That night, after a long day of pampering, the girls laid in bed. Cory laid next to Maya with his hands behind his head, and Topanga laid next to Riley on her side.

"So first things first, ladies, we want to apologize for where we went wrong. Maya, this morning…"

"You were just upset…" Maya cut him off.

"I was upset. Angry that I couldn't keep you two safe, and that we didn't step in sooner, and scared for all the things that could have happened and all the things that might have happened that we didn't know about." Cory agreed. "But hear me so clearly, Maya, because this is something I need you to keep in your brain through life." He paused until he was sure he had both girls attention. "People say things in the heat of emotion, but if someone loves you, they will apologize and they will work hard to not do it again."

When both girls were silent, Topanga jumped in. "You both deserve to be treated with kindness and respect, and when that doesn't happen you both deserve an apology."

Maya fought hard against the tears that threatened to fall.

"I love you, Maya, and I'm sorry and will do better to not speak rashly in the heat of anger or fear." Cory told her.

"Thank you." Maya said after taking a breath to steady her voice.

"Next, Maya brought up a good point today, we failed you guys by giving you space to figure things out on your own. We also left you with more chaos when we switched up the rules and didn't hold you both to the standards we set. We will try hard not to do that again." Topanga vowed to them.

"And you two can feel free to voice those concerns to us." Cory told them.

"Is there anything else you two feel upset about?" Topanga asked.

"Yeah," Riley said, anger spilling into her voice, "You promised to keep Maya safe and you didn't."

"Riles," Maya started.

"No." Riley said sitting up. "They promised, and we get that we can't trust your Mom but who can we trust if all the adults are liars."

Topanga pulled her daughter back down into a hug. "We did promise that. Sometimes when you're an adult you see how much more life is stretched out, so things like safety apply more in the long term then we probably should."

"We didn't mean to lie, but you are right, you feel lied to because of a lack of communication on our part as well as a few missteps. And we are sorry to you both." Cory added.

"That's a good transition into where the two of you have a little responsibility here." Topanga said. "Even if it is hard or you are upset with us, you have to let us in."

"I wasn't sure what you were going to do." Maya said.

"I hear you, but we will always try and work things out like a family, and like I said earlier, even if we disagree on next steps, we will keep you in the loop about that they are."

"We are growing up." Maya added simply.

"Yeah, not everyone runs to their Mommy and Daddy anymore." Riley agreed.

Both adults seemed to consider that. "If you ask to try and figure something out then we will try and give you time and space to do that, but we need to be able to know something is happening and be able to have a time when we can jump in and help." Cory said, trying to compromise. The girls were right, they were getting older.

"We need for everyone in this room to trust each other in order to keep everyone safe, can we make a deal now to keep communication lines open?" Topanga asked.

"Okay." Maya agreed quickly.

"Okay." Riley said more reluctantly.

"Next, the running away attempt this morning? Never again." Topanga told them. Both girls agreed again. Maya hadn't even wanted to run away to begin with. The Matthews house had always been the safest space for her.

"Finally, if either of you ever intentionally goes somewhere without your phone, or helps the other one do it, ever again you will be grounded forever, am I understood?" Cory asked, his tone suddenly very firm.

"Yes, sir." Both girls agreed.

"Anything more you two wanna discuss?" Topanga asked.

"Just to clarify, we aren't in trouble tonight?" Riley asked.

"Correct, I think the severity of the situation alone made this a learning experience for us all." Topanga told her. She watched Maya play with the edge of the blanket. "Hey, miss what did we just say about communication?"

"Will…will you ever sp…spank me with a belt?" Maya asked, uncertainly.

"Maybe…" Cory said. "As you get older sometimes things get more serious, but we will never spank you like Troy did."

"And you would clearly know beforehand that it was going to happen for whatever rule was broken." Topanga assured her.

"Okay." Maya said, but her tone gave away how not okay it was.

"Maya for real, I promise it will be well discussed beforehand." Topanga promised.

"Yes ma'am."

Topanga looked over the girls heads at Cory, knowing they would have to work on that one. "Anything else?" Cory asked.

After both girls said no, they kissed them both and left the room. Exhausted from their week, both girls fell asleep quickly.

--GMW--

"Wine?" Cory asked.

"God, yes." She said, throwing herself down on the couch.

Cory came over with a glass of wine for them both. "Has Katy called at all?"

"No."

"Maya could be in a ditch dead for all she knows." Cory grouched.

"I texted her before we left the office to let her know Maya was with me."

"That was nice."

"She's still a mom." Topanga sighed.

"What is our move here?"

"Not really sure of much, except I don't want Troy around either girl."

"Agreed."

"Maya wants to be home with her mom though."

"Well let's feel them out Sunday afternoon." Cory told her.

"I don't want either of them in my house." Topanga growled.

"Stop," Cory chided, "Maya needs you to set your feelings aside here."

Topanga looked over the edge of her glass at her husband, "Cory, at this point I will kill them both."

"You wont, because you know how important this is to Maya, and you know that you will be in trouble with me before you go to jail."

"Might still be worth it."

"We just talked to the girls about how we all have to be able to trust each other."

"Fine." Topanga thought for a moment, "but you call tomorrow to make sure they are coming. I will say something and get in trouble."

"Okay that's fair." He rested his head and closed his eyes, "We are all going to survive this, right?"

"There isn't anything we haven't survived yet, so based off of history alone, I'm going to say yes."

Cory smirked, "What about based on feeling alone?"

Topanga made a face at that, "That…I'm unsure of."

He frowned, "me too."

After a moment of silence she stood, "The truth is that we have three little souls that make it mandatory for us to survive this."

She pulled Cory up and he kissed her before taking both of their glasses to the sink. "And that's what we have to focus on."

They checked on the kids one last time for peace of mind, and went to bed.