Falling Through the Cracks
Chapter One
The girl stared with vacant eyes through the glass and wire mesh windows of the Psych Ward. Tears she was probably not aware of poured silently down her face, and if she noticed when Jaime sat down beside her, she gave no indication. Jaime looked at her young friend and struggled mightily not to cry herself.
Cassie was only twelve, but she'd already endured more fear and pain than most people see in a lifetime. She didn't deserve this – whatever this was. Just over a week earlier, she had been found, unconscious and badly injured, abandoned on the sidewalk outside the emergency entrance of the county medical center. A cast covered her right arm from wrist to shoulder, both of her eyes were blackened, with one nearly swollen shut and she was covered with angry, purple bruises that were just beginning to fade. Jaime thought the little girl looked worse now than when she and Steve had rescued her from a serial rapist who'd been just seconds from killing her, three months ago.
Cassie had been a runaway from a foster home, and once she'd recovered physically from the rape, the county had found a new one to send her to – her third one in the year and a half since her parents had died. For the first few weeks, Jaime had picked Cassie up and taken her to Steve's ranch every Saturday, to ride the horses. They also took long walks up by the river, where Jaime had been able to gradually draw her out of her shell and back into the outside world. Then suddenly, the family she was with had picked up and moved, and Jaime had heard no more from or about Cassie, until today.
When the hospital staff had found her on the sidewalk, they'd immediately tried to reach Cassie's foster parents without success. Police were sent to the home, and the family had cleared out, leaving no trace and no forwarding address. Cassie had been abandoned and was once again a ward of the state. She had arrived just this morning at the Psych Ward, when there was nothing more the hospital could do to heal her. In five days, she hadn't uttered a single word and was very nearly catatonic in her lack of reaction to what happened around her. A sympathetic nurse from the hospital, noting that no one from the state or the county had found time to visit the girl or even phone for details, remembered Jaime from when Cassie had been raped, and broke every rule in the book to call her. Psych wards could be horrible places, and the nurse just wanted there to be someone by the little girl's side who cared what happened to her.
Now, someone was. Jaime positioned her chair so she could look directly into the frightened eyes of her young friend. The guard at the locked door to the ward glared at Jaime, who wasn't related to the patient, wasn't a medical professional and had no real right to be there. She had phoned Oscar, who'd pulled a few strings and put pressure on the powers-that-be to allow Jaime visiting privileges.
Now that she was actually there, Jaime had no idea what to say, but her heart did. Her eyes tried to reach deep inside Cassie's pain-filled soul as she spoke in her softest, most comforting voice. "Hi, Honey." There was no response, but for a fleeting instant Jaime felt (rather than saw or heard) a spark of recognition. It gave her hope; Cassie was still in there...somewhere.
"You don't have to talk if you don't feel like it," Jaime continued, "but I'm here because I care about you. Please, let me help you." Cassie blinked once, but continued to cry torrents of tears without making a sound. Cautiously, very gently, Jaime took her hand and when she didn't flinch or pull away, began rubbing the girl's fingers with her own. "We helped each other before – remember?" While the murderer was still at large, for the first time since she was in college, Jaime had shared a horrific experience of her own; she'd told Steve (accidentally, at first) that she'd been attacked by a frat member and laughed at when she went to the police. Later, while Cassie was in the hospital, Jaime had shared the story with her, as well, and in helping Cassie deal with her anguish, had finally begun to heal her own long-buried wounds.
"Cassie, you were a huge help to me," Jaime told her. "Do you know that?" Cassie sniffled and blinked again, and Jaime could sense that she was listening. "I'd never dealt with what happened to me, and when you let me in and let me help you, I think it helped me even more. Now it's my turn. I know you don't have a family, Cassie, but you've got me. Steve cares about you, too. We're your family, and I'm not going to let family drift away like this in some ugly old ward. I'm coming back tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, until you're well enough to leave here. And even then, I'm not gonna go away – you're stuck with me, Kiddo." Jaime leaned closer and looked directly into the young girl's eyes. "I love you, Cassie, and I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" No response, but Jaime was both stubborn and persistent. "Ok?"
There were still no words, but Jaime waited patiently until she was finally rewarded with the slightest of nods. She had broken through.
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