Fire on Fire

21. The only choice

When she saw him, Emma couldn't help but gulp. A lot of emotions and thoughts ran fast, one after the other, but above all, surprise and anger. She absentmindedly followed the guard, and sat down.

At the other side of the glass, the last person she'd have ever expected. "Daniel." Emma gritted through her teeth once she'd grabbed the phone, and brought it to her ear.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted, trying to sound cheerful.

"What do you want?" She barked. All he'd done in the past wasn't enough, he had to team up with Nancy to ruin her life a second time. Nancy had made sure to rub that simple fact in her face, claiming Daniel had provided a lot of info for her plan to succeed. Of course, she'd have been able to uncover all her secrets even without him, but he was definitely huge help.

"I come in peace." Daniel raised his right hand in surrender. "I wanted to apologize."

"For what, this time? Did you find more ways to ruin my life?" She snarked.

He sighed. "Alli, I ... back then I tried to fall on my sword for you, you know. My father didn't let me."

She snorted. "Right."

"It's true. I mean, okay, maybe I didn't try enough, but I did. Ultimately, I know what I did is unforgivable. So ... I'm here to make amends."

"Unless you invented a time machine, I don't see how you could."

Daniel sighed, well aware that if she wanted to spend the next 40 minutes insulting him, she had every right to. "I'm fucked up," he admitted, taking her off guard, "I was back then and I was lately with the whole ... Nancy thing. When we met, I was a huge mess, you know that."

"A mess that managed to swallow me whole." Emma murmured.

"That's the thing, you know?" Daniel cracked a small, regretful smile. "I was a mess, you were a mess, together we ..." he sighed, "together we inevitably exploded." They had met at the wrong time, he was certain. A different place, a different time in their lives, and maybe, just ... maybe, things between them would have gone a lot differently.

Emma, for her part, frowned, unsure whether he was truly apologizing or just trying to manipulate her. He'd always been great at that. Back in the day, she was a vulnerable teenager that needed a constant in her life, something to hold onto – and Daniel seemed the answer. "You were an angry spoiled brat looking for every possible way to get back at your old man," she spat, "and dating me was one of those ways."

"That's not true ..." he defended weakly, "I ..." he pursed his lips, averting his gaze for a moment, "Alli, I ..."

"You what? You loved me?" Emma spat. "The shit you put me into, Daniel, you don't do that to someone you love." She remembered it clearly, all the mistakes, all the troubles they got into, barely escaping, until that night when they stole his father's car.

Thinking back, Emma realized, it wasn't love, never had been. Now that she had concrete proof, a clear example of what love actually looked like, now she could look at the time spent with Daniel in a completely different light. "You don't throw someone you love under the bus to save your own skin, Daniel. You let me take the blame for something you decided to do. Sure, I had my share of the blame, we did it together, but how different would it have been, had you taken your responsibilities?"

"I have thought about that every single day for the past 10 years." Daniel said, serious as ever. "There hasn't been a single day I haven't repeated to myself just how stupid I was. And before you say it, yes, I wanted to come see you in prison, but you never let me."

"Why would I?" She scoffed.

"I know. And had you known it was me, you wouldn't have accepted this time either. I had to pull some strings."