I'm back guys :) I can't believe it's been a year since I posted any Rizzles. This is an idea I've had in my head for a while, hope you enjoy.

She closed her eyes. Three, two, one…

Damn. She was still there.

Maura Doyle should have learnt a long time ago that simply closing her eyes and wishing hard wasn't always enough to change things. However, despite her strength and intelligence, she honestly couldn't think up a rational, realistic way to get out of this. She was there and that was that. Until, of course, they moved yet again.

In the seventeen years she'd been alive, Maura had lived in over sixty different places. Some of them were decent houses, some were apartments, others were battered old caravans. They'd even stayed in a tent under a bridge for a couple of nights. Most of the nicer places were loaners from friends of her father, as this one was. She'd lived in three different countries and once they'd moved to America, over ten states. She had also attended at least forty different schools and although her grades were good, she never really had the time to make close friends.

Being the daughter of a big time crime boss really had its downsides.

Of course, the relentless moving about wasn't the only one. The constant fear that someone would take a shot at her, her mother or her father was just as bad, if not worse. Every time her father spent time away from the house to sort out some 'business', she knew there was a chance he wouldn't make it back. It was the same for her mother. Anyone who knew Paddy Doyle knew that Hope was his wife and Maura was his daughter. Things spread fast amongst criminals, Maura had learned. Every single time any of the three stepped outside their front door, they were taking a huge risk. But they were risks that they had to take. Paddy's 'work' brought money to keep them going and of course, Maura had to go to school. Not just because of the law, and the fact that if she didn't go then there would be awkward questions, but because she was determined to get herself a good education, no matter how many schools she had to go through to get it. Luckily, by now, she was a senior in high school and would be heading off the college the following year. The idea thrilled her.

She opened the small rucksack that she had always kept beside her bed in case of an emergency. Inside were mostly essentials, such as clothes and a toothbrush, but she also had personal items, like her diary and a copy of an old medical journal that she had picked up somewhere. She had learnt to travel light over the years. She had a cheap phone with a spare SIM card in case anything happened but other than a few trinkets, that was about as close as she came to having material possessions. That didn't really bother her, but she would have liked to be able to be a little frivolous every now and then. The money her father earned went straight on rent, bills, 'business' or alcohol. She rarely saw much of it.

Maura pulled out the small compact mirror her mother had given her when she had turned 13. The circles under her eyes were more prominent now than ever, her eyes themselves looked vacant and there was a gauntness to her face that frightened her. She looked like she hadn't slept in over a week. Possibly because she hadn't.

Her reflection puzzled her at times. She had her mother's good looks, with her honey blonde curls and hazel eyes, and her father's mouth, nose and jaw line. But despite the obvious resemblance, she really didn't feel like she belonged in the family. She was the daughter of both a killer and a genius, and she didn't consider herself to be either of those things. She was clever, more so than most, but a genius? She didn't think so.

She looked around the small bedroom. It wasn't the worst place she had slept in, but it was close to it. There was no homeliness about the place. It was completely dreary. Practically all of the walls throughout the house were grey, although Maura suspected they had once been painted white. Only two rooms were different; her parents' room was a pale peach and the bathroom was tiled in periwinkle blue. The carpet in her room was a hideous shade of pink that almost made her stomach turn. The bed was hard and the bedding smelt of something awful. The walls were bare apart from a couple of flimsy looking shelves and the tiny wardrobe in the corner looked like it wouldn't be able to take much more than a few pairs of jeans. Overall, she decided, it was a thoroughly depressing room.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs pulled her out of her reverie. Her mother knocked once on the door before entering, not even waiting for Maura to tell her to come in.

'Maura, your Dad wants you downstairs.'

'Just a sec, Mom.'

'No, Maura, not in a sec. Now.'

Maura blinked. Was she in trouble? She hated being in trouble. Trouble meant more trouble. Big trouble. Sighing, she swung her legs down off the bed and headed for the door.

'And you can stop huffing about it as well.'

Yep, being the daughter of a big-time crime boss definitely had its downsides. But being the daughter of a woman who had given up on her dreams to be a neglected wife and frustrated mother was much, much worse.

Hope you liked the first chapter, next one will be up ASAP :)