AN: Guess who is procrastinating her university works? I am! Guess who is going to hate herself in about 2 weeks? I am! Guess who won't have a decent night sleep because of it? I am! Oh, but I am enjoying the moment now! So here you go, lovely readers...enjoy this while I go an procrastinate some more by writing a chapter or two up front :) This chapter is up so early only because I am procrastinating my university work.

Jude POV

I call after her, but she doesn't listen to me. She doesn't stop. When I hear the doors shut after Callie, I look back to my foster siblings. I felt nothing but anger as I glared at the three of them

I grabbed my napkin from my lap, tossed it to the table next to my plate and pushed the chair back. Without saying anything, I leave the table. Next moment I am by the front doors, jumping in my shoes. Lena and Stef don't say anything, they let me go after her.

I slam the doors shut after me and run down the street to catch up with Callie. She had gotten 5 houses down. Callie was walking head down in a fast pace, she obviously wanted to further away from the house as fast as possible. As I got closer to her I hear sniffs.

"Callie!" I call her again, when I was some 10 steps behind her. She stops briefly to look at me.

"Go home Jude" She says and continues her way down the street "Go back to your family!"

"No! I'm going with you! You are my family!" I say walking up to her

Callie turns around and keeps walking, I walk along with her. When we walked pass the streetlight and the light shine on her face, I saw tears steaming down her cheeks.

"Nice foster siblings you got!" Callie says harshly as we continue to walk together. She was clearly hurt and upset.

"They are not usually like that. I don't know what had gotten into them!"

"Clearly the three of them hate my guts!" Callie says as she runs her fingers over her cheeks to wipe away the tears "Even more than Stef!"

"Stef doesn't hate you! She is just very protective. Lena says she loves hard. She doesn't hate you Callie!"

"Well, but your foster siblings do!" Callie says wiping her nose. I don't know what to say to that, so I just walk with my head down.

"Why did you tell them that I was arrested?" Callie asks sounding hurt as we stop in the middle of the pavement

"I didn't! They must have overheard me mentioning it to Stef and Lena or something!"

"You told Stef and Lena?" Callie asks in disbelief

"I just said that you were in Juvie! That's it! I didn't say how or why it happened! I didn't go into any details! They didn't ask any detail about it and I didn't tell them anything else! You have to trust me!" I explain quickly

Callie looks back from the way we came "I do..." she looks back to me and smiles sadly. We continue to walk together.

"I'm sorry they were so mean to you. And I'm sorry I didn't defend you, I was so...shocked. I don't understand why the acted the way they did or why they said that stuff to you. You didn't deserve it" I said to glancing up to her time by time. Callie walks in silent, her head down to the pavement.

"If it helps...I think Stef and Lena really liked you. I think you left a great impression on them!"

"You think so?" Callie asked glancing to me

I nod back to her vigorously "They don't care about all that fancy stuff"

"Fancy stuff?" Callie asks not following me my trail of thoughts

"You know, that you didn't finish the best school or that you aren't working in some big firm earning tons of money..."

"What do they care about then?" She asks me as we cross the street

"How you treat me" I reply casually

"How do I treat you?"

"Good!...But it could be better" I said with a smirk back

"How could I possibly treat you any better?"

"Oh you know...small stuff...like chocolate ice cream after every meal" I suggest with a big smile on my lips

"Ha! You wish!" Callie says and pushes me softly. I push her back playfully and then run down the street away from her, like playing catch.

I know she is going to tickle me to death once she caught up with me, but at least I got her to laugh. That's all I wanted. I hate to see Callie sad, I hate to see her hurt. And I hate myself for allowing them to treat her like that. I should have stood up for her, like she always has stood up for me.

Callie laughed out as she started to run after me, I heard her footsteps just behind me "I will catch you..."

Stef POV

My blood was boiling with anger. I was having trouble containing it.

"Sit you ass back down!" I say loudly and firmly when the twins were about to stand up and leave. They both slowly sit back down. Brandon doesn't even attempt to stand up. He stays still in his spot.

"What...the..hell...was...that!" I spell it out for them, word by word! I was so shocked by my kids, how they treated Callie that I was left speechless for a minute at least. The moment both of the Jacob siblings were gone, I had snapped out of it.

I stand up quickly as I could no longer sit still. I pace to the two small steps that lead up to the hallway and then turn back at them, running my palm over my face. Lena looked to them after she finally gained her voice back.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" Lena asked calmly yet with a firm touch as she stood up as well. She pressed her hands at the side of the table. I could tell, on the inside, she was just as angry as I was, she knew how to contain her anger better.

The kids all looked around to one another, waiting for someone else to answer.

"We just needed her to back away from Jude, so you could adopt him. And we could become a family!" Mariana said looking to her mama

"Back away?" Lena stood up straight, she looked completely shocked by Mariana's words "She is Jude's sister! She is his family!" Lena pointed her right hand to the front doors "And you treated her like...crap! You drove her away! And not only her...Jude as well!"

"She's a waitress..she can't support Jude being a waitress!" Jesus argued back

"And how exactly would you know that?" I ask him back taking a step closer to them. I rested my hands on the chair backrest "None of you have worked a single day in your lives! She is working her butt of...just so she could provide Jude with everything he needs! You don't even know how much money she has already spent on Jude. She is putting Jude in front of her own needs!" I take my hands off the chair rest and take a step back, throwing my hands up

"But you wouldn't know that, would you? It is not like you have tried to get to know her. You already came down hating her guts! You already had a plan how to drive her out of the house...away from Jude. You knew which buttons to push to make her feel uncomfortable and ashamed...you exploited her weakness!"

"She just have high school education!" Mariana said back not backing down from their opinion about her

"So what!?" I snap back

"She has no future!" Mariana added "That means if Jude stays with her, he has no future as well!"

"I have high school education! Does that mean none of you have future?" I argue back to Mariana's logic

"...Well...but you have...finished the police academy!" Mariana stuttered back quietly

"And you and mom both provide!" Jesus added to Mariana

"She's 18! Do you except her to have a college degree and be married already?" Lena asked them back frustrated "Just because she isn't attending college the first year after high school doesn't mean she never will or that she doesn't want to!"

"She was in jail!" Brandon added from the end of the table

Lena and I both turn to him "Where did you even hear that?" I ask him crossing my arms on my chest. Lena and I both agreed not to tell the other kids, not only that, we promised Jude not to tell them. I hadn't broken the promise and I can honestly say, I don't think Lena did either.

"We overheard you two talking" Brandon answer quietly after he swallowed a lump in his throat

"So you listen in on other people conversation?" Lena clarified what he had just said "That's how you knew?" She walked closer to him

"No..we just heard you two talk" Mariana added quietly, trying to help her brother out

"It was a private conversation! One that I very clearly remember having with Stef only, in our bedroom...with closed doors!" Lena turned back to the twins

"How can you be okay with her being around Jude?" Jesus asks gesturing with his hands "She's a criminal!"

"I remember very clearly how she told you all how her record was sealed!" I said very slowly and emphasize the last word

"But she has been in jail! You are a cop, how can you be okay with that! How can you allow her to even be around Jude" Jesus asks back in raised voice

"Juvie!" I correct him "It is not the same thing! She made a mistake in her teen years, paid her price, she suffered the consequences and the judge sealed it! It is in past! Besides we don't even know what she did – she could have just tagged a wall for all we know!"

Lena added" And it is not like you all are as innocent as you think! You all have done stupid things. The difference is...you had us to clean after you, but she didn't have anyone! She was all alone! There was no one to protect her!"

"You are on her side!" Mariana said back sounding hurt

"You think there are sides?" I asked her back "There are no sides, Mariana! Callie and us -we want the same thing - to do what is best for Jude!"

"And what you did...not only hurt her. You also hurt Jude! You hurt him more than you think you did. Why do you think he is not here anymore? Why do you think he ran after her?" Lena asked and looked around them

They all suddenly looked so guilty. I think they finally realized that what they did -didn't help at all. I think they finally realized that by hurting Callie, they hurt Jude even more and drove him away as well.

"I don't care how you do it, but you need to apologize to her and to Jude!" I say crossing my arms on my chest

"How do you expect us to do that!?" Brandon asks me for some advice

"I doubt either one will want to see us" Jesus added looking between me and Lena

"And whose fault is that?" I ask back resting my hands on the chair again

As none of them said anything back, with their head down, Lena continued to scold them in her usually calm manner "It is safe to say we are both very disappointed in you guys. We raised you better than that! You are old enough to know that you shouldn't treat people like that!"Lena said as she stood next to me. Her voice was very stern, the kids knew better than to mess with Lena now

"What you did, what you said, the way you said it...it was all way out of line. It was inappropriate, unacceptable, rude, hurtful and incredibly mean! You didn't even give her a chance. You just assumed the worst of her! Callie didn't deserve that!" Lena glanced to me as she detained a small pause, she put her hand on my upper back

"Mom is right. You need to apologize to both of them! We don't care how you do that, that's not our problem! You messed it up - you fix it yourselves!"

I look over to the twins "And honestly guys...I expected at least the two of you to understand what they are going through! You have been in the foster system, you know how bad it is, how bad people treat you there. You got lucky, that you weren't separated. Both of you know how hard it is to keep siblings together and for them it has been ever harder because of the age difference" I looked between the twins, both of them were too afraid and too ashamed of what they did to look me in the eye. So they kept their eyes on their laps "I you were separated...wouldn't you want to get back with one another? Wouldn't you do whatever was necessary to make it happen?"

Jesus looked to his sister. After a small moment, Mariana glanced to him as well. The answer was in their eyes, how they looked to one another. I got the message across to them.

"you...you treated them like you were superior, like you were better than them! Like you stood above them, just because you found a family and they haven't! For 6 years they were alone, with no one else, but each other to turn to. For the last 2 years, they didn't even have each other. Not everyone is a lucky as you were, not everyone get's their happy ending. Callie hasn't! But is she a bad person because of it? Is she a bad person for wanting to get her brother out of the foster care?" I look at them waiting for them to answer my questions

"No" Mariana shakes her head and answers very quietly. Jesus just shook his head back, looking incredibly guilty.

"That's right! So why do you treat her like she is? You should think about that!"

"Go to bed" Lena states firmly. They all quickly got up and hurried up the stairs.

Lena turns to me "Poor Callie, that was so harsh...I can't believe the kids talked to her like that"

"The night went from good to bad so fast! I was so stunned by what they said" I said as I run my fingers over my forehead "I would have never guessed they would do something like that"

"Do you think she will forgive them?"

"...I honestly have no idea, Lena. Part of me wishes that she makes it incredibly hard for them. After what they said to her..." I shake my head thinking back to all the mean stuff that was said to her

"I know what you mean" Lena says picking up two of the plates. I pick up few of the glasses.

"How long do you think Jude will stay with her?" I ask as we head to the kitchen with the dirty dishes

"I kind of what him to stay with her for a while. I don't want her to be alone. Not after this" Lena admits as she places the dishes in the sink

"So...we should probably bring few more clothes and his school stuff over tomorrow" I suggest. Lena nods back agreeing as we head to clean off the rest of the table.