A/N: Whoooo! 5 reviews already! Yay! *insert happy dance* Thanks to all my reviewers, and to those who have decided to follow / favourite this story. I mean, really, thanks. Oh, and regarding the review about lack of proof-reading, I'm sorry. I was tired, it was late and it's all typed on my Kindle which isn't the best device for writing on...

So yeah, I'll go over the previous part and correct it, but I wanted to upload this first. So originally I actually wrote it on Wednesday, but I didn't like it so I've rewrote it and hopefully it's okay... As usual, constructive criticism is happily appreciated and please do rate and / or review... Thanks :)

DISCLAIMER: Yeah... I don't even want to pretend that I own anything. I don't, and never will.

Note: Edited after the Guest reveiw. Hopefully, it's a little more how they'd react now :)

CHAPTER TWO

They were happy together, anybody who saw them could tell. Just like anybody who saw them could tell that they were family - a rather mismatched one, but a family nonetheless. It was obvious that they cared deeply for each other, and each associated one another with a sense of familiarity and love - of security - causing them to fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. There was no doubt that they belonged with each other. They did... she didn't.

Callie stood in the doorway, silently observing the scene in front of her, as she watched her almost-family interact with each other as they went about their daily routines. She studied them, spotting each of their separate personality traits that made them the people she couldn't help but love, her eyes following each of them as they moved as though to memorise their very essence of being. It was almost as though she didn't expect to see them again. Because, really, there was a chance that she wouldn't.

It had been a week since the Girls United Fundraiser and Robert was still refusing to 're-sign the abandonment papers, which meant that it was only a matter of time before something went wrong and she was removed from the Adams-Foster household. She was going to end up having the life she'd finally grown accustomed to pulled from beneath her feet, and she honestly had no idea how she was going to cope.

The idea that she was going to go to breakfast one day and it wouldn't be the people she'd came to love already sitting in there, there wouldn't be the scene that she was currently witnessing in there, it hurt her. And that hurt, that emotional pain that the thought caused her, that scared her. A lot. Because she knew. She knew that missing these people would just hurt too damn much. And being separate from Jude, her sweet little brother, her anchor through both good times and bad, she wouldn't deal - couldn't deal - with even the notion of it.

So instead she studied them. She watched as Jude poured way too much syrup on his already sticky pancakes, whilst Mariana sat beside him, her sole focus remaining on her mobile, completely engrossed on with it as she texted frantically to one of her many friends. Jesus related across the floor, ignoring his twin's yell of protest as he knocked into the table leg, causing the entire thing to jilt and a precariously placed bottle of milk to fall and spill onto the floor, a large puddle forming around it. Whilst chaos noisly formed around him - the twins had started to argue - Brandon remained practically oblivious, so immersed in his music was he. All the while, Stef and Lena stood at opposite ends of the table, Lena hovering near the fridge, whilst her wife remained near the coffee maker, despite the steaming mug that she currently held.

Callie bit her lips to stop herself from smiling as she was once again reminded of why this placement was such a good one. Despite the mess, and the yelling, and the general chaotic atmosphere, Stef and Lena remained calm. There was no yelling, no hitting, not even any threats being made. They were letting their kids be kids instead of getting annoyed by it. There was no doubt about it, Stef and Lena were the most friendliest, kindest, most...loving people that she'd ever had the good fortune to meet. No matter what she did, they forgave her. Time and time again. Not only this but they believed in her, gave her hope and genuinely cared. Aside from Jude, it was Stef and Lena that she'd miss the most.

"Are you planning on standing there all day, or are you actually coming in to join us?" Stef's teasing tone jolted her from her thoughts, and a faint blush tinted her cheeks as she realised someone had noticed her standing there watching them. Almost shyly, she ducked her head, hiding her face with a thick curtain of brown curls.

"Oh... Sorry." Embarrassed she mumbled an apology as she quickly darted into the room and took a seat next to her brother. Feeling Stef's gaze still on her, she leant over and nimbly pillaged a sticky syrup covered pancake from Jude's plate, smiling slightly at his loud protests. When her foster mom's eyes remained on her, she sighed before looking up and turning to talk to her. "What is it?"

Stef raised an eyebrow but didn't speak, instead continuing to watch the girl in front of her. The girl who'd had the same sad expression on her face for the majority of the week. However, right now it wasn't one of sadness, but one of anger.

"What?!" She sighed in frustion. "Look, I thought you wanted to talk, but obviously I was wrong. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to get going to school."

"Callie..." As soon a she began, Stef knew that she was fighting a losing battle. Not only did she not know how to finish her sentence, but the teen was clearly in full on defense mode. Nothing she could say would help. Not at the current moment in time, anyway.

At her name, Callie'd paused, but as soon as it became clear that nothing else was being said she rolled her eyes and let out a small huff of impatience.

"Fine then, screw you." With that, she got up and left, slamming the front door angrily behind her.

Now also angry, Stef took a step forwards, as though to follow her, when Lena walked over to her and rested a hand in her arm, silently warning her to calm down.

"You yelling down the street at her won't help, Stef." She reprimanded her wife. "Besides, what was all of that even about?"

Stef sighed again. "I don't know. It was like she didn't care, I mean..." For the second time in two minutes, Stef trailed off.

"Normally she's so careful about what she does and doesn't say, in case we kick her out?" Lena offered, a look of pity on her face at her wife's anxious expression.

"Exactly." Twisting around to face her wife, Stef met Lena's eye. "She's trying to push us, Lena, it's almost as though she wants us to give up on her... To bail on her and send her back into the system." Stef paused, and bit her lip. "Our baby's miserable, Lena, last time she ran away, who knows what she'll do now."