TITLE: Marks

SUMMARY: There are many different ways to mark a person. Some we hide away, and some we proudly display. Sequel to "Harm" (post-finale fic).

DISCLAIMER: I don't own, you don't sue.

A/N: I'm back! If you haven't read "Harm," this story can stand on its own even though it's a sequel. The main things you need to know are that Callie's back home and trying to deal with guilt issues (and how she hurts herself as a result). If you have read "Harm," this follows from the first epilogue, not the Brallie alternate.

After Callie's cross-country misadventure, everyone had missed half a week of school. Now that she was back, the family needed to try to get back to normal. Stef and Lena declared that everyone was returning to school on Thursday.

The house was a bit of a three-ring circus that morning; Mariana and Jesus got in a fight over who got the bathroom first, and Jude couldn't find his math homework. Brandon ended up being last for the shower since he got distracted practicing piano, and there was barely any hot water left. The moms were trying to get everyone's schedules straight while also getting themselves ready to go back to work.

"I found it!" Jude exclaimed as he came into the kitchen, waving a couple sheets of paper.

"Good," Stef replied. "Come on and eat." Callie had been toasting English muffins for everyone; she put one on a plate for her brother as he approached.

"Thanks," he told her as he also grabbed a hard boiled egg from a plate on the counter before he went to sit down.

"Can I get a muffin, too?" Lena asked her foster daughter as she came over.

"Sure."

"I wanted to let you know that I'm going to talk to Bill today," Lena softly told the teen, which made her heart speed up by a few beats.

"Do you think he knows anything?" Callie asked. She understood that the moms had taken a huge risk - one that she'd never expected - by not reporting her missing to her social worker. Nothing good would come from him finding out the truth. Callie was terrified that she'd actually screwed things up for her brother by attempting to make sure she couldn't screw things up for him.

"It'll be fine," Lena tried to reassure her.

"We don't know that," she protested. "What if he got some record about the flight back from St. Louis?" It had dawned on her the previous day that using the airlines left a paper trail proving she'd run away.

"Stef and I talked about that. If he does ask, we'll just say that we knew you were on a little trip with a friend, but you got sick and we made sure you got home okay."

"You let me go away during school?" she pointed out.

"You've gotta trust us, Callie," Lena told her. "We'll work it out. We are not going to let anyone take you or Jude out of this house if you don't want to go, okay?"

Callie slowly nodded. "I'm still working on that trust thing," she admitted.

Lena smiled a little. "I know. Rome wasn't built in a day. But try not to worry, okay?"

"Yeah."

Brandon came into the kitchen, his hair still wet from the shower. "Morning," he told the moms and his younger siblings.

"Morning, B," Stef replied before turning back to her project of updating the family calendar. "Jesus, you've got volleyball after school, right?"

He shook his head. "Cancelled this week."

"Right, I forgot." She crossed it out. "I've gotta work late tonight since I'm taking Grandma to the airport this morning; you guys all need to get homework done on your own."

"Tell Grandma we said bye again," Mariana requested. All of the kids had gotten to say goodbye to Sharon in person the previous night, but after everything they'd been through together over the past few days, they were really going to miss her.

"I will, love," Stef promised.

"I can pick up dinner on my way home after the board meeting," Lena told them. "Pizza or Chinese?" She got back a jumble of responses for both options. "Okay, Mariana, you can be the tie-breaker this time - what do you want?" They tried to rotate through which kid got to pick when they couldn't all agree on something.

"Chinese," she decided.

Lena nodded. "Done. I've gotta get over to the school; have a good day, everybody!" She kissed Stef and headed out the door.

"Oh, Callie," Stef said as she looked over the calendar again, "You can walk Jude home after his tutoring this afternoon, right?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

"I'll wait with you," Brandon offered. "We can go to the music room."

Callie glanced over at him for a moment, somewhat unsure of where they stood now that she'd chosen to be adopted and forfeit any chance at a romantic relationship. But Brandon just offered her a smile; he was trying to be the good big brother. "Okay," she agreed.

Once the kids had finished eating, they grabbed their backpacks and lunches and started walking to school. Mariana and Jesus were apparently still mad at each other from their fight that had started over the bathroom; Jesus immediately grabbed Brandon for a conversation so he wouldn't have to talk to his twin. Jude was lost in his own world, successfully managing to play his video game and walk at the same time. Callie just had to make sure that he didn't walk straight into the street at the crosswalks.

"I don't know how he does it," she commented to Mariana as they walked. "I guess that's why the moms always want someone to walk him home - so he doesn't step in front of a car."

Mariana giggled. "Probably. Boys wouldn't survive if there weren't girls around. Speaking of boys..."

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

Callie sighed. "I know I'm going to regret this, but… go ahead."

Mariana grinned. "While you were gone, what happened with you and Wyatt?"

Callie's eyebrows furrowed. "Nothing."

"Really?"

"We were just driving."

Mariana looked disappointed. "Okay… What's going to happen now?"

"Now he's in Indiana."

"I know, but… are you still together?"

"We weren't really ever together in the first place."

"So I'm not the only single one anymore?"

Callie shrugged. "Guess not."

When they got to Anchor Beach, the siblings all split up to go to their respective classes. Callie had English first period; when she came in Timothy's classroom, Talya was sitting in the chair behind hers.

"Hey," the redhead told Callie. "Welcome back. Brandon said all you guys got sick with some bug?"

Callie knew that was the 'official' story of why all of the kids and Lena had been out of school for the past few days. "Yeah. Was a 72-hour thing."

"That must have sucked."

"Yep."

"You look totally back to normal now. Weird that nobody else from the wedding got sick, huh?"

Callie forced a smile. She knew the other girl probably didn't buy the lie, but there was a lot riding on keeping her road trip a secret. "Yeah. Just consider yourself lucky, I guess."

TBC...

A/N 2: Just so you all know, I'm not going to deal with the Lexi storyline in this fic, mostly because I'm not that invested in the character. Fill in the blank for yourself; either she stays in South America and Jesus has to get over it, or they never leave in the first place, or whatever other option you prefer.