"Sorry love, I won't make it home for dinner tonight." Stef said over the phone, early on Sunday evening. "We busted a whole gang of drug dealers today and now we have piles of paper work. I'll probably be here till about midnight."

"Okay honey." Lena said as she finished tossing a salad, with the phone trapped between her ear and shoulder. "I'll make a plate for you and leave it in the fridge in case you're hungry when you get back. All you need to do is stick it in the microwave."

"Thanks Love." Stef said.

"Be careful Stef, I love you." Lena told her wife.

"I will honey, we're just at the station doing paperwork anyways. I love you too." Stef replied.

"So, mom's going to be really late tonight." Lena said as she hung up the phone and looked at the three kids sitting around her kitchen table.

"What happened?" Brandon asked, looking up from the potato he was cutting.

"Piles of paperwork." Lena answered, repeating Stef's words. "They're all stuck there most of the night."

"Will she get tomorrow off then?" Mariana asked, also busy peeling the potatoes that Brandon was chopping.

"Probably." Lena answered. "I depends on how late they stay in."

"I don't like it when she works at night." Jude said. "Bad things usually happen at night."

"I don't like it either bud." Lena kissed his head. "But tonight she's just at the station doing paperwork so it'll okay. She'll be home when you wake up tomorrow morning."

"I know, but things still happen." Jude said, looking down at the table. "Our mom went out one night and never came home."

"Honey, Stef's fine." Lena said, taking a seat next to the boy. "I know that I can't promise you that nothing will ever happen, something already did when she got shot, but she is taking care of herself and she just everything she can to make sure she's safe. Just like you do, you look both ways before crossing the street and you don't do things that could be dangerous. There's only so much we can do honey."

Lena looked at her son. She could see that he was still worried and she couldn't really blame him - his mother had just gone out one evening and never came home. Granted, Stef would never get into a car with a drunk driver and she had all the training and protection possible but still, her job was dangerous and Lena herself worried about her all the time, so how could she tell a young boy that everything would be fine.

"How about we have dinner and then call mom before bed?" Lena suggested. "I'll bet she'd love to hear from you."

"Yeah." Jude smiled. "Let's eat."

Lena laughed and kissed his head before turning back to her fried chicken.

"Only six plates?" Callie asked later that evening. She had come home from her therapy appointment and the family was sitting down to dinner. Callie quickly washed her hands at the sink and sat down, noticing instantly that Stef was the one missing.

"Yup, mom's working late." Lena explained.

"When will she come home?" Callie asked.

"She said around midnight but they have a lot of work so she's not really sure." Lena said. "We're going to leave a plate for her in the fridge in case she's hungry when she gets back."

"Why did she have to work late?" Callie asked.

"Drug bust." Jesus answered. "We're lucky Mariana wasn't one of them." He teased his twin, knowing he'd get a rise out of her. Ever since the moms found out the truth Jesus had tortured his sister and even now, six months later, he found it funny.

"Jesus." Lena warned before Mariana could retaliate.

"Sorry." Jesus said, though the small grin never left his face.

Lena was too busy keeping the twins from fighting that she didn't notice the sullen look on Callie's face or the way she just moved her food around on her plate without actually eating any of it.

"Jesus, we've told you more than once that that's over now. We've all forgiven everyone for that mistake, you were partly at fault too so please be nice to your sister." Lena said.

"I'm sorry." Jesus said, seriously this time. "I was just teasing her. I know she'll never do that again."

"Good." Lena said looking at both of them. "Now don't bring it up again."

Jude looked sadly at Lena and the twins. That had been a hard time for all of them and even though he and Callie hadn't been living there long he still felt sad and afraid when Stef was shot. Part of him was worried that they'd get sent away if something happened to him, but another part was just sad that something bad had happened to that family. They were so special and he just couldn't bear to see them hurt. Callie had been right though, they were lucky, unlike them, and Stef had pulled though just fine and everything became perfect.

When Jude finally got adopted he used to wonder whether that luck would rub off on him as well now or whether his misfortune would seep into their lives. So far it had been the former but every so often, something would happen that made him worry that the latter was true. Luckily for him, they seemed to be stronger than whatever bad things came their way. But looking around the table again he noticed the empty seat that was usually filled with Stef's teasing and chatter and once again he thought of the mom he had lost - the one that had gone out for dinner and never come home. He hoped that nothing like that would ever happen to his new moms - that their luck would never run out.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you." Jude said, coming into Callie's room later that night. Mariana was with Lena and Brandon and Jesus were both in their rooms. "I was mad but I never meant to say that you should leave."

"I know." Callie said, smiling at him. He had been the sole reason for her survival and she couldn't even imagine her life without him. "It's okay. I deserved it."

"No, you didn't." Jude said. "You deserve a lot and I'm sorry it's been so hard for you."

Callie wasn't sure what to say so instead she pulled Jude down onto her bed and hugged him.

"You can trust them, you know." Jude said. "They won't hurt you."

"I know." Callie answered.

"Then why are you so afraid to?" Jude asked. "Why do you need control?"

"I'm not sure." Callie answered honestly. "I guess I still feel like this is just too good to be true sometimes."

"I feel that too." Jude admitted. "Even tonight, I kept thinking about how mom said she'd be home late but never came back and now Stef called to say she'd be late."

"She'll be back." Callie told her brother though she herself had been worried all through dinner that Stef had disappeared again like that night. She knew she hadn't done anything so it wasn't her fault but still that guilt of sending her away the first time was still too raw.

"You remember the time you called them lucky?" Jude asked and Callie nodded. "Well, do you think now that we're part of their family that luck rubbed off on us or our bad luck will rub off on them?"

Callie thought about that. She thought back to the night her mother had died and remembered fighting with her because she was going out without taking Callie along. Her mother never came home. Again Callie had a fight with her mom and she left but this time she did come home. "I think they luck will rub off on us." She answered.

"You promise?" Jude asked, thinking that the one thing his sister had always done right was keep promises.

Callie nodded silently, hoping that nothing bad would happen and that their mom would come home to them.

It was past ten and the whole house was quiet. Callie could hear Mariana's soft, even breathing so she knew that she was already asleep. She got up to get herself a glass of water from the kitchen and as she passed she noticed that the lights were off in everyone's rooms. As she made her way downstairs she remembered coming down those very stairs, less than a week ago to find that her mom never came home. Before she knew what she was doing Callie was stuffing her feet into her shoes and silently slipping out of the house and disappearing down the street.