Stef sat in the darkness of her car as a wave of relief washed over her and her neck and shoulders began to ache from the tension she'd been under for the last so many hours. But she finally felt like she could breath again as she sat there in her car looking at the sad, slumped girl sitting alone on a bench, looking down at what seemed to be her shoelaces.

Callie knew she had screwed up big time. For a while things seemed to have been going perfectly. Yes, she wasn't too thrilled about having to have sex with a bunch of random people in order to survive, but the rest had been pretty blissful. They had found a decent place to live with a couple of friendly but uninterefering girls, Jude was in school and doing well enough to stay off the teacher's radar, they had had food to eat and clothes to wear. They even had savings and a bit saved for Jude's education and even a little extra for presents and treats occasionally. But most of all they had had each other.

But now they didn't even have that. Callie had messed it up for both of them. Now, all she could hope was that she'd done the right thing for Jude by leaving him behind. Her gut instinct told her that she had for her connection with the blond was unmistakeable. Even now, with all her mistakes, she wanted nothing more than for the blond to just show up and magically make everything better. But she knew it was futile for there was no way the cop could fix all this. She'd committed several crimes starting from running away from the foster system and ending with prostitution and the only thing Stef could do was arrest her. So once again she had to run and start all over but this time she could give Jude some stability.

Callie sat there wondering what she was going to do now. Where would she go and would she go back to the streets. This time she didn't have Jude to take care of so even if she had to live on the streets for a while she could manage. She could also work long, flexible hours so maybe she could get by with working in restaurants or other odd jobs instead of the streets. Though Callie knew that with her education and the fact that she had to lay low until she turned eighteen nothing was going to pay her the way the streets did. Callie felt like crying as she thought about having to make new friends with girls that didn't want her around to steal their business; new guys that looked at her like nothing more than a piece of meat and a new place where there were no familiar faces, no place she could call her own and no one that she belonged to.

"Is running away really the answer?" A voice said that made Callie jump in surprise. In the back of her mind she'd heard someone walk up and sit down on the other end of the bench but she'd just assumed it was a fellow passenger, waiting for their bus and she hadn't expected conversation, let alone a direct, personal question.

"You plan to keep running for the rest of your life?" Stef asked once Callie was looking up at her.

The young girl was still staring at her, open mouthed and wide eyed though she hadn't yet said a word. Then, surprising them both, Callie threw her arms around the blond and just held on so tight as though Stef might just disappear if she ever let go.

"I told you to call me when you needed me; now was the time to call." Stef said firmly as she held the girl just as tight, letting Callie know that she had genuinely meant what she'd said.

"There was nothing you could do." Callie replied with a shrug as she finally released Stef. She didn't tell her that she had tried calling and that her phone was unreachable but she also knew that even if Stef had come there wasn't much she could do - the damage was already done and she would just prove to Stef that she was a prostitute.

"You haven't given me a chance." Stef shot back. She knew that her being a cop was difficult for Callie, considering her age and her line of work but if she'd just had the chance she would have done everything in her power to get Callie the help she needed.

"I gave it Jude." Callie answered, knowing that he would need it more than her.

"And what about you?" Stef asked, wondering if the girl really felt so little about herself.

"I made too many mistakes." Callie answered dejectedly, looking back down at her shoes.

"And this one was the biggest." Stef said, surprising Callie. She wasn't sugarcoating anything, just stating it all as it was. "You left him and he is scared and alone with a couple of strangers."

"He knows Lena and Jesus." Callie replied. It was like he was already a part of them and their family.

"They are still strangers." Stef pointed out. "So he came to our house a couple of times, that doesn't just mean he knows us."

"It was the best I could do for him." Callie said angrily, getting defensive about her actions. "It's better than making him run away all the time."

"But it's okay for you?" Stef asked, just as forcefully as Callie but without the anger. "You can keep running."

"I don't matter." Callie answered in resignation.

"Yes you do." Stef replied firmly. "You matter just as much."

"You don't know that." Callie replied bitterly. "You barely know me. You say that Jude doesn't know Lena after having met him only a few times, well that works for us to. For all you know I'm a murderer or a thief or something. Maybe I'm a horrible person that's better off disappearing.

"Maybe." Stef answered in acceptance, surprising Callie. "Maybe I don't know you and maybe if I did get to know you I wouldn't like you, maybe you are nothing but trouble."

Callie looked a little unsettled as she listened to Stef for she had no idea where this conversation was going.

"Maybe you've made a ton of mistakes but you know what - you matter. To Jude you matter despite all the mistakes and bad decisions you've made. He needed you and you let him down." Stef said bluntly.

"I did what was best for him." Callie defended once again as her voice cracked with emotion.

"You promised him you'd never leave him, no matter what." Stef reminded Callie of the promise Jude had told her about. "You made him that promise and today you broke it."

Callie looked like she'd been crushed as she finally realized just what Jude must be feeling. She hadn't thought about any of that. All she'd seen was an opportunity to give him a chance at a real life. She hadn't seen them all as strangers but as a way out for her brother. She thought he'd be happy to finally have a family to call his own. She knew that it was a risk but she also knew it was one she would bet her life on for those two women had done nothing but prove to her that they cared. They'd already adopted before so why not again. Lena loved Jude and Jude loved Lena so it all worked out.

Stef gently laid an arm around Callie's shoulders and pulled her closer, trying to give her as much comfort as she could without giving in to Callie. They still had more to talk about and she still had to make sure that Callie changed her mind about wanting to run for even if she did force her to stay today, if she was determined to disappear then she'd find another day to do it.

"I can help you Callie." Stef said softly. "I can help you get out of this mess."

But Callie just shook her head as she stared at the schedule board in front of her, a distant, dejected look in her eyes. "You can't." She said miserably. "I've made too many mistakes. If I listed them, you'd probably throw me in jail."

"Or maybe I could help you fix those mistakes." Stef suggested as she watched the girl.

Callie finally looked back at Stef, not fully believing the woman. Maybe she did believe that Stef wanted to help but she wasn't so sure that Stef could help. "I've stolen, run away, lied, forged signatures, been a prostitute." She admitted out loud for the first time. "I can't even remember them all." She shook her head sadly.

"We'll work on them." Stef assured. "We'll fix them slowly, one step at a time. But first we gotta get you home." She pointed out.

"They've probably already given my room to another girl by now." Callie answered. "They would have done it the second they knew I was gone."

"My home." Stef clarified what she'd meant.

Once again Callie looked up, surprised by Stef's answer. "Why?" She asked with a frown.

"Because, I told you I'd be there if you needed me." Stef gently reminded her once again.

Callie thought back to how she'd first felt about this woman sitting in front of her. From the very first time they met her instinct had told her to trust this woman and she hadn't been wrong. Stef had done absolutely everything for her without ever really even knowing her and now here she was again, at close to midnight, trying to convince her to take a chance.

As Callie thought about her options she glanced up at the schedule board once again and this time she actually looked at it and noticed that it was eleven-fifteen. They had been sitting here for forty-five minutes and her bus to New York was long gone. She'd missed it but the thing was that she wasn't sad about it. In fact, she was happy that she hadn't had the time to run. She was happy that Stef had gotten to her first. She was happy that she was getting a second chance with the woman who basically promised to save her life.

"Okay." Callie finally said as she looked up at Stef and nodded.

Stef smiled at the girl and squeezed her even tighter, her eyes filling with tears of relief one could only shed for the people they loved.

"Let's go home." Stef whispered, feeling her heart swell as it grew to incorporate two more people.