Making Room

This is an AU pilot episode for the Fosters. What if Stef was called to the scene of Callie damaging her foster father's car? Stef takes Callie and Jude home instead of Callie being sent to juvie. This will just be 2 or 3 chapters. Disclaimer: I definitely do not own the Fosters.

Chapter 1

The police radio crackled, "Calling backup. Domestic disturbance at 5 Elm St."

Stef picked up her radio and spoke, "On way." They were just a couple blocks from the scene, working a Saturday afternoon shift. They pulled up to a broken down house in a bad neighborhood. Stef and her partner John parked and got out of the car. Another cruiser was already there. Stef looked around and saw a young girl yelling as another cop tried to put her in handcuffs. There was a large man yelling and gesturing at his car. The windshield was shattered, probably by the bat on the ground.

The man yelled, "She's a crazy b**ch! Look what she did to my car!"

The girl yelled back, "You deserved it, you b**tard! Don't you ever touch Jude again!" She kicked out at the officer near her and started running towards the man with hatred in her eyes.

Stef caught the girl before she could get too close and said, "Hey, hey, what's going on here? Let's settle down."

The girl fought her and kept yelling, "Let me go! I'm going to kill him!"

Stef held her in a grip lock and whispered sternly, "You're going to be arrested if you don't calm down!"

Another officer brought Stef up to speed, "She's a foster kid, and her foster father says she just went crazy and started wrecking his car."

The girl shouted, "He's the one who's crazy! He beat up Jude!"

Stef turned to her partner and said, "Okay, okay, why don't we just bring them both to the station and let them calm down and see what's going on."

She started leading the girl to her cruiser, but the girl yelled out, "Jude! Jude! They're arresting me!"

All of a sudden, a young boy ran out of the house and barrelled into Stef. She stumbled and the young girl tore away yelling, "Run, Jude!" and took off down the street. The girl was fast, but Stef caught the boy after chasing them for a couple minutes. The boy yelled out, "Callie!" and the girl stopped and looked back. When she saw that Stef had caught the boy, she started running back to them, much to Stef's surprise.

"You can arrest me! Just make sure he's safe!" she pleaded to Stef as she caught her breath.

Stef put one hand up and replied, "Let's all calm down here. No one is getting arrested just now. We need both of you to come to the station with us. We'll call your social worker and go from there, okay?"

She helped Jude up and slowly led him back to the car. She kept a firm grip on Jude. She knew the girl's weakness now. She knew that Callie would follow if she had Jude. She opened the car door and led Jude inside. When he sat down and looked up at her, she noticed that one side of his face was swollen with an ugly bruise.

She reached out a finger to touch the bruise on Jude's face and asked, "Who did that to you?"

He didn't answer, but Callie spit out, "Who do you think? That a**hole, our foster dad."

Stef looked back at Jude and asked, "Is that true?" and Jude nodded.

Stef turned to shout out to her partner, "John, arrest him for child abuse!"

Once Callie heard that, she got into the car without a fight.

The other officers put her foster father into another cruiser, and they all drove back to the station.

Stef kept an eye on the children using the rear-view mirror in the car while she was driving. Callie had her arm around Jude comforting him.

Jude whispered, "What's going to happen, Callie?"

Callie replied, "I don't know, buddy. I think I might go to jail, but at least we're out of that house. He can't hurt us anymore."

Jude started to cry, "I don't want to be apart from you, Callie!"

"Shh, we have to be strong, Jude. I'll make sure you're somewhere safe. And I'll always come find you, okay?" the girl replied.

Stef felt an incredible sadness looking back at the two kids. At first glance, she had pegged the girl as a troublemaker and was set to arrest her, but seeing her comforting her brother who had obviously been hit, she felt an incredible anger at the foster father, and the foster system who let kids like this fall through the cracks.

At the station, Stef led the two kids to an empty interrogation room and got them some water and a bag of chips from the vending machine. She noticed Callie gave the chips to Jude who hungrily wolfed them down. She brought in her sandwich and fruit from her lunch for them to share as well. She came back in after they ate and started questioning them.

"So, you're Callie and Jude, right?"

They nodded warily.

"What's your last name?" Stef continued gently.

"Are you going to arrest Callie?" Jude worriedly asked.

"I don't think so, bud, but I do need to get all the facts. What's your last name?" Stef asked again.

Jude said, "Jacob". Callie gave him a look like she didn't want him to say anything.

Stef continued, "We need to get in touch with your social worker. Do you know his or her name?"

There was no answer. Jude seemed too scared to answer this time, so Stef turned to Callie,

"Callie, we have to call your social worker so we can find a safe place for you and Jude to stay." She knew the way to get Callie to cooperate was by mentioning Jude's safety.

Callie considered this and softly said, "Bill Ortiga."

Stef looked up in surprise. She knew Bill. He was the twins' social worker too. She told the kids she would be back and went to call him. She had his cell phone number in her emails.

"Hi Bill, it's Stef Foster. I'm calling from the station. We have Callie and Jude Jacob here. It looks like their foster father hit Jude, and Callie damaged his car. We have the foster father here too. Do you want to come out and help us straighten this out?"

"Hi Stef. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, Callie and Jude are mine. I'm at the hospital right now with one of my other foster kids who took an overdose, so I'm not sure when I can get there. But I'll call around and see if I can find them a place to stay for tonight and get back to you. Probably a group home is the best we can do right now. Is Callie being charged?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I don't think so. Has she been aggressive before?" Stef asked.

"No, not really. They're good kids, but they've had bad luck. They've been in foster care for 5 or 6 years, and I've had to move them a lot for various reasons. Callie can be tough to handle, but it was mostly things out of their control. She got into a couple fights at school and at home, mostly protecting Jude. He's a sensitive kid and gets picked on a lot. It's been hard finding them placements together. I had doubts about this place but it was a stopgap. I'm not sure where to put them now though."

"I hope you can find them a good place together, Bill. It sounds like they've been through a lot."

"I'll try, but it's going to be hard unfortunately. Keep me posted and thanks," Bill replied before hanging up.

Stef also talked with her partner John who was questioning the foster father.

John explained, "He said the kid fell down the stairs. Do you want to get a couple shots of his injuries? See which story it matches?"

Stef replied, "Sure, the bruise on his face definitely looks like a slap or a punch, not a fall down the stairs though."

She headed back to the kids' room with a camera.

"Jude, we have to take some photos of your injuries as evidence. Can you tell me what happened while I take a couple photos?"

Jude looked up at Callie, obviously scared. Callie replied angrily, "There's nothing to tell. He hit Jude. You can see for yourself."

"Has he ever hit you before?" Stef asked.

Callie snapped, "Yeah, but it's no big deal. I just lost it cause he hit Jude."

"Is that why you damaged his car?" Stef continued.

"I couldn't get him to stop," Callie whispered. "I grabbed the bat and hit his car so he'd follow me out and leave Jude alone."

Jude added, "He kicked Callie too. It was my fault, not hers."

"What do you mean?" Stef asked.

Callie angrily replied, "It wasn't his fault!" She turned to Jude and added more softly, "Jude, it wasn't your fault."

Jude whispered, "I shouldn't have tried on that dress," but Callie quickly shushed him.

When Callie reached out to Jude, Stef noticed that she had a bruise on her wrist consistent with someone grabbing her roughly and hauling her by the wrist. She reached out her hand, but Callie jumped back as if she was afraid of being hit. It made Stef's heart hurt.

"Steady, love. I need to document your injuries too. Can I see?" Stef gently asked.

Callie looked down at her arms as if seeing the bruises on her wrists for the first time. She put them on the table so that Stef could take photos of them.

Stef gently continued, "Jude said he kicked you. Where did he kick you? Can I see?"

Callie shook her head and whispered, "No."

"Callie, I need you to cooperate if we're going to put this guy away. Do you want him out there doing this to other kids?"

Callie looked up surprised at that, and Stef saw her weighing the options in her mind. She slowly lifted the bottom of her shirt so that Stef could see the purple bruises around her ribs.

Stef took a couple photos and gently said, "I think we should get an x-ray to make sure you don't have any broken ribs. Are you having trouble breathing?"

Callie shrugged.

Stef asked both kids, "Do you have any more injuries? Does anything else hurt?"

They shook their heads, but she already knew she wanted them checked out by a doctor just in case. She wasn't sure if they were telling the truth. Maybe they were just used to being hurt.

Stef took the photos to her partner, and they arrested the foster father on charges of assault and battery. They told him he was already in a lot of trouble and talked him out of pressing charges against Callie for damage to his car.

Then, Stef called Lena to tell her she was going to be late. She told her about Callie and Jude and that Bill was having a hard time finding them a place to stay.

Stef explained, "I want to take them by the hospital to have a doctor look at them and get an x-ray of Callie's ribs, and then I'll wait for Bill to come by to pick them up. I don't want to leave them alone."

Lena replied with concern in her voice, "I really feel for them, baby. Do you think Bill will be able to find them a place together? They were already traumatized today. If they get split apart, that would be additional trauma."

"I don't know, my love. I hope he will. But he said probably a group home is the best he could do on short notice."

Lena answered, "You know, our foster license is still good. Do you want to just bring them home for the weekend if it's okay with Bill? He can find them another placement on Monday."

Stef smiled thinking of her partner's generous heart, "Really? Do we have the room?"

"No, but we can make room. It's just for the weekend, and we'd both sleep better knowing they were safe for the weekend," Lena replied.

Stef said, "Thanks love. I would feel better knowing that they're safe, at least for now. I'll call Bill and arrange it. I'll bring them home in a few hours. I love you." She went back to see Callie and Jude with a lighter heart. They would be safe for the weekend.