It had been over a month since Emery had pulled her stunt. She was back at school and ready for Cody to come back as well. Thanksgiving was in two days and Erin decided what better way to spend it than to invite everyone over for dinner. Emery had no clue that's what her mother had planned until she went to the precinct with her that day.
"Alright, everyone in this room is invited for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday around four o'clock. At our house."
"And who's cooking it?" Emery asks puzzled.
"Your mother." Jay says putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Mom, you can't cook. You can barely boil water."
"I can cook. I fed you dinner every time you came over and stayed."
"Yeah it was macaroni, pasta, and anything else you could put in a pot of boiling water and cook. Luckily the one thing dad did teach me was how to cook. So I'll teach you." She said as everyone giggled.
"Stop, now. Like any of you can cook?" Erin said.
"I think we all know how." Dawson said.
"Ok, guys don't worry. Emery and I will help her so it will be fine." Jay says.
Erin glares at Jay and Emery, and they know instantly they're in trouble.
"She's going to kill us when we get home, isn't she?" Jay whispers in the young woman's ear.
"I'd say there is a good chance." She said.
Emery sat at Nadia's old desk, she answered the phone, and did paper work, basically everything Nadia use to do while her parents investigated cases. She would work on the weekends, after school, and on breaks. Then when her parents returned they would either send her home because it was going to be a long night or they would all go home together. That night they all got to go home together. When they arrived to the house Tessa was waiting on the front porch.
"What are you doing here?" Emery says excitedly.
"Mom has to work for Thanksgiving. I didn't want to be alone. I also wanted to come see the new house." She says excitedly.
"Well you are more than welcome to join us for Thanksgiving." Jay says unlocking the door.
"We are just going to get Chinese and watch movies with grandpa H like last year right." Tessa asks.
"No I'm cooking this year."
"But you can't cook." She says as Jay and Emery giggle.
"Ok in the house right now. We all are going to have a chat." Erin says angrily.
"Look now we are in trouble again. Thanks Tess." She says to her best friend.
They all walk inside and sit on the couch while Erin stands in front of them.
"I can cook, I will show you all I can cook. What would you guys like for dinner?"
"BBQ Chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, and rolls. Which I'll let you get those from a package." Emery says after thinking for a bit.
"And then you have to make us Sugar cookies." Tessa says.
"You girls are so lucky we got off early tonight." Erin says.
The girls go to the store with Jay and get everything they need while Erin gets the kitchen together. Emery and Tessa had something planned for Jay.
"He wants to be a dad, let's show him how kids act at the store." Emery whispers in her ear.
"Hey Jay can we get some snacks." She asks.
"Yeah, Em go for it." he says to the two girls.
The girls come back with their arms full and throw it in the cart.
"I thought you said some snacks not the whole snack aisle." Jay says shocked.
"Please." Emery begged.
"Fine but all the junk goes upstairs. So your mom doesn't shoot me for being a push over." He says.
The girls both agree with him and they head for the checkout. When they get home the girls make sure the coast is clear and then head upstairs. Erin catches them just as they get to the top.
"They made you buy them stuff didn't they?"
"No." Jay says.
"Jay?"
"Ok, I'm a push over I know. I'm new to this whole dad thing." He says.
"They knew they could get you to say yes. That's why they did it. They are eighteen they were testing you." Erin says with a laugh.
The girls unpack all the bags and head downstairs to put the ice cream away. They meet Erin in the kitchen. Erin made the cookie dough first since it had to be chilled.
"Hey mom you got a little something right there." Emery says grabbing some flour and flicking it at her mother.
"Oh, baby thank you. But you have something in your hair." She says grabbing an egg and smashing it on her daughters head.
"Oh it's on now." Emery says.
Erin threw an egg at her daughter but instead it hit Tessa in the shoulder because Emery ducked. Tessa took a deep breath walked over to the counter grabbed an egg and threw it at Erin. The girls fought for a while and then Jay walked in the kitchen from outside.
"Wow, what is going on in here?"
"Food fight." They all say and throw flour and eggs in his direction.
Once it was all over every one of them was covered head to toe in egg and flour. They sat on the kitchen flour and laughed for a while. Then came to realize the huge mess they had made and now had to clean up. By the time everyone cleaned the kitchen and showered it was eight o'clock and it was too late to make a home cooked meal.
"What about dinner?" Emery asked.
"I already ordered Chinese it should be here any minute." Jay said.
Once their food arrived, the all sat at the kitchen table and talked about everything. Tessa talked about school and her friends that she had made but assured Emery there was no one who could replace her.
"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Tessa asks.
"Well I usually go to work with them because grandpa hired me to answer the phone but I can see if I can get the day off and we can do something. Mom is it alright if I take the truck?" Emery asks.
"That's fine, but you girls need to be careful."
"How about we go to Navy Pier?" Tess asks.
"Sounds good to me. That's my favorite place to go." Emery says.
"And why is that?" Jay asks.
"Because mom always took Tessa and me. Almost every time we came to stay." She said.
They all watched a movie after dinner and then headed for bed. Emery shut the light off and then climbed in bed with Tessa.
"Hey Em?" She says waking her friend.
"Yeah."
"I think I'm pregnant."
"Oh that's nice." She mumbles half asleep.
"Emery?"
"Wait what did you say?" Emery says getting out of bed and turning the light on.
"I'm late. I've been sick lately too."
"Did you take a test?
"No I didn't want to without you."
"We will get one tomorrow just try to sleep." Emery says turning the light off and going back to bed.
They got up the next morning and ate breakfast that Jay had made them before they left for work. They got dressed and headed for Navy Pier. When they got there they rode the Ferris wheel and walked around looking at the different vendors. They were there for about two hours then decided to go get lunch. The girls got some deep dish pizza to go and then headed to the drug store before heading home. Emery went in and bought a pregnancy test while her best friend sat in the car. They didn't talk about it they just went home. They went to the bathroom upstairs when they got home and Emery tried to convince her friend to just get it over with.
"Just pee on it already because we are taking all three in this box." She said.
"Em what if I am pregnant?"
"We will figure it out."
Tessa peed on all three and set them on the counter. They waited for five minutes then Emery looked at them.
"What does it say?" Tessa asks.
"They are all positive." Emery says reluctantly.
The girls sit in silent for a while. Emery had no clue how to comfort her or what to say.
"What am I going to do?" Tessa finally says.
"I think we should tell my mom. She had me young like way younger than you."
"Em, I can't tell her. I can't be a mom either."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm not even pregnant. Tests are wrong all the time, right."
"Yeah but rarely. It's unlikely you'd have three positive tests. I'm sorry."
"I need some air." Tessa says leaving.
Tessa went out into the back yard while Emery bagged up the pregnancy tests and the box in the bathroom garbage. She tied the bag close and took it out to the trash can at the side of the house. It was pretty full so she shoved it in there as best she could. She went back inside and sat on the couch just as her phone started ringing.
"Hey momma." She says in a happy voice.
"Hey what are you girls doing?"
"Just hanging out at home got back about an hour ago." She says as normal as possible.
"We didn't catch a case today so we will be home early. Just finishing some paperwork."
"Ok love you guys."
"Love you too." Erin says hanging up.
Tessa stayed outside for what felt like forever. While Emery decided to eat the pizza that they bought. Sitting there eating that deep dish she was wondering how in the world this happened. Tessa was a good kid and doing amazing in school. Emery wanted to tell her mom but she knew she couldn't. The reason Tessa didn't want to tell her was not just because she didn't want her to know she was pregnant she didn't want her to know how she became that way. Emery went outside and found Tessa sitting on the swing set.
"When I saw the swing set, I thought mom was going to tell me she was pregnant. It turns out it just comes with the house." She says sitting on the swing next to her.
"How could this happen I took the plan B pill after it happened?"
"I told you we should have gone to the hospital and report it."
"But you weren't the one who was raped now were you." Tessa says upset.
"No I wasn't but keeping it all bottled up can't be good. He would have gone to jail if you would have reported it." Emery says upset
"You know better than that. His dad would have gotten him off easily. His family practical owns our town."
"But we've got something he doesn't."
"And what's that?"
"My family. Mom and grandpa would do everything they could to help and you know that."
"Just drop it Emery ok. I'll figure something out when I get home." Tessa says storming in the house and upstairs.
Jay and Erin got home around five. They found Emery sleeping on the couch and Tessa was nowhere in sight.
"Hey baby, where is Tess?" Erin asks waking her gently.
"She fell asleep upstairs. I came down to watch TV and passed out too."
"Oh ok. Are you alright?"
"I'm not feeling very good."
"Well let me go help Jay and then I'll come back to sit with you." Erin says.
Emery nodded her head and then Erin headed for the kitchen. As soon as her mother was gone she went upstairs, she heard the shower running so she knocked on the door.
"Hey moms home."
"Ok I just got in here, so I'll be down soon." Tessa says.
Emery headed back down stairs and curled up on the couch. A couple minutes later her mom comes back into the room.
"Pick your head up for a minute." Erin says as her daughter sits up and she sits down.
Once she gets comfortable she pats her lap so Emery lays her head down. She brushes her daughter's hair back and then rubs her back.
"You aren't warm?"
"Mom I'm not five. I just don't feel good."
"You will always be my baby as cliché as that sounds. You know you haven't laid on my lap like this since after you were taken from the club."
"Yeah, laying like this here with you just helps me think. Even though I'm not a baby anymore." Emery says looking up at her mother.
They just sit there together without saying a word for a while. Tessa comes down and Emery sits up to make room on the couch for her.
"There's my girls. Are you guys about ready to eat?"
"Yeah sounds good." Tessa says.
"He made you girls what I was supposed to cook last night." Erin says.
They all head to the kitchen to dig in. Dinner was abnormally quiet that night but Erin just figured it was because Emery didn't feel well and Tessa didn't look so good either. After they ate Erin sent the girls upstairs to relax while Jay and herself cleaned up. She was worried about them because she knew something was a little off but tried to let it go and just see what happened. Jay got in the shower around nine and Erin went upstairs to check on the girls and they were already asleep. She went back into the kitchen to get a drink and realized Jay forgot to take the garbage out so she went ahead and took it. She put it in the trash can and heard something hit the pavement she turned the flashlight on her phone on and looked on the ground. When she realized what it was she picked it up, when she saw the two little pink lines she panicked. She marched right inside with it in her hand and then went into the bathroom where Jay was getting dressed.
"Is that a pregnancy test? Are you pregnant?" Jay stuttered.
"No, but I think our daughter is." She says pissed off.
"Where did you find that?" he asks
"I took the trash out and it fell out of one of the bags already in the can." She says.
"What makes you think its Emery's?"
"Because she wasn't feeling good earlier. She hardly ever gets sick." Erin states.
"Well go talk to her about it. While I find a way to kill that Cody kid." He says upset
"She and Tessa are both asleep and we have a long day tomorrow. I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow night. That way I can find the words to say to her." She says now being more sad then angry.
They sit and discuss exactly what they are going to do. This was the last thing either one of them had expected from her. Erin also knew she had no room to judge her daughter, she could be disappointed but it still seemed like she was being hypocritical. They went to bed and tried to sleep but it was hard because all they could do was worry.