Y'all are very sweet. Thanks for the welcome back. Thanks to Anon 1 for continuity help. Anon 2, I will write your request with the Bits and Pieces series. Definitely going to be a longer piece. I will most likely try to finish this one first though.

Later on, they called it "The Week of Mayhem and Sickness". Jesús called it the Puke-o-rama, even though he really was the only one that fell into that category, and only because he was coughing so hard that he vomited. It was the sickness of course, that led to the mayhem. Not that the house actually disintegrated into a complete disaster. It just distinctly lacked it's usual organization and cohesion.

One of the perils of living in a large family was that when there was an illness, it tended to get passed around rather quickly. In this case, the family fell like dominoes. Jude was the first, although later on they discovered that his case was the most mild. By the time he was up and around again; Mariana, Brandon, Lena, and Jesús had fallen in rapid succession. Callie, who's attentiveness and sweetness to Jude while he was ill had surprised no one, was slightly surprised by herself by being as worried about the others as she had been with Jude. Although luck had led to her and Stef's continuing good health, by the end of the week they were bone-weary in trying to take care of the rest of the family.

That particular Saturday, Callie was upstairs trying valiantly to try and change the sheets on her and Mariana's bed. She had found she wasn't so great at putting them on, but taking them off was easy-peasy. A thud from downstairs and a muffled yelp made her pause. It couldn't be Jude, he was at a friend's house. She frowned, everybody else was supposed to be resting. She waited, cocking her head, expecting to hear a sudden rush to the stairs as Stef went to deal with it but…nothing. She went down the hall, taking a moment to peek in the moms' room. Lena was laying on the bed, twisted in the sheets, a sheen of sweat on her skin. Stef looked like she had simply face-planted onto the bed. Her shoes were still on and one leg was folded uncomfortably beneath the other one. She had managed, however, to reach a hand to her partner's and their fingers were tightly intertwined. Stef's breathing was heavy, almost a snore. After another thump from downstairs, Callie looked from the stairs to the mothers in nervous decision. She knew Stef was up nearly the entire night, first with Jesús, whose afternoon somnolence translated to a jittery, restless -filled evening. Then she had dealt with Brandon, whose fever had risen high enough that she dropped him into a cold bath by 3:45 in the morning. Unfortunately this occurrence pretty much happened every night for the past week and Stef had more than a passing resemblance to a zombie.

Callie bit her lip. She couldn't bother her again, Stef really needed the sleep. Mind made up, she went down the stairs rapidly and noiselessly. Entering the living room, she found Brandon, trying to grab the remote from Mariana. She wrapped her arms around it and her body, refusing to budge.

"Brandon," Callie hissed. She grabbed the back of his pajama top and pulled him off the couch. "She's littler than you." And he was always bugging her to be nice to Mariana.

He stumbled, landing hard and glared at her. "She's littler than everyone! She's teeny!"

Mariana scowled at him, obviously deciding whether tears or revenge would be the better route. In one quick motion she selected a pillow from the couch and threw it at his head. Revenge it was.

He knocked it to the side, ignoring her for the moment and speaking to Callie. "She's watched two hours of some fashion show. We're supposed to switch off every hour and she skipped my turn."

"You were asleep," Mariana defended herself.

"Not for two hours," Brandon argued. "Then even after you finished the show, you still wouldn't give me the remote!"

He tried to get back up, but Callie shoved him down again, "just a sec." She turned to Mariana, the question in her eyes.

"He wants to watch shark stuff. I don't want to watch shark stuff. It's scary." She held the remote more tightly, as if Callie would take it from her.

"You could have said that instead of hogging the TV," growled Brandon from his position on the floor.

"Would you have listened?" Mariana shot back.

"Maybe."

"Nu-uh. You would have watched it just to be mean."

"It doesn't matter Mariana. It's my turn to pick. Give me the remote now or I'm telling Mom." Brandon rolled and stood up, avoiding Callie and towering over his sister.

"If you tell Mommy, I'll tell her that you jumped on me," warned Mariana, pressing further into the couch.

"Neither of you are going to tell Stef," Callie said, getting between them. "She's so tired from taking care of you guys that she fell asleep with Lena. If you want to be good, you'll let her sleep."

Guilt flickered in the other children's faces. "She should still give me the remote," muttered Brandon, looking at the carpet. "She's not even s'posed to be watching that fashion stuff. Mama said we could watch as much TV as we wanted as long as it's a documentary."

"Isn't there something you guys can agree on?" said Callie, feeling a bit desperate. Brandon and Mariana didn't fight a lot and if they did, they were minor skirmishes that were resolved quickly.

Mariana's lips pushed forward into a pout as she shrugged, tracing the lines of the couch and refusing to look at either of them.

Brandon shrugged as well.

Callie took the remote from Mariana's limp hand and began rapidly flipping channels. As far as she could tell, the only thing on right now was soap operas, game shows, and the ones where people were always screaming and punching each other. Finally she slowed, spotting something of interest. "Hey, this one's about robots. You'll both watch that, right?"

Interest sparked in Mariana's eyes and Brandon tilted his head towards the television. Callie sighed but her relief was short-lived. Brandon suddenly pushed his way off the couch and stood, wobbling a minute.

"What are you doing?" Callie demanded immediately. She pushed him for the third time so he landed back on the couch. She smirked a little. This was kind of fun.

"Going to get the fever medicine," Brandon said. "I'm really hot."

Callie frowned at him and took a closer look. His face was kind of red. She reached out to touch his forehead as he drew back. "I'll get it," she told him. "You need to rest."

He rose again, rolling his eyes. "I can get it Callie. I'm not a freaking invalid."

She shoved him back down. "If I can keep doing that," she said, "you shouldn't be going anywhere."

He grumbled something under his breath and crossed his arms, glaring at the television.

Callie waited impatiently until he got that out of his system. "Where do your moms keep the stuff?"

Brandon coughed. "Bathroom. Their bathroom."

"Stay here." Callie looked at him, then at Mariana who was now blinking somewhat tiredly at the multi-varied robots on display. She ran up the stairs swiftly, taking the time to check on Jesús before she went to the moms' bedroom. He was still out. Callie was convinced he hadn't moved after crashing from a two hour manic phase from last night. Cough medicine was not a good mix with whatever else he was on. After checking that he was breathing and…yep…drooling. Gross. Callie headed back towards Stef and Lena's room. Stef was still out and sleeping in the same position. Callie had never seen the woman so tired. Lena was still sleeping too but she seemed a bit more comfortable. Holding her breath so as to make as little noise as possible, Callie went into the bathroom. There were like a million drawers but she was on a mission. She found it and crept back out.

A sudden movement from the bed startled her, and she jumped a little. But Stef just shifted, finally, and found a better position with her head pillowed on Lena's arm. Lena cuddled a little closer to her. Callie felt that tugging sensation she was beginning to associate with this family. She shook her head a little, pocketed the medicine, and went downstairs.

"You got it Callie?" If anything, Brandon looked more uncomfortable, his eyes fever bright.

"Yeah, yeah." Callie waved him down before he tried to get up again. She went to the kitchen to get a glass, then paused on the threshold, squinting at the back of the medicine bottle. "Brandon?"

"Yeah?"

"How many of these have you had in the last twelve hours?" she walked back towards him.

"I dunno. I didn't keep count."

"More than six?"

"Yeah, probably. Why?"

Callie handed him the bottle. "It says you're not supposed to take more than six in twelve hours. It could make you sicker."

Brandon clutched the bottle protectively to him. "I need them Callie. I feel like I'm in a volcano or something."

"But…but they could hurt you," Callie said worriedly, trying to pry the bottle from his fingers. He shoved her away and she took a step back, worrying her lip with her teeth. "Brandon, c'mon. Let's wait to ask your mom."

A violent shiver over came his body and he paused to cough. "I don't feel good Callie. I really, really don't."

Callie looked at Mariana, hoping she had an idea. "You could take a cold shower again," suggested Mariana, looking at her brother sympathetically.

They looked at Brandon. He shook his head, "I don't…the stairs are really a lot right now," he admitted.

Callie frowned, then brightened a little. "I'll get something, okay Brandon? But you gotta promise you won't take anymore of the medicine until your mom says it's okay. Okay?"

"Yeah, okay," he said, nodding reluctantly.

"I'll watch him," Mariana piped up.

Brandon scowled at her but settled back into the pillows without saying anything. Callie ran to the kitchen and opened the freezer. Just as she remembered, there were several boxes of popsicles. She took an orange one for Mariana and a purple one for Brandon, internally proud of herself for remembering their favorite flavors. "Here," she returned to the living room, unwrapped the popsicles, and handed them to the others.

Brandon brightened perceptibly and Mariana reached for hers just as eagerly. There was blissful silence as the two of them worked on demolishing their popsicles without getting brain freeze.

"Don't you want one Callie?" asked Mariana, sucking pensively on her popsicle.

Callie shook her head, "nuh-uh. They're for you. I know how it feels to want something cold when you're hot and stuff."

"It does make me feel a little better," Brandon admitted, purple smearing his lips. "Can you get me another one? Please Callie?"

"Sure," Callie was happy enough to make that happen. She was proud of herself for thinking of the solution without needing Stef's help. "Do you want another one Mariana?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Mariana shook her head. She was only about one-third of the way done with her popsicle. At this rate she probably wouldn't be done until dinnertime.

Callie just barely refrained from whistling as she walked to the refrigerator. This time she chose the watermelon flavor, which she knew was Brandon's second favorite. After giving it to him she settled herself on the floor. Her foster siblings still looked pretty haggard…and pretty sick, but at least they were smiling a little bit. And quiet. She decided next time she wanted them to shut up she'd give them lollipops or something.

"You should have one Callie," said Brandon, nearly done with his second popsicle. "We don't need all of them."

She smiled and shook her head again as she leaned back on her elbows. "Nah. Anyway, they taste different from the ones I used to have."

"What kind did you use to have?" asked Mariana, now about halfway done with her popsicle.

"The Otter Pops. You know, the ones with the funny names?"

"Sort of." Mariana frowned.

"Oh those are good," said Brandon. He had polished off his second popsicle and was laying back on the couch, his chin propped on one hand. "My dad gets them sometimes. Moms won't buy them though. They said they're full of sugar."

"Duh," said Callie, but her smile was kind. "That's what makes them taste so good. What's with your moms and sugar anyway?" she said, her voice joking instead of critical. "No cookies, weird peanut butter. You guys are deprived."

"Well, if we're deprived, then you're deprived too," said Mariana, giving her a little grin to let her know she was kidding.

"Yup," Callie nodded her head sadly.

Brandon was looking at her, curiosity replacing the fever-brightness. "Do you mind it? Like, does it really bother you?"

Callie shook her head, the smile slowly melting from her face. "No," she said. "I really don't."

He nodded, "good."

"Good," Mariana echoed.

Callie shifted, suddenly uncomfortable with the burgeoning emotions. "Hey, you guys want to eat something?" She jumped up, putting her hands on her hips in thought. Biscuits and gravy, her specialty, would be too heavy for them right now. "Chicken soup?" she offered. She had seen some cans of soup, organic of course, in the cupboards.

Brandon made a face. "If I have any more soup I'm gonna-" he paused, unable to think of something awful enough to end the sentence.

Looking worried, Mariana said, "my class hatched baby chickie eggs last week. They were so cute and yellow and fluffy." Her lip began to tremble. "How can I eat them?"

"Oh G-d," Brandon groaned. "Not this again."

"Not what again?" asked Callie.

Ignoring her for the moment, Brandon turned to Mariana. "The chickens in the soup aren't your chickens Mariana," he said in a reasonable tone of voice. "These chickens were in the soup a long time before your chickens even hatched."

"But," Mariana took a long breath, tears squeezing from her eyes. "They're somebody else's baby chickies!"

Flopping back onto the couch, Brandon groaned again. He turned his head to Callie. "Mom read us the whole Freddy the Detective series a couple of years ago. It was one of her favorites when she was little. And Mariana had to start asking about why he was on the farm and all these questions about pigs. Even worse, she picked up Charlotte's Web a couple weeks later." He shook his head. "After that we couldn't eat sausage or bacon or anything because she'd completely freak out about it."

"Pigs are smart Brandon," Mariana protested, wiping her tears away to glare at him.

"Freddie's not real, Mariana. He's a character. In a book. That wears a Sherlock Holmes hat."

"Wait, what?" asked Callie.

"I'm not dumb," said Mariana, overriding Callie's question. "But real pigs are smart too. They can be trained better than a dog. Would you eat a dog?"

"I like sausage. I like bacon. Sorry Mariana, you aren't going to make me stop," said Brandon.

Mariana looked appealingly at Callie. The other girl shrugged, uncomfortable. "Sorry Mariana, I like those things too." Especially sausage gravy over biscuits. That was the best.

Scowling, Mariana folded her arms. "Well I'm not eating chicken soup. Guess I'll just starve or something."

Callie rolled her eyes at her foster sister's dramatic tone. "I think I can manage something else," she informed her. She bit her lip. "What about grilled cheese?"

Since they both gave her identical grins, Callie was pretty sure they were on board with grilled cheese.

"Want us to help?" asked Mariana, moving slightly from her comfortable position on the couch.

"Nah." They still looked exhausted. Also, she didn't want them coughing onto the food or something.

Briskly she moved back to the kitchen, assessing the situation. She would only need three things; bread, butter, and cheese. That made it easy. She put everything on the counter. There was at least three kinds of cheeses. She went back to the living room. "Hey, what kind of cheese do you want?"

"Cheddar," said Brandon.

"Swiss," said Mariana.

Callie went back to the kitchen only to realize it wasn't Swiss, but Mozzarella cheese she had dragged out. She went back to Mariana. "There isn't any Swiss."

Marina thought for a moment, "peppercorn?"

Brandon made a face, "seriously?"
"Yeah. I like it. It has a kick."

"But for grilled cheese sandwiches?" He was clearly doubtful.

"Sure. It'll be delicious."
Callie left the room before she listened to an entire debate about the attributes of various cheeses. She sliced some butter and put it in the pan. Then she began spreading it onto a slice of bread.

"Callie?" she heard Brandon call.

"What?" asked Callie as she walked back into the living room.

"Can I have cheddar and peppercorn please? Mariana's right. That sounds good."

Mariana, clearly pleased that her brother had the good sense to listen to her, began working him about the pig issue. This time Callie practically fled the room.

Callie had just gotten the bread set up and was laying slices of cheese on the bread when she heard a voice.

"Callie? This time it was Mariana.

Callie plodded back into the living room. "What?"

"What about Jesús? He's probably hungry too," said Mariana.

Callie wrinkled her nose a little in thought, then nodded. "Okay. I'll go ask him."

She went up the stairs. Amazingly, Lena and Stef were still sleeping. She poked her head into Jesús's room. There her forward momentum stopped. "What are you doing?" she gasped.

Jesús blinked at her. He was surrounded by bits of colored paper. "Well," he frowned. "I started coloring and then the paper on the crayon kept getting in the way so I took it off and I thought it looked cool so I took the paper off the rest of the crayons so they were all naked and then I noticed that the paper bits kind of looked like a nest so I wanted to see if I could make one like the birds do and so…and so…" He looked around himself, as if just realizing the mess and blinked at her. "Wow, that's a lot of paper."

Callie groaned and grabbed his arm to pull him out of bed. "C'mon. You're coming downstairs with me."

Jesús resisted her pulling. "I want to stay up here. I don't wanna go downstairs."

"I'm making grill cheese sandwiches."

"Let's go."

When they got downstairs, Callie realized he was only clad in his boxers. She debated going upstairs and getting him some clothes but then heard his stomach growl. She pushed him towards the couch. "Go over there."

Brandon shook his head in disbelief that his brother would walk around in only his underwear.

"What?" demanded Jesús, grabbing a blanket from his brother and wrapping it around his shoulders.

"Batman sucks," said Brandon, in lieu of a lecture on the proprieties on underwear.

"Batman's cool, you suck," said Jesús without any heat, squirming in between his siblings

It didn't take long to start the sandwiches. In no time, one sandwich was sitting on a plate and another was heating on the stove.

"What're you doing sweets?" asked a voice behind her.

Callie nearly jumped out of her skin. Stef stood in the doorway, her shirt partially buttoned and her hair showing clear evidence of her nearly catatonic sleep.

"Uh, just making dinner." Callie suddenly wondered if she were going to be scolded.

Stef stretched and sniffed the air appreciably. "Really? Aw, that's so sweet of you." She walked over to Callie and gave her a big bear hug. Callie let herself relax a little into the hug and was somewhat unsurprised to feel two kisses dropped on her head. This family was big on physical affection. "I just wanted to help," she mumbled into Stef's shirt.

"And you have. You've been such a big help to me kiddo. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Really?" Callie blushed a little and turned her face to hide it.

"With this crew? They're just lucky I haven't shipped them off to some deserted island or something."

Callie knew the danger of that ever happening was exactly zero. She went back to the stove to recue the other grilled cheese sandwich. "They can't help it," she offered unnecessarily.

"Oh I know that babe. It just happens." She strolled over to the counter and picked up the sandwich.

"That's Mariana's. This one is for Brandon," said Callie, gesturing to the sandwich she was just now depositing from pan to plate. "I just have to make one for Jesús. And one for me," she said, almost as an afterthought. "I'm hungry too!" She looked at Stef. "Do you want me to make one for you?"

"Nah. I'll make something for Mama and me a little later," Stef tousled her hair and grabbed the two plates. "I'll take these to the other kids and check on them."

"How are you babies?" asked Stef gently as she put the plates down for a moment on the coffee table. She kissed Mariana's cheek and touched the foreheads of the boys.

"Pretty good," said Mariana.

"You still feel hot B. Let's get some of that medicine inside you," said Stef, pressing her lips to his temple to double check the heat radiating there. Then she handed him his sandwich.

Brandon yawned as he accepted it. "Callie brought it down but she wouldn't give it to me."

Callie, who had followed Stef but only to the edge of the living room, held her breath. Would he tell what happened or…

"She was afraid it would hurt me or something. She wanted to wait for you," he finished.

"That's probably pretty wise," said Stef, shaking a couple pills from the bottle and dropping them in his hand.

"Callie gave us popsicles," said Mariana brightly. "That helped."

Stef turned towards the kitchen before Callie could hide. "That was good thinking kiddo."

Callie blushed again and went back to her sandwich making. She could hear Jesús complaining from the living room. "How come they got popsicles? I wanna a popsicle too."

"How about we try that again with manners and without the whine?" Stef returned predictably.

"May I please have a popsicle?" Jesús corrected himself.

"You can have one while your sandwich cooks," said Stef, patting him on the head.

She went back to the kitchen, grabbed a popsicle, and gave Callie another little squeeze. "Couldn't do it without you," she repeated fondly.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

It was a couple weeks after that Bill visited for one of his check-up sessions. He asked Callie and Jude the standard questions. Jude's answers were predictably enthusiastic, but it was Callie's answers that surprised him. "So, are you still okay staying here?" he asked her, tapping his pen against the paper as he looked at her.

Instead of her usual noncommittal, "they're okay", she pinned him with a serious glance. "We have to stay here Bill. They really need us to help take care of them."

Bill, who had heard about the flu week and knew this did not indicate some serious parenting flaw, raised his head and winked at the two mothers, lingering in the doorway behind them. "Yes they do," he said.