Author's Note: I took some liberties where Carly and Molly's family past is concerned in this chapter. However, please know that I tried to take as many clues from the show as I could to make it as canon as possible. Enjoy!!

True North
By Jaclyn Parker

"You have to know the past to understand the present."
-Dr. Carl Sagan
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Molly and Carly didn't talk much on the way back to the hotel. They stopped for a light lunch but Carly only managed to eat a few bites before turning green with nausea. The pregnancy signs were so much more obvious now that she knew that Carly wondered how she didn't figure it out earlier. In fact, Molly asked the same thing as they returned to the hotel room, collapsing separately on the two beds.

"I don't know, honestly." Carly said, staring up at the ceiling with her hands folded gently over her stomach. "I've never had a regular period, so that didn't clue me in much. But the fact that I've been so tired, not to mention that I seem to cry at the drop of a hat lately, it's almost as if I was a textbook case."

A sudden memory of New Years popped into Carly's head and made her frown. Was it possible that somewhere deep inside she had known all along and that was the reason she had refused to drink with everyone that night? And that she had declined another glass of wine last night with Molly at the bar?

"So have you thought about when you're going to tell Jack the good news?" Molly asked, rolling over onto one side and raising up on an elbow to prop her chin in her palm.

"Molly, don't start this again." Carly said, closing her eyes against a discussion that she didn't want to have right then.

"Carly, stop. You have to figure it out sometime."

"Not today, I don't." Carly muttered back.

"What are you going to do? Wait until the baby is born and then say 'surprise, Jack, you're a daddy again'?" Molly asked incredulously.

Carly's eyes flew open and she turned her head to stare at Molly with a raised eyebrow. Molly sighed, knowing that this was pretty much exactly what she had done to Holden all those years ago with Abigail.

"Look, Cuz, I'm not throwing stones here. I'm just saying that besides the fact that Jack is a detective and therefore perpetually nosy, he's also a pretty bright guy. Well, most of the time." Molly said, making a face as she quickly thought back to all the bone-headed mistakes Jack had made.

Funny enough, most of them were when he was making decisions based off of what he felt was right like Carly usually did. Realizing that this revelation wasn't going to help her argument Molly shook those thoughts off and continued on.

"Jack is going to notice something different about you when, oh I don't know, you start looking like you swallowed a basketball."

"Ha ha." Carly mumbled.

"Well, that's if the kids don't blab first. My money's on Sage." Molly said and watched as Carly flung an arm over her eyes.

"Oh God, the kids." Carly groaned.

"Uh, yeah, the kids. Unlike Jack, they live with you pretty much day in and day out. Do you have any idea how much harder it's going to be to hide it from them?" Molly paused and frowned. "Then again maybe not Sage since she's still a little too young to really pay attention. And maybe not J.J., since he's becoming more involved in school and sports and you can distract him with any video game that has fast cars or stuff being blown up."

Molly sat up more and pointed a finger at Carly, even though she couldn't see her. "But Parker…ha! That kid is so intuitive that I'm surprised he didn't tell you that you were pregnant the day after you conceived."

"He reminds me so much of Hal sometimes it's scary. That man knew nine times out of ten when someone was lying. But it was his instincts about certain people and his unwavering belief that people had the potential to change their lives around if given a chance that blew me away every single time." Carly whispered, letting herself remember the great man that so many of them had lost in yet another unnecessary tragedy.

"I know." Molly whispered back gently. She let her reminisce for a moment or two longer before sitting up and scrutinizing Carly with an objective eye.

"Let's see. You've got good genes, Cuz, plus you know how to use fashion to your advantage. I'm guessing you can hide it up to maybe…March. That's three months, girl, to get your act together and tell Jack the truth about little baby Tenney-Snyder."

"What the hell is with you being Jack's cheering section all of a sudden?" Carly asked, taking her arm down from her eyes and glaring over at her.

"Um, maybe because you love the man and he loves you back? My God, I'm a horrible person." Molly replied sarcastically.

"It's not that simple and you know it." Carly argued.

"It never is with you guys. But that doesn't mean you can't fix this." Molly tried to argue back.

"Molly, there is nothing to fix. We are not together. We haven't been for a long time. As happy as this baby makes me, Jack found his way to my bed that night because he was scared. He was going to marry another woman…"

"…who he broke up with two months ago and chose you over her!" Molly exclaimed trying to break down her cousin's stubborn walls. "And you turned him down."

"And why not?" Carly shot back, sitting up in bed to stare angrily at Molly. "Why should I let Jack back in to my life like that when all he does is leave me in the end?"

"But the baby…" Molly tried to say.

"Changes nothing!" Carly yelled, startling Molly into silence.

At Molly's wide eyed look Carly closed her eyes and sighed, gathering herself together before she spoke again. This time there was only a sad acceptance in her voice and when she opened her blue eyes they were sad but resigned.

"We have three beautiful children already, Moll, and he left me anyway. One more child won't prevent that from happening again. All it would do is leave one more heart to get broken in the end. I will not let my children, any of my children, go through that again. I just…I won't."

Molly stared at Carly, tears shimmering in her eyes and a lump in her throat. She knew that Jack had hurt Carly the last time around but she didn't know how deeply until right that moment.

Molly had always been envious of Carly's unwavering belief in the fact that she and Jack were meant to be together even if she wasn't always envious of some of the routes they took to get there.

But now Molly was taken aback as she witnessed something she thought she would never see; Carly had lost faith in her "forever love". The look in Carly's eyes reminded Molly of the look she had in her own eyes when her beloved husband Jake died. After a downward spiral that she really wasn't proud of, Molly had come out of her grieving with the knowledge that even though Jake might have been her one "forever love", she was capable of loving someone new. It was just in a different way.

But Carly's "forever love" was still alive giving her a chance to be with that person and Molly was damned if she was going to let her cousin just let that go without a fight.

Yet as she watched Carly's eyes droop, Molly knew that she wasn't going to change the headstrong blonde woman's mind at that moment.

"Hey, Cuz, why don't you lay down for a while huh? You had a big day and the kids aren't due back for another hour and half or so." Molly said and Carly nodded, proving just how tired she was by not arguing.

As Carly curled up on top of the bed, Molly went to the closet and got the warm cotton blanket from the top shelf. After laying it gently over Carly, Molly settled down next to her and stretched out. She smiled softly when Carly scooted over to place her head so that it shared Molly's pillow, their noses practically touching.

When they were kids Molly's mom, Shelley, had brought her to visit Carly for a few weeks during the summer and winter breaks from school. Their favorite visits were during summer when Carly and Molly had spent plenty of nights in a mock tent made from the covers of Carly's bed and stayed up late telling each other ghost stories.

But sometimes those horror stories had come true when the fighting between Carly's dad and stepmom, Leigh, had gotten to be too much and the sounds of the physical abuse echoed in the hallways. Even though Molly was barely a year and a half older than Carly, she took the role of being her younger cousin's protector very seriously.

As the fighting grew louder Carly would huddle in ball, placing her head as close to Molly's as she could with her whole body trembling at the sounds of things crashing and flesh being slapped around. Molly would tune it all out and tell as many funny stories as she could to take Carly's mind off of everything. It wouldn't be long before Carly was asleep and Molly would follow right behind. Their small hands would be clasped together tightly, showing that even in their sleep it was them against the world.

It had been one of the darkest days of their childhoods that summer when Molly's mother had come flying out of the Double X ranch house, her eyes blazing in anger. The huge argument she had been having with her brother about his drinking and useless new wife carried out onto the porch. Shelley Tenney Peterson had stood on the steps and declared that she and Ray Tenney were no longer siblings or any other kind of flesh and blood kin.

Seemingly forgotten in all the screaming Carly and Molly clung together, frozen in their spots from where they had been playing with hula hoops made from old water barrel rings. The two little girls watched with wide blue eyes as an overly drunk and furious Ray forbade his sister, her husband or her "brat" daughter to ever step foot on his property again. Then, with both Molly and Carly screaming at the top of their lungs, Molly's mom had literally torn the girls apart. Ignoring the children's desperate pleas, she dragged Molly to the rental car and driven away without looking back.

All Ray Tenney had done as he watched his young daughter run after the vehicle was spit on the ground, grab another beer, and walk back inside as if nothing ever happened. Neither Ray nor Leigh had noticed that the moon was already high in the night sky when Carly finally came home. Tear tracks stained her dust covered face and her blonde hair was no longer in the two pristine braids that Molly had done for her earlier that morning.

Carly had run after Aunt Shelley and Molly's car for three long miles before her little body had given out in exhaustion. She had lain in the dirt road, sobbing until she had no more tears left inside of her to cry. That summer night, as she made her way to her bedroom in silence, her eyes were dull with the pain of losing the only person in her life that had made her feel that she mattered.

Carly had turned eight years old just two days before.

"When did life become so complicated?" Molly whispered, burrowing her head into the down pillow and closing her eyes as her own memories flowed over her.

"There are days that I can't think of a time when it wasn't." Carly admitted just as quietly. Then she tilted her head up to look at Molly and smiled sadly. "Do you remember those nights we stayed up until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore?"

"Of course I do. You were such a pain in my ass. You snored horribly." Molly teased and leaned forward to kiss Carly's forehead. "Now go to sleep. I want you and my new baby cuz as healthy as possible and that means resting when you can."

"Yes, ma'am." Carly said in a fake stern voice but sure enough, a few minutes later she was completely out.

"I tried so hard to protect you then, Cuz, and I swear I'll protect you now. Even if it is from your own stubborn self." Molly whispered and threaded her fingers through Carly's.

Then, like so many years ago when they slept in tents made of covers, Molly followed her cousin into dreamland with their hands clasped together.

It was them against the world and God help anyone who tried to hurt them again.