A/N: As always, thank you for all the positive feedback. You seriously don't know how much they all mean to me. This chapter was meant to be all Callie, but it turned out that Stef had more to say. Please let me know what you think!

Chapter Four

Callie hadn't really expected to see Stef waiting for her when school let out, but when she saw Helen instead of her, she realized she'd been clinging to hope she hadn't even known she had. She saw Mariana, Jesus, Brandon, and Jude waiting outside the main building for Lena. Her eyes lingered on Jude, who was talking to the others and laughing at whatever Jesus was saying. The sight brought a sad smile to her lips. All she'd wanted was for him to belong to a family. She was disappointed in the cards she'd been dealt recently, but at least Jude didn't have to suffer with her.

She turned around before any of them could notice her and walked to Helen's car. It was the lone car parked in the handicapped area. Callie hoped no one noticed her as she got into the back. She didn't really feel like sitting up front with Helen; the least amount of contact she had with her, the better.

"Ready?" Helen asked once Callie was settled.

Callie nodded in reply.

Once they were out of the parking lot and on the way back to the house, Callie finally got up the courage to speak up.

"So, uh…my little brother Jude is reading an essay that he wrote for school tonight. I guess he won a contest, so the school wants him to read it tonight. And I was wondering, if…I could go."

Helen was silent for so long that Callie wondered if she'd heard a word she just said. In fact, the only sound filling the car was the music coming from the oldie station Helen listened to. Ironically, the Beatles were playing. It wasn't Hey, Jude, but it still served to remind Callie of her brother.

"I don't know," Helen said at last. "It seems like a good excuse for you to run away. I've read your file, and I know all about that stunt you pulled after moving in with the Fosters. You hadn't even been there for a day before you ran away to San Ysidro to get to your brother. What would stop you from doing the same thing tonight?"

All Callie could do was sit numbly as she tried to process what she just heard. Was she serious? Did she actually think she would run away at a school award's ceremony? Where would she go?

"I'm not going to do anything," Callie said slowly, wanting there to be no confusion. "It's just my little brother reading his essay at school. What's so wrong about that?"

"Nothing, if that's all that's going on here. But I'm not convinced it's that simple. Your brother was adopted by your last foster family. Going would only confuse the two of you, and it would be all too easy for you to slip by without anyone noticing. I think the best thing for everyone involved is for us not to get mixed up in any of that. We can do something fun ourselves. How about we go out for ice cream after dinner?"

Callie could feel the sting of tears behind her eyes and fought like hell to keep them at bay. There was no way she was going to let Helen see the way her words were affecting her.

She'd promised Jude that she would be there to hear him read his speech. She'd promised. He'd worked so hard on it, and despite his shyness at the attention that would be placed on him, she knew he was excited about it. She didn't know how he would react when he didn't see her there to hear him. She'd convinced him to get adopted without her, and now there were so many obstacles coming between them. How much more disappointment would he have to endure before he ended up running away, too?

"Can I at least go over there tomorrow to see him? I don't want him to think I didn't want to go." She tried to keep the emotion out of her voice, but she wasn't sure how successful she was. Part of her didn't care if Helen knew she was upset. The only thing she cared about was the fact that she was going to disappoint Jude yet again, and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

"How about I call Elaine and see if we can arrange something?"

Callie shrugged, knowing she wasn't going to get a better offer.

Once they arrived back at Helen's home Callie all but ran up to her room. She could hear Helen calling her, but she ignored her. Let her get locked in her room for the rest of the night. At least she would be alone in order to get her phone call in.

With her bedroom door closed, Callie dug the cell phone Stef and Lena gave her after returning from Girls United and called the first number on her speed dial.

After four rings she got Stef's voicemail. Without leaving a message she tried Lena. Same thing. In the back of her mind, she knew they were both busy with work, but she couldn't help the pang of sadness that overcame her anyway.

Maybe It's all for the best, she couldn't help but think. Maybe it's better if they don't pick up the phone. That way it'll hurt less when I don't come home.

By the time Helen came up to tell her dinner was ready Callie had resigned herself to missing Jude's ceremony and vowed to make it up to him somehow. She wasn't sure how, but the idea of running away suddenly didn't seem so bad.

"So? How'd it go?" Lena asked when Stef announced her arrival home by slamming the door.

Stef fought for calm as she tried to get the words she was going to say to sound okay in her head. So far nothing she'd come up with on the ride home seemed adequate enough to convey all the emotions rolling around inside her. She stood pacing in the entryway, wondering how she was going to tell her family that Callie wasn't coming home yet. Every time she thought about it, Jude's face would pop into her mind. All this time she'd been trying to imagine what Callie was going through that she'd failed to consider Jude's feelings. It made her feel all the more terrible about the situation. Jude would be devastated when he found out she wasn't coming home.

Lena entered from the kitchen, worry evident on her face. She raised an eyebrow, and Stef knew she was going to have to say something.

"Not so good," she managed to get out. "Judge Ringer was either the busiest man in the world, or he was avoiding me. They wouldn't let me see him, so I had to make an appointment for Monday morning."

"You're kidding." Lena bowed her head in exasperation. "How could they let you sit there all day without seeing him? They did know it was concerning Callie, didn't they?"

"Oh yes. I made that abundantly clear. Unfortunately she isn't high on their priority list, and now she's going to have to stay in her foster home for the weekend."

"Oh my god." Lena sighed and sat down on the couch. With her elbows on her knees, she rested her head in her hands. Stef joined her, rubbing her back soothingly. "What are we going to tell Jude? She's going to miss his essay, and he's going to be completely devastated. Do you think we did the right thing adopting him without her? They've been together so long…"

"No." Stef interrupted before her wife could finish the sentence. "Adopting Jude was probably the best thing we did. And not just for Jude, but for Callie as well. Keeping him safe has been her priority for so long that she really hasn't had a chance to look out for herself. If there's one thing we know about her, it's that she's a fighter. She'll get through this. We all will. What's three more nights when we have a whole lifetime to look forward to?"

After a moment Lena sat up and ran a hand through her curly hair. "You're right. I know. I just can't help but think of everything that she's been through. She doesn't deserve this."

"I know, love." Stef wrapped her wife in a warm embrace and rubbed her back. "But we have to push through this. We owe it to both of them not to give up. We can't let the system win."

Afterwards they sat in silence for some time. The kids were upstairs getting ready for Jude's award ceremony. It was uncharacteristically quiet, but Stef wasn't worried about it. The fact that Brandon, Mariana, and Jesus were all in the house getting ready to go to a school function on a Friday night without complaint was a testament to the love they felt for their newest brother.

"Is the camcorder charged?" Stef asked as she forced herself to break the hug.

"Yeah. It should be good to go."

As they went upstairs to get ready, they couldn't help but notice the door of the girls' room slightly ajar. Callie's side of the room just looked so empty. Stef didn't know whether she was imaging it or not, but it looked so…vacant. It had never appeared that way when it had just been Mariana's room, but now it felt like a giant cavern with only half the room currently being used.

Mariana poked her head through and gave her a knowing look. Stef offered her a small smile and said, "Finish getting ready. I want to be out of here in half an hour."

Mariana nodded. "Okay."

"Okay." Stef followed Lena inside the bedroom and tried not to think about how Mariana hadn't rolled her eyes about not having enough time to get ready or snapped at her for lingering outside her room, or any of the other things she used to get so upset about that only made Stef love her all the more. Callie leaving had affected all of them.

Brandon, Mariana, Jesus, and Jude were waiting in the living room when Stef and Lena emerged just before five-thirty.

"What's this? Everyone's actually ready on time? Did we fall into some kind of alternate universe?" Stef asked, trying to keep the atmosphere in the house light and joyful.

None of the kids were having it. "Mom, where's Callie? Is she coming to the ceremony tonight?" Mariana asked. Her tone implied she already knew the answer.

Stef sighed and looked down. "No," she managed to say. She was ashamed to admit that she didn't have the courage to look Jude in the eye as she did so. "Turns out the system is pretty complicated, and she's going to have to stay where she is until Monday."

"What?"

"That's so unfair!"

"How can they do this?"

Stef heard all their objections. She'd already thought of them all. When she did have the courage to look at Jude she wasn't surprised to see that he was the only quiet one in the room.

"Jude? You okay?"

Everyone instantly quieted when they realized Jude hadn't spoken a word since the announcement.

When Jude looked up, there was determination in his eyes. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"You sure?" Stef wasn't convinced. "It's okay to be disappointed. I'm disappointed. But I promise you, Mama and I are doing everything we can to get her back."

Jude nodded. "I know." He hesitated, and Stef somehow knew she wasn't going to like what he was about to say next. "I'm just not sure your best will be good enough."

"What does that mean?" Stef asked, a small note of hurt in her voice.

"It just means that the system seems to do everything it can to make Callie's life miserable. She went to Juvie when she was trying to stop our foster father from hitting me. She was protecting me, but all they saw was a girl who was destroying our foster father's car. And that's just one thing. There is so much more to Callie than what the system sees, and it's not fair that this stuff keeps happening to her." Jude looked down, his eyes so full of pain and betrayal that he looked so much older than this thirteen years. It wasn't right that Jude had already experienced first hand how cruel the world could be.

"Hey, listen to me, okay?" Stef bent down so that she was eye level with her son. "We are getting Callie back. One setback isn't going to make us give up. I have an appointment with the judge on Monday morning, and I'll make him see reason. Have a little faith. Sometimes life can surprise you."

Jude nodded and smiled, looking much more like his true age. "You mean it?"

"I absolutely mean it. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't. Now, do you think you're ready to read your essay?"

Jude's face fell again. "It won't mean as much if Callie isn't there."

"Don't worry about that." She held out the camcorder so he could see it. "It's all going to be on tape. It'll be the first thing Callie sees when she comes home."

Jude smiled brightly and before Stef even knew what was happening, his arms were around her in the tightest hug he'd ever given her. "Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome, sweetie. Now let's go before all the good seats are gone."