What day is it? And in what month?

This clock has never seemed so alive

I can't keep up and I can't back down

I've been losing so much time

"Michael." Sara called from the kitchen back door ever so softly.

Michael wasn't done processing the fact that he had a daughter. Has a daughter. He felt anger rising from the pit of his stomach. Not at the fact that he had a daughter, not at the fact that Sara kept his daughter away but at himself. He closed his eyes, finally shutting out his daughter as he tried to contain his anger at himself. The blood beat in his ears as his mind tried to rationalise this new information.

Sara stood frozen at the door; her mouth was parted in stunned surprise at the sight. The father of her child standing a few feet away from her daughter. Their daughter. And she knew that he knew, she didn't know how but she knew he did. As she swallowed thickly and tried to find the words to start one of the hardest conversations of her life, he closed his eyes. She knew what he was doing, she'd seen this trait too many times before. He was trying to rationalise. Something's don't change.

She slowly walked towards her daughter, getting down on her level. "Rory, dinner is almost ready so why don't you go in and wash up?"

The little girl turned to her mother and whispered, "Mommy, do you know Michael?"

Overcome with so much emotion, Sara's eyes shone with tears. She smiled at her daughter, nodding her head. "He was my best friend while I was growing up."

"Like Aunt Veronica and Uncle Lincoln?"

Michael's eyes snapped open at this and looked hard at Sara. But when he saw the sight in front of him, his daughter and the only woman he's ever loved conversing, a soft expression replaced the hurt he felt knowing Veronica and Lincoln knew this and kept it from him.

Sara stood up and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Go in, Meema is waiting for you."

Aurora nodded at her mother's request and walked two steps before turning back around. "Would you like to have dinner with us, Michael?"

Michael weakly smiled, "Maybe."

Aurora flashed him a grin that she clearly inherited from her mother before disappearing into the kitchen leaving him all alone with Sara.

Michael looked at her looking at him, her lips parted but nothing came out. Okay I'll go first.

"Sara."

Sara placed both hands on her hips, ready to lay it on him. But lay what on him? She was the one who had the power to tell him about his daughter. Now she just felt guilty as hell.

He had no idea how long he had been trying to process the fact that he had a daughter, but he decide that it was now or never. It was time for him to face up to the truth and for a brief moment he tried to persuade himself that Sara and Aurora had their lives and he had his. That there was no good reason for him to disrupt their lives, but he knew he was only trying to make himself better.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked softly.

Anger, she decided had replaced the guilt she felt a moment a go. "You have some nerve!". She was seething, "The next day, when I went over to your empty house, I sat on the porch and called you, but you'd already disconnected your number." Sara could no longer hold it in, she felt tears streaming down her face, "The following weeks, I wrote to you and you didn't even write me back. God, even Lincoln did not want anything to do with me. You left me!" She was now shouting, and she didn't care. It felt good to get this out of her. Ten years was long enough.

Michael felt even more guilt, he got her letters. He just never opened them. He bowed his head in shame.

"I kept writing to you, hoping that maybe you got the letters, but you just weren't responding because you were still hurting over your mom. I got that! But when I found out I was pregnant, and I wrote to you and you didn't reply... I just thought maybe, he doesn't want me, he doesn't want this baby, so I got tired and I stopped. I had to move on because constantly being stressed and depressed wasn't healthy for the baby. I didn't want anything to happen to her. She's the only thing I had left of you." Sara confessed.

Michael felt the knife twist in his heart. To finally hear from Sara that Aurora is indeed his, cut through him. What have I done?

Sara wiped her tears away furiously, hoping her daughter won't hear this conversation but she knew her parents would not allow this. "But here we are now Michael."

"I am sorry Sara, more than you'll ever know." And he meant it. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you… for Aurora." His blue eyes remained sad as they searched her face. Surely, somewhere within her, she knew that he was being truthful.

Sara knew he was being sincere, maybe he's not changed much after all. "How could you have been, you didn't know you had a daughter." Wait. She narrowed her eyes, "You didn't know, right?"

He shook his head, "The letters you sent, I got them. But I didn't have the courage to open them and now I'll regret that for the rest of my life." His head was spinning, he had to sit down. He fell back into the cast iron bench that they had, the very same bench he and Sara shared their first kiss.

After a beat, Sara joined him. "Tell me about her."

Sara looked up and met his eyes, smiling at the subject of their daughter. "What do you want to know?"

"Anything and everything." He said greedily. Sara knew he realised how much he's missed in his daughter's life.

"Well that could take a while you know." She teased. Merely a few minutes ago she was ready curse him till the end of time but when it came to her daughter she softened. "She's got your eyes... your shyness and very artistic, like you. Mom always said she reminded her of you more than me."

Michael chuckled. "Funny. She reminded me of you tonight."

"She speaks her mind, tells people how it is when she wants to. Tremendously blunt dad would say."

Michael's smile faded away at the mention of her dad, he was sure that the old man is very cross with him. And you did not want to cross Frank Tancredi, especially when it came to his family.

Sara saw his face drop at the mention of her dad, "My parents, they were great and surprisingly supportive. At first dad was very mad, he wanted to drag your ass back." She chuckled. "They helped me so much and I couldn't have done it without them."

For the first time, she looked at him. Really looked at him, he'd not changed much just aged. But aged well. This boy, man, still had a spell casted on her. She'd felt this spell since she was fifteen, she knew then that she was in love with him but kept it a secret, not wanting to lose him. Sadness returned to her face, she lost him anyways. But he's back now, maybe there is still hope.

"Sara, I want contact. I want to see and get to know my daughter." He pleaded, the desperation in his voice caught her attention.

She raked her fingers though her hair, contemplating on what to say next. While she was elated that he wanted to see Aurora, she couldn't help but worry. If this goes wrong and he decides to leave again it would break her daughter's heart and she did not want that. But how can she not give him a chance. Give Aurora chance to get to know her father, god knows she needed her father in her life. It had been the first in a long while when a few days ago that she asked about her father.

He was like a storm.

He was beautiful and frightening and mysterious.

And he would show up in your life out of the clear blue sky and then he would disappear just as quickly.

They'd been at a fundraiser at her hospital in the children's wing. All the children were joined by their family, sat scattered around the wing. Aurora had looked up to a child hysterically laughing after being tickled by her father. Sara could not forget the look of sadness in Aurora's eyes as she asked why her daddy didn't love her like that. It broke Sara's heart as she tried to explain that her daddy loved her but he just didn't know about her yet because he had to go far, far away. It seemed to satisfy her, but Sara knew Aurora had Michael's mind, his process of thinking and it would appease her but only for a short while.

"Do you really?" she asked.

He nodded, "I'm ready to leave New York. It's been on my mind for a while, and it's about time we went through with the firm's expansion."

"Firm?"

"I have an engineering firm based in New York, it's not massive but we're doing well enough to expand."

Sara couldn't help but pry more, "It's easy as that? Leaving New York." What she really wanted to know is his entire life in the City. Was a he a workaholic? Who did he spend his leisure time with...

"There's nothing for me there, especially now Linc and Vee have moved back here." He studied her face; he knew deep down what she was trying to get at. "I've not been with anyone else since." And this was the truth. He couldn't, not after her. Sure, there were women that showed their interest. Some were way too forward for his liking. It's not like he didn't try, he just couldn't with anyone else.

She looked down, trying to hide her smile. Somewhat pleased to hear that he wasn't with anyone else. "Me too." She looked up and her eyes softened. "Men don't exactly clamour over a woman who has a baby but that's okay. She's all I need."

How could she say that, Michael thought. But then again he was glad.

"We'll need to talk to Aurora together first. Tell her who you are."

Michael nodded his head as his blue eyes sparkled, like her baby girl's when she was excited. "When do you want to talk to her?"

"Well, were going to the Millennium Park tomorrow, if you wanted to join us?" she asked shyly.

Michael smiled and nodded excitedly, "Of course, I'd love to join you both." Michael paused for a second, Sara had no idea how grateful he was at this opportunity. "This means a lot to me Sara, that you would trust me after I've let you down so badly…"

Sara shook her head and sought for his hand, "If we're going to do this, we need to move pass the past. I know you won't let Aurora down, will you?"

Michael couldn't blame her for being cautious. "I promise." And he meant it. Letting Sara and his child down just wasn't an option for him, it couldn't be. Not anymore.