A/N: I'm back from my road trip! Chicago, Ann Arbor, NYC, Philly, Annapolis! I visited the Museum of the American Revolution in Philly and they had statues of the Hamilton/Burr duel so I had to take a picture. I will probably not be able to update daily right away but I'll do my best. :-) Thanks for reading!

The next couple weeks were a bit of a blur.  We had one daughter on her way out, and a foster daughter on her way in.  America had been an easy kid so far, despite what we'd seen of her up until recently.  However, things had gotten a little tense as Molly's departure date neared.  Pippa was a mess, but was trying to hide it from everyone, including me.  Whenever I brought it up, she pushed me away.  She didn't want to think about Molly leaving for Japan.  It was like if she didn't acknowledge it, it wouldn't happen.

"Cam, how many times have I asked you to unload the dishwasher?" Pippa reminded Cam tersely as the teenager walked in to grab a soda.  Cam rolled her eyes at her stepmother.

"I'll do it in a minute," she replied.

"That's what you said an hour ago," Pippa told her.  When Cam made a perturbed sound, I stepped in, touching my daughter's elbow.

"Cam, do it now," I told her.  "Pippa's under a lot of pressure right now."

"So?  It's not like the world is gonna end if the dishwasher doesn't get unloaded right now," she said, popping the can open.

"Cam," I told her firmly.  Wisely, she set her can down and opened up the dishwasher.  Pippa sighed loudly, rubbing at her temple as she looked through one of the kitchen junk drawers for something.  I cautiously walked up to her and touched her shoulder.

"You okay, babe?"

She shrugged my hand off and muttered, "Fine."

She apparently found what she was looking for, slammed the drawer shut and stormed off down the hall.  Cam looked at me with a confused expression.

"What's up her butt?" she asked.

"Cam," I gave her a look.  "I don't like that language."

"Just saying," she shrugged.  I gave Pippa a few minutes, then walked back to our bedroom closing the door gently behind me.  Pippa was sitting on the bed, going through the papers she'd found in the junk drawer.  I gingerly sat next to her but didn't touch her.

"Sweetheart, you seem really upset," I said gently.  She rubbed at her temples and kept her eyes on the paper in front of her.

"Lin, I'm just a little frustrated right now," she admitted. "I'm fine."

"Your daughter is moving to Japan in three days," I said.  "It's okay to not be fine."

She dropped her hands onto the bed, as if annoyed, and finally met my gaze.  "Thank you.  I don't need the reminder."

In one swift motion, she was off the bed and headed for the bathroom.  It was mid-morning on the weekend, so she had a tendency to take her time getting ready.  I saw her pick up her hair straightener and get to work on her dark hair.

"Maybe we should go for a walk," I suggested.  "Let off some steam."

"That's not going to help," she told me.

"Then what will?" I asked, getting up.  I strolled over to the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe with my arms crossed.  "Because you're driving everybody crazy."

"Well I'm sorry if having my child taken away from me is an inconvenience for you all," she quipped, eyes on the mirror.

"Pip, you know that's not true," I told her.  "Everyone in this house loves you and cares about you.  We just want to support you, but you keep snapping at everyone."

She didn't respond and I sighed.  I took a chance and walked up behind her.  I wrapped my arms around her and pressed a kiss to her shoulder.  "I love you," I reminded her.  "And I know this is hard.  I just wish you'd let me in."

"This is something I have to deal with myself," she told me, eyes down.

"No it's not," I said softly, looking at her eyes in the mirror.  She wouldn't look at me.  I pressed one more kiss to her shoulder, then left her be.  I decided having a houseful of loud kids wouldn't be the greatest this Saturday, so I told the twins to get their shoes on.  I gave Cam and America twenty bucks to go hang out at the coffee shop for a while.  That would leave Pippa and Molly alone to have some mother/daughter time.

The twins were all too happy to have a trip down to the park.  I brought a book and sat on a bench while they ran and did their kid thing.  I glanced up from time to time to make sure neither of them were up to anything mischievous.  About half an hour later, I felt two hands cover my eyes.  I smirked and grabbed them and Cam's giggle gave her away.

I laughed as she and America stepped around the bench and sat on either side of me with their iced Starbucks drinks.

"So, Dad, we have an idea," Cam told me, smiling.  She wagged her eyebrows up and down.

"Oh dear," I said.  "Is it a wonderful, awful idea?"

"No!" she laughed.  "We were thinking.  Since Molly's moving to Japan, maybe America could have her room?"

I instantly winced.  I knew Molly wouldn't like the idea of someone else in her room.  Especially America, given their history.

"I don't know about that, Cam," I told her uneasily.

"Dad, this is New York City," she pointed out.  "You know how much money a room as big as Molly's would go for?  You'd just be letting prime real estate go unlived in?"

I sighed and cleared my throat.  They'd obviously been giving this a lot of thought.  "I'm not sure how long she'll be gone.  I'm sure she'll be back for the summer, and then what?  We'd be right back where we started."

"Then America can move back in with me then," she reasoned.

"That's a lot of work," I told her.

"We can do it," she assured me.

"I wish you had this much work ethic when it came to homework," I told her.  "Listen, I'm not telling Molly to move out of her own room.  If you want this, you need to talk to Molly."

"She'll never let America have her room," Cam complained.

"Then I guess you have your answer."

Cam narrowed her eyes, not liking that answer.  "But you're the dad," she pointed out.  "Whatever you say goes."

I laughed at that.  "Is that so?  Then why do I have to get on you constantly about cleaning your room?"

"That's completely different," she said, taking a sip from her straw.  "So if we can somehow get Molly to say yes, we can do it?"

"If you can get her to say yes," I told her, which I didn't think would ever happen.  Felix and Raina had spotted the older girls and came bounding over.  Soon, they were being dragged to the playground and swings.  I chuckled at the sight and went back to my book.

A while later, I summoned all the kids over and we went back to the apartment.  When I walked in, I saw Molly sitting on the couch alone.  By the way she adjusted herself and wiped at her face, I could tell she'd been crying.

"Raina, Felix, go play in your room for a while please," I told the twins.  They ran off down the hall and I sat down next to Molly.  Like her mother, she was trying to hide whatever feelings had come up.

"Molly, what's wrong?" I asked gently, rubbing her upper back.

"I can't...I can't go," she told me tearfully.  Her hands flew up to her eyes again, covering them.

"What do you mean?"

"To Japan," she said.  "Mommy's so upset.  She's gonna have a mental breakdown or something."

She started crying harder so I scooted closer and wrapped my arms around her.  She leaned her head towards my shoulder and let herself cry.  I just held her for a few minutes while she let her emotions out.  Once she'd calmed down a little, I pulled away and continued rubbing circles on her back.

"Molly, of course your mom's gonna miss you," I reasoned with her.  "We're all gonna miss you, but your mom especially.  But she wants you to be happy.  She knows you need to be with your dad and his family too."

"But she's, like, really upset, Lin," she said.  "Like, she wouldn't stop crying.  I tried talking to her about it and she just fell apart."

She leaned against me again and I rested my chin on top of her head.  Pippa wanted to give Molly whatever she wanted.  Though it was killing her, she wanted her daughter to live with her dad for a while because it's what Molly wanted.  Molly came first.

After a few minutes, I pulled back gently and clasped Molly's tiny hands between mine.  "Listen, sweetheart," I told her.  "You let me worry about your mom.  This is hard, but she'll get through it.  She has me to help her.  Let me worry about the adult things and you just worry about having a good time at your dad's."

She looked at me and seemed to accept my offering.  She smiled just a tiny bit as I squeezed her hands.

"I really wanna go," she admitted, sniffling.  I smiled and kissed her cheek.

"I know," I said.  "And you should go.  This will be an amazing year for you."

She smiled at that and seemed to cheer up.  I could tell she was really excited about going to Japan.

"Thanks, Lin," she told me, and wrapped her arms around me for a hug.

"Of course," I told her, giving her a good hug.  "No more crying.  You're gonna have an amazing time."

She nodded and I gave her one last kiss on the forehead.  Molly wasn't my kid, but ever since I'd married her mother it had felt like it.  Seeing Molly go was going to be really hard.  I honestly wasn't sure how we were going to cope, but we'd have to.

I heard Molly's footsteps go down the hallway to her bedroom and I sighed.  The house was almost quiet, even with five kids here.  I had to figure out how to get my wife through this.  Fearing the worst from what Molly had said, I made my way down the hallway to our bedroom.