"Hey Callie, can we talk to you real quick? Before the rest of the kids get up?" Lena sat Callie in a seat. "Am I in trouble?" Callie was nervous because Stef and Lena told the kids everything, so why did they need to talk before the rest woke up. Stef laughed, "No sweetie. You're not in trouble." Lena left the room to go upstairs to talk to Taylor. "Callie, I just wanted you to know its not you, Jude and Taylor against Lena, Stef and the other kids. You know that right?" Stef didn't want to come right out and say what she had Lena had been worried about. Callie sighed, "You want to know about Taylor. And why she's been so werid and if I felt the same way she did and if I was in on whatever plan she had" Stef nodded, "You're to smart for us are you going to tell me all about it?" Callie thought for a minute... . "Stef..."
"Hey Taylor, Come with me?" Lena looked down at Mariana who was still fast asleep. Taylor rolled over, "Uh, sure. Is everything alright? No ones hurt right?" Taylor subconsciously looked at Lena searching to see if she appeared to be in pain. Lena felt Taylors eyes searching her for any bruises, "Everythings fine. No ones hurt. I just wanted to talk. Come on, we can talk in my room." Taylor nodded and slipped out of bed.
"So there was a plan. Callie it's alright, tell me." Stef knew how hard it would be for Callie to betray Taylor's trust. Callie nodded, "She wanted to make you guys stop loving her, but not enough to kick her out. She wanted you to see that you couldn't have her if she was just another um... well you get it. She was going to just leave, but she couldn't because she promised Jude that she would stay with us." Stef took a quick breath fighting back tears, "What about when you were older? What was her plan for later? Or did she not think it through?" Callie looked to the ground, "She wanted to wait until I was 18 or 19, then she wanted me to officially adopt her and Jude. Or at least Jude and then she could just move in with us. I knew it but I thought she was just angry I didn't think she would go this far with it." Callie couldn't look up from the ground.
"Hey sweetie come sit, please." Lena patted the bed next to her. Taylor hesitated but only for a moment, she felt bad even going near Lena after hurting her but also after how she had treated everyone in the house the last few days. Lena saw the hesitation, "You're not going to hurt me by sitting and talking to me." Taylor sighed, "well that depends on what you want to talk about and if you consider emotions hurt." Lena sighed, "you know what I'm going to ask you about?" Taylor nodded, "Callie tell you?" Lena shook her head, "I came up here to talk to you as soon as I knew you and Callie were awake." Taylor sat, "Oh okay, then hi." Lena chuckled, "Me first?" Taylor nodded. "Okay," Lena continued, "The other night, what you said, we need to talk about that. And a few other things. Okay?" Taylor nodded again. "You want to start? I'm not sure what to say." Lena smiled, "of course."
Callie had finally looked up at Stef. Stef looked hurt but not by Callie, "Callie honey, you understand why we can't keep her right? It's not like we wouldn't like to try, or let her hope. You never could adopt her even when you were old enough. There's a lot of legal issues" Callie nodded, "I know but I don't think she was thinking with a level head, more with emotions and I didn't want her to stop talking to me so I just nodded." Stef sighed, "That's alright honey, you were thinking, if you had told her she wouldn't have talked to anyone. Besides it should be Lena and I who tell her." Callie nodded.
"Why have you been so angry sweetie?" Lena didn't want to start yelling too quickly. "I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say. I'm still angry at myself for hurting you and then my stupid plan, and you against me. I'm so sorry." Taylor broke down into sobs. Lena froze, "Shh. What plan honey? What are you talking about?" Taylor sat up ridged, "nothing." She mumbled. Lena shook her head, "no tell me." An strangled sob escaped again from Taylor, "I wanted you and Stef to hate me. I thought if you hated me because I was horrible I could just leave and I would stop lo..." Taylor stopped "I would stop like living here. That if you hated me I could hate you. It didn't work. I still... I still..." Taylor broke in tears. "Shh. Sweetie we could never hate you." Lena pulled Taylor into a hug. "We would never hate you." Taylor sat sobbing into Lena shoulder.
"You can stay down here. The other kids will be down in a minute, you can all watch cartoons, I'll be down in a minute to cook pancakes. I just want to go check on Taylor and Lena okay?" Stef smiled. "And Callie? Thanks sweetie, we love you all." Stef gave Callie a quick reassuring hug. Callie smiled, "Oh, one more thing. If she's really upset, ask her about singing." Stef nodded, but was slightly confused.
When Stef walked into the room Lena was sitting on the edge of their bed stroking Taylors hair as Taylor lie there crying, head in Lenas lap. "Shhh." Lena kept whispering to her. Stef crouched in front of the two, something had passed between Lena and Stef without words. Lena smiled and Stef nodded, "Hey Taylor, Can I talk to you?" Taylor nodded, "It's alright. I'm glad Callie told you." Taylor sat up. Stef sat on the opposite side of Taylor. "Taylor, Why did you want us to stop loving you?" Taylor had regained herself enough to talk, "One set of parents getting rid of me was hard enough, but what would have been even harder was if you guys didn't hate me when you, the second set of parents got rid of me." Stef took Taylors hand, "They were wrong, the lost a beautiful daughter because they were ignorant, we could never let you go, we would never hate you." Taylor sighed, "I wish you would." Stef paused and looked at Lena who just nodded, "Why Taylor? Why do you wish we would hate you?" Taylor wiped away a few more tears, "Because I... I love you guys. You're my family and I love this family."
"Hey Callie, where is Taylor and moms?" Brandon and Jesus came into the kitchen at the same time. "Stef and Lena are upstairs talking to Taylor..." Callie quickly looked at Jesus. "Oh. Uh Brandon filled me in on everything he knew, which by the way wasn't much." Jesus quickly explained. "Well she's gonna need us today, I told your moms about her trying to get everyone to hate her, my guess is she's gonna want to just sit with us and watch t.v." Callie mumbled. "I'll go get Mariana and Jude, we can start a movie." Jesus said running up the stairs."Thanks for being the older sibling this time. She was too angry with me." Brandon felt awkward thanking Callie but didn't know what more to do.
"We could send the kids out today. If you needed to talk to us more." Lena suggested. Taylor shook her head, "No, I'm alright. Unless we could freeze time and I could just stay like this forever." Taylor joked. Stef laughed, "Anytime you need us we're here alright? Don't do something stupid like that again." Taylor nodded, she finally stood up. She already missed the warmth of Stef and Lena and the gentle whisper in her ear that it was going to be alright and no one was going get rid of her again.
"Another crappy superhero movie? You three suck at choosing movies." Taylor stuck her tongue out at Jude, Jesus and Brandon. "I voted for chick flicks." Mariana spoke up. "hmmm. Well does anyone have any other votes?" Lena asked, she agreed with Taylor, her kids didn't have the best taste in movies. Taylor's smiled brightened, "I might! Let me check!" She ran into the kitchen where Stef was.
"Stef, I have a question. What do you think of bringing the family out, a picnic day at the park. The one you picked me up from. I know an awesome spot. It would be better than more bad superhero movies." Taylor paused to catch a breath. Stef looked critically at her for a moment. "Taylor, it sounds like it would be fun but, I just want you to realize that it can't be your hiding place anymore, everyone would know to look for you there, otherwise it sounds perfect." Taylor paused, "I have a different spot to hide remember?" Stef was puzzled, "Stef, you showed me the park you used to go hide at, I'll just go there if I need to think." Stef smiled, "You're insane, okay day at the park sounds good, go tell the rest."
Taylor came flying into the living room, sliding across the floor, she tripped and fell onto the couch falling on top of Mariana and Jude. "Sorry." She said but couldn't keep herself from laughing alongside with them. "Okay cluzt what are you so happy about?" Lena couldn't help but laugh herself. "I have an idea better than movies, trust me. It's a surprise but I'll tell each of you what to pack once you've got that go to the car and wait. I'll be out with everything else in a minute." Taylor giddily told Jesus to get his skateboard, and hers. She told Mariana to grab a few old sheets, Jude was sent to get a soccer ball and Callie was sent to get Taylors and her cameras. Brandon was supposed to help whoever needed help and ended up helping Jude because he was too short to reach the soccer ball. Lena was just sent to the car to get everyone in.
"Hey Taylor, what gave you the idea of the picnic?" Stef asked as she and Taylor finished packing up some food. "Well I have a lot to make up for and this was perfect... plus the ending picture to Mariana and Jesus' slideshow. It was a few weeks before Callie and Jude came when we took that picture." Taylor smiled thinking back to it. Stef smiled top, "Yeah I remember it. I took the picture. Mariana wanted to help you get cute girls attention and Jesus wanted to skateboard so you made a compromise. Lena reminded me how we hadn't gotten many pictures of you with the family and I made her get in it instead of me." Taylor grabbed the bag of food and started to walk out the door, "I hope there's some tourists there today." Stef didn't understand what she meant. "Why?" Taylor giggled, "So that we can get a picture with Callie and Jude in it. And you have to be in this one." Stef rolled her eyes, "Let's hope not then."
"Of course! A picnic in the park." Lena exclaimed as the family began to file out of the car. "Yep." Stef smiled at Lena, it was good to have a moment after everything that had happened with almost every person in the house the last few weeks. "Hey Jude! Come here!" Taylor set her skateboard down, placing her helmet on Jude's head. "Seems to fit." She concluded, "Sit." Callie looked at Taylor skeptically and Lena almost said no but Jude pleaded with her. "Fine. I lose." She held her hands up in mock surrender. Taylor handed Brandon the bag of food and started to push Jude down the sidewalk. Jesus jumped on his board and followed after them.
"Here!" Jude jumped up and off the skateboard, "this is a good spot!" Stef and Lena shrugged, "It's great." Brandon shrugged off the backpack. Mariana dramatically fell to the ground, "We've been walking forever!" She whined. Callie laughed at her, "Forever being a slightly overused term?" Stef snorted and Jesus gave Callie a high five, Mariana giggled along, "It was forever! Or maybe only a little while."
"Callie! Come play!" Jude was trying to get the family to start a soccer game. "Go on Callie, you don't really have a choice on this one." Lena grabbed Callie's arm and dragged her over to Jude. Brandon got up and followed, "I'll join little dude" Jude smiled, "Mariana come on!" Mariana rolled over in the grass "I'm still recovering from our walk for eternity!" Jesus mimicked her and began to drag her over to the game. "Fine, okay, okay." Mariana stood on her own, "I have grass stains on my butt now!" Lena called over to her wife, "Come on Stef, you have to play too! You're not getting out of this." Stef looked at Taylor, "this was your idea you're stuck playing too." The family split into two teams, Jude, Callie, Taylor and Lena on one team and Jesus, Stef, Mariana and Brandon on another. The family played for almost 45 minutes, until someone called to Jesus and Taylor. "Uh. Be right back." Taylor ran off the field over to the girl who had called hi.
"Who was that?" Lena teased. Stef decided to join in on the fun, "She was kinda cute." Taylor collapsed to the ground. "She's nobody." Jude smiled, "She was pretty." He teased. Taylor playfully pushed him, "She's nobody!" Mariana turned to Jesus, "She knew you. Who is she?" Jesus shrugged "just someone from the skatepark. She showed Taylor and I a trick once or twice that's all." Callie laughed and Brandon looked around at the family, "Guess Taylor was right, she's nobody. Right Jesus?" He raised his eyebrows at his brother. "Okay. Enough." Taylor spat. "So she isn't nobody. Good to keep in mind." Stef laughed at Taylors bright red face.
The rest of the day went by quickly, with Taylor and Jesus trying to teach everyone to skateboard, Jude coning the family into more games. Taylor even found someone walking by that would take a family picture for her so everyone could be in the photo. The family finally walked back to the car around four. Almost instantly five of the six kids had fallen asleep. Taylor almost asleep smiled and said, "This is why I love you guys. I'm glad you don't hate me."
Authors note:
Hey guys! What did you think of this chapter? I felt like I needed a fluffy chapter after everything that had happened with the family in the last few. Next chapter will be scenes from episode five and maybe six. Also Brandon will take Taylor to her parents house. I was wondering what you guys would think about a love interest for Taylor?