So here's the chapter which has sort of been demanded... hopefully it's okay. I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to write it, but then I had an ideas and the rest of the chapter sort of works of that.. Though I have no idea what to write next or if there's even a need for more or if it's sort of reached a natural end?

To be honest I'm not particularly happy with how I wrote the ending and will probably definitely rewrite at some point, but for now it's refusing to change. So please share your honest opinions and review, follow, favourite or even PM me :)

DISCLAIMER: I will now sit quietly in a corner and own nothing. Not even a cup of tea... I really want tea now, I think I'll put in the kettle and make a cuppa, stop writing this rambling 'DISCLAIMER' and get on with the chapter...

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

She knew that she'd be in trouble. It was pretty much the only thing that she was certain would still happen and go the way she'd planned it, the one outcome that she was still certain of after she got picked up from a police station.

What she didn't expect was to be let off with just a tap on the wrist and the warning not to do it again. She'd broken the law, and she'd done it knowingly. It o my that, but she'd been arrested before, twice, and therefore had a criminal record. What she'd - what she'd planned - was for them to charge her with her crime and send her off to Juvie like they did every other time. But they hadn't, and now here she was, sitting in the fancy drawing room of the Quinn's with not only Robert and Jill staring down at her, but also Stef and Lena, both of whom had appeared at the station and been invited back to the Quinns' in order to deal with her.

They were all looking at her with such disappointing expressions, as though she'd really let them down.

Pur-lease, they should know by now that you're a let down - a fucking pathetic piece of SHIT who doesn't deserve any of their love, none of it. You only ever let them down. They were happier without you in their lives, and will be happier still once you're out of it cor good. You're a fucking waste of space, Callie Jacob, that's all you are and ever will be, and if they don't realise it then they're even stupider than you.

She shook her head, clearing her thoughts and kicked her legs, swinging them in time to the grandfather clock, whose ticking was the only thing to cut the silence.

Nobody said anything, they just continued to watch her.

"I'll go... check on Sophia and Jude." With a reassuring smile at her husband and a small the head and Lena, Jill excuse herself and exited the room.

Robert sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose before taking a seat opposite of her. Stef ans Lena did the same.

"Why?" He asked, no longer able to keep stalling. Be wanted - no needed - an answer. After all, Sophia had never behaved like this so why on earth was she?

Callie shrugged. "Why what?" She asked, "Why did I got there? Why didn't I tell you that I was suspended? Or why did I let myself get arrested?"

"Why all of them."

"Why were you at that house?"

"YOU LET YOURSELF GET ARRESTED?!"

All three adults spoke at the same time; Robert calmly if a little weary, Lena curious but with unspoken parental authority, and Stef loudly and angrily as she stared at her daughter with such disapproval and disappointment that it made Callie want to shrink back into the sofa and disappear.

"Sorry?" She muttered, and shot the blonde cop a small, weak smile.

"Sorry? Sorry, Callie?!" Stef sighed in exasperation. "You're still on parole," she reminded the girl, "If that family had pressed charges-"

"But they didn't." She pointed out, slightly defensively.

Stef didn't need to tell her about her parole - she already knew that she was on it and wasn't a idiot. Besides, it wasn't like it was up to Stef to tell her anyway - Robert was the only one in the room with the parental authority to do so.

"But they could have, Callie," Stef argued, tryin to get her point across to the sullen teen, "They could have, and then we're would you be - in a cell, in Juvie? Would you really be okay with Jude thinking that you abandoned him, with your whole family being hurt because if you?"

"OF COURSE NOT!" She stood up, furious at Stef for insinuating that she didn't care about them. "Of course I wouldn't be okay with that! Of course I don't want anybody - especially Jude - to be hurt because of me! You don't get it, do you?! I didn't tell Robert because I told him about my mom and wanted to see Jude! I went to that house because it's were I used to live! And I got myself arrested, because I had to-!"

She cut off, afraid that she'd said too much, afraid that if she said anything else, she'd end up saying everything; how miserable he was, how fed up she was of pretending, how she just wanted to curl up into a ball and give up,and how getting herself arrested was essentially her doing that, of her finally and completely giving up.

But that wasn't something she was willing to say - not if she could help it, anyway.

"Had to? Honey, what do you mean by that?" She looked up at Lena's voice and ended up looking her directly in the eye. And at the sightt of Lena's kind, trusting eyes and small, reassuring and loving smile, she couldn't stop her mouth from opening of it's own accord, nor the word's which spilled from it.

"I had to," she repeated, "It was the only way. The only way that I could get away, and the only way that I wouldn't be stuck here with rather than home with you! I thought... I thought that if I ended up Juvie then at least I wouldn't be - that I wouldn't have let them win. I wouldn't be there and it would be because of something that I chose, not anybody else. I'm sorry."

She ducked her head, breaking their eye contact as her face became flushed with embarrassment from what she'd just admitted.

You idiot, She thought to herself, Now that they truly know how pathetic you are, they won't want you anymore. No one will. Not only that, but you've just insulted the one other person who was willing to take you in. You're a fucking idiot who deserves everything bad that you get.

"You really want to leave, that bad?" Robert asked, breaking the silence that the room had fallen into and drawing Calliefrom her thoughts.

"Yes." She nodded. "I'm sorry but I do. This isn't my home, and you're not my family - you're a man who tried to do what he felt was right. I don't want to stay here and feel like Sophia's new toy. A ready-made big sister for her to enjoy. I know that you were only trying to do the right thing, but it was the right thing for Sophia - not me. I just want to go home."

"Okay." Robert nodded, his expression thoughtful, "I think... I think that I understand, sort of." A small frown found its way onto his forehead. "Callie, could you check on the others, and give me a minute to talk to... to your moms?" Though he was asking her, he looked at the two woman and smiled slightly when they nodded.

"Sure." With a shrug, Callie got up and went upstairs to find Sophia and Jude.

Robert watched her leave, a distant look in his eyes. "She's so much like Colleen, lookwise and personality." He muttered almost sadly, "But she's also her own person, right?"

Lena glanced at Stef before nodding, "Yeah," she agreed, "Callie is an amazing girl. She's brilliant and unique and certainly doesn't take the easy route, not for anything."

Robert chuckled, "That's for sure." His smile faded, "But you two love her?"

"She's our daughter.l Stef's answer was so simply put, and yet so obviously true. Callie was her and Lena's, and they were her's.

Robert sighed. "Jill and I might be splitting up. If Jill got married to someone else then I'd hate for them to demand the right to parent Sophia, and I'm guessing that neither of you were particularly thrilled at the idea of me being part of Callie's life. But I am, and its too late to change that. However, it's not too late for her to get what she wants - and needs."

Lena let out a little gasp, realising what Robert was about to say, and leant into Stef's body as her wife wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm going to talk to the CPA, and my lawyers. They'll have the abandonment papers written by the end of the week. I'll sign them, I promise. Callie can go back and live with you."

Tears ran down both women's faces and they hugged Robert, happy at the thought of taking their baby home.

"She doesn't have many belongings, you can provably fit them in the trunk of your car. I'll help you now."

Lena nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes, but Stef shook her head.

"No," She disagreed, "Let's tell Callie first."

...

"You mean it?" Callie looked up wide eyed at Robert, before turning to her moms, as though they'd say something different.

Lena nodded.

"YES!" Excited, Jude fist pumped the air and ran to his sister, hugging her tight. "You get to come home, Callie," He exclaimed, "That's great! There's so much that I need to tell you, and everyone else will be so happy."

"Really?" Stef questioned, raising her eyebrows slightly, "And I supposed you told them this when you rang up and told them where you were like we told you too?"

Jude smiled sheepishly. "Whoops."

"Whoops indeed, mister." Stef chuckled. "C'mon my two trouble magnets, let's go home."

The two Jacob siblings quickly gathered their stuff and went to wait by the car. As they entered, Stef began to laugh. "I can't believe that you've barely been back in our care for an hour and I'm already having figure out a punishment for you."

Lyou could always not?" Callie suggested hopefully and Jude nodded his head in agreement.

"Yeah," he said,"that sounds like a good idea, Callie."

Stef laughed again, and this time her wife joined in. "Not a chance bud," She told the boy, before turning to her daughter. "And Slug-a-Bug, welcome home - you're grounded 'til you're fifty!"