Ana and her parents come over to apologize to Stef and Lena for Ana's behavior and to talk about something else that prompts the twins to rethink their lives.
(A two-shot dedicated to Stef and Lena for selflessly being everything the twins needed but never had. I thought of this because the twins always seemed to need something more and while I do understand them wanting to know the people they came from and what their lived would have been, I just feel that Stef and Lena deserve a good word as well.)
"I just wanted to apologize for the way I showed up to the party last night." Ana said awkwardly as she sat on the couch with her parents, Stef and Lena on the chairs opposite. "I slipped and..." She trailed off as her eyes welled with tears. "God, everything I worked for..." She regretted.
"We understand." Lena said kindly. "Don't let this bring you down. You were doing so well and you can do it again." She encouraged. In so many ways Ana was like a child herself.
"There were so many old memories and emotions and it just got so overwhelming." Ana justified. "All the mistakes and feelings just got too much."
"I'm sure." Lena smiled gently. "Just remember, you have Isabella to work hard for." She said, reminding Ana that this time she can do something early enough to avoid another child being taken from her.
"No, I know." Ana said firmly. "And I won't slip up again." She said with determination. "I made mistakes once but I won't let that happen again." She added, glancing at the twins who were sitting on the step by the front door.
"I'm just glad you're okay." Stef spoke up, thankful that Ana had gotten home unharmed and with minimal drama.
"Thanks for taking me home." Ana said. Her parents had told her everything that she couldn't remember and they were all grateful that Stef hadn't just left her to find her own way. They all knew that Victor and Elena would never get through to their daughter in that state.
"Of course." Stef nodded in acceptance.
Ana turned to her parents, knowing that they had something they wanted to add. It was something the three of them had talking about this morning as they thought about what Ana had said about Stef and Lena taking the twins from her.
Victor and Elena looked at each other for a moment, silently deciding how to begin.
"We would also like to apologize for our behavior." Victor began, Elena being just a little too proud to actually say the words.
"For what?" Lena asked in surprise.
"We misjudged you." Victor answered honestly. "When we first found out that Mariana and Jesus had been adopted we were upset and when we got to know that you were..." He trailed off, trying to find an in-insulting term. "both women," He settled for. "We were a little upset and that's why we were hesitant to allow Ana to give Isabella to you."
Stef and Lena were both listening with interest while Victor looked them straight in the eye. Ana and Elena both avoided eye contact by looking at their hands.
"We know now that you are good parents and have done well for Mariana and Jesus." He continued.
"We love them like they are our own." Stef said honestly without missing a beat.
Victor nodded and paused, glancing at the two children in question before turning back to the couple and continuing.
"I honestly believe that once they got to know us and got involved with us they would see things our way - join us for more family functions, spend more time with us, go to church, get baptized." he listed. "But they chose you every time and it made me realize that just because we have the same blood doesn't mean that we are their family. You are truly their family."
Neither Stef nor Lena really knew what to say. For starters, neither had imagined that all this ever even crossed their minds and more importantly they didn't know how they felt about Victor's admission. The twins were their kids and had been for more than half their lives and they couldn't even imagine their life without them. Thinking about them leaving to go back to Ana and her family was just unfathomable.
"Don't get me wrong." Victor quickly added, noticing the looks on their faces. "We never judged you as parents, we just..." He paused once again, trying to find the right way of explaining his thought. "We were just upset that we never got the chance to do right by them"
"We are sorry for that." Stef said, understanding just a little. "They were already in the system when we got them and we just wanted to give them a stable home."
"And you did." Victor assured. "We have gotten to know them over the last few months and we would be proud to call them our grandchildren."
"Thank you." Both Stef and Lena said with smiles.
"We've watched you handle them and we do admire the way you support and guide them no matter what mistakes they make." Victor said. "When Mariana brought Ana into your life and now with Gabe."
"They are..." Lena began but then changed her sentence. "You all are their family too. We would never keep you from them." She assured.
"As long as they are safe and happy, we have no objections." Stef added.
"We understand that they want to know where they came from and what their lives might have been like." Lena said sympathetically.
"Mariana told us a little about the other two children you adopted." Victor explained. "We thank god that our grandchildren found parents like you so early on instead of suffering in the system the way those other children have."
"The system is a mess." Stef agreed wholeheartedly. "Callie, our other daughter, is trying very hard to make a change." She informed them.
"I hope she succeeds." Victor said supportingly. "People like you are what make it change."
"We appreciate that." Lena said gratefully. "But we do love Mariana and Jesus and we needed them just as much as they needed us."
"And all mistakes are in the past." Stef added, remembering how Mariana had retreated after the shooting. "I choose to go into that house unprotected and that's on me, not them." She said firmly.
"Unprotected?" Victor asked in confusion as Elena also looked up.
Ana and Mariana shared a look before Mariana sheepishly spoke up. "I never told them about that." She said, almost apologetically.
Victor and Elena turned towards Mariana and Ana, waiting for some sort of expiation to clear up their confusion.
"Um... my boyfriend shot Stef." Ana explained, avoiding looking at her parents. "I took some money from the twins and Stef though Jesus was in danger. She came to my house but my boyfriend shot Stef."
"Ana." Elena said, upset that her daughter would be in a relationship with someone with a gun.
"I'm not proud of it." Ana admitted. "I was so messed up." She looked so regretful for her mistakes. "Their son bribed me to tell the truth - that I wasn't there - and I took it." She admitted shamefully.
"You didn't pull the trigger." Lena said. It had taken her a long time to get over that incident and having gotten to know Ana - the real Ana - lately, she'd realized that she wasn't such a bad person.
"They still helped me." Ana went on, her voice filled with gratitude. "They were there for me when I was pregnant and they agreed to take Isabella when I wasn't fit to be her mother.
The room was silent for a while as everyone was taken back to those frightful months. Ana felt so lost and alone, Lena was terrified of losing the love of her life. The twins, especially Mariana, was afraid that she'd lose her whole family and Stef was trying to hold it all together.
"Well you are definitely better parents than we were." Elena spoke up, surprising everyone. "We gave up on Ana when things got difficult and we never should have."
"I thought you said she ran away." Lena stated.
"She did." Elena answered. "But we didn't really look for her and we never tried to contact her. We didn't even read the letter she sent us when she was pregnant." She admitted.
"We always assumed the worst." Victor added. "She'd done it all before and we never believed that she was trying."
"People with low self-esteem often slip up and fall back because of other people's expectations." Lena said honestly "They think that if this is what someone expects from them then they don't have what it takes to prove them wrong."
"It feels like that sometimes." Ana admitted. "It's easier to just give in."
"Everyone does." Lena assured. "It's not just addicts and it's definitely not just you."
"It's easier now." Ana confessed as she glanced to her parents. "It's still hard but it helps knowing I have somewhere to turn when I can't handle it all."
Elena smiled at her daughter, thankful for this second chance. Slowly, but surely, her family was coming back together.
"We assumed you wouldn't have liked it when the kids wanted to know their parents." Victor said. "Their birth parents." He clarified.
"They are kids and they are curious." Stef replied, looking at her two children fondly. "We know they love us and they know that we love them. We are their parents and at the end of the day we're the ones they come to when things get too big for them."
Mariana and Jesus smiled at their mom, nodding in agreement.
"But sometimes it's too late." Mariana said regretfully, thinking that if she'd just told them where Jesus was headed before he got to Ana's house then Stef could have avoided the bullet.
"It's never to late." Stef corrected firmly.
"You are teenagers and you're learning how to be adults and we know you aren't going to come running to us for every little thing like you did when you were little." Lena added. "It's natural for you to experiment and test your boundaries."
"Not that this is a free pass to do whatever you want." Stef warned playfully, eyeing them each carefully.
"We would love to hear some of the things they did as kids." Victor requested. "We missed out on a lot." he admitted.
"Of course." Lena agreed immediately. She remembered wanting to know everything about Brandon's past when the three of them had first become a family.
"There are boxes full of photographs in the garage, I'm sure we can make spare a few." Stef added with a smile.
"Now?" Victor asked with the enthusiasm of a six year old on christmas morning.
The other six in the room laughed though the enthusiasm was just as clear in Elena's and Ana's eyes as well.