####### AN: This takes place between Season 5 ep 3 Run to Me and ep 4 Eyes In. I thought it was cool (and inspirational) that Officer Farrell was such an influence on Jules and it gave her desire to want to help others. So enjoy! #######
Jules Callaghan stopped her jeep in front of the Toronto municipal building. She climbed out and walked inside, her brown hair blowing behind her in the summer breeze. Even out of uniform, she walked with authority and confidence.
She entered the large building, found out where the community services office was and made her way there. She stopped at the reception desk. "Hi. I have an appointment with Janessa Pisca."
The receptionist smiled and put her finger up. She picked up her phone and buzzed Janessa.
A few minutes later a tall brunette with a million watt smile walked through the glass doors. "Hi. Juliana? I'm Janessa, the outreach coordinator."
"Hi." Jules shook her hand. "Yes but you can call me Jules."
"Great. Come on in." Janessa turned and motioned Jules to follow her. She looked at Jules while they walked. "So, how are things at the SRU? Keeping you busy?"
Jules smiled. Subtle, she thought. "Sometimes, yeah. We're on our three day off rotation right now. Then three on, four off."
"Kind of a tough schedule. Regular eight hour days?" Janessa stopped at a wooden door with her name on it, opened it and motioned for Jules to enter.
Jules entered the room and took a seat in an arm chair while Janessa sat in her chair behind her desk. "Some days, yes. It depends on what happens."
"So making and keeping promises might be hard." Janessa sat back and templed her hands in front of her.
"No. I would make sure the child knew about my schedule and would plan activities for my days off." Jules narrowed her eyes at the younger woman.
"Good." Janessa sat forward. "What about a boyfriend?"
The million dollar question, Jules thought. Can I say yes and no? Yes Sam and I are seeing each other again and they all know, but would she see that as a bad decision since we're on the same team? "Honestly, yes. I'm seeing Sam Braddock."
Janessa frowned. "From Team One? Isn't that against the rules?"
"Yes but it is being allowed. The Commander and the team are behind us. And, we have to keep the priority of life. We can't do that, we're done. Out of the SRU."
Janessa nodded her head. "Hmm. Ok." She picked up a file in front of her labeled "Marksen". This is the girl I told you about." She handed Jules the file. She didn't usually do that with prospective Big Brother/Big Sisters, but she knew Jules' police background and profiler position with the SRU would make her want to know everything.
Jules started speed reading the pages and picking out the pertinent info. Callie Marksen, 13. Father left when she was five, mother is working two job just to pay the rent so Callie is alone a lot.
She had a younger brother, Keith, but he died last year from leukemia at the age of eight. The treatments and hospital trips had sucked up a lot of their money, so they'd had to move from a 800 square foot house to a tiny 400 square foot, one bedroom apartment in the less desirable part of town. Callie slept on the fold out couch while her mom took the one bedroom.
Callie seemed to be a good kid. Staying in school, making B's and C's. Not really involved in any extracurricular activities though. Went to school and went home it seemed.
"Poor kid." Jules looked up from the file. "It sucks to be alone so much."
"Yeah. She's definitely got the teen 'tude though." Janessa nodded. "She thinks she's 'all that'." She made the air quotation marks with her fingers. "Just a tough act though. She's really had to fend for herself since her brother died. Her mom's a good person, just really lost now that Keith's gone."
Jules looked back at the file. "CS [children services] got involved because her teachers noticed her becoming more distant and worried that things had gotten bad at home. They knew she'd moved and thought her mom was into drugs."
"Yeah. They didn't find any indication of that but recommended Callie for the Big Brother/Big Sister program. We want to make sure she's got someone to make sure she's ok and keep her from going down the wrong path."
Jules' heart filled. That's exactly what she wanted to do. The situation with the teenage bandits last week had made her want to reach out to more girls in trouble. She had visited Sarah in the hospital while she recovered. She'd told Sarah and Maddie both that they could call her anytime, but she wanted to do more. "That's why I'm here."
"Good. So Callie was reluctant to come down here. It's a long way and she doesn't have the money for the bus. So I told her you'd meet her wherever she wanted."
"Today?" Jules was a little surprised, but she was willing to jump in with both feet. She'd just have to call Sam and cancel their plans to hang out this afternoon. "Great." She smiled.
"Is that ok?"
"Of course." Jules scoffed. "Where is she?"
"The park across from her apartment at 3." Janessa answered. "Let me know if you have any problems and make sure you fill out the time sheet. We like to keep track." She put her hand out and Jules returned the file to her. She opened it and took out the current picture of Callie. The beautiful blond haired, green eyed girl was smirking into the camera.
"Great." Jules took the picture, stood and looked at her watch, 0230. Perfect, plenty of time to get to the other side of town and call Sam on the way. "Thank you." She shook Janessa's hand.
"No thank you. We love it when people take an interest in their community." Janessa smiled and tried to hide the fact that Jules was crushing her hand again.
"Bye." Jules waved as she left.
##### Bleaker St, 0230 hrs #####
I'll bet she doesn't come. The blond haired girl stood by the only window in the apartment by the kitchen table. Why would she? I've been alone this long. I can handle myself. Callie had had plenty of practice lately. Especially since, Keith. Her eyes teared and she wiped at them with the sleeve of her thin sweatshirt.
Mom was always gone and when she was home she was sleeping or crying. Losing Keith had been so hard on them both. She tried not to think about it though. Keith wouldn't want that.
Well, I guess I'll go to the park, she thought. Even if she doesn't come Mitzy said they may be there later.
Mitzy Alistair and her group were the 'less popular' girls. They weren't quite the popular crowd, but they were the ones you wanted to hang with in order to be noticed by the popular kids. Mitzy thought of herself as the leader and pretended she didn't care she wasn't actually in the popular crowd. She was 'way cooler than those jerks' as she often said.
Candace Bleu was Mitzy's right hand. She made sure the other girls stayed in line and did what Mitzy said. Kim, Erica and Hannah were the three lemmings that followed Mitzy and Candace (DO NOT call her Candy, she hates it!) around all the time.
She was shocked when Mitzy had walked right up to her and said she liked Callie's earrings. She hadn't known what to say except thanks.
Then Mitzy had put her hand up and said, "let me borrow them." Callie had hesitated. Those were her mom's favorite earrings and would kill her if they came up missing.
Candace had moved to within inches of her face and said, "Mitzy Alistair is talking to you and wants to borrow your earrings. You should be honored."
Callie had thought about that for a second. Damn, she was right. Mitzy doesn't just talk to anyone. Maybe if I let her borrow, just borrow them, maybe I can hang with them.
She'd given up the earrings and Mitzy suddenly became her friend. Mitzy and her group said hi to her and then they'd said they may be in the park this afternoon and hopefully they'd see her there.
The sun filtered through the thin curtains on the window and she looked at the park again. She grabbed her keys, locked up and walked to the park across the street. No one was there, so she sat in one of the swings and waited.
##### 2 blocks from the park #####
"Wow. Well that's cool Jules." Sam was sitting on his couch counting the minutes until he could see Jules, when she called. He'd been disappointed she put him off until later that night, but he understood the reason.
"Yeah. I hope we can be friends. Well, her and I. Us, well.." Jules smiled mischievously.
"I'm sure you will. Later." He grinned knowingly.
"Yes." Jules pulled into a parking space, shut off the jeep and put her hand on the door handle. "I'm there. See you at, say 8?"
"Oh yeah."
She laughed and hung up the phone, shaking her head. She got out of the jeep and closed the door. She looked at the picture she pulled from her pocket and walked to the girl on the swings with the same face. "Hi. Are you Callie Marksen?" The girl was studying the dirt at her feet.
"Depends. Who's asking?" Callie didn't look up.
"I'm Jules. Jules Callaghan." She took out her wallet and showed the girl her SRU ID.
"You're a cop?" Callie looked at the badge and picture incredulously and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah. Mind if I sit?" Jules pointed to the swing next her.
Callie shrugged. "Free country."
Jules scoffed and sat. Tough girl act. I get it. "I'm on Team One for the SRU. Do you know what that is?"
"Strategic Response Unit. Like those people in that movie S.W.A.T."
Jules tipped her head. "Yeah kind of. Except we do the negotiations. Plus a lot more."
"Do you ever have to kick a bad guy's ass?" Callie looked at her with a little excitement in her eyes.
"Callie. I would rather you didn't swear." Jules gave her a warning look. "And yeah, sometimes."
Callie rolled her eyes at her admonition but then smiled. "Is the team all girls?"
"Nope. I'm the only one."
"I'll bet you could take any one of them in a fight though."
"Ha. Well we're highly trained." Jules looked away and looked back at her with a mischievous smile. "I'll deny it if you ever tell them, but oh yeah."
Callie laughed. This chick is pretty bad ass, she thought. I'll bet it's hard being the only girl. So she asked, "I'll bet it sucks being the only girl sometimes."
Jules considered the question. Damn this kid is smart, she thought. "Mm. Sometimes. They don't really get why sometimes I want to drive by the stores slowly so I can window shop."
"Yeah." Callie got quiet. She hadn't gotten new clothes in years. Not since Keith- No, can't think about him.
"You ok?" Jules held onto the chains and tipped her head forward.
"Yeah. I, haven't, don't get much of a chance to shop." This woman wouldn't understand.
"I hear ya. After my mum died, my dad had no clue." Jules laughed at the memory. "Whenever he knew I needed new clothes he'd go buy t-shirts for me. Only t-shirts. They usually had some kind of muscle car or something boyish on them. And, that was only when he was able to scrape some money together or worked some extra shifts at the factory."
She does know. Callie thought for a second and said, "sorry about your mum. When did she die?"
"I was 14." Jules answered. The memories didn't seem that old to her. She can still remember seeing the police car outside her house from her bedroom window. There was low talking and then his dad, the pinnacle of strength, collapsing to the carpet sobbing.
Callie looked at her and could see the pain in her eyes. She hadn't meant to stir up bad stuff for her.
Jules took a breath. "Anyway, what do you want to do?"
Callie shrugged. She looked at the sky and watched it rainbow with the coming sunset.
Jules looked up too and smiled at the beautiful colors. "What do you like to do?"
Another shrug. She wasn't so sure she could tell this woman about all of the things she'd made out of the junk lying around the house. Especially her doll Isabelle.
She had a few dolls from when she was younger, but this one was special. She'd ripped up a couple of Keith's old t-shirts that smelled like him and used those to make the doll's skin and head. Two different buttons from Mom's button box for the eyes, a penny for her nose, part of the shoestring from Keith's sneaker for the mouth and a couple other shoestrings cut up for he hair.
Callie would never admit it outright, but she slept with that doll every night. Letting the smell of Johnson and Johnson's shampoo and ivory soap. Just like Keith, lull her to sleep.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry. Want to go get something to eat?" Jules stood from the swing and looked at her expectantly. They'd been hanging in the park for nearly two hours.
"Um. I- I don't.," Callie looked down. She wanted to go, anything would be better than Ramen for the third time that week, but she had no money.
"Oh, don't worry. My treat." Jules smiled. She looked across the street at the run-down, three story apartment building. "Let's go leave your mom a note."
Callie stood and ran ahead of Jules. "I'll run in and be back out." She hurried across the street, in the building and up to the third floor. She knew she didn't have to leave a note. It was likely her mom would come home and sleep for a few hours before her second job at the convenience store.
She also didn't want Jules to see the rat hole she lived in. She kept it as clean as she could, but it was tiny and crappy. She left a note by the phone and headed back downstairs.
When Jules saw her reappear she pushed off from the back of the jeep. "Callie." The girl turned, the look of disappointment disappearing. "You think I left you?" Jules steered her into the passenger seat. When Callie remained silent, she walked to the driver seat and got in. "Look at me Callie."
Callie looked at her, still unsure about this new person.
"I will not leave you. I hope that we can become friends. That happens by developing some trust. And trust me, I will not hurt you." Jules spoke honestly.
"We'll see." Callie returned the honesty.