Chapter 1

The little girl ran up the long set of stairs as fast as she could and locked her self in the first bathroom she came to, she was only three she didn't understand what was happening or why it was happening, many times she had found her self on the receiving end of her mothers temper, it only happened when her father wasn't home though , she had started to realise that if she didn't do as she was told when her mother said to, the only thing she could do was run to the nearest room to lock her self away. Her father knew exactly what was going on he'd seen the bruisers and he wasn't stupid, he just wished he knew where the temper of his wife and the lashing out had come from.

Aurora used to be so much more out going and talkative, now she was in a shell and very rarely spoke unless she was spoken to he wish he knew how to stop it all, when he was around he was the one who got lashed out at and his daughter was save and protected.

Her mother sat in the living room her fists clenched tightly with nothing and no one to take her anger out on the little girl would just have to hope that the temper would subside in order for her to sneak out of the bathroom and in to her bed.

The next morning her daddy had taken her to school and she had been very reluctant to leave his side her teacher however had been rather persuasive in getting her to calm down, she had been worried about aurora for a few weeks now as she'd seemed to have been quiet and would very often play alone unless her teacher miss McMahon was to step in then she would be fine, she found a sense of security with in been with her teacher, it could be that her teacher sensed her uncertainty recently or maybe it was the not so recent but still raw emotions of her teachers loss.

Stephanie would sit and watch the little girl play mostly alone she wondered what had made aurora seem so vulnerable and detached from her class friends and from Stephanie her self at times she new it was something deep and something that could have only happened at home as she got on so well with the other children. Stephanie had told the head teacher and all she said was to just keep an eye on aurora and try to see if the little girl would open up to her as she had a different relationship with the little girl than she did with the rest of her pupils, though Stephanie was determined to find out what was making this little girl be so quiet and with drawn. Steph had also wondered why it seemed to be her dad who would pick her up from nursery and fetch her every morning.

Aurora played silently in the corner of the carpet with the dolls house as all the children played together with trucks and dollies and play dough and lots of other different things a couple of children had approached but she just either ignored them or walked away, one child had told miss McMahon and Stephanie had just said that she didn't feel so well and wanted to play alone.

At the end of the day when all the other kids had gone home auroras father had called and said he was running late and would be there within half an hour, Stephanie took the chance to sit down with the little girl to see if she would say what was wrong.

"hi aurora what is the you have there" her teacher asked

"its my doggy he's called scrappy, he keeps me safe" the little girl said holding the teddy tightly

"what does scrappy save you from aurora"

The little girl didn't speak she just looked up and smiled when she saw her dad walk through the door, Stephanie turned round and stood up as the little girl ran over to her dad, step smiled at the tall man that stood in front of her.

"I'm so sorry I'm late a meeting ran over a work" he said picking up his daughter

Stephanie shook her head "not at all its fine, though I did want to speak to you about aurora"

Paul frowned "why what has she done this time"

Stephanie shook her head "she's not done anything wrong its just that she's become very withdrawn the past few weeks and I was wondering is there anything that maybe bothering her that we can help with"

Paul sat aurora down on her feet "its not something I would really like to discuss in front of her"

Stephanie nodded understandingly "if you would like to set up a meeting after school tomorrow and aurora could play while we talked"

Paul nodded in agreement, and was soon on his way with his daughter by his side.

Stephanie sighed as she sat back down at her desk to pack everything away and prepare for the meeting with auroras dad, one that she hoped she could place some support and help in.