Once my 3-hour long blood transfusion is over, I let Jason back into the room. I'm so nervous I could vomit, but that might just be the pain in my stomach.
"Hey, what was all the fighting with Mariana? I thought you two were close."
"Yeah we are, it was just a one-off."
"And who's Rachel?"
"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, Rachel. She's the daughter of this couple that I stayed with before I came to live with the Adams-Fosters."
"So?"
"The dad was a really bad guy and I had to run away, and I had to go through this whole court case trial thing, he's in prison now, but that's not the point," I swallow the lump that's built up in my throat. "I've been hanging out with Rachel a lot."
"And your foster family are mad at you for that?"
"Yes, because I lied to them about it. But, Jason, I've been lying to you too." He takes my hands.
"Whatever it is you can tell me." I have to pull away from him.
"The night you had dinner at the Fosters, and Brandon said that stuff about me being gay, I thought you would want to end it with me for sure. So, I met up with her and... we kissed, and we've sort of been dating since then, she thought I ended it with you."
"You cheated on me?" He looks shell-shocked.
"I'm so sorry, I still like you, but I just don't know what's gotten into me. It's just been really confusing." I take off the necklace he gave me and hold it out to him. "Here, you should take this back." He snatches it out of my hand and storms out, slamming the door behind him. It hurts to see him so heartbroken, but it would have been worse if I let it go on any longer. I let myself cry over him, well I convince myself I'm crying over him when really, I just want to see Rae. To have her arms around me, telling me I'll be okay. But I'll have to tell her I lied to her too, what if she reacts as bad as Jason did? Then I'll have lost them both and I don't know what I'd do.
"Hey, Gracie?" Jude comes into my room. "I saw Jason leave, he looked pretty upset."
"I had to be honest with him," I cry. Jude comes and sits next to me; putting his arm around me.
"It's for the best, are you going to talk to that girl again?"
"I don't know, I mean, I want to, I like her a lot. But she's in a lot of trouble now so I don't even know how I would reach her."
"Doesn't it make you feel different about her, knowing what she did to Callie?"
"Callie hit Rachel too!" I look at him. "But yeah I guess it does. I didn't know she was capable of something like that. I'm sorry Jude."
"Why are you sorry?"
"Since the second I got here I've just caused so much drama, and you guys have been nothing but wonderful to me. I've been so ungrateful."
"There's always drama at our house, if you weren't here, one of us would probably be in hospital or juvie or something. That's just the way we work. No family is perfect." They all keep saying that I'm family like I'm not some kid they scooped up off of the street.
"Gracie?" Lena comes in. "Doctor Graves wants to talk, Bubba can you wait outside?" She asks Jude, Doctor Graves comes in and takes Jude's place next to me.
"You feeling any better? The painkillers fading yet?"
"I feel well I guess, but the pain is still pretty bad, yeah."
"Okay, I'll get you on something stronger. So, here's the situation, your internal bleeding is still pretty bad, and we did what we could to stop it when you arrived, but I think I'd like to go back in and properly fix it, is that okay with you?"
"More surgery?" He nods. "Yeah, I guess that's fine, I just want to go home. Lena? Is it okay if I have the surgery?" She nods, but I can tell she's worried about all the medical bills.
"Fantastic, don't eat anything from now onwards, and we'll get you into the OR tomorrow morning." He nods with his usual cheery smile and leaves the room.
"Lena, is Mariana still here? I need to apologize."
"She's back home, but you'll see her tomorrow."
"What about Callie? Is she still at the police station?"
"Um no, she's here, in another ward. She hit her head pretty hard and has a mild concussion."
"From Rachel?" Lena nods. "God, this is all my fault." I bury my face in my hands.
"Don't worry about that now, you get some sleep. I have to get the kids home now, but we'll be back before you know it okay?" She kisses my head.
I don't want to be left alone here, but I understand she has to take the others home and she can't leave them home alone. I mean, she probably could, Brandon's old enough to be responsible, maybe he's staying at dad's tonight. I guess I'm not truly alone, Stef's here with Callie. I make sure Lena and the others are gone and I get out of bed and go into the hallway. I want to go see if Callie's okay but it's hard to sneak around with this huge IV stand. One of the nurses comes over to me.
"You should be in bed." She folds her arms.
"I just want to go and see my foster sister." At first, it looks like she's gonna send me back to bed, but I guess she can see how desperate I am.
"Okay, you shouldn't be on foot though, we don't want you having another fainting spell." She brings me a wheelchair with a pole coming off the top, for my IV bag. "Do you know where she is?"
"No, she hit her head, what ward would that be?"
"What's her name?"
"Callie Adams-Foster." The nurse goes over to her desk and quickly types up Callie's name and finds her within a few minutes. She takes me down the hall and around a few corners until we get to a big room with 4 beds in it, 3 of them are empty, but one in the far corner is taken by Callie. Stef is asleep in the armchair next to her.
"Callie?" The nurse steps outside and I wheel myself over to her. "I'm sorry." Stef wakes up.
"It's not your fault." She smiles at me.
"Aren't you mad?"
"No of course not, you're my sister." Stef smiles at the two of us.
"Are you okay?" I ask her.
"Yeah, just a bump on the head and sore arm."
"What about your nose?"
"It's fine, not broken. There's no need for me to be here, they just wanted me to stay one night just in case. You had surgery and a blood transfusion?"
"Yeah, it was nothing. Listen, Callie, I'm so sorry. If I wasn't still talking to her then none of this would have happened."
"It's fine, it wasn't your fault, it was hers."
