A/N: Thanks so much for the feedback on the first chapter! I'm so happy that I continue to be inspired by this amazing show.

The kids kept the moms busy for the rest of the evening, so they didn't get a chance to start going through bills and other mail until after everyone was in bed. They sat together at the dining room table to work.

"So… Frank's taking the boys to a baseball game?" Lena casually asked her wife.

"Yep."

"You okay with that?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

Stef sighed, leaning back in her chair. "I don't know. It's nice for the kids that he got the tickets, but… I don't know why I keep getting my hopes up that things will be different with us. He made his thoughts about me and my life pretty clear when he didn't show up for our wedding."

"I know you were disappointed," Lena said.

"Actually, I'm not sure what I was. I mean, I'm the one that told him not to come."

"You told him not to come if he wasn't totally ready to support you," Lena pointed out. "Of course you wished he that he WOULD come because you were wishing he'd get over himself."

"But I don't know why I'd expect it after all this time." Stef had spent so many years hoping for her father's approval, but knew it had been one of the costs of being true to herself. She had proudly grown up as a Daddy's Girl, but she wasn't his little fishing buddy anymore and it had taken too long to realize that his attitude was poisoning her life. Even now, she hated how much he could still hurt her. "If being here and seeing us for all these years hasn't been enough to convince him that our love and our family is just as valid as anyone else's… I don't know what will."

"Maybe he HAS started to question what he believed about us," Lena quietly suggested, "And this little Padres outing is his way of trying to show it."

"I'd rather he just say it instead."

Lena smiled. "Well, you come by your stubbornness honestly, honey."

Stef cut her eyes at her, and Lena gave an innocent grin in return. "I know we've already told the boys about the game, but… do you think letting them spend the time with Dad is a bad idea?"

"He's their grandfather," Lena replied. "He does love them."

"Mmm."

"He's never really said anything about us that upset them, and even if he does… they can handle it. They know that our family is real and valid and beautiful and that's what really matters, right?"

Stef nodded. "Right."

In the morning, when Callie woke up, she decided to try some cooking therapy. By the time the moms came into the kitchen, they were amazed to see what she'd done.

"Are those crepes?" Lena asked as she looked over Callie's shoulder at the pan in her hands.

"Mmm-hmm," she replied. "To be topped with Nutella and raspberries."

"Oooh, j'adore," Lena said with a smile.

Callie frowned. "Huh?"

"She's taking Spanish in school, not French," Stef reminded her wife.

"Oh well. Thank you, sweetheart," she told Callie. "Do you need help with anything?"

"Nah, I think I've got it," she replied as she put another finished crepe onto her stack. "I just gotta do the scrambled eggs last. There's coffee on the counter, by the way."

Stef was already reaching to pour herself a cup. "I knew I wasn't just imagining that smell."

A few minutes later, the rest of the kids started trickling into the kitchen. "Oh, yum!" Mariana cried when she saw the container of raspberries on the table.

"You want to put plates out for me?" Callie asked her.

"Sure," she said as she started getting together plates and silverware.

Jesus and Jude were next; the younger of the two was still sleepily rubbing his eyes. "Morning, sunshine," Stef teased him as she tousled his hair.

Jude smiled. "Morning."

"What's for breakfast?" Jesus asked.

"Crepes and eggs, courtesy of Callie," Lena replied.

"Nice."

Jude's eyebrows knitted as he looked at the serving plates on the table. "Our mom would make these," he recalled. "Didn't she?"

Callie looked over at him in surprise. "You remember that?"

He nodded. "I think so."

Stef smiled. "Sounds like a good family tradition to keep going," she suggested. They'd never try to get the Jacobs siblings to forget their biological parents. Part of making their family work was acknowledging their children's pasts. The bad parts were often the most evident, but the good parts deserved just as much attention.

Callie was quiet for a long moment, but finally nodded. "Thanks."

After breakfast, Stef left with Jesus and Mariana to drop them off at the movies and the mall, respectively. Jude disappeared upstairs to clean his half of his room before Connor came over to work on a homework project.

"It wouldn't kill you two to go clean up, either," Lena teased Callie and Brandon as they sat down in the living room to watch TV.

Brandon shrugged. "Why? Connor doesn't need to see my room." Lena swatted him on the shoulder before she went upstairs.

"You're hanging out with your dad later on, right?" Callie asked him.

"Yeah. Batting cages and dinner."

"It's good that you guys are okay again."

"Yeah. As long as he keeps trying to stay sober."

"I think you give him a reason to." It was hard for Callie not to compare Mike to her own father - and so far, even with his faults, Mike was winning.

However, Brandon shook his head. "I don't want it to be about me," he explained. "I mean, I'm glad he cares what I think, but he needs to get better for himself."

Callie nodded. "That makes sense."

When the doorbell rang a half hour later, Brandon started to get up to answer it. Then they heard Jude yell, "I've got it!" from upstairs. A moment later, he came running down the steps.

"Whoa, take it easy, bud," Callie told him.

Jude gave her a sheepish smile and took a second to calm himself before he opened the door. "Hi, Connor," he greeted his best friend.

"Hey, Jude. What's up?"

"Not too much," he replied as he closed the door. "I'm gonna go to a baseball game tomorrow."

"Padres?" Connor asked. Jude nodded. "Cool."

"Yeah, I've never been to a game before."

"You're going to have fun," Connor promised as they headed for the steps. "I've gone to a bunch with my dad."

"I was wondering," Brandon said to Callie once the younger boys were upstairs, "Do you care that the invite for the game was just for me and Jesus and Jude?"

Callie shrugged. "Sports are supposed to be a guy thing, right?"

"Sure, if you're still living in the 50s. I know my grandpa's kind of… old-fashioned about some things. He probably just assumed you're a girly-girl like Mariana."

Callie smirked. "Not really."

"Yeah. You'd think after raising my mom, he'd know that girls aren't all like that. But I guess Mariana is his idea of 'normal' and she's never had any interest in baseball. I don't either, really, but it should be fun."

"Should be."

"Once he gets to know you better, I'm sure he'll include you in stuff, too."

She shrugged again. "I don't really care either way, I guess. I know you need 'guy time' or whatever sometimes. It'll be good for Jude to get to hang out with you and Jesus. I think you'll be good big brothers for him to grow up with."

Brandon smiled. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, too. We'll all get this family thing figured out eventually, right?"

She laughed a little. "Yeah."

Connor and Jude had teamed up for their World History project. They were currently studying the Middle Ages and had to make a poster about feudal manors.

"The serfs will live in this area," Connor decided, pointing to one corner of their mostly-blank poster board. He drew a brown line across the paper. "They'll be on this end of the road, and then there can be the mill and the bakery and all that for the town."

"Okay," Jude agreed. He'd mainly been letting the other boy take the lead with the project. Usually when they worked on homework, Connor figured things out faster. He was a pretty good student in everything except math. Jude would occasionally get up the courage to chime in and then hope he didn't sound too stupid. Sometimes he had no idea why someone as nice and smart and cool as Connor wanted to hang out with him.

"The fields are gonna be over here, right?" Connor asked, pointing to another open section of their poster.

Jude nodded and reached for a green marker. "Yeah." He drew an outline of the area. "What if we glued on real grass to make it look like a field?"

"That'll look cool," Connor agreed. "Good idea!"

Jude beamed, so happy that he'd made a useful suggestion. And in that moment, he found himself unable to resist a sudden impulse to lean over and give Connor a kiss on the cheek. They were sitting right next to each other and it seemed so natural. But he felt his friend tense and knew that he'd made a horrible mistake.

"What was that?" Connor asked as he wiped at his face with his hand.

Jude was horrified. "I-I'm sorry," he stuttered.

Connor just stared at him in surprise and confusion. After a seemingly eternal moment of silence, he started putting his things back into his bookbag. "I should go."

"No, wait! I didn't mean to do that," Jude told him.

But Connor didn't stop. With nothing more than a quick, "See ya later," he fled the room.

Jude put his head in his hands as he cried. What had he done?!

TBC...