Disclaimer: I still do not own anything.

A/N: This takes place six weeks after the last chapter and Matt and Hank are already working at the free clinic. This chapter will also contain several different POV's.

Late

Lucy's POV

"Hi, this is Mary. I'm at the shelter right now. Leave a message at the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

I sighed deeply. It figures that I would have a crisis and my sister would be unreachable. "Mary, this is Lucy. I did something really stupid and I need you. Call me back when you get this." I put the phone back on the receiver and paced back and forth in my attic bedroom. Ruthie entered and eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "You've been pacing all day."

No! I'm not okay! How nice of you to notice! "I'm fine," I answered calmly. "I'm just waiting for a call." Amongst other things.

"Why don't you just call the person you want to call you?"

"I already did. They weren't home and I'm waiting on them to call me back." I answered, trying to keep from shouting at Ruthie.

"A guy?"

"No!" I half yelled, becoming frustrated with all the questions.

"You don't have to be so grouchy," Ruthie remarked before grabbing a book and heading back out of our room.

I returned to the thoughts I had been distracted with all day. Late? How could I be late? Well I knew how, but I didn't really want to think about that possibility. I searched my mind for any other reason: the stress of my senior year, the guilt over what happened with Mike, or maybe I had some type of cyst. I knew that none of those could be the reason for my lateness, but I tried to convince myself anyway. It was better than facing reality. Mike and I didn't use any protection. We didn't even try to get the morning after pill. I hadn't even realized our irresponsibility until my period was a good two weeks late.

Once I realized, yesterday, that I was late, I decided I needed my big sister. As bad as I hated to admit it, I needed to take a pregnancy test and I didn't want to do it alone. I also didn't want to tell Mike unless there was for sure something to tell. Why put any more stress on our friendship if there is no baby? I waited for hours for Mary to call me back. Around midnight, I finally gave up and called it a night. I crawled into bed and silently cried myself to sleep.

Mary's POV

"Mary, this is Lucy. I did something really stupid and I really need you. Call me back when you get this." I don't why, but as I heard my sister's voice I felt the urge to go home. It was something about the way her voice cracked that told me that she was in real trouble. I knew what real trouble was. I've been in enough of it and I didn't want to see my sister go through what I went through. I made up my mind and decided to go ahead and fly home. After the gym incident, Lucy was there for me. She was the only one at school who didn't ostracize me and I owed her for that.

I packed a small bag and called the airport. "I need a ticket for the first available flight to Glenoak, California. "

I arrived in Glenoak late the next morning and headed straight over to the house. Mom and Dad were more than a little surprised to see me. I think Dad thought I had ran away "again."

"Mary," Mom embraced me in a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a couple days off at the shelter and I wanted to come visit everyone."

"Well, we're glad to see you," Dad pulled me into another hug. "How long are you here for?"

I smiled, pulling away. "My flight is Monday afternoon." I looked around at the empty kitchen. "Where is everyone?"

My mother sighed, trying to think. "Matt left early this morning. Robbie and Simon went to the promenade. Ruthie is in the living room watching the twins and Lucy is still sleeping. She hasn't felt well lately." My stomach churned. Lucy was sick and she told me that she had done something really stupid. I didn't like the way this sounded. Could my baby sister be pregnant? No. I pushed the thought from my mind. Lucy doesn't even have a boyfriend.

I smiled weekly at my parents before heading up the stairs and to the third floor. I found Lucy lying in her bed, still sleeping as Mom had said. I gently shook her awake, "Luce?" Her eyes slowly opened and she turned to look at me.

"Mary? I've been trying to call you?" She told me grumpily.

"I know," I told her. "I got your message. It sounded urgent and I had a couple of days off, so I came out." She sat up in bed and I took the opportunity to sit next to her. "Now tell me what stupid thing you did."

"I'm late." I felt nauseous as my earlier suspicions were all but confirmed.

"How did this happen?" I asked. What could she have possibly been thinking?

That was all it took to open the floodgates. Lucy cried as she told me the story. "I went over to see Mike. I needed to talk to someone about Sara and I figured he would be easier to talk to. When I got there, he was upset too, about his dad. Anyway, we went upstairs to talk. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but our talking led to us having sex. I remember just wanting to feel something and then rushing out quickly afterwards. The rest is a little blurry."

I was taken back. "Why were you in his room to start with?"

"His mom was grieving in the living room."

"When did this happen?" I asked, trying to get more information.

"Six weeks ago," she sobbed and I pulled her into a hug.

"And how late are you?"

"Two weeks," she mumbled.

"Have you taken a test yet?"

She shook her head. "I bought one, but I haven't taken it yet. I didn't want to do it alone."

"Well I'm here now." I released the hug and led her over to the attic bathroom. Lucy retrieved the test from her hiding place in the top cabinet shelf, just out of Ruthie's reach. I grabbed the box and read over the instructions. "Pink for negative and blue for positive," I told her. I stepped outside and waited for her to take the test. A couple of minutes later she emerged from the bathroom and into our walk-in closet.

"The box says to wait three minutes and then check it," Lucy told me and began pacing back and forth. I was a nervous wreck as I kept track of the time with my watch. Three minutes never lasted so long. If I was this stressed, I could only imagine how Lucy was feeling. After all, this was her life at stake.

"It's time," I told her after what seemed like an eternity.

"I can't look," she panicked. "You do it."

I pulled her into another hug. "It's okay Luce. Whatever it says, I'll always love you and support you." She nodded. "Come on, we'll look at it together."

Lucy nodded again and we slowly made our way back into the bathroom. I lifted the stick from the counter and held it in front of us. My heart skipped a beat as I stared down at the little blue window.

I looked over at Lucy and her expression was completely blank. I would probably have felt the same way if I were in her situation. After what seemed like years, she finally allowed the tears to fall from her eyes. "My life is over. Mike's going to hate me. Mom and Dad are going to kill me."

I pulled her into yet another hug. "No they won't. Remember when Crazy Dr. Peterson got my blood work mixed up with Mom's and they thought I was the one pregnant?" Lucy nodded. "They were upset then, but they didn't disown me or anything. Sure Mom and Dad will be disappointed, but they will support you." I rubbed her back as I tried my best to comfort her. "Besides, these things aren't always accurate. The best thing to do is get you to a doctor so we can be one-hundred percent sure that you are pregnant."

"We can't. Mom and Dad will get the bill and they will know. If that test is wrong," she looked at the EPT she had just taken. "I see no reason why they have to know anything about this little scare."

I shrugged. "So we'll go to the free clinic."

"We can't. Matt is working there." Lucy told me.

"Since when?"

"Since he got laid off at the hospital."

"Do you know if he is working today," I asked, trying to come up with a plan.

"I'm not sure." Lucy sobbed, wiping her eyes.

"Well, it's either take a chance of Mom and Dad finding out or take a chance of Matt finding out." I went over our options.

"I think I would rather take my chances with Matt," Lucy announced. I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't want to have to explain this to Mom and Dad either.

I nodded. "Get dressed and meet me at the car in fifteen minutes."

Lucy's POV

I stared out the window of my sister's car. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. How did this happen to me? I was always the good girl. I always did what I was told because it was the right thing to do. I don't even want to think about the look of disappointment my parents will give me when they find out about this. What will the people at church think of me when they find out? What will they think of my dad? Some minister's daughter I am. Again I wonder how this could happen to me. A lot of girls in my class have sex with their boyfriends all the time and they don't get pregnant; I make one mistake and my life could be over. Maybe Mary should save me a seat on her flight back to Buffalo. It's not like the test the doctor gives me will say anything different than the one I already took. Sure home tests aren't one-hundred percent accurate, but I'm not lucky enough to be one of the few false positives.

"Luce? Are we going to go in or what?" Mary snapped me out of my daze.

"I guess," I squeaked, opening the car door and stepping out onto the pavement. I held Mary's hand as we walked into the clinic. I took a seat as Mary signed me in. I could feel all they eyes staring into the back of my head. I knew what they all thought. I was some stupid teenage girl who had gotten herself knocked up. I knew because I have had those same thoughts about others before me. Now, Karma has come back to bite me on the ass. At least I had one thing on my side; Matt was nowhere to be seen.

"Leanne Snyder," the nurse called.

"That's you," Mary told me as she grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the room.

"Why didn't you just give them my real name?" I asked.

"So Matt wouldn't see your name on the sign in sheet." Mary answered and I nodded.

The nurse led us into the second room on the left. After she took my vitals she informed us that the doctor would be in "in a moment."

In reality, that moment was more like twenty minutes. I cringed when the doctor walked in and I recognized the familiar face.

"Hank?" Mary asked, voicing my own surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I think the question is, what are the two of you doing here?"

My voice quivered as I spit the words out. "I made a mistake." I looked down at the floor as Mary gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. "I took a home test and it was positive."

"Okay," Hank took a deep breath. "Let me get the nurse to get a blood sample and we'll know soon."

Hank left and the nurse returned, armed with a large needle. Just like the rest of my family, I hated even the thought of needles. I turned my head away as the nurse cleaned my arm and jabbed the needle into my skin. After what felt like an eternity, I felt the nurse withdraw the needle, bandage my arm, and scurry out of the room with my blood. Mary and I waited in silence for ten minutes before Hank returned with the results.

"Well, you are defiantly pregnant." Tears welled in my eyes once more as what little hope I had left was deflated. "I'm going to give you prescribe you some prenatal vitamins and you will need to set up another appointment with me or another OBGYN."

"You're not going to tell Mom and Dad are you?" I asked, panicking.

"No, but you need to tell them," he told me. "Do it sooner rather than later."

I nodded my head as I heard the knock on the door. The door opened before Hank had a chance to tell the knocker to "come in."

To my complete horror, Matt popped his head in the door. "Hank, Nurse Karen needs to see you….." Matt's voice trailed off as his eyes locked onto Mary and me.

"I'll just leave you guys alone," Hank left the room as Matt stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

Matt's POV

I can't remember ever being so angry at one of my sisters before. I didn't know which one I should be angry at or exactly why they were here, but I knew it had to be bad. As I took a second to think about it, I realized it had to be Lucy. Why would Mary come all the way home from Buffalo to see a doctor when she could just see one in there? I also realized why she was here. There could only be one reason. She was pregnant or at least thought she was pregnant. If it was anything else, she would have gone to Crazy Dr. Peterson. I tried to remain calm, but I found myself yelling at her despite my best efforts not to. "What the hell are you doing here?" I knew, but I wanted to hear her say it.

"I'm pregnant," Lucy sobbed after a minute, wiping the tears from her eyes.

I cracked my knuckles, feeling the urge to punch whoever did this to my baby sister. Then a thought came to me; was she forced into this? This type of behavior wasn't like Lucy. I panicked at the thought of her going through such pain and terror. I found myself praying that she was simply irresponsible. "Who did this to you? Did he force you? I'm going to kill him."

Lucy took several deep breaths, finally calming herself enough to speak. "It's Mike's baby. He didn't force me and no, you are not going to kill him."

"Then why would you decide to do this? It's not like you to be so careless." Now that the prospect of rape was gone, I was becoming angry again. "I thought you had learned your lesson after that debacle with Jordon."

"It was an accident," she told me hanging her head.

"No kidding," I yelled. "I didn't mean the pregnancy. I meant why did you have sex in the first place?"

More tears filled her eyes. "That's what I meant. The sex was an accident. Mike and I were both upset and crying. It just happened."

"What could possibly upset you so much that you would do something so stupid?" I continued to yell at her even though I knew I was putting more stress on her and the baby.

"I went to talk to him about Sara's death and he was upset about his father's suicide. We were talking and it just kind of happened."

Sara? I had forgotten that it was that time of the year. No wonder Lucy had been moping around the house lately. I calmed, "why didn't you guys use protection?"

Lucy shrugged, her tears continuing to flow. "I don't know. Neither of us expected this to happen. We didn't have anything. I didn't even realize that we didn't use anything until I realized I was late."

I took a deep breath and pulled my little sister into my arms. "I love you and I'll always be there for you. I can help you tell Mom and Dad or anything you need me to do."

"I can't tell them."

"Luce, eventually they are going to know." Mary spoke up for the first time. "I know from experience that lying isn't the best thing. It would be better to just get it over with and tell them."

I smiled. Finally, Mary was making sense again. "She's right," I agreed.

"I know," Lucy sniffled. "It's just that, I think I should tell Mike first."

I sighed. She had a point. As the father, Mike had a right to know first. I pulled her close once more and kissed the top of her head. "Alright, but you have to tell them soon."

"I will," Lucy promised, wiping the remaining tears from her face.

Okay, so that's chapter four. If you would all direct your attention to the review button, push it, and leave a nice review, it would be appreciated. Next chapter: Lucy tells Mike and then shots ring out at school.