"She's gone." Jude cried the moment the door opened. "She left me. She promised she'd never leave me." He wailed as he thrust the bag into Stef's hands even though he didn't really know the woman.
"Jude, honey." Lena said gently as she was about to reach for the boy but the gasp from her wife stopped her. "What?" She asked.
"Callie is Jude's sister." Stef whispered in surprised as she saw the name on the bag. She quickly opened it up and pulled out it's contents - a note and a box. But one look at the box told her everything she needed to know. She looked around for the girl but she knew she wouldn't find her that easily. She quickly grabbed the young boy in front of her and pulled him inside. If she had any hope of this whole thing ending her way then she had to start working on it immediately.
"Jude, I need you to tell me everything you know." Stef said firmly once she finished reading the note that Callie had left for her, asking her to please keep Jude safe and love him like she did her own children.
The boy sat in front of her on the couch with Lena beside him. He was definitely more comfortable with Lena and Stef was willing to use a bit of firmness to get what she needed from him in order to find his sister.
Jude remained silent as he continued to cry. He wasn't sure what to say because his sister had told him over and over again that he was never to tell anyone the truth. The only story he was to tell was the one of the mother working two jobs.
"My mom is a single mom because my dad left when I was little and my mom works two jobs so support us but it's hard. My sister is seventeen and she watches me during the day. My mom was just a kid when my sister as born but she said she wouldn't trade any of it for the world." Jude rambled almost incoherently and immediately Stef and Lena knew that this was just a cover story. The way he was telling it was proof enough that he had memorized it and while he usually only answered parts that were particularly asked for, this time he was just spitting it all out.
"Honey, we need to know the real story." Lena encouraged gently, making Jude look even more miserable. He was only nine years old and had no idea what the right thing to do was. All he wanted was his sister back but he didn't want her to be mad at him for not doing what she'd always told him.
"Jude, you see this?" Stef asked, holding out the macaroni box. "I gave that to Callie, see that's my name and my number on there." She explained as she handed him the box. "I told her that if she was ever in trouble and needed my help then she could call me. Now I'm guessing that since she gave you that box and told you to come and give it to me, she trusted me to help you."
Jude looked down at the box and then back up at Stef, his eyes filling with a fresh batch of tears as he once again began reciting the paragraph engrained into his brain. "My mom is a single mom because my dad left when..."
Stef and Lena both sighed as they glanced at one another wondering what they could say to make the boy actually talk. She knew that she could go down to the station and search Callie's name along with Jude's and see what came up but there was no guarantee anything would show up and even if it did, it could take too long. She needed all the information right now and this was the quickest way to get it.
"She promised she'd never leave me." Jude sobbed again when he didn't know what else to say. "She always said she'd never leave me. She promised." He cried, looking painfully at Lena for answers. "I want my sister." He whined like a toddler and with no warning he threw himself into Lena's arms and clung to her for dear life.
Stef watched as Lena held the tiny boy and rocked him like he was her own son and her heart ached for these two children who had no one but each other. She wanted more than anything to fix this but she didn't know how. She couldn't bare to see Jude so scared and she couldn't even imagine what the missing girl was feeling. She was obviously everything to her brother and now she hoped that that was enough to get him to talk.
"Jude, Callie may need help." Stef tried a different tactic. "She ran because she thought she was in trouble but the truth is she was hurt and she couldn't ask for help. Now she gave you this box and told you to come here but she has nobody anymore and maybe she really needs you to help her. If you can tell me everything then I can find her and keep her safe and she won't be alone anymore." Stef said, hoping to guilt the truth out of the kid.
Jude looked up at Lena with wide eyes. He had never thought about Callie being alone. All he had realized was that she'd left him but that also meant that she had no one left and maybe he could do something about it. He turned back to Stef, clearly still scared but at a loss for what to do. Stef was right - Callie had told him to trust them and so that's just what he'd do.
"Do you have parents?" Stef asked softly.
Slowly Jude began to shake his head, for the first time in almost a year giving someone an honest answer.
"So you two ran away but you don't remember how long ago." Stef confirmed as she tried to keep track of all she had learnt.
"I was still eight years old." Jude offered the only information he could think of.
"Okay." Stef nodded. "When did you turn nine?"
"November seventeen." Jude answered.
"Okay, what else can you remember?" Stef asked. "Do you remember where you lived before you ran?"
"No." Jude replied. "We weren't there very long and my foster father got mad at me for crying and he was gonna hit me so Callie stopped him and then that night we ran away."
"Then what?" Stef asked, glad that the boy was at least talking, even if he didn't remember too much.
"We stayed on the streets and Callie worked and then she sent me to school and then my teacher got made because I had lice and I didn't do my homework and then they asked me if my parents gave me food or hurt me. I told Callie and so she began working more and I had to go with her after school. She worked at the grocery store and after I went to sleep she went to a diner on the freeway to work the night shift."
Both Stef and Lena had to clamp their mouths shut as they realized just what Callie had actually been doing while her brother was sleeping soundly. It sickened them to know that the kid was selling herself in order to put a roof over their heads.
"Then one day we found an apartment and we moved in and we live there now with Debbie and Jayda." Jude finished.
"Do you know how to get there?" Stef asked, hoping that in that apartment they would find some answers.
Jude nodded and within ten minutes Stef, Lena and Jude were driving down towards the apartment.
Stef kept her eyes peeled as they walked down the street towards the apartment Jude was leading them to. It was the same street she'd run down chasing Callie just weeks before and now she was back looking for the same girl and hoping like hell that she would find her.
"Here." Jude said, as he turned into one of the buildings that made Lena cringe. It was dirty and dark and she was pretty sure the small item she stepped on was a discarded condom. But she followed Stef and Jude as she held on protectively to the young boy's hand.
Stef knocked on the door that Jude led her to and within moments it was opened by a young girl with short, dark hair, a skirt that was way too short and a bright pink bra, a makeup brush in her and and overdone eyeshadow already on her eyes.
The girl's eyes went wide with fear as she glanced first at Stef and then Lena and finally at Jude.
"Jude?" She said in surprise as she once again glanced at the blond in front of her and it was only then that Stef realized that she was still in her uniform. She hadn't yet had a chance to change when Jude came banging on their door.
"We're just looking for Callie." Stef explained, holding her hands up in a non-threatening way. This was a fight for another time. "She's not in trouble, we just think she's hurt and scared and too afraid to ask for help." She said to the girl with wide, worried eyes.
"Jayda!" Debbie yelled into the house, her eyes focused on Stef the entire time. "You seen Callie?" She asked.
"She came home a while ago, went straight to her room and then about an hour ago." Someone called from inside.
"Can we have a look in her room?" Stef questioned. She didn't have a warrant but she hoped that having Jude with them would prompt the girls to cooperate.
"Come on." Jude said as he made his way into the house and towards their room. Debbie and now Jayda both standing and watching in various states of dress.
Stef followed Jude as he opened the door and she felt a growing sense of defeat when she found two bags neatly packed and kept ready for her brother. Obviously Callie had known that Jude would tell them the truth and that they'd show up here looking for her. But that also meant that she had taken extra care not to leave behind any information.
"She's really gone?" Jude said softly as he looked around the now empty room save for the two bags on the bed. He walked over to one of them and opened it and found all his clothes inside, he then opened the smaller one and found his books and school work, shoes and other items she'd bought him over the last eight months. There wasn't one thing of hers to be seen.
Lena, who had thus far been completely clueless as to what to do, now walked towards the boy and held him close. He buried his face in her stomach and cried as he wrapped his arms around her. Right now she was the closest thing he had to family and he hadn't even known her a month. His whole life now depended on these two women and he couldn't understand how Callie could have just left him like that.
Stef, feeling just as defeated and lost sat down on the bed trying to wrack her mind for their next step. She still held macaroni box in her hand and she looked down at it, tracing her finger over the message she's written for Callie. She just wished that the girl had actually called her instead of running off like that. She knew the girl trusted her for there was no way she would have left Jude with them if she didn't but why didn't she trust her enough to keep her safe as well?
As Stef stared at the message, wishing that things had been different, she suddenly noticed that the box had been opened and then taped shut again. She frowned as she peeled the tape back. Normally she would have thought that the macaroni was just used up but the box was too heavy to be empty so something was obviously in there. As she opened the box she was surprised to find two rolls of money held together with rubber-bands. A post it around one said Jude - college and the other said emergencies. Stef quickly opened up the bundles and counted over seven thousand dollars in Jude's bundle and five thousand in the emergency one. Stef wondered whether or not Callie had even taken any money with her or had she left it all for Jude and it made her angry to think about how the girl had made this money in the first place.
"It's going to be okay." Stef heard Lena say to Jude as she continued to comfort the terrified child.
"What's going to happen to me?" Jude asked. He had never been without his sister his entire life and now he had no idea how to go on without her.
"You'll stay with us until we find her." Lena promised, glancing at Stef to let her know that she wasn't going to send the boy anywhere. It was already clear to both women that these children were already part of their family.
"I won't give up." Stef promised as she turned around to join the other two. "I will keep looking for her and I won't give up until I find her." She promised again, looking Jude straight in the eye.