Emily woke up and had a moment of blissful ignorance where she almost couldn't remember why her heart felt like it had been run over by a tractor trailer. Almost. It didn't last long, though, before everything came crashing down around her in a stark reminder of everything that had happened.

She rolled over to find Lucy sitting up in bed, her gaze far off and vacant, like her mind was a million miles away. "Lucy?" she whispered.

Lucy whipped around sharply, brows knitting together, as if she'd only just realized she wasn't alone in the world. "Morning," she whispered. She didn't say that it was good...it wasn't. She attempted a smile, but it was hollow.

"Why are you staring at the wall?" Emily asked.

She heaved a sigh, shrugged. "I was going to get up and make breakfast, but I just couldn't...make myself move." Another sigh. "Do you want something to eat?"

Emily groaned. "I don't think my stomach can handle food right now..."

"You should really try to eat something," she insisted, "Even just something light. You're still recovering from the birth and you didn't eat anything last night."

Before she could protest, though, there was a knock on the bedroom door, followed by Aurora and Clara poking their heads into the room. "Waffles?" Aurora said, looking at her mothers with something like sadness shining in her eyes.

Declan followed shortly after, carrying a tray of food. "We thought you guys might want to get some rest, so we made breakfast for you," he said. "And by we, I mean the kitchen is a mess...but I'll clean it up."

Emily frowned. "Dec, I thought you said you had a date today," she said. "Aren't you going to be late?"

"I'm not going," he said with a little shrug.

"What? Why not?" Lucy asked.

He shook his head as he helped Aurora climb onto the bed so she could sneak food off the tray. "I just don't think it's a good time," he said, "You'll need the help with the girls and...I don't know...I guess I just don't feel like it."

Lucy and Emily shared a look. "Dec, you don't need to put your life on hold for us," Emily said. "The girls aren't your responsibility and neither are we. You should go on your date."

Declan didn't seem convinced.

"We're not going to push you to go," Emily insisted, "But you can't stop living your life because..." She trailed off, apparently unable to say the words. "You have to keep going." He seemed like he would've liked to argue the matter further, but Emily wasn't hearing it. "Please go? I'll feel better if I know that you didn't miss an opportunity because of us..."

He sighed in concession. "I'll go," he reluctantly agreed. "But only because it will make you happy." (Happy, of course, being a relative term here. None of them was understandably all that happy, given, well...everything. And who could blame them?)

Aurora piped up in her little voice once again. "Waffles, Mama?"

"Sure, Sunny," Emily said, "You can have the waffles. I'm not hungry."

She shook her little head. "No, Mama waffles."

When Declan returned home, the house was starkly silent and he was briefly concerned. He wandered from room to room in search of the girls, finding every room barren...until he arrived at the nursery, which is where he found Emily.

She was rocking slowly in the rocking chair, staring off into space, the blanket Garcia had knit for Kody sitting in her lap.

"Emily?" Declan said softly, stepping further into the room. "Are you okay?"

She wasn't, but she nodded anyway. "You're home early," she said instead. "How was your date?"

He nodded, shrugged his shoulders up near his ears, plunging his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "It was fine, I guess."

"You guess?" she repeated.

He nodded again, chewing his lip as if debating how much of the truth to share. "I don't think he'll call me again," he admitted at length.

Emily's brows shot up her forehead as if unable to believe anyone wouldn't want to date Declan. "Why not?" she asked.

"I guess I wasn't really very good company." A beat. "It kind of puts a damper on things when you start off the date by mentioning that you just lost your baby brother..."

"Oh, Dec..." Emily whispered sadly. She reached out her arms, a silent invitation for a hug, if he wanted one.

He gratefully accepted the embrace, holding Emily just as tightly as she held him – though, for whose benefit, he couldn't have said. "It's fine," he insisted. "I wasn't really in a romantic mood anyway."

She nodded, understanding completely. "It's hard to want to feel anything other than sad," she said quietly, "To feel anything else feels...wrong, somehow. It feels disrespectful to his memory."

"Emily, I can't imagine how you must be hurting," Declan murmured, his heart breaking for the woman he'd come to think of as a mother. "I wish this hadn't happened to you."

"Me too, Dec," she agreed, sadness flickering in her eyes.

Then, seeming to sense that she needed a change in subject, he asked, "Where are Lucy and the girls?"

"They were getting a little stir crazy, so Lucy took them for a walk," she explained. "I think it will do all three of them some good to get out of the house."

"How's Lucy doing?" Declan asked. He knew that she was doing her best to stay strong for Emily, but he also knew that Emily saw through her attempts as clear as glass.

Emily shook her head sadly. "I feel like I let her down," she admitted, voice barely there at all.

Declan embraced her once again, all the tighter this time. "Emily..." he started to say.

She didn't give him the chance to finish the thought. "I know, logically, it's not true, but..." She trailed off, shook her head. "I can't help it. There's no one else to blame."