Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

59. Sarah

"Callie's asleep," I said, coming back downstairs. She'd gone to bed early because she was tired after being in the hospital, and though we stayed home, she'd looked more and more uncomfortable whenever Zack was around. I don't know if he was even conscious of what he was doing.

"Good," Brendon said. "She needs it."

"So do you," I said, pointedly. He didn't argue.

We went back into the living room where Zack and Kala were sitting and watching TV.  I picked up the remote and turned off the TV.

"We need to talk," I said to them, looking at Zack. Brendon came up beside me and crossed his arms.

"What's up?" he asked.

"We need to talk about you and Callie," Brendon said, sitting down.

"What about me and Callie? I didn't do anything to her."

"You did. You don't realize that you did, but you did. Did you not see how sad Callie was all day? How she got sadder and sadder and isolated herself more?"

"I just figured she's tired and upset."

"She is. But you're the reason she's upset, Zack," Brendon said. "And we need to fix this, if you still want your job."

"I'm sorry, what? You're threatening my job?"

"No. You're threatening your job," Brendon said. "And I don't want to lose you, but my daughter comes first and anything that makes her life harder is not going to be in our lives."

"I don't understand what you're talking about," Zack said.

"You are shooting looks at Callie that she noticed. You don't trust her, and I do understand why, but I don't care. You need to get over that and fast. Because you're important to us, but we can replace you," Brendon said.

"Zack, you know we love you," I said. "But Callie is our daughter and you know that Callie has a history. I know you're worried that something like what happened on Saturday night could happen again. We're doing what we can to make sure we don't have a repeat of that. We know Callie's history. You know Callie's history. You have to know that she wasn't looking to attack Brendon specifically. She was having a nightmare, she was protecting herself. She felt hands and didn't know where she was or who he was. She reacted. We have a therapist set up when we go back to L.A."

Zack looked back and forth between us and over at Kala. He frowned and he looked ready to blow. But that would cost him his job and likely our friendship.

"She stabbed you!" He cried. "You needed blood transfusions. You needed surgery. Twice. You got sepsis. Brendon, you could have died!"

"And Callie could have, too, any number of times when she was in the foster system," Brendon said, calmly, but referring to the abuse Callie endured.

"But none of them tried to kill her!"

"Do you know that to be 100% accurate? Callie will never have children of her own. Her father," Brendon stopped, looked down and shook his head, tears coming from his eyes as he recalled what Sheri had told us. "She won't be able to have kids of her own."

Zack's face paled, then his cheeks were red.

"Look," Zack said with a sigh. "I've been your security guy for so long, protecting you is second nature. I know Callie's history. I should know she wouldn't have done this on purpose. But I admit, I'm having a hard time reconciling it. I'm trying. I promise. I'll apologize to Callie in the morning. And this isn't to save my job. We love you guys and I couldn't imagine my, our lives, without you two in it."

Brendon smiled, uncrossed his arms and gave Zack a hug. Zack smiled and returned the hug. We all hugged and declared the topic closed.

We turned the TV back on and turned on a movie. I made popcorn and snuggled up beside Brendon, gently.

A little while later, I felt a tap on my arm and turned around. A very sleepy looking Callie was standing behind me, behind the sofa. I sat up and asked Callie why she was awake.

"I smelled something funny," she said. I smiled.

"I made popcorn, and Dad and Uncle Zack and Aunt Kala were watching a movie. Want to join us for a little?"

Callie looked over at Zack who was smiling at her. She looked like she wasn't sure she could trust him. She shrugged at me.

"Come here," I said, indicating she should come around the couch and sit between B and I.

She sat down and Zack got her attention.

"Callie, I'm so sorry I made you sad today. I don't blame you for what happened to your dad. I'm so used to protecting him, I wasn't thinking. I'm so sorry sweetheart,"

Callie contemplated him for a minute then got up and ran over to him, giving him a hug.

"I'm glad you're not mad at me," Callie said. "Because I love you and I didn't want you to go away."

"What do you mean 'go away'?" Zack asked.

"Mom told Dad if you were mad and stayed mad, we wouldn't be friends anymore," Callie said.

Were we signing subconsciously?

"How did you know that?" I asked.

"I can read lips some, remember?"

I smacked myself in the forehead, grabbed Callie's chin in my hand and gave her a light squeeze, a smile and then a kiss on her forehead.

"You are a sneaky bum," I laughed. Callie smiled and laughed her unique laugh.

"Come sit, have some popcorn," I said to Callie. She came and sat between B and I and held the popcorn bowl while we watched our movie. Luckily we were watching a family friendly comedy, and Brendon turned on the captions for Callie.

Callie smiled and munched on popcorn for a little while. She leaned back a little later and leaned against me. I kissed the top of her head.

When the movie ended, Brendon looked at Callie and smiled.

"She's asleep," he said.

"I figured she would be," I said.

Zack came over and lifted Callie off my lap. We gathered our popcorn bowls, and glasses and cans (Kala and I had shared a bottle of wine, the boys had had a couple of beers), and took them all into the kitchen. We'd deal with them in the morning.

Zack carried Callie to her room and placed her gently onto her bed after I pulled the covers back. He tucked her in and gave her a tiny kiss on the forehead. Callie rolled onto her side and a small smile played on her lips. It warmed my heart.

We went to our rooms and Brendon and I fell asleep in each other's arms.