A/N: Finally, this chapter is ready! Sam helps Samantha deal with her mom being gone so much, and Kayla goes to help one of her foster kids. She and Samantha reach a tentative peace agreement.

When the front door shut, Samantha was still standing in her bedroom door crying. Sam acted on instinct. It had been a long time since he comforted a little girl, but it came back to him naturally.

"Come here, sweetie."

In the corner of Samantha's room, there was a rocking chair. It had been used in Kayla's room from infancy until age eight, when Mary was born. He'd rocked both Kayla and Mary to sleep in it, talked both of them through things that scared them, and nursed endless colds and earaches and boo boos there. As Samantha crawled up into Sam's lap, a memory came to Sam that made him want to smile and cry at the same time.

Twenty-Seven Years Earlier

"Kayla!" Sam had appeared in the door to find Kayla at the crib. "Don't be mean to your sister!"

"She's being mean to me! I'm trying to sleep!" Kayla said grumpily.

"We all are." Sam said as he walked in to pick up Mary. "But you can't get mad at her. She needs our help right now."

"Help with what?"

"Why don't you help me find out?" Sam suggested.

Kayla watched as Sam picked up the still screaming Mary and cuddled her, changed her, rocked her, and fed her. Mary quieted down a lot, but she was still fussing in Sam's arms. Sam took her to the rocking chair that he had once used to rock Kayla to sleep. Just as he was about to fall asleep in the chair himself, Sam noticed Kayla standing at staring at them.

"There's room up here for you too, you know."

"No." Kayla said quietly.

"Please, Kay? Just come sit up here with me?" Sam said. "I miss you."

"You do?"

"Sure, I do." Sam said. "Come on."

"Okay."

Kayla carefully climbed up into Sam's lap. It felt awkward at first, but soon enough she was nestled in his arm opposite Mary. They sat in the dark near silence for a few minutes, before Kayla shocked Sam by breaking the silence.

"She's cute."

"What?" Sam asked.

"Mary. She's cute."

"She is cute." Sam said. "Would you like to hold her?"

"No." Kayla said.

Sam sighed. "Honey, why do you still blame Mary?"

"Because we almost lost Mommy." Kayla said.

"But we didn't, honey." Sam said. "Mommy's here, and she's safe now."

"I don't care. Mary almost took Mommy from us."

Sam shifted a little in the seat. "Honey, will you please hold Mary for me? My arm's getting tired."

"Why don't you put her back in the crib?"

"Because she'll start crying again." Sam said. "Will you please hold her? It'd help me out a lot."

"Okay, Daddy."

"Thank you." Sam said. "Here, sit up a little so I can give her to you."

"I won't hurt her?"

"No. You won't. I promise." Sam said. "Here you go."

When Mary landed in Kayla's arms, she instantly calmed. Her fussing stopped, and she stared at Kayla with big, brown eyes. Sam shook his head in disbelief. Mary had been crying for weeks straight. Figures, he thought. But Sam held his breath when he saw that a smile was beginning on Kayla's lips as she watched her baby sister.

"Hey, Mary. I'm Kayla."

Mary cooed and continued to focus on the sound of Kayla's voice.

"I'm sorry I was mean to you." Kayla said. "I was really scared when Mommy got sick. I know you didn't do it, but I was scared it might happen again."

Mary made another noise, one Kayla couldn't quite decipher.

"Daddy, did I make her mad?"

"No, honey. Keep talking." Sam said. "She likes you."

"She likes me?" Kayla said with a smile. She looked back down to Mary, eyes sparkling. "You like me?"

Mary made another sound that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Sam knew it wasn't a laugh, because Mary was too young for it. But Kayla's eyes lit up with an excitement that Sam had never before seen in her.

"Look, Daddy, I made her laugh!"

"You did, baby. Good job." Sam said.

"Can I sing to her? To put her back to sleep?"

"Go for it."

Kayla turned back to Mary and mimicked her mommy and daddy. All the nights they'd sung to her when she was sick, or sad, or hurting, or just needing attention came back through Kayla. "Rest my little darling, you've had a busy day. The sun is a falling, and it's time for me to say. Hush, hush, little mermaid goodnight. Hush hush little mermaid sleep tight."

Sam had grateful tears in his eyes as he listened to Kayla. A noise took his attention away, but it was only Jess standing in the doorway. She had heard Kayla singing on the baby monitor and couldn't resist not getting up. Sam looked up and locked eyes with Jess, the meaning clear to both of them. We're a family now.

"Daddy."

Kayla was tapping Sam on the knee, breaking his look on Jess and making him jump slightly. "What, baby?"

"She's asleep." Kayla whispered.

"Wow, I guess she is." Sam said.

"Kay." Jess whispered from the door.

"Mommy!"

"Shhh." Jess said, quickly placing her finger in front of her mouth. "Don't wake her up again."

"Oops. Sorry."

"It's okay. Here, let me get Mary back to bed." Jess carefully picked up Mary and placed her back in the crib.

Kayla, her arms now free, hugged Sam. "I'm a big sister now."

"You are a very good big sister." Sam said. "I'm very proud of you."

"So am I." Jess said. "And I have an idea."

"What?" Kayla asked.

"How about you go back to your room and pick out a book for me and daddy to read to you?"

"Really?"

"Really." Jess said. "But just one. It's the middle of the night and you need to go back to sleep."

"Can I sleep with you guys?"

"Sure. Go on." Jess said, and Kayla ran off to her room. Jess smiled, relieved that the animosity Kayla had for her sister was over.

"It's not fair."

Sam was snapped out of his daydream by Sammie, who had finally calmed down. "What, honey?"

"It's not fair."

"What's not fair?"

"I just want my mom." Sammie explained.

"I know you do, baby. I know you do." Sam said. "And your mom wants to be here with you too."

"But she's always leaving."

"She really can't help that, Sammie." Sam said. "When your mom gets a call at home, it means there's a kid in trouble that needs your mom's help."

"I get that!" Samantha said, exasperated. "But she's my mom. I should get her sometimes."

"That's true. And I get that. It's not wrong for you to feel angry or upset that your mom let you down."

"It's not?" Samantha asked.

"No, it's not. But you have to think about this from your mom's point of view, too."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you think your mom loves you?"

"I know she does." Samantha said.

"How do you know?"

A puzzled Samantha sat up and looked at Sam. "What do you mean?"

"What kind of stuff does she do with you to show you she loves you?"

Samantha gave the question a bit of thought before answering. "She asks me how my day at school was."

"Yep. What else?"

"She hugs and kisses me a lot."

"That's good. What else?"

"She listens when I tell her I don't want a hug."

Sam's heart panged a little as he thought of the reason Kayla was so considerate when others didn't want a hug. "That's a good one."

"She puts notes in my lunch."

Sam chuckled. He packed lunches for both kids almost every day, and had never known Kayla did that. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah. She puts a note in my lunch every day."

"What does she say?"

"That she loves me. Have a good day. Sometimes she puts little pieces of candy or something in it."

"That sounds cool." Sam said. "Can you think of anything else?"

"She plays with me when she can." Samantha said. "Even when she's tired."

"That she does." Sam said.

Samantha sighed. "I know she loves me. But it still feels bad when she's not here because of work."

"Sweetie, let me tell you something. My daddy used to work a lot too. He was away from home for days at a time."

"He was? Didn't that make you feel bad like this?"

"Sometimes it did, yeah. And a lot of the time, I felt like he didn't care."

"So you really do get it." Samantha said.

"I do. But see, I learned something when I grew up that I wish I'd known when I was your age."

"What?"

"Even though your grandpa John…"

"Was that your daddy?" Samantha asked.

"Yes. It was. Anyway, even though he worked a lot, and it was hard for him to say it to me, he really cared about me. He wanted to be there with me, he just couldn't do it all the time. And I just wish I'd enjoyed him when he actually was there a little more. It made those times a lot more special."

"So, you're saying I should cut Mom a break?"

"It's completely up to you. It really is. Just remember that for every minute you're mad at her while she's here, that's one less minute you get to spend with her."

Kayla parked the car in front of the police station, tired and frustrated. Samantha was still on her mind. The hurt, the pain, the longing Kayla saw when Samantha talked about just wanting to spend time with her mother. Kayla had thought long and hard about whether or not she should continue in her job. She found it rewarding helping abused, neglected, and disadvantaged children. She had only been doing it for a little over three months, but she'd finally found her true calling.

There was one problem.

Was her own self-fulfillment worth risking Sammie's trust in her? Was it worth not spending even close to enough time with her son or husband? Was it fair to expect her father to pick up the slack for her so she could be happy?

Kayla decided to mull over the problem later. Right now, one of those kids she was responsible for was in trouble. Kayla opened the car door and walked inside, pulling out her badge and showing it to the front desk officer.

"Hey there. I'm Kayla Whitaker from DCF. I got a page…"

"He's right there." the officer, a short, balding man in his seventies, said shortly, without looking up from the paperwork he was working on.

Kayla glanced over at the chairs and groaned. "Jackson?"

"I didn't do nothing…"

"You didn't do anything." Kayla corrected, annoyed. "Officer, what did he do?"

The officer finally looked up, and, noticing Kayla's annoyance, tried to hide a smirk. "He was caught spraying graffiti on the side of Anderson's supermarket."

"Is he under arrest?"

"The owner agreed not to if the boys agreed to come and clean the side of the building and help him clean the store from top to bottom after closing Saturday."

"He'll do it." Kayla said. "Can I take him home?"

"Please do."

Kayla walked over and grabbed Jackson's arm. "Let's go."

"Let me go."

"Get your butt in the car. Now."

"You supposed to be nice to me."

"I am so not in the mood right now. I'll say it one more time. Get in the car. Now." Jackson stood up, and Kayla grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "Thank the officer and apologize to him."

"Apologize to him?"

"Yes. Do it, or I'll convince the owner of the supermarket to change his mind and press charges."

Jackson rolled his eyes, but did as Kayla told him. "Thank you, officer, and I'm sorry for the trouble."

The officer at the desk laughed. "That your boy?"

"In a way." Kayla said, angry edge to her voice.

"Well, you seem to be doing a good job with him. Keep it up."

Jackson stomped out to the car, arms folded and what seemed to Kayla to be a permanent scowl on his face. He yanked open Kayla's car door and slammed it shut. Kayla fought back a curse, put on the most professional face she could, and walked out to the car. Once she was inside, she went to start the car, but decided to hash it out right then and there.

"You want to tell me what you were thinking?"

"Nope."

"Too bad. Tell me. Now."

"I just wanted to have a little fun."

"Vandalizing a building is fun for you?" Kayla asked. "I told you, Jackson, one more time of getting in trouble, and…"

"I know. I'll have to go back to the group home." Jackson said. "Ain't like nobody cares about me anyway."

Something deep inside of Kayla snapped. She only had a few kids she was helping take care of regularly, but she loved each and every one of them, including Jackson.

"You selfish little inconsiderate jerk!"

A startled Jackson jumped and glared at Kayla. "What?"

"Nobody cares about you. Are you kidding me? Do you know what I went through to come and pick you up from school today? Then staying with you after you begged me to? My daughter's been crying for me for weeks, begging me to spend time with her. I swore to her I'd go to her school with her today, but instead I'm at yours trying to convince your principal not to expel you."

"At least she has a family she can be with."

Kayla's frustration deflated out of her. "What's going on, Jackson?"

"Nothin'. Just take me back to the Edwards'."

"Jackson? What's going on?" Kayla prodded. She saw him trying to fight back tears. "Talk to me."

"It's my mom's birthday."

"What?"

"My mom's birthday. We always spent it together, even when I was in foster care. This is the first year…"

"The first year she wasn't here to do it." Kayla guessed. Jess's first birthday after her death had been hard for Kayla as well. "So you wanted someone to celebrate it with you?"

Jackson nodded. "Yeah."

"Let me get this straight. You got suspended from school, then graffitied the side of a building, just to get me to spend time with you today?"

Jackson shrugged.

"Answer me, Jackson."

"Yeah. I did."

Kayla sighed. Jackson's case file had been the first one she read on her first day of training for the job. He had been in and out of foster care his entire life. His mother had been a drug addict when he was born, and had gone through long stretches of sobriety, sometimes lasting as eighteen months to two years. But, inevitably, she would fall back into old patterns and relapse, meaning Jackson would end up back in foster care. She'd become sober again, take Jackson back, and he'd end up in foster care again. The cycle had repeated itself six times in Jackson's thirteen years of life, until three months earlier, when his mother had died of a drug overdose.

"Jackson, if you need to talk to me, you can always call me. No need to get into trouble, okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

"Do you really hear me on that?"

"I hear you."

"Was that all that was bothering you?"

"Yeah."

"Bullcrap. Tell me what else is on your mind."

Jackson turned around in the seat and faced Kayla. "I'll never have a family."

"What? Of course you will."

"I ain't stupid. I'm thirteen. The longer I stay in foster care…"

"I don't care about that. I'm telling you, you will have a permanent family one day."

"How do you know?"

Kayla wondered if she would regret this, or how Todd or Sam or Samantha and Jessie would feel about it, but it felt right to her. "You're thirteen. Give me eighteen months."

"Eighteen months?"

"Yep. Your fifteenth birthday. If no one's adopted you by then, I'll do it."

"You don't mean that."

"Yes. I do." Kayla said. "But you have to stay out of major trouble until then."

"What you mean by major trouble?"

"No visits to the police station, and try to keep the visits to the principal's office to a minimum."

"That's it?" Jackson asked. "That's all?"

"That's all." Kayla said. "That, and you have to give your foster family a real chance."

Jackson finally smiled. "Okay. You got it."

"Alright. Does that mean I can drive you home now?"

"Could we go see my mom first?" Jackson asked. "You know, at the place where we spread her ashes?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we can do that, buddy."

It was after dark when Kayla finally made it home. Jesse was outside in the yard, playing with Sammie, while Todd and Sam sat on the porch. When Kayla pulled in, Jesse ran to meet her, but Samantha was still standoffish from her mother. Sam ushered Jesse inside, and Todd followed.

"Hey." Kayla said nervously.

"Hi, Mom."

"I'm so sorry about today, baby." Kayla said, kneeling down to face Samantha at eye level. "I really am."

"I know. Papa and me talked about it after you left."

"Oh, yeah? What'd you talk about?"

"Well, I know you really love me, and you're gonna have to work really hard at your job for awhile."

"I do love you. And yes, I will have to work hard at my job for awhile. But that's no excuse for not letting you know I wasn't coming today. I shouldn't have promised you and then left you wondering where I was like that."

"Did you leave because someone needed you?"

"Yes." Kayla answered. "I promise I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't important."

"I had an idea. Papa helped me come up with it."

"What's your idea?"

"Be right back." Samantha went into the house and came back out holding a journal she'd gotten for her birthday two weeks earlier.

"Your journal?"

"Yeah. If I have something I really need to tell you, but you're working and we can't talk, I write it in here and leave it on your pillow for you to read when you get home."

"That's a great idea!"

"I'll only do it if you promise me you'll talk to me about it. That day or the next day, no later."

"I swear, I will read this and I will find you up to talk about what's in it." Kayla said, reaching up and pushing some of Samantha's hair out of her face. "Or I will wake you up early the next day."

"Mom? Is there a way to know for sure if you can be somewhere on a certain day?"

Kayla grimaced. She wanted to say yes, but another day like this one was bound to happen if she did. "No, honey, I don't think so."

"Okay."

"But until I can promise, how about when you want me to do something, I can promise I'll try? Do you understand the difference?"

"I do."

"Sweetheart, you know that no matter where I am, you and your brother are the most important people in the whole wide world to me. No matter what, nothing means more to me than you two do."

"It's hard to feel that way sometimes." Samantha answered honestly. "When you didn't even call today, I thought you didn't care."

"I know. I know, baby. And I swear I'm so sorry about that. I'll never forgive myself for that."

"It's okay. I do." Samantha said.

"Thank you, baby." Kayla said. She looked at the clock. Two hours before Samantha's bedtime. "Hey. Have you guys had dinner yet?"

"Daddy and Papa made pancakes and eggs and bacon and stuff."

"Why don't we see if your brother wants to go out for ice cream?" Kayla suggested. "Just the three of us. Then, if I'm home tomorrow, it'll be just you and me."

"Deal." Samantha said. "Jesse, come on!"

When both kids were seated in the car, Kayla looked up and saw her father standing in the doorway. She smiled at him, and Sam gave her a thumbs up. Kayla got in the car, Sam's message loud and clear. You're doing good, kid.

Maybe, Kayla thought, she actually was.