Callie's POV

I woke up, feeling well rested. I had a faint recollection of the events that happened yesterday. The last thing I clearly remember was punching a guy out of spite. From there the memories are hazy. I quickly changed clothes, and brushed my teeth. I went to the kitchen to grab something to eat. I saw Faith making coffee. When did we get coffee? "Morning." She greeted me as I walked in. What does my face hurt? "Morning." I returned the greeting. "Coffee?" She asked. I nod and grab a cup, and she serves me. "I hid it from Devin and Andrew." She tells me, I smile in response.

"Also that woman from last night said she wanted to talk to you, said her name was Stef, and that you knew where to find her." I looked at her, not sure what she meant by that. Did we talk with Stef last night? "Remember you have work, so if you're going to talk to her you better go now." Rachel said as she walked in. I turned to look at Faith, to see if she saw her too. Didn't Devin pick a fight because he thought they took her or something. "I was hanging out with a few friends and came back late. Andrew had the same reaction last night." Rachel cleared up. "Well I better get going, it's a longer walk." I told them, as I finished my coffee.

"Take the keys, Andrew took the keys from Devin, when you guys were being arrested. We picked it up from the skatepark after you and Sam went to sleep." "Are you sure? He might get mad." I was a bit worried about his reaction. "He didn't get mad you kept the car, he doesn't care as long as he has the other car, and none of us really use the cars." Faith said as I washed my cup. "Except yesterday, my friend drove me in the other car." Rachel jumped in.

I had made a realization that just now dawned on me. "Not even to go to school?" I asked, I didn't think the foster kids went to school but maybe Rachel did. Not like it mattered, most of us foster kids never graduate high school anyway, let alone college. "Faith and Andrew barely go, I go when I feel like it. Either Andrew, Faith or Devin walk Sam to school, it isn't that far." She explained. Oh, they do go, somewhat. "Oh, I need to go. I'll see you guys later." I said before heading out.

I arrived at Jude's foster mom's house, I took a second to pull myself together. Then knocked on the door, Jude was the one who opened. He gave me the sweetest smile, he was happy. "They said you might come." He said, clearly they had told him. I smiled at him and gave him a hug. He guided me to the kitchen where Lena was making breakfast. "Hey perfect timing grab a plate." Lena told me when she saw me. "Umm…" I was trying to find the words to politely decline. "You declined last time, stay so we can talk and let you meet the rest of the family. Now that you're going to be living here soon." "Yeah ok." Not like she really left any room to argue, They did invite me, and I can't leave. I just arrived.

A few moments passed and their kids came down. "You guys remember I told you about Callie, Jude's sister. Callie, these are our kids." Lena began to introduce them. "This is Brandon, Stef's biological son from her previous marriage. These are the twins Jesus and you know Mariana. They were in the foster system too, they came to us eight years ago and we adopted them what?" She turned to Mariana. "Five years ago." They said in unison. "The system sucks." Jesus stated. I had to agree it does suck. "Jesus" Lena warned him. "What? It does." He tried to defend himself. "It's nice to finally meet you." Brandon smiled at me and I simply returned it without replying.

"What happened to your face?" Jesus asked me. "Jesus. Cool it." Lena scolded him. "It's okay, I got punched." I told him. Jude looked at me with concern. "Did you fight back?" Jude asked, and I grinned. "He called me 'princess'." He smiled, knowing I no longer let anyone call us princess. It used to be another word people called us to make fun of us. However, after something happened it wasn't just an insult. It was a sacred and trigger word. If I found out anyone called Jude that I wouldn't hold back. Same goes for me, if someone called me that Jude understood why I would fight. "Gave him a good punch?" He asked in a joking tone. "Gave him a broken nose and a few bruises." I corrected him.

"Sounds badass." Jesus said excitedly. "Jesus, luggage." Lena scolded.

Suddenly a realization hit Jude, I don't know what but clearly something was wrong. "Callie's dropping me off at school, we should go." Jude stated. I hadn't offered yet, I would've done it anyway but something in his voice told me that he didn't want to be here any long. "Hang on, bud. You need to finish your breakfast, and you haven't asked Callie or me and Stef if she can take you." Lena saw something was wrong but attempted to calm him first. "I'm not hungry and said she'll take me." He was freaking me out. "Come on." He didn't wait for a reply, instead he grabbed my hand and began dragging me away. However I heard Stef come into the kitchen from the other side. "Where are you two going in such a hurry?" She asked.

Jude eyes turned to look at me in fear. I turned to look at Stef. I saw why he wanted to leave, he didn't. He didn't want me to see that Stef was a cop. A cop, no he didn't want me to know there was a gun. Gun. There was a gun. Gun. They had a gun. GUN! She has a gun. GUN! She had a loaded gun. GUN! IT'S LOADED. DANGER! I NEED TO KEEP JUDE SAFE. GUN! SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE SHOT. THERE'S GOING TO BE BLOOD. HE HAS A GUN. IT'S NOT LOADED. SHE WOULDN'T HAVE A LOADED GUN WITH KIDS IN THE ROOM. I NEED TO PROTECT JUDE. SHE WOULDN'T, HE WOULDN'T SHOOT US. THEY'RE QUIET BUT WHY ARE THEY YELLING. THEY'RE FRIENDS, HE SAID IT WAS NEVER LOADED. DID HE LIE? I HEARD IT, IT'S A LOADED GUN. HE LIED, THE GUN WAS LOADED. HE LIED. IT'S LOADED. SO MUCH BLOOD.

Meanwhile…

As soon as Callie saw Stef, Jude knew it was too late. Callie grabbed a knife off the table and put Jude behind her. She was in a protective yet aggressive stance. She was facing Stef, the Fosters were confused and surprised at the sudden hostility. Jude was the only one who knew what was happening. "Are you going to stab our mom because she's a cop?" Jesus was the first to speak, trying to understand the situation. "No, not the uniform." Jude said. He wasn't sure what to do or how to handle the situation, all he knew was that his sister needed him, and he was going to do everything in his power to snap her out of it. "Brandon, take the twins upstairs. Now." Lena demanded, he did.

At this point Callie was gripping the knife, and due to how she grabbed it some of her fingerings were now bleeding. "Callie." Stef said, almost taking a step forward. "Don't." Jude warned her. "It's not the uniform…" Jude wanted to help Callie but he couldn't unless he told them. He wasn't sure he should, he promised Callie. He knew he didn't have a choice. Lena and Stef looked at him confused.

"The gun." He finally admitted.

Stef's POV

"The gun." He confessed. I saw Callie's eyes trained on my holster. I don't understand, she was fine yesterday. Has she not noticed it until now? Maybe she was too exhausted to realize, and why was she so afraid of it? I hate to even think of the reason. "She won't hurt you." Jude snapped me from my thoughts. Why wasn't he afraid, but she was? "Unload the gun and put it on the floor." He instructed. What? We need her to snap out of whatever trace she's in so she'll stop hurting herself, not show her the gun. I looked over at Lena who was now standing but not moved from her spot, probably for the best. I can tell she was confused as well.

"She needs to see that the gun is unloaded for her to believe it. Then she'll somewhat believe that there isn't any danger." He explained, he must've seen the confusion on our faces, I slowly did as he told me. As I did, Callie was carefully watching but not me, her eyes were on the gun. After I backed away from the gun I told Callie. "It's unloaded Callie." The look in her eyes began to change.

"Callie?" Lena asked, I assumed she was asking to know if she was coming out of the trace. It seemed to work, Callie turned her attention to Lena then to mean. I don't know if she was aware she had a knife in her hand, because she looked confused.

"You can put the knife down now, sweets." I tried to soothe her. She looked at the knife for the first time since she grabbed it, instantly dropped it. As if it was burning, with the amount of blood on her hand I wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly what she was feeling. When she saw the blood on the knife, her entire demeanor changed. She went from protective to shocked and apologetic. "I'm sorry." She said above a whisper.

"It's your blood Callie." Jude told her as he now stood next to her. It felt as if they had been in this situation before. She saw the blood on her hand and realized that it was her blood. She seemed calm now. Why would the sight of her own blood calm her? And why would she think it was someone else's blood? I quickly grabbed a clean rag and wrapped it around her hand. Lena grabbed another rag and picked up the knife.

"Are you okay?" I asked, of course she wasn't ok. I knew that but I wanted to initiate a calm conversation. Making sure it was okay to proceed and help with the cut. "Did I hurt anyone else?" Completely ignoring my question, I looked at her. I will never forget the look of fear on her face when she asked that. I shake my head 'no'. She didn't say another word. I was able to work on her hand after that.

After that she refused to look at us, she offered to take Jude to school but we refused. We wanted to make sure she was ok but she wouldn't give us much. Lena told her she would need to take the placement test tomorrow. She told us she had to go then said her goodbye to Jude and left. Lena took the kids to school and I went to work, with my gun.

I couldn't help but to wonder if there was anything in her file that would help us find a way to help her. Lena and I agreed we wouldn't read her file and let her come to us. However, that was becoming increasingly difficult.

Callie's POV

I hurried out of that house, I can't believe I just did that, in front of them. I can't come back, they saw how screwed up I am. I drove to work, thinking the whole way there if I could salvage what just happened. I explained to my manager, Tom, that I needed a specific time off tomorrow. I knew I wasn't going to take the entrance exam but they were expecting me. There they will tell me that it would be best for Jude if I didn't come near him. I would sit there and take it, but in reality I was going to see him no matter what.

After work I decided to go to a park to walk around and clear my head. Thinking about what happened, and what's going to happen. Soon I went back to my foster house.

I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating an apple, when I heard the front door open. Devin and his mother, Mrs. Ashton walked in. "Where's everyone else?" Mrs. Ashton asked as she walked into the kitchen. "Sam and Rachel are in school, Faith went to apologize to her friends, and Andrew is looking for drugs somewhere." I tell them, to be completely honest I had no idea where Andrew went but he had asked if I had any drugs on me earlier. I assumed he went to find some, or buy some. "Ok, well if you need me, I'll be upstairs." She went upstairs.

Now it's just Devin and me. I have been trying to avoid this encounter but it was going to happen eventually. Especially now that Jude's foster mom's weren't going to let me near him. I was still going to find a way to see him, they just wouldn't know.

Devin came into the kitchen and sat down next to me. "You probably want an explanation." He told me. Part of me did but part of me wanted to leave it alone and never talk to him again. "You're wrong, I don't care." I told him. "Well, I owe you one." He said. I looked at him with a blank expression. "I thought those kids were in a gang and they had Rachel." He explained. What did he get himself into? Wait, what did he get us into? "I know it doesn't make much sense, and if you were any of the other siblings I wouldn't be telling you this." "And Andrew?" I asked. "He has my back and doesn't ask questions. He follows my lead and doesn't question it. For the record I didn't teach him that, he just does it." I wasn't surprised, Andrew didn't seem to need a real reason to jump in that night.

"Sam was scared and didn't want to be there, he didn't want a reason. Faith, doesn't care." He told me and he wasn't wrong. "What makes you think I care?" I asked. "Because you haven't walked away yet." He pointed. "Ok." I said allowing him to continue. "You have to promise you won't tell anyone. Please." I was conflicted, still not willing to fully trust him, but he has never said 'please'. I knew whatever it was he was serious. "Promise." I said. He nodded and took his shirt off. What is he doing? Also since when did he have a six-pack?

He points at a tattoo of a snake on the left side of his stomach. "This tattoo was my biggest mistake. When I was thirteen, I was so sick of my father ignoring and not caring about whatever I did. I told myself that I would become something, someone that he would look at. I wouldn't be invisible to him anymore. So I began to skip school just to hangout with friends or walk around. Then I started to hangout with the wrong kids. They used drugs and alcohol to cope, and they gave me some. I took it willingly." He let out a breath and continued.

"One day, they asked me to join their gang and I said, 'why not.' I joined and they made me get the tattoo as a symbol of loyalty. I did have to earn money for them and do some jobs for them. Not too long after my parents started fostering kids, two kids. They were both younger than me and I was excited because it was like finally having siblings. We had gotten close very quickly, and the more I spent time with them I realized that I wanted to be a normal teenager. I still had the gang and sure they were like a family but I started wanting a normal life. I told them that and we had an argument about it. A couple days passed and they told me they had a surprise for me. Took me to a room, and my siblings were there. They had gags over their mouths, my 'friends' told me I could never leave the gang. Then…" He was trying not to cry, but tears were already flowing. I knew at that moment what he was going to say but I didn't interrupt.

"They shot them…I had to watch….watch them die." He said through his sobbing. I stood up and hugged him, he cried and sobbed. I hadn't noticed but tears had escaped my eyes as well. We sat there in that same position for a while. As I thought, maybe we weren't so different. The difference was that he didn't pull the trigger himself, but we both lost people we cared about. He feels guilty, I know that feeling. The feeling that it was your fault that they are gone.

After he pulled himself together, he told me that they threatened to kill his parents if he ever told the truth of what happened to those kids. He was told to lie and tell everyone that they ran away, his 'friends' took all the kid's belongings which wasn't much because they were foster kids.

"Promise me you won't tell anyone." He said. I knew he was traumatized enough… "I promise." He put his shirt back on, until now I had forgotten he didn't have it on. "Listen, if they find out you know, you need to be prepared." He told me. "What exactly does that mean?" I asked. "I'll have to train you how to fight the proper way. Like self defense, disarming someone…" "Will there be guns? I'm not so sure I can handle guns." "We'll work our way there, also here. Your boss has the number, so do the rest of us." He handed me a phone. Not sure if I should've told him I already had one. Speaking of which I'll probably be returning it tomorrow so not like it matters anyways. "Thank you," I thanked him. "I should be thanking you, it finally feels like I'm not alone in this anymore."

Meanwhile,

Jude's POV

Ever since I saw Callie the first time she got here I have been talking more. Mariana has even painted my nails a few times and I played video games with Jesus a bit. However, after what happened in the morning I don't think they'll let Callie see me, maybe they'll even send me away. It wasn't her fault, it was that stupid gun, and mean dumb man. I hate him.

It was dinner time, everyone was quiet. Soon Stef started asking how everyone's day was. She was trying for it not to be too awkward. "It wasn't her fault." I finally said, they all looked at me. They were shocked at my sudden outburst but I wasn't finished. "You can't separate us, she's my sister. We won't let you." I said, looking at both Lena and Stef. "We would never separate you guys. She'll be coming to live with us soon, like we planned." Lena assured me.

"WHAT!" All their kids said in unison. "She was going to stab you." Brandon told Stef. "No she wasn't. It wasn't her fault." I told him. She wasn't to hurt anyone unless they tried to hurt me. I know that for a fact. "Oh yeah? Then why did she have a knife?" He didn't know. "She wasn't going to hurt anyone. She was protecting me, IT WASN'T HER FAULT. SHE WAS TRYING TO PROTECT US. HE'S THE ONE WITH THE GUN, SHE DIDN'T…she didn't want me to get hurt." I hadn't realized I had started yelling. I think I said something I wasn't supposed to. Oops. What did I do? Callie told me that that house was the only house we could never talk about.

"Jude, who is he?" Stef asked. Run and hide, was what Callie always told me. So I did, I ran upstairs, to my bedroom, locked the door and hid under the bed.

Callie's POV

It had been some time since Devin told me his secret, now I was in the living room with Sam. He wanted to teach me how to play video games. We were currently trying to play some sort of racing game. He let me choose, there were a few games. There were a few zombie-shooters, and shooters, fighting ones, different sports and a few racing games. I didn't know if I could handle the shooter ones and I wasn't sure if there was going to be blood in the fighting games. So I picked randomly. He was really excited, I think he was happy someone other than Rachel was willing to play. He was sixteen, but it felt as if he were younger. It might honestly be his way of coping while being in the foster system. Or that could just be how he is, either way he was sweet.

"Finally, someone else plays video games with him." Rachel said as she passed by on her way to the kitchen. Suddenly, I felt the phone Stef and Lena gave me, vibrate. I didn't want Devin to know who they were, in case something went south.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I locked the door and checked who it was, to my surprise it was Lena who called. Did she not want to wait until tomorrow to tell me I couldn't see him? Just then Stef was calling. I took a deep breath and answered, "Hello? I asked. "I'm so glad you picked up." Stef said as I could hear her let out a breath of relief. Before I could say anything she spoke again. "I know it's late but we need you to come over, something's wrong with Jude…" "I'm on my way. "I said before hanging up, I didn't need more information. "Devin, keys." I said as I walked into the kitchen where he, Rachel and Andrew were. He quickly tossed me the keys and I was out the door

Sorry for the upload, decide to post every four days instead. That way I can do at least about 1,000 words per day.