(A/N: this is a preview of my next Hey Arnold! fic, The Scars Beneath. Just to clarify, this story begins during the summer before Arnold enters fifth grade, so The Jungle Movie has not taken place, and the events of which shall not occur during this story. I don't know when I'll upload the next chapter, due to my end of year assignments, so please be patient. That's all there really is to know about this piece, so I hope you enjoy!)

A cold room, with grey-painted brick walls and two wooden doors. A mirror hangs on one wall, next to one of the doors and opposite to the wall where the other door is. A grey metal table sits in the middle, with two black metal chairs either side of it. Sat on the chair facing the mirror is a young girl, nine years old. Her light skin is marred with bruises along her arms, and one on her left cheek, while the bruises on her torso are covered by her pyjama shirt and dressing gown. She sits there, staring absently at the table, her blue eyes tired and puffy from tears. In her arms, she holds

Her attention is drawn as the door next to the mirror opens. Stepping into the room, a large, muscular man- maybe even six and a half foot tall, 250lbs- slowly approached the chair. While his muscular body, covered in a white shirt, dark blue suit, white socks and black shoes, could easily intimidate a man, his face was much softer. The man was forty-something, as evident by his slightly greying hair. His grey eyes were kind, and his smile was gentle. He lifts the chair and moves it, allowing him to sit down.

"Hi there," he greets her, his voice somewhat rough and low. "My name is Shawn. Can I ask you yours?" She looks back down at the table, too shy to answer. "Don't worry, you don't have to tell me. I know that you've been through a lot… and you don't have to worry. I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I want to make sure no one will hurt you from now on." She didn't respond, but he was okay with that. He placed his two hands on the table, clasping them together. "Here's the thing- there are two options that we have, and in order for me to help you, I need you to choose what you think you will be most comfortable with." He held is hands up, palms facing the girl. "Don't worry, you don't have to decide on the spot. I want you to think about this, and if at any time, there's something you don't understand, let me know and I'll explain it more clearly. Does that sound okay?" Hesitantly, she looked up a little and gave Shawn a nod. He clasped his hands back together, this time with his index fingers free. "With everything that has happened, we think it would be best to… relocate you. What we think would be best, is if either A- we take you to an orphanage. I would visit regularly to make sure you are safe and happy with your living situation, and help wherever I could. Or, B- we would move you into a witness protection program. You would be given a new identity, which, to make things as easy as possible, would be sort of like me adopting you, so you would be assumed as my daughter." He gave a slight smirk. "But, I'll let you pick your first name," he chuckled. Although he didn't get a similar response from her, he still smiled. "I would stay with you, but it would be quite far away from here, in another state, whilst the orphanage would be a few cities over." After a moment, he stood up. "I'll give you a few moments to think about this. Would you like me to fetch you anything?"

She remained silent for a few seconds, her gaze not leaving the desk, but eventually, in a quiet, fragile voice, she whispered, "water?"

His smile perked up a little. "No problem." He walked back to the door by the mirror and walked through, shutting it behind him. In this room, he could see through the mirror, as it was one-sided, so he could see what the girl did. While he approached the water cooler, he looked at the other man in the room, a tan-skinned man in his late twenties, with brown hair and a moustache, and a similar attire to Shawn, with a grey suit instead of dark blue. "What do you think, then?"

"That poor girl," he sighed. "I can't imagine what she's going through. No one should go through something like this."

"Especially not someone her age," Shawn added. He filled a cup with water from the cooler, holding it in his left hand. "Those sick bastards should be getting a longer sentence for this."

"Yeah, but sadly, we don't know the full truth of what happened. We know they abused the poor girl, but how badly? And for how long?"

"Probably close to her whole life. Wouldn't be surprised." He looked through the mirror, and noticed that she was looking towards the door he had just gone through, which typically meant they were ready to speak again. "I better go back in." So, Shawn went through the door again, closing it behind him. "Here you are," he told her with a warm smile, setting the glass in front of her.

As he sat down, she slowly grabbed the glass and took a small sip of water, before setting the glass back down. "Thank you," she said, still practically a whisper.

"You are welcome. So," he placed his hands on his lap, leaning forward just a touch, "do you know which you would rather do?"

"I…" She thought for a moment, trying to phrase her words, before simply saying, "B, please."

He nodded. "Okay. That's not a problem. Now, we have most of your things ready in a car, and we'll leave tonight, as soon as I've made a couple of phone calls. Are you okay to stay here while I handle this?" She nodded. "You're being very brave." Although he couldn't fully see it, he was sure she smiled just a little bit at hearing this. "I'll be back as soon as we're ready."

Once again, he stands up and starts heading towards the door. "Shawn?" She asks, getting him to turn around. "Can… can my name be Sophia?"

His smile perks up. "Of course it can. I think it's a lovely name."

"Okay."

He heads through the door again. As he closes it again, his colleague turns to him. "Looks like she's warming up to you."

"That's good, I guess. I'm not great with kids."

"You'll be fine, you're the best guy for this job."

"Maybe." He pulls out his phone and turns it on. "You got that number for me to call?"

"Uh, yeah, it's right… here."

He hands Shawn a yellow post-it with a phone number on it, which Shawn proceeds to dial. After a few moments of dial tones, he eventually hears an old voice answer. "Hello?"

"Hi. Is this the Sunset Arms boarding house?"