Okay, so this is a little bit…darker than other stuff I've written. It's not terribly dark or anything but there are mentions of very serious issues like abuse, so if anybody is sensitive to this subject, forgive me, I don't mean to offend anyone.

In case people that already follow me because of the Austin and Ally stuff I wrote didn't notice, this is not Austin and Ally. This is The Fosters.

Anyway, I'm sorry if it sucks. I hope you enjoy it though, and no, I do not own The Fosters.

With the wind blowing harshly outside, making trees scrape against the bedroom windows of the Fosters' house, it was no surprise to Callie when Jude snuck into her room after a nightmare.

The door creaked open and she was awake and sitting up within seconds. She was a light sleeper. Thank god Mariana wasn't.

Jude tiptoed over to her, careful not to wake Mariana and she stood up, following him out of her bedroom and into the hallway. Jude had always been overly sensitive to nightmares. Even the smallest things could come back to haunt him in the middle of the night. Especially when the weather was so stormy. None of the Fosters knew how often Jude had nightmares. It was only Callie he sought out for comfort.

They couldn't go into Jude's room that he shared with Jesus, so the two of them sat down in the hallway, between Jude's and Brandon's bedrooms.

Jude had certain looks for different types of nightmares. Different reactions to what he saw. When it was those simple ones, the normal ones, he was easy to comfort. He would look up at her with wide eyes and hold her hand until he calmed down and woke up enough to realize how unrealistic the dream was. But there was one type of dream that required a ton of patience and gentleness to make him feel better. Dreams that weren't just dreams. Dreams that were also memories. And with these dreams, he would never look Callie in the eye. He would keep his eyes cast on the floor, not touching her, just wanting to be near her. He would shake and shake and sometimes it would last all night because even now, after years of these nightmares, Callie didn't always know how to help.

It was one of those nights. He sat next to her on the floor, shaking. She didn't know what to do for her brother, but she wanted so badly to help.

"Which house was it this time?" she asked. She'd never really gotten him to talk about these nightmares before, but she figured it was worth a try. Beside her, she heard a creak from the floorboards and the quietest curse. She knew in an instant that Brandon was right on the other side of his door, but her priority was Jude. And he didn't seem to have noticed the noise.

Jude still hadn't answered and she was ready to resign to the idea that he wasn't going to answer. She would sit here all night with him, until he felt safe again in the rising sunlight and the chaos of the house. So she wasn't expecting it when Jude took a deep, shuddering breath and whispered, "John's."

John. John had arguably been the worst foster parent they'd had. He was different from the normal ones. He didn't look like a terrible guy. He had a full head of dark brown hair that was always presentable. He wore jeans and clean t-shirts and worked a fancy, high-salary job. He was respectable. On the outside. When Callie had first seen him, she'd foolishly thought that he could be the first to be nice to her and Jude. She was wrong.

As Callie's breath hitched, Jude finally looked up at her out of the corner of his eye. He took in the slight flush to her cheeks and the way that she bit her lip like she was trying to hold something back and the slight sheen in her eyes. He knew this look, despite how little it ever happened. His sister was holding back tears. The thought struck a chord in him, and, ever the more sensitive of the two, Jude's eyes filled with tears which swiftly ran down his face.

Callie, silently grateful for the distraction from her memories, pulled Jude close to her listening to him sniffle and try to catch his breath. His fingers clutched at her shirt. She took a deep breath and asked, "What was it about Jude? What happened?" despite the fact that she probably already knew.

"It was the last time, Callie," he mumbled thickly through his tears. She knew instantly what he was talking about. Jude had always been slightly different from most boys his age. He liked nail polish and dresses and make up, which was all fine with Callie, but had never been fine with the foster families. John, on the last night they spent with them, had caught Jude with tinted lip balm.

"It was exactly like the memory Callie," Jude whispered, pulling away from her and staring at her with wide eyes and a tear-stained face. "He caught me with the lip balm and he…he hit me. And then you came running in and you pushed me out of the way and I fell and then he hit you. A lot," Callie cringed, causing Jude to cringe as he watched her. That same look flitted across Callie's face and Jude hesitated before continuing, but he wanted to get this dream off his chest. He didn't think he could handle this one alone. "And then he grabbed you, Callie, and he took you down the hall and into his bedroom and he locked me outside and I tried—I tried—to get in but I couldn't," and now Jude was crying again. Tears were streaming down his face and he was nearly gasping for breath as he continued.

"And then all I could hear was you yelling and him…not yelling. And then you just stopped and everything felt so wrong and, and…" he paused, letting out several shaky breaths and sniffing. Callie couldn't stop her eyes from filling with tears, but she couldn't let herself cry in front of him. She wouldn't. It's just…she hadn't realized he'd been right outside.

"I'm so sorry Callie," he whispered. He wouldn't look her in the eyes and he started to pull away, but she locked her arms tightly around him, despite the shock and heart-wrenching guilt she felt at hearing those words. "I'm sorry. I tried to get in and I tried to help but I couldn't. I'm sorry."

Callie was nearly shaking. It took her several seconds to regain her composure. She looked down at Jude, so innocent and yet so much older than he should have to be. She shook her head. "Don't say you're sorry Jude," she whispered, emotion thick in her voice, "there was nothing, nothing that anybody could have done. He put his dresser in front of the door Jude. Not even Stef could have gotten in," she mumbled that last part in his ear, not sure if it was true but hoping it would help Jude realize that what happened to her was not his fault.

"But—" Jude started, only to be interrupted.

"There was nothing you could have done, Jude." It was a statement. And it left no room for argument. Jude sighed, finally accepting what she'd been trying to tell him. He snuggled closer to his sister and tried to calm himself down.

After a while of trying unsuccessfully to catch his breath and forget about his dream, Jude looked up at Callie again. She looked down at him, noticing that his eyes were still wet and he had that look in his eye that she hadn't seen in a long time, that help-me-forget sort of look that she barely remembered anymore. So she did the only thing she could think of. The one thing that used to work on him when he was little. She started singing.

Callie and Jude both knew that her voice wasn't perfect. In fact, it wasn't even close to perfect. Still, it wasn't bad either, and the slight wavering in her voice every now and then only seemed to add to the song as she sang quietly in his ear. He snuggled into her again, loving the way her voice made him feel so safe. Without either of them noticing as it happened, Jude slowly slipped into sleep.

Callie noticed his soft breathing, but she still finished off the song before she carefully rearranged Jude in her arms and stood up, carrying him into his room and tucking him in. She slipped out carefully, making sure not to wake either Jude or Jesus. After she shut the door, she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before turning around to face who she knew would be standing there.

Brandon.

I'm thinking that there's going to be one more part. I realized earlier that I am not good at updating multi-chapter fanfictions, but I am decent at doing the one, two, three, or four shot chapter stories. Hopefully the characters aren't too OOC, but obviously they'll be a little different because I'm not the one who created them.

Thanks so much for reading, even if you don't do anything to acknowledge that you read it, know that I appreciate the simple act of reading through this whole chapter (:

Be safe. Be happy. Bye guys (: