Hello! Again I really appreciate all of your reviews, favorites, and follows. Thank you all for reading.
Steph was relieved when she opened the door to her room to see Callie curled up asleep with Lena on the other side of the bed stroking Callie's hair, keeping her close. "How's she doing?" Steph went to sit by her partner.
"It took a lot of convincing to get her to go to sleep but I think physically she was doing much better before she fell asleep." Lena responded barely taking her eyes off of Callie
"Well that's a start." Steph paused wanted to tread lightly; "What should we do about the other kids? They're all smart they'll figure something's up."
"We definitely shouldn't tell them specifics, we can't betray Callie's trust like that so soon after she gave it to us." Lena gained that firm compassion in her voice that Steph loved about her. "I'm just wondering how much Jude knows. Those two are close."
"Oh gosh I didn't even think about that." Steph was tearing up but she couldn't put her finger on why; "Should we talk to him separate from Mariana and Jesus and figure out what he knows first?"
"That would probably be best. Tomorrow is Saturday should we do it then?" Lena questioned. Steph nodded in response. "I'm exhausted." Lena yawned but recovered quickly, suddenly remembering Brandon's role in this; "What should say to Brandon?"
"I was going to talk to him after I talked to you. I figured you should stay with Callie for tonight at least. She probably doesn't want to wake up alone." Steph informed her partner about her plan.
"You sure you don't want me in on it?" Lena asked even though she just wanted to curl up next to Callie and fall asleep.
"I think this will be better one on one, also you look a bit too tired for an emotional conversation at the moment." She smiled as she stood up ready to go talk to her son.
"Good luck." She heard Lena say as she left the room.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
When Steph turned into Brandon's room she smiled as she heard him playing the piano. It was something she had never heard before, she didn't see any music. She admired his ability to just make beautiful music off the top of his head. She stood and listened for a few minutes. This song had a somber quality; it was different than the others he wrote. After a minute he stopped playing.
"That was nice." His mom's words scared Brandon but in the back of his head he was expecting them at some point.
"Thanks, I should have written it down but that's ok." Brandon turned around to see his mom sitting down. He knew they were going to have the talk she mentioned earlier.
"I just wanted to check in; you were understandably pretty upset earlier." He shrugged in response. His mom gave him one of her looks; she hated it when he shrugged when they were having a serious conversation.
"What do you want me to say? I hate to see anyone hurting; especially the girl who has become my sister," Brandon started with an increasing quiet intensity in his voice, "The fact that we all judged her when she had a great reason to be aloof bothers the crap out of me." By now angry tears were seeping from Brandon's eyes; "and the fact that the system might take her away because she was raped I can't even grasp. The system has already failed her to many times."
Steph was a bit surprised her son opened up so fast but she knew all of that, and probably more, was in there somewhere. "Come here B." She motioned him over to his bed where she was sitting. "You know that Lena and I will not let Callie or Jude leave this house, right?"
"There is only so much you can do though." Brandon was exhausted from all of the emotion in one day.
"I think you are underestimating the mama bear abilities that are in this house. I promise Callie and Jude will be here where they are safe." Steph and Brandon both smiled briefly at her joke.
"Why do people hurt other people?" Brandon questioned with more tears falling.
"I don't know. There are some bad people out there. Some of them like to hurt other people; don't ask me why because I have no idea. But the fact that you and I and everyone in the house don't get it is good. It means we aren't the bad people, we are the good people that help other people instead of hurt them." Steph's heart broke at her son's question as she tried to answer an unanswerable question.
"How's Callie doing?" Brandon was trying to process everything that was going on.
"Well right now she is asleep with Lena. Apparently it took some convincing but she did fall asleep. I'm thinking the next few days will be the hardest. She's going to need each and every one of us. Understood?" Steph made sure she had eye contact with her son making sure he really heard her.
"Yes mam." Brandon yawned signaling the end of the conversation.
"Ok. Now try to get some sleep. We can talk more later if you want to." Steph stood up and slowly exited the room in case Brandon wanted to say anything more, but he didn't.
When Steph reached her room she smiled. She saw Lena and Callie curled up in bed. She quickly changed into her pajamas and happily joined the two peaceful looking women.
