Past & Present

Chapter 1.

It had been a moment that in some ways Emily had been dreading, especially as she had never thought that it would happen again, despite her now being in New York once again, but with working in the home that was in memory of his sister she supposed that in many ways it had to be expected.

When she had first started out Emily had wanted to originally be a psychologist and while undertaking her initial training and practise she had worked with one Dr. Jason Bull in his practice, then when he left to start up TAC she had bought the practice from him and had had quite a successful career, until she met the man that had become her husband. He was a marine and she had then ended up selling the practice to follow him on his deployments.

After he had been sadly killed in action with feeling that she hadn't really got anybody that she could really turn to she had built a new life for herself in Spain and had also gone onto retrain as a lawyer.

The reason for the feeling of not having anyone that she could turn to was because she now didn't have any family around her, due to having come from quite a violent background, with her step-father being a very violent man and she had grown up having to keep herself covered up from where she was covered in bruises from his violence, but it was her mom that had always come off the worse. Emily though had managed to get herself out of the house as soon as she possibly could by getting into higher education and leaving home. Even though she had also really tried her hardest to get her mom and sister out of her step-fathers clutches, it never worked, especially as her mom kept telling her that she had done a good thing in getting herself out of there and she was so very worried that if the two of them went to her and he found out where they were she would be danger all over again and she didn't want to put her into that position. In the end, her fear of what could happen came true because in the end her step-father murdered her mom and was now in prison for the rest of his life with no chance at parole.

Originally she was also going to foster her sister, but the authorities got in there first and fostered her out and she lost her, by the time she found out where she was as an adult it was to find that history had repeated itself because she had been killed by her husband through domestic violence and like her step-father that man was now in prison for the rest of his life.

When she first came back to New York she hadn't really been sure what she wanted to do, would she return back to psychology once again and set up her own practice or did she want to carry on as a lawyer?

In the end she had a bit of both worlds because after hearing about her return Dr Marion Grint got in touch with her, who in the past she'd had a history with because when she had first been with Bull in his practise he was going through the same thing she'd been going through with her mom, because his sister Jennifer was in a violent relationship and Marion had been the person that had really tried her best to get her out of the relationship, but it hadn't happened and in the end sadly she was killed. Emily had then ended up being there for him as he was for her a few months later when her mom was killed. Marion then told her all about the women's shelter that had been set up in Jennifer Bull's memory and that Bull had helped them get set up with a few lawyers offices for when the women in the shelter required lawyers, but they had been discussing the idea of actually having someone in house, who could then perhaps look into putting together a small team to be there to help the women in the shelter. He had also helped them get the small apartment block next door to the shelter which they were planning on keeping as apartments for when the women were ready to leave the shelter but didn't actually feel like they were ready for the outside world yet and that they could then begin a new life of their own with an apartment there and could then move on when they were completely ready. They had thought though that they could make the bottom floor of the apartment building into the place where the lawyer team could be based, but other than having an office for the work to be done in they wanted to try and keep it as informal as they possibly could by having a more comfortable area for the women to meet them in. A private doorway had also just been put in from the shelter to that building so that the women could go in and out of there without having to leave the shelter as such, plus they had also got the front entrance use as well for those women that had left the shelter and weren't in an apartment if they needed help from a lawyer as well. She hadn't mentioned anything to Bull about knowing that Emily was back in New York once again, but after hearing that she was back and that she had also now become a lawyer she was thinking that she would be the perfect person to come in as the head of the team, because she would have a better understanding of the women, both with her own experience and of course with her psychology background as well. So, in the end, she agreed that she would at least go and see Marion about it all.

In the end after having gone to talk to Marion about things she decided on taking the job, and after seeing the plans for the whole apartment block along with the office area she had in the end come up with a better idea for things, not only that after having explained that she hadn't been sure about whether to go back to psychology or remain as a lawyer she'd actually like to do a bit of both, so if it was agreed she would be willing to be there both as psychologist and lawyer for the women and it was agreed so she then helped make plans for her own informal office for her to use for counseling purposes, although even if she didn't want to put Marion under pressure, but for now she really didn't want Bull to know that she was back and that she was also the one doing all of this and working there. Marion agreed to her proviso and also promised that unless he did a surprise visit on them she would always warn Emily if she knew that he was coming so that she could be out of the way. Although Emily was also in for a bit of a shock because she went onto explain about how he had helped her in a case involving Kate Martin, who now helped them in the shelter, but was also now in the middle of becoming a lawyer herself, which on the quiet Bull was helping to pay for this as well, so that she could help women that were also in the same position that she had been in. They had also kept things quiet from Kate, but Marion was quite good friends with the team from TAC, the company that Bull had gone onto form as his trial science company had taken off. Marissa Morgan had been the one that helped him with the system that they also used there and had told her about how he hadn't really been looking after himself that year due to various pressures, because he had been drinking quite heavily in the end, eating junk and spending most of his time sleeping at the office or even at times only getting very few hours of sleep. Then the case involving Kate had seemed to push him over the edge and things got worse, which lead onto him having a heart attack on the court steps a few weeks later. He had recovered absolutely fine and had taken a lot of time out for his recovery, but he had also had the complete turn around over the charity and the shelter, as before he would just make donations regularly to them and that would be it, but now he was there helping where he could.

Until the apartment was finished with her also having added a couple of things to the plans, she and Kate just started out with a small office in the shelter itself, before then moving over into the unit that was to become theirs. The thing that she also loved the most was the times when either Kate's family had been looking after her baby or when her husbands sister had had her, because after the trial everything had come out about what he had done to her over the years, leading the two women especially to have a big change in their relationship, meaning that her sister-in-law would also help with the childcare of her niece. Whenever they bought Lucy to pick her up from work, Emily would have a little cuddle with her and she loved having the baby in her arms for a little cuddle and play as well. The only trouble was that it would also bring back her painful memories, but would also bring back her feelings of not having ever had that family that she had really hoped for. At one time all those years ago she had thought that it might end up happening with Bull, but of course it wasn't to be and after that over the years in the relationships that she had had, she knew that she was mostly self-sabotaging herself, but she seemed to never be able to take a relationship into going as far as wanting to settle down and have a family with them, but then along came to the case that was to change all that in a very big way.

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