Chapter Text
Lena Adams knows not to be too appalled by the sight of the five five' frizzy brown haired, and purple bruised bottom lipped female teenager being led towards her by one of the security guards, in the parking lot of Central Juvenile Hall located in Los Angeles California.
She's thankful for the caseworker that stands by her side.
"Ms. Adams, this is sixteen year-old Fiona Gallagher who has been completed her sentence at Central Juvenile Hall. We're aware that you've offered to temporarily take in an underage child that's finished their sentence, correct?"
"Yes, uh..."
Lena knew it was going to be bad. Really bad. But this girl, this girl is giving her the eyes of a true crook.
She's received a bruised bloody lip and she has no problem giving one if that's what it takes.
"Nice to meet you, Fiona..."
Nothing at all is said back.
"Fiona, would you feel comfortable staying with Lena and her family for a few days?" Her guard checks.
A hesitant nod is all that's presented. A lump enters Lena's throat.
"She was arrested and placed for theft and public violation in a gas station she was planning on shoplifting from." Lena's caseworker named Janet recites the forms she had memorized.
Lena nods tentatively.
"Her clothes got lost in storage, so, you're gonna have to get her a change and send her jumpsuit back to us." The guard explains.
"Um, yeah I'm sure we can work something out..."
"Let me walk you both to your car."
"I'm not dangerous." Fiona croaks out with lightless dead set eyes, having Lena flinch.
"Go. Now."
He pushes her along the way in the direction of Lena's car, who is being told by Janet that she'll be leaving.
"It's only for a few days, Lena. She has other siblings. She's probably hung up about that."
"Well i-is there a way we could get them as well-?" Lena's starting to reconsider things.
Maybe she can reunite them back together, and they can all move on to a safe home from their temporary stay.
"All I know, is that there's two boys and one other girl. I don't know where they're located, or if they're all together."
Her breath hitches.
"Go on, Lena. You got this. Stef's a cop."
"But Liam-"
"Lena. I really don't think this girl is as bad as people such as herself are making her out to be...Call me if you need me."
Janet walks off and drives away in her vehicle, having Lena to force herself to go back to her own.
So far, Fiona has those same eyes in her direction every time.
The guard makes his way back inside after a few more reminders and safety checks.
"Um, front or back, sweetie..." Lena knows that she shouldn't be this worried about being alone with an ex teenage juvenile inmate, but she also needs to know that anyone is always capable of anything.
Fiona timidly sits in the middle backseat without a word, being watched with stilled eyes as she safely puts on her seatbelt and crosses her legs.
"Ya comin'?" She breaks Lena out of her own state of shock.
"Yes...Yes, Fiona."
When starting the engine and putting the car into reverse, she knows that there's no more turning back.
The doors are locked from the inside just in case.
Not one actual conversation was had on the way to the house. Lena asked her, "Do you have enough air back there?" And witnessed her nod through the rear view mirror. That was pretty much it.
Through the side view mirror, she tried not to focus too much on the broken girl staring out the window with her then broken eyes, gazing at the nature that passes by and looking to be on the verge of tears with deepened thoughts.
Her eyes are now more skeptical than broken, when looking around the kitchen of the home Lena shares with her partner, almost looking like she dreads this new setting.
Everything's so organized and clean. No dust or broken glass or cigarette butts to line the dirty floors.
The house that she's staying in actually looks stable and tame, for once.
"Who else stays here..." her voice continues to rasp.
"Well, there's Phillip, who's-"
The fifteen year-old comes entering through the back door, in an old vintage white tee and saggy pair of jeans, jogging into the room and stopping at the other figure's presence.
"Oh, and there he is now. Lip, this is Fiona Gallagher. We're going to be fostering her for bit. Remember when we were explaining that to you?" Lena says to him.
"Oh, yeah uh...Right," he can't stop staring into Fiona's eyes, and not for the reason people think the sex scenting teenager would.
His heart hammers at the similarities in their face and hair, Fiona not liking this strange sense of feeling either.
"Holy shit" he speaks up, and Lena arches her posture. "I can assure you Lip won't be any trouble Fiona, right?" She glares over at him.
"Right. Uh, uh, yeah..." he awkwardly looks away from her.
"What the fuck's with the 'Lip,'"
He's almost shocked to hear her speak, eyebrows going up and lips pressing together tightly.
"Short for Phillip." Lena answers.
"So why not just 'Phil'..."
Lip scoffs. "I will not be named after a shitty daytime TV 'doctor.'"
"Like Lip is any better?" Fiona confusingly asks, and the boy is already growing impatient.
"Please just call me Lip. Speaking of so, where'd you get that shiner?"
"Um, Lip, Fiona was freed of her sentence in Central Juvenile Hall," Lena answers for her in a manner of sophistication.
"Holy shit. Badass." He now puts two and two together about the jumpsuit on her body.
"Just go shower. You smell" she orders, and Lip turns around with a sure smirk on his face.
"I was at Karen's..." he sheepishly yells out, before sprinting his way up the stairs.
"Of course you were..." Lena calls out with an intended roll of her eyes.
Fiona's caught on to the deeper meaning by now, and is now uncomfortably circling her eyes across the floor tile below them.
"Um..." Lena can notice her awkward sense.
"How about you sit down? I was just about to get dinner started."
Fiona slowly looks back up at her, with a new fresh pair of threaten-some eyes.
"Alright..."
Like the profile she declares to keep, her voice is nothing but low.
At dinner, so far it's just Fiona Lip. Until the meals consisting of chicken and green beans with mashed potatoes were prepared, Lena told Fiona she could watch TV in the living room. Instead, she asked for her change of clothes, so she could get out of that damn jumpsuit.
"Oh, um, yeah..." Lena said, rushing to the laundry room and preparing the smallest sized clean outfit her partner has.
"Here you go. Bathroom's down that hallway to the right." She pointed to the hall outside of the kitchen.
She handed the jumpsuit back to Lena, who put it in a plastic bag to be sent back to the institute.
Fiona locked the door behind her and took longer than usual, intensely sulking about what has to be done and steadily listening to the running water of Lip's shower upstairs.
She sits next to him, discreetly observing the water continuing to drip from his hair, while he stares at Stef's borrowed outfit.
"It's a little big on her." He says to Lena.
"We can go to goodwill tomorrow" Lena says, witnessing Fiona's look of embarrassment.
Stef returns through the front entrance of the house in her officer uniform, with gun in her holster and baby Liam in her arms.
"Hi all," she sings when entering the kitchen. "Liam loved his art class!"
Her eyes go right over to Fiona, and is taken aback by her facial injury.
"Hi there," she's aware of her reason for being here, hesitantly looking over at Lena.
"Stef, this is Fiona."
"Yes, hi, hello..." She and Stef cross paths, handing Liam over to her and receiving a peck to her lips.
Fiona sits up in her chair, in which Lip boldly shoots her a look.
"Are you guys married..." she asks with a dark voice again, having Lip automatically relax from the homophobia he thought he was going to hear from her.
"Oh," Lena chuckles and turns towards her, bouncing Liam simultaneously.
"No, we're not. But we've been together since Lip was little," she walks over and sits Liam in his highchair next to her chair which sits across from the two teens.
"Hey sweet boy," she kisses his head and returns to her chair. "Fiona, that's Liam, he's two." She happily points over.
Fiona waves to him, which triggers a blank faced response.
She puts down her hand and looks away in defeat.
"Is that my shirt?" Stef notices when sitting down next to Lena, and again her face flushes in more embarrassment.
"She needed a change of clothes from her jumpsuit" Lena cracks the news to her, knowing she won't like what's being heard.
"Jumpsuit..." Stef stares her down, which isn't helping the girl's situation. She looks away in shame.
"Honey, it wasn't anything drastic. She shoplifted from a store and broke a few things." Lena elaborates.
"'A few things'..."
"Uh-" Lip blinks rapidly, knowing the subject should be changed.
"I think Callie Jacob from my Math class is gay" he blurts out the first thought that came to mind, and Fiona's eyes grow wide.
"Oh, really?" Lena adds on to the conversation.
"Yeah. Hope she can come out but it sucks 'cause she's smoking hot."
Lena grimaces and rolls her eyes in response to the second shit ass smirk he loves to give them. Stef is too busy giving Liam his food to engage.
"Fiona?" Her girlfriend notices her picking around with her food while deep in thought.
"Hm?" She looks up in a jolt, and Lip looks over in pity.
"Something on your mind?" She's asked, causing the lump in her throat and lurch in her stomach.
"Mm...No," she lies, when there's actually too much on her mind. One of those thoughts now being that a certain someone in her life is gay as well.
Someone who she's going to find if it's the last thing she does.
A little while after dinner's been completed, Fiona still isn't hungry despite not eating anything at all. Leftovers remain in the fridge, and she doesn't know how Stef and Lena would feel if they found her frolicking around their kitchen at three a.m with a raging appetite.
So she'll just have to settle until breakfast.
Now all alone and bored to tears in the kitchen, her first instinct is to find a working phone.
She grins and excitedly runs over when she finds a simple home phone in one of many home drawers she rummages through.
She bites her bruised lip and almost slams it down in fury when discovering it doesn't work.
She almost cries when charger can't be found.
"Are you sure we should be leaving her alone?" Stef asks Lena in their bedroom, the two already in their bed in hopes of a good night's rest.
"What if she steals-?"
"I'm more worried about her running away" Lena flares, showing a quick scowl and sassily standing up.
Stef flares her nostrils when watching her bunny slippers stomp out into the hall.
But when Lena's made her way to the dark downstairs, Fiona's already made her way up, in a beeline for Lip's room.
That's apparently also Liam's.
She peeks her head within the doorway, watching him cradle him in his arms just above his crib, and coo quiet baby gibberish like it's his second language.
"Um," she awkwardly steps inside, and he jumps around mouth gasping and his eyes popping.
"Uh, sorry..." she says.
"It's fine, uhhh, can I help you with something?" He offers.
"Yeah, actually." She steps forward. "You got a phone I can use?"
"A phone, uh..." he can't stop staring at her resemblance.
"Yeah, uh th-there's my cellphone. But-"
"But what?" She scowls. "You think I'll put out for you because I need to make one fucking phone call?" She's already accusing him of pulling that card.
"What? N-no...!" He defends uncomfortably.
"Just-who are you calling?"
"None of your business" she snaps, giving him another look and walking over.
"Well, just, you're not gonna run away are you?" He makes sure.
"No. Not making that mistake again. That's how I ended up in Central." She doesn't want to recall too much of her time on the streets or in that place.
"Oh, just checking-"
"Like your Mom would give a shit anyway. Her girlfriend wants me gone."
"You mean my other Mom?" He sharply corrects.
"Sorry. Your 'other Mom' wants me gone." She doesn't have time for these kinds of things.
"Listen, uh..." he starts. "Don't think like that. She's just protective, okay? You're gonna stay with us for a bit, and I hope that wherever you end up after this isn't some juvie or on the streets. You, you deserve a good family, you know?" He expresses.
"If you really meant that you'd give me your damn phone-" her next round of sass is interrupted by Liam's simple touch to her palm, and she flinches but stares down at him tenderly.
Lip chuckles.
"Was I scaring him...?" She hopes she wasn't.
"Nah. Trust me, there's been worse tension around him."
"Okay...Good..." She grows strangely nervous at Liam's smiling expression up at her.
"Hi..." she whispers softly, returning his gesture in the same manner.
He ends up grabbing her fingers, releasing a laugh that she hasn't heard from herself in a long ass times.
Lip smiles. "He adapts quickly."
"Heyyyy Liam" she continues to whisper quietly, giggling at his tightened grab on her.
Stef has no problem making her way in, loudly asking "You guys doing alright?"
Fiona looks over with her heart in her stomach, squeezing onto Liam's hand with her free fist.
Lip crinkles his brow, knowing she's already assuming the worst.
"Yeah, Mom, we're fine."
"Lena's looking for you. I'll let her know you're up here. Alright?"
"'Kay..."
"You can sleep in the guest room."
Lip already knows that no one has to spell it out.
"She's just saying hi to Liam."
"I really think he should go to bed. It's getting dark. You too. School night!" She reminds on her way out, adding on that can help Fiona get settled. The door is left wide open.
Fiona openly rolls her eyes, which Lip laughs at.
"Sorry. She's uh, kinda always been like that."
"Oh..." Again Fiona darts her eyes uncomfortably.
"Don't you have a girlfriend?" She brings up.
"Oh. Karen. She's not exactly a girlfriend, per-say..." he blushes, and she almost scoffs with realization.
"We kinda just-"
"Hook up?"
"Right now, yeah. But, I wanna do more than hook up with her, now."
"Aw," Fiona chuckles, and Liam's stepped up to grabbing her hair.
"Owe!" They both laugh at him. "Silly boy," she comments.
"He does that with Lena all the time. That's why Stef got hers short."
"Seriously?"
"No."
They chortle.
Lena's resorted to the garage for her desperate search for Fiona, walking over to open so and check down the driveway.
The last place she'd expect her to be is upstairs in Lip's room. She can tell that the kitchen was tampered with, and is trying to put the pieces together.
"Fiona?" She assumes maybe she's in the pitch dark somewhere, just before Stef is following behind and almost giving her a heart attack.
She lurches up at her gasp.
"Sorry. Fiona's with Lip and Liam."
"Oh, thank God." Lena heaves a sigh.
"Not really," Stef turns bland.
"What are you getting at..." Her partner frowns.
"I don't want them being around each other so much. You know how Lip gets. A pretty girl in the house isn't easing his hormones. And besides, she's obviously desperate for money and-"
"I can't believe you!" Lena bellows. "Lip likes Karen," she continues. "He told me."
"Karen who he's sleeping with daily?"
"Fiona is lonely. She has other siblings in the system God knows where. Any company is good company."
"Not when-"
"I don't want to hear it from you anymore. She's only staying for a short while. Don't worry. Your 'problem' will soon be gone."
She gets the last say, leaving Stef alone and speechless to go check on the kids.
"Can I hold him?" Fiona asks Lip in hopes of Liam, and he kindly approves. Slowly handing him over, she make sure she knows how to do it correctly, and grins watching her achieve and break out into smiles.
"Hi Liam..." she goes, having him face her and laughing when he goes for her hair again.
"This is Fiona. Can you say 'Fiona'?" Lip asks the boy.
"F--f--Fee-Fee" he gets out, and the teens laugh.
"Close enough" Fee-Fee laughs, while Lena slowly makes her way to the entrance.
She knocks twice to alert them, and lets them know "You guys should freshen up. School tomorrow, remember?"
"Yeah," says Lip, noticing Fiona's instant panic and insecurity.
"Fiona you can sleep in the guest room down the hall if you'd like," Lena offers, having no problem with her sleeping in here as long as it's not next to the boy in his bed.
"Okay," she says, appreciating how much more laid back she is than Stef. It's nice to know that she doesn't think she's easy.
"Getting to know Liam?" She smiles, and is ecstatic to see her return one of her own.
"Yeah."
Lena giggles. "Don't keep him up too late, guys. Night kids."
She leaves the door halfway open.
"Damn," Fiona whispers, looking over at Lip.
"Yeah, she's more chill. Stef's a cop, so that's why she's more on edge about stuff."
Fiona nods, looking down at Liam one more time.
"Um..." she doesn't want to hand him over, but knows the kid needs his rest.
"Here."
Lip returns to his baby talk when carefully setting him down in his crib, and can hear Fiona's scoff which only makes him want to do it more.
"Wanna see my box of secret stuff?" He decides to ask, not wanting her last moments of the night to be a bore.
She cringes. "What the hell is that supposed to be."
"Don't worry. It's cool stuff." He knows that her mind is going to porn mags and condoms.
"If you say so..."
He retrieves the shoe box from under his bed, and they lay body first on the carpet with their legs folded together after it's been opened.
"This is the super cool pocket knife my Dad gave me," he points to the weapon with all sorts of different blades and a shining silver coat.
"And your Dad is..." She wants clarification.
"Stef's ex-husband." He looks at her.
"Ah. You guys close?"
"Yeah. It's nice to see him. They both work together, so it's kinda weird, but, everything's cool at the end of the day."
"That's good," Fiona wishes she say the same about her family.
"Does Lena have an ex-husband? You know, with Liam, and..." She trails off.
"She and Stef got a sperm donor, so that's how they had Liam." He explains.
"Ohhhh."
"Yeah. He's pretty great." He smiles over at crib in which the kid is already on his way to a deep sleep.
"He's so cute," Fiona says.
"I know. He seems to really love your hair though," Lip grins.
Stef returns to the doorway just as the teens are laughing.
She smiles to see their joy, and waits to knock after the laughter dies down. "Kids?"
They look over in fear, but that's not her intent.
"You should really get some sleep. Lip you'll help Fiona around the school." She's not asking him; she's telling him.
"Yeah. Yeah, of course" he looks over at her, who nods in appreciation.
"Yes you will. Goodnight. Fiona if you need anything Lip will get it for you."
She snickers over at him.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight," they say together, and Stef leaves the door open the same amount that Lena did.
"Damn," Fiona repeats, standing up while Lip closes the box and returns it back under bed.
"What'd Lena put in her drink?"
He laughs, standing up next to her. "You can use the bathroom right there," he points to the one built into the room.
"You got a toothbrush?" He wonders.
"Why would I have a toothbrush," she laughs, having him smile over. "Fine, then." He sees how she is.
"Wanna use mine?"
"Ew!"
The two try not to laugh too loudly, but just can't help themselves.
Fiona slept on the floor in front of Lip's bed, with a handed down blanket and pillow. She didn't complain, considering she's slept in worse places at worse times.
She slowly flutters open her eyes in the early hour of seven, yawning from her lack of sleep due to worrying and shivering about her misplaced siblings.
She squints and cringes at the sunlight pouring through the sunlight; one of the things she really dreads about California.
After regaining her full sight and remembrance of the past twenty four hours, the first thing he her eyes go to is Lip's cellphone plugged in on his nearby desk.
She hopes her loud gasp doesn't wake neither him or Liam up, and makes sure the older boy is most certainly still asleep by poking his visible side a few times. "Lip..." she whispers, and smiles when there's no response.
She gets up slowly and tip toes over to the desk, unplugging and unlocking it, trying to hold back a small groan when she learns a passcode is required.
"Bitch ass," she whispers, but grinning ear to ear when she notices the emergency call option.
Good thing she has that phone number memorized.
She can't even dial the first number before Lip's scheduled seven ten a.m. In Da Club alarm starts blaring, causing her to shriek and cause a bang from the device falling back onto the wooden surface.
"Christ, Fiona!" Lip grunts while sitting up, blinking rapidly and scowling in her direction when he can sense where she is.
"What the fuck, Lip?!" She shout whispers, starting down at the phone in a sweaty panic.
"Just turn it off!"
Unlocking the phone with a hesitant click to the home button as if it's incredibly fragile, she easily stops the blaring vocals.
"Were you touching my phone?!" He's putting two and two together, fiercely sitting up higher and clenching the sheets.
"No..."
"Yes! You were!"
She flips him off.
To the sound of Liam's wailing which they and 50 Cent had all caused, the teens are stomping down the staircase and all the way into the kitchen in full blown argument mode.
They're yelling over each other so much, that Stef and Lena can't even tell what either of them are saying.
Something about privacy, accusations of waking up Liam, something to do being overdramatic, blah blah blah blah.
"Hey!" Stef raises her voice once they've both unknowingly followed each other into the room.
They both go silence at once and look over at them.
"What's going on."
"Fiona was going through my phone!"
"I wanted to see what time it was."
"Oh bullshit-!"
"Alright!" Lena steps in. "Go upstairs and calm your brother."
"Oh you mean my brother that she woke up-?!"
"Lip!" She yells, while Fiona flips him off with both fingers.
"Go."
He groans all the way over to the staircase, and all the way up the staircase.
Fiona doesn't like the hard looks she's receiving from the two women standing ten feet away from her, so she'll use any excuse in the book to get out of there.
"Ummm, I'll be in the bathroom."
Sighs are released when she's gone and locked herself inside, Stef stressfully sipping her mug of coffee as Liam is barely being calmed one floor up.
"Gosh, it hasn't even been twenty four hours why they're already fighting like siblings," says Lena.
Stef almost chokes up the drink that's supposed to be calming her down.
When breakfast does come around, Liam is calmed down and being fed his food by Lena in his high chair, while Stef tries not to choke up more coffee and the teenagers are sitting next to each other but sneaking dirty glances.
"Who was messing around in the kitchen last night?" Stef asks, and Fiona slumps down and fills her mouth with the eggs on her plate.
Noticing all eyes on her, Lip sits up and clears his throat.
"Uh, me. Was looking for a stapler for school."
Fiona looks at him with pressed lips and embarrassed eyes.
"Hm, alright."
Fiona knows that they all know the truth, but releases a quiet sigh knowing that they won't corner her about it just yet.
"Afterwards pack up your things so we can get going," says Lena.
"She's the vice principal there." Lip shares.
"Oh, cool..." Fiona shrinks down in her stool again.
Air huffs out of his nose at her reaction.
"Um, I'm gonna get washed up and stuff" Fi' announces, taking one last bite and standing up.
"Do you have anymore outfits?" She stares down at the one she slept in that's now more baggy and all wrinkled.
The women wish they could say yes.
Lip almost laughs, and Fiona holds up her fist.
"Alright," Lena has to lean over and set her back.
Seeing him laugh at her now stomping away, the girlfriends scowl at him hard.
"Be nice to her, Lip." Demands Lena.
"But not too nice to her," Stef adds, and this time Lena's almost the one spitting her coffee up.
"I'm gonna leave..." he announces.
"Hey," Fiona calls out to him on their way to Lena's car. Both of them making their way across the lawn, he stops and looks over at her in his casual outfit and combed hair.
"Why'd you take the fall for me at the table. Thought you were pissed at me."
"Eh..." Lip considers. "You're not all bad."
She smiles at him in her wrinkled draping outfit, and joins his side.
"So since I'm not all bad," she starts as they're on their way to the curb. "This mean you'll let me have shotgun?"
"You don't get it you gotta earn it!" He's already taking off running, and she follows close behind with a holler.
Despite him getting head start, Fiona makes it there first.
Lena enjoys walking out onto the driveway to the sound of their foolish laughter.