Chapter 42

Stef's POV

I run out of the bathroom and immediately see blood all over the living room.

"Crap," I mutter as I walk in farther and notice Mike bashing in Trey's face on the floor. "MIKE!" I yell as I try my best to get him off of the man. "MIKE! STOP!" I wail even louder when I realize that he's too strong and too mad for me to do anything.

I can feel my ex-husband's tight grip begin to loosen and I notice the punching stop. I have to look away from Trey's face but he was definitely still conscious. I grab my cuffs from behind my back and hand them over to Mike, when I know that he's as calm as he's going to get. Because as much as I wanted to kick this guy's face in myself, I knew that Mike would kill him. And I couldn't let him go down because of this.

I can hear Mike tightening the cuffs around the man's wrists and I don't even question how tight they are. I get up from my position and try to pull Mike up too but Mike doesn't budge.

"You stupid son of a bitch! What the hell did you to her?!" he yells as he grabs the collar of his shirt. "What the hell did you do!? Huh?!"

"MIKE! THAT'S ENOUGH!" I shout even louder but Mike stops and looks at him again before bashing his fist against Trey's nose again and again.

"MIKE STOP!" I hear Lux scream from behind us, causing me to whip my body around immediately. We both freeze when we notice the fearful and distraught expression on her face as she stood there attempting to keep her body covered with her robe.

After a few seconds, I'm finally able to snap out of it. "Lux, go back to the bathroom. I told you not to move," I answer out of anger.

Lux's POV

"No," I answer just as defiantly.

Stef stares at me in confusion.

I couldn't even begin to answer why I was defending Trey of all people.

Was it because I didn't want to hurt Valerie?

Was it because I didn't want to drag either, Stef or Mike, into all of this?

Or was it because I was scared of what would happen if they didn't believe me about everything?

It might've been all of the above…

I shake my head slightly and try my best to will myself not to cry even though I can practically fell my tears burning a hole through my eyes. "Please stop," I beg. "He didn't do anything."

It was technically the truth. He did nothing compared to what happened two years ago.

Breaking his own door and cursing wasn't a big deal.

Mike backs off of him and tries to approach me but I instinctively back away, "No, stop," I tell him through my cracked voice. I can see the hurt in his eyes but all I can do now is look away from him. I turn to look at Stef and can see her staring back at me with a complete emotionless expression.

Why was she so hard to read?

Finally someone breaks the silence, "Mike, um, you should be the one to call it in," she nods and watches as he takes a reluctant pause to stare at me before walking out. I don't even bother staying there to watch her look at me with pity. I make my way over toward my room so that I could change. There was something about still being in my bathrobe that made me feel very uncomfortable.

Once I'm done changing into some sweatpants and my yellow t-shirt, I can hear a soft knock on the door, "Lux?"

It's Stef's voice.

Maybe if I ignore it, it will all just go away.

I start packing my bag since I know there's no way in hell Valerie's going to let me stay here.

I'd have to call Tasha and see where she is and catch up with her.

Or maybe even Fern to find me another temporary placement.

I can hear the door creak open and I know it's her. I keep stuffing my bag. Luckily there isn't too much because in less than a few seconds, I'm completely done. I zip it up before throwing it over my shoulder and turning around and walking towards the door.

"Lux," Stef stands in front of the doorway and blocks it so that I can't get through.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

"You don't have to keep running anymore," she shakes her head.

"Actually I do. You just sent Mike to call the cops," I remind her in a sarcastic tone.

"So?" she looks at me strangely.

"So I rather just skip all of this. From past experience, these things don't ever go my way, so if you could just..."

"What do you mean from past experience? This happened before?" she asks with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"It doesn't even matter," I shake my head. "None of this does."

She takes a deep breath and crosses her arms over her chest before continuing. "Alright, what happened to the Lux I was just talking to five minutes ago?"

"She's gone," I retort.

"Oh is she?" my mother asks disbelievingly.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

I shake my head. "Seriously lady, I have to go," I tell her with as much detachment in my voice as I can muster.

"So is that how you're going to be?" Stef questions. "You're just going to disappear and have Mike and I take the fall for this? Make us look like crazy people who just broke in and attacked your foster father for no reason?"

I shake my head slightly.

I hated that her question made me realize that I cared.

I didn't want to.

That was never a good sign.

Never for me. And especially not in the end…

"It's going to look like that way anyway," I mumble. "Or it's going to look like I lied again."

"No, it's not," she answers in a calm voice. "You just have to be honest with the police. The evidence, the door, the blood on his knuckles, the bruise on your arm… they all speak for themselves. No one is going to think that you lied."

"Really?" I smile. "Not even you? Or Mike? …Or Valerie?"

"Valerie?" she questions. "So this is about her?" she tries to rationalize.

"No, this is about you!" I answer angrily. "…This is about having another person not believe me! Don't you get it?"

Why wasn't she getting this?

She could just avoid all of it and I could to.

All she had to do was move out of the way.

"Please move out of the way," I plead even more desperately when I notice she doesn't budge.

"No," she says firmly. "Not until you explain what you just meant…" She stares at me desperately for a long time and I don't answer. "Why would you think we wouldn't believe you?"

I shake my head with resistance. I wanted her to just evaporate or something.

"I just didn't want to risk it, okay?" I try to answer casually but a tear still stains my cheek that I quickly wipe away and pray that she didn't even notice.

"Lux—" she starts but someone from behind her quickly interrupts.

"Ladies, can we get your statements?" a young officer says as she stares at me.

"Um, now is not a good time," Stef attempts to answer.

"Yes," I answer. I needed to stop this conversation. It was already too late but I could still leave when it was over. I just wondered where they'd take me.

Stef walked in the middle of my statement. Hers was shorter so I wasn't too surprised. I knew I had to be honest because I didn't want Mike to pay for my mistake. After getting a look at Trey's face post-beating, I knew he could've used all of the help he could get.

We all stare at her as she takes a seat beside me on the bed. There were two other officers in the room who were standing. I couldn't remember their names but they were both females and only one of them was actually doing most of the talking,

"So you've lived with the suspect for two years prior to this?"

"Yes."

"How long ago?"

"Um, a little over a year. But then they decided it wasn't a good idea so I got placed back in the foster system."

"And when was the first time he hurt you?"

"Um, it was only really once?" I answer nervously.

"That's okay. So when was that?" the detective continues.

"The night I landed in the hospital. I can't remember the day," I shake my head.

"And what happened on the day in question?"

"Um…" I start just because I know I have to but I can't think of a thing to say. So instead I stare at the notepad in the other woman's hands.

Stef senses my hesitance and immediately places her hand on my knee, "Lux, you need to be honest."

I furrow my eyebrows at her and she continues.

"There's nothing in this world that you can't tell me that would make me feel or think any different about you. You don't have to worry about that. I promise you. Okay?"

I stare at the woman, who is my biological mother, for a long time. How was it that I could have more faith in my mother who I have only known for less than a month, then my foster mother who I had known for over three years?

She pulls my head in towards her and kisses my forehead before wrapping both of her hands around my left one. She gives me a small smile, "If you haven't noticed there's nothing you can say to me that will get rid of me... Or your dad... Or Lena. So… just tell them the truth and we can be done with all of this, okay?"

I can tell that she's upset by all of this by the look in her eyes. I can suddenly read her a bit better, but I'm beginning to think it's only because she's allowing me to.

But she was still trying to be strong for this.

I could at least do the same… even if I was just pretending.

I turn back towards the detective, "What was the question again?" I honestly did forget. All I knew was that I didn't want to answer.

"What happened the day he first hurt you? In detail would be better," she requested sadly. It was a personal request, but I knew I had to answer sooner or later.

I took in a deep breath as I forced myself to go back to that day. Luckily there wasn't so much to tell because that would've been even more embarrassing. "…Trey… he came into my room one night. I think he was drunk though," I stop and furrow my eyebrows at the detective.

"That's okay," she nods. "Take your time," she offers.

But I didn't want to take my time. I wanted to just blurt it out.

"Um… I woke up when I felt the weight on the other side of my bed shift and then I noticed it was Trey. I asked him what he was doing. He didn't answer. Instead he kissed me. And… I kissed him back," I confess embarrassingly.

All of their expressions remain flattened as if it weren't a big deal but one of them finally asks. "Why?"

"Because I was use to it," I answer honestly. "He'd always kiss me but that's all it was. And he told me that if I ever told anyone about it, that my mom…" I pause and take another deep breath, "that Valerie would send me back to Sunnyvale." I give them a short fake laugh, "I must've been pretty desperate huh? I guess I led him on in a way." I shrug my shoulders.

Stef squeezes my hand tighter, "No," she shakes her head. "Not at all. He was an adult and he shouldn't have done any of that. He should've known better… Okay?"

I squint my eyes at her. "I was so desperate for a mom that I made out with Valerie's husband so that he wouldn't take me away from her. That's sick," I tell her as I nod.

The detective interrupts, "The only sick person here was the one who preyed on a thirteen-year-old and used his position to do it."

Twelve, I want to correct. Technically, I was twelve going on thirteen but that didn't change anything.

"Then what happened?" the detective continues.

"Then… I felt his hand reach under my shirt and then for my pajama pants. I immediately felt uncomfortable so I pushed him away…"

"And then?"

"Uh… he grunted like he was mad and then tried to calm down. He told me to just relax. He turned for a second to grab his beer from the nightstand, and I took that opportunity to grab the lamp from the nightstand… I slammed it as hard as I could against his head and ran out of the room."

"How serious were his injuries?" the detective asked.

I shrug my shoulders, "He was in the hospital for a day or two I think. He got out before me so I don't really know."

"Which hospital was this?"

"St. Roses."

"And you were there too?"

I nod. "For a little. Less than a week. I had a stroke and they brought me in unconscious so they wanted to keep me there. The blow to the chest was the cause of the stroke."

"Okay," the woman nodded as she kept jotting all of this down. "Now what happened after you ran out of the room?"

"He chased me. Pulled me by my hair to stop me and that's how he got to the stairs before me to keep me from leaving. After… he basically just yelled for a while. I can't remember what he said."

"That's fine. Just try to remember whatever you can," the detective urged me to continue.

"He grabbed onto my arms with both of his hands and I tried to fight him off and I begged him to let me go. I remember him punching my chest and falling down the stairs. He ran down after me and I thought he was going to help me. I thought he had realized that things had gone too far. But instead he… He stared at me to see if I was okay. My eyes were open but I couldn't really see anything. It was all a blur… I heard him unbutton his zipper and… I can't really remember too much after that. I started to feel dizzy and I then I woke up at the hospital. But I knew that he…"

"Raped you?" the detective tries to confirm.

"Yes," I nod.

I feel Stef's hand leave mine for a split second that frightens me to death. But then I feel it wrap around my back and she shakes my arm slightly.

"And you came back here afterwards?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell anyone at the hospital? Or anyone at all?"

"No," I shake my head. "I told Valerie but she didn't…believe me so I didn't even bother with the staff... I told my boyfriend and my best friend."

"Where can we find them?"

"I don't know where my boyfriend is. My friend is at girls home."

"And where was Valerie during the attack?"

"Uh, at her mother's. She lives in Oregon. She was just going to be gone a few days but she came back as soon as she found out what happened."

"And why did you decide to come back when you got back from the hospital?"

Here it was…

"I thought I could handle it," I nod nervously. "I still wanted to make things work with Valerie, but it was getting harder in harder being in this house and listening to him tell me how badly I screwed this up. Valerie didn't want to put me back into the foster system and I told her I made it up so that she wouldn't hate me… But it was too much. I couldn't even sleep here and feel safe anymore so… my friends and I decided to trash the outside of the house because we knew Valerie would finally kick me out if I did something that terrible. And our plan worked."

"But you came back a year afterwards?" the detective asks in a perplexed tone. "Why?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Because I missed her. Because my life was already sucking and I hoped Trey wouldn't try anything. I didn't think he would. He waited almost two years before he did anything the first time. I figured I'd be well out of here before then."

"And what happened today?"

I take another deep breath and start to tell them everything.

General POV

Stef walked her out of the house, and Lux almost felt confused and relieved about why she was still next to her. After all that happened and all that she heard she still stuck by her. That part was incredibly strange to the teen.

"So?" Lux asked her mother, causing for the woman to stare at her questioningly. "What happens now?"

"Well…" Stef sighed, "Trey's probably going to the hospital and then straight to jail hopefully. And Mike—" she stopped and pointed to him, when she realized he was walking towards them both, "Speak of the devil," she teased.

"Lux are you okay?" he asked before he quickly engulfed the girl in his arms. Lux froze up when he did this, but after a few seconds she hugged him back.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

He released her a little and stared at Stef, "The detectives said this happened before? When?"

"A year ago," Stef answered him.

"Well nothing really happened now so…" Lux informed them. He didn't really hurt her this time. He didn't even get the chance.

"He's going to pay for what he did to you, Lux. That I can swear to."

"Mike," Stef tried to calm him, and Mike put his hands up in surrender. "What happened with you?"

"No, everything's fine. Self defense..."

Lux furrowed her eyebrows.

Stef noticed and nodded her head understandably. "California includes self-defense of others in their self-defense laws. You're a minor and were in imminent danger."

"I'm just mad I didn't kill the bastard," Mike mumbled so that the police wouldn't hear.

Stef chose not to address it. After hearing everything that happened, she really wanted to kill Trey too.

"Lux. Are you okay?" Fern asked from afar as she ran over towards them.

"Now you ask her if she's okay?" Mike spat angrily.

"Mike!" Stef yelled. She didn't need for him to threaten another person and ruin their case against Trey.

"The police just told me what happened. Lux, I swear if I had any idea about any of this, I would've never placed you back here."

Lux nodded and tried to smile, "No, it's okay."

"It's definitely not," Fern answered sternly. "None of this is okay… But it's over now," she nodded as she moved a strand of hair from the girl's face.

"Lux is coming home with us," Stef tells her in a no non-sense tone.

"I agree," she said as she stared at Stef. "But those regulations still—"

"We're taking care of them," Stef insisted. "I promise."

"Okay." Fern turned to face Lux, "Are you okay with this?"

Lux eyes moved towards Stef and Mike first. And after a few seconds she nodded. "Yeah."

All three adults let out huge sighs of relief, causing for Lux to squint her face at them, which caused both Stef and Mike to chuckle.

"I'll call you," Fern tells them. "Bye, Lux. I'm really glad you're okay. And if you need anything—"

"Got it," Lux smiled.

All three of them watched the woman walk away.

"Are you ready to go home?" Stef asked as she wrapped her arm around her daughter and looked at Mike.

Lux let out a deep breath that she felt she'd been holding in since the night started. "So ready…"

The End

THE SEQUEL to this will be posted soon. A lot of things have gone unanswered which I plan to include in Part 2 (For example: Lux's relationship with 21-year-old Eric Daniels will bring extra drama to the Adams Foster household...) But if there was something you really want to see and want me to incorporate in the sequel feel free to throw ideas at me. Though I will warn you that it will remain a Lux-centered fic and will have other storylines as well. I do know most of the other kids weren't involved much in this one, but that was mainly because Lux hadn't lived with them and she was the focus. They are bound to be included more in the sequel though not too much. I get extremely bored reading and writing stories where too many characters are actively present. Most of my stories are focused on 1-3 people because it's more interesting for me and less confusing for my readers.

A/N: I'd like to especially thank s.c. junction for helping me beta this entire story. You're awesome and don't even realize how much time you've saved me.

By the way, only the first few chapters have been beta-ed. Any mistakes afterward is fully my fault. I will be posting up the proofread chapters very soon so that this story will hopefully have very few grammatical errors.

To my dedicated readers who have read this story from beginning to end: you all are awesome! This was my first ever fanfic and I'm so excited to finally have it completed.

Couldn't have done it without you guys.

AND I know that there were some issues some people had where they think I went out of character at times. But I had the characters behave and act a certain way because that's how I think they would have acted if they were placed in this type of situation.

Lux- Her friends WERE her family and she was losing one by one all of a sudden. Bug, her boyfriend and friend of many years, left her out of nowhere. Her plan to get emancipated with her best-friend Tasha was ruined and she blamed Stef and Mike for stopping that. Let's not forget she had two strangers telling her what to do out of the blue. Plus, she considered herself an adult that didn't need anyone's approval after being on her own for so long. The idea was going to be very off-putting to her. Also, she was 14. Very young and very immature. Thought she knew better than everyone else and wasn't very logical.

Stef & Mike- They were wrongfully deprived of their daughter's life. Point blank. That was their kid. I can't imagine them letting it go. They weren't Cate & Baze, who had more of a wing-it attitude.

Stef was also too consumed with everything Lux kept doing wrong to really focus on any of the other kids. It was one thing after another and it happened so fast that she couldn't catch a break. She wasn't intentionally ignoring them after she found out she had a daughter. From the second Stef and Lux met, Lux had been starting trouble for her. First she told her about getting emancipated, then she steals the files from the doctor's office, forges the papers and shows up at the courthouse… then Lux decides to go live with Mike instead of Stef because she doesn't want to be smothered (which of course would take a toll on Stef. Look at what happened when Brandon moved out. We know she was far from happy and I can't imagine her being okay with a daughter, whose first 16 years of life she missed out on, deciding to go with Mike over her)… then Lux spends one dinner with them, runs away and tries to leave on her boyfriend's motorcycle (A boyfriend who lives on his own, is older, and Lux has been staying with for the past few months)… then they try to ground Lux which doesn't work because Lux rebels and stays out all night and doesn't come home until the next morning… then Lux calls Fern to come and get her because Stef and Mike basically let her go to a bar and stay out all night in some stranger's apartment. Stef was going crazy and still tried to make as much time as she could with the rest of her family.

Lena- Her daughter, Callie, was scared that she was going to get kicked out again because of Lux. She didn't know the other girl very well so she said something she didn't mean out of anger, but tried to make it up to her afterwards by being there. That's just what I think she'd do in that situation. Her family comes first and Lux didn't even want to be part of their family so she would gravitate towards Callie more. She will be more chill in the sequel.

Callie- She hated Lux in the beginning. She thought she got her and Jude kicked out of the last "safe" home they lived in before she went to the Olmsteads… and then the last fosterhome she had before they found Stef and Lena. Callie cares about Jude more than anything and she thought that her brother would've never had to go through all of that abuse afterwards, if it weren't for Lux. Hostility was a given. When she started suspected the truth, that's when her opinion of Lux changed.

Mariana- Stef was her mom first. Of course she would feel jealous if she found out her mom had a bio daughter. It wasn't the same as Brandon being her bio son. She knew Brandon since she knew Stef. She didn't know Lux and didn't really want to.

Brandon- This random girl, who he had a bad first meeting with, all of a sudden starts taking up all of the time from not one but BOTH of his parents. He never had to share Mike. I can imagine him not being too keen of the idea of Lux staying in his bedroom at their apartment etc.

Jesus & Jude- I can't imagine Jesus really caring at all to be honest. I also think Jude would be more innocent, confused, and quiet about all of this. They will definitely be included more in the sequel though. I haven't completely forgotten about them.

Now, although you may or may not agree with my explanations, I'm just letting you know that's why I had the characters behave a certain way toward Lux and vice versa. I got a lot of complaints about their behaviors being out of character, but I still think they were perfectly in character considering all that was happening. Different situations bring about different kinds of behaviors in people. This was a very complicated situation that I never thought would cause for so much backlash.

This was just my opinion, which I put a lot of thought in. I wasn't just aimlessly writing without thinking it through.

This was a ridiculously long author's note, but since I keep getting people telling me the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, it was definitely needed. I can't handle explaining all of this one more time. Having to repeat myself is one of my pet peeves. Especially, repeating all of this info like 15 times. It's very time consuming. So I'm just going to leave it up and direct those people to it.

Now you don't have to agree with me. I guess we all see the characters differently. This is how I see them so this is how the story went.

This is a story. Fiction. I never claim for any of my stories to be realistic and 100% in character. I just try to keep it entertaining and try to make it so that it's true to their personalities but if I go off a little then oh well... *Shoulder shrug. Not a big deal to me but apparently it is to others. Anyways this is my explanation so yep…

I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN THE SEQUEL HAS BEEN POSTED BY AN UPDATE TO THIS ONE.

Thank you all for reading. And if you've read all 42 chapters, I applaud you because I am seriously incapable of doing that. After the twelfth chapter, I'm just like "Okay! Next Story!" So you guys are really freaking amazing if you have completed this!

And despite the negativity I have received, this was seriously my favorite story. I had a lot of fun writing it and hopefully some of you liked it :)