It had been almost a year since Mark's death, Rachel visited for a week in her summer holidays and Ella was 20 months old now. She was beginning to sleep better but still woke at the slightest noise so given I was furious with whoever it was ringing my doorbell at two o'clock in the morning. I ran downstairs in a dressing gown and slippers, pulled the door and was shocked at the sight I saw - it was Rachel but she was covered in blood and drenched to the skin from the awful weather.

"Rachel! Get inside, what on Earth do you think you're doing in Chicago?!" I exclaimed, incapable of holding my tongue, and she ran inside the house to dry land - it was raining for the first time in ages and it had been bucketing it down all day and all night.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth, this is the only place I could think of to come. Could I stay here for a couple nights please? I'll explain everything to you." She said in a broken voice and when I saw her face and the redness of it, I could tell she'd been crying, a lot. I can't say a lot about Rachel, but I knew she wasn't a crier, she'd barely shed a tear at her own father's funeral, though her distress was obvious, not a lot of things would be capable of getting her in this kind of state.

My arms stretched out to her from instinct and pulled in to a rib-crushing hug, she started weeping softly against my shoulder. When I heard her breaths even out and the crying subside, I pulled away from her gently so I could see her face.

"Rachel, does your mother know your here? You know she'll worry if you just disappear like you did last time." I noticed the way she looked at me when I said the word 'mother' - she looked terrified at the mere prospect of Jen.

"I think she assumes I'm here, I mean this is where she told me to go - sort of - and I didn't know where else to go anyway." My brows knitted together in a confused expression, prompting her to elaborate. "She kicked me out, literally I got home from school one day and all my things were packed in a suitcase at the bottom of the stairs. There was no-one else in the house and I thought we were just moving again, but then I found this on top of the case." She handed me a piece of lined paper that had something written on it, it read:

Rachel,

Don't bother trying to find us, you've become too much like your Dad so go back to the mother who actually might still like you. I don't care what you do, just find somewhere else to live, I don't want you as my daughter anymore. Send me the adoption papers when you find someone suitable.

Jen

She hadn't even signed it 'Mom' for heavens' sake, that wicked cow! I looked up at Rachel who had taken a reasonably sized step back from me while I read, she looked at me with scared eyes and all I could think of was 'Mark would know what to do' but it did no good to dwell on that fact.

"Okay sweetie, well we do need to sort this out with your mother but don't worry Rachel, you're staying here with me and Ella now, I don't care what she says." Ella had started crying upstairs, I was about to go and calm her down when Rachel stopped me, holding my arm.

"Could I go? I haven't seen her in ages and you're probably really tired anyway." I nodded happily at her and watched her walk up the stairs. Ever since the incident with the drugs, Rachel had spent everyday trying to make it up to Ella - while we were in Hawaii she would willingly get up in the middle of the night to feed her or take her down to the beach. I think the fear and pain of watching her Dad suffer so much made her realize how much her family meant to her - Ella especially.

When she came back down the stairs, I was sat down on the couch with a biscuit barrel and two cups of tea. She hadn't been more than 15 minutes so Ella must've fallen asleep easily, she poked her head around the door and saw me sitting there.

"Hey," I almost whispered to her and she came to join me on the sofa, still wearing the same clothes she had arrived in. "I got us both some tea and biscuits, you should probably change out of those before you catch a cold." Oh my god! I realized inwardly, I hadn't even asked about the blood!"Wait, I can't believe it took me this long to ask...where's all the blood from?" She shifted awkwardly so there was as much space between us as the couch would allow, I looked at her hopefully.

"This all happened...almost a month ago. I've been sleeping rough but then on night before last, something happened. That's what made me come here..." There was an uneasy silence while I was waiting for her to continue, but she didn't.

"Rachel, what do you mean 'something' happened? And why didn't you come to me as soon as all this happened?" My voice was much quieter than usual, but I still felt like a bulldozer invading the countryside.

"I didn't come because I didn't want to intrude in to you and Ella's life, the only thing that bound us together with Dad which means I no longer have rights to you." She stated matter-of-factly, avoiding eye contact with me at all costs as she played with a loose thread on her jacket. "But I've been hanging around with this guy, sharing doorways and stuff, turned out he isn't as nice as I thought and I can't get rid of him. He keeps following me everywhere, for all I know he's on the EL here right now."

"Did he...?" I didn't even have to say the word before she nodded, and I was suddenly thinking in doctor-mode rather than stepmother-mode. "Okay, we need to get you to the hospital to make sure you're okay and we need to inform the SLMPD so they know everything." She shook her head profusely and I frowned at her, not quite understanding what she was saying no to.

"I can't Elizabeth, please you're a doctor, can't you just do it here. I can't bear to see any of them right now, especially not while I look like this. I don't want anyone who doesn't need to know about this, knowing about this. Right now you're the only person I trust, so I don't want anyone else to find out about this, please Elizabeth?"She begged and pleaded with me, so I sat down beside her and placed my hands on top of hers.

"Are you sure you want me to do this Rachel? At the hospital I can get you treated by someone you've never met before, but here I'd have to see everything he did to you." I watched her reaction, surely she'd want to be treated by someone other than me, Susan maybe.

"No, even if someone else treated me, everyone there would see me come in and I know how fast news travels at County. And whoever does examine me will find something else out too, something that I don't want anyone but YOU to know." She emphasized the 'you' to an almost furious level. "And you're probably going to hate me for it, well I know you will, but you've forgiven me for much worse."

I didn't understand what she meant but I'd find out soon enough, I was going to have to be the one to do this for her, she wasn't going to let anyone else in that parted to go to bed, I didn't sleep at all, I was too worried about what she meant by 'something else'.