"I think you have enough food to feed all of Orange County..." Ryan said, as he looked over the spread of food his wife had laid out on the table in preparation for what promised to be an interesting evening. Trey had been there for almost a week, and it had been decided that tonight there would be a family dinner. Ryan and Taylor had invited Frank, Julie, and their 16- year old son Nick, Sandy, and Kirsten, Caitlin, who had a job nearby at an engineering firm, and her boyfriend Auston, a descendent of Bullet, would also be there.

"Well... I figure, if the conversation drags, at least we can eat."

"I can't imagine the conversation dragging... More like exploding..." Ryan muttered. "Julie hasn't seen Trey since her daughter almost killed him, Kirsten and Sandy haven't seen him since he almost killed me, Nick and Trey are about to meet for the first time, and as far as I know, Nick didn't even know he had a half- brother." Taylor glanced at him, "Another half- brother." Ryan corrected himself.

The doorbell rang, and Taylor and Ryan exchanged one last look, "I'll get it!" Craig yelled from upstairs, racing down. Ryan knew he was hoping it was Trey. The two of them had quickly begun to develop a bond that Ryan wasn't sure he liked. Sure, Trey was playing the good guy now but who knew? He was certain Trey would not be the best of influences on his adopted son, who already had enough baggage. Best case scenario, Ryan imagined him leaving unexpectadly and without warning, which would devestate his son who already had been to a therapist to try and deal with his abondment issues. Worst case... Ryan almost shuddered, he didn't want to go there.

He had tried subtle ways to keep them apart, but his own desire to keep an eye on Trey made that difficult as Trey came over almost every other night for dinner. Still, Ryan made sure to do everything in his power to make sure there were no "unsupervised" visits between the two of them.

"Oh... Hi Aunt Julie..." Craig sounded disappointed.

"Good to see you to..." Julie said. When Craig had first joined the family, there had been an intense debate over what familial title Craig should use when addressing Julie. Technically, she was Ryan's step mother, but Ryan already felt that two mothers was more than enough, and so he certainly wasn't going to have his son's calling her "grandma." As much as he would have loved to see her face if that happened... Julie was well into her fifties, but still refused to acknowledge that she was a day over 39. For the sake of keeping the peace, they allowed her that vanity.

At one time, she had been Kirsten's step- sister, so calling her aunt wasn't too far of a stretch. And it was shorter than Mrs. Copper Nichol Atwood.

"Hi Frank," Craig said, with more enthusiasm. Frank was always just Frank. "Hey Nick!" Craig said, with genuine enthusiasm. Nick and Craig were roughly the same age, and got along well. By now, Ryan and Taylor had reached the guests, and a round of cheek kissing and hand- shaking ensued.

"Can we go play outside until dinner?" Craig asked, eyeing the football that Nick had tucked under his arm. Nick was tall and muscular, and played water polo at harbor, which thrilled Julie to no end. She was pleased that he was dating a girl who was almost as pretty as her daughters had been at 16.

"Sure," Ryan shrugged. "Just don't even think about touching the dirt bikes!" He warned.

"We were't gonna..." Craig muttered, but he slunk away looking at little dissapointed. At the last party, Craig and Nick had decided to take the dirt bikes out for a ride and though they never got a straight story from the boy about exactly what had taken place- somehow one of the bikes had ended up in the pool. After that, Ryan had to be careful to expressly forbid riding the bikes if there wasn't an adult around to supervise. Why oh why had he ever bought Craig those bikes? Oh right... he had made a deal with Craig, who's grades were slipping. If he got straight A's, he could get a bike. Frank had made a similar deal with Nick, and low and behold, both buys now had those horrible, loud, dangerous bikes. Frank had confessed he'd repeated his same mistake only this time it was for a car for Nick to have during his Junior year.

Sometimes, it amazed Ryan at the transformation in his father. He could hardly imagine Frank getting him a car for his seventeenth birthday. Of course, Frank had been in jail for his seventeenth. As they escorted Frank and Julie into the house, and Craig and Nick disappeared to go play catch, hopefully, another car pulled into the driveway. Ryan grinned at the sight of his adopted- parents red Prius.

Sandy hopped out, and caught Ryan up in a strong hug. "Hey buddy, how's it going?" He asked.

"Pretty good," Ryan said, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Frank giving him a strange look. Kirsten was only a step behind Sandy, and Ryan hugged her next.

"Hi sweetie," She said, squeezing him tightly. Then the Cohens greeted the Atwoods and Taylor. Julie and Kirsten immediatly began to ask Taylor about the new color she had just painted the entry way and the perfect antique end table she had found.