Gently squeezing her hand as they approached Emily's parents' house, Morgan asked, "Do you think they'll like me?" he asked. Not that he'd ever admit it, but he was rather nervous...he hadn't exactly had a lot of relationships that went to the stage where he had met the in-laws.
"Baby, Mother already met you... And does it really matter if they like you? It doesn't matter to me."
"She met me at work," he corrected, "I want them to like me, Em. I want them to know that their daughter is safe with me. I want them to trust me."
"Trusting you and liking you are two different things," she pointed out. "I'm telling you, Mother already doesn't hate you – can't ask for much more. And Daddy...well, good luck with that."
He frowned. "Does he own a gun?"
"I think they made him turn in all his hardware when he retired," she shrugged, smiling to herself at his anxiety.
"You know, they'll probably hate me when they realize that I've married their daughter and knocked her up before they even gave me their 'blessing'..."
Emily laughed. "Well, if you say it like that, they will. Just relax, baby. Everything is going to be alright."
"Easy for you to say...you're not the one that should be afraid of having their gonads painfully removed for irresponsible use of them," he said, half-joking, as he leaned in to kiss her quickly. "I love you."
"I love you too." She smiled against his lips, pulling back quickly as the door opened. "Daddy! I've missed you..."
Joseph Prentiss smiled tenderly at his little girl, kissing her cheek as she wrapped him in a hug. "I missed you too, Pumpkin. And who is this?" he asked, raising a brow at the man standing beside her.
"Daddy," she pulled her husband closer, "This is Derek – my husband."
Joseph raised a brow, suddenly looking less enthusiastic about their meeting. "Your husband? Did you mean fiancé? Because this is the first I'm hearing about a marriage..." Then, following a quick glance between the couple, gaze latching on the way she rubbed her stomach anxiously, he added, "And you're pregnant?"
"Yes, Daddy," Emily said quietly, clearly not looking forwards to his reaction. "You're going to be a Papa."
Joseph obviously didn't know what to say, stammering awkwardly for a moment. "Why don't you come in – I'll get your mother."
Having heard voices in the foyer, Elizabeth descended the stairs to investigate. "Joseph, what's going on?"
"Emily and her husband are here to visit us," he said slowly as if trying to gauge his wife's reaction.
Her expression twisted into a look of confusion. "Husband? Is this some kind of joke?"
"Ma'am, this is not a joke," Derek answered seriously.
Elizabeth looked between the three other occupants of the room. "How...? When...?" Then, she turned to focus solely on her daughter. "Really, Emily? You married your co-worker?"
"Yes, Mother," Emily replied wearily, knowing she shouldn't have expected any different. "We'd been dating for four years, we were ready to be married."
Moving past his immediate shock, Joseph asked, "How long have you been married? And how far along are you?"
"Far along?" Elizabeth's brows knit, looking from her husband to her daughter, seemingly only noticing the latter's condition. "What's going on?"
Gently squeezing Emily's hand, Morgan replied for her, "Ma'am, Emily's pregnant."
"Four months," Emily added quietly with a soft smile, "With twins."
"Twins?" Elizabeth echoed incredulously, then asked her husband. "Did you know about this?"
"No," he murmured. To the parents-to-be, he asked, "You're only telling us now? Why didn't you come to us sooner?"
"We wanted to, really," Emily insisted, "But you have to understand how busy these last few months have been for us – it's a lot to deal with, considering our job and everything..."
But that didn't seem to be a good enough excuse. "How long have you been married?" Joseph asked, "You couldn't have told us then? If you weren't pregnant, would you ever have told us?"
Emily looked down at her hands awkwardly folded in her lap, getting the same feeling she used to have when she'd done something wrong as a child. "We're coming up on our first anniversary soon, actually. And we absolutely planned on telling you, when the time was right. But it was clear from her father's expression that he still didn't know what to say or how to feel. "Aren't you happy for us?" Emily whispered sadly, "Don't you want me to be happy? Didn't you want grandchildren?"
"Emily, I want you to be happy, but you can't come in here and drop a bomb on us like that...it's a lot for us to take in; we didn't even know you were dating," Joseph said.
"I did tell you," Emily insisted, "You can't be happy for us because you didn't know every single thing happening in my life? That's exactly why I left this house! I wanted something to myself – is that so wrong?"
"I didn't say we aren't happy for you – we are. It's just that we're still in shock. You've been married for a year and you're four months pregnant with twins, Emily. It's a lot of news for one day. I am happy for you and I'm happy that I'm going to be a grandfather, but I need some time for it all to sink it."
"Well, then I guess we should leave," Emily said flatly. "I'm sorry we reached out to you so you could be a part of your granddaughters' lives."
As Emily stood up and turned to leave, Morgan stopped her and pulled her aside. "Baby, we can't just leave like this."
She shook her head. "Obviously nothing we say is going to change their minds. This is just like them..." she huffed.
"I'm sure they're just in shock," he murmured, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I know they don't show it, but I'm sure they love you and they're happy that you're happy. If we leave now, our babies might never know their grandparents. We don't want that..."
"So what do you want me to say?" Emily shook her head. "They're not going to change their minds. They didn't want to be in my life, why would they want to be in the girls'?"
"Baby, I'm not saying we should change their minds, but I can see that your parents – especially your dad – care about you very much. They just don't know how to express that. Like he said, we dropped a bomb on them and we can't expect them to be okay with it right away.
Emily tossed her hands up in defeat. "So, what do you suggest we do?"
He kissed her forehead, reassuring, "It's going to be fine. They're your parents, they can't be that bad." He gently led her back to her seat and addressed her parents with a rather forced smile. "We know this is a lot for you to take in all at once, but we're here because we want you to be in the girls' lives. We didn't mean to shock you..."
"Well, shock you did," Elizabeth replied frankly, "So, what is your plan for raising the twins?"
"After the twins are born, Emily has a couple months of maternity leave, so she can stay home with the girls," Derek replied. "After that, we'll tag-team – one of us will be away on a case while the other stays home with the twins. And my mother is happy to help. But even if one of us resigns, we'll have enough to support the family."
Elizabeth nodded slowly, almost contemplatively. "You know that Joseph and I would be willing to help as well..."
"You would?" Derek asked, clearly rather surprised, but pleased nonetheless. "That means a lot to us."
"Thank you, Mother, Daddy..." Emily smiled softly, rubbing her belly at a bout of renewed movement from within. "Pancake and Waffle are happy too."
"Pancake and Waffle?" Joseph asked, raising his brows, but smiling, "Are those going to be their official names?"
Emily laughed. "That's just what we called them before the ultrasound. Their 'official' names are Kylie 'Kaye' Frances Morgan and Arwen Emily Morgan." She smiled tenderly at the thought of her daughter.
"Beautiful names," Joseph said gently, "I'm sure you're very happy."
"Are you happy?"
"Honey, I am happy," he replied, reaching out for his daughter's hand. "I love you. I know I don't say it a lot, but I do love you. You're my little girl."