Promptly after listening to Callie's scream, Stef released the girl from both fear and realization. She watched carefully as Callie crouched her body a little and raised her hand to her abdomen. Her mouth hung open a bit from the pain but she immediately closed it and removed her hand, attempting to stand up straight in the process. But now, even straightening her posture pained her, causing her eyes to wince a little as she felt the burns even more and was almost positive the other blisters had burst at the contact.
This wasn't supposed to happen, Callie thought to herself. The pain was never supposed to be this bad.
She glanced back down at her shirt to see if anything had soaked through. But then remembered that she purposely put on a black one for that very same reason.
Stef tried to keep her eyes off of the teen's stomach, as she too was fighting the urge to lift up the hem of her shirt to see exactly what had been done. She absolutely hated the fact that she had caused Callie even more pain by hugging her; more than she hated the fact that Callie had done it herself. When she was finally able to lift her attention to Callie's face, she noticed the panic in the girls eyes as she tried to avoid the blonde's gaze. Immediately, Callie crossed her arms over her abdomen again, "I'm sorry," she mumbled as she considered going for the house phone.
"For what?" Stef asked in confusion. If anything, she felt like she was the one who should be apologizing.
"Screaming in your ear," the teen mumbled as she tried to wipe away the tear that had managed to escape her eye and fallen onto her cheek. "It just hurt when you touched me," Callie confessed accidentally and she considered lying to Stef about where it hurt but knew it would be no use now.
Stef saw that Callie had opened her mouth to say something else but quickly withdrew and closed it. So she slowly grabbed onto her arm and began leading her to the sofa, "Come on, love. Let's sit," she said as she gently pushed the teen to the sofa and carefully sat her down first, before taking a seat right beside her, barely leaving any space in between them. The close proximity was something that both frightened Callie and strangely comforted her at the same time, and the confusion kept her from either moving closer or backing up even more.
She had been too busy trying to fight back the tears that were being held in, to want to keep fighting the woman off. She was struggling to keep her face straight as if she were perfectly fine. But it was obvious to both women who was actually winning this battle.
"Baby…I need you to lift up your shirt for me, okay?" Stef began.
"No," Callie said in a childish-like voice that Stef was already expecting. That much the girl was sure of. She wasn't going to show the woman her burns, not after everything she had said and done to prevent just that. It would've all been for nothing.
"Hey," Stef whispered, "Honey, I already know what happened so the worst part is over, yes?"
Callie shook her head as she crossed her arms over her abdomen again, not caring that the contact was putting her through more pain. She would risk it before allowing Stef to see her like that.
"Look, I promise I'm not mad. All I want to do is make sure that you're okay," Stef reminded her as one of her hands carefully reached for Callie's forearm.
"You don't want to see it," Callie's voice raised as her grip only tightened around her body. "It's disgusting" she explained, "…I'm disgusting."
"You are not disgusting, Callie. You hear me? You're not," she repeated in a stern voice, as she made sure not to avert eye contact. She took a deep breath before continuing in a much softer tone, "There's nothing you can show me or do that would gross me out or make me think any less of you. Do you understand that?" The teen remained silent, so Stef repeated herself again, "Callie, is that clear?"
Callie fidgeted a little in her seat as she tried to take in what Stef was saying. She wanted to believe her, but at the same time she wanted to fight her off. "I mean, come on. I'm a cop for Christ sake. I've dealt with way worse than this," Stef tried to joke, in order lighten the mood a little and make the girl feel more comfortable. But the truth was, she wasn't sure how she would react to seeing cuts on her daughter's body that she made herself.
Callie released a little pressure on her stomach, which Stef had noticed because her hand was still on Callie's arm. "Um," Callie started nervously as she tried to find the right words to say, "…they're not cuts." Stef squinted her eyes in confusion as she looked at her daughter and listened to what she was saying. "…They're burns. I just don't want you to be surprised when you…" Callie paused from how uncomfortable talking about it made her.
"Callie, I don't…" Stef stopped herself when she realized that she was going to say 'understand'. But truthfully she didn't understand what the girl was getting at. It didn't make any sense to her right away.
"Forget it. It's stupid," Callie said as she turned her gaze away from Stef and tried to stand back up.
"It's not," Stef stopped her as she grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her back down. "I'm sorry. I was just a little confused…Look, why don't we go to the bathroom so we can get a better look, yes? You know, that way we don't do this twice in two different places." And before waiting for an answer, the blonde stood up and snatched her reading glasses from the coffee table with one hand and gently grabbed Callie's arm with the other, leading her towards the downstairs bathroom.