Chapter 7- Fighting for Love

Hey everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I'll leave you with the last few lines from the last chapter since it was a cliff hanger: "You're not my mom". Callie began to run off after that statement. "Not this time baby…" Stef said chasing after her.

Callie was running from the pier towards the parking lot area. Stef ran to catch up with her, and started to get worried as Callie was more than a few strides ahead of her in an active parking lot.

"Callie stop!" Stef yelled, scanning the parking lot for any moving or reversing cars. Callie was running as fast as she could and wasn't paying attention to any of the details Stef was. Suddenly a car started backing up as Callie rushed forward.

"CALLIE WATCH OUT!" Stef screamed, picking up the pace.

Callie tried her best to slow down and move out of the way, and she ended up tripping just as the car stopped reversing. Stef's heart dropped down into her stomach as she saw how dangerously close Callie was to either getting hit by the car or getting run over. Stef had caught up with Callie, and motioned to the driver to not move. She bent down and pulled Callie up and out of the way, scanning her for any injuries.

"Oh my gosh! Callie baby! Are you okay? You can't just run off like that, I just told you that you scared mama and I half to death!" Stef stood there with her hands holding tightly onto Callie's upper arms.

Callie remained there silent, and a bit in shock. "Come on baby let's go sit down on the bench near the grass. It looks like you've got a scrape on your arm".

Stef lead Callie past the car as she waved them off. They got over to the bench and Stef led Callie to sit down. "Let me look at your arm love" Stef began, reaching to look at the inner part of Callie's arm where she tried to stop herself from falling.

"No!" Callie shouted, beginning to tear up. "I'm fine, just leave me alone!" Callie's wrist and arm were stinging from the graze against the pavement, as well as her knee, but she didn't want to show that she needed help in any way.

Stef hurt from Callie's words, but she knew that it was the hurt version of Callie who she was speaking to; the Callie that was stuck in the past of whatever had been bothering her the past couple days.

"Callie I'm not just going to leave you alone to hurt. I'm never going to purposely just leave you" Stef assured.

Tears streamed down Callie's face as she continued to fight Stef trying to get up from the bench. "No, leave me alone! I already told you I'm fine!"

Stef grabbed Callie's waist and pulled her back in, careful to not hurt her in case she had any other injuries.

"I'm not gonna let you go baby" Stef confirmed as she held Callie in her arms and pulled her into her.

"No, stop! I don't need you! You're not my mom! Stop it, I don't need you!" Callie screamed trying to pull away from Stef's grasp while continuing to cry.

"Let me go, I said stop! You're not going to always be there for me!" Callie continued. Stef wasn't planning on letting Callie go no matter what she said to try and get Stef away. Other people nearby were staring, but didn't question a teenager being held by someone in a cop uniform.

"It's okay Callie, I got you. I got you, I'm not letting go. You don't have to fight me anymore" Stef reassured. Callie stopped trying to free herself, and she surely didn't have the energy. She hadn't eaten anything that day. She sunk into Stef crying. Stef continued to hold her and rub her back, rocking her back and forth. A few tears fell from Stef's eyes. She felt for each one of her kids whenever they were hurting, and she knew that all she could do for Callie in this moment was love her, regardless of the fact that she left school and ran off.

Once Callie calmed down a bit, Stef spoke up. "Let's go to the car. I have a first aid kit in there".

Stef still had her police cruiser since she had only called into work after she found out Callie was missing. Stef walked Callie over where she had left her car when arriving at the pier. Stef opened the hatchback and had Callie sit on the edge of the trunk while she applied Neosporin to the inside of Callie's arm.

The whole time, Callie sat there silent, eyes still red from crying. She finally spoke up as Stef peeled back the wrapper from the bandage.

"You don't have to do this" she admitted, feeling ashamed of her actions earlier.

"I know I don't have to…" Stef replied. "…but I want to". Once she finished placing the Band-Aid on, she looked at Callie, who had her head hung down low. Stef gently placed her hand under Callie's chin and raised her head to look her in the eyes. Callie looked back, exhaustion evident all over her face. Stef gave her a small smile and leaned in to kiss her head. "I love you Bug" Stef stated, knowing to not expect a reply back from Callie at this moment. They both got in the car, and Stef text Lena letting her know what had happened.

"Hey Lena, I found Callie. She was on the other end of the beach near the pier. I'll tell you the full story in detail later, but I'm going to take her home for the rest of the day. She looks exhausted. See you when you get home".

Stef shut off her phone and started the car. The whole ride home, Callie was silent, reflecting on everything that had just happened. Once they got home, Callie went straight upstairs to sleep. She truthfully was exhausted emotionally and from the stress she was enduring.

Stef came up the stairs a few hours later since Callie hadn't eaten yet to see if she wanted anything. She knocked on her bedroom door, and after she didn't receive a reply she peeked in to find a peaceful looking Callie. Stef couldn't help but place her hand on her chest and silently "Aww". She walked over and slowly sat on the edge of the bed. She ran her fingers through Callie's hair to gently wake her up. She spoke when she saw Callie stirring.

"Hey love. You aren't gonna sleep tonight if you sleep any longer. It's already 3:00"

Callie kept her eyes closed, and sighed. She rubbed her eyes, and then went to scratch her arm, not realizing that's where the bandage from earlier was.

"Careful. Don't scratch there" Stef instructed, placing her hand over the bandage. Callie then opened her eyes and tried to look at what was itching her. She looked at Stef and suddenly remembered the events of earlier that day, and her face showed it. Stef gave Callie a sad smile before trying to distract her.

"I know you didn't really eat lunc- well, anything today. You must be starving" Stef spoke. Callie lay there also remembering that she in fact did not have breakfast, and that she dumped it in the trash.

"How about I go order us some pizza, huh?" Stef recommended. "I'll get the delivery number in the drawer downstairs" she continued patting Callie's knee before getting up.

Callie had tried her best to hide her reaction to the pain in her knee when Stef pat it, but it didn't go unnoticed.

"You okay?" Stef asked concerned.

Callie nodded and cleared her throat before answering. "Yeah, just startled me". Stef paused for a moment and took Callie's answer.

Once Stef had left the room, Callie got up and headed into the bathroom. She pulled up her pants leg and revealed a very large bruise on her knee that had formed when she fell in the parking lot. Callie touched it and yanked her hand away from the pain.

She rolled her pants leg back down and observed herself in the mirror. A big part of her felt relieved that she had let out some stress and built up emotion. She was glad she got to rest in Stef's arms in the park, and that she woke up to Stef stroking her hair. She was loved feeling loved. Another part of her felt bad and upset that she broke so easily and so quickly. "I should've been stronger. I need to try something else…" she told herself.

That's it for this chapter. Looks like Callie isn't done putting up a fight! What do you guys think will happen next?