AN: Will be posting some oneshots written ages ago but didn't fit anywhere previously.

Henry hadn't even been gone an hour. He'd closed the garage earlier that week and had been staying with the twins. All he'd wanted to do was check on the house and collect another week's worth of stuff.

Parking the Ford in the drive, he'd sat in the driver's seat a moment and closed his eyes. Mom was gone, and considering how poor her health had been lately it wasn't a major surprise. That didn't make it any easier to take. He was an adult now but just knowing that he'd no longer hear her comforting voice, be able to go to her with his problems or fears left a new gaping hole in his chest, doubled in size since the night he'd learned his father died.

The twins had only just turned seventeen a few months ago.

He was the head of the family now and he didn't know what to do.

Twenty-two years old was too young to be shoved in to a position like that.

Joan would be out later, and he'd have to make sure she knew how much he appreciated her support. He wasn't going to go to Jesse or Ruth with these fears, they needed his stability right now. He couldn't afford to stumble.

With a sigh, he got out of the car and trudged in to the house, only to be bombarded with a whole new set of problems.

Ruth had jumped up from the couch and rushed to meet him at the door, forcing him to drop his small luggage case on the table as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in to his chest, immediately breaking in to a new round of tears, sobbing harshly and breath hitching to the point that he couldn't understand her. Putting an arm around her, he rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her until finally telling her she needed to calm down.

"I can't understand you. You have got to breathe. Ruth Anne I can't-!"

He'd immediately assumed they were going through a fresh wave of grief for their mother until Jesse held up a card and was rattling off something so fast that Henry wasn't able to understand him either.

"Jesse just...hold on a second will you-"

Ruth continued to cry against him, face flushed and in hysterics. "They're-...not letting us-...they're gunna take us-!"

"Ruth, just stop." Henry rubbed her back in circles and attempted to sooth her. "Breathe, Dipper. It's alright..."

He held a hand out to take the card from Jesse when the twins finally grew quiet. He took one look at the name and profession on the front of the card and looked at Jesse harshly. "What the hell is this?"

"Some man just stopped here asking for you and when I said you were out he left this card and said to have you call him-"

Finally getting a good look at him, Henry realized Jesse was white as a sheet, nearly as bad off as Ruth.

"Did he say anything else?"

Jesse only shook his head, but Ruth hiccuped and huddled closer to their older brother. "They're gunna take us away from you."

"No they aren't."

"Why else would they be here."

"Probably just to check in, don't assume the worst, Ruth."

She swallowed thickly, refusing to budge from where she was as the twins stared at each other miserably. If he didn't know better, Henry would be thought they were communicating telepathically.

"Do you think you can at least sit on the couch while I call this number..."

She nodded and obeyed, followed by Jesse.

"They didn't even wait until after the funeral. We haven't even buried Momma yet..."

"Jesse please-" Henry sighed.

He watched them sitting shoulder to shoulder while he held the phone to his ear and couldn't help but think they looked much younger than seventeen. Since they were twins, they'd always been on the small side, and he supposed that might have something to do with this. The man who stopped probably assumed they were merely fifteen, maybe even younger.

They weren't any more calm when he'd gotten off the phone and explained that he'd just go to a few meetings and make sure everything was sorted out. He was sure they could see right through him.

Ruth had looked at her twin in concern. "Would they separate us."

Jesse had only nodded. "I'd go to a boy's home..."

That started the tears all over again, but instead of clinging to Henry, she clung to Jesse, burrying her face in his shoulder.

Henry wished they would just calm down, but the conversation he'd just had on the phone hadn't left him feeling very secure. The answers to his questions had been vague and he was repeatedly told he'd get more information at this meeting they scheduled.

"I just want Momma." Ruth whimpered.

Henry watched from the doorway, kicking the heel of one foot with the toe of the other before pushing away from the door frame and stepping in to the living room. He knelt in front of the two, looking between them seriously and was struck again with just how young they all were. They could play grown up all they wanted but all three of them wanted their mother and couldn't hide their fear at that moment.

He wasn't going to pretend. He wasn't going to act like this didn't effect him or brush it aside as being too soft. They needed him right now.

Henry reached out and took a hold of each of their arms, making eye contact with both of them in turns. "You are not going anywhere. You hear me?"

He looked at Ruth first, who nodded sadly, then at Jesse. "Jesse?"

"Yeah..."

"I'll do whatever it takes alright? You're not leaving this house."

The twins had both nodded and he patted their legs before standing up, already stepping in to the roll of parent. "Go get cleaned up for bed."

They hadn't fought him, but they'd rarely stepped out of line growing up anyway.

As the house was shut down for the night, Jesse stared at the window across from him. Lying on his side in bed, he was just able to hear the car that pulled in to the drive. Joan must have just gotten there.

His door opened, and for a brief moment he thought it could have been his mother checking on him before realizing that was impossible. Instead, Ruth climbed over him to lie on the other side of the bed.

"We're a little old for this aren't we?" He muttered miserably.

"I don't care."

"We're-"

"Momma's gone. I don't care."

He turned over to face her, even in the semi dark room it was easy to see how splotchy her face had become with crying.

"Would they really send you to a boy's home? We wouldn't be together?"

He turned on to his back and stared at the ceiling. "You remember Dennis, in school."

"Yeah..."

"He went to a boy's home..."

Ruth was silent, watching his profile silently.

"You'd be adopted pretty quick I think."

"But what about-"

"No one wants a seventeen year old boy, Ruth...I'd obviously be there because I'd done something wrong...that's what people think of boy's homes."

"But I want you to be with me."

"I want-"

"I want us both to be with Henry."

Jesse was quiet a moment before looking toward her in the dark. "Me too..."

They'd fallen asleep back to back, their breathing falling in sync as they drifted in and out of consciousness.

"They want to take them-" Henry muttered in a low tone.

"What? They've practically been looking after themselves the last year..."

"I know...but they don't seem to- Joan I-' He shook his head, whispering quietly on the back porch because he didn't want to somehow be overheard. "I don't know what to do-"

"You fight for them." She murmured encouragingly. "We'll figure something out."

His answer was a low sigh, and she watched his silhouette in the gathering darkness.

"I got another letter today."

"That's encouraging, though, isn't it?"

"I'm getting too old. Even if I accepted I'd be up against kids Jesse's age-"

"But they obviously want you-"

"We'll see...after all this..."

Joan got up from her spot at the table to sit with him. "They're still interested, and you're still as talented as when we were in high school."

"It's not the same. I haven't played in three years-" He shook his head, angry with himself. "-and anyway, I need to focus on this."

"Ok..." She watched him quietly before sighing lowly.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder. "Thank you for being here."

"Where else would I be."

"Seeing Matthew Da-"

"Eww-" She laughed before leaning against him. "He's disgusting...how long have we been-"

"Since my last year in school."

"Wow."

He stared at the business card on the table past her shoulder, going back to the previous topic. "I can't let this happen. Who knows what kind of people they'd end up with-"

"Ruth-"

"Is sweet and kind and can make friends with anyone...Jesse would be..." He didnt even want to think about it. "Jesse would be stuck in the system until old enough to leave."

"You don't know that-"

"That's what happens to boys over thirteen. You know the rep those places have."

Joan fell silent, listening to the last of the summer crickets as night dragged on. Finally she took his hand and twined their fingers together. "Then make sure they stay with you."