Callie POV

I was hosting a little get together at my apartment. It was all of the kids, including Frankie. But because it was now way over midnight, she was now asleep in my bed. Has been for the last 3 hours or so. Frankie wore herself out during day, at least so I was told by Jude. Jude had taken her to her classmates birthday party. They had a lot of activity based games. That and being in Sun all the day depleted her energy levels.

The rest of us were sitting around the coffee table, with an alcoholic beverage of our own choosing in our hand. My laptop stood open on one end of the coffee table. We were video calling Brandon on Skype. It was pretty long video call and we were all surprised it was going so well, no serious interruptions, no lost signals, the audio and video quality was good.

We were all a little bit drink around this time. Empty alcohol bottles stood at one corner. There were at least 3 wine bottles and some half a dozen of empty beer bottles. Mariana and I were finishing off the 4th bottle of wine, while Jesus and Jude each had a half empty beer bottle in their hands. Most of the snacks were eaten already. I could tell the party was slowly coming to an end.

The only way we were still up and talking, was because I had just informed the Adams Foster clan of the news and we were now right in the middle of discussing it.

"waitwaitwait—" Mariana slurred the words together as she waved her palm in the air, stopping me mid sentence "What does Cooper thinking about all of it?"

"Don't know," I shrugged my shoulders "Haven't talked to him or mom since then. I was working the last 3 days, didn't have much free time till now."

"You're going to be an older sister-" Jesus pointed at me

"Hey!" Jude called out from the opposite side of the table "Do I not exist anymore?"

"I mean like...in the Scott-Ellis…family," Jesus tried to fix his little mistake

"It's not all set in stone. It may not be nothing in the end," I said, wanting to downplay the news a little bit as the process wasn't even anywhere near being started. It was still in the discussion phase. Cooper and Amy might decide it was not the right time for them, Cooper might not even want to foster-adopt, Amy might still change her mind, a lot of unplanned stuff can happen to the kid herself, the system itself might throw some curve balls as well.

"Callie-" Brandon's voice was heard from the laptop, we all turned to him. The video image of him, froze for a millisecond, then got back to real time "You said it yourself, Amy was cleaning out Markus room." He paused, then emphasized again "Markus room. Not your old room – Markus!"

"He's right," Jude pointed to the laptop, then glanced to me "That's huge and it shouldn't be overlooked!"

"Amy has made up her mind, the question is, does Cooper want the same thing?" Mariana added as she changed the way she sat by deciding to sit on her crossed legs now instead "A lot of people want only babies...toddler and they don't want to mess with pre-teens or teens, who have issues, history…" the air in the room suddenly became heavy and silence set upon us

"He does!" I was surprised to hear Jude announced confidently. All eyes turned on him, including mine as I looked at him questioning.

It surprised me, how sure Jude sounded.

I have known Cooper the longest. By now, I see him as a father figure. There is no doubt in my mind, that he loves me and mom. He came in my life gradually and I never had any problems with him. Cooper has never hurt me, never said anything bad about it, never put me down. All he has done, is love and care about like I was his own. But he has never fostered me. Only mom has. He came in my life after the fact. And I do not know his stance on fostering a kid himself. I wouldn't want to guess, I would much rather go talk to him about it later on. Hear it from himself. But then again, I can assume, that he was okay with it. Because if he wasn't, I don't think that mom would be with him.

I watched Jude closely, waiting for an explanation. As did everyone else.

"He told me," Jude added a moment later after he turned to look at me

"It was the second day you were in hospital. Amy drove back to the house for one or two hours, to clean up. You still hadn't woken up. We were sitting with you. In quiet. Just watching you sleep. He said he wished he had been there for you from the start. I'm not going to re-tell everything we talked about after that, but...I don't even doubt it for a second. Cooper wants the same thing."

A beat passed as we all let that sink in. The chances were, that we will have a new family member in a few weeks or months.

"Here's to growing family!" Brandon said via the video call and raised his half empty bottle of beer up for everyone to see. We all grabbed our glasses and bottles and raised them up as well "Cheers!" we all said in unison and took a sip of our drinks

"Do you guys think moms will ever foster again?" Brandon asked as he set his bottle down on the table out of the frame

"I have been wondering the same actually," I said stretching out my legs as I had started to feel them go numb

"I think they will," Mariana chimed in first

"I mean, life after having to raise all of us at the same time…" Jesus shrugged his shoulders "It has to be boring and dull, right?" Everyone agreed, nodding their heads.

"We caused so much trouble," Jude laughed along his brothers

"Hey, guys, lets give Frankie some credit, okay," Brandon added "She's doing fine by herself."

"Oh, please," Mariana waved him off "Alone, she doesn't even stand a chance to give mom one single white hair!"

"So, you all think they will foster again as well?" I asked

"Now that Amy and Cooper are thinking about doing it, I believe it remind them of the time they used to, bring back memories," Brandon replied "I think the cards are on the table."

"I still feel like they have a lots of love to give," Jesus added, then placed his hand on his right side of the chest

Mariana reached over and pulled his hand so that it would rest on his left side of the chest, then agreed with her twin "I think they should. It would be nice for Frankie to have someone her age growing up. We all were lucky we were all so close in age…I loved that."

"So, we all agree, moms should foster again," Jude said "Who's going to tell them that?" he asked with a smirk on his lips

"How about they figure it out, themselves," I said before letting out a long yawn as well, Jude must have passed it over to me

"Where's the fun in that," Jesus said getting up to his feet "We should go and tell them right now!" he pointed towards the front doors

"Sit down, you dummy!" Mariana pulled on his hand and he slumped back down on the pillow next to his sister "It's past midnight and you are drunk. You're not going anywhere."

He laid his head in his twins lap and closed his eyes. Mariana set her palm on his head and gently stroked his hair "The room is spinning...a little. I'm going to...close my eyes…for a second…" he mumbled quietly

5 seconds later he seemed like he was sound asleep with his head in his twin sister lap. Mariana was gently stroking his hair. That action might as well have put him to rest.

Jude turned to me "Do you have a marker?"

"Desk, top right drawer," I said without missing a beat as I watched the twins

A moment later Jude returned and draw a perfect Harry Potter scar on Jesus forehead and glasses. As a trophy, we all took some pictures.

~0~0~0~

"Turn it off!" I heard Mariana shout and groan at the loud sounds as she swung her arm over her eyes

"Uuugh!" Jude put the pillow over his head in the hopes of silencing the sound of my phone ringing

I sat up, rubbing my eyes, trying to understand from where the bloody sound was actually coming from. It was from somewhere in the room, but I didn't see it anywhere. Kind of sounded like it was muffled a bit, as if it was underneath something.

"Callie, for the love of g-"

"Shut up!" I shouted back as my head was hurting already from the alcohol I had consumed, I didn't need Mariana's high pitched voice to add to the injury "I'm looking for it!"

"Look faster!" Jude threw a spare pillow at me. It hit me straight in my face, then fell down to my lap. I grabbed it and tossed it back at him. Jude grabbed it from the floor and put it up to the side of his head to silence the sound.

"I can't find it!" I said, after I had managed to crawl around the coffee table, but had not seen it

I saw Jesus grab something from underneath him and then raise the said something up to his ear, all while keeping his eyes closed "Callie's phone, who dis?"

"Is that my phone?" I asked Jesus, pointing towards him. He ignored me.

"Sorry, don't know anyone by that name," he mumbled back, hung up the phone and rolled on his left side

"Who was that?" I asked crawling over Mariana to get to Jesus

"Ow…" Mariana whined a little as I stumbling and rolling over her

"Someone named Callie's mom," he said half a sleep

"Give me that, you idiot!" I grabbed the phone out of his hand

Just as I looked down to the phone, it rung out again, scaring the living shit out of me. Had to juggle it in my hands, as I almost dropped it. I got up to my feet and hurried to the hallway, further away from all the ear before I slid my finger over the screen to pick up.

The conversation with mom was short as she always got to the point. In the minute long talk, she teased me about me being hungover before inviting me to a dinner tonight as mom and Cooper had some big news they wanted to talk to me.

After the phone call ended, I lowered my phone down and looked at it. What I noticed, was that it was barely 9. Usually I would be up two or three hours, but today, this seemed like an ungodly hour to wake up at.

I went to find some Aspirin for all of us. Pretty sure they all needed it as well. After washing it down with some water, I set the bottle down with a cup of water on the coffee table for the rest of then. Everyone pretty much woke up from the phone call anyways. Jude was already sitting up, stretching his arms and yawning as I walked back inside the room. Mariana had a look in her eyes that told me she was contemplating her life (yesterdays) choices and Jesus had just seemed to notice in the reflection of his phone screen the drawing on his face.

The doors to my bedroom were still closed. I knocked on them softly and opened them a little bit to see if Frankie was still asleep. She wasn't. Frankie was sitting on the bed, her back against the headrest, knees pulled up. She was playing some game on her phone.

"Morning kiddo,"

"Morning," Frankie paused her game and looked up to me, with a bright smile

"How long have you been up?"

"Some hour...I got up around 8. I was playing my game."

"Did you sleep well?" Frankie nodded her head back

"We weren't too loud?" she shook her head. Good, I thought to myself.

I stepped into the room "You hungry?"

"I could eat something," Frankie said scooting towards the edge of the bed

"Others are waking up as well. Go check on them. I will see what I can give you all for breakfast," I nodded for her to follow me out of the room

Amy POV

I had been over a week since I first mentioned wanting to foster-adopt the girl I met at job to Callie.

The next day, I brought the subject up to Cooper and we talked about it for hours. We stayed up late, discussing everything in relation to and about fostering and adoption. Everything that comes with it, how it would change our lives. Cooper had a lot of questions, a lot of concerns. Not so much about the girl, but more so about the whole process of it.

The other day, Cooper spent most of his free time on the computer, looking for all kinds of information about fostering, adoption, the system as a whole. I let him do his own research in peace, as it was exactly what I did myself, when Aaron and I first talked about fostering. He took Duke and went for 3 hour long walk with him. I assumed that walk, that was the time when he really decided what he wanted, what his stance on this whole thing was.

After a few days, after we both had some time to talk and really think about it, we talked some more. In the end, deciding to foster and later on, if that is what we all want, to adopt.

Now, it was time to tell Callie about our decisions.

First, I was planning a big dinner at our place. But the plan was interrupted, when I was called into work. An amber alert had gone out and the whole city was looking for a missing kid. Kidnapping to be more exact. A boy was taken from a parking lot. Luckily, the kid was found alive and reunited with his mother. The kidnapper was captured and arrested.

The next plan of having the said dinner two days after that. But that time, Callie's job got in the way. There had been an accident at a construction site. The big crane had collapsed, causing a mass destruction at the nearby area. It wasn't just Callie's firehouse that was working the case, nearest firehouses came to help as well.

Now, it had been almost a week since Cooper and I decided to foster and we still hadn't told Callie yet. But we were about to start all the paperwork. I didn't want to do it over phone or in text messages. This was something, that I wanted to talk to her in person. Look her in the eye, see her reaction. It was slowly driving me in insane, how we haven't had the time to just meet up face to face for 5 minutes.

We had had yet another plan, she was going to come over for dinner tonight. After our shifts end. Cooper was going to make a roast. We would all have a glass of wine. It would have been a nice dinner.

If it hadn't been postponed yet again.

It was another later call, an emergency situation, that had needed handling. Somehow, the world is going crazier every day. This time, it had started out as an explosion in a restaurants kitchen. The restaurant was full of people as it had been around the usual dinner time.

The paramedics and firefighters had been first on scene. Everyone was working the scene. People were being evacuated form the building, as the restaurant was located on the first floor. Firefighters were putting out the fire, securing the building, trying to get the situation under control, so that no more people would be hurt. Paramedics were helping those that had been injured. I saw some chefs and waiters being treated for burns and others explosions caused injuries, some civilians had injuries from the debris, mostly gashes and cuts.

Of safety reasons almost the whole block was evacuated.

Police work really got put into the max gear, when there was suspicion of foul play. That it wasn't just an accident at work.

Stef and I had helped interview the staff of the restaurant, learn as much detail about the situation as possible.

It was dark, when I finally was done with conducting the interviews. I gave all the information I had gathered to the detectives in charge. Now, along with Stef and some other officers we stood the perimeter, making sure no one gets under the yellow tape.

The area was flooded with news, media and civilian people. I saw a flash every other second as the media was taking pictures of the site. Cameras were rolling and news people were doing live news casts, describing the situation.

Someone walked up to me and stood right by my shoulder, facing the other direction, facing the building. She was looking, waiting if anyone else is going to call for medical assistance, but I was facing the street away from the building, where all of the curious bystanders were. I stood with my hands on my belt, while she held her red go bag in her right.

"You okay?" I asked her, not taking my eyes away from the crowd

"Yeah, I'm good," Callie replied. I didn't hear anything in her voice that suggested she was hiding anything from me or that she was having some post traumatic episode because of the explosion. But I needed to be sure, so I did a quick glance her way and study her face. She was all focused. Eyes scanning the area, listening closely to what was happening around her.

I placed my hand on her shoulder to get her attention just for a second "You would tell me-" I whispered to her

Callie placed a hand over mine and did a quick glance to me "I'm okay, I promise," She assured me. And I believed her, now that I finally got to see her actually say it.

One last squeeze of her shoulder, before I let go and turned to face the crowd again, to scan the area behind the yellow tape. Callie turned to do the same thing just the opposite direction.

I noticed how another news van arrived. This is going to be on all the news tonight. I was starting to think about not turning on the TV for the next few days. I already saw more than enough. Don't want to be reminded of it again.

The dinner is obviously not going to happen today, but I wanted to Callie to know and I wanted to tell her in person. This might as well be the best moment we will have. I took in a breath and decided to just tell her.

"This wasn't the way, how I wanted to tell you, but I can't take it no more. I want you to know. Cooper and I are going to foster the girl."

Heard Callie breathe and then I heard a chuckle.

I glanced to her to find Callie biting her lip, not to be seen smiling or laughing on the scene "What?" I asked quickly, before glanced back in front of me

"Nothing," Callie gathered back her composure and straightened her back. I held my breath, worried that Callie will share her objections about us fostering

"Does that mean, I will not get that fancy dinner of yours, that you have been planning to have for over a week?"

I was flustered "I...it was not going to be fancy...just the 3 of us-"

"Really? You trying to tell me, that Cooper hasn't put a roast or some expensive salmon in the fridge because the two of us are here, instead of being at the house?"

"I wanted it for it to be nice. So that we could talk about it, over a glass of wine,"

"Mom," I saw in my peripheral vision, how Callie tilted her head up as she started to speak "I knew it the moment you adopted me, that someday, this day will come. The other day, when you were cleaning out Markus room, I knew that time had come. And I am so I'm happy for you. Both of you. I am more than okay with you two fostering the girl."

I glanced to Callie again, this time holding back some tears in my eyes "You know that I love you, right? This will not change-"

"I know," Callie stopped me and turned to look at me "I know mom. I love you too."

I kept seeing the camera flashes in my peripheral vision, as I was looking at my daughter, smiling. All I kept thinking was, how lucky I was to have her.

I looked back to the crowd and scanned the civilians "You could still come over and have that dinner with us."

"I don't know, when I will get off,"

"Neither do it. But you can come over any time. Even if it is the middle of the night."

"Okay. I'll come over, when I'm done," Callie said right before I heard Beth call Callie's name "Have to go," She said quickly and hurried away.

I turned my head and watched as she go. All grown up. My little girl was all grown up. I still could not fully believe, that the little girl I met all those years ago, grew up to be this young woman that I was seeing right now. I was so lucky that I got to be there by her side every step of the way. I smiled, proudly, watching her go, before I took a breath and returned to my duties.