A/N: Hi there! This is my first fanfic and I wrote it in the middle of the night last night because I couldn't sleep. I then edited it this morning after my son woke up 2 hours early, so please let me know about any errors you notice and I will gladly fix them! I would love to do some work to make these chapters better, so I absolutely encourage any helpful feedback! I am publishing the first 3 chapters, which I wrote last night, and I will be working on writing/publishing more, hopefully in the near future. Also, as a note, I ship Brandon and Callie, and I ship them HARD, so if you're a Wyllie fan… well too bad I guess :-P

Disclaimer: I do not own "The Fosters" or the characters, but the story is an original by me :)

It was almost one in the morning and Callie was still sitting outside on the swing. It had been a couple of hours since everyone had gone to bed, but she had too many thoughts going through her head to even make an attempt at getting some sleep.

She had been skimming through her photos, not really paying attention to them. Instead her mind was left wandering to thoughts about Brandon. She felt awful about lying to Wyatt, but what was she supposed to say? He had asked her if the adoption would change anything between them. She said no, but she could barely admit to herself that she had had a spark of hope about the situation, much less admit it to Wyatt! No, she couldn't let herself give in to the possibility of a chance with Brandon, not again. She had felt it when she thought about going into the Independent Living Program, and she let that feeling get too deep and almost couldn't come back from it. She couldn't let that happen again when it was much more likely that she would be disappointed again.

Callie hated thinking that she was settling for Wyatt. He was a great guy and certainly made her feel happy, but he just wasn't Brandon. She told herself again and again that once she could find a way to move on from Brandon that it would be possible to fall in love with Wyatt, but she found herself questioning that again after Wyatt had gone home that evening.

Wyatt had asked her to play him a song, so she did. She had played every note perfectly, but it just didn't feel right. After he left she played it again, wondering what was missing and she realized-it was missing Brandon.

Callie also found herself thinking about what happened on her way home after Jude's adoption. She had asked Lena if it would be alright to take the bus home. She knew that it was selfish to ask for time alone when her brother had just gotten adopted, and she really was genuinely happy for him, but she just needed some time to process what had happened. Lena had looked at her as if her heart my burst for her..

"It's alright," Callie had said. "Really, I'm fine, I just need some time to myself. Besides, you guys still need to go pick up that cake and everything, right? I'll walk for a bit, catch the bus, and I'll probably even beat you guys home!" She had tried to sound as upbeat as she could so that Lena wouldn't feel worried. Lena talked it over with Stef and they agreed to let Callie have some space.

While she was walking to the bus stop she thought she noticed a car that seemed to be following her, but when she looked the car had sped off and kept driving. She laughed at herself for being so paranoid, until she got home half an hour later and saw the car parked outside of their house. She ran upstairs and locked herself in the bathroom with her phone out ready to call Stef if she heard anyone in the house. After crouching in the shower for what seemed like ages she got up the courage to go and look out the window. She had opened the bathroom door and nearly had a heart attack when she heard the door opening downstairs until she heard Stef yell "We're home! Callie are you here, love?" Callie had let out a huge sigh of relief and pulled back the curtains to see that the car was gone. "I'm here!" She yelled down, hoping her voice wouldn't expose the fear she had felt.

She had brushed the incident off and ended up creating some story for herself that her dad had found out about her through the adoption discovery and came to check up on her, and that he just didn't know how to approach her. She knew that it was farfetched, crazy even, but it calmed her down enough to enjoy the celebration with Jude and the rest of the Fosters. She would let Stef and Lena know if she saw anything suspicious again.

Callie was so deep in thought that she didn't notice someone walking up behind her from the shadows.
"It sure is a beautiful night out here," she heard as the person stepped into the light. Callie jumped at the sound of the voice and tried to calm herself down until she looked up and saw him standing over her.
"Liam." She said in a trembling voice that came out barely a whisper.