New Place

"Riley!", Cody yelled.

"For goodness' sake, Cody! I said the food is almost ready!", said girl yelled back.

Cody ran into the kitchen, "What? No, I'm not talking about that. Why would I ask that again? It hasn't even been five minutes since I last did."

Riley sighed, stirring the contents in a pot, "Okay, okay. What's going on?"

"Archer just messaged," Cody informed, holding the communication device up to Riley.

She abandoned the spoon and snatched the device out of Cody's hand.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What the hell is this?"

Cody grinned, grabbing it back, "That, my friend, is a code."

"What? Why? That's just extra work."

"Says you. I made it up so that no one will poke their nose in our business. Archer and I are fluent in it."

Riley smiled, "Good thinking. Well, what does it say?"

"He said that they reached earlier. Apparently the farm looked wrecked but there was this weird force field thing that hid it!", Cody said excitedly.

"No way!", Riley joined in, also extremely excited.

"Yeah! And anyway they met up with some of Sam's connections, and they are going to discuss it. But they're going to be there for a few days to get on the other guys' good side."

"He said that in those exact words?"

"No. He said and I quote, 'We have to stay here until these idiots are convinced to see sense and stop being selfish cowards.' "

"Sounds like him."

"Yup."

xxx

"Bye dork."

Sabrina's eyes fluttered open.

Jason?

A strong ray of sunlight shone through a little gap in the curtains.

Curtains?

She sat up quickly wondering where she was.

She looked around groggily, the room was moderately sized, her bag looked like it was just flung towards the corner of the room where a cupboard was situated. The bed, she observed, was in the other corner of the room. A little night stand was to her immediate right with a note on it.

Oh right. We're in the cabin.

She opened the note, it was from Sam.

'Adam and I are going to catch up so you probably won't see much of us. You and Archer can explore and meet the others. Remember be on your best behavior ;)'

Sabrina rolled her eyes fondly and set the letter back down. She sat at the edge of the bed, surprised when her feet came into contact with a soft carpet. Sabrina shuffled her feet on the carpet, enjoying the sensation on her toes.

How is it so soft?

She was so engrossed in that, that she didn't hear the soft knocks on the door, and when the door opened slowly.

"Ahem," a familiar voice cleared their throat. Sabrina froze and slowly looked to the door. Archer stood there smirking, half of his figure blocked by the door.

"Having fun?", he asked with mirth.

Instead of being embarrassed, Sabrina put her hand on her hip, "As a matter of fact, I am. Care to join me?"

"No thanks. You have certain matters to attend to."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Like what?"

At the question, she thought Archer looked a little embarrassed.

He opened the door fully, with one hand and came in, before closing it once more. When he turned around, Sabrina saw that he was holding a tray of food.

What?

Archer looked off to the side. "You -uh- missed breakfast, so I just saved some for you?", he told her though it sounded more like a question, as he walked to the night stand to set the tray onto it.

Sabrina was too shocked to reply and it made Archer uncomfortable. So he started talking again.

"You didn't really eat anything last night. When I didn't see you at breakfast, Sam said you were asleep and I didn't want to wake you, so I saved some because I thought you'd be hungry and-"

Sabrina finally found her voice, "Archer, you're rambling."

He promptly shut up, looking at her sheepishly.

"Thank you," she told him with a smile.

"You're welcome," he replied softly.

"I'm just going to freshen up and I'll be right back," she told him, pointing to the door next to the cupboard.

"Okay, I'll meet up with you-", he started, but she cut him off.

"No!"

He looked at her curiously.

"I mean, can you wait here? I don't want to eat alone," Sabrina looked down.

"Oh, um. Sure?"

She brightened, "Thanks," and disappeared into the bathroom.

Sabrina washed her face with cold water. Her nightmares hadn't been so bad lately, they were calmer. She felt that this was somehow worse. It left her feeling empty. Recently, she'd been getting another weird feeling regarding Jason.

She didn't want to get her hopes up so she settled on thinking he was dead. But a part of her knew that he wasn't.

She wasn't alone now. She had friends. They were a team. She knew they could accomplish a lot together.

She grabbed a towel and dabbed her face dry, then set it back on the towel rack.

I will find you, Jason. I know I will.

She opened the door slightly, peeking out to see if Archer was still there.

He was.

She was about to announce her presence, but stopped when she noticed what he was doing.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his eyes wide. He had taken off his shoes, and buried his feet in the carpet, whispering, "It's so soft."

Her stomach felt like it was doing somersaults. She kept observing him, eyes not wanting to leave. The feeling calmed and settled warmly into her core. There was an unexplainable fondness coming over her. She felt like she could watch him all day.

Whoa. Relax.

She collected herself and then walked into the room. Archer's already widened eyes widened even more when he realised that he had been caught. Sabrina grinned and instead of teasing him, she joined him, both of them laughing.

xxx

"So what have you been up to?", Sam asked Adam, leaning on the door frame of the garage.

"The usual. Got two new guys," Adam's responses coming in short. Most of his attention was directed to his hands, which were rummaging through a toolbox.

"What? When?"

Adam let out a sound of victory, holding a wrench in his arm, while shutting the toolbox with the other.

"Few weeks ago. They're cool, I guess. You might run into them today. They were working with Bertha, so they were asleep when you came and left early in the morning for some work."

Sam pushed himself off the door frame, choosing to stand next to Adam instead. "They got names?"

"The tall one is Garth. The slightly less tall one is Helio."

"Cool," Sam said with shrug.

Adam stood beside Sam, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder he chuckled, "Yeah."

"Listen Sam," Adam started, his tone shifting into something more serious, "I know you really want to help those people, even if you weren't as enthusiastic as the other two."

Sam laughed softly, "Yeah, they have really strong feelings about this."

Adam stood close in front of Sam and spoke softly, "That's a good thing. As much as I want to help, I can't make a decision by myself-"

Sam cut him off, "I know, that's why I said that we should speak to the rest of them."

"I know what you said. I'm with you, buddy, but the others... They're not so easy to persuade. You know that better than anyone."

Sam sucked in a breath, "You're right. But that's why we should try harder to make them see the bigger picture."

Adam sighed, "They don't want to risk their safety, Sam. Especially Farron."

Sam stayed silent for a few moments.

"But if we don't do this, who will?"

It was Adam's turn to stay silent.

"Don't forget why they sent you away, Sam," a familiar voice said from the doorway.

"It was for this very reason. You care too much," Bertha said walking towards him. Her hair was up in a tight bun, two ebony strands were pulled loose and framed her face.

Sam smiled softly at her. He knew that it wasn't an insult, rather a compliment.

She scoffed playfully, "Don't get used to it."

"I would never," Sam grinned.

"As Adam said, they're going to be very hard to convince. Honestly, your friends were what convinced me, but we're gonna need to get our crap together."

Adam stepped away from Sam, giving the two some space as he set to work on a car. He pressed a button on the wrench and it scanned the nut before adjusting itself to fit properly. Adam began working quietly.

"You have such a way with words," Sam wiped away an imaginary tear from his face.

She shoved him lightly, "Stuff it, you moron."

"What's the game plan?", Adam inquired.

"That's what I came here to discuss," Bertha declared.

xxx

"I didn't realise the farm was this big," Archer admitted.

"Me neither. The land stretches out so far. I wonder what they're using for the force field. Like are there generators around the perimeter of the land?", Sabrina asked, eyes alight with curiosity.

She looked to Archer for some input. The boy turned his head away from the little buildings, -- which they found out were mostly stockrooms for all the farm's supplies-- to scan his surroundings.

"It doesn't look like there are anywhere."

Sabrina's eyes flickered around for a second as well, noting the absence of said machines.

"Maybe they're underground!", she exclaimed, eyes widening and her arms gesturing sharply towards the ground.

Archer snickered at her excitement and theatrics, "Yeah, maybe."

She grinned, eyes looking up to meet his.

Their eyes locked for a minute before he cleared his throat and looked away. She snapped her gaze away from him and continued as if nothing happened.

"Cody would have loved this," she said softly, thinking about the younger boy that she'd grown so fond of. "And Riley would get along with everyone here."

"Yeah," he said wistfully, "They'd fit in well, worming their way into everyone's hearts."

"Like they did to you?", Sabrina teased wiggling her eyebrows.

"Stop."

And Sabrina did.

"I miss them," she said.

Archer looked at Sabrina's expression and something softened in his chest.

"I, uh.." he started, which caught Sabrina's attention. She looked at him curiously, and how did this make her look so innocent?

She's a demon. How?

"I have a thing," he said dumbly.

Sabrina burst out laughing.

"You have a thing?", she managed between laughing fits.

Archer, against his better judgment, decided to let his walls down a little and smiled.

Not a grin, not a smirk.

Just a smile.

But Sabrina was too busy trying not to suffocate to notice.

His expression settled into a scowl once she calmed down.

"Don't be so glum," she said, "Please continue."

"I was trying to say that I have something so that we can talk to them," he told her, pulling the device out of his pocket.

Her eyebrows shot up, "You mean to tell me that you've been able to talk to them all this time, and you didn't tell me?"

"Pretty much."

"Give it to me."

"No."

"Archer, I swear to God!"

He held the device above his head, completely out of her reach, grinning like a mad man.

Once saw what he was doing, her gaze slowly traveled to his eyes where she leveled him with an incinerating glare.

"How dare you?"

"Did someone say something?", he said feigning nonchalance.

"Oh, so that's how you're playing it?"

"Hello?"

"I'll give you something worth hearing, Penny."

To her disappointment, this didn't garner any reaction.

He saw that one coming, eh?

Sabrina looked up at him and smirked. He didn't meet her gaze, still pretending that she wasn't there. She walked away slowly, hands clasped together innocently behind her. She didn't look back. After the tenth step, she stopped and spun on her heel, facing the brunet boy once more.

He was looking at her now, head tilted to the side in confusion. She smiled innocently, to which he raised an eyebrow.

Without warning, she dashed forward and laughed when she saw the surprised expression on Archer's face. She ran, full speed ahead as she made to collide with the boy.

Unfortunately, she didn't get the result she anticipated. Instead of tackling the older boy, she ended up running into what felt like a wall, the momentum making him stumble a little and lead her to fall backwards.

"What the hell was that?", he asked incredulously, the device still held high above his head, while his other hand gestured to her and himself.

"No! The question is, what the hell are you made of?", she yelled, dusting the grass off her person as she made to stand up. Archer offered her a hand which she accepted.

As he pulled her up, he felt her tug him down.

This kniving-

He didn't get to finish that thought as he was yanked to the floor beside her.

He fell and put both his arms forward to brace himself. Sabrina seeing the opportunity, snatched the device from his hand and rolled away.

Archer turned so that he was in a sitting position, his arms crossed.

"That was rude."

"Hey, all is fair in love and war," she said, standing up and holding her arms up in fake-surrender.

Demon.

Archer smirked, "So what now? You've got it, but you'll never figure out how to send or read the messa-"

" 'We have to stay here until these idiots are convinced to see sense and stop being selfish cowards'," Sabrina read.

"Wow, Archie. Eloquent as always," she smirked.

"What? How did you-? What?"

"You guys ain't slick," was all she offered in response before typing out something and tossing it back to him.

Archer picked the device up slowly, mind still processing how quickly she decoded his and Cody's code. He read the message.

'Hey guys! Lia here. I just kicked Archer's butt. Wish you guys were here, we're missing you a lot.'

"You didn't, you cheater."

She looked at him mimicking his grin from earlier.

A loud 'ping' noise came from the device, a message from the other end.

'How did you figure out our code???? Also, Archer probably deserved that. Good job. Riley says hi. We miss you too.'

"My own friends are against me," he mumbled sourly and handed the device to Sabrina to read. She responded with a laugh and gave it back.

"What? No more messages?", he snapped.

"Nope. Stop being so snappy, we have a farm to explore."

"I don't want to anymore," he said crossing his arms again like a petulant child.

"Archieee," she dragged.

He didn't respond.

"I guess I'll go by myself then..."

She turned to walk, hoping he'll follow. He didn't.

She turned back around and was about to call him when a ball came flying through the air, accompanied by giggles.

It landed in his leg and he held it up, twirling it around with his fingers.

The little girl from the night before came waddling. "You caught it!" she yelled excitedly. Archer nodded slowly in response, smiling nervously.

The girl however had no understanding of personal space and plopped herself on his leg. Archer's eyes widened and looked to Sabrina desperately.

'What do I do?', he mouthed.

Sabrina wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Archer, the bad boy of the group, was clueless when it came to kids.

'Give her the ball,' she mouthed back.

He nodded and offered the ball to her. She grabbed it slowly, "Thankooo."

"Penelope!", another voice called. Sabrina whirled around and saw the other boy from last night.

Carson, if she remembered correctly.

"There you are!"

"Hellooo," she yelled back at the boy.

He came running towards them, but stopped when he saw Archer. He looked scared.

That's when Archer remembered.

He probably traumatised this boy with his face yesterday.

He tried for a smile and by the way the boy's eyebrows raised, he guessed that he did it right.

Carson looked to his sister's care-free attitude while sitting on Archer's lap.

Sabrina watched as the boy took a tentative step forward. Then another and another until he stood directly in front of Archer, staring at him. He reached out his hand and touched Archer's hair.

Sabrina walked towards them slowly, the moment was fragile and she had no intention of breaking it. She saw how Carson retracted his hand as if he'd been burnt and then looked at Archer.

Archer didn't do anything, he just watched as Carson did his thing. He extended his arm again before laying his palm flat on the top of Archer's head. Deciding that it was safe, he smiled and began patting it.

Penelope started laughing and jumped out of Archer's lap to do the same thing.

He sputtered, trying to stop them.

"Lia, help!", he yelled before he was tackled to the floor, the kids laughing. He grabbed Penelope by the waist and started to tickle her, yelling for no reason. Carson, trying to save his sister climbed on Archer's back, cackling.

Sabrina drank in the sight.

"Riley and Cody will love to hear about this."