A/N So sorry about the long wait, folks! Work and life have been hard and time-consuming as of late.

Chapter 6

Jude

"You ready for this?" Brandon asked Callie, offering her his hand. They were about to go talk to Jude about their relationship.

"No, but let's go," Callie sighed, grasping Brandon's hand. She stood, squeezed it once, and let go, knowing that walking into Jude's room holding Brandon's hand would upset him.

She paused as they came to Jude and Jesus's door, hesitating.

"Callie?"

"He's going to hate me," Callie whimpered quietly, whispering. "It would be one thing if we had come clean before the adoption, but now it's like taking the rug right out from under him. Again. We should have told them that morning, Brandon."

He sighed, looking at her. He hated seeing her this upset. "You're probably right, but we can't go back. We can't change it, and in our defense, we were in an absolute panic. All we can do now is go forward and try to do better." He paused, wondering if what he wanted to say was the right thing to say. "He'll forgive you, Callie."

She shook her head slowly. "I'm honestly not sure of that."

It was unfortunate that Jude chose that exact moment to open his door, finding Callie and Brandon standing there. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "I heard you guys whispering out here. What's up?"

Callie and Brandon walked into Jude's room. Callie sat next to Jude on his head, and Brandon sat across from them at Jude's desk.

"Jude," Callie started, "Brandon and I are back together." She wanted to rip the band aid off as quickly as possible, and she knew no amount of sugar-coating would make this easier for her brother.

"WHAT?" Jude jumped up from his bed, shocked. "Callie… You just got adopted."

"I know."

Jude looked between Brandon and Callie, waiting for the punch-line. He pinched himself, waiting to wake up. Two serious faces stared back at him instead. This was real.

Callie continued, hesitant. "Something happened between Brandon and I a couple days before I was adopted because I defended Rita. In defending Rita, I thought I had made my chances of getting adopted go away, but we were wrong."

"How… What does Rita have to do with anything?"

"One of the girls who was asked to speak with my social worker knew about Brandon and I… Knew that it wasn't one kiss, that we were in a relationship at GU. She was the same girl who accused Rita of hitting her, but she admitted that she didn't. I thought telling on her meant she would tell on me."

Jude looked angrily at Callie. "Of course you were in a relationship at GU! So what? You couldn't even wait a couple days to figure out if that girl would actually tell? And then when you figured it out that you could still be adopted, you couldn't just end it?" His voice became increasingly louder and more agitated as he spoke, and Brandon winced, wanting Callie to be spared this pain.

Callie, however, spoke calmly. A different sibling might have just yelled back at Jude regardless of the veracity of what he was saying, but she had taken care of Jude for most of his life and half of hers, and her first priority was taking care of him still. It was ironic that her love for Jude is part of why Brandon first fell for Callie in the first place; her love for them both had unintentionally caused significant pain when Callie ran away.

But she was done running now. "Jude, I'm so sorry this hurts you. But Moms said that they'll keep the adoption going for now."

He wasn't listening; he was thinking about something she said before. "What happened a couple days before your adoption?"

Callie really wanted to avoid admitting this to her younger brother, but he was growing up now, taller, more confident and ready to face the world. "We slept together." She said it simply and waited for the explosion.

In a fit of anger, Jude turned to Brandon and said cruelly, "Wow, you really are like Liam, aren't you?"

"Hey!" Before Brandon could say a word in his own defense, Callie stood up, and for the first time her voice turned hard. "Do not ever say that again, Jude, do you hear me? Yes, I willingly had a relationship with Liam, but he was 19, and I was 14, Jude. He was manipulating me, and he was using me. And he raped me." Callie's voice broke, and Jude's face showed remorse.

But she wasn't finished. "I've always been able to trust Brandon, even enough to choose to sleep with him. So don't you ever compare the two of them again, Jude."

"I'm sorry," Jude whispered, repentant. He locked eyes with Brandon, too, indicating his apology was to both of them.

"I'm in love with her," Brandon said quietly, his first words in the conversation. He looked directly at Jude, pleading. "I know… When I first told you that, I had no idea the minefield we were in, what we were up against. You were right to call it naïve thinking that we would just be together with no consequences. I know this is going to cost you, Callie, and the rest of the family. If I could prevent that, I would. That's why we tried to bury what happened between us… But ultimately we just couldn't live with this secret forever. I hate that it hurts you, and I love you like a brother, but I'll never be able to see your sister that way. I'm sorry."

Jude nodded, slowly. He wasn't ready to accept what Brandon was saying quite yet, but he understood it.

"Where will you go?" Jude asked helplessly, looking at Callie.

She sighed. "Possibly I'll stay here until I go to college, but I'll need to have Robert reinstate his parental rights at some point before then. He might have something different to say about where I live. I don't know exactly what happens next, Jude," she admitted.

"But for her to stay here while we figure it out, you have to keep this a secret," Brandon stated. "We all do."

Jude nodded, looking down sadly at the floor. "So eventually you'll be a Quinn," Jude said brokenly.

Callie's eyes filled with tears, but she didn't allow them to fall. "I'm so sorry that this hurts you, Jude. I will still love you just the same. You were my only family for such a long time… I won't just forget. And these people here are our family still – yours and mine. We don't need a piece of paper to prove that."

Jude nodded, miserably, clearly not convinced. "Can you guys just leave, please?" Jude asked. He didn't look at either of them.

Callie ruffled his hair and stood without another word. She and Brandon both left Jude and Jesus's room, feeling relieved and sad all at once.