A/N: So, this is the final chapter of this Willow Jane installment. I think I ended up accidentally writing a character similar to Grey's Anatomy's Alex Karev in here...oops! But this is NOT Alex Karev, I'd like to make that clear. Thanks to Sydney for reading through! Anywho, enjoy! It's been a fun ride! R&R still appreciated. -Tayma
Epilogue: And in the End, I Come Running
In the end, the drive to California had been the best move Willow and Emma could have made. They ended up settling down in Southern California, buying a cute little house and getting back to how they were before Willow begged to meet her father. The months passed quickly as they settled in, getting school and jobs figured out.
Willow settled in at a high school, and her mom was able to get a guidance counselor position in the same school, working full time to make sure that she and Willow could continue to move comfortably. Every Friday, they left school and headed to the beach, spending the whole evening relaxing, eating dinner on a blanket and then tanning – or in their case, repeatedly applying sunscreen – until sundown, when they'd walk along the water, each of them trying to push each other into the water playfully.
It was one of those Fridays when Emma met him. It started out as a very innocent thing, but after a year and a half, it was getting more and more serious.
"So do all hot gingers come in pairs?"
Willow and Emma turned around at the statement, a small laugh escaping from the both of them. They saw a man walking towards them, wearing a pair of swim trunks and a tank top, a little scruffy in the moonlight.
"Do all guys have to use awful pick up lines?"
He laughed, "Ah, come on it wasn't that bad. I complimented you. And your friend." He winked at Willow, who blushed a little.
"Oh, it was that bad. You hit on me and my daughter all at the same time."
"Your daughter?" His eyebrow quirked up. "No, shit." He laughed. "Well is she at least eighteen? If not, I'm gonna feel like a real skeeze."
Emma laughed, "Well, Mister Skeeze, she's sixteen, and I don't know if we should be talking to such a creeper. Even a good looking creeper."
"Forward," he said, looking slightly taken aback. "I like it. I'm Alex." He held out a hand for a shake, smiling crookedly when Emma reached out and took it, shaking it softly.
"I'm Emma. This is Willow."
He shook Willow's hand gently, nodding to each of them, "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. So is this what you do? You sit on the beach after dark, looking for mothers and daughters to creepily hit on?"
Alex laughed, shaking his head.
"No, not at all. I work at the hospital. I come here after work on Fridays and just relax when I'm not on call. I've seen you here a few of them."
Emma looked at him and Willow muttered quietly, "That's not weird at all."
Alex laughed again; wow, Emma liked his laugh.
"Yeah, we sort of come here every Friday," Emma said with a shrug. "Look, it was really nice meeting you, Alex, but we should be heading home. It's getting sort of late."
She gave him a smile and then turned with Willow, walking away from the water, back towards the street where they'd parked their car hours before. They were halfway there when they heard panting behind them, and Emma turned to find Alex chasing after them.
"Can I call you?" He asked once he'd caught up to them, walking beside them as they made their way to the car.
Emma laughed, looking straight ahead. "Forward," she said.
"Like I said. Hot redhead. Cute smile. Still don't believe you have a sixteen year old kid," he laughed. "But my mom had me when she was sixteen, so whatever. Can I call you?" Emma looked at him, smiling a little, hesitating. They'd only left Lima the last year, and she wasn't sure that she was ready to give a man her number, not when she secretly harbored feelings for Will. Still, Alex was cute and he was definitely not a bad option to try and move on with. "Ah, come on. Please? If not, I'll be here next Friday, and then you'll have to try and avoid the guy you turned down."
Emma laughed. "Not if you're on call." A pause. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pen, grabbing Alex's hand and writing her number down on his wrist. "Call all you want. We'll see if I answer."
And with that, they got into their car, and Emma saw Alex smirking in her rearview mirror as she drove away.
"Damn, Mom's got game!" Willow said with a laugh, turning to look out the rear windshield. "He's hot. Is he gonna be my new daddy?" She teased, and Emma reached over, pinching her arm gently.
"Don't be ridiculous, Willow."
But four weeks and six dates later, Willow's joke didn't seem so ridiculous. Emma and Alex became official after that sixth date, and for a while, Willow and Emma felt like they were moving forward from the Lima fiasco.
Alex genuinely cared about Willow, and there were many nights when Emma would be cooking dinner and Alex would sit down with Willow on the porch or in the living room and talk to her about everything; what she wanted to do with her life, how school was going, what her biggest dreams and fears were. He told her about growing up without a dad, and how much it sucked, though he never got the opportunity to meet his dad. It was similar to what happened between Willow and Will, except Alex's dad walked away long before he was even born. And even though Alex was nobody to her before they met on the beach that one day, Willow finally started to feel like she had a dad. The night of her junior prom, she was getting ready to head out with her date when Alex suddenly bounded up the stairs, out of breath.
They were just about to leave the house when Alex arrived, running up the stairs to the front door. He'd finished a surgery not even an hour prior, and rushed as fast as he could to get to Emma's before Willow would leave for prom. She'd made him promise that he'd be there to see her off and to put the fear of God into her date. There was no chance in Hell he was letting her down.
"You made it!" Willow said excitedly, seeing Alex blow through the door, out of breath.
"I promised, didn't I? Sorry I'm late. Damn guy started to flat line on the table. Got him stable, though," he said with a smile, wrapping his arm around Willow and looking over at her date. "I'm Alex," he said, holding out a hand.
"Mike."
"Mike," Alex said, looking at him. "I'm sure her mom gave you a spiel, but dude to dude, here's what the deal is. Have her home by the time Emma gave her. You are taking her to prom, so you're leaving with her from the prom. No getting there and ditching her. I was a dude in high school, I know what a dick guys can be." He stepped forward and looked at him. "And no funny business. If at any point, you try to do something and Willow says 'no' – and I know that kid and she will say no – she means no. If you hurt her or make her feel uncomfortable, I'm a doctor – I know how to fix bones, which means I definitely know how to break them." He pulled away and smiled, clapping him on the back. "Have a great prom, kids!" He said, winking at Willow as they walked out of the house.
Even though Emma had apologized when Willow got home from prom, worried that Alex had scared the shit out of Mike, Willow had laughed and shook her head. He was being the dad she always wished she had, and she didn't want apologies for that. Not after seventeen years of wishing.
It was shortly after that that she was sitting with Alex in the living room after school one day. Emma had a meeting, but Willow had still invited Alex over, knowing that they were going to be having dinner once Emma got home. Plus, she wanted to talk to him without her mom hearing.
"So your mom's at a meeting?"
Willow nodded and sighed a little. "Yep. They want her to do SAT prep, but she did that back in Ohio when I was a kid and she hated it. They're still trying to wear her down, though."
Alex laughed. "Don't they know your mother?"
Willow shook her head. "Apparently not. But this is good because I wanted to ask you something."
"Alright, shoot," he said, watching Willow turn off the tv and turn to sit facing him on the couch.
"How much do you love my mother?"
Alex looked at her, taken aback.
"I love Emma a lot, Willow. More than I've ever loved anyone in my life. And I love you, too, kid. You're the two most important women in my life."
Willow smiled a little, "You know, you sort of made up for the crap we had to go through before we came here."
"Do you ever have any questions about that?" Alex asked, looking over at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well how many times have I done something that's made you say 'that's such a dad thing'?"
Willow laughed. "A lot, but it's because you do dad things. Or the things I always imagined my dad doing."
"Do you ever wish, though, that it was your actual dad doing those things?"
Willow hesitated.
"It's okay if you do, Wills. I'm not going to get upset; it's normal to want those things."
She shrugged, "Well, yes and no. I mean, yeah, it would be nice if he had actually been doing all of these things for me, Alex, but he lied. He lied even more than my mom ever lied or than I ever lied about wanting him around. But, no, I don't want him to be doing these things just because he feels obligated because he gave me half of my DNA."
Alex nodded. "That makes total sense." Willow and Emma had filled Alex in on everything that happened leading up to their arrival in California, and he didn't like any of it because it was all so complex, he accepted it because he cared deeply about both Willow and Emma.
"So when are you gonna marry my mom?" Willow asked, raising her eyebrows. Alex looked surprised.
"What?"
"Oh, come on. You've been with her for over a year and a half. Most people get engaged by six months."
Alex laughed.
"I'm serious, Alex! Mom deserves to be really happy for once in her life, and you make her really happy."
"You make her happy, too, Willow."
"Yeah, I know, but it's a different happy. Sometimes I think you ended up filling whatever hole my dad left in her heart when she was my age."
Alex smiled a little. "You think so?"
Willow nodded, "I know so. So when's it happening?"
Alex laughed, "Well, nosy, if you must know, I was going to wait until after your graduation. I wanted to make sure everything in the next couple of months is all about you, and then I thought maybe once you were in Europe with your grandparents, I'd ask her."
Willow smiled and launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. "She's going to love it. Promise me that you're going to call me as soon as you propose and she says yes. Even if it's three in the morning in Paris."
Alex nodded, "I promise. Even if it's three in the morning in Paris."
"So does this mean I get to call you my old pops now?"
He laughed, "Do it and you won't live to see graduation," he teased.
"You got it old pops," she laughed, hopping up from the couch and dashing towards the backyard, Alex running after her, yelling about being a fine young man with not a grey hair to be seen. It was the first time that Willow absolutely accepted that she finally had a dad.
When Willow was almost twenty, Alex and Emma got married, and for a while, they were happier than they had ever been. They had their little quarrels and disagreements, but for the most part, everything went perfectly. Willow ended up going to school to be an anesthesiologist, something she'd become very passionate about after meeting Alex and going with him to the hospital one day when she was sixteen years old.
The summer after medical school and before her internship, she decided to go with Alex on a trip to Africa, helping to give medical care to those in need. She knew it could go on her resume as a booster, but for Willow, it was so much more than that. It was an opportunity to help people and put her schooling to good use; get her ready before her internship.
But while they were in Africa, Alex ended up getting really sick. They had to come home early, and Emma and Willow spent as much time as they could with him in the hospital before he passed away.
Emma walked into the house after the funeral, her cheeks tear stained as she moved to the couch, sitting down silently.
"Mommy?" Willow asked, walking over to her, biting her lip gently. "Do you need anything?"
Her amber eyes darted up to Willow's face and she swallowed hard, looking at her. "Why can't I have anything nice?" She asked quietly. "Why does the universe give me good things, only to take them away?" Her forehead crumpled and she started to cry again, Willow climbing onto the couch beside her and wrapping her arms around her.
"I don't know why, but I don't agree with it." Willow kissed her mother's cheek softly.
Weeks passed and Emma spent her days doing nothing, deeply hurt by everything that had happened. She loved Alex deeply, and once again, her love was stripped away from her, right before her eyes. Only this time, she watched the last dying breath escape.
Willow watched in horror as her mother slowly started to lose the light she'd always carried. She started to get dimmer, and Willow realized it was because soon, Emma would be alone. She'd go off to Washington to do her internship and Emma would be left alone in a house full of empty memories. It worried her.
"Hey, mom?" Willow asked one day, looking over at her as they watched a movie. "I need to go to Ohio for a couple of days. Grandma Schuester called and she has a few things of hers she wants me to go through and see if I want them before I go to Washington."
"That's fine," Emma said without skipping a beat, her eyes still on The Mirror Has Two Faces. She'd watched that movie too many times in the past few weeks.
"I leave in the morning. I'll be back before sundown the day after tomorrow."
Emma nodded. "Tell Amanda hello. I miss her."
Willow nodded. "I will, mommy."
-x-x-x-
Willow took a deep breath as she walked down the hallway, finding apartment number 24A. She bit her lip, staring at the gold brass numbers. She didn't know why this was her answer, why this was where her heart and her feet led her.
She was nervous, battling whether or not she should just turn away and go back to California, but she knew that this was what she had to do. There was no other way. It was now or never to fix this; one last chance to set everything straight and get it right. One last chance to fix her mother's broken heart.
Almost of its own accord, Willow watched as her fist rose to the door, knocking three times before slowly lowering.
Maybe nobody was home. Maybe she could just leave.
She heard a chain move and then the deadbolts unlock before finally, the door opened and she was face to face with a pair of hazel eyes; the pair of eyes she'd been given.
"Dad," Willow breathed out, looking upon her father. He looked just as he had eight years ago, just a little older; a few grey streaks in his curls.
"Willow?" He couldn't believe the sight before him, his daughter, all grown up. He did the math in his head quickly. Twenty-three. Almost twenty-four.
"Can I come in?" She asked, biting her lip gently. He nodded, stepping aside quickly, closing the door behind her.
"What are you—"
"It's Mom," Willow said, her eyes on her father's, tears building in her own. "She's broken and for the first time in my life, I don't know how to fix her."
The End
…or is it?
A/N 2.0: Yep, I am considering writing a part 2 to Willow Jane, depending on if everyone actually wants a part two, so let me know!
DISCLAIMER: Emma is not my property, neither is Will. I use them as inspiration and they belong to FOX, GLEE AND RIB.
I do, however, own Willow and Alex. They're my brain babies.