Callie's POV

I walk into the bathroom and see Stef rinsing her face off with water. I missed her so much and I fought every bone in my body and every thought in my head to refrain from running up to her and hugging her.

Mainly out of fear of her shutting me out, like she had just done a few minutes ago.

But I had to be strong about this.

I had come too far to back down now.

She's already seen me. The hardest part is over, right?

But why did I still feel like crap about it?

She glances up at the mirror and stares at me as if she'd seen a ghost.

Just say it Callie, I think to myself. And after a few seconds, I bring myself to say what needed to be said, "Look, Stef. I owe you a huge apology. Brandon and I should have never left like that, and I am truly sorry. I know that I took the most important person of your life away, and it was the most selfish decision that I've ever made. But we both hoped to come back and to try to make amends with you. But that's only if you'd let us."

She slowly turns around to face me and I can see the tears welling up in her eyes, which just makes me feel even worse for making her cry. I didn't want to upset her any more than I already had. And I can't help but fear that she's going to tell me she hates me and ask why the hell I even came here in the first place.

"Two," she says.

"What?" I ask in a barely audible voice, wondering if she actually heard me.

Stef wipes away a tear that had fallen onto her cheek, "You took away two of the most important people of my life."

I gulp loudly at her response, silently wondering how she felt about us now. "Stef, I…" I can't find the right words to say so I stop myself. My emotions were getting the best of me with every second that I'm spending staring at her face. So I glance down at the floor instead. "I'm really, really sorry. I didn't want to leave you guys. Neither of us did. We just…" I pause as I try to search my thoughts.

I practiced this.

I memorized exactly what I was supposed to say, but nothing was going as planned.

She wasn't supposed to run from me.

I wasn't supposed to cry.

And more importantly, she wasn't supposed to say those words.

By the time I glance back up, I see her coming towards me. And before I know it, I feel her tight embrace around my body, "I know, baby. I know. You have nothing to be sorry for… I should have accepted the way you and Brandon felt about each other. I shouldn't have pushed you two away like that. I'm the one who should be sorry. Not you. God, I was so selfish!" She held onto my head as if I'd try to leave again if I didn't believe her. I lift my arms and hug her back, letting her know that I had no intention of leaving again.

"No, Stef. You're not selfish. If anything, I was. I should've tried harder to be the person all of you wanted me to be," I cry into her shoulder.

But Stef lets go of the embrace, cups my face with her palms, and looks into my eyes, "No, Callie. Don't say that. Don't you ever say that, okay? You shouldn't have to change who you are or how you feel about anyone. I, of all people, should have known better than to make you feel that way."

I shake my head and just let even more tears run down my face, "But I left you. And I left Jude. And—"

Stef holds my face still and wipes the tears that fell onto my cheek with her thumbs, "And are you and Brandon still together?" she asks in a stern voice.

At first, I'm afraid to answer her. Not knowing which answer was the right one. But I nod my head yes, which causes her to smile, "…And do you regret the past 5 years you spent together?"

"No," I answer softly and truthfully. "I don't regret a second that I spent with him."

"Then, don't regret leaving, yes?" She tilts her head to the side as she looks at me and I nod. "…I would've done the same thing for Lena."

I finally breathe and try to stop crying until she decides to pull me into another embrace.

After a long while of just silence, she finally speaks. "A cop? Really?" she asks sarcastically.

I have to laugh at her reaction, "Not happy?"

She pulls me away, "That you took after your mother? Noooo…Why wouldn't I be happy about that?" She chuckles and kisses my forehead, removing a few hair strands out of my face. "...But Mama on the other hand, is going to be so pissed."

I laugh at the thought of telling her, "She can't get as mad as Brandon was when I first told him I was entering the academy." I smile as I recount the scene in my head.

"I bet," she laughs. "That sounds like my son. He took after Mama in a lot of things,"
she shakes her head at the thought. "…How is Brandon? When will I get to see him?" she asks eagerly with a desperate smile on her face.

"Soon," I assure her. "He's doing a little surprising of his own as we speak."

Stef wraps her arm around mine as we leave the bathroom. "Oh, no," she laughs. "Should we be worried?"

"I hope not…partner," I say, knowing that it'd get a strange reaction out of her.

"Partner?" she smiles as we walk over to the coffee machine. "That sounds so weird. Doesn't it?"

I nod as she grabs the coffee pot and a couple of mugs, "Do you think we can manage to not spill the coffee all over the floor this time?"

"Can't make any promises, Callie. But we can sure as hell try."

A/N: In case you haven't noticed this is a Brallie fic. Although there is some Brallie in here, it's mostly a FAMILY ORIENTED fic, heavy on Stef/Callie's relationship (They are working together so I would presume that you would've gotten that by now.) That is why I hadn't added the "Brallie" connotation in the summary from the beginning ,because it will not be focussed solely on that. And I know how some of the readers are when it comes to seeing the word "Brallie." Now that you've gotten the basic premise of the story, and if you still choose to stop reading that's not a problem. I completely understand. But I didn't want to put the "Brallie" label when it's so much more than just a Brallie. But that's my opinion.

Personally, I don't think that fics really need the "Brallie" label because non-brallie fics don't need a "Non-Brallie" label... And some people are super-against "Brallie" and some are super-against having Brandon and Callie just be siblings.

The previous writer was a lot like me, so that's why she allowed me to take over. She knew that I had no intention in turning this into a "Purely-Brallie" fic because (let's be honest) those are SO BORING. (No offense if I have some hard-core-only-Brallie-reading-type-readers) All of my readers know how heavy I am on the Stef/Callie relationship, so I plan to include a lot of that in here. All of the other main characters will of course be included so don't worry about that either.

P.S: I will be updating Burned later on tonight and thanks for reading :)

Please review if you have the time letting me know what you thought.