Slipped Away

Summary: This is years later after they graduated from Degrassi. Sean and Emma are completely over and done with each other. He is getting married and packing to move away with his fiancee. But will somethings from the years before cause him to re-arrange his priorities? Emma and Sean fans hold onto your hats it's gonna be an intense ride.

Rating: T (PG-13) For mild language and some sexual content.

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi: The Next Generation or any of its characters. I do not own the song "Slipped Away", either. I, myself, own nothing. This is merely for fun and the cause too much time on my behalf.

I miss you, miss you so bad
I don't forget you, oh it's so sad
I hope you can hear me
I remember it clearly

The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same
Ooooh

Nah nah la la la nah nah

I didn't get around to kiss you
Goodbye on the hand
I wish that I could see you again
I know that I can't

Oooooh
I hope you can hear me cause I remember it clearly

The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same
Ooooh

I had my wake up
Won't you wake up
I keep asking why
And I can't take it
It wasn't fake
It happened, you passed by

Now your gone, now your gone
There you go, there you go
Somewhere I can't bring you back
Now your gone, now your gone
There you go, there you go,
Somewhere your not coming back

The day you slipped away
Was the day i found it won't be the same noo..
The say you slipped away
Was the day that i found it won't be the same oooh...

Nah nah, nah nah nah, nah nah
I miss you

Chapter Four: The Breath Of Reason

When I reached the street I pulled up to the apartment building. Making my way from my truck to the building. Once inside I guided myself down the halls looking carefully at each apartment number, 2B ... 7B ... 1C ... finally 4C. I readies myself, rang the bell and for the first time in years I heard her speak, to me. Moments after she called out from inside she opened the door, standing only a foot away from me. She looked almost the same except her hair seemed longer although it was hard to tell cause it was pulled back into a pony tail. Also, her body seemed to have filled out more, but that was also not so easy to tell cause she had on a pair of loose jeans and a sweatshirt. A look of confusion plastered on her face, she just stood there looking at me, mostly at my eyes. For minutes, we stood there, her looking me up and down, and myself outside of the door unsure of what I truly wanted from my visit. It was in those few minutes I learned the true meaning of an awkward silence.

"Emma ...?" I said, my voice cutting through the silence like a sharpened knife.

She looked me over once more than gave me a small smirk. "The one and only."

Now that wasn't the reaction I thought she would have. I had played over an over in my mind the sound of Emma's yelling voice, saying that I should have never came there and I was a horrible person to come to her over the years. Well, I guess that was partly because I felt that way. So it was no shock her insignificant, little reply threw me a bit of my guard. She only had said a few words, but I could tell she had changed from the conservative, nature-friendly Emma she had been years before.

"What is it that you want, Sean?" She had put it so bluntly.

I wasn't able to really find the answer, so all I could think of to say was, "So you do remember me?"

"How could I forget..." She walked back into her apartment leaving the door wide open as if allowing me to enter after her.

I walked inside making my way over to the living room area, sitting on her couch and continuing to speak, even though I wasn't completely sure she could still hear me. "I don't know, I like your place its very um like home."

She comes out of a room down her hall area, resting her daughter on her hip, our daughter. "Do you have a reason for this visit or do you just chose to come back every few years to check on me?"

I stood, walking closer to where Emma and Shane were. It was so much to have to soak in, all in one day. Only a few feet away was my own daughter, I just wanted to reach out and hug them both. They seemed to fit so well together. I approached them smiling. "Yeah ... her." I said looking Emma directly in her eyes, something I hadn't done in such a long time.

She gave me an almost angry look. "Why?" Then she turned around and walked back into the room she had come from minutes before.

I hesitated a bit, but then followed her into the room. "She's our daughter."

"That didn't seem to have any affect on you before." She stops going through the bag she was previously looking through. "You know what, Sean?" She pauses turning to face me. "I have nothing left to say to you." She then took Shane and walked into the living room.

I didn't hesitate to follow her this time. "Emma..." But it didn't matter what I said, to her it seemed as if I really had read those letters years ago and now, four years after, decided to make myself known to my daughter. Well, I wouldn't really want to talk to me if I was her either. I had to set things straight, somehow. "I never knew about her." Well, that's one way to do it.

"Oh really." She stopped walking and looked me straight in the face. "I wrote to you, Sean." She said a bit more serious with a hint of anger lying in her words.

"I never read them till today, I swear."

She gave me a sort of unconvinced look.

"Emma, I wouldn't lie about something like this." I said moving closer to her.

She turned away from me and took a seat on the couch. "I know ... its just." She said tears rising in her eyes.

I sat beside her trying my best not to cross a line or something, when I really just wanted to pull her into a hug to stop her from being upset. "What, what is it?"

"It took me so long to get over you the first time, Sean, I went through some much. Then when I knew somewhere in my mind that you were never coming back, not for me ... not for Shane I gave up on you. And that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Then over time I got used to it and your role became less and less important to me, but when your daughter looks at you with her big eyes filled with innocence and asks where her daddy is and you have to say you don't know, is the worst thing in the world." She paused as if to let what she had just said soak in. "Sean, the fact that you never knew isn't gonna change the four years of your daughter's life where you were never there the birthdays ... holidays ... father's day. Did you ever once think that coming here would have been a bigger mistake than never coming at all?" She stopped herself when the tears overcame her.

"I know--"

"No no, the thing is you don't know." She said cutting me off. "Shane needed a someone to take care of her so I did that for her, she needed someone to teach her what she needed to know so I did that for her, but when she needed a father figure I wasn't able to give that to her, and that killed me inside. But that all isn't the point, the point is I got over it all, I overcame the obstacles, I got over you, Sean, I got over you for once in my entire life." She began to cry harder.

I was truly at a loss for words so the only thing I could think to do in that situation was pull her into a comforting hug. "I'm sorry, Em, I had no idea."

She cried into my chest for a few minutes before pulling away to compose herself. "And the worst part of this all..." She said tucking back a piece of her blonde hair that fell down. "I ... I really believe you."

I then pulled her back into a loving, comforting hug.

A/N- I hope you guys liked it ... next chap will be up sooner I promise.