Being surrounded by everyone's family was making Emily decidedly nostalgic for days she wasn't entirely sure had ever truly existed...days when her family was together and happy and whole. It was a strange feeling, to yearn for something she could barely remember existing, if it ever had at all.

And, as she watched everyone playing board games together, like one big happy family, she couldn't help but think of her own family, small and broken as it was. Before she knew what she was doing, before she had the chance to evaluate whether it was altogether wise, she had pulled her phone from her pocket and was dialing her mother's number.

She had only the briefest of moments to realize she was making a huge mistake before her mother answered with a clipped, "Prentiss speaking."

For a moment, Emily froze, her mind going completely blank.

"Hello?" her mother said.

"Mother," Emily said, finally finding her tongue, "We need to talk."

"Emily, it's two AM in Paris," she said pointedly. "Can this truly not wait for a more decent hour?"

Inhaling slowly, Emily bolstered her nerve and insisted, "No, it can't."

Elizabeth sighed wearily. "Go on, then. What is so very important?"

"Me, Mother," she snapped, surprising even herself with her vehemence. "Or, at least, I should have been..."

"What are you getting at?" Elizabeth asked, tone frosty, almost dangerously so.

Emily balled her fingers up at her side, tightly enough to turn her knuckles white. "You robbed me of my relationship with my father. You robbed me of my childhood. You took away everything that made me happy in your quest to turn me into a little clone of you."

She could almost hear her mother's eye roll over the phone. "You've always been so dramatic, Emily..."

"I'm being serious, Mother," she snapped, "I deserved to have two parents – you made me think Daddy didn't want me, that he was the one who shut me out, but it was just you he didn't want!"

If her earlier tone had been dangerous, this time it was downright deadly. "Watch your tongue, Emily. I did what was best for you."

"No, you did what was best for you!"

Before Emily had the chance to say anything more, Elizabeth said a curt, "Goodbye, Emily." Then, she hung up the phone.

For a few moments, Emily just stood there, staring at her phone in stunned silence...only to be startled by a hand landing on her shoulder. She whipped around to find Alex standing there, looking concerned. "Everything okay?" she asked gently.

Emily nodded, shook her head, nodded again. "I don't know," she admitted. "I just wanted an apology. Hell, even an acknowledgement that she made a mistake... But she can't ever admit that she was wrong." She didn't specify who she was...she didn't have to.

"I'm sorry," Alex murmured. Then, she gently pulled Emily into her chest, just holding her for a few moments, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back. "You don't deserve that."

In spite of herself, Emily let out a little sob. Then another, this one more of a laugh than anything else. "It's funny," she said, though she didn't sound all that amused, "I came here begrudgingly because I'm the only living relative my father had, thinking the universe was punishing me somehow. Instead, I found more of a family than I ever thought I could have."

Gently extending her to arm's length, Alex reached up to cup Emily's cheek, smudging a tear away with her thumb. "You are family," she insisted. "Not just because you're Joe's daughter or because you and I are...well..." She trailed off, shook her head. "You're family because we want you to be."

Emily didn't seem entirely convinced.

"You know what... Ethan is busy destroying everyone at Monopoly...why don't you and I take a walk?" she suggested.

Emily and Alex walked hand in hand down to the grazing paddock in companionable silence. Emily, for her part, didn't seem to know what to say...feeling like whenever she did speak, she always said the wrong thing.

It was Alex who broke the silence first, saying softly, "You know, no matter what happens – whether you sell the ranch, whether you go back to London, you're still going to be a part of our little family."

"What?" Emily said breathlessly, not having anticipated that.

Alex offered her a gentle smile. "I know that you feel like when you leave her, that we'll never see each other, never speak to each other...because that's what it's always been like for you. Ever since you left the ranch with your mother, you were never able to maintain a relationship with anyone you left behind."

Emily's mouth hung open slightly for a few moments as she tried to remember whether she'd told that to Alex or whether she was just exceedingly good at reading people. "Well, I mean... I just..." she struggled to find words.

"Who knows?" Alex continued, "Maybe one day Ethan and I will visit London and you can show us around the city." She laughed softly. "Of course, Ethan may never want to leave once he's tried British chocolate – I hear it's much sweeter than American candy."

Emily couldn't help but laugh at that. "He does have quite the sweet tooth..."

Alex smiled, nodded. "What I'm saying is...please don't think we'll forget you when you go. We could never do that."

And, the only way she could think of to adequately express her gratitude was to lean forward and capture her lips in a tender kiss. "I love you too, you know?" she whispered when she pulled back. "And I know you didn't mean to say that the other day, but...well, I do too." She felt her cheeks flame with embarrassment as she struggled to remember a time she'd ever felt quite so vulnerable...or a time she wasn't absolutely terrified of being so vulnerable. Because, with Alex, it didn't feel dangerous, didn't feel like she was ever going to regret bearing her heart.