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Emerson was sitting on the sofa with the TV tuned in to reruns of Will and Grace to keep her company until Niall returned home. She had left his single release party around 10, and to say she was not in a good mood would be an understatement. Since her knee injury a few weeks ago, it had been a struggle both mentally and physically on a daily basis. Even though she was thrilled for Niall and so proud of him for everything he was accomplishing so far as a solo artist, she found it incredibly hard to not be in a constant state of jealousy. And while things had been rough between them the last two or three months, and especially since her surgery, she had been determined to put their issues and her own struggles aside so as not to take away from his special day.

The reruns of her favorite show, also turned on as a means of distraction, were doing a poor job of keeping the memories from the day she learned her career was over from playing on a loop in her head. She supposed that's what she got for knowing the episodes so well. Initially the doctors had thought her injury wasn't as serious as it was. Her MRI results showed otherwise. They showed a complete tear of her ACL rather than a minor tear as was originally thought. The moment the doctors explained the full extent of her injury and the surgery she would need, she knew her dance career was over. Thankfully, Niall had been able to reschedule the couple of meetings he'd had the day she got the news of her MRI results so he could be there with her. While she didn't handle the news well at all, she knew she wouldn't have handled it as well as she did if Niall hadn't been there with her.

Dance was who Emerson was. Her dad had enrolled her in ballet lessons for her fifth birthday and she'd fallen in love immediately. And one of the things she had struggled with the most since her surgery was knowing the one thing that made her feel like she had a purpose in the world and made her feel like she belonged somewhere, she no longer had. Dance had been her outlet; her way of conveying her thoughts and feelings. When words failed her, dance was there. Being a professional ballet dancer didn't pay as well as other jobs would have, and it certainly didn't pay anywhere near the kind of money Niall brought in with his career, but she'd been happy. And she'd been able to support herself and also send some extra money back to her dad in Toronto long before her and Niall had started dating and he'd asked her to move in with him.

What hurt as much as losing her career was knowing her dad had lost just as much. He was her biggest fan and supporter. And even though he hadn't been able to fly to London to visit her very often, anytime she called to tell him she'd been cast in a lead role, or a role that meant a lot to her, he found a way be in the audience on her opening night. He'd sacrificed so much for her, so much more than any single parent should have had to. There had been many times when they didn't have enough money to pay the bills and the only thing they had to eat was cereal and peanut butter sandwiches. But his little girl was his world, and his only concern was that she was happy.

Emerson's dad had done everything he could to make sure she got the training and education she needed to make her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer a reality. And when she nearly turned down the offer to study at the Royal Ballet School in London on full scholarship following her performance at the Youth America Grand Prix competition, her dad refused to let her. Aside from losing his wife and mother of his only child, leaving Emerson in London after she was settled in was the hardest thing he'd ever done. But he wasn't going to let her pass up the opportunity of a lifetime. When Emerson saw the tears of pure joy on her dad's face the day she graduated from Royal Ballet School and was offered a place in The Royal Ballet as a Soloist, she knew all the time spent apart and all the sacrifices he'd made had been worth it. And her dad had felt the exact same.

The commotion going on in the current episode snapped Emerson out of the place she'd gone to in her head. And when she got her bearings back and realized she was at home instead of Niall's release party, all of the frustration she'd felt earlier came flooding back because things had gone smoothly for the most part all day... until they weren't once at the party. There'd been plenty to do before having to get ready and then head to the venue so it'd been easy to keep herself distracted. But after being left alone for nearly an hour while Niall schmoozed it up with his friends and various industry people, she'd decided it was time to head home. She'd been to plenty of these events for the Royal Ballet before her injury, so she was well aware that people would be after Niall's attention all night. But she had hoped Niall would at least be nearby and include her in the conversations and celebration of his second single release as a solo artist.