
"But aren't you worried about satellites, planes and ships finding you?" Emma asked.
" I can answer that part!" J.T announced- having hidden himself for a time listening to everything.
"J.T.? What are you doing here?" Liberty asked.
"I was wondering the same thing- Miss Shakespeare!" J.T. laughed.
"He ran across that in the cave!" Jimmy groaned.
"The centuries we spent performing plays from that book!" Spinner groaned.
"Timeless classics," Liberty sputtered.
"Liberty, hun, while Ellie's never been my fave, I have to admit it was a relief getting to listen to new plays and songs on her radio!" Paige reflected.
"And we were able to invent our own radar back just before World War Two using those parts," Kendra insisted.
"The NAZIs tried to set up a base here but, the radar gave us warning about their ship and," Jimmy recalled.
"Let's just say, there's a reason why the cemetary has lots of German names from 1943. Hey, they'd bombed the cool city of London and were allied with the Japanese who'd taken over my hometown of Canton and wanted this Island. They didn't count on us defending it!" Spinner laughed while Emma gulped.
"We'd created our own world here! We didn't want the Outside polluting it with its bigotry," Paige insisted.
"Oh, and what do you guys call what you've done to Marco- the Hermit?" Emma boiled.
"He didn't want to be part of us and we didn't see any point in begging him," Spinner shrugged.
"He looked quite horrid with his filth and rags," Paige sniffed.
"That he's scavenged from your dump!" Emma insisted.
" Is this guy really a monster? " Ellie asked as she led him from behind one of the huts he'd been hiding behind.
"It's unbelievable! He looks like a totally new person!" Hazel exclaimed while the others gasped in amazement.
"Yeah, with my clothes and moccasins!" Sean boiled.
"You have other clean clothes. Marco doesn't. Poor thing being stuck in a hovel!" Ellie sighed.
"But why didn't you ever want to be with us?" Jimmy asked.
"You know the answer to that," Marco boiled.
"Okay, I'll admit I didn't like it when you looked at me that time but . .." Jimmy groaned.
" I didn't really mean to but I hadn't seen another man in so long," Marco shuddered.
"Hey, I'd have loved it had he looked at me!" Liberty groaned.
" You left us alone and we left you alone. What more could you ask for?" Spinner shrugged.
"Do you know what it's been like hearing your singing,joking and laughing all these centuries- knowing that I wasn't welcome to join you? Did anyone before Ellie ever ask me to join them for a simple cup of cider?" Marco said with his voice breaking.
"We didn't think you'd be interested," Paige groaned.
"You didn't want to believe I was interested!" Marco boiled.
"I'll tell you what. If the rest of the Assembly agrees, we'll vote to let you build a hut here- like these other newcomers will and. ." Jimmy pondered.
"No graci! I think I'd rather stay with my new friends over there. My side of the Island's no longer lonely,"Marco beamed to Ellie and Ashley.
"Ash, you can come back. .." Jimmy insisted.
"Maybe someday but right now I want to get to know me- and I can do that better away from everyone's prying eyes over here," Ashley insisted.
"But you're my queen," Jimmy gulped.
"What we had was great when it was fun but it's over now and if that means someone else gets the crown and I have to start from scratch. So be it," Ashley swallowed hard.
"Ashley, I'm sorry about earlier! I remember when Craig and I broke up, I felt horrible turning my back on those 150 years we had but we've become better friends than ever before and we can each move forward," Terri insisted as she clutched Ashley's hand.
"Yeah, the same thing happened when it was over with Sean and me after 170 years!" Hazel recalled.
"All this lovey-dovey talk's making me barf! We still haven't decided on what to do about Emma and the others," Paige boiled.
"I . .I'll stay but. .I just wish there was some way I could tell Mom and Snake goodbye and how much I love them and my unborn half-sibling one more time," Emma cried.
"Emma! We can't be selfish! We've got to join the others in protecting this spot from the world and vice versa," Manny insisted.
"It's amazing what Liberty and Kendra have developed. They have an anti-satellite jamming system that somehow makes this Island stay camoflaged as empty ocean to the world's satellites!" J.T exclaimed in awe.
" A few centuries of uninterrupted study and testing can be a wonderful thing- but not as good as seeing you back here!" Liberty beamed while J.T. gulped.
"But if all of us left here and didn't tell anyone about Degrassi, what would happen then?" Emma asked.
"We'd age like everyone else in the world- no faster or slower. If we tried to return here after our bodies considered us eighteen, we'd die a choking, agonizing death from the water like poor Sal did after being in the world 40 years before he returned to me," Marco groaned.
"So are you going to be with us or against us, Emma?" Jimmy asked.
Emma almost strained herself thinking very hard.
"Well, the world does need a refuge from rapists, thugs,terrorism, and pollution among a zillion other woes and I'd hate for my actions to spoil everything for everyone here and around the world. I guess I'll stay and be part of the Village- even though I'll always miss Mom and Snake," Emma groaned with a very deep sigh.
At once everyone there (including Emma's original friends) let out a big cheer as the Village proceeded to welcome them amongst them! Sean, Spinner, Jimmy and Craig tossed Emma on their shoulders and proceeded to parade her around- then did the same with Manny, J.T. and Toby (though the latter two were sure Spinner punched their shins in a subtly hostile way).
"Wow! That was amazing Kendra!" Toby beamed as the Village was restored.
"Yeah, so you don't mind me being three centuries older?" Kendra asked.
"Nah, I find older women quite alluring," Toby flirted.
"Just remember that my body's twelve and you'd better not cross the line," Kendra warned.
"I just wish I could forget about those readings," Toby groaned.
"Same here but Liberty said that it might not happen for another century. By that time, we'll build a big enough boat," Kendra insisted.
"I'm really happy you're staying- and thanks for showing us by what you did for Marco," Sean insisted as he went to hug Emma.
"I guess," Emma shuddered as she pulled back.
"What's wrong?" Sean asked.
" I just have the feeling that there has to be more to life than just sitting on an Island forever avoiding growing up- and the world. Oh, Mom!" Emma sniffed as she hugged Sean.