Protecting Your Own

Calm Before The Storm

Protecting Your Own Part 5 - Calm Before The Storm

Summary - As the Foster family tries to go about their business as best as they can; Brandon, Callie, Stef and Mike are on edge waiting on what could happen next.

Disclaimer - I didn't create any of the characters, with the exceptation of a few, in this story. They are the property of Bradley Bredeweg, Peter Paige and ABC Family. Any infringements is unintentional.

The Foster household started come to life at around 7 AM with Stef being the first one up. She did a couple of yoga exercises that Lena recommended to her while recovering from the shooting and felt some discomfort in her left ribs, which is where she got wounded, while trying to stretch to the side. Stef's recovery from the shooting had gone remarkably well, but she still wasn't 100%. After finishing the exercises, Stef went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get in a quick shower. After she put on her robe and then exited the bathroom, Stef went to check on Brandon, who was still sleeping. She quietly went in the room and gave Brandon a quick kiss on his forehead. As Stef looked at Brandon, she felt very distressed that he had just went through a terrible ordeal and now had to deal with a dark cloud of uncertainty hovering over him with Liam in a coma instead of enjoying the rest of his summer. She wanted so much to make it all go away, but knew that wasn't so easily done.

"Morning there Sunshine." Lena said as she greeted Stef with a kiss. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm just trying to make it." Stef replied as she got her uniform out of the closet.

As Stef begin to change into her uniform, Lena's intuition began to kick in as she watched her. Lena knew that Stef was trying her best to hide her feelings with a mask of stoicism, but she was obviously visibly distracted and worried about Brandon and Callie.

"I know how worried you are about Brandon." Lena said.

"This is the last thing he and Callie needs." Stef said in a melancholy tone. "It's bad enough they're struggling to deal with the altercation and now this."

Lena immediately grabbed Stef's left hand to hold it as a show of support. Stef replied with a smile. "You know that you're not alone in this." Lena said.

"I know." Stef said as she finished buttoning up her shirt. "We're not going to let anything happen to them."

"Speaking of that," Lena said as she and Stef went downstairs. "i'm going to talk with that lawyer you served with you on the force a while ago."

"Andrew Cho?"

"Yeah. I've heard that he's pretty good and wanted to get some legal advice from him regarding the situation."

"He's about as good as they come."

"I'm just worried about what it could cost should the case go to court." Lena said as she turned on the stove.

"Don't worry about that." Stef said as she put the dishes on the table. "I'm sure the union could cover some of the cost."

Stef and Lena then went about the business of fixing breakfast, which consisted of hash browns and eggs. As the moms cooked breakfast, Jesus and Jude came downstairs and went to the living room to do some pushups.

"Hey guys." Stef said as she sat on the edge of a chair. "Nice to see you're starting to exercise more Jude."

Jude grimaced as he struggled to finish his last pushups.

"Give me one more." Jesus said to encourage him. "There you go."

"That was so hard." Jude said, struggling to catch his breath.