Stef

As bad as I felt upon waking up, that's how good I felt seeing my kids. Poor Mariana cried at first, but I assured her I was just fine. The boys just look relieved.

"Does it hurt?" Jude asks tentatively and I shake my head.

"Not really," I say honestly, "These doctors have me doped up on some pretty strong drugs."

I can feel Lena's glare boring into the back of my head. She looks more refreshed since I initially saw her. Mariana, my sweet girl, brought clothes and other necessities so that Lena could freshen up.

"Do you know when you can come home?" Mariana asks, tear tracks still visible on her cheeks. I reach out to pat her hand.

"I'm not sure yet, Love," I answer, "I'll ask the doctor and let you know." I take a quick look over the room, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm missing a child."

"We saw Callie this morning," Brandon tells me, "She's getting discharged today."

"Why didn't she come with you guys?" Lena asks, and I hear the confusion in her voice.

Jude shrugs, "She said she wasn't allowed to leave her room and that she'd come later."

Lena furrows her eyebrows, "Oh. You know what, I'll go get her." She kisses my cheek, "I'll be right back." She tells me before leaving the room.

"How was Callie last night?" I ask and everyone looks at each other.

"No idea," Jesus finally answers, plopping down into the seat Lena vacated, "We didn't see her."

Weird.


Callie

Bill steps into the room, "Hi, Callie—"

"Why are you here?"

I see Bill clench his jaw, "Well, you're still a ward of the state and I'm partially responsible for you, so I just came to check up on you."

"I'm fine," I say abruptly, "You can go."

If Stef or Lena were here, they would tell me I'm being rude. But I want him to leave. Just seeing him makes my skin crawl. Bill walks closer and I find myself inching father into the bed.

"Have you spoken to the police yet?" he asks me.

I furrow my eyebrows, "Police? Why would I need to talk to them?"

"They need your statement," he explains, putting his hands in his pocket, "So they can put together a case."

"What case?"

Bill takes a seat in the chair near my bed and I scoot away as far as the bed will allow, "You don't know anything about the driver who hit you?" I shake my head, "It was a man, middle aged guy. He was drunk. His BAC was nearly twice the legal limit. Plus it was raining yesterday so the roads were already bad…"

"Is he alive?" I ask monotonously.

Bill nods, "Yes, he is."

"Does he have a wife? Or kids?"

"I'm not sure," Bill answers honestly, "The police only told me a few details. Anyway, I'll be present for your statement along with Lena. That will probably be happening later on today. The police will need to talk to Stef, too—"

"Today?" I repeat incredulously, "She just woke up. She had surgery last night!"

"Its better to interview while it's still fresh in your memory," Bill explains in a tired voice. I press my lips together and look down at the sheets. I gather the blanket in my fist and squeeze tight. I don't want to talk about the stupid accident. It's pretty obvious what happened; why do I need to say anything at all?

I hear the door open and I look up.


Lena

"Bill?" I say, something akin to a greeting, "What are you doing here?"

I look over at Callie who is clearly agitated. I don't blame her. I walk over to her and take a seat on the bed next to her. She presses into me a bit and her fingers find my sleeve.

"Hi, Lena," Bill says, "I just wanted to check up on Callie because I was informed of the accident. How's Stef? I heard she's awake."

I nod cordially, "She's good, thank you. Forgive me if I sound rude but, do you need something?"

"Police statement," Bill answers, getting right to the point, "They need to hear what happened from Callie. Stef, too, but Callie is my main concern because she's my charge."

"When?" I ask, raising my hand so I can rub Callie's back.

Bill gives me an apologetic look, "Today."

"Bill…"

"I'm sorry," he apologizes, "But the police want a fresh account." I hear his phone vibrate and he excuses himself to check it. He stands up, "I have to go, but I'll see you later on today for the interview. We'll be in touch." He waves at Callie and disappears into the hall.

I feel bad that I wasn't there when Bill initially came. His presence makes her very anxious and doubts begin to emerge from the back of her mind. It can't be very pleasant.

"You okay?" I ask her and she nods silently, "Alright. Well I came to spring you from this room."

Callie raises an eyebrow, "I'm being discharged already?"

"Soon," I reply, "But I was actually talking about seeing mom. She was wondering where you were."

Callie looks away from me. It looks like she's thinking about it. I'm confused. She was so eager to see Stef this morning. What happened between then and now? Her fingers trail aimlessly up her neck and stop suddenly. She looks down sharply and I realize a second after she does what's wrong.

"Where's my necklace?" she asks, and moves off the bed to go through the bag containing her clothes from last night, "Was I wearing it when I came into the hospital last night? I was wearing it all day yesterday, I know it," Callie tears through the clothes, carelessly tossing them onto the ground, "Lena!"

"It's going to be okay, Callie," I soothe as I stand up and slowly approach her, "I'm going to ask the nurses if they collected it when they brought you in, okay?"

Callie doesn't seem to hear me as she pushes past me into the bathroom so that she can continue to look. I follow her in and find her on her knees, carefully inspecting around the sink and shower.

"I had it yesterday, I had it…" I hear her mumbling to herself.

I kneel down on the floor and gently clasp Callie's upper arms, "Callie."

She finally stops moving and looks up at me miserably, "Please help me look."

"I will," I promise, "I'm going to talk to the nurses. In the mean time, I'm going to take you to see mom—"

But Callie is frantically shaking her head, "I want to go with you. Please? I need to find my necklace."

"Sweetheart…"

"Mama, please."

I sigh. How can I say no to that. Internally chastising myself for my weak resolve, I nod, "Okay, Callie. You can come with me. I'm just going to text your siblings so they can tell Mom what's going on, alright?"

Callie visibly relaxes and nods, "Okay." We get up from the bathroom floor and walk out of the room together. We immediately head for the nurse's station.

No rest for the weary.

I'm sorry this is short. I've been having quite a week. I dropped my phone in a puddle. It works, but I'm still locked out of it. It's pretty inconvenient.

I liked this past episode of the Fosters. I LOVED Stef's snide comment to Robert about how Callie liked the house, too.

Thank you for your reviews and for sticking with me! I appreciate and love hearing from you guys!

-Liv