"Lena!" Stef shouted as she ran towards the kitchen in search for the woman, "The kids are gone. Shut off the stove," she voiced in a stern voice before running for the door again and grabbing her car keys before twisting the knob. She realized immediately that the kids had left it unlocked but didn't bother paying much attention to it as she ran for the sidewalk. Stef placed her hand on her forehead to block out the sun that was distorting her vision in hopes that she would see any of her children.

"What do you mean gone?" Lena yelled back the second she reached the doorway.

Stef scanned her perimeter slapped her leg with her hand before running towards the drivers-side of her car. "They ran away."

"What?!" Lena asked in an panicked tone. "All of them? Why?" questioned as she closed the front door, not caring if she locked it or not, before running towards Stef's car and getting in.

The blonde turned on the ignition and speedily backed out of the driveway, causing Lena's body to shift upwards from her seat.

"Stef!" Lena yelled when she realized that the blonde was stuck in her own thoughts. "Can you just relax, please?! We're going to find them just slow down. They couldn't have gotten far."

"Oh, when I find them," Stef voiced angrily as she kept her eyes focused on the road.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Brandon yelled as he tried to catch up to the twins.

"Somewhere you're not," Mariana spat.

Jesus looked over at Brandon and saw the hurt and confused expression on his face, "We're going to find Ana."

"Jesus! Shut up!" the girl threatened.

"Ana? Your birth mom, Ana?"

The other two remained silent.

"…You can't," Brandon informed them. "She abandoned you, BOTH of you."

"I don't see how that's any of your business, Brandon. And it was your idea to begin with so don't act like you care now!"

"I'm not acting!" Brandon shouted as he ran over to step in front of them. "I do care! I care about both of you! It's your mother who doesn't!"

Mariana's eyes began to water, as she had to listen to those words for the first time. She shook her head, "It doesn't matter. She's still our mom. And I wanna see her."

"What about my moms?" Brandon questioned. "What about us? We don't matter?"

"That's just it. They're your moms. Pretty soon we're just going to get moved to another home and then we'll have new foster parents… But our mom will always be our mom, no matter where we are."

Jesus spoke up, "She's the only permanent thing we have besides each other… even if she's not there all of the time… You don't understand because you have three parents who are always there…I'm sorry Brandon, but I'm with Mariana on this one. We need to stick with what we have."

"Oh, thank God," Lena mumbled the second she and Stef were able to see their three children in plain view. They both breathed huge sighs of relief as they pulled up closer in back of Jesus and Mariana.

Brandon saw the car pull up, but it wasn't until the screeching of the breaks that the twins whipped their bodies around to see both women through the windshield.

Jesus seemed somewhat relieved to see them, but Mariana's face depicted pure fear as she saw her foster mothers getting out of the car. Her mind kept telling herself to run but her body disagreed and she stood frozen instead.

And the second Jesus noticed Mariana's stiffness; he immediately went into protective mode as he brought his sister closer toward him. He wouldn't take any chances no matter how much he trusted the two of them. The boy even pulled Mariana backward when they began to approach them.

And even though Stef and Lena were both angry with all of their children, that didn't stop them from letting go of that anger and running over to engulf each of them into a hug.

The little girl flinched the second that Stef wrapped her arms around her and she wasn't sure how to respond for a while. She felt even more confused when her foster mother kept kissing her forehead rather than hurting her for being bad.

She wasn't their kid so why were they acting as if she was? It made no sense to her and that confusion was made obvious to Stef only when she released her. The blonde made a sad face before moving onto her other sons.

Mariana glanced over to Jesus before she felt Lena squeezing her tightly. And just after a few seconds of letting her go did the older woman actually look the girl in the eye and cup her chin with her hand. "Don't you ever scare us like that again. Do you hear me?" she threatened, but making sure she used a loving and soft tone at the same time.

"And you!" Stef threatened Brandon when she let go of Jesus, "Why wouldn't you just tell us that the twins left? …That note was not okay," she let him know.

"I know," the oldest boy admitted. "It was stupid."

"Ya think?" Stef asked sarcastically before she kissed her son on his forehead. "I get that you were trying to watch out for them, B. You're a good big brother but—"

"No, I'm not," Brandon voiced as he shook his head. "I was the one that made them leave in the first place. It was my fault."

"How?" Stef questioned. And to no one's surprise, he couldn't find the courage to answer her. The blonde glanced over toward the twins, "So who wants to tell us what happened?" she continued, when it became obvious that Brandon wasn't going to speak up anytime soon.

"Why did you leave to begin with?" Lena asked them but all eyes moved toward Mariana, who was tearing by now.

"What happened sweets? Why did you feel like you had to runaway?" Stef continued as she walked over toward the girl.

Mariana noticed the shameful look on her oldest brother's face and she couldn't help but feel the need to protect him too. Even she didn't understand the instinct. The girl knew that he had hurt her, but still…she wanted to protect him like Jesus had done for her many times before. Telling on him wouldn't have done either of them any good, but she knew that she had to say something.

"…I wanted to see my mom," she answered truthfully. "I just wanted to go home," she cried.

Instinctively, Jesus walked tried to walk over toward his sister to console her, but what surprised when it was Lena and Stef who surrounded her instead.

And though the moms didn't say another word to Mariana, it was obvious that they didn't blame her as they kept their close proximity. Instead, they spoke to each other through eye contact and ushered their kids to the car.

"Come on," Stef said. "…Let's go home."

A/N: One more chapter.