Callie's POV

"Where is he?" I asked, as I entered their house not bothering to ask permission. I didn't know who opened the door until they spoke. "He's upstairs, Lena is outside his room." Stef informed me. I quickly went upstairs with Stef following me. "He's under his bed." Lena told me as she saw me. She was sitting right outside a doorway of what I assume was the room he slept in.

"Jude?" I asked, he crawled from under and ran straight up to me, hugging me. "I'm sorry, I said too much." Confused, I asked, "What?" "I told them that it was his fault, you freaked out." He explained. Oh, I knew exactly what he meant. It wasn't Jude's fault I slipped up this morning. He was scared. "It's ok bud." I assured him. He looked up at me and asked, "Is he going to come for us?" "No, you don't have to worry about him." I told him. That was true, because Jude didn't know the darkest parts of what happened in that house but what he knew was still dark for a kid to go through.

"You said that last time…" He whispered.

We both stayed silent for a second, until we heard someone clear their throat. We looked over and saw Stef and Lena standing there. "We can't talk about it…" I told them, I knew they wanted answers but we couldn't tell. Not yet. "We're here whenever you're ready." Lena said in a soothing voice. Part of me wanted to tell them but we couldn't, we might end up putting them in danger. "Thank you." I said.

"You can stay the night if you'd like. That way you don't have to double the trip and go take the exam tomorrow. Jude and I looked at each other confused. "So you still want us around?" Jude asked. "Of course honey, that's what we were trying to tell you downstairs. Come on" Lena led us to the living room with Stef behind us. Ok now I'm confused.

Jude and I settled on the couch, Stef and Lena sat across from us. "We know it's not Callie's fault she reacted to the gun like that." Stef started. "Sometimes people have PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That's when people have experienced something bad or witnessed it, and everyone has different experiences with it.." Lena explained. "So I'm crazy. Great." I said sarcastically.

Stef gets up and sits next to me. She gently places her hand on my shoulder. I didn't flinch, surprisingly. "You're not crazy, this just means we have some things to work through." She told us, 'we'. She said 'we', for a second I almost felt as if it wasn't just Jude and I anymore. "So are you staying?" That sounded more like a statement than a question. I nod. "You can stay down here or go sleep upstairs in the room you'll be sharing with Mariana. We had a bed delivered." Lena informed me. Oh so they wouldn't put me and Jude together…. "I'm fine on the couch." I tell them. I can tell Stef wanted to say something but Lena spoke. "Ok, thank you for coming. We'll be upstairs if you need anything, goodnight." She rose up and began walking out. "Goodnight." Stef gave her goodnight before following Lena.

After they left, Jude spoke. "You never did tell me what happened with the gun." I looked at him. "I can't tell you." I told. "You always say that. Why can't you trust?" He doesn't understand that I can't talk about it, not because I don't want to. "If I talk about it, it makes it fully real." I decided it was finally time to admit. It has been years, but I've told myself it wasn't real, despite my fear of guns. I couldn't say out loud. Jude grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently.

The next morning, I had breakfast with their family. Clearly their children were not happy with me being there. "Why is she still here?" Mariana finally asked. "Well, Callie is Jude's sister and she's going to be staying with us soon." Lena explained. Mariana let out a breath in annoyance. For some reason that ticked me off enough the fire back. "Don't worry, I don't get passed out drunk." That seemed to make the whole table go quiet, so I took a quick glance at Lena and Stef. Lena sat there awkwardly, however Stef seemed to be trying to hide a grin.

"Why aren't you in your uniform mom?" Brandon asked. Oh. I hadn't realized she wasn't wearing it. The man that made me defessive of guns was a cop but he never wore it in the house. Stef was about to answer but Jude blurted out. "He was a cop but he didn't wear it around us." He kept eating his breakfast as if he didn't say anything and so did I. At this point, him being a cop wasn't a big deal to us.

Apparently it was to this family. "Are you talking about the same guy as yesterday?" Stef carefully asked. She was trying to be gentle not to startle us into running. He nodded and I decided to explain.

"Just because you wear a uniform doesn't mean you're a good person. In fact, it makes you worse because you're allowed to carry a gun, publicly, and when you shoot or kill someone you get away with it easier." "Yeah, but our mom wouldn't do that." Brandon defended his mother. "I never said she did or would." I tried to clarify. "She's talking about cops in general." Jesus jumped in. He seemed to know what I was speaking about. I knew he was a foster kid, maybe he knew the reality of the foster system. Hopefully he didn't have to suffer the same faith as I did. "Cops would never do that, they wouldn't take advantage of their authority like that. Those people that they shoot are criminals." "What fantasy are you living in?" I said sarcastically. "You know what, shut up." "Brandon." Lena warned him back he kept going.

"No, she can't get away with saying something like that." I had to back down, he was Stef's biological son after all. And Stef was a cop…what did I get myself into. "Dude, shut up Golden Boy. You're too babied to realize anything." Jesus was clearly pissed at Brandon and he wasn't afraid to voice it. "Why are you defending her?" Mariana questioned her brother. "Because he's wrong and I'm tired of him getting whatever he wants just because he's the biological kid. I'm going to walk to school." He said before getting up and walking toward the door. "Jesus. Lose the attitude." Stef called out to him, and he turned around. "Seriously? Brandon just told Callie to shut up and I'm the one in trouble." He said before walking out.

I was not about to be here with people who were angry for telling them the truth. I got up and grabbed Jude, we went to find Jesus who wasn't too far.

"HEY!" I called out, he stopped and turned around.

"I'll give you a ride." I told him, and he then walked toward us.

We were in the car, I was driving. "Thank you…For earlier," I thanked Jesus. "You don't need to thank me, what you said was true. He doesn't get it, he's never been in the system. I was tired of him being the Golden Boy too. He always ends up getting what he wants almost all the time. When he doesn't he throws a tantrum, and gets what he wants anyway. I'm just sick of it, my sister and I always come second to him. I know they love us and everything, but sometimes…" "You feel like just a foster kid again." I finished his sentence knowing the feeling. He nods in confirmation.

"You're actually pretty cool." He tells me. "You too." I say. "Could I ask you a favor?" I asked him. "Sure." "Could you look out for Jude while I'm not with him?" I asked and he gave me a smile. "Yeah, he's a cool kid too. I've got your back, right bro?" Jesus asked Jude who was in the back seat. I could see Jude smile in the rear view mirror.

When we arrived at the school, Jesus and I walked Jude to class while the two boys talked about video games. After dropping him off, we walked to Jesus' class, while talking about the most random things. This kid just brings up the most random things, but he's fun to talk to.

I had to go to Lena's office, by the time I arrived she was already there. However, I didn't expect to see Stef there. She was wearing her uniform. "Can you shut the door please?" Lena asked. I don't like this, but Jude isn't here and it's only me here. I only need to protect myself and I know I can handle that. I close the door.

After I do, Stef bends down and takes out her gun. She unloaded it and placed both pieces under the couch. "I just want to show you that it's unloaded," she told me. Was she trying to make me comfortable? Did she remember this morning? Were they going to punish me for what I said? "We apologize for the way Brandon spoke to you this morning. He has no right to talk to you that way. We talked to him and he will apologize." Lena apologized. Seriously, that's it? I guess that's the best I could expect, he is the biological kid. "I still think we should ground him." Stef remarked. Wow, what? Isn't that her son?

"Look Callie, I'm sorry for whatever you went through. You're right, people with authority sometimes take advantage of their authority and I'm sorry you had to learn that the hard way." Stef told me, there was a 'but' I felt coming. "But," there it is. "I want you to know that I won't abuse my power. I'll do my best to leave the gun visibly unloaded, while you're around. And I will take off the uniform as soon as I get home, once you move in and whenever you visit." Stef informed me.

"The uniform isn't a problem, it's just the gun. I usually don't panic about it unless Jude is in the room where there is a gun." I admit. "Ok, well, I'll find a way to let you know that it's unloaded. One more question" Something else seemed to be on her mind. "Ok." I said, letting her ask. "What is the last thing you remember from the night you got the black eye?" Why did she want to know? "I remember I punched a guy for calling me princess." I was being honest, I don't remember what happened after that or how I got back. My energy was completely depleted from the lack of sleep the past few nights.

She looked as if she had made a realization.

"I think it's about time Callie takes the exam." Lena said, and Stef grabbed her gun and left. After that Lena sets me up to take the test, she tells me the rules of the exam then I begin. Once I finished I went to say my goodbye to Jude and headed to work.

I was still adjusting to working at the Burger Stand so it was still very exhausting. By the time I got to Devin's house it was late. As I entered, I expected Devin to be there so I was confused when only Andre was there sitting in the kitchen. "He'll be here soon, I asked him to train me too." He explained. I'm not even surprised he wanted to. What did surprise me was that he wasn't with him right now.

"Did he tell you what the training was for?" I asked.

"No, but I wanted to make sure you were alright." What?

"Do you remember when we were arrested?" He asked me. What is he talking about?

"No"

He looked puzzled. "You're joking right?" "No, when did this happen?" I asked. "Yo, we got arrested after fighting those dudes." Oh…Oooohhhh. That explains why Stef asked, maybe she was there. Did I freak out there too? "Oh, so what happened?" I asked. "I punched you." Well I can't say I'm surprised.

"I'm sorry, even if you don't remember." He apologized, sounding sincere. I know he seems to be Devin's shadow but it's just that he cares. "Thanks." I told him.

After a few minutes Devin arrived. "So where are we going to train?" I asked. "We're going to get food first." Devin said and motioned us to follow him. I assumed we were heading to the car, but instead he turned the opposite direction. "Aren't we taking the car?" I asked. "We're running there." Andrew told me right before he took off running. Then Devin began to run, so I followed their lead and ran as well. The place was a few miles away, so we had to switch between running and walking constantly. Since Devin wouldn't let us completely stop. Even though Andrew wanted to stop at some point, Devin told him to keep going.

After arriving, Devin insisted on paying for the food. However, after we finished eating he gave us a few minutes for the food to settle before he made us run again. He was taking us to his warehouse where he had set out equipment for us to train, but what didn't tell us was that it was a few miles again from the house, in the opposite direction that we were at.

By the time that we arrived Andrew and I practically passed out on one of the mats that was laid out. He gave us a tour of the place and showed us his equipment. When we started training, I realized that it was more complicated than I thought. He was showing us how to do some basic self defense moves. After a while we called it a night but we still had to walk and run home. That night as soon as I laid on my bed, I passed out.

It was my first day at this school, Lena had told me if I needed anything to go to her office and if I needed help with finding my classes to ask Brandon. Yeah like I would ever ask him, I was heading to my homeroom. It was with some guy named Timothy, Lena told me I would like him.

When I walked into the class I saw two familiar faces, Taila and Wyatt. They were sitting at opposite ends of the classroom. Without thinking about it, I sat somewhere in the middle. I didn't pay much attention to the teacher. School wasn't really my scene.

After class, Talia stopped me. "Hey, I wanted to thank you. You might have saved me." She told me. "Ok?" "There was a video of a drunk girl dancing naked from the party." I didn't know what to say. "I couldn't let you drive drunk." I told her. "Well since you helped me, let me help you. Devin's bad news, it's best to stay away from him." She told me. She's one to talk, getting drunk knowing she had to drive herself and someone home. I simply nod and walk away.

As I walk down the hallway, kids start looking at me with judging looks. I could hear them whisper, they were talking about me. "Trashy foster girl." I heard one of them say. I didn't care, I was used to it. Almost every time I went to a new school I would get the same reaction. I decided to go check on Jude, I didn't want him to get bullied.

"Look at the little fag, he even painted his nails." A boy said in a mocking tone. I saw the boy and his friends talking to Jude. They started laughing, the boy and friends had their back to me. As I walked up Jude saw me and smiled, he knew I had his back. I yanked the boy back by his shirt, causing him to fall on his butt. "Look at the little weak boy, he's even already on the floor." I mocked him. "Who are you?" A friend of the boys' asked. "I'm someone who will show you what they do to little boys in Juvie unless you leave him alone." I told him, and within seconds they all ran away.

I turned to Jude, he had a sad look. "Can we go somewhere? I don't want to be here at school." He pleaded. I wanted to protest but he looked as if he needed a break. "Let's go." We left the school and got in the car.

I remember I had the money from work, I drove somewhere I thought would make him feel better.

When we arrived there, he looked at me confused. "Why are we here?" He asked. "Mom used to share her ice cream with us whenever she was having a bad day." I told him, part of wanted him to remember but I knew he was probably too young to remember. "I remember." He said. "I was able to get some money, and I was saving for a special occasion. Today seemed like an ice cream day." I told him as a smile crept on his face.

We walked into the ice cream shop and ordered. We talked as we ate our ice cream, until my phone rang. "It's probably Lena, she probably noticed we're not at school. They don't like it when we miss school." He told me, how did he find that out? "Have you ditched school before?" I asked. "No, but Jesus got in trouble for leaving school early." Ah, ok. If I had known they actually cared about school, I probably wouldn't have taken Jude out of school, probably.

I took out my phone and sure enough, it was Lena. I debated answering for a second. As much as I wanted to spend this much needed time with Jude, I didn't want him to get into any more trouble than this would get him in. "Hello?" I answered. "Hey Callie, is Jude with you?" She asked. "Yeah, he's with me." "Did something happen?" Lena asked, she didn't sound angry. "Um…" I didn't know how to answer that. I wanted to tell her about the kids bullying him but it would make it worse. "Can you guys please come back to school? I'd like to talk to you two." She sounded concerned. "We'll be there in a few minutes." I said.

We were walking in the hallway, on our way to Lena's office. "Let me do the talking." I told Jude before we walked in.

"I thought you left." I blurted out to Stef, who was still in her uniform in the office. Oops, didn't mean to say that out loud. "Nice to see you too." She replied. "Sorry…" Jude and I sat down in the chairs across from Lena.

"First of all, you can't leave school without telling either of us. Second, you can't just take Jude whenever you want." Yes I can, he's MY brother, I wanted to say but remained quiet. "Third, what happened to make you want to leave?" Lena asked with concern.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd actually care about us going to school." I explained. "Why wouldn't we?" Stef asked. "Because in other homes they didn't care." He jumped in. Did he mean to say that? "Jude?" I asked, he knew what I was asking. I was asking if he was ready to open up to them.

The homes we were in were hard on both of us. We promised we would only tell people if we felt safe enough. There weren't that many times we felt safe, apart from each other that is. Although I am starting to like these people, I still can't fully trust them. Jude is more open and trusting, I'm glad he's been able to keep that.

"Yeah." He nodded and I grabbed a hold of his hand, intertwining our fingers. I look over at Stef and Lena, Lena straightens up to listen carefully. Stef grabbed an empty chair, put it next to Lena's desk, in between Lena and I and sat down.

Jude began. "Sometimes in homes we don't have to go to school. They don't give us food to eat, they hurt us. Sometimes we only come to school for the food but if we can't get food we look for some somewhere else." I squeezed his hand assuringly. He looked at me expecting me to say something, but I didn't.

Lena stood up and walked over next to Jude. She crouched down and grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry you both went through that. We want what's best for all of our kids, you won't be treated like that anymore. You'll always have enough to eat, and we want both of you to have a good education." She told us, then hugged him. I could hear him cry in her arms. Suddenly I felt Stef hold my hand, she looked at me with a sad smile. She wanted to cry, I could tell by the look in her eyes. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze, I don't think she expected it because her smile changed from a sad one to a happy one.

After a moment Lena let go of Jude and Stef let go of my hand. "You two still haven't told us what happened?" Lena asked. "I…" Before I was able to come up with an excuse, Jude jumped in. "Some kids were making fun of me, so Callie stopped them and took me for an ice cream day." He explained, He is truly the sweetest, how could anyone not fall in love with him? "What's an ice cream day?" Stef asked. "It's like having a bad day, but instead one day it's the last few days or weeks. It's the day you would normally give up on anything and everything but instead you get ice cream to help you feel better." He told them.

"Why didn't you tell me, bud?" Lena asked. "It'll make things worse." I stated, "Cal." Stef tried to explain but Jude told Lena. "Sometimes when I tell an adult they tell me I deserved it or that I'm lying. That's why I only ever tell Callie" The two women shared a look. Lena explained to Jude that they will deal with it.

Afterwards we returned to our classes and stayed in school the rest of the time. Despite how boring it was. Jude and Jesus rode back with Lena, while I headed to work.

Everything was going as usual and my shift was nearly over, a customer walked in. "Hello, what can…" I looked up as I was talking. "What are you doing here?" I asked, it was Devin and Andrew. "We just wanted burgers." Andrew told me. "Uh huh." I said in a doubtful tone. "Fine, we wanted to run from here to the house." Devin admitted. I think he was jealous that I could run faster than him. He knew how to fight but I could out run him. "All three of us?" I asked him, and he shook his head. "You and I. Andrew is taking the car." I knew it, he really does want to race, I gave him a grin. "I'll be off in a few minutes." I told them.

After I finished my shift and gave the keys to Andrew. Devin and I started running, we were both at a steady pace for a while. All I could think is keep going…don't stop. If you stop he'll catch you. Devin's stamina started giving out, but I kept running. I never stopped until I reached the house. I looked back but didn't see Devin. Andrew was already parked and waiting for us. "How did you get so fast?" He asked. "Practice." I then walked into the house.

After a few minutes Devin and Andrew walked in. As fun as this is, it'll end some. I have to tell them. "Um..there's something I need to tell you guys." They both look at me, waiting for me to continue. "I'm going to be living with Jude and his foster family soon." I can tell they are hurt. "I'm sorry, I…" I was about to explain myself but Andrew interrupted me, "Don't be, he's your brother. Besides, you're just going to be sleeping somewhere else. We'll still see you." "Yeah, once an Ashton, always an Ashton." Devin stated. I smiled at the thought of this relationship being forever but I knew better. Nothing is forever.

We then walked and ran to Devin's warehouse. Then the next few days felt like they flew by in a flash. Bill was able to finish the paperwork and it was time to move in with the Fosters'. Stef came to pick me up with Bill. Mr. and Mrs. Ashton allowed them to come in and then left into their bedroom. It was them and the siblings, I had to say my goodbyes.

"Guess I have to play with Sam again." Rachel said as she hugged me. "Sorry." I said. Then Sam came up to me. "Guess I have to go back to annoying Rachel, it's pretty run actually." I chuckled and gave him a fist bump. Next was Faith. "If you ever need a girl power moment you know who to call." She alway hung out with her girls, she invited me a few times but it wasn't my type of crowd. "Of course." We gave each other a quick hug.

"It's because I punched you in the face, huh?" Andrew asked playfully. "Totally." I hugged him. "Whatever happens I just want you to know you were someone that mattered to me." He whispered. I couldn't tell what was worse, the fact that he said it in past tense or that I knew that meant he was going to do something stupid.

Devin walked up next, Stef was visibly uncomfortable and kept his eyes on him. "The car will miss you." He joked. "You started it, remember?" I reminded him that he practically threw me into the car. He smirked, "I'm going to get faster than you." He stated. "You won't outrun me, ever, but I'll get stronger." I told him. I could see from the corner of my eye, Stef's confused look. We hugged each other for a while and he whispered in my ear, "Keep the phone." We let go and parted ways.