A/N: I really feel like there should have been an omnious tone blaring at the end of chapter nine. Things for Emma are about to get very hard. Thank you to all who have read this story and are liking it. Hopefully I will not disappoint anyone. Here is chapter ten!

Chapter 10: Fathers Are the Things We Fear the Most

A few new cars sat on Lakerose Terrace. All black and very business like sat in front of Emma Ross' home. It had been two weeks since the Ross family got the call from the prison in Colorado that held Jeffery Blythe, convicted serial murderer, Emma Ross' father. The warden had called to tell the family that Jeffery Blythe had escaped during a fire in the prison. It was later discovered that Jeffery was the one responsible for the fire. Colorado state police and the Wyoming state police had been notified. Jeffery's cellmate Isacc "The Snake" Gregson had sworn that Jeffery Blythe was planning on returning to Hidden Rocks. The small town had been quiet and peaceful for ten years. Now everyone was on alert.

The FBI had been called in and Jack Reynolds was consulting on Harlan and Isabelle's request. Emma had been through dozens of questions, ranging from when she last saw her father and if any strange activity had been occuring in the area. Emma fearfully answered the agents throughly as she could. Emma had not seen her father in three years. They asked what the last thing was that she had said to her father was.

"I told him that he could rot in hell," Emma said. "I told him that he was no longer my father. I think I spit on him too."

With the tension at the Ross house, the rest of the families on the street were starting to feel it as well. The Reynolds boys, each took a shift of night watch. Marc and Matt routinely drove around town looking for unfamiliar cars or people. In that time, the Hidden Rocks sherrif's office took so many calls about seeing strange cars in town that they had to put out the profile that the FBI's team came up with. That lessned the calls ever so slightly.

Despite all the tension and turmoil in her life, Emma arrived every day to be Amy Lang's assistant at the lodge. Being up away from town was comforting, even though Jesse insisted on driving her everywhere so she would never be alone. Jesse always tried to get Emma to talk about what was going on in her head but she managed to divert the conversation to the Valmonts' situtation with Halle.

"Have you heard from Halle at all?" Emma asked one afternoon as she and Jesse were driving home from the lodge.

"She called me last night to say she and Ty were going through the redwood forest in California. She won't tell me but I know they've either gotten married or are planning on it. Mom refuses to believe it, call it the twin sixth sense or whatever but I know my sister. She would do this," Jesse said.

"At least she's away from all this mess," Emma sighed. "At least we have someone close by who speaks Fed."

Jack had indespensible to the Ross'. Whenever the FBI gave an update to them, he was right there to help answer any questions Harlan or Isabelle may have had. He called his son Stephan to place a track on him. If Jeffery Blythe came anywhere near Hidden Rocks, someone would know.

Casper sat nervously at a table in the Hidden Rocks Country Club. Jack Reynolds had called him the other day to invite him to lunch. It was hard for Casper to grasp the concept that Mollie's father was a real person and not someone she always talked about. Casper hadn't had to have the whole "lunch with the dad" before with Halle or Maddie. He had met Frank once and Eric never. Jack Reynolds was the first dad he had to contend with. Luckily his ally with the Reynolds men had prepped him on the right things to say. Sebastian was breaking all sorts of rules that he and his brothers had made when Mollie was just a little girl. But he didn't care. He wanted to make sure that Casper had all the best chances to impress Jack.

Jack sat across from Casper and two men sat quietly looking each other over. Casper nervously sipped on his water. He finally couldn't take the quiet anymore and was the first to say something.

"Mr. Reynolds, thank you for inviting me to have lunch with you," Casper said. "Mollie would like this."

"Has she called you yet son?" Jack asked.

Casper was, nodded and was soon whisked away into the memory of their talk the afternoon before.

Casper was lying on his bed, staring up at his celing. It had been a long day at work. The first of the summer campers and hikers had arrived. He and Matt barely had a chance to grab lunch. He was tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and then it started to sing. Mollie's ringtone on his phone was Natalie Grant's "Held". He fumbled for his phone pulling it out and getting it open in record time.

"Mollie!" Casper gasped. "You doing ok?"

"Hi Casper," Mollie's soft voice said over the phone. "I'm good. Amy and I have gone shopping all over the city. I can't wait to get all my pictures developed. I met Kate Hudson!"

"Really? That's awesome!" Casper said. He paused a moment, not sure if he should say what was really on his mind. "I miss you."

"I do too," Mollie replied. "I got you some great stuff at the Strand."

"How long were you in there?" Casper asked. The Strand is the largest bookstore in the world. Even from their distance Casper could just see Mollie's face scrunching up from embarrassment. "Mollie, how long were you in there?"

"Four hours," Mollie admitted. "For the record I was in there last summer for almost six."

"And that's why you're Mollie." Casper said. He paused for a moment before saying another word. "I miss you."

"I miss you too Casper. I called, because I finally realize something. Amy and I talked today."

"About what?" he asked, twirling a bit of his blanket in between his fingers.

"You. What happened at Emma's party. Casper, I am not ready to repeat what you said to me that night. I'm just not. You know me, I'm not the one who just tosses that phrase around. When I tell whoever it is that I am to love, it will be for the right reasons at the right time. Not until I know for sure. Tell me you understand."

"I do Mollie. I really do. Despite my experience and what you may have heard about me over the years, I will not pressure you into anything. What else have you been doing besides haunting the Strand?" Casper joked.

"Gavin took me and Amy to Spamalot and Josh Groban was in town and we went to his show as well," Mollie said. "Edward, Dylan and I went to the zoo and to Ellis Island. It was so cool to get to tour where most of our ancestors first arrived at."

Mollie talked about the other things she had done in her three weeks in New York. Her sister Amy took her shopping at all the fancy stores. She told Casper that she had gotten him something from Armani that he would really like. They laughed about the traffic and all the people. Casper told her about opening day at the lodge.

"Poor Becca!" Mollie laughed. "At least it was Matt that she dropped the salad on."

They paused for a moment before Casper spoke again. "Seriously sweetheart, when are you coming home?"

"It's only one more week. Casper you're acting like I've left for good. From what I've heard, it's better that I stay away."

"I'd protect you, Mollie. You know that right?"

"You and all my brothers. It's only a few more days. Getting back to what Amy and I talked about," Mollie said, sighing. "Casper I am happy just the way we are. I don't want anything to change. When I get home, I want to take things slow."

"Define slow," Casper asked, not to be mean but to fully understand.

"Mollie Reynolds slow. Hand holding, talking, private kissing. I don't want to be the center of attention." She paused again. "I feel like I am taking more and more from you without giving anything in return."

"You are not Mollie. I don't care about what anyone else thinks our relationship should be. I only care about how you want it to be. I'm just happy being introduced to everyone in your family as 'your Casper'. Mollie just being with you makes me happy."

"Why do you have to be so nice?" Mollie sighed. "If you would just demand something or just be a royal jerk this would be easier."

"Mollie, I could never treat you badly. I value my life too much. I love you too much to be a jerk about anything. You're precious and I treat you like you're precious."

They talked for a little bit longer then it was time for Mollie to go. Gavin and Amy were taking her to a show at the Lincoln Center.

"Has Mollie called you yet?" Jack asked again.

"Yes sir," Casper answered. "She called me last night. We talked for about an hour."

"And what did you discuss?" Jack asked.

"Taking things slow. I would like to be perfectly honest with you sir. I love your daughter very much. I would do anything for her."

Jack looked over at the young man sitting across from him. He picked up his water glass and took another sip. He was being the FBI agent at the moment, visually checking over his opposition. He then nodded and set his glass down. "There are three things that I protect at all costs: My wife, my daughter and the safety of this country. What I am about to tell you Casper, is to remain strictly between you and I. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Casper replied, confused.

"Mollie is not Katherine and my daughter."

Casper looked at Jack as if he had just slapped him. Casper's face scrunched as he tried to process what Jack had just told him.

"Mollie is Gavin's daughter," Jack explained. "Gavin had this girlfriend while we were in Denver. They got pregnant and she didn't want the baby. Gavin took it upon himself to raise his little girl by himself. The hardest decision he ever had to make came at the end of his senior year of high school. He was accepted into his first choice school. Katherine and I let Gavin make his own choice regarding himself and Mollie. He decided that it would be better for both of them if he gave Mollie up for adoption. Katherine was opposed to strangers raising Mollie so she, Gavin and I came to an agreement. We would adopt Mollie, raise her as our daughter and Gavin could always be in her life as her older brother. The triplets, J.D and Bryan know as well. Hunter and Sebastain were still too little to understand what was going on."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Casper asked. "Mollie and I don't keep secrets from each other. You can't ask me to keep this from her."

"We're not asking you to. Casper I told you because Gavin is telling Mollie today. We don't know how she's going to react or who she'll turn to. Even though my daughter is not ready to tell you, I know she loves you. Be there for her."

Casper's memory moved back to last spring to the first time that he and Mollie had talked. He and Halle had been broken up for a few months and he was now with Maddie.

He wasn't sure how or why he ended up at the library. The place was deserted, like it was for most of the school day. The only person that Casper knew that hung out in the library of her own free will was little Mollie Reynolds. Everyone called her little die to the fact that she barely stood five feet tall. Although he would never admit it to anyone else, he had a soft spot in his being for the girl. It was that day that he had ever seen her completly alone. Everytime Casper saw Mollie, she was surrounded by people. She was alone and she was crying.

He went over to her, sitting next to her. His heart was breaking for the small girl. He placed his hand on hers.

"Mollie? Are you okay?" he asked softly. "Do you want me to go find Emma or Bastian for you?"

Mollie looked up at Casper. Never had he seen such misery in someone's eyes. Seeing it on Mollie was even worse. His grip on her hand tightened. "Mollie what's going on? You can talk to me."

In that afternoon, alone in the library together, Mollie unloaded everything that had happened in the last three months. She told him about her mother's illness, her father's absence and everything that was happening between Emma and Maddie. At one point he wiped away the tears that had fallen from her cheeks. He hated to see her like this. It was in those quiet hours and the ones that followed that Casper Mitchell Lang was falling in love with Mollie Hannah Reynolds.

The two men shook hands at the end of their lunch and agreed to both pick up the love of both their lives from the airport. In that time Casper agreed to not tell Mollie anything. As much as he hated it, he honored his promise.

Things in the Valmont house had not gotten any better in the three weeks that Halle had been gone. The family celebrated Jesse and Halle's eighteenth birthday. Jesse made several attempts to get his sister to tell them where she was. To no avail, Halle would not disclose her and Ty's location. So far they had gone all over the southwest. Along the way to where ever it was that they were going, they fell in love. Halle was so blissfully happy that nothing could bring her down. She had Ty and she didn't need anything else. She checked her messages often, deleting the ones from her mother and sisters. She listened to Jesse's and her father's. She felt bad about being away while Emma's father was on the lamb, but she felt better about not being there.

Halle and Tyler stopped at a dive motel just outside the Las Vegas city limits. It was time to relax and be out of the car for a few hours. They still wanted a few more days before going back to Wyoming and Colorado. Before that, they wanted to visit Sin City. They would have loved to gotten the chance to go into any of the casnios and just look but under 21, you're not allowed anywhere near the casino floor. They figured that they could at least get their pictures taken in front of each of the major hotel/casinos on the strip.

Halle planned to pick up a deck of cards from each casino on the strip for her brother and his friends. The TV geek in Halle also wanted to just walk across a bit of filming of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or CSI: Vegas as it is called as to not confuse the fans of the other CSI spinoffs. She and Ty decided to stay outside of town and drive in and see the sights for a few days. After that, they would go home and face the wrath of their parents.

"How in the world did we end up outside of Vegas?" Ty wondered aloud, over a spread of bad Chinese takeout.

"You were the one driving Ty," Halle teased, throwing a pea at him. "To quote Bugs Bunny, 'We never should have taken that left at Albuquerque.' I don't care how we got here, I'm just glad we got to get here together. These last few weeks have been amazing Ty."

"I totally agree," Ty said. "This has been a most excellent adventure."

"You did not just pull out a Bill and Ted reference!"

"Who's the geek who caught it?"

Ty scooped a bit of the Kung Po sauce from the bottom of the carry-out box and flung it at Halle. Thus began the Chinese Food Fight. By the end of the fight their room and themselves were covered in food. In the last moments of the battle Ty caught Halle, holding her close to him and kissed her. They fell back on the Chinese food covered bed. Ty laid next to Halle, picking the dried bits of egg roll off her face.

"Marry me?" he whispered. "Marry me at the MGM Grand?"

A huge smile crossed Halle's face as she nodded. "Yes. Yes, Ty I will."

Back in Hidden Rocks, Maddie was having it out with her mother. It had almost been two years since Maddie and her mother had gone to see her father who was in a facility in Denver. Eric Kingsly had been in a well respected doctor in Denver. One night he was at his office late and someone set it on fire. The arsonist had never been caught. Dr. Kingsly had been severely burned. His burns were slowly healing and it was hard for him to see anyone.

"Mom you haven't seen Dad since the fire! You have to go see him! You have to!"

"I do not have to make a six almost seven hour trip to Denver to see a man who on the day the fire occured told me he was leaving me and taking you with him!" Ariel yelled back at her daughter.

"What did it matter anyway Mom? You're always gone! If you won't go with me than I'll just go by myself. You can't stop me!"

"Eric doesn't want you there!"

"Correction Mother: He doesn't want YOU there! Daddy hates you."

"Your father is incapable of any emotion. The only person that selfish bastard cared about was himself."

"That's not true! He loved me!"

"He's a selfish bastard who would rather lie around dying than pick himself up and get healthy."

Whenever her mother began bad mouthing her father, Maddie's rage only accelerated in her. She swallowed her anger for a moment before saying another word. "I am going to see my father. You can come with me if you want but you can't stop me from going. Hell, Mother I don't even think you could catch me."

A slamming door and the roar of a car starting to life was the only sound echoing in the Kingsly house. Maddie, fueled by her anger drove to the garage. If she didn't want to have to replace the front end of her car she would have rammed the gate. She slammed on the horn and waited inpatiently for someone to hit the lock release. Once the opening was large enough to get her car through she zoomed into the parking area almost taking out Joey and Zabo in the process. Spanish threats and curses echoed as Maddie's car wound down.

"What the hell are you doing?" Frankie shouted at his girlfriend. "You almost hit Joey!"

Maddie climbed out of her car and wiped away the tears. Frankie stopped yelling and saw the tears in her eyes. His rough exterior melts as Maddie runs to him. He embraces her tightly trying in vain to calm her down.

"Royale, what's wrong?" Frankie asked.

"Mom is such a-God I can't even think of a word bad enough to call her!" Maddie cried, frustrated. "Can we just drive? I need to get away from this God forsaken town."

"Sure baby. You wanna drive or should I?" Frankie asked. Maddie gave him a look and he threw his hands in the air. "It was just a question, chica. No need to take my cajones off."

"Just get in the car!" Maddie snapped.

The two of them shot out of the lot and zoomed their way through town and out to the highway. The best part about living in the middle of nowhere Wyoming is that there is miles of open road that a fast car can truly enjoy. Maddie floored the accelerator and flew past the town sign. Maddie cornered hard and kept going. Frankie had hold of the "Hail Mary" strap for dear life. He was loving every second of Maddie's hate filled drive. Before he knew it they were on the interstate heading to Casper.

"Royale, where are we going?" Frankie asked.

"Denver. To see my father."

"I can't go to Denver! Tank and the guys at the shop need me!"

"I need you Frankie!" Maddie shouted. "My father has full thickness burns on over eighty percent of his body! My own mother refuses to see him. I need someone to come with me. Please Frankie. I will so make it worth your time."

He and Maddie had already slept together and Frankie knew that was well worth driving to Denver. He sighed and nodded. He sat back in the shotgun seat turning on the radio. Maddie drove not as fast as she normally would have but still in the high eighties. Frankie's hand moved across the center console and rested, possievly on Maddie's leg. He was happy that Maddie finally dumped that tool Casper. Frankie enjoyed getting to be with Maddie.

He couldn't remember how long he had been on the move. It had been several cold nights hiding out, trying to get the dogs off his trail. He had been wadering in the woods for days. Stealing food when he could. He was getting closer to Hidden Rocks. It would only be a few more days until he would see his daughter again. Jeffery Blythe was coming home. Home to do away with the last bit of trouble he had in his lfe.

Emma hadn't had a decent night's sleep in three weeks. She kept waking up at odd hours of the night thinking, not thinking, knowing she heard someone tapping on her window. Everytime she would go to her window and no one would be there. The cops and FBI agents that were on patrol at her house swore to her that no was there. They told her that her imagination was getting the better of her.

The next few days passed slowly for everyone. Casper agonized about how Mollie was going to react to her life altering news. He hadn't talked to her since the last time she called. One could never call Casper Lang a coward but facing the possibility of an extremly pissed off little girl had him turning tail and running. He was supposed to go with Jack to Casper to meet Mollie at the airport. He was having major second thoughts. Casper, despite his fear of Mollie he was going to go. He wasn't going to arrive empty handed. He had to go to Cody to drop off the new Lang Lodge Events Calender at the Cody Visitors' Center. While in Cody he stopped at one of the jewlery stores.

With Mollie's birthday coming up just days after she returned, Casper wanted to find her something special. He knew her favorite colors: Pink and white. He knew she loved butterflies. He wandered around the cases and was getting frustrated that he couldn't find anything that screamed Mollie at him. The sales girl came up to him and asked if he needed help with anything.

"In fact I do," Casper said, sighing. "My girlfriend's birthday is coming up and I want to get her something nice. She loves butterflies and everything she owns is pink or white."

"Okay, I think I have the perfect thing for you and your girlfriend," the lady said. She went over to the showcase and pulled out a small box. "We just got this in yesterday." She showed the peice of jewelry to Casper. "The bracelet is made of eighteen carat white gold. The butterfly links are made of created pink sapphires and real opals. Each of the butterfly links are seperated by two real pearls." She held the bracelet out for Casper to see closer.

"Oh this is perfect!" Casper gasped. "Mollie will just love this!"

"I'll just wrap this up for you and ring you up," the sales girl said. "That will be two hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifteen cents, sir."

Casper handed his debit card to the sales girl and prayed like hell it doesn't decline it. The card went through without a scratch. The sales girl thanked him for his purchase and Casper left the store. It was a short walk from the shop to where he left his truck. He placed the bracelet in the console in between the seats and then climbed in. Mollie came home the next day and her birthday was on Saturday.

Mollie had the unlucky chance of having her birthday fall on the same day as the nation's birthday. From what Mollie had told him, she has never gotten to have a real birthday party of her own. This year, Casper planned to change all that. Every year the lodge had a town-wide formal ball/dinner on the fourth, followed by a large fireworks display over the lake. Casper hadn't invited Mollie as his date yet. He wanted to wait for the right moment.

Halle and Ty had three amazing days in Las Vegas. They got their pictures taken in front of every major casino on the strip. They bought stuff for their families. Halle even bought a deck of cards from each of the casinos for Matt and Marc. They took a haunted tour of some of the older casinos and even bought books on the old Vegas. It had done them both some good to get away from their friends and families for a few weeks. They were ready to face the wrath of their parents.

He was getting closer to town. He was having a harder time finding places to hide. There were not very many locations on which to hide out at once he got to Hidden Rocks. He had a cabin that he knew his daughter and her grandparents never went to. He would go there and plan his next move. Jeffery arrived at his old cabin, a place where most of his murders had taken place. His main motive for coming back to Hidden Rocks was to see for himself what his daughter had become. The last time he saw her, she was fourteen. She was seven almost eight when he went away. She had come to see him without Harlan or Isabelle. Her words still rung in his head.

Emma didn't know what caused her to take Mollie and convince her brother Bryan to drive them to Florence, Colorado. From somewhere Emma had a burning desire to see her father. To scream at him, to call him names, to make him hurt as badly as she had been. She talked Bryan into driving and they arrived at the federal prison that housed her father.

Emma signed in alone on the visitor's log. She went through all the metal detectors and security measures and was finally brought into the room with the bullet-proof glass with the phone on the one side. Jeffery Blythe came to sit in front of her. Emma shuddered to look at him face to face for the first time in ten years. He was older, prison did not suit Jeffery Blythe. Seeing the older man, aged face, scars littered here and there, Emma was no longer afraid of him. She reached for the phone on her right. Jeffery did the same.

"Hello Emily," Jeffery said.

"It's Emma now," Emma snapped. She was trying very hard to control her emotions. Seeing her father sit there with the smug look on his aged face only infuriated her all the more. "I just want to know one thing. Why? Why did you murder my mother?"

"I always knew that there would come a time when you would ask me this question," Jeffery said, coldly. "I told myself that when that day comes this is what I'll say to Emily, 'She knew and she told.' Does that answer your question?"

"You arrogant, smug bastard!" Emma cried. "I only came here today to show you this." Emma pulled a folded peice of paper out of her pocket. She pressed the unfolded sheet of paper against the glass. "It's the signed and sealed adoption papers. As of four years ago, I am no longer your daughter. I am Emma Noelle Ross. Daughter of Harlan and Isabelle Ross. We have completely erased you from our lives and memory. The day I can't wait for is the day they give you that injection. If I could be the one to push in that leathal medication I would. You rot in hell you son of a bitch!"

Emma was very glad that no one else was with her when she did the most unladylike thing ever. She hawked up the largest, nastiest wad of spit and phlegm possible and launched it towards the glass. Had the glass not been there, it would have landed directly in Jeffery's eye. Not taking a look badk, Emma left the visitors area and back to her friends. She never told her grandparents she had gone to Florence or at gone to see her father. She swore Mollie and Bryan to secrecy.

Dousing himself in the cold water from the small pond behind the cabin, Jeffery cleaned himself with what outdated and possibly rancid soap that was left in the cabin. He wandered into the small bedroom he had once shared with his wife Anna. Still hanging in the closet was a few changes of clothes. He wasn't sure if they would fit, but he tried them on anyway. They did. His next task was to aquire a car to get into town and back out before he was spotted. He was sure that the FBI had the entire town under surveilence. He walked around the cabin and he noticed a large mound. It looked like dirt, leaves, branches and moss. Upon closer inspection he discovered that this was where he had hidden his Jeep ten years ago. Everything was falling into place.

Donning a hat and sunglasses, Jeffery fired up the Jeep and drove down the mountainside and into the odd side of town. He didn't feel the presence of the law until he turned off Third Street and onto Lakerose. He drove past the house, looking it over quickly. Not wanting to stand out he drove off. Later that night he would come back.