A/N: Hello everyone! I was sad to end It's Her, but happy to present this new story! For those of you who want some background, It's Her comes before this story but I'll try to write it so that you don't have to read that one to understand this one. If something is confusing though, feel free to ask about it in the reviews. Other than that, enjoy and thanks again!

P.S. This is going to be a really short chapter just to set up the story, in the future they will be about 3-4k as per my usual.

Amelia

Having an 18 year old and a 20 year old daughter was more work than I ever could have imagined. I mean for one, kids don't stop being kids when they're 18. No siree, they still look at you when they need a meal, when they have to schedule doctor's appointments and when they need money. Granted, I wasn't able to raise my daughters from birth so I was grateful for the chance to parent them now. Still, really? I was stepping over tons of dirty laundry in Kaleigh's room, fighting the urge to just pick it up and put it in the hamper for her.

I was in her room looking for something. Okay, fine, some might call it snooping but I liked to call it being an involved parent. She had been acting weird lately, which could have been and was likely due to the fact that she essentially is living with her sister and two recently married strangers that she hadn't had time yet to connect with, but it was always good to make sure.

Besides, I had texted Meredith with my suspicions, and she told me to go for it, so it can't be a completely bad idea, right?

Wrong!

I knew I'd seen enough when I came across the used condom in the trash. Kaleigh got herself a boyfriend pretty quickly at her new school, but I wasn't expecting this. I wondered if I would have to give her a safe sex talk later. Kids had that before they were 18, right? Ugh, I wished Owen was home. He would know what to do.

My search came up fruitless, I guess you could say, so I decided to go downstairs and make sandwich for Kaleigh to eat when she got back from school. We bought her and Alexa a car to share, because who wanted to be riding the school bus their senior year? Alexa mostly stayed in her dorm during the week now, so Kaleigh took it to school every day and they only ever fought about it on weekends.

At exactly 2:17 Kaleigh strolled through the front door. "Hey," I said.

"Hey," she nodded back, putting her backpack on the chair next to her as she sat down at the table. "Is this for me?" she asked, gesturing towards the sandwich. I nodded.

It was kind of funny, how she still wasn't completely comfortable with us. I mean, I got it, really I did. I wasn't taking it personal, I just wish there was something else Owen and I could do to help her adjust.

Scratch that. Owen and Kaleigh were actually really close. I was happy for them, if not a bit jealous. He was always so great with kids, they seemed to hit it off quickly. And of course Kaleigh and Alexa are close. So that just left me.

Our big happily ever after… or so we thought.

Alexa

Even though it was decidedly okay to resume dorm life, I still worried about Kaleigh every day. I texted her nonstop like an attached ex looking to rekindle the relationship. I wondered if she thought I was being annoying or if she appreciated the concern. Probably both. What was I supposed to do? I was her big sister.

Lily, who was my best friend now, barely batted an eye when I finally spilled the entire story of how I studied abroad from UNH in the fall, and found Amelia, my birth mother, and moved in with her to leave behind my abusive adoptive mother, and then of course how my little sister Kaleigh, who's not even from the same parents, came along because Amelia and Owen were just that giving and that caring and that generous. I seriously owed them my life. Kaleigh and I both did.

Kaleigh texted me back most days that she was hanging out with new friends or her boyfriend, but I secretly wished she would spend more time at home so that she could come to love Amelia and Owen the way I have. I knew relationships couldn't be forced but a little effort would be nice, right?

Owen

Amelia looked like crap when I finally got home well into the night. She was mindlessly staring at the TV like a zombie. For a second I feared she was high on something, but she gave me her undivided attention as soon as I sat down on the bed. "Hey, Meel. Sorry I'm late. It was a busy day."

She bit her fingernail and nodded. I could tell she was missing work. She had been working less and less, trying to be here for Kaleigh and get her settled. I personally thought it didn't just work like that, that relationships didn't just form because you spend time in the same proximity, but whatever she needed to do I was going to support her.

"Derek did a standstill surgery today."

That certainly got her attention. "He what?!" She smacked me with the pillow next to her. "And you didn't even call me! I could have at least watched! Tell me everything."

I smiled and even though I was dead tired, I laid down and started getting into every miniscule detail for her because that's what she needed.

Kaleigh

I was hiding in my room, like always, when my phone rang. I jumped a little bit. I wasn't used to callers, but since I moved to Seattle I have a decent amount of friends. The caller ID told me it was Jess, who was probably my closest friend at the time, but I wasn't in any mood to answer her.

This was my time. I did this every night. I guess you could call it meditating, but it wasn't really like that. I just stared at my ceiling for an hour or so, thinking about everything I left behind. Mourning, I guess. My (adoptive) father. All my friends, all my teachers, my extended family that I grew up loving. All gone in a blink of an eye.

I'm glad to be away from the abusive home I was in. Don't get me wrong. But everything happened so fast that I barely had time to let go of my old life before starting a new one. Amelia and Owen were great, and I was so grateful, I just…

Part of me missed it.

Especially after those two little lines appeared a few minutes after I squatted over the test in my en suite bathroom.