Heart to Heart

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Valley…

"Cera!"

"Cerrie!"

"Cerrie!"

"Cera! Come out, we know you're hiding!"

Derek groaned in frustration. Again, the calls of him and his friends were left unanswered.

"Ugh man, she sure picked a good hiding spot this time," he said, dropping his shoulders in exhaustion. "We can't find her anywhere."

"Maybe she's playing Hide-and-Seek." Ducky suggested. "Only she's the one who's "it", and we have to find her."

"You're talking about Sardines." Derek replied. "But I don't she's playing a game with us right now." Derek then turned his head up and called, "Hey, Petrie, any luck up there?!"

Petrie circled above the group for a moment before swooping down towards the group. He hovered in front of Derek.

"Me no see Cera anywhere." Petrie said, shaking his head.

"Oh, Dana no see Cerrie!" Dana whined.

"Boo-hoo, Dinah!" Dinah followed up.

The twin three-horns then began to cry simultaneously. Derek let out a deep breath of air and squatted to their level. He then patted each of them on the head.

"Hey, chin up," he said with an encouraging smile. "We'll find Auntie Cera. She's gotta be around here somewhere."

"Derek's right." Ducky replied. "I'm sure we'll find her soon."

Spike simply smiled and nodded his head, giving a small moaning sound as he did.

It was then that the group began to hear the sound of racing footsteps approaching them.

"Derek! There you are!"

Derek perked up when her heard the sound of his sister's voice calling out to him. He and the others turned their heads in the direction Aylene's voice came from and saw her and Littlefoot. Aylene was riding on Littlefoot's back, and he was racing towards as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Guys!" Littlefoot called, his voice full of excitement. "You'll never guess what happened!"

"You find Cera?" Petrie asked.

"No, but we did find someone else!" Aylene answered. She sounded just as excited as Littlefoot.

It wasn't until Littlefoot came to a stop right in front of them that Derek realized something.

"Sis, where's Grandma?"

"That's what we came here to tell you!" Littlefoot replied. "Elaine's friend's here! Doc is in the Valley right now!"

"What?!" Derek's exclaimed. His eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you sure?!"

"Yeah! He saved me from falling off a cliff! And he and Elaine recognized each other! It's really him! He's in the Great Valley right now!"

"We came to get you guys!" Aylene explained. "C'mon, you gotta meet him! He's just as Grandma described him!"

"That's amazing!" Ducky smiled. "I can't wait to meet him!"

"Dinah wanna see!" Dinah said, jumping up and down.

"So so Dana." Dana replied.

"What about Cera?" Petrie asked. "Me think we should find her first."

Aylene's smile faded when Petrie said that. She was so excited of introducing everyone to Doc that she had completely forgotten about Cera. The way she saw it, there was no point in introducing the Gang to Doc if the Gang wasn't all here.

"Yeah, you're probably right, Petrie," she said, trying to mask her disappointment. "Where do you think we should look now?"

"Actually, why don't you guys go on ahead." Derek suddenly said. "I'll catch up with you in a minute."

Aylene looked over at her brother with confusion. Had she looked over at him sooner, she would've noticed that he had been staring at some bushes on the edge of the forest.

"Are you sure, Bro?"

"Yeah, I just need to take care of something." Derek said. "But you guys go on ahead. I'll meet up with you later."

"Okay, if you're sure." Aylene shrugged. "C'mon guys. Let's go. We can't wait to introduce you."

In a matter of seconds, the Gang, along with Dinah and Dana, ran off towards the center of the Great Valley. As soon as they were out of ear-shot, Derek gave a small smirk.

"Coast is clear," he said casually. "Are you going to keep hiding in the bushes, Cera?"

In response, Cera lifted herself up out of the bushes with a surprised expression. Derek turned his head sideways to look at her with a rather smug grin.

"How did you know I was here?" Cera asked.

"I saw the bushes rustle." Derek simply said. "You did a good job sneaking around for a while, I'll give you that. But you still got some ways to go."

Cera groaned and gave a pouty face, making Derek chuckle.

"So, you mind telling me why you've been avoiding us, or do I have play Twenty Questions?" Derek asked.

"Are you going to keep being sarcastic?" Cera shot back.

"I'll make you a deal," Derek replied, "you tell me what's going on, and I'll drop the sarcasm. Fair enough?"

"Yeah, whatever." Cera grumbled.

The yellow Triceratops squirmed out of the thicket, and the human boy walked over to her. Derek sat down in the grass while Cera laid down in front of him.

"So, why have you been avoiding us?" Derek asked again, leaving out any sarcasm. "Did we do something to make you mad?"

"It's not you or my friends." Cera replied. "It's the twins."

Derek gave a quick grin. Somehow, he knew that was the answer.

"So you've been avoiding the twins all this time. Why?"

"Derek, I can't take it anymore!" Cera groaned, dropping her head down on her forepaws. "They won't leave me alone! And it doesn't help when Daddy said I had to take care of them! He didn't even bother to ask me if I even wanted to take care of them in the first place! And it's going to be days before their herd leaves the Valley! Which means I have to put up with them for several days! I just can't handle it anymore! I want to have fun with my friends without some little pests following me all over the place! I just want to tell them to get lost and leave me alone!"

Derek couldn't help it. He exhaled deeply and smiled, shaking his head as he did.

"What are you smiling about?!" Cera snapped. "I'm being serious here!"

"Oh, I know you are." Derek said. "And trust me, I totally get it. You're not used to babysitting kids."

"How can you know what I'm going through?!" Cera said harshly. "What makes you think that you know anything?!"

"Because I've been there." Derek replied calmly. "You're talking to someone who has a little sister."

"But Aylene's different! She can take care of herself, and she doesn't follow everyone around and try to do all the things they do with their friends!"

"Yeah, but she was kid once, too, you know. We all were kids at some point. You, me, all the grown-ups in the Great Valley."

"But-!"

"Let me finish!" Derek said, raising his hand up in a commanding way.

Cera closed her mouth and shrunk back just a bit. Derek didn't sound angry, but he was definitely exerting his authority now, and Cera could see that. While she didn't like getting lectured, she had enough respect for Derek to let him speak.

"Thank you." Derek cleared his throat. "As I was saying, I had to take care of Aylene when we were younger. There was even a time when she followed me around everywhere I went. She wanted to hang out with me and my friends, do everything I was doing, and even wanted to talk the same way as me. Oh gosh, that was embarrassing, especially in front of my friends."

"I kind of want to hear this." Cera admitted. "What did she do?"

"I'll save that for another time." Derek replied. He gave an impish grin. "When Aylene is around, so we can embarrass her."

Cera laughed at the idea. Although Derek probably wasn't being serious, it was still funny nonetheless.

"Anyway," Derek continued, becoming serious again, "there were times where Mom and Dad had to go out, and I was left in charge of taking care of Aylene. At first, I wasn't too thrilled about the idea, especially if it meant that I had to give up hanging out with my friends."

"Man, I feel sorry for you."

"Yeah, but after a while, I didn't mind. And you wanna know why?"

Cera nodded.

"She and I did things together. At first it was rough, as we both wanted to do different things. But a trick we came up with was compromising."

"Compromising?" Cera cocked her head sideways, making a confused expression.

"It means coming to an agreement on something." Derek explained. "And there were times where I had to be the bigger person and let Aylene have her way. But I was the older brother, I could handle that. That's growing up is all about. Being the bigger person, even when you don't want to be. It's all about trial and error. You try things, you do things, sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. But the key is that you don't stop trying, and you always try to do the best you can."

Cera stared at Derek. For some reason, everything he was saying was making sense to her.

"Cera," Derek said, his tone shifting a kind of encouraging seriousness, "I know you're responsible, and you got what it takes to be a leader when the time call for you to be one. But if I can be honest with you, you need to step up and take that responsibility. I know you don't want to right now, but Dinah and Dana really do look up to you, even if you don't want them to. You need to set a positive role model for them. I know you can. You've done it many times before."

Cera frowned and looked away. She understood what Derek was saying, and she didn't feel like he was attacking her in anyway, but she still didn't like being told what to do.

"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked, kind of suspicious.

"Well," Derek shrugged, "to tell you the truth, you kind of remind me of myself when I was young."

Cera blinked. She wasn't expecting Derek to say that.

"And because of that, I feel I should offer you at least some advice."

Cera glanced away.

"I just…" she hesitated. "I don't know how to take care of kids."

Derek paused for a moment. Was that what the problem really was? Cera seemed to be very sincere now. And judging by the look on her face, she didn't seem to be lying to get out of her job.

She probably was at a loss of what to do in this situation.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Derek grinned. "I can help you with that."

At that suggestion, Cera perked up and looked back at the human sitting in front of her. There was a hopeful glint in her eyes.

"Really? You'd help me?!"

"Yeah, if you don't know how to take care of kids, then maybe you just need someone who's had experience to help guide you through it. Besides, two heads are better than one when you're just starting out."

"Oh, thank you, Derek!" Cera said gleefully. "You're the best!"

Derek chuckled lightly as he got to his feet. He then stretched his arms.

"Well, c'mon. The others are probably waiting for us by now. And I do wanna meet my Grandma's old friend."

"Okay, coming."

Cera got up from her spot, stretching her limbs for a second. Then, she and Derek began to walk across the Valley, following the footprints that their friends had been left in the grass.

As they walked, Derek gave Cera a light nudge to get her attention. She turned her head to look up at him and saw that he had his index finger in front of his lips.

"And I won't say a word about this to your dad," he said with a wink. "It'll be our little secret."

"Thanks, Derek." Cera said, sighing with relief.