Hello everyone! First I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this. It's my first venture into a new fandom after writing for my last one for three years. I'm hoping I do well with the characters and keep you all interested in the plot. This story was inspired by a few different things, a few episodes of various crime shows, a topic we had been discussing in my American Government class, and a movie I saw about a year ago. It does touch on some very hard subjects, so I will warn you now, and when things get even tougher as the story goes on. This story deals with rape, dealing with the past, forgiveness, and the struggles of moving on. As I mention on my profile, I'm awful to my favourite characters, so anything horrible I do to any characters just shows you how much I love them. ;) I will stop talking now before you get too bored to actually read. Thanks again to you all! :)

This is set somewhere between seasons three and four (because that's where I am in the series right now)

Disclaimer- I'm just borrowing these beautiful characters.

Broken

by Nora Holden Walker

Chapter 1- Prologue

The steam from the sink rose and refreshed Sarah's face as she washed the few dishes that had been used over the past few days. The water seemed as if it were only a few degrees from boiling and it burnt her hands as it ran over them, but she didn't mind. She was okay with that pain. When she thought about it, that pain was nothing. She had never experienced real pain; the pain she had witnessed over the past week.

The sudden ringing of the front doorbell startled Sarah, and she dropped the white plate she was washing with a loud crash.

Damn it, she thought harshly, wiping her hands dry on her pants and rushing down the hall. Peaking through the window, with a quick glance back towards the living room, Sarah opened the door. Kitty quickly wrapped her arms around her sister and held on tightly. Sarah could feel her sister's quick gasps for her, knowing full well Kitty's eyes were just as teary as her own. When they pulled away, Kitty brushed the fallen tears from her cheeks and sniffed. She took a moment before she could say anything, but then spoke.

"How is she?" Kitty asked shakily.

"Not good... or... I don't think... I don't know, really, she hasn't said much since Tuesday." Sarah pressed her hands to her eyes, willing them to keep in the tears that were threatening to spill. She had just regained her composer only a half an hour ago, but seeing her sister, who had been gone for one of the worst times in the Walker family history, was overwhelming. "She's in the living room, on the couch."

Kitty braced herself for what she was about to see. She and Sarah took a moment, hugging once more before Sarah exited back into the kitchen.

Kitty took a breath and closed her eyes. How had this happened? Never in a million years had she ever imagined this possible.

Draping her jacket over the railing of the stairwell, Kitty slowly stepping into the living room.

The first thing she saw was the dark hair, streaked with grey, over the top of the pillow the still figure was leaning against.

"Hi Mom," Kitty said timidly, to no response. Nora remained silent and unmoving, facing away from her daughter. Kitty stopped where she was. She couldn't do this. What was she thinking? Kitty almost began to back out of the room, but then she stopped. This was her mother, her mother who had been there for her all her life, through everything. She stopped thinking about herself, and moved forward.

She couldn't silence her gasp when Nora's face became visible, and she couldn't stop the tears that welled in her eyes as she assessed the damage.

Nora's right eye was almost completely swollen shut, and had a deep purple ring around it. Her nose was obviously broken, along with her left cheek bone. The parts of her face that weren't black and blue were deathly pale, and Nora made no recognition of Kitty's presence, but continued staring ahead. Her right arm was in a sling from her dislocated shoulder, and the shallow cuts along her neck and chest made Kitty's stomach turn. Who would do this to her mother?

"Mom," Kitty kneeled at Nora's head, still trying to gain her mother's attention. She felt like she was a child again, trying to gain her mother's attention from her four other siblings.

When Nora still didn't respond, Kitty sighed, and turned, leaning back against the couch and facing away from her mother.

First, all she heard was a sharp inhale of breath. Kitty wasn't positive at first, but as she turned around she was not surprised. Nora's composure had crumbled. She brought both her hands up to hide her face as she cried. The crying turned into sobbing, and the sobbing back into silence.

It killed Kitty to see her mother like this. Weak. Shattered. But Nora had every right to be this way. It was expected after what had happened only three days ago. Kitty reached up and grabbed her mother's hand, who took it tightly, but still refused eye contact, her eyes glazed over, her face empty of emotion. Even after everything that had happened to Nora in her life, Kitty had never seen her like this. She had never seen her so... broken.

review please!