But You Stood By My Side

WritingIsLoveAndLife


AN: We're over 800 hits, everybody! And we've even broken 900! Seeing such passionate readership of this story warms my heart. The reception for this story continually blows me away. Thank you all so much for reading. I've said this before, but I never expected this kind of a response to this story so quickly. I owe it all to you.

I've had 4 reviews posted to the last chapter of this story, so I'll go ahead and respond to those now:

Shin-X 25: I'm glad you understand how I've constructed that part of the story. I can see where you would get those comparisons, but that wasn't at all what I was going for.

I agree that AJ and Callie just have a fundamental understanding of each other that is beyond anything that Brandon could possibly begin to comprehend. He is the only sibling in his family never to have experienced the foster care system, so while I consider him a good, comforting, brotherly figure, he just will never have had the kind of experience necessary to fully understand what Callie (or any other of his siblings, for that matter) have gone through in the system. He lucked out with Stef and Mike as his parents, I believe, despite all of Mike's prior problems with alcohol.

I'm actually not a huge fan of superheroes, so I'm not entirely certain what you're referring to when you state that Jude pulled a Wolverine. The only thing I know about the character is that Hugh Jackman played him in all of the movies (and apparently did an excellent job!).

I actually wrote Jude to be like Lena in that regard. In the show, we are given the perception that Jude is closer to Lena, and Callie is closer to Stef, although both kids love them very much. I thought it would make sense for Jude to take after Lena in a lot of respects, given their closeness. Jude has also been shown to be quite observant, so I can easily see him remembering the night he was rescued, and how Lena allowed he and his sister to come home with them (eventually on a permanent basis) and using that memory as a benchmark in deciding to foster Braden.

I'm glad you liked my handing of the case file/record situation. It is a very sensitive, personal thing about Braden and as easy it would have been to write about how they opened and read the file, I felt like that would have been a cop-out, as well as going completely against everything I know about their characters from the show, and how I believe they would handle situations of a similar sensitivity. And, like I said in my reply to your previous review, I am striving to keep each of the show's existing characters completely in character, while still showing the natural progression of a 10-year period.

I hope I have accomplished that so far.

Nuke Rose: I love when stories get updated frequently as well. I hate waiting for new content, so I wanted my updates to be consistent with what I like to see in other stories in terms of frequency. Also, I am on a very screwy sleep pattern at the moment, so that bodes well with wanting to get frequent updates out.

I'm glad you still love the dynamic between Jude, Connor and Braden, and that you liked my back-story for Jack, as well.

Thank you for your suggestion. I can definitely incorporate it into the story at some point. I hope you'll continue to enjoy the rest of the story, and that you'll keep up the amazing work on all of your stories as well.

Elizap45 (Guest Review): Thank you for telling me the girl's name. I couldn't remember it off the top of my head when I wrote the last chapter. Thanks as well for the review, and hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

Guest: Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I'm so glad to hear you love the story. I put a lot of effort into it, so it is always nice to hear things like that. I was laughing while writing that title myself, and I personally really enjoyed writing Jude's little "I'm the best" speech. I can see him becoming incredibly sassy once he matures, so it was fun for me to touch on that slightly. I'm glad you've been looking forward to the new chapter. I hope you enjoy Braden's POV.

Also, I'd like to extend thanks to the users Small Town Boy, Snake River Conspiracy and Emily Cammarata for their respective follows and favorites (or both!) of this story. Emily Cammarata has also favorited me as an author, so thank you for that, as well. I hope you all continue to enjoy the story.


Disclaimer: Peter Paige and Bradley Bredeweg created The Fosters. I claim no ownership of the series, or its characters. I merely respect the series, and wish to pay tribute to it, while continuing to sharpen my writing skills. The only character I claim any type of ownership once so ever of, is my OC Braden, and any characters that I choose to create and insert into this story in the future.


Chapter 6

It's been roughly two weeks since I got placed with Jude Adams-Foster and Connor Stevens, and I'm getting more comfortable with them by the day. I don't flinch at their touch, I've let them hug me a few times, I've even relaxed my restriction on their usage of the word 'bud,' which they've taken to calling me quite naturally.

They've asked me to try and trust them. And the weird thing is, despite every impulse in my body telling me to do otherwise, I'm starting to.

Not reading my record when Mr. Williams gave it to them after they finished the paperwork finalizing the fostering arrangement really helped them in that regard.

As far as I know, that file is still in their bedroom safe. Jude even told me that he tore into the man the very next day for even bringing the file. He got even angrier when he realized that Mr. Williams himself had read a bit of it, and demanded that he come by the apartment to personally apologize to me.

I was upset, but the man looked thoroughly chastened so I knew Jude must have lit into him pretty good. I lectured him on my right to confidentially and was able to extract a promise from him that he would never look in another kid's file without authorization before I forgave him for his indiscretion.

Jude stepped in at that point, and in a very dangerous tone said, "Thank you for apologizing to my son. If you ever do anything like this again, I'll make sure you won't be able to find work at any Social Services branch in the world. Understand?"

The man nodded, and retreated from the apartment as fast as his aging legs would allow. I'll admit now that the sight of a grown man looking so scared was particularly amusing to me. In my experience, that never happens. My memories of adults usually begin with them towering over me, and end with me losing consciousness.

I thanked Jude for standing up for me, even though I was wasn't technically his son.

He looked at me with a look of pure sincerity and said, "Yes, you are," which was a sentiment that Connor immediately echoed.

I was floored. No foster parents were this sincere. Usually they are all smiles until the door closes and the curtains are drawn. You know the saying that you never know what goes on behind closed doors? Well… you're smart enough to figure out the rest of that, so you can infer what you will as to what happened.

As I was saying though, usually my foster families were the epitome of perfection on the outside, but not behind closed doors. And by now, I've dealt with enough bad foster families to immediately be able to pick up on whether they were genuine or simply acting.

When I looked at Jude and Connor, I saw nothing but sincerity in their eyes. And every single time I've looked at them in the past two weeks, it's still there. I'm pretty sure sincerity has taken up a permanent residence in their eyes, co-existing harmoniously with the obvious love the two have for each other.

I now understand the quip that Jude's brother Jesus made at dinner that first night about the both of them being "so sickeningly in love with each other that it makes everyone else blind."

Anyways, today I start at Anchor Beach. I'm nervous, but I think anyone in my position would be. I stand in front of the mirror in my bedroom, which has been painted a combination of yellow and black, examining my outfit. I take my fedora off and run my hands through my hair, before placing it back on. I decide to add a studded blue belt to the ensemble, which compliments my dark-wash jeans, flannel shirt and painted nails perfectly.

I nod at myself in the mirror as I hear Jude call out. "Braden! Let's go, bud! Breakfast!"

"Coming!" I call, as I take one last look in the mirror.

Padding down to the kitchen, I take my seat at the breakfast nook. "Good morning, bud," Connor says, ruffling my hair.

"Good morning," I reply.

"You sleep well?" he asks me, nose buried in a newspaper.

"Yeah, I did, thanks," I tell him, before turning my attention to Jude, who is working at the stove. "Whatever you're cooking smells great, Jude."

"Thank you!" he says, as he lifts the pan off the burner, and puts the contents on a plate off to the side.

I close my eyes, basking in the sizzling sound coming from the frying pan and the smell of freshly brewed coffee percolating in the machine.

I open them again to Jude's voice. "Bon appétit!" he says, placing the finished plate in front of me for my consumption. It's a big breakfast of cereal, bacon and eggs.

"Thank you," I tell him. "You didn't have to cook all of this for me."

Jude shrugs. "It's a big day, and you need to eat."

I accept his answer with a nod. "What do you want to drink?" he asks me. "Do you want milk, orange juice, lemonade, or do you want to have one of your two coffee's for the week?"

That's another thing about Jude and Connor: they actually care about me.

A week after I started staying with them, I started suffering withdrawal symptoms from my caffeine dependency. They took me to a doctor, who explained what I already knew. I told the doctor about how my most recent foster family used coffee to make sure that I stayed awake until my plethora of chores for the day were done and that I often crashed in exhaustion. He gave me a horrified, yet sympathetic look and recommended to Jude and Connor that they should gradually wean me off of coffee, and although he praised them for trying to use soda as a replacement, he said that my body was used to so much caffeine that one soda a day wouldn't have helped to make up the difference for the over 5 cups of coffee I was forced to consume on a daily basis at my old foster home.

Apparently, my body had learned how to function with that much caffeine in my system and was so used to the effects of such an astronomical amount of the drug that it was at a loss of how to cope without it.

He placed me on a strict regiment of a daily soda, and two cups of coffee a week, before telling the three of us to wait where we were while he stepped out for a minute.

He returned a short while later with a paper cup and some cream and sugar. "I recommend having a coffee now, but I didn't know how you took it."

"Thank you," I said to him, taking the cup and savoring the smell that I had gone without for a week at that point. I sipped it down black, as the three of us drove back to the apartment after the doctor wrote on his prescription pad and handed the slip to Jude and Connor.

For the past week, we've followed the instructions given to us by the doctor and I've felt a lot better for it. We're going to do another week of two coffees and then bring it down to one for another two weeks, before we try a week where I'll have no coffee at all.

I'm grateful to them for caring enough of about me to even go to the doctor. Most of my previous foster families never worried about me on that level. If I even said I was in pain, the usual response I got was being told to suck it up and take it like a man. I've had to ignore the pain of cracked ribs when I've breathed more times than I can count. I am also more adept at stitching myself up than one should ever be at my age.

Thinking of that reminds me that I still haven't answered Jude's question. I snap from my reverie to see him holding open the door of the refrigerator, cocking his eyebrows in question.

"I think I need a coffee today," I say to him, finally.

He nods, shuts the fridge and moves over to the counter where the coffee machine sits, extracting the pot from it and pulling a mug from the cabinet, which he pours the hot liquid into, before handing it to me.

"Thank you," I say, sipping it carefully so as to not burn my tongue.

"No problem!" he says, as he pours a coffee for himself and brings his plate over to sit on my left. "How are you feeling about today?"

"I'm nervous, but excited," I tell him.

"Understandable!" Jude laughs with a nod. "You should have seen me on my first day at Anchor Beach. I was terrified."

"Terrified?" I hear Connor repeat. I glace over to see he has finished with his paper and is now up and fixing his own plate of food. "Babe," he says lovingly. "Terrified doesn't even begin to do it justice."

"Hush, you!" Jude grumbles good-naturedly, with a dismissive wave. "Like you were any better on your first day."

"Actually," Connor retorts. "Yeah, I was."

"Liar!" Jude counters, eyes narrowing slightly, but not in an intimidating way. "You told me when we were 17 that you were just as nervous as I was."

One of the many things I've picked up on since living with Jude and Connor is just how observant Jude is, and just how good of a memory he has. It's almost impossible to get even a simple lie past him, and his memory is nearly infallible. He remembers stuff from years ago, even if it doesn't pertain to Connor, whom he has told me that he remembers absolutely everything about.

Connor is quicker to act than Jude, but he doesn't always think things through. He's a lot more impulsive, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be. He credits Jude for reigning him in a lot over the course of their relationship, and I've noticed that most of the time, it is indeed Jude who calms him down, or stops him whenever he springs to action and convinces him to talk things through first.

He's even had that effect on me, in the short time I've been around him. He calmed me down when I heard a homophobic remark directed their way while we were out on the town for the day. I've never reacted that strongly to anything in my life. I was furious that someone would dare to assume anything was wrong with them just because they were together romantically.

Jude crouched down, took me into a side-arm embrace, and whispered in my ear that it was okay. That he and Connor were used to it from people, even in this day and age. He told me to breathe with him, to calm down, and to think before I said or did anything that I couldn't take back.

I've never seen a couple like these two. They're so supportive of each other, and of me. They balance each other out perfectly. They also never keep secrets from each other. They literally talk about everything.

It's been refreshing to see, after the sorry excuses for relationships I've seen from some of my previous foster parents.

Turning back to the present, I hear Connor swear. "Damn your memory, Judicorn!" before looking at me sheepishly out of the corner of his eyes at the behest of Jude, who is giving him an epic glare. "Sorry," he apologizes to me.

"Don't worry about it," I assure him. "I've heard far worse."

"But you shouldn't have," Connor reasons. "I'm going to try to curb it, okay?"

"You don't have to do that for me," I tell him. "But, if it makes you feel better, feel free to try."

"Thanks," he says. "I'll still do it. It's a bad habit that can get you in a lot of trouble if you're not careful."

"Fair enough," I nod.

Looking back to Jude, I see him smirking at Connor triumphantly. Connor just shakes his head and returns to breakfast.

'God, I love how this couple interacts with each other,' I think to myself.

And I do. It doesn't take a genius to see that this is what a relationship should be like. Even, I can see it, and, like I said, I don't exactly have the greatest examples to go off of.

Jude looks at the clock, and nearly spits his coffee out. "We need to get a move on!" he says frantically. "Let's go, Con! Let's go, BC!"

I push my chair out and stand before freezing, as I realize that he called me something other than Braden or bud. "BC?" I question him.

He shrugs. "I'm Judicorn, and Connor is Con," he says. "I thought you needed a nickname too. You don't like it?"

I think briefly. "I love it, actually," I tell him honestly. "Can you call me that from now on, instead of Braden?"

Jude and Connor exchange a surprised look with each other. When they speak next, it's as one. "If that's what you want," they tell me.

"It is," I nod, giving them a reassuring smile.

"Well, okay then BC," Connor tells me. "Let's get you to school!"

"Sounds good!" I declare.


Arriving at Anchor Beach, I feel my nerves spike. 'This is it,' I say to myself, my breathing becoming shallow.

That must be what gives me away, because Jude and Connor turn in their seats to look at me. "BC, breathe buddy," Jude tells me. "You're going to be okay, I promise."

I follow his instructions, taking a deep breath and exhaling. "Thanks," I say gratefully.

"Don't mention it," he tells me. "I've been exactly where you are now. I know it's scary, but you passed the entrance exam with flying colors and you're smart in ways that they'll never be able to judge by a test. You'll be just fine."

"But, what if no one likes me?" I ask.

"They'll love you," Connor intones gently. "How could they not? Just be yourself, okay?"

"Okay," I nod.

"And if you need to come home, call Jude or I at any time on your cell and we'll come get you at any time, no matter what. Okay?" he tells me.

"Okay," I say.

"Good," Connor beams. "Now get going, buddy! Lena is waiting for you in the office to take you to your first class."

I exit the car. "Have a good day!" Jude calls out the window

"Thanks," I call back.

He smiles and waves at me. I take a deep breath, before ascending the steps to the front entrance. I pull the door open and walk smack dab into someone, sending me sprawling backwards.

"I'm so sorry," I hear a voice say. Reorienting myself, I see a beautiful girl, about my age, hovering over me nervously. She's got long black hair, and beautiful green eyes, which I immediately lose myself in.

"Are you okay?" she asks, voice cutting through my haze like a knife.

I shake myself out of. "Yeah, I'm fine." I reassure her, rubbing the back of my neck and looking down sheepishly, a blush coloring my cheeks.

"Good," she says, heaving a relieved sigh. "I thought I'd hurt you."

I shake my head. "No, you didn't," I tell her. I wisely bite back the "I've had worse" part of the sentence.

'Who is this girl, and what has she done to me?' I ask myself. 'I can just barely talk to Jude and Connor about stuff like this, and yet, I feel compelled to tell this girl everything.'

It's like she reads my mind, at least partially. "I'm Marina," she supplies, holding her hand out to me. "Marina Reyes."

"I'm Braden," I introduce myself. "Braden Anderson. BC for short."

"BC?" she asks aloud, probably more to herself than to me. She nods briskly, confirming my suspicions. "I like it!" she says.

"Thanks," I say, feeling my cheeks get hot yet again.

"I haven't seen you around before," she says.

"It's my first day today," I explain. "My foster fathers enrolled me just recently."

"Oh!" she says. "That's cool! Welcome to Anchor Beach!"

"Thanks," I say sincerely. "I have to go meet Principal Adams-Foster now. She's supposed to take me to my first class."

"Oh, okay!" she says, slightly too quick. "I'm sorry I kept you."

"It's not a problem!" I assure her. "I'll see you around."

"I look forward to it!" she says, and I notice a slight nervousness to her tone. "Bye, BC."

She walks away. I wait until she's out of my field of vision, before leaning against a pillar.

Thinking rationally again, I realize that my reaction to Marina could only mean one thing, and while it was scary to think about, I realized it was probably true.

'I think I'm in love.'


AN #2: There you have it everyone! How did you enjoy reading Braden's POV? Initially, I was going to go with a suggestion by the amazing Nuke Rose for this chapter, and I started with that in mind, but then my words did what they so often do, and took on a mind of their own. I will be saving both of his suggestions for later chapters instead. I also received suggestions in a review on the prologue of this story from user Lykos Lupus, that I will be using for some flashbacks in future chapters. So, if anyone has any suggestions or things they'd like to see happen, please be sure to let me know either via a review or a PM, and I'll try my best to incorporate them into the story.

The next chapter will be started immediately after the posting of this one, so you should have it up at some point later today or early tomorrow morning.

Until next time,

WritingIsLoveAndLife