"Wha- What's happened?" Callie stared confused at each face, as they all slowly turned to her realising her presence. Jude ran towards Callie his small arms wrapping around her as she knelt down to reach his level and kiss his forehead as she held him close. Mariana and Jesus both looked a Callie their eyes filled with a mixture of sympathy, pain and anger. Stef wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she motioned at an empty seat. Callie hesitated before taking up the offer and pulling Jude next to her his small face stained red from tears.
"It's.. err.. it's…" That's all that Stef could say before her voice cracked and she excused herself leaving the room leaving Lena to continue. Callie was so used to Stef being the strong one, the one that kept the family together, that she'd hardly seen shed a tear but here she was unable to say more than a word. What had happened?
Lena gathered herself, drying her tears and taking a deep breath before beginning her voice hoarse from crying. "It's, it's Brandon, when he left last night… he um… he was … jumped…" Lena continued but all Callie could hear was her heart thump against his chest. Brandon, her Brandon, maybe they weren't going out anymore but they both knew that the feelings were still there. They would always be there, even if they couldn't act on them publicly. And now he was probably in a hospital bed and in who knows what state, beaten, bruised, confused, and unconscious. The next word that entered her head petrified her, no, he couldn't be, there was so much she hadn't told him. It was her fault, whichever way she looked at it, it was her fault.
Before she knew it a cold breeze grazed her face, and she felt a soothing hand on her back. She turned into the embrace but it wasn't enough. The only person who could help her right now was lying in a hospital bed. She'd only cried like this once before, on the day of Frank's funeral, secure in Stef's arms. Even when her mother had died she had managed to keep the tears at bay, the anger had taken over the sadness and after that her main objective was to protect Jude.
"Is- is he…dead?" The word left her in a whispered choke. Her voice broke and she fell to the floor in a heap her energy drained already by the events of the morning.