A/N: Thanks for sticking with me! It's going to be a wonderful ride.
Trigger warning: Mentions of Ben being raped is in this chapter.
Language warning: Some swearing is used in one of the scenes in this chapter.
Chapter Fourteen: The Road To Chaos and Goodbyes
Emily woke up in Ben's arms a couple days later; they were sleeping on the pull-out couch and Ben was already awake. Ben had been up for a couple of hours trying not to wake his girlfriend because he had a nightmare, but when she finally stirred he spooned her from behind, kissing the back of her neck.
"Good morning beautiful," he said kissing her when she turned around.
"Morning handsome," she said kissing him back. "How long have you been up?"
"Uhh not long," Ben said unconvincingly.
"Couple of hours?" She asked looking at him straight in the eyes.
"I didn't want to wake you, but I couldn't sleep after that nightmare." Ben said as his phone rang.
"Next time please do," Emily said just like Lena would.
"Alright, Lena Adams Foster," Ben said rolling his eyes when he looked at his phone. "Stef is FaceTiming me."
"Well answer it." Emily said.
Ben slid the answer button, "You do realize it's 6:00am here, yes?" Ben said after it connected.
"Yeah well, I also know you and Emily are getting up to go to work." Stef said with her arm around Lena.
"Good morning Stef and Lena," Emily said playfully shoving her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Good morning Emily," Stef said, "Y'see that's how you should answer your phone, Benjamin."
"Whatever Stefanie," Ben muttered as he handed the phone to Emily and got up to make coffee.
"What's wrong with him?" Lena asked when he walked away. "He normally IS a morning person."
"He had a nightmare last night and dealt with it by himself." Emily answered.
Both women sighed, "Oh that boy," Lena said softly.
"He really needs to know when to ask for help," Stef said.
"Yeah, trust me sissys, I know." Emily said. "He's working on it."
"How is it?" Stef asked changing the subject. "How are the kids?"
"The younger twins are arguing about something and have been since the morning you left, Jude is okay, and Brandon is with his band right now."
"What are Jesus and Mariana arguing about?" Lena asked worried about the two.
"Not sure, they're arguing in Spanish and Ben is doing his best to keep them from not killing each other." Emily said.
"Ben?!" Stef called.
"Stop yelling, your kids are still asleep." Ben said coming and cuddling with his girlfriend again. "What's up?"
"What are the twins arguing about?" Stef asked.
"It's not important," Ben said looking at his girlfriend.
"It is if they are still arguing," Stef said.
"It's nothing you can deal with in Pennsylvania," Ben said.
"WHAT are they arguing about?" Stef asked again.
"Seeing Ana," Ben answered to get his sister to shut up, but regretted it when he saw both women's eyes widening. "Look, they aren't going to do anything while you're gone. That's not why they're arguing."
"Then why are they arguing?" Stef asked almost in a command like way.
"Jesus thinks that seeing her will only cause more drama and Mariana wants some closure." Ben said.
"Well how messy is their arguing?" Lena asked. "No swearing or name calling right?"
Ben rose an eyebrow at his sister-in-law, did she not know how teenagers fight and argue?
Lena sighed, "Alright, we'll deal with it when we get home," she said.
"How is it going over there?" Emily asked successfully changing the subject. "Has Stef broke down crying yet?"
Stef squinted at her baby sister, "Noo," she said.
"C'mon Stef," Emily said, "if you don't breakdown in front of Callie, you'll do it in front of Brandon."
"I'm not having a breakdown," Stef said. "I'm proud of my babies."
"Yeah, but you're going to miss them," Emily said, "Speaking of which, where is Callie?"
"Having breakfast with Mike," Stef said. "And we're doing dinner with her tonight after she officially moves in this afternoon."
"Looks like they're is a plan in place," Ben said.
"How are Brandon and Jude?" Stef asked.
"Jude is good," Emily answered. "He's actually going to go to work with Ben today."
"And Brandon?" Stef asked knowing if this was hard on her, Lena, and Mike it had to be hard on him.
Ben and Emily simultaneously sighed, ever since Callie left he had been with the band, but he also spent late nights locked in his room with headphones playing his keyboard. He's said all about two words to them since the early morning.
"He's not really talking," Emily said. "He's with his band all day and then by himself playing music with headphones late into the night."
"It's almost like Callie died or something," Ben said softly. "He misses her a lot."
Stef sighed, "I knew this would happen," the blonde said.
"I was thinking about talking to him tonight," Ben said. "Gain some perspective on what's going on in his head."
"We appreciate that honey," Lena said as she was visibly rubbing her wife's back. "We appreciate everything that you're doing for us."
"If the roles were reversed, you'd do the same," Ben said wrapping an arm around Emily. "I have it handled Stef," he reiterated to his sister. "Don't worry about it."
"I'm going to worry about it," Stef said. "It's my baby we're talking about here."
"I'll handle it," Ben said. "Focus on one baby at a time."
Stef sighed, "You're right," she said.
"I'm sorry?" Ben just said, "What did you just say?"
An amused smile came onto Lena's face, "I wouldn't push it if I were you buddy," Lena said.
"Just saying, between the three of you, I've never been right before," Ben said. "Let me have this moment.
The Adams sisters chuckled and Emily kissed Ben's cheek as the Elkin-blooded siblings shared an intense stare down like they always do in these situations.
"So are you nervous kiddo?" Mike asked Callie at the breakfast they were having together.
"About living on my own and going to school? Yeah," Callie admitted. "I'm going to miss life back home."
"I'm going to miss having you around," Mike admitted. "Uh thanks for having breakfast with me this morning."
"You don't have to thank me, Daddy." Callie admitted softly.
"You probably could've had a better breakfast with your mom and Lena." He admitted looking at the box of donuts that sat in the middle of them in the rental car.
"We did this in San Diego," Callie said, "when it was just me and you before my soccer games. Lena would get so mad that you fed me sugar before a game or a tournament."
"It was our little tradition," Mike said. "I'm really sorry that I left you and B hanging all those years."
"Daddy," Callie said softly, "I understand. It had to of been hard for Mom to leave you for Lena like that."
"I still should've been there," Mike said regretfully. "I still should've called more."
"Daddy, stop beating yourself up." Callie said, "Brandon and I, we understand and we don't think any less of you for it. Sure maybe at the time we did, but it's just because we missed you. We've forgiven you though. Both of us."
"Your mom told me that you were struggling with the divorce still when Ben came into the picture," Mike said, "I'm sorry."
"Daddy," Callie said, "really stop apologizing for stuff. I know you love me. So does B."
Mike nodded, "I uh got you something," he said, "since we're missing your birthday by a week."
The father pulled out a box from his sweatshirt pocket and handed it to his daughter, "Oh my god," Callie said softly, "You didn't have to."
"I saw it and thought of you," he said as she looked at the necklace in the box. "And don't worry, it wasn't too expensive, but I'm still not telling you how much I spent on it."
"Thank you Daddy," Callie said softly and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "This is sweet."
"I'm glad you like it, Cal." Mike said with a smile.
"The website is down," one of Ben's business partners came in around lunch time.
Ben looked up from the paperwork he was going over, "What do you mean the website is down?" Ben asked.
"It crashed," Jonah, his business partner said. "We can't get onto the server."
"Shit," Ben said under his breath, very aware that his youngest nephew was in the room. "How long has it been down?"
"Ten minutes," Jonah said.
"Fuck," Ben said under his breath again, "ten minutes and you didn't think about telling me?"
"At first we just thought it was the computers that needed to be restarted," his other business partner Raider came in hearing the explicative under Ben's breath, "and then we thought it was the server. And now, we're finding out that it's the entire website... annnd the server."
"Please stay calm," Jonah said watching Ben fume. "For the sake of our employees and the sake of your teenage nephew." He added reminding the man that Jude was in his office.
"Alright," Ben said looking over at Jude who wasn't really paying attention to anything except the handheld game in front of him while listening to music. "I'll bring it back up, " he said roughly running his hand through his hair. "Sarah, I need you to postpone my meeting with Emily."
"She's already in the conference room," Sarah said.
Ben started walking to the conference room, "Hi," he said in a hurry.
"Hi," the lawyer said seeing the man visibly distraught. "What's up?"
"The entire website and server went down," Ben said, "I need to bring it back up. I have to postpone this meeting."
"Ben," Emily said seeing how stressed out he was, "do I need to take Jude with me?"
"No, no, I should have it back up in two hours tops," he said. "I just - what's up? Why this impromptu meeting?"
"You're being sued." Emily said simply.
"What?" Ben said, "What for?"
"When are you going to give your editors and reporters the plagiarism talk that you probably heard every semester in college?" She asked in a serious professional tone.
"God dammit," Ben said under his breath.
"I really hope you aren't talking that way in front of our nephew," Emily said, "Lena will have your behind."
"He's listening to music playing a video game," Ben said sitting down.
"Go bring the website and server back up," Emily said standing up coming behind him rubbing his shoulders. "Then we'll talk about this."
Ben took a deep breath and said, "Okay."
"Also, somebody by the name Lilliana Rosemont got in contact with me knowing that I'm your lawyer and said she wanted to speak to you. I'm not sure why she needed to talk to me about it. Does that name ring a bell?" Ben's eyes went wide and his entire body went stiff. Emily rubbing the man's shoulders felt the stiffness, "Ben? Who is it?"
"Alright," Stef said opening the door to Callie's dorm room, "here we are."
Callie took a deep breath, closed her eyes, counted to three, and then walked into the dorm room to see that her roommate was already in the room.
"You must be Callie Foster," the girl said.
"I am," Callie said putting her soccer bag on the empty bed.
"My name is Bailey James," she said, "I'm your sophomore roommate and teammate on the soccer team." She added warmly. "Welcome to Penn State."
"Thank you," Callie said softly. "These are my parents."
"You can call us Stef, Lena, and Mike," the man said as he stuck his hand out as the women nodded their heads.
"Yeah, no need for formalities," Stef added.
"It makes her feel old," Lena jokingly added shaking the girl's hand.
Bailey laughed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing," she said, "but this is really funny."
Callie smiled softly, "So uh, I take it this empty bed is mine?" She said.
"Oh yeah, I hope you don't mind." Bailey said.
"No, no, it's cool." Callie said. "Just wanted to clarify."
"For sure," Bailey said. "Definitely. I have to go meet up with my parents for lunch. So I'll give you four the room."
"Sounds good," Callie said, "uh it was nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting to you too, Foster. Welcome to the team." Bailey said. "And it was nice meeting you three as well," she said shaking the three parents' hands again before leaving the room.
"She seems nice," Mike said once she left the room.
"Yeah, really sweet," Lena added wrapping her arm around Stef's shoulders.
"Which is good," Stef said. "It'll make living here easier."
Callie nodded and turned to her soccer bag on the bed, "Yeah," Callie said softly trying to discreetly wipe a tear away, but Lena caught it.
"Hey slug-a-bug," she said softly, "are you okay?"
Callie tried to brush it off by saying, "Oh yeah, I'm fine."
"Baby," Lena said as another tear escaped her eye. "Talk to us, let us up there," she said pointing to Callie's head.
Now both Stef and Mike were alert to what was going on, "It's okay sweets," Stef said. "You can tell us."
"Yeah kiddo," Mike said, "we're here for you."
Callie turned around to her three parents, still trying to hold back tears, "It-it just hit me," she said. "Everything just hit me. I'm really going to miss you."
The moms were surrounding Callie immediately comforting her and it took Mike a moment to crouch before her to grab her hand, "We love you," Stef whispered into her eldest daughter's ear. "We love you so much."
"We're always going to be here for you," Mike said. "We're going to miss you too."
"It's not going to be easy without you," Lena said, "but this is a good thing. You growing up and moving out is a good thing."
The moms simultaneously kissed her temples and Callie looked down at her father and smiled softly, "We love you kiddo," he said reiterating his ex wife's words.
The four of them stayed in that position for awhile before getting up and setting up Callie's side of the dorm room. Every so often with Stef and Mike sharing knowing looks that this wasn't going to be easy for them either, but it was for the best.
"So let me get this straight," Emily said to Ben as they were making dinner for their nephews and niece, "Lilliana Rosemont is your dad's girlfriend who sexually assaulted you at 16?"
"Yes," Ben said simply as he was putting the cheese on the homemade mac and cheese that they were making.
"Don't you have a restraining order against her?" Emily asked.
"It was only for five years," Ben said putting the pan in the oven. "It's been about seven since it happened, so she could've contacted me directly I guess."
"Why didn't you get a permeant one?" Emily asked.
"Because I didn't have you as a lawyer when I was 16," he said grabbing a beer out of the refrigerator. "Because my dad figured that she wouldn't contact us after she spent time in jail. Because my dad didn't think things through."
"Okay," Emily said softening her voice. "I'm not just your lawyer, I'm your girlfriend as well."
"When did you become my personal lawyer?" Ben asked. "Because we hired you for the company."
"And everybody in San Diego County knows that," Emily said. "She figured I was the only person she could contact to get in touch with you. So we'll set up a time in the near future, she'll say what she has to say and then we'll get on with our lives. Who knows? Maybe you can get some closure out of this. I mean you admit to the fact that she's the reason why you're having nightmares. You need closure."
Ben stared at his girlfriend understandingly because she was right. He was about to say something when they heard the front door open and shut.
"I'm home," Brandon called out into the house, "what smells so good?"
"Dinner," Emily said as the teenager came into the kitchen. "It should be ready soon."
"Cool," Brandon said. "I'm starving."
"Why don't you go wash up and get your siblings?" Emily suggested. "It should be ready in like ten minutes."
"Sounds like a plan," he said kissing his aunt's cheek and giving his uncle a fist bump.
When Brandon left the room, Emily said, "He seems to be doing better."
"He probably is just processing it all," Ben said. "It's not an easy thing to process. I know Leo struggled with it when I left. I can't imagine if it were a twin. They understand each other better than most people do."
"Yeah, you're right." Emily said, "So Lilliana Rosemont... should I make it a go?"
"Can I think about it?" Ben asked. "I mean, can I?"
"Of course baby," Emily whispered into a kiss.
The two stood their kissing for a few minutes, it was really some of the only time they had alone. Emily pulled away when she heard footsteps of her nephews and niece. She knew they couldn't stand it when they caught their moms making out in the kitchen like a couple of teenagers; she couldn't imagine how they would feel seeing their aunt and uncle doing the same thing in the same kitchen.
"What's for dinner?" Jude asked coming into the kitchen.
"Homemade mac and cheese," Emily answered as Ben pulled it out of the oven. "We promised your moms that we'd feed you something decent while they're gone."
"Sweet," Jesus said coming into the kitchen pulling out the ketchup from the refrigerator.
Ben's eyes went wide, "Why are you pulling out the ketchup?" He asked.
"You didn't know?" Mariana asked coming into the kitchen, "Jesus puts ketchup on everything."
Ben made a cringe face, "Look," the man said, "I can't judge you because I once was the kid who put ketchup on broccoli, but how mad does your mama get when you do this?"
"She just get irritated," Jesus said. "No biggie."
Ben rolled his eyes and said, "Well my mother would be insulted if you put ketchup on her homemade mac and cheese recipe." He said.
"Who said she had to know?" Jesus said and earned a glare from his uncle, "Okay, okay." He said with his hands up putting the ketchup back in the refrigerator.
Everyone sat down and started dishing up dinner, but instead of it's normal chaos, it was actually pretty quiet compared to the muttering in Spanish from Jesus and Mariana with Ben trying to be the moderator.
"Guys," Ben said, "look I know you're wanting closure from your birth mom," he said to Mariana, "but you can't expect him to." He said gesturing to Jesus.
"Thank you," the boy said.
"And you can't expect your sister to not want closure." Ben said looking at the boy.
"How could you not want closure?" Mariana asked.
"How was your days?" Emily asked Brandon and Jude trying to change the subject. "Good?"
"Yeah, yeah," the two boys said nodding their heads.
"Because she is a addict and a user and she never cared about us," Jesus said back to his sister. "Because if she did, she would've gotten her act together."
"Everybody makes mistakes Jesus," Mariana said. "We did. A lot of them. And this family forgave us. Maybe it's time we should forgive Ana and move on."
"She's a user." Jesus spat making Emily look at Ben to stop this argument before it went somewhere it shouldn't have. "She doesn't care about us. It just makes her feel good that she apologizes. It's all about her and her guilty conscious."
"Hey," Ben said, "can maybe we have this conversation after dinner? Where your brothers can have a choice whether or not they want to listen to this conversation?"
The twins looked from each other to everyone else at the table, "Sorry," they both muttered.
"So what are your plans for the rest of the evening?" Emily asked. "Anything cool?"
"Jesus and I were going to play this new video game we got," Jude said looking at his roommate with a hopeful smile.
"Yeah," Jesus said ruffling Jude's hair, "if that's okay with you two?" He asked his uncle and aunt who were in charge of them for the week that their moms were gone.
"Yeah," Ben said, "we have some work stuff to handle."
"I was just going to watch some Netflix and hang out in my room," Mariana said softly.
"What about you Brandon?" Emily asked.
"Uhh well, Callie text me on my way home and said that she wanted to FaceTime and then I was just going to work on this song that the band and I are working on." He said looking up at his aunt.
"Already?" Jesus asked. "She's been gone two days."
"Jesus," Emily gently chastised. "I think that's great buddy," Emily said looking at Brandon.
Brandon nodded, "So who's suing you?" Brandon asked. "I mean, if you have work stuff to work on and she's your company lawyer..."
"The Chronicle," the couple said in unison. "My reporters can't seem to not plagiarize." Ben muttered. "Lucky it wasn't the whole article this time."
"That sucks," Brandon said taking a bite of his food.
"Did you get the server and website back up?" Jude asked. "I know that caused a lot of chaos in the office today; especially the newsroom."
"Yeah," Ben smiled softly, "everything is backed up. We had a lot of traffic going on the website."
"Does it have anything to do with the fact that your reporter plagiarized?" Brandon asked.
"Probably," Ben said. "I'm not too sure."
"Well, we'll be quite tonight and be sure to stay out of your hair." Brandon said looking at his siblings who nodded in agreement.
"I mean, if you need something," Ben clarified.
"But, only if we need something," Brandon said in a voice that reminded Ben a lot of Stef.
Silence fell in the kitchen before Jesus looked up at Mariana and said, "Fine."
"What?" Mariana asked.
"When moms get home, let's get closure from on drug addict of a birth mom," he said making everybody at the table look at him. "It's time."
Mariana nodded with a soft smile, "It's time," she repeated.
"What looks good?" Stef asked her wife and daughter as they sat at a restaurant for dinner.
"Food," Callie said simply making her moms laugh.
Lena grabbed the girl's hand from across the table, "You doing okay baby?" The curly haired woman asked.
"If you're referring to earlier when I broke down crying than, yeah, I'm better." Callie said softly.
"That's good," Lena said caressing the back of the girl's hand with her thumb. "You seemed better when we left for a little while."
"Everything just sunk in at once," Callie said. "And then the front I've been keeping up all week just came tumbling down when the realization that in a few days, you'll be leaving and I won't see you two or my dad until Thanksgiving and-and I wonder if this is going to work."
"Okay, it's okay," Stef said putting down the menu and moving to the other side of Callie who was trying to focus on her breathing as the small rant came to an end. The mother helped her daughter through a small panic attack and then wrapped her arms around her.
When Callie's breathing settled down and she placed her head on Stef's chest, Lena took over, "First off, you never should have to feel like you have to have a front up for us," the principal said. "We want you to feel like you can come to us, no matter what," she emphasized.
"Yes," Stef agreed kissing her daughter's temple.
"And secondly," Lena continued, "we are so proud of you. You worked so hard to get here baby."
"Really hard," Stef agreed with her wife again.
"And it's going to be hard to say goodbye in a few days," Lena said. "But, we'll always be there for you from San Diego." She smiled softly at her oldest daughter.
Callie nodded and said, "I love you."
"I love you too," the couple said in unison.
"I'm really hungry," Callie said after a few moments of silence.
Stef let go of her daughter and moved back to sit next to her wife as she said, "Yeah, me too."
"You two are always hungry," Lena joked to the mother-daughter duo.
"We live extremely active lives." Stef defended.
"Well, I do," Callie said jokingly earning a glare from her mother.
Lena chuckled kissing her wife's cheek, "At least she didn't call you old," the curly haired woman said.
"How can I call you old when you're going to be a mother of a newborn within the next year?" Callie asked smiling fondly of the fact that she was going to be a big sister soon.
The couple smiled softly at the girl, "Yeah," Lena said softly as the waiter came to take their orders, "how can she?"
"When are you two starting the process?" Callie asked when the waiter walked away.
"When we get back," Lena said as Stef grabbed her hand under the table.
"It's going to be an adjustment to the other twins and Jude," Callie said. "A baby crying all throughout the night."
"Yeah," Stef chuckled, "Mariana surely won't get the beauty sleep she says she needs."
Lena chuckled and said, "She's fond of the idea though."
"Who isn't?" Callie asked, "Babies are beautiful."
"Yeah," Stef said looking fondly at her wife, "they are."
Ben knocked on Brandon's door that night and when he heard a muffled, come in, he opened the door to see his nephew sitting in front of his keyboard.
"Hey bud," Ben said walking in.
"Hey Uncle Ben, what's up?" Brandon asked.
"I just wanted to check in," Ben said. "You've been quiet since Callie left."
Brandon shrugged, "As creepy as it sounds, it feels like part of me left when she did." He tried to explain.
"Maybe if you explained it differently, it wouldn't come off so creepy." Ben joked as he flipped through the vinyls next to the keyboard. "But, I think I get what you mean."
Brandon chuckled, "Callie understands me better than anybody, myself included sometimes. And now, she's just gone." He said. "It was that twin telepathy at its finest. I would know when she wasn't doing well, she would know when I wasn't." Ben smiled at the boy, "And now she's gone," Brandon continued. "They got us ready for this all through school and yet it's still hard for me."
"What do you mean? How'd they get you ready for it?" Ben asked, not understanding.
"My mama thought it would be good for our growth if we had different classes," Brandon began to explain. "That way we had two separate groups of friends and we weren't dependent on each other all the time. In high school, we had the same teachers just different periods. Like when I would have math, she would have English, and vice versa. That way if we needed help with our homework, at least one of us would understand it."
Ben nodded understanding now, "I think I get it," he said.
"Yeah," Brandon said, "but it's better for her to do it this way. She wouldn't be motivated here."
"What makes you say that?" Ben asked.
"She would be stuck," he tried to explain, "relying on our moms and our dad. She wants to become an Olympic soccer player, she wants to play in the big leagues, this is her home. She feels comfortable here. It's why I'm moving to LA too. I'm too comfortable here."
"Ahh," Ben said understanding, "I get it now."
"Yeah," Brandon said turning back to his keyboard.
"I'll let you get back," Ben said, "I just wanted to check in."
"Thank you," Brandon said. "I appreciate that."
Ben reached out and squeezed the boy's shoulder, it made Brandon inwardly smile because that's something his mom would do, but he didn't bring it up because he knew better than that.
Ben walked out of the room and walked back downstairs to see Emily texting somebody, he sat down next to her on the pull-out bed and asked, "Who are you texting?"
"Oh, it's just an ongoing text message I have with Stef and Lena," Emily said.
"You have one of those too?" Ben asked wrapping his arm around his girlfriend.
"I think it started with me," Emily said placing her head on his shoulder. "How's B?"
"Good," Ben said, "I think he's processing a lot right now."
"That would make sense." Emily said. "Did you check on the other kids?"
"Yeah before talking with Brandon," Ben said. "Jesus and Jude are playing a video game and Mariana is watching some vampire thing on her computer."
Emily chuckled, "Can you imagine this in ten years with your own?" She asked.
Ben chuckled, "I try not to think out that far," he said. "It scares me a little."
"But, is that something you would want?" Emily asked.
Ben nodded, "Yeah, eventually." He said. "I've always wanted to be a dad and a husband."
Emily smiled, "I didn't always want to be a mom or a wife." She said, "And then Lena met Stef who had Brandon and Callie. That kind of changed my perspective on things," She smiled fondly thinking of her oldest niece and nephew.
Ben started running his fingers through Emily's curly hair and they fell into a peaceful silence, Emily was enjoying Ben's hands gently running through her hair and then Ben said, "I want closure."
Emily looked up, "With Lilliana?" She asked.
Ben nodded, "Yeah, it's time." He said.
"Are you sure?" Emily asked.
"I just want the nightmares to stop," Ben said running his fingers through Emily's hair, "it's time for closure."
"Is it what the younger twins were arguing about?" Emily asked.
"Kinda," he said nodding his head.
"Okay," Emily said, "do you want me there with you?"
Ben shook his head, "I think this is something I have to do alone," he said as Emily nodded in understanding.
The sat in silence for a little while longer, then the thought occurred to Emily, "When are you going to tell our sisters?" She asked, speaking her thoughts.
Ben chuckled, "After it's all done and over with," he said. "Stef and Lena worry like no other."
Emily chuckled, "I'll set it up then." She said.
"Thanks my love," he said kissing her forehead. "I really appreciate it."
A couple of days later, Stef stood with tears in her eyes out on the balcony of their hotel room. She had been distant for the past couple of days helping Callie settle down and as it hit Callie a couple of days before it hit Stef that morning when she woke up.
She was nursing a cup of coffee when she felt Lena's arms wrap around her waist and had her chin on the police officer's shoulder.
"Hi love," Stef said trying to hide the fact that she had been crying for the last ten minutes.
"Hi babe," Lena said kissing her wife's ear. "I love you."
"I love you too, baby." Stef said.
"You've been crying," Lena said.
"Saying goodbye to one today and another one in two weeks," Stef said, "They never said parenting was going to be this hard."
"Saying goodbye isn't always easy," Lena comforted, "but this is how they grow into the strong, smart, beautiful individuals we raised them to be."
Stef took a deep breath, "I'm glad that we don't have to do this for another two years." The blonde said. "I can't imagine back-to-back years of this."
"I think it'll be harder on me next year than you," Lena said making Stef turn in her arms and look at her confused. "Brandon and Callie are your babies, you had a special connection with them since conception. It might be easier with the others."
"That makes me sound like an ass," Stef said leaning forward into Lena's shoulder.
"No, it will still probably be hard on you, but our big twins are different for you." Lena said.
Stef smiled into Lena's shoulder when Jesus and Mariana first came to live with them she referred to Brandon and Callie as the big twins and Jesus and Mariana as the little twins.
"I pray to whoever is out there that we don't have another set of twins," Stef said from her spot with her face buried in Lena's shoulder. "If we do, I'm blaming Ben."
Lena chuckled, "If you keep talking like that, we will get twins." The curly haired woman said.
"I'm too old for twin infants again at least I was in my late twenties, early thirties when I had B and Callie." Stef said.
"You know you just called yourself old, right?" Lena said kissing her wife's head.
"Yeah, I realized that I'm getting there when I couldn't manage to do even a half a night of making love to you last night." Stef said.
Lena smiled when they got back from dinner with Callie the night before, they had done some talking, and talking led to kissing, the kissing led to a full on make out session, that led to clothes coming off, and it lasted two hours before Stef had falling asleep when they were cuddling afterwards.
"It was fine baby," Lena said rubbing circles on her wife's lower back. "I understand."
Stef smiled up at the love of her life, she still couldn't wrap her mind around how this woman could love her for everything that she is, everything that makes her who she is. She considered herself beyond lucky.
"If you ever need us please call," Stef said to Callie as the three of them were saying goodbye. "Promise me?"
"Yes Mom," Callie said. "Though not sure what you'll be able to do about it with a country between us."
"Don't act like Lena's parents aren't that far away," Stef said as Lena went to hug her.
"Bye slug-a-bug," Lena said. "I love you."
"I love you too," Callie said burying herself into her mama like Stef had about an hour before.
Lena unwrapped herself from her oldest daughter and Mike came and took that place, "Goodbye kiddo," he said. "I'm always a phone call away if you just need to talk."
"Thanks Daddy," she said. "I love you."
"I love you too," he said kissing the top of his daughter's head.
That left Stef and Callie to say goodbye, between Lena and Mike, they were playfully taking bets, on which one of the strong, independent women would breakdown first.
"Mom," Callie said.
"You could've done community college and made this easier." Stef said.
"Mom," Callie said again. Stef made eye contact with her daughter. "You're going to miss your flight if you don't just hug me goodbye."
Stef went to hug her daughter, "I love you my baby." She said crying a little.
"I love you too," Callie said. "I promise to call often."
"And video chat?" Stef asked.
"Yeah and video chat," Callie confirmed.
"Okay," Stef said letting go, seeing Callie's roommate who was taking Callie back to campus from the airport waiting. "We'll call when we land in California."
Callie nodded, "Please do, tell the others I love them." She said.
"We will baby," Lena said. "We better get through security."
"Bye," Stef said letting go of her daughter.
"Bye Mommy," Callie murmured as Stef placed multiple kissing on the girl's head.
Callie stood there and watched as her parents walked through security and noticed how her mom held her mama just a little closer and felt a tear roll down her face. Her roommate came up behind her when Stef, Lena, and Mike were out of sight and said, "You ready Foster?"
Callie nodded, "Yeah," she said turning around, "I am."
A/N2: Gave you guys a longer chapter because I'm not sure when I'll be able to write in the coming weeks. The semester is coming to a rapid end and once Thanksgiving weekend is over with (that's filled with family, food, beer, and football), the rest of the semester goes downhill in a fast tornado like way and I need to study a lot. So you may not see me until closer to Christmas. Just a casual heads up.
Thank you again for the love and support - looking forward to continuing this story.