Stef

"How's Callie doing?"

Lena called me to see how we are holding up at the home front.

"She's good," I reply, "Resting." She had been going back and forth between sleeping and watching me work on my laptop. "I'm going to wake her up soon and see if I can get her to eat something. How is Jude?"

I hear Lena sigh through the line, "He's been to my office twice already asking if he could call Callie. I told him that she is fine with you but he insists on calling. Those two…they care about each other so much. It's a beautiful relationship, don't get me wrong, but they have to learn to think about themselves instead of each other."

"I hear you," I agree, nodding my head, "All they had for six years was each other. It's hard to snap out of that."

"Yeah."

I feel Callie begin to shift beside me, "I'm gonna go, Babe. I think Callie is waking up and I want to see if she'll eat something. Love you."

"Love you, too. Bye."

"Bye."

I hit the end button on the phone and put it on the night table before turning to look at Callie. Her eyebrows are knitted together in a worried sort of fashion and she's whimpering. She's having another nightmare and her fever is probably making it a lot worse than it already is.

I slip beneath the covers and gather Callie into my arms and of course she fights against me. She pushes against my chest and her hand comes up and scratches my neck. I reel back for a moment but don't go too far. I pull her hands down between us and hold them.

"No!" she mumbles, jerking herself away from me, "Liam, no!"

I hold her as close as possible and begin to whisper into her ear, "You're not there, Callie. You're here, with me. Wake up, Baby. You're safe; no one is going to hurt you."

Tears slip down Callie's cheeks, "Please…"

"Wake up, Baby." She blinks her eyes open with a start. She looks at me briefly, somewhat confused. What has happened registers to her and she tries to pull away from me but I don't let her.

"Just breathe," I tell her, bringing up a hand to rub the back of her neck. Callie takes a shaky breath and I can feel her trying to calm herself down. She closes her eyes and listens to my whispers. I continue telling her to breathe and rubbing her neck until she isn't breathing so hard.

"Sorry," Callie whispers and again, tries to pull away. Again, I don't let her.

"What were you dreaming about?" I ask, pushing some sweaty strands of hair out of Callie's eyes.

She looks at me for a moment, mouth opening, but she closes it and looks away, "I…I can't."

"Can't what?"

Callie looks at me for a moment, eyes narrowing and I'm not sure why. She reaches out a hand and touches my neck. When she brings it back, I see a few drops of blood. Her eyes widen in horror and she gasps. She jerks herself out of my arms and this time I can't stop her. She stumbles out of the bed and dashes to the other side of the room. I bring a hand up to my neck and look at it. From the small amount of blood on my hand, I can tell it's nothing bad and will probably stop bleeding by itself in less than a minute. I get out of the bed and put my hands up as I walk towards Callie.

"I'm sorry!" she says frantically, flattening herself against the wall as I get closer, "I'm so sorry! I didn't…I wasn't…"

"It was just an accident," I tell her, "You were asleep. I know you didn't mean it―"

Callie shakes her head, "I promise it won't happen again, Stef. Please don't send me back to juvie! Please?"

She's so worked up right now; she's not hearing me. Not sure what to do, I take a seat on the rug and cross my legs. I place my hands flat on my knees. "Are you listening to me, Callie? Can you hear me?" She gives me a weird look and slowly nods her head. I might look ridiculous to her right now but I need her to know that I am not a threat.

"Good," I say softly, "Callie, you are not going back to juvie. You scratched me by accident. I don't blame you and I'm not mad at you. Do you understand?"

She eyes me, as if she's waiting for me to change my mind. She doesn't respond, rather walks across the room and into the bathroom. I don't get up from where I am because I honestly feel so lost. Lena's the one with a PhD in child psychology. I hear Callie rummaging around in the bathroom. What is she doing?

She finally comes back out and sits in front of me, using the heels of her feet as a seat. She has a tube of Neosporin in her hand. She twists the cap off and squeezes some of the gel onto her finger. Callie studies me for a moment. Her eyes flick to my hands briefly before she leans forward and gently applies the Neosporin to the scratch on my neck. She puts her other hand on my shoulder to steady herself.

"So it doesn't get infected," she murmurs as she continues to spread the gel over the length of the scratch. I hold still and watch her face as she does this. She's focused entirely on the task at hand. The look on her face is one I've seen her give Jude many times.

It's whole-hearted concern.

She finishes and sits back.

"Are you okay?" Callie asks, eyes conveying the worry she still feels..

I smile and lean foward to wipe the remaining tears from her cheek. She jerks away a bit but holds still as she realizes I just want to clean her face. When I'm done, I place a kiss on her cheek.

"I'm perfect, Sweets. Thank you. Up for some food?"

Lena

I hear a knock at my office door and I have a pretty good guess of who it is, "Come in!" I call. It's Jude, and I'm not surprised. I fold my arms on my desk and look up at him, "What's up, bud?"

"I have to go home," he tells me matter-of-factly.

I raise an eyebrow, "May I ask why?"

He shifts his feet, "I think I caught whatever Callie has."

I am trying so hard not to smile but the little charade Jude is putting on makes that difficult, "Come here." He walks closer to my desk. I stand up and lean across so I can feel his forehead and cheeks, "You don't feel warm." I tell him.

He shrugs, "That happens sometimes. I could just walk to the house―"

"Take a seat Jude," I say pointing to one of the two chairs that stand opposite my desk. I walk around and take a seat in the other chair, "Buddy, I promise you Callie is just fine. Stef is taking really good care of her. In fact, she called me and told me that Callie was resting and that they were going to eat lunch soon. Speaking of which, don't you have lunch right now?"

Jude nods and looks down, "I'm not really hungry." He tells me.

"Too worried about your sister?"

"Yeah."

I put a hand on his knee, "What do you think is going to happen?"

Jude shrugs, "I don't know…foster parents don't like when we get sick because it's a lot of work and we can't help out or anything. They get mad."

"We're not mad at Callie for being sick," I assure Jude, "It happens to everyone. We want her to get better just as much as you do. It's our job to make sure she gets better, okay?"

Jude looks up at me, "Promise you're not mad?" he asks quietly.

"Promise. Are you gonna have lunch now?"

He looks at me and looks away before shyly asking, "Could I eat in here with you?"

I use a finger to lift his chin so he can see the smile on my face, "I would love nothing more."

Callie

I nibble on the corner of the grilled cheese Stef made me and watch as she washes the dishes from breakfast. I can't believe I hurt her in the middle of my stupid nightmare. I thought for sure that would be the end for me but she's being really nice about it. In fact, she's being really nice about everything. It feels so good to have someone taking care of me instead of it being the other way around. I finish eating and push the plate aside to drink some water. Stef swoops down and grabs the plate without a word.

Such a mom.

Stef finishes up with the dishes and shuts off the faucet. She wipes her hands on a dish towel before taking a seat next to me.

"How are you feeling now?" She asks as she presses her hand to my forehead.

"More human," I reply. I gesture at her neck, "You?"

She smiles at me, "Like a million bucks." I begin to sip at my water again and Stef drums her fingers on the counter. I feel like she wants to say something and is searching for the right words. Finally, after a minute of silence, she turns to face me and opens her mouth.

"So, who's Liam?"

I'm sorry, this chapter is short too but I have very clear ideas as to where I want chapters to end.

I had my graduation party yesterday which was fun. Today my family is coming over so we can celebrate my uncle's birthday. It's a bit rainy outside and I wanted to use my pool but oh well. You take what you get.

I need to go do laundry. I only get two shirts for work and I use them five days a week. Ugh.

-Liv

P.S.- It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again…(I'm watching this move right now)