Lena POV

I had just read the bed time story for Frankie and now she was sound asleep and tucked in. After I leave girls room, I peak a look in Jude and Jesus room. Jude was sitting on his bed, tapping his pen at a book.

"Hey, baby" I walk in the room

"Hey" he says casually back and writes down something in his notebook

"What are you working on?" I walk up to his bed

"Biology. I have a test next Monday, I am just making notes" he says and then drags his index finger over some line in his book

I rub his shoulder, looking down to his notes "Studying before time?" I tease him softly because this happens rare

"I want to spend more time with Callie over the weakened. So I figured I would start sooner with this…" he says back, sounding excited for what the weekend will bring

"It is Friday night" I run my hand over to his other shoulder

He looks up to me with a confused look on his face "Are you saying I shouldn't study?"

"No" I quickly reply "I was just wondering, maybe you want to take a ride?"

"To?" he asks back curious

"Callie's place, just for hour or so" I don't have to tell him twice. He tosses the pen to his book, slams it shut and jumps off the bed

I just wanted to talk with Callie face to face for a moment. It didn't want to have this talk at school, so I figured, what better way than head over for quick visit. Jude will definitely be on board.

"I'm ready!" He informs me, standing tall in front of me with a big smile on his lips

I can't hold the laughter in "Go get your shoes on" I say and head to my bedroom to get the documents, while Jude runs down the stairs

It is safe to say Callie is surprised to see us at her doorstep at 8 in the evening. Callie was in her sweats, simple black t-shirt. Her hair was up in a messy pony tail and she was holding a bowl of cereal in her hands, chewing loudly, looking at us

"Can we come in?" I ask her and once she nods back, Jude steps inside first and wraps his hands around his sister, hugging her. Callie was now holding the bowl up with her left hand, hugging him back with her right

I close the doors behind myself. Jude finally let's go of Callie and then he takes the bowl out of her hands and takes a spoonful. Chewing loudly, he started to move to the living room

"I do hope that was not your supper" I say and stay put in the hall. Callie stays with me

"No" she replies quickly "I ordered pizza"

"Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" I ask shooting a quick glance to Jude inside the living room

"Mm-hmm" Callie hums back and we walk over to kitchen

"I wanted to talk you about something that happened a while back" I say as she leans at the kitchen table

"About what?" she asks curious and presses her hands on the table

"Okay…" I say and stand in front of her, three steps away "You remember when I gave you the detention?"

"First time Mena Lena?" she chuckles "Of course"

"Callie, why didn't you tell me?" I ask her in a soft tone

She takes her hands away from the table and puts them in her sweat pocket "Tell you what?"

"That it was the anniversary of Aaron and Markus death?" I watch for her reaction.

Her gaze instantly shoots down, the smile on her lips disappears, her head hangs down, and she leans off the table, now standing straight up in front of me. It takes a moment, but she does look up to me. She shrugs first then answers

"I guess…I figured it wouldn't matter. That you wouldn't care for my stupid excuses…" she pulls her left hand out of her pocket as she speaks and scratches behind her ear, when she is done speaking, she places her hand back in the pocket

"Callie, that wasn't a stupid reason! It was no were close to being a stupid. You could have told me. If I had known I—"

"You what? Suddenly would have felt sorry for me…for my mom? I didn't need your pity…We don't need it" she says back in a bit harsher tone

My shoulders slump down immediately after she says that "Not pity…never pity, Callie" I said as my voice cracked up a little at the end "You two found a way in our lives and I care a lot about people who are in my life. You two matter to me. You could have told me..."

Callie stood there silently for a moment. She pulled her left hand out of her pocket and runs it over her nose

"Look, it's fine. It's okay…it was a long time ago. It is fine!" she said back to me casually, trying to end the conversation

"You say it like it not a big deal"

"Because it isn't" she replies quickly avoiding my look

"Then look me in the eye and tell me that wasn't the reason you acted so distant towards me for the next few weeks! Because I didn't know the importance of the date!" I took a step closer to her

Silence

Callie shifted in her stand. She turned her head sideways, glancing somewhere at the sink area. Her left hand once again went up to her nose and rubbed it

"It was, wasn't it?" I ask her back bluntly

Her head now dips down, she runs her left hand over her brows as she closes her eyes and then barely above whisper she replies "Maybe…"

After that, she looks up to me, directly to my eyes. She looked guilty all of a sudden.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I ask her desperate to know why

"I'm not like you!" she barked at me "I'm not this -" she was now gesturing with both of her hands "- open person, who share stuff so easily, like you can! It is not who I am!"

"I never said you have to be like me! I am not perfect! And I am not saying you have to share your deepest and darkest secrets with me, but if you have any concerns, any worries, anything that you want me to know, you can come to me, Callie! I will always listen to you. We can talk about!" I reason back with her keeping my voice calm and soft yet stern

"I barely knew you!" Callie continued to argue back "And in my mind I came in your life and messed it up, turned it upside down and ruined it!"

"That is not true!" I state instantly after she says that "You did not ruin anything nor did you messed it up! You did turn it upside down, but you did that in the best possible way there is, okay? I can't imagine my life...our life, Jude's life without you and your mom in it! You are part of it and I couldn't be happier about it!"

Callie took a small step back and her right hand went to behind her neck to rub it "Stef said something similar to me before we got trapped in that elevator" she said shyly

"Because it is true!" I said back and watch her slowly nod her head back

After the talk, we head back to living room and join Jude. I took the seat at the other side, while Callie sat right in the middle of the couch

"So who is Amy on date with? Do you know his name?" Jude asks, the cereal bowl now stood empty on the coffee table

"Lloyd…something" Callie replies casually

"Lloyd?" Jude snorted out "That sounds like an old person name!"

"No it does not!" I say back to him

"Callie you are on my side right?" Jude asks his sister with a smile "It is totally an old person name!"

Callie shrugs back, looking between the two of until she decides "I will go with Lena this time. It's a normal name. I used to go to same class with a Lloyd"

"Traitor" Jude said and then Callie slowly turned to look at him with a mischief look in her eyes. I knew something is about to happen, I just wasn't sure what

Callie all of a sudden lunges at Jude. She grabbed his head with her left. She held him tightly and close to her. Then she started to rub her knuckles on his head. He laughs out instantly. Few seconds later he tries to wiggle his way out of her hold-unsuccessfully.

"S-Stop…" He now tries to get out, there was still laughter evident in his voice

"Hey, hey, hey…I want him unharmed!" I point out to Callie, tapping softly on her leg

"Fine" Callie lets go of his head. Jude's hair now was a mess. His face was flushed, but he looked so happy

"My head is on fire!" He comments as he reaches for his head "It burns!" He says but the smile never leaves his face "Mom tell her!" he looks to me for help

"No hurting your brother!" I point out to Callie, but not in a mean scolding way, more in a playful way

"I wasn't hurting him" Callie reasons back with a small smile on her lips

"It is my duty" She place her hand on her chest "as the older sister to give him a noogie time by time. To teach him not to mess with the older siblings" She says it articulately

I look between the two siblings. Jude was now pointing his tongue out to Callie as he thought he was safe from her now.I look back to Callie who was just waiting for me to give the verdict

"I have an older brother. He gave me noogies too" I say the reason, why I came to this decision "It is part of growing up as the youngest child. It is just something we all, have to go thought"

And then I announce it "Permission to give him noogies - granted!"

"Yes!" She call out and lunge at Jude again, to continue to give him another noogie

"Nooo! Mom I trusted you!" Jude calls out once Callie continued with the noogie, laughter filling the room.

Amy POV

The date was going pretty good so far. There were no awkward silences when neither of us said anything. I found him quite charming actually. And he was a funny guy, just like Hernandez had told me.

"I didn't know about that technique" I said after he was done telling me a recipe how he makes ribs

"Not many people do. Well, not many people have the time to do it. 3 hours is a long time. But I guarantee the end result is amazing" He says and then sips a little of his wine

Just then the deserts was delivered. We both went to classical – strawberry soup. You can never go wrong with that. We both picked up our spoons and tasted it.

"Mmmm" was both of our first reaction "This-" he pointed to the small bowl in front of him "-is worth every penny"

"Agreed" I say and take another spoonful of it

About 40 minutes ago a family had walked in, with small children. They looked around 4 or 5 years old. Twins, by the look. They were seated at the corner of the room. I for one, did not take this as a place for to come with small children. It was too formal, way too uptight place for small children.

And of course, like with all small kids – you can never know how they are going to act. How loud they are going to be? Will they like their food? Will they be polite? There are so many things that can go wrong…

And it did.

One of the kids had started crying some 5 minutes ago, but the other was now throwing a tantrum. The quiet and calm place, lost its charm that moment. The parents of course were trying their best to calm them down, they kept apologizing to the people who were looking at them

"Can't they just leave" Lloyd grumble under his nose while he was looking at the family. He had this not so nice look in his eyes. The crying and screaming had obviously gotten to him

"They are kids…" I said casually as I know the struggle

"This is not a place for small children. Why would they take their kids with?" he said looking back at me

"Maybe the babysitter got sick. It is hard to find a babysitter on a Friday evening. Hell, it is hard to find a good babysitter at all" I said remembering the struggle

He said after he swallowed another spoon full of strawberry soup "Kids these days are horrible! They no longer listen to their parents. I blame the new technology era" he emphasized the word - horrible. I think I jinxed my own date not 5 minutes ago!

"Don't you think horrible is way too harsh?" I ask back, because I was taken aback by his harsh words

"Hell no!" he leaned back in his chair "I have arrested so many teenagers who are breaking the law, using drugs, drinking, smoking, making graffiti, stealing, damaging property, fighting, some are in gangs…the list goes on and on." He suddenly seemed like different man

Now I started to get a little uncomfortable

"Come on, they are kids. You were a kid too. Didn't you get in any trouble when you were younger? Teen years?" I ask him completely sure that he had a rebel phase too

"No. I was the captain of my football team. I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do drugs and I certainly did not break the law" he sounded very confident of that "I will be honest with you, I don't want kids and I don't like them that much either"

I shift in my chair and place the spoon down once he said that

"A-are you saying—" I start to ask quietly, but he continued

"Back in my day, when I was patrolling, at least half of the calls I worked on, were about kids. And they were the one's making trouble. I felt for the parents, you could tell they are good parents, but their kids were totally out of control. Disobeying, causing trouble for no good reason. Kids nowadays are disrespectful. I don't want that..."

"They make mistakes. That's why they have parents, to teach them right from wrong. To set them on the right tracks. Of course they will make mistakes…we all do"

"Most of the kids were foster kids actually. Those kids are even worse. They act all tough. Hate on the system, on us - cops. They think cops are the bad guys…"

"We are talking about foster kids, Lloyd. Kids who have lost their parents, who have been left by their parents, who were taken away from families because of neglect, who have struggled thought the horrible homes in the foster care. Do you know how many of those homes are abusive, how many ignore and neglect them? How many foster parents do it just for the money? All the kids need is a little bit of love" I argue back, I had strong opinions about this topic

"They are lost cause…no one can help them. Most of them end up in jail or dead" he didn't say it with anger or hate, he said it very casually. It was obvious who wouldn't change his mind about kids.

This date just went from pretty amazing to worse in just a matter for few minutes. This was a deal breaker for me. I picked up the napkin and clean off my mouth.

"Do you know that I have a kid, Lloyd?" I ask with a sad tone in my voice once I place the napkin on the table.I hated to do this, but I just can't be with a guy who doesn't want kids nor who has that stand about foster kids.

The look in his eyes told me he didn't. I could tell by the look in his eyes, he knew what was coming.

"She was in foster care. I adopted her. And the way you talked about them…I don't think I want that around my kid" the last part was hard to say out, but I had to say it

"Amy…I didn't say I hated kids! Not all-" he tried his best to fix it

"No, you just said that kids are horrible, you don't want kids and foster kids are a lost cause" I only repeated what he told me, in a hurt voice

"I didn't mean that! I'm sorry!" he tried to apologize

"No…no you did mean that" I kept my voice calm "I am kind of glad you told me actually" His head dipped a little, but he also looked confused why I said I was glad

"It would be worse if we hadn't had this talk. So thank you for being honest with me. I appreciate it" I reached over the table to his left hand and gave his hand a little squeeze

"But I am a kid's person. I love my kid to death. And I am sorry, but I don't want you around my daughter. You are a good man. I have no doubt in my mind that you will find someone who doesn't want nor have kids"

He gave me a small, sad smile back and barely noticeable head nod

"I'm sorry. I hope you understand" I say sincerely

"I do" he said and I believe he does understand. He shifted his hand so now he was holding my hand "I had a wonderful time with you Amy" he said sincerely

"Me too" I say back looking at how he was holding my hand. He softly traced his thumb over my top of palm "But I have to go" I said sadly

"I understand" he says nodding and let's go of my hand. I open my purse, wanting to at least cover the half

"No…no! You don't have to. I said it will be on, it is on me. It is the least that I can do" he stopped me as he reached over the table and placed his hand over the purse, so I couldn't open it

"Are you sure? I hate to-" he quickly interrupted me

"I am sure" he nodded back

"Okay" I said after a moment when I studied his face "Thank you for tonight, Lloyd" I say and stand up

I give him a one last small smile back and then make my way out of the hall to lobby. Once I reach it, I head over to the bathroom to just have a minute to myself.

I walk up the sinks and place my purse by my right. I press my hands at the counter and lower my head. I shake my head at how the date had turned really was a nice man and I really did enjoy the date, up until the kids talk. He knew how to keep the conversation going. Too bad he had this stand about kids and foster kids.

I place my hands under the automated tap and let the water flow over them. As I watch the water flow over my palms, I know, I made the right choice, but I am still sadden about it.

I take my hands away from the water stream and shake off the water. I grab a paper towel and dry them as I look at myself in the mirror above the sinks.

I walk to the front entrance and peak a look outside to where the valet was. He was standing there waiting for his car. He was on his phone, probably calling one of his friends, maybe even Hernandez to inform him how it went.

I walk to the sofa in the lobby and sit down. I will just wait till he is gone and then head for my car. Once I see him walk to his car, I stand up and head outside myself.

I hand the valet the ticket and wait on the sidewalk till my car gets here. Once I am standing there, I hear footsteps coming up. It was a man, by the sound of the shoes - no heels. The person stands about two steps away from me, to my left. I don't look at him, not until he says my name

"Amy?" came a familiar voice