Lena and Stef were on the couch watching TV when Callie came down the stairs. Brandon, Jude, and Jesus were all asleep and Marianna was spending the night at Lexi's.
"I…uh… I was about to…" Callie trailed off.
Lena flicked off the TV "I'm glad you came to talk to us. Sit down."
She took a seat in the chair opposite the couch. "Well I was thinking about the trial and how they found Liam not guilty and at the time it didn't bother me but it does. It really fucking bothers me that he raped me and he gets to walk away without any kind of punishment." Tears fell down her face.
Stef didn't know how to fix this because there was no way to possibly fix this. "I don't know what to say."
"Callie, you know that none of this was your fault. And Liam's brain is probably punishing him enough. He has to live the rest of his life knowing that he raped someone. I get that you are frustrated and probably angry and I want you to know that that's okay. It is perfectly normal to be angry at Liam, and the Jury. It is even okay to be angry at yourself. But know that it is not okay to take out the frustration on your skin with a blade." At this point Lena was sitting on the floor in front of Callie's chair whilst brushing the hair from her face. Callie jumped into the brunette's arms.
"I just can't do this anymore!" Callie kept repeating into Lena's shoulder. She needed a blade right then, she thought, she should have never come to Lena and Stef, they are just keeping her from what she needs. In a state of her own mind, Callie darted up and began quickly towards the kitchen to get a knife.
Stef saw what she was looking at and where she was headed and grabbed her arms behind her back, just as she did often at work. The teen was yelling at her to let her go. "Lena, uh…can I get a little help?" Stef said. She didn't know how much longer she could fight the girl.
Lena nodded and headed to the office. She searched through the drawer and found what she was looking for, a red marker. When she entered the living room with the marker Stef looked at her with a quizzical look. Lena placed herself in front of Callie. "Callie, use this. Make the marks on your arms." She said, handing her the red marker.
Stef let go one of Callie's hands at first, to make sure she didn't dart and when the teen dropped to the floor she let go of her other arm.
Callie was fazed by the marker, almost fascinated. She rolled up the sleeve of her sweater and undid the cap of the marker. Sweat was pouring from her forehead from trying to fight off Stef. She placed the marker as hard as she could on her left forearm and made a quick slash towards her hand. It didn't feel as good as a cut but it worked. Cut after cut was made and she wrote the words 'worthless' and 'whore' on her fragile, tan skin.
At this point, Lena was crying. She was horrified that her daughter who she cared so much for thought of herself as worthless and a whore. Her partner walked around and put a hand on her shoulder. They both watched in silence until the now sobbing teen finally stopped. It looked as if there were thousands of red marks placed upon her arm.
Stef extended a hand out to Callie, who took it and stood up. "I'm gonna…" Callie pointed to her arm "Go wash this off"
"Great I'll come too" There was no way Stef was going to let Callie in the bathroom alone after what happened that night. She followed her into the bathroom and watched as the red marks slowly faded from Callie's skin. "So, Lena and I were talking earlier today and we were thinking we would get you a therapist"
"Like a shrink?" Callie raised her eyebrows and stopped washing her arm
"Well you can't go to the group sessions anymore ever since we adopted you and we think personal sessions would be better. Especially after the trial and tonight, we are worried for you and we want to get you some help. Would that be okay?"
Callie was afraid of going to a shrink. She had only ever been to group before and she was not good at sharing there, but in a personal session you had to share because well, you are the only one there. "I guess that'd be fine" Callie said slowly.
"Good, because you didn't have a choice"
Callie nodded and returned to washing her arm off.
When Lena finally got herself together she went to go join the two ladies in the bathroom. She appeared in the doorway and Callie was just drying her arm off. The clock above the towel rack read 1:48, she realized that they had sat there watching Callie in a great state of pain for almost an hour. Her eyes began to water at the thought of her daughter in that much pain
"Lena, I'm sorry" Callie said when she was done drying her arm off. She felt like a horrible person for having to put them through all this.
Lena's sad expression was immediately wiped off her face "Two things; one, don't ever apologize for something that you cannot control and two, call me mom."
