A/N: Wow, I haven't updated in a while. By the way, I don't know if this is actually how the system works, so don't assume it as fact. I made this chapter super long, by the way.

Rachel didn't bother putting her ear to the door when Cora and Drew started fighting outside. Their screaming was loud enough so that she could hear the entire conversation. She guessed the old lady had left, because she didn't hear her (who was she, anyway?). She rubbed her eyes as she tried to block out their voices. It wasn't easy.

"How long did you wait?" Cora was asking. "How long did it take you to decide I wasn't coming back?"

"It wasn't my decision!" Drew explained angrily. "You know how the system works! You lose one kid, they send another!"

"But you didn't lose me! You sent me away! I was going to come back! I was coming back, right?!"

"You told me Taryn was alive! The Foster Care people weren't expecting you to recover! My mother was in there for twenty years, and she's still supposed to be there, but you had to break out! How did you break out, anyway?"

A pause, and then Cora told him not to change the subject. "There's a stranger in my bed!"

"It's not your bed!"

Footsteps, and then the door whipped open. Cora stood in the doorway, looking very winded. In the distance, Rachel could see Drew stalking into his office. "You heard that?" Cora asked defeatedly. Rachel wasn't sure how she would respond. If she said yes, the girl might blow up on her. If she said no, well... she wasn't a good liar, and Cora would find that out pretty quickly.

"A little." She finally decided.

Cora let out a huge breath and sat down next to her. "How long've you been in the System?" She asked pleasantly. Rachel wasn't sure if she was just tired of fighting, or if she didn't blame her (and why should she blame her? She didn't choose to come here).

"This is my first home." She said, and it was true. She wasn't sure why she was in foster care, only that her parents had gotten hurt, and couldn't care for her. She had no relatives (both her parents were only children, and their parents had died), so into the System she'd gone. Rachel figured something really bad must have happened if she couldn't even remember it.

Cora snorted, and Rachel decided that she had probably been in the System for a while. "Okay, first of all, don't call them homes. You ever hear that song, A House Is Not A Home? That's what the foster care thing is like. The guardians pretend you're their gift, but then they find out you have asthma, or have really bad dreams, and they label you a Defective and whisk you off to the next house."

"Really?"

"Really. Just ask Drew. He was in the System when he was a kid. But don't tell him I told you. He's mad enough as it is." Cora rolled her eyes.

"I know."

"So you did hear."

"Yep."

Cora smiled lightly and finally noticed the air mattress on the floor. "That's your bed?" She asked.

"Only for the time being." Rachel shrugged.

At that moment, a voice came from the fire escape. "Is it safe?" Glen asked.

Now the conversation between the two girls was taking a turn for the worse. "Who's that?" Rachel asked.

"No one." Cora's face became stony as she said this.

"Hello-o?" Tiffany screeched.

Rachel glanced at Cora and walked to the window. "Who's on the fire escape?" She asked.

"I told you- no one!" Cora said, standing up.

"I highly doubt it's no one." Rachel paused, giving Cora the look that a guy gets right before he dies in a horror movie. That I'm So Macho, I an Do Anything look. And cue the psycho killer.

"I highly doubt it's... not... no one." Cora retorted lamely.

Rachel furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and walked back to the window. She opened the curtain, and looked outside of the fire escape. "Oh my god!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah." Cora said, waiting to see what she would do.

"What is this?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing?"

Cora walked to the fire escape. "I mean, that's nothing." She said calmly, echoing Drew just a couple of weeks ago.

"But they talked!"

Chucky glanced at Tiffany, who shrugged.

"Look at that!" Rachel said. "Look at what happened!"

"Hello." Chucky said.

"How are you today?" Tiffany asked.

"Oh my god!" Rachel said (surprisingly quietly- but maybe that was because of the shock). She began to go to the door, but Cora grabbed her arm. "Let go of me!" She ordered, trying to get away.

"No!" Cora's eyes flashed with desperation, and she whispered. "These are my secrets, and if you dare tell Drew about them, it will mentally screw him up for life. He's already dealt with the supernatural three times, and he has just gotten back a hold on life. He's still in therapy, for goodness sake! If you show him the living dolls out there, he will snap, and we'll both be out of here and into another foster home, and you have no idea how bad some foster homes are."

"We have to get them out of here." Rachel insisted. "They're dolls, and they're talking."

"You think I don't know that?" Cora asked as she let go of her new foster sister. She walked over to the door and locked it. "Now, listen. You just screamed. Drew might come up here soon to find out what happened, and when that happens, we'll tell him we were arguing over the bed, okay?"

Rachel let out a huge breath, then looked back to the window.

"They're not spiders." Cora reminded. "They're not going to hurt you."

There was a huge pause, and finally Rachel said, "Fine."

Cora grinned and went back to the window. "Good." She said, and reached her hand out to the fire escape. "Climb in, guys." She told the dolls. Glen grabbed her hand and jumped in, followed by Glenda, then Taryn, and then Chucky and Tiffany. They stood in the middle of the room, observing their surroundings.

"This is nice." Glen noted. "We could stay in the closet during the daytime. Like that scene in E.T."

"I love that movie." Rachel said softly, almost smiling.

Glen looked at Rachel, and introduced, "I'm Glen. Those are my sisters- Glenda, and Taryn."

The two of them waved.

"And those," Glen continued, "are our mum and dad- Chucky and Tiffany."

"Of course they are." Rachel nodded.

Cora gave Rachel a warning glance.

"What about food?" Taryn asked.

"You mean you don't eat human flesh?" Rachel was surprised.

"Only sometimes." Chucky shrugged, and Rachel gasped. "Kidding."

Rachel was still scared.

"Sometimes dolls make jokes. As a way to... ah, forget it. I'm a fricking demon if you'll believe it."

Tiffany slapped him.

"Ow!"

Dinner was quite the awkward experience. "So," Karen asked after about five minutes of silence (Cora had been watching the clock), "what school are you going to, Rachel?"

"Rubin." Drew answered for her. "Same one Cora goes to. I'm sure they'll be glad to have her back."

"Yeah, if I don't become the new Carrie." Cora muttered.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"I was at a mental asylum."

"Yeah, but Carrie?"

Cora blinked, silent for a moment. "You know... Carrie. Stephen King book. Ostracized chick gets pig blood dumped on her at the prom."

"I don't know-"

"It's in my room. You should read it."

Rachel nodded and quietly scooped some more mashed potatoes from her plate.

"Robin's been wondering where you were." Drew said. "I told her you had Swine Flu."

"You're a really bad liar, Drew."

"I know."

Nobody talked for a while, and then Karen started laughing. Rachel, not used to the house and pretty stressed out, began to laugh as well, followed by Drew and Cora.

"So how's therapy going?" Cora asked.

"It's going."

"Ah. Right."

"You're in therapy?" Karen asked.

"Yeah." Drew paused, trying to figure out how to phrase what he was going to say. "Remember that, uh, the-"

"Oh, that."

"You can tell they're related." Rachel whispered to Cora.

The dinner was interrupted by a loud bang from upstairs.