Notes – Written for a meme I posted on LJ asking people to give me a pairing and I'd drabble about that pairing's offspring. Moonstar102 gave me Layton/Clive. Obviously because of the pairing I had to make a few changes to give them a kid without breaking the universe, so there's no Mpreg in here. Set quite a few years post-PL3 with major spoilers for the third game and acknowledges that we don't know what happens to Emmy at the end of the second trilogy yet, so uses my own take on her being there.

The changes in Layton after Luke left were gradual and only really noticeable if you knew him well, but they were there.

He was just so used to having his young apprentice following him around, solving mysteries with him, that over the past three years they'd become inseparable and the sudden loss of Luke had hit him hard.

But still, at least he wasn't entirely alone. He had Flora too.

However, years go on and children grow up. Flora soon became a fine young lady and it wasn't long before she was whisked away to be married to an equally fine young man, who Layton knew would care for her. And so he was truly alone this time.

"But you're not really on your own, professor," Emmy said, from where she sat sipping her tea. She had been spending more time back in London lately, worrying for the man.

"I never claimed that I was," he assured her, "There are plenty of people visiting me all the time, plenty of puzzles to solve, plenty of students to teach and your presence is of course always welcome. There is much to keep me busy."

"That's what it's all about though, keeping you busy," she pursued.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going, Emmy," he said stubbornly.

"Professor, I know you well enough to know what's wrong," Emmy insisted, "You miss having children around here."

"Beg your pardon?" Layton raised an eyebrow, genuinely not seeing that coming.

"Don't act so surprised. You've gotten so used to caring for children, looking after Luke and raising Flora, that you just don't know what to do with yourself now they're gone," Emmy concluded.

"You might be right there…" he admitted, "But there's little that can be done about that now, I'm hardly in the line of work to become a babysitter no matter what people might say about university students."

"There is the obvious solution," Emmy said, and then when it seemed that solution wasn't obvious enough for the professor, she went on, "You could always have your own child."

"What? That's preposterous! I'm far too old for something like that now, Emmy!" he stammered, almost dropping his tea in surprise.

That was what he said at any rate, but Emmy knew the real reason why he wouldn't – Claire.

To have a child would mean Layton would have to love another woman who was not her and he just wasn't capable of doing that. If only there was a way for him to have the child he wanted without the romantic attachment…

…It was a year later when a child was born under the name of Elliot Layton.

The whole affair had to be kept neatly under wraps. Emmy was never sure how she'd got him to agree to go through with this, but it was worth it to see the professor holding the little baby boy, his baby boy, in his arms and being truly happy once more. Now he would have his own child to raise that no one could take away from him.

For all the world needed to know, this was Layton's child to a mother who had sadly passed away during the birth. A mother who he'd prefer not to talk about. And out of respect, most people seemed to leave the subject at that.

Emmy knew the truth, however, but she insisted that the child was only the professor's and in herself she knew she wanted no involvement with Layton that would take him away from Claire – she just wanted him to be happy.

That should have been that. With Layton finally having the son that he had quietly wanted, the world should have righted itself and continued in an uneventful manner. But nothing was ever truly uneventful for Hershel Layton.

Nobody saw what was to happen next coming.

Elliot was hardly just six years old when the case of Clive Dove was finally resolved.

In an incident that Layton himself had helped to avert, Clive had tried to destroy London to get political revenge on the then Prime Minister Bill Hawks. He was of course arrested for this crime, but it wasn't as simple as that. The further the trial went on the more evidence came to light as to exactly why Clive had despised Bill so much. Soon everyone knew about what Bill had done, all the dodgy dealings he'd made, all the truth he'd been covering up and all of the lives that he had ended – including those of Clive's parents and Claire.

Bill was disgraced and deemed unfit to hold his position as Prime Minister, but no one quite knew what to do about Clive. Although what he had done was clearly wrong there were no set laws about smashing a city with a giant robot, so he was past from one trial to the next, no judge really wanting to deal with the decision until the case had blown over enough for them to just leave Clive to his uncertain prison sentence and try to forget about him.

But Layton did not forget. Somehow he viewed it as his responsibility to be involved with overseeing this case, as he was at least partially to blame for what had happened and wanted to right his wrongs. Even so, the professor hadn't seen it coming either when Clive was eventually given leave from prison.

It was on that day when Emmy had come over to look after Elliot for a while. Her eyes widened with shock as she saw Layton walking up the path with Clive following behind him.

"Professor, what is he doing here?" she asked, after rushing to the door and pulling it open.

"Please, Emmy, introductions first," Layton insisted, "I believe you are familiar with Clive. Clive, this is my former assistant, Emmy Altava."

"I've heard of her before," Clive confirmed, "It's nice to finally meet you, Miss Altava."

"Professor…" Emmy hissed, as Elliot turned up at the door, standing behind her.

"Yes, the situation does require some explaining," he said, walking through to the hallway, "Let's get through to the living room so we can discuss what has occurred."

They did just that, Layton explaining to Emmy, and for all Elliot could understand of it, how Clive had been given leave on the grounds that he was monitored due to his mental instability.

"Yes but…" Emmy frowned, knowing it was rude to continue while Clive was there, "…Can I talk to you privately, professor?"

"But of course," Layton said, having expected this to happen, "Clive, could you take my son out to the garden for a while? I'm sure this won't take too long."

"All right, professor," Clive said, getting to his feet and regarding Elliot with interest. No doubt he was curious as to Layton acquiring a son in his absence. The two of them left the room together without complaints.

"Why do you have to take him in?" Emmy asked, as soon as the backdoor clicked shut.

Looking away, Layton mumbled, "He has no one else. Any family he might have had is gone and I feel at least partially to blame for that."

"You didn't blow up that lab, professor!" she insisted.

"No, but Claire's research partner did. And… I had a chance to make things right for him much sooner. If I had taken him in myself instead of entrusting him to the care of another perhaps the whole event could have been avoided," he said.

So that's what this was all about.

"You were in too much of a state yourself," Emmy reasoned, "You couldn't have cared for him while dealing with the loss of Claire."

"Well now I can make up for it," he said and she knew his mind was made up.

It didn't stop her worrying about how Clive being present would affect Elliot, but she soon realised it was wasted effort being concerned about that issue.

Sometimes Elliot would go to visit her and each time he did he was bringing taller and taller tales about what he had done with his newly extended family. Today he thrust a small toy robot towards Emmy.

"We made that!" he said proudly, "Me and Clive made it out of scrap metal. He says we're going to make a lot of them and set them on daddy."

She laughed at their scheme. It seemed the professor had his work cut out for him after all.

The weeks went on and Elliot would bring more puzzles to show her that he'd found with Layton and more silly little contraptions that Clive had helped him build. It had reached the point where he would sit on her carpet solving puzzle and building little robots until Layton came to pick him up. As sad as it was, Emmy had to admit that Elliot had quite lost interest in her beyond someone to tell his adventures to.

Still, she was surprised when one day it was Clive who came to the door and not the professor.

"Is he ready? I don't want to impose if he isn't," Clive said awkwardly.

"He will be in a moment, why don't you come in?" she said.

Clive shook his head.

"It's all right, I can wait out here, since I know you aren't fond of me," he replied.

She tried to regain her composure. He was so much blunter than Layton was.

"It's not that I dislike you," she countered, "It's just… after hearing about what you did…"

"Its fine, I get that a lot," he cut in, "Trying to destroy London does give you a bit of a reputation."

"More than that, I worry for your relationship with the professor," she continued.

"Ah… well, it's not something I like to talk about," he replied quietly, "But… I need him. He saved me from madness twice and part of me thinks he's still doing that now."

So that was the truth. Clive was another child for Layton to care for, albeit older than all the others.

She opened he mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Elliot rushing over and hugging Clive's legs. He was determined to show him the toy dog he'd been working on while he was here.

"You're doing really well with it," Clive commented, and then he looked up at Emmy, "He's possibly even better than I was at his age. Can you believe how much progress he's made with the robot dog? I found the plans for it just lying around the professor's study."

The way he was looking while talking about Elliot, she knew those eyes – they were the eyes of a proud father. She saw those eyes whenever Layton looked at the boy and now Clive was regarding him the same way.

So was Clive a boy who needed caring for or a father caring for his own son? Either way, when the two of them left Emmy felt more confused about him than she had to start with.

The answer eventually came to her, though she hadn't expected it either.

She was walking up the drive towards Layton's house. It wasn't among the hours when they'd usually expect her to come pick up Elliot, but she knew all the same that Layton was not at the university right now.

That was when she caught sight of them through the window.

With Elliot not being around, Clive had walked over to the professor to talk about something. She smiled; they seemed to casual and normal now.

But then Clive leaned close to Layton.

It took her a moment to register what had happened – but undoubtedly Clive had just kissed him.

Emmy froze on the drive, gravel clicking under her feet as she came to a halt. She stared, watching as Clive pulled away and the professor… smiled. As if this wasn't the first time something of this nature had happened.

So Clive was indeed both someone who needed the professor to look after him and at the same time someone who wanted to help him look after his son. More than just that, he was… helping the professor as an individual. No one was bold enough to be romantically involved with Layton after Claire, it seemed. Even Emmy couldn't do that. But Clive was being bold enough at present.

Maybe he could finally let the professor move on without destroying the memory of Claire. Though she didn't know the details, Emmy liked to think so.

She continued walking, reaching the door and acting as if nothing had happened when they answered it. They didn't know that they'd been caught and acted as they always did. She sort of wished they didn't feel that they had to hide it from her.

"Ah, Emmy. I didn't realise that it was time for you to pick up Elliot already," said Layton.

"I'm not here for him this time," she said, smiling at them from the door.

"Then to what do we owe the honour?" he asked.

"I've come to tell you that I'm leaving again tomorrow," said Emmy, "My visit here was only supposed to be temporary but I've stayed much longer than intended."

"But you can't go, Elliot would miss you terribly!" the professor protested.

"No, I think that he'll be just fine. He has his father right here," she assured him.

"You're his…"

"I'm not. You know that. We agree on that when he was born," Emmy reminded him, "And besides, he has two perfectly good parents right here." They both stammered incoherently. She smirked a little too much at seeing them squirm under her accusation. "You'll both be fine. Elliot loves the two of you and you're looking after him well without my help. Just trust yourselves."

"But…" Layton mumbled.

"A gentleman does not make excuses," she pressed, "I'm leaving and you two are just going to have to deal with it."

"All right, but let me get the boy to tell him the news," Layton said, turning to head through to another room.

When he was gone, Emmy looked at Clive and said, "You will take care of him?"

"Elliot is like a son to me, of course I will," Clive promised.

"I didn't mean Elliot," said Emmy.

"The professor? He's good at taking care of himself," said Clive, looking confused.

"No he isn't, and you should know that by now. He can be as weak as you claim to be sometimes and he needs you there. You seem to have done it where no one else can manage," she said solemnly.

Clive looked uncertain.

"Just carry on, you don't need to do anything different than what you are now," Emmy said, "Please, just… care for him. And care for Elliot too. The three of you are a family now."

In the other room it sounded as if Layton had been distracted by helping his son solve a puzzle.

"They've… made me put aside everything that happened, with my own family I mean," Clive admitted, "They fill that void even without me knowing…"

"Good! Then hold onto that." She walked closer. "Hold onto the professor too, he deserves to be happy again."

He flushed an awkward shade of pink; "Y-you know about…?"

"I have eyes," she said, winking, "But don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

It seemed that whatever puzzle they'd been working on, Layton and Elliot were now finished, the young boy heading through to hug Emmy's legs tightly.

"Don't go, Emmy! Me and daddy and Clive will miss you…" he sobbed.

"There's nothing to worry about, I'll be back sometimes," she said, hugging him, "I'm just needed in other places, that's all."

"They can't need you more than we do!" Elliot assured her.

"Now Elliot, a young gentleman does not make a scene," Layton reminded.

"You're a big boy, you can manage without me for a while," Emmy agreed, letting go of him, "Now, take care of your daddies for me while I'm gone."

"Daddies…?"

Waving goodbye to them, Emmy headed back up the driveway to where her car was waiting. She was almost sorry that she was going to miss the difficult conversation the boy would surely provide the two of them with now that she'd planted that concept in his head.

Before she shut the car door she looked back up to where Clive and the professor were hurriedly trying to explain what Emmy had meant, which certainly wasn't what it sounded like. Only Elliot was smart enough to know that it was.

Realising that she was leaving for good, the three of them looked up and started waving at her. She waved back before closing the door and heading on her way.

And so Emmy said goodbye to the mismatched Layton family. It might have been a little out of hand, but she liked to think she'd had no small part in helping to guide that family together.

Taking hold of Layton's hand gently behind Elliot's back, Clive knew that he'd uphold his promise to her too.