(2 weeks later, June 8, 2007. London, England)

"So what now?" Emma and Justin were seated side by side on their first class flight back to the states. The last tourdate for the European tour had been the previous night and now they had about 2 months to relax before going back out on the second leg of the North American tour. He hadn't neccessarily wanted to do a second leg of the tour in the States but the tour was going so well and all the shows were selling out so quickly that it just made sense to keep it going.

Besides, it meant spending a lot more time with Emma and to be completely honest he was really enjoying this. They would have dinner together every night, Emma, Riley and himself like their own little family. His two girls would go back to the hotel and when he got done with "work" Emma was always there waiting for him and they would watch television, or just talk. Sometimes she would spend the night with him, but with Riley in the crib next to the bed it wasn't like they were getting it on, he just liked having her close to him.

And she wasn't protesting. However, the impending 2 month break of pretty much being around eachother 24/7 was looming over her like a big gray cloud. She was excited and nervous and worried and estatic all at once. If that was possible. Things were going to change, they were going to get more complicated and more serious and she wasn't sure if they were ready for it.

"What do you mean?" Justin asked and checked on Riley who was sound asleep in the window seat.

"I mean, should I... find my own apartment? You're going to be around, you don't really need me until you go back on tour."

"Emma. Theres no point in you finding an apartment for two months, I have plenty of room for you at my house, your stuff is already there and..." Justin paused and touched her cheek tenderly, "I definatly need you around." He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her.

"Well then..." Emma laughed lightly and then settled back in her seat, closed her eyes and attempted to fall asleep. She smiled though when she felt Justin's fingers intertwine with her own and heard him settle down in his seat and get comfortable.

A few hours and two plane changes later, at approximately 1am California time the plane touched down at LAX and a very exhuasted set of four were standing at baggage claim waiting for their luggage. Riley was peacefully asleep in Justin's arms. Mike was standing directly next to him and Emma was half asleep on one of the benches. They hadn't had much sleep at all in the past 24 hours and the long day was getting to them all. Mike made sure that the 3 of them made it to Justin's limo safely and then found his own car in the parking lot to head home. There was no need for him to escort Justin home, he wasn't stopping anywhere along the way.

"I'll see ya Mike." Justin mumbled a goodbye and climbed into the limo with Emma and Riley. They were taken back to his home and crashed immediately. Justin tucked Riley carefully into her bed in her room and met up with Emma in the hallway. She was standing midway between Justin's bedroom and hers, not knowing quite where to go. They'd shared a bed before at the hotels but Riley was in the room too and there was no awkward tension or pressure.

Justin smiled softly as he neared her, and reached for her hand. Without a word he pulled her with him into his room and shut the door. He took off his shirt and grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt of his and handed them to Emma, pushing her towards his bathroom. She changed and when she came back out he had changed into a pair of sweatpants himself and was already laying in his bed he waved her over and held up the blankets so she could climb in next to him. She did so, and then he shut off the light on the nightstand, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the back of her neck before relaxing on his pillow.

"Goodnight Em." He whispered.

"Goodnight." she smiled and closed her eyes, sleep overtaking their exhausted bodies immediately.

"Where's my little Riley Munchkin?" Lynn unlocked the front door to the house and let herself in, immediately calling out for her granddaughter.

"Hey mom." Justin came jogging down the stairs with a coffee cup in his hand, it was about 10:30 in the morning and he was still wearing his sweatpants, and was shirtless but he had brought up a cup of coffee to Emma who was watching television in their room with Riley.

The three of them had been home for about a week but Lynn had been in Florida and she hadn't been able to come out to L.A. until now.

"Hey Riley! Gramma's here!" Justin yelled back up to the second floor and soon he heard her little footsteps coming in his direction. Within seconds Riley was scrambling down the stairs and leaping into her Grandmothers arms getting smothered in kisses.

Once Riley was safely back on the floor Justin wandered over and hugged his mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek then followed her into his kitchen where she began to shuffle through cupboards and without being asked or even being told where anything was she went right to making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. He took a seat on one of the stools at the island and Riley was jumping around excitedly and pulling at Lynn's pant leg wanting to help.

"Mom, you don't have to do that."

"I know, but I'm going to anyway. You're so skinny, do you ever eat?"

"He eats more then Mike." Emma suddenly stepped into the room, she was wearing a tank top and a pair of Justin's boxers but she was also wearing a bathrobe that was cinched at her waist. Justin hadn't really told Lynn that the two of them were dating but she knew anyway. Justin reached out a hand to Emma and pulled her towards the stool next to him. Once she had sat down and set her coffee cup on the counter she locked her fingers with his where his hand was resting on her thigh.

"So I see you've settled in nicely around here. How are you doing dear?" Lynn smiled at Emma.

"I'm good, how are you Mrs. Harless?" Justin smiled at her overly polite nature. Emma had obviously met Lynn before but this was the first time she had been around her since her and Justin's relationship had become more then professional. She was a little nervous at what Lynn might think of her. For all she knew, Lynn thought she was sexing it up with her son and that was as far from the truth as possible. They had been rather intimate with eachother since returning to his home and not having Riley in their bedroom every night but they hadn't actually gone that far yet.

"I'm wonderful, even better now that I know my son is being taken care of. Call me Lynn dear not Mrs. Harless." She scoffed, winked at Justin who smiled back and lifted Riley up to sit on his lap.

"Justin hun, why don't you take this lady out for dinner tonight, and I'll take this little munckin to my house. I havn't seen her in ages."

Justin was a little taken aback by his mothers suggestion but instantly agreed, he'd been wanting to have another night with just Emma but that was impossible when they were on tour and he didn't like leaving her with strangers. "That sounds great Mom. Hey Riley? Do you wanna go spend the night with Gramma?" She nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright then, thats settled. Now lets have some breakfast hmm?" Lynn was flipping pancakes on the griddle and plopping them onto plates within minutes.

"Yum!" Riley smiled as she took a big bite. "Yum yum yum!"

Justin spent most of the day by himself, Lynn was usually fond of kidnapping Justin's new girlfriends for day dates as a way of casually letting him know if she approved or not and so she'd invited Emma to come out shopping with her and they of course took Riley so Justin spent the day hanging out around the house watching television and pretty much being bored out of his mind.

Touring did get a little draining but he was a self-proclaimed workaholic and hated not having something to do or somewhere to be for the most part. Not to mention he hated being alone especially now when all he wanted to do was spend time with Emma. He was slowly but surely figuring out just how important she was to him and he was coming to the conclusion that she was a necessity in his life now. He hadn't said those three words yet but they were consistently on the tip of his tongue. 'Tonight might just be the night.'

Lynn dropped off Emma at about four that afternoon and took Riley with her to her house, leaving Justin and Emma to have their evening together, however they couldn't for the life of them decide what to do.

"Do you want to go out to dinner?" Justin asked her. They were in the kitchen, he was sitting on a stool at the island and she was leaning against the counter.

"Not particularly, I mean if you want to we can, it's just that Mike would have to come and people always bug you and thats never fun."

"Yea. Okay, how about we rent a movie and order a pizza? Or chinese?"

"Pizza sounds good. When is your mom bringing Riley back?"

"Not til tomorrow afternoon I think. I have to call her... in the morning."

"Okay." Emma smiled nervously, they were alone all night. That excited, nervous, anxious feeling was back.

"Okay, I'm gonna order the pizza and we'll just find a movie on pay per view... I've been wanting to see Blood Diamond have you seen that?"

"Nope."

"Aight, is that okay?"

"Sure, Leo is hot!" Emma laughed as Justin rolled his eyes.

"Next time I see him..." Justin delivered an idle threat and picked up the phone to call for a pizza.

They chatted and munched on their pizza through the entire movie, not really paying attention to most of it. When it ended Justin clicked off the television and looked down at Emma cuddled in his arms.

"Ready for bed?" He asked, glancing at the clock seeing that it was around 10.

"Kind of..." Emma pulled back out of his arms and stared at his lips for a few seconds before kissing him.

"We're alone you know." She said softly, with a playfully evil smile.

"yeeesss." Justin smiled back.

"Thats never happened before."

"No." Justin was still grinning, wondering if she was suggesting what he thought she was suggesting.

"I'm not ready to go to sleep, buuut..." Emma trailed off and stood up, walking towards the stairs.

Justin looked at her curiously and when she winked he smiled even brighter and quickly stood up to follow her towards his room.

They got to his room and he immediately picked her up in his arms and began kissing her as he walked towards the bed. They fell onto it, and her hands pulled off his shirt and she began kissing his neck.

"Emma, I... I think I'm in love with you." He wasn't sure if that was the best time to say that, but it just kind of happened.

She stopped what she was doing and looked into his eyes. "What?"

"I love you." He repeated.

"I... love you too." It had taken a minute for the words to settle into her brain and when they did, her heartrate sped up and she smiled, she truely loved him too. She loved him, she loved Riley and she couldn't think of anywhere she'd rather be, or anyone she would rather be with.

No other words were needed, Justin leaned down and captured her lips with his and for the first time in a long time he felt truely whole.