Sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Callie's POV
"No! I'll take her!" I stared widely at Ziva. Did she really just say that she would take me? "I was trained by Mossad in Israel. I'm more than capable of handling Callie. She will be safe with me."
"Ziva, you don't have to do this…" I didn't want Ziva to think that I had called her so she would feel pressured into taking me in.
"No, I want to do it. You would be safer with me than at some ACS facility." She put a hand on my shoulder and smiled softly at me.
"I don't have a problem with this at all. I would much rather Callie be with someone that we know and trust." Stef grabbed Lena's hand who looked like she was going to throw up. "Obviously we would rather have Callie stay here with us, because she is most definitely not a danger to our family, but if you have to do this… please just let her stay with Ziva."
Ellie sighed deeply. It almost seemed like she wanted me to go to an ACS facility or group home. "Fine." She conceded. "But I will be over in the morning so you can sign the official paperwork and so I can do a home study."
"Ziva and I have work in the morning. We won't be there." I called out before my social worker left.
"Well you're gonna have to be." She grimaced and then stormed out to her car.
"Wow, what a lovely woman." Ziva said under her breath. "So, I guess we should go?"
I nodded and went upstairs to pack a bag. I heard Stef and Lena thanking Ziva as I went out of earshot.
Once I got in my room, I started shoving clothes into my duffel bag. Luckily Mariana was nowhere to be found. I fought hard to keep tears rolling down my face. I would have lost the fight if Jude wouldn't have come in.
"Hey, I heard Ellie downstairs. What was she here for?" His voice was shaky and nervous.
I cleared my throat and turned around to face my little brother. "She thinks I'm too dangerous to live here. So until I can be evaluated by a professional, I'm going to be staying with Ziva. But I don't want you to worry. I'm sure Stef and Lena will let you hang out at NCIS on days that you don't have class. Don't be causing trouble, okay?" I placed my hands on his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.
"Alpha… I need you now more than ever. Can I just come with you, please?" I was shocked when he called me Alpha. I'd been Callie for weeks, months even. He wrapped his strong arms around me and held on for dear life. "I can't do this alone."
"You aren't alone. You have Stef, Lena, and the siblings. You are far from alone. And I'm always just a phone call away. I will answer day or night." I wiped a solitary tear away from his cheek. "I need you to be strong for me Jude. Because I'm barely hanging on as it is. I know you're going through way more than you should be, but please, just be 'Bravo' one more time."
Jude pulled away from me and straightened his shoulders, making him seem bigger than he really was. "Okay. I can do this. But you have to be smart about this. Don't do anything that will make Ellie or the person who evaluates you think you are dangerous. Just fight every natural instinct that you have and you will be back here in no time."
I nodded and smiled sadly at my baby brother. "I promise. I have to go now. Ellie will have a cow if she finds out that I was here for long after she left."
Jude picked up my duffel bag and followed me while I carried my pillow and book bag downstairs.
"Okay, I'm ready to go… I guess." I sighed deeply and looked around the kitchen. It was very possible that it would be the last time that I would be in that house. I just didn't want the moment to end.
"Call us if either of you need anything. We're only a five minute drive." Stef pulled me into a tight hug. "You'll be home before you know it. And be good to Ziva!" She laughed a little as she tried to lighten the mood.
Lena hugged me next and kissed my cheek before she let me go. "Ziva, if she says she is allowed to drink coffee, she's lying. She's very good at it so don't let her trick you into it!" She wiped away a tear and gave me a look that said 'don't even try it!'
"Don't worry, I won't let her get away with it." Ziva smiled at Stef and Lena as we walked out the door but was stopped by Jude's unsuspected hug.
"Ziva, don't let anything happen to her. I won't be there to watch out for her and she does stupid things sometimes." He buried his head in her shoulder as he whispered just loud enough for me to hear him.
She nodded and then we got in her car and pulled away from the house with Stef, Lena, and Jude waving goodbye.
"Everything is going to be okay, right?" I nervously shook my knee, thinking about all the horrible outcomes that could result from my evaluation.
"Yes, everything will be fine. You have nothing to worry about!" Ziva tried to sound convincing, but she fell short; very short.
Jude's POV
I paced back and forth on the porch after Ziva's car went out of sight. I nervously chewed on my fingernails. Callie was always telling me to stop. Panic started boiling under my skin. It was soon replaced with anger, fear, and hatred. My sister was just taken away. Anger, fear, and hatred were the only things I could feel.
"This isn't right." I muttered under my breath. I could feel Stef and Lena's worried eyes on my back. "It's not right!"
"Jude, love, let's go inside and talk about this. It's snowing. I'll make us some hot chocolate." Lena's words jumbled in my ears. I sensed her moving closer but I couldn't pull myself out of my thoughts. "Jude?"
"It's not right!" I screamed. I slammed my fist into the support beam for the roof of the porch area. Something clicked in me and I couldn't stop. My fists kept slamming into the wooden post. Memories from New Intelligence flashed in front of my eyes.
Suddenly I was eight years old again and back at the first New Intelligence training center.
"Recruits! Make your way to main combat room! You have five minutes to assemble!" The lead trainer shouted into the open room. Callie and I were sitting on my bed studying for an exam we had the next day.
People everywhere jumped off their beds and started to run towards the combat room. Callie grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her.
Once we were in the combat room we made our way to the front of the group. Everyone was circled around the boxing ring.
"Today is the beginning of your hand-to-hand combat training. Two of you will enter this ring and fight with your bare hands." Jolene, the lead trainer, surveyed everyone and chose her first victim. "Evan, get in the ring!"
Evan let a sadistic smile creep across his face. He jumped through the ropes and started stretching.
Jolene's scanned over the sea of recruits. I felt eyes land near me, but hoped my name, or Callie's, wouldn't be called.
"Jude, get up here!" Her words stung like a fresh wound.
Everyone turned and looked at me. I felt Callie tense next to me as I started to walk to the ring.
"No! He isn't ready!" Callie shouted. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to her side. "He's only eight years old!"
"Well, how is he supposed to get ready if he never fights? He's scrawny but he's scrappy. He'll be fine." Jolene's eyes were hard but they soon softened. "Jude, get up here."
I broke free from Callie's grasp and clumsily climbed through the ropes.
"Okay, in this situation Evan is the bad guy and Jude is the good guy. There is only one rule: don't kill each other." She pushed me closer and jumped down onto the ground.
Evan grimaced at me and put his fists up, ready to smash them into my face. I followed in suit. I didn't know how to fight at all so I figured I should just do what he did.
"Fight!" Jolene yelled.
I turned to look at Callie for encouragement but that was a mistake. As soon as I turned my head, Evan's fist slammed into my jaw. He was nearly a year older than me and was much, much stronger.
"Jude!" I heard Callie's pained voice from the crowd.
I started punching but the hits barely fazed Evan. He just kept pounding on me. He knocked me to the ground and landed punch after punch onto my face.
Just before I blacked out, Evan was tackled off of me. I figured it was the trainers, but when my vision focused I saw Callie kicking the crap out of Evan.
"You asshole!" Callie pulled Evan to his feet only to punch him so hard that he fell on his ass.
"Jude!"
Wait, no. This isn't part of the memory.
"Jude, can you hear me?"
Whose voice is that? Callie? Jolene?
"Jude, look at me! Look at me!"
Stef? No, she isn't part of this memory!
"We need to get him inside and bandage his hands. He tore them up pretty bad."
Suddenly I was pulled back to reality. I was sitting on the porch at the house, not lying helpless on the floor of a boxing ring. Blood covered my hands and painted the wooden post that I had nearly pulverized.
"Oh God, I'm sorry!" I jumped up and ran my fingers through my hair. "I'll fix it. I promise!" I jumped up and surveyed the damage.
"It's okay, love. It's nothing that a good scrubbing and some new stain won't fix. But let's go inside and get those splinters out of your hands." Stef wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me inside and upstairs to her and Lena's bathroom. "Sit down." She pointed to the closed toilet and I obeyed.
"I'll go get started on that hot chocolate." Lena kissed the top of my head and gave Stef an encouraging look.
"This is going to hurt, but I have to get that wood out of there. I'll give you some medicine later." Stef said as she laid a towel across my lap.
I snorted a little. "I can handle pain."
Stef smiled weakly and started pulling the splinters from my knuckles. She worked silently for a while and I stared off into space thinking about what it would be like if Callie couldn't come back.
"Jude, what happened out there? Something just snapped and you went off." She dabbed my hands with a wet washcloth to clear the area of excess blood.
"Callie has always protected me. Our dad would have PTSD episodes and he would start screaming and it really scared me. She would always push me behind her in case something bad happened. And now that we're older, she is still doing it. After I was attacked I saw that same look in her eyes from when we were younger. I just was trying to protect her for once. And I guess I realized I can't protect her if she isn't here. I think I had a flashback to my New Intelligence days. I didn't even realize I was hitting the beam." I winced as she cleaned my wounds with hydrogen peroxide. "I'll clean it up and fix it." My head dropped as I waited for my punishment.
Instead, Stef placed her hands on either side of my head and pulled it up so I was forced to look at her. "You aren't in trouble so please don't worry about the pole. I want you to know that you don't have to protect Callie. You are only fourteen years old. Mama and I are here for her and for you. We are going to fight for her. If by some small chance Callie can't come back here, she will always be a part of this family. And that doesn't mean that we won't want you." Her eyes turned sad as she stared into mine. She sighed deeply and kissed my cheek. "Let's get some bandages on these and then we'll go down and get some cocoa."
"Thanks." I breathed. The pain started creeping into my hands. "Could I get some of that pain medicine?" I asked reluctantly.
Stef laughed. "Of course you can." She put a piece of tape on the bandages to secure them in place and then kissed each of my hands. "There you go! You're all set."
"Everything okay?" Lena asked when we entered the kitchen. We sat down and she set a cup of cocoa in front of each of us.
"Yeah, everything is fine." I took a long, warm sip and relaxed as the drink warmed me.
Stef and Lena talked aimlessly for a few minutes but when there was a break in the conversation I jumped in.
"Can I go to NCIS tomorrow? I don't have class for the rest of the week since I am still on medical recovery and I really want to see Callie every chance I get. And plus… I would get to see Connor." I blushed a little but tried to hide by pulling my mug up to my face.
"I don't think that is a problem. You have a doctor's appointment at four o'clock, but you can stay until then. Text your sister and ask what time she'll be there. Ellie is going over in the morning to do a home study so they'll be a little late. But I can bring you in around lunch time." Lena set our cups in the sink and started cleaning up.
"Okay, thanks. I think I'm going to go to bed." I gulped down the pills Stef had set in front of me and hugged them both goodnight. I felt their eyes on me as I trudged up the stairs.
"Dude, what the hell happened down there? Mariana, Brandon, and me heard you screaming and it sounded like something crashed into the house." Jesus interrogated me from his bed. I'd completely forgotten that the twins and Brandon were home. "What did you do?!" He popped up when he caught sight of my hands.
"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it. I'm tired, in pain, and pissed off. If you want to know what happened go talk to moms." I threw myself on my bed and pulled my pillow over my head.
Jesus sighed out of frustration and shut the door just a little too loud when he left. Seconds later I slipping deeper and deeper into a much needed sleep.
Sorry not much happened in this chapter. Hopefully the next one will be more exciting.