Jude eventually came out of the bathroom, although he then just went and curled up on his bed. Callie took a plate upstairs for him with dinner and sat with him while he ate. Once Brandon got home from his afternoon with his dad, Stef pulled him and the twins into the living room for a talk.

"I'm telling you this because I want you to be prepared in case it becomes a problem at school," she explained to Brandon, Jesus, and Mariana as they sat on the couch. "There was a little issue with Jude and Connor this afternoon. If he wants to share the details, I'll leave that up to him, but… long story short, Jude came out."

"Way to go, little man," Jesus murmured with a smile.

"He likes Connor?" Brandon deduced.

Stef nodded. "And it sounds like that's a one-way street. Connor's always seemed like a nice boy, but we're not sure how he's going to react. Considering that he is Jude's main friend at Anchor Beach… school could get rough for him."

"He's his only friend," Mariana corrected her. "Poor Jude."

"Yeah," Stef agreed. "He's going to need everybody's support. So… do any of you have anything you want to talk about?"

They all shrugged. "Did you think we'd have a problem?" Brandon asked.

"I didn't think so, but I wanted to have a chance to discuss it with you."

"Come on, Mom," Jesus protested. "Why would we care? He's still our little brother."

Stef smiled. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

"We'll look out for him at school," Brandon promised.

"Yeah," Jesus agreed. "If any kid tries to mess with him, I'll knock 'em out."

"Uh, no, you won't," Stef told him. "I don't want to hear about any of you getting suspended, understand? Throwing punches never makes a situation better."

"Sometimes they really deserve it, though," Jesus argued.

Stef didn't disagree. "There's no way that we're going to be able to be with Jude 24/7," she explained. "So, as hard as it is to acknowledge, he's going to have to be able to stand up for himself."

"You could always put him in karate classes," Jesus suggested. "They helped me." Stef and Lena had enrolled him at a local dojo when he was a little younger than Jude was now. The classes had done wonders for his self-esteem and helped him deal with kids that bullied him about his ADHD and other difficulties in school.

"That's a good idea," Stef replied. "Mama and I will talk about it. If you've got other suggestions, let us know."

Extracurriculars for Jude wasn't the only topic that the moms had to discuss that night once all of the kids were in bed. "I just realized," Lena spoke up as she and Stef cuddled in bed, "Our house rules for the kids are totally biased."

"What do you mean?"

"We've never let Brandon, Jesus, or Callie bring Talya, Lexi, or Wyatt up to their rooms if one of us wasn't on this floor, too. But we never gave it a second thought when Jude would have Connor over."

Stef's eyes widened. "Crap."

"I'd like to say that I just figured he was too young, but…"

"That's a cop out."

"Exactly... Did you ever think one of our kids would be gay?" Lena wondered.

"I don't know. I guess I wasn't expecting it, but… The only thing concerning me right now is that I understand what he's facing." Her struggle with coming out had been more recent than her wife's and she felt like she had been left with more scars.

"Yeah," Lena agreed. "He's going to have to figure out how to accept himself like we accept him." She had already told Stef about her conversation with Jude and his fears over coming out.

"I don't want him to go through what I did," Stef decided. "We need to be careful about who we let into his life. I don't want any teachers or tutors or coaches or anything that are going to start telling him he needs to be someone other than himself."

Lena frowned. "I thought I just overheard you a little bit ago telling Brandon and the twins that Jude needs to be able to stand up for himself?"

"Against other kids is one thing. But you know that he's always looking for approval from adults. I'm not going to let anyone damage him like…"

"Like your father did to you?" Lena gently asked.

Stef sighed. "Yeah."

"I think his best protection has got to come from inside of himself," Lena countered. "There are a lot of bigots out there, babe. He can't avoid all of them. But if he's happy with himself, what they think and say will matter less."

Stef was quiet for a long moment. "I keep thinking," she finally said, "What if they weren't here?"

"Callie and Jude?"

She nodded. "What if they hadn't found a home yet where they're safe and accepted? What could happen to him, then?" They already knew that both of their foster children had already been physically abused. "What's happening to other kids around this country - or the world - when they suddenly realize who they are and there's no one to support them?"

Lena curled up at Stef's side. "We can't save them all, my love."

"I know. But that doesn't make me feel any better."

When they woke up in the morning, the moms had a new issue to figure out: whether to let the boys go to the baseball game or not.

"Jude seemed a little bit better at bedtime," Lena pointed out as they sat in the kitchen, nursing cups of coffee. "He was smiling some, at least. I think he feels secure with Brandon and Jesus. It can't hurt to ask him whether he feels up to it or not. Might take his mind off of things for a while."

"True. I guess the best way to let him know that nothing's different for any of us is to have life go on."

"Yeah. And just support him as needed."

"I'm still a little worried about my dad. If he makes any of his stupid little comments, Jude is going to be more sensitive than the older boys will be."

"I know… but it's not fair to Brandon and Jesus to keep all of them home, and it's not fair to Jude to force him to be the only one to stay home. If he feels like going, the older boys can look out for him."

Stef nodded. "Okay. We'll ask after breakfast what he wants to do."

Upstairs, Jude was looking for Callie, but when he came into the girls' room, Mariana was the only one there. She was painting her fingernails; Jude noticed that five different bottles of nail polish were sitting on her nightstand next to her bed.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Mariana held up her finished right hand. "Just doing my nails. You like them?" Each finger was a different color - red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

"Why are they all different?" Jude wondered.

"I always do them like this when we go to the Pride Rally. I'm missing a color, I know, but I've only got five fingers."

Callie came back in from the bathroom. "Morning, Jude," she greeted her brother.

"Hi," he said before instantly turning his attention back to Mariana. "What's the Pride Rally?"

"You've never been?"

Jude shook his head. "Is it today?"

"No, it's still a few weeks away."

"Then why are you painting your nails today?"

Callie looked over and realized what their foster sister was doing. She and Mariana shared a little smile. Sometimes the younger girl could be a brat, but sometimes she was a very good sister.

"It doesn't have to be Pride Weekend in order to have pride," Mariana told Jude.

"Pride for what?" he asked, still not understanding.

"For you, buddy," Callie softly explained. It was an enormous weight off of her shoulders to know that her new siblings loved her brother just like she did.

Jude was quiet for a long moment, just thinking as he watched Mariana finish her left hand. "Do you want me to paint your nails, too?" she asked him.

He hesitated. "I don't know…" He'd liked wearing the nail polish before, but knew Callie had worried about what other people might do or say. Now that his secret had been revealed, did he need to be worried, too? Would being out make his life easier or harder?

Callie didn't like hearing doubt in her brother's voice. Even though she thought Jude needed to be smart about not provoking closed-minded people, she never wanted him to be ashamed for who he was. "Can you do mine?" she asked Mariana.

"Sure."

Callie smiled at Jude. "You can be next," she told her little brother as she sat on Mariana's bed.

Jude kept watching them for a moment. Having both of his sisters wear a symbol of support for him meant a lot. Some little part of him had always feared that there'd be exceptions when Callie said she'd love him no matter what. So far, though, her promise had been absolute.

With a little smile, he sat down at her side. "Okay. I want my nails done, too." Callie smiled and ruffled his hair.

TBC...

A/N: Yes, I know I took some liberties with timing; the 2013 San Diego Pride Weekend was in mid-July, only a couple weeks after the Supreme Court struck down DOMA and Prop 8 (not over a month later, like I'm saying in the story). But if the real writers can have the kids still be in school by July... I can make a couple adjustments myself. ;-)