Jude's POV

A few years after my sister and I got to New Intelligence I started to realize that I was "different". All of the other guys were trying to impress the girls and soon enough everyone started dating each other and hooking up when we got older. A few girls would flirt with me and I was flattered, but it wasn't the kind of attention that I wanted. Well, I guess the attention wasn't from who I wanted it to be from. None of the other guys were gay and they were all kind of freaked out by it. So I was basically alone, in a sense, for ten years. But I guess that worked to my advantage. I was able to focus on my training and I climbed through the ranks quickly.

But ever since I got to the Adams-Fosters' I was able to be myself. Having two foster moms really helped with that. And they didn't expect me to define my sexuality, which I really appreciated. I think they could tell, though. It wasn't like I was super flamboyant or anything. I just never talked about any girls.

I'd also come to the conclusion that I would probably be alone until I was much older. Hardly any guys my age were out of the closet and the ones that were weren't really my type. I didn't really have crushes on any guys, I just thought some were cute. But Connor DiNozzo was a whole different story. As soon as I saw him my heart started to beat faster and my mouth went dry. He was the most handsome guy I had ever seen in my life. His sandy-blonde hair framed his face perfectly, his hazel eyes burned into mine, and his dimples made my heart swell. And that was just his face! His body, my God, his body! He was so muscular and tan. I'd never developed feelings for another guy so quickly.

"Dude! You've been staring off into space for like thirty minutes. What's up with you?" Jesus through a pillow at me and knocked me out of my daydream of the perfect boy.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about earlier today." I smiled and looked down at my hands.

"Callie said you met Agent DiNozzo's son. What's his name…? Carter? Do you think he could be a possible friend?"

"It's Connor and yeah, I do. We actually have plans to go to the batting cages this weekend. Tony is going to take us." The weekend was still two days away but I couldn't wait.

"Well I'm happy for you bro. I'm sure it's not super easy to make friends at college when you're so much younger than everyone else."

"Yeah, it gets kind of lonely, but it's alright." I tossed the pillow back to Jesus. "I'm gonna go down and do some homework."

"Hey, tell moms that I'm not going to be here for dinner! I'm going to Emma's house so she can help me with my math homework." Jesus called after me.

I nodded and went down to the kitchen to work on a paper for my Political Science class.

"Hey buddy! I hear you had a good day at NCIS today. Mom said that you met a new friend." Lena greeted me as I entered the kitchen. She was mixing a salad for dinner and swatted my hand away when I snatched a tomato out of the bowl.

"Yeah, his name is Connor and he super hand-… I mean super cool." My cheeks flushed as I caught myself from almost calling him handsome.

Lena smiled at me and sat down on the stool next to me. "Jude, sweetie, can we talk about a few things?" She patted my hand to get my attention.

I nodded and dreaded the conversation that was about to ensue.

"Mom and I haven't ever asked you about this because we figured you would tell us if you wanted too. But I just want to say something. You don't have to hide anything from us." Her brow crumpled as she tried to find the right words to say.

"You're trying to say that if I'm gay it doesn't make a difference to you and Stef, right?" I interjected. I wanted to conversation to be over with so I pushed it along.

Lena nodded. "We don't expect you to define yourself. If you want to label yourself as gay, then that is just fine. If you don't want to put a label on who you love, that's okay too. We will love you either way." She kissed my cheek and continued. "So, this Connor… he's cute?"

I blushed again. "Very." I said quietly. I was mortified, but at the same time, it felt good to say it out loud to someone. "But he isn't gay."

"He told you this?" Lena's eyes softened.

"No, but I can tell. He's a jock! He's probably the kind of guy that would pound on guys like me if he knew I was, you know… gay." As soon as I said those words, it felt like a weight was being lifted off of my shoulders.

"Hey now! Mom and I always teach you guys to not judge someone based on their appearances. If we would have done that to you and Callie neither of you would be here. When we met you in the hospital we never thought that you would be with us for long. You both looked so…"

"Rigid, heartless, murdery?" I finished for her.

"You did not look murdery, if that is even a word. You just looked like you could survive on your own, like you didn't need or want to be with us. But look at us now! We love you and your sister more than you could ever know. And that is because we gave you a chance. I think you should give Connor a chance, too. Maybe he isn't gay but that doesn't mean that you two can't be friends." She kissed my cheek again and went back to making dinner.

"Thanks Lena. That makes me feel a lot better." I opened up my computer to start working on my papere, but her sigh pulled me back to the conversation. "Is everything okay?"

"Jude, you don't have to call mom and me by our first names if you don't want to. I know that it might be hard, because your parents were unjustly taken from you, but we want you to know that you can call us mom and mama." She smiled sweetly at me and caressed my face.

"Callie always told me that we wouldn't have parents again. I always figured that was the case, but I held on to just a little glimmer of hope. And then when we got here, we decided that we wouldn't get attached in case you sent us away. Now you are adopting us, but I guess I'm still scared that something is going to happen and you won't really get to be our moms." I confessed. "It's not that I don't want to, it's just that things usually don't work in our favor, you know?"

"Don't you fear, my love. You and Callie have family now. And we love you so, so much. We will fight any obstacle that might come our way." She pulled me into a tight hug and held me for a few minutes. "Okay, you need to get started on that paper and I need to hurry up and get food done for when mom gets home!" She wiped a single tear away from her cheek and then started to sing as she cooked.

"Can you do me favor?" I asked. Lena nodded so I continued. "Will you and mom talk to Callie? She had it pretty rough at New Intelligence and doesn't really talk about it much. I think she is suppressing some of her feelings. She does that sometimes. And when she eventually explodes, it isn't pretty. She needs to know that she can trust the both you with anything; even the bad stuff. She gets panic attacks too. I'm scared that this job is going to set her off."

"Of course we'll talk to her, love. I'll talk to mom when she gets home and then the three of us will sit down together sometime today or tomorrow."

I smiled and finally got started on my paper.

Lena's POV

"Jude and I had a nice talk today. He opened up to me about some stuff." I said to my wife as we prepared for bed. "Stef, he defined himself as gay."

Stef's eyes lit up with pride. "I never thought he would do it! Do you think he would ever be open about it at school?"

"I'm not sure. I think it scares him to know that his love isn't accepted in a lot of settings. Obviously we just need to make sure he knows that we support him. Anyway, how did Callie sound when she call you at lunch?"

Stef laughed a little. "Completely frazzled! She has mountains of paperwork to do and they want her to get it done by the end of the week so she can start training people on Monday. But, I think she has settled in nicely. She has a great relationship with Gibbs and Ziva so I'm sure they will help her with anything she needs." She crawled in the bed and wrapped her strong arms around me.

"Stef, Jude said something else today. He wants us to talk to Callie about when she was in New Intelligence. I guess she had it worse than him."

Stef tensed next to me. She always got so worried about Callie. They had a special bond and I think Stef felt some of Callie's pain and suffering.

"He also said that she gets panic attacks sometimes. I think we should talk to her about going into therapy again. I know she didn't want to a couple months ago, but I think it could help her."

"Okay, let's talk to her tomorrow. I can talk to her a little when I take her to work but then the two of us can sit down with her when we get home tomorrow night." She kissed me softly and pushed my hair out of my eyes. "I love you."

"Not as much as I love you!" I kissed her back and pulled her into a tight hug.

We laughed quietly. Soon after we fell asleep in each other's arms; happy and safe.

What would you like to see happen with Connor and Jude? I already have some ideas, but I'd like your input. Should the relationship happen fast or slow? Who should instigate it? Let me know in the reviews!