Chapter 9

Stef took a deep breath before making her way up the stairs as fast as she could, which wasn't exactly fast enough in her eyes. She felt too exhausted from having barely slept in two days and she felt as if everything was going in slow motion. Too much had happened in that time frame that the blonde honestly wondered how she was still functioning.

She opened the door to her bedroom, expecting to see her wife laying in bed and facing in the opposite direction so she wouldn't have to speak to her. It was what Lena would normally do when she was upset with her. The silent treatment was definitely her specialty at times like these. But instead and to her surprise, she saw the woman halfway done packing her suitcase.

Stef stared at her in awe for a few seconds, wondering if her wife could really be serious. When she snapped out of it, she let out a deep breath. Lena was definitely not going to make this easy for her, she thought to herself as she walked over toward the suitcase and began removing her wife's clothes from it. Lena attempted to snatch them away from her quickly afterward. "What are you doing?"

"What does it looks like I'm going?" Stef asked sarcastically but yet maintained a defeated tone in her voice from the exhaustion.

"Stop, Stef," her wife argued. "I need to go. I can't stay here with her."

"You won't have to," Stef responded, causing for Lena to loosen her grip on the clothes, allowing Stef to walk over and put them back in the drawer.

"What does that mean?" Lena asked out of confusion.

"Callie's leaving," the blonde chose to answer simply. "You don't want her here so she's leaving," the cop continued in a tone that said all of this was clearly Lena's fault.

Lena should've felt better about the news after the scene she had made downstairs, and this she knew. But for a reason she couldn't quite understand, she didn't.

Was it the way Stef made it seem?

As if she was acting like an immature child instead of an adult?

"Don't blame this on me," Lena voiced sternly.

"No? Who should I blame then?" The blonde questioned with obvious sarcasm.

"That's not fair," Lena argued. "I didn't ask for any of this."

"And Callie did?"

"No. You're trying to pressure us both into something neither of us want!" Lena retorted. "And only one of us already knows how that's going to end."

Stef stopped and turned around without grabbing any more clothes to stare at her wife. "You know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe I am pressuring her to come home but I really don't care about any of that at this point!"

Lena hissed.

Stef sucked in her breath in an effort to calm herself down before she, herself, said something she'd later regret. "I just..." the blonde stopped and considered what was the right point to argue. "I can't do nothing, Lena. I can't sit here and do nothing when it's so obvious that she needs our help."

"She hasn't asked for our help, Stef," Lena reminded her. "We can't help someone that doesn't want help. We can't save Callie, or whatever it is you think you're doing, when Callie doesn't want to be saved."

"Since when do I ever ask for help?" Stef retorted. "Some of us aren't so quick to let others lend a hand because we're afraid of what that would mean. Do you get that? ...It makes us feel useless like we aren't strong enough to handle things on our own. But we do. We do need help... And Callie..." Stef stopped to let out a deep breath. "Callie is the same way. She may not even know she needs to be saved but I can recognize it. I really can. So, no... No, I'm not going to just go back to pretending like she doesn't exist, just so that I can move forward. I wouldn't be me if I did that."

Lena knew that what her wife was saying held a lot of truth. Her passion to love and her never-ending strength were two of the things that made Stef who she was and made Lena fall in love with her in the first place. So listening to what she was saying now, didn't come as a surprise to her.

"Some one is hurting her, Lena," Stef reminded her in a saddened tone. "What kind of mother would I be if I… turned a blind eye to that?"

Lena hated the fact that Callie had obviously gotten herself in some serious trouble and the woman didn't want to see anything bad happen to her, no matter how angry she was. But she honestly felt as if there wasn't anything that could make her feel any different about Callie. She didn't have any hope that she had really changed in just those two years, especially when she never even came to see Jude.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Lena asked Stef. "I can't just sit here and smile at her and pretend that I wasn't affected by any of this either... Even if I wanted to Stef, I really don't think I can do that," the brunette admitted.

"I'm not asking you to, Lena."

Lena stared at her wife in confusion.

Stef felt the need to clarify. "That's exactly why I'm going to leave. I'll stay with Callie."

"What?" Lena was quick to interrupt. "No way, Stef. I'm not going to just let you do this."

"It's not up to you, honey," Stef said softly as she sat on the bed next to her wife and held her hand. "And it's only for a little while."

"No," Lena answered sternly.

"Both of you need some time to adjust to all of this. This isn't something that can just be overcome in one night, Lena. You know that... Maybe if I take Callie and stay somewhere else for a little while, you can use that time to get used to the idea. I don't want Callie to feel like a stranger in her own home and I don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you into something you're not ready for."

"Then what do we do?" Lena asked in a slow and calm tone.

"We take things slow for now," the blonde answered. "Baby steps. Baby steps until everyone is on board with it."

Lena wanted to argue. She wanted to tell her wife that she didn't have to leave for her, and that she didn't have to take Callie far away just so that she'd be able to look Callie in the eye again. But she knew that she'd be lying if she had. Stef wasn't going to give up and this was something Lena knew she was going to have to face eventually, but she couldn't, at least not right now.

"I'm sorry," Lena finally said. And for the first time, Lena felt as if she had been really disappointing her wife.

How could she not be?

She was disappointing herself more.

Usually, she would be the first to drop everything to help someone in need... But here she was, refusing to let go of the past and forgive her daughter. It didn't make complete sense in her own mind either.

"It's okay," Stef assured her wife as she put her hand on Lena's arm. "Maybe this is for the best right now." "...Not to mention, there are still a few things I have to take care of that I should probably do beforehand anyway. Callie may react better to it, if there aren't so many people involved," the woman sighed.

Lena hadn't entirely been certain what Stef was referring to but she knew that it probably had something to do with the bruises on Callie's face. It was the tone she used which gave it away.

"Be careful," the brunette said before placing her head on her wife's shoulder.

Stef put her arms around Lena and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I always am."