A/N: Thanks for reading the story and leaving me reviews! It's nice to see people are enjoying it! One thing I wanted to say is that I am aware that it's rather unlikely for Emily to be speaking the way I write her words at the age of two. I have no idea how a child so young speaks in English, I guess I could even have problems with it in Polish. I've only had contact with two children so young, one was my very shy cousin, who didn't speak much at all, and the other was my friend's very talkative son, but he was speaking Polish. I hope you're not going to mind, but I decided to stick to writing it just this way.

CoolBreeze- I have to write it here, as you're not logged in. In answer to your question, it is and it isn't safe to assume it. One of the reasons why the topic didn't emerge appeared even in this chapter, Sue and Jack don't talk to each other a lot, and when they do, they mostly talk about their daughter. Sue is very insistent on keeping her distance from Hudson, and even though it's not entirely like this, she's not so much interested in listening to him. Jack, on the other hand, doesn't want to push her, but he's also not so eager to bring the topic of his being away, he didn't really discuss it with anyone, not only with Sue. It could be seen in the fourth chapter, at the end - he didn't start defending himself to Bobby, he just decided to let the matter be. But I can promise tha the talk will appear, in the right moment of the story. I hope it's satysfying answer for you.

All the thoughts swimming around in Sue's head, mixed with a sense of guilt and uncertainty made it practically impossible for her to fall asleep that night. She had a muddle in her head and didn't know what to think. It was like two parts of her had a huge argument in her head and she was standing in the middle, unable to decide which one was right.

A part of her that her pangs of conscience were ridiculous. How could she feel bad about kissing the man, who was her husband? If there was anyone, who had a right to kiss her, wasn't it Jack? After all, Trevor was only her boyfriend, and the husband was higher in the hierarchy of relationships. Did it mean, that she was cheating on Jack with Trev? Or maybe she wasn't, because he suddenly appeared because they were already together, and instead she just cheated on Trevor with Jack? Would that even count as cheating?

She groaned, hiding her face in the pillow. How it was possible for her life to become such a mess in such a short period of time? The worst thing was, that the longer she was thinking, the less convinced she was becoming what was the right thing to do. Maybe she should give Jack a chance, if not for herself then for Emily, after all they had shared such a strong connection in the past, maybe it wasn't completely gone? Her heart's behaviour definitely suggested it. Didn't their daughter deserve a real family? Wouldn't it be worth it, if she had to make a sacrifice for her child? Yet, there was a part of her, which detested the idea of even thinking about coming back to Jack. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop holding it against him how much he hurt her, how he shattered her heart to pieces, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to trust him so completely again. She didn't even want to think about Trevor, who she was really angry at. How could he treat her like this? Why did he even brought her there, if making an idiot of himself was way more important for him than listening to one sentence she wanted to tell him, not to mention that he practically ignored her whole evening?

Sue sighed, raising herself to the sitting position and slowly getting out of the bed. She shivered, as the cool air met with her skin, used to the warmer temperature under the duvet and made her way to the kitchen, to pour herself a glass of water. How glad she was it was Friday and she didn't have to wake up in the morning, there was no way she'd be able to. Few moments later she found herself going to Emily's room again, to check on her, and she didn't even know how much time she spent just watching her little girl sleep, caressing her head gently. She had so many doubts, but she knew that there was one thing she really had to do, and it was to finally tell her, who Jack actually was for her.

She didn't want to do that immediately, she wanted to give her a chance to become accused to Jack first. It turned out much better than she imagined it would; she wasn't sure if Emily reacted so positively to anyone. She had no idea how he did that, but he seemed to conquer the girl's heart without any problems; maybe this easiness came because she was so much like him? She really didn't know, but it made her happy to see, that her daughter now had a daddy she adores so much, and she deserved to know that Jack wasn't just another one of her 'uncles', but a person much more meaningful. But how was she supposed to address a two year old child with such a topic? Especially, that Emily asked her a few times where was her daddy, possibly influenced by the children she watched. She couldn't tell her that she didn't have a dad, and the first thing, which came to her mind was that he was saving the world. It wasn't a lie, even if she didn't really know it then, and in a way, Jack was saving a world during his time away, wasn't he?

As she watched her little girl during the next day, she was only more convinced that telling her would be the right thing to do. Sue was very surprised, when Jack didn't come to them on Saturday, even if a part of her was afraid of this meeting. How was she going to face him after the previous evening? Her worries turned out to be unnecessary, because he didn't show up and she just assumed something important must have stopped him from his usual habits. She was, however, very sorry for Emily, who was very disappointed. It was the first time he didn't appear and Sue could see in her eyes just how sad it made their daughter. She was on the edge of crying, when Sue said that he most probably won't come and she wasn't going to go for a walk with him. The trigger happened when she ran into the room with Levi, catching her mother's hand and pulling her towards the door, when she finally heard the knocking. The big, happy grin faded from her face the moment she realised it wasn't Jack behind the door and was replaced by a very sad expression and her eyes filled with tears, as she ran to her room.

The first thing Sue noticed, as she opened the door was a huge bouquet of flowers, and later Trevor's face. The man looked at her with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Sue." said Trevor, using his one hand to try to sign, but his attempts at even such an easy gesture were miserable and he ended up moving his hand in a way, which meant absolutely nothing. She never thought it could be so difficult for someone, but Trevor completely couldn't grasp anything of ASL. "I behaved like an asshole, and I understand that you're probably very upset, but I want you to know, that I am really, really sorry. I should have acted differently, paid you more attention... Forgive me, please."

"Okay." she said after a moment, seeing in the man's eyes that his apologies were sincere. He smiled widely and hugged her tightly, before leaning down to press a gentle kiss on her lips.

"Thank you! I promise, I'm never going to do something like this again!"

"Yeah... Look, I should go to Emily..."

"Of course, I can't stay anyway. My sister's birthday party." he reminded her "What's wrong with Emily?"

"Jack didn't come, and yesterday he promised her he'll take her for a walk and to the playground."

When Trevor left, her thoughts have yet again, drifted to the kiss from the previous evening and she could feel her stomach clench with guilt. Trev just kissed her, and what she felt was nothing in comparison to what the simpliest feeling of Jack's arms around her made her feel, not to mention that his kiss made her completely lose her head... She groaned and pushed the thoughts away, focusing on something more important than her internal battle between heart and brain. She looked at Emily through the partially open door to the child's bedroom and noticed her sitting on the bed, holding her favourite teddy bear against herself, and caressing Levi's head, which the dog placed next to her. She didn't even notice Sue walk into the room, she looked at her mother only when she approached, and didn't put any fight, when she lifted her from the bed to take her place and sit the girl on her lap.

"What's wrong, Sweetie?" she asked, wiping away the tear drop, which was slowly moving down the girl's cheek.

"Jack said he'll come... He always comes..."

"I'm sure he didn't because something very important happened and he just couldn't."

"Why..?"

Sue sighed, hugging her tightly. She had no idea why Jack didn't come, and she didn't receive any phone call or text message from him. At the same time, as their talk was already about the man, she thought it might be a good moment to tell the girl the truth about who he was for her. Sue didn't know how much of it Emily understood, but she could see that she took it well.

"Look Honey, I'm sure that Jack would rather be here, with you than anywhere else."

"Because he loves me..? Uncle Bobby always said daddy loves me... And Jack is daddy, so..."

"Yes, because he loves you. Very, very much."

They sat for a moment in silence, just cuddling. It was something they both always enjoyed very much, even if usually it was on the couch in the living room, when Emily was watching cartoons and Sue had the free moment to think. It wasn't like they could talk then, and Sue wasn't able to read the cartoon characters' lips, but just sitting together was enough for them. Now it was a little different, and the moment was definitely shorter when the girl had not much to focus on. Soon she tugged at her mom's sleeve, to get her attention.

"Emily should call Jack daddy now..?" she asked, and Sue shrugged.

"Only if you want."

"Will he come tomorrow?"

"I think he will."

He didn't. When she opened the door to the apartment in the morning, she saw Bobby standing there. His presence was an obvious sign that Jack knew he couldn't come, and asked his best friend to do it instead. Manning noticed a confusion in Sue's gaze and the moment he stepped inside, he explained everything.

"Jack's grandfather was taken to the hospital on Friday at night. His mother called him and he got onto the first plane to Wisconsin. He said he called you probably hundred times, sent some text messages and even left the message on voicemail, because you were out of range all the time."

Only then it dawned on Sue, that she switched her phone off on her way home from the unfortunate event, knowing that Trevor was going to call her the moment he realises she was gone. She has completely forgotten about it! Now she knew why didn't get any sign from Jack, and the moment she switched it on, she noticed that Bobby was right. Hudson did try to contact her a lot of times, but he had no chance to reach her.

"You say he flew to Wisconsin..?" Manning nodded, and Sue winced. His eyes widened at the realisation what it meant.

"You didn't tell him?"

"I didn't have an opportunity! The topic never arose, and it's not like we converse a lot! Only few words here, few words there..."

"But Sue, it's an important matter! You don't think that he is not going to mention anything to them, do you? Because believe me, he talks about Emily a lot!"

"I know!"

"Poor Sparky, to have a surprise like this in such a moment..." sighed Bobby, wondering how his friend was doing in his hometown.