Cate's POV

"Good morning Portland! Welcome to Morning Madness. The time is 6:23, and if you're just waking up," Cate paused for emphasis. "Screw you. Ryan and I have been up since five."

"And as usual, arguing since then." Ryan smirked at his co-host. "Today we are discussing… drumroll please…high school sweethearts."

"Uh, why does it always have to be about high school?" Cate grimaced playfully at Ryan and spoke into the microphone. "Everyone knows I hated high school. What about you, Ryan? Who was the lucky girl who was together with you in the best years of your life?"

"Nice girl name Allison. Hey, Allison, if you're listening, I never did get those scorch marks out of the sweatshirt you burned in my front yard when I broke up with you. But, no hard feelings girl." He chuckled. "Alright, taking listener calls."

"Hi…Mina? What's your high school sweetheart story?" Cate picked up the conversation.

—

Baze's POV

"Taylor? Honey, you home?"

"I'm here, Dad!" Baze dropped his briefcase in the kitchen and followed his daughter's voice to the living room. Morning Madness reruns were blaring through the radio while she sat on the couch typing furiously on her computer.

"Hey, Tay. Where's mom?"

"She went to the grocery store. I would have gone with her but I needed to work on this project."

"Oh, is that what you're doing?" Baze peeked over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised. "'Cuz it looks like you're writing an email to… wait. Who the hell is Alex?"

"Da-ad!" Taylor groaned. "It's just a guy!"

"A guy?" Baze ran his hand through his hair. "Nuh-uh. Nope. You don't talk to guys."

Taylor laughed. "You're so funny, Dad."

"Yeah, I'm a hoot. Now go work on your project, bunny."

Baze watched her with soft eyes as she packed up her computer and stomped playfully up to her room. "No boys!" He yelled up at her as an afterthought. "I'm serious!"

His phone rang and he picked it up without looking at the caller. "Hello?"

"Hey, Baze," Cate's voice rang through. "Are you home?"

"Yeah, I just got here. What's up?"

There was silence on the other side of the phone.

"Cate?"

"I need to talk to you." She said finally, sounding tearful, and Baze immediately straightened and paced the length of the room.

"Hey, what is it?" He tried to sound comforting, but without knowing the situation he couldn't think what to say. "Are you okay?"

She drew in a shaky breath. "Yeah, it's just… I was looking at the calendar to see what day Tay's dance recital was, and I realized that today is the 17 of September."

A thought nagged at the back of Baze's head but he pushed it away, not willing to think about what he was sure she was referring to. "Aaand?"

"Oh, come one Baze, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Today is her… birthday."

"Yeah," Baze sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. I've just been trying not to think about it."

"Me too. But, uh, listen, Baze. She's, uh, sixteen today."

Baze swallowed. He knew what his wife was talking about, but he didn't think he could face it. "Look, Cate, I know we promised ourselves we would check but… but she probably has a life and we can't just go barging in when we gave her up-"

"She is the same age we were when we had her! I need to make sure she's okay. I need to- I need to see that we did the right thing." Her voice was agonized, guilty, and even though Baze had his reservations, he understood completely what she was feeling.

"I guess… I guess we could check in with Social Services, just see how she's doing…" He trailed off, not knowing what else to say. It had been sixteen years, sixteen years since he had made the hardest decision of his life, sixteen years and 5696 days of wondering if she was okay.

"Okay," Cate sighed deeply. "I'm on my way home, will you ask Tay to come out and help me with the groceries?" Baze frowned slightly at the change of subject, but he said goodbye to his wife and hung up the phone.

His firstborn daughter was 16 today. Baze didn't know how to feel.

—

Lux's POV

"I learned it really early on," Cate said. "The only person you can trust is yourself. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for heartbreak." Lux nodded as she mindlessly stared out of the bus window, Portland passing by. With every mile the bus advanced, she found herself dreading more and more her arrival at the house she'd been calling "home" for the past two months. Her eighth foster home was nowhere near the worst, but she never felt safe taking a shower with her perverted foster brother Stewie lurking around trying to catch a glimpse. Plus, with the amount of cigarette smoke floating around the ratty house, Lux was sure she'd catch lung cancer from second hand smoke inhalation.

At least Mira Foster didn't give her a curfew. If Lux came home any later than 12 am, she'd catch her Foster mother snoring on the couch, her freak of a son too busy playing stolen video games in his room to be concerned with her late reentry. That gave Lux plenty of time to hang out with her real family; Tasha, Bug, and Gavin. Those three had been with her through thick and thin, and now, on the rare occasion that both Tasha and Lux were in different foster homes at the same time, it was harder to find some family-time.

"Hey, is this seat taken?" Lux was shaken out of her reverie when a voice penetrated her bubble.

"Uh, what?"

The guy looked at her like she had grown an extra eye. "This seat," He pointed to the empty seat next to Lux. She didn't really want him to sit there, but she didn't want to be rude.

"Go ahead."

"Thanks," The man sat down heavily, setting two plastic bags on the floor, and looked at her.

After a few uncomfortable seconds she snapped. "What?"

"Sorry," He stammered. "You… Do I know you from somewhere?"

She eyed him. Clean pressed shirt, grey suit, shined loafers. Definitely not from her world. "Nope, sorry," She said, making sure to add in a little attitude for good measure.

"Oh." Lux was surprised to see that he looked sad for a moment. His bluish-grey eyes stared at the floor for a minute before he straightened and extended his hand for her to shake. "My name is Baze."

She took his hand reluctantly, surprised at the change of pace and gave it a little shake before pulling back. "Lux."

"Cool name."

The silence almost became unbearable. She tried to focus on the Morning Madness episode, one she had recorded from a few months ago, but couldn't. The guy was just making her uncomfortable. She sighed.

—

Baze's POV

Baze didn't know what came over him. He didn't make a habit of introducing himself to strange teenage girls on the bus, especially ones who seemed so uncomfortable with his presence. There was just something about this one… despite the blonde hair there was something about her posture, unusually straight yet simultaneously slightly intimidated, like she was pretending to braver than she was…it was Cate's exact posture when she was faced with a difficult situation. Even the girl's snark and attitude reminded him a little of his wife. He suddenly found himself overwhelmingly curious about this girl… Lux. He knew there was no way it was his… daughter (He still had trouble thinking about it, but he knew that her birthday had him imagining things)… but why was she alone on a bus at 1 o'clock? He could tell she was nervous by the way she kept rubbing her thumb and forefinger together comfortingly.

"So, where you headed?" He tried to make his tone light and nonchalant, but when her eyes widened slightly and she scooted away a little, he realized what a creep he sounded like. "Sorry, that sounded creepier than I meant it to be." She didn't answer, and he decided he would keep up the conversation, even if it ended up being one-sided. "My wife sent me to buy ingredients for breakfast tomorrow and my car wouldn't start," He confided. "She works really early so I had to do it now."

There was silence for a few more moments and then a small voice answered him, "What's your wife's job?"

He smiled inwardly at his success. "She's a radio show host. She's, uh, Cate from Morning Madness. You know it?"

He was surprised when her eyes lighted up and she opened her mouth excitedly. "Do I know it? I listen to it every morning!"

"That's cool! Do you-" Baze's question was cut short when a short announcement blared through the intercom declaring their impending arrival at a station.

Lux stood up. "This is my stop," she said quietly. Baze stood up quickly to let her pass.

As she stood silently in the small walkway waiting for the bus to stop completely, a tall, tanned man stood up to stand behind her. After a few moments, Lux stiffened. Baze watched, a little worried, as she whirled around, crossing her arms furiously. "If you want to walk away with that hand, I suggest you keep it away from my butt," Her voice was loud enough for the whole bus to hear, and many people turned to glare at the guy. He held his hands up in surrender, and Baze could swear he saw a little glimmer of pride on Lux's face before she was swept with the crowd and walked of the bus, her head held high.

Baze leaned back heavily into the seat, impressed but also somehow feeling like he had been run over with a bulldozer. Who the hell was this girl?

—

Cate's POV

Cate cleared her throat as she walked bleary-eyed into the kitchen, careful not to wake her husband and daughter. Even after two years of the same job, she still wasn't a morning person, especially when it was 5 and she had to get ready for work. She smiled as she saw that Baze had indeed gone out and bought her favorite cereal last night, and had left her a note with a single sentence scrawled on it: Made appointment with Social Services for today at 3 love Baze.

Cate smiled a little, her heart fluttering with excitement. Ever since she had given up her baby girl 16 years ago, she couldn't stop thinking about her. Finally they could check that they had done the right thing.

The morning commute was screwy, but no more than usual. She smirked at her co-host and best friend Ryan as she sat in her chair. They had dated for a few months before she got together again with Baze, but in the end they had both decided that they were much better off as friends.

"Good morning Portland!" Ryan started off with his spiel, and even as Cate talked into the microphone she was only half aware that she was even talking, her mind was focused on the Social Services meeting that she had with her husband at three. "Alright, we gotta go to commercial break, but we'll continue this in a few minutes!" Ryan finished, and the moment they were clear he flung his headphones off and scooted closer to his co-host. "Okay, Cate, you tell me what's going on!" He demanded.

"What, nothing!" Cate protested.

"Please, spare me. You were like a robot out there."

Reluctantly, Cate told him the whole story, from the back of Baze's car during Winter Formal, to that day at the hospital where the two sixteen-year-old's signed away their parental rights and gave their little girl to Social Services, to the impending meeting with a case worker. Ryan was a good listener. He didn't interrupt once, and set a comforting hand on her shoulder when she choked up. There was no judgement in his gaze, and just that simple acceptance was enough to almost make Cate crack and break down sobbing. But she wouldn't let herself.

The rest of the show went quickly, with Ryan covering her each time she spaced out she allowed herself to give up even less brain power for the show. By the time it was over, she had thoroughly psyched herself out and was almost trembling with anticipation.

She met her husband at a coffee shop near the Social Services building. "We have an hour until Tay gets home from school," She reminded him and he nods comfortingly, rubbing her shoulders.

—

Fern's POV

Fern sighed as she shuffled some papers and then looked up at the hopeful couple in front of her. This was… unusual to say the least. Birth parents wanting to just "check in" on a child they had given up for adoption more than ten years ago? Forget unusual, this never happened. She was totally unequipped for this type of situation, but she knew what she had to do. "I'm sorry, you guys," She said, trying to look remorseful. "You guys gave up all your parental rights when you gave her up for adoption. I can't give away any of her information to you."

The mom leaned forward. What was her name? Cate? "But… we just want to know if she's okay… did she get adopted?" There was a tinge of desperation in her voice and Fern would have felt sorry for her if she had not been asking for Fern to do something that would get her fired.

Fern shook her head. "The only person who has the authority to tell you that is Lu- your daughter. And to be honest, I am not going to tell her about you."

Baze looked shocked. "Why not? Doesn't she deserve to know?"

"Does she deserve to know that the two people who gave her up, who didn't want her, suddenly need to know what happened to her after sixteen years? Probably, but I think that would cause more harm than good. Kids who have been given up for adoption have major abandonment issues. If she chooses to contact you, that's fine, but I won't be involved." Fern stood up, suddenly feeling weary after a long day. "I'm going to get some coffee. Would you two like anything?" As the couple shook their heads, she exited the room quickly, thinking of Lux.

Her charge of 4 months was difficult, but not for lack of trying. Fern had tried, she had, to give Lux good homes but it was difficult to place a teenager. She didn't know exactly what the other case workers had done for the girl, but she could sense that Lux had been through much more than she let on.

If she was completely honest with herself, she wished she could tell Cate and Baze everything. They had been sixteen, could anyone blame them for their decision? But her focus was Lux, and she knew that this new development was likely to traumatize the girl as much as comfort her. Fern was not prepared to take that chance.

—

Cate's POV

The moment Fern left the room Baze stood up and strode to the large metal file cabinet in the corner. "Keep watch," He said as he rifled through the files. "She took the last name 'Cassidy', right?"

"Yeah," Cate agreed, before straightening up. "Baze, we can't look at her file! That's a felony!"

His eyes were fierce as he grabbed a file. "Do you want to find our daughter or not?" He grabbed his phone and took a hurried picture of each page.

Cate heard the clickety-clack of high heels against tiles and whisper-screamed, "She's coming back!"

Baze stuffed the file back and took a seat next to her just as Fern opened the door and walked in.

Cate leaned forward, "Please," She held her hands out together. "Please, just her name."

The case worker sighed as she sat down. "Her name is… Lux." Taking note of the confused faces in front of her she smile a little. "It means 'light' in Latin. A nurse named her that because she's blond and you two have dark hair."

Cate glanced at her husband. "Lux." She sighed, letting out a long breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Baze looked shell-shocked, but she didn't know whether it was because of the name revelation or the fact that he had just committed a felony.

It didn't matter.

Her daughter had a name.

Lux.

—

Baze's POV

The car ride home was silent.

Her name rang throughout his head.

Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux-

"She's blonde," His wife sounded like she was holding back tears.

A blonde Lux. His mind flashed back to the feisty girl on the bus the last night. Could it…?

"Hey, I've got to tell you something," He spoke softly to Cate. She turned to him expectantly, and as they passed through traffic he told her his little bus adventure, and about the mysterious blonde girl who loved Morning Madness and had deflected the attention of the tall man. The girl who's name was Lux.

When he was done they were quiet. "What did you get on your phone?" She reminded him, and he pulled out his phone to check the pictures. The words on the pages were blurry, proof of his haste, but the small picture in the corner was unmistakable.

"It's her," Baze choked out. "Oh my god. Cate— I sat next to our daughter on the bus."

Cate let out a choked sob and covered her mouth with one hand while steering expertly with the other. "How was she? Was she okay?"

"Yeah, I guess she seemed fine." he scrolled through the pictures again and his eyes lit up on a small section of text that was still legible. It was a list of names… "Cate, honey," He didn't know how to tell her.

"What?" She sounded panicked.

"She was never adopted." Cate stared at him with wide, scared eyes. "She's been in foster care for 16 years."

His daughter. Foster care. The last place anyone expects to find their long-lost daughter is on a bus at 1 in the morning. It's just their luck, he supposes, that they had to lose her more than once.

They had made the wrong choice the first time around.

They would fix it.