"A butterfly flutters its wings in Malaysia and the changes in air currents cause a hurricane in Florida. I love that idea. That even one tiny action can create an enormous effect."
― Emma Scott, The Butterfly Project

"Hello," Sonny called as he crossed the threshold of the apartment carrying his suitcase and a garment bag containing his suit. He barely had a chance to hang his suit on the coat hook and prop the suitcase against the wall before Jessie – wearing her Elsa costume - came running down the hallway to greet him with a diaper clad Billie following close behind.

"Billie! Come back here!" Amanda called as she emerged from the girls' bedroom with an outfit in hand.

"No!" The toddler giggled.

"Uh-oh, looks like we have subject on the run," he said as he scooped up Billie and spun her in a circle. "But look at that; she's apprehended. The subject is hereby released to Detective Rollins pending bond in the form of a kiss."

Billie smiled and placed a slobbery kiss on his cheek, then she laughed hysterically as he blew a raspberry on her belly before handing her over to her mother.

"Hi, Detective." He kissed Amanda on the cheek.

She smiled at him. "Thank you for the assist, Counselor." Amanda carried a squirming Billie over to the couch and attempted to get the child dressed for the third time that morning. "I'm afraid we are off to a bit of a slow start. I'm sorry."

"What can I do to help?"

"Can you supervise as Jessie finishes packing and make sure that she packed some clothes and not just toys? Billie's stuff is already packed, and I'll finish getting my stuff together after I get her dressed."

"Sure. Come on, Jess, let's go see what we're working with."

"I'm really excited to sleep over your mommy's house," Jessie began as she reached for Sonny's hand and practically dragged him to her bedroom. "I think this is my first sleepover."

"You know what? I think it probably is," he said as he began to look in her suitcase to see what she had packed already. "Are you okay with that? Sleeping somewhere else instead of your own room?"

"I think so," Jessie shrugged. "Momma said that we're gonna have so much fun."

"You will."

"Uncle Sonny...what if I wake up in the middle of the night and get scared? What do I do?"

"Well...my mom and dad will be in the room right next to yours, and you can go tell them you're afraid. I'm sure my mom will be able to make you feel better, but if that doesn't help, she'll call Mommy for you and you can talk to her. Does that sound okay?"

"Yeah...but I'll try real hard to be brave, I promise."

"Hey...come here a second, Jess," he began as he sat on the edge of her bed and patted the spot beside him. Once she sat next to him, he continued, "You are a very brave girl...just like your momma, but you want to know what else? Even brave people get scared sometimes, and that's okay. Capisce?"

"Cap-eeesh!" She giggled. "Do your momma and daddy say words like that?" She wondered.

"Oh, you betchya. Where do you think I learned it from?"

Jessie laughed.

"Now, let's finish packing...I think you probably need less Barbie dolls and some more clothes and some pj's."

"But Uncle Sonny...I love my dolls," she batted her eyelashes as she picked one up and hugged it tightly to her chest.

"I'll cut you a deal. You can bring whatever Barbies you can get to fit after your suitcase is packed with the necessities."

"Hmm," Jessie pondered the offer. "That could work. Wait...what are necessities?" She asked – sounding out the new vocabulary world slowly.

"You seem nervous," Sonny stated a few hours later as they approached the exit for Staten Island. Amanda spent most of the car ride picking at her cuticles and tapping her fingers anxiously against her knee as Jessie and Billie sang songs from the backseat.

"Maybe just a little," she confessed and he raised his eyebrow. "Okay. Maybe a lot."

"Why?"

"I feel like I'm going in blind...like I know way less about them than they know about me. I feel...exposed."

"Well, they do know that I'm crazy about you, and the girls, and they know about your work. They know that you aren't really close with your parents or your sister, but I don't go broadcastin' your whole life to Staten Island if that's what you're worried about."

She visibly relaxed some.

"You want the rundown on the Staten Island Carisi family?" He asked. "I'll give it to you," he answered before she had a chance to respond. "Ma's family came to America in 1967. My Ma was the youngest of four sisters. She was 14 when they came here. Pop's family was here a little longer than that. They came in 1963 – they arrived the day Kennedy was assassinated. My nonna thought it was a bad omen and wanted to back, but my nonno said no. My dad was probably about 12 the; he was the oldest. He had two little sisters that came with them from Italy and then over the next few years, he had three brothers that were born here."

"Hmm."

"What?"

"It's just weird to think about how fate plays a role in our everyday lives...how it really all is The Butterfly Effect. What if your nonno did agree with your nonna and they went back? If that happened, I probably wouldn't be sitting in the car with you right now. You probably wouldn't even be you...Think about how different everything would be if your parents never ended up together. One little thing could have happened differently and the whole world would be different fifty or sixty years later."

"Crazy, huh?"

"Yeah." Amanda quickly did the mental math. "So, that makes your parents about the same age. How did they meet? School?"

"That's some good detective work," he teased her. "Yeah...they met in the school cafeteria by the water fountain and as cliché as it sounds, it was love at first sight and they became inseparable. They got married a few weeks after graduation and Pop went to work in the mills, and Ma stayed home doing what she loved – being a wife and mother and volunteering most of her free time with the church. We pretty much were the stereotypical Italian – American family. The whole extended family lived within a 5-mile radius. We always had pasta on Thursdays when I was really young, but those turned into Sundays instead by the time I was in high school. There was always a big holiday or birthday celebration of some sort. As I got older, the extended families all kinda branched off – especially after my grandparents died- and now it's just me, my sisters and their families, and my parents that do things together now unless it's a family reunion. It's sad, actually. I miss how it used to be, but I'm really happy that you and the girls are going to be a part of things now. That really means a lot to me."

He glanced over at her and flashed a smile, and she couldn't help but to smile back.

"Does that help?"

"Some." She replied, casually.

"It's going to be okay." He replied as he turned the SUV into his parent's driveway and killed the engine. "I promise." He placed his hand over her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Rosa Carisi must have been pacing by the window waiting for them, because no sooner than Sonny had finished his statement, the front door flew open and she stepped on to the porch and wiped her hands on her apron.

"Hi, Ma!" Sonny exclaimed as he hopped out of the driver's side and went to retrieve Billie from her carseat while Amanda went to help Jessie. "I'll make sure to take the car seats out and put them in their car before we leave in case they need them for some reason."

It was something she never would have thought of, honestly. "Good idea," Amanda replied as she watched Jessie climb out of the SUV and reached over to grab Billie's diaper bag and the girls' suitcase.

"Okay, Billie...you ready to go meet some new people?" He asked as he unclicked the buckles of the carseat and lifted her out.

Billie smiled at him and parroted "Peep-ool" back as she kicked her legs and wrapped her arms around Sonny's neck.

"Oh...she's beautiful," Rosa gushed as Sonny carried Billie up the steps of the porch.

Billie, not quite sure of her new surroundings yet, buried her face into Sonny's neck. Jessie, however, seemed to be adjusting well.

"Hi, Uncle Sonny's Mommy!" She exclaimed, happily, bouncing on the heels of her feet.

Rosa laughed and she kneeled down to the child's level. "You must be Jessie, huh?"

Jessie bobbed her head up and down. "That's Billie!" She declared, pointing to her little sister. "And that's my momma!" She finished as she pointed to Amanda.

"Please...please, come in." Rosa said as she stood up. "I'm so excited that you're all here. Dom's inside." Rosa slipped an arm through Amanda's. "I've been waiting a long time to meet you and the girls," she said softly.

"Thanks so much for doing this."

"Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime. We're only a phone call away."

The group entered the house and Amanda immediately felt welcomed. There were tons of knickknacks and pictures and the house smelled like Italian restaurant.

"Dom! They're here!" Rosa called out as they navigated to the family room where they discovered Sonny's father sitting in a leather recliner.

Smiling, he placed the newspaper he was reading on the table and removed his reading glasses. "Well, well, well...Is that Princess Elsa in my living room?"

Jessie giggled, wide eyed at being mistaken for her favorite princess. "No, I'm Jessie!"

Dom leaned forward. "Are you sure about that? Ya look just like her."

"I'm sure. I'm Jessie Rollins...and that's Billie...and my momma. And since you're Uncle Sonny's daddy you probably already know him." Jessie surmised as she placed her arms over her chest. "Right?"

The remark earned a chuckle from all the adults in the room.

"That is right," Sonny's father replied with a grin. "Are you excited to stay here this weekend?"

Jessie bobbed her head up and down. "Yep."

"Well, Rosa and I were thinking maybe we could go pack a picnic and go to the park for lunch today. How does that sound?"

"So fun!" Jessie clapped her hands together. "I love the park!"

"Me, too!" Dom agreed.

"Why don't we get your stuff situated upstairs before your momma leaves?" Rosa suggested to Jessie with a nod towards the stairs. "You can show her what your room looks-a like."

"While you girls go do that, Dad and I can go get the carseats out of the car," Sonny said as he handed Billie over to Amanda with such ease that to an outsider it would have looked like they had practiced the transition for years. But then again, in a way, they had.

Amanda almost expected to feel some anxiety being left alone with Mrs. Carisi without Sonny there to be a buffer, but there was absolutely none. The conversation flowed naturally and continuously. Her Italian accent was soothing and the woman had the ability make people feel like they had been friends forever. Amanda couldn't help but to wonder if Sonny's ability to do the same was nature or nurture.

"Was this really Uncle Sonny's room? It's so big!" Jessie asked in amazement as they entered the room. It was the first time she truly experienced what life in a house was like versus life in an apartment and it was a whole new world to her.

"Oh, yes, it was. It looks pretty different now, but this was his room. I just made some changed after he moved to the city."

Amanda surveyed they room. There were dressers, a rocking chair, the crib, and a full-sized bed. The walls were a pale blue and plain – except for a cross with a palm tucked behind it and a picture of the pope.

Jessie walked around the room. "Hey, that looks like the blankets we have on my wall," she said when she noticed the knitted blankets hanging over the crib. "Our special blankets!"

"That's because Ms. Rosa made the blankets we have at home for and Billie," Amanda explained.

"You made us blankies before you even knew us?"

"Well, of course." Rosa replied, smiling wide. "You were so special to my son, so that meant you were special to me, too. I was very happy to make you and Billie blankets." Truthfully, Jessie's blanket started as a prayer blanket the day Sonny had called her and asked her to light a candle at the church for Amanda and the baby when she was admitted to the hospital.

"Jessie says all the time how beautiful her blanket is," Amanda said, running her fingers through Jessie's hair. "It really is so special to her. We actually had it framed in a shadow box to hang it up on her wall. She can sit there forever looking at it."

Rosa had the biggest smile on her face – like it was the best compliment she had ever received.

Jessie dragged her suitcase to the bed. "Let's unpack." She opened the suitcase and five Barbie dolls tumbled out. "I wanted to bring more Barbies, but Uncle Sonny said I had to pack the necessities first and then this was all I could fit." She sighed.

"Bella liked Barbies, too." Rosa commented. "I think most of hers are still in the basement somewhere. We'll have to send Dom to go look for them after lunch."

Not much later, Amanda could hear Sonny's footsteps approaching from the stairs. "Hey, we better hit the road," he said as he poked his head in the room.

Amanda nodded, and with Billie still in her arms she kneeled down to Jessie's level. "Be good for Uncle Sonny's parents," she reminded her.

"I know, Momma. I will. Promise."

"I love you and I'll miss you both so much."

"Ma will call us if you wanna talk to us," Sonny said as he made his way over to say his goodbyes to the girls as well. He ruffled Jessie's hair as she wrapped her arms around his legs. Then, he took Billie from Amanda and kissed her on the cheek before handing her over to his mother.

There was chorus of goodbyes and see you soons as Amanda and Sonny stepped out of the room.

"Oh! Wait!" Rosa called after them, shifting Billie in her arms as she stood in the hallway. "There's a batch of pizzelles on the table for you take in case you get hungry in the car."

"Sounds good, Ma!" Sonny called over his shoulder when they reached the stairs.

"You know," Amanda began as she followed Sonny down the stairs, "I let you drive here, but I'm driving to Greenwich." She skillfully reached in front of her and removed the car keys from his back pocket. "You're gonna be too busy eating those cookies, and besides," she glanced at her watch. "We're kinda on a time crunch and I'll shave off at least fifteen minutes."