Chapter Two – Witchy Woman

Scarlet sat on the edge of the couch next to Derek, slapping him lightly on the face trying to wake him up, he'd been out for an hour. "Come on Derek, wake up!" But he didn't respond. Scarlet sighed, "You know, despite the current situation, this is going better than I expected." She said to him as if he was actually listening.

Ash, Tripp, and Burger all filed into the living room.

"Still not awake yet?" Tripp asked.

"Nope, nothing; I've tried everything I can think of, but it's just not working."

"You haven't tried everything." Burger smiled mischievously. "Ash if you would do the honors."

"With pleasure; Scarlet you might wanna move." Ash warned, so Scarlet move over by the window on the other side of the room. Ash unscrewed the lid from the bottle of water he'd been holding and took a sip, "Ahh, refreshing." then casually dumped the rest on Derek's face. Immediately Derek sat up coughing and gasping for air.

"That works." Scarlet laughed

Tripp tossed Derek a towel and he began to dry himself. "Uh lads, I had the most terrible dream; I dreamt one of my old girl friends came to house."

"Why does this sound familiar?" Ash wondered out loud.

"That's not the worst part, she was pregnant!" Derek continued, "Can you imagine, me a father!" he began to laugh and so did Ash until Burger elbowed him in the side. "Why aren't you guys laughing, its funny right? What are you looking at?" He followed the gaze of his fellow weasels and looked behind him to find Scarlet. It was almost a repeat of an hour ago; he screamed and sprang towards the kitchen, except this time Burger, Tripp, and Ash pushed him back onto the couch and held him there. "Guys let me go!" He insisted.

"Sorry dude not this time." Burger said.

"Yeah man, you still gotta finish this dream."

"Ash he's not really dreaming!" Tripp explained.

"Then how come his eyes are shut?"

"Because you're still holding the water bottle and every time you point at Derek, it' sprays him in the face."

"Oh."

"Will you guys please get off of me?" Derek demanded.

The other guys looked to Scarlet to see what she wanted them to do.

"It's okay." She said.

They cautiously let Derek go, but stood around him to make sure he stayed put.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be on my side." Derek growled.

"What was that?" Scarlet asked.

Derek cleared his throat. "I said Hello Scarlet."

Scarlet gave him a little wave.

"So… What's new?" He asked trying to avoid the obvious. She didn't reply, instead she just looked at him as if to say do you really need to ask? "Right; Guys can you give us a minute?"

Without another word, the rest of the band went into the kitchen. All Derek could do was sit there and stare at Scarlet's stomach. "How did this happen?"

"Derek, you of all people should know how this happened." Scarlet smirked.

"I know how it happened; I just want to know why it happened. I thought you were on birth control."

"I was, but after you left I landed in the hospital and what ever medication I was on must have counteracted the affects of the pill."

"Are you sure it's mine?"

"I just said it happened right after you left, and you're the only guy I've ever been with."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"I tried but I didn't know how to get in contact with you. You didn't leave a forwarding address, and you're not listed in the phone book." She explained.

"Then how did you find me?" He asked.

"I saw an episode of that reality show you guys did, Weasel World, and I recognized the street, my aunt use to live a couple houses down from here."

"That show hasn't aired for months. If you knew where I was, why did you wait?"

"I was worried you'd freak out."

"I'm freaking out now incase you haven't noticed!" He really was, because when he stood up Scarlet could see his whole body vibrating.

"I can see that, and I'm sorry. It's just – It was so early on in the pregnancy, I thought that if I told you sooner, you'd want me to get rid of it."

Derek suddenly became very serious. "Scarlet I'd never ask you to do that. I really cared about you."

"Then why did you leave me?" Scarlet exclaimed. Derek opened his mouth to respond but she cut him off. "Wait; don't answer that, I already know why. You thought I was crazy!"

The argument was beginning to escalate, but unannounced to Derek and Scarlet, three pairs of eyes were spying on them through the kitchen blinds, eagerly eavesdropping on the bickering couple.

"This is starting to get good." Burger said offering Ash and Tripp some popcorn.

"Well what was I suppose to think!" Derek shouted. "You told me you were a witch!"

"That's because I am a Witch!"

Burger and Tripp's mouths dropped. "Wow."

"Did not see that coming." Ash said a little too loudly.

Scarlet and Derek turned around. "How long have you three been eavesdropping on us? Scarlet asked.

"We weren't eavesdropping." Tripp said defensively.

"I'm just eating some popcorn." Burger replied.

"Please don't turn me into a toad!" Ash pleaded.

Scarlet rolled her eyes; "Ash I'm not going to turn you into a toad!"

"That's a relief."

"Scarlet, just ignore them," Derek said. "We're not finished talking."

"You're right." She replied. "So I'm just going to cut right to the chase. Derek, I can't raise this baby on my own. My parent's have already offered to help, but they're well into their sixties and have already raised their kids, I can't ask them to do it again with ours. I need you're help, and this baby is going to need its daddy."

All the color drained from Derek's face and there was a long pause. "I can't."

"What?" Scarlet felt her heart plummet from her chest to somewhere so low, for a moment she thought it had stopped.

The other three weasels were just as shocked as Scarlet was.

"Dude, not cool." Burger said.

"Yeah man, Scarlet needs you." Ash added.

"Hey get off my back! This has nothing to do with you two!" Derek rebutted. "Now I'm sorry, but I just can't do it."

This time no one tried to stop him from leaving, instead the remaining members of Iron Weasel stayed watching Scarlet sympathetically as she fought back the urge to cry and when she couldn't find the strength to fight it any longer, Ash was the first to her side. "I doubt this will help, but so far you're the nicest witch I've ever met."

"Scarlet smiled a little through the tears, "So far I'm probably the only witch you've ever met."

"Yeah you are." He smiled back.

"And you're not freaked out?"

"Well I was at first, but now that I know you're not going to turn me into a frog, we're all cool."

Tripp was at a loss for what to do or say next. He wanted to comfort Scarlet, but he didn't know where to begin, besides, Ash appeared to have things pretty under control, so he decided to go follow Derek. "I'll go talk to him."