Jeff tried to concentrate on whatever he was watching on TV, but instead he kept looking over at Lexi's room down the hallway. It had been almost two hours since she had arrived, and so far he had seen his daughter for a grand total of two minutes, at best. He wanted to go over there and see how she was doing. He wanted to start getting to know her. He had already missed out on sixteen years of her life. He didn't want to miss out on anymore.

He glanced out the window, where Annie was sitting on the terrace working on her laptop. She had said it was best to give Lexi some space and let her open up to Jeff at her own pace. But he was tired of waiting around to get to know his daughter. Especially since he knew she was extremely upset over losing her mother and everything else that came along as a result. With that he got up and went to his daughter's room.

"Alexis," he said as he knocked on the door. "Lexi. Can I come in?" He waited a few moments for an answer, but didn't receive one. He turned the knob and opened the door slowly.

Lexi was sitting up on her bed, her head turned down staring at a sketch pad as she moved a pencil across the page. She didn't look up or acknowledge Jeff as he awkwardly walked over to her. "Hey." He pulled a chair over and sat next to her, still amazed at how much she resembled her mother. He almost had to remind himself that the person on the bed was his daughter and not in fact Megan. He took a moment to just simply look at her before glancing at her drawing. It was of a young woman standing in front of a grave. In the sky was a sad woman in a flowing dress flowing above her, while below the gravestone underground was a coffin with a decaying body inside. Though Jeff didn't know a lot about art, it wasn't hard to guess who or what his daughter was depicting in her picture. Though understandable, it was all extremely morbid.

"That's…really something," Jeff said. "Do you like to draw?" He internally winced when all he got was a non-committal grunt for a response. "When I was a kid I used to draw all the time. But I wasn't that good at it. They used to look like advanced stick figures." He chuckled at his childhood memory, but stopped when Alexis didn't even look up at him. "Lexi, can you just stop that and look at me please?"

Her hand paused in mid line before she set the pad and pencil down and finally looked at her father. Jeff tried not to look proud of this minuscule victory as he gathered himself. "Look, I know how weird this must be. I mean, until yesterday I didn't even know you existed. But I really want to get to know you and make up for everything I've missed. I'm sure you have a lot of questions and are feeling a lot of things right now, but I want you to know I'm here. So anything you want to ask or say to me…" He faded out as he looked into her eyes (while her face was Megan's, those blues were all Jeff's, to the point where Jeff felt like he was staring into his own).

Alexis struggled to voice what she was feeling before she softly blurted out, "I hate you." She immediately regretted saying the first thing that came to her when she saw the hurt look on Jeff's face. "I didn't…that's not…" She blinked back tears as she tried to voice her feelings. "I never knew anything about you. The only thing my mom said about my father was that he was gone and it was just her and me. And as I grew older, I envisioned you as this jerk who ran out on us when my mom she became pregnant with me. And I hated you for abandoning us. And now all of a sudden I find out it was all a lie, and the reason you weren't around was because my existence was kept from you. I just can't…I just can't flip a switch and suddenly hug you. I've hated you for so long, it just can't go away just like that, even if I want it to. I know it's unfair, but I just can't."

Jeff desperately tried to keep his emotions (which had been extremely raw ever since yesterday afternoon) from roaring to the surface at what he was hearing. He was trying not to hate Megan for how she had decided to handle this whole situation. But discovering that her actions had caused his daughter to cast him in a role similar to his own father made him hope there was an afterlife just so he could confront her when he died.

"Lexi," Jeff said as he prepared to try and assure her that her image of him was false. "I can't promise that I'll always know what to do when it comes to being there for you. I can't even promise that I would have been the greatest dad if your mother had stayed and told me she was pregnant. But I can promise you this: if I had known about you, I would have never left you. I know what it's like to grow up without a father…and I would never have put any child through that.

"I know this isn't going to be easy for any of us. But I really want you to give me a chance. Can you maybe try to do that?"

Lexi looked at Jeff as she sighed deeply. It wasn't a definite yes, but Jeff was willing to take it. "All right. How about we start things small? I was going to get some pizza for dinner. Do you like pizza?" He let out a chuckle at the 'what are you, stupid?' look she gave him. "Right, sorry. Not even a day and I've already become a lame, embarrassing parent."

Lexi shook her head as she too laughed at what he said. "Yes, I like pizza."

"What toppings to you like?" Jeff asked.

"Peppers and mushrooms."

"Oh, actually, Annie doesn't like peppers." He fidgeted uncomfortably before coming up with a plan. "How about she gets a small pizza with her toppings, and we can get a large with peppers and mushrooms. Sounds good?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, that went well," Jeff said with disappointment.

"It wasn't that bad Jeff," Annie said as she turned down their bed and laid down on her side.

"She hardly said anything during the whole meal," Jeff exclaimed as he laid down next to Annie. "No wait, I forgot. She did take time to made fun of me for using my napkin to soak up pizza grease. That was a pleasant blast from the past."

"Jeff, she's a teenager. She's going to make fun of us."

"She didn't make fun of you."

Annie restrained herself from pointing out that the reason Lexi didn't make fun of her was because she didn't say a single word to her during the entire meal. "Jeff, she's a kid, you're an adult. Get over it. I'm sure things will get better between you two. It's just going to take-."

"Time, I know," Jeff said testily.

"It's only the first day Jeff. And besides, you two are spending the whole day together tomorrow, just the two of you. That should give both of you a chance to start getting to know each other."

"Yeah," Jeff said, unable to keep the happiness out of his voice about tomorrow. He kissed Annie good night before turning off the bedside lamp. Annie fell asleep right away, but Jeff lay awake, mentally thinking over the best places he could take his daughter to.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yes, I know this is last minute, but I'm not going to be making it in today….I told you, a family situation has come up and I'm taking the day off to handle it. I'll call you later to let you know if I'll be in tomorrow or not. Goodbye."

Jeff hung up his phone, glad he had gotten that out of the way. He wasn't too worried. He had been at his new law firm for over a year now, so he could afford to take a day off. Besides, this was more important, even if it would mean playing catch up later on in the week.

He looked up as Lexi walked out of her room, frowning when he saw that she had her backpack with her. "What's with the bag?"

"I'm going to go to school today," she said with fake nonchalance.

"What? I thought we were going to spend the day together. We talked about it last night at dinner-."

"I know. But I changed my mind. Everything's just changing so fast and I just, I just want to see my friends. I'll see you later." Without another word she quickly walked out of the apartment.

"Lexi. Lexi, wait!" Jeff started running after her when he stopped in frustration. If she didn't want to spend the day with him, it wouldn't do either of them any good to force her. He gritted his teeth, hating that this was how things had gone. He had spent a while thinking of stuff they could do together, including something he was sure she would love. Now all that planning was for nothing.

He started pulling his phone out to tell his office that he would be coming into work after all when he spotted the manila folder Chilton had given him. He picked it up and began looking through all the documents that were inside.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yes Mr. Zuckerman, I can take your case. But with the breaking and entering charge your ex-wife's legal team will put us through the ringer when it comes to parental rights. I'm just warning you right away that it's going to be an uphill battle."

Chilton looked up as his office door opened and Jeff walked in. "Mr. Zuckerman, I have to go. I'll call you this afternoon." He hung up the phone as he looked at Jeff in surprise. "Mr. Winger. I wasn't expecting you to actually come in," he said as he nodded his head towards the folder Jeff was holding. "You know you could have just FedExed those documents over to me."

"I had the morning off. So I thought I'd bring them over."

Chilton took the folder and looked through it. "Everything seems to be in order. Though if I were you I'd suggest contacting Alexis's school and personally informing them of your relationship with your daughter, in case you have to pick her up or come in for a conference. I'd also advise having your fiancée do the same."

"Okay," Jeff said.

"Something tells me you didn't just come by to drop off the forms."

"I just…" He shuffled his feet as he thought about why he had come down here. "You've known Lexi for a while, right?"

"I have. Most of her life actually."

"Do you have any…I don't know, tips or anything? What she likes or hates? I know she liked to draw. I was going to take her to an art museum today. Part of a getting to know each other kind of day. But she changed her mind and went to school instead."

"That's not that surprising. I've seen people handle grief and chance in many various ways. And some people do best when they can keep up a regular routine. Given how much has changed for her, I suspect it's comforting for Alexis to be in school with friends right now. I'm sure you're eager to get to know her, but it's going to take time."

"I know," Jeff said heavily. "And maybe I jumped the gun with planning a whole day out. I just want…she's my daughter. I've already missed out on her first sixteen years. It's hard for me to be patient. I don't want to wait any longer to get to know her."

Chilton nodded his head in understanding. "I get feeling like that. I have four kids myself, and even I sometimes feel like I'm not getting to know them as well as I should. I can only imagine the feeling of wanting to get to know your children after all this time." He paused as he thought about Jeff's predicament. "She liked animation."

"Excuse me?"

"Before you said you wanted to take Alexis to an art museum. She specifically likes drawing and animation rather than paintings and sculptures. I know she's said she would like to work for an animation studio and make a movie or television show. Or create her own comic book. She was working on a few ideas for a comic before Megan got sick," Chilton said.

Jeff let out a laugh at hearing that. "So she likes comics? Guess we have one thing in common after all."

"She tends to find humor in dark things," Chilton continued. "And loves cats even though they make her eyes water. She's done fairly well in school, though she will voice her opinion if she thinks a subject or project is a waste of time (Jeff had a sudden flashback of his tutoring lessons with Megan). And she is fiercely protective of her mother. I don't know how you're dealing with your feelings towards Megan after everything, but I would be very cautious about speaking ill of her in front of Alexis. Those are just a few things I can think of when dealing with that girl."

Jeff tried to hide his appreciation at getting even those few tidbits. "Thanks. That should help. Okay, I should go. I'd originally taken the day off, but now I'm going to go in for the afternoon. I'll call you if I need anything."

"Okay then. Have a good day. And Jeff." Jeff paused at the door as he turned back towards Chilton. "Good luck."