Alyson is crying when Margaret comes around again, slumped on her side on the cold tiled floor in the kitchen, her head resting in a pool of her own brilliant blood.

She lets out a guttural cry when she sees the blood covering her hands and clothes and the pain that radiates through the left side of her face and her hair which is drenched in her own blood, sticking together in clumps.

Now she sobs without fear, remembering Andrew had a formal function to go to tonight and that's why he was angry about the shirt. Touching her face just barely, her fingers become tainted with her own red blood. She stumbles up the stairs, unable to open her left eye from the blow, crying as she hears her own daughter's cries grow stronger.

Leo's words bounce around in her throbbing head, 'If you ever decide you want to get out, you know where I am.' and 'Think about what example your making for your daughter,' as she searches for a heavy winter scarf, her cries becoming more desperate as she fails to find the black woolen garment and Alyson cries harder.

Finding it on the bottom of the sixth draw she goes through, a quick glimpse in the mirror at her appearance leaves Margaret horrified at her swollen, bloodstained cheek and eye. Hastily she weaves the scarf around her face, covering her blood that is trailing down her neck and staining her blouse.

She presses Alyson as close to her chest as she can, grabbing only a blanket to keep the chill off her baby daughter. Downstairs she grabs for her purse and keys, there's nothing more about her life she can't live without...tonight she reached breaking point.

When Alyson is safe in her car seat, Margaret pulls away from the apartment, not looking back.

*

In the foyer, Margaret pulls the scarf closer into the side of her face as her black and red face draws attention from the wealthier middle class clientele. Her face is throbbing as her body works over time to pump blood to her battered facial tissue.

As she nears the top floor her quiet sobbing starts again as she realizes room ten eighteen is a safe haven. It takes only a matter of moments for the door to her safe haven to be opened.

"What did he do to you?" Leo asks, Margaret can't recall ever seeing such a look of horror on his face before. She can only cling tighter to her daughter, unable to answer.

"You need to be checked out at GW." Leo says, disappearing momentarily and coming back with a coat for both of them. Gently he takes Alyson from her arms and ushers her down the fire escape stairs.

*

Ignoring the sympathetic stares that she gets from the other emergency patients waiting in the cold plastic chairs, Margaret watches Leo cradle Alyson close to him and talk to one of the nurses on duty.

The middle-aged nurse looks over at Margaret as she picks up the phone, having only a brief conversation with the person on the other end. By this time Leo is leading her into a private examination room.

"What happened?" Leo asks as he clears the dried blood from Margaret's face with the mildly antiseptic water the nurse bought in. Margaret shifts uncomfortably in the aftermath of the rape kit that was done on her, watching over her daughter who sleeps contentedly in the hospital crib, unaffected it seems by everything.

"When I came home..." Margaret starts as Leo presses a gentle hand to the right side of the face to steady her; he lets the warm cloth wipe away her blood. "I hadn't washed his shirt for tonight."

"That's it?" Leo asks as Margaret flinches when the antiseptic reaches raw flesh.

"He found the diary I was keeping of all the things he had done to me, he made me burn it and then he hit me." A lone tear trickles down her cheek. "I woke and he was gone and then I came to you."

Outside the door, two uniformed police officers step in front of the glass panel and Leo moves quickly to allay Margaret's mixture of fear and hesitation.

"It's Ok, we can get you a no contact restraining order by tomorrow." Leo says soothingly, his right hand continuing to caress the undamaged side of her face.

"I can't." Margaret's voice trembles, watching the two officers converse outside her earshot.

"Margaret you have to, otherwise he's going to do it to the next woman and the next and nobody will ever know because he's the model citizen with a solid job and links to respectable clubs and societies, the generous nature and he'll keep getting away with it only in the future it might accelerate...till someone ends up dead."

"I don't think I can." Margaret whispers hoarsely.

"Margaret you took the first step, you came to me, that tells me you want out of this." Leo lays out, strengthening the insistence in his voice, his hand reaches for hers squeezing it encouragingly.

Ok barely comes out of her mouth, but it's enough for Leo who opens the door to the two officers and the process of getting control back over her life begins.

*