Lena woke up from her spot where she slept on the chair, when she saw the light was on in the bathroom. She looked at the clock which read 6:00. she looked over at the couch seeing Callie, Jesus, and Mariana, still asleep leaning on each other. Looking down at the floor, she saw Brandon and then realized Jude was not there. Lena got up and went to the bathroom, knocking on the door.
"Jude, are you in there? Are you ok?"
She waited a few seconds and didn't hear anything so she knocked again. "Jude?" After the second time with no response she opened the door, walking in.
Jude was lying on the floor next to the toilet. Steff came up behind Lena, "what's going on?"
"Jude must have caught what Callie had."
"ok lets take him to his room and get some medicine in him."
Lena picked Jude up, carrying him up stairs to his bed. As she laid him down she felt his forehead which was burning up just like Callie's the night before. Steff came in placing a trash can next to his bed, gently shaking him to wake up. Jude looked around confused. "Hey buddy, you must have come down with a stomach bug. I'm just going to give you some of this medicine and you can go back to sleep for a little while."
Steff gave him the medicine and placed a cup of water on his nightstand. She headed down stairs to get ready for the long day ahead. Lena laid in bed next to Jude, stroking his hair until he fell asleep.
Callie woke up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She smiled as she looked down and saw that her, Jesus, and Mariana were laying in a pile on the couch. She has never been that close to someone and felt so safe at the same time. Looking down and the floor she realized Jude was not there. She started to panic and jumped up running upstairs to look for him. She went to his room and saw Jude fast asleep, and Lena stroking his hair.
Lena looked over seeing Callie standing at the bedroom door looking panicked. "Hey sweetie, Jude is alright he just came down with what you had"
Callie walked over to the bed carefully sitting down, making sure she didn't wake Jude. Lena looked at Callie as she sat down looking at Jude with a sad expression on her face. "Callie how are you feeling today?"
Are you well enough to go to school? If not you can stay home for another day and rest up."
"I'm feeling a lot better but I need to stay home and watch Jude."
"Callie you don't have to look after Jude today, I will be staying home from work to watch him."
"But he needs me! I always watch him when he is sick."
"Sweetie I know that you have had to take care of him for so long on your own, but your still a child and you don't need to worry about watching after him all of the time and being the adult. You need to go to school today, ok? Things are different now. Steff and I love you two very much and we will look after the both of you."
Callie looked up at her with tears threatening to fall. "Thank you," Lena kissed her forehead, "ok go on downstairs, Steff should have breakfast ready."
The kids sat down at the table with Steff to eat breakfast. Mariana noticed that Jude was missing from the table.
"where is Jude?"
"Jude seems to have caught the stomach bug that Callie had the other day and he will be staying home sick for the day"
"Oh, well, I hope he feels better soon."
Jesus looked over at Callie who just looked down at her food with a sad expression on her face. "Call, you sure you feel well enough to go to school today?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"You sure?"
Callie nodded her head and Steff gave him a look as if saying drop it for now. The kids finished their meal in silence when they where finished they grabbed there backpacks to leave for school. Callie went to the living room to get her backpack "Do you mind if I walk to school today? I would really just like to get some fresh air."
"Umm.. Yeah, go ahead, but make sure you get to school on time"
"Thank you, I will"
Steff drove the kids to school and Callie started walking a few minutes into her walk she started to get an uneasy felling in her stomach. She kept walking but kept her head down, staring at her feet as she walked.
She bumped into something and jumped back a little but when she looked up she realized it wasn't a something it was a someone. Callie looked up with fear evident in her eyes as she took a step backwards crossing her arms over her chest as if she was trying to perfect herself.
"Why are you here?"
"I just wanted to see youl. long time no see."
"How did you know where I was?"
"I just happen to know these things."
"Look I really need to get to school. I can't be late."
"why don't you skip school for a day and we can catch up."
"No, I really should be going."
Callie started to walk away when he forcefully grabbed her arm.
"Liam, let go of me!"
"I just really miss you and I think we need to spend some time together. I still love you and I know you still have feelings for me" he said as he gently rubbed his hand across her leg.
Callie flinched back and whimpered. "Callie babe you know you like it and you know you want more."
"No let me go."
Liam whispers in her ear "don't make this any harder then it has to be!" He let go of her arm when a woman walked passed them walking her dog. Callie knew this was her only chance so she ran as fast as she could as soon as he loosened his grip and didn't stop running until she got to school.
She walked into school seeing the empty halls. She knew she was late. She walked into Timothy's class, hoping he didn't make a big fuss over her being late. "Miss Jacob, do you have an explanation for being late?"
" Ummm.. I was just running a little late that's all. No reason"
" Take your seat and don't let it happen again."
Callie walked past Jesus to get to her seat, not making eye contact. She sat down acting like she was paying attention, but her mind was on everything but her school work. She wanted this day to be over, done with school, and done with group. She wanted to go home and see Jude.
Steff got home with the kids and went to check on Jude. She found Lena and Jude sleeping on the couch. Looking over at the TV she saw the Finding Nemo credits playing. She walked over and gently shook Lena's shoulder.
"Hey, how's Jude?"
"He is definitely still sick but seems to be doing better then this morning."
" That's good."
"Where are the kids?"
"Callie is at group, Mariana is doing homework, Jesus is supposed to be doing homework, and Brandon is practicing."
An hour later Callie walked in the door and went to get a glass of water. "How was school today?"
She jumped and almost dropped her glass of water.
"Fine"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. How was group?"
"Fine."
"Did you share?"
"Yes."
" Did something happen today at school or at group?"
"No, everything fine. Why do you ask?"
" Oh, no reason. I was just checking. When you are finished in here, head into the living room and start your homework."
Mariana walks into the kitchen. " Mom, I was actually going to see if we could move Callie up to my room."
Callie looked at her with a shocked expression on her face. "I mean that is if she would like to." Lena looked at her daughter with a puzzled look on her face before turning her attention to Callie. "What do you think Callie. Would you like to sleep upstairs?"
"I thought you didn't want me to share a room with you?"
"Well I changed my mind and I want to apologize for the way I have been treating you. You don't deserve it, and I fell bad about the things I have said to you."
"Thanks Marian, it means a lot."
"No problem, so is that a yes?"
" Yeah, I would love to."
"Ok girls I guess it is settled. Callie will be moving into Mariana's room. I will go get the extra bed from the attic."
"Thanks again Mariana. It really does mean a lot more then you will ever know."
"No problem. You're family now."
"Yeah, family."
Callie walked into the living room where she saw Jude sleeping soundly on the couch. She sat down on the chair next to him and just watched him sleep. The rest of the day was spent moving things around and doing homework. Callie went up to her room to get into her pajamas. Lena had finished a load of laundry and was going to take it up to the girls bed room. She opened the bedroom door and what she saw brought tears to her eyes.
Callie had put her pajama bottoms on and was getting ready to put her shirt on when she heard the door being opened and looked up to see Lena staring at her with a look of what she thought to be sympathy.
Callie quickly tried to cover up and put her shirt on, not wanting Lena to see the scars. Lena watched her and saw the fear in her eyes. "Callie sweetie it's ok." Callie backed into the wall bringing her arms up to her chest clinging onto her shirt as if trying to cover up as much as she could.
"Come here baby, it's ok"
Callie coward into the wall and whimpered, looking down at the ground feeling embarrassed and scared.
Lena took Callies hand and lead her over to the bed.
"Callie do you want to talk about this?"
Callie quickly shook her head no. "Baby how did this happen? Who did this to you?"
After a few minutes Callie's tears slowed and Callie calmed down. "It was previous foster parents and they are from a lot of different things. The ones on my back are from a belt." These on my wrist are from my last foster father putting out cigarettes on my arm."
"Callie sweetie."
"Yeah?"
"You have bruises on your wrist, how did you get these they look like they are new."
Callie looked down at her wrist seeing the bruises that Liam had left for the first time. She grabbed her shirt put it on and once again coward away.
"Callie has someone hurt you? Callie look at me baby."
Looking at Callie, Lena could see that she was starting to hyperventilate. "Callie sweetie look at me its ok"
After 10 minutes of trying to calm her down, she was breathing normally but still had a look of fear in her eyes. "Callie lay down and I will be back up in a minute."
Walking down stairs, Lena found Steff in the living room with the, once again, sleeping Jude. "Callie just had another panic attack."
" What? Why?"
"I was taking the girls clothes up, when I opened the door, she was changing. She has scars all over her body. When I finally got her to talk to me she was showing me the scars on her wrist and I noticed she had fresh bruises. She freaked out and got really scared."
"What did she tell you? Who did it?"
" She won't tell me"
"No one hurts my Babies!"
"I know we will talk to her tomorrow about the bruises as for the rest of it we just need to give her time and she will come around and talk to us when she is comfortable. I'm going to give her a glass of water and check on the kids."
"Ok, night love."
Mariana walked into her bedroom and saw Callie curled in a little ball on her bed with tear streaks on her face. "You alright Callie."
"Fine"
Mariana decided to leave it at that as she went over and got in bed. When Callie thought she wasn't looking she grabbed her bunny out from under her pillow and put it under the blanket. Callie looked over and saw Mariana smiling.
"What?"
"Nothing, you don't have to be embarrassed about sleeping with a stuffed animal."
"What? I'm not!"
Mariana just smiled "yeah, sure, you want to know a secret?"
"What?"
"I sleep with a stuffed animal too."
Callie looked over at her not sure if she should believe her or not. Marian pulled her stuffed teddy bear out from her pillow and Callie smiled at her not feeling so embarrassed.
Lena was in the kitchen getting Callie a cup of water when she saw a flash of lightning followed by thunder. Lena quickly ran upstairs knowing that Mariana has been afraid of storms since she was a little girl. She walked into the room and saw Mariana and Callie curdled up on Callie's bed. Both of them clutching their stuffed animals with terrified looks on their faces.
Well, it looks like Mariana isn't the only one afraid of thunder storms, Lena thought to herself as she went over, placing the water on Callie's nightstand, She turned the lamp on and the lights off. she climbed in bed with the two, stroking their hair and whispering in their ears. Lena knew this was going to be another long night.
Please let me know if you think I should continue with this story. Let me know what you would like to see in the following chapters. I'm open to anything, I would love to add your ideas into the story. Sorry if this chapter has a few spelling mistakes I was rushing to get it finished. Thanks for reading.