Just wanted to say thank you for all of your reviews, follows, and kind messages so far. I'm completely overwhelmed. Keep it real.

PS. For the reviewer who mentioned that Jude never gets in trouble-do not fret, he will have his comeuppance soon.

Chapter 4: Grief, Unspoken

"Cal?" Stef called as she gently knocked on the girl's bedroom door later that night. Neither of the women had seen or heard from Callie in over two hours after she had gone directly to her room after dinner. The girl had barely made a peep throughout the meal and only had a few bites before asking to be excused from the table. With the other kids gone, Stef and Lena had a solid window of time to debrief each other on what had transpired and come up with a plan they both agreed on for the days Callie was suspended.

Ever the educator, Lena insisted that Callie be kept on a fairly structured day so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed upon returning to school. She planned on collecting any assigned homework and readings for Callie to work on over the next three days, which would also allow Stef to work a bit from home in order to make up part of her lost hours—a significant contributor to her stress levels.

Lena also intended on speaking with Callie's Science teacher to make arrangements for an alternate assignment that could be completed for course credit. Most importantly, Lena would connect with the school counsellor to get another opinion on how they could be best supporting Callie and if there was another professional she could recommend. On the home front, Stef would take Callie to a neighbourhood she frequently made arrests in for drug trafficking and other petty crime to show the girl what would happen if she continued with her poor decisions.

Not hearing anything, she cracked open the door and poked her head in. Callie was side-lying in bed, tightly hugging a pillow to her body with her knees making contact with the wall. Walking in, Stef cleared some space on the bedside table to put down the sandwich and a glass of milk she had brought with her. The cop then slowly lowered herself onto the bed so that she wouldn't startle her and placed her hand softly on Callie's side, which seemed to bring her into the present. Although Callie's face was still partially obscured by the pillow when she turned up to look up at her, Stef saw the panic-stricken and disheartened gaze that she had anticipated. It was obvious she had been crying.

"Love," Stef murmured sympathetically as she began to rub Callie's back. It truly broke her heart when any of her children were hurting, and while Callie still protested that she and Jude weren't officially part of the family, to Stef and Lena the kids were very much their's.

They had come to expect this level of upset from Callie, which became especially acute after a dose of tough love. In her own way, though Callie wanted to see how far she could get away with pushing the boundaries, she was also looking for reassurance that she was still very much loved and welcome in their home—that they wouldn't send her away no matter what she did. It was a pattern that reminded Stef and Lena of Mariana and Jesus when they were first adopted: test, fight, retreat, behave.

"I'm sorry," Callie finally said hoarsely, her voice breaking.

"Oh Bug, come here," Stef whispered as she gently wrestled the pillow out of Callie's arms and guided her onto her back. Lying right down beside her, the woman pulled her into a side hug, alternating between stroking Callie's hair and cradling her cheek with her free hand. "I know it's been a rough day," she empathized, looking at the rueful teen.

"Yeah," Callie answered.

The cop kissed Callie on the temple before propping herself up on a elbow to look at her. "You're forgiven, Callie," she stated softly before deciding to continue. Although Stef could see that the teen was upset and wished she could focus entirely upon comforting her, she also wanted to be honest.

"We do have a lot of talking to do over the next little while about the choices you made today and more about the consequences to help you make better decisions next time," Stef said as gently as she could. "But right now I just want to hold you and hear what's going on in your head. Will you let me do that sweetheart?" the cop asked, as she reached to thumb a few fresh tears off the girl's cheeks.

Pleased to receive a small nod of agreement, Stef smiled warmly at the timid teen who had behaved so wilfully just a few hours ago. "I'll have you know that your Mama and I have been around the block more than a few times, and we know something else is going on behind all of this acting out we've been seeing from you lately," the cop winked as Callie's eyes quickly darted to her, puzzled.

That's right, I'm on to you, Stef wished she could say out loud. She was convinced that there was more to Callie's dejection than the genetics unit and getting suspended; these were symptoms of a greater problem and Stef was determined to find out what it was.

"Bug, I'm so sorry if I scared you when I yelled at you," she apologized, knowing that the girl would never open up if she didn't start. The cop remembered the fearful look on Callie's face when she got too close—when she thought she would get hit. Stef was still kicking herself for forgetting to change out of her uniform right away when she got home, only realizing afterwards how intimidating she must have come across to Callie.

"You know that no one's going to hurt you here, right love?" she reminded her daughter. "I yelled because I was scared, and I guess there was a part of me that wanted to scare you too. Possession—yes, that's what it was—" Stef interrupted herself as Callie's mouth gaped open in surprise.

"Possession is a huge deal and my mind kept looping back to if another police officer had found you and Wyatt. They could have arrested you two. You'd go back to Juvie and I'd lose you."

"It's okay," Callie said, before adding quietly, "I know I'm a screwup."

"Hey. Hey," Stef said sternly as she gripped Callie's arms to pull her up into sitting. "Look at me." She tilted the girl's chin up so she could force the eye contact this time. "The rule in this house to be respectful to each other includes being respectful to yourself as well."

The cop paused, giving some time for the message to sink in. "You screwed up by making some foolish choices, Callie, but that doesn't make you a bad person. There's a difference," Stef stressed. "You are not your mistakes," she decided to emphasize for good measure, "You have got to start believing that. Mama and I are here for you, we're always going to be here for you, regardless of how much trouble you're in with us. If we correct you, it's out of love and does not change your place in this family."

"We care about you very much, Callie. We know you can do better," she continued as the youth continued to stare at her with dubiousness.

"I need to hear it from you sweetheart, so I know you heard what I was saying," she pushed when Callie didn't say anything.

"I can do better," Callie finally mumbled, nodding as if to convince herself.

"Good girl."