Emily stopped the old truck as she reached the Richmond farm. The car had hardly stopped before the door on the passenger side was open and the passenger jumped out.

"How many time did I tell you wait for the car to be in park!" She yelled after the boy who was already running off in the direction of the barn. She shook her head and got out to see Stanley Mimi coming down the steps of the farm house.

"Kids." Mimi said as Emily got out of the truck.

"That one is going to be the death of me." Emily shook her head as her two friends came around the truck. "He got in trouble for fighting in school." She sighed. "Again."

"Well he is his father's son." Stanley told her and instantly felt bad for the slight frown that crossed Emily's face before she quickly flashed it to a smile. A smile he knew all to well wasn't real. He had grown up with Emily and Jake he knew both of them well he could tell just by the look across either of their face what they were feeling and what they were thinking. He knew the moment he saw Jake step out of that room the day he left that he was going to go off and do something he should have been talked out of.

"He is." She said softly, "Looks just like him too."

Mimi smiled at Emily, "Why don't you come inside for some ice tea and pie. Stanley says I'm getting almost as good as his mother at making it."

"Is Chis alright out in the barn?" Emily asked

"Bonnie is out there." Mimi told her, "She will make sure to keep him in line."

Bonnie was Mimi and Stanley's daughter named after Stanley's little sister who had been killed before the war started. It was her death that started the people of Jericho to take their town back. Emily knew at time's Stanley hoped his sister would come through the front doors the way she dreamed of Jake coming home. Bonnie had broken Stanley had caused the man to do things that he still had nightmares about. No one held it against Stanley when he killed the man responsible for his little sister's death that man was an evil man. There was no good in him he killed many people to many people.

Goetz was a monster he hurt many people and would have continued to do so. Many men like him rose to power after the bombs exploded, men who used extreme force to get what they needed. Men that hurt others and found joy in it. He attacked many towns destroyed many lives, but it was their little town these people that took him down. Emily knew she would always be proud of Stanley for that. Proud of all the men that fought the corruption and kept their town safe. Just like Jake had done by chasing after that bomb headed for Cheyenne.

Hawkins had returned to town just after power had returned to town five years ago. He told them the war was over that Texas had won Cheyenne and Jennings and Rall were defeated. After his wife and children had run to him and held him his eyes met hers and she knew. She knew Jake wasn't going to come home with him.

Hawkins told her they had been separated after they delivered the bomb to Texas to prove that the government running Cheyenne was corrupt. He had been injured and taken away to get fixed up. Jake being Jake jumped right in to help where he was needed. For a time Hawkins was able to keep track of him, flying planes making deliveries for the Texas military, but then nothing. He heard his plane went down and since then he was missing an action. He told Emily is dam near impossible to find him, the computer systems were what they once were. It was to easy for people to become missing.

For some time Emily hoped, prayed that Jake was going to come home in the car of his. He had disappeared from their lives for five years in the past, just maybe, maybe he had one more in him. One more moment he could just roll into town and throw everyone for a loop. And this time when he came home she wouldn't want him to leave again. She would run to him and never let him go, not again. She would introduce him to his son and they would be a family, but that hadn't happened. The war lasted five years and now it was almost six years after that. Jake hadn't come back to town, if he was alive if he was out there he would have come back by now. She knew that in her heart. He wouldn't have chosen to leave her. Jericho had become to important to him to just walk away. It broke her heart the moment she realized that to be the truth, that Chris would never know his father.

Emily sat down at the table in the farm house Mimi placed a slice a pie each for the three of them on the table.

"So how have you been Em?" Stanley asked as he sat down.

"Oh you know, getting by. I'm at a loss of what to do with Chris, he just won't listen."

"Have you talked to Gail?" Stanley asked, "She raised Jake she should have some insight."

"Yes, she says it's a faze to just stand by the rules I have and let him know I'm here." She sighed, "I think its the engagement honestly."

"That could do it." Mimi said, "I threw a fit when my mother married."

"Roger is-" Emily looked down at her hands. After the war and things started to return to normal Roger came back. It took a long time for Emily to start dating him again, to let go of Jake and move on. She knew Chris needed a father and Roger was willing to be that for the boy. She had hoped Chris would see Roger as a father figure, even if she hadn't been dating Roger this whole time he had been a friend. She knew that Chris still seemed to think his father was out there. He grew up with stories of his dad from his uncle, Stanley and everyone else in the town. He knew his dad was a hero one of the main reasons Jericho was still here. He stood up against anyone who tried to hurt the town, he was proud of the man his father was.

The moment Chris realized Roger was her boyfriend, when Roger moved in with them was when Chris truly started to act out. Gail told her it was just an adjustment the boy would have to make over time, that he would realize one day his mother couldn't keep loving a ghost.

But Emily knew she would always love Jake in the morning when she rolled over it was his face her mind still expected to see not Roger. She felt bad for she did care for Roger she really did, but Jake had been the love of her life, even when she was engaged to Roger before the bombs and before the war some part of her always held on to Jake it was why she never moved with him to Chicago, it was why she never left Jericho because back then she had always hoped he would come back and he had. He came back to her and to Jericho when she and the town needed him the most, he came back and he fought for all of them. It took her a long time, to long in those months after the bombs went off for her to see that she was and forever would be in love with Jake.

But now he was gone, gone for good this time and she had to go on living. Roger was a good man he loved her and she loved him. Not in the same way she had loved Jake, but she had been happy with Roger once she knew she could be happy with him again.

"Why doesn't he stay here tonight?" Stanley asked noticing the far away look that kept crossing Emily's face "You and Roger go out tonight."

"I don't know he should be grounded right now."

"You already brought him here." Stanley grinned, "Maybe Bonnie can knock some sense into the boy."


"Hey Bonnie." Chris said as he came into the barn to see his best friend playin with some baby goats.

"Hey Chris." The girl said looking up at him. She looked almost just like her mother, except she had her father's blonde hair. "What brings you here?"

"Mom came to talk to your parents." He said he grinned as he sat down on a bale of hay, "She's at a loss for me again, probably asking your dad if I can work on the farm until I turn into a good boy."

"Why do you make her worry so much?" Bonnie asked sitting next to him the goats chasing after her and jumping up on the both of them.

Chris laughed as the baby goat nuzzled him looking for a bottle. "She's to busy to worry." He told her and rolled his eyes, "Roger is the one that thinks he's in control of the house. Always telling me what to do, when to do it acting like he's my dad."

"He's not an awful guy." Bonnie told him, "He seems nice."

"Yeah he seems it, but he didn't waste any time thinking he was my dad." the goat jumped over to Bonnie.

"Maybe he just doesn't know-"

"I heard him and my mom arguing the other night, I don't know what started it, I was sneaking back into the house. Roger said that if the bombs never went off she never would have looked twice and my dad again. That she would have married him and that I would truly be his son and they wouldn't have to worry about me becoming a menace to society like my father."

Bonnie looked at him Chris knew he well enough to know she was trying to find a good thing to say, she always tried to look at the bright side of things.

"Chris." She said softly, "Maybe you just heard-"

"Roger hated my father." Chris told her, "And he hates me because I look like him." He put his hands in his pockets. "My mom was engaged to Roger before the bombs after the bombs went off he was out of town. Mom fell back in love with my father in the months after." He frowned, "We was like a hawk circling as soon as he knew dad was gone he came right back in to worm his way back into my mother's heart. But I know, I know if my dad were to drive back into town again she would leave Roger in a second and I think Roger knows that too, I think I remind Roger of that fact and that's why he hates me."

"You have hated him since the moment he came to town." Bonnie said.

"I hated him the moment he started staying over at my house." Chris corrected.

"He's in your life now." She sighed, "Maybe just maybe you should try and get to know him, or at least get along with him. I mean you do have to live with him after all."

"I could go live with Uncle Eric and Aunt Mary, or grandma, or maybe here. Dad is awesome."

Bonnie rolled her eyes, "You only think that because you don't live with him."

"He fought to keep Jericho safe all those years ago, he kept this farm running through all of it and helped keep the town fed."

"Yeah but he makes you wake up at four in the morning to milk cows." Bonnie told him then using the best deep voice she could to sound like her father, "And you don't eat until all the animals have eaten."

Chris grinned at her, but then looked at his hands, "But at least he cares about you."

"Your mother cares about you."

"I know she does, I just-"

"Don't you see by you fighting with Roger you upset her? You worry her?" Bonnie asked, "Try and get along with Roger for her sake at least."

"Fine." He muttered


It took a lot of convincing to get Roger to go out to Bailey's. Roger still didn't seem at home in this town and Emily feared the day when he would ask her to leave. She knew she never could, but she always knew he would want to. He shot the mayor years ago, some people here thought he shouldn't even be allowed to return now, but she had asked and they hadn't wanted to say no to her when she begged. As if it was something they could give back to her after losing Jake.

"Hey Mary." Emily said as she walked over to the bar leaving Roger alone at their table.

"Emily!" Mary smiled, "I hardly see you here anymore."

"Stanley took Chris for the night so Roger and I had the house to our selves and thought we would go out."

Mary filled up a mug for her and glanced over at Roger who was looking at his hands at the table. "He uh looks like he's enjoying himself."

"You know how he is." Emily told her, "He saw a lot out there when we kicked him out of town." She paused, "He just needs a few more of these." She said picking up the two mugs of beer, "And he will be the Roger you remember."

Mary smiled at her friend and nodded her head. She remembered the man Roger used to be. The sharply dressed banker that had finally broken through the steal fence around Emily's heart that had been built after Jake. Before the bombs went off. Her mind went back to Emily and Jake before he left the first time, how happy they had been, best friends growing up and slowly evolved to more then that. They had been in love with each other since they were children everyone knew. Everyone thought they would end up together. Emily's father was perhaps the only one that could get in-between them. He drew Jake in to his little gang and Emily who loved Jake followed him through it all just the way her mother had followed her father. It took the death of Emily's brother Chris to break them apart. She blamed both her father and Jake for her brother's death and Jake, Jake blamed himself. He ran from the town he left for five years and no one heard of him. He returned before the bombs and slowly redeemed himself after. He became the man Emily once loved and she let go of the past and let herself fall for him once more.

She remembered watching Emily and Jake dance just beyond the bar Jake playing what Emily called 'their song.' She saw them getting closer and knew both should step away, that Emily was engaged that Roger could still be out there. Yet Mary couldn't help but smile that night as she watched the couple grow close and take a step closer to being the Jake and Emily she had grown up with. Just as luck or fate would have it that moment was when people walked into town, people who had been walking for weeks and within those people Roger had been there. He walked back to Jericho for her. Being the loyal woman she was she stayed with him even if she had realized she belonged with Jake.

When all those people were going to be kicked out of town Roger had stood up for them something Mary knew was a good thing, he tried to help his people he had walked into town. He had held Grey Anderson and gun point, accidentally shot him he had then been kicked out of town, but the townspeople allowed the others to stay. Emily was going to go with him, but Mary knew Roger could tell Emily's heart wasn't his anymore, perhaps it never was and told her to stay behind.

That was when Emily fully let herself be the girl that loved Jake once more and Mary had truly saw the girl happy even when times were hard. She smiled the way she had when she was a teenager and in love once more.

After the war when Roger came back to town, he said he had no where else to go. Emily who had been broken when she found out about Jake begged the town to allow Roger to stay that they couldn't let anyone else die. Grey had felt bad for the girl who had her small five year old boy with her, the girl that had waited and waited for the man she loved to come back only to find out he never would.

Over time Mary saw Roger always with Emily, as friends at first but Mary always knew Roger wanted more and slowly Emily allowed herself to fall for him once more. She knew as much as Roger knew that if Jake ever came back the girl would run back to his arms, but since he was most likely dead Roger seemed to hope she would be the girl she once was.

Mary knew that girl was gone maybe she never truly existed. The girl Emily had been the first time she and Roger were together wasn't truly the girl that Emily was. Rather the girl she tried to be to distance herself from Jake and her father. The girl she pretended to be. Mary looked over at the couple and could tell that they weren't as perfect as they had once been. They both had changed. Emily was closer to the girl she once was when she was with Jake and Roger, Roger was haunted by everything that happened over those years after the bombs. Sighing she turned away from the couple and went back to waiting on her other customers, wishing that it was Jake and Emily she was spying on. Wishing Jake had come home, he had saved them all, but lost his life in the process.

"Do you want to dance?" She asked Roger as she sipped on her drink. He just shook his head,

"I'm ready to go home." He told her

"We just got here Roger." She smiled as she looked at him, "We can enjoy ourselves."

He took a big swig of his drink, "I think we should move." He finally told her.

Emily looked down. She knew this was coming she knew he hated this town. "I can't."

"He isn't coming back." Roger said so low she almost didn't hear.

"What?" She felt herself ask unsure of what he really meant.

"Jake." He looked up at her his eyes meeting hers, "He isn't coming back."

"I know that." She told him, "This is home, I'm not here because-"

"Don't lie to me, I've always known that was why you never wanted to leave this place never wanted to go to Chicago with me. I always knew your heart never was fully mine and I accepted that." His voice was starting to get higher, "But he's dead he isn't coming home nothing holds you here anymore. Come with me let's start over."

"I have Chris this is his home." She shook her head, "My friends are here, Chris's family is here. He will never want to move."

"He is a twelve year old boy, it's about time you start telling him what to do and stop asking him what he wants to do." He slammed his hand down on the table and drew the eyes of a few people in the bar.

"I'm not leaving." She told him, "This is his home." Emily firmly told him. "I won't take him from Gail or Eric. He is all they have left of Jake and I won't steal him away from them because you can't face what you did here. Leave if you must but know if you want me I will never leave so either you let go of the idea we move or you let go of me." She stood to walk away but Roger grabbed her hand.

"Wait." He said softly, "I over stepped I'm sorry." He stood up and walked stepped closer to her, "Maybe we should just travel a bit." Roger said, "Go see some of the cities out there, get out of this town just to see this new world we live in."

She smiled at him, "That's something I can do. We can go see any city you like as long as we don't have to live there."

"Deal." He said as he kissed her. "Let's head home."

Emily smiled and nodded her head hoping the conversation about moving was put to rest.

"I'll go get our coats." He said as he walked away.

Emily nodded her head and sat back down. As she did the music changed and she felt her heart drop. 'Their' song began to play and it was almost like she was brought back in time.

She looked over at the bar and could remember that night, the night she realized that she never stopped loving Jake...

"Hey Mary." Jake said, "Can we get two more of what ever it is you are pouring?"

Mary smiled and nodded her head as she carried over some of her home made moonshine.

"It almost looks normal in here." Emily said picking up her drink. "Like the bombs never even happened."

Jake looked around picking his drink up then he turned back to her and gave her a reassuring smile, "Then lets stay in here as long as we can, huh?" She smiled back at him and as she did a slow ballad into began to play. He clinked his glass against hers. She smirked and looked away taking a sip of the liquor.

'It's been seven hours and fifteen days.' The song began.

She looked back at him confused and saw his grin and couldn't help but grin back. She ran her hand through her hair, she had thought he forgot about this song.

"Finally remembered the name of that song." He said a little to smug. "Mary had it on the jukebox."

'Since you been Gone.'

Emily felt herself biting her lip and perhaps even blushing a little.

"Come on." He said standing up

'I can do what ever I want.'

"Come on." He said again

'I can see whoever I choose.'

She knew she shouldn't she should go home and ignore him, but that smile he had right now that look in his eyes. This was the Jake she had fallen in love with as a girl. So she stood up and took his hand. He led her onto the dance floor her hand in his, his eyes locking on hers as he spun her in front of him. Then he pulled her close, closer then they had been in years and for that moment it felt like no time had past between them.

'I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant'

The song continued on as her eyes stayed on his slow dancing just like they used to.

'But nothing can take away these blues.'

Jake pulled her close so his head was she by side with her head. She reached over his shoulder and held him close to her.

'Cause nothing compares nothing compares to you.'

It was as if everyone in the bar vanished and it was only the two of them. But she knew what they were doing was wrong. Her best friend Heather had a thing for Jake and they had kissed. She could tell Jake cared for Heather. And she had Roger, sure she didn't know if he lived through the bombs and his plane being forced to land early, he could be anywhere or he could be dead.

"What about Heather?" She asked not wanting to pull away from him.

"What about Roger he asked pulled his head back slightly so their eyes met.

'It's been so lonely without you here like a bird without a song.'

"You know how this goes." She told him both her arms wrapped around his neck. He nodded and she continued, "We should be grown-ups and walk away right now."

"You're right we should." He agreed

She rested her forehead on his she closed her eyes for a moment and she opened them her eyes met his and they were just as soft and kind as she remembered.

'I know that living with you baby, was sometimes hard.'

He reached both his hands to either side of her face and bushed her hair out of her face both smiled at each other.

'But I'm willing to give it another try.'

Their heads moved closer and she realized in that moment she had been waiting for this since the moment he left town five years ago.

"Jake!" Eric yelled

"Emily." Roger's voice brought her from her memory.

"Huh?" She asked then put her head to her hand wondering if she had a little to much to drink.

"Ready to go?" He asked

"Sorry I was just listening to the song." She told him. She took her jacket from his hand. "I'm ready." She didn't want to stay for the rest of this song. No. This was 'their' song hers and Jake's.


AN- Eh not sure if I like this chapter, but here it is mostly a filler but also some important information such as Jake and Emily have a son and that Roger is back.

I got one review so it inspired another chapter.