This is the sorta sequel to Reaching Out. I don't think it's necessary to read that one first because I give a lot of the details and need to know things in this story, but you may read if you wish. By the way, I follow pretty close to the storyline, so things that happened in Season 2 will probably be mentioned.

The last two years had a much different impact on Rusty and Riley than Sharon would have thought. They had grown into completely different people, but they were definitely wonderful. Since the Stroh trail was over, it was no secret the entire household slept a lot sounder.

Riley came out of her bedroom, stretching her arms and back as Sharon offered her a tired smile. "Sleep well?" Sharon asked as the now eighteen year old padded her way over to the coffee machine and poured herself a cup. It amused Sharon that Riley's morning routine almost mimicked her own. Two years of living with her and Riley was every bit her daughter as Emily and Rusty was every bit her son as Ricky.

The girl shrugged as she turned back around to face Sharon. Phantom had already made herself comfortable by the door of the apartment. Perhaps the one being in the house that didn't sleep sounder since the Stroh trial was their trusty German Shepherd who seemed on as high alert as ever. No stranger was going to get through that door without going through her first.

Sharon frowned as she watched Riley plop down at the kitchen table and grab her iPad out of bag to catch up on the news. Something was bothering the girl.

"What's going on?" she probed gently, joining her at the table. Sharon's hands reached out and combed through Riley's hair. Rusty's love language wasn't physical affection. His was more along the lines of hearing and accepting him. Riley needed the human touch. It was part of what made her so close to Sharon.

Almost instantly Riley leaned into Sharon's touch. "Just tired, I think," Riley lied halfheartedly making Sharon frown at her.

Before she could ask another question, Rusty was rushing out of his bedroom with his backpack pulled onto his shoulder. "Come on Riley, we have to go."

Sharon offered Rusty a smile as he rushed past her into the kitchen to steal a muffin off the plate. "Good morning, Rusty." Her voice was light as she watched him take a huge bite of his muffin.

"Morning," he replied quickly, not really making eye contact with her as he grabbed the keys off the table. "Ready Riley?"

"And where are you going?" Sharon asked in her usual calm tone. She normally didn't pry much with their whereabouts, knowing that they were smart kids who kept out of trouble, but they seemed to be in a rather big hurry.

Rusty fumbled in his steps as he looked at her for the first time that morning. "Errands. But we really have to go, right Riley?"

He barely gave her time to nod before he was headed for the door. Riley dumped out her coffee mug and placed it in the dishwasher as she grabbed her backpack off the back of the chair.

"Aren't you going to eat any breakfast?" Sharon asked as Riley moved toward the door after her brother.

"Not hungry," she mumbled.

Sharon shot her a pointed look. "Riley…"

A dramatic sigh puffed out of the girl while she drug her feet back into the kitchen and snatched a muffin off the plate. Shooting her guardian an happy now? glance Riley headed back for the door.

Obviously something was going on with those two. Sharon knew their quirks better than anyone now and there was no hiding things from her. She sighed and shook her head. Sometimes she took a few moments to be grateful her age gave her wisdom and patience, because she definitely needed a hefty dose of both for those two.

Major Crimes

Rusty led the way as he walked through the halls of the rehab toward his mother's room. The atmosphere gave both teenagers chills. It looked a little too much like hotels they had been in before, and smelled like them too. Rusty jumped when Riley reached out for his arm. She was shorter than him by several inches and she was small. Still, she had proven her fierceness when it was needed.

Yet, as her brother, he knew he should be the protector. He offered her a small comforting look as they headed toward the room.

Chills ran through both their bodies as they stood in front of the white door that had been worn in a way that no amount of paint could cover. State facilities.

Rusty was just preparing to open the door when it flew open revealing a young black woman looking fragile and angry. Her dark eyes barely focused on the two kids with a look that was mixed between confusion and frustration.

Rusty on the other hand felt distraught. "I-I'm sorry. We must-uh-"

"Rusty?"

The woman in front of them pushed past them revealing a frail looking familiar face. It had been two years, but she had aged ten. Drugs did that to people, Rusty recalled sadly. "Mom?" he called, as though he needed to make sure it was really her as Riley turned her head away from them.

Rusty had mixed feeling toward his mother, but he still wanted her to be a part of his life. Riley on the other hand was less forgiving. At the moment, she was there for Rusty, not Sharon Beck. Not her mother.

Sharon Beck rushed toward the boy, pulling him into her arms with all the dramatic tears in suit. Riley had to keep herself from scowling. It was like she was clinging to Rusty for life support. Like he was the only thing keeping her on her feet. Typical. As shameful as it was, she could help but compare Sharons. This Sharon sought support from her children, their Sharon only supported them.

"You've gotten taller," Sharon Beck mused tearfully, running her hand through Rusty's hair and almost combing it in his face. "And you look so grown up."

Rusty smiled awkwardly while Riley still stood in the doorway. It took a second, but sure enough Sharon Beck zoned in on her. She sighed as she looked over Rusty's shoulder at her. "Riley," she sighed as her mouth pulled into some sort of tear fighting frown. "You're beautiful."

She opened one arm to her while the other stayed around Rusty. Riley didn't move, instead she defensively crossed her arms. She stepped into the room, but moved further away from the women. This was not where she wanted to be. As far as she was concerned, Riley was not a part of that woman's family anymore.

"You said you wanted to see us," Rusty began, moving away from the woman in his usual awkward way. If Riley had to choose a word to describe her brother, it would probably be awkward. He had a good heart, but he spent so much time protect her and himself that he didn't know what to do when he felt something with it.

Sharon Beck nodded tearfully. "I did. I wanted to show you that I'm trying." She smiled at him and dared a glance at Riley that was only met with an icier shoulder. "They-uh-fixed my teeth and I'm getting clean and sober. I'm trying to be better. For all of us."

Riley scoffed and shook her head. Sharon Beck glanced at her and her eyes narrowed dangerously. It was a look Riley used to fear but not it just annoyed her more. This frail woman didn't scare her anymore. The existence of the woman just pissed her off. She left three years ago and had been pretty well off the map until they were legal adults and was eating on someone else's tab? No. She didn't have to put up with that.

"Riley," Rusty whispered pleadingly. He wanted her to try, but Riley didn't keep giving chances. She'd save her forgiveness for people who deserved it.

"I'll wait outside," she replied coldly, already heading for the door.

She didn't wait inside the building, but instead found a bench outside. It wasn't the best area, and Sharon would have probably have not been keen on the idea of her loitering alone in front of a building full of rehabilitating drug addicts.

Riley took out her phone and flipped it out to check her messages. As annoying as it was, no one really texted her but her brother and the guys from Major Crimes. Well, and Kevin Toa, but that's another story entirely and one that no one could ever know about.

But it was there that she waited, completely silent, until Rusty came out. He knew better than to lecture her, but he had no shame in filling her in on all the detail that he had learned about their mother. How she was arrested. How what's-his-face was forever out of the picture. How she was getting clean. Then it all boiled down to what she needed from them.

"It's just sixty dollars," Rusty argued as they walked into the LAPD building and gave the officer at the front desk a wave. They saw his face every day, but they had no idea what his name was. Riley made a mental note to ask sometime.

"Yeah, and where are we going to get sixty dollars? It's not like I can take my piano down to the front of the building and play for tips," Riley shot back as she jabbed impatiently at the elevator button.

"No, but…" Rusty groaned. "Maybe you can just not go to piano lessons for the month…"

Riley stopped jabbing to send her brother a death glare. He raised his hands in defeat. "Okay, bad idea."

The silent mutual agreement of not asking Sharon did not have to be discussed. That was simply out of the question. Sharon Raydor had already done more than enough for Sharon Beck, even if it wasn't always directly. Plus, there was no way they would risk hurting Sharon with the information that their mother was making contact.

Riley huffed and crossed her arms as the elevator doors opened. A delivery man with a large bouquet of flowers rushed on at the last minute.

"Those are beautiful," Riley commented, instinctively brushing her hands over the velvet petals.

"They're for a Detective Sikes in Major Crimes. Lucky gal. This bunch is expensive," the man responded unenthusiastically.

Rusty shot Riley a look. The idea confused Rusty as much as it excited Riley. "That's where we're going!" Riley announced with a big smile. "We can take them for you."

The guy handed the flowers over to Rusty and rolled his shoulders like they were giving him problems. "Thank kids."

As they exit the elevator and head down the hall toward the offices, Riley feels lighter than she had all day. The burden of the secret weighed heavy on her shoulders, but she was in good company now. These were people who she could trust and knew they would never let anything hurt her. She had seen them prove it on more than one occasion.

They walked in right in the middle of an argument with Taylor which they were wise enough to keep quiet during until he moved into Sharon's office. Riley silently cursed. She really wanted to apologize to Sharon about the way she acted earlier, but it would have to wait until later.

Provenza was the first to notice them, or maybe he just noticed the flowers. "Ah, Mr. Beck, you shouldn't have," he gushed dramatically as Rusty walked the flowers into the room.

"I didn't. They're for Detective Sykes. We were riding up the elevator with the delivery guy-"

"Aren't they beautiful?" Riley asked, following Rusty as he set them on her desk. She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear as she leaned in to sniff them.

Andy Flynn smiled at the girl. "I'm sure one day someone will buy you flowers."

Julio nodded. "And the day that happens is they day we all get an earful from the Captain for misusing police resources. Not just anyone can send Riley flowers."

The girl blushed as she smiled at the member of the team. Her eyes focused on Andy. "You wouldn't let them do that, would you?" she asked.

Rusty had Provenza for all fatherly things, Riley had Andy. At times it was clear that she had him wrapped around her little finger like many fathers with their daughters. Sharon even had to get on to him a few times for spoiling the kids. He couldn't buy Riley something without buying Rusty something and unfortunately there were so many things that just reminded him of Riley.

Provenza snorted. "Are you kidding? He'd be the one on the stakeout in front of the guy's house."

Riley frowned good-naturedly before running her fingers over the petals of the roses again.

"To what do we owe this pleasure of seeing you two on this Saturday morning after so many weeks away?" Provenza teased.

It was true, they had been missing in action some for the last couple weeks, but it was because they were honestly busy. They were about to graduate from high school! A summer behind everyone else their age, but hey they were going to do it. Even better, they were going to do it on the honor rolled. Rusty wasn't pleased with his SAT score so he was taking it again, but Riley scored high enough to be accepted into CSU's music and arts program so she was content. Riley had piano lessons, Rusty had chess and they both had Dr. Joe.

"We've been really busy," Riley defended.

"Actually," Rusty looked at the older man with some hesitation. "I was kinda hoping I could talk to you."

It only took an instant for Riley to realize what he was referring to and she settled him with a very disapproving look. One in which he shot back at her.

"About an important… event… that's going on in my personal life?" It definitely sounded like a question, but it was meant to be a statement. Whatever it was, it practically sent Provenza running.

Suddenly he was too busy to talk. Provenza suddenly took off with the case leaving Rusty looking stunned and frustrated. Riley smirked feeling slightly victorious. The longer it took them to scrape up the money for the toothbrush, the longer it would take them to go back to see their mother.

"They're busy," Riley said as she moved away from the flowers. "We can come back tomorrow. Or Monday. Monday is probably better. I best they'll still be working on the case tomorrow…"

Stalling. She may have been stalling.

Rusty frowned, but he knew she was right.

It was annoying to deal with his pouting all the way home. Why was he wanting to help the woman? Riley simply could not understand. She sat up, waiting on the couch hoping that Sharon would come home at some decent hour so she could ask her to explain why this was happening. Sharon knew the answers to most of her questions. Even questions that there weren't really answers to, Sharon had the answer.

Unfortunately Sharon didn't get home before Riley fell asleep on the couch with Phantom taking up more of it than she was.

It was only about noon, but Riley was apparently more emotionally exhausted than she realized. She startled awake when she felt something brush her face. Her eyes refused to open as the feeling of soft fingers gently tracing her cheek bones and pushing her hair off her shoulder continued.

There was the ever telling sound of a sad sigh that Riley knew.

With great determination, Riley pried her eyes open to see Sharon stand up from where she was kneeling a moment ago and shake her head like she did when something was on her mind.

"Sharon?" Riley yawned rubbing her eyes as Phantom jumped off the couch to follow her other master into the kitchen.

The older woman stopped and looked down at Riley as she stretched and stood up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Headache?"

Riley shook her head. Most of the time when Riley took naps in the middle of the day it was because she had one of her legendary migraines that had landed her in the ER not long after she had moved in with Sharon. Now she was on daily medication for them. It didn't always keeps them away, but when they came they were less severe. She hadn't had a bad one in months.

"You okay?" she asked as Sharon started to move down the hall to her bedroom. Riley followed and took a seat on her bed while Sharon searched for a change of clothes. It was difficult to hide her frown when she realized Sharon wasn't changing into her home clothes, but instead more work clothes.

"Yeah-Yes…" Sharon sighed. "We just had a break in our case so I thought I'd come home, shower, and change." Then she turned to Riley who was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest. The girl's eyes were distant and it was easy to see she was disappointed. "Are you alright, honey?"

At the ever adored pet name, Riley refocused her gaze. It was written all over her face that no, she was not okay, and she needed Sharon to make things better. "Uh…" she began awkwardly.

Sharon's phone began to ring but she made no motion toward it. Instead she kept her gaze focused gently on Riley. "You can answer that," Riley told her, knowing that whatever the case was about was more important than her problem.

"Are you sure?" Sharon asked, still not making a move toward the phone. Riley nodded, her gaze falling to the floor as she watched Sharon's feet move toward the bed next to her where she had apparently tossed her phone when she walked in. "Captain Raydor," she answered in her business tone. She kicked off her heels and sat down beside Riley. Gentle fingers played with the ends of Riley's hair that fell on her back while Sharon hummed and gave short answers of yes and no to whoever she was on the phone with. It was ended with a prompt thank you, before Sharon hung up with another sigh.

"Long day?" Riley asked, leaning into the touch of her hands.

"Two children dead," Sharon hummed sadly as she shook her head.

Two children, little children, dead. Two children that would never play again, or laugh, or hug their mother again. The idea was making Sharon want to hold onto Rusty and Riley, call Emily and Ricky, and just hear their voices. She had already noticed Rusty wasn't home, but she would reach out to the child that was sitting so close to her now.

Riley's face turned to study Sharon's. Big blue eyes scanned the ever stoic features of her foster mother, searching for the subtleness of whatever Sharon needed. When she saw the pain, she reacted like Sharon would have for her.

Riley moved closer until her head rested against Sharon's shoulder and her arms wrapped around her waist. The tension released from Sharon's body as her hands continued to play in the blonde locks of Riley's hair.

"I'm sorry you're having a bad day," Riley whispered earnestly.

Sharon bit her lip as emotion flooded her. Her kids were safe. All four. And the moment she let go of Riley she was going to make sure.

With a final squeeze Sharon released her hold on the petite girl and quickly brushed her eyes as she reached for her phone in hope that Riley wouldn't notice.

It took two years for Riley to realize this was what mothers did. They were the strong ones. They hid their pain because they protected their kids. When mother's hugged their children, they try to hold whatever burden is on their child's shoulders on their own, not shrug it off onto theirs. Mothers ask if they're feeling okay when they do something a little out of character, mothers find comfort in their child's presence not presents, mothers… Mothers care.

Sharon Raydor cared about Riley and Rusty in a way that Sharon Beck never did.

That's why Sharon Beck was not Riley's mother. Sharon Raydor was.

Riley knew this, she just hoped that Rusty would see it soon too.