Chapter 33: Fate.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters.

AN: Please leave lots of reviews. Anyway, this chapter takes place a few hours after the end of Chapter 32, after everybody else leaves. I've added the minor detail that Jude's original birth name in this story was Jude Thomas Jacob. Words written in italics are memories or flashbacks. In this chapter, we find out that Jude and Connor have know each other for a bit longer than they first thought...

Connor's POV:

It's been three hours since we received our diplomas, and it already seems like it is a whole world away. Jude and I lay together, side by side, cuddled up in our bed, in our room, in our house.

This is our house. OUR house. Our HOUSE.

"I can't believe today actually happened." Jude said, breathlessly.

"My Uncle, my parents, my grandfather, and your family conspired together to get you and I a place of our own." I said, "Yeah. It seems like a dream."

"We've got our own house." He said, "A fully furnished house, with cable and air conditioning. We have our own cars. We have the five hundred grand I won in Vegas. Connor, if we can get better jobs, or if the record deal works out, we're pretty much set for quite a while."

"It'll be nice not to have to worry about it." I admit, "Working part time at McDonald's, I could barely pay for gas and insurance for my car. When I got fired, I would have been screwed if it wouldn't have been for dad paying it for me."

I had gotten a part time job at McDonalds to help pay for gas for the Chevelle. I worked there for about four weeks before I got fired. I only worked their long enough to earn two paychecks. I was taking another batch of the regular meat patties off the grill, and the boiling hot grease that was bubbling on the grill splattered when I went to squeegee it off, and ended up burning me on the arms and face. I pulled out practically every nasty word I could think of in the tirade that followed, and it got me fired. I couldn't bring myself to care, since the burns on my face would end up blistering and leaving a scar on my forehead near my hairline.

"I offered to pay it for you." He said, "But you wouldn't take it."

"It's your Vegas money, Jude. I couldn't. It wouldn't feel right." I said.

"Well, we live together now." He said, "So until you find another job, I will pay for it."

"Jude..." I tried to argue.

He glared at me, and I decided to just give in.

"Fine. Okay. It it's not too much trouble." I said.

"It isn't. Trust me." He answered.

I gave him a kiss, before laying my head on his bare chest and releasing a content sigh.

"I have never been happier than I am right now." I said.

"Me neither." Jude said.

We laid there for a while, just enjoying each others presence.

"What are we gonna do tonight?" I asked him, "Watch a movie? Play games? Go to sleep?"

"We could do something else..." Jude said quietly, "If you want."

"Like what?" I asked, looking up at him.

"We could... you know. Do it." He said, blushing slightly.

My eyes widened.

Since the first time on Prom Night, Jude and I had only had sex twice more. Each time, was because Jude was the one who brought it up. It made me so happy to know that Jude had truly, 100% recovered from the trauma of being raped by Liam.

"Um. You wanna have sex?" I asked, making sure.

He nodded.

"Yeah, sure. If you want to?" I said, making sure.

He nodded.

"I do. Do you?" He said.

"Yeah." I responded.

And so we did.

We ended up tiring ourselves out and falling asleep in each other's embrace at two thirty in the morning. The next morning we were awoken to a knock on the door.

We both bolted up in bed, startled, Jude holding his gun in his hand.

I had forgot that Jude had taken to sleeping with his gun under his pillow. Jude and I rushed to get dressed, and I answered the door in my bathrobe and shorts.

It was my dad.

"What is it dad?" I asked.

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"Yeah of course." I said, moving aside to allow him entrance.

"How was the first night?" He asked.

"You really want to know the answer to that?" I asked mischievously.

"Yeah, never mind." He said, "How do you guys like the house?"

"We love it." Jude said, "I can't believe you guys actually did this for us."

"You two might want to sit down." He said, "I've got something to show you."

Jude and I both looked at each other in confusion, before nodding and sitting down on our couch.

Dad pulled three small pictures from his pockets.

"When we got home last night, your mom and I pulled out some of the old photo albums." He said, "We were looking at some of the old pictures, from when you were a little kid... and we found something interesting. I stopped by Stef and Lena's to get something before I came here."

He sat two of the pictures down on the table.

One was of me, from when I was really little. I looked like I was probably five in the picture. Maybe in preschool. In the picture, my hair hadn't darkened to the dark blonde it is today, and it was long and extremely curly, and I was missing several teeth. Jude immediately giggled and picked up the picture, examining it with a smile.

"Awww." Jude said, smiling, "Look at you! Oh, my god my heart can't take it. You were too cute."

I blushed.

"What's with the hair, though?" He asked, still smiling brightly, a light teasing tone to his voice.

"Hey! I liked my hair long back then!" I bickered playfully, "Dad used to call me a hippie because of that."

"You should grow it out again, like I have." Jude said, partially serious, "You'd look cute with long curly hair. Not as long as mine, but longer. It'd look good."

Jude's hair was really long. It went down to just past his shoulders now, and he absolutely refused to get it cut, much to Stef and Lena's exasperation. The last time he actually cut it was in freshman year, when he buzzed it all off. It was the result of the only time in recorded history where Jude ever lost a bet. After that, he only trimmed it to keep it from going too far past his shoulders.

"It would take too long to get it that long," I said, "You haven't had an actual haircut in years, so you've had time to grow it out. Plus, it would be too hard to manage. I would if I had hair like yours. Straight."

Dad handed me the second picture.

It was very obviously a young Jude. He had short, spiked hair. Like me in my picture, he was missing a few teeth. He was smiling at the camera, but it was a shy smile that I had seen on many occasions.

"You say I was cute?" I joked, "Compared to you, I looked like a goblin."

Jude poked me in the side, right in the spot where I was most ticklish, causing me to squeak.

"You were adorable." He said.

"So were you." I said, before turning back to Dad, "But I do have to ask what the point of all this is?"

"I'm getting to that." Dad continued, "But before I continue, I do have one question for you, Jude."

"Go ahead." He said.

"Was your birth mom named Colleen?"

Jude looked shocked.

"Uh. Yeah. Colleen Jacob. Why?" He asked confused.

My Dad nodded.

"This picture was taken a year after that first one of Connor, on Halloween 2005."

He handed us the final picture.

Jude and I stared at the picture, we shared a look at each other, then returned our gaze to the picture.

In it were two boys, one shorter than the other. Both young, both happy and smiling at the camera, dressed in silly outfits with their arms around the other's shoulders. One's hair was blond, the others was brown. The blond one had a red Ring Pop on his finger, while the brown haired one had a blue one on his.

My eyes widened.

"How... how can...?" Jude stuttered.

I couldn't form a single coherent sentence either...

Because there was no doubt that the two boys in the picture were us.

"This was the Halloween Party in preschool." I whispered, my eyes wide, "Jude... that's US!"

"We knew each other as kids?" He asked, "How? I would have remembered that!"

"I can't believe I didn't realize it was you sooner." Dad interjected.

We looked at him.

"What do you mean?" I asked, "You remember this?"

"I do." He said, "I remember the day this picture was taken. Colleen took the picture."

"You knew my mom?"

"Colleen was an old friend of mine." Dad revealed, "We went to high school together, back in the day. I can't believe I didn't recognize you and Donald. But then again, he did have a lot more hair back then. I remember meeting you, way back then, on Connor's first day of preschool. I spent ten minutes talking to Colleen and Donald while you and Connor played Candy Land."

Jude turned to me, shock radiating from him.

"I... I remember that." I admit, "But..."

"You said you moved here in third grade," Jude interrupted, "Did you use to live outside of San Francisco?"

"Yeah."

"I remember now!" He exclaimed, looking at me in awe, "I can't believe this. It's YOU! You're the kid who used to play all those silly games with me back in preschool! We stayed over at each other's houses a couple of times! We used to call each other by our middle names! I used to call you Ally, and you called my Tommy..."

"...Because we decided we didn't like our first names!" I finished for him, my eyes widening in awe and remembrance, " I remember too! Holy fucking shit. This is unreal."

I lunged and pulled Jude into a hug.

"I can't fricken believe it!" I exclaimed, "I always wondered what happened to you! You dropped off the face of the Earth in the middle of Kindergarten."

"That was when I went into foster care." Jude said.

"This is too fricken much." I said, "This is... this was fate. What are the odds, that we were close as kids, lose touch because of you going into the system, and the meeting again seven years later and end up dating? Even you wouldn't bet on those odds!"

"No, I really wouldn't."

"If I had known, back when you first came back into Connor's life, who you were," Dad said, addressing Jude, "I wouldn't have treated you like I did. Colleen would have kicked my ass."

One thing that I could say about my Dad, he holds onto things for way too long. He still regrets trying to keep Jude and I apart back in seventh grade, despite the fact that Jude and I have forgiven him and that his subsequent actions more than made up for it.

Jude held the picture of us close.

"Do you mind if we keep this?" He asked.

"It's actually not the only one." He said, pulling a small photo album from his coat pocket and handing it to me, "We went through all the other photo albums and picked out all the others and put this together for you guys. There's only a few, but you guys can fill it up with new ones."

"Thanks dad." I said, rising from the couch and giving him a hug.

"You're welcome, kiddo." He said, "Now I've got to get going. I left your brother at home with your Uncle Evan."

"Are you nuts?" I asked jokingly, "Where's mom?"

"She is at work." Dad said, "Finally got off maternity leave."

"Hurry up and go, before Uncle Evan turns Andy into a weapon of chaos or something like that." I said, laughing.

"My thoughts exactly." He said, heading for the door, "Don't be a stranger son. You either, Jude."

"Okay, I'll be over some time tomorrow to get some of the rest of my stuff." I said to him, "Drive safe."

After he left, I sat back down next to Jude, who had picked up the photo album.

"You want to?" He asked.

He responded by opening the photo album to the first page.

I started laughing.

We were both covered in finger paint in the picture. It was all over the place. It was even in our hair. The writing in the corner of the picture said: C and J, Post Paint Battle.

"I think I remember this too." I said, "They told us to paint something we liked. Something cool."

"And we decided to paint each other." I finished, "Literally."

He flipped to the next one.

It was a picture of us at my old house, in the backyard. I had Jude on the ground, and was tickling him mercilessly. His eyes were shut tight, and he was laughing uproariously as we rolled around on the ground. I was staring down at Jude, a wide smile on my face.

"I remember this one." Jude said, "It was the first time I ever slept over at somebody's house. Callie through a fit about it."

"Look at us, man." I said, "Even back then, the bond was there."

Jude leaned his head on my shoulder.

"I love you baby." He said.

I grinned and laughed at him saying that. I still wasn't used to him calling me pet names, and it was cute when he did it.

"I love you too," I said, "Now. Next picture."

He flipped to the next one. It was of me hugging Jude, who had a party hat on.

"Awww." Jude said, smiling wide, "We're hugging each other. This was at your birthday party, I think."

"Yeah. I remember." I said, "You got me a big box of candy, and I nearly tackled you in that hug. Mom laughed like crazy."

"I still can't believe it was YOU." He said, "But now, everything makes just a little bit more sense. How we seemed to know each other so well when we first met again in seventh grade."

"Yeah, no kidding." I said, "What's the next one?"

I flipped the next one, and started laughing.

It was a picture of us play fighting with toy lightsabers.

"Oh, that is classic." I said, laughing at the look of concentration on picture-Jude's face, "Look how serious you look. You legit look like you're trying to kill me."

"I don't remember this one." He said, frowning slightly.

"I don't either." I admit, flipping to the next one.

We were both asleep in this picture. It instantly made me remember the photo that Stef and Lena had taken of Jude and I as we slept the day we went out on our first date, on Father's Day in seventh grade.

Jude's head rested on my shoulder, and it looked like he was drooling a little bit. My head was resting against his. It looked like we fell asleep watching a movie.

I smiled at the picture.

"I'm gonna see if Stef still has the picture of us asleep that they took that day." I said, "It belongs in here."

"Yeah." Jude said, "We've got a lot of pictures that need to go in here."

I flipped to the next picture.

Jude gasped at the date at the bottom corner.

"What is it?"

"This is the last picture isn't it?" He asked.

I flipped to the next page, which was empty, and flipped it back.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

"This was taken the day before I went into the foster system." He said.

In the picture, Jude and I were smiling. We were sitting on a bench at the playground, just talking, our hands resting on top of each other innocently.

"I remember the day I found out you left." I said, remembering, "The accident was on a Friday. That Monday, they pulled me out of class in the middle of story time to tell me. They told me that something bad happened, and people got hurt, and that you had to move to a different school. I c-cried so hard. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too." He said, "I always wondered what happened to you. Whether you were okay or not."

"I was really sad for a while." I admitted, "The last two years there were miserable without you. Then we moved here in the summer before third grade, and I was enrolled at Anchor Beach. I met Jax, Alex, Carson, and Castor. Then in seventh grade..."

"I came back."

"And saved my life at the same time."

I walked quickly through the halls of Anchor Beach, intent on the mission is was due to carry out. The pain had gotten to be too much. It was all my fault. My parents marriage had disintegrated, and they were getting a divorce, and it was all my fault. I was nothing but a burden to both of them. I didn't deserve to live. I had spent the last few days slowly closing myself off from my friends, and I was heading for the door that led to the stairwell to the roof.

I walked around a corner and felt myself hit a solid object, shaking me out of my misery. I looked down, and into a pair of wide brown eyes, that held fear and suspicion and veiled pain.

It was a boy. A small boy. He had a bowl cut haircut, and his eyes were a thousand years too old for the rest of him. He carried a sense of brokenness to him.

I sensed in him a kindred spirit. Something special, that I couldn't quite put a finger on.

'Wow, he's cute.' The forbidden voice of my subconscious whispered.

I shoved the thought from my head viciously, shaking my head violently.

Then I remembered my manners.

"I'm sorry!" I said chipper, reaching down to help the kid to his feet, "I wasn't watching where I was going, are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"N-no." The boy said quietly.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

"Y-yeah. I-I'm sure."

I nodded quickly, smiling at him.

"Um. What's your name?" I asked enthusiastically.

"J-Jude. J-Jude Jacob." He said.

"I'm Connor. Connor Stevens." I said happily, reaching our and grasping his hand, shaking it, "Nice to meet you Jude."

"N-nice to meet you too, Connor." He said timidly, "Do you know where this class is? I'm kind of lost."

He handed me his schedule.

"Hey, you got math, science and English together." I said happily, "I'm just heading back to math right now. I'll show you the way."

"T-Thanks." Jude said, offering me a small smile, making my own smile widen.

"No problem!" I said, "You'll get the hang of it eventually. I did."

We walked away together, chatting. I did most of the talking. I must have seemed nuts to this kid. I was acting way to chipper to be normal, but I couldn't help myself. I could tell that there was something different about this kid. Something special. Something I needed.

More importantly, my thoughts of the roof were nonexistent.

I shook my head slightly as I came out of the memory.

"Remembering?" Jude asked.

"Yeah." I said, "That was the best day of my life, you know that?"

"Mine too."

We sat in silence for a few moments before Jude broke the silence.

"Do you remember when we walked past the chapel in Vegas?" He asked, "And I asked if you thought we'd get married someday?"

"Yeah," I responded, "I said we would. Why?"

"No reason." He said.

"Come on, JJ." I pressed, "What's on your mind."

"Nothing."

"Juuuuude." I moaned, my head still resting against his, "Pleeeeeease teeeeeeell meeeeeee."

"I want to get married." He said softly, almost inaudibly.

I lifted my head off his shoulder and looked at him, my eyes wide.

"What did you just say?" I asked him.

"I said... I want to get married." He continued softly, "To you. Soon."

"Are... are you sure?" I asked, "We only just graduated."

"And we're living together," He said, cutting me off, "In a house. That we own. We have enough money to last or a while. We are going to the same college. We have the band as a decent backup plan. Why shouldn't we?"

"Is this really what you want, Jude?" I asked.

He nodded immediately.

"I don't have a ring to propose with," He said, "But yeah. I'm sure. I've been thinking about this since Vegas. We've been dating since we were both thirteen years old. I'm eighteen, you'll be nineteen in ten days. We've been dating for five years. If we both want this, then why shouldn't we? I love you more than life itself, and you love me the same amount, if not more. I'll get you a ring as soon as I can, I promise. That is, unless you don't want to?"

I thought about it for all of two seconds.

I leaned in and kissed my new fiancé.

"Of course I want to, JJ." I said.

"So, you'll marry me?" He said, his face lighting up.

"Yes." I said, "I'll marry you, Jude. A thousand times yes."

I had never felt happiness like I felt at that moment, holding Jude as he cried happy tears into my shirt.

But you know what they say about these things...

...For everything good, there is something equal and opposite to balance it out.

Neither of us knew what was happening on the other side of town.

Thirty miles away, a black Charger drove across an intersection.

The driver of the car that ran the red light never even had a chance to hit the brakes as it slammed into the driver side.

AN#2: Okay, so that's it for this chapter, and a small twist is thrown in. For some reason, it says I have 122 reviews as of posting this chapter, but it is only displaying 119 of them when I go to view them. Anybody have any ideas why? I checked a few other fics, and for some reason it's not displaying any new review on them either. Please continue to leave them. If you really want them read, send them to me via PM. I really appreciate the reviews.