Warren could feel the satisfaction within him build as he heard the cursing of people around him. And he could feel the glare that Layla was sending him as he walked away from her and the ash that was once her lunch. She should have known better than to ask him to reveal any feelings, which, he wasn't so sure what they were himself after her question. But that was not the point, the point was that she had known him for over a year now and she should have realized after the first ten seconds that he didn't really do the whole "sharing of emotions" thing.

"Warren?" asked a voice from behind him and he turned in the empty hallway to find a confused Anna standing there.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, a bit panicked, he had been told the plan was to act like nothing had changed, and her talking to him was changing things, so there had to be an emergency.

"Why did you just incinerate that girl's lunch?" she asked him with the air of his mother catching him in a lie, and that thought scared him.

"She was asking too many questions." He replied frostily, hoping that she wasn't going to ask what the question that had set him off was.

"What did she ask you?"

He could never catch a break.

"Just why the two of us were together and ifIlikedyou." He uttered the last part as quickly as he could.

"What?" she asked, knowing what it was he said, but wanting to see him squirm a bit.

"She wanted to know if I had feelings for you."

"And you said?" she asked him, genuinely curious as to the answer.

"I didn't say anything." he replied with a bit of anger laced into his deep voice and she instantly dropped the subject, her hair didn't handle heat well.

"Oh, well, I had a question about this afternoon."

"Yeah?" he was relived with the change of subject.

"Do I really have to go to the police?"

"Anna, if you don't he'll come for you and Charlotte."

"I know, I know, I'm just a little scared, I mean what if they don't believe me?"

"They will, you still have the bruises, they can't dispute them."

"I know, but they could be attributed to just falling, what if…"

"No, they will believe you, I'll tell them what I saw, we'll show them the bruises, and if they still don't believe you we could have Charlie…"

It was her turn to cut him off.

"No, we are not bringing Charlie into this, I don't want her to have to go through this, she's been through enough."

"I know you don't want to traumatize her, but if the police need more proof, they're going to have to talk to Charlotte."

"I don't want her to have to relive that, I don't want her to be scared, Warren, I promised her that I would keep her safe, and making her talk to the police, making her do anything to stop Dad is like tossing her to the wolves."

"So we'll be there to catch her before she falls into the pit. Anna, we may need Charlie." He told her as he placed his hands on her shoulders and gently rubbed her arms.

"I know, but, I don't think that I'm strong enough to do this, and if I'm not then she isn't, she's seven years old for Christ's sake." The tears were back and as hard as she tried to force them down, she couldn't.

Warren saw the tears and pulled her into his arms, the only way he knew how to soothe her.

"It'll be okay, I'll be there." He murmured into her hair and she nodded.

"I know, but I'm still scared."

"It's okay to be scared sometimes."

She started to laugh and he looked down at her in question.

"What?"

"When did you become a bad after school special?" she asked him and he playfully shoved her.

"Since you became a soap-opera."

She smacked his arm.

"Not nice."

"You started it."

The pair of them stood there, grinning like idiots, the problems of just a few seconds before seemingly forgotten, but what they didn't notice was the person watching them from just down the hallway, hidden in the slight shadows caused by the turns and fluorescent lighting.

"We better get to class." Anna was the first to break the silence and Warren nodded. They should, before lunch ended and the pair of them were seen in the hallway together. Layla may have been the only one observant enough to notice Anna got on at the wrong bus stop, but even Zach would notice the two of them in the middle of the hallway, as close as they were, grinning like idiots.

Both managed to get through the rest of the day without any more questions and got on the bus together, but ignored each other like before and like before, sat in seats opposite of each other.

Anna got off the bus first, Warren only a few steps behind and she could feel her stomach erupt into butterflies. Butterflies that seemed to be tying knots into her intestines. She felt like she was going to be sick. She wasn't strong enough to go to the police, she wasn't brave enough, she just wasn't.

"Warren, I don't think I can do this." Her voice was shaking as the pair started towards his mother and her running car.

"What d'you mean?" he asked her and she shook her head.

"I can't do this, I'm not strong enough to do this." She started to turn back but he had been expecting that and caught her around the shoulders, spinning her to face the opposite direction.

"Oh no you don't, you can do this, I'll be there the entire time, I promise." And he started to walk with her towards his mother's car.

"No, no, no, I can't." she was shaking her head and digging her heels in. Warren merely tightened his grip a bit and pulled her flush against his chest, pushing her to the car.

"Yes you can, and if you can't do it for yourself, do it for Charlie, she needs you to be strong Anna, because then she'll be able to be strong too."

He was playing dirty and he knew it, he shouldn't be using Charlotte against her, for the second time, but she needed motivation for what she was about to do and he knew that if she was ever going to find inspiration in something it was that this would provide a better life for Charlie.

"Okay, for Charlotte."

"That's my girl." He whispered as he opened the door for her and she slid into the car, the butterflies now dancing a jig on top of the knots.

Warren got in the other side and reached out, taking her shaking hand in his as his mother drove to the police station.

"Can I help you?" asked a rather tall man, with short black hair and tan skin. He looked Latino and introduced himself as Detective Ramirez.

"Uh, yes, hi, my name is Anna Serona and I'd like to report child abuse." She replied quietly, her grip on Warren's hand tightening.

"Okay, why don't you come with me and I'll take your statement." He sounded a bit surprised about her claim but offered her a seat and sat across from her, paper and pencil in his hand.

"Who is the child in question?" he asked her, swinging into full on detective mode.

"Me." Her voice was small.

"Okay, who is the abuser?" he asked her, his voice becoming less business like and more like a concerned human being.

"My father."

"Anna, what kind of abuse?" he asked her and she knew what he meant.

"Nothing sexual," Warren's hand heated up at he mere suggestion, "he hits me."

"Okay, now, in order to file a report, I'm going to need proof. Eyewitnesses, medical proof."

"I have bruises, and some documentation from a few emergency room visits, but they aren't my name, I lied."

"You lied in the emergency room?"

"Yes, I didn't want anyone to know, I have younger sister and if they took me away, she'd be all alone in that house."

"Has your father ever hit her?"

"Once, when she was five, but now I divert all his attention to me, she's too little."

"Okay, I understand. I'm going to need to see your bruises and document them with pictures and then I'll need to see those medical forms from the hospital and have you checked out by another emergency room to collaborate those earlier medical findings, okay?"

She nodded; she was starting to feel a little more relaxed.

"Do you still live with your father?"

She looked up at Warren who smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Uh, no, I'm living with a friend, my sister and I are, uh, but my dad doesn't know where we are, or who we're with."

"Okay, I'm going to need your current address and your father's address."

"Okay."

"C'mon, I'll take you to the back room to get your information." He stood and waited patiently for her to follow, but she hesitated.

"Can Warren come too?" she asked, not letting go of the teenage boy's hand.

"Sure." Replied Detective Ramirez, a small smile on his face at how relaxed the boy seemed to make her.

"Thank you." She seemed truly grateful for his allowance and Detective Ramirez led the both of them to the back room.

Okay, there's another chapter, hope you liked it, not really a lot of Anna/Warren interaction, but that was bound to happen when I reached this part of the story, hope you'll all still read and review

Love ya

Andrew's Slinky