A/N: So those of you who commented in your reviews about including or not including how the found out Callie was sick all said you wanted to read it so I am working on a place to put it. Normally I don't write with a plan, and this one isn't much different aside a small plan I have and that wasn't originally on there. However, I am working on changing some things around so that there is a place to include it which will hopefully be what you were hoping for when you said you wanted it. I'm not sure when it's going to come up yet, it could be the potential next chapter or it could be later on depending how this chapter goes.

Also, I just wanted to inform you all that I am back at college and I'm not sure how that's going to affect my updates, but I promise you that I will finish this story. The only thing that is going to stop me is if I die or something. Thank you for all the reviews and follows/favourites and to anyone who is just reading this. This chapter occurs on the same day of the previous one, in case it isn't clear throughout the chapter, I hope you all enjoy it.

CHAPTER 3

That night, after dinner, and once all the dishes had been done and the kids had been sent upstairs to do their homework, Stef and Lena were finally able to talk to Callie about talking to Monte about what was going on with her. They had planned, earlier on in the day to have a conversation once Lena was back from work. However, that didn't go to plan as Callie had slept until dinner and they hadn't wanted to wake her to talk about something that could wait until later on.

Callie was sat on the sofa with a text book on her lap. Work had been sent home with Lena by her teachers for her to complete and Callie was trying to make sure that she caught up with everything that she had missed so that she wouldn't have to retake the year. So, although all she wanted to do was sleep she was instead trying to read her chemistry text book but she was finding it hard to focus and she kept rereading parts. It was like nothing was going in. As soon as she read something, it went from her head and she had to read it again, which was pointless because it left her again. Which is why she welcomed the distraction from her work.

Stef and Lena sat on either side of her and she knew that they wanted to talk about something important. She hated these conversations, they always ended up with them telling her bad news. This was the way they had told her she was sick, the way they told her that Donald wasn't her father and the way they told her that she wasn't going to be adopted. She was used to bad news by now but she didn't know how much more she could take of it anymore.

"We have been talking and we think that it would be a good idea if we told Monte what's going on," Lena started.

They saw the look of worry that was on Callie's face when they sat down so they had wanted to tell her what they were thinking straight away, not drag it out. However, they thought she would be relieved that it wasn't something big that she had to worry about but the look was still there.

"You will still be able to go to school when you feel up to it, but this way the teachers would understand and you would be able to get extensions on deadlines. They would be able to make exceptions for you, and we know that's not what you want, but this way you might still be able to get through the year. If your teachers knew what was going on they might be able to give you extra tuition if you felt up to it and we also think that it would put less stress on you," Stef explained.

Callie nodded. She knew that she was going to have to tell them, but she had hoped that it wouldn't be so soon. She had hoped that because Lena was the vice principle she would be able to pull strings and Callie would be able to get away with having time off school without teachers asking what was wrong. She didn't know what was going to happen if they told Monte. She knew Stef had told her that they couldn't make her leave, but she didn't know whether Stef meant it or whether she was just saying that to reassure her. She looked up at Stef and Lena.

"I won't have to leave school?" she asked.

"No, it's up to us and you if you leave school and when that would happen. You could stay at home and we could bring the work home so that's its done here or you can leave school and wait until you get better. We can work something out with Monte, something that you are comfortable with and that will work out around your treatment," Lena reassured her.

Callie nodded, believing what that were telling.

"I don't want to have to retake the year, I want to graduate on time with everyone else next year," Callie told them.

She needed to really. She needed to make sure she wasn't going to stick out any more than she already did and she had to make sure that this wasn't going to hold her back. She had jumped over hurdles before and she was willing to keep going if it meant she was able to get through high school. She had passed other grades when her home life had been terrible, where she was being beaten and starved and she wasn't going to let this stop her. She needed to make sure she didn't have to retake the year because then Stef and Lena might not want her anymore. They might not want someone who could pass the year. There was already so much they had to deal with and that might be the final straw for them. And she loved living with them and she loved them. Not that she had told them yet. But the thought of being taken away was terrifying. She couldn't let that happen.

"We can try and make that happen, but don't push yourself too much, we want you to get better and pushing yourself isn't going to help. Just because you don't graduate next year, that doesn't mean we will love you any less," Stef told her.

Lena nodded in agreement. They both knew that they needed to get this through to her, that it didn't matter what happened regarded school at the moment. They only wanted her to get better and they knew that if they didn't tell her this, she would push herself so hard and instead of focusing on making sure she was getting enough sleep and eating she would be focusing on passing her classes and completing the work.

"I can tell her tomorrow," Callie told them.

She wasn't sure whether she would be going by herself or whether Stef and Lena would be coming with her. She wanted them there with her, but she didn't want to ask them, she didn't want to appear weak to them, as if she had to rely on them for something as simple as talking to the principle.

"We'll come with you Callie, you won't have to go and talk to her alone. You don't have to do this alone," Lena said, placing a hand over Callie's.

She hoped Callie understood what she was saying. She wasn't just talking about telling Monte, she was talking about everything that she was going to face. She was telling Callie that she and Stef would be there for everything, to help her through everything despite anything. She hoped Callie understood that it didn't matter what happened, they still loved her.

"Lena's right, nothing will make us turn our backs on you Callie," Stef reiterated.

Callie smiled at them. "Thank you," she muttered quietly.

The three then returned to silence with the TV on quietly in the background. Callie had returned to reading her text book while Stef and Lena were watching the TV. They kept the volume low as to not disturb Callie from her work however they both noticed that she wasn't able to focus on it very well. They heard her sigh heavily a few times and she had been reading the same page for several minutes so Stef took the book from her lap and placed it on the table. Callie looked up at her, annoyed that Stef had stopped her from catching up with her work but also relieved because she was getting annoyed with herself that she wasn't able to focus on her work.

"That's enough for tonight, you can carry on tomorrow, but for now you can sit here and watch TV with us for a while," Stef told her.

Callie nodded and leant back on the sofa relaxing slightly. Her attention turned to the TV, although she had no idea what they were watching. However she wasn't really focusing on it, instead she was letting her thoughts run away with her. Eventually Callie fell asleep on the couch and Stef and Lena let her rest until she needed to be woken to go to bed.

Later on that night, once all the kids were in bed, Stef and Lena were sat in bed. Stef was catching up with some paperwork that she had to do while she was away from work while Lena was reading. She hadn't had a chance to read in a while and so was glad to have some quiet time to be able to do so. Stef, on the other hand, was not glad that she had some time to complete her paperwork, especially when all she wanted to do was go to sleep. Although, that was easier said than done at the moment.

But she was done for this evening, so once she finished writing she placed all the sheets of paper on the floor by her side of the bed. She knew she would regret that the next time she got up when she would have forgot they were there and would trip over them and would then have to sort them all out so they were back in order. However, having that knowledge didn't mean she was going to get up and put them somewhere that they would be out of the way.

Lena, who had heard the loud thump of papers hitting their bedroom floor looked over at Stef as she reached to turn off the light on her bedside table and lay down on her side. She closed her book and put it on her bedside table before turning off the light that was placed on there as well. If she were telling the truth, she had been waiting for Stef to finish so that they could lay together, so she could gain some comfort from being close to her wife. She hadn't been paying attention to her book and if asked she wouldn't be able to tell you anything that had happened over the pages she had read that evening.

She moved over to Stef's side of the bed so she could wrap her arm around her and so Stef was able to comfortably fit against her body. Stef was normally the big spoon, however sometimes Lena took that role and they both enjoyed the swap and neither minded it, just so long as they were getting comfort from the other.

"How are you?" Lena asked, running her hand through Stef's hair.

They never really had a chance to talk during the day about how they were coping with everything while they were making sure Callie was okay and reassuring everyone that it would all be fine and so they had turned to late night conversations.

During the period of time when they had learnt that Callie was sick, they didn't talk about how they were doing, they spoke about the kids and about the decisions and how nothing was fair. They didn't talk about how they were doing because neither of them thought that it would affect them as much as it had. They didn't realise how hard it would be and how much they would need each other and how open they would have to be about how they were coping.

They hadn't realised until they had both had emotional meltdowns in private and it had come to light to them both that the other would also be feeling like they were. And Lena, knowing Stef wouldn't be as open at first, had spoken to Stef. About how she wasn't coping and how worried she was and how she was so scared because this was something she couldn't control. And then she had been crying. And so had Stef. So she waited until they had both stopped to talk. And she had promised Lena that she would be there and she would be open and she had reassured Lena that she was feeling the same. And they had both cried again. And they had promised that they would talk every day. Because they figured that taking things one day at a time was a good way to get through this. Instead of worrying about the future they focused purely on today. And they had found that there relationship had grown stronger because of these conversations. So they had continued them, although they often went in a similar way.

"This is going to be happening every week. I don't think I processed that Callie is going to be having chemo every week and one of us is going to have to stay home with her every week and she is going to be having these horrible side effects every week. And next month she is still going to be sick. And the month after that. I'm not sure why I hadn't processed that. Maybe I was ignoring it on an unconscious level, but today made me realise that she is going to have to go through this every week. We are going to have to watch her suffer and we aren't going to be able to do anything."

Stef was whispering and it wasn't just because it was the middle of the night and the kids were sleeping. Stef whispered while she was trying not to cry. Lena had learnt that early on in their relationship. She kissed Stef lightly a few times before she spoke.

"I know, I worry about that all the time, but we have to focus on now, about getting through one day at a time. Because thinking about what might happen isn't going to change it, it's just going to make us feel afraid and worried. Callie is still here and although we don't know what's going to happen, we know her and we know she isn't going to give up. She's going to fight this with everything she has," Lena stopped.

She kissed Stef a few more times and wiped away the tears that were on her face before she spoke again. "I'm terrified as well. But we have each other."

They lay in silence for a few minutes when Stef spoke. It surprised Lena as she had thought that she had fallen asleep.

"I love you so much. I'm the luckiest woman alive," she said.

Lena was about to reply when they heard someone walking about. They both moved so that they were able to see the door from where they were lead, expecting someone to walk in. Their kids didn't often get up in the night unless something was worrying and they were coming to talk to them about it. However, no one came in and no one knocked on their bedroom door.

They assumed that whoever it was had gone back to bed and so they returned to the positions they were laying in before they moved. Then, when they were both almost asleep, they heard the toilet flush but nothing else. They didn't hear the tap running or someone making their way back to their room.

"I'll go," Stef said.

She knew that Lena would have to get up in the morning to go to work, and while she also had to get up in the morning, she didn't have to go to work as she was staying home with Callie again. It was much easier for her to miss work than it was for Lena and although they had agreed to take turns, they hadn't discussed anything with their bosses yet and so nothing had been arranged for them having time off.

Stef pulled the cover off of herself and left the comforting arms of her wife to go out and out what was wrong with whoever was still in the bathroom. She walked down the hall way to their kid's bathroom and knocked lightly on the door.

Both she and Lena knew who it was most likely to be, but the moan that came from the other side of the door surprised Stef. It didn't sound at all like Callie and so Stef was wondering if she had been correct with her assumption. She opened the door and found Callie sat on the floor by the toilet even though the light hadn't been turned on.

He face was incredibly pale and, although she seemed to be covered in sweat, she was shivering hard. Stef rushed over to Callie's side, not bothering to turn on the light.

"Oh sweets," she murmured, running her hand through her hair.

Callie, who had originally been learning against the bath was now leaning in towards Stef, who was much more comfortable. Her eyes closed, and although she was still shivering, she was gaining a small amount of comfort from Stef, not only from being close to her but from the words Stef continued to whisper to her.

Stef wanted to get up so she could get a drink of water and a blanket as she wasn't sure how long they would be there and she didn't want Callie to get any colder as she could feel her shivering against her side. However, she didn't want to leave Callie so they stayed sat on the floor. Stef didn't know how much time had passed, however they heard footsteps after a while that belonged to Lena. When Stef hadn't come back to bed and she hadn't heard any movement she had gotten worried so had made her way to the bathroom to see if everything was alright.

Once she saw Callie shivering on the floor, she went back to her and Stef's bedroom to grab the blanket that they kept on their bed to place over her before she went downstairs to grab a glass of water, knowing it was important that Callie kept drinking while she was sick.

Lena then sat on the floor with Stef and Callie once she returned with the glass of water. The blanket was big enough for all three of them to fit under, so Stef placed it comfortably over them all. Stef wanted Lena to go back to bed, she had seen how tired she was yesterday and she knew that spending hours up during the night wouldn't help with that. But she couldn't, because she knew how much Lena wanted to be there. And she knew that even if Lena went to bed, she wouldn't have been able to sleep due to the worry she felt as well as the fact that Stef wouldn't be there with her. Neither were able to sleep well when they were apart from each other.

The silence they were sat in was suddenly disturbed when Callie moved quickly to lean over the toilet. Her hair was tied up, but some of it had come out while she had been asleep so Stef held it all back while Callie was being sick. Once she had finished, Stef moved to flush the toilet while Lena handed Callie a drink.

She took a sip of water before handing the glass back to Lena and then spoke.

"You can go back to bed," she muttered, leaning back and closing her eyes.

Stef and Lena shared a look, they both knew they had a long way to go until Callie would be able to come to them and feel comfortable asking them for comfort but they hadn't realised that she would be so unwilling to have them there when there was something wrong with her.

Neither knew whether she wasn't allowing them in because she was testing them, seeing whether they would get bored of her not talking to them about things and eventually just stop asking or whether because she was still unsure if they were going to be there and she was trying to keep them at distance. They thought they had been making progress, but when news came to them that she wouldn't be able to be adopted alongside Jude, she had returned to the girl she had been months ago.

But they were determined to get her to open up to them and talk, not matter how long it took. They would continue to tell her that they would be there for her until she believed them. They weren't going to give up on her just because she pushed them, and they wanted that to get through to her, they wanted her to understand it.

"We aren't going to leave you sat on the bathroom floor by yourself," Lena told her.

"You guys need your sleep," Callie muttered.

She was shattered, but she knew that if she went to bed she would be back into the bathroom minutes later so she would much rather stay sat in here until she felt better. However, that didn't mean that Stef and Lena had to sit up with her all night while she was sick.

"Sleep isn't as important as being here for you Callie," Stef assured her, sitting back down on the floor next to both Lena and Callie.

Lena had pulled the blanket back over them all and they snuggled up closer. And that was how they stayed all night. And Callie was grateful, because she had wanted them to stay with her, she just didn't know how to ask and she didn't know if they would even want to sit with her all night.

She wasn't sure if they meant what they said when they told her that they would be there, and it was hard to open up to them, but it was becoming increasingly harder for her to leave them shut out as she continued getting sicker. But she knew they were here for good now, it was becoming clearer that they weren't going to dump her like she had been before.

And that felt good. Knowing she had someone to trust. Knowing she had someone who would be there for her. Who she could rely on.

Because she knew that she as going to need it.

A/N: Sorry this took so long and sorry that not much really happened during this chapter either. It was kinda boring to write, but hopefully it wasn't as boring to read, I'm sorry if it was. Hopefully the next chapters will be more interesting. Please continue to let me know your thoughts. Thank you! Also, not sure if I mention this or whether it was made obvious, but to clear it up, this won't be Brallie