Stef's POV

I let out a deep breath and look over to Mike and Lena, both of which have the same saddened looks on their faces. "Does Lux know about these sessions?" I'm finally able to ask.

"No. Not yet. I will tell her soon. Again, this is meant to help you. All of you. I don't want to leave her here tonight and have to come back next week because Lux wants to leave again. And I can tell you that's exactly what is going to happen, if we don't address everything before she comes back into this house," she looks at Mike.

Lena lets out a breath and looks from me and then back to Fern, "I understand what you're saying, and it makes a lot of sense but…it isn't fair."

"I know that. It's not fair. It's not fair to any one of you involved, but its what I'm recommending."

"And what if we say no," Mike starts, "What if we insert our parental rights and refuse to let you take her from us?"

"Mike, you have no parental rights. Lux has been in foster-care from age 2. You're signatures are on her birth certificate."

"Yeah, that we never signed," Mike snaps.

"Mike," I try to calm him before I glance at Fern, "There was a crime committed against us," I remind her.

"But there's no proof of a crime, Stef. There's one nurse's theory about a now-deceased doctor. Nothing has been proven, so I can't do anything about that. I'm sorry."

"Are you trying to say that she's not our daughter?" I ask in shock.

"No, I'm trying to let you know that going that route isn't the best way to go about this. I can tell that she's your daughter. The DNA proves it. But I can't leave her with you, because legally… she's not yours. And I'm not a lawyer—"

"You're right. You're not!" Mike yells.

"I never said I was. But your signatures on the birth certificates can prove to a court that you knew about her. And those same signatures on the voluntary placement agreement prove that you gave Jacqueline Jenkins authority over your daughter, who then gave ACS authority of Lux."

"What placement agreement?" Mike and I both ask in unison.

"We never signed away our rights to anyone," I continue and I can feel my blood boiling inside of me, but Lena places her hand on my lap in order to calm me down.

"That's what I have on file. See for yourselves" Fern says as she goes through her folder and pulls out a piece of paper and places it on the coffee table.

I grab it immediately, and Mike and I both stand up and scan it over, taking in it's contents. "We've never signed this." I look at her.

"Okay…" she nods her head.

"No, we've never signed this!" I repeat with even more venom in my voice.

"It's not me you have to prove, Stef. For what it's worth, I believe you. But legally, I have to go by what I'm given. Not my own gut. Your signatures on both forms are almost identical and the birth certificate was signed off and witnessed by Dr. Greene and the adoption agreement was signed and witnessed by a Mr. Patronelli."

"Well, then they're lying!" I tell her.

"How do you know that this wasn't some conspiracy scam between then both?" Mike asks. "That they weren't both getting something out of it?"

"That's something that you should talk to a lawyer about. You can file suits against both the hospital and the ACS, but until then I have to obey the law or I can lose my job or worse…"

"I can't believe this," I mumble and I have to force myself to walk away from Fern.

This couldn't be really happening.

"I will be filing suits. You better believe that," Mike answers as he starts to walk out of the house, and I'm thankful he does because he looked as if he was two seconds away from punching the woman, and a part of me hoped that he would. But even I knew that she wasn't the problem here.

"If you two want to go that route you should," Fern tells me. "I'm just letting you know what you're up against. I can't tell you that all of this doesn't confuse the hell out of me too, but I—"

"Still have to do your job," I finish for her. "I get it."

"And I get that you all are in a difficult position, and I had no idea that you didn't know about the legal adoption. Otherwise, I would've told you when we first met." Fern starts to stand up and gather her things to leave before I stop her, "Can I talk to Lux for a minute, before…"

"Sure. I'll be waiting in the car. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course," I tell her.

"I'll show you out," Lena offers as I make my way to the kitchen to find Lux.

Lux's POV

I can barely hear anything that's going on because Lena practically made Callie and Mariana's my babysitters in the kitchen. "Callie, Mariana, why don't you keep Lux company, while we wait for your mom to come back?" she said. I get that she didn't trust me but that was totally uncalled for. And it's not like I couldn't get around those two bobble-heads anyway. So the fact, that she thinks so less of me, is just another reason as to why I want to leave. Their constant staring at me is just another.

"What?" I finally ask with a bit of an attitude. The last thing I needed was for them to start crap with me today too.

"Nothing," Callie says as she takes a bite of her apple.

"Are you always this groggy?" Mariana asks.

"Are you always this stupid?" I retort. "Seriously, you two are practically puppets to these women. Callie, Mariana, would you keep an eye on Lux while we wait for mom to come back? Don't you two have a mind of your own, or do you always do what they tell you?"

"I do what I want," the Latin girl says matter-of-factly.

"Is that why your mommy took away your soda and handed you a nice bottle of OJ instead?" I ask in a cheery voice, obviously drawing attention to the first thing that happened when we walked inside of the house.

"Orange juice is healthier for you," Mariana tries to inform me.

"So?" I ask as I grab a mug from the wall and walk towards the coffee machine to pour myself a cup from the pot Lena made for Fern.

"We're not supposed to drink coffee either," Callie buds in as she walks over toward me and tries to take my mug but I hold onto it tighter.

"Correction: the puppets and dolls are not allowed to drink coffee," I answer as I point to the two of them. "I will do as I please… Do you want a cup or not?" I ask Callie but just receive the death glare from her.

"What about you, Molly?" I ask Mariana.

"It's Mariana," she tries to correct.

"No, I meant Molly… as in the doll from the Big Comfy Couch? …The tv show? Ugh! Who cares? Do you want a cup or are you going to let your mommies dictate what you eat and drink too?"

Mariana looks at me angrily for a few seconds but eventually walks over and takes my cup. "I'd love one."

"Awesome," I say as I walk over and grab another cup and turn around to see Callie taking away Mariana's.

"Well, I would love if you wouldn't have one," she says as she dumps Mariana's cup in the sink and drops the mug in there.

"Callie, you're not allowed to dictate what I eat and drink either," Mariana asserts.

"I know. I wasn't trying to. Mariana, you can't let her get inside of your head."

"I'm right here," I inform them.

"Exactly," Callie retorts. "And I'm not about to let you drag my sister down with you."

"What am I some sort of a vampire or something?"

"I'm going upstairs," Mariana says as she grabs a soda from the fridge and walks out.

"She is so confusing," I mumble as I turn back to Callie. "What the hell is your problem?"

"You. You are my problem. Its like everywhere you go, bad things start happening. And you're not taking my sister down with you."

"Oh, I get it," I smile. This girl really couldn't let things go, could she?

"Get what?" she questions as she tries to look at me casually, but I could tell something was really bugging her.

"This isn't about coffee or soda… This is about Valerie and Trey…Am I right?"

"You got me and Jude kicked out of that house, remember? They took you in and you just spit all over them. You didn't care who got hurt in the process and now you're trying to do the same here. Stef actually cares about you and all you've done is make her cry since you got here. It's exactly the same thing you did to Valerie, and Jude and I got punished for it. I'm not going to let you do the same thing here. Not with my family."

"Newsflash: I don't want your family. You can have all of them. All of them," I chuckle. "And you're welcome by the way," I answer as I take a long sip of my coffee.

"For what?" she asks with just as much of an attitude as I had before.

"Getting you kicked out of the Gilberts… Look, believe it or not, I did you a favor."

"A favor?"

I sigh, "Uhuh. I know you think that what I did to Valerie and Trey was a prank or whatever but…I did what I had to do for me." I glance up at Callie and realize that she has the most confused face I've ever seen on. I take a deep breath before I continue, "You were only there for a couple of weeks, Callie. I was there for two years. I think I knew them a little more than you did. They may have seemed nice to you and…Valerie actually was. But things changed quickly after I got there, and you're lucky you got out when you did."

"So what? You did it for me? Is that what I'm supposed to believe?"

"No. I did it for me... And I'm actually glad that I got you and Jude kicked out in the process… As bitchy and selfish as that sounds, it was the only way I could convince Valerie to let me go…and I couldn't stay there anymore."

"Why not? They didn't let you drink coffee and soda?" she asks sarcastically.

"No—" I try to defend.

"Then why?" she cuts me off. "What did they do that was so bad that you had to get away from them?"

"Not both of them. Just Trey... He wasn't a good guy."

"What do you mean?" she asks, and I can tell by her sudden change in posture that she doesn't really want to know. She looks almost scared and defensive.

"You know what? Just forget it. I don't even really know what I'm talking about anyway. It was a long time ago. And…don't worry. I'm not getting either of you kicked out. Fern's actually here to pick me up. Just me."

"Why?" Callie appears puzzled. "Wait a minute. Did you call her?"

"Yeah. I did. Like, I said I don't want your family. You can have them."

"What did you tell her?" she asks in a shaky voice.

"Trust me, nothing that will ruin your chances of staying here so relax. This'll be the last time you'll ever see me again, so rest assured that I'm not going to drag anyone down with me," I smile as I take a sip of my coffee.

"You can't leave now. Stef would be devastated. You can't do that to her."

"I'm not doing anything to her," I remind her. "You can have Obsessive-Overcontrolling-Cadet-Barbie all to yourself. I don't want anything from your family, okay. I just want to find a way to keep mine. I thought you'd be happy?"

We both stop talking when we hear shoes coming down from down the hall and I assume that it's Fern and place my mug on the table. But as the footsteps get closer and closer, we both realize that it's Stef instead.

She looks toward me and then toward Callie. "Callie, can you give us a sec?" she asks softly but to me it sounded like another order.

"Yeah," Callie says as she glances over to me one last time worriedly before leaving the kitchen.

I begin to tap my fingers nervously on the kitchen counter, waiting for Stef to say something but she didn't. All she did was walk closer towards the kitchen counter and lean against it and stare down at the floor.

"Um, did Fern leave?" I ask in confusion. But in my head, I'm dreading the thought of her leaving me here. I knew that I wouldn't stay. I'd be on the run with Tasha in a heartbeat if this didn't work.

She lifts her head up to stare at me and takes a deep breath before she finally speaks, "No, she's uh…outside waiting for you. But I'm guessing you already knew that, yes? Since you know, you're the one that called her." Stef raises her eyebrows at me, but I don't answer. I wouldn't have to, right? It's not like I'd ever see her again.

I nod and place her phone on the table. "So, she told you?" I sigh.

"No…But you were mad at me, so I just put two and two together."

"It wasn't personal. I just realized that this… this isn't what I want," I tell her honestly. "And I kept telling you over and over and you wouldn't listen, so I had to tell someone who would. It would've never worked out and I would rather fast-forward through all of this drama for once and skip to the end. You know?" She remains quiet as I grab my bag from the floor. "I'm sorry… And can you tell Mike for me too?"

"No, I will not. And um," she coughs nervously before she continues, "…I'm sorry that you think we would just give up like that."

"Huh?" I ask in confusion.

She starts walking over toward me, and before I know it she engulfs me in the most awkward hug I've ever encountered. Out of confusion, I just stay still forgetting that I'm trying my best to get away from this woman. "We're not those other people, Lux. We are going to fight for you… even if that means fighting against you." She releases my body and stares at me for a long time, so that I could see the tears I put in her eyes. The moment makes me a little uncomfortable and I involuntarily look away.

I didn't understand this woman at all.

Or any of this for that matter.

"Yeah. I should probably get going. I don't want to keep Fern waiting…" I lie.

"No, guess not," she smiles as she wipes her tears away and lets go of me completely.