DISCLAIMER: I don't own 7th Heaven or anything related to it. Suing me would be very, very dumb. But if you are dumb, then go on and sue. I just found some lint in my pocket that you can have.

"I think I'll make a cake to bring over," Ruthie said, but Annie barely heard her. She was too busy thinking about how good everything was at the moment.

…

In the months before the day they arrived at their new home in Glen Oak, they had gotten a series of terrible news but it only meant one thing. Once again, Kennedy had to play mother.

Chapter 2: Comfortably Numb

Kennedy sat in her room, listening to her new Kanye West CD and playing with the bottom of her shirt. Her thoughts were conflicted and she was pretty sure she had a migraine. Regardless, the music was blasting, that way she couldn't hear her younger siblings. She loved them dearly but she couldn't stand being anywhere near them.

"KENNEDY!" she heard someone yell from the other side of the door.

She rolled her eyes and slowly made her way to the door. When she opened it, she saw Dakota staring at her with her arms crossed. "What?"

"We're hungry!" The young girl, pouting.

"Okay, I'll make something… o shit," she said but then stopped. Dakota was looking up at her in awe. "Umm… oops… don't ever say that, okay? What I meant was, shoot. We don't have any food. Wait. Where's mom?"

"She left. She said that she needed time alone so if we were hungry, we should go to you."

"I guess she never thought about buying food. I bet she didn't unpack either," Kennedy said bitterly. She looked back to close the door. Her room, which was at the end of the upstairs hall, was all white with a wood floor. Her bed, desk and dresser were there and in the hour since the movers left, she had put her mutli-colored bed set on her bed, decorated the tops of her desk and dresser and put up curtains that matched her bed set.

They walked to the kitchen, where Marina was playing a game with Teagan. "Hey, sis."

"Hey, Marina. By chance, mom didn't happen to…" Kennedy starting saying but was interrupted by the doorbell. "Who the hell could that be?"

She walked to the door and looked back at her siblings standing behind her. With that, she opened the door. Standing in front of them was a rather large family. Directly in front of Kennedy was a younger girl, about Marina's age, holding up what seemed to be a chocolate cake.

Seeing that, Dakota ran to the girl, grabbed the cake and said, "Yay! Dinner!" She turned around and ran to the kitchen, which was in the back of the house. The young girl and the family around her had weird looks on their faces, but Marina and young Teagan didn't bother with them and they, too, ran for he kitchen. Kennedy was the only one left to deal with their visitors.

"Hey," she said uncertainly. Next to the girl, there was an older woman and man, a younger man and a younger women holding a baby, two twin boys that looked Teagan's age and a boy her age. Actually, she thought that the boy was rather handsome and she smiled in spite of herself.

"Hi, we're the Camden's," the girl said and held out her hand. "My name is Ruthie." Hesitantly, Kennedy accepted her outstretched hand.

"My name is Kevin, this is my wife Lucy and our daughter Savannah. Actually," he said from behind Ruthie. "Our last name is Kinkirk but Lucy was a Camden before she married me. Although I think that we are Camden's at heart."

The older man stepped forward and stuck out his hand, " I'm Eric. I'm the Reverend at the church."

Kennedy mouthed "oh" and looked over at the older woman. "Hello, my name is Annie."

The boy that was in the back spoke up and said, "Hi, I'm Martin and I'm not a Camden but I live with them. My dad is fighting in Iraq right now, that's why I live with them."

At the mention of Iraq, her eyes widened and her face paled. The Camden's noticed but didn't mention it, although they kept a mental note of it. "Your… your father's in Iraq? " she said, swallowing the saliva that had built up in her mouth.

"Yeah, but he should be home soon," Martin said, smiling.

"That's what they say," Kennedy mumbled but the Camden's didn't pick up on it. Martin did though and told himself he would ask her someday when they got the chance to talk in private. She looked up and put on a smile. "My name is Kennedy Colgrove. Why don't you come in?"

When they were seated in the living room, which was in plain view of the front door, Kennedy excused herself to get her siblings. Once she was in the kitchen, she lowered her voice and said, "Mention nothing of Dad or Mom's condition, you got me? No one needs to know." The younger children agreed and followed her into the living room. When they were seated in the assorted chairs (from the dining room) and sofas, they finished their introductions.

"Well, Teagan is a very pretty name." Annie commented.

"Yes. Her middle name is Marie, though." Dakota said.

"It is, now?" Lucy said, using the voice that she used when talking to younger children.

"Yeah. She got that middle name and the rest of us got cooler middle names. Like, mine is Celeste and Marina's is Ava and Kennedy's is Arabella." Dakota said smugly. She was at the age where she was very interested in names and whenever she meet someone knew, she told them their middle names.

"Cool," Ruthie said and turned to Kennedy. "So, where did you move from?"

"San Francisco."

"Wow, that's a long way. Why did you move?" Eric said.

"Umm… uhh… it's a long boring story. Just things, you know? So, umm… Where do you live?" Kennedy said. She was usually good with these kinds of situations, but she was out of her element. She was used to living in the city but the move to a smaller town made her uneasy.

"Right across the street, actually. You know, why don't you come to dinner? Wait. Where are your parents?" Annie asked curiously. Now that she thought about, the girls never mentioned their parents and they were yet to see them.

"They're out right now. Well, our mother is. Our father isn't around. Long story," Kennedy said nervously. "So, when would you like us to come to dinner?"

"Well, I still have to make it, so how about 6-ish?" Annie said, not satisfied with the answer the girl gave her but willing to wait to get the truth.

"Sure but I doubt our mother can make it. She's… job hunting and she'll be tired." Kennedy said. After a few more minutes of small talk, she showed the Camden's to the door and they left.

"I think we should tell them about mom," Marina said when Kennedy returned to the living room to fix the chairs.

"Marina, we can't. They're church people, they'll want to help and they'll get in the way. We don't need them," Kennedy affirmed before bringing two chairs back to the dining room. The table was already set up in the middle of the room, so she set the chairs in their appropriate places and went back for the rest.

Once she was back in the room, Marina said, "What about food?"

"Sis, just let me worry about that. You just go upstairs, unpack and get ready for dinner." As Marina was walking back to the stairs, Kennedy called after her, "And tell that to Dakota, too."

After she put the chairs back, she decided to unpack the living room. An hour later, she had arranged the furniture, hooked up the cable, made sure the lights worked and partially decorated the room. When she was taking a break, she heard Teagan crying from upstairs, so she rushed up and went to her room. There she found Teagan holding a blanket that her dad gave to her.

Teagan was crying so hard Kennedy could barely make out what she was saying but she managed to hear, "Daddy," a couple times. She picked the toddler up and sat Indian style on the floor, with Teagan resting on her lap. She was hugging and rocking her, trying to make her feel better.

Hearing her as well, Dakota and Marina appeared at the doorway and stopped. Seeing their sister like that made their emotions go crazy and they too started crying. Kennedy saw her sisters and motioned them to go to her. They ran over and hugged her on either side, three drowning girls holding onto a rock to save them.

That was the thought that kept Kennedy numb. She needed to be strong for her sisters. She needed to be the steady thing in their lives. But what's steadying me?

To my reviewers: While I appreciate your criticism (I see that I might have let too much out) I cannot change that. Even rewriting the chapter would do no good cause you already know. But all that is needed to the story. I have something planned and I need that angst to have it happen. The drugs are gone so don't worry about that. Just read if you like or don't if you think that there's too much, although I would appreciate you letting me get a bit further before you make your judgment on whether you like it or not. Thank you for reading and reviewing, everyone. Review again, please!