The house was still very silent as everyone started to become more aware of their surroundings. One head looked up at the ceiling, and the others followed suite. Soon, everyone was swinging their heads from side to side, taking in the size and impeccable decorating of the house.

"This is a nice place you've got here Wilson," Annie finally said.

"Thank you."

"This is much bigger than we ever anticipated for Mary," Eric commented.

"OK, I've had enough," Mary mumbled to no one in particular. In her eyes, her parents had blown their one chance they had to redeem themselves.

Mary ran up the stairs to her bedroom, feeling empty as she left Wilson behind. Wilson glared condescendingly at Eric and Annie before going to the staircase himself.

Kevin spoke up. "Could I go?" he asked Wilson. The entire family turned to stare at him.

Wilson was taken off guard. "Sure," he responded.

Kevin waked upstairs and left the rest of the family speechless. All of them except for Wilson.

"I don't mean to be rude," he said trying to be as diminutive as possible, "but what was the point of that comment?"

"There was no point. It was just…" Eric searched for the right words, "a fact."

Wilson sighed loudly. "Then let me ask you this. Why do you both set such low standards for Mary? What makes her different from Lucy, Matt, or Simon?"

"A lot," Annie said. "Lucy, Matt, and Simon never did the things she did."

"Every child is different," Wilson said.

"Exactly, so you have to treat every child differently," Eric reasoned.

"But shouldn't you treat every child, every single miracle, with respect and love?"

Upstairs, Kevin was fairing slightly better than Wilson was with Mary's parents.

"I don't doubt what you are saying, I just don't think it is realistic."

"Why not?" Kevin asked. "She is your sister."

"So? That still doesn't mean that Lucy misses me."

"Well, you're Lucy's sister. Do you miss her?"

Mary turned away from Kevin. "So what if I do? What difference does that make?"

"She really wants to talk to you Mary. She was so nervous and excited about coming to see you. She talked about you non-stop since Matt called and told us to come."

"Then why hasn't she said anything to me?"

"Do you mean why hasn't she apologized to you?" Mary nodded reluctantly. "They just got here- all of them. Give them a chance to prove themselves to you. You'll see they all love you."

"Just like I gave my parents a chance?" she said hurt, raising her voice slightly. "I've always tried to be nice to them, and look what I have to show for it. Same thing with Ruthie. I let her live in my house and now she is doing this to me. The only person who loves me is Wilson; so don't try to feed me any of this junk! Why do you think it took these circumstances to get everybody here?!" Hot tears rolled down Mary's cheeks as she screamed her head off at Kevin. She didn't mean to yell at him, but he was there, and he represented everything she couldn't stand.

Before Kevin had a chance to reply, the doorbell rang downstairs. Mary put her head in her hands and cried the hardest she had in days.

"Dear God help me," she said.

The pressure was building. Mary walked down the stairs bawling with one of Kevin's arms wrapped around her. Wilson saw her come in and rushed over to her side. She quickly switched from Kevin to Wilson, loosing every attempt to compose herself. Billy went and stood next to his parents for support and Natalie followed him. She was completely and utterly confused by the whole situation. Sheer innocence can do that to a person.

Ruthie smiled a fake smile at the rest of her family, and the social worker she brought alone did the same.

Matt walked over to Ruthie and looked her straight in the eyes, staring right through her mature façade. "So, explain to me why you are doing this. Why are you taking Natalie now?"

"Because I want my daughter. I gave birth to her and I have every right to raise her."

Mary held Natalie close, covering the young girl's ears, and kicked Matt hard in the shin. "Don't you dare," she said forcefully. There was no way she was going to let someone else mess this up for her. That was Mary's job.

A/N: I know, short again, but deal with it. It was going to be longer, but I made it short for a reason. I wanted to skip over some stuff and get down to the real story I want to tell- the story of Mary vs. the Camdens. Next chapter, there will be some more interaction and I want to get into developing Billy more as a character. This chapter will be up by Friday, I am promising you right now. If not you can go ahead and send me hate mail, lol.

Reviews are greatly appreciated.