Spike heard her screaming and ran out of his room, opened her door and knelt next to her. "Callie. It's a dream. Callie!" He shook her shoulder.
Callie flailed her arms and screamed. She's holding me down! Help! "Help me." She yelled and sat up.
"It's ok." Spike took her in his arms and held her. The rocked back and forth until she calmed.
Callie sniffed and wiped her hand across her nose.
Spike got up, got some tissues and came back. "Sounded like a pretty bad dream." He looked at her with concern.
"Yeah." Callie scoffed. She blew her nose and threw the tissue in the nearby basket.
"Want to tell me about it?" He sat on the floor next to the mattress.
"It was all the bad stuff Candace and Mitzy did. Shoving me in lockers until I peed myself." She looked at him. "Kicking, hitting, tying me up putting me a million feet in the air when she knew I hate heights."
Damn that girl, Spike thought. "It's all over now. They'll both be in juvie for awhile."
"What about when they get out? They're still going to hate me." New fear flared in her eyes.
"What if they didn't?" At her confused look he continued, "healing begins with forgiveness. The only way you can all get past this is to forgive the hurts and try to move forward."
"I don't know." Could she really forgive the two people who had hurt her most and made her miserable life even worse? Although, she thought, all of a sudden I have six new friends. Wasn't expecting that. Maybe life isn't so bad.
"You should think about it." He tipped his head down and caught her eye. "Promise?"
She looked at him. "Promise."
"Will you be ok?"
Callie nodded. "Yeah." I think so, I really do, she thought.
For the next week, Callie did as she promised. Every day after school she went to see Jules at the hospital. Sometimes they just hung out, and sometimes they played Rummy. They promised to keep the Uno until Jules was able to sit up for long periods. Although they had her on oxygen through a nose cannula, she got tired fairly quickly so they had to take breaks during their play.
Sam grudgingly went back to work that Monday but he showed up as soon as shift was over. A couple of times he was late and missed seeing Callie, but Jules and Callie both understood. He gave Jules the rundown of each day and stayed until she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore.
On that Thursday, when the team was on days off again, Spike showed up at the hospital with a potted plant. He walked in with it in front of his face and moved it to the side when he stopped in front of the bed. When he moved it aside he had a huge smile on his face, his mouth open and his head cocked to the side a goofy look on his face.
Jules, Callie and Sam laughed. Jules took in as much breath as she could and said, "goofy."
"Ah yuk ah yuk ah yuk." Spike answered, doing his best Goofy impression. He put the plant on the rolling tray that was positioned across Jules' lap. "I thought your room could use some color," he looked around the white, sterile room, "and I know you don't like cut flowers."
"It's… Beautiful." Jules smiled. She moved the tray closer and looked the irises over. Some had bloomed, but there were still some that hadn't opened yet. "These'll…look good...in my...garden."
"That's what they said at the nursery." Spike put his hands in his pockets and shrugged.
Jules looked at him, admiration in her eyes. "Thank…you."
"You're welcome." Spike smiled and looked at Callie. "Hey stranger. How are ya?" He hugged her and she answered "fine" into his jacket. Without thinking he pulled back and looked at her, panic crossing his face. He looked at Sam and relaxed when Sam shook his head.
"We didn't tell her about that word." Sam smiled.
"Oh." Spike relaxed and pulled back from Callie.
When Callie looked confused Sam explained what that word meant to them and why. He said they used ok, good and great.
"Oh, I'm good." Callie smiled.
"So did you take your algebra and Chem tests?" Spike looked at her expectantly. She nodded and looked down. "Uh oh. Bad?"
She smiled and said, "aced them!" When he switched from shock to happy she added, "couldn't have done it without you." She put a hand on his back. "Thanks."
"Glad to help." He smiled and put his bent arm on her shoulder. He looked down and realized she was holding something. "What's that?" He nodded at her hand.
"Uh, well I painted this for Jules, for all of you really." She lifted her hand and Spike saw that it was a canvas with wrapping paper over the front. Callie took a breath and handed it to Jules.
Jules gave her a questioning look, but pulled the paper off and gasped. "Oh..Callie." Jules put a hand to her mouth and started to cry.
"Do you-, is it?" Callie was confused by her reaction. She hoped those were happy tears.
"It's…so beautiful…" Jules gasped between sobs. She turned it so Sam and Spike could see. It was a conceptual drawing, there weren't any distinct faces on the figures just shadows, but it was clearly Callie, surrounded by the SRU members in their gear, including Wordy.
Jules was next to Callie with Sam right behind and to her right. Jules had her arm around Callie and Sam with his hand on Jules' back. On Callie's right side, and farther in the painting was Spike with his hand on Callie's back. Behind him was Wordy, Greg, Leah and Ed, each with their heads bowed and their hands on someone's back.
The background was dark with bright spots of red and blue breaking up the black. In Callie's hands she held an open box. Doves and light emerging from the box and heading to the side edge of the painting.
"Wow." Sam breathed. The symbolism of it was breathtaking.
"Callie." Spike said softly. "That is amazing."
Callie shrugged.
"No seriously. This is awesome." Spike looked at Callie and saw that she had tears in her eyes. He gave her a half-smile and a hug.
"I hoped you'd like it." Callie wiped her eyes.
Jules was trying to breathe in between her tears and was having a hard time. The oxygenation monitor went off. Her oxygen saturation went down to the 80's when it should stay in the 90's.
Sam stepped forward and gave Jules some tissues. "Easy Jules." He said. "Sniper breathing."
She blew her nose and followed while he counted it out. A nurse came in and watched them, looking at the monitor.
"In, hold, two three four, out." Sam kept count for a couple minutes until Jules' breathing was back under control. He looked at the nurse. "She's ok now." The nurse nodded and left saying, "don't make me kick you out" before she left.
"Sorry Jules." Callie looked sad.
"Not...your...fault." She put her hand out towards Callie and Sam moved aside to let Callie get closer. "I..love it." She took Callie's hand and looked at Sam. "Window…please."
He picked up the painting from where it was leaning on the rolling tray where Jules had placed it when she had started having trouble breathing and put it on the window sill so Jules could see it.
"So...talented." Jules smiled.
"Thanks." Callie blushed. She looked at her watch, 1630. Crap! She was going to be late! Ever since she had started hanging out with Sam, Jules and Spike, she'd adopted their military timekeeping. "I gotta go. I'm supposed to be meeting Mom in Mr. Fitzherbert's office right now. Be back around 1800." She turned towards the door, then threw over her shoulder, "I'll be back." In her best Schwarzenegger voice.
The three laughed. Spike looked at Sam. "Fitzherbert. Is that the guy-"
"Yep. Jules set it up. Thought it'd be good for them to do some family counseling."
Spike looked at the retreating form of Callie. "No doubt. I'm glad. She seems like she's doing well."
"Yeah." Sam agreed. "She's smiling a lot more."
"I can't...believe...she...painted that." Jules said. This was the first time that Callie had even mentioned that she painted. They knew she appreciated art, but this was a total surprise.
"Wait 'til everyone sees it." Spike looked at the painting again. He was extremely impressed by it. Callie is one amazing kid, he thought. What a difference from that night she'd spent at his house. She'd woken up at least three times with nightmares during the night. Both of them were exhausted the next morning.
When Spike had showed up at workout with dark circles, the team had been concerned. When he'd explained about the nightmares they understood. Even though it was his turn to make the Timmy's run, Sam had volunteered. He'd said he didn't want to get a snow cone instead of coffee, convinced Spike wouldn't be able to remember what they wanted.
Luckily the coffee and workout had helped to wake him up and he was able to work the whole shift. The team had kidded him the whole day about it saying this is what it's like when you have kids. Although Spike told them he wasn't sure about that, he really hadn't minded. Callie was becoming like a little sister to him. If his kids ended up half as cool as Callie he'd be glad.