"Oh my god," Stef sighed, slumping down on the couch and holding her stomach. "I ate way too much," she whined.

"Ditto," said Brandon, easing himself onto the arm chair.

"Did you really just say 'ditto'?" Mariana snickered. "Not only is that word from like 2005, but it's a word from 2005 used by preteen girls," she informed him.

"Well excuse me for not taking more time to ponder the appropriateness of my jargon when I feel like I'm about to explode," he replied dryly.

"I second that," Jesus added, walking slowly into the living room as well. "You know me, I can eat anything and even I'm stuffed. I'm even fuller than after the time I ate that large pizza in under twenty minutes."

"When did you eat a large pizza in under twenty minutes?" Lena asked, eyebrows raised.

"Never mind that," Stef interrupted, faintly recalling it was her and Jude that had playfully dared Jesus to finish the pie. It's not like they actually thought he was going to do it. Lena was gone and she and the boys were home alone, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but she knew Lena wouldn't see it that way, which is why she had never found out. And she wouldn't find out, if Stef could help it.

"I think we can all agree that Alex picked a good place, yes?" she asked, quickly diverting the subject to something other than the pizza dare.

"Yes," Jude nodded, giving a thumbs up.

"Good decision," Callie added.

"Why thank you," Alex smiled.

She'd picked the Italian place where she'd gone with the Foster kids the second night she arrived. It's not like she knew many other restaurants, and she remembered she and the others enjoying it. It was fancy enough to satisfy Stef's quotient of a "nice, celebratory establishment" and affordable enough to pacify her own concerns about the cost. It was a nice, delicious medium that even reminded her a bit of how far she had come with them since their first outing there.

"I'm exhausted," Stef yawned from her place on the couch.

"It's not even ten," Mariana laughed.

"Yeah, well, I'm old," Stef argued back.

"So you're allowed to call yourself old, but when I do it I get chased around the house with a newspaper?" Jude asked playfully.

"That's exactly right," Stef said.

"That seems a bit illogical," Callie added, pulling Jude near her in solidarity.

"It's completely logical," Stef countered, her eyes narrowed at the two. She would've cracked a smile had it not been for her serious façade. The two actually looked like siblings. They looked like brother and sister in this moment – as it should be – instead of the mother/son image she'd grown accustomed to. It made her heart melt.

"How is it logical?" Jesus grinned from his chair.

"Because," Stef nodded solemnly, "I'm the mom. I make the rules."

"Sounds extremely reasonable," Lena agreed. "I think an early bedtime tonight also sounds extremely reasonable."

"I am pretty tired," Mariana yawned. "Why is that?"

"Big meals make you tired. It's scientifically proven," Alex stated, remembering the brief biology lesson Lena had given her a few days ago, straying from math for awhile to brush up on other areas for the quick-approaching GED exam.

"Very good," Lena nodded, winking at her. "Excess food can cause lethargy. And why is that?" she questioned, quizzing her.

Alex bit her lip, wracking her brain for the answer. "Because…" she began slowly, "because foods that are high in carbohydrates or fat trigger a…a…" she squinted, trying to find the correct word.

"Parasympathetic," Lena helped her out.

"Right!" Alex nodded. "And the parasympathetic response slows the body down and demands rest," she finished.

"Excellent," Lena beamed.

"Is that why everybody always takes naps after a Thanksgiving meal?" Mariana inquired.

"That's exactly right!" Lena nodded. "Wow, we have some smart children," she grinned, elbowing Stef.

"I'm not your child," Alex pointed out teasingly; mock-insulted she was excluded from the compliment.

"You might as well be," Jesus added without thinking.

"Yeah, you fit right in," Callie said with a small smile.

Alex swallowed thickly, humbled and almost honored the others thought of her like a sibling. But a little part of it hurt, too, because she wasn't. It wouldn't be a bad thing if she were; in fact, secretly she wanted nothing more. But she never would be, and that was the difference. The glaring difference was that she didn't really belong. That this was all supposed to be temporary, and she would never truly fit it with the rest of them.

Sure, she was half Frank's. She shared half her DNA with Stef, but the other half was her mother's. That side of her didn't belong here, and no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she hoped, it never would.

Stef cleared her throat, seeing the conflict and sudden discomfort on Alex's face. She didn't know the cause, but she knew it was time to clear the room and give Alex a bit of space.

"All right, smarty pants, why don't you go get ready for bed," she suggested. Then added, when she heard several groans, "if someone wants to shower tonight and not fight over it in the morning, I'd go now," she prompted, the comment doing the trick. Four pairs of feet went flying up the stairs, Lena's familiar chastisement about running in the house following them as they ran, loud and competitive as a herd of buffalo.

"You okay?" Stef asked, running a comforting hand through Alex's hair. It was obvious she wasn't completely comfortable with any of her soothing gestures yet, though Stef noticed her flinching was lessening considerably whenever she initiated contact, which relieved her a bit.

"Yeah," Alex said, shaking off whatever internal turmoil had obviously just occurred. Between her and Callie, Stef was amazed how some people could turn her emotions on and off like a light switch – though the amazement was primarily concerning.

"All right," Stef said, letting this one slide.

"What about you, bud?" Lena asked Jude, the only one of the kids who had stayed downstairs. "You need something?" she asked, mirroring Stef's actions by running a hand over his head, smoothing his hair.

"I just wanted to talk to Alex for a second before bed," Jude explained. "If that's okay…" he said tentatively.

"Sure, of course you can," Lena nodded.

A few seconds elapsed, no one moving before Jude added. "Um, well, I was kind of hoping it could be alone?" he said, his voice rising like a question.

"Oh, privacy is needed, huh? Must be juicy," Alex raised her eyes mischievously, causing Jude to smile.

"Ugh, you guys and your secrets are no fun," Stef rolled her eyes. "But I suppose we could leave you two alone for awhile."

"Can we? I'm not convinced we can trust them," Lena said suspiciously.

"Oh come on," Alex replied. "We're more trustworthy than Stef. It's your wife you have to worry about."

"You have a point," Lena nodded.

"Uh! Okay, wow. Now that officially everyone has insulted and ganged up on me tonight, I guess it is time for bed. And for the record, you all are now dead to me, the whole lot of you," she said dramatically.

"We're finally getting rid of her, Jude. Our plan worked," Alex stage-whispered, consequentially feeling a sharp slap to her backside a moment later.

"Goodnight," Stef growled through her gritted teeth. "I hope you enjoyed your birthday, even though you certainly didn't deserve it with that attitude," she said, planting a harsh kiss on her forehead before softening. "But seriously, I hope you had a good day," she said, smoothing her hair once more, taking Alex's face in her hands. "Love you," she said

"Love you too," Alex responded, so softly it was almost inaudible, though Stef heard it loud and clear. She smiled, kissing her forehead one last time before walking away.

"And goodnight to you, Jude," she said, making her way over to her youngest son. "Though I warn you not to fall into the habits of these older hooligans lest you be prepared to face my wrath and a dreadful fate," she squinted her eyes menacingly before giving him a squeeze.

"Okay," Jude giggled at her serious tone, returning her embrace before breaking away and hugging Lena as well.

"Goodnight you guys," Lena said, beginning to walk up the stairs.

"Night, babies," Stef waved over her shoulder, on her wife's heels.

"They're so touchy-feely, aren't they?" Alex stage-whispered again to Jude.

"Yeah," he replied, loudly whispering back. "But I kind of like it."

"Me too," Alex said back, shutting the shower curtain door behind them, leaving the living room and two widely grinning moms behind.

xx

"Did you have a good birthday?" Jude asked, flopping onto Alex's bed, making himself comfortable as Alex quickly changed into a pair of sweats and an old, oversized t-shirt in her closet.

"I did," Alex smiled, wadding the clothes she'd changed out of and throwing them in the laundry hamper in the corner. "It was really good," she said, sitting cross-legged, facing him. "Mostly thanks to your amazing decorating skills," she winked.

Jude smiled. "It was nothing."

"It definitely wasn't nothing. If it was nothing, would I have them hanging on my special bulletin board?" she asked, motioning above her head where she'd now accumulated Jude's math test, the get well soon card Jude had made for her, and now the poster Jude had made this morning for her birthday.

"You only have my stuff on there," Jude said.

"I haven't found anything else worthy enough to hang up," Alex shrugged. "It's like my little Jude-shrine."

Jude giggled, but didn't make a move to start more conversation.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Alex prompted.

Jude shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know. I just wanted to talk."

Alex nodded. "That's cool."

"I kind of wanted to tell you a story," he said, picking at the fuzz on Alex's blanket.

"I'm up for a story," Alex rubbed her palms together. "Is it a horror story about ghosts or something? Because if so I might want to plug in my nightlight and use the restroom first so I have smaller chance of peeing my pants if I get scared."

Jude laughed. "It's not a scary story. It's a happy story."

"Oh, that's even better," Alex smiled, folding her hands, patiently waiting for him to start.

"It's about my first birthday here. It's not long and it's not really important, I just thought maybe you'd want to hear it since it's your birthday and maybe you'd want to know," Jude rambled, biting his lip, suddenly nervous this had been a stupid idea. Would Alex really want to hear a story that was barely even a story about his birthday?

"Of course I want to hear it!" Alex reassured him, flipping over to lie on her stomach, propping her chin on her hands and looking up at him expectantly.

"Okay," Jude nodded shyly. "Well I turned thirteen a couple months ago, and when I went into the foster system, they messed up my birthday by a couple of days."

"Whoa, seriously?" Alex asked, disturbed by this. "They effed up your birth date?"

"Well yeah," Jude said. "It probably happens more often than you think. There are a lot of kids in the system so a lot of the information gets mixed up."

Alex nodded, though she was still unsettled by this. They couldn't even get the kid's birthday right? She knew Jude and Callie had had a hard time, and that Jude had endured way worse things than a fudged birthday, but it still hurt her to know something that simple was stolen from him. That the state didn't see how sweet Jude was and what he deserved and how much his birthday should matter. It hurt her even worse that Jude didn't seem that bothered by it, that it was just a fact of life to him.

"Anyway, it had always been this secret between Callie and me, which was kind of cool. This year Callie did this thing where she hid thirteen clues for me."

"Like a scavenger hunt?"

"Sort of," Jude smiled, excitedly recalling the memory. "She'd put them different places, like on a chocolate bar in my backpack or have cupcakes delivered at school, and each clue would have a different word on them."

"What'd they say?" Alex asked, wide-eyed and intrigued.

"The morning of my birthday she came up here with the book Hansel and Gretel and they connected to say 'Then all anxiety was at an end…'"

"'And they all lived together in perfect happiness,'" Alex joined him with a smile. "I read that book when I was little."

"My mom read it to Callie and me too," Jude beamed up at her. "And it was really cool because the last word, happiness, was downstairs on a balloon where the whole family was waiting."

"Let me guess, with the Spectacular Foster Birthday Pancake Cake," Alex rolled her eyes.

"Yup," Jude laughed. "It's our specialty."

Alex laughed. "Well that's awesome, Jude. That must have been really fun."

"It was," he agreed. "And it was nice to feel like people cared about me enough to do something like that, you know?"

"I know," Alex nodded. "You helped me feel like that this morning for sure."

"I really did?" Jude asked softly.

"You really did," Alex confirmed with a sincere smile. "Now, you should probably get to bed before Stef really does get suspicious of us plotting her demise."

"We should play a prank on her," Jude said, his eyes widening as he got the idea.

Alex laughed. "Another night, buddy. I'd like to live to see tomorrow. And geez, kid, when did you get so rebellious? Taunting Stef," she whistled, "that takes guts."

"You have guts," Jude shrugged. "And I know you'll always back me up."

Alex smiled. "That I will," she said in validation. "Now seriously, go to sleep before Stef comes down and kills me for keeping you up too late."

"I'm going," Jude laughed, pulling back the shower curtain and walking out, leaving Alex to her thoughts.

Alex closed her eyes, trying to shut down her thoughts. She was exhausted. She'd been going nonstop since her unexpected wakeup call from Stef, and she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before since she'd been talking to Andy.

It'd been a good day. A really good day. She was exhausted, but the good kind, like after you run a marathon. Worn-out but happy, drained but content.

She sighed, however, when she felt her phone as she rolled over. Groaning, she got up from bed and walked into the kitchen to charge it for the night.

She plugged it in, set it on the counter, and rubbed her eyes, tiredly heading back to her room.

"Shit," she sighed, pausing when she heard a vibration. It was like déjà vu all over again from last night. The second she wants to sleep, she gets popular. Typical.

She rolled her head back and reluctantly made her way to her device, although her heart pounded as the possibilities started rushing through her mind. She felt herself clam up and grow pale. It could be Andy telling her something had happened with her mother. What if she had gotten worse? What if there was bad news? What if she had passed…no. She wouldn't let herself even entertain that thought for a second.

She breathed out a sigh of relief when she read the message. Thankfully it was just a short, standard wish.

Happy birthday. Hope you're well. ;)

However, her relieved mood quickly changed. Her breath instantly caught in her throat, and she felt herself freeze up when she glanced up at the sender. It was him.

Jackson.

Uh-oh. Alex's ex-boyfriend finally makes his return. How'd you like this chapter? What do you think is going to happen now that Jackson's made contact? I'd love to hear any ideas you may have and any feedback you're willing to give me on this chapter. Thanks for all your reviews! (And maybe drop me a comment to wake up to? I have to get up at four in the morning tomorrow to leave for a family vacation, and waking up to a review would probably make that a less painful experience :))

Thanks Liz and Grace for you help.