11 years later...

Emmalyn walked into the house with her suitcase on and she was blushing. I merely smiled and sipped the tea I'd made myself. "Why the red face?" I teased. Emmalyn halted and turned redder.

"Nothing! It's just very hot outside!" My daughter replied, looking up to her right. Em, Em, Em, I thought, you really are the World's Worst Liar. I smirked at her and Emmalyn looked away pouting.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever you say," I said casually, taking a sip of the tea. "So... how's Timothy?" I asked, looking at her with a smirk. Emmalyn's blush darkened and she gazed at the ground, but didn't answer. "Oh? No answer?"

"He's fine," she mumbled out eventually. My smirk grew wider.

"You've just come back from class, didn't you?" Emmalyn was a part of the drama club at her school and so was Timothy. I was teasing her because I knew. She didn't know that I knew. She didn't know I knew how she felt about Timothy.

"Yeah, so?" She asked. I merely smirked.

"No reason~" I replied walking off the couch and over to my daughter. "Just... for whatever reason, remember Alder's rule of you can't date until you're 23." I knew Emma would disagree with me on my husband's rule but she didn't know the reason for the rule. Being Alder's past. Emmalyn didn't know about either of our pasts and we wanted it to stay that way. But, not all secrets can stay secret, and one day I would come into contact with the thing that triggered me, again, and I would have the attack. I knew my secret couldn't stay secret for that long. Emmalyn would end up witnessing one of them and then I'd have no choice.

"I know Father," Emmalyn said, ripping me from my thoughts. "I just don't understand why the rule exists." The rule exists so you don't get into a relationship that could... hurt you before you're adult, I replied in my head. Alder's also protective of you because he had to suffer in his youth because of his father.

"You may not understand Alder's motivation behind the rule, but it is a rule. But hey, the rule doesn't say you can't have a crush!" Emmalyn blushed again.

"W-who s-said I have a c-crush?" She stammered. I rolled my eyes.

"Jumping to conclusions, huh? Hm... I never even implied that you did have one..." Emmalyn blinked

"F**k!"

"Emmalyn Marie Sense, there is no swearing in this household young lady!" I reprimanded. She glared at me.

"Whatever." She gazed away. I tried ignore my flinch at the f-bomb. "Father? You good?" I nodded.

"It's nothing. I just dislike that word," I said which was partly true.

"Oh," she said. She looked at the ground.

"Let's get this off shall we?" I helped her with her bag and took it to her room. Emmalyn started to follow me when her phone buzzed and she walked off. Gazing after her for a while, I entered her room. I deposited her bag. I looked around her room. She had a picture of the Be More Chill character Jeremy on her wall, Will Roland's Jeremy. It was an artist's impression of him and not an actual picture from the musical. She must've printed it out somewhere. I preferred Will Connolly's Jeremy if I was honest and preferred Will Roland as Jared Kleinman from Dear Evan Hansen.

Emmalyn was raised on musicals. Her favourite song from Hamilton kept changing, her Dear Evan Hansen favourite was fixed on Requiem. She'd even said that she'd started listening to a musical Alder and I hadn't even heard about. Her current Hamilton favourite was Helpless and I used to wonder why because that song had had the longest stay of her favourite song of Hamilton. But... maybe... it was because someone made her feel like Eliza. I'd heard her sing her favourites before, without her knowledge. She did a cover of Requiem that I, as one of her fathers, was so proud of. I wished she wasn't scared to sing in front of people.

"I have never been the type to try and grab the spotlight, we were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night," I heard her rap. She was better at rapping at me. I felt kinda left out having a family who was much more talented than me. Both Alder and her had better voices than my squeaky and soft one when I sang. Emmalyn changed the song she was singing. "Cause when the villains fall, the kingdoms never weep, no one lights a candle to remember, no, no one mourns at all, when they lay them down to sleep, so don't tell me that I didn't have it right, don't tell me that it wasn't black and white, after all you put me through, don't say it wasn't true, that you are not the monster, that I knew..." I guess she liked the belty - is that the correct description? - part of Requiem. I eventually left her room and returned to the couch.