A/N: First, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. It keeps me motivated and I am so grateful to all of you! Also, the Callie part of this chapter is a little rushed and unrealistic, Callie would normally take more time, but I want to get to the rest of the story, and dragging this out will not be fun for anyone! And now to the story...
Disclaimer: I am not lucky enough to own the Fosters.
Callie had finally stopped running. She could barely breathe she had been running so long. She finally began to take in her surroundings. Quickly, she realized that she was in front of her favorite childhood playground. Memories crashed through her brain. Swirling around her so fast she could not repress them like she was so accustomed to doing. Memories of her mother pushing her and Jude onthe swings and taking them for ice cream afterwords. Callie walked onto the rubbery turf and sat on one of the child-sized swings. It creaked slightly under her weight but she started swinging anyway. As she swung she thought about everything that had gone wrong since her mother died and how it was all her fault. Her mother's death was probably her fault because she did not kiss her good-bye that night. Jude getting moved from home to home was her fault as well. She was worthless and everyone would be better without her. She started to cry.
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Stef and Rita drove in silence. Stef was trying not to think or feel. Finally, after what felt like forever but what was probably, realistically, two hours, Stef's phone signaled that they were getting close to Callie.
"Over there!" Rita pointed out the window to a playground at the end of the block. In the quick and professional manner of a cop Stef pulled over and parked. Without thinking about what she would even say to her daughter, she jumped out of the car and started running.
"Callie!" Stef ran to the swing set and caught her daughter's swing as it came forward towards her. She practically lifted the crying girl off the swing. "Callie, Sweets, talk to me!" In any other situation, Callie would have refused, but she was so emotionally out of control, that she told Stef everything. She told her about feeling like she could never be happy. She told her about how her mother was her fault. That what happened to Sophia was her fault. Everything.
"Callie, none of this is your fault. You can absolutely not blame yourself for any of this. Look at all of the good you've done. You kept Jude safe, and you bring so much joy to me and Mama."
Rita cut in, stepping up next to Stef. "Callie, you saved me. yOu saved Girls United. Do not throw all of that away. Running away again like that is selfish, and as you told me you said to Jude that he is not selfish, neither are you. I know everything is messed up but you cannot give up." Callie looked up at Rita and Stef. She was not sure if she believed them.
"Callie," Stef said, trying to sound calm, "Brandon told us what happened. With Robert, the kiss, and everything else. Come home and we will figure it all out. Sophia is at the hospital and she needs you. Jude needs you. We haven't figured all of this out, or any of that but come back with us and we will. Yes?"
Callie looked at Stef through tear-filled eyes. Very quietly, so quietly that Stef could barely hear her, she said, "Okay."
