Chapter 3

Author's Note: Back again! Thanks so much for the reviews, you guys are great! I almost forgot to update, lol, I've been sooo busy! So someone asked if this was a Madison/Ephram fic; sorry to disappoint, but no it isn't. In fact, I'm still debating whether or not to have Madison return -briefly- in the story or not. But I'm still playing around with how exactly to end it, so.. Feel free to e-mail me any suggestions on what you'd like to see, how you'd like it to end. Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!

The following morning, Ephram awoke to the smell of burnt food. A smell he was oddly accustomed to waking up to thanks to his father's inability to cook. Not that he minded; it just gave them one more excuse to eat take out.

As he lay there in his bed, he contemplated getting up out of bed and headed downstairs or laying up in bed a little longer, hoping he'd fall back asleep. Taking a small step towards making his decision, Ephram lifted his head up slightly to glance over at his digital alarm clock. He groaned and flopped back into the sea of blankets and covers. It was just a little after eight. Too early for him to get up. Too early for him to even be thinking. He buried his head under the pillows, willing himself to fall back asleep for a few more hours. After twenty minutes or so, Ephram realized there was no way he was falling back asleep; he groaned for the second time that morning as he tossed the blankets off of him and crawled out of bed.

After a quick stop to the upstairs bathroom, Ephram finally made his way downstairs to greet the day- as much as he didn't want to. As soon as he reached the downstairs, the smell of the food his father had been trying to cook smelled a bit stronger than before. He rolled his eyes as he headed for the kitchen, where he could hear his little sister happily chatting away with their father.

"I knew I could smell dad's cooking," Ephram mumbled as he walked over and took a seat at the table.

"Well this is a surprise. Normally you don't grace us with your presence till around eleven or so," Andy said, a smile on his face as he disposed of the burnt food in the frying pan.

"And I wish this morning was the same way." No one was up this time of the morning; besides his dad, and sister - and Nina, their neighbor. Actually, he was sure more people than that were up at this time, just none of his friends.

"Ephram, why do you sleep in so late?" Delia asked from the island in the middle of the kitchen. She would usually sit there and watch their father make an attempt at making a meal; he hoped she didn't learn from him.

"Because Ephram is a teenager and they require more sleep than the rest of us," Andy explained before Ephram could even open his mouth to answer. "Also because, they're lazy." Andy shot a smile over at his son, letting him know he was joking.

"Just wait till college classes start up. You won't be doing much sleeping in," Andy said.

"Unless of coarse, I have no morning classes," Ephram replied with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Are you really moving back to New York?" Delia asked.

"Yup. But that's not for another few months," he assured her. Delia sat there silently. By the look on her face, Ephram could tell she was thinking hard about something.

"Will you come back to Everwood? You know, for like holidays and stuff?"

Ephram glanced up at his father, then back to his sister. "I don't know. Maybe." He couldn't stand the look in his sister's face. When they were in New York, he about raised her, taking his father's place. While as they still argued and fought like typical siblings did, they also shared a closeness. A closeness he was sure they'd both miss when he left for college.

"But it's not like you guys can't come up and visit me," Ephram said. "And we'll keep in touch with letters, and phone calls and e-mails."

A faint smile appeared on Delia's face. "Okay." Ephram smiled back at her, glad he solved that problem. The three of them fell silent as they each did their own thing; Andy was busy cleaning up his mess while Delia watched, and Ephram was now looking at the paper that had been lying on the table.

"So what are you plans for today?" Andy asked a few minutes later.

Not looking up from the paper, Ephram replied. "Dunno yet. Probably see what Bright or Amy is doing."

"Like he does anything else," Delia muttered. Ephram briefly glanced up from the paper, over at his sister. Andy couldn't help but laugh at the comment Delia had made. In all honesty, it was basically true. He had hung out with Hannah a bit in the beginning, but since then, she and Amy had become close friends and she spend most of her time hanging out with Amy or Bright. Although the four of them would occasionally go hang out together.

"Ephram, would you mind taking out the trash for me?" Andy asked, looking down at the trash, which was clearly filled to the max.

"I'm doing something; why can't Delia do it?" he asked, looking up from the 'for sale merchandise' section of the paper. Every so often he would look in there to see if there was anything that caught his interest.

"Because I asked you to," Andy simply responded.

Ephram sighed. "Fine." He put the paper down back on the table and got up, heading over to the trash. Usually he and Delia took turns doing the chores; before that, Madison had been paid to do these things. I wonder what she's been up to? He asked himself. He was then surprised that that question had even popped into his head; he hadn't seen Madison since he bumped into her after they had broken up -which had been a little over a year now, and the last time she had even crossed his mind was around Christmas time when he had gotten a flyer that her band was in town.

Pulling his thoughts back to the present time, Ephram focused on the task at hand; taking out the trash. It was nice and filled so he had to fight with the bag for a few moments to close it shut before even heading out the door to put it out on the porch.

A single sight stopped him dead in his tracks. He dropped the garbage bag, his mouth wide open in surprise. There in front of him, a small car seat sat -with a baby inside! He took two tentative steps over towards the baby to be sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. The small baby in the car seat simply looked up at him, studying Ephram with great curiosity. What the hell was a baby doing on their porch? Ephram looked back, through the door in which he had left open, looked back towards the baby, then back towards the opened door once more.

"DAD!"