Hello folks. Here it is - the last Vigil chapters. Thanks for the amazing response during this episode. I am finishing off chapter 5/6ish for I Do so I think that one will end up being more chapters than I intended. Anyhow, not sure when I will start posting it but I am aiming to finish it this weekend.

Once again thanks to TheTBone who wrote the flashback for this chapter (and the last) and to thesameguest for reading this over for me as well as all of you who review and read!

Hope you enjoy...

Stef and Callie reached the others who had decked out the day room with some minor decorations they had also prepared.

"Look at this! Party room." Stef smiled as she appeared.

"So - what have I been missing then? Don't get me wrong, I love being waited on hand and foot but I can't say I don't miss seeing your beautiful faces each day. Mariana?" She tested, looking to her youngest daughter. Her eyes like a rabbit caught in headlights at being singled out, she quickly shook her head and shrugged before looking back to the floor. Lena and Stef exchanged a look. Lena may have spoken to her but they both knew there was someone else it had to come from for their daughter to be able to move on.

"Connor and I got a B for our project!" Jude saved the awkwardness.

"Way to go!" Stef hi-fived him, prompting a cheeky grin.

"Oh and Callie and I got a week extension on ours so thanks for that." Kasey winked.

"You're welcome...I think..." Stef squinted. "I'm not doing this every time you have a deadline though, I warn you now." She saw the room's obvious discomfort at the joke, saved quickly by Brandon.

"Well good, because Marshall didn't show me any mercy with his expectations so I'd rather not have the distraction again, if you don't mind. He did say I played better than he's ever heard me though, and there's a couple competitions he's put me forward for."

"That's my boy!" Stef cheered, rubbing his arm. "What about you Jesus?" She asked softly. "How is it having Lexi back at school?"

He may still be a little quieter than usual, but his confidence had at least surpassed Mariana's level of almost negligible.

"It's really good, her parents seem to be coming around too." He gave her a weak smile, but his eyes were full of fondness that she had made the effort to try and draw him out.

"Well, as we're all here..." Stef opened her eyes wide as a signal to Lena who smiled back and moved over to perch on the side of her wheelchair.

"We have a little bit of an announcement."

"Oh my God, you're pregnant!" Kasey replied, eyes wide as Sharon nudged her with an eye roll.

"Last time we did that the bio way I ended up with you two. Wouldn't wanna risk that again." Stef scoffed. "Mama? Do you want to, or should I?"

Lena gave her a loving smile before looking to the expectant faces. Sharon was already beaming, having been the first to hear the news.

"Your Mom and I have decided to get married." Lena explained before an instant jubilation of hugs, kisses and congratulations that circulated the room.

Among the hugs, Stef's other tick-list points became more firm in her mind, noting two particularly rigid ones and no more than a nudge between the parties concerned, prompting only the tiniest of smiles - much tinier than she hoped for. It was seal enough this had to be done sooner or later before the guilt consumed even that level of happiness.

The family spent a little longer discussing plans, bickering over details and hearing the ever-so romantic re-telling of the proposal before the time ticked on.

It didn't take much more than a silent signal for Lena to get the further instruction Stef wanted to give her.

"OK - we need to get this stuff back in the car. Brandon, Callie, Kasey and Jude I want you to give me and your grandma a hand." She beckoned to the decorations in the room before looking to Mariana and Jesus. "You two, why don't you help your Mom get back to her room?" They shared a look of nervousness before Lena urged them on with a kind smile.

"Excellent plan. I will see all of you beautiful people tomorrow." Stef kissed them each in turn before Jesus nudged Mariana, taking the helm of the situation as well as his Mom's wheelchair handles.

"On, James." Stef teased in a mock English accent once they were ready to move. They all knew this was a perfectly engineered scene but Jesus at least was keen for it to come. Mariana, deep down was too.

[Lemonade stand flashback continued]

"Mom?" Brandon stuttered, his eyes wide. He hadn't even seen her or Lena come outside, but there she was, intercepting the blow, and she did not look happy.

"Brandon Foster, just what do you think you are doing?" she demanded in a serious voice.

"Badly shooting a dart at me!" Kasey accused, crossing her arms firmly.

"Brandon!" Lena scolded.

"Well Kasey called me an idiot!" Brandon defended.

"Kasey..." Stef chastised.

"That's only because he was trying to use Lena's vase as a lemonade pitcher. That does make him an idiot," Kasey replied.

"Does not!" Brandon sparred back.

"Does so!"

"Enough!" Stef put her hands up, sighing and examining the utter chaos around her. She surveyed the scene. While one set of twins was quarreling, the other sat stilly and silently behind the table, both with looks of fear on their faces. Stef knew they didn't like yelling, but this was a different kind of fear, one that ran much deeper than discomfort around arguments. She needed to speak to them without any distractions. "Brandon, Kasey, to your rooms. Now," she said, deciding to deal with them later.

"But Mooom, I-" Kasey started.

"Now," Stef raised an eyebrow, giving her an icy look. "You too, Brandon. Go," she pointed a finger at the house, Lena sighing and shaking her head behind her.

"Selling lemonade out of my vase?" she whimpered, waiting for the two to make their way into the house to check in with Mariana and Jesus.

"Could be worse," Stef whispered back. "Could be selling something illegal. Drugs, alcohol to kids with fake IDs - maybe even selling the IDs." she kidded, Lena giving her a stony glare, making Stef chuckle. "Oh please, love. It was a joke. As if we'd ever have to worry about Brandon making fake IDs. He can't even hit his sister with a rubber dart."

"Let's go inside, you guys," Lena suggested to the twins, giving Stef a subtle pinch. "I think we're all lemonaded out for today. I'll get the other two to clean this up later." she said, ushering the two inside. Their heads hung guiltily, something not unnoticed by either mom. Stef cast an inquiring glance at Lena, but was met only with the same confused look. Neither of them knew what was going on, and they needed to get to the bottom of this.

"Hey, how about you both sit down for a minute. Talk to us while we start dinner, okay?" Stef suggested, leading them into the kitchen.

Mariana gulped, sensing what was coming. They had to have found out somehow and now they were probably going to send them away. Or punish them. She didn't know which would be worse.

"I'm sorry," Mariana said softly, closing her eyes as soon as she sat down on the bar stool.

Lena wrinkled an eyebrow, once again shooting a look at her partner. "For what, sweetheart?"

"This is all my fault," she admitted, looking intently at her hands.

"No, it's not," Jesus said, quickly sticking up for her. "It's my fault. It was my idea to have the lemonade stand that got Kasey and Brandon in trouble."

"No, no, no." Stef shook her head. "You did not get Kasey and Brandon into trouble, they need no help doing that themselves," she corrected.

"Is that all this is about?" Lena gently prodded, sensing this wasn't the main cause of their fear.

The twins eyed each other nervously.

"No," Mariana whispered, though she was proud of herself for speaking up. She wasn't the bravest, but she couldn't let this go any further without accepting the deserved blame.

"Well what is it, sweets?" Stef asked, now beyond confused.

Mariana took a deep breath, still not daring to meet Stef and Lena's eyes, though she did sneak a peek at Jesus. Jesus, seeing the tentative nervousness evident on her face, took her hand under the table for support. They were in this together. They were a team; a pair; a package deal.

"I ripped my dress," she barely whispered.

"What?" Stef queried, thinking maybe she'd heard incorrectly. What would a dress have to do with the lemonade stand?

Seeing Mariana so close to tears, Jesus took this as his cue to take over and speak up, while accepting his own responsibility in the matter. "She ripped her Belle dress and I wanted to have the lemonade stand so we could get enough money to buy a new one so you wouldn't find out and get mad," he rambled. In his experience, laying it all out there quickly made it a little easier – ripping off the band-aid.

"You ripped your dress?" Lena asked Mariana for clarification.

"I'm sorry," Mariana apologized, a tear beginning to slip down her cheek.

"That's what this is about? How did you rip it?" Stef asked, honestly interested at how this could have been interpreted as anything even vaguely incriminating.

Mariana opened her mouth to speak, although all that came out were short, shallow breaths, conversely taking it as an angry accusation. Concerned at the panicked reaction, Lena walked over to stand behind Mariana, placing a hand on her back and chest, rubbing gently. "Relax, honey," she soothed.

"She fell down at recess," Jesus answered for her, seeing as his twin was in no condition.

"Are you all right?" Stef asked, jumping into mothering mode, looking the girl up and down and cursing herself for not noticing something was wrong sooner. "What did you fall on? Are you hurt?" she asked in quick succession, her voice rising with her concern.

Sensing her partner was unintentionally overwhelming the fragile child, Lena continued stroking her, attempting to relieve some tension. "Are you okay, sweetheart?" she asked.

Mariana nodded, responding better to the brunette's softer approach. "I just scraped my knee. This girl, Lexi, took me to the nurse."

"Well that was nice," Lena smiled reassuringly. "Do you think you could let me take a look at your knee?"

Mariana hesitated, but nodded reluctantly, allowing Lena to roll up her pant leg and remove the band-aid to examine the scratch. "Oh, that's not so bad," she said reassuringly, patting her leg.

"But I think that we have some things we need to talk about," Stef started. How could this have happened? How could they not have picked up on this sooner? Brandon came to her with every little scratch he got and Kasey would too, mainly to make the point she could cope with it alone. How had Mariana taken a trip to the nurse's office and not told them?

"Should we start packing?" Jesus replied, his head dipping down. He should've listened to Mariana. She'd warned him and he should've listened. He'd gotten comfortable and now they were leaving and it was going to hurt even worse.

"Packing?" Lena questioned.

"When are you sending us away?" Mariana asked. Her heart sinking too. She knew she should have taken her own advice. As much as she hated to admit it, she'd gotten more comfortable here than anywhere else. She knew this had been coming, but she had still broken the ultimate rule.

"What are you two talking about?" Stef asked, hand on her hip. "No one is going anywhere."

"We aren't?" Jesus said, surprised, hope returning once again. Mariana wasn't as easily persuaded.

"Is our punishment worse?" she questioned, her voice getting agitated again.

"Are you going to hit her?" Jesus practically growled, suddenly defensive. "You can hit me, just don't hit her. Her knee is already hurt."

Confused as to how this conversation escalated to this point within a matter of seconds, Stef put her hand in the air and shook her head in confusion. She knew that foster kids could have deep-rooted fears, but they'd never hit any of their kids - and it wasn't like the twins hadn't seen the other two in trouble. "Nobody is getting hit," she said. "We'd never hit any of you."

"Then what's gonna happen?" Mariana asked, even darker thoughts popping into her head. "We can pay you the money for a new one. We'll learn to respect your property..."

"Nobody is getting hit, nobody is paying for anything and nobody is getting sent away." Lena reassured them. "It was an accident. Accidents happen. The most important thing is that everyone is okay."

"You're not mad?" Jesus asked, his leg shaking violently.

"No, baby, of course not," Stef said, going over to the boy, looking like he needed just as much reassurance as his sister at this point. She squeezed his shoulder. "And Lena and I want you both to know that you can always come to us, okay? Whenever you get hurt or have an accident. We want to know because we can help you, we'd never get angry about it." she informed them. "Okay?" she asked, hoping they really heard and understood her.

Jesus hesitantly nodded his head while Mariana bit down on her lip.

"I'm sorry about the dress," she apologised again. Even though by some miracle no one was upset with her, she was still upset with herself, the guilt eating at her. "I didn't mean to."

"We know, baby," Lena replied, gathering her into a hug. "We can always try to sew it up, and if it's unsalvageable, we can always buy a new one."

Mariana nodded into Lena's shoulder, and Stef took in the sight, smiling a slight, yet somewhat sad, smile. A little progress was being made, but they had longer to go than they thought before they would ever trust them. It made her all the more determined to put in the time until that happened.

Content that her partner had the situation with Mariana under control, Stef turned her full attention to the boy next to her.

"You're a really good brother, Jesus," she informed him.

He blushed slightly, but shook his head in disagreement.

"You are," she told him seriously. "But you know, sometimes it's okay to let Lena and I take care of Mariana too. You can trust us, Jesus. I promise you," she eyed him seriously.

The next thing Stef knew, the most unexpected thing had happened. She felt two little arms lock around her neck, pulling her into a hug, grabbing onto her like a lifeline. She quickly recomposed herself, wrapping her arms around him as well, just as tightly.

"Thank you for getting hit by that dart instead of Mariana." he said gratefully, thinking back to the other trauma of the day.

Stef smiled, barely even remembering that she had. She ran a hand through his hair. "Always, baby."

After another full corridor of silence, Stef eventually gave up on any hope she wouldn't have to be the one to initiate any dialogue. She threw Mariana a side glance and noted she was clearly concentrating all efforts on looking at anything other than her Mom.

"I hope you are gonna get your brother scrubbed up for the wedding, Mariana." Stef broke easily into the ice-breaker, giving in to her challenge.

The quip didn't provoke more than a small chuckle from Jesus and barely a smile from Mariana.

"Come on guys, you can't even laugh for the cripple?" She nudged Mariana, apparently the nature of the wording making her even more nervous. Stef took in the response and shook her head, defeated.

"OK, we need to talk about this. I don't like these robots that have replaced my children." Both twins looked to each other, unsure of how to respond - not helping to ease Stef's frustration. With mixed feelings of relief and dread, they reached the room and Jesus wheeled her in, pushing her round.

"Come on, sit. Let's talk." She beckoned to the two chairs in the room.

They both exchanged a look and sat down nervously.

"Listen you two, I know this has been an impossible week for you and I swear, I am not doing this to try and make you feel worse - that's very important - but I think we all need to have this conversation so you can work towards moving past it." She place a hand on each of their knees. Neither child responded but it was clear they silently agreed.

She took deep breath and gave them a half-hearted smile.

"I'm not going to pretend I'm not angry about some of the things that happened." She looked at them severely as both shuffled.

"Let's start from the beginning." She explained before turning to her daughter. "Mariana, honestly the thing I'm most upset about is the pills. You know how wrong that is, how dangerous that is and even more so, I think you're a little old for letting your brother take the fall for you." Mariana dipped her head down, fighting back a tear at the shame that hearing the words were re-emerging her in. Stef caught onto it and decided to turn her attention to Jesus. "And as for you, knucklehead - really?! I know that you were trying to protect your sister - but from us? Over something this important? That is not OK."

"I know Mom, we're sorry about that." Jesus replied, eventually.

"Yes, I have no doubt you are...and that both of you are, which is why I'm wondering why you're still speaking for Mariana. Come on love, it's me here." She turned to look back at Mariana who still sat deflated.

"I'm sorry too Mom, I just..." her voice cracked, the pressure of the last few days still wearing away, deeper than even she anticipated.

"You're feeling guilty." Stef rescued her lack of words. "Well don't worry. I'm going to do the talking now, anyway." Her words were assertive but her tone still kind.

"As far as I can see, the biggest mistake you made here was trying to handle these things on your own - trying to keep things from us, and that applies to both of you. I mean, running off to that part of town?" Although she was trying to avoid it, her voice grew raspy, still unable to verbalise it without the frustrations creeping it. "It really concerns me that you didn't take into account the danger - and I don't just mean physical danger, but the emotional danger." She could see Mariana was starting to cry again and although she didn't want to add to her burden, she still wanted this message to be heard.

"Sweets, there is a reason we wanted to be able to arrange any meetings for you. It's a lot to deal with alone - and that applies to both of you as well. When we brought you into this family, we did so for you to not be alone anymore." Jesus looked over to his sister, her tears were fully flowing now, much more than he was prepared for as well. He looked to Stef anxiously, hating to see her so sad. Stef looked back, feeling the intense pleading. She paused, looking between them before patting him on the leg. It was clear there was still another step to be made before they were ready for this.

"I'll tell you what, why don't we finish this when I get home, Jesus? You tell Mama Mariana will be down soon." The young girl's head dropped down, Jesus rubbing his palms on his knees. He edged off his seat, not sure if he wanted to leave or not but another reassuring look from Stef gave him the courage. Those early instincts had come back so strongly even though they had been dormant, but now he had to remember the later lessons he'd learned. That they had proper Moms now and it wasn't always down to him.

He moved forward and leaned in to hug Stef goodbye.

She pulled him tight and rubbed his back, he returning it more fiercely than usual.

As he came off she cupped his cheeks. "I love you kids more than anything, you remember that, OK? Especially when you're going to do something stupid." He nodded as she gave him a kiss on the forehead before he left. Once he had gone she cocked her head and looked at her desperate daughter, now not even attempting to stifle the tears. She had her forehead in her hand and quiet sobs coming from its shadow. Stef adjusted her position to make sure what she was about to do was plausible and was relieved Lena wasn't there to tell her otherwise.

"Come here, love." She patted her knee to a surprised head lift. Mariana wanted nothing more than to dive onto her lap but it didn't stop her from being reluctant for more than one reason.

"Come on, it's not gonna kill me."

Once again the choice of words caused Mariana to cry more.

"Oh baby." Stef chuckled gently at the reaction. "Come on, I'll be fine as long as you don't tell your Mama!" Her daughter finally shuffled over, even though Stef had to drag her arm the last few inches.

"You need to forgive yourself, sweetheart." She pulled her in, making sure her weight was distributed at the right parts of her body but still able to hold her as tightly as she could." She stroked her daughter's hair as she cried.

"Listen to me my love, you were not responsible for me getting hurt."

"But if - "

"No." Stef cut her off. "I made the choice to go in there. Not you."

"I'm so sorry, Mom..." she continued to sob, the pace of Stef's stroking increasing.

"Sh, sh, sh...I know you are, sweetheart, I know you are."

She shook her slightly as she continued.

"Listen, you made some mistakes and there were some consequences - ones bigger than you ever should have had to deal with." She kissed her head to pause. "And yes, there are lessons to be learned from that. There's some trust to be gained back too..." she warned with a firm eyebrow, "and I have no doubt that you have learned more from this than we could ever teach you, but sweetheart, you have to make sure you learn the right things." She shook her lightly again.

"And that you learn to know what was in your control and what wasn't."

"This - " She pulled her chin to force eye contact. "This was not in your control." Mariana gently nodded, almost believing the words, even though it would take a while for her to believe them fully - if ever. They sat in silence for a few moments as Mariana's tears eased and Stef rocked her as best she could, only with the occasional wince that she successfully managed to hide.

"I was so scared you wouldn't want us any more." Mariana eventually sniffed through shallow breaths prompting a small chuckle.

"Well that's just crazy..." She pushed the fragile girl's head up, her hands on either side, and wiped her tears with her thumbs.

"You know why what I did isn't your fault?" She asked as Mariana dipped her eyebrows down in ignorance. "It is because whatever you do and whatever mess you get into, I will never not love you enough to take a hit for you." She assured her, Mariana panting a breath through her open mouth. "Do you honestly think I would ever be able to survive with any of you not in my life?" She kissed her again, accompanied by the return of Mariana's tears. This time however they were more out of relief than her former spell of guilt. Finally she felt that warm stir she had gained and lost. Until that moment she hadn't even realised how much she had been carrying. Not just this guilt, not just this fear, but all of the conflicting and crushing emotions she had faced ever since that first chat with Ana. Right now she remembered the feeling that had been robbed from her, even from something as simple as a private message. That feeling she hadn't known for so many years and she hadn't realised at what point it had snuck back out.

She had a feeling of knowing what she wanted - and knowing she had it.

Next Chapter Preview: Kasey and Stef procrastinate at each other's expense, Callie has one worry free night and Stef gets frustrated being left out of the loop.

Lena opened her mouth to defend herself but collapsed into a sigh.

"Look that was a while ago, I didn't want to stress you out, that's all. It's not like I wasn't going to tell you things as soon as I found out."

"Well you know what stresses me out? This. So please stop with the babying."