Well hello dear friends. I am well aware this is entirely out of the blue after 5 years but after my fanfic sabbatical raising kids and getting married I suddenly had a wash of inspiration to resurrect our old friend Kasey. Breaking from the norm, my inspiration was actually to do a Mariana and Kasey fic, a combination I rarely wrote, mainly because of my complete disinterest in Mariana in my early Fosters days (which ironically was sort of where Kasey came from). As time went on, however, I have to admit she became one of my favourites in the show and finally I feel in a place where I am confident enough to write her. Perhaps it's due to Good Trouble, I don't know, but I actually really enjoyed taking this one for a spin. I'll be shocked if my community is still here so I appreciate a lot of readers might not have any interest in hopping on the Kasey train after so long, but hopefully some of my old readers will stumble across this. I suspect this will be a one off but I'm very excited to share this 5 part fic with anyone who has any interest in a trip down memory lane. Forgive my rustiness and please do drop in a review to say hello if you're here! If you've never read one of my fics before then this is probably not the best place to start, but feel free to look at my back catalogue if you're looking for an alternative universe collection.

Thanks to my good friend thesameguest who's stuck by me in friendship all these years! I feel like we are getting the gang back together. Enjoy! xx


"Gooooood morning, family." Stef bound into the kitchen where Lena was sat having a coffee, reading a book and Kasey was on her phone munching down cereal.

"Morning sweetheart." Lena replied, without looking up. "You're in a good mood!"

"Why would I not be?" Stef replied, pouring her own cup of coffee. "It's been a good week, all our kids are happy and healthy and there hasn't been a crisis for at least 3 days."

"Ugh." Mariana strolled in and threw her phone down on the table, sighing. "And so begins another day with no friends and no boyfriend!" she slumped her chin into her arms and Lena slid her a slice of buttered toast. She pulled a face but then took a bite.

"Well, all our kids are healthy. I'll take it." Stef corrected.

"Are the dance troupe still being little bi...big pains in the butt..." Kasey asked, quickly re-routing after a glance from Lena.

"Yes." Mariana replied, disheartened, as she glanced at her silent phone, forlornly longing for the invitation of some kind of social activity.

"I'm sure you'll work it out soon." Lena, assured her, stroking her hair.

"Hmmf." Mariana mumbled. "I just wish I hadn't also jeopardised my relationship for them." It had been a tough few weeks in teen-land for Mariana, although these days, forever embroiled in the politics of high school, it never seemed to be anything else.

"Well, if you ask me, he wasn't worth your time." Stef interjected. "And honestly, I think it's good for you to have a bit of a break from those guys. You don't have to stop dancing. Good friends will come back and in the meantime you've always got your family."

"Yeh, I'm sure mom will bust some moves with you." Kasey replied, chucking some extra toast into her mouth to round off her breakfast. "Hey, is the mail here yet? Evan said he'd send me a letter from his trip. He's trying to be all charming and oldey-timey."

"You know there is a pretty innovative new way of finding that out, it's called walking out front and having a look." Stef smiled at her, with a patronising glint in her eye.

"There is, but whereas I might have mail, you'll definitely have mail so it seems reasonable that –"

"You'd volunteer to go get it because you want to be helpful." Lena finished Kasey's sentence with a slightly different slant.

Kasey was going to weigh in her rebuttal but looking between them she saw her path was pre-determined.

"Ugh, fine." She sighed. "The letter idea seemed a lot cuter when it didn't involve exercise."

"It's a walk to the bottom of the driveway." Lena laughed.

"Hey, actually, could you take the recycling out while you're going?" Stef added, gauging the overflowing bin. Kasey threw her a look.

"Uhm, not it – I'm pretty sure it's this one's turn for that." She gestured toward her sister.

"I literally did it yesterday, or the day before maybe... It's just filled up again super fast." Mariana pouted. "And I'm so sad." She puffed her bottom lip out with a lazy attempt for sympathy.

"I thought you'd enjoy the opportunity for something to do, what with having no friends and no boyfriend?" Kasey jibed with a snidey chirp in her voice. The intention had been playful but Stef and Lena snapped her a horrified and disappointed look respectively. Mariana crinkled her forehead, awkwardly.

"Oh come on," Kasey defended herself. "It's a contextual joke. Context! I'm just repeating what...oh fine." Her arms flew up before she rolled her eyes and sighed, taking cue from her mothers' stares and sister's puppy dog face.

Without saying another word Stef handed her the recycling bin and she trotted out towards the door, resigned to her obliging fate. She muttered something to herself about her coddled little sister but it was quiet enough that the adults could viably ignore it.

As she returned from the mailbox it was clear Evan's letter was still to arrive. She was, however, enjoying flicking through the various letters her moms had accumulated. "Wow, you guys get a lot of bills." She informed them as she tossed a pile on the kitchen table. "Haven't you ever heard of paper free?"

"Don't even go –"

"Thank you!" Lena cut off Stef's warning. "But no, your mom insists on continuing to destroy the planet so she can stay in the dark ages as she likes to have - " Lena began to mimic her wife as Stef chimed in with her well known response "like to have the paper in front of me so I know where our money is going." The two of them completed it in unison.

Stef threw Lena a damning look. "Excuse me for wanting to be organised as I take care of all the family accounting."

"You know online bills do actually contain the same information." Lena prodded as Stef threw her a confused glance. "But then I'd just need to print them off. And where would I even find them?" She replied, genuinely concerned why anyone would rather have all of their information online.

"Just leave her be, mama. I'd rather not have to spend my weekends being yelled at as I try to help her understand two-step verification." Mariana chimed in. "Mom and the internet do not mix."

"You know I remember a time when I was actually happy this morning." Stef jabbed back at all of them.

"Aha, now I see why you're looking into getting married again." Kasey laughed, holding up a magazine called Harminomy. "You dream, we deliver: Your matrimonial extravaganza immersion experience is here."

Stef looked back confused before rolling her eyes. "Oh, not them again. They've never taken me off their stupid mailing list. Every few months they send me free tickets to their expo. Considering they logged our wedding date you think they'd have realised it has taken place by now. I've tried to unsubscribe so many times but it just ends up as endless forms!"

"Indeed, you unsubscribed so hard you even managed to update them with your married name." Kasey added, noting the addressee and smirking to herself at her mother's technological shortcomings.

"Case in point." Mariana interjected. "Mom and online web forms don't mix. In this one, specific example I support mom's destruction of the forests." She bounded off with a shrug and a smile, feeling marginally better now even though she was still in mourning of her formerly eventful life.

Kasey flicked through the magazine with a reserved admiration. "My god, this thing looks huge. Did you actually go to this?"

"We went just before the wedding, though we didn't have time to really do much with it. Everything happened so fast." Stef thought back. "They're garish events with far too much glitter, loud music and desperate, overly excited people trying to ram pointless services down your throat."

"You know you weren't complaining when you got your 4th glass of inclusive champagne." Lena scoffed as Stef threw her a look through squinted eyes as she sipped her coffee.

"Mmm. Well I guess there were some perks, especially as it was practically the first time you'd let me out the house, let alone drink." Stef reminisced about that strange time just after the shooting. It seemed like a lifetime ago even though she remembered the details and emotions like it was yesterday.

"Anyway," she clicked herself back to reality. "Just toss it. Those tickets are a dime a dozen. We spent what, $20 entry only to find they barely even look at the tickets and half the people there got them free. They're as bad as Amazon recommendations. Why even keep a correspondence list? When the wedding is done you don't need another. "

"Says the woman with two weddings under her belt." Lena jibed, playfully, showing the full range of her teeth. "And you can guarantee they get the money out of them somehow, the tickets just get you in the door. Although in fairness they probably do expect that people will actually remove themselves once their wedding has taken place." She looked pointedly as Stef again. Her wife returned it with a squint of her own.

"Well you know, wife of mine, the amount you're ganging up on me maybe I will stay on the list ready for my third." She sneered back. Taking the shiny document from Kasey and reading the date. "Unfortunately, it seems it's this weekend which means it clashes with us taking Callie to her exhibition thing. I guess I'll just have to elope to the Bahamas for my third."

"Actually it's Jude's gaming thing this Saturday. Callie's is next Sunday. Speaking of which, you guys will have to hold down the fort while we're Jude." Lena suddenly switched into organisational mode, looking at Kasey who nodded. "There will be plenty food in but we'll be back by 8. Try to make sure your siblings don't just mope around staring at screens all day." She requested with very little hope.

"Hey, you could all tidy the house a little." Stef cheerily suggested. "You can start with this. Trash, please." Stef waved the magazine at her eldest.

"Recycling." Lena corrected pointedly at Stef.

"Oh fancy that, you'll have to go out again." Stef teased as she swatted it gently on Kasey's head before handing it back to her. "I'm going to try and rescue my good mood from this morning." Stef strode out with Lena not too far behind, gently running her fingers through Kasey's hair as they left. Kasey flicked through the book again, laughing gently to herself. She looked at the beautiful calligraphy of the tickets attached on the back page of the magazine. Suddenly, she paused as her brain flicked a switch, releasing a plethora of data from the conversation they'd just had. A plan entered her head.


"Do I have an opportunity for you!" Kasey bounded into the bedroom where Callie was sitting working on some photos. A look of trepidation crossed Callie's face.

"So, Mom is on this mailing list for this wedding expo that she can't get off of because she's technologically incompetent…" Kasey rambled on as Callie looked increasingly wary. "And anyway they literally send her these tickets every 6 months that she told me to get rid of…"

"OK – I'm stopping you right there – " Callie cut her off as Kasey stopped mid-sentence. She returned a look of bemusement but Callie's face showed she wasn't messing around. "Whatever this is, the answer is no."

"But I…"

"No."

"But you don't even -"

"It's no." She stated firmly, launching into a tirade before her sister could find another hint of persuasion. "Almost the entire time I've been in this house your schemes and 'opportunities' have got increasingly risky and sloppy always ending up with me, definitely you and half the house grounded. Now I'm not going to pretend I can't be equally as reckless, but I have actual, social, important plans next weekend with actual, interesting non-family people that I absolutely do not want jeopardised because you have another stupid scheme you're going to get me to cover for or…or…..drag me to or do any kind of sneak around hide and seek – " her voice inflexed up slightly as she ran out of breath. "- so as much as I love you and love spending time with you Kasey, the answer is no." Callie chopped her hand out as Kasey stood agape at the rant.

"Well….I….OK. I sort of…well OK, that's fair." Kasey nodded with a hint of a pout but doing her best to try not to pressurise her long hard-done by sister and companion. She folded her arms awkwardly, shuffling as Callie returned to typing on her computer. Kasey began to edge close. "But you could always just…"

"No." Callie shot her off again as Kasey dived onto the bed next to her, bursting to share her exciting plan and unsure of who else to do so with.

"Can I at least tell you what…"

"Kasey!" Callie shot back as her sister snapped her head down And sucked her lips in with the reprimand. "I don't want to know because the more I know the closer I get to the inevitable consequences and just this once I would really, really like to just not. Understood?" There was a firm friendliness in her tone but a very real hint of exasperation. Kasey nodded with a defeated hang-dog expression, but ultimately she understood. As she moped silently in the aftermath, trying to work out how to proceed, Callie flashed another look. She was unable to not feel some sympathy for the downtrodden face at trying to accept that whatever this adventure was she'd need to take it alone. Callie sighed and paused her clicking.

"You know I'm not your only sister. You could always take Mariana to whatever this thing is."

Kasey's immediate reaction was a you-got-me chuckle before seeing that Callie was in fact looking at her seriously.

"Wait, you mean that? Mariana, my needy little sister who I love dearly but also want to kill whenever we've forced to be in the same room for more than ten minutes…" She stared at her blankly with genuine confusion.

Callie folded her arms and gave her a wise, urging look. "You know Mariana isn't the same spoiled little kid you grew up with. She's mellowed out and has grown up a lot, you should give her more of a chance. You're way too hard on her."

"Hey, I object to that, thank you!" Kasey interjected. "I am exactly the right amount of hard on someone who can't walk past a mirror without doing a twirl." Callie shrugged, with an expression of passive aggression. Her face said more than her words could regarding Kasey's dismissive petulance. It worked as Kasey shuffled awkwardly again.

"Why do you think she'd even want to hang out with me?" She mumbled as Callie smirked.

"Oh come on, she'd love to. You just don't give her a chance. And she's been so miserable lately. Maybe some quality time would do you both good. I mean, how many more years are you going to be together? As I say, she's grown up a lot in the last couple years….the question is, have you?" She speculated, deliberately leaving it hanging and knowing Kasey would rise to the challenge. The jibe worked as Kasey squared her shoulders and got up off her chair.
"Fine." She stated, determined. "I will ask her. And you know what, we're going to have more fun than you and I ever would have had at a –"

"Don't want to know." Callie immediately cut her off with a playful smile. Kasey planted a palm over her sister's face, pointing her back towards her laptop screen. She strode out leaving Callie quietly chuckling to herself over her success. She had not only played matchmaker with her sisters on a sibling date but also succeeded in her mission to stay completely uninvolved.