"Where's Emily the Strange?" Desi asked, pausing in her work of cleaning up the leaves to lean on the rake, catching her breath.

"Yeah," Sarah chimed in, "Shouldn't she be helping?" She tossed the last of the summer weeds into a trash bag, then wiped the sweat off her forehead, smearing her face with dirt.

"She's sick," Derek called down from the roof where he was cleaning out the rain gutters. "And don't call her that," he added, tossing a soggy pile of leaves at Desi.

"She's sick a lot lately," Desi retorted, staring up at him challengingly and side-stepping his leaf bomb.

"I didn't realize it was any of your business," Derek said. He'd grown up with the two of them picking on him, so he ordinarily had a pretty long fuse, but when the subject of Emily came up, he would inevitably defend her vociferously, even if it meant losing his temper.

"It's our business if she's going to live in our house and date our kid brother," Sarah said, standing up to fix him with her 'I'm the oldest and don't you forget it' look, wiping her hands on her pants.

That's when Derek realized he'd been ambushed – they'd planned this talk, waiting until he was trapped on the roof and had no choice but to listen to them. "I don't recall asking for your nosy opinions," he snapped.

"Well, you're gonna get them," Sarah said, hands on her hips. "Mama might think she's an angel, but we see through the act."

"It's not an act! She might be a little rough around the edges, but she's genuine and sweet and caring – she cares about me and I care about her, so you can both butt out."

"D, we're just trying to protect you... We've heard the rumours about her, you have to know what they're saying at school," Desi said, trying a different tack.

"I don't care about the rumours. I know her and that's all that matters to me!" If he'd been on the ground, he wasn't sure what he would have done in that moment. "I love her and if you're going to be like this, I don't think I want you in my child's life!" There was a long stricken pause, then he heard what he'd just said. "Shit," he hissed.

"Your child?" they both hissed.

"What the fuck!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Derek, are you serious?" Desi cried.

"Shit," he muttered again, "Shit, shit, shit."

"She's pregnant?" Desi demanded, nearly shouting.

"Would you say it louder?" Derek snapped. "I don't think the whole neighbourhood heard!"

"How could you let this happen?" Sarah asked, incredulous, "You've got your whole future ahead of you and you're just going to throw it all away?"

"Let it happen?" he scoffed, "You remember sex ed., right? She didn't do this by herself – I was an active participant..."

"Gross..." Desi muttered under her breath.

"It's as much my fault as hers – neither of us planned this. But we aren't going to run away from this. We're taking responsibility."

"But what about your future?" Sarah pressed. "What about your goals and having a better life? What about getting out of here and giving Mama a better life too?"

"I still have goals, a future – I just also have a child. Sure, it'll be a little more difficult, but I'm not running away from something because it's hard. That's not what Dad would want."

"What Dad would want!?" Sarah repeated incredulously. "You think this is what Dad would want?"

"Maybe not, but he wouldn't want me to abandon my child! You remember what it's like to not have a dad and I won't do that to my kid! Give me back the ladder! I'm done listening to you talk about Emily like this – like she ruined my life!"

Desi gave in and lifted the ladder so he could climb down, her gut sinking with the realization that they'd really hurt him this time.

Emily gently stroked his face, tracing the lines of anger still marring the features she loved so much. "They were just being protective of their baby brother – can you really blame them for that?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," he insisted, but it was more petulant than furious as it had been when he'd first recounted the events.

"Are you actually mad about what they said or are you mad that they don't seem to like me?" she asked knowingly.

"They don't even know you!" he snapped, anger rising again. "They think they know how I should live me life and who I should live it with! They're worse than Mama!"

"It's because they care about you. Wouldn't you do the same if the situation were reversed?" she pressed.

"I..." he stammered, not having a good answer to that.

Emily nodded, giving him a wise smile.

"Don't look so smug, Missy," he said, pouting. She laughed at his petulance, leaning down to kiss his pouting lips.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door and Desi peered around the corner. "Umm, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked awkwardly.

"I'll leave you two alone," Emily said, moving to give them some privacy.

"No," Derek said, tugging gently on her arm so she'd sit back down. "Anything she has to say to me, she can say in front of you."

Desi sat gingerly on the edge of his desk chair, knocking over a pile of laundry. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about earlier... I think Sarah was way out of line."

Derek maintained his stony glare, unimpressed with her apology.

"Look, we just really care about you and we don't want you to rush into something you can't take back."

"Like abandoning my child?" he retorted. Emily squeezed his shoulder scoldingly.

"I know you'd never do that, D," Desi said. "I just want you to be sure you know what you're getting into."

"We do," Emily said gently. "And we're considering all our options. But we're old enough to do this – we don't want to be treated like kids."

"I get that," Desi agreed. "I'm not sure Sarah does...you know how she gets – she's the oldest, she feels responsible.

"I'm not asking her to be responsible for me," Derek insisted.

"You're her baby brother," Desi said with a shrug. Emily nodded sagely.

"You're on her side?" Derek asked, pouting again.

She smiled apologetically. "I just don't think you should burn any bridges. Our baby needs all the family they can get since mine isn't in the picture. It takes a village, they say..."

"Anyway..." Desi said, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. To both of you. I'll support you any way I can."

"Thanks, Desi," Derek said softly, almost embarrassed – by the show of affection and his earlier reaction.

"And, Emily?" Desi added, "Welcome to the family."