I was woken at an ungodly hour the next morning by a terribly obnoxious pounding on my door. It almost sounded like someone was trying to break the door down. I had a seven am class and was used to getting up early, but this was still too early for me, especially with how exhausted my pregnancy was making me feel. Somebody had better be dying.

I managed to climb out of bed and answer the door, only to immediately wish that I could slam it shut in the visitor's face. Standing outside the door of my dorm room was my uncle Neah, and he looked pissed.

It really wasn't a surprise that he was there. Not after what I'd told him the night before. It was rather predictable that he had hopped on the first plane out here once he'd snapped himself out of his stupor. I really should have prepared myself better for that outcome.

Fighting back the urge to react in anger, I pulled the door the rest of the way open to invite him in, and that was when I got a real surprise. Neah wasn't alone. The Earl had come with him. I was in some very deep shit.

Neah kept up that pissed as hell look while he stepped into the room, but the moment I closed the door, he burst into tears and wrapped me in a big bear hug. Seeing him like that, I suddenly knew exactly why Adam had tagged along. I was in serious trouble with the family, but if they had let Neah come alone, he would have forgotten that he was angry the moment he laid eyes on me - exactly like he had just done. Adam was here to make sure that Neah behaved himself and disciplined me properly.

I was scared of what they were going to try to do to me, but I was also incredibly annoyed that they thought that they could just barge into my life and make me do things. I wasn't fourteen anymore. I was also handling my situation like a mature adult, and the last thing I needed was my family, which was made up of the least mature people I knew, trying to tell me what to do.

So when Adam scowled at me, I scowled right back. I ignored Neah sobbing into my shoulder and tried to take control of the situation. "What are you two doing here?"

My question was ignored. Well, that or it went unheard over Neah's wailing, but from the look on Adam's face, he was ignoring my attempt to start a polite and reasonable conversation.

Adam grabbed Neah by the ear, making him screech in pain as he pulled him away from me. Neah rubbed his ear and glared at Adam, but Adam ignored the childish pout and bopped him on the head. "Focus, Neah. That's not why we're here."

Neah seemed to come back to himself after that, but when he turned to face me, the stern look on his face immediately melted back into tears. This time around, the tears were much quieter and he kept his hands to himself, but it was still annoying.

Adam briefly scowled at his brother's antics, but then he turned his attention on me, clearly deciding that Neah was a lost cause. The glare he gave me was so fierce that it almost made me swallow in fear. Adam was angrier than I'd seen him in a long time. "You're coming with us, young lady. You obviously can't handle yourself on your own, so we're taking you home so that you can learn how a proper young lady of the Campbell family should conduct herself. Getting yourself pregnant outside of wedlock and then eloping with the first man you see is not appropriate behavior for a woman of your station, and we cannot allow such impropriety to continue." He grabbed my upper arm and tried to pull me towards him. "Now come along."

It was hard not to show just how much that pissed me off. Somehow managing to maintain my composure, I wrenched my arm out of Adam's grasp and stood my ground. "No."

Adam looked like he wanted to slap me across the face; he didn't actually do it, but he definitely wanted to. He was a man who was used to getting his way, and I had just flat out refused a direct order. "Excuse me?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him, suddenly painfully aware of the fact that I was wearing only my worn out sleep shirt and a pair of boxers. "As you have made so painfully clear many, many times in the past: I am not a Campbell, I am a Walker. If the privileges of your family name don't apply to me, your rules don't either. I am not one of you, so I don't have to do what you say. And while we're at it, stop acting like it's the eighteenth century. Kanda and I aren't love-struck teenagers; we are being very responsible with the situation we've found ourselves in. I'm only pregnant because our method of birth control failed, and we only 'eloped' so that I could be added to his health insurance. Now, I am going to go get dressed. When I come back, I expect you to either be gone or be ready to have a rational conversation."

Adam tried to argue with me, but I ignored him while I grabbed my clothes, slamming the bathroom door behind me for effect.

Once I was alone, it took everything I had not to break down. Staring down the Earl was terrifying, but I wasn't done yet - I could hear him talking to Neah on the other side of the door. I needed to keep it together if I was going to face him again. Especially since I had no clue how I'd managed to find the strength to do it the first time.