Truth
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, just what I have typed up here for everyone to read and enjoy.
Notes: This is it! The big confrontation moment! I had a lot of fun writing it, because it felt good to just get it all out there finally, so I really hope everyone enjoys it. I do a lot of switching back and forth from different POV for a while in the beginning though, so hopefully it won't be too confusing. There are also some purposeful gaps left so that it can be rehashed later in the story. But you do get most of it in this chaper.
Enjoy!
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Callie stood frozen in place for a moment, wondering how she would ever be able to explain to Wyatt what was going on and why she reacted the way she did. She just couldn't tell him what really happened with Liam, she wasn't comfortable enough, she didn't trust him with that part of herself yet.
That thought stopped her brain's racing like ice water to a flame. She didn't trust Wyatt, and if she didn't trust him, how could she possibly even considering dating him. With that revelation floating around her brain, Callie turned around to go back to where Mariana, and no doubt the rest of the family, was waiting for her.
Turning around, she came face to face with Liam, his face red with fury.
Brandon was getting impatient while he waited for Callie and Wyatt to come back from their little lover's cove. He was angry that she was even considering dating him, after how he ran off on Friday when Callie was clearly upset by the fight between him and Liam. If he really cared for her, he would have stayed and made sure she was alright, she was seconds away from crying for gods sake. There was also a little voice in the back of Brandon's head that kept reminding him that the best person for Callie would be him, not Wyatt.
"Mariana, can you go get her. You saw exactly where they went and moms wanted us to come home right away," Brandon said eventually. He would have gone himself but he didn't want to see what they might be doing. Like he told Callie before, it wasn't that he didn't want her dating Wyatt (although that was true) he just didn't want her dating anyone but him. If he had to see them together that would probably crush him in a way he wasn't ready for just yet.
"Sure," she said quickly, wanting to get a sneak peak of Callie with the hair model. What she did come upon was nothing she could have predicted.
"Liam…" Callie gasped, her knees going weak and her breath coming out in short gasps. Having spent the past few days rehashing her darkest nightmare that he starred in, she wasn't anywhere near prepared to come face to face with him.
"You little bitch," Liam spat. Grabbing her upper arm and twisting her closer, he pulled her close so that her face was right next to his own. She could smell the alcohol on his breath.
"Let me go," Callie said without much conviction. She was scared but she hoped that, if she kept him in control long enough, that someone would see what was going on, someone would stop him.
"I fucking told you to stay away from Sarah! They fucking removed her from our home. And now you have your little police mother sending cops to my house?" Liam whispered harshly. "My parents are asking questions, your pathetic little social worker is asking questions. I could lose everything because of you, fucking whore."
"Please, please just let go," Callie pleaded, trying to yell in order to get someone's attention but finding that she didn't have enough air in her lungs to complete the task.
"You are going to sorry you ever opened your little slut mouth," he bit back. He pushed her away so that there was about two feet of separation between them. As soon as she was on the ground he began to kick her as hard as he could.
Mariana crept slowly over to where she saw Wyatt and Callie disappear to. She heard rough breathing and whispers and her face flushed. Surely they weren't going to do anything on school property. Wondering if she should interrupt, Mariana was pulled from her thoughts when she heard Callie whisper out 'please' in desperation. She didn't sound like whatever was happening was something that she wanted. All of a sudden Mariana felt sick in the put of her stomach, he wouldn't do something against Callie's will, would he?
Mariana marched into the little clearing, prepared to give Wyatt a piece of her mind about not hurting Callie. She was shocked to find some older looking guy delivering a hard kick to Callie's stomach. Callie was curled into a fetal position on the floor, whimpering as he made contact once more.
"Get off of her!" She yelled, both frightened that he was going to come after he next and angry that someone would hurt Callie.
"Go away little girl," Liam slurred, pausing what he was doing to send a less than scary glare Mariana's way. Mariana didn't move, she stood her ground, if her presence was the only thing stopping him from hurting Callie even more, than she wasn't going to move a muscle.
The pause gave Callie a break which allowed her to lift her head to see who had interrupted her beating. Her eyes widened when she realized it was Mariana. She felt a rush of adrenaline go through her and she struggled to her feet, prepared to protect Mariana from Liam if he were to go after her.
Unfortunately she knew Liam a little too well, when he saw that Mariana was not listening to his order and leaving he began to advance towards her, ready to make her leave by force. As soon as he took a step towards her Callie rushed at him and grabbed his arm.
"Get help Mariana!" She called out, trying to control Liam.
Brandon was getting impatient. Leave it to Mariana to let them finish whatever they had started before actually doing what was asked of her. He was just about to go and get them himself when he saw Wyatt out of the corner of his eye.
"Wyatt? I thought you were with Callie?" he asked, catching him by the arm to stop him.
"Lay off dude, I walked away from her like ten minutes ago. I don't know what you have that I don't but clearly it's something that she's after. You can have her," He spat out angrily. Ripping his arm out of Brandon's grasp, Wyatt turned and stomped away.
Brandon's heart was racing as he heard Wyatt's answer. He felt fear bubble in his stomach and rise up his throat.
"Shit," he cursed softly. Jesus and Jude, who were standing nearby, were shocked to hear him curse.
"What's going on, I though Wyatt was with Callie," Jesus said, coming closer to find out what was going on.
"Jude, I need you to go and find Mama for me. She should be in her office. You know where that is right? Tell her we need her and where we are," Brandon asked, trying to sound calm even though he felt as though he was about to throw up. He waiting until Jude nodded and scurried off before turning and running to where he had seen Mariana go after Callie. Jesus, sensing that something was wrong and that his sisters were in danger, took off after him.
Turning the corner Brandon's eyes widened in fright and he froze to the spot. Mariana was on the ground, frozen in fear, and Liam had his hands wrapped around Callie's throat. She was struggling against him weakly, clearly losing the battle.
Jesus was met with the same scene but his reaction was very different. Since he didn't know who Liam was, or what he had done, all he saw was someone who had apparently hurt his sister and who was strangling his foster sister. Quickly reacting, Jesus ran up to Liam and punched him in the head. Shocked by the sudden attack, Liam dropped Callie who fell to the ground holding her throat and coughing as she tried to force air into her burning lungs.
Mariana quickly crawled over to her and pulled Callie tightly against her. She had seen and heard too much in the past five minutes, she wasn't going to let that psycho get anywhere near Callie ever again.
Seeing Jesus attack Liam, Brandon was shocked out of his stupor and also jumped into the fray, landing a few hits here and there.
Eventually, Brandon and Jesus restrained Liam on the ground, each holding down half of his body. It was a fairly simple task because he wasn't putting up much of a fight anymore, the combination of the alcohol he had to drink and the beating he had taken from the Fosters brothers was making him pretty docile.
"Are you guys alright?" Jesus asked, focusing on Callie and Mariana, the first still wrapped in the second's arms.
"I'm fine, Callie got roughed up pretty bad," Mariana said, trying to figure out how hurt Callie was. She had tried to talk to her but was finding Callie pretty unresponsive since the strangling.
"You got this?" Brandon asked Jesus, referencing Liam's barely moving body beneath them.
"Yeah, go ahead bro, I got this," Jesus said, maneuvering himself on top of the semi-conscious attacker while Brandon slowly moved over to Callie and Mariana.
"Hey. Everything is alright now; he's not going to hurt you ever again," Brandon said soothingly, talking to Callie who was still prone and propped up against Mariana. All of a sudden Callie's eyes focused on Brandon's. "That's right. You're safe," Brandon coached, hoping she was coming back to them and realizing that she was safe at the moment.
Slowly Callie seemed to become more aware of where she was and what had happened. All the adrenaline she had before, when she was protecting Mariana, had left her body by now and she felt like she couldn't move. Her whole body hurt and her head was pounding.
"I need you to let me know if you are hurt and where," Brandon said, trying to assess whether or not they could try and move her. He knew if there were any head, neck, or spine injuries that she needed to stay right where she was.
"E'rywhere," Callie croaked, her throat sore and scratchy as she tried to communicate with Brandon. As she looked up at him, her eyes slightly unfocused, a lone tear made its way down her cheek.
"He was kicking her in the stomach when I found them. He turned to come after me, and I fell back in surprise, I thought he was going to hurt me…but Callie stopped him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her. Then he threw her to the ground. He kicked her a few more times before pulling her up and choking her. I think he was going to kill her!" Mariana said, panic lacing her voice. It was all a little too much for her but she was trying to be strong for Callie who seemed to be drawing comfort from her at the moment.
Brandon nodded, letting Mariana know that he heard her but unable to form any kind of words. He felt like he had somehow let Callie down, she had gotten hurt again and he had been so close when it happened.
Just then, Mr. Timothy and Lena came rushing in. Mr. Timothy quickly ran to help Jesus, jumping on Liam's back and tell Jesus that he had it. As soon as Jesus was sure that Liam wasn't going anywhere he scrambled off to where his family was huddled together around Callie. As soon as he reached them he threw his arms around Mariana and tried to find any injuries she might have sustained. She was everything to him, his blood. As much as he loved his moms and Brandon, she would always be something special. Moments like this made him forget that he was ever mad at her, he was just happy that she was alright.
"No estoy herida," she whispered to him, trying to calm him down. She could see that he was panicked with the thought that someone hurt her. ("I'm not hurt")
"¿Estás segura?" He questioned. ("Are you sure")
She didn't answer him verbally; she just nodded. His arms tightened around her even more and she leaned back into his embrace.
"Oh my God! Are you alright?" Lena asked, kneeling by her children. From what she could see, Callie seemed to be the most banged up, everyone else was just confused and scared.
"For the most part we're fine," Brandon answered for his siblings. "But Callie…" he drifted off, gesturing to the prone girl in Mariana's arms. Although she was awake and semi-aware, she hadn't really moved since Mariana swept her into her arms.
"Okay sweetie, where does it hurt?" Lena asked, hoping that Callie was frightened more than anything.
"I already asked that, she said everywhere," Brandon supplied, unsure if Callie would try talking again after it clearly was very painful before. "When Jesus and I found them, Liam…he was strangling her. I think it hurts for her to talk," he said, shuddering at the memory of Liam's big hands wrapped around Callie's throat.
"Lena, I have him under control, I am going to talk him to the office to wait for the officers. Should I tell them to send paramedics?" Mr. Timothy said, pulling Liam unsteadily to his feet.
"Yes, and thank you so much for your help," Lena answered. When Jude had run into her office saying that something was wrong and Callie was missing, she grabbed the closest teacher she could find, Mr. Timothy, and they ran to help.
"Not a problem," he replied, hauling Liam off, leaving the little family alone. He became a teacher to educate and protect children; this was just part of the job.
"Can you stand Callie?" Lena asked, wanting to get them off the ground and at least into a classroom where she could get a better look at Callie, and all her kids for that matter. She also wanted to get back to Jude who had been freaking out in her office when she ran off. Although he had wanted to come with her and find his sister, she had forbid him from leaving, telling her secretary to keep him in the office and to call the police as she ran out the door.
Callie nodded, avoiding the whole talking thing while her throat felt like it was on fire. Her whole body hurt but she was pretty sure her legs were fine, she had mostly been hit in the stomach.
Brandon wrapped his arm around Callie's waist gently as they helped her to her feet. As soon as she was upright, Callie's felt her whole world spin and she folded over in an attempt to stop the pain in her stomach and prevent herself from falling down.
"Whoa, steady there Callie," Lena said, coming up on the other side of her trying to help Brandon steady her. Next to them, Jesus had refused to let Mariana go, he was still holding her tight.
"It hurts," Callie choked, her arms coming to wrap around her stomach, leaning on Brandon for support.
"Okay, maybe we should sit back down, you are looking very pale Callie," Lena said, looking to Brandon to help get her back on the floor.
"Or," He said, keeping one arm around her back and scooping her up by wrapping his other hand under her knees. One of Callie's arms reflexively wrapped around Brandon's neck and her head buried itself in his chest to try and keep the nausea at bay. "Let's just get to the office."
And just like that, with Callie in Brandon's arms and Mariana in Jesus', they walked quickly back to Lena's office.
Entering the main building Brandon had to hold back his growl when he saw Liam in the hallway, handcuffed to a chair with an officer talking to him and Mr. Timothy. He was satisfied to see the split lip and assorted abrasions on him though, knowing Jesus and himself had put them there. He didn't have time to bask in it though; he didn't want Callie to have to see her attacker again so he quickly moved them into Lena's office where a worried Jude was waiting with Connor.
"I'm sorry Ms. Adams. Jude was freaking out in here so I tried to calm him down," Connor said, jumping up from Jude's side to apologize to his vice principal. She quickly waved him off, thankful that Jude had such a good friend to be with him at the moment. Jude, as soon as he noticed Callie in Brandon's arms, jumped up as well, running over to them.
"Callie! Are you alright?" Jude asked, frantically. Brandon tried to bring her down to his level but it was awkward to do so. He moved over to the couch that Lena kept in her office and gently lowered both himself and Callie onto it. With Callie basically curled up in his lap, Jude could get a good look at Callie and Brandon didn't need to let her go. "Callie?" Jude asked again, afraid by how quiet and still she was being.
At the sound of her brother's broken question, Callie slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, trying to smile reassuringly. Slowly she peeled her hand off her stomach and reached out to Jude. He quickly scrambled to take her hand and hold it tight, tears in his eyes. Seeing his distress, Connor came back over and sat down next to him, his hand placed on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
Lena was on the phone with Stef, who was rushing there at the moment with Mike. She looked over to where all her children were, huddling with one another, some crying and some hurt, and she wondered if anything was going to be okay ever again.
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Ahh…the Liam confrontation. I hope it was alright. After re-evaluating where I am with the story I'm thinking there might be 2 more chapters before I call this story finished. Let me know what you think.
Also, I think this chapter of mine, and where the show has gone, has solidified the fact that I am not a fan of Wyatt and Callie getting together. I just can't help but see him as a childish and slightly selfish character and Callie is very selfless and mature. That just doesn't meld in my mind. To me, Brandon is much more mature and grounded and therefore a better match for Callie.