Author's Note: So confession time: I haven't written the next chapter for Words That Were Never Spoken, thus why there was no update. I'm writing a two or three chapter story, it's called Near and Far, and it's Brallie, so look out for it soon. Oh and to address Callie's kind of bitchy behavior, it's just my interpretation of how she would act when placed in this situation. Don't worry, Bitchy Callie will be addressed in a few chapters from now. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

"Call-"

"Don't." Marianna stops them. "Trust me, you don't want to talk to her." She looks at her moms as she breaks down, Callie's words sinking in, and Brandon takes this moment to comfort his little sister. He holds her close and she clings to her older brother, the same one she had been worried about last night as he tensed up whenever Callie was mentioned. The thought that she could have ended up being like Callie, with an abusive foster brother instead of the protective, caring one she received, made her feel like an idiot for even considering the idea that Brandon would try to sabotage things for Callie. "I'm sorry, Brandon. I'm sorry." She cried.

"Shhhhh, there's nothing to apologize for. You're not weak Marianna. You're confident and strong and I couldn't ask for a better sister."

"I thought you were like Liam." She confessed. "I thought you were going to hurt Callie. You're nothing like him but I was scared that she ran because of something you did. And I don't want that to become true." She looks up at him through her wet eyelashes. "Promise me it's not what I think it is. Promise me you don't have feelings for her."

There's a time in your life where you have to decide whether or not to tell the truth, even if it hurts someone you love. And right now, Brandon was facing that choice. Saying yes, he doesn't have feelings for her that would be what's best for everyone, especially Callie. But he would be lying. And here is his sister, crying, begging him to tell her the truth, begging him to tell her he's not some sort of threat to Callie, which he isn't. He hopes.

"You don't have to worry," he assured her, trying not to let his voice show how what's he's saying is a complete lie. "I don't have feelings for Callie."

Marianna and the moms smiled, knowing they all needed to hear it, because it had been plaguing their hearts and their minds, wondering how adoption could work with that obstacle in the way.

But Callie, with her ear pressed against the door, felt uneasy with this revelation, considering she knew the truth. But she couldn't ignore the way her heart warmed to the fact that he was lying for her. Look what I'm doing to goody-two-shoes Brandon.

"Callie?"

Callie jumped away from the door, turning towards it, waiting for Lena to say more.

"Callie, we want to know if you're ready to talk to Jude. We don't want to put you two in the same room until we know for sure what you say won't hurt him."

Hurt him? You are out of your mind if you think I would ever hurt Jude.

"He'll be here soon. We won't bring him in until you tell us too."

She turns her back to the door and slides down into a sitting position, pressing her knees into her chest, letting her head hang down.

"Callie?"

She stayed silent. She heard their footsteps walk towards the door. "Just leave her," Brandon says. "She'll come out when she's ready."

"Okay," Stef agrees, and together they all make their way back downstairs, Brandon casting one last glance at the bathroom door before joining his family.

"How long has it been?" Jesus asks

"An hour." Lena answers

"And she still hasn't come out?"

"Nope." Brandon mumbles

"Where's Jude?"

"He's with Mom. She's keeping him away."

"Until when? Callie's not coming out anytime soon."

"Cut the attitude Jesus, we're all frustrated right now." Lena groans. "I thought this whole mess was over when they called us saying they found her."

Brandon speaks up. "We can't blame her for this. It's our fault we let her run away."

"What could we have done instead? Handcuff her to her bed? We had to trust her to stay here."

"Yeah, who knew she would run off with Wyatt?" Marianna pointed out.

"She didn't run off with Wyatt remember? She left him behind." Brandon said, slightly snappish. "Besides, Wyatt shouldn't have given her a ride. He should have called us sooner or brought her to us."

"Wyatt didn't make her run away. It's better he kept her with him instead of letting her get on some bus and go God knows where."

"It doesn't mean I have to like him."

"You never liked him because of what he did to Talya, which Callie told me wasn't true." Marianna interjects.

Lena stopped the fighting. "Wyatt isn't a problem but Callie's attitude is." She looks at Brandon, whose staring at the staircase, waiting for her to walk down, and she worries for a second until she remembers what he said. He's just being a brother, she thought.

"Hey," she said to him. "You think you could go talk to Callie? See how she's doing, you know."

He nodded and got up, heading up the stairs. But doesn't plan to talk to Callie.

Callie is lying on the bathroom floor; her hands on her stomach, one leg bent the other one flopped. She spent the past hour running through her head multiple scenarios of how she could talk to Jude, but every one of them had the same ending: Jude hating her, telling her she's a horrible sister, yelling at her because of Brandon, and she didn't know if she could take the rejection from him. But she needs to tell him why she left. He has to know it's not his fault.

It was during this reverie when she hears something on the other side of the door. Scrambling up, she presses her ear against the door and holds her breath.

Is that...my guitar? Her hand makes its way to the doorknob but she stalls for a second. She doesn't know if anyone else is out there. So, she sits there, hand on the doorknob, listening to his simple melody until it stops.

"Callie? It's just me. You okay?"

She finally twisted the doorknob and opened the door slightly, and saw Brandon's torso sticking out from the doorframe. He was sitting against the wall and she came out and closed the door, placing herself next to him.

She smiled at the guitar in his hands. It was her guitar, although it would always be something that was once Brandon's. "I was looking for that."

"I was keeping it in my room."

She smirks and looks up at him through her eyelashes. She leans over to kiss him but he moves his head back. "What," she asks. Eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish by hurting Marianna, or the rest of the family for the matter."

She purses her lips. "I'm just trying to make it easier for them to let me go."

"Callie, they all love you, it's going to be hard for them to let you go again."

"Not if I make them hate me first."

"You don't need to make them hate you. If anything, you should try appeal them to the idea. And if- when I mean- we adopt Jude, you're still going to be in our lives."

Her hand rested on his leg and he reached down to grab it. "It looks like your family is going to be stuck with me."

"Hey, I'm not complaining."

"Yeah you better not." She leans over again and he prepares for a kiss but instead she grabs the guitar out of his hands.

"Tease."

She laughs and starts to strum, "God I missed this."

"You know, if it weren't for that guitar we wouldn't have figured out you were gone until it was too late and you were living with Wyatt in Indiana."

"Don't blame Wyatt, he was just trying to help."

"He wanted to keep you with him. He likes you a lot."

"He's just a friend." She bites her lip. "I knew I couldn't feel the same way when I realized I..."

He cocks his eyebrows. "You what?"

She smiles and strums again. To admit her love would take some time. She knew she would do it but to motivate her to say it was the problem. "Nothing," she said. "Not yet," she clarified.

He stands up and offers his hand, which she accepts. "Are you ready to talk to Jude?"

She takes a deep breath. "I don't know what to expect from him. I don't know how he'll feel when he sees me."

"Well let me help you. Close your eyes." She complies and he starts describing a scene. "So, you're sitting in the living room, trying to calm your nerves, when Jude finally walks in. Jude will run to you with open arms and give you a big hug and you will figure out that you had nothing to worry about. He loves you and all he wants is for you two to never be separated again."

"But we have to be." Her eyes open. "I can't stay here Brandon. Not if I want to be with you."

"We could sneak around."

"We would get caught."

"We can wait until we're 18."

"I will still be your sister."

"I don't want you to lose your only chance at a family."

Her hand went to his cheek. "I don't want to lose you."

"You won't lose me. I'm willing to wait forever if it means I can be with you. And I'm not trying to be dramatic or trying to charm you. Being with me means, you have to give up everything. It's not something I can ask of you."

She brings her hand down from his cheek and stares into his eyes. Slowly, she leans forward and touches her lips to his briefly. Her head goes to the crook of his neck, and her arms go around his torso. His arms wrap around her body, his fingers running through her hair.

"I need to talk to Jude." Callie says.

Stef looks over at her silent riding companion. "You okay Jude? You haven't spoken the whole ride home."

He speaks quietly. "I'm worried she'll be mad at me."

"Why? Because you guys fought at the wedding?"

He turns to her abruptly. "She told you about the fight?"

"Yeah, she said you were mad at her because she said she didn't want to be adopted. Is that true?" She cast a glance at him and saw him tense up.

"Yeah," he said nervously, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

"Listen Jude, I know that you and Callie have had it rough in your other homes, but you know that you can trust Lena and I to take care of you and your sister. Whatever you two were fighting about, you can tell us about it."

Jude shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with what Stef was asking of him.

"Or you can keep it to yourself. But I always feel better letting it all out instead of keeping it in."

Jude kept his gaze out the window, his voice soft. "Do you ever worry about the past repeating itself?"

"Sometimes. Is that how you feel?"

He nods his head. "Whenever I hear about people crashing their cars because a driver was drunk, all I can think is that it happened before and it will happen again. Even when people know the consequences, they will still do it. It's only when it happens to them when they actually understand. But by then, it's too late. They already made the mistake."

He continues. "I forgave my dad for killing my mom but I've wondered if the family of the people my dad killed have ever forgiven him. How resentful are they? Because I believe that if the person never does it again, and is truly sorry for what they have done, then they deserve redemption. They deserve to be forgiven."

"What if they make the mistake again Jude? Sometimes people have a hard time changing themselves for the better."

"I guess it depends whether or not they really wanted to change." He sits a little taller. "People make promises that they easily break. If the decision to break the promise is so easy, then obviously they never wanted to change."

"But what if they can't Jude? I know my father would love it if I changed back into the loving wife with a husband and son."

"It's not your fault for being gay. You can't help how you feel."

"And some people can't help but make bad decisions. Alcoholics are a good example. They have a hard time trying to stay sober. It's something they have to struggle with everyday."

"You think some people just can't help making mistakes."

"Depends on if they think it was a mistake."

"If they don't?"

"Then it's hard for them to accept what they did and take responsibility for it. I never thought of my relationship with Lena as being a mistake."

He looks back down at his fidgeting hands. "I just don't know if I should forgive her for running away when she obviously doesn't regret leaving me behind."

"Of course she regrets leaving you behind. But she thought that you would be better off without her. She doesn't think you need her to take care of you anymore."

"I'll always need her. It may not be just the two of us anymore, but that doesn't mean we're not still a team."

"About that Jude, Lena and I were wondering if you still wanted us to go through with the adoption."

"You mean, without Callie?"

"Not without Callie, but start your adoption before we start hers."

"You still want to adopt her?"

"We never planned to not do it." She stops outside the house and turns the car off, looking at Jude. "You don't have to tell us now, I just wanted you to know that it was an option."

He nods his head. "I'll think about it."

"Great." Stef unbuckles her seatbelt and opens the door. "Come on, let's go in."

When they walk in the door, all of the kids excluding Callie are sitting in the living room, waiting for the arrival of Stef and Jude. Lena sees them from the kitchen and looks at Jude. "She's upstairs in your room." He nods and then runs up the stairs.

Callie heard the footsteps and she could feel her lunch rising up her throat. She was wrong. She thought she knew what to say but now it all seems wrong. Everything she's doing is wrong. She should be happy to have a family that wants her. She should be spurning Brandon's affection, dampening her own.

But would you really be happy? She would be lying to herself if she thought if moving on would be that easy. Nothing ever was.

Just do it Callie, no matter what he says, no matter what he thinks, it's your turn to be happy.

Jude finally reached the door and sees his sister. Her throat choked up and tears well in her eyes when she looked at her brother. Her arms reached for him and he ignored how mad he is at her. He ignored the want to yell at her about how stupid she was.

All he wanted to do was hug her.

So, he did just that. Tears flowed from his eyes onto her shirt and she clutched his head to her chest like a mother clutches her baby. She murmurs, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," between sobs and he just nods into her chest. She kisses the top of his head, tears spilling into his hair.

Stef and Lena, standing near the stairs looking in, witnessed this reunion. Lena nudged Stef's arm and gestured for them to go back downstairs, but Stef was desperate for answers, so she stayed in her position. Lena tugged on her arm again and Stef saw her expression. Lena was unrelenting; she was going to give them the privacy they needed, even if it meant knowing what was going on.

And Stef knew this. She knew she couldn't intrude on their moment alone. So, she reluctantly turned her back from the two siblings and walked away.

Second Author's Note: So guys, again with the reviews, I got 5 the first chapter, then 10 for the second, and then five again. It's weird because I have more views for this story than Words That Were Never Spoken but that one has like 10 reviews a chapter. I don't want to be begging for reviews and I'm not trying to, but I can't tell if you like it or not. I mean the favorites and follows give me some idea, and those are fantastic, but is there something you don't like about this story to make you guys not review? I just want to know. Thanks in advance.

Next Chapter: Jude and Callie's reunion hits a sour note when harsh words are spoken.