A/N: Sorry it took so long...I've been swimming all week.
"Now that wasn't that bad, was it?" Mike asked on the way back to the Mayer's.
"Not really." Emma admitted, leaning back in her seat. "The food was good."
Mike laughed. "I meant meeting Noah and Kendra."
"Oh, well, they're all right." she replied, unbuckling her seatbelt as he pulled up in front of the Mayer house. She got out of the truck and waved as Mike's car pulled away. Sighing, she headed into the house and called out "Hey, I'm back!"
Susan came into the living room. "Hey, how'd it go?"
Emma hesitated for a moment, thinking of saying something about her little episode in the bathroom; before saying "Oh, it was good. They're both really nice." while avoiding Susan's gaze.
So caught up in her own thoughts of Mike and his letter, Susan didn't pick up on Emma's obvious worry and just smiled. "That's great, sweetie."
Emma smiled back and headed upstairs to Julie's room. Julie immediately turned when she entered. "Oh, hey Emma." she greeted.
"Hey." Emma replied, plopping down on Julie's bed. "What's up?"
"I'm bored."
"Me too." Emma paused, noticing a DVD case open on Julie's computer desk. "What's that?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, come on. I know its something."Emma pressed.
"Fine. You swear you won't say anything?"
"Of course."
Julie threw the case at Emma. "My favorite movie."
"Oh my God, mine too!" Emma exclaimed.
"You're not serious."
"Totally. The Parent Trap is awesome."
"You wanna watch it?" Julie suggested.
"Sure." Emma replied with a shrug.
Julie turned on the movie and they were both completely caught up in it. "I love this part." Emma mumbled near the end of the movie.
"Emma...you said you knew what happened with Mike." Julie started, looking over at her.
Confused, Emma nodded. "Vaguely. Why?"
"If I asked you to tell me what happened, would you?" she continued nervously. "Hypothetically, of course." she added quickly.
"Um, yeah. I mean, I don't know a lot of the details. It would probably be better just to read the letter Mike gave your mom."
"There's only the small detail that the letter was addressed to Mom and she's kept it under constant surveillance since Mike gave it back." Julie pointed out.
"You're right." Emma sighed. "All I know about it is that he did whatever he did to a cop that was threatening his life, and my mom's."
"That really is vague." Julie commented.
"Which is exactly what I told you."
"It must be too graphic for details."
"I have no idea. Sorry." Emma said quietly.
"Its okay, I'm just really annoyed with my mom. If she wants to know what happened so bad, why doesn't she just read the stupid letter!"
"We could take the letter and reseal it." Emma suggested maliciously.
"My mom would kill me."
"Yeah..."
"It was a good thought, though."
Emma managed a quiet laugh. Julie sighed. "How can we get her to read that letter?"
"I don't know. She's your mom."
"You tell her!"
"Huh?"
"Tell her what you told me, that it was about a cop threatening Mike and your mom!" Julie replied, obviously excited. "She'll get back together with him and everything will be back to normal!"
"But she doesn't trust him." Emma said. "Unless he tells her what happened and she can believe his side of the story, they shouldn't be dating at all."
"What are you talking about?"
"What if something else like this comes up? What if Mike has another secret he doesn't think of when they're back together? Then all of this crap is gonna repeat, or she's gonna end up stalking him and driving him off."
Julie was silent for a moment before speaking again. "You just don't get how unhappy she is when she's not with him. She mopes around here and barely talks to anyone. The one date she went on since the breakup she spent the entire time talking about Mike, got the poor guy fired, and got into a car accident."
"She spent the whole time talking about Mike?" Emma laughed. "Poor guy."
"She kept it going for hours."
Emma took a deep breath to calm her laughter. "We have to get her to read that letter!" she sighed, flopping onto Julie's bed dejectedly. "Or noone in Fairview will ever survive a date again."
Julie smiled, both trying to think of a way to get Susan to trust Mike again.
Poker that night had been rescheduled to five because all the women had conflicting plan for the day. When five finally rolled around, Susan stuck Mike's half-open envelope on the refrigerator and prepared for the rush. Emma came down stairs for some water as Edie entered the house. "Hey, Mrs. Mayer, where are the cups?" Emma asked from the kitchen.
"Um, in the cabinet to the left of the refrigerator." Susan called back while searching the living room for a deck of cards. Emma exited the kitchen and ran straight into Edie. She froze.
"No way." Edie muttered under her breath.
"Um, hi, Edie." Emma said nervously.
"You've been here all this time! What the hell is your problem! Do you have any idea how worried they've been about you!"
Emma shrugged.
"I'm calling my parents and telling them you're here." Edie announced, pulling out her cell phone.
"I never liked you." Emma snapped, crossing her arms across her chest. This was all being done way too fast.
Susan entered the room and stared at Edie.
"What's going on out here?" she demanded.
"She ran away from home, my parent's house. They've been out of their minds for days trying to find her. Well, more than usual anyway." Edie let out a small, girly laugh and began to dial.
"Wait." Susan said quickly. Emma let out a deep breath.
Edie ignored her and kept dialing.
"She's Mike's, Edie."
Edie paused in her dialing. "Mike doesn't have any children. I thought you, of all people, should know that." She pushed another button and held the phone to her ear. Emma suddenly had an idea. "Fine. Call them. But when they call me, I'm, going to tell Mom and Dad exactly where you're staying; and how desperately you want them to visit you. I'm sure they'd be so proud."
Edie paused and hung up the phone in disgust.
"I just knew you'd see it my way." Emma said sarcastically. Susan stared at Emma in amazement, but she just smiled like it was nothing. "I'm going upstairs. If she tries to call, tell me." Emma headed for the stairs. "It sure was great seeing you again, Edie." she called cheerfully over her shoulder.
"Wench." Edie muttered, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
Susan swallowed her grin as her three other friends: Gabrielle, Bree, and Lynette; arrived at the house.
"Susan's been harboring another runaway." Edie announced drily halfway through the game.
Gabrielle looked up from her cards in confusion. "Huh?"
Susan glared over at Edie.
"I thought you learned your lesson when Zach Young was here hiding out from a mental institution." Lynette commented.
"This is different." Susan leaned forward to capture her friends' attention. "She's Mike's daughter."
"I didn't think Mike had any children." Bree replied, trying not to look confused.
"I didn't think so either, but apparently he does. Emma was hiding up in Julie's room; and when she got caught she told me Mike was her father. They've already met and everything." She sounded excited.
"You sound excited." Bree observed with a smile.
Susan smiled. "I am." She paused before hastily adding "For Mike, of course. He's always wanted kids."
Gabrielle and Lynette exchanged knowing looks, but said nothing; both just smirking down at their cards smugly.
After poker that night, Susan sighed and took the envelope off the refrigerator. Julie and Emma watched in fearful anticipation as Susan slid a piece of paper out of the envelope and began to read it. She put it down after about five seconds, groaning. Emma hung her head and Julie buried her face in her hands. "We need to stage some kind of intervention." Julie decided. "This could take years."
"We can't make Mike or your mom go through that." Emma agreed. "We need a plan."
"I think I have the perfect inspiration." Julie said deviously, dangling a DVD case towards Emma. Emma returned the grin and followed Julie up the stairs, hoping that this would work.
After watching The Parent Trap for the second time, Julie and Emma both deliriously agreed that Mike and Susan totally belonged together; and each of them would do anything to make that happen. Neither of them had any way of knowing that fate had other plans for the two girls that week.
A/N; So that's the long-awaited(hopefully:) update. Please review and I'll try to have Ch 6 up ASAP!