Disclaimer: I don't own the Fosters, only the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the show.

Author's note: It's Veteran's Day today (in the USA, for those of you reading from another country), which means a day off school! Yay! The long weekend has allowed me time to update both my fics. (Shocker!) So, read and review, please!

Trigger Warning: Mention of underage prostitution and drug abuse in the past of a character. Doesn't go into too much detail or specifics.

~~~o~~~

Chapter 3: A Long Car Ride

"It's a long ride ahead of us," Dani said as they got into the car. "You might want to get some sleep. There's some blankets and a pillow in the back, in you want."

"I'm not really all that tired," Becky responded. The war between whether or not to trust these people was still going on in her head, despite her earlier reaction in the diner just minutes earlier. Falling asleep in a car with someone you just meet who was taking you to an unknown place set off huge warning bells.

"It's like, 5-o'clock in the morning. Did Mari give you coffee?"

"I had hot chocolate."

"Sugar rush?"

"Not really. I just, I'm not all that tired."

"That, or you don't really trust me." Dani said, perceptively.

Becky hung her head. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"You guys have been good to me, and I wish I could just relax, but..." she trailed off.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Really, it's perfectly normal. I didn't trust at first either."

"You? I mean, I know Lena said you called the number, but you seem so...normal, so...put-together, like." She paused. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Too personal."

"Again, nothing to be sorry for. My story made me who I am. We are the sum of our experiences, after all, when all is said and done. And yes, what Lena told you is true. I did call this number, a few years ago, and it literally saved my life. They came and got me, got me away from my pimp, took me back to Haven with them, and I still didn't trust them. I was also completely strung-out at the time." She said it so matter-of-factly that Becky couldn't do anything but stare silently. "Have I completely shocked you?" Dani finally said, after Becky said nothing.

"No..." she dragged it out, unsure. "I mean...you don't look like...that's not what I'm trying to say...I hit the streets for short periods, and I saw girls who had to live that life...and you don't...I mean, they had...:"

"Say whatever is on your mind. I won't get mad, I promise."

"Their eyes. They all had dead eyes. You don't."

"I did, but it's amazing what a little hope and having a couple of people who are willing to love you even when you can't love yourself, and don't think yourself worthy of love, can do to a person. I left a shitty situation and I fell into a shittier one. They picked me up out of the gutter, got me clean, got me counseling, gave me a home, made me feel safe again, and really truly cared." She paused. "I know you don't trust us right now. Why should you? All we've given you is words. I hope that once you see the truth of those words, when we get to Haven, sets the stage for building that trust. Nobody's lying to you, Becky."

"I think I can see it. I saw it when you were talking to Mariana, about commonplace things and people you both know. I can't imagine somebody orchestrating all that just to get their hands on me."

"Well, I can tell you from past experience that pimps can be pretty sneaky when they hook you in, but no one's trying to do that here. But if you're worried, I can stop the car right now and let you out. You're free to go at any time."

"Lena said that."

"It's true. Do you want me to pull over?"

"No." There was a long silence. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"I'm glad it wasn't your fate. But my experiences have made me stronger, and I hope to use them to help others. I'm taking some distance courses in psychology and social work right now. Stef and Lena keep trying to get me to go to university, but I don't really want to leave. It's my home now. I feel safe there. So this is the compromise."

"That's nice," was all Becky said, staring out the window. There were few cars on the freeway this early in the morning, and she wondered about the drivers. Were they going to work, or coming home from a graveyard shift? It all seemed so commonplace; her commute anything but. Did other cars hold secrets too?

Dani let her sit in silence for a while, sipping her coffee. After a little while, when Becky seemed disinclined to say anything more, she broke the silence. "Do you want to talk? Do you have any questions? I could put on the radio or something if you want."

"If I wasn't here, what would you do?"

"I was listening to an audiobook on the way in. Following the plot and the characters help keeps my mind awake."

"We can do that then."

"Are you sure? I'm kinda in the middle of it, though I can turn it back if you'd like."

"No, it's okay. Just start wherever you left off." She paused. "I'd kinda like to listen to something other than my own thoughts for a while."

"I get it," Dani said, as she fiddled with some knobs. Shortly thereafter, a voice began issuing from the speakers. "You should be able to catch on pretty easily. It's not too complicated. Ask if you have questions?"

"Okay."

Becky listened to the story as she sat staring out the window, forehead pressed to the glass. She followed along for a while, but despite her earlier protestations, her eyelids began drooping, and soon, without her even noticing that it was happening, she slipped into slumber.

When she awoke, it was much lighter outside and the car had stopped. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed two things. First, Dani was no longer in the car. Second, they were at a gas station, a little one. But before she could get herself too worked up, Dani appeared out the door of the mini-mart.

"She awakes!" she said, as she drew closer to car. "The bathroom inside's clean, if you need it. I was fit to burst." She winked at Becky. "All that coffee, you know."

Becky was still waking up and adjusting to her new surroundings, but the pressure in her bladder was making itself known. "Yeah, I guess I do." She unbuckled her seatbelt, and unwrapped the blanket from around her shoulders, which she had only just then noticed.

"It's in the back. Oh and here," Dani said, reaching into her pocket and pressing something into Becky's hand. "Grab something to eat or drink if you'd like; we've still got about an hour more of road ahead of us."

Becky looked at her hand. A five-dollar bill sat there. "I can't...you don't have to..."

"I know I don't have to, and you can. Now go, while I finish filling up the tank."

Becky saw the sign for the bathroom as soon as she walked through the door. After using it, she browsed the limited food options. Finally, she grabbed a bottle of Coke and the least dilapidated muffin on the rack. She felt bad spending Dani's money, but had a feeling that Dani would send her right back in if she came out empty-handed. The pimple-faced guy behind the counter, who looked to be about Dani's age, paid her no mind as she paid for her purchases, which was more than fine by her. 'Try not to attract attention' had been her motto from an early age.

As she excited the store, she saw Dani talking to someone on her cell phone. She caught bits of the conversation - "stopped for gas" and "as well as could be expected" and "about an hour". She wrapped up her conversation about the same time as Becky reached the car.

"That was Lena," Dani said. "I was just giving up a heads up on our ETA. She's really looking forward to meeting you."

Becky hung her head. She didn't vocalize it, but all she could think of was why?

"Shall we?" Dani said, not minding her lack of response. Becky climbed back into the car. Dani turned it on, and pulled out the gas station. The audiobook came back on, and the two girls listened to it. Even though Becky had missed the beginning, and slept through the last three hours or so, she found Dani was right in saying she could still follow along. The plot wasn't all that complicated.

Becky watched the road. They had definitely reached a more rural location. They were off any main freeway, though Dani was still clipping along at a fairly quite rate. It was mostly ranch land and farm land on either side, broken occasionally by a very small settlement not even big enough to be called a town. Lena had been right when she'd said it was rural. And isolated. But strangely, that didn't freak Becky out as much as it had earlier. Something had happened in her sleep, and now she didn't find the thought of isolation nearly as daunting. She feared she might be trapped there, unable to escape. And while that fear hadn't completely gone away, a new thought was replacing. The thought that it might actually mean safety. Safety and freedom, if it was all they had said it would be.

Dani seemed to notice where her attention was. "That's a National Park over there," she said, beckoning to her right. "Most of the rest of this is ranch land. Haven used to be a ranch, before it was converted. Still have the old ranch house though. That's where you'll be living."

"Did Stef and Lena buy it all themselves?"

"Not exactly. They bought a share in it. They found they weren't the only people who wanted to get away from city life."

"A share? Is it...like...a commune, or something?"

Dani laughed, a full deep-bellied laugh. "No, not a commune. But some of our neighbors still think it is. We had one guy who seriously thought we were a coven of witches practicing animal sacrifice and dancing naked under the moonlight."

"Really?"

"Really really. I think he spied on us for weeks trying to get a glimpse. Finally, he stopped. I think he just grew tired and disappointed that he didn't get to see what he was looking for."

"Weird."

"Yeah, seriously. People sometimes just have trouble understanding what they don't perceive as normal. Just because they want the house with the white picket fence, the 2.5 children, and the 1.8 cars, doesn't mean everyone else does too. When you break out of that mold, it can be hard for them to comprehend it."

"Yeah."

Dani suddenly turned on a side street. "We're on Haven land now."

"I don't see anything."

"It's a little ways in, off the road, you know."

"Yeah."

As they kept driving, Becky began to see little houses in the distance, and when they drew closer, she saw that they were still little houses.

"Dani?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are there so many tiny houses?"

"It's just how Haven came to be. Smaller houses are more sustainable, easier to heat and cool, cheaper to build. It encourages people to stay outside more, to interact within the community. One of the early members is an architect. He designed them for maximal efficiency in terms of space allocation. Or at least, that's what he said. There are three different sizes: single, double, and family."

"Families live in those?"

"The larger ones. Most people who come here nowadays don't have much. We house them, and when we run out of houses, we build more and everyone contributes. It teaches construction skills as well, which they can use to get a job with."

"Huh."

"You'll get the tour later today. I'll leave it to Stef and Lena to explain; I'm sure they'll do a better job."

A larger house was coming up in the distance. It looked like a mansion compared to the tiny houses, but Becky could see that, as houses go, this one wasn't all that big. It had a wrap-around porch on two sides, and a whole wall of windows. It looked open, and very welcoming.

"Here we are," Dani said, pulling up in front of it.

Becky watched the house as two figures stepped out the front door. Both were women, both maybe in their fifties. Both had very kind faces. But there the resemblance ended. One of the women had blond hair, just starting to silver. The other woman was darker, a shade between Dani and the first woman, with masses of dark brown curly hair streaked with silver. They stood together on the porch, hand in hand. Becky got out the car.

"Welcome to Haven," the darker of the two said.

~~~o~~~

Author's Note 2: So, in the next chapter, we're going to meet some of our Fosters and see what has happened to them over the last decade. Got any predictions? Suggestions? Leave it in a review!