Disclaimer: I don't own any SJA characters, they all belong to BBC. Except Emily and Luke's previous foster parents, they are mine.
Luke's POV
It was dark. I couldn't see anything except for the small bit of light coming in from under the door. I tried to open it, but it was locked. I was locked in. I could hear every little sound and it scared me. I didn't know what any of them were. All I knew was that I didn't know what they were; and I'm scared.
Then I'm in a room that looked like a kitchen. There was round wooden table with two chairs, one of which had a broken leg. There was a fridge with marks all over it. Then the sink which was full of dishes. The light hanging from ceiling flickered and I backed up. I jumped at feeling something touch my back.
Shatter.
There was plate laying on the edge of counter and I knocked it. It hit the ground and shattered into a small pieces all over the floor.
He's coming. I know he heard it and I know what's coming.
"Please." I beg as he comes closer. I want to run, but there's nowhere to go. I wouldn't get away. I take a step back. I feel a sharp pain in my foot. "I'm sorry" I say as he pushes me to the ground on top of broken shards of glass.
"I'm sorry-I-I'm sorry!" I say as he then drags me out the kitchen. "Stop! Please! I'm sorry!"
"Luke!" I shot awake to see Sarah Jane sitting in front of me as I try to catch my breath. I look around the room. I'm not there. I'm at Sarah Jane's house. "It's okay. It was just a bad dream." I hear her say, but she's wrong. It was not just a dream. They are never just dreams. I try to speak. I needed to tell her I was fine so she didn't worry about me. But I couldn't speak. "Oh, come here." She pulls me into her arms and hugs me. I start to cry.
"I-I-I'm s-sorry." I cried. I woke her up. I shouldn't have done that. I always got in trouble doing that.
"Shhh, it's alright." Sarah Jane says, trying to comfort me. I feel her start to rub my back and I hold onto her tightly as I cry. Eventually I manage to stop crying but I don't let go; I didn't want to. I didn't want her to leave me. I was scared. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asks and I quickly shake my head. No, I didn't want to talk about it. Besides, it wasn't like talking about it would make them go away; they would never go away. Talking about them would just make it worse. Sarah Jane lets go and so do I. She looks at me with a warm smile. "You don't have to, but if you ever do want to talk about it, I'm here. Okay?" I nodded at what she says. But I will never want to talk about them.
"Well now, why don't you try and get some more sleep?" I shake my head. No, I didn't want to go back to sleep. If I go back sleep, I'll go there; I don't want to go there. "Luke, it's only half past two. You really should sleep." I shake my head again. She then starts to get up and I grab her arm to stop her. I knew she was tired. It was my fault that she woke up and I should let her go back sleep, but I'm scared. I'm still scared and I don't want to be alone. Stupid. I let go of her arm and just sat there. I should let her go back to sleep. I could manage on my own for a couple hours. "Come on." I look up at Sarah Jane, whom was motioning for me to follow. I got out of bed and followed her across the hallway and into her bedroom. She got into bed and the patted the spot beside her; did she want me to sit with her? I got on the bed next to her and she pulled the covers over us. She laid down and then motioned for me to come closer; I did. She wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close to her. "Now I'd like you to get some more rest, but I won't force you." She says as she strokes my hair. I got comfortable, resting my head against her shoulder as stroked my hair once more. This was really nice. I then closed my eyes; I felt safe.
"Luke." I wake up and see light coming through the shades that were on the windows. I turn to my right and see Sarah Jane smiling at me. "Did you sleep well?" She asks me and I nod. I did. This is the first time I didn't have one of those bad dreams. For once I felt safe. "Good. Do you want anything to eat this morning?" She asks me and I shake my head. I had a lot last night, so I didn't need anything. I was fine. "Okay, but how about some tea?" She asks and I nodded; that however, sounded really good. "Alright, I'll meet you down there in a minute."
Sarah Jane gets out of bed and goes into her bathroom. I start going down the stairs and then I heard the sound of the doorbell being rung. I remember it from last night. I unlock the door and open it.
"Hello Luke." I frown and quickly shut the door. I go back up some of the stairs and I hear her ring the doorbell again; it was Emily. Why was she here? No! Sarah Jane said I could stay here. I didn't want to leave. I started to cry. I didn't want to leave. I liked it here.
"My name is Emily and we're going to put you with a nice family…"
That was lie. She took me to a children's home and it wasn't nice there. She said she would put me with a nice family, but she didn't do that. She left with me people that never stopped hurting me. She took me away from Sarah Jane. The one person that was nice to me.
Now she was here to take me away again.
Sarah Jane's POV
I got dressed in the bathroom. I quickly finished what I was doing when I heard the doorbell. Who could that be? I quickly went down the stairs but stopped when I saw Luke curled up on the stairs, crying. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.
"PLEASE DON'T LET HER TAKE ME AWAY! I-I DON'T WANT TO GO! PLEASE DON'T LET HER TAKE ME!" Luke cried. He looked so scared. I glanced at the door and then back at Luke. "I DON'T WANT TO GO!" It took me a minute to realize what had happen; Emily must be at the door.
"Luke, Luke, look at me." I say, rubbing his shoulder. I needed him to calm down. "I will not let anyone take you from me. I promise." I meant it. I was not losing him again. Luke needed me. "And she's probably just here to have me sign paperwork to make me fostering you official." I say and then wipe his tears away. I go down the stairs and open the door.
"Hello, Sarah Jane." Emily says.
"Hello Emily." I greet. "So are you here for me to sign papers?" I ask quietly. I had to make sure that's what this was about before letting her in; I was not losing Luke again. I promised I would protect him and I would. She nodded and then I opened the door letting her come inside. I look up at the stairs and see Luke, whom still looked terrified. "It's okay Luke. She's not going to take you anywhere." I tell him but he still looked reluctant.
"I just need to get papers signed so it's legal." Emily says. "So is there a place we can do this?" She asks and I nod.
"Come here." I tell Luke, who slowly comes down the stairs and over to my side. I lead us into the living room. I sit on one of the couch with Luke, whom sat closely next to me while Emily sat on the couch across from us. She then placed some papers on the coffee table that was in between.
"So how does this work?" I ask.
"Well usually you put in a request and we have to wait until the system approves it, however this is an emergency case." Emily explains. "Now if you sign these, Luke will be placed under your temporary custody."
"Temporary?" I questioned.
"Yes. This will be for a roughly a couple weeks. Then we'll schedule a home visit where I and another social worker will come evaluate your home and if it's what you and Luke want, he can placed under your permanent custody. But I can see that Luke has taken a liking to you, so that shouldn't be an issue." She says and I smile at Luke.
"Just look it over then sign here and here." Emily says, showing me where to sign. I didn't have to think about whether I wanted to foster him; I made that decision a long time ago.
But I looked over the paperwork just to be safe.
Would I provide for Luke? Yes. I would provide whatever he needs. I will protect him and give him everything he deserves and more.
I sign the papers and give it back to Emily.
"Okay, well congratulations. Sarah Jane Smith, you are officially Luke's foster mother." Emily says and Luke hugs me, which makes me smile. He is happy; and I am happy too. "Now if it's okay Sarah Jane, I'd like to discuss some things with you privately." I nodded at what she asks and turn to Luke.
"Why don't you go get dressed?" I tell him and he nods. He lets go of me and goes up to his room.
"Well we've been trying to find Luke's files and we haven't found anything. Except a birth certificate, but that could be faked." Emily says. "We've had to start being extra careful since people keep trying to get by with somehow producing fake files."
"I'm sure whoever was running that factory. He probably belonged to them." I say. Maybe that will lead off the topic. I guess now I have to do a better job with having Mr. Smith create fake files and papers.
"Yeah right, anyways, we couldn't find anything else on him, so we'll need to get a medical and dental chart for him." Emily says. Oh that would be easy for Mr. Smith to do.
"That's not problem." I say.
"Great. I'll send you some recommendations. We're doing that as well as checking everything to make sure it's real and legal." Emily says. Oh great, I'll have to do it. I'll have to actually take him. This was going to be difficult. If he was any other child, it wouldn't be a problem, but he wasn't. He was Luke and he was a special case. But I guess I'll just have to come up with a few good stories.
"So why did you want to discuss that privately?" I ask. Why did she not want Luke here for this? He would know about this eventually, now wouldn't he?
"Well I just didn't want to get him worked up or anything for now." Emily says. I guess that made sense. "Let me tell you, that foster family I placed him with, one of them was a doctor. And well there was this incident the other week where he went to the hospital."
"What happened?"
"He had a cut on his foot. Had to get stitches." Emily says. "According to the foster dad he stepped on some glass after breaking some dishes. Anyways, I really wish I had looked into this sooner as I'm almost completely sure he had cuts on his face as well." I nodded. Those cuts he had, they didn't look very old.
"How long ago was this?"
"A week." She tells me. Yeah, they weren't very old. Though he might have stepped on glass, I knew that explanation wouldn't work for those cuts. "Anyways, I really wish I would have gotten down there sooner. I should have as we had been trying to contact them about a home visit, but never heard anything." It's true, it would have been better for Luke's sake if they had gotten down there sooner, but that's in the past now. What matters is that's he with me now and I won't let anything bad happen to him.
"Alright well I better get going. I'll email you tonight with whom I recommend Luke to see. If you have any questions or need anything just give me a call or send me an email." Emily says and I nod. I show her out and then go upstairs to Luke.
Luke's POV
I went upstairs and got dressed like Sarah Jane told me to. I put on the grey striped shirt and jeans that were in the drawer by the mirror. I went over to grab my shoes when I felt this sharp sting on my foot. I just stepped on a pen. Did I leave that there? I look down and then saw that my sock was red. I hop onto my bed and take it off; I was bleeding. Oh great, it might be my stitches.
I jump at hearing Sarah Jane knock on my door. "Hold on." I say and quickly go into the bathroom. I quickly looked through the drawers and found bandage. I wrapped some around my foot and then threw the bloody sock away after then putting a new pair on; now she didn't have to know. "You can come in now." I say. Sarah Jane walks in and sits down next to me.
"So what do you think about going to get you some more clothes?" Sarah Jane asks me. "I think you might need more than what we've got here." I grin and then nod. I guess I couldn't just wear the same thing every day and night.
"Sounds good. Can we have tea first?" I ask and Sarah Jane nods.
"I'll go put the kettle on." Sarah Jane leaves and then I get up. I have to see if I can walk. I can as long as I'm careful. I just needed to get through clothes shopping and then I'd be fine. Sarah Jane doesn't need to know about this.
After tea, Sarah Jane drove into town and we went into a couple stores to buy clothes. We got a bunch of shirts, jeans, sweatpants, jackets, and socks. I thought that was good enough mostly because my foot was really starting to ache and I just wanted to get off it. But then Sarah Jane said we needed to get another pair of shoes.
"I got shoes. I'm fine." I say as I follow her into the store and quickly sit down on one of the benches.
"You've only got one pair." Sarah Jane says. "You're a size ten…" She says looking through the boxes. "Here, try these." She went back to looking while I put one shoe on; the foot that wasn't throbbing. I started to take the other shoe, but it hurt too much. I then took the shoe I tried on and put it back in the box; she didn't have to know I didn't put both on.
"These are good." I say handing her the box. "Let's go!"
"Luke, hold on." Sarah Jane stops me. Why? Why can't we just go?
"We're good. Those shoes for fine. We can go." I say and start heading for the door in a limp, but then without thinking I step down how I normally would; that really hurt. "Ow ow!" I feel Sarah Jane grab hold of me. She helps me walk to a bench outside.
"I was trying to tell you we have to pay for them first." Sarah Jane tells me and I sigh; I should have waited. "Luke, what's going on?"
"Nothing. I-I'm fine." I lied. I didn't want her to know what's wrong because I know what she'll do. I look away from her. I know how she's now looking at me. She's knows I'm lying. She's mad at me and I know what happens when adults get mad; I prepare myself for punishment.
"Luke. It's alright." She says and I jump at her touching my shoulder. I look up at her and she doesn't seem mad. Why wasn't she mad? I just lied to her.
"Y-You're not m-mad?" I asked, scared. I didn't want her to be mad at me. I was afraid of her being mad at me; what if she didn't want me anymore because I was bad.
"No, I'm just worried." Sarah Jane says. "Can you tell what happened?"
"I stepped on a pen." I tell her as I couldn't lie now. "It really hurts."
"Can I see it?" Sarah Jane asks as she goes to touch my foot, but I stop her.
"No, don't touch it." I say. It already hurts enough when I'm not walking on it or touching it; I don't want it get worse.
"I'll be careful, I promise." Sarah Jane says. I guess I had to trust her and I guess it'd be better for her to do it than anyone else. I let her carefully bring my foot over to her and she carefully takes the shoe off. It hurt a little bit, but not as much as I thought. I guess she was careful. "Oh Luke." Sarah Jane says and I look over. Now it was bleeding through this sock.
"I guess it's a good thing we got socks." I add.
"Yeah well, I'm going to have to get you to a doctor." Sarah Jane says and I move away.
"No!" I say. I was not going to a doctor.
"Luke, I can't do anything. It won't stop bleeding. You need to have a doctor look at it." Sarah Jane says and I shake my head. No, I didn't want to see another doctor. They would just make it worse. "It'll be okay. I'll get you a real nice doctor." She tries to touch me, but I move away. I wasn't listening to that. I've heard that before.
I was on the floor, crying. Not audible. I got in trouble for that, so I just fought off the urge to make noise. It already hurt enough; I didn't want them to hurt me more. My face was cut, but that didn't hurt as much as my foot did.
"He's getting blood everywhere!" My foster mother yelled.
"Well what do you want me to do about it?" My foster father yelled back. "I don't have stuff here to stop it."
"Take him to a doctor, you idiot!" She yelled. "If he bleeds out and someone finds us you know what'll happen."
"Why did I let you talk me into this fostering crap? All that little shit does is make a mess of everything!" He yelled. I didn't mean it. I never meant it, but I guess that didn't mean anything. I did it and whether I meant it or not, I did it. And that was bad.
"How was I supposed to know he's one of the crappy ones?! And you're the one who picked him! I wanted the blonde one, but no! You said get the older one! He'll break less stuff!" She says and I curl up into a ball. I didn't mean to do it. Any of it. I wish they had a phone. It hurts and no one was here to help me. If I could get to the phone, I could call Sarah Jane. Maybe she would help me.
"Let's go boy!" My foster dad picks me up by the shirt and carries me to the car. "You try anything boy and I swear I won't hesitate to beat you then and there. And then when we get home, I'll bring you to the room." He warns and I nodded quickly. I didn't want to go in there. I don't want to go in that room ever again.
The drive was short and once we were in this building he handed me over, but not after first telling me to behave or else I'd regret it.
This man in a white coat came over along with two woman wearing blue. They held me still as he put something sharp into my foot. It burned. And then he was doing something to my foot. He called it stitches and it hurt worse. I tried to move, but two people were holding me down. I wanted to cry. And I did cry.
"Oh stop being a baby. It's done." He says, but I don't stop. I don't move.
I just cry and kept wishing Sarah Jane was here. I wanted her to save me, though I knew it wouldn't happen. She's probably forgotten all about me.
My foster father came back and yelled at me because the doctor said I didn't behave. He took me home and gave me another beating. Though the beatings are always bad, my foot still throbbed. It still hurt. But I couldn't say anything. Or else I'd regret it.
"It hurts." I mumble thinking about that night.
"I know it does, Luke. That's why I need to take you to a doctor." Sarah Jane says. But I couldn't go. I didn't want to. If I needed stitches it would hurt and I didn't want that again. "I promise it'll be alright." Sarah Jane says and helps me to the car. I don't struggle against her; that would be bad and I am not going to be bad anymore.
I can't be bad. I don't want to be bad.
The drive was quick and we didn't say anything. She helped me into the building and I sat down. I had no choice. This was happening. This place seemed different; was this a different hospital maybe? Well at least then I wouldn't have him again.
Maybe I would get lucky and I wouldn't need stitches again. I really hope I don't need stitches again.
Sarah Jane's POV
I went over to reception after I got Luke to sit down. "Is Martha Jones here? It's an emergency. My—son Luke—" She cut me off to tell me to go wait over there, not seeming to care whether it was an emergency or not. I would just have to wait. I found that rude, but I didn't say anything about it. I was not going to waste my time telling that woman off when I could be sitting down with Luke, helping to calm him down.
While we waited, I rubbed his back and tried to reassure him everything would be fine; but it didn't seem to be working. "Everything will be fine. I'll be with you the whole time." I tell Luke, whom then shakes his head.
"They won't let you."
"Yes they will."
"No, they won't." Luke insists. He seemed so sure that I wouldn't be with him for that. I had a bad feeling. Emily told me about his hospital visit, but there were still questions. What hospital and what doctor did Luke have? It seemed to me it couldn't have been a good one.
"I promise they will." I say and not too long after that, they brought Luke and I back to a bed. "See. I told you." I say as I wrap my arm around Luke; he needed that. A few minutes later, Martha walked over to us.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Jones." She says, mostly talking to Luke. He didn't know her, but I did. I had been chasing a story when I met her. She was very helpful then, so I knew she would be very helpful now. "You must be Luke. So can you tell me what happened?" Martha asks, but Luke didn't speak. Instead, he latched onto me.
"I'm not sure, but it might be his stitches on the left foot. He accidently stepped on a pen and it won't stop bleeding." I say. I didn't really know what to say. I didn't know what was wrong besides the fact that he was bleeding.
"Luke, is it alright if I take a look at it?" Martha asks and Luke shakes his head. I should have seen that coming. I knew Luke was only being difficult because he was scared, and having an idea of what he's been through, I didn't blame him. "I promise, I'll be careful."
Luke nods. I rub his back as Martha, as carefully as she could, took off his sock. She then looked at his foot and I could tell by how she looked at me, that Luke wasn't going to be happy.
"Luke, I'm sorry, but I have to re-stitch you up." Martha says as nicely as she could, but Luke was not taking it well. He first just shook his head, but then he started to cry and said 'No' over and over. It broke my heart to see him like this. He was just so scared. I wrapped my arms around him and tried to comfort him and tell him it would be fine; but it wasn't really working. "This first part will sting a little bit. I know, it will, but after that you won't feel any pain." Martha says.
"You're lying. Why are you lying?" Luke says.
"She's not lying, Luke."
"Yes, she is. It hurts the whole time. It doesn't stop." Luke says. "I just wanted it to stop." Luke had every right to be scared about this. He went through this and it hurt and with all the people he's been with, I don't blame him for not believing Martha.
"Luke, listen to me. Do you trust me?" I ask him after a couple minutes of comforting him the best I could. Luke nods at me, without hesitation; that was good. "Well Martha isn't lying to you. After she gives you the anesthetic it won't hurt. Now you're a smart boy, why would she give you the anesthetic if you would feel her stitching you up, anyways?" I ask him and shakes his head.
"I don't know." Luke says. "I guess she wouldn't." I smile at him. He really was clever.
"Good." I say. "I don't blame you for being scared, but you don't have to be. Everything will be alright." He smiles at me, but I know it's forced; he was still really scared. "You said you trust me. Well I'm telling you to trust Martha. Can you do that?" I ask Luke and he nods after a moment.
While Martha gets what she needs ready, I just continue to comfort him and try to distract him from what will be happening. "Luke, you can lie down, if you want." Martha says and I know what she's getting at. I get Luke to lay down, putting his head on my lap. I stroked his hair, hoping it helped him calm down a bit and it seemed to; until Martha asked if he was ready. But he nodded anyways. "Alright, just relax. It'll sting for a few seconds and then it's done." Martha says and I take his hand. I know she has given it to him when I hear Luke let out a small pained cry. "There. Hard part's over." Luke griped onto my hand and I continued to run my fingers through his hair as Martha stitched him up; but it was quickly over.
Once he was discharged, I helped him to the car, but I sat next to him in the back instead of just getting into the front.
"You okay now?" I ask him and Luke nods.
"I'm sorry." Luke says.
"I know." I say, I know he was just scared. He had every right to be, but that's over and done with now. "But next time something like this or if anything at all happens, I need you to tell me. I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." I say and he nods, understanding. I couldn't be the best foster mum I could be if I didn't do all that I could.
I knew this would take some time to get used to, but I knew we'd get there.
One thing I know, it's going to be so much fun taking Luke to the doctor's next week.
I would have had this up much sooner but as I was getting ready to move this over onto here, my dog somehow ended up deleting all my work. And the software I was using at the time didn't have an undo button. So I had to rewrite everything. So please, show me some love by reviewing. :) They will make me very happy.