Title: Disregard
Rating: T
Summary: Different take on 4x01. Callie disregards her safety and goes to look for Marianna. AU, Nick did stay on school grounds.
Spoilers: Up to 4x10, but takes place during the season 4 premiere.
AN: Thank you so much for your interest and feedback, and all the subscribers, and all who favorited the story. More than 500 hits and 400+ visitors, 21 reviews, 14 Favorites and 26 subscribers. It's more than I have on any of my others stories (with 5 chapters) I am so immensely happy that you liked what I wrote! As a thank you, instead of publishing Sunday, I am updating tonight, Thursday.
AN2: I am just going to say this: Prepare your tissues, and please, no flame.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the characters I create.
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Stef had ran as fast as her legs would allow inside, fear creeping in her mind about what she was going to find. Brandon had told her Callie had been shot or shot at, he didn't see if the teacher had wounded her, but when Marianna had said that Callie stepped in front of bullets, she had prayed that was just a figure of speech and not the reality.
As she got closer to the girls' bathroom, she was met by more and more SWAT members, all sporting a look of defeat on their faces, as if they had lost someone. She continued to move forward, dread aching in her stomach, until she saw the bodies. Her heart stopped as the vision of Callie's seemingly lifeless body and ashen face registered in her brain. She kneeled next to her, her vision blurred by tears. A small sigh of relief escaped when she saw her chest slowly rise and fall.
"- Oh Callie," she let out, "please, baby, be OK, please open your eyes?" she begged of her daughter as she took her right hand in hers, feeling the faint pulse.
The SWAT leader put his hand on her shoulder attempting to bring her comfort.
"- We've called for the medics, they're gonna be here any moment now." He said, trying to convey hopefulness to the broken woman in front of him. "The medics are here!" He tried to pull on her shoulder to let the medics work on the girl, but she wouldn't bulge. She looked up at him and saw the paramedics get closer and backed away from her daughter.
The paramedics quickly assessed her, checked the bleedings, packed her wounds and bagged her before loading her on the gurney. The second pair arrived to check Nick. Stef didn't pay attention to them as she followed the paramedics out, staggering.
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Lena was anxiously waiting, she had asked her kids to go back to the holding area after they all calmed a little down. She didn't know how they would ever be ok if Callie wasn't. She chased the thought out of her head. Callie was strong, she had survived so much, and she hoped and prayed that she would survive this too. She was getting restless when the first gurney appeared, followed by her wife. The look of utter distress on her face told her the bloody mess on the gurney was her daughter.
As they got closer, she ran to her wife. By reflex, she opened her arms and let Lena in. They ran awkwardly after the paramedics, clinging on to each other for dear life.
Callie was being loaded in the ambulance, and the paramedic asked who was coming with. Stef turned to Lena, removing her from her arms. Before she could say anything, Lena cut her.
"- You go." Her voice shaking. "I'll get the kids, and we'll catch up with you at the hospital." She hugged her before tugging her towards the ambulance. She watched her wife climb into the vehicle and felt tears coming down as the ambulance drove off, sirens blaring.
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The ride to the hospital was the longest ride for both of them. Stef was watching as the paramedic she hadn't bothered to ask the name worked on her daughter to get her alive and breathing to the hospital.
Lena was trying her best to keep herself from falling apart so that the rest of her kids wouldn't see how distressed she actually was so as to not worry them even more than they already were. She didn't know how Callie was. Neither Stef or the paramedic had said anything, she had just seen that Callie's left shoulder was packed, as well as the right side of her torso. She just hoped and prayed her daughter would make it to the hospital to get treated in time.
Stef, in the ambulance, felt the life go out of her as she watched the paramedic revive her daughter for the second time, the sound of her flat line piercing her ears, and the vision of her daughter's body being shocked over and over until they got a stable rhythm engrained in her brain.
When they finally pulled up in the ambulance bay, her rhythm was still stable. The paramedics unloaded her and the ER doctors took over while the paramedics exposed Callie's state.
"- Female, 17, GSWs to the upper left shoulder, stomach and chest, unresponsive at the scene, had to be revived twice, we gave her…" The rest of the words droned out for Stef as she got out of the ambulance and watched the doctors rush Callie in the ER.
She was led away from her daughter and as soon as she realised it, she tried to fight, but the nurse was stronger.
"- You have to let them work on her, you can't be in the way, they're doing everything they can to help her." He tried to soothe her. He then led her to the waiting area, promising an update.
She sat down and cried as everything came crashing down on her. Her Callie, her sweet, caring, brave Callie was in the ER fighting for her life and she couldn't do anything but wait. She looked down at her hands, smeared with her daughter's blood and cried harder.
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Lena entered the hospital frantic, followed by her kids. She went straight to the nurse's station.
"- I'm looking for my daughter, Callie Adams Foster, she was brought in earlier, she was shot at school." She spoke, trying to remain as composed as she could.
The nurse checked the patient roll before replying.
"- Your daughter is still being treated in the ER, she came in with a stable heartbeat, that's all I can say. A doctor will come update you as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can wait in the waiting room." She said, trying to be as helpful as possible.
Stef was sat with her head in her hands, visibly shaking, the sight of which broke Lena's heart further. She recognised her wife's footsteps and looked up. She flung herself in Lena's arms, stayed there for a moment, before recomposing herself to face her other kids.
Marianna was holding Jude close, herself held by Jesus, and looked up at her Mom.
"- Is Callie going to be ok?
- Sweets, I don't know." Stef replied taking her youngest daughter in her arms. "She's a fighter, that sister of yours, and she's still fighting!"
Jude stepped in his Mom's embrace as she let Marianna go.
"- Why was she with Nick, why did she leave?" His voice shook, barely audible.
"- I think she wanted to help Marianna, Bug." Brandon put his hand on Jude's shoulder.
"- She saw on the info system that Marianna was out there alone, and with the previous message about Nick, she knew something was wrong, I tried to hold her back." He said through his tears. "And then the sub pulled a gun on her and I tried to talk him down, she took that as an opportunity to leave the class and he shot at her, and then SWAT came in. I don't know really what happened after. We got out, and she was still inside." Lena tightened her grip on him as he choked out the last part. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect her." He sobbed, looking at Jude.
"- We have to have faith in your sister, she won't go down without a fight!" Lena tried to appease her children.
"- That's why she was out there?!" Marianna let out. "For me?!" She was taken aback by her sister's motivation. "I thought she had been locked out of a classroom, and was going to hide in the bathroom like me!" Tears flowed freely as she realized Callie had deliberately put herself in danger for her. "But she's gonna be ok? Right? She has to be ok?!" She looked at her moms, pleading with them to reassure her, but the look of uncertainty in Stef's eyes didn't calm her down.
Jude looked like he had checked out of this reality. Callie was the one constant in his life since the loss of their mother. She was the only person that had been there consistently for him since he was born. He wouldn't have made it this far without Callie.
Jesus was holding on to Marianna's hand like lifeline. Nick had been his best friend since coming back from Colorado, and he had come after his sisters. He sported a guilty look across his features. His older brother looked the same. Brandon, as well as Marianna, were a mess. Both feeling responsible for their sister's state.
Lena made them sit down as they waited for news on Callie. Stef had refused to sit down and instead was pacing back and forth before them. It seemed like an eternity since they had gotten to the hospital, but in reality, only a few minutes had gone by.
A young doctor stepped in the waiting area and asked for the family of Callie Adams Foster. Lena got up, Stef took her hand and they walked towards the doctor.
"- We're her family, we're her Moms." Lena stated. "How is she, how is she doing?" She asked.
"- Your daughter is stable, she sustained three bullet injuries to her upper left shoulder, abdomen and chest. The bullet to her shoulder shattered upon impact and we will need to go in and remove the fragments, luckily, no major arteries were touched, and with physical therapy, she should be able to regain full use of her left arm. She did, however, lose a lot of blood. The bullets to her chest and abdomen were through and through. The bullet to her abdomen nicked a kidney artery and bruised her right kidney, we will monitor it, we've given her coagulant factors so that the bruising resorbs itself, and put her on dialysis to help her kidney functions. The main concern is the bullet to her chest, which upon entering shattered a rib and went through her right lung. On the imaging, we found fragments of her rib embedded in her liver, which we will remove during surgery. We had to put in a chest tube so that her lung doesn't collapse and we intubated her to help her breathe. We've given her blood transfusions. She is being taken into surgery to repair her lung and liver, and as soon as she is out of surgery, the surgeon will come and talk to you." He breathed out before continuing. "I know this is a lot to take in, but your daughter is in good hands, she's come this far, and that's a good sign." He let out a small smile, trying to show optimism, but the women in front of him seemed to not hear his last words. He turned to walk away and heard a faint "thank you doctor" coming from them.
Stef turned to Lena, whose face had lost all color, put her arms around her in a hug.
"- Come on, let's go update the kids, they'll want to know." Stef whispered as she took a tentative step towards her children, but then, she felt Lena crumble in her arms and caught before her knees hit the floor.
"- Stef, I can't!" She sobbed in her wife's uniform. "What if she doesn't make it?
- You can't think like that. She is strong, she'll pull through, you said it yourself, she's a fighter, you told our kids to have faith in Callie, and so should you." Stef stated, urging her wife to believe in their daughter. She had gotten to the hospital barely alive, and now she was stable. Stef had faith in her daughter, she was a survivor, she had survived the ambulance ride, not that she could tell her wife their daughter had been dead and had to be revived twice on the way. It would only hurt Lena more. So, instead, she just held her wife for a little bit longer.
She saw her kids scrambling to get to them as the scene in front of them led them to believe their sister had passed. She held her hand up towards them, signaling them they were ok, conveying through her stare that Mama just needed a minute. They sat back down, anxiously waiting for more information.
She gave Lena more time to compose herself, drawing comforting circles on her back as the sobs shook her. Instead of asking if she was ok, which she knew she wasn't, she asked if she was ready. Lena slowly nodded, and they made their way back to their kids.
"- Your sister was stable, but her injuries necessitate surgery." Stef stated, her voice even. "Surgeons are taking care of her right now, that's all we know for now." She didn't want to mention the extent of her daughter's injuries or how many vital organs were concerned. She hoped none of her kids would ask.
"- What are her injuries?" Jude inquired, wanting to know but afraid of the answer.
"- She has damage to her left shoulder, which is non-life threatening, and to her kidney, lung and liver, but everything is being taken care of by either surgeons or medication.
- Will she need a transplant? Do we need to get tested?" Marianna asked. Stef put an arm around her shoulder.
"- No, hun, the doctor didn't say anything about that, which must mean that it's off the table.
- What can we do?" Brandon inquired.
Lena grabbed a hold of his hand before replying.
"- Be there for her when she wakes up from surgery, give her space if she needs it, but for now, we can only wait. As long as she is still in surgery, there is nothing we can do but hope and have faith that Callie will pull through and will be back home soon."
Stef captured her wife's other hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"- Now, we wait." She let out as sat down drawing Lena to her, gesturing her kids to do the same.
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End of Chapter 2.
So what did you think? What's going to happen next? Is Callie going to be Ok? What happens to Nick now? Is he still alive?
Please do give me feedback!