A/N: So before people start talking about how Emma and Will seem out of character in this chapter, I am aware that they are slightly out of character, but situations such as this tend to bring out parts of people's character rarely ever seen. So even though it is somewhat out of character as far as Will and Emma on Glee, it's in character for their purpose in this story. R&R Loved as always! (: and yay for a quicker update than last time! :D -Tayma

Chapter 8: Serving Emma

"Hey, it's Will Schuester and I can't get to the phone right now. But if you leave a message with your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a moment."

"Hey, Will. This, uhm, this is Emma. Look, I know you're angry with me right now, but Willow's home. She's asking about you. I got her to bed and everything, and she's sleeping well. She's a bit sunburned and her freckles have popped like crazy from her time at the beach…anyways…please give me a call back. Even if just to talk to Willow. Okay? Right…bye."

-x-x-x-

"Hey, it's Will Schuester and I can't get to the phone right now. But if you leave a message with your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a moment."

"Will…hi, it's me again. Just wondering if you're planning on calling Willow soon. She's going crazy asking for you, wanting to call you. I've told her you're a bit busy and that you'll call her back when you have a moment, but I don't know how much longer she'll accept that. It's been two weeks, Will. I get not talking to me, but you can't ignore Willow…it's impossible to ignore Willow. Call me back."

-x-x-x-

"Hey, it's Will Schuester and I can't get to the phone right now. But if you leave a message with your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a moment."

"I'm seriously getting annoyed now. I've left you at least ten messages and you're not calling back at all. You're not punishing me nearly as much as you're punishing your daughter. You must be listening to these because your voicemail box isn't full yet, so seriously, call back."

-x-x-x-

"Hey, it's Will Schuester and I can't get to the phone right now. But if you leave a message with your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a moment."

"Will, it's been almost a month…I don't know what to say anymore…Call me."

-x-x-x-

A month and a half passed had passed since Will walked out of Emma's front door and seemingly out of her life again. Emma called him multiple times, trying to get ahold of him to apologize and set up a time to meet with Willow, but he never answered. He never called back, either. After a few weeks of Willow asking nonstop about Will and did he call back, and would he be coming by to see her any time soon, she seemed to give up hope. Emma thought that maybe Willow forgot about Will and just went back to how things were before he walked into her life for a few days, but she was naïve to believe that would have been the case.

Many times, Emma wondered if falling in love with men was a genetic thing, because if it was, she clearly passed it on to her daughter. Emma remembered meeting Will when she was a kid and instantly feeling attached to him, like she absolutely had to know him after only a few days of friendship. Willow was the same way, but Emma wondered if this need to know Will was stronger because he was Willow's father. Willow always wanted to know him, and now that she got to, even as small of a taste as she got, she didn't want to let that experience go.

In the period of a few days and then a week away from home hearing stories from her grandparents about Will and Emma when they were younger, Willow had fallen in love with the fact that Will was her dad. When she got home and he wasn't there, she wondered what she'd done wrong, but Emma assured her that she did nothing wrong. He just had some unexpected plans come up. Over the course of the month, Emma repeatedly promised Willow that Will loved her very much and he was just busy, and she thought Willow was accepting it. Like always, though, her daughter caught her off guard with her perception of things.

Willow walked into the kitchen for breakfast, a little yawn escaping her lips. Emma smiled at her, taking in one of her favorite sites: just awake Willow. She looked like she did when she was a baby when she'd just woken up, her face carrying the same look of 'Why am I up and why is it not as warm'. Willow shuffled over to the breakfast table, sitting down and hardly even looking at her mother when her breakfast was placed in front of her. It was only then that Emma noticed she was pouting, too.

"Good morning, baby doll." Emma said, leaning down to kiss Willow's nose gently. Willow didn't respond, but started picking at her toast sulkily. "What's wrong sweetie?" Emma sat down next to her, resting her chin on the table so she could meet Willow's eyes.

Willow shrugged. "Nothing." Emma stayed silent, watching her, knowing a few moments of silence hanging in the air would make Willow feel like she could continue. As expected, after a few seconds of nothing, Willow's hazel eyes darted up to her mother's brown ones. "Has Dad called you yet?"

Emma's head shook a little bit and this time she averted her eyes. "No, he hasn't. But you know what, maybe he will today. We just have to keep our hopes up." She smiled reassuringly and kissed her nose again, getting up to clean up the kitchen while Willow ate.

"I don't think so." Willow shook her head, still looking down at her plate, fiddling with the piece of toast.

"Why not?"

Another shrug. "I just don't really think he loves me like you said so."

Emma whipped around to look at Willow, her eyebrows furrowed. "Willow, you know that is not true." She said, walking over to her and crouching before her.

"No I don't. He left again. That doesn't sound like loving someone." She sounded so adult, and it caught Emma off guard. She wondered what happened to her happy go lucky ten year old.

"He never left you, though. I kept him away from you at first, and then Terri did, and then I did again. He never knew about you, Willow, and I've told you that your whole life, that it wasn't his fault you didn't know him." She paused. "If you should be upset with anyone, Wills, it's me."

Willow's head shook. "I can't be mad at you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're my mommy and you actually love me." She said it quietly and Emma's heart broke, the thought that Willow could feel anything but loved crushed her. She'd done everything she could to make sure Willow wouldn't hurt, and in a month and a half, she'd managed to screw that up by letting Will in. She didn't know which feeling was stronger in that moment: feeling like she failed her daughter again or feeling like she wanted to smack Will across the face for disappearing on a ten year old.

Emma pulled Willow against her and hugged her close, placing a kiss on top of her head. She stroked Willow's curly hair gently and rested her cheek against the top of her daughter's head gently. "And I will always love you forever. You know that, right?"

Willow nodded, hugging her mother back gently. "You never leave me, either."

Emma's head shook. "Never, ever. You're my baby."

Willow was quiet for a second before nodding again. "I love you lots."

"I love you lots, too." She kissed her head again. "Are you going to eat your toast, or do you want to go see Gramma Rose and see if she'll make you pancakes?" Rose always seemed to 'happen to be making pancakes' any time Willow and Emma showed up in the morning.

"Gramma's?" Willow asked, and Emma could hear a small smile in her voice.

"Alright. Go get dressed and then we'll head over, okay?" Emma kissed Willow's forehead again, grabbing her hand before she could run away. "Hey, whoa! Hold on, I don't think I got a good morning kiss from my favorite kid." She smiled as Willow hit her little forehead jokingly at her forgetfulness, then kissed Emma's cheek before running off to get dressed.

Emma watched her go before picking up the phone and dialing a number that was becoming all too familiar at this point. She listened to the rings, letting out a sigh, and then—

"Hey, it's Will Schuester and I can't get to the phone right now. But if you leave a message with your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I get a moment."

"Will, it's been a month, and I get it. You're not calling back and I don't think you're planning on it. So this is the last message you're going to get from me. I don't know what's going through your head, but I'm sorry for lying to you all of this time. You don't even understand what it's like to have been in my position, so you have no place to judge me for how I handled the situations and you have no control over it. But you can control how you act, and while I'm trying to act like an adult and make up for my mistakes, you're acting like a child and running away. I get that you haven't been in Willow's life, and I get that the time you were in was only for a couple of days, but you can't just walk away like you did. I have a heartbroken kid over here who is pretty sure that you don't love her and that you left her. No matter the reasoning or the justification, you did leave her, after walking into her life and promising to be here. You're trying to punish me, but you're ending up hurting my daughter, and that is not okay. I'm not even going to ask you to call back this time. I really don't want you to."

She waited a moment before clicking the end button and walking out of the kitchen, slamming the phone down on the receiver on her way out.

When the doorbell rang, Emma didn't hear it at first. She was elbow-deep behind the couch, trying to clean up the dust bunnies that had somehow managed to accumulate behind it without Emma's knowledge. Emma had allowed herself to go on an all-day cleaning bender while Willow was with her parents. Willow was so down after their conversation a few days prior about Will that Rose offered to take her for the weekend. They were going shopping and having grandma-Willow bonding time, which Emma knew always made Willow happier. On the second ring, Emma pulled her headphones out in time to hear a rapping at the door.

"Coming!" She said, setting the hand vacuum down on the couch and pulling her gloves off. Setting them down on the vacuum, Emma wiped her forehead a little and walked to the door, pulling it open.

Her eyes fell upon the man standing before her and she allowed her eyes to roll before turning and walking away from the door in silence. He could come in if he wanted to, but she wasn't about to invite him. She shoved her headphones back into her ears and turned up the volume, moving to finish up her job. Well aware that she was acting as old as her daughter, Emma shook her head. She was just so frustrated.

"Emma!" Will called, stepping through the door. "Em-ma. Dammit, Emma, take the headphones out." He walked towards her. "EMMA!"

Emma yanked the ear buds out. "What do you want?" She asked, turning to glare at him.

He stared at her, swallowing a little bit. His hand ran through his hair nervously and he sighed. "I wanted to talk to you. About Willow."

Emma laughed a little and shook her head. "No, you don't get to talk about Willow. You lost that privilege at the moment as I see it."

"I never even got the chance to have that privilege!" Will said, taking a step towards her. Emma took her own step towards him.

"You gave up that chance when you walked away from her! She was heartbroken that you weren't here when she got home like you promised. You had that chance, and you blew it!" She moved to put the vacuum away, her cleaning buzz completely killed.

"Emma, you lied to me for years. I didn't even know she existed, and then I find out that everyone but me knew she existed. Excuse me for getting upset and needing a bit of time and space." He followed her down the hallway, grabbing her arm gently. "But Em, I want to get to know her. I just…I needed to process everything."

She pulled her arm away from him. "You should have said that, Will. You can't just walk away and not return calls, break a kid's heart and make her think that you don't love her and that you just left her. This situation wasn't just about you, Will. It stopped the minute you said you wanted to meet her and know her."

Will watched Emma silently and nodded. "You're right, and I'm sorry for walking away from her – from you, too. I was just so hurt, Emma that everyone had lied to me. What if everyone lied to you and then at the drop of a hat, your life changes and it turns out that you're the only one really in the dark?"

"I'd be upset, but I wouldn't disappear and hurt someone who knows no better than to love unconditionally because that is how she was raised." Emma started walking towards the living room again, Will trailing behind her.

"You don't understand the position I'm in, Emma."

Emma rolled her eyes, plopping down on the couch and looking at him. "Instead of playing this game of 'You don't understand, no, you don't understand,' how about you just tell me why you are here so we can get this little meeting over with." It was clear that Emma was annoyed by him barging in, and Will wasn't exactly too thrilled to be there either. So he took a deep breath and shrugged.

"I want to see Willow. I want to apologize to her and offer to let her stay with me for the rest of the summer – if that is okay with you. Part of the reason I left was to reevaluate everything in this situation, and if I want to get to know Willow, I think it's better if you're not there as a buffer. I'll get to really know my kid, and you can have a summer off." He looked at her hopefully. Emma just stared before standing slowly and starting to pace a bit.

"Let me get this straight. You want me to just let you take my kid for a month and a half – without me being there – in an attempt to get to know her after you disappeared on her right after she got you in her life? Is that correct?" She looked at him and he nodded. She started to laugh. "Oh, my God! This is so typical Will! You never test the waters! You don't just toe your way in, ease your way into things. You jump straight in, and you hope that it will go your way because you are Will and nobody ever tells you no aside from Terri, but I don't know if I can do that, Will. This is my kid we're talking about." Emma trusted Will with a lot of things, but she trusted very few people with the care of Willow. The list was very short, and he couldn't be on that list. Not yet. She'd watched way too many TV shows about murders and parents kidnapping their own kids. Not that she thought Will would do that, but she was still a little paranoid.

"She's my kid, too, Emma." Will said simply, watching her pace, looking like she was deep in thought. He couldn't read her face.

Emma turned to stare at him. Never in her life had she wished harder than she did in that moment that she could contradict someone. Willow was his daughter, and he had every right to see her – isn't that what she'd argued to everyone through her daughter's existence? That he deserved to know about her, he had the right to see her, but it just wasn't the time? And now, what – because she didn't like the way things were going, she was going to contradict herself? It wasn't fair, and Emma knew that full well. Deep down, she was just so worried Willow would prefer Will over herself, and then she'd grow to resent Emma instead of love her as much as she did now.

"You're right. She's your kid, too. But she is also a child with a mind of her own, and she's as stubborn as the both of us combined."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, you have to talk to Willow. If she decides that she wants to go stay with you, and spend some time with you, I will not stop her from doing so even if it goes against my better judgment. I would also like to lower the time to two weeks. A month and a half is a long time, and I've never been apart from her for more than a couple of weeks her entire life." Just the thought made Emma a bit panicky.

Will nodded. "That sounds fair. Is she here?"

Emma's head shook. "No, my mom took her out for a while."

"Then I'll wait." Will said, walking towards the front door to sit on the porch steps.

"It could be a while."

"I'll wait."

The sun was starting to set when Willow arrived, her tiny hands weighed down with bags from the mall and her face bright with a smile. Rose always spoiled Willow when she was upset, and she tended to do the same for Emma as well. Knowing that Emma was bothered as well, she'd made a few purchases on her behalf, so she, too, was weighed down with bags of various things. The pair walked up to the front porch and through the front door.

"Mommy, I'm home!" Willow called out, dropping her bags by the front door and running through the house to the kitchen. "Gramma took me to the mall and we—" She paused, her eyes falling on the man in the chair next to her mother. Will had been forced to vacate the porch by Emma after an hour and a half of him waiting.

"Hey, Wills. Look who's here." Emma said, smiling a little bit and glancing at Will, then back at Willow. Her daughter's eyes were frozen on her father and her face was blank. The only suggestion that she was still functioning was the occasional blink.

Will stood and walked towards the little girl. "Hi, Willow."

Willow watched Will for a moment, then turned and walked out of the kitchen, storming off to her room. Rose stood in the kitchen doorway, glaring at Will slightly. She turned her gaze to Emma. "Em, Willow and I bought you some things. I took the bags to your room, and I am keeping the receipts, so you can't unspoil yourself this time. You do deserve it, so don't argue."

Emma nodded and sighed. "Thanks, Mom. I'll call you later?" She asked hopefully, her eyebrows raising as her head tilted. She didn't want to deal with her mother and Will at the same time right now, as well as a now upset Willow. Rose nodded.

"Of course. Talk with you later, Emma." Her eyes darted to Will before she turned and walked out of the kitchen, back to her car, and out of the neighborhood.

Will looked at Emma. "Should I go talk to her?"

"Yep." Emma nodded once and walked past Will, walking towards Willow's room. She sat down outside of the door and looked up at Will. "I'm here as referee. Just pretend I'm not here." Honestly, Emma wondered what Willow was going to say, and she knew if she went into the room, Willow's behavior would alter slightly. Call her an eavesdropper, but she was curious.

Will nodded before knocking and walking into Willow's room. The little girl was sitting at her small desk in the corner, a coloring book open in front of her and a box of crayons laying open on the surface. Her head twitched so she could look at who was in her bedroom before looking back to her coloring page without a word.

"Hi, Willow."

Silence. Will walked to sit on her bed next to her desk and rested his elbows on his knees. He folded his hands and rested his chin on them gently.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, and Willow's head shook.

"You mad?" Willow nodded.

"At me?" Her head nodded very surely now and Will sighed. He didn't know what else to say, so he just sat in silence, trying to figure out where to go from there.

"Do you want to know why?" Willow asked after she had finished coloring her page and started putting her crayons away.

"Yes, I do."

"It's because you don't love me." She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, her little shoulders rising and falling in a tiny shrug.

Will's eyebrows furrowed and he nodded. "Yes I do, Willow."

Her curly hair shook again and she looked at him. "You didn't call Mommy back, and you weren't here when I got home, and you didn't come see me. You don't love me."

Guilt washed over Will, listening to her reasoning in her tiny voice. She was young, but very sure of herself and her opinion in this moment. He cleared his throat to get rid of the lump forming in his airway, but it did him no good. It bobbed right back up again. "Willow, I do love you, and I am very sorry that I left, but I'm back now."

"I used to wish Auntie Terri was my mom." She confessed quietly, out of seemingly nowhere. Will's eyes darted towards the door where he knew Emma was listening and he hoped Willow's voice was quiet enough not to carry; he knew that would crush Emma. "Because I heard Mom telling Gramma you didn't want me for Christmas."

"But why did you wish she was your Mom?"

"I thought then you would want me."

"Do you still wish that?"

"Nope. I love my Mommy too much. She's the best Mommy ever."

Will nodded. "She's pretty great. She loves you so much, you know."

Willow nodded. "I know. I love her, too."

They fell silent again after that, Willow cleaning up her coloring stuff so her mother wouldn't get annoyed seeing it all over the place when her room was just cleaned. Finally, Will decided to just bite the bullet.

"I talked to your mom, and she said you could come stay with me if you want to. We could spend time together and I could make sure you know that I love you." Will nodded earnestly, really hoping she would take him up on the offer – even if she just wanted to spend time together.

Willow looked at him. "No, thank you." Her voice was sweet and delicate as she looked at the man who was her father.

Emma stood up from the wall outside of Willow's room and walked in, confused. She thought Willow would jump at the chance, and though she would have been reluctant, she would have agreed to let her go. "Wills? You don't want to go spend time with your dad?"

Her head shook and she looked at Emma very seriously. "He's not my dad."

Emma's eyes glanced nervously between her daughter and her best friend. "Uhm, yes he is, Willow. I was there when it happened. He is your dad."

"Nope. He isn't. Gramma said that a dad is there for you to help raise you and be there when you need them. A father contributes to making the baby. She said he wasn't there for me, so he's not my dad. He's my father." Emma groaned inwardly. Leave it to Rose to put something in Willow's head that would prevent healing this broken situation. It was so like her mother to do that.

"Well, then. Would you like to go spend time with your father?"

"No, thank you." Willow looked around a little bit uncomfortably. "Mommy, can you guys go now? I want to be by myself." She walked over to her bed and scrambled on top of it. She grabbed her copy of the first Harry Potter book and turned it to the page she had bookmarked and started reading.

Emma nodded and grabbed Will's arm, pulling him out of Willow's room. They walked down the hallway and stood in front of the front door. "Well, you heard her."

"Yeah, but she's a kid, Emma. She can't make a decision like this all on her own." Will sounded like he knew he was trying to fight a battle he'd definitely already lost.

"She's ten, and I'm not going to force her. If she doesn't want to, then she doesn't want to. Maybe she'll change her mind, but I'm not pressuring her one way or another. This is a big thing, so if she chooses to go with you, I will let you know." Emma gave him an apologetic smile. She rarely ever forced Willow to do anything she didn't want to, knowing what it felt like being forced into things growing up. Emma hated it, and she wasn't about to do the same to her own child.

"Emma, please."

The problem was that Will couldn't understand what parenting was, when he hadn't ever been a parent himself. No matter how much he could try to put himself in Emma's shoes, he would never be able to fully understand her position until he was actually in it, and as long as Willow put up a wall, Emma was not going to force her to take it down.

"I think you should go. I'll call you."

"Yeah, sure." He sighed, his eyes lingering on Emma for a moment before he turned and left.

-x-x-x-

It was the last week of summer and Willow still refused to acknowledge that she'd met her father. If there was anything Emma would have never expected, it would be learning that her daughter was a great grudge holder, and Rose wasn't helping any. Rose spent her time justifying Willow's actions, stating that it was perfectly normal; while Willow hid behind any opinions Rose may have and allowed herself to be pumped with thoughts and opinions by her grandmother.

After Will's rejection by his daughter, he'd spent days calling Emma, trying to get her to talk to Willow, but she flat out refused. She said that when Willow brought it up, she would talk about it only as long as her daughter wanted to, and then it was over. She was not going to force a life decision on a ten year old, and Emma wasn't going to make a decision about it anymore because it was breaking her heart. Either she kept Willow away and was made a bad mother for preventing her from seeing her father, or she forced Willow to go and she was made a bad mother for making her do something that she didn't want to do. Both seemed to be in Willow's best interest and neither of them were something Emma was willing to do. So for the first time in her life, she let everything go and stopped caring about how Will would feel about the end result and allowed Willow to guide the situation.

Every time Will called, he would ask to speak to Willow. Every time, Willow would either refuse to talk to him or sit on the phone silently, listening to him while he talked to her. Sometimes, Will would ask to come over and see Willow, but Emma would tell him no. This was difficult enough on Willow – and to be honest, on Emma, too – and she didn't want to force his company on her. Eventually, Will stopped asking to talk to Willow, and then he stopped calling altogether, realizing the only thing the phone calls did was make him pissed off at Emma and upset because somehow he'd managed to screw up his relationship with his daughter before it even had the chance to be started. The last time he called, he warned Emma that he would make sure he got to be in Willow's life, to which Emma replied, "Of course, Will. Just give it some time, okay?" He'd agreed, but he planned on taking 'time' into his own hands.

A few days before school started, Emma was in the living room with Willow, getting all of her school supplies together. Their floor was covered in paper and pens and pencils, wrappers were scattered everywhere. There was a knock on the door and Emma glanced up, surprised. She hadn't been expecting anyone. She kissed Willow's head and informed her that she would be back. Standing, she walked to the front door and opened it.

Standing before her was a man in a suit. He looked very distinguished, his grey hair giving him an air of wisdom, while his steely eyes made him look younger than he probably was. "Emma Pillsbury?" He asked in a smooth, deep voice.

Emma nodded. "Yes?"

He held out an envelope. "You've been served." He handed her the large manila envelope before turning and walking briskly back to his car.

Emma's mouth fell open and she looked down at the envelope in her hands, feeling like the wind was knocked out of her.

DISCLAIMER: Will, Emma, Rose and Glee still are not mine in any way. They all belong to RIB and FOX. Willow Jane, however, is still purely my creation.