Chapter 5

As soon as Stef opened the front door, she watched silently as the three smaller bodies entered in a sulking manner. She sighed as soon as she caught whiff of the apologetic look on Jesus' face but she wasn't sure how to approach them all just yet. "Upstairs. The three of you. Move it. Move it," she mumbled in her usual marching voice but it showed just how tired and upset about all of this she really was.

When she closed the door behind Lena, she turned around and noticed the three of them moving but Jesus turned back around and looked at the two of them guiltily.

"Yes?" Lena asked when she realized that he was just going to stand there looking at them. The younger boy reached into his pockets for something. But a few seconds later, began panicking as if he had lost it. Stef and Lena both exchanged glances of confusion as they waited for him.

After a few more seconds, Jesus' finally pulls out a crumbled twenty-dollar bill. Immediately afterwards, he attempted to hand it over to Lena. "I…" he started but paused when he didn't want to admit that he stole it, "That's yours," he answered. "I didn't… I only took it for Mariana. I didn't want to…"

"You know that stealing is not okay," Stef scolded as gently as possible. "Especially when you're living in a house with a cop, yes?" she questioned, hoping to gain even more authority because of her profession.

Jesus nodded and put he head down before he mumbled, "I'm sorry… I know we've been really bad and…" he shook his head, "Never-mind."

"What, Jesus?" Stef urged him to continue.

"…You can send us back if you want," the boy whispered.

Stef changed her demeanor and lifted his chin up, "We wouldn't dream of sending you anywhere, okay?" She tried to offer him a reassuring smile afterwards so that he wouldn't really think that.

"Stef's right," Lena confirmed. "Thank you for telling us the truth. We really appreciate it, Jesus."

Jesus wanted to smile but he knew better than to get his hopes up. And he couldn't ignore the fact that Stef said We wouldn't dream of sending you anywhere.

She didn't mention Mariana. And he always went wherever she went.

"Okay," he answered shyly and he walked toward the staircase and up to his room.

Stef let out a deep breath that she had been holding the entire time. "So what do you want to do?"

"Besides take a hot bath and relax? …I don't know…. They're all safe. That's the most important part."

"How ironic is it that the day before we decide to ask them, is the day they decide to bolt?"

Lena sighed, "What if they're not ready? I mean, you heard Mariana. She was on her way to go see her mother. And you should've seen her face when you hugged her, Stef. She looked so confused as if she had not clue why we came for her at all. Do you think… Do you think that's the problem? That she's afraid that we don't think of her as part of this family already?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we waited long enough to decide to adopt them Stef."

"Oh, please. It hasn't been that long."

"3 years?"

"Well, what do you expect? We weren't even sure we could handle Brandon at first. I mean, look what happened today. All three of them went AWOL on us. I mean—" Stef paused mid sentence and took a seat on the nearest sofa. "They are all so grounded," she voiced out of frustration.

Lena nodded, "I completely agree with you. But…"

The blonde sighed, "What?"

"This is kinda our fault," Lena confessed.

"How do you figure?" Stef asked out of confusion.

"Those kids have been our kids for a while, Stef. I mean… look what happened after they disappeared for ten minutes. What if… What if we didn't find them? Or what if Bill came to take them away while we were fostering them, huh?"

Stef looked up at the ceiling as she started taking in everything that Lena was saying.

"They are already a part of this family and they need to know it. Not tomorrow. Now. I don't want Miss Thing getting any more ideas," Lena informed her.

"You do realize that it's only going to get worse as she progresses. Getting her brother to steal, running away, and that attitude—"

"At ten years old," Lena mumbled dramatically.

"Are you sure?" Stef questioned.

"Stef!" Lena scolded as she shoved her playfully, causing the blonde to burst out laughing.

"Kidding. Kidding," Stef put her hands up in submission.

"Now, all that's left is to tell Brandon, and ask them."

"We'll tell Brandon later. We'll ask him and make him feel like he had a choice or something," Stef joked.

Lena smiled, "And what if he says no?"

"He won't…Mariana defended him today. Did you not see how scared he looked? He'd be stupid to say no…"

"Mari-ana," Stef said softly as she entered the girls room. Neither mom was surprised to find Jesus there in a tight embrace with his sister. The little girl didn't even want to glance up at both moms, from fear that the worst would happen. She clenched onto her brother's shirt and Jesus took that as a queue to wrap his arms around her even tighter.

Stef and Lena exchanged glances before they walked over and sat on the little girl's bed, one on each side of the twins.

"Sweetheart, what's going on?" Lena asked the girl. "Why are you crying? There's no reason to cry."

"Mama's right," Stef answered. "We're not going to yell at you."

Mariana and Jesus squinted their eyes in confusion when they heard Stef call Lena 'Mama' in a conversation with only them. They had always referred to both women by their names so hearing that change was a bit weird for them.

But they chose to ignore it for now. "That's not what she's worried about," Jesus voiced matter-of-factly.

"Jesus, no le digas nada," Mariana voiced. (Jesus, don't tell them anything.)

"Por que?" (Why?)

"Hey, now." Stef stopped them both. "That's not fair. We told you two that Spanish talking is not allowed in this house while we are present."

"Nos van a botar. A que le importa ahora?" Mariana continued. (They're going to throw us out. Why do they care now?)

"Jesus, what did she say?" Lena asked.

Mariana gave him a stern look through her tears.

But he ignored it, "She said that you're going to throw us out soon anyway so why do you care?"

"Honey," Lena began as she put her hand on Mariana's lap, "That's not true."

"Mentirosa," Mariana mumbled.

"Hey!" Stef stopped her. "I know what that one means," the blonde informed the girl in a stern voice. "We are not lying to you, sweets. Why don't you believe us?"

Jesus shrugged his shoulders and Mariana remained silent.

Stef let out a deep sigh. "Do you wanna know something strange?" she asked the two of them. "…After all of you disappeared today, it made your mama and I realize that… we couldn't imagine our world without you either of you."

Lena nodded, "And we should have done this sooner, and we're sorry about that. We're sorry for taking so long. Maybe if we asked you before all of this, you wouldn't have left…" Lena asked the two of them.

The twins looked at the two of them with blank expressions.

Stef felt like she had to address something that had been bothering her but wasn't sure exactly how to address it. The thought of What if they say no? keep repeating through her mind but she knew that she had to say something. "Basically, what your mama and I would like to know is…" she sighed, "Would you consider… being a part of this family."

"Well you already are," Lena interrupted.

"Yes," Stef confirmed.

" But we want to… we thought that we'd make it more… permanent, I guess?" Lena continued.

Both of the twins sat frozen for a while and Jesus looked toward Mariana, "It's up to you, Mari," he offered. It was obvious that he wanted his sister's input and that was the most important. He wouldn't accept their offer immediately even though it was what he really wanted.

Mariana stared at two women with a dumbfounded expression on her face. And eventually she found the courage to speak to them directly, "… After all that we just did? You still want to keep us?" she questioned from fear of showing too much excitement before she felt they were really certain.

"Of course we do," Stef answered. "But only if you are willing to stay this time?" she asked.

"And we don't want to replace your birth mother," Lena confirmed. "We just… want you… both of you, to stay…"

"What do you think, Mariana?" Jesus asked his twin sister.

The little girl immediately let go of her grasp on Jesus and wrapped her arms around Lena, "No take backs, she mumbled in her chest.

"No take backs," Lena smiled.

THE END.

This was just a short story that I'm hoping most of you enjoyed. It was just supposed to be three chapters, but I felt like adding how the twins were asked to get adopted made it more… worth it? Idk? I felt like there aren't many stories on here where the twins were young and just getting used to the moms and Brandon, so that's where the idea came from.

Thank you to everyone who read. And I'm sorry that I took so long to finish this short fic but hopefully it was worth it :)