Lena POV

October 8th

Stef had come home last night around 3 am. It was now only 7 am, but she was already up. Jude was still asleep. With that I mean, he still hasn't walked out of the room and we haven't heard him walk around. We both know that the boy hadn't gotten a good nights sleep. How could he? With all that has been going on. Even I barely fell asleep, but I haven't even met the girl. She's a complete stranger, but I'm affected by it because of the young boy upstairs.

I filled the light blue cup with coffee and carried it over to kitchen table to Stef, who had just come downstairs "You are going to work today?" I asked as I handed her the cup

"Thank you, love," Stef said reaching for the cup. As I sat down opposite side of the table, Stef replied "Yes. I want to go talk to Callie's friends and see what we got on her credit card information. Hopefully, the IT guys should have some information as to where her phone was last time on,"

"How soon will we know something from the missing person report?" I asked sitting at the other side of the table

"There is no way to tell," Stef replied before taking a sip of her coffee "It can be hours, days, weeks, months even. We may also never hear anything,"

"Never?" I did not like the sound of that

"People disappear, love," Stef answered softly "It happens. I know it's hard to wrap your head around that, but that's the World we live in. Sometimes people are never found." I hated that Stef was right. I'm not blind to the issue, I simply don't want to think about it, because of how horrible it is. Each day a persons goes missing, but its not too often that they are found. And even if they are found, sometimes the person is no longer alive,"

"Don't tell that to Jude. He may not be ready to hear it,"

Stef lowered her cup down to the table and mumbled quietly "No one ever is,"

"He still has hope, Stef! Don't take that away from him,"

Stef reached over the table and took my hand "I'm not going to, love," she assured me "The missing person report went out only few hours ago. It hasn't even been 24 hours since she has been missing. There is still a chance that someone, somewhere has seen her,"

I glanced towards the hallway and sighed as I took in the information. Stef took her hand back and sipped her coffee again.

"I read his file while you were gone last night," I said looking back at Stef

Over the course of time we have fostered many foster kids. Some who had been in foster care for only few weeks or months, some, like our twins, who had been in foster care for few short years. Jude is the only foster kid, who we have fostered, who has been in foster care for over 9 years.

We know these kids are not their files, but sometimes there is important information in there that we need to know, for example, some medical records about allergies or some school records. The files about their time in other foster care I usually skip over, because I know how they always make the kids sound like the bad guys, how much of trouble they are, how ill-mannered they are, how they don't listen and talk back all the time. There are always two sides to each story, but in the file, only the foster parents side is told.

"His grades are pretty bad," I explained to Stef "Jude barley passed math last year,"

"Do you think you can get him in Anchor Beach?"

"Highly doubt it. His grades are too low," I shook my head a little

"Are we going to drive him to his current school?"

"I think we have to," I replied "He has changed school almost each year, sometimes even in the middle of the school year. If we pull him out of yet another school, his grades will drop even more. Adjusting to new school, new teachers, catching up with the themes and material...and with everything that has happened..."

"How far is the school?" Stef asked raising her cup up to her lips

"Some 20 minute drive away," I answered as Stef sipped her coffee

"We will figure it out. We always do," Stef smiled at me, lowering her cup down to table "Anything else? Anything we should know?"

"No. No medical conditions we should worry about," I replied "He has been to hospital few times, though. His wrist was broken, when he was 7. One time he had a gash that required stitches. At age 14, he had a broken nose,"

"What about the scar above his eyebrow?" Stef pointed to her own eyebrow

"There was record, dated about 10 months back, which stated that he was running in the house, tripped over something and, as he fell down, he hit his head on the side of the coffee table," I answered remembering reading the medical record and having trouble believing it

"I bet that he was pushed or punched that resulted in him falling down on the coffee table," Stef said what I was thinking all along about the issue

Stef looked at the time "How about I make pancakes and we eat breakfast before I head back to work?" Stef asked standing up

"Pancakes sound nice," I smiled at her "I think Jude will like that," I got up and helped Stef get all the ingredients

Jude POV

It was few minutes before 9, when I heard a knock on the door. I have been up for the last couple of hours, so it wasn't like my foster mom woke me up.

"Morning, Jude!" Lena poked her head in. When she saw, that I was awake and starting to sit up in the bed, she pushed the doors open a bit wider "Stef made pancakes. Get dressed and come join us at breakfast, okay, bud?"

"Okay," I mumbled back under my nose, not wanting to upset my foster parent

I still remember, how easily foster parents could get upset with us. The smallest thing could set them off. In the first foster home Callie and I lived, our foster mom got upset and angry with us if we didn't wash and put away our dishes. The first morning we had there, we learned that we need to clean after ourselves. We had just finishes our breakfast and left our bowls and glasses on the table. Mom usually gathered and cleaned everything after us. Our foster mother was having none of it. It was the first thing that we learned - clean after ourselves, don't leave a mess behind!

Lena smiled at me and left the room. I heard her walk down the stairs. This was the first morning without my sister and it didn't feel right. Life without Callie feel wrong. For 9 years she was all that I have. Now it feels like there is a part of me that is missing. Like a chunk of me was ripped out. I had to push myself to get dressed, make the bed and go downstairs.

I walked in the kitchen warily and slowly "Morning, Jude!" Stef greeted me cheerfully as she carried a plate with a pile of pancakes towards the kitchen table

"Morning," I said so quietly, I doubt she heard me

"What would you like to drink?" Lena asked standing by the fridge, her right hand was already on the handle, ready to pull it open "We have milk, lemonade, carbonated or regular water. I can also make you tea. We have green, black, peppermint, strawberry, some herbal tea,"

"Water, please," I remembered the manners. Today is going to be the day I will really learn what my new foster parents are like. It was Saturday, there was no school, so I'm going to be at the house the whole day with them. I was already wondering what kind of chores will they give me. There was a backyard, so I will probably have to weed the flower beds, mow the lawn. They still haven't told me the house rules, so that was another thing I was excepting to hear today.

"Carbonated or regular?" Lena asked back

"Regular, please,"

"Take a seat," Stef gestured to the set table. There were three sets of plates set. One was set at the end of the table and one on each side. Stef had taken the seat at the side closer to the kitchen sink and window. I assumed the place at the end was Lena's, so I walked up to the only spot left.

By the time I sat down, Lena had poured me a glass of water.

"Oh!" Stef exclaimed and jumped up, right when Lena had sat down "Almost forgot the syrup!" She walked up to the corner of cabinets and opened one that was up to the wall. She took a bottle of syrup out and set it on the middle of the table as she sat down.

"We used to go through couple of these a month, when the kids all lived here," Stef said as Lena reached for the syrup to pour some over her pancakes

"Jesus was like crazy for it," Stef said chuckling "He's also crazy about ketchup...not sure where that obsession came from," Stef wondered out loud, but I still had no idea who Jesus was. I mean, sure, I saw all the photos that were on the wall after you come down the stairs, but there were so many of them.

"Jesus is our youngest son," Lena explained, while Stef reached for the pancakes and put two on her plate

"We have three kids," Lena continued, when Stef stabbed two more pancakes and wiggled her left hand fingers towards me

"Plate...give me your plate," Stef explained after seeing my confused look

"Oh," I breathed out and handed the plate to her. She put the two pancakes on and handed the plate back to me.

"Brandon is our oldest. He's 19," Lena told me as Stef handed me the syrup "Try it! It's very good!" I took the bottle and poured a little over my pancakes, careful not to pour too much and waste it

"He's at San Francisco, studying at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Brandon plays piano and writes his own compositions," Stef sounded and looked very proud of him

"Brandon is Stef's biological son, who she had in previous marriage," Lena explained to me

"I was married to a man at first. Tried to live normal life that my father would approve of. He was a man of God and when he found me kissing another girl, when I was teenager, he sent me to a priest to try and set me straight. The day I met Lena, was the day I stopped hiding who I really was," Stef explained briefly glancing to her wife

"I know you were wondering about that," Stef said when she looked at me. She was right, I was wondering about that. Maybe they have fostered kids so much that they already know how the first morning usually goes and what questions are asked and what the kids are too afraid to ask, but still think.

I glanced back to Lena, wondering if she will continue on or add anything. She did continue "After a year of the three of us living together, we started to foster two foster kids,"

"Twins," Stef added "They are 18 now,"

"Jesus and Mariana," Lena smiled saying their name "Mariana is in Stanford, studying law in Stanford University, but her twin is in San Francisco. He got a wrestling scholarship at San Francisco State University and is studying sociology there,"

"Eat up. Before it gets cold!" Stef again spoke up, this time pointing her fork to my plate

I nodded my head back and picked up the tableware. The pancakes seemed very similar to the ones Callie makes. Minus the syrup. She usually made pancakes on Saturdays. I would wake up to the smell of freshly made pancakes. She made them even when she had to go work that day. I was fighting back tears as I missed this simple routine Callie and I have. Had.

Quickly I cut off a part of the pancake and started to eat, to try and hide the fact that I got so easily emotional.

"Jude. Is everything okay?" Lena asked, I heard worry in her voice. I nodded my head back and cut off another piece of pancake, trying to act as if nothing was wrong.

"It think it was very amazing what your sister did," Lena said after a little while "Getting guardianship of you. That's a huge responsibility, especially, because she's so young herself,"

"It's what she does," I replied without looking up, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible "She has always taken care of me. Even before we entered foster care," I pushed the cut off piece of pancake around the plate

"What is she like?" Lena sounded curious. Without looking up to, I shrugged my shoulders.

It's hard to describe her, even thought I know her so well. We know each others flaws and strengths. I know what drives her crazy, what sets her off, but I also know what makes her happy. I can tell fake smile from real one; a real, genuine laughter from a fake one. She's quiet, reserved. Callie doesn't like altercation, but she would do everything she could to protect those, who she love and care about. She's guarded and hard to trust, because so many times she has been let down and hurt. Her favorite food, movie, TV show, books, music - I know all of that. I know her deepest and darkest fears, what she is scared from, what she has nightmares about. I know what her dreams are.

I know Callie inside out, but whenever I'm asked that sort of questions, I have no idea how to answer it.

"She's…" I was having trouble finding the right words to describe her "She's Callie," I said finally looking up at my foster moms. That's all I could say. For me, that described her perfectly.

I tilted my head down and looked back at my plate "If you would know her, you would understand,"

Stef POV

I had just returned from a little road trip. The first stop I made was the Girls United group home, where I talked to the mentor Rita Hendricks. She seemed very upset about the news of Callie's disappearance. Sadly, she had no information about where Callie could be, what could have happened or if she had any enemies or anyone who would want to hurt her. She was as clueless as the rest of us. On the way back to station I stopped at Daphne Keene place and asked her the same kind of questions. The result was the same.

Her friend and co-worker Lisa lived on a different side of the city than Girls United home and Daphne lived at. I figured I would return to work and see if there is any new information about Callie's credit cards, her phone location or if there was anything on the cameras, before I go see her friend Lisa from work and talk to her co-workers at Great Maple.

"Stef!" Diaz, my colleague called the moment I was up to my desk. I turned around and saw him walking up to me with a file in his hand.

"Anything?" I asked eager to hear any sort of news

"Her credit record looks normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. No suspicious transactions," Diaz replied setting the file down and opening it "She took out some cash from an AMT on the corner of University Ave and the 30th street around 3:40 PM yesterday" Diaz said pointing to the record

"300 dollars," I read the sum "It's the same each month," I said dragging my finger over the records "That must be the money she gives her brother for lunch and as pocket money,"

"There is no record of her buying groceries at any market after that," Diaz said crossing his arms on his chest as I was looking over the records

"That means she didn't make it to the market," I concluded, Diaz nodded his head back "That's what...?" I was thinking about opening up a map and take a look, but Diaz stopped me

"About 2 blocks away if she was planning on going to the Vons mall, like you had mentioned," Diaz answered the question for me "It's 10 minute walk from the ATM to the mall!"

"What about her phone?"

"I talked to Jin, the IT guy, he said her phone was last on at Normal Heights region. On foot, that some 30 minute away from where she took the cash out," Diaz explained

"That seems strange, don't you think?"

"Maybe she had a friend there?" Diaz wondered

"Not the ones I know of," I replied "The Girls United home and her friend Daphne place is no where near that region. But her friend Lisa lives in Hillcrest,"

"Why would you take out 300 dollars and go to some...random part of town?" He moved his eyebrow up a bit

"No," I shook my head "I know what you are thinking, but no..."

"It's a possibility, Stef. One that I think, we have to take in consideration!" Diaz put his hands on his belt "The deal could have gone wrong..."

"She's wasn't buying drugs!" I refused to believe that

"How can you be so sure? You have never even met the kid!" Diaz reasoned back

"Because I know!" I stated back "I just now! Okay?!" My voice had gotten a bit louder

"How?" Diaz didn't back off

"Because-" I started, but I was cut off my Kate, my co-worker, who worked the front desk "Stef!"

"Yeah?" I looked to Kate, who just walked up to me

"I got a call from Kindred Hospital!" Kate informed me, looking between me and Diaz "They say they have a Jane Doe that matches the description of the missing girl you are looking for,"