A/N: You guys! Wow! I am absolutely floored by the response I've gotten from everyone. It's still crazy to me that other people actually like what I write. I appreciate every review/follow/favorite/hit so much, more than you know.

Here's the other "half" of this, so to speak. Hope you enjoy.

Part 2

Stef looks nothing short of pissed. Her stare is burning a hole right through me.

"What the hell are you doing out here?"

"I said I was going for a run."

I'm pretty sure that's the longest sentence I've uttered in days.

"Well, your run's over. Let's go."

I get up from the bench, but I go in the opposite direction of where Stef's SUV is parked.

"Callie, what are you doing?"

I ignore her and focus on walking.

"Callie, I'm not gonna chase you," she sighs, obviously frustrated.

"Good. Makes your job easy, then. Just tell Lena you couldn't find me."

"Callie, come on."

She's right behind me.

"I thought you weren't gonna chase me?"

"This is ridiculous. You're soaking wet and probably freezing."

"Actually, I'm fine." I am cold and clearly shivering, but I'm not about to admit it or show that it's getting to me.

"Callie, seriously—"

I feel Stef touch my arm in an attempt to pull me back toward her.

I feel a flush of heat start in my chest and quickly radiate out to my limbs. "Keep your hands off of me!" I yell, spinning around to face her. My hands are clenched into fists. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up. I am utterly incensed. "Just leave me alone!"

"I can't do that!" Stef counters, digging her heels in just as much as I am.

I push and she pushes right back.

"Give it a try, you might like it. Things'll be easier that way."

Run.

Get out of there.

But, I can't will myself to do it. What's wrong with me?

What's stopping me?

Nothing ever stopped me before.

"Easier? Callie, absolutely nothing about this is easy."

"You don't think I know that?" I spit back.

Nothing has been easy since I was ten.

When my world crumbled, save for Jude.

"You don't think I feel bad that you're out here? That I'm making this about me when you're the one who's sick?"

Shit. I've already said too much. I turn away.

"It's okay to be upset. To be mad or whatever it is that you're feeling."

"You don't know what I feel," I hear myself say, but I know it's not true.

I'm an open book at this point. More exposed than ever.

Anger, sadness, fear, no, terror. Frustration.

"You know that's not true," Stef says, as if she can read my thoughts. "You haven't exactly been a blank slate lately."

"So, what?"

"You can't shut us out, Callie. You need us and we need you. I need you. I can't do this without my entire family."

It's like I have no control over my tongue. My filter is gone.

"She should've left me," I mumble, letting my head bow and my shoulders slump.

"What?"

"Lena should've never taken me in."

"Callie, don't say that. We would've never met you or your brother. You completed us. I don't regret it for one second and neither should you."

"It'd be easier."

"What would be, love?" Stef's voice has softened, and damn her, it's softening my heart.

I swallow. "This," I whisper.

"Dealing with this? My illness?"

"We wouldn't be attached and..."

"You wouldn't be hurting." Stef finishes my thought.

I can't swallow past the lump in my throat. I nod vigorously.

"Callie." Her heart is breaking for me.

"I'm sorry," I croak. "I shouldn't be doing this."

"What? Feeling? Being human?"

She's exactly right, but I don't give her confirmation. "Worrying you. Scaring you. You have enough on your plate to deal with." Also true.

"I'm your mom. I'm always gonna worry about you, as I do all five of you. And right now, I'm worried that cancer won't have the chance to kill me as we're both gonna catch our death if we don't get out of this rain."

I suddenly remember that every inch of me feels like it's encased in ice. My nose is running. I'm shivering non-stop.

This doesn't feel good anymore. It feels awful. I feel it draining what little strength I have left.

Slowly, I turn around.

Stef comes to me and leads me to the car.

Before we arrive at home, she calls ahead and has Lena leave dry towels by the front door. When we get there, Stef makes me strip off my clothes so I don't track water through the house. We leave them on the porch.

She follows me upstairs and turns on the shower. She puts the thermometer in my ear and takes my temperature. 97 flat.

No wonder I'm freezing.

I continue to shiver even while under the hot spray.

When I get out, I see that she left me a change of clothes. I quickly put them on and don't hesitate to burrow under a heap of blankets in my bed.

I'm still shaking, chattering. I can't get warm.

At some point, however, I fall asleep.

I dream of everything. Every event comes and goes in a flash.

Making biscuits and gravy with Mom on Sunday morning. Her and Dad bringing Jude home from the hospital. Her reading Hansel and Gretel. Watching The Little Mermaid.

My world is shattered. Mom's dead. Dad's in jail. I destroy my room.

I clasp her necklace under my hair with shaking hands.

"You're not gonna split us up, are you? 'Cause I won't leave my brother."

"We're not gonna separate you, I promise. We're gonna keep you together until we can find a home for you both."

Foster Home #1. I learn quickly never to ask for anything. It's pointless. I'm a monthly check and nothing more.

#2. I take my first beating for Jude. It wouldn't be the last.

#3. Three hours in a closet for dropping a soapy dish on the kitchen tile.

#4. Too many kids. There's never a moment's peace. Close to eight months of perpetual sleep deprivation. My stomach aches with hunger. I gave Jude half of my meager meal. He needs it.

#5. For the first time since I was ten, I sort of feel like part of a family. I like the attention Liam gives me, until it becomes unwanted. He didn't listen to me. From then on, I brush him off. According to him and as far as his parents are concerned, I came on to him. The next day, Jude and I are sent packing.

#6. Jim's car is destroyed. I'm being led away in handcuffs. The cops did not care one ounce about my side of the story.

Three months in juvie. I don't get much sleep here, either. Always having to watch my back. Daphne and few others beat me up the day of my release.

When I get out, I'm desperate to talk to Jude. David couldn't care less. Where's Bill? Why isn't he here?

He leads me to a woman in the parking lot.

"Callie, this is Lena."

"It's just for a few weeks, right?"

Weeks turn into months, to a year.

Lena's lasagna. Meeting Jesus, Mariana, Brandon, and Stef. Ground rules. The first night. The next morning.

That's still the only cup of coffee they've let me drink.

A new school on the beach. The music room. English with Timothy.

Ditching after seventh period. Brandon tags along, despite my protests.

He listens to me when I tell him about Jim.

He helps me rescue Jude from that God-awful house.

Stef and Mike, her ex-husband and Brandon's dad, burst in, saving the day.

"You're not disposable, Callie. You're not worthless."

All I can do is stare, internalizing those words.

Falsely accused of selling Jesus' meds. Mariana and I butt heads.

"We feel that trust is something that needs to be earned, yeah?"

"We would really like to start earning yours."

Jude and I sort of settle in to a routine.

Meeting Gram. Mariana's quinceañera. Jude and I watch their slideshow. On the outside looking in.

Stef and Lena giving me a cell phone.

"You're on the family plan now."

Getting a drunken Mariana home in one piece.

Telling Brandon about Liam. Sharing in group and trying to help Sarah.

Telling Stef and Lena about Liam later that night. They listen and believe me.

Stef gets shot while looking for Jesus, who'd been with his birth mom, Ana.

I tell Brandon some hard truths that he needs to hear. Family is everything.

I have my day in court with Liam. It doesn't go my way, but I have my integrity and the truth.

"Callie, are you okay with us going on with the wedding?"

"Yeah. It's a good distraction from...everything."

For once, my opinion mattered.

Finally meeting Gramps and Grandma Sharon.

Stef and Lena want to adopt us. The others are okay with it. We accept.

Their wedding is beautiful. Jude is their ring bearer. Everyone is so happy.

Stef makes sure to include Jude and me in the family dance to 'Same Love.'

Growing pains. Jude and I are both adjusting to our new lives.

Stef's dad dies, which brings back memories of my mom's death.

I lose her necklace and freak out, snapping at Lena. It's a difficult thing for me to talk about. Stef sits me down and lets me cry into her shirt. She reminds me that the memories we carry with us never get lost.

"It's hard to lose someone you love and you never, ever want to feel that pain again. Now, the problem with that is, the only way to make sure that doesn't happen is you shut yourself off. And if you stop loving, that's no way to live."

Instead of going to group, I find my dad, Donald, living in a one-bedroom apartment. It turns out he was released from prison last year and didn't tell us.

He signs away his parental rights so that we can get adopted. It's bittersweet.

"Take care of each other."

"We always do."

I'm supposed to be getting more involved in school because Principal Sanchez submits progress reports to my PO. I'm nominated for Winter Queen as a joke, I'm sure of it. However, with some advice from Lena, I don't take my name off of the ballot.

"Sometimes, the best way to fight back is to rise above."

There's a hiccup with my adoption, but Jude's is approved. I'm so happy for him.

The courts find my birth father. Stef pulls me out of school to go downtown for a DNA test.

Robert Quinn no-shows. Typical.

My credits for school are lost. Lena will do what she can, but Jude and I will both be tied down with summer school and an independent study project in order to get caught up academically.

After months of meetings with the judge, following his conditions, Robert will retain custody of me.

Stef and Lena fight for me. I want to give up so many times, but they don't.

"The Adams Fosters are my family and nothing's gonna change that."

Suddenly, he signs the papers, terminating his parental rights.

We schedule the next available court date.

Jude sneaks out and Connor gets shot at their friend Taylor's house. It scares me to death, giving me nightmares.

After months of positive progress reports and good behavior with my PO, I'm finally off of probation.

I decide to get a job at a burger place. Guess who works there? Daphne. The girl who instigated my beatdown in juvie. It's rough at first, but we make peace and now we're friends.

Ana, Jesus, and Mariana are hurt in a car accident. Stef tries not to show it, but we know she's really shaken up over it. She was called to the scene and saw the damage to the car and her babies first hand.

I also start to volunteer at a foster kid drop-in center, which qualifies for my independent study. I thought I did the right thing by letting a kid named AJ stay there for the night, but, he stole spray paint and took off, which got me fired. Moms still don't know about that.

Lo and behold, I see AJ again as he is put in juvie. Stef helps him with his charges and enlists Mike into fostering him.

I get my driver's license.

Jude and the rest of my family throw me a surprise seventeenth birthday party, complete with a bouncy castle, like I had when I was little. It was a great day.

Before I know it, my adoption day is here. Gram, Gramps, and Grandma fly in for the occasion, just as they had for the twins and Jude. Everyone dresses up for family court.

Moms pull me aside and reassure me that we're good to go. No more hoops to jump through.

Judge Ringer grants my adoption.

"Congratulations, Callie. You're officially a member of the Adams Foster family."

I'm in shock. Then, I grin. Moms hug me so tight. My first official 'mama sandwich,' as they like to say.

We party. There's smiles, laughter, tears, food, presents, so many hugs.

After almost seven years, I finally have a real home.

Soon after, Stef tells me that AJ has run away. I'm scared for him.

A week later, AJ calls me.

I give Stef the number.

"Well, hopefully, we'll trace this back to an address and, um, and then, we go get him."

At school, Brandon and I have a private conversation.

"Mom and my dad think that Ty was the one driving the car that hit Ana and the twins, which means AJ is helping a criminal. So, if they find him with Ty, he could get in a lot more trouble than for just running away."

It turns out that AJ's in Arizona with his brother, Ty. And that he's the driver that hit Ana, Jesus, and Mariana. He heard Mike talking, who confirmed it.

When Stef returns, I find out that she had AJ arrested. I thought she was just going to bring him back. I'm pissed. I trusted her.

"I should've never said anything."

AJ's gonna hate me.

He does. I'm not on his visitor list in juvie. Neither is Mike.

"I told you where AJ was because I thought I was talking to my mother, not a cop. Obviously, there's no difference."

I stomped upstairs. I was mad. I didn't care about my attitude, my tone, what I'd said.

Until Moms sat us all down in the living room. Family meeting.

Mom has Stage 0 breast cancer, DCIS, and she's having a preventative double mastectomy so it has no chance of becoming cancer.

We're all shocked.

But, we just want to help. Do our part.

"Stay close. That would be great because I think, um, you know, being together as a family, that's probably more healing than any medicine."

We all hug and soon, it's time for bed.

Mariana and I spent some time researching Mom's surgery and what will be done.

We're trying to understand what's happening.

We try to sleep, but no one can, understandably.

And so begins my severe bout of insomnia.

Suddenly, I jerk awake. It's dark. Someone's touching my face.

"It's okay, Callie. You're okay," a soft voice assures me.

"Lena...?" I croak.

"You went on quite the run today. We just wanted to make sure the rain didn't make you sick. Your temp's normal."

I swallow. "What time is it?"

"After ten."

"At night?"

"You slept all day."

I move to get up and realize my headache is still hanging around. Ugh.

Lena follows me downstairs and I immediately go to the kitchen for water. I down two glasses and go back the way I came, my foot hitting the first step.

"Callie, wait."

Stef's voice stops me dead in my tracks. Maybe it's the cold water I just drank, but my stomach feels heavy. I want to throw up.

"Not now," I say in a low voice, trying my hardest not to explode right then.

"We need to talk."

It's not working. I quickly feel myself bristling, buckling under the weight of stress. "I said that I can't do this now. Or are you not only sick, you're deaf, too?" I spit, before I can stop myself.

"Callie Quinn Adams Foster! Apologize to your mother right now!" Lena orders me sharply.

I tense up even more. She's never yelled at me before.

"It's alright, Lena." Stef is calm. "Callie, please come in here."

I'm already on thin ice, so, I turn around and do what Stef says, stepping down in to the living room. I still don't look at her.

"I know you're scared," she starts. "I am, too. I wish this wasn't happening."

"I'm not scared!" I inform her loudly, looking directly at her for the first time. We're a mere few feet apart. Lena has taken a seat on the couch.

"You're not?"

"No! Yes. But...that's not why..." I'm stumbling back over my words.

"That's not why you took off?"

"You can tell us, Callie. It's okay."

I hate Lena. I love and hate her all at once. She's so damn warm and gentle and makes me want to tell her every fear I've ever had. And I know that she'd listen.

"I'm mad," I mutter, looking down at my feet.

"That I'm sick?"

"At you," I correct her. "I'm mad at you."

"Why?"

"Because of Ty and AJ. I thought you were just going to bring him home. I trusted you and look what happened. AJ's in juvie because of me."

"Love, AJ knew what he was doing. He chose to run away. He didn't have to."

She doesn't get it. I shake my head. It's still pounding.

"I'm mad at you for that and I feel like I'm not allowed to be because you're sick and I'm officially the worst," I confess in one breath, before I give myself a chance to chicken out.

There it is. It's out. I can't take it back, even if I wanted to.

No one's saying anything.

Maybe if I wish hard enough, the ground I'm standing on will open up and swallow me whole.

This silence is unbearable.

"You're allowed to be mad at me, Callie, cancer or no cancer."

"No, I'm not!" I insist angrily.

"Callie, use your words," Lena says evenly.

I exhale sharply in an attempt to calm myself down, but, my emotions are still in overdrive. "The last time I was mad, my mom died!"

"Are you mad?"

I shrug.

"Don't be like that. We won't be long."

"What happened to your mom was not your fault. She knew you loved her. You know that," Stef reminds me.

"Everyone I love goes away! I loved her and she died, I loved Donald and he didn't try to get me and Jude back, and I l-love you...and..."

I cover my face with my hands, taking deep breaths.

"Callie, I am not going anywhere. Not for a long, long time."

"No!" I refute immediately, with angry tears running down my face and overwhelming my voice. "You can't promise me that! Don't do that to me! You don't know what will happen!"

"You're right," Stef exhales after a moment, her own words wavering with emotion. "You're right. I'm sorry. As much as I want to, I can't give anyone any guarantees about this. I don't want you to be scared."

"But, I am scared and I am mad that this is happening to you. To us."

"I know." She shares a glance with Lena that I don't have time to dissect. "It's okay to be scared."

"I don't understand...w-why..."

"I don't, either."

"We need you. If s-something happened..."

"Callie, please don't think like that. Come here."

I can't get to Stef fast enough. I latch on so hard that she's forced to take a step back.

I'm totally ugly-sobbing into her shirt. I couldn't care less.

She's here and alive and I'm hugging her and that's all that matters.

She's smoothing my back and kissing my hair. I feel her warm breath in my ear. "Let it all out, love. I know how hard all of that was for you to say. I'm so proud of you. I love you so much."

"I-I'm sorry."

"For what, baby?"

"About AJ. I didn't m-mean it."

"There's nothing to forgive. The others have said way worse, trust me."

"L-love you, Mom," I choke out.

I don't see the teary smile that she gives Lena over my shoulder. If it were possible, she hugs me tighter.

"We're gonna get through this together, remember? As a family. That I can promise you."

I nod into her shirt. I can't stop a whimper from escaping.

"Callie? What is it?"

I pull out of her embrace and look at my feet. "My head...it's killing me."

"How long?" Lena asks and I'm not surprised. She knows headaches. She gets terrible migraines that leave her nauseated and bedridden.

I glance to her. "Yesterday."

"You haven't slept and you haven't eaten. It's taking its toll," she says as fact and goes upstairs.

Mom leads me to the couch, wrapping an arm around me as I wipe off my face and use a Kleenex.

Soon enough, Lena returns.

"Here. Take these." She's holding two gel caps and a glass of water. Her Excedrin, her first line of defense before she has to tap into her bottle of prescription meds.

I chase down the pills and drain the glass, setting it down on the coffee table. "Thanks."

"Sure, honey."

The three of us lapse in to silence. I'm not really sure what to do now. I run a hand over my face.

"I think I'll just go back up to bed, if that's okay."

"Alright, love. Sleep well." Mom hugs me to her side and kisses my head.

I stand up to hug Lena. "Good night."

"Good night, bug."

I leave them downstairs and make my way back to my room.

For the first time in four days, I head into Sunday with a new feeling.

Hope.

THE END

A/N: Giving myself a pat on the back. I'm really proud of this work. Thanks so much for reading, everyone. Next on my list is updating/finishing Stuck in Reverse and posting the second Jude chapter for Sickfic. I haven't forgotten about those. There are more things coming on the horizon. Stay tuned, and thanks again. Cheers.