Thank you to all who have followed and reviewed. I promise I have not forgotten about this story, I have just been stuck as to where I want to take it. This chapter is focused on the rest of the family and how they are dealing. The next chapter will be focused on Callie and her diagnosis. Again sorry for the wait but thanks for stickin with me!

"Mom!"

Stef's head snapped up as she heard the small voice of her youngest. She stood up and all but ran to her children and wife as they entered the waiting room.

"My babies." Stef said as she exhaled a breath she didn't even know she was holding.

"How is she?" Lena asked as soon as she could make eye contact with her wife.

Stef looked down at her children and licked her lips. "Hey B why don't you guys go grab something from the cafeteria?" She asked, hoping he would get the hint that the two adults needed to talk alone.

"Uhh yeah sure." Brandon responded. "Come on, guys." He started walking towards the stairs, followed reluctantly by Jesus and Mariana, but Jude remained still.

Lena sighed and ran her fingers through her son's hair. "Jude, sweetheart, can you go with Brandon and get something to eat, please?"

Tears filled the boy's eyes. "Why do you always tell us to go get food when you are talking about Callie? She is my sister! I need to know whats going on! I have to! I can't lose her!" His voice grew angrier with each word and the tears were flowing freely. Stef sighed and dropped to her knees before pulling her youngest into her arms.

"My sweet, sweet boy." She kissed his head a few times as she rocked him. "I know you're worried about Callie, but this isn't something you need to be dealing with. It is something that us as moms need to deal with." She cupped his face in her hands and smiled slightly. "I promise you that we will keep you updated." She looked up at her other children. "All of you updated."

Jude sniffed back a sob as he nodded his head.

"She's so strong, baby. She's gonna be alright." Lena added as she wrapped her arms around the boy as well.

Finally, Jude pulled away from his mothers and wiped his eyes.

"Maybe we can get something for Callie at the gift shop." Mariana suggested as she put her arm around her little brother. "Come on, you can pick it out."

This time, Jude allowed his siblings to take him with them as they descended down the stairs to the first floor of the hospital.

Once the children were out of sight, Stef exhaled once again deeply once again and Lena gave her wife a knowing look.

"Talk to me." The curly haired woman said as she pulled her wife over to a chair so they could talk.

Stef put her hands in her lap and played with the material of her shorts, which she had't had the chance to change out of yet from the pool.

Lena gently laid her hand onto of her wife's, stilling it and causing the blonde to look up.

"How is she?" Lena asked, full of love and patience.

Stef's eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I don't know." She said as she let her head drop again.

"What do you mean you don't know? What happened in the ambulance?" Lena asked, tilting her head to try and reach her wife's eyes.

Stef shook her head in anger. "She looked so helpless lying there, strapped to that board. And then she...she woke up. But she was so disoriented and moving around too much that they had to sedate her." Stef finished, wiping a tear. "One of the paramedics was telling me a little about what she had near drowning or something, but I don't really remember." Stef confessed as she buried her head in her hands.

Lena sighed and placed her hand on her wife's back and began to rub soothing patterns. She knew it had been difficult for the blonde to be with Callie and not do anything but watch her suffer.

"Did they say anything when they took her in?" Lena asked gently, not wanting to upset her wife more, but needing to know as much as she could about her daughter.

"No. Not really. They just took her back. But they said she would have to have some tests done to see how much damage was actually done." She looked up at her wife. "But I have no idea how long that takes or what the possibilities even are!" She continued angrily.

Lena nodded and decided to simply be with her wife and ask questions later. She pulled the blonde up into an upright position and then slowly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, effectively making Stef lean into her embrace. "She's gonna be ok." Lena whispered into her wife's ear as she held her while praying that she was right.

"What about this one?" Mariana held up a fuzzy brown bear sporting a t-shirt that said 'Get Well Soon'.

Jude glanced over at his sister and shrugged his shoulders. "Sure" He mumbled.

Mariana sighed as she put the bear back on the shelf. "Come on, Jude. I know you're scared and worried about Callie, we all are, but maybe helping pick out something for her would help distract you until you can go see her." She teen tried to explain to her younger brother.

"If" Jude replied.

"What?"

"I said if. If I get to go see her. If she survives. If she doesn't die!" He yelled as he threw the bottle of gatorade that Brandon had bought for him when they first got to the cafeteria/gift shop area.

Brandon and Jesus came running over at the yelling and tried to get an understanding of the situation. "What's wrong?" Brandon asked.

"Jude was just letting off a little steam" Mariana said, as to help out her brother who she knew was hurting.

Brandon tried to wrap an arm around his youngest brother, but he shrugged the affection off.

"Leave me alone!" He growled at his siblings.

"We get it, Jude. We're upset too. But..." Mariana tried to speak, but Jude interrupted.

"NO YOU DON'T!" He yelled.

Brandon grabbed the boy's arm and led him away from the other people who had begun to stare.

"LET GO OF ME!" He yelled again as he yanked his arm back.

"Hey! Jude! We know you're mad, but you can't yell like that." Jesus said as he eyes his brother.

Jude snapped his head to face the boy. "Don't tell me what to do! You don't know how I'm feeling! You don't know Callie like I do! She is everything to me!" He cried out, trying to keep his voice from wavering.

"We love her too, Jude." Mariana said gently, which seemed to set the boy off even more.

"YOU DON'T LOVE HER LIKE I DO!" He yelled in her face. "You hated her when she first got here and you only care about her when it's convenient for you! You're so selfish! She was all that I had for years! So don't even try to tell me that you love her too! You don't get to get upset about this! YOU DON'T GET TO CRY FOR HER! You don't even care! IT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN HER! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU! With everything you did! Callie didn't do anything and she is still the one dying!" He spat.

"Jude! Why would you say that? And she's not dying!" Jesus yelled back at the boy before Brandon put a hand on his shoulder, telling him to keep calm.

"You will never be her sister. So stop acting like you care." Jude said with a glare before taking off towards the doors.

Jesus looked from the door to his twin who looked like she had just been slapped.

"It's ok. I'm ok." Mariana replied as her eyes filled with unwanted tears. She blinked a few times before forcing out a small smile. "Go, Jesus. I'm fine."

The teen looked hesitantly from his twin and to the door again before he caught eyes with Brandon. Jesus gave him a look and the older boy knew what he wanted.

"I've got her. You get Jude." Brandon responded before Jesus nodded his head and took off.

Brandon looked at Mariana, who was trying unsuccessfully to wipe away the falling tears.

"Mari..."

"I'm fine." The brunette replied, holding her hand up to stop her brother. "Let's just go back upstairs and wait." She said as she headed towards the elevators.

Brandon sighed as she watched his sister try and hold herself together. He wished he could do something to help his siblings, but for the life of him, he didn't know what to do.

Stef and Lena had remained sitting in the cold, hard chairs in the dimly lit waiting room for only about 15 minutes before they heard the ping of the elevator and saw two of their children walking towards them.

Lena got up and right away could tell something was wrong.

"What happened?" She asked as she made her way to her children.

Mariana kept her head down and continued to walk over to an empty chair and sat down. Meanwhile, Lena had stopped her eldest son and caught his eyes. "Brandon?" She asked and he knew what she was asking.

"Jude got a little upset and kinda took it out on Mariana." He began, knowing there was no use in trying to fake any part of what happened. "Jesus is with him." He quickly added, as Lena scanned behind him to see where her two other sons were.

Upon hearing what her son said, Stef too got up and walked over to where her wife was. "What do you mean he got upset? Did he say something?" Stef asked as she cocked her head in order to really listen and hear her son.

Brandon scratched the back of his head as he tried to figure out how to best explain what happened. "Yeah, I mean he was upset and Mariana was just kinda talking to him and I dono really he just like snapped and yelled at her."

Both mothers looked over towards their daughter who was curled up onto the chair, her head resting on her knees.

Stef and Lena nodded at each other as they had a silent conversation.

Lena gave her wife's hand a slight squeeze before turning and walking towards Mariana, while Stef remained with Brandon.

"Ok, B. Where did Jude and Jesus go?" Stef asked, not beating around the bush.

Brandon looked down and bit his lip. "Uhh I don't know for sure really. Jude... he kinda ran off" He started but was interrupted by the blonde.

"What? He ran off? Like out of the hospital?"

Brandon shrugged his shoulders slightly in shame. "I'm sorry mom. He took off and Jesus ran after him, so I stayed to make sure Mariana was alright." He said as he looked up and saw that Lena was squatted in front of his sister, trying to get her to talk.

Stef licked her lips. "Have you tried calling Jesus? Or even Jude for that matter?"

"No. Not yet." Brandon mumbled as Stef pulled out her phone. "I'm sorry, mom!"

Stef smiled sadly at her son. "I know, baby. I'm not mad at you." She reassured him as she put the phone up to her ear.

"Hi, my love. Do you have Jude? Yes? Ok. No it's ok, baby I was just checking."

Brandon exhaled when his mother was able to confirm that his brothers were accounted for. As she walked a little ways away from the waiting room to ask her middle son about what happened, Brandon found an empty chair and sat down. His head dropped down into his hands as he waited for whatever life was going to throw at his family next.

"Can you talk to me, sweetheart?" Lena asked for what seemed like the hundredth time since she had walked over to her obviously upset daughter.

And just as the times before, Mariana kept her head resting on her knees and remained looking straight ahead.

Lena shifted her weight, as the squatting was beginning to cut off circulation. "Baby, you're ok. Talk to mama. Please." Lena began to almost beg. She feared that Mariana was reverting back into the silent little girl who they had fostered all those years ago. There had only been a handful of other times when she began to retreat into herself, but she and Stef were always able to pull her back out.

A tear fell from the Latina's eye and fell- the girl not even caring anymore to wipe it away.

Lena's heart broke as she sighed and stood up before sitting down next to her daughter, and like she had done with Stef, placed her hand on the girl's back. She made quick eye contact with her wife as the blonde walked out of the room with her cellphone between her shoulder and her ear, but her focus was soon pulled back by the small sniffling of her daughter and the deep sigh of her son.

She wanted to wrap her kids up in her arms and never let them go. How could such a fun trip turn into such a terrible disaster?

It was only until they heard three words did all three family members stand up and hurry over to the source of the voice.

"Family of Callie?"