Writing these quite quickly but my internet seems to hate me, so I apologise when suddenly there's like three new chapters at once – I could stagger them ... but no.

Love to those who review! And a big thank you to xxcaribbeanxx for the continued support and confidence – a big part in me continuing this story.

Meeting the Mercers.

Bobby Mercer.

Jerry, Camille, Daniela and Amelia Mercer.

Angel Mercer and Sofia soon-to-be-Mercer.

All waiting for her when she woke up the next morning. No wonder she had to run back upstairs and throw up.

The men were all standing when she came back down, while Camille, Sofi and the two little girls were seated at the kitchen table. Bobby was holding a mug; when she caught a whiff of coffee Lydia turned green.

Camille sprang from the table, putting her arms around Lydia to guide her to the table while hissing at Bobby to get rid of the coffee. Bobby looked vaguely amused at the 115lb woman glaring at him, but did as he was told. Camille then got Lydia a piece of unbuttered toast and told everyone they could wait until Lydia was finished. Angel didn't look happy at this and showed it by sighing and recrossing his legs the other way. Bobby just lent against the counter, shaking his head at the scene. Lydia looked over at Jerry, but looked away quickly when she saw the loving gaze he was giving his wife at looking after this girl none of them knew. Love was a bit too much for her right now. Sleeping in Jack's room had been tough enough, but watching loved up couples? Her heart beat miserably in her wounded chest.

Angel abandoned his seat on the kitchen countered before Lydia had swallowed the last bite. Every bit as protective of his little brother as Bobby, Jack being the only little brother he had, Angel wasn't about to let this girl go without knowing every detail of her relationship with Jack. Photos were optional.

"So what's going on? Jack never told us about you. You turn up after Jack's been dead for six weeks" – everyone pretended not to hear the catch in Angel's voice when he said his baby brother's name – "and you tell us you're having his baby? Did he know?"

"Ang, back off a little, alright?" Everyone looked at Bobby, of all the Mercers, he was not the one known for 'backing off'. Angel gave his brother a look, but conceded and leant against the counter once more when Bobby nodded at him.

Bobby gave Lydia the questionable benefit of his full attention – so that was where Jack learnt that stare – content to make her squirm before questioning her. He was surprised when she didn't squirm and even impressed when she folded her arms across her chest and stared right back. Bobby didn't scare her anymore. She'd had the whole night to think about and she was about to become a single mom living in the rough area of Boston – everything else seemed a little pathetic. She tried to remember that as she held Bobby's gaze.

"We need to straighten a few things out. Firstly, like Angel said, Jack didn't mention you and we think he would have, despite the circumstances, if he knew you were pregnant."

"He didn't know. When he wasn't back after a month I figured he'd just moved on. I was okay with that" – liar, she thought to herself, you were miserable, you just didn't have the guts to admit it –"but then I found out I was pregnant and I figured he deserved to know."

"So why wait? Why wait another six weeks?"

"I didn't know how far along I was. I wanted to make sure I was too far along for an abortion before I told him. Even if he hadn't" – god, it hurt to think of Jack in the past tense – "wanted the baby, I did. I wanted him to know that wasn't an option. He walking away was, but this is my kid. No one's changing that." She tilted her head up in a challenge to Bobby as she said this, letting him know that this still was debatable.

Bobby was now seriously impressed. He was even starting to like her. She obviously didn't know Jack that well if she thought he would have walked away from his kid – Mom had raised them better than that. Then again, he doubted the conversation of children had come up much in a relationship between two people with their own issues with family, with the relationship measured in weeks. Jack would have stuck around, Bobby was sure of it. But, since Jack wasn't here, Jerry had his own family and Angel was about to get married to Sofi (and no one, especially not someone who had just lost the father of their child, wanted to be there for that honeymoon), the burden of this situation fell to Bobby. As the eldest and head of the family now Mom was gone, it was Bobby's responsibility to keep the family together. The family that now included a barmaid from Boston and his dead brother's unborn baby.

Bobby looked up at the family situation before him. Daniela and Amelia had been taken to the living room to colour when Lydia had dashed upstairs to throw up. Angel had moved to sit next to Sofi with his arm around the temperamental Latino's shoulders – all the better to hold her back when Bobby called her 'Chica' again, an annoying habit that Bobby had only begun. Camille was sat next to Jerry, watching Lydia like a hawk, mothering instincts going into overdrive now that she was the only Mercer mother and the family was going through drama once more.

"There's a few things that need to be sorted out. You're keeping the baby. Good, saves us the trouble of trying to talk you into it. Now, you need to get this sorted. Camille will do all the pregnancy stuff with you, doctors and whatever. Angel, Jerry and me will help you with the move."

That got Lydia's attention. "Move? What move?"

"The move up here. From Boston."

"I'm not moving."

"Then why are you here?"

"To tell Jack."

"And what were you going to do once you told him?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead. You kind of pulled the rug from under me when you told me Jack was dead."

"Ok, well, now you're moving. You don't have to do this alone and the whole family's in Detroit. What's keeping you in Boston? You got family there?"

Other than a Hell's Angel-turned-bar owner? "No, I haven't got any family in Boston. I haven't got any family anywhere. I have got a job though. Tony let me go for a few days so I could tell Jack and see what he was going to do. He expects me back Friday."

"What happens if you don't come back? You could call him and say you're staying."

"No, I owe him better than that. Tony is all I've had for a long time, I want to explain properly. He liked Jack."

"Really?" This came from Angel, he looked glad that his little brother had been around people that liked him – he had worried about Jack while he was away. Jack was a sweet guy, but getting along with people wasn't his strong point – the Mercer smart mouth and a childhood with people that could barely be described as human ensure that Jack kept people at arm's length.

"Yeah, it was touch and go when we started going out – especially since Jack had just set fire to the bar. But Tony forgave him. I think the insurance money helped."

Angel grinned. Jack had definitely been keeping up the Mercer standards on his travels.

Bobby stepped forward to focus the attention once more. "Ok, this is what we are going to do. Angel, Jerry and I will go to work while Sofi looks after the girls. Camille will take Lydia to the doctors so that she can give the whole picture to this Tony guy when we take her back on Friday. No one say anything about Lydia being here though, or about the baby. The last thing we need is some Sweet die-hard thinking he can get somewhere by taking out the weakest link. We don't want to start that shit up again."

Bobby was speaking to everyone and no one in particular. It made Lydia feel part of something. Rather than being singled out and the conversation being about what they were going to do for her, it was about what they, as a unit, were going to do. Lydia liked that. She'd have to talk to Bobby about this whole 'weakest link' bullshit though.