A/N: So I got a review about Lena, Brandon, and Callie being a little out of character and I just wanted to explain why they are acting the way they are. I don't mind explaining my reasons behind these things because I think it helps understand the story and the characters better, and if there's one person who says it, I know a few others are thinking it too.

As for Lena, I know she's not overjoyed about all of this. But basically, I'm trying to have her be the voice of reason for Stef. To be honest, Lux isn't really trying to be part of their family; she's run away, disrespected them, and complained non-stop since she got there (less than a week ago). All she knows is that her wife has not been the same since Lux came back. Rather than Stef being happy, she constantly has to reprimand the teen and then come home and recount what happened afterwards to her wife. Lux doesn't live there with them, so they've only mostly seen the bad. The few times that Lena has seen Lux, was the day of the family dinner (which didn't go well at all) and when she got dropped off at school. But I'm trying to show that Lena IS trying to make the situation better and is showing that she wants to include Lux in her family. Also since Callie is completely distraught that history is going to repeat itself, this is going to make Lena a bit defensive for her children, as any mother should be. No one besides Lux, Tasha, and the Gilberts know what happened at their stay in the Gilbert's house, so it's easy to go off what they do know, which is that Lux spray painted the house with her friends. Stef tried to brush all of that off, because this is her biological daughter we're talking about here and that trumps anything bad she's done in the past. She has a blind spot when it comes to her because she missed the first 14 years of her life and doesn't want to lose her. Lena doesn't have this blind spot so she's going to tell it like it is. She's always the parent trying to rationalize everything and so that's what she's doing. She's also trying to help Stef and Lux's relationship, by telling Stef that she can't be her friend and let her do what she wants. If she wants to be her mother, she has to act like it.

As for Brandon, all he knows is this girl just shows up out of nowhere, and now he has to share both parents, not just Stef. He's never had to share Mike, and I honestly think jealousy would come into play if this ever did happen. His room at his dad's apartment is no longer just his room. Not to forget that Lux is bringing a crap-load of problems into all of his parents' lives and she's getting so much attention still (example: Stef is fixing up the basement for her).

And Callie is acting this way because she's terrified of getting kicked out again from a safe home. She already considers Stef and Lena as her moms and the kids as her siblings, and she doesn't want to lose them again and end up in another crappy foster home. Remember, she's still not adopted. Again, she doesn't know what happened at the Gilberts'. All she knows is that Lux lived there for two years and thinks of her as being ungrateful for ruining a "good" situation to do a stupid prank with her friends that she and her brother had to pay the price for.

If you want to know why Lux is being so difficult, the author's note of Chapter 16 explains that, plus everything bad that happened in the fic since then enforces her behavior.

Basically, that's where I'm trying to go with this. Again, I know that things don't always go back to the way the characters in the show are portrayed. This is a very different situation for all of them and these characters have never had to deal with this ordeal (Lux isn't in the actual show). But if this actually did happen, this is how I would imagine them behaving.

I'm still trying to have Lena be understanding but defensive when her children or family feels threatened (remember how she reacted toward Ana outside the hospital), Callie be un-confrontational but weary, and Brandon be selfish sometimes (remember when he wanted Callie to leave his family for him. He wasn't thinking about her and the fact that she was losing a chance to be part of a family. He was only thinking about himself and what he would be losing).

And I apologize for this ridiculously long author's note. But the explanations were necessary for anyone who feels lost or confused. If you have any other questions or feel that something else needs to be explained more, please pm me and I'll try to answer the best way that I can. I write and hope that people see it my way, but sometimes I just assume that you guys know why I'm having this character act this way.

And back to the story…

Mariana's POV

After I saw Lux in the hallway at school, this weird fit of rage came over me. Not only was she coming out of my mother's office, but now she was holding a cellphone in her hand that I'm almost positive my other mother gave to her.

And when I realize that Callie is standing perfectly calm at her own locker, oblivious to what was going on right in front of us, a whole other fit of rage comes over me as I make my way over to her, "Why are you so chill about this?"

"About what?" she asks as she squints her eyes at me in confusion.

"Miss Blondie Criminal is walking around our school as if she owns the place, as if she didn't keep mom up all night because she was worried about her. The nerve of that girl…"

Callie laughs in response, "Isn't this what you wanted? You wanted her to mess up so that she'd leave?"

"No, I wanted her to want to leave… Or maybe even stay at Mike's. But apparently even her messing up all on her own isn't doing anything. Look at all that she's done and she's getting rewarded with a freaking cellphone. I'm not expert in child psychology but that makes absolutely no sense."

"You don't know that it was mom who gave it to her. It could have been Mike," Callie offers. "And the phone is not exactly a reward as you might think. They're probably using it to track her."

"Oh my God!" I beam and I can't help the huge smile that creeps on my face. "We should totally tell Lux. That would piss her off right?"

"Uh… And why would you want to piss her off exactly?" she asks hesitantly, which causes me to roll my eyes in disbelief.

Callie should've been keeping up by now. But then I realize that she doesn't know how to be sneaky. She doesn't have the years of experience as I do, "Because it might make her act out more…" I wait for her to respond but she just stares at me cluelessly. She really has no idea what I'm getting at no matter how much I hint at it. "If she acts out more, then mom won't be able to deal with her. She's already living in a house with five teenagers. I mean come on. Everybody has their breaking point."

"I don't think—Mariana, she is her daughter… She's not just going to abandon her…"

"Then, we'll figure out something else. And I don't want her to abandon her…Not really," I try to inform her but more for myself. "I just don't want to have to see her…or hear her…or hear about her—"

"You want to pretend she doesn't exist?" Callie asked sarcastically.

"Exactly," I answer. "Tell me you don't want the same thing, Callie?"

"I don't know what I want, really. I just don't want to get into more trouble than it's worth, Mariana. She's my problem anyway. Why do you hate her so much?"

"I don't hate her. I just don't like her."

"Why?" she asks again.

"Because… I just don't." I snap. "So are you with me or not?" I ask completely ignoring her question.

I wasn't going to admit the fact that I was scared they would love her more. It's bad enough I felt like that with Brandon and I was raised with him. But this stranger wasn't going to make me feel worse about my place in my family, regardless of the fact that she shared Stef's blood. And the fact that Callie doesn't like her just makes me hate her even more.

"I…don't want to get involved," Callie responds as she closes her locker and starts walking toward her class. "You shouldn't either."

"You are involved!" I remind her as she keeps walking.

Lux's POV

After taking the placement test, I was forced to sit through three boring classes before school ended. Aside from texting Eric every once in a while, I had no fun. Lena put me in slow classes, which I was not happy about. But at the same time, maybe I shouldn't have played eenie-meenie-miney-mo with my scan-tron for the placement test. I sucked at tests anyway, so I probably got a better grade than I would have if I actually read a word off of the exam.

One day wouldn't have mattered anyway because Fern agreed to come see me later on today so being in a class with a bunch of people, that don't know how to spell the word October, didn't really faze me. I knew I wouldn't be coming back here.

After the last bell rang, I immediately stand up from my seat to leave, leaving my notebook behind and everything. At this point, who cares, right? But once I step foot out of the room, Lena is standing there with a smile on her face that quickly disappears. "Where's your notebook?" she starts.

"Yeah… I think I lost it," I come up with a lie, while I shrug my shoulders and glance away from her so that I don't have to look at the baffled expression on her face and laugh. "So where are we going?"

"We'll be leaving in ten minutes. I just wanted to come and get you since I forgot to tell you where we meet up at after school. I didn't want you getting lost or anything," she tries to smile but I just give her a flattened look.

"Anything? What? You think I'm going to run?" I ask accusingly even though I can't say it didn't cross my mind because it did. A few times actually. But now that I was talking to Fern, I didn't see the point in leaving.

"No, I didn't think that at all," she tries to convince me. "Honestly, I was just trying to make things easier on all of us."

Honestly, I don't believe your crap, I want to say but I refrain from doing so. "Mhm."

Stef's POV

I rush home from work the second I get Lena's text letting me know that Fern, Lux's social worker, had come over for a surprise visit. I knew that today wasn't a good day for any of us, but something in my gut tells me that things aren't going to go well if I don't show up.

The fact that I still have to answer to a social worker when it comes to my own biological child pisses me off completely, but she is still considered a ward of the state in the eyes of the law, and there's no actual proof that I never signed away my rights. It was my signature on the birth certificate that I didn't sign.

I knew that I had to go to court and fight all of this, because it was Dr. Greene who caused this entire debacle. But the legalities of it all were far from my main concern at the moment and I knew how slow lawyers were. Adding that on to my current stresses seemed impossible considering everything that was going on.

Stopping Lux from planning to run away again, dealing with her constant rule breaking, trying to console Callie from worrying that something was going to happen to her, reconstructing the entire basement to have some place Lux could sleep, picking out Lena's anniversary gift, and working so that I could keep a roof over all of our heads seemed more important than a piece of paper at the moment. I knew that I would have to deal with the courts at some point but was putting it off, at least until I felt like I could handle it.

Mike was already attempting to file suit on the hospital, but I hadn't ever heard back from him about that. And anyway, that had to be done before we could get our parental rights reinstated and that's only if we win.

But I couldn't help but panic about what Lux had said since Fern had gotten there. Had she already talked to Lux? I wonder as I open the front door and close it gently, trying so hard to mask my nervousness.

These visits always made me feel this way, when it came to the other kids. But this time felt like the very first visit I had when Mariana and Jesus were just coming to stay with us. It felt as if the CPS worker could take her away if she found one thing out of place.

I walk in and automatically spot the woman, who I had only seen once before with Mike. She was sitting on the couch across from Lena and Mike, both of which had disappointed or stressed looks written all over their faces. But I try to keep myself as calm as possible, "Hi, Fern. How are you?" I smile as I offer her my hand to shake.

She stands up and shakes it with an expression I can't exactly read but know that can tell that it's not good, "Hello, Stefanie. I was just going over some basic things with your wife and Mike until you got back."

She sits back down and I sit beside Lena, "Okay. So I hope I didn't miss too much? I got here as soon as I could," I joke.

"No, not at all," she responds. "I'm sorry about the surprise visit and I'm glad you all were able to see me. I normally don't do them until the weekend or in the evening, but something important was brought to my attention and I'm going out of town on Wednesday so the sooner the better. But aside from that, you didn't miss too much. Lux is in the kitchen. I figured I would take the time to talk to her first while we waited for you."

"Okay," I try to sound upbeat even though what she had just said made me even more worried. I quickly glance down at the empty page of her notepad on her lap and then back up.

"So are you all alright if we get started?" she asked as she stares at us all skeptically. And I know that we all appear anxious to her and for good reason. But we all say yes in agreement, knowing that we're all dreading this. "Okay good. I know that you've all been through this before, having adopted 3 kids of your own…"

"Almost four. We're still in the process of adopting Callie. We've just hit a few bumps," I answer.

"I see. She's here with her brother, Jude, as well. Am I right? I took some notes before I came and talked with Bill to get a little bit of background. That always helps when conducting these meetings."

Lena nods her head and continues, "Well, yes we completely understand. But we actually tried to adopt her on several different occasions, but we found out that the man who she thought was her father wasn't, and then her actual father refuses to sign away his rights just yet so—"

"And she lives here?" Fern asks in confusion.

Lena answers, "Yes. Her father still believes that she should live with him for his reasons but this is where Callie wants to be."

"And he still refuses to sign away his rights?" Fern questions skeptically.

"Yes," I respond. "It's all very complicated. He thinks that one day she will change her mind and well we tried to go around him but we couldn't compete with his lawyers," I admit embarrassingly. I hated having to answer to that question. I felt like I was saying, I don't make enough money to take care of my child as a complete stranger to her does. And it was always a reminder that I had let her down, despite the fact that that stranger was her father.

"I see… From what I've noticed here, she was in juvie correct?"

I could feel the rage building up and my and Lena's bodies. Thankfully Lena answers, "Yes, but that wasn't her fault. There was an issue with her last foster-father and she was trying to defend her little brother, Jude, which is how she landed there."

"It says here that she was placed in juvie twice? I don't mean to intrude or anything but from what Bill says, one of those times was while she was living here… Is that correct?"

"Yes, but that was well over a year ago and she was going through a difficult time. We talked to her about it, and it hasn't been an issue since," Lena defends.

"Uhuh," Fern answers with a nod as she tries to take the information in. "And how about Lux. She's tried to runaway too, yes?"

We all remain silent for a while, mainly from fear of saying too much. I hadn't known if she was referring to what happened the other day, or if Lux had runaway from a previous foster home. I had read her file from top to bottom and practically had it memorized. But perhaps there was something missing from it, I think to myself. "…What do you mean?" I finally ask.

"From what I've been told, Lena made a comment about not wanting Lux here and she stormed out of the house, tried to go to her friends house, until you brought her back?"

"Oh my God," Mike says exasperatedly as he put his hand to his forehead, which causes for a look from Fern.

"Whoah," I stop her. "Lena never said that she didn't want her here…A comment was made about Lux that shouldn't have been and she then apologized about it."

"And what was the comment?" Fern asked.

"This is just great," Mike mumbled.

"…I said that Lux wasn't our daughter but it honestly came out wrong. I would never want to make her feel as if that were the case. There was an incident between Callie and Lux in a previous foster-home and Lux—"

"Spray painted the Gilbert's house. Yes, I have that on file," Fern continues.

"Yes, well Callie got a new placement because of it and she was afraid that the same thing would happen again. When I talked to Stef about it, I felt as if she wasn't taking the situation too seriously, so I did say that out of a fit of anger—"

"And Lux overheard?"

"Yes. I've regretted it the moment it came out of my mouth. Normally, I'm not impulsive, but when it comes to my children I can get a bit defensive and irrational sometimes."

"Uhuh. So aside from that incident, have there been any more incidents that would make Lux feel like any of you didn't want her here?"

"Aside from having her get mad about the DNA results? ...Um not really."

"So you didn't threaten to arrest her boyfriend?"

"He put his hands on her," Mike tries to defend. "It's illegal to assault a police officer."

"Mike," Lena chastised.

I speak up before Mike decides to say something worse, "When I found Lux after she ran away, I tried to bring her back home and Bug, her boyfriend, tried to keep me from doing so. I didn't just threaten him without probable cause."

"I'm not trying to attack you, Stef… Or any of you for that matter. I need you all to understand that. It's just that when I hear from one of my cases, that they are unhappy and tell me why, I need to address everything. Lux obviously doesn't want to be here and that's a big problem to me. Foster children have to want to be at their placement. She's already run away once, what's to stop her from running away as soon as I walk out that door?"

"We understand—" Lena starts but I interrupt.

"She doesn't like being here because she's not allowed to do whatever she wants," I respond in a louder tone. "Her last foster-mother didn't even report her missing and she had been living with her 17 year old boyfriend for who knows how long because you placed her in a home with an irresponsible adult. She needs rules and structure and she's not used to having them so she's acting out."

"I understand that and I completely agree with you. Kids need rules and structure, there's no doubt about that. And as for her last placement, I will be having the home reassessed, but Lux needs parents who are going to be able control her and keep her in line. Not let her go to a bar when she's grounded and sleep over a strange guy's house less than a week after being placed with them…"

To be continued.

A/N: Did you guys expect Lux to spill the beans on EVERYTHING? I thought it'd be an interesting twist and something she'd do in desperation.

Half hour until the finale for me!

So excited. And as for the guest who asked me if I was going to do a continuation of what happens after the finale, the answer is yes. But I want to finish at least 3 of my current fics before then. And I wouldn't worry, because I'm sure a few will be coming out that I am looking forward to reading :)