Callie laid on the couch for some time, just lost in thought. She let her mind wander to her mother's birthday, a date that was fast approaching, and thought how much more Stef would hate her when she had nothing to give her on her birthday. She sighed and sat up, her eyes ripped from the celling when she heard a door open and a loud, boisterous voice ring in from the kitchen.
"Surprise! Happy almost birthday!"
"Mother? What… how did you get here?" Callie heard a confused voice respond.
"I took a flight, Stephanie. Then I took a cab."
"Wha- without telling anyone?"
"It's called a surprise. You're no fun. Where am I putting my stuff? The living room?" Callie heard as the voices grew closer, matching footsteps that clonked through the kitchen.
"Callie is resting in there right now."
"Great! She can help fill up the air mattress."
"She hurt her knee, Mom. She has to stay off of it."
Callie watched as two faces emerged from the archway in the kitchen, her grandma looking concerned and exciting and her mom looking rather overwhelmed.
"My poor darling! What happened to your knee?" Sharon asked, wrapping Callie in a big hug.
"Hi, Grandma." Callie mumbled, pressed against Sharon's shoulder. "I slipped in the kitchen."
"Aww. You feeling better?" Sharon asked, continuing the conversation to include the minor tribulations of her journey from Florida. Callie tried to nod and pay attention to her grandma's story, but she felt her focus shift to her mom, who stood in the corner of the room looking a bit downcast and disappointed. Callie began to shrink in her seat, feeling the shame radiate off of her and wanting nothing more to be wrapped in one of Stef's classic bear hugs. I made her hate me, Callie thought. This is my fault.
Callie, Stef and Sharon heard the door creak open again. Lena walked through the archway with Jesus and on her heels, clad in a soccer uniform.
"Grandma!" He shouted before running up to her.
"Hi, Sharon." Lena said, smiling, before giving her a hug.
"Did you know about this?" Stef asked.
"Of course I did." Her wife responded. "Were you surprised?"
"Yeah." Stef breathed.
One by one, the remaining Adams Fosters kids ran down the steps to greet their grandma. Callie felt safe in the crowd of people, as she couldn't see if Stef was upset through the wall of siblings between them. The family continued to mingle as the adults moved to the kitchen to make dinner. Jesus helped Callie upstairs and helped her get situated on her bed with fresh ice packs and a book to read. The other siblings congregated in Jude and Jesus' room, but Callie wanted to be alone, so she sat in her room, waiting for dinner.
Downstairs, Sharon, Stef, and Lena began preparing dinner. They had their usual conversations, with Lena talking about her day at work and a particularly humorous story about a group of second graders barricading themselves in the game closet in order to avoid a spelling quiz. After the laughs died down, Stef recounted the information from her conversation with Callie.
"…a random boy, Lena. She skipped class with a random boy, getting on a bus and going across town without letting anybody know where she was going. Oh! And she had her first kiss that day!" Stef scoffed.
Sharon suppressed an "Aww!" while glancing at Lena.
"I'll go up and talk to her a little. I'll check on her knee, too. You know that she'd never admit it herself if it got worse." Lena said with a sigh. She left the kitchen and found Callie in her room.
"Hey." Lena said, creaking the door open.
"You know, don't you?" Callie asked, looking down.
"Mmhm." Lena moved across the room and sat down on Callie's bed, carefully lifting her daughter's leg onto her lap.
"Let's see about this knee, okay?" She said, rolling up the cuff on Callie's pants. She noticed the darkened bruise, wincing as she imagined the fall that caused it.
"How is it feeling? It looks pretty bad." Lena asked. Callie shrugged.
"Do you want another ice pack? Some pain killers?"
Callie hesitated before speaking. "What are you waiting for? Where's the lecture? Why are you bothering with all this crap about my knee?" She asking, before cringing when she thought about her word choice. Lena hated when they used the word crap.
"Sorry." She said.
"Well to answer your question, I first wanted to check you out because you are my baby and I worry about you. And you and I both know that what you did was wrong. You look so guilty that it makes it pretty clear. I think Mom already gave you a lecture, but I am going to add onto your punishment. I am the supervisor for detention on Fridays and Mondays. You are going to join me there for the next 3 weeks. 3:15 to 4:30."
Callie nodded. Lena gave her a pat on her ankle and a kiss on the forehead before placing a container of pain killers and a water cup on her nightstand and heading back to her wife and mother-and-law, leaving Callie alone with her book and her guilt.