Rain was hitting the windshield in a steady rhythm as I steered the SUV up a hill and then down onto Boonsboro's main street.

After that four hour car ride, I was anxious to get out of the car and stretch my stiff limbs. My stomach was grumbling and I wanted to eat, as well. All in all, it had not been a very pleasant trip. Although I think that had more to do with the prospect of why I was now in Boonsboro.

Over the past few months I had been trying my hardest to keep my nerves under control, and maybe I had been doing a good job, but it was proving difficult at the moment.

I kept up a mantra of I can do this as I drove down Main Street, trying to keep my hands from shaking the steering wheel too badly.

I managed to find a small parking space against the sidewalk to park the SUV, outside a homey little bookstore called Turn The Page. I saw a cafe stand in the place, and I could definitely go for a coffee and a pastry.

I flipped my jacket hood up as I stepped out of the SUV, locked it, then quickly sprinted up the sidewalk through the rain to Turn The Page. The place smelt like insence and the pages of books, a smell I had always somehow found comforting.

"Hi, welcome to Turn The Page," the girl behind the coffee counter said as the door swung shut behind me.

I did my best to smile as I pushed back my hood and ran my fingers through my damp hair.

"Can I get you anything?" the girl asked as I approached the counter.

"A large house blend with room for cream, and then a blueberry scone," I said, gesturing to the pastry case.

The girl quickly nodded, looking at me with flushed cheeks, before she got to making my coffee.

What, did I have something on my face?

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly tapped in Hadley's number. I'd promised I'd call her once I got to Boonsboro, and I did not need her wrath if I forgot.

"Archer?" she answered the phone breathlessly. "Are you okay? Are you there? Are you - "

"Yeah, I'm here," I said. The girl making my coffee shot another glance towards me, like she was waiting for me to tell her who I was talking to. Which was weird. So I finished off the conversation in Italian.

I told her that I was planning on eating something before I asked around about Carter and Irene, and then face the inevitable and go speak with them. I had no expectations about how it was going to pan out. It just had to be done and over with.

"Here you go," the girl said, shoving a to-go cup and my blueberry scone across the counter towards me.

I passed over a ten dollar bill, got my change, then pocketed it and walked around the place, sipping at my coffee. The titles on the shelves really weren't out dated. The place definitely had the feel of a small town business. It was...nice, an escape from reality.

I finished off my coffee and my walk through the first floor of shelves, then took a seat at one of the small tables by the cafe to eat my scone. Even if that teenage girl behind the counter kept shooting me furtive glances. It had been a long time since a girl had acted embarrassed around myself because she thought I was cute.

Weird, again.

I glanced around as I munched on my scone, hoping to distract myself from what was going to be happening shortly.

I saw one of those bulletin boards tacked up to my left and looked over all of the ads hanging there. Yoga lessons at Fit In Boonsboro, an upcoming Easter egg hunt at St. John's, someone looking for a baby sitter. On the corner of the bulletin board, there were a series of red, white and blue stars hung up over the words Our Local Heroes!

I leaned forward in my seat and looked over the photos of the few men and women from Boonsboro that had joined the armed forces. My heart picked up in pace and started beating an erratic rhythm against my chest when I saw one particular picture and the label underneath it.

Staff Seargent Christopher Morales, US Army

Chris looked very young in his picture, just a few years older than a high schooler, dressed in Army fatigues. He wasn't smiling, but he still had that type of face that made everybody realize he was incredibly kind. He'd already been out of the military when he met my mother, but he'd told me once that once a soldier, always a soldier.

It hurt, more than I was expecting, to see his picture. Fifteen years later, his picture was still up in here? Had Boonsboro not forgotten Chris Morales after all this time?

"Oh, hey, Rebecca! I haven't seen you in awhile! How's the wedding planning going?"

I spun around in my chair so quickly I nearly fell onto the floor.

A very pretty woman had just waltzed into the place, clothes damp from the rain, with long auburn hair and eyes that were way too familiar.

"Hey, Stace," the woman said, grinning at the girl behind the counter. "Just counting down the days. It's hectic, you know, but thank God Tatum cooperates."

"Men," they both said in unison.

I would've taken offense to that had I been able to stop staring at the woman, Rebecca, with my mouth hanging open like a fish.

They chatted with each other conversationally while the girl, Stacy, made a fresh cup of coffee, and I just sat there, staring at Rebecca like a stalker.

A few minutes passed while they talked, and after Rebecca got her coffee, she bid Stacey goodbye and then made to leave Turn The Page. She stopped when she saw me more or less gaping at her and then frowned, pursing her lips. She stared at me in confusion for a moment before she said anything.

"I'm..." She took a step forward, her frown deepening. "Sorry, but do I know you?"

"You do."

I had no idea where my sudden bout of courage had come from, but I took it and rode with it. I got to my feet and took a few tentative steps forward.

Make no mistake, this needed to be done - I just didn't want to do it. But this was the perfect opportunity to start something instead of asking around about Carter and Irene. What better way to bring up the subject first than with their daughter?

"I do?" Rebecca repeated slowly. "But I don't...."

It took her several tense moments before something seemed to click and then recognition flashed in her eyes.

"Archer!"

I almost let out a sigh of relief. Rebecca Morales remembered me.

I opened my mouth to say something, but that was when Rebecca threw her arms around me, still clutching at her coffee as she squeezed me tightly.

The only thought that passed through my mind while she hugged me long enough to make me feel very awkward was what the fuck?

"Oh, my God, look at you, Archer!" Rebecca pulled away and took a step back, her eyes roaming me up and down. "You're so handsome, when did that happen? How old are you now?"

"I'm twenty-six," I answered awkwardly. "But, listen, Rebecca, I - "

"God, don't I feel old?" she said with a laugh. "Well, how have you been doing?"

"I've been doing fine, I just - "

"Wait, what are you doing in Boonsboro?"

Ah. Now we had arrived at the golden question.

What was I doing in Boonsboro?

Well, she was about to find out.

"I came to talk to your parents," I said shortly. "And you, indirectly."

Rebecca fell silent, staring up at me with a blank look.

"You...came to talk to us? Why?"

It was now or never.

"About Chris."

The effect was instantaneous. Rebecca's face drained of color and her lips started trembling as her eyes watered with tears.

She sucked in a shaky breath, biting her lip. I waited tentatively for her to say something, anything, and when it finally did, it was nothing short of what I had expected.

"You should go," she said in a strangled voice before she made a mad dash out the front door.

"Rebecca, wait!"

I dashed after her out the door, into the rain as she walked quickly down the sidewalk, trying to put as much distance between us as possible.

"Rebecca, will you please just stop and listen to me?"

She was studiously ignoring me, keeping her head down. Had I expected anything else, though?

Somehow I managed to over take her by taking propelling myself off the edge of a sidewalk.

"Rebecca, stop!"

Rebecca stopped walking and stared at me with narrowed eyes, hurt and confusion evident on her face. "What're you doing here, Archer?" she demanded in a quiet voice. "It's been fifteen years since that day, and you're only now coming back to ask questions?"

"If I could do this any other way, I would," I said breathlessly, "but I can't. I need answers."

"You need answers?" Rebecca repeated with a harsh laugh. "And what makes you think you're going to get them? You don't deserve answers."

"Maybe that's true," I reasoned. "But my family needs this."

"Shit, Archer! Your mother didn't even go to his funeral!"

I flinched as if Rebecca had just slapped me across the face.

I wish it weren't true. It was, though. My mother wasn't at Chris's funeral.

"She didn't have a choice," I said through gritted teeth. "She would have been there if she - "

"Oh, really? Really?" Rebecca snapped. People passing on the sidewalk were starting to watch us with curiosity. "That's funny you should say that, because I have a really hard time believing that. Did your mother even care about him? I mean, if she really loved him as much as we thought, then she would've been there, right?"

Rebecca was staring at me with narrowed eyes, arms crossed, waiting for an answer. It didn't even look as if she felt remorse for the complete and total bullshit that she just threw at me.

I'd like to think that my patience had been getting much better over the past few months, along with my nerves. However, there was no way I could stay silent to what Rebecca had just said.

"You've probably heard a lot of bullshit in your life, Rebecca, but if there's one thing that is definitely not a lie, it's how much my mother loved Chris. She died that day, too."

Rebecca's mouth opened in surprise as she took a step back, staring at me with wide eyes. I stared back, secretly hoping she would try and pick a fight so I could really fly off the handle.

But she didn't.

"Then...why...the funeral?" she demanded weakly.

I let out a harsh sigh and ran a hand over my mouth, turning away from her. "She was in the hospital. Believe me, she was in hysterics about not being able to go, but she was pregnant at the time and - "

"What?"

Rebecca's coffee cup hit the ground and her hands flew to cover her mouth. Tears were splashing down her cheeks.

I was just as surprised at her reaction as she was at what I'd just said.

"My mom was pregnant," I repeated slowly. "When Chris died. She almost went in to early labor because of it."

"Oh my God. Oh my God." She turned away from me, wrapping her arms around herself as she shuddered. "Please...I mean...please tell me that...that the baby lived."

"Babies," I corrected automatically. "Triplets. But I thought you knew that?"

"No!" Rebecca gasped, rounding on me again. "No, I didn't know!"

I stared down at her in absolute confusion, hardly able to believe what I was hearing.

How could Rebecca not have known that my mom was pregnant? I thought it was common knowledge. She had been pregnant with triplets, and that's not something you can easily hide.

Rebecca was now frantically muttering things under her breath, twisting her fingers together as she presumably tried to figure out the series of events for herself.

I didn't want to interrupt whatever it was that she was doing, but I wasn't all that thrilled about standing out in the rain and getting more soaked than I already was.

"I don't understand," Rebecca said a moment later, turning to look back up at me. "Why would Regina hide something like that from us?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I don't know anymore than you do. I was only eleven when it happened. I just knew I was going to have three little sisters."

"She had three girls?" Rebecca said in a hushed voice, her eyes widening.

"April, May and June," I said. "They were born twelve weeks premature in November."

"Oh my God," Rebecca repeated with another shudder. "Were they okay at least?"

"Just fine. They're almost fifteen and just as annoying as three teenage girls possibly can be."

Rebecca's lips twisted into a wry smile, but then she abruptly frowned again. "And you honestly expect me to believe everything you're telling me right now?"

I wanted to groan loudly and throw my hands in the air. We had been making real progress there.

A thought suddenly occurred to me just as I was about to say something highly sarcastic and rude.

"Come with me."

"What?"

"Come with me," I repeated, giving Rebecca a hard stare. "I'm going to give you proof. "

It took her another moment of deliberation, but she finally followed after me as I marched back to the SUV.  I unlocked the car and slid in the driver's side, Rebecca jumping in the passenger seat.

"What are we doing here?" Rebecca asked, giving me a shrewd look. "You're not going to take me on a creepy road trip, are you?" 

"No," I said, rolling my eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Rebecca."

I leaned over and popped the dashboard compartment open, shuffled around through insurance papers and resgistration before I found the packet of photos Mom always kept in the SUV. I'd done a photo shoot with the girls for their birthday this past year, and Mom said she liked knowing she had a little bit of her children with her wherever she went.

"Here," I said, tossing the photos to Rebecca. "Look."

She cautiously opened the packet of photos and started shifting through them. I watched her expression as she looked at each of the photos of the girls. She'd only looked at three before she silently started to cry.

"Oh my God." She sighed, brushing her fingers over June's smiling face as she sat on the coffee house's front counter. "They look just like Chris."

"I know." 

"I can't believe..." Rebecca sucked in a breath of air and leaned her head back against the seat. "How did this happen? How did this happen?"

I really wanted to know that answer for myself.

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head. "I just don't know."

We sat in silence, rain still pattering against the roof and windshield of the car. I couldn't imagine what this was like for Rebecca; suddenly finding out that you had three nieces that were almost fifteen years old? That was just not okay. Rebecca had a right to know that she was an aunt, didn't she?

"Can you do me a favor?" Rebecca asked after awhile, rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her palms. 

"Anything," I said immediately.

"Start the car. There's somewhere we need to go."

"Okay."

I turned over the engine without question and pulled away from the sidewalk, out onto Main Street. 

I listened to Rebecca's directions as I directed the car down the street, made one right turn and then two lefts. We were now heading down a street was vaguely familiar. Almost cookie-cutter like houses lined either side of the street, light colored with shutters and bright red doors.

I'd been here before, maybe once or twice, but I couldn't remember when.

"This house right up here on your right," Rebecca said, pointing to the small house with a wrap-around porch.

I knew as I pulled the SUV up into the small driveway that Rebecca and I both had the same idea - we oth wanted to interrogate Carter and Irene Morales. 

I glanced over at Rebecca as I killed the engine and we sat there in the driveway.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked her quietly.

I didn't have a choice. But she did.

Rebecca sighed heavily and held up the photos in her hands, giving them a firm shake. "Archer, I missed out on these girls' whole lives. They're my nieces, damn it. That's not okay."

"Okay."

I yanked off my seatbelt and slid out of the car, followed Rebecca up the front pathway to the red painted door.

Before Rebecca rang the doorbell, she turned back to me and gave me a small smile. 

"Thanks. Y'know, for being here."

I wasn't so sure she needed to be thanking me for this, but I nodded anyways. "Yeah. No problem."

She nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."

"Right."

She rang the doorbell and we were both tense, waiting for the door to open and for this whole fiasco to officially begin.

The door swung open a moment later.

"Oh, Rebecca, honey, I didn't know you were - oh."

The woman standing in the doorway with tightly curled brown hair and a kind face broke off and stared at me with an incredulous expresion.

"Mom," Rebecca said shortly. "You remember Archer, don't you?"

Irene Morales swallowed hard and looked to her daughter with an apprehensive look. "What is he doing here, Rebecca?"

I felt myself bristling with anger.

What, could she honestly not look me in the face and tell me that?

"Irene! Who's at the door? I don't recognize the car in the - "

Carter Morales now stood behind his wife and was staring at me with the same expression Irene was wearing. 

"Rebecca," Carter said to his daughter sternly. "Care to explain what's going on?" 

Rebecca grabbed my hand and pulled me along inside the house, shoving past her parents.

Once Carter shut the door, she rounded on her parents and threw the photos at them, tears welling in her eyes again.

"Why don't you tell me what's going on?"

__________________________________________________________________

As of currently, I'm two weeks into summer break, and I'm...a little bored. So, expect lots of updates and a new story. Yup. Maybe I need a life. Or a boyfriend. But as of now, I'll just stick to writing.

So, let me know what you guys think of this chapter! :) 

Oh! I also just started watching Once Upon a Time (in between The Office breaks) and it is SO awesome. That would be my current TV suggestion to you all. 

Happy summer, everybody! :)