A/N: Got chapter three done a bit ahead of schedule This was a fun one, bit of a roller coaster. I think you'll see what I mean. :) Sets up some of the differences from canon too. Once again, I own nothing, just the storyline.

Chapter Three

Jesus' POV

"What do you think?" I looked at Brandon who was extremely occupied with the forks. "Hey, Martha Stewart!"

As predicted that got his attention. His head snapped up and over to my side. "What?"

"What are you setting the table for the Queen of England or something? Step away from the forks." I shook my head. "I asked what you thought about the new kids. You gonna throw another chair?" I saw Brandon flinch as the memory took root, but I didn't feel too bad. It was nothing that moms hadn't been reminding him about. He was the one that made an idiot of himself at our party.

"You ever gonna let that go?" His voice was a whisper.

I smirked, in an effort to break the tense mood. "It's good blackmail."

"Moron."

"So? What's the verdict?" I waved off the name calling.

"They seem fine." Brandon shrugged. "Nervous, kinda like you and Mari were."

The door opened, letting in a fresh wave of sticky evening air. "Who's like us?" Mariana spoke.

"Our new foster siblings." Brandon replied.

"Yeah, except at least Mariana said hi. " I huffed. "What do you think is with her?"

"Callie?" Mariana said. In response to our raised eyebrows she continued. "I kind of ran into her and Jude coming down before dance practice."

"Meaning collision?" Brandon smirked as Mariana slammed him with her purse.

"Yeah," I continued. "She was looking at us like we were gonna hit her or something." I looked over to Brandon. "You had to notice."

"Did you?" Brandon sighed. "You were the one that wouldn't shut up. Even I wanted to get away from you. Don't jump the gun."

I shook my head. I was still convinced that something had happened to Callie. Brandon may have not noticed, but there was something I couldn't shake. She even seemed scared of her social worker. But Brandon was probably right. He'd gotten in trouble for doing the same thing I was now.

"Why do you think she hasn't said anything?" Mariana was looking in, watching Mom as she was watching Callie and Jude.

"Maybe instead of staring, you could actually try talking to her and not about her.", Mama had come back into the kitchen and placed a hand on Mariana's shoulder. "As long as you're in here, could you grab the glasses from the cabinet?"

Mariana nodded as her face reddened. I smirked.

"That goes for all of you." Mama said. "When you have a question for Callie and Jude, ask them. Gossiping is rude."

We all ducked our heads as we continued shuffling around the kitchen.

Now we were sitting around the table for dinner. Mariana was seated next to Callie, I was seated opposite of Jude and on Callie's other side. Brandon had taken the seat in between Jude and Mom, who had placed the salad on the table. Mama was carrying the chicken and placed the plate in the center, before taking her seat next to Mom.

Callie's hesitation didn't go unnoticed. Even Jude was watching us carefully, only going for food when we did. Callie, Callie didn't grab anything at all.

"Hey," Mariana said. "You can eat something."

I saw Callie look at Jude who nodded slightly. It wouldn't have even been noticeable if I wasn't sitting across from him.

All action at the table had stopped. Brandon was reaching across the table, his eyebrows raised, a silent offer to take Callie's plate and help her. Unfortunately, Callie didn't see it that way.

She pushed herself from the table, her and the kitchen chair falling to the floor in her haste to get away. Her breathing came out shallow and her hands immediately went up as she wedged herself in between the kitchen sink and the fridge.

"Shit…" I hissed. Jude, Mom and Mama were immediately out of their seats.

Wordlessly, I tapped the back of Mariana's hand. She was watching in shock. I had to drag her to the living room past our now frozen in place older brother.

Jude's POV

The clatter of the kitchen chair had acted like a starting gun. I was up and running toward Callie, my dinner abandoned. It was happening again. It had been happening more and more often, even with Bill. Callie was able to control it earlier when Bill had forgotten, but sometimes, like now, an event caused the fear to come back resulting in one of Callie's panic attacks.

"Callie," I knelt in front of her, not even caring that Lena was closer to her. "Cal', it's Jude, come on. Breathe." I rubbed my thumb along her wrist as she opened her hand, dropping both to her lap. "100, 99, 98…" As I started the countdown that had become our ritual, I could feel Stef watching me, but I didn't care. I had to calm Callie down. It wasn't until we had gotten to 87 that Callie's breathing started evening out. She was only hiccuping now, taking in air like it was going to disappear.

"I can take it from here Jude." Lena put a hand on my shoulder. "Thank you."

I stepped back, but didn't move away completely.

"You're okay sweetheart." Lena soothed.

"Jude," Stef's voice snapped me back to the present. "Does this… happen a lot?"

I sighed giving a small nod. "Counting is the only thing that helps."

"That's why you were counting back from 100?"

I choked back a sob as the memories came flooding back. I only remembered snippets of before, but I do remember she used to count, locking us in the closet as she brushed Callie's hair back on one of the bad nights, before the accident changed everything. It was like a thick black line divided the two halves of my past, there was before and there was after which involved group homes, social workers and different beds each month. For Callie, there was a completely different before and after, a subsection of our after, one that I couldn't quite reach.

"I…" Instead of answering verbally I nodded.

"Jude,"

"I'm not going to let you hurt her." I turned to where the oldest brother, Brandon, sat, just watching. "She's been hurt enough."

"I didn't-" Brandon stood looking appalled that I would even suggest it.

Stef looked between us sighing. "Brandon, can you give us a minute?"

He nodded as he left the kitchen without another word.

"Jude, I want you to understand something okay?" Stef put a hand on my shoulder. "We're here to help you guys, but you have to let us."

"Yeah, sure." I shrugged. It sounded true enough, but there was no way of knowing.

"Good. Come on." Stef nodded toward the living room.

AJ's POV

I sat on my bed, still completely confused. Ty had called me. It's been a month since I last heard from him, and our last call hadn't exactly gone well. I told him I had been fostered by Mike. Ty's always been suspicious so I wasn't surprised when he asked me what Mike did. I told him Mike was a cop, not realizing until later that I probably should have come up with another answer or evaded the question. Long story short, he flipped out: a lot of cursing, and a use your head kid rant later, he had told me not to try to get in touch with him again, and hung up.

Then, he calls me, saying that he's cleaned up, wants us to meet. I didn't know what to think. I had two sides warring, part of me wanted to cry into the phone like I was a kid again but another part of me was so angry at him, so I did the only thing I could think of. I told him I'd meet him, wrote down the address and then hung up quick.

"Hey AJ," I looked up as I saw Mike standing outside the door. "I just got a call from Lena, here's the deal." He walked in taking a seat on the office chair at the desk. "She offered to let you spend the day with them since Stef and I might be working late, save a trip you know?" He shrugged.

"I'm not twelve." I scoffed. "I'll take a bus." I felt bad for snapping, but I wasn't exactly in a good mood.

"That's…" He rubbed the side of his face. "That's not the point."

"So…?" I waved him on.

"They wanna spend time with you, not just an hour here and there. We're all trying." Mike sighed. "I thought we were past this."

"I thought I was going for a game night, not to be babysat all day."

"Damn it AJ, it's not…"

"I get it. They're my family too." I sighed. "I'm sorry I'm just real tired. I'm gonna get ready for bed."

"Sure." Mike stood. "Night AJ."

"Night."

A/N: Don't worry, Brandon will become more in tune soon enough. There's a very specific reason why he's not "jumping the gun" as he says that was hinted at and will be explored more. Also, I'm trying to explore some other dynamics in this story, so Brandon and Callie will kind of be at a distance at first rather than the quick friendship that came out of him helping her in canon. Fun fact, the counting. That's a bit autobiographical. It's a method I use when I'm stressed to the point of panic attack or when I can't sleep. I figured it would fit Callie and Jude well, so I put it in. That will be coming back at points. As for AJ's storyline, I know it seems kind of similar right now, but it will diverge based on what we know or don't at the end of 3a. I'm going to combine events scramble things, imagine and speculate a bit and use the clues from seasons 2 and 3a to make what I hope will be an interesting storyline for him, Mike and the Adams-Fosters.

After that long ramble, any predictions? Things you want to see? I'll try to incorporate as much as I can. Also, any suggestions for how Callie will start communicating with the others?