You're Worth It (A Brallie Story)

Somebody Heard Him

Chapter 4: Somebody Heard Him

Two days later…

"Hey B!" Stef called upstairs to her biological son, "We have to go now!"

Callie came down the stairs first, as expected. She and Brandon came up with a plan so it always appeared as if they were in different places. From the looks they got from the two moms, it wasn't working. Probable cause was that the two of them were too damn oblivious to the rest of the world, and that they were often caught off guard, far too easily as well.

The first incident happened the day after the 'sex in the bathroom' run-in. Callie was sleeping in Brandon's bed when his cop-of-a-mom stumbled through his bedroom door after the road trip, back from the reading, without 27 hours of sleep, resulting in impaired speech, hearing and sight.

Callie was lying closest to the wall on the bed, Brandon spooning her from behind, when he was shaken awake by his mom.

"Brandon" she fumbled and slurred her words, "We going to sleep… Were going sleep… We are going to sleep"

His entire body tensed under the sheets as he lifted them a bit higher, so that Callie's head was covered.

"Yeah, ok mom, see you at lunch"

"Uh!" she walked through the doorway, "All my babies growing up!"

Shortly after he heard the cussing of his mom slamming into the banister then falling and the pitter-patter of Jude's footsteps running to help her up.

"Thank you Jude" she hugged the small boy close.

"Sure Stef" Jude helped her up and guided her in the direction of her and Lena's room, "you ok?"

"No, baby." She lay down in her bed and nestled into the pillows, "I never want to drive again"

He laughed at her antics and walked over to his bedroom, then fell asleep, not at all enlightened from four hours packed full of confusing rhymes.

Jude walked across to the room he shared with Jesus, but just as he crossed the threshold, he decided to see if Callie was alright first. He knew that she got a bit uneasy when she was alone in the house with a boy, ever since Liam, anyways.

He tapped on the door, cautious of Mariana's privacy wishes. Hearing the girl's light snores, he decided to risk it and walked in. In the dim light, he found it hard to see, but the boy walked over to the space where he knew his sisters' bed was, and sat on the end of it.

"Callie?" he whispered, "You still awake?"

The absence of a reply was enough for Jude to start patting around the area of the bed, and keep patting, and patting more, until he finally confirmed that she wasn't in her bed.

Worst case scenarios flooded his mind, had Callie run away? Did something happen to her?

He ran back to his and Jesus' room, contemplating his next move. Should he wake someone up? It was nearly four in the morning though, and everyone had just fallen asleep.

He decided on waking Lena up, she always seemed to have a cool head about things… well, except for the 'birth control' incident. But he was on her side for that one; never would he give meds to someone else's kid. He'd already been someone's drug mule once, and Callie swore it wouldn't happen again.

He wondered into the hallway looking for Callie, deciding that Lena could probably use her sleep, and after circulating around the bedrooms, he finally heard the irregular pattern of her breathing that calmed him so much.

It was coming from Brandon's room, the ultimate forbidden territory to the boy's sister. Giving up on all hope of having a good night's sleep, he ventured into the teenager's room, careful not to step on any instruments or sheet music.

He ran over to the bed and searched wildly for Callie, but all he saw was Brandon, who he wasn't aware was awake.

"Callie?" the brunettes franticness nearly made Brandon leap out of the bed to console him, but decided against it, because if he moved even an inch, Callie would be revealed and Jude would be wrapped up in a mess that was way out of his league.

Brandon let the boy whisper and pace until he heard the click of the door, signalling that it was safe to move.

So he moved into the safest position possible, his arms wrapped around Callie, spooning her from behind.

At peace, he finally decided that he could speak his mind.

"Callie" he murmured to her, though to the naked eye, it would seem that he was talking to himself. "You frustrate the hell out of me and I never feel like I'm good enough for you"

He brought her tighter to him.

"But even then, I can't let you go, because I know that I've got a good thing, here, with you, and I'm not going to let go of it." He wished that she could hear him, "and every time that I look at you and I see that you don't think that you're good enough. It makes me feel like such a massive prick that I can't make you see yourself the way that I see you"

His eyed blurred over and sleep was grasping him, but before it could take him, he whispered one last thing.

"God dammit Callie, I think I love you."

If only he knew that in this incident, somebody had heard him.

To Be Continued...