Chapter 3.

Callie

"Stef wouldn't hurt a fly," Lena was telling Sophia. I paused in the bathroom doorway and listened. "She has the biggest, kindest heart I've ever known. You don't have to be afraid of her, sweets."

"I'm sorry," my sister apologized.

"Did something scary happen to you that made you afraid of cops?" she pressed.

"It's not so much cops," Sophia confided. "It's mostly guns..."

I cleared my throat just then, to get their attention before she said something she'd regret. "You can take your bath now, Soph."

"Okay," she said. She looked up at Lena. "Thanks. For talking to me."

"Any time, love," Lena smiled. She rubbed Sophia's arm. "Go ahead and get your bath."

Sophia went to the bathroom carrying her new toothbrush and towel.

"She's a sweet girl," Lena told me. "I feel bad that she got so upset at dinner."

I nodded. "She didn't mean it. She's just like that sometimes. She's..."

"Been through a lot?"

"I was going to say sensitive," I shrugged.

"Bill mentioned an accident. In your last home?" Lena quietly asked. "What happened?"

"Look," I said. "I don't want to talk about it."

Before she could ask another nosy question, Mariana came into the room carrying a bundle of clothes.

"Hey there, Miss Thing," Lena smiled. "Oh good. You found some PJs." She took the clothes from her daughter and held them up. "They should fit Sophia."

Mariana glanced at me, then turned to her mother. "Mama, how long are they gonna be here?" she whispered. She thought she was being quiet enough that I couldn't hear. But I could. I made my face go blank so she wouldn't know how strange her words made me feel.

"I don't know for sure, sweets," Lena told her. "Indefinitely. So, I want you to start making room in your bedroom tomorrow."

"I have to share my room?" Mariana cried. "With both of them? But that's not fair!"

Lena gave me an apologetic look. "Callie, honey, could you step outside a minute?"

I shrugged. "Whatever." I had Mariana pegged from the moment I saw her: spoiled, bratty, princess. I sank down to the floor in the hall, feeling like crap. I could still hear them talking through the wall.

"Life isn't fair," Lena said patiently. "Mari, don't you remember how it felt to be in a strange place, scared, with nothing of your own?"

"But everyone else will have their own room but me!" she insisted. "This sucks! I wish they never came here."

"She can hear you," Lena snapped. "I need you to take a deep breath and calm down for me."

"I don't care if she hears," she pouted. "They're weird. I won't share my room with them!" She stormed out of the room without looking at me, and went to her own room, slamming the door so hard the pictures on the wall shook. I sat alone, my eyes stinging.

"Callie, honey." Lena was standing over me. "I'm so sorry you had to hear that."

"Look, we'll just go," I said softly. "I don't want to cause trouble for you guys. You can call Bill tomorrow."

"I most certainly will not," she said, sinking down beside me. "You and your sister aren't going anywhere. Mariana really is a sweetheart, I promise. She's just a little high strung sometimes. She didn't mean the things she said."

"It sure sounded like she did."

"We love Mariana dearly, but it won't hurt her to find out she's not the only pebble on the beach," Lena told me, patting my hand. "Stef and I want you girls here. And that's all that matters."

They wouldn't want us if they knew what we did, I thought to myself. "Where are we sleeping tonight?" I asked, changing the subject.

"You can sleep on the couch until we get some beds,"she said. "We have a sectional. It's pretty comfortable."

"That works," I said.


Lena

"I feel terrible for those girls," Stef told me, as she ran a brush through her golden hair. "They're in so much pain. You can see it in their faces."

It was my favorite time of day, when Stef and I would unwind and talk things over- the kids, work, our day- whatever was on our minds, before we went to bed. "I wish we knew what made them that way," I said, mournfully. From the moment I saw those doe-eyed girls on our doorstep, my heart melted. "I wish we could help them."

"I walked in on Callie drying off after her bath," Stef revealed, sitting down on the bed and looking me in the eye. "She's covered in bruises. She made some lame excuse when I asked her about them... told me she's just clumsy."

I studied my wife, intrigued. We both knew that wasn't true.

"You don't get bruises like that by just bumping into walls or something," Stef said, completing my thought. "You get them from human hands. Someone beat her."

I nodded, recalling Callie mentioning a fight at dinner. "I'd like to get her checked out at the doctor, just to make sure she's okay. If she'll let us." She was so guarded. I doubted she would go without a fight.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this," Stef promised.

I knew she would.


Callie

"Come here, pretty girl," I said to Sophia, sitting behind her on the couch. "Let me comb your hair." I began working my comb through her wet, tangled hair, starting at the ends. I thought about my mom while I worked. When we were little, she'd sit behind me, and I'd sit behind Sophia. She'd comb my hair while I combed my sister's. My dark hair went to my waist back then. But out first foster mom chopped it short, because she said long hair was too hard to take care of. I've kept it short ever since.

"Do you like Stef and Lena?" Sophia suddenly asked.

I paused at the damp knot I was working on. "I guess so. They're okay."

"I like them," she told me. "They're nice. And pretty."

"Don't like them too much," I warned her. I repeated Bill's words. "This is only temporary."

"But what if this place is different...?" she said, her voice trailing off.

I chewed my lip, focusing on combing. I'd seen my sister cry too many times after we were rejected by people she cared about. I used to get upset too, until I realized it was a lot easier not to care at all. Sophia cared too much.

Finished with her hair, I wrapped my arms around her and tickled her ribs. She laughed as I pulled her down on the couch with me. "We've got each other," I said. "That's all we need."

"But don't you wish we had a family?" she asked me.

"We are a family," I told her. She laid down on one end of the sectional, and I laid down on the other, so we were head to head.

"Maybe we should just tell them about the Brian thing," she said softly. "Maybe they would understand?"

"You know we can't take that risk," I replied. "We haven't even known these people a day." Maybe they wouldn't understand? I didn't even want to think about what would happen. Sweet, innocent Sophia would never last in juvie. And I'd be stuck in a crappy group home, alone, unable to take care of her like I promised her I always would. We wouldn't have a chance.

"But wouldn't it be nice to get it off our chests?" she asked. "To not have to hide it anymore?"

I bit my split lip and it throbbed. I thought about what it would be like not to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. "No," I decided. "You promised me you wouldn't say anything, Soph."

"I wasn't really going to," she said defensively. "I was just thinking about it."


My lips still tasted like Ben's when I got to the back porch. I sighed to myself, taking my time finding my keys in my bag and sneaking in the door. I knew I was just stalling before I had to go back to my real life, but I didn't want to let the evening slip away just yet.

I went inside and looked around the house. It was quiet. Way too quiet. The dinner dishes were still on the kitchen table. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Sophia should have been in the kitchen, doing the dishes, like she did every night. Where was she?

"Soph?" I called. "Sophia?" I didn't care if I got caught anymore. Nothing mattered. My heart pounded in my chest. If something happened to my baby sister, it would be my fault. All my fault. I'd never forgive myself...

I'd been in a half-asleep state for what seemed like hours now. It was always hard to fall asleep in a new place, no matter how many times I'd done it. Every house had it's own night sounds, and I'd never been in any one house long enough to get used to them. So I kind of dangled between sleeping and being awake, unable to stop my memories of that night from playing in my head, like a movie I didn't want to watch.

Sophia wasn't helping much, either. I could feel her wriggling, whimpering softly in her sleep. I peeked back. Her old stuffed horse was clutched to her chest; she'd always loved horses, and even though I'd combed her hair, it was already tangled around her face. "Sophia?" I whispered. I reached out to shake her shoulder. "Wake up."

She stopped moving and opened her eyes, which were wet with tears. I could see them shining in the dark "Callie?"

"You were having a nightmare, baby," I told her. "It was just a dream."

"I'm scared," she said. "My stomach hurts."

I moved as close to the back of the couch as I could. "Come snuggle with me."

Without answering, she rolled off her side of the couch and cuddled beside me. I hugged her close, breathing in her familiar Sophia-scent. "What were you dreaming about?" I whispered.

She didn't answer right away. Somewhere upstairs I could hear a TV, the volume turned very low. "I dreamed Stef arrested me," she finally admitted.

I kissed her forehead and ran my fingers through her hair. "Do you still want to tell them about the Brian thing now?"

"No," she said, shaking her head against my chest.

"Go to sleep," I said. "No one is arresting you. I'm right here." I gave her another kiss and wiped her tears away. "I love you." I wouldn't make her keep a secret like that if I didn't.

"Love you," she said.

I laid wide awake in the dark, holding her as she drifted back to sleep.

To Be Continued- what do you think so far? What do you want to see happen in this story? Thanks for reading and reviewing! Love you all.