[Flashback: 16 years before ME1]

(TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ABUSE)

The police station was noisy. A row of youths in handcuffs filled the seats in the waiting area, most of them intoxicated or stoned, some of them crying, a few of them shouting abuse at the surrounding officers. Police staff rushed back and forth with datapads of reports, each trying to hear their private comm ear pieces above the din. Shepard watched them all numbly. Crunched up into as small a position as she could, she had her shoulders pulled in so that they wouldn't touch the people either side of her. Her scrawny arms were cuffed. She was half naked. A coat of dirt and blood marred her pale skin, and her hair was filthy. She was out of place in the seating line, different to the others. She was younger than all of them – barely thirteen – and any reasonable person would have been able to see from her frightened little face that she was a victim, not a criminal.

The man who had brought her here had not been reasonable. It was his blood on her hands and clothes – blood fairly spilled. He had been her last visitor, her last "friend". He had arrived at the run-down apartment with the intent to use her just like all the other men had. Shepard's memories of the last few hours were a blur of terror and anger. She remembered snapping. She remembered lashing out. Somehow she had reached the point where she could not bear to be used even one more time, and the man had received the full fury of her pent-up need for vengeance. She had not been aware that he was a cop.

A cop. "Serve and protect". But he had walked into her prison-like room with no human compassion, dishonouring the badge that he wore every day. He had been so angry. Shepard bore the fresh bruises of his wrath. But there was no way she could have forced herself to yield to his twisted desires, no matter the consequences. She had fully believed she was going to be killed as punishment for attacking him. Instead, he had dragged her out of the disgusting apartment, threatened the men who "owned" her with a wave of his badge, and taken her away from there. And so she had found herself at the police station. The crooked cop had turned her in for illegal solicitation of sexual services, claiming she had offered him sex and had violently resisted arrest when he revealed he was a police officer.

Shepard made no attempt to argue her innocence. So shocked and horrified by the betrayal of a man who had sworn to uphold justice, her faith in the system was shaken to its core. Nobody would believe the word of a whore child over that of a cop. So she stayed silent. It had been a long night and she had been waiting uncertainly for hours. She was too frightened to even enjoy the relief of being away from that apartment. She worried what would become of her.

The girl beside her nudged her. Shepard drew back sharply at the touch.

'What are you here for?' the teenage felon asked in a slurred voice.

Shepard buried her head her her cradled knees, unable to respond. The other girl shrugged and turned away from her. A police officer approached the waiting area and scanned the grim faces of the arrested minors.

'Marie Shepard?' he said.

She looked up at him with guarded eyes. Just the sound of a male voice was enough to make her sick inside. She prayed that he would not touch her.

'Marie?' he asked again, now focusing on her.

She nodded warily.

'Someone is here to collect you.'

A man appeared behind him, dressed in a suit and tie with a datapad in his hand. Shepard did not recognise him. She felt a rising panic. Who was he? Where was he going to take her? What was he going to do with her?

'This is Jason Chapman from social services,' the officer introduced the stranger. 'He's come to take you home.'

Chapman stepped forward and gave the girl a smile. It did nothing to ease her fears; she had seen too many smiles from strangers that brought her nothing but suffering.

'Hello, Marie,' he said gently, bending down to her level. 'We've been looking for you for five weeks. Your foster parents have been so worried.' He extended a hand. 'Are you ready to go home?'

Home. The place from which she had fled. The catalyst of her pain and misery, and the man who had altered her forever. She shook her head vehemently, tears gathering in her eyes.

'No, no,' she spoke up in a trembling voice. 'Don't take me… Please…'

'It's okay. I know you've been through a very frightening experience, Marie,' Chapman soothed. 'But it's over now. Nobody is going to take you back to the place where you were hurt. Your foster parents are waiting for you. They're going to take care of you, and tomorrow a nice lady will come to talk to you about what happened.'

'I can't,' begged Shepard. 'I can't…' She was crying, trembling, as she tried to get the words out. She wanted to tell him about her foster father. She wanted to tell him that he was the one she was afraid of. She wanted him to understand.

'She's been through a hell of a lot,' the cop said sadly. 'One of our guys found her selling her body in an alleyway down by the industrial site. From what we could tell, she's suffered some pretty bad abuse, but she won't let a doctor examine her.'

'How did she get there? Was someone pimping her?'

'No. The officer who brought her in said she was alone when she approached him. He didn't see any sign that she was working for anyone.'

He was a liar. Shepard's mind was screaming the words, but her chest was so tight that she could not make a sound. She fought for breath as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

'We've got a child therapist coming to see her tomorrow,' Chapman told the officer solemnly. 'Hopefully she'll be able to get the girl to open up.'

The cop nodded. 'Good. Nobody around here has been able to get anything coherent out of her. Poor thing…'

'She'll be all right. She's got a nice foster family who think the world of her. They'll be glad to have her back.'

Shepard crumbled inwards, unable to speak, as the police man crouched down in front of her and unlocked her handcuffs. He drew her up to her feet gently. She recoiled from his touch, still choking on her tears. Despair gripped her like a vice as she faced the unavoidable path before her. The social worker came forward.

'Come on, Marie,' he whispered, reaching out to her. 'Let's get you home…'