Four months later…

Chapter 1

Stef and Mike stood silently outside of room 217 at the Super 8 Motel. It was one of those routine domestic disturbance calls in one of the worst parts of town. The two of them were the closest patrol to the scene, so they had no choice but to respond to it. Stef hated these most of all. It always felt like a huge waste of time and energy being spent, but yet here she was.

And it was always the same thing. The woman would either deny any type of abuse; and for hours, Stef would try to convince her it was okay to talk to them but she wouldn't budge... Or she would actually file a report that night, only for them to be called on another domestic disturbance case and find the same victim all over again with the exact person who attacked her the first time.

Stef nodded at Mike, giving him the cue, and he banged loudly on the door. "OPEN UP! SAN DIEGO POLICE!" he yelled as he kept his other hand on his side, in complete reach of his weapon. If drugs were involved, which was sometimes the case in that area, they needed to be prepared. All the man at the front desk told them that there was a girl living there for a few months and he hadn't heard of any noise complaints until they showed up. They had received the call from one of the other tenants.

He knocked again, hard this time, when he didn't get direct answer. "IF YOU DON'T OPEN UP, I'M KICKING THE DOOR DOWN, IN ONE! ...TWO!"

He didn't have the chance to reach three. He immediately closed his mouth at the sound of the latch on the other side of the door being removed.

"Wait," a woman's voice shouted as she tried to get all of the locks off as quickly as she could. It took longer than either cop preferred but they felt mutual sense of relief at the sound of the door creaking open slightly.

Stef and Mike's eyes remained focused on the small space of the door that was open until they got a glimpse of a small portion of the girl's face.

Callie's eyes immediately widened at the sight of Stef, and she instantly tried to shut the door on them, with the hopes that the woman wouldn't have recognized her by the little she saw. But that hope quickly diminished when the blonde's hand instantaneously forced the wooden door back open and pushed it toward Callie.

The teen backed away rapidly but kept her eyes focused on the ground and the woman's feet, from fear of having to look her in the eye again. She took slow and shallow breaths and regretted open the door before even considering who it might've been.

"Callie," Stef almost whispered while her eyes concentrated on the image of the girl in front of her. Her mouth remained slightly open for awhile as she tried to assess that she had finally come face to face all this time with someone, whom she had once considered her daughter. The blonde studied practically every inch of her from her wrinkled and torn t-shirt, to the mis-matched socks on her feet, and even to the reddish mark on the side of her face by her jaw.

It was obvious to the woman that the bruise was fresh, and just seeing the teen like that filled her with the pressing feeling of fury. But she knew better than to act on it.

And although Mike too seemed surprised by unexpectedly seeing Callie, he didn't need that much time to recover. Whoever did this to Callie was most likely hiding out further inside of the motel room, he rationalized before stepping in and quickly drawing his gun from his belt.

Stef couldn't even blink away. It wasn't until she felt Mike's body walk passed her that she finally snapped out of it and followed him in, also drawing her weapon from it's holster and bringing it up to the air.

Callie remained almost frozen in place. Her immediate thought was to run, but this was her home. She wouldn't run from it. She wouldn't leave it. After she got evicted from the apartment the judge and his wife helped her get, there weren't too many other places that would rent to her at a price she could afford. She was lucky to get this small room in the cheapest motel in San Diego. It wouldn't be easy to find another.

Plus, this was her place.

Stef had no right to be there.

The teen just stared out the doorway at absolutely nothing for a while, trying to assess how this was actually happening. She wanted to tell them to leave more than anything, but her she couldn't open her mouth to say a word. It was as if she was paralyzed from head to toe.

"Clear," Mike said after he pulled back the shower curtain and saw no one. Stef let out a breath and she couldn't yet decide if she was angry or grateful that there wasn't anyone else in the room. She walked back over to Callie and stood in front of her, before trying to reach for her face to examine the bruise on it. Callie instantly pulled away and moved farther back, fully glaring at the woman now, suddenly deciding that she didn't have to be afraid to look Stef in the eye anymore.

Stef took in a deep breath and let it out, completely expecting this kind of reaction. She wasn't surprised in the slightest. She knew that if she ever saw the girl again, things wouldn't be the same but that didn't stop her from caring all this time.

"Who did this to you?" the blonde still asked her. It didn't matter as much right now that Callie still hated her, in Stef's eyes. What mattered was who physically hurt her and where he was…

Callie shook her head and pursed her lips. "I didn't call the police," she said matter-of-factly.

Mike chose to intervene, "Someone else did for you. They heard yelling and heard someone being slammed around in this room."

"They heard wrong. Or it was a different room," the teen answered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Everything's fine. You need to leave," she finished in a completely detached demeanor despite the tears wanting so badly to form in her eyes.

She fought them back though.

You haven't cried in over two years, she reminded herself.

Why are you fighting the immediate need to cry at the sight of the woman and her presence?

It's been two years!

Still, it was as if all of the memories were flowing back toward her at this exact moment and she couldn't contain them anymore. It was as if she was a child again.

She wasn't.

Despite her feelings, she kept her posture stiff and her face expressionless.

They didn't need to be here.

"We can't do that," Stef answered persistently as she eyed Callie's bruise and wondered if there were anymore of them that weren't visible to her eyes. The person who called them obviously thought that the fight was serious enough to call the police for help. She wouldn't just leave her there without more information.

Callie shook her head, "I'm not complaining about anything and there's no one else in the room with me, so there's no reason to be here right now. There isn't a victim in this room... I'm asking you both to leave."

Stef remained still, in front of Callie as if nothing the girl had just said to get them to go away held any weight to her. Stef felt that Callie was still her daughter even though no one else, including Lena, felt the same. The cop couldn't leave her underage daughter in a motel room where she had obviously just been attacked by God knows who.

"Callie," Stef said.

"I said GET OUT!" the girl yelled in response. "LEAVE! BEFORE I CALL THE REAL POLICE!" she threatened.

The blonde closed her mouth and pressed her lips together, but her eyes maintained their focus on Callie, and her body remained still.

Mike watched as Callie began walking over toward the phone on the nightstand and grabbed his partner's arm. "Stef…"

Stef didn't budge.

Mike pulled her back slightly. "Stef, we need to go," he voiced desperately. The last thing he wanted was for both of them to lose their jobs over breaking an entering and refusing to leave. "Stef, not now, okay?"

Stef finally turned to face him and he could see the resistance in her eyes.

"I know," he told her. "But we need to go," he voiced more sternly.

Stef placed her gaze back on Callie, who already had the phone held up to her ear. Mike nudged her arm again at another attempt to get his partner to leave with him before this got really bad. Stef forced herself to leave from Callie's room that night, giving both of them what they wanted, despite the fact that it took all she had to do so…