A/N: I can't help but think that this chapter is a little ridiculous, but at the same time gives a small break from all the angsty stuff. I hope you're going to like it.

Patience. He was aware he was going to need patience, quite a lot of it even. It didn't matter that he was Emily's biological father, that he loved her and that he really wanted to be present in her life, not only in her DNA. The girl didn't know him at all, he meant for her as much as a stranger on the street, and there was no doubts it was going to take a while before she'd be even comfortable around him, not to mention treat him like a dad. He knew all of it, and yet, when the Sunday came and he came with Bobby to see her, he felt frustrated. Frustrated, and as ridiculously as it was only possible, horribly jealous about Crash.

He admitted to Jack, that after Hudson was assumed dead, he felt obliged to take care of his wife and daughter as his best friend and later also Emily's godfather. He has always been friends with Sue, but she became like a sister to him, and Emily – he knew that the girl needed a father, at least a father's figure and he was ready to be it for her. Jack was grateful for his friend that he took this role, he wouldn't want anyone different to take care of his family – unless it was another one of his close friends, but his first choice would always be Bobby. Still, he had a huge heartache watching Manning with Emily, who really adored her uncle. It should be him bringing a huge smile to her face with the simplest of visits, know exactly what to say or do to make her laugh or calm down and be the person she was running to when something was wrong. But the only thing he got from her was a quiet, shy "Hi.", and later he felt like he didn't exist at all.

Even though he was focusing very hard not to show his emotions, and succeeding, Bobby could read his emotions perfectly. Even though at first sight he seemed completely indifferent, his eyes betrayed him completely, just like they always did. There has never been a time, when just a single look into his eyes wasn't enough for a person to judge what he felt, no matter what he claimed. Crash could only guess how it was hurting and he tried to find a way to make Emily open to Jack. He knew the girl well enough to know that she was not going to go to him by herself, that someone had to encourage her to do it. She was shy, but all she needed to open was to see that the person is eager to get to know her, and finding a few situations for her to go to Jack instead of someone else would probably be enough for her to try to find a contact with him. He couldn't see the scenario, which it would turn out difficult in, because Sparky was more than willing to spend time and play with her. And then, finally, the chance appeared.

They both heard the short scream and then the sound of footsteps, moving quickly towards them and the girl ran into the living room, where the two men were sitting and ran to Bobby. She looked at him with huge, scared eyes and trembling lip.

"Uncle Bobby, a spider! Take it, take it!"

He was about to stand up and go with the girl, when he got enlightened. Instead of his original intention, he faked shifting uncomfortably in the armchair and made an uncertain face, trying to fake fear.

"Ugh... A spider..? Is it big?" the girl nodded and he could see Jack looking at him with a questioning look and raised eyebrows. He knew perfectly well Emily would confirm it was huge, even if it was the smallest one existing, and it gave him the opportunity to wince a little more. "Maybe you should ask Jack to take care of it? You mustn't tell anyone, but I'm afraid of spiders." the last part he said in a loud whisper; quiet enough to give the impression of it being a secret, but loud enough for Jack to hear.

The surprise in Hudson's eyes only raised, but then Emily turned around to glance at him with uncertainty in her eyes, and Crash sent him a look that made everything fall into place. He nodded his head slightly with thanks, and watched the girl slowly approach him.

"Jack, umm..."

"You want me to take this big, bad spider away?" he asked, watching her play with her shirt and she raised her head to look at him.

"Mhm." she hummed, nodding her head and Jack stood up.

"Okay, let's go. Show me where it is."

She led him to her room and he looked around in amazement at how much the space has changed since the last time he was there. He remembered the room as the only not renewed one, because he just didn't really need it, and when he finally started storing things there, the room didn't need to be done. Now it was not only renovated, but absolutely beautiful. It wasn't whole in pink like all the little girls' rooms – and how he actually expected; the walls were light green, the furniture light brown, and there were colourful decorations – kept in light, pastel colours - everywhere, but everything matched each other very well. In fact, the only thing that really was getting the attention of the person coming into the room was a huge, plush kangaroo standing next to the bed. Jack smiled, when his eyes landed on it and had no doubts that only his best friend could give the girl such a toy, which was in fact taller than Emily herself.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the gentle tugging on the sleeve of his shirt and looked down to find his daughter looking at him, with a mix of small fear and shyness in her eyes. She pointed to the opposite wall, just next to the bed and he noticed a small, black dot moving there. Only when he came closer he noticed that it was indeed a spider, however its size definitely couldn't be described as big. Yes, it wasn't tiny but it still wasn't big, and it had to have a really bad luck that it didn't go unnoticed by Emily. The girl was watching him carefully, as he took it onto his hand – commenting it with a loud "Eeew!" – and opened the window to place it onto the wall outside, and closed it when the spider walked off his hand.

"Mommy flaps it." she said in the voice that suggested that Jack took a lot of unneeded effort to get rid of it, and he smiled.

He could imagine it was exactly what Sue was doing, probably looking ridiculous trying to reach it, while staying as far away from it as possible. He smiled at the memory of the scene she made, when she found a spider walking on the wall in the shower as she was taking one. He couldn't say that one was actually small, but her panic was still a huge exaggeration. He could still hear her terrified squeal, and how high her voice was when he got into the bathroom to check what was going on. He sighed, remembering how he got a thank you kiss after taking care of it and was brought back to reality hearing the sound of the key being turned in the door, and his eyes landed on nobody other but Sue, when he looked up.

"Hi." he said, offering a smile and was answered with a nod.

"Hi." she only said and then her attention was turned to Emily, who ran to greet her and start babbling to her.

She started to tell Sue what they were doing and he couldn't help but felt proud, when she made the small event with his participation sound like something very huge. Sue, on the other hand, looked at Bobby with amazement when Emily didn't forget to mention how scared he was, and Jack could swear he has never seen his friend blush so deeply. They soon said their goodbyes, and left the apartment together.

"You owe me, Sparky. Emily is going to repeat it to everyone and I'm going to be teased about it forever."

"Sure. And thanks for it."

"What aren't you going to do for a friend, right? If it helps you, I'll survive."

They didn't really pay attention to the man, who got out of the car on the opposite side of the street just when they walked out of the building. He was staring at them, or more precisely, at Jack. His first thought was that his eyes were deceiving him – the resemblance between the man and his girlfriend's child was striking. Was it possible he was looking at the girl's father? Of course, it was – he remembered Sue's answer to his question if Emily's dad was dead, and she couldn't say for sure because they've never really found an evidence that he died, just like they haven't found the proof of him being alive. And, the longer he was thinking of it, he was becoming more sure that it really had to be this man.

He realised that it had to be the thing, which was spinning around in Sue's head, making her so lost in thoughts lately. He has been on a business trip for the last three weeks and he could remember how different she sounded when he called her few days ago. When he asked what was bothering her, she only said it wasn't something she wanted to discuss over the phone and now, that he guessed what it was, he had to agree with her.

"He's her father and I have no right to keep the two of them away from each other." she said, after she explained the whole situation to him, answering his question of what Jack was doing at her place with Bobby. "Besides, Emily deserves to have a dad, and who can be better than the real one?"

Trevor had to agree with her. If the man wanted to be a daddy for Emily, there was no way anyone could be better suited for this role. And, most certainly, not him, considering that he was one of those very few people, who it was obvious the girl didn't like. He never really knew what was the reason for it, and he was probably never going to find out. It was like that since the beginning and for some time he fought hard to change it, but stopped after there were absolutely no results, and no hope for them either. Yet, Jack's presence in their lives was worrying him. He could see in Sue's eyes the answer to his unspoken question how she felt about it all, keeping Emily aside. He had no doubts that she was adamant of staying as far away from the man as it was possible, but if he would be able to win the girl's heart and be accepted by her as her dad, it would be very difficult for her to avoid him. And it was scaring Trevor, because he knew that even though she was in relationship with him, and wasn't eager to return to Jack, it would give him this huge advantage of Emily's obvious preference. Nobody had any doubts that there was nothing more important for Sue than her daughter, and it would definitely make her look at Hudson in a more positive light.

"Trev? You do understand it, right?" she asked, and only after a moment he realised that she was asking him about allowing Emily contact with her dad.

"Of course." he wasn't lying. He did understand it, he just didn't really know how he felt about it.