A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the previous chapter. I normally reply to all reviews but my laptop has a large crack in the trackpad so it's hard to control it. But I really appreciate it.

I'm about to take my laptop in to Apple to be repaired so I won't have a computer for the next 5 days or so. I'll be planning the next chapter but it means no posting/writing.

"It's the sea dad!"

"I can see it Amy. The same way I saw it when you first shouted that it was the sea."

"But it's the sea!"

"Amy STOP!" Roxy shrieked as her daughter hurtled in the direction of the sea, which just happened to involve crossing a busy road. "You never cross the road without me or your dad. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Sorry mum."

"Just don't do it again okay? I know you're excited about the sea honey but just be careful."

"Okay. Now can we go to the beach?"

Roxy shook her head and grabbed hold of her daughter's hand and waited for Jack and Evie to catch up. Peggy had chosen to avoid the beach, instead having decided to wander off to explore the town. Of course Roxy and Jack both knew that that meant she was going to try and fit in as much shopping and drinking as possible. Jack was walking along with Evie who he was chatting away to. He had also been given the unfortunate job of carrying all the stuff to the beach.

"Why am I the only one carrying anything here?"

"Because we love you dad."

"Yeah I'm feeling loved right now."

The small group made their way across the road, ignoring Jack's mumblings, and onto the busy beach.

"Right first person to find a spot gets an ice-cream," Jack shouted, causing the two young girls to go racing along the sand.

"It's nice that Amy's got someone to keep her company here. I don't think I could cope with being the one who has to be chasing her around," Roxy laughed.

"Yeah well when you're pushing 40…"

"I am not pushing 40," she yelled, whacking him on the arm.

Any potential argument was diverted by the sight of Amy and Evie leaping up and down on the sand, waving their arms about.

"We found a spot!"

"Come on then. The girls have actually got a use."

"Dad I want to go in the sea!"

"Will you be quiet for one moment Amy? You can't go into the sea fully dressed; you need to put your costume on. This is why your mum told you to put your costume on under your clothes."

"But that is uncomfortable."

"Which is why you have to get changed now. And you and Evie aren't going in there alone."

"I'm nearly 6!"

"Exactly! That's not old enough."

"Dad!"

"Amy!" he mimicked. "Go and get your costume from your mum and she'll help you put it on."

As his daughter wandered off over to Roxy, he turned his attention to Evie who was hovering hesitantly to his right.

"What's wrong Evie?" She didn't say anything. Instead she bit her lip and stared at the sand. "You can tell me."

"I not been in the sea before."

"Aw don't worry about that," he said, pulling her into a hug. "Tell you what. We'll put you in the t-shirt Roxy brought and you and me can just go paddling. How about that?"

"Okay," she said hesitantly.

"If you want to get out then we'll come back here okay. We can get started on the picnic early without those two."

She let out a small laugh and Jack gave her a small smile. He grabbed the t-shirt and pulled off her thick, baggy jumper that she was wearing. And as he did so, the reasons behind her baggy clothes suddenly became clear to him. Her chest was covered in an array of bruises, ranging from fresh reddish ones to older brown ones. It appeared as if there was not a single area of her chest that was not coloured by some bruise – her skin was a patch work of beatings. As well as that, her frail frame was even more obvious. Her ribs were clearly visible through her paper thing skin and her collarbones jutted out above her stick thin arms.

Jack desperately struggled not to wince as he stared at the girl's body.

"Evie. Where did you get these bruises from?" he asked hesitantly, tentatively stroking a dark blue bruise just above her belly button.

"I'm a bad girl," she muttered.

"What?" he asked, shocked at hearing a girl as young as her saying such a phrase. But instead of responding, she began to viciously rub at a faint brown bruise on her shoulder. "Evie. Who gave you those bruises?"

He desperately tried to quell the anger in his tone and he fought the urge to grab her and shake her out of her daze. His dealings with abused women back in the police force had taught him that anger wasn't the answer. But to see a young girl like Evie covered in bruises and blaming herself, who the hell would do that to her?

"Elinor," she eventually mumbled, still rubbing at the bruise.

"Is Elinor the woman from the train?"

"Yeah. She says I'm a bad girl. God tells her to punish me."

"What?" he asked, his voice strained as he clenched his fists.

"I'm a bad child, born in sin, and she has to punish me. I'm naughty and I should be better."

"Evie listen to me. Evie!" he snapped, causing her to look up. "You are not naughty and you don't deserve to be punished."

"I am."

"No you're not." He let out a sigh of frustration before grabbing her jumper. "We're going to sort this out," he said. He helped her back into her jumper, taking a last glance at the bruises that lined her young body.

"Daddy lets go in the sea!" Amy suddenly squealed, running over from Roxy, and jumped onto Jack's back. "Come on daddy."

Jack forced himself to stand up and he spun her around before beckoning Roxy over.

"Can you take her?" he said, lowering Amy down onto the sand.

"Aren't you coming dad? And why isn't Evie changed yet?"

"Look honey. I've got to go back and sort something out with Evie okay? But I promise that I'll bring you to the beach tomorrow and we'll go swimming. I'll even buy you that pink rubber ring you wanted. But right now I've got something really important to do. Can you understand that?"

"I guess," she said, her voice breaking slightly. She stood for a moment longer before trudging off to the other end of their spot, her shoulders slumped.

"What the hell is going on Jack?" Roxy snapped. "Are you trying to ruin her holiday?"

"Look at this." He pulled up part of Evie's jumper, displaying just a fraction of the bruises that covered her body. "That is what I need to sort out," he hissed as Roxy gasped.

"Oh my god. Go. I'll make up something for Amy."

"So she won't hate me?"

"Exactly."

"Jack…" Evie said, dragging her feet along the skirting board of the lift.

"What is it?"

"I'm just worried about what Elinor's going to do. She's always said that if I ever told anyone then I'd regret it."

Jack dropped down to her level and held her hand.

"Well did you tell me about your bruises?"

"No," she said hesitantly.

"Exactly. You didn't break the rules did you."

"No?"

"No you didn't. And I'll make sure she won't do anything."

"Promise?" she asked, staring at him with her huge blue eyes.

"I promise Evie."

As he stood back up and the lift pinged to announce its arrival on the fourth floor, Jack couldn't help but wonder over his protectiveness of Evie. He hadn't even known her a day and yet he couldn't fight his urge to look out for her.

Jack knocked on the door of room 416, forcing himself to keep his anger in check as he waited for Elinor to appear. He could feel Evie clenching his hand tightly, and she was almost trembling by the time the sound of footsteps was audible.

The door flung open to show the same woman from the train. She was a butch woman, her height almost matching Jack's. Her broad frame seemed to fill the entire entrance and even Jack felt his confidence slip slightly. Her face was red with annoyance and she looked immensely displeased to see Jack stood in her doorway. Then her eyes flicked to Evie who was hovering behind him.

"Oh you're back are you? Did you think I wouldn't notice you running off? Get inside!"

She made to grab Evie's arm but Jack stepped between the pair.

"I think you're been manhandling her far too much from what I've seen."

"And what business is that of yours?"

"I'm making it my business. And I want to talk to you."

Gathering his strength, he barged past Elinor, keeping a tight hold of Evie's hand. The curtains of the hotel room were drawn shut and some soppy movie was on pause. Clothes were scattered across the room and the only evidence of Evie's existence was a small collection of toys in the far corner.

"You can just get out now. whoever the hell you are. This is between me and that little brat. So go poke your nose elsewhere."

"You are joking! How could you treat one of your family like this?"

Elinor let out a noise that sounded like a mix between a snort and a choked laugh.

"Family? That is no relation of mine!" she said, jabbing her finger at Evie. "I just got the unfortunate job of having her offloaded on me."

"And you treat her like that? Have you seen the state of her? How could you beat her like that?"

"She deserves it! She's a little brat and it's the only way to teach her everything. Humans are born in sin and she's even worse with her tart of a mother. A single mum, knocked up out of wedlock."

"And that gives you the right to beat her. She's a child. I don't even know why I'm here. I should be reporting you to the cops."

"Oh you know what, I can't be doing with this. You want to deal with her then you can have her. I was only supposed to be looking after her for two bloody weeks but now it's turned into months. I have to trek up her every week so she can see that stupid mother of hers. And I ain't doing it anymore."

Jack stared at her confusedly as she continued to rant over her annoyance about caring for Evie. She stormed over to the corner of the room and began throwing things at Jack.

"Here's her clothes and her toys. And that stupid rabbit that she can't sleep without because she acts like she's two." She continued to throw things in their direction, swearing and shouting as she did so. "I've had to put up with this spoilt little brat for too long and what do I get for it? Nothing. I get jumped up pricks like you coming and attacking me. Well you can try looking after her and you can find that the only way to control her is to slap some sense into her."

With that she stormed out, slamming the hotel room door behind her, causing the room to descend into silence.

Jack stared around the bombshell of the room in a daze, trying to process what had just happened. The confrontation he had planned had somehow ended with him being handed the care of a child he barely knew. How the hell had that happened?

Dropping down onto the bed, he placed his head in his hands and let out a small groan. What was he supposed to do now?

"Jack are you okay?" Evie asked, grabbing a hold of his hand with her tiny one.

"Yeah," he managed to mutter, sitting up to look at her.

"Okay there has to be something here that can help us," he said, his police brain kicking in. "You just sit right here." He scooped Evie up and dropped her onto the bed before beginning to route around through the collection of things around the room. "There has to be some clue."

"What 'bout Jack?"

Jack hesitated. How could he tell her that he was trying to offload her on someone? Being beaten the way she had been must have done her some form of damage. And if he told her he was trying to get rid of her as quickly as possible then…well he would bet anything that her face would crumple all over again.

"Why don't you get your things gathered up?"

"Okay."

She shimmied off the bed and began to neatly fold her clothes in a manner that was not at all normal for a four year old like her.

Jack sighed before continuing the search for any clue as to where this elusive mother was, or any family at all. There had to be someone who could care for her. He couldn't possibly take in a girl that he barely knew.

"Evie. Do you know if Elinor brought any papers with her?"

"Papers? I can't draw. Not allowed."

"No like… It doesn't matter."

"Maybe in there," she said, pointing to the bedside table. "She told me that I can't go in there."

"Thanks Evie. You keep packing. We're going to move your stuff over to our rooms tonight and we can sort everything out tomorrow okay?"

"Okay," she said brightly.

She seemed unaware of exactly what had happened. To her, she was free of Elinor and was going on something of an adventure. If only it was all that simple.

Opening the drawer, he winced at the variety of things in there that he definitely didn't want to see. But alongside the array of kinky and frankly disturbing items, there was a manilla folder labelled private. Removing it from the drawer, he flicked it open and pulled out the first few sheets of paper.

They were simply records of reservations for trains and hotel rooms over the next few weeks – all for this hotel and for trains from Reading to here and back again. The next bundle was no more useful, a series of correspondences with a David Sutcliffe. But then something caught his eye. In contrast to the standard black typed font of the rest of the pages, one was headed with cursive red text – CERTIFIED COPY OF AN ENTRY OF BIRTH.

He placed the rest of the folder down beside him and examined the thin yellow paper in his hand. But as he read over the words, any hope he had was replaced with pure and utter disbelief. It was as if he was hallucinating what he was reading.

Born - 19th December 2009, Leeds General Infirmary Hospital.

Name - Evelyn Olivia Branning.

Sex - Female.

Name and surname of father - Jack Branning.

Name, surname and maiden surname of mother - Veronica Mitchell.

Occupation of father – Businessman.

Signature, description and residence of informant – , Mother, 14 Callows Street, Leeds

When registered – 23rd December 2009