Disclaimer: I don't own the Fosters, only the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the show.
Author's Note: Well, in introducing the new story last chapter, I forget to mention this, but who loved Monday's episode (1x15 – Padres)? That scene where Callie was bawling on Stef's shoulder. And her little smile when she sees Jude calling Lena 'Mom'. And Jude talking to his biomom through the Ouija board with Connor (Connor totally pushed it, didn't he? Such a sweet kid.) Just three of many excellent scenes. I loved that episode so much! I started to write this story after watching it. Anyway, just had to gush a little about that. But without further ado, I give you chapter 2!
Chapter 2: Stories
Riiiiing. The phone rang out in the Foster household, and Lena jumped on it, eagerly awaiting a phone call from Dr. Finch telling them if they could take Callie home today. After her conversation with Bill yesterday, he had given a cautious approval for them to bring Callie home once she got released, subject to his conversation with Callie herself and Callie's doctor. When Stef had told her about Callie's breakthrough, Lena was sure that Callie would vote to come home. They already had the doctor's approval. It was practically a done deal. The only question left was, would it be today? Tomorrow? She worried a little about actually bringing Callie home, given the teen's fragile state of mind and the whole cutting thing – what if one of the other kids saw her do it, thought it was okay for them to? – but she was confident that she and Stef could handle it. They're a power team.
"Hello?" Stef watched Lena answer the phone, waiting for the same call as her spouse. Honestly, they'd been waiting all day for this; it seemed a little late in the afternoon to be making the drive to San Diego and back, but Stef would do it at 2 am if that's what it took. In a heartbeat.
"Oh, hi Bill." Not the call then. But Bill was going to see Callie today. Maybe he'd finally confirm once and for all that they could bring her home.
"...What?...Uh...No, of course not, you just took me by surprise is all...Are you sure?...What do you mean, we don't know what's going on under our roof?...Well, if that's what Callie said, I believe her...I wouldn't believe everything you hear either, and that's including your anonymous source...totally different scenario, Bill, you know that. Are you this careful with every allegation of this kind? As you said, the Olmsteads, and with Callie and Jude's last foster father, what's his name...He had a gun pointed at her; I'm pretty sure that there was something going wrong in that house...We really haven't had any problems with Callie and Jude at all, except the running away but if her psychiatrist thinks that our home is good for Callie, then she's not concerned...I don't know, ask her...if Stef knew anything, I'd know...I'll talk to Brandon, of course...What about Jude?...Of course not...I'm sure this is nothing, but you have my word, I'll look into it...You'll be hearing from us, too...Wait, before you go, can we at least see her? Can Jude?...Okay, thanks, bye." Lena hung up the phone after writing some information down on a piece of scrap paper.
"That did not sound like a happy conversation, love," Stef said, turning worried eyes on her equally worried wife.
"That was Bill," Lena said.
"Yes, I got that much."
"He went to the hospital to talk to Callie, and checked her out of there. He can do that, she's still a ward of the court."
"And?"
"And he dropped her off at a group home somewhere in San Diego. It's called Girls United."
"WHAT?! Why?"
"He said he was planning on bringing her to us, that the doctor signed off on it and Callie wanted it, but then he was contacted at the last minute by an anonymous source claiming Callie and Brandon were in a relationship."
"Oh." Stef's face fell. "How'd that get out?"
"I don't know. I don't know who the source is. I don't know if it's even someone who knows the truth or it or is just trying to cause trouble. It could be Liam for all we know, trying to defame her character further."
"And?"
"Callie admitted that they kissed once but it meant nothing. That she was confusing all the emotions inside her, and that there wasn't a relationship nor did she want one. She even said, according to Bill, that everybody kisses at weddings, like that made it alright. Bill seems to think that she's lying, acting like a teenager trying to pull the wool over all our eyes."
"It's hard to say what's true and not. Brandon said he loves her. Dr. Finch told me that, in therapy, Callie seemed to be wanting a family more than a boyfriend."
"Are you saying it's one-sided?"
"I'm saying I don't know. I mean, I know we talked about this and all, that we would still adopt Jude and just be Callie's legal guardians until she turned 18, if they wanted to pursue a relationship, but this changes everything."
"You can't turn a blind eye under the spotlight."
"Exactly. What did you tell Bill?"
"That we had no idea. That we'd talk to Brandon. That he should believe Callie. Then he had the nerve to bring up Callie's history with Liam and even that incident in San Ysidro."
"Neither of those were her fault!"
"I know that. You know that. He doesn't seem to know that. Says it speaks to her character and doesn't say good things."
"What now?"
"He's says that there's nothing to indicate Jude should be removed from the house."
"That's something to be thankful for."
"We can visit Callie at the group home, but we have to arrange it with Rita, the coordinator, first. He gave me her information. He's starting up an investigation to see if there's any merit in these allegations. He was willing to admit that if it really was just a meaningless kiss, and if all parties were okay with it, Callie could come home and we could even go through with her adoption."
"An investigation."
"Yeah."
"Get ready to have our lives gone over with a fine-tooth comb."
"We better get our stories straight. Us and the kids. If we reveal that we knew about this beforehand, it could seriously harm us. They might – might – even determine us unfit parents, if we're really unlucky."
"Unfit parents? Jude would be taken, too, then."
"And even the twins' adoption might come under scrutiny. Brandon's biological, and he has a living father who is present in his life and could take him theoretically, so he's safest."
"A father who is also under investigation," Stef couldn't help but add.
"We need to talk to Brandon."
"He'll be home from piano soon." Just then, the door opened.
"Hey moms!" Brandon's voice called out. "Did you hear anything about Callie? Is she coming home today?"
"Brandon Michael Foster, we need to talk," Lena called out.
A very nervous looking Brandon entered the kitchen. "You middle-named me. That's not good. What did I do now?"
"You kissed Callie."
"I thought we talked about that, already," he whined. "Remember, you got mad at me, pretty much accused me of being another Liam, then you got over it and said that you needed to talk to Callie about it and then we found out that she was in the psych ward and you decided that we would figure something out so Callie could come home anyway because she needed us. Did I dream that whole thing? Why are we revisiting this?"
"There was still a lot that needed to be worked out, but we could have made it work. But someone, don't know who, told Bill."
"Oh. Not good."
"Understatement of the century, young man. Callie's in a group home."
"WHAT!?"
"That's what I said," Stef interjected.
"Once you're in a group home, you're considered like high risk. She told me. No one will ever want her again."
"We still want her. That hasn't changed."
"Well, that's not what she's going to think." Brandon was getting angry.
"We don't know that, we don't know what she thinks, we haven't been able to talk to her yet."
"Brandon, I get that you're upset," Stef said, soothingly, trying to redirect her son's anger. "But when I was at the hospital with Callie yesterday, she seemed to know that we wanted her. I don't think this would have changed that for her. And now we have to focus on how to get her back."
"Oh. But I thought you said Bill knew."
"Bill receives an anonymous tip that you and Callie were in a relationship."
"Who told him?"
"Anonymous, Brandon. We don't know. We don't even know if the source knows what he's talking about or just making stories to cause trouble. What we do know is that, when confronted about it, Callie admitted that the two of you shared a single kiss. Is that true? I need you to be 100% honest with us right now. It's really important."
"Yes. We kissed once. At the wedding. There was some attraction there, beforehand, but we only ever kissed once."
"Callie also told me that she was confusing her feelings, and that she didn't actually want a relationship with you, other than as a sibling. You told us that you love her." Brandon was silent. "Brandon, we need to know what's going on here. Whatever it is. We need to know so we can plan on how to bring her home."
"Look, it was only supposed to be temporary, alright? The fostering, I mean. She's a great girl, and she's been through hell. I felt...I don't know...protective of her, I guess. I thought that was because I liked her. And then we just got caught up in a moment, at the wedding. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was just feeling protective, like a brother should. I guess I got all messed up when she ran away. Maybe my feelings are confusing me, too. Can we just put it all behind us, so we can be a family again? If Callie says she wants to be adopted, and wants me as her brother, and if that's what I want to, then why not?"
Lena raised an eyebrow at Stef. He sounded penitent. "And we should trust you?" Stef asked.
"Yes."
"Well, then, if that's how you truly feel, than we'll tell Bill that. And he'll probably want to hear it from you, too, so stick with the story, but for God sake's Brandon, if you feel the need to change it, give us some warning. Also, he can't know that we knew about your kiss before his phone call today. If he found out we knew and didn't do anything, didn't inform him, we could be in a lot of trouble. It would certain jeopardize both Callie's and Jude's adoption. May create even more trouble than that."
"Well, you didn't know about it. Not until I told you, after she ran away."
"Yes, but we were still planning on bringing her back into our home with no one the wiser."
"Okay, I get it. If Bill asks, that's what I'll say."
"Good. Now go do your homework."
"Wait, one thing."
"Yeah?"
"When will you talk to Callie? Find out about the group home? Tell her she's still wanted?"
"We'll place a call to the coordinator later, and find out."
"Let me know?" They both gave him a long look. "Not because I'm in love with her. God, moms. I just care about her is all. Like...like I would worry about Mariana."
"Okay. We'll let you know," Lena said. He nodded and went upstairs.
"You buying it?" Stef asked Lena, once Brandon was out of earshot.
"I have no idea. I really, really want to, though."
"Yeah, me too."
"I guess that's the story then. Confusion, caught up in the moment, no romantic feelings, and we didn't find out about it until Bill's phone call."
"Let's hope that the phone call is the only part of that story that's a story."
"Callie and Brandon haven't spent enough time together since the wedding to have come up with that between them. So either they've independently determined identical cover ups..."
"As a cop, I can say that's unlikely, but not impossible, especially since we gave him Callie's story."
"So we trust them."
"We need to talk to Jude, too."
"Let's wait until after I give this Rita person a call and find out about when he can see Callie. You know that's going to be his first question."
"At least we finally got him out of the house, even if we had to swear to call him the minute we knew for sure if Callie was coming home today."
"Yeah, that Connor's a good friend to him."
"He'll be home after dinner. We'll talk to him then."
"You said you had the coordinator's contact info? Why don't I give her a call while you start dinner, since we're going to have some hungry teenagers soon. Angsty teenagers, once they find out Callie's not coming home right away."
"Mac and cheese?"
"Comfort food supreme. You're the best, woman."
"And don't I know it." Lena started pulling out the makings for mac and cheese, while Stef found the scrap paper Lena had been writing on. There was a name – Rita Hendricks – and under it, the words 'Girls United' and a telephone number. A local number, given the area code. Well, that's something, Stef thought. She dialed the number, Lena listening in.
"Hello, is this Rita Hendricks?...Hi Ms Hendricks, my name is Stefanie Foster. Callie's case worker gave me your information...yes, that's right...I was wondering when we could see her...Saturday? That long?...wait, maybe Saturday...can I at least talk to her, find out how she's doing?...I realize that may be your policy, but Callie was only released from a psychiatric hospital today, so I think you could make an exception to your policy, especially given that one of the reasons she was there was because she felt absolutely alone in the world and unloved. My wife and I would like her to know that even if she's not living with us right now, we still love her...that's not good enough, even prisoners get phone calls; I should know, I'm a cop...after dinner? That'll do. Thank you." She hung up the phone.
"That didn't sound to good."
"She was spouting policy at me and all I wanted was to talk to my child and find out if she was alright and make sure she knew we love her no matter what. We can't see her until Saturday, and even that's a maybe dependent on whether or not she gets her privileges. That Rita wasn't even going to let me talk to her, but I convinced her to allow Callie to give us a call after dinner."
"That's obnoxious."
"I know, right? I mean, I'm sure they have their reasons and all...you know, actually, I'm going to go look into this place, make sure it's on the up-and-up."
"Yes, do. Callie deserves the best. No more abusive homes for her, if we have anything to say about it."
"I agree, completely." Stef went upstairs to get her laptop, passing Mariana's room as she did.
"Mom!" Mariana called through the open door.
"Yeah, sweets?"
"You guys have been on the phone a lot today. Is it about Callie? Is she coming home today? Why didn't you go visit her during lunch? If she's not coming home today, can I go with you to see her tomorrow?"
"Whoa, Miss Thang, one question at a time, please. Yes, the phone calls were about Callie." She noticed Jesus peeking around the door and beckoned him to join them. "No, she is not coming home today. She was discharged from the hospital, but Bill decided to place her in a group home."
"A group home! Why?"
"Apparently, somehow he found out that she and Brandon shared a kiss, and that's just not allowed."
"How'd he know?" Jesus asked.
"Don't know. An anonymous source. You guys don't know anything about that, do you? Ever mention it to someone, even in passing?"
"No."
"Nope...well, I never said anything, but I think a couple people at school might have been suspicious."
"Yeah, who?"
"Wyatt, maybe, and Talya. I think Talya was jealous of the attention Brandon paid to Callie, but they both denied it."
"And at that party I wasn't supposed to be at, I heard Callie and Talya talking about Brandon. Talya said that she was wrong to think Callie had a thing for Brandon," Mariana added, looking a little shamefaced to be talking about the night she got drunk.
"Do you think she would do something like this, as revenge?"
"Doubt it. Besides, aren't she and Brandon a thing again? Why would she need to get rid of Callie?"
"Callie did run away with Wyatt, she might have told him."
"Your mama and I spoke to Wyatt. He was genuinely worried about her, and relieved when we called him after she was found. I don't think he'd do this, especially when he had the chance to keep them apart simply by not talking to us and keeping Callie with him all the way to Indiana."
"I don't know if anyone else knows."
"Mama thought it could even be someone who doesn't know, just trying to cause trouble."
"Who would do that?"
"Liam, maybe, especially if he wanted to defame her character before the trial. But afterward? Can't see the reason for it."
"Is Callie ever coming home? I want her back here, in our room."
"We'll get her home. We'll all fight for her. But listen, head's up. Bill might be coming around, asking some questions about the nature of Brandon and Callie's relationship. We talked to Brandon, who reneged on his professions of love. He says they shared a single kiss after being caught up in the moment, there were some confusing emotions involved, and there's no desire for a romantic relationship."
"Is that the story, or is that the truth?"
"Honestly, I don't know. But unless you know something I don't, we're going to accept it as the truth for now, so if Bill asks, no stories of star-crossed lovers, please. This is not Romeo and Juliet. This is not a Lifetime movie." Mariana giggled. "Oh, and nobody knew anything about any kiss until Bill called today to tell us. At least, your mama and I didn't know. Understand? That could get us in a lot of trouble."
"We get it, right Mari?"
"We get it. Whatever needs to be done to bring Callie home."
"I just hate the thought of asking you guys to lie for us."
"It's not like it's really a lie, that, just the truth stretched a little. And we're family, and family has each other's backs."
Stef smiled, and kissed both their foreheads. "Dinner soon. Mama's making mac and cheese. I'm going to look into this group home Callie's at, make sure it's a good one."
"You do that." Stef grabbed her laptop from her bedroom and took it back downstairs to the kitchen. While the information she had access to at home wasn't quite as good as what she would get once she got back to the precinct, she was able to find some things out. The group home had been around for a while, and the current coordinator had been there six years. A basic background check revealed no criminal history; she would need the precinct's resources to figure out more than that. There were no pending cases against them. They must be on CPS's good side if Bill dropped her there; but then again, as overworked as CPS was, places could always fall through the cracks. The house could fit a maximum of eight girls, so they weren't trying to make money by squashing as many as possible together like sardines in a can. When it become time to sit down for dinner, Stef had come across no red flags, though she wouldn't trust that until three things happened: 1) she got access to the precinct's resources; 2) she talked to Callie; and 3) she saw the place for herself.
"Anything?" Lena asked.
"No red flags. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's safe for her, but more telling will be what Callie says herself after we talk to her tonight."
"Provided she can talk freely."
"That's true."
"Rally the troops?"
"Sure." Stef stored the laptops and yelled from the foot of the stairs, "Kids! Dinner!"
Lena rolled her eyes, but she was wearing a smile. "I could have done that."
Jesus got downstairs first, followed closely by Mariana. When Brandon didn't appear shortly, Lena said, "Jesus, go get Brandon. He's probably wearing his headphones and didn't hear your mom."
"Why me? I'm hungry"
"You're the athletic one. Sooner you get him, sooner we eat. Now go." Jesus turned and ran back upstairs, yelling, "Brandon!" Within seconds, the sounds of two pairs of feet thumping down the stairs proved his mission to be a success.
Lena served them all, Jesus squirted gobs of ketchup on top of his, and they all sat down to enjoy dinner. It was fairly quiet, until Mariana asked, "What about Jude?"
"What about him, sweets?"
"Does he know?"
Lena sighed. "Not yet. He's having dinner with Connor's family tonight, so we'll tell him when he gets home."
"He's going to take it hard," Brandon said.
"Well, if you'd just been able to keep your hands off our new sister..." Mariana said.
"This isn't my fault!"
"You sure about that? If you liked her so much, why'd you say we could adopt her?"
Stef shut down the budding argument before it could escalate. "Guys, enough. Arguing and blaming isn't going to accomplish anything. We need to face this together as a family. We need to be strong for Callie, and for Jude, since their continued separation is going to be hard on him. We need to put up a united front for Bill, understand?"
"Yeah, mom."
"Yeah, mom."
They finished dinner in silence. Brandon penitently started to do the dishes, while Mariana and Jesus went back upstairs to do homework. The moms promised to call them back down when Callie called, but they felt the need to wait for and talk to Jude alone. They hoped he'd be home before Callie called; the timeline on them both was 'after dinner'.
Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait, as Jude soon walked in. He noticed them sitting in the living room, and said, "You don't have to tell me. Callie isn't coming home today."
"That's true. C'mere, sweetheart. Sit down, please," Stef gestured him to the couch between them.
"Is she coming home tomorrow? It's Friday, you promised if she wasn't home by the weekend, you'd let me visit her there."
"Jude, we do have news about Callie, but it's not what we were hoping. Callie was discharged from the hospital today, but Bill decided that the best place for her was a group home." Lena's voice was sad as she relayed the disappointing news.
"NO!"
"I'm so sorry, I know how much you wanted to see her, want her home."
"We all want her home," Stef added.
"But why? Why would he do that?"
"Somehow, we're not quite sure how, Bill found out about the kiss between Brandon and Callie, and he decided they couldn't be under the same roof."
Jude's face fell. "I'm sorry. If I had only told you sooner..."
"It's not your fault, Jude. We don't even know if the tip Bill received was from somebody telling the truth. We really don't know anything, so there's nothing you could have done differently."
"Am I going too, now?"
"What?"
"Callie does something, and a social worker comes to take us both away. It's how it always goes."
"No, of course not. Bill said there's nothing to indicate that you're going to be taken away."
"Oh, okay."
"We want you to know that this does not change anything. It does not change how much we love you," Lena reassured.
"And want to adopt you, okay?" Stef added, wrapping an arm around her youngest son's shoulders.
"But what about Callie?" Jude wanted to know.
"We're not giving up on either one of you. We're going to fight for her, too. We're going to figure this out. Both Brandon and Callie say that they want a brother-sister relationship, so that's what we're going to tell Bill. We're going to get her back." Stef said, kissing his forehead. "I promise."
"Callie's going to call tonight. You can say hello then, alright?"
"Okay." Just then, Stef's phone rang.
"This may be Callie. Hello?...Oh, thank God, it's you, Callie...just a sec, I'm going to put you on speaker. Jude and Lena are here, too."
"Callie!" Jude cried out.
"Jude, baby, I miss you so much. I love you."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's okay here. We just finished up dinner, and Rita said I could call you before starting the after dinner clean up. Are you okay?"
"I want to see you."
"I know, baby, I want to see you too. Next Saturday is Family Day, hopefully you can come them."
"Okay..."
Lena broke in. "Jude, sweetheart, I know you want to talk to Callie, but your siblings want to hear she's alright, too. Will you run upstairs and bring them down?"
"Sure. Don't let her go before I'm back."
"We'll keep her on the line," Stef assured. He raced upstairs, as if with wings on his feet. Stef turned to the phone. "He misses you. We all do. At least at the hospital, we could see you."
"I thought I was coming home, today. I really did. Bill was being vague, but I talked him and he seemed okay with it. Then he took me here and called me a liar."
"He called us. We talked to Brandon about it too. He confirmed it was a single kiss, no relationships, and that you guys were caught it a moment," Lena said.
"Yeah, a moment that's ruining everybody's life. I'm so sorry. I told you, I ruin everything I touch. Maybe...maybe you should just leave me here."
"No, Callie. No way," Stef said, vehemently. "You have brought joy and love into our house, not ruin. This is just a little bump in the road, but we're going to get out of it. We're going to fight for you. I told you that, we love you and we want you."
"Stef's right, Callie. You can't be thinking fatalistically right now. You've got to keep hope. You've got to take care of yourself, and you've got to be willing to fight for what you want, for what you deserve. What are you going to fight for Callie?"
"For you. To be part of your family. That's all I want, that's all I ever wanted, to find where I belong."
"Good girl. This is temporary. You'll be home in a little while. I'll bug Bill everyday, if that's what it takes." The sound of pounding feet upstairs alerted the moms that the rest of the kids were coming soon. "Kids are almost here."
"Good, Rita's motioning me to wrap it up."
"Is she listening in on your call?"
"Not really, but she's lurking."
"She said that there were Family Days on Saturdays, which is tomorrow, but you told Jude next week. Why?"
"I can't have visitors until I get my privileges. That's not going to happen right away."
"That's disappointing. Know that we love you. Wish you hadn't left your phone when you ran away."
"Yeah, I know. I'm beating myself up about that right now, too."
"We'll figure it out. Even if we have to convince Dr. Finch to tell Rita that part of your recovery necessitates daily phone calls with your family."
"Do you think you can?"
"I'll call her tomorrow myself. Kids are here."
A chorus of "Hi Callie!" rang out.
"We miss you," Mariana added.
"I miss you guys too."
"Are you alright?" Brandon asked.
"Yeah. They seem pretty reasonable here. A little strict, maybe, and they have a no violence rule, so I think I'll be safe."
"Moms are working on getting you home," Jesus said.
"They told me. Good. I wanna come home. Take care of Jude?"
"We will!" they said in tandem.
"Look, sorry, but I gotta go. Rita's motioning me. There's chores I have to do and stuff."
"Callie. We love you. Be strong," Stef said.
"I will. Bye!"
"Bye!" And the call ended. There was a brief silence in the Foster household.
"At least we know where she is, this time," Mariana said.
"Yeah, that's something," Jesus agreed.
"It's gonna be okay," Stef said.
"It's gotta be," Brandon said.
