Well the ideas are flying! Thanks for the interaction guys. Love it. How about that promo, huh? Nice and Stef-centric. Just how I like my Fosters promos!

OK, thanks TheTBone and thesameguest for all their help and here is the next chapter!

"He was awesome! How come we've never met him before?" Jesus turned to Stef.

"Do you think he knows Beyoncé?" Mariana asked eagerly.

"I don't think Beyoncé spends much time on the Americana scene, Mariana." Brandon replied with a chuckle as she turned to him disappointed. The small talk and comments too much for Stef to handle she turned to give them all a smile.

"Well he lives far away. I'm going to tidy this stuff up." her voice waned as she passed them by, giving a still sheepish Jude an absent minded squeeze and a kiss on the head as she passed. She didn't feel him seize up with the contact, nor did the family around notice as they were all distracted by either discussing the things they found exciting about Tyler or wondering what had made Stef so self-conscious.

"You know I doubt you've had much time to get your homework done." Lena took the opportunity to disperse the kids to a chorus of various groans.

"You, especially, Jesus." she pointed with her eyed as his shoulders dipped and he ran off, conceding.

"Jude, how did your assignment go?" she turned to him, his throat locking up again.

He felt the note burning in his pocket but couldn't bring himself to reach for it. Every moment he put it off it seemed heavier but every moment he could try to ignore it he felt relief.

"It was fine. You don't need to check up on me." he replied sharply, once again grabbing Kasey's attention who saw him flinch his hand into his pocket as he snapped back from Lena her eyebrows raised at the out of character response. He realised fast that he had to say something more before he was challenged.

"We just found it hard but it's fine. I just want to do it on our own." he muffled out, his eyes darting around Lena's face for signs of what she may say next.

"Okaay." she folded her arms loosely. "I'm just checking in, bubby, you don't need to be short with me."

"I wasn't, I'm sorry." he gulped, Kasey's eyes now intrigued by the movement his hidden hand was making, clearly spinning something around.

"I'm just tired. I need to go finish it." he bolted up the stairs before Lena could comment. She turned to Kasey, the only one who had stayed around concerned by the odd behaviour.

"Something happen at school today?" she asked.

"Not that I know of." she shrugged, spying Callie coming out of the kitchen.

"OK, well keep an eye on him." Lena looked to her daughter briefly as she went to tackle the more imminent issue of her wife.

"Hey, is Jude OK?" she bobbed over. "He was acting kinda...I dunno, guilty?" Kasey whispered to Callie who smiled back with an eyebrow flick.

"I spoke to him earlier. He has a pretty obsessive mind. He got told off in class and I don't think he's recovered. He'll be fine, he always gets a little quiet if he thinks he's let someone down."

Kasey nodded as she followed her sister up the stairs, her eye veering over to her brothers' door. As Callie disappeared into their room she thought for a moment about whatever he was fidgetting in his pocket. She always trusted Callie's instincts with Jude but at the same time she couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it than he would divulge.

Jude sat bundled up on his bed. He was chewing furiously on his bottom lip and examining the note in his hands. Time was ticking and he couldn't avoid this much longer. His teacher was expecting it tomorrow and if he didn't have it signed, Carson would surely just speak to Lena himself.

He barely heard Jesus return from the bathroom but as soon as he heard his voice he tried to flinch the slip away. It didn't go unnoticed.

"You OK, Jude?" He asked with concern, seeing the look of fear on his face.

"I...well..."he twitched the slip in his hand. If anyone could help him with this it would probably be Jesus. He gulped down and held the slip out, Jesus immediately knowing what it was.

He took it up and couldn't help giving away his shock as his eyebrows shot up. "You got a detention?" He replied at just the prime moment for Kasey to be sneaking by the open door.

"I knew it!" She beamed, her eyes sparkling as she bust in the room, closing the door. "I knew something was wrong!"

Jude let out a sharp spurt of breath through his nose, feeling some relief but only in so much as now he could verbalise his panic.

"Moms are going to be so mad at me!" He winced, hopping off the bed and taking the slip back from his brother. Kasey's lip puffed out in genuine adoration at how scared he seemed.

"Aww honey, it'll be fine. We get detentions all the time."

"Yeah, you just gotta roll with the punches." Jesus added.

"But that's you! I don't get detentions! They rely on me to not be in trouble. You heard Lena yesterday!" Kasey pushed aside any momentary offense at the accusation to take a place next to him on the bed. It broke her heart to see him so downtrodden over such an insignificant a crime.

"What were you doing anyway? I reckon Moms will just give you a bit of a disapproving talk about it, you probably won't even get punished." She rubbed his arm in a hug.

"But I lied about it too! Right to Lena's face."

Jesus and Kasey exchanged a slightly more nervous look that Jude immediately picked up on.

"And I thought it was going to be fine but then there's the slip! I mean, you have to get it signed!"

"Yeah..." Kasey gave as gentle a laugh as she could at the implication offenders as acquainted with the system as herself and her brother wouldn't know the motions. "Unfortunately schools have this thing about sorta wanting parents to know these things."

"It's almost as if they expect that kids might lie about it..." Jesus added as Kasey flashed him a look as Jude fulfilled her expected reaction.

"See, they are going to be mad! And I don't even care about them being mad, they've been mad with me before but never about school and I've never lied to them. They're not going to think they can trust me anymore!" The sorrow flowed out of his mouth along with a glisten of water over his eyes as Kasey pulled his downhearted figure under her arm. "Callie's gonna be mad too because I lied to her as well and I never lie to Callie. I just hate knowing that they're going to find out." he buried his head in his hands as Kasey cuddled him in closer.

"OK, OK - don't worry, Jude. It'll be fine. There's no point getting more worked up about it than you need to. These things happen. It's never as bad as you think it's gonna be." She thought back to her first time in trouble at school. She had been much younger but she could understand why something like this would have much more of an impact on her mild-mannered youngest brother.

Jesus flashed a signal to Kasey with his eyebrows which she immediately understood and responded to with a sceptical look. He repeated his motion with more urgency and held his hand out to Jude's dejected figure mouthing "come on...". She breathed out cautiously, mulling over what it was she knew Jesus was suggesting. Something she'd done to keep both of them out of trouble in the past.

"Unless..." she began, almost instantly regretting it. Jude looked up at her hopefully, wondering if there was a lifeline.

"I mean...you did learn from this, right? You know that it was bad what you did and getting detention is a pretty serious thing. As is screwing around in class."

"Of course! I've thought about nothing else. I don't wanna be in this position again." He frowned. "I just got too carried away I guess and didn't really think."

"And you know that lying to Mom is...well..." she tried to work it in a way that would make her not sound like a hypocrite when they reached the conclusion of the discussion. "That lying to Mom isn't really ever a good option. Generally it makes things worse."

"I didn't even mean to do it! She sort of assumed something else and I didn't correct her."

"See, that's practically not even a lie! He barely even did anything wrong." Jesus rationalised, trying to bolster Jude's case. Kasey threw one more look at him, Jude's eager eyes still staring up at her as he tried to figure out what they were about to propose.

"I can handle your detention slip." She finally sighed.

"You're allowed to sign it for me?" He asked confused, showing his innocence as Kasey shook her head with a gentle laugh.

"No, not exactly." She took it off him. "But if you want me to...and only if you want me to...I have been able to forge Mom's signature since about 6th grade."

Jude's eyes widened in hesitation. He wasn't sure he was ready to go that calculated in his disobedience.

"Does that actually work? Won't Moms get really mad if they find out?"

"Oh yeah, they'll kill her. But they won't find out." Jesus added with a shrug. "Like the vast majority of times they don't find out."

"But you have to actually not get into any more trouble for that to work which is why I didn't do it for Jesus any more. I'm trusting that you won't though." She urged him sternly.

"What do you mean?" Jude's eyebrows creased down.

"Well detention slips don't go to Mom, but if you get in more trouble teachers end up having a quiet word with Mom and that's when past issues pop up and they seek out the files and if the form gets across her desk you're screwed."

"Because she knows it's not her signature?"

"God no, you don't sign her signature. You sign Mom's. Always Mom's."

"Won't Mama just tell her anyway?"

"Well yeah, but that way you get that tiny period of extra time to either run, hide or think of an excuse while she focusses her anger on Mom having signed something without telling her."

"Sometimes, if you're really lucky, even Mom will think she did and just wasn't paying attention but there's a lot of skill and luck involved in pulling that one off." Jesus added, Jude amazed at the network of experience and creativity he was learning about this alien world of mischief.

"Ha - or do you remember when Mom was refusing to wear glasses but she was blind as a bat in a box? That was like a signature gold mine!"

"Yeah, till they figured it out..." Jesus smiled nostalgically. Clearly whatever lesson had been learned having washed off in time.

"That's true. But that wouldn't have been nearly as bad if Mariana hadn't screwed it all up for us!"

As Jesus and Kasey reminisced Jude thought hard about what it was they were proposing. It would take the lying to a new level but he did have confidence in their skills at helping him. Kasey wouldn't be risking getting into trouble if they weren't certain. Plus, the alternative was getting harder and harder to face and if this did work he could just make a personal effort and promise that he would never find himself in this position again. It would be an incentive. Maybe knowing it got this out of control would mean he would never want to get to this point again, and really, that was the lesson Stef and Lena would want him to learn anyway. It was just a clean slate. Right?

He bit hard on his bottom lip and briskly handed the form to Kasey. "Just do it." He winced as she took a deep breath and Jesus passed her a pen.

"Oh, wait - before I do. Who is the teacher? Another important factor."

"Carson..."

"Science?" Kasey raised and eyebrow before quickly scribbling Stef's signature down. "That's all good. He's not a narc." She was about to hand it back before one final clarification.

"Unless you do get in any more trouble." She held it back from his grabbing hand.

"I won't. Really! I don't want detention again, anyway." He frowned. "It was so boring."

Jesus and Kasey gave each other another subtle grin at the naivety before Kasey rubbed his hair and climbed off the bed.

"Well now you can relax. It's all done! Just try and forget about it." She assured him. "And not again." She repeated as he nodded. Jesus watching her leave with one last mutual smile of shared affection for their newest family member.

"Well, now that's done - guess it's time to sleep!" Jesus clapped his hands together before casting over to his bed. Jude watched him climb in before looking back down to the form. It'd be fine. He assured himself. This solved everything.

So why did he feel even more guilty?

Stef stood staring out of the window as Mike's car pulled away. Sure, it had gone fine but it didn't quieten the emotions pulling at her gut. She had expected herself to be angrier or to cry. To have had to duck out and break down or to have ended up battering his chest in a fit of tears after he aired some form of sarcastic disapproval. What had happened was nothing like she had anticipated. It felt normal. Laced with paranoia, but still normal. The only thing not normal was how much older he looked. How mature he looked, even in his familiar baseball cap and with his unkempt facial hair - clearly the latest in a string of cosmetic fads he seemed to experiment with every decade. That unsettled her even more. She knew how to react to a Tyler of every age up to ten years ago, but this wasn't that Tyler and yet...she still found them falling into the same routine. That wasn't how it was supposed to go. Not after what had happened. Despite it having an odd sense of familiarity, it didn't make facing it again the next day any more attractive. There was still so much locked down inside her that she knew would eventually escape the longer she was with him.

"Well, that was nice. You two really do seem close." Lena's voice cut off Stef's thoughts as she quickly busied herself collecting the various plates and glasses.

"Well we were. We spent a lot of time together." she shrugged, giving Lena a smile before sweeping into the kitchen.

She knew it was a sign to back off, but Stef's defiance had never won out against Lena's persistence. They both knew that this was a discussion that was going to be had.

"He didn't seem like that much of a bad influence. I mean, yeah, he has stories but -"

"Well I think our son seemed pretty impressed." Stef tried to tease back but it was a transparent attempt.

"It sounded no worse than the kind of stories Mike tells - or you for that matter. Maybe a little more drugs but not in an encouraging way." Lena worked her way round. "It's just a new face telling them."

Stef sighed, dropping the plates into the sink with a splash.

"Look Lena, I know what you're trying to do here and it isn't going to work."

"What am I trying to do here?" She replied, calm and ready for the battle as Stef swung around.

"Trying to - I dunno - get me to process, or psychoanalyse or whatever your spidey sense is telling you to do." She mocked as Lena bit down on her lip, Stef's tone becoming more petulant. "Did I fight with him or lash out? No. It was all fine and I'm fine."

"Honey, it's pretty clear that you're not fine..." Lena barely got the words out before she was cut off once again.

"I appreciate your concern, I really do but please, this is something I need to figure out on my own." She looked at her forcefully before she turned back to the sink, one of the glasses smashing off the side.

"Dammit!" Stef cursed, being more bothered about the weakening of her argument than the broken glass. In perfect timing, Lena progressed to prove her point.

"On your own huh? How's that going?" she bit back sternly to match Stef's tone and moving to collect a dustpan and brush.

"Don't..." Stef braced herself on the side of the worktop.

"Don't what?"

"Talk to me like I'm a teenager."

"Well you're a whatever and a door slam away from being one."

Lena dared her, watching Stef's eyes dart into a glare but knowing the conversation was still firmly in her control. She let it sit for a moment as she swept up the mess on the floor but soon decided to commit to her game plan. She knew that there would be no turning back but she also knew that with the mood Stef was in it was the only way to proceed.

"You can't just shut yourself off, Stef." Lena tipped the swept up glass into the trash, the clatter punctuating her point. Stef watched her movements, the bottled up emotions still manifesting with resentment.

"So...what? I can't be a little frustrated that my long lost cousin waltzes back into my life after ten years as if nothing happened between us?" She replied deadpan and stubborn though unintentionally confirming Lena's suspicions about what it was this had really been about. She took a deep breath hoping the pause may calm her wife.

"And what did happen?" She finally spoke, smoothly, determined to only use her horns if a more sensitive approach wasn't an option.

Stef looked to Lena, her mouth twitching before darting her gaze around the room. She wanted to think she just couldn't bring herself to say what was causing this anger but the truth is she wasn't even sure of the specifics herself.

"Do you know the last time I properly saw Tyler?" She finally responded, deciding a ballpark figure would be best. She knew that Lena could read her like a book and giving her some meat to work with may at least get her off her back.

"I can take a guess." Lena sat against one of the stools. "Was it at that family party?"

"Good guess." Stef replied bluntly before folding her arms and awaiting the response.

"So you think that he had a problem with you coming out?" She interpreted as Stef's foot now danced a trace around the floor.

"I know he did. It's taken him ten years to look at me again."

Lena exhaled deeply, knowing how deep the memories Stef was thinking of would be cutting her. In time she had forgotten some of the details of Stef's coming out process, so much had happened since, but she knew that particular part of it was one of the worst elements. When she came out to her wider family, and only barely under her own control. She had never tied it with Tyler, though, which concerned her even more. It was clear he had been an influential person in her life and if she had left someone like that out of the details they had probably in time been blocked out from herself. As much as she didn't want to de-legitimise Stef's feelings, however, there was still something not quite right about this.

"Honey, I know how hard that was for you. I remember it well and I know there are parts you probably don't want to remember..." Lena ran a hand down her lover's arm, momentarily sending a shiver of comfort through her body but ultimately she rejected it, the hurt she was feeling too strong to soften from any time soon.

"I remember it whether I want to or not, Lena. You don't just forget things like that."

"Of course, you know I didn't mean that." She replied firmly, seeing that she wasn't quite ready for a cease fire. "But honestly, Tyler didn't strike me as someone who had a problem with your sexuality - and I think I can tell people who do. I've had a lot of practice - we both have." She shrugged, her eyes widening in wisdom. "Are you sure you're judgment isn't just a little cloudy and you're piling him in with an event that was unrelated?"

Stef shook her head in disbelief as she turned to look out the window.

"You've spent fifteen minutes with him, Lena. Don't try and tell me about my own family." She whispered back.

"So now he's your family, you've spent the last two days trying to distance yourself from him -"

"Oh, what do you want from me?" Stef shot back, the frustration finally pushing her over the edge. She was trying her hardest not to take her aggression out on the one person who had made it all worth it in the first place, but the banks were already broken. "You wanted him round, he came round. You wanted me to tell you what was bothering me, I have - "

"I want you to calm down - I haven't seen you get this upset in years!" She tried to reason with her but now both tones were ramping and all of Lena was channeling all of her severity.

"Well maybe that's all the more reason he should have just stayed out of it. It was fine! It was all fine until he came back."

"Stef, if you don't want him to come round then he doesn't have to come round but -"

"As if I have a choice!" Stef cut her off, her voice now scathing and sarcastic but quickly cracking into hurt as she felt the tears rising through her throat. "I had no choice, Lena! I did what I had to do. It was him who made the choices in this relationship and I am not going to be made to feel guilty about them." She grabbed her car keys and stormed out of the kitchen as Lena leaned back against the table rubbing her face.

It was pretty clear that Stef's words were more about her past decisions rather than dinner.

Well stuff is definitely getting clearer now I imagine with Stef! A lot of people saw the forgery coming - what's gonna happen with those three now? I'm actually writing the F,N&D that expands the story behind that anecdote Jesus was referring to about when Stef first needed glasses. Watch this space.

Back to this story though, will the Moms find out? What's gonna happen when they do? Provided Stef isn't stuck in the past of course, which brings me on to...

Next Chapter Preview: Stef takes a journey to her childhood where she relives a difficult experience:

"So, hey there was something I was gonna talk to you about." he shuffled round, nervously scratching his hair.

"That can't be good..." she joked prompting a diverted toothy grin as he focussed on picking at the label on his beer rather than eye contact.

"It's just something my Dad said and I wanted to, I dunno, talk to you. I figure we're overdue a talk about this." he got extremely twitchy as Stef's paranoia began to get the better of her. "This is gonna sound crazy but I heard -"

I'd love a review if you'd be so kind...