Well hey there! I'm back! Feeling the writing bug once again and I am so excited. I miss The Fosters so much, so I figured that if I can't watch any new episodes, then I would write some myself. =] This is a continuation of 2 previous posts (so you may want to go back and read The First Cut is the Deepest parts 1 and 2 before reading). I am hoping to update some of my other stories, but if you have any ideas or stories you would like to see written, please let me know. =]

The four women walked to the car. Each deep in their own thoughts. Stef guided Mariana to the back of the car, opening it up so she could grab the first aid kit before sitting her daughter down on the side of the trunk. Mariana's cheeks burned with embarrassment. She couldn't bring herself to look up as her mother wiped off the now dried blood around the cuts and wrapped her wrist with gauze. She felt tears fall when the blonde leaned down to kiss the wrist once she had finished.

"Come on, my love." Stef said gently after she put the kit back. She watched as her daughter quickly got up and climbed into the car- not saying a word. She sighed as she closed the trunk and walked over to the driver's seat.

Lena had already gotten Callie into the car and was sitting in the front seat, silently wondering how to go about helping both of her daughters. This was not a familiar area for her and now she had one daughter who was currently cutting and one who she believed was being effected by it more than she would ever care to admit. She felt helpless as she scrambled to think about the best way to approach the situation for both girls. At the sound of the trunk door being shut and the driver's door opening, she shook herself from her thoughts and looked over at her wife.

"I let Karina know that I needed to leave for an emergency." She informed her wife.

Stef smiled sadly and nodded before putting the car in reverse and beginning to drive home. As she glanced to the backseat, she could see Callie staring off into space, clearly thinking about something, and Mariana with her head down and her knees pulled up as close to her chest as possible. The blonde sighed as she continued driving. She didn't know how much more hurt her heart could take.

The two girls didn't even wait for Stef to put the car in park before quickly getting out of the car and all but running into the house. Neither one wanted to talk and both were embarrassed at the situation.

Mariana automatically headed upstairs, locked the door to her room, and flung herself onto her bed, still trying to process the night.

As Callie pulled the door closed behind her and watched her sister go upstairs, she made the decision to head into the kitchen. She knew Mariana wouldn't want to be around her in their room and she needed some time alone to gather her thoughts. She grabbed a glass and filled it up with water before sitting on one of the stools.

Lena and Stef quickly followed their daughters' paths, though they had hoped they would have more time to discuss how to handle the situation. They didn't think anything else bad was going to happen that night, but it wasn't a chance they were going to take. They opened the door, but were met with an eerie quiet. On a normal day, the lights would be on, there would be talking, laughter and even some arguing. The quiet they heard only reminded them of the pain their children were in.

Lena put her purse down before looking at Stef- trying to draw strength from her wife. The blonde grabbed her hand and squeezed it between her own, adding a small smile.

"Who do you want first?" Stef asked. Any other day, if they were taking turns talking to two children, it was usually because they had gotten in trouble. This was an entirely new situation for both mothers and they were going into it blindly.

Lena looked at Stef and bit her lip. "I can take Cal. She started talking to me a bit at the beach." She said with a lump forming in her throat.

Stef nodded as she squeezed her wife's hand once more.

Suddenly, Lena put her arm out to stop Stef. "I almost forgot." She said as she dug her hand into her pocket. Stef watched in horror as she pulled out a piece of glass. "Callie said this is what Mariana used."

Stef reached out and took the piece of glass in her hand. She looked at it closely and felt sick to her stomach. She knew they were going to have to take Mariana to get the cuts checked. She had no idea where that piece of glass had been and there was no way in hell she was going to let her get infected.

"I'm gonna hafta take her..." Stef started, but was cut off with a simple nod. Lena knew that Stef would take Mariana in to get checked, but she also knew that someone needed to talk to Callie. They silently agreed upon their plan before starting to walk up the stairs. They made it up to the first landing when a small sob pulled their attention to the kitchen. Stef saw her older daughter sitting at the table, both hands pressed firmly on the top with an untouched glass of water next to her. She pointed with her head and Lena saw as well. They exchanged a short kiss before parting ways.

Stef knew that she had to tread lightly with her daughter. She knew the girl was under serious stress- from being in a car accident to Jesus leaving for boarding school, but she couldn't think of what would possess her to come to this. As she walked up the stairs to where she figured her daughter was, she thought about what could have happened had Callie not called them. Or had she not found Mariana at all. She shook her head at the thought as she reached the closed door of the girls' room.

Stef knocked on the door lightly. "Mariana?" She called in.

When she got no response, her heart quickened. "Mari, love can I come in? Its mom." she tried again. The blonde reached for the door handle and her heart sank when she found it locked. "Mariana. I need to know you're ok. Please open the door." She said with a worried tone. After knocking a few more times, she made her way through the boys' room and to the bathroom that was shared by the two rooms. She jiggled that handle and sighed when she found that door locked as well.

"Mariana Adams-Foster either you open this door now, or I'm getting the key and letting myself in." Stef said, full on panic lacing her voice.

After a few more seconds of silence, Stef slammed her hand on the door, mainly out of worry, and ran to her room to get the key that they kept in their drawer for emergencies. She ran back and knocked once more. "My love, I am coming in." She announced as she turned the key into the lock and heard it click. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and braced herself for what she would see.

At the sound of Lena entering the kitchen, Callie's head snapped up. She was sure that she would have had some time alone- thinking that both moms would be more worried about Mariana. This took her by surprise, which caused words to catch in her throat.

"Hi, sweetheart." Lena said to the girl who she could see was clearly uneasy. She knew that somewhere deep down the girl had something to say about the incident- Lena just wasn't sure if she could get it out of the teen.

Callie forced a small smile at her foster mother before looking down and taking interest in the side of her cup. Her brain scrambled for words as she heard the brunette pull out the chair next to her and sit down.

"I know something is bothering you, Cal." She said, deciding to get right to the point. "I hope you feel comfortable enough to tell me so I can help you through it." She included. Lena hoped that this would cause the girl to think about speaking up if she took it from a different approach.

Callie lifted up her face, and Lena could see tears pooling in her eyes. She opened and closed her mouth several times, but words couldn't seem to form.

"It's alright. When you're ready, I'm here. Take your time." She said with a gentle smile.

Chastising herself for her emotions, Callie closed her mouth and bit down on the inside of her cheek. Why can't I just talk? She thought to herself as she felt her foster mother looking at her.

"Is Mariana ok?" she finally blurted out.

Lena bit her lip at the question. She knew that is not what the girl was trying to say, and she honestly didn't know how to answer that question at this time. She saw Callie exhale deeply and knew that the girl had once again avoided what was on her mind.

"Uhh, mom's with her right now, but I think this is something she will get through." Lena replied before switching the focus back to the daughter she was with. She was not going to let the girl push her own personal feelings aside again. "How are you doing?"

Callie shrugged, but didn't look up. "I'm fine." She answered, though they both knew she was far from it.

"Callie."

"Hmm?" the teen responded- still looking down.

"Callie. Please look at me." The mother asked gently and waited for the girl to look up. When she was met with big brown eyes, she cocked her head to look at her daughter straight on before continuing. "I can't help you if you don't let me in. I want to help you , sweetheart. Please let me help you."

Callie shook her head as she willed her tears not to fall. "Mariana is the one you should be helping, not me." She answered.

Lena shook her head at the stubborn teen and took a deep breath before responding. "Why can't I help both of you?"

As Callie choked back a sob a loud slam of a door pulled both of their attention to the second floor.

"Wait here a moment." Lena said before quickly running up to join her wife and other daughter. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it probably wasn't good.

As Stef shoved the door open, she sighed in relief when she saw her daughter curled up in her bed with her headphones in. She seemed to be in a daze, staring at her bedspread, and Stef wondered if she had even realized that someone else was in the room with her.

The blonde walked over to her daughter and sat on the edge of the bed- hoping to not startle the teen. When she still got no response, she gently rested her hand on her daughter's leg, which seemed to pull her out of her thoughts.

Stef smiled sadly at the girl, but Mariana didn't move. Her eyes wandered to anywhere except her mother and she bit her cheek in order to keep tears from forming.

At the lack of response, Stef reached over and gently pulled the headphones away from the girl's ears before trying to capture the girl's eyes.

"My love. What happened?" She finally asked the question that she had been racking her brain with since she got to the beach. She knew she needed to get the girl to the doctor sooner rather than later, but she hoped that maybe the brunette would feel like opening up so she could get the story before they hit her with the bad news of the doctor.

Mariana felt her emotions betray her as tears began sliding down her cheeks. She was embarrassed about getting caught, yes, but she was also frustrated because she honestly didn't know why she did it in the first place. It was as if someone else took over her body and before she knew it, she was cutting her wrist.

Stef sighed at the lack of response as she ran her hand comfortingly up and down the girl's leg. She decided to try one more thing before completely taking over. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the piece of glass that Lena had given her a few minutes prior. Stef watched the girl's face to note her reaction.

Mariana's lip quivered and her face paled at the sight, but she remained quiet.

"Do you know how dangerous this is?" She said, a quiver in her voice indicating that she was scared. "You have no idea where this has been!" She continued as she momentarily forgot to tread lightly with her daughter. She became so caught up in the safety that she forgot that the girl was still processing herself. "Why didn't you come talk to one of us instead of putting yourself in an unsafe situation?"

Tears were falling quickly down the girl's face and she pulled her knees up as close to her chest as possible- trying to hide from the emotions and her mother's words swirling around her head.

"We need to get this checked out at the doctor." She said, a statement that Mariana was finally able to verbally react to.

"What? No! You already cleaned it. It's fine. I don't need it checked." She said in a panic.

"Mariana! You used a dirty piece of glass! Don't you get that? You could have an infection."

The girl felt her throat begin to close and she started feeling hot. Pushing the covers off of her legs, she quickly got out of the bed. "I promise I'll never do it again. I'll monitor it myself every hour if I have to. Please I don't need to go to the doctor." She tried to say with a steady voice, though her entire body was shaking.

"My love, it's not a question of next time, you need to get checked by a professional to make sure that you don't have any infections." Stef replied as she tried to grab her daughter's hands.

However, the girl was not sold on the idea and pulled further away from her mother. "No! You can't make me go. I'm not going!" She said before turning on her heel and leaving her room, slamming the door behind her.

Mariana was surprised to run into Lena not 10 seconds later at the top of the stairs. She tried to push past her, but the older woman put out her arm to stop her.

"What happened?" she asked gently.

"Why can't everyone just stop asking me that?! I don't need to talk and I don't need to go to the doctor! I had a bad day, but it's over and I just want to forget about it!" She yelled out, though the quiver in her voice gave away her true emotions.

By this time, Stef had joined her wife and both were listening to their daughter. They knew she needed to go to the doctor and that if not with them, she would need to talk with someone about this, but they needed to take it one step at a time.

Stef exhaled deeply and reached out, this time successfully grabbing ahold of her daughter's arm and keeping her from leaving again. "My love. It's not a question. I'm sorry that you don't want to go, but we are going to get your wrist checked at the doctor. You don't have to talk about it at all right now, but for your safety, we need to take you in now."

Lena nodded as she added "We love you so much sweetheart and we just want you to be ok."

Mariana's face crumpled. "But I promised I wouldn't do it again. It was a one time thing. I don't even know why I did it. I didn't even want to do it." She responded with tears falling freely now.

"Oh baby" Stef said as she pulled her daughter into her arms. "I know you're confused and have a lot going through your head right now. And I promise we are going to fix it." She said as she planted kisses to the top of the girl's head. "But right now, we are going to get you checked by the doctor." She stated firmly.

"We love you way too much to take the chance that you could get sick from this." Lena added as Mariana looked up from her mother's hug.

When the girl didn't respond, Stef held her daughter at an arm's length away from her and tried to capture her gaze. "Ok, my love?" She asked with hope that the girl understood why they were insisting.

All they received was a small nod, but it was better than nothing.

"Come on, baby." Stef said as she pulled the girl back to her and began to walk her down the stairs, with Lena right behind them. As they reached the bottom of the steps, Stef looked over her shoulder at her wife before nodding towards the kitchen, silently asking what they should do with Callie.

Lena passed around the two and walked into the kitchen, but didn't see her daughter at the table where she left her.

After a moment of panic, she looked around the room and her heart settled slightly at the sight of her older daughter with her legs pulled up to her chest, sitting in the breakfast nook. Lena walked over to the girl and squatted in front of her. "We're gonna take Mariana to get checked at the doctor and I'd like it if you came with too." She said carefully.

The younger brunette looked up with questioning eyes. "Why?"

Lena smiled slightly at the girl. "Because I want you with me. And I would like it if we could finish our conversation." She answered.

"It's ok, Lena. You and Stef can take care of Mariana. I'm fine waiting here." she responded quickly before pulling at a thread on her shirt.

"We're helping both of you, remember?" Lena answered as she stood up and reached her hand down to the teen. Callie looked at it hesitantly before standing up and nodding slightly.

"Thanks" she replied as she allowed the older woman put her arm around her and lead her towards the door.