Author Note:

Callie gets some much-needed time with her Mama, and together they begin to make some progress. Sorry (but not too sorry) for the shorter length. The length of the next chapter was getting out of hand, so some carving was needed.

Huge thanks to theypreferthetermpeople for proofreading and for being a sounding board for ideas. Love this opportunity to have something to focus on that is not related to the baby. Thank you :)

Chapter 40: Cracks in the Veneer

Feeling ill-equipped to go back to the situation with Callie after getting changed, Stef finished cleaning the girls' room. Brandon had then called from his Dad's asking if he could sleep over. Too tired to argue, she had relented; plus, Mike had made the decision easy by agreeing to drop him off at school before his shift started. By the time the rest of the kids came home and Stef tucked them in for the night, it'd been a good forty-five minutes since she had left Callie with Lena.

She sighed happily when, upon returning to the master bedroom, she caught glimpse of them from the doorway. The two of them were snuggled under the blanket, propped up on pillows while looking at the iPad. Noticing her standing there, Lena smiled as she kissed her daughter on the head. She looked content and Stef could understand why—her wife didn't often get the chance to bond with Callie, so every opportunity to do so was special. Wanting to give them a little more time together, the cop headed into the shower.

Feeling Callie take in a shuddering breath, Lena brought her in closer to her side and smoothed the brown head of hair. With her free hand, she adjusted the damp patch on the front of her t-shirt which was uncomfortably plastered to her skin—the result of standing behind her daughter at the sink so she could wash Callie's face.

After being inconsolable for the better part of an hour, Callie eventually quieted down. In the end, it was distraction that had helped: reading webcomics, taking turns sharing music videos with each other, and talking about plans for the upcoming weekend. Knowing her daughter wouldn't open up without some nudging, Lena used the transition points between these activities to her advantage. With the woman's gentle persistence, it wasn't long before her questions began to yield some clues as to what was going on.

What had eluded and troubled her the most were comments her daughter had uttered in the midst of her meltdown—the ones that suggested a belief that she would get hurt or be reprimanded in some way for the broken items. That it would "be over" as Callie had put it, when Stef had tried to reassure her. However, the idea of trying to tease that apart was daunting, to say the least. So for now, she would begin by revisiting the fight between the siblings. Because she had a nagging feeling that there was more that had happened there than what Callie and Jude had admitted to that evening. And whatever it was had obviously been deeply upsetting to Callie.

Sure enough, Lena's hunch had been proven correct. All it had taken was for her to bring up Jude for the floodgates to open. Tearfully, her daughter recounted how the youngster had grabbed the tape player and how she had been trying to stop him when he lost his footing and fell on the fireplace tile.

The woman shook her head. She understood that the cassettes had been a sore spot for Jude but was also annoyed by his behaviour lately. Like Callie, he had been testing his limits; however, in some ways it was almost worse because he had Jesus to team up with. How Jude had behaved in this latest incident was simply unacceptable.

"What happened to my tax papers that I had organized so nicely?" Lena asked warily.

Callie stopped, remembering the moment the entire stack had fallen and spread across the floor like an accordion. "It got knocked off when Jude bumped the desk," she said quietly, still feeling awful for telling on him. She'd omitted the part about him wrecking her tape—Lena hadn't asked, and she wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"What about the cassette player?"

"It fell. I didn't throw it, Mama," Callie admitted, looking up at her foster mother.

Lena hummed as she nodded thoughtfully. "And what have Mom and I said about taking responsibility for things you are not responsible for?" she asked tiredly.

"I thought I was helping," her daughter whispered after an uncomfortable pause. "Sorry."

"Helping who? Jude? By letting him accuse you of pushing him when that wasn't the truth?" the woman challenged. "I think, honey, that you need to leave the helping up to us adults and not take that upon yourself," she said when Callie remained silent. They had talked about this countless times by now.

"I know. It's going to take some practice. You've gotten so used to looking out for him," Lena empathized. She believed, in her heart of hearts, that Callie's inclination to protect her brother was reflexive—without planning or malcontent. Still, she and Stef needed to help their daughter shift her thinking—so she didn't think of herself and her needs as being secondary to her brother's. With Callie owning up to what had happened that evening, though, she was feeling slightly more confident that her child was taking a step in the right direction.

"He—he's so m—mad at me!" Callie concluded, sniffling. "Jude really wanted to listen but I didn't want him to!" Now that she had told on him, he was probably going to be more upset with her.

"Oh, honey..." Lena sighed at Callie's distress. She really felt for the girl, only able to imagine how hard this must be. Growing up, she and her half-brother had had their share of fights, but it was different. Nate had come from her Dad's first failed marriage and they had been older when they met, with different interests. The relationship wasn't based on storms they had mutually weathered. Callie and Jude, however, were like needle and thread. One an aimless, free spirit who was able to enjoy most of the freedoms of childhood because of the other, who never failed to weave things together if they began to unfurl. Their circumstances had made them inseparable.

"He may very well be, but he won't be angry with you forever." She wasn't trying to minimize her daughter's feelings, but wanted to offer her hope, too.

"You understand why Jude was upset about the cassettes your Mom left you, right?" she questioned after a while. "He wants, just as much as you do, to remember her. To be able to take part in the special relationship that you had with her. Make no mistake, I am not condoning his actions in any way… you were not wrong for not being ready to share yet. That's understandable," Lena affirmed. Confident that it'd only be a matter of time before Callie would share the recordings with him, she and Stef had agreed that they wouldn't force the issue. But it was important for her daughter to be able to see it his way.

"Aren't you mad at him, too?"

Callie shrugged. "A little," she said unconvincingly. The truth was, while she was put off by him, she didn't want to be.

Lena smiled to herself at the girl's attempt to minimize her feelings about the whole mess. "A little?" she said, using a tone to highlight her disbelief. "So… Jude took the cassette player after he learned he would not be getting a turn. Then, he took advantage of knowing you would not stick up for yourself, and you are only a little bit angry?" she challenged, raising her eyebrows expectantly. The smile reached her eyes as Callie nodded, biting her lip as she did so.

Callie looked up at Lena, surprised her foster mother had managed to put into words how she felt. "Yeah," she admitted dejectedly.

"It's okay to be mad at your brother. Perfectly okay," Lena stated definitively. "I can only imagine how threatened you must have felt when he didn't listen to you. Now, I'm not completely sure if you two were communicating respectfully to begin with," she said, remembering all of the yelling that had taken place before she and Stef went to intervene. "But that doesn't mean you don't get to be upset with him."

Her daughter was starting to fidget, her ability and willingness to talk about this quickly fading. Reaching around Callie's shoulder, she clasped both of the girl's hands in her's.

"Oh, Bug… I'm sorry. Mom and I were hoping that you'd get some privacy by having you listen downstairs."

Callie frowned. It wasn't their fault. It'd just been bad timing that Jude had come looking for her. No one could've predicted that. She leaned into her foster mom, letting her adjust the blanket around them. She felt pretty safe—and surprisingly, even a little better—now that the truth was out.

Getting the sense that her daughter was more at ease, Lena decided to go on. "Do you remember what we talked about some things being off limits when it comes to disagreements with others?"

Callie nodded reluctantly. She did. "We can't say stuff to make each other feel like they're not part of the family," she grumbled, giving the answer she knew was expected of her.

"Well…we can…but we really shouldn't," Lena stated, unable to stop the teacher within from correcting the girl's word choice. "But yes. Whether it's the family you and Jude had with your Mom and Dad, or this one," she reiterated, assured that Callie had gotten the message.

She pulled the girl in closer, as if to soften the blow from the next question she intended to ask. "Sweetheart? Do you sometimes feel like maybe you're not a part of this family?"

Feeling a lump in her throat form, Callie looked away. Lena was wrong. It was actually feeling like she was a part of this family and the thought of it ending that made her upset.

Lena waited patiently, continuing only when it was clear her daughter would remain silent. "Because it's okay if you do, sweetheart. These things take time," she said, not wanting to guilt or shame Callie for feeling the way she did. As with all transitions, complicated feelings were natural—and despite her and Stef's excitement about adding to their family, they certainly didn't expect the siblings to match their happiness. "You do need to know that we consider you a part of ours, though."

She knew she had hit a sore spot when Callie snuck a glance up at her. The girl's eyes were brimming with tears, betraying the strength she wanted to portray. Lena was now convinced that this was why Callie had bristled at hearing Stef say she loved her. It was her way of maintaining distance between herself and those she wasn't too sure of yet.

To Callie, it wasn't worth getting close to people who wouldn't be her family. She had been let down too many times to risk getting hurt again.

But still too young to articulate these fears, Callie had no way of telling them.

"Hi, loves…" Stef said quietly, settling in on the bed before looking over Lena's shoulder. Though she was saddened to see Callie scoot closer towards her wife, it also warmed her heart to see her being comfortable with Lena.

Not wanting to forget Callie's vitamin, she retrieved the Flintstones bottle from the nightstand and handed it to her wife. Due to resistance from their daughter on previous occasions when Lena had tried, she had taken over the dispensing of the nightly multivitamin, as well as any over-the-counter stuff when Callie was sick. Luckily, that had happened very rarely since the siblings started living with them. However, she no longer had any energy left tonight.

Lena untwisted the cap and shook out a tablet before giving the container back to Stef. "Here, honey," she said as confidently as she could, holding it out for Callie. For reasons unknown to her, she always had less success with getting their daughter to comply compared to when Stef tried.

Having watched what the women were doing, Callie shook her head and drew away from the woman. She didn't like how it squeaked in her teeth as she chewed, or the powdery aftertaste. Plus, she was pretty sure those vitamins did nothing—she hadn't had to take them until Stef and Lena's, and she pretty much felt the same now as she did before.

Lena rolled her eyes, more out of amusement than annoyance, as she handed the pill back to Stef to set aside. Callie had made her thoughts on this issue abundantly clear on several occasions. However, insisting on a daily dose was less about nutrition—as a family, they ate healthily enough. It was more about getting Callie used to a routine of taking care of herself, and helping her tolerate medications by extension. The idea had been their family doctor's. Because whenever Callie did get sick, she and Stef had a great deal of difficulty getting any medication into her.

"Before bed, okay?" she said, coaxing a small nod from their daughter. This was not the hill she was willing to die on tonight.

"Thanks for keeping Mama company, Bug…" Stef said softly as she caught glimpse of Callie peering at her. She smiled at the girl as she tried to ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach. Callie's face was chapped and her eyes were puffy, indicating that she had been crying for quite some time. "What did you two do all evening?"

Ashamed at the way she had acted earlier, Callie withdrew her gaze. She knew what was coming. Lena had given her two choices. Talk about everything together when Stef came back; or, talk through some things, just the two of them together. Then, they could share with Stef afterwards. Either way, Lena had made it clear that they would be having a chat.

Except she didn't want to. She wasn't ready.

Feeling Callie press her face into her side, Lena rubbed her arm reassuringly. Their daughter hadn't left her side in well over an hour—and while she was grateful for the closeness, it worried her. It wasn't like their girl to be this shy and subdued with either of them, but to be honest, she and Stef had been noticing a reappearance in the behavior over the past several days. Perhaps in denial due to some of the strides Callie had made, Lena had tried to push it from her mind.

"You're alright," Lena said quietly, managing to make eye contact with their daughter. Callie's body language reminded her so much of Jude's at their first family therapy appointment. Too timid to greet the psychologist, he had buried himself into her arm to hide.

She reached over Stef to place her iPad on the nightstand and pecked her on the cheek on the way back before returning her attention to Callie. "Well, we did a lot, didn't we?" She had learned early on that some nudging would be required if there was to be any hope of getting participation, especially when their daughter wasn't feeling up to it. "I learned…that Miss Callie reads a lot of X...CKD. Did I get that right?"

Callie smiled shyly at her, her face lighting up at mention of her favourite webcomic. "XKCD," she whispered.

"Oops," Lena said apologetically. Her daughter giggled before becoming somber once again. "What else, honey? We watched a couple short documentaries…one was on sea creatures of the deep. The other was about carnivorous plants."

Stef forced her expression into one of deep interest. "Wow…so, which did you like more, Cal?"

"Sea creatures," came the muffled reply.

"Ah, of course," Stef said. She couldn't forget the siblings' request of Bill—if they could go to a pet store on a future visit so they could look at the aquariums. "Did you watch anything else?" she asked. "I thought I heard music playing."

"Macklemore," Callie mumbled.

"Oh! Mama and l like his music."

Getting the sense the conversation was stalling, Lena tried to facilitate. "There were some trailers for movies Callie might be interested in seeing. I think we'll be able to get most of them through Netflix."

"Oh, yeah? Which ones?" the cop asked. She winked at Callie, hoping to elicit a smile from her. Anything. She wasn't ready to give up just yet, but was grasping at straws to figure out how to make any sort of connection.

The girl shrugged and remained silent. She knew what her foster moms were trying to do and she wasn't going to fall for it.

Hope fading at Callie's dejected demeanour, Stef sighed inwardly. It wasn't unusual for their daughter to keep her distance after getting into a disagreement with either of them. Not til they reassured her of her place in the family. But this was different. Callie looked thoroughly discouraged.

As she searched Callie's face for answers, a few tears escaped, which her daughter didn't bother to wipe away.

Something wasn't quite right.

"Callie?" she murmured. "Tell us what's wrong. Please?"

A/N: Next up, a mega-update