Sharon unlocked her front door and she and Rusty walked inside. As Sharon flipped on the front hallway lights Rusty asked if he could do anything for dinner. Sharon distractedly responded that he could pull out some salad materials and she thought there was plenty of chicken and rice leftover from a few nights ago.

After Sharon put her purse down she looked around the living-room and kitchen. Rusty knew she was looking for Catherine and he got concerned that she might have left early not wanting to bother anyone.

Before pulling the food out Rusty walked down the hall to throw his backpack in his room and that's when he noticed Catherine. Sharon's bedroom door was open and there was the outline of Catherine on top of her bed.

Rusty turned around and gestured toward Sharon that Catherine was in her room. Sharon in turn came walking calmly down the hall and turned to stand in her doorway with Rusty watching behind her.

Sharon looked at her hurt baby girl lying on her side wrapped up in one of Sharon's black sweaters with her back facing the door. Sharon had no idea what or who was causing her daughter so much pain but she knew Katie need her.

Sharon effortlessly took off her blazer as she crossed the room to the opposite side of the bed. She quickly placed her blazer on her armchair and rounded the corner of the bed.

From the second she heard the key turn in her mother's door Catherine knew she couldn't keep it together. She hated needing her mother so badly but she couldn't deal with on her own anymore.

Two weeks ago she had taken one of her precious weekends during her summer full of work to drive three hours and visit David. They had talked a few days before and they were both excited to have a few days together.

David was renting an apartment with a few other guys from school who were all working for the local beaches during the busy summer months. That Friday Catherine got to the apartment a little later than she wanted and headed inside to find David. The apartment was empty so she walked towards David's room and as soon as she had opened the door her heart san in to her toes. There sitting astride David was the back of a girl Catherine was pretty sure she had never met. It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked off the planet and Catherine was left completely unable to breath or move.

It took less than a second for David to notice Catherin Standing in his bedroom doorway humiliated. And less than a second after that Catherine spun around and fled. David went after her but she didn't want to hear any of it rather she screamed at him to leave her alone.

Catherine got back in her car and sped off as fast as she could. She couldn't seem to get enough space between herself and the nightmare she had just walked in on. She tried unsuccessfully to push it all form her memory but all she could think about was the toned back of the woman sitting on top of her boyfriend.

"Stop it!" she thought "he's not yours anymore! Screw him!"

Catherine couldn't back to her rented hole of a bedroom fast enough. Once there she yanked on running shorts, a tank-top, and sneakers before barreling out the door and sprinting the mile and a half to the beach where she continued running up and down the coast, back and forth until her legs refused to carry her any further and she collapsed in the sand.

Catherine knew how to work off of anger she was an expert at it. Every time her and Ricky's father walked out on them again or she would get made fun of at school. There was always a moment of pure anger that propelled her forward and kept her functioning. It was when Catherine didn't have the energy to be angry anymore that she began to unravel. For a solid week-and-a-half Catherine stubbornly pushed ahead at work until she began to lose it.

It became exceedingly more difficult for her to keep from crying at random times, she despised going home to an empty room that practically begged her to have a panic attack, curled in the fetal position on the dingy floor, and running was no longer propelling her anger.

By the second Friday after discovering David Catherine called in sick to work and climbed into her car to drive the five-and-a-half hours to the safe walls of her mothers condo. She knew her mom would be beyond concerned to come home and find a crumpled shell of a person at her front door so Catherine drove to the Police Department so she wouldn't shock her mother too much. She hoped the visit would be short so she could just go home and curl into one of her mom's sweaters and not have a meltdown in the Police Department.

Of course the moment her mother saw her Sharon knew exactly what Catherine needed and she helped her daughter escape 1PP with little embracement.

Now she lay on her mothers bed on the verge of hyperventilating an not even able to tell her mom what happened.

Sharon seeing the state her daughter was in let out a distraught and overwhelmed "oh honey" as she lay down next to her broken child. Sharon positioned herself so she was parallel with her daughter but high enough on the pillows so that Katie could curl into her mother arms and burry her face in her mom's shoulder. Katie responded to her mothers touch by nestling her tear soaked face between the pillows on the bed and her mother's soft cheek so that she felt hidden from the world and she let her tears flow freely and struggled to breath in the familiar sent of her mother's perfume. As her body shook letting out all the grief she was holding in Sharon's arms wrapped around her daughter while her hands firmly and comfortingly stroked Katie's back. Katie weakly placed the arm she wasn't laying on around her mom and continued to cry as her mother told her over and over

"It's okay, it's okay I'm right here"

For the longest time all the words Katie could utter where

"He knew I was coming, he knew I was coming."

Eventually her crying subdued and Sharon helped her daughter sit up on the bed.

"Okay sweetheart tell me what happened."

Sharon passed her a box of tissues from the nightstand and Katie slowly started laying all the pieces out for her mother.

From the doorway Rusty felt like he was intruding on a private moment but he couldn't bring himself to leave. He watched as Sharon expertly comforted and took care of her daughter allowing Katie to take her time and go as slow as she wanted. Rusty watched as Catherine allowed her mom to take care of her and to Rusty it looked as if Catherine unloaded all of her problems onto her mother so that they could share them together and come to a resolution. Rusty expected Sharon to look stressed from taking on yet another persons issues but to his surprise she remained calm and peaceful. Then rusty realized that maybe Sharon was more concerned and stressed when she knew her children were keeping things from her. With this realization Rusty walked with new resolve to his room and then to the kitchen to start dinner.

The next day Catherine was gaining knew strength to back to work. Rusty noticed how much lighter and happier she looked and as nervous as he was he knew that what he was about to do was the right thing.

After school Rusty walked straight to the cabinet above his desk, took the armful of threatening letters out, and before he lost any of his resolve he walked straight towards Sharon's office. When he reached for the handle he felt a lump building in his throat out of fear and nerves, but he also began to feel the heavy weight of his burden being lifted off of him. As he entered, Sharon looked at him with a small smile that quickly turned into loving concern. She came around her desk so that they could sit together in the two chairs and as she placed her hand on his back encouraging him to sit down rusty immediately felt safe and he knew Sharon would do anything to fight for him.

- The End -