It was finally adoption day. After years of abuse, both verbal and physical, the constant fear of moving to one foster home to another, the feeling of worthlessness, she would finally have a stable, legal family. She would have people who love her no matter what, someone to come home to every night, and someone who could always be there for her. Jude and her would be out of the system. They would...
"Callie, Jude, Mariana, Jesus, Brandon. Can you all come over here for a second?" Stef called out snapping Callie out of her thoughts.
When she looked up to see Lena and Stef standing side by side with serious expressions on their face, Callie became nervous. Fears of not being adopted because something going wrong made Callie's stomach feel nauseous.
She didn't realize how long she must have been sitting their, thinking of different scenarios. She snapped out of her own thoughts however, when she again heard her name being called. She looked up and saw all of her foster family as well as Jude waiting for her.
She quickly emptied her brain of all of her thoughts and went over to her almost-family. When Callie was standing with everyone else she briefly thought that she saw Lena shoot her a sympathetic glance. She quickly shrugged it off, thinking she was just imagining things.
"Ok guys. There was a problem with the adoption papers," Stef said.
Callie felt Jude grab her hand as he moved closer to her as if wanting her protection. No matter how long he has been living with the Fosters he still trusts Callie the most. He looks at her for advice, protection, understanding, security, support, cheering up, confiding something, love, and so much more. Jude loves Lena, Stef, and all of his new foster siblings but Callie will always be special in his heart and know things about him that no one else will ever know.
When Jude grabbed Callie's hand, Callie out of habit pulled him towards her and wrapped her other arm around him.
Stef saddened slightly when she saw the siblings lean on each other for support. She wished they were never forced to depend on each other so much. She wished they would lean on Stef or herself instead. She tuned back into the situation when Lena began speaking.
"Callie's adoption papers," Lena corrected.
Tears began to fill in the teens eyes before she put up her walls. She vaguely felt Jude snuggle even closer to her.
"Callie on your birth certificate your dads name isn't listed as Donald," Lena continued.
"Does the name Robert Quinn mean anything to you?" Stef asked.
Lena glanced at all of her children. Mariana had tears forming in her eyes, Jesus looked furious with clenched fists at his side, Brandon was shooting Callie sympathetic looks, but it was Jude and Callie that worried her. She couldn't see Jude's face because of how his face is shoved so far into Callie. Although she could see the boy shaking either from fear or from crying, she wasn't sure. Callie had a blank, cold expression on her face. She resorted back to it to protect herself. Callie was standing with her arms wrapped around the boy both protecting and comforting him.
"Um...my middle name is Quinn. My mom told me is was a family name," Callie struggled to answer.
"Your birth certificate had him listed. Which means without him signing away his rights, you can't get adopted," Stef finished.
Stef hated how when she said this she could see the pain fill Callie's eyes. But what she hated even more was as soon as the pain appeared it was gone. She was back in protection mode. But when Jude spoke up that broke her heart.
He pulled away from his sister and looked straight at her, "Well if you aren't getting adopted, I don't want to be."
Callie got down to Jude's level as the others just watched. They all wanted to help but they knew it wouldn't do any good. Only Callie could get through to the small boy.
Now on the same level Callie started talking, "No, no. We have gone through too much and worked too hard to get to this day. I want you to get adopted. Okay? Do it for the both of us?"
Mariana, Stef and Lena all had tears running down their face while Jesus and Brandon were becoming emotional too. It broke all of their hearts that this girl would do anything to ensure her brothers happiness even over her own. Then they got mad. They hated the system and how it made Callie feel like she is nothing more then a protector.
"No I don't want to get adopted without you. We are a package deal," Jude objected.
Callie kneeled down to her brother. "Baby we will always be a package deal but right now your box is about to get a little bigger. It's your time to get adopted and I will be there standing by and watching. You are about to have a family."
Jude was desperately trying to wipe the tears from his face as he cut Callie off, "But your my family."
That one line broke the others last effort to control their emotions. Mariana was now full on crying and had to put her face against her twins side as he wrapped an arm around her waist. Jesus and Brandon now losing their own composure as they felt a few tears roll down their face. Lena grabbed Stef's hand for support and Stef looked at the ceiling trying to get the tears to stop.
Callie smiled sadly at her younger brother. Although she wanted to wrap her arms around him and keep him to herself she knew she couldn't. Jude was about to get the dream that they've been dreaming about ever since they were put into the system. With all the strength that she had left she said the one thing that would allow Jude to get adopted.