"Hi babies," Stef chimes as she walks in the back door, smiling as she inhales the scent of Lena's homemade lasagne. Her three children – or teenagers, rather – sit at the kitchen table, each occupied by something other than their food. Stef raises her eyebrow towards her partner, confused as to why she hasn't scolded the kids for having phones – or in Brandon's case, his music sheets – out at the table, knowing that out of the pair, she is the mom who likes her family to actually be present at the dinner table. But as she goes to place a kiss on Lena's lips, the caramel skinned woman lets out an exasperated sigh and all but sinks into Stef's arms.
"Rough day?" Stef questions, holding the woman who has become her wife for all intensive purposes.
"You can say that again," Lena replies, pulling out of the embrace and reaching for the casserole dish in the centre of the table to plate up a piece of lasagne for the blonde. "Yourself?"
"My day was…interesting," Stef says, her mind flashing back to the neighbourhood she'd just come from and the odd situation she'd come across at that house. She just couldn't quite shake the feeling that something wasn't right.
"Oh yeah? Well, try asking these three what they've been up to today. I've barely been able to get anything out of them all afternoon."
Stef chuckles slightly, popping open a bottle of beer from the fridge and coming to sit down next to Lena.
"They've been glued to those things for hours, I swear." Lena states, taking a bite of food.
"Oh yeah, well then I guess they'll be sick of seeing them and won't need them for the rest of the week, right?" Stef says loudly, hoping to catch at least one of her kid's attention.
"You might just be right," Lena replies, a smile crossing her before flustered looking face.
Brandon looks up, and holds up his hands. "Hey – in my defence, I've been trying to perfect this piece for the final of my competition tomorrow."
"I see what you're trying to do, young man. Buttering me up won't make up for neglecting your mama all afternoon when she needed help…"
Mariana is next to look up, the conversation at the dinner table now beginning to register that she is in need to defend herself. "Okay, not fair. I asked Mama if she needed help–"
"And I said once you'd done all your homework," Lena interjects. "Which I'm assuming you have done…because if not, then I would definitely think about getting it done as soon as we've finished eating so you have enough time to clear up all these dishes before bed."
The look on Mariana's face tells the moms that the latter half of Lena's statement applies to not only her, but her siblings, too and Stef has to hide the smile behind an exaggerated scowl as she tells her daughter to hand the phone over. "That goes for you too, Jesus," she says to the boy who seems to be very much focused on the screen of his iPhone.
"But Mom! Lexi is having a crisis right now. She needs me," Mariana pouts as she reluctantly slides her cell phone across the table. Stef shakes her head. She loves her daughter more than anything, but sometimes, that girl is just too dramatic for her own good.
"And I bet Lexi will be able to resolve her crisis just fine without your input for a while."
Following suit with his sister, although not releasing as much as a grumble, Jesus passes his phone over to his mom, which only leaves Brandon who, thankfully, seems to have caught on to his parent's warnings, and has tucked his papers to the side.
This time, it's Stef who lets out a sigh. She's barely been home ten minutes, and she already feels exhausted. No wonder Lena was feeling flustered earlier. It's not like they have bad kids, in fact, the three are generally well behaved and are some of the nicest kids Stef has ever come across in her life – and that's not because she's their mom that she's inclined to say that. Being a police officer, Stef has seen a lot of kids in her life, and she knows just how vicious some can be. She really lucked out with her three, but she also knows that not all kids are quite as fortunate to have the privileged upbringing she and Lena have given their family.
They had taken in children from the state on quite a few occasions, in fact, that was how the twins ended up becoming a permanent part of the family. Stef remembers the day that she came across Jesus and Mariana timidly sitting in the police station. She knew right then that these kids were special and deserved more than the bad hand they'd been dealt. As it turns out, foster-adopting them was the best thing that ever happened to her family.
None of the children they've fostered since have quite wrapped their way round Stef's heart, but through the experience, she knows that the feeling of being able to give kids a soft place to land for at least a little while is a good one. But, tonight is a perfect example of why they really don't need another kid permanently running around the house – three is quite the handful as it is.
When all members of the family finally settled down to actually eat dinner, the event proved to be successful. Stef loves spending time with her family, and without all the distractions, she and Lena are really able to be the parents they wished they'd had and are able actually talk to each of their kids and find out what's been going on in their lives, no matter how big, or small.
After monitoring the kids to make sure they completed their homework and cleaned the dishes without any upheaval, Stef and Lena retired to their room for the evening. Although only a little past nine o'clock, Stef's yawns have been coming closer and closer together as she and Lena sit on the bed folding laundry together. "God, you really must've had a rough day, huh?"
Stef smiles and brings a pair of pyjama pants out of the hamper to fold. "Not a match for yours, my love. I gotta give you credit for not losing it with those kids today before I got home."
Lena chuckles and shakes her head. "Oh I lost it, a good couple of times, in fact. They just weren't around to hear it. That's why I waited for you to come home and do the punishing."
"I'm sorry they didn't listen to you, Love. I know how much you hate them overusing their phones and such." Stef squeezes her hand comfortingly before resuming her folding.
"What can I say; they're teenagers. They'll realise soon that there are more important things going on and that the world doesn't simply revolve around those little electronic devices." She sighs, and runs her hands through her wild curls, securing them into a bun on top of her head. "Anyway. Your day. How was it? I didn't really give you much time to explain earlier before I went off on you about the kids."
Lena's ever conscious efforts to take an interest in her partner's work life never fail to warm Stef's heart, mostly because the blonde knows how uncomfortable her profession makes Lena, but also because it feels nice to have a partner who actually cares about her feelings – unlike how her relationship had been with Mike. Speaking of Mike…
"Yeah, it was interesting. Wrote out a few parking tickets and chased a speeding car. But actually, we were called down to San Ysidro."
"San Ysidro?" Lena almost gasps, pausing her folding and giving her full attention to her partner. Stef begins to question whether telling Lena at all about her altercation with the man is a perilous idea, considering she's already cautious about the mention of the neighbourhood. "Isn't that a little out of your range?"
"Yeah, I guess," Stef replies, choosing to ignore the twisted look on her girlfriend's face, knowing full well that with the next part of the story, her face will only sour further. "But anyway, we pull up outside this house – totally rough, I mean, I could tell by the neighbourhood anyway that we weren't in the nicest of areas, but this house was peeling. It looked so brittle that it would go up in flames with a spark."
"God…but wait, why were you called all the way out there?"
"The guy who answered didn't have any memory of making the call – he didn't know anything about it. I got a weird feeling from him, though," Stef says, the memory of his stinking breath sending a shiver down her spine.
"Well, at least you didn't have to go inside his house or anything, especially if he made you feel uncomfortable," Lena adds, and Stef practically holds her tongue so not to voice her disagreement. Under any normal circumstance, she would gladly keep her distance from such an area as San Ysidro, not to mention that man's house, but right now, Stef would give anything to turn back the clock and act on her earlier suspicion that something wasn't quite right. She knows if she tells Lena this, though, that it will lead to an unavoidable questioning over something that she still hasn't fully wrapped her own head around yet. She hates keeping things from the woman she loves, but is there really any need to shovel the exhausting niggle that's been lingering at the back of her mind onto Lena, too? She has the family to think about, and bringing work-related problems home was never a good idea. Besides, it's probably nothing.
Lena leans across the bed, placing the last of the folded laundry in the hamper, and Stef startles out of her thoughts. "Maybe next time you get called out to that area you could pass it on to someone else?"
Stef looks to her girlfriend, offering a feigned 'yes' and throwing in a sincere head nod for good measure, and is pleased when this satisfies the curly haired woman, although deep down she has every intentions of going back to that house to clear up her suspicions. She isn't really sure when she made this decision, perhaps it had been right when they pulled away from the decrepit building, or when she replayed the conversation with the man in her head as she brushed her teeth within the last hour - but when Stef gets a haunch about something, it never gets laid to rest.
"Good. I don't really feel comfortable with you in that area if you don't have to be. You know what it's like there…"
She swallows guiltily, and for a moment she's afraid that Lena is speaking sarcastically, that maybe she hadn't been as discrete about her real intentions as she'd thought. But when the light goes out and Stef is greeted by the familiar feeling of Lena's icy feet against her legs, she knows that the woman still remains blissfully unaware of her real objectives. Stef takes a moment to hold her partner, nesting her face in the woman's sea of tousled curls and breathing in the scent of her shampoo with a light moan. With Lena all her worries are subdued, and although she loves her life, sometimes she misses the times when they weren't chasing after kids all the time; where they had time to just be in the present together.
Lena questions Stef some more about her day, showing particular interest in the man she had encountered and not even attempting to hide her annoyance as Stef tells her of the rude comments he'd made. "Sounds like a nice guy," Lena breathes sarcastically, causing Stef to chuckle slightly.
"Yeah, that's what Mike said, too."
Lena turns her head towards Stef, a questioning frown dawning on her face. "Mike?"
Stef's words are caught in her throat, realising just how deep a hole she's dug herself. After the quandary with the kids at dinner, and the constant niggle she felt towards the man in San Ysidro, the reinstating of her new old partner had completely slipped her mind – or rather, informing Lena of the situation had slipped her mind, mostly because the blonde knew that it would not sit well with her girlfriend.
"Uh, Roberts actually put us together, since my old partner is out," Stef replies, skipping the part that Mike had actually been the one to suggest to Captain Roberts that he and Stef work together.
Lena lets out an unenthusiastic laugh, and Stef inwardly cringes. "Oh please don't go all non-verbal on me, it is not a big deal, Honey."
She looks at her sceptically, not making any effort to hide her distaste for the situation.
"Come on, Honey, it's Mike," Stef says, attempting to squeeze Lena's hand, but the brunette pulls away. "it's just Mike."
"Just Mike…" Lena echoes, shaking her head slightly, before shifting her body completely off of Stef and turning to face the wall.
"Look who's getting all clammed up!" Stef teases, hoping to diffuse the feud, but it's clear it has the opposite effect when Lena turns off her bedside lamp and floods the room in darkness.
Well then, Stef thinks to herself, mimicking Lena's actions and turning away from her partner, fully aware of how childish she's being. But in her defence, Lena should have heard her out before instantly over reacting to the situation – as much as Stef is uncomfortable with the arrangement, it's something they are all going to have to work through. Besides, she and Mike had been best friends once, and after the divorce, she'd somewhat lost that relationship with him. Thinking about it now, she does kind of miss his corny humour and down to earth nature, plus, it won't hurt to find out exactly what he's into these days, especially since her son stays with him some weekends.
But deep down, Stef knows that if Lena is really that uncomfortable with her forming a friendship with Mike, she'll bother her captain for a new partner – but for now, she want's to see how this situation works out. It's better than being paired with a rookie, after all.
Mumbling a quiet 'I love you' to Lena – to which she receives no response – Stef closes her eyes and almost begs for sleep to come. Unfortunately, much as she'd feared previously, her mind travels back to earlier this evening, and she begins analysing the encounter for the hundredth time. While she's sure that she could regurgitate the conversation they'd had with the man word for word, she doesn't feel any further insight into exactly what she feels was off about the case she'd landed herself in. All that she knows is that she isn't done with that place; especially if that was a child's face she'd seen through the window. Just thinking of exposing any of her children to that man makes her feel ill, never mind the tiny little boy she'd spied through the window.
She yawns, her body physically fatigued and demanding sleep, but her mind hyper-alert. Making a promise to herself that tomorrow, she'll find out what's going on, she lets her eyes flutter closed and her mind rest for the night.
Thanks for reading. Little bit of a filler chapter here, but it covers some necessary characterisation. Thank you SO much for all of your reviews! It's really encouraging to see people are enjoying the story.
I'd love to hear your thoughts and what you think is going to happen, so please leave a review! - K :)