A/N: Thank you guys for all the feedback! I really appreciate it. To one of my guest reviewers, it's funny that you mentioned wanting a Stef perspective, because here it is! Hope you all enjoy it and as always, please let me know what you think!

Chapter Three

Stef Foster couldn't remember the last time she'd lain awake in bed all night. She supposed the night before she'd told Mike she wanted a divorce came close, but nothing had wreaked havoc on her mind the way Callie's departure last night had. The way that woman had been able to barge into their home and rip their daughter away like it was just procedure…Stef honestly thought she would have punched her in the face if it hadn't been for Lena's arm holding her back. It wouldn't have helped Callie any, but it would have felt good. At that moment Stef needed something good to hold on to so she would continue to have hope.

Resigning herself to a stressful day in the courthouse, Stef got out of bed as quietly as she could so as not to wake Lena and shuffled into bathroom to get ready. The alarm wasn't set to go off for another hour, but she wasn't about to wait around when she knew sleep was futile. Every moment she spent waiting around was another moment Callie was who knew where, and the thought was too much to bear.

After finishing up in the bathroom, she went through her closet until she found the smartest outfit she could find. She settled on a white blouse and black trousers. After straightening her hair, she put on the matching black suit jacket, then appraised herself in the mirror. She looked about as far from a police officer as she could get, which was what she'd been aiming for. The judge needed to be reminded that she was a person, not just a cop, and she had Callie's best interests at heart. She and Lena both did.

Stef knew it was her imagination, but as she hurried downstairs as quietly as she could, she thought the house was quieter than normal. It certainly hadn't been her imagination how somber the atmosphere of the house had been after Callie had been taken away. Everyone had been subdued and quiet. Even Jesus had eventually told Emma that it would probably be better if she went home early. Emma had been nothing but understanding, giving Stef another reason to like her. Everyone was in agreement after that point: they needed to get Callie back.

After making a thermos of coffee and taking a banana out of the fruit bowl on the counter, she got in her car and drove the twenty minutes to the courthouse. She was prepared to make a day of it, which was why she'd called the captain to inform her there was a good chance she wouldn't be coming in that day. She'd expected a fight, but the captain had been nothing but sympathetic. "Go get your girl," she'd said.

Stef planned to do just that.

The inside of the courthouse looked no different than it did on the day of Jude's adoption. The lobby was large and intimidating, full of people going about their lives who didn't give her a second look. In one corner there was a young girl surrounded by a family of five who looked as joyous as it were possible to look. They were most likely adopting the girl, who looked nothing like the rest of them but still obviously belonged with them. Stef's heart ached for her own daughter, who should've already been adopted and home with them. Stef shouldn't have to be back here, fighting to get her daughter back home. The girl had already suffered so much. She didn't need to fight yet another battle.

"Excuse me," Stef said once she approached the receptionist's desk.

The woman behind the desk looked up and plastered a large smile on her heart-shaped face. "Hello. Can I help you?"

"Yes. I need to speak to Judge Ringer as soon as possible, please." Stef fought hard to keep her voice under control.

"May I ask what it is regarding?"

"My daughter, Callie Jacob, was taken away last night by social services and I need to file an emergency extension to get her back."

At this the woman frowned. "Your daughter? If she is your daughter, why do you need an emergency extension?"

Stef sighed angrily. "My foster license expired. We were in the process of adopting her, but it fell through at the last minute and we…the license expired before we could renew it."

"Oh. She's your foster daughter." The woman relaxed in sudden understanding. Stef fumed silently, wondering why people insisted on putting the term 'foster' in front of daughter, as though Callie couldn't be hers without a simple piece of paper. "I see. I'll let the judge know you're here, but he's a very busy man so I can't promise he'll see you right away. Can I have your name, please?"

"Stefanie Adams Foster." It was all she could do not to snap at the woman. All she had to do was tell the judge it was concerning Callie Jacob and he would know who was waiting for him.

"I'll let him know you're here." The woman indicated the waiting area in a clear dismissal.

Stef sat down and poured herself a cup of coffee from the thermos. All she could do now was sit and wait.

She waited.

Waited.

Waited.

And waited some more.

She'd gotten a text from Lena around eight, just as Anchor Beach had started classes for the day. Everything okay? Didn't hear you leave.

At the courthouse waiting to see the judge.

No sooner had she sent the text did Lena call her.

"You're there now?" Lena asked, sounding mildly surprised.

"I told the captain about what happened last night, and she was nothing but supportive. I'm not leaving here until our license is renewed. Honestly, Judge Ringer ought to give us an extension, seeing how he's preventing us from legally adopting her." Stef could hear the bitterness in her voice but couldn't seem to stop it. It seemed she was full of bitterness these days.

"We can hope. Honestly, I can't get over how defeated Callie looked last night. It was almost like she'd been expecting it to happen. That poor girl has been through so much already. She doesn't deserve this."

"I know, love. Let's just hope the judge sees it that way."

"He better." Stef smiled at the fervor in her wife's voice. "She came to school today."

"You saw her? How was she?"

Lena hesitated half a second before answering. Stef noticed, and was almost afraid of the answer. "She appeared fine. She just…I don't know. Seemed off somehow."

"Well of course she's off, love. She's not in her own home. She's living with some stranger who we don't even know."

"Yes, but it seemed like more than that." Stef could tell Lena was having a hard time trying to explain whatever it was she noticed about the girl they'd both come to love as one of their own. "She seemed distant."

"You don't think anything happened…" Stef trailed off, not wanting to even suggest it.

"Let's hope not. I'm going to try to find some time to talk to her today. I don't want to pull her out of class because that might make her feel that something is wrong, but I don't want her going back where she's staying without me having talked to her. That would send her the wrong message she certainly doesn't need to be receiving."

"I completely agree with you, love. You do what you can on your end and I'll do the same thing here. With any luck both of us will come home with good news." Stef was determined to.

An hour in to her wait, she went up to the receptionist to check on the judge. "It's been an hour. Are you sure he knows I'm here?"

"He knows you're here. He'll see you when he can," was the only answer she got. When the shifts changed and the previous receptionist went home, Stef went up to the new one and repeated the whole ordeal to her.

"I'm really sorry, ma'am, but he has at least one more case to oversee before he'll even be back in his office. Are you sure you don't just want to come back on Monday? I can schedule you an appointment." The receptionist indicated her computer, her face full of sympathy and regret.

"I don't have until Monday. My daughter is in a strange home with people she doesn't know, and she needs to be back in her own bed. Are you sure there isn't anything you can do?"

"I'm really sorry," the woman repeated. At least she had the decency to look it, Stef thought. "But it's the best I can do."

Stef stood gaping at the woman, who probably had no idea what it felt like to be torn away from everything she knew in the middle of a family dinner. To wonder where her next home would be, or whether she would be safe. Stef had to admit she didn't know what that was like either, but at least she was doing everything in her power to make sure Callie was safe.

"I'm going to wait here until he's available." Stef turned before the woman could say another word and sat back down in her chair. At least she had coffee.

By noon Stef considered asking Lena to bring her something to eat, but quickly dismissed the notion. She couldn't ask Lena to skip her lunch hour just to bring her food. The drive was just too long and Lena needed to be where she was. If Callie saw that Lena was gone she might wonder what was going on, and Stef didn't want her to feel any more abandoned than she already did.

Stef resigned herself to hunger because she sure as hell wasn't going to leave the building and give Judge Ringer the opportunity to get away. She didn't even want to go to the bathroom, but she couldn't not do that.

After a while Stef began to notice that people were starting to stare at her. No doubt they were wondering why she'd been sitting there so long and why. Court proceedings could be notoriously slow, but never did they require people to sit around and wait all day. Stef didn't pay them any attention. Let them wonder.

Around four her phone buzzed again with a call from Lena. "Hey babe. Just wanted to let you know that I'm taking the kids home. Callie got picked up by her foster mother. Mariana said she'd been avoiding them today in class. Have you seen the judge yet? I'm starting to worry about her."

"No", Stef replied. "According to the very helpful receptionist, he's been quite a busy man today."

"I'm sure," Lena scoffed. "Well, don't give up. Callie needs to come home. I don't know if I was imagining it or not, but she seemed distant today."

"Well, the stress of everything going on is probably getting to her. I can't say as I blame her. If I'd been through everything that Callie has, I'd probably shut down a little bit, too." God knew Callie could use a break, Stef knew. That girl had been through enough disappointment to last a lifetime.

"Well, I'm going to get dinner started. If you aren't back we'll save you a plate. Just let me know what happens."

"Will do. Bye, love."

Lena's observations about Callie only renewed Stef's determination to wait it out until the judge finally decided to grace her with his presence. If Callie was already withdrawing after only one night, Stef knew it would only be a matter of time until she decided to run again. And she didn't think any judge would give her a third chance, no matter how long and hard she and Lena fought for her. What kind of system could treat kids like objects to passed around, and then punish them when the effects of that treatment had taken its toll? Stef couldn't blame Callie for all her issues. All she could do was be there for her to help her through them all, but how could she do that when they wouldn't let them be under the same roof? The injustice of it all made Stef want to scream. And to top it all off, Callie would think she and Lena had failed her, as everyone else in her life had failed her.

So she went up to the receptionist's desk for the fourth time that day. "I've been waiting for eight hours now. I need to see the judge. I don't care how busy he is or whether he's overseeing a case. My daughter isn't at home with me, and I need to fix that. Now."

The receptionist's eyes widened at the sudden outburst, and it was obvious that she was nervous. Stef began to hope that she'd finally gotten through to the woman. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. "Ma'am, I understand that you're frustrated, but you need to wait until the judge is available. I can't just interrupt a court proceeding. There are procedures…"

"Do you think I give a damn about your procedures?" Stef snapped. "I have a girl who I can't adopt because we need permission from a man who walked out on her before she was even born! And now I can't have her in my house, with my four other children, just because some piece of expired no longer has a valid date on it. Do you think that's fair? It's certainly not fair to my daughter. She's the one suffering because of all your damn procedures. Now are you going to summon the judge or not?"

After a moment's hesitation, the woman said, "You're right. None of it's fair, but if I interrupt a court proceedings, I could lose my job. The best thing you can do is make an appointment for Monday morning and tell him all this yourself. Otherwise there isn't anything I can do."

Stef knew she wasn't going to get anything else out of the woman. It was pretty clear where she stood on the issue.

Hating herself, Stef finally nodded. She had to look down so the receptionist didn't see the utter defeat she knew colored her features. "Fine. Monday morning."

She left the courthouse, feeling like she was emerging from a cave. She didn't quite have the heart to tell Lena their baby was going to have to stay in whatever foster home she was in for the weekend. She certainly didn't have the heart to tell Jude. All she could do was go home and pray to a God she didn't even believe in anymore for Callie not to give up hope.

Unfortunately, knowing Callie, she knew that might just be asking for a miracle.