Nicki looked at herself in the mirror. Pale skin, dark shadows under her eyes. She was like a shell with nothing inside. Was this really the same feisty stubborn person who had worked in the army a few years back?

She was scared of her father- she feared seeing him again. It was his first day back home since the car accident that had broken his leg. The leg that used to kick his daughter.

Nicki bit her lip, determined not to allow tears to run down her face. She was at work now- at Waterloo road. Her dad wasn't such a big issue when she was here at least.

'Nicki,' Tom whispered to her, before pulling her into a hug. The staff room was empty because most of their fellow teachers hadn't arrive yet. Nicki rested her head on his chest, and sobbed into it.

'Enough,' she said softly after a while, pulling away, 'I don't want everyone to feel sorry for me so don't tell anyone about him okay Tom. The last thing I need is attention.' He chuckled. That was odd. He never chuckled.

The first teacher to arrive was Grantly. He appeared so strong, so emotionless all of the time. Nicki admired him, why couldn't she be more like that? Fearless...

Grantly didn't talk as he sat down next to Nicki and Tom, who were together on the sofa, avoiding each other's gaze. Nicki was biting her fingers in anxiety. She couldn't help it; it had always been a habit of hers.

She thought she'd got rid of her father when she'd left home to join the army. Evidently she had been mistaken. How very disappointed he would be. His own daughter, a school teacher? Nicki had not told her father what had become of her life. If truth be told she hadn't come face to face with him at all. Just the occasional phone call.

Working in the PRU was no fun at all. This was proved true in third lesson when Nicki entered her classroom to see people throwing gum at each other. Growling to herself, she picked up the bucket and ordered everyone to drop their gum into it. The majority of the class did so willingly.

However Barry just stared at Nicki with that horribly mischievous smirk of his, and Scout merely scowled. Nicki didn't shout at them like she usually would have done. She couldn't bring herself to.

'Today's work is on the bored,' groaned Nicki in a bored monotone, gesturing to the whiteboard. The class looked at her surprised. This was most uncharacteristic of the teacher they knew. Nevertheless they did not object. Nicki's substandard behaviour allowed them to make whispered conversations during class with being told off.

Of course, Nicki could hear them. But she did not speak; she was deep in thought. How old would her dad be now? Sixty? Seventy? It was difficult to remember exactly.

The rest of the day dragged by as fast as a snail. Where had those hours gone? Nicki always dreaded the end of the day because that meant that she had to walk for fifty minutes just to get home. Well, the sooner she started out, the sooner she'd be on her sofa, with a cup of coffee.

It was that thought that kept her strolling down the roads. Because it was winter, the sky was almost pitch black and a chilly wind was swooping down over Scotland.

Not the first time today, Nicki's mind was wondering elsewhere. She'd made up her mind- she was not going to visit her father unless she was forced to. But then again... all those things that she'd never asked him- that she'd always wanted to say. What if he died and her questions were still unanswered.

She still had scars on the back of her hand, a painful souvenir of her wretched childhood. Why was she thinking about this? Why was she inflicting this emotional agony upon herself? With great effort, she tried to bring herself back to the world around her but not before something hard knocked her aside.

'Watch where you're going!' She exclaimed loudly as the biker continued past her after cycling over her foot. With gritted teeth, Nicki persisted down the road, down with horrible pains in her left toes.

Only 20 minutes to her house now...

The sky was now resolutely black.

10 minutes to go...

No stars were visible over the dark grey mass of swirling clouds.

5 minutes...

Nicki couldn't wait to be in the warmth of her own home again.

Growl.

She turned around. She was the only thing on the street as far as she could see.

Brrrrrr

Still on the pavement she turned around again. It was getting louder.

...The sound of a car engine? But nothing ever traveled down these streets.

She could hear it behind her now but did not want to turn round for a third time. She just quickened her pace so that she could reach her house quicker. Drunken laughs could be heard, jeers and wolf-whistles.

This irritated Nicki a bit.

'Sexy! Watch where you're going!' Slurred a loud voice from the car behind her. Why couldn't they just pass her and stop embarrassing her like that.

Drunk people reminded Nicki of her mother. A mess, she had been. Just thinking of her made Nicki want to wretch- never mind the fifteen years of separation.

The car was definitely almost passing her now. Good.

But wait, that was too loud to be on the road. It couldn't be on the pavement could it. Against her will, Nicki turned around for a third time.

Crash Crash