AN: Hello lovely readers! Merry Christmas to you and Happy News Years etc! I haven't posted for this story in a while, so I hope there is still at least a few people following it :) Also, I'm actually unaware of how beta readers work, but if there is anyone who would be interested in either acting as a beta reader for me, or pointing me in the right direction for finding one, that would be lovely! I struggle greatly with editing and therefore, as most of you have undoubtedly noticed, there are several errors in my stories that I have missed. Anyhow, enjoy!

Chapter 2

"I want to know who my dad is, no matter the past." Emma said softly, "If that's ok with you. I think second chances are beautiful, and I've had so many, why shouldn't you? Besides, I really have thought a lot about this, and there are so many reasons why. I mean, Jackie never got that chance with her dad, and she wishes she had..."

"Ok. If you're sure that's what you want Emma, I'd be thrilled to get to know my little girl again." Greg said with great emotion, wrapping his daughter into a warm hug and silently thanking the heavens that she was back in his life.

Emma flopped on her bed and made a noise that sounded like a horse sighing. Staring at the white ceiling she suppressed an inward groan at the thought of school starting in less that a week, not to mention she was home and not with Jackie anymore and she wouldn't be able to spend time with her dad or even talk to him without being sneaky.

It had been a great couple of weeks. Her dad had been humbly overjoyed that she wanted to reconnect with him, unfortunately their reunion and tour had been interrupted when the team got a 'hot call' and they had to leave. Emma had been very disappointed that her time had been cut short. She and Jackie were to be headed to a camp near Huntsville within the next few days and then she was headed back to Dallas after that. Jackie's mom had picked them up and taken them shopping for the rest of the afternoon for things they needed for camp, and Emma had felt incredibly gloomy the entire time. Jackie tried her best to keep her happy, and Emma herself tried to find the highlights of the situation, but it didn't change the fact that she would have liked to stayed with her dad longer. However, Greg Parker wasn't about to let his daughter slip away so easily and that evening just after dinner the phone rang. Jackie's mother talked for a long time with the person on the other end before handing the phone to Emma saying it was her dad.

Smiling at the memory, Emma remembered thinking it was her step-dad, not Greg so that when she spoke into the phone she had been less than enthusiastic. Greg had found this to be rather amusing, especially when Emma realized her mistake and quickly tried to make him understand why she had sounded the way she did. They spent a long time talking over the phone. They talked about the basics, like favorite food, color, music, movies, all the things that he would have known if he had never been separated from her life. Much to Emma's frustration, Greg told her that there were legal problems in the way of her being allowed to directly spend time with him with out her mothers' consent (until she was sixteen). After hearing her discouraged and upset reaction, Greg had then promised to bend the rules ever so slightly and see her one more time before she went back to Dallas. And true to his word, she had seen him again when he and Spike gave the girls a ride home from camp. She had been so surprised and excited, finding it so amazing that he had kept his word.

Emma scowled. It wasn't fair. She wanted to spend time with her dad, but yet again, her mother was controlling her life in some way. And asking her mum's permission to see her dad was out of the question. She was lucky that Jackie's mother was cool enough to keep the part about Emma seeing her dad out of the list of things that had been going on when she spoke to Emma's mum just before Emma headed home. There would have been major fireworks otherwise.

Rolling dramatically off the bed with an odd groaning noise and making a loud thud on the ground, Emma dragged herself up and began to unpack her bags.

"What are you doing in here? You sound like a wounded cow!" said Dean from the doorway. Emma looked over her shoulder and grinned at him. He returned the smile and then wandered aimlessly into her room. "I mean really, it was way quieter without you here. I was kinda hoping you might get carried off by a pack of wolves at that camp of yours."

Emma threw her bag of dirty laundry at him. "Well, I think they would have been better company than a lame brother who bugs me all the time. So there!" She stuck her tongue out at him and the yelped and giggled when he smacked her in the head good naturedly with a pillow.

"So, you didn't write much in your letters home...oh that's right, you didn't write any at all!" he said, sitting on the edge of her bed. "How was camp, is Jackie still a mad scientist in the making, did you meet any polar bears?"

"Ugh! Dean! There are no polar bears at camp!" said Emma rolling her eyes, "And yes, I'm sorry for not writing, but it isn't like you sent any mail either! Camp was fun. I took archery and rock climbing, discovered I have a fear of heights, but stuck it out anyways and managed to climb most of the walls. Ooh, and it wasn't like an indoor wall or anything, a real rock face out in the woods! Cool right? But yea, I got braver towards then end. Couldn't do the zip-line though, I had to climb back down the ladder."

"Oooo, archery. So are you like a crazy awesome Elf now like from Lord of the Rings?" Dean proceeded to act out being Legolas from the movies making Emma laugh.

"No, but I did get pretty good at hitting the target near the bull's-eye. We had a shoot off at the end of the week and my team won though!"

"Nice! So what else did you do?"

"Well, we played this awesome game of capture the flag in the dark at one point, and one girl who was really really not impressed with the whole, being at camp and getting dirty thing fell right on her front in the mud! I feel bad now, but we laughed so hard. She actually was a pretty good sport about it by the end there though. The theme this week was pretty cool, it was pirates and we had a big battle against all the cabin leaders at the end with water balloons...yea, just another average summer. How were things here?"

Dean stood up and started pacing the room, indicating to Emma that things hadn't been totally fine.

"They weren't bad. But they aren't great either." Dean paused and fidgeted slightly before sighing continuing. "Look, I should have told you sooner about this, but a couple of months ago, just after he came to Dallas our dad filed a law-suit that'll make it so we have to see him. I didn't want to tell you cause I thought it might upset you."

Emma looked at her brother in a strange sort of calm trance. So Greg had been fighting harder for them even before she went to see him. Then annoyance pricked in her mind at the fact that Dean was trying to make decisions for her now by not giving her all the information about a situation that affected her as well as him. Shaking the feeling aside, Emma said, "Oh, I see. So I'm guessing that has been making mum pretty stressed and wild these days then?"

"Yeah, you could say that. I mean, she isn't losing it or anything, but I can really tell it's bothering her. I don't like it either! I mean really, why should we have to see this guy we hardly know, who mum took us away from for good reason, just because he's biologically our father? Matt has been more of a dad to us than this guy has!" Dean said passionately, picking up a small stress ball from Emma's desk and bouncing it against the wall. Emma remained silent for a while. She could understand why Dean felt the way he did about their dad, but she didn't realise how much he really didn't feel any desire to know the man. Part of her really wanted to tell Dean about her encounter at the SRU, but then the other part told her to keep it quiet, that he wouldn't understand.

"I don't know, maybe he isn't so bad?" was all she would think of to say.

"Seriously?" said Dean, "I just wish he could leave us alone. I like my life here."

"Really? Because right before I left to go to Jackie's you said you wanted something new to happen and that life was boring, and that there where certain areas that you felt Matt doesn't understand where you are coming from." challenged Emma. Dean frowned at her and was about to say something when they heard Matt calling them from downstairs for dinner.

The meal was fairly pleasant, Emma was allowed to recount various tales and adventures that she had with Jackie without her mother interrupting too often or anyone becoming disinterested. Unfortunately, Emma found that the more she talked about camp and her summer adventures, the more she really hated the idea of returning to school. More than that, she hated to idea of going back to school cloths shopping the next day with her mother. That never went well. They always ended up grumpy with each other because they could never agreed on anything. Lapsing into silence and pretending to listen to her step dad talk about some interesting business trip he took, Emma's mind wandered back to what Dean had mentioned about the law-suit. In truth it actually made Emily happy and hopeful that her dad would win and then she could see him again without her mom getting super angry with her. It sucked that she wasn't even really supposed to call him, but Emma was determined to stay in contact no matter what. She would find a way.

The next few days passed to quickly for Emma's liking, and before she knew it, she was sitting at a desk in a stuffy classroom listening to her teacher drone on and on about the rules and expectations for that year. By the end of the first day, she knew it was going to be a difficult year.

Her teacher didn't seem to like her at all and even humiliated her openly in front of the class for not knowing some irrelevant fact, there was a new group of girls in her grade that reminded her of the movie Mean Girls, and she was stuck sitting with the most annoying boy even. To top it off three out of her four friends had transferred to different schools suddenly, and the last friend, who was in a different class, was moving to New York in the next month. Emma understood the politics of primary school well enough to know that getting into a new group of friends while in the eighth grade would be next to impossible. Everyone had their clique's already and were unwilling to upset the balance of their small domains to break in a new member. The next days did not improve anything. The 'Mean Girls', Cleo, Trish and Taylor, had swiftly took it upon themselves to make Emma's life wretched. The worst part was, they were so sly and subtle about it that Emma could never make a proper case against them to get them in trouble if she wanted. It was all in the snide comments, the whispering and mocking looks. The most unpleasant was during gym class when the nasty girls managed to make Emma look even worse at everything than she already was, 'accidentally' tripping her up, earning her more humiliation from her teacher. By the end of the week, Emma was quickly deciding she hated school and half-seriously contemplated running away to Canada.

She kept quiet about everything though, knowing that the issues of bullying were seldom solved by involving ones parents, or a teacher who already disliked you. Ordinarily, if it had been any other year when all her school friends were still there, Emma wouldn't have had a problem dealing with the three. However, without the assurance of having friends backing you up against the dragons, Emma felt her courage and self confidence wavering quickly. Each time she managed to over come one of their attacks, holding her head high and confident, Taylor, Trish and Cleo would find a new way to torment her. Over the long weeks, school became an exhausting battleground, and despite being a more mature teen, Emma was still only thirteen, and the sting of cruel words and actions cut her deeply, even when she knew in her heart they don't matter.

The only thing that truly keep her from becoming too overcome with frustration over these happenings were frequent phone calls with Jackie, and hours spent helping out at the riding stables. She went almost four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and most every Saturday. The owner of the stables, Susan, was a friend of Matt's family. She was a wonderfully kind woman who let Emma come as often as she wanted to ride, clean out stalls, clean tack, and groom and fed the horses. She even essentially gave Emma one of her old retired ponies to care for as her own and arranged for transportation so she could come more often to the barn.

Helen (Emma's mother), had been terribly opposed to the idea of Emma learning to ride and very nearly refused to let her go anywhere near the barn, but Matt once again had a hand in gaining Emma's freedom. They would not pay for lessons, but Emma was allow to ride if she wanted to work at the barn in exchange for lessons. It was the best arrangement ever in the young girls' mind. She loved the work dearly. She loved learning how to hold her ground, standing up to the more pushy horses and getting them to respect her. She loved the smell of the hay, the shavings and dust. And she learn many valuable lessons that did not only include instruction on how to ride and care for horses.

It was within those walls, in that riding ring that Emma learned how to quiet her frustrations when things didn't go well and calmly train her mind to the task at hand rather than blowing up. It was in those stalls that she learned how to be both gentle and firm with the beasts. In those years of learning, Emma learned to fall and get up, fail and try again and again. Finally, the most important thing she learned there was how to be brave in the face of danger, even if you are terrified. This was were she flourished, happy and free. She could forget about the torments of school and dream away her evening peacefully doing her homework around creatures that were much less complicated and more honest than people.

On day, arriving home after a particularly unpleasant day at school, Emma was greeted by her mother as she came in the door, informing her they would be headed to Toronto that weekend to visit Aunt Shelby. Emma was overjoyed and immediately wanted to know if she could visit Jackie too.

"I suppose so," Helen sighed reluctantly then added sincerely, "I am glad that you have such a good friend. It's not easy to maintain a friendship like yours over long-distance, especially at your age..."

Emma was surprised at that. Helen seemed to criticise Jackie at every opportunity and very seldom encouraged her friendship with the girl. But perhaps her mother had finally changed her mind and saw how much Emma needed Jackie. The woman was always busy these days and rarely had a chance to properly talk to her daughter about the events of her life, but Helen, like any good mother, had noticed the heavy weight that seem to sit upon her child's shoulders. Although she had difficulty expressing it in such a way that Emma would understand, Helen did worry about her girl and desperately wished they could understand each other. However both were stubborn and proud, refusing to mend the rift that was growing over time with each disagreement.

Emma blazed through the rest of the week happily, coasting on the knowledge that she would be seeing her best friend in only a few days. She also had a growing hope that she would be able to see her dad too some how. They hadn't spoken since the car ride home from camp and Emma was growing anxious to do so. Not daring to make a phone call to him since her parents would notice it on the phone bill, she bounced around with the idea of trying email instead...but she didn't have an address for him and Jackie hadn't asked Spike yet to give her one. Facebook was out of the question since Dean was be able to see who she was 'friends' with. It frustrated her to not end since she felt sure that if she could just talk to Greg about everything happening at school, he would somehow understand why she didn't want to involve her mom and have some way to make everything better. She hoped that Jackie had some ideas of how to get her back to see her dad, since Emma herself had run through various ideas and was at a loss.

At long last, the trip to Toronto was underway and they arrived at their Aunt's house. Emma couldn't help but notice that Dean was unusually quiet and moody the entire trip over, even snapping at her a few times. She couldn't help be feel relieved that she would be rid of him while she went to visit Jackie.

Her visit was a little disappointing however, since Jackie was getting over a bad cold and not allowed to leave the house. Thus the plans they had made to go to the SRU were foiled and they reluctantly sat together at Jackie's house eating pizza, talking and watching movies. The one good thing that came of the visit (other than being able to spend time with her best friend that is) was the bag of tricks that Jackie sent home with Emma.

"Just in case you decide to take your revenge against someone from school...or Dean for whatever reason." she had said, grinning mischievously.

Emma was unenthusiastic to go back to her aunts, knowing it would be boring and that Dean was in a bad mood. Upon entering the house, she could hear the sounds of an argument in the dinning room.

"I cannot believe that Dean would do such a thing!" exclaimed her mother angrily, "What was he thinking going there, and then deciding to wait around!"

"Helen, he's a big boy, old enough to make his own decisions." said Matt patiently, "I'm sure there is a good explanation for why he lied to us about going to see the movie and went to the SRU instead!"

"If that...that man so much as causes an ounce of disappointment-" said Helen furiously, unable to finish her sentence and choking on her words.

"Calm down Helen, for pete's sake women! I doubt Greg Parker would be the chief sergeant of the best team in the SRU if he was still the man he used to be. And it's Dean's decision anyway, he's a smart boy Helen, give him some credit. He wouldn't want anything to do with Greg if he didn't think the man was worth getting to know."

"Is that so?" she snapped, "Then you can deal with it when he comes back disappointed!"

"You've been unreasonable about this man ever since I met you Helen, granted it's understandable, but how can you not see that the man deserves a second chance with his kids? He has done everything he can to prove it!" asked Matt sharply.

"Since when did you decide to side with him! I thought we were in this together Mathew!" Helen snarled. "I've fought tooth and nail to protect my kids from the same hurt I experienced in my marriage with Greg Parker. And heaven help me it I stop now!"

"Helen..." Matt sighed deeply. "Look, I made some enquires even before I told you were Dean was. They all say the same thing: That Greg is not longer drinking, he's honoured police officer and good at what he does. Not only that, I think we should trust Dean to make his own choices. If he wants to know who is biological father is, then let him. We will always be there for him, no matter how this plays out."

"And if he suddenly decides to leave us and traipse after his father? What then?" asked Helen, tears evident in her voice. "Do I let my baby go, just like that?" Her voice muffled at the end as Matt drew her into his arms.

"Lets cross that bridge when we get to it ok?" said Matt gently, "We aren't there yet, but we'll deal with it, if and when the need arises."

Emma stood frozen in the hallway listening to their conversation, mind reeling. Dean went to the SRU? Why? She could hardly believe her ears. Quietly she slipped off her shoes and hurried to sneak past her parents up the stairs. Helen heard her however, as was the usual when Emma tried to get past undetected. The girl was certain it had to be a mother's six sense, because she was usually pretty good at slipping past Dean and Matt undetected.

"Emma, baby? Is that you?" asked her mother, quickly drying her eyes and moving into the hall towards her daughter. Emma nodded and smiled weakly, then was shocked when Helen rushed forwards and wrapped her in a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. "I love you baby girl, you know that don't you?" she asked tightly, as if she was about to cry again.

"Yes, of course I do mummy!" replied Emma, slightly bemused as she returned the hug.

"Good!" Helen sounded relieved, "Did you have a good time with Jackie? Have you eaten enough, do you want any food? Aunt Shelby made cookies!"

Still slighty weird-out by her mothers less than restrained behaviour, Emma just answered the questions, ate some cookies and made a hasty retreat to her room as soon as it was possible without offending her already distraught parent. There she waited, thinking furiously over the next information she had just overheard. A few hours later, Dean came back. Emma listened intently for the explosion of voices what was sure to come. But all was silent, only a gentle murmur of conversation for a long while before Emma heard Dean come up the stairs to go to bed. Unable to contain her curiosity, Emma stole over to her door to go and bug her brother for information, but to her surprise he knocked and came in before she had the chance to even touch the door handle.

"Well that went better than I expected." he said, grinning foolishly as he sat down on the end of the bed.

"What? What happened!? Why did you go see daddy?" Emma demanded with annoyance. Dean frown a bit in surprise at her use of the word 'daddy' for Greg Parker. They usually referred to him as 'our dad'. She didn't call anyone 'daddy'. Dean dismissed the thought for the time being however, too wrapped up in his own day's discoveries.

"Well, I went to the SRU to see him so I could ask him to drop the lawsuit." began Dean, only to be interrupted by his little sisters' strangled cry of indignation.

"Why would you do that! That was the only way he would get to see us!" she whispered angrily when Dean shushed her.

"I didn't think we wanted to have to see him!?" Dean whispered back in confusion. "I didn't think you wanted anything to do with him! And I sure didn't want to have to see him, or listen to mum and Matt fight over the lawsuit anymore. So I went to ask him to drop it."

"NO!" Emma exclaimed, deeply distressed that all hope for spending more time with her father might be gone. "But Dean I do want to see him! I like him, I want to spend time with him! He understands me on a level that Matt and I never connected on! Please, tell me he said no."

Dean gave her a funny looked, truly mystified by his sisters reaction. Then after he considered what she had just said, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"What do you mean you like him?" he asked with a scrutinizing look, "How would you know anything about what he's really like?"

Emma opened her mouth and then closed it firmly again, face going pink with guilt.

"Emma, come on. We keep each others secrets, just tell me already!" Dean said impatiently. Emma sighed, knowing she would tell him. They did, after all, keep each others secrets and told each other almost everything...up until the past few months it seemed.

"Ok fine. I went with Jackie to the SRU this summer and met daddy. The original plan had been to keep my identity a secret so I could decide if I liked him or not before letting him know who I was, but he wasn't fooled and knew it was me right away. We hang out and stuff, before I came home." explained Emma. Dean's eyes widened with understanding. Suddenly multiple things fell into place. The way Emma had been acting all strange, as though she was hiding something ever since returning from camp, and the reaction that Greg Parker had when Dean claimed to be there for both himself and Emma. Greg had been surprised at the claim, but then calmly drawn the truth gently out of him just before he was called away. Dean had not consulted Emma before coming to speak on her behave. Dean wondered why Greg hadn't told him about Emma's visit, and then supposed it was because their dad had a cool way of letting them sort out some things on their own.

"Wow, I didn't expect that one. Although it makes sense now that you say it." he said, "I knew you were hiding something, I just couldn't pin point what. I thought it was something to do with school..."

"Yea, well. There you have it. I visited dad before you did. I liked him and I want to give him a second chance." relied Emma challengingly, expecting a fight of some sorts. Dean just smiled at her and then said, "Me too."

Emma deflated and the looked bewildered. "You do?"

"Yup. I've already talked to mum about it and everything. That's what I meant when I came in saying things went better than I expected."

"No way! And she didn't blow!?" Emma couldn't believe her ears. "Serious? You should have heard her when I got home on the subject of you seeing dad! Why was she so calm now?!"

"I don't know. Maybe Matt talked some sense into her? Maybe it's just the way I presented my arguments?" Dean shrugged. He had this annoying ability of presenting things to their mother in such a way that caused Helen to rarely deny Dean anything. He was just to darn charismatic and logical. It irritated Emma to no end.

"She's not thrilled," He added, "but she's not stopping me either. I asked if you could be allowed to see him too if you wanted and she agreed. I hope that's ok."

"Really!?" Emma began to bounce on the spot with joy. "Yay!"

"Really truly!" grinned her brother, "Seriously though, it was so incredible today! Dad and his team were helping to find a little girl that had killers after her. He does this thing called profiling where he puts together facts about a person to get to know them, their personality and stuff so he can help them better! It's way cooler than any cop show I've ever watched!"

Emma grinned and nodded, "Yea, he told me all about it when I was at the SRU! I thought it was great!"

Dean told her a bit more about what happened that day, and she was glad to hear the little girl got safely home to her parents thanks to her dad's (and the rest of the team's) quick thinking. They talked until Matt came in scolding and chased Dean into his own room. As Emma drifted off that night, she couldn't help but feel very happy over the results of the day.