When Stef and Lena got back home they found it in chaos - The twins were fighting, Jude apparently was crying in the back yard because Callie had yelled at him for something and Brandon was in the living room watching T.V. way too loud. Dana wasn't around and Stef instantly looked to her father-in-law for an explanation but he just shrugged.
"I tried to get them to stop but they just won't." Stewart said in an apologetic tone.
Stef looked around the room at her bickering teens and realized that they weren't aware that their mom's were back home.
"ENOUGH!" Stef said firmly and instantly all the noise stopped. Jesus and Mariana looked over at their moms just as Callie came down the stairs, nail polish remover and cotton pads in her hands and the T.V. went silent.
"What is going on here?" Stef asked her three children when the noise had died down.
"Jesus left his skateboard at the bottom of the stairs and I nearly fell and broke my neck." Mariana said.
"God, you're such a little tattletale." Jesus said. "Besides if you took your nose out of your phone as you walked you would have seen it."
"And my favorite bottle of nail polish broke when I tried to save my life." Mariana added, ignoring her brother's last comment.
"And a drama queen." Jesus replied.
"Enough." Stef repeated and once again there was silence in the room. Stef looked over at Lena and found her staring in silence. It had been an emotional day for her so far and she really wasn't up for dealing with any of this right now, especially knowing that they were going to have a difficult talk with the kids in just a little while.
"Why don't you go on up and relax for a bit while I sort this out down here." Stef suggested to Lena who gratefully took the offer and headed upstairs leaving behind four very apologetic looking teens.
"Alright, everyone in the kitchen NOW." Stef said and waited until all four kids and Stewart were headed that way.
Once the kids were all seated Stef started with the oldest.
"B, are you trying to entertain the entire neighborhood with our T.V.?" She asked him.
"Sorry, but I couldn't hear anything over those two bickering." Brandon said, pointing to the twins.
"Which brings me back to you." Stef said, turning her attention to her twins. "Jesus, you know your skateboard is not to be left lying around."
"Sorry." Jesus said, "I was just running in for a glass of water and coming right back out."
"That's not an excuse." Stef said. "It was long enough for someone to trip over it."
"She's fine." Jesus said. "All that's damaged is a bottle of nail polish."
"That's not the point." Stef said. "Someone could have had it worse."
"Sorry." Jesus said.
"And you," Stef said, turning to Mariana. "You're on your phone all day long, and your brother is right - you need to watch where you're going please."
"Fine." Mariana said grumpily.
"Alright. You three may go, but stay quiet please." Stef said and waited for them to disappear before she turned to Callie. "Want to tell me why your brother is outside crying?" Stef asked her.
Callie didn't respond and so Stef turned to Stewart.
"I've been trying to get that answer myself." Stewart said, giving Stef a clueless look.
"Where is Dana?" Stef asked.
"She went out to get some fixings for dinner." Stewart said.
Stef shook her head in frustration as she turned back to Callie. "I'm going to go and talk to Jude in a minute so this is your last chance to give me an answer." Stef said firmly.
"I did it for his own good." Callie snapped before getting up and disappearing out of the kitchen.
Before Stef could follow her she was bounding up the stairs and soon Stef heard the bedroom door slam and so Stef decided to give her some time to cool off and headed outside to her youngest son.
"Hey bud." Stef said as she took a seat under the giant tree that Jude was in. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Jude said, wiping his eyes.
"Can you come down please so we can talk." Stef said, knowing that of all the kids he was the only one that responded without her having to yell.
Jude carefully climbed down and sat beside Stef.
"What happened baby?" Stef asked as she put an arm around him. He was a rather quiet child and Stef knew that he took things to heart. It had taken her and Lena months to get Callie to loosen up on him a bit but it looked like today things had slipped.
"It's my fault really." Jude said in a small voice. "I asked Mariana to paint my nails and Callie got mad."
"We talked about that yes?" Stef asked gently. "We talked about how it was safe to be who you are in this house."
"Yes, but Callie was right. I shouldn't wear nail polish." Jude said. "I'm going to go take it off." He got up and left leaving Stef to figure out this new battle with Callie.
"Do you want to tell me why your brother thinks it's wrong for him to wear nail polish again?" Stef asked as she entered the girls' room without knocking.
Callie was lying in bed on her stomach writing fervently in a notebook which she closed the moment she heard Stef enter.
"It's just wrong." Callie answered in a defiant tone.
"We talked about this Callie." Stef said, repeating the words she had just used with Jude. "For starters it's not for you to decide what Jude can and cannot do and second in this house we do not judge people for the things that they like. We accept them for who they are. Everyone is safe in this house."
"Safe?" Callie said, her voice raising. "No one is safe anywhere." She said. "Lena lives in this house but she wasn't safe, she was attacked because she's gay, because she loves a woman instead of a man."
Stef stared at her daughter in shock. She hadn't expected this conversation to take this turn but suddenly she understood where her daughter was coming from.
"Jude got beat up every time he wears nail polish and for years I managed to save him from it by stopping him from wearing it." Callie continued. "And then you guys come in and make him think that it's okay to be different. But it's not okay. It's not, not in the world outside this house and no matter how much you pretend, you're not safe anywhere."
Stef didn't know how to respond. Suddenly she realized just how important it was for them to have their planned conversation with their kids. Obviously they were getting the wrong message and Stef wanted to put a stop to it immediately.
"At what cost Callie?" She asked cautiously. "How do you think Jude feels every time you tell him that he's wrong for being who he is?"
"You don't think I know that?" Callie asked as tears filled her eyes. "You don't think I hate that look he give me each time I throw a bottle of remover and some cotton at him? But I do it to protect him. Just like you guys keep telling us that you do certain things that we don't like to protect us. People who are different don't get the same chances as others." Callie said miserably. "I know that and what happened to Lena should prove that to you too. I was raped because I had a different type of life than most people. Lena was raped for loving you and Jude gets beat up for liking nail polish and girl's clothes. It's not fair but it's life and I've spent mine trying to keep him safe."
Stef had tears in her own eyes too as she waited for Callie to continue. She had never thought about things the way Callie was thinking and she had to admit that there was some truth to her words. Stef wished that Lena was here with her, she would have known exactly what to say to this child to help her understand that while she was right in a way, she was also wrong.
"Sometimes I'm convinced I know more about the real world than you." Callie said after a moment. "I've lived in it and it's not pretty. You think that your dad not accepting you was bad but look at Lena, look at what happens when people who don't know you and don't give a damn about you find out that you're different. They don't just pretend it's all okay, they make sure you realize just how different you are."
"Sweetheart you're not wrong." Stef said as she inched closer to the girl, hoping that she'd let her hold her without pushing her away. "You're not wrong but that also doesn't make it right. The only way to change the world is to change it one person at a time, not forcing people to hide who they really are."
"I can't just watch him get hurt time after time." Callie said miserably. "At first I thought it was okay if he just wore it in the house but then once he's comfortable doing that he wants to wear it to school and one day he'll go out and get a job and wear it there and then what? He won't have his moms or siblings to fight for him. He has to do it himself and most times there isn't just one person picking on you. You can't keep fighting everyone. It's too exhausting."
"We are going to have a family meeting in a while. I'm going to talk to mama and then I'm going to call all of you to our room to talk. In the mean time please go and apologize to your brother. Whether you are right or wrong he's upset that you're angry with him and we both know just how important you are to him so please just go and apologize and don't say anything further about this to him. Just let it go for now." Stef said gently. She had no idea how to continue this conversation and she wanted to discuss a plan with Lena.