After discovering the fact that I'd be spending the weekend in Albany with Archer's family, I took off sprinting for my bedroom. I threw open my closet door, grabbed my old gymnastics bag and promptly threw jeans, shirts, underwear, bras, and everything else I'd need on this trip. I tried to be as quick as possible, since Archer and Regina were waiting for me in the living room, but I didn't want to move so fast that I'd forget something. How embarrassing would it be to ask Sophia or Regina for something I'd forgotten?

I tossed a tooth brush, hairbrush, and my favorite shampoo and lotion in my bag before doing a quick sweep over the room, grabbed my cellphone charger, and that was it. Hopefully I was ready to go.

I returned to the living room, clutching my bag to my chest, a little worried at what I'd see. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be at ease. Regina and Dad were still chatting amiably with each other. Archer was leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed, and he didn't look nearly as pissed off as he did a few minutes ago.

"Ready?" Regina asked, giving me a smile when she noticed me.

I grinned as best I could. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Regina stood and joined Archer by the door while I turned to Dad to say goodbye.

"Thanks, Dad...for letting me go," I said, rocking back on my heels.

Dad nodded with a slight smile. "Stay out of trouble, Hadley. Don't cause too much ruckus."

I rolled my eyes, Archer snickered, and Regina gave a cough.

"Thanks, Dad," I repeated dryly. "I'll see you later."

Dad tipped two rfingers in a goodbye. "I'll see you Sunday."

And that was it for Hadley Jamison's goodbye to her father.

The three of us left the apartment and rode the elevator down to the lobby, and this time, the air was much more relaxed between us all.

"I'm so glad you're coming," Regina told me conversationally as we stepped outside. "Mia and Lauren will be relieved to have another girl their age around."

"And Carlo," Archer snorted. "That kid seemed to be quite taken with Hadley."

I glared up at Archer with narrowed eyes. "Very funny."

"Yeah, well, it's not like you won't be doing anything to stop that," Regina said, flicking her son's ear.

I turned bright red in the face and remained silent. Archer gave his mother a sullen look as she flagged down a taxi and maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed like he was just the slightest bit embarrassed.

This trip was certainly going to be a trip for the ages. I could tell that already.

Regina's spirits seemed to have lightened considerably after the talk with my dad. She talked animatedly with me during the taxi ride home about how lovely Sophia and Marc's house was in the outskirts of Albany and how her siblings were all excited to see me again.

I had a hard time believing that this was actually true, since I didn't know what impression I'd left on the other Incitti siblings, but it was nice to hear anyways.

When the cab pulled to a stop at the curb outside Mama Rosa's, I leaned forward to pay for the fare again, but Archer caught my arm before I could grab my wallet.

"What?" I said with a scowl.

He shook his head, not saying anything, and instead chucked a twenty dollar bill over the seat at the cab driver. I glanced over at Regina at this and saw her giving her son a cautionary look. Archer shook his head, rolling his eyes in the process, and yanked open the car door on his side.

So apparently money was more of a problem than Archer or anyone of the family had let on.

But that was something I fully well knew how to help with.

I clambered out of the taxi after Regina, tossing my backpack over my shoulder, and wondered when we were going to get this show on the road.

"Gymnastics?" Regina said, giving me a surprised look as we walked into the coffee house.

"Yeah," I said. "I did gymnastics until my freshman year."

Regina frowned. "Why did you quit?"

I shrugged. "Just wanted a change of scenery, I guess."

Archer snorted out a laugh from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at him in confusion. He just smirked back indulgently.

And he called me the confusing one?

"Hadley! Are you coming with us?!"

I barely had enough time to drop my backpack on the floor before April leapt at me with an excited peal of laughter. I caught her in my arms in a rather spectacular move, extremely thankful I didn't drop her.

"Yeah, I'm coming too," I told April with a grin. "Didn't think you could get rid of me so easily, did you?"

April let out a stream of giggles, looking like the happiest kid out there in the world. "I knew it!"

"Are you packed yet?" Archer asked, giving his little sister a look.

April pulled a sheepish expression. "Nooo....."

"Then you know what has to be done, April," Archer sighed dramatically.

"No!" April shrieked, burying her face in my hair. "No packing! I hate clothes! "

Archer leaned over and grabbed April into his arms before tossing her over his shoulder and then made his way back behind the front counter to head to the apartment upstairs.

The coffee house had already closed for the day, so the place was empty. Regina stayed behind to make sure everything was locked up while I followed after Archer.

Victoria Incitti was in the kitchen, standing at one of the counters and fixing together what looked like several sandwiches. She glanced over at me as I passed and as June and May made an appearance quite literally out of nowhere.

"Are you coming with us, Hadley?" Victoria asked me with an appraising look in her eyes.

I nodded with a smile. "I am."

"Yes!" May and June cheered, grabbing onto my forearms at the same time.

Victoria nodded in return. "Good."

I wasn't quite sure what to make of that, so I just smiled in response and continued after Archer and April.

"Are you going to come help us pack?" June asked me cheerily as we walked.

I made a face, sighing in thought. "Well, maybe I could..."

"Oh please do!" May squeaked loudly. "Archer can be kind of scary when we have to deal with clothes."

I didn't know what to make of that one, either. Archer hated clothes? Well, that was certainly news to me.

June, May, and I trudged our way up the stairs while they babbled about how their day had gone at preschool. The door to the apartment was open and I could hear the sounds of April's shrieking laughter and then Archer's deep voice floating down from the second floor.

"Oh, they're always like this," June sighed, sounding like a middle aged woman. "Very immature."

I stared at June before bursting into laughter myself.

"Come on!" May said excitedly, tugging on my hand. "Let's go pack!"

Admittedly, I was a little nervous as I followed after May and June up the stairs to the second floor. I'd never been up to the living quarters in the Morales household. I knew Archer had to sleep somewhere. I just couldn't ever imagine seeing a place like that. I didn't even know if a place like that existed. At first I just sort of stood there at the bottom of the winding staircase, staring up at the second floor landing with a baffled look on my face.

This was ridiculous. I should be able to walk up stairs, right?

"Are you coming, Hadley?" June chirped from the stairs, frantically waving her hands as she stood in front of me.

"Oh," I said. "Right."

I tried to keep the blush out of my face as I made my way up the stairs after May and June. When I reached the second floor landing, I was standing in a long, sort of narrow hallway that had four doors off to either side. The door to my immediate left was open, and I could already hear the sounds of laughter coming from inside.

Peering inside the room, I could see Archer bent down beside the only dresser, folding clothes into a large duffle bag. April had her arms thrown around his shoulders and was babbling instructions at him, telling him what clothes he was allowed to back for her. May and June were sitting on the floor beside the duffle bag, making sure the clothed were situated correctly.

I couldn't help but lean against the door jamb and cross my arms over my chest, watching the siblings with a slight smile.

"Okay, April, everything is packed now, you can stop yapping st me," Archer finally said, pulling April off his shoulders.

"Did you make sure to pack Fred?" June piped up, leaning over to grab Archer's arm.

"Right here," Archer reassured her, tapping the duffle bag. "Right next to Joel and Wes."

I looked closere at the bag and saw that he was pointing towards three identical stuffed bears, each of which had red ribbons around their necks that had the triplets' names printed on them in neat black ink.

"Good," the three triplets all chorused in unison.

I was shocked to see this side Archer. He wasn't making some rude comment and there wasn't a sullen expression on his face. He actually looked...content for once.

"Hadley!" April chirped, dashing to my side to grip my hand. "Can you believe it? Archer actually packed for us!"

I laughed, grinning at Archer. "Well aren't you the doting older brother?"

Archer rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Yeah, yeah. Don't expect it to happen again, either."

April, June, and May start objecting to this.nit takes a little coaxing on my and Archer's part to actually get the girls out of their messily decorated room. They went traipsing down the stairs after I promised that I would play I Spy with them on the car ride to Albany.

"Do you need to pack?" I asked Archer as we stood at the top of the stairs.

"Yeah," Archer answered. "Mind taking this downstairs?"

He handed me the girls' duffle bag and headed off back down the hallway. I watched him with a bit of curiosity until he disappeared out of sight. I didn't know where he went, since he hadnt gone into any room that came off the hallway, but I decided not to concern myself with it any further.

I went down the stairs, headed through the living room and followed the sound of giggling downstairs to the coffee house's back door.

The door was thrown open and a frosty December air was drifting in through the kitchen. Outside there was a large dark van idling at the curb. The trunk was thrown open and I could see Regina at the back, arranging bags.

"Oh, thanks," Regina said when I walked over to hand her the girls' bag.

"How long is it to Albany?" I asked curiously.

Regina shrugged in thought. "About three hours. It depends on traffic."

The number of times I'd been in a car for that amount of time was limited, so needless to say, I was a little weary about the whole thing.

"Great," I said, smiling cheerily.

Regina caught my bluff and laughed. "Oh, don't worry, Hadley. I'm sure the girls and Archer will keep you more than amused."

Huh. We'd see about that, I supposed.

It took another fifteen minutes before everyone going on the trip was accounted for, and then another few minutes before April, May, and June were actually buckled in their car seats. I ended up having to sit all the way in the back with Archer. The day had been a stressful one, sure, but Archer seemed to be in much brighter spirits than before. From what I knew, he didn't know what had gone on in the meeting with Dad and Regina either, so I couldn't tell if that's what he was pleased about or not.

Either way, we were in for a three hour car ride. I was sure the opportunity to ask him about it was going to come up sooner or later.

Regina and Victoria were seated up at the front of the car and were having a conversation in rapid Italian as Regina maneuvered the car out of the alleyway and into the crowded streets.

I leaned back in my seat, tucked my legs up underneath me, and crossed my arms over my chest. "Okay, Archer. What now?"

Archer glanced over at me. "What?"

I gave him an obvious look, eyebrows raised. "So are we just going to sit here for three hours until we reach your aunt and uncle's house?"

"I'm going to sleep. I don't know about you," Archer answered breezily. "It's been quite the day, if you hadn't noticed, Jamison."

I flopped backwards against my seat with an exasperated sigh. It had been a long day, he was right, but there was no way in hell I was going to be able to sleep. I had too much energy for my own good.

"But I'm going to be so bored," I grumbled to myself, giving another aggravated huff.

Archer yawned, stretching out in his seat and crossing his arms. "Not my problem."

"You are such a fun sucker!"

Archer cracked open an eye and gave me a patronizing look. "...not my problem."

"Ugh!"

True to his word, Archer was fast asleep a few minutes later. His head dropped back against the seat, slightly turned towards me. Even in sleep, Archer didn't look peaceful. There was a crease between his eyebrows from scowling and his lips were turned down in a frown. How was it possible that he didn't even look at ease when he was doing something so relaxing as sleeping?

I wanted to start poking and prodding at Archer to wake him up, but that would be rude of me. He looked like he got so little sleep anyways.

I just hoped I would be able to handle this three hour car ride on my own.

Half an hour later, that turned out to be totally pointless, because I discovered something rather surprising. That something happened to be that Archer talked in his sleep.

No, seriously.

Archer talked in his sleep.

It wasn't like he kept up a sensible conversation or anything. He just kept making these soft muttering noises, and every so often he would say something like, "Stop it" or "Shut up". I never expected Archer to be one who talked in his sleep, but I supposed stop it and shut up seemed like something Archer would say in his sleep.

Archer didn't say anything else for a while, so I quickly lost interest in that. I probably could spend a good amount of time just ogling his handsome good looks, but that would have been kind of creepy.

Five minutes later I fell asleep.

When we finally arrived in Albany, it was a little after nine. I probably would have stayed asleep until the car actually stopped moving, but April, May, and June started shrieking loudly the closer we got to Sophia and Marc's house. That was more than enough to wake me up.

Regina and Victoria were having a discussion with the girls about the merits of being quiet when Archer jerked awake beside me. He sat up and brushed back his tangled hair from his face, looking confused.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking over at me.

"Albany," I yawned. "I think we're almost there."

He gave a grunt and flopped back against his seat, closing his eyes again.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. Typical Archer.

I looked back out the window and watched as the snow covered buildings of Albany whisked by. There weren't many cars out and about tonight, but it still took quite a bit of time to get to where we were going. We drove through the place for about another fifteen minutes before Regina made a left turn down some obscure road beside the Wal Mart.

The road was lined with thick, tall pine trees covered with snow. There were no street lamps anywhere so it was hard to see where we were going. Regina hooked a right turn and drive down another dirt driveway. Sitting at the end of the driveway was a large house built in a sort of ranch style. Floodlights were on and illuminating the snow covered front lawn. The house was actually very nice and from what I knew of Sophia and Marc, this looked like a place they would make themselves comfortable at.

The second Regina pulled to the side off the driveway and killed the engine, the front door of the house whipped open and then a long series of Incitti family members were filing out into the driveway.

I glanced nervously over at Archer, and he gives me a sympathetic smirk in response.

"You brought this upon yourself," he said with a shrug before clambering out of the car.

Huh. Not exactly what I'd been expecting to hear.

I wormed my way out of the car over June and May's car seats and almost the second my feet hit the ground, I was being enveloped in hugs by several different people all at the same time.

William was hugging at my legs and then he was quickly followed by Georgiana and Maria. All of the Incitti family really had come out for this weekend, just like Thanksgiving.

"It's so good to see you again, Hadley!" Sophia exclaimed when she saw me, hugging me tightly.

"You, too," I replied, completely honest.

It really was very nice to see all of the Incitti family again. They were all good people, and as weird as it sounded, I sort of felt at home with all of them.

Was that supposed to mean something?

I pushed my thoughts to the back of my mind and greeted the rest of the family. Sophia and Marc were outside with Mia, Portia, and William, and then even Karin and John were there with their brood of six children, too.

"Vito and Ana are inside," Karin was telling Regina as she opened the trunk of the van. "Didn't want to take Isaac outside."

I grabbed my backpack from the trunk and swung it over my shoulder, then followed Lauren and Mia inside.

"I'm so glad you came, Hadley," Lauren was telling me confidentially as we walked. "I don't think I could handle a weekend with this lot."

I could hear Carlo having some conversation with Archer about the newest girl he was involved with at school, and he was a little less than eloquent. I agreed with Lauren wholeheartedly.

"Are they always like this?" I asked Mia and Lauren, fighting back a laugh.

Mia and Lauren exchanged withering looks.

"Uh, yeah," Mia answered with a snort. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Carlo, he's my cousin. But the boy is an idiot."

The three of us all burst out laughing.

There was no doubt about it. We were all in for a weekend that was sure to be enjoyable.

The interior of Sophia and Marc's house was extremely lovely. The living room was decorated in rich, earthy tones with leather couches, glass coffee tables, and a flat screen TV on the wall. Sophia and Marc clearly made more money than Victoria and Regina raked in from the Mama Rosa's.

The kitchen and the dining room were off to the left, across the way from a flight of stairs, and they were just as nicely decorated. Vittorio and Ana were sitting at the dining table, the remnants of dinner on plates in front of them. Ana was holding baby Isaac, their cute seven month old son.

"Good to see you again, Hadley," Vittorio said, giving me a nod when he saw me.

"And you," I returned with a smile.

A few minutes later, everybody else was insidde the house and the porch lights were turned off.

"Alright, children!" Sophia said loudly, clapping her hands together. "Go somewhere else while us adults talk."

It was no surprise as to what they were going to be talking about. I mean, Regina had just met with my dad a few hours ago, didn't she?

"Come on," Mia said, gesturing towards the stairs. "Basement."