He woke to silence the next morning, unsettling him already his his still-half-asleep state. Immediately he knew something was not right, not normal. Unease washing over him, Ryan swung his legs over the egde of his depressingly lonely bed and crossed the threshold to his door, swinging it open and staring out. Not a single sound met his ears.

Wondering why it was so suspiciously quiet, Ryan walked around the apartment, finding no one, then at last checking Emma's room. It was empty too. He walked back into the kitchen. Emma knew better than to leave the house without leaving a note, so why couldn't he find her or Ellie anywhere. Deciding to try his last resort, Ryan walked to the spare room and gently swung the door inwards, a sliver of light illuminating Marissa's sleeping frame. The last thing he wanted was to disturb her, but the fear of his missing daughters pressing in on him was far more terrifying than waking up his ex-wife.

With a breath of hesitation, he stepped into the room and perched himself on the edge of the bed, wondering how best to wake her up.

"Marissa," he whispered.

She didn't stir.

"Mariss?"

Sighing, Ryan scooched closer to her warm body and placed a hand gently on her shoulder, slowly shaking her body. "Marissa wake up."

Her sleep-filled eyed fluttered open slowly and for a minute, Marissa was reminded of when they had still been married.

"Ryan?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Hey, sorry to wake you up, but do you know where the girls are?"

She immediatly sat up, terrified look on her face. "What? The girls are gone?"

"Calm down, it's okay," Ryan soothed. "It's just that the girls aren't in the apartment and they didn't leave a note."

The look of terror on Marissa's face only intensified. "Well, where did they go?" Her voice was shaking.

"Look, I'm sure they're fine. Emma probably just wanted to take a walk and Ellie went with her or something. I'll go call Emma's cell right now."

"I'm coming with you," Marissa said. She threw the blankets off her body, revealing her small shorts covered in shamrocks and her tight black tanktop.

Ryan forced himself to tear his eyes off of her slim body and focus, hearing her walk behind him into the kitchen. He picked up the phone and quickly dialed the all-too familiar number.

RMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRM

"It's Dad," Emma said, checking her caller ID. "Should I answer it?"

"Of course you should. He's your dad and he's probably worried about you," Ellie replied.

"Why should he be? I left him a not ... ohmigod I didn't leave him a note." Emma immediatly answered her phone. "Dad I'm so, so sorry. I meant to leave you a note before we left but I guess I forgot. Ellie and I are at Massimo's getting coffee for everyone, we'll be back at the apartment in about ten mintues."

Ryan sighed out with his relief. "Okay."

"Love you," Emma said as her appology, then hung up.

"That's it?" Marissa exclaimed as Ryan hung up the phone. "You phone her and the only thing you say is 'okay'?!" Her voice was bordering on hysterics.

"Mariss, it's fine, really. Emma and Ellie are down at Massimo's getting coffee. They'll be back in ten minutes."

Marissa took a deep breath and regained her compuse. "Sorry, it just seems like every time I turn my back on Ellie she's getting into some sort of trouble. She scares me Ryan and I'm terrified that one day I'm going to blink and she's going to be gone." Her eyes had brimmed with tears and she had wrapped her arms around herself to keep from crying.

Ryan felt his heart break. "Marissa," he said as he breathed out. Not caring what the concequences of his actions were, he stepped forward and wrapped her in his arms, holding her shaking body to his chest, feeling the warmth of her cheek pressed against his shoulder and the slight dampness on his shirt from her tears. "It's going to be okay. It will. I promise. The fact that she agreed to go and live with your dad means that she wants to get better. You just have to have faith in her. Plus, now that she has a father and a sister, I think Ellie's going to change drastically."

Marissa wiped her tears with the back of her hand and hesitantly pulled away from Ryan. "I'm sorry."

Ryan brushed a stray tear from her cheek away with his thumb. "You have nothing to be sorry for. But we really do need to figure out what's going to happen with them. I think that maybe we should sit down and talk with them."

Marissa nodded. "Sure. How about once they get back?"

"Ya, that sounds good," Ryan agreed. Taking Marissa's hand in his, Ryan led her to the couch in the living room and they sat down.

"They're going to hate us Ryan. We kept them apart for all these years, we kept them from having a real family. And I entirely blame myself for everything that Ellie's going through. If I had been around more, paid more attention to her, then maybe ..."

But Ryan cut her off. "Stop. None of this is your fault. It's mine. If I had just insisted that you stay and we work things out, then Ellie and Emma would have been raised together, with a mother, and a father. But I think that we're both to blame."

Marissa agreed by nodding her head and opened her mouth to say something when the front door opened.

"Keep it PG in there guys, we're coming through," Ellie said. Ryan and Marissa laughed and smiled at their daughters as they walked into the open living room.

"Girls can you take a seat please?" Ryan asked.

Emma and Ellie looked at each other briefly before Ellie sat down on the couch and Emma walked towards her parents, handing them both their coffee and taking a seat beside her sister.

"Girls," Marissa began, voice trembling, and took Ryan's hand for support. He squeezed it gently. The motion did not go unnoticed by the twins. "There's a lot that we need to discuss with you guys and a lot that you need to decide."

"The custody papers say that Emma, you belong to me, and Ellie, you belong to your mother. But we need to know what you girls want to do," Ryan said.

"Wait, so you guys aren't getting back together?" Ellie asked, face falling.

Marissa gently tugged her hand away from Ryan. "Baby this is the first time your Dad and I have seen each other in almost sixteen years. Things don't just pick up from where they left off just like that."

"So what does this mean for me and Ellie?" Emma asked.

Ryan and Marissa gazed into each other's eyes, searching for the answer.

"I think," Ryan began, "That Ellie, you go back to LA with your mom and Emma, you stay here with me."

Ellie and Emma locked gazes with sad eyes. "But we don't want to be split up! We're just getting to know each other!" Ellie protested.

"Baby I know this is hard," Marissa said. "You and I belong in Los Angeles. It's for the best."

"For the best to take me away from the only family I've ever had?!" Ellie shouted. "Mom you've never cared about anything I do! You shipped me off to live with Grandpa here in New York, and just after I get here, you want to bring me back home again the second I found people who actually care about me!"

Ryan looked at Marissa who's eyes were welling with tears. "Ellie, this is not your mother's fault," Ryan defended. "We made the decision to split you up together. We're equally to blame."

"Dad Ellie and I don't want to be seperated again!" Emma protested. "You can't just ship them off and expect me to pretend that they don't exist!"

"Em.." Ryan began.

"No," Emma said, stood up and started to walk away. Ellie pulled herself off the couch and followed her sister. "I hope you're happy."

Ryan and Marissa heard the front door slam closed and Marissa immediatly broke down into tears.

"Baby it's okay," Ryan whispered into her hair as he pulled her into his arms against. "It's going to be okay. We'll get through this together."

"Ryan what are we going to do? Our daughters hate us."

Ryan sighed and nuzzled his head into the crook of her neck. For what felt like the millionth time in their relationship, he had no idea what to say.