AN- So we are almost to the end of this story. I see about 5 or 6 more chapters. If you want to see anything before it ends let me know and I'll try to incorperate it. I'm already working on playing around with a jump off story of Cole and finding his way out of Girl's United.

Stef put on a sweater. It had been a long three weeks. The first week and a half Callie had slipped back into cutting, which made for many sleepless nights for her and Lena. To their knowledge (and they checked every day) she had only cut once in the last ten days. It had taken three weeks to get the information on Cole and then get the state's and Cole's permission to see him. It was Saturday which was family day at the group home he was in. After a lot of discussion it was decided both her and Lena would take Callie to see him.

Stef felt bad for the boy. Learning more if his story they discovered he sold his body after his mom kicked him out to live on. The only drugs he'd taken were hormones. The woman that lead the group, Rita, said he had never had a visitor in the five months he was there. It was obvious this Rita woman, who Stef had went and spoken to a week ago, felt very strongly about him. If she had to describe it as anything it would be the way she protected Callie, Jude, B, and the twins. Rita had made it very clear that they better not be there to hurt him in any way.

"Mom, are you ready?" Stef turned to see Callie in a nice shirt with a stack of bangles to hide the recent cuts and the scars from a few months ago. Her hair was in two french braids that Lena had done for her. Something Callie had been doing more and more when she needed time with Lena, asking her to braid her hair, "Mom," Callie said again. Stef realized she must have trailed off for a second.

"Just about, Sweets," Stef said as she brushed her hair into a ponytail, "Where's Momma?"

"Downstairs waiting for you," Callie said, "She says we'll be late if you don't hurry up."

"We'll leave in just a minute," Stef said, as she took one last look in the mirror before turning to her daughter, "How are you doing, Bug?" she asked, sweeping a couple wisps of hair that had fallen onto Callie's forehead, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm kind of scared to meet Cole," Callie shrugged after a moment "What if I do or say something to offend him?"

"I don't think you will, Bug. But I'm guessing if you do say something, it'll be so minute to what others have said he won't care. Just treat him like a human. You already talk about him with respect. You respect the fact that he sees himself as male." Callie nodded, wrapping her arm around her mom's waist and giving herself a side hug quickly.

"Come on, let's go meet my brother."

Stef laughed and shook her head as she watched a light in Callie's eyes that she hadn't seen in quite a while. Callie ran into Jude downstairs, "Cals?"

"What is it, Baby? I have to go meet with Cole," Callie said as she quickly kissed his forehead.

"Are you going to tell him about me? I mean, that you have another brother, even if I'm not really his'?"

"Of course, I'm going to tell him about my amazing little brother," Callie smiled, "But to do that I have to go see him." Jude nodded, hugging Stef quickly before running back to the video game that he was playing.

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Callie sat in the car looking at the big house across the street. It could be anyone's house, she thought to herself. No one would ever know that it was a group home full of problem foster kids. Greenery covered the front of the house and she could make out a couple benches on the long front porch. But in the house was full of foster kids. Ones that did drugs or were sexually volital or any of the other reasons foster parents didn't want you. Or they maybe just drew the short end of the stick.

"You alright, Hun?" Lena asked. Callie looked up to her moms both out of the car, standing and waiting for her. Getting out she quickly walked to Lena and wrapped her arms tightly around her middle.

Lena looked over Callie's shoulder to Stef with an expression. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"Thank you," Callie whispered finally.

"For what, Baby?" Lena asked, placing her thumb under Callie's chin and raising it to look at her.

"For bringing me home when it would have been easier to let them send me to a group home," she said as tears filled her eyes.

"It was that look there that made me know you belonged with us. Because I can't stand to see those tears," Lena said as she wiped a few stray tears from Callie's cheeks and pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her forehead, "I love you, My Sweet Girl."

"I love you too, Momma," Callie said, breaking the embrace as she saw a couple other people going into the house. Stef stood on the sidelines and watched the tender interaction between her wife and daughter. Outwardly it usually seemed she had a stronger connection with Callie, and Lena with Jude. But she knew there would always be that part of Callie that would always go to her Momma. Because it was ultimately Lena who brought her into the family. As the two walked around the car Stef pulled Callie into a sideways hug and kissed her temple with a smile. She could see Callie become outwardly nervous as she walked up the steps and knocked on the door. The door was almost immediately opened by who Stef suspected was Cole. His blond hair short on the sides and longer and curly on the top, wearing a button down fleece shirt and a pair of khakis. Behind him was the woman she met last week, Rite. A heavy set woman with wavy long black hair and a serious expression.

She waited a moment to see if Callie or Cole would speak to one another. Just as she was about to say hi, Rita beat her to it, "Welcome you guys, come on in. We have some games and cards set up if you guys want to play," Stef was guessing she was giving them an importunity to do something besides sit and stare uncomfortably at each other.

"Hi, Cole, I'm Stef," she smiled warmly as she shook his hand once they walked in. Rita had backed off but was still keeping a pretty close eye on them, "This is my wife, Lena, and my daughter, Callie."

"Hi," he said as she watched him shake both of their hands. They stood there for a minute before Callie took the lead,

"So, umm, do you like playing cards? We could start a game of some kind."

"I don't know much other than like, Uno, but sure," he shrugged, making Stef and Lena smile.

"You guys are so going down," Stef teased, making Cole look at her with an odd expression.

"Yes, she's always like that," Callie said with a laugh and an eye roll, "She's pretty competitive."

"Great, someone that'll be fun to beat," Cole said with with a smirk.

Stef shook her head. In some ways she could see the boy was much like her daughter. She and Lena sat next to eachother on one side on a coffee table as Cole and Callie sat on the other, Stef dealing cards to everyone.

"So where's you're mom?" Cole asked after a moment. Stef stopped a beat, a breath holding in her chest as she watched Callie's face turn stony for a moment.

"Umm, she died when I was nine. A car crash. Umm, I went into the foster care system. My dad, I mean Donald, went to prison. Is wasn't until my moms were trying to adopt me that I found out Michael was my father."

"So how long have you been with them," he said, nodding his head to Stef and Lena.

"About a year," Callie shrugged, "Lena took my in right out of Juvie."

"Brave," Cole laughed.

"Yeah. So anyways," Callie said, changing the subject.

"Do you have any siblings?" Cole asked.

"Oh, yeah, Jude is 13. He's my half brother. Mariana and Jesus are 15 and Brandon is 16."

"Wow," Cole muttered to himself, "a big family."

"You guys, the girls and Cole have made us a lunch if you all want to come into the kitchen," Rita called.

"But we usually don't eat until 5," Cole said with his eyebrows crinckled.

"Well, I decided we're eating early," she said with a raised eyebrow.

Stef watched as Cole and Callie sat their cards down. She silently thanked Rita. Guessing that she had seen the interaction between the two teenagers. "This looks great, Cole," Stef said, setting a hand on his shoulder as she grabbed a plate.

"We don't let her in the kitchen," Callie told Cole with a smirk, "Last time she had flames. She had put oil on high."

"We take cooking lessons twice a week, it's pretty fun. You guys should see if you could take a class with us. It's open to the community, at the community center every Tuesday and Thursday."

"Oh, Mom, that would be fun. We should go," Callie said as her eyes lighted up. It was something she loved to do, and was pretty good at, "It would help relieve Momma of some of the cooking."

"I'll look into it, Sweets," Stef smiled. In her head she was already working her work schedule around. Anything that got Callie out of the house was a good idea.

Callie and Cole sat back on the couch as Stef and Lena made their way towards Rita, "It seems like it's going pretty well between the two of them," Lena remarked to the woman.

"It does. How d you think Callie is handling it, I was the moment of hesitance. One thing about Cole is he doesn't beat around the bush."

"She seemed fine," Stef assured her, "Cole asked me and Callie if we would look into the cooking classes."

"Let me just say one thing. Don't get close to him if you're just going to drop him. He's been through enough," Rita said, looking over to where Cole and Callie where laughing.

"We really want Callie to have the importunity to get to know her brother. And that won't change once she's adopted. And if our kids are involved, we are."

"So I take it you're coming next Saturday?" Rita asked as a way of her approval.

"We'll be here," Stef smiled as they made their way back to the two teenagers.

"A week seems like a long time," Callie said as they were getting up to leave and Cole walked them to the door.

"For you, we are kept busy from 7 in the morning to 9 at night. 6 days will go by fast."

"Well, Bud," Stef said wrapping her arm around him for a moment, "don't get in any trouble and make it so we can't see you, got it? I call a rematch."

"Yeah," Cole smiles.

"We'll see you next week, Buddy," Lena said patting his shoulder.

"See you Saturday, Lena."

Callie surprised them all by hugging Cole quickly, "It's nice to know not all my family isn't asshats," she said quietly, making Cole smile.