10. Shawn

"You don't get to disappear for two years and come back expecting everything to be the way it was. So tell me, Maya, where were you?"

Dropping her hand by her side, Maya shuffled from foot to foot waiting for the door to open. It was getting late and that meant it was getting cold outside. All she was dressed in was a long sleeved shirt and torn jeans that weren't doing much against the weather. And to make it worse, she had been wandering around by herself for hours before working up the courage to visit him.

Finally, the door opened and she looked up to see the man she considered her father looking down at her.

Upon opening the door, Shawn glanced down at the blonde hair – blue eyed girl staring up at him. It took him a moment, but he snapped out of his confused state and ushered Maya in, noticing her shivering.

As she sat down on the couch, Shawn grabbed the blanket folded neatly on the back, wrapping it around her. "Th-thanks," She said to him, pulling the material tighter around her.

Without even asking, Shawn began making a hot chocolate and coffee for Maya and himself respectively. Once he was done, he sat down on the table in front of the sofa, handing the steaming mug to the blonde. After taking their first sips, Shawn placed the mug to the side and leant forward, "Now, why are you here at," He stopped to look at the clock on the wall. "Ten at night? By yourself, none the less."

Picking at the handle of her mug, Maya once again avoided Shawn's eyes – something she seemed to be doing too much since returning to New York. "I need to get away," She mumbled to him but Shawn heard it loud and clear.

"What did you need to get away from?" He asked gently, placing a hand on Maya's knee but watched as she flinched away from it before forcing herself to relax. What was that about?

"My ...m …oy…end." She was whispering so quietly that only parts of words were making it to Shawn at this point and he had to ask her to repeat herself. "My mom's boyfriend," Maya told him a little louder this time.

"Wyatt?" Sure, he had heard of the man that was dating Katy but he didn't really know him to judge him. "What has he done? Maya…" Shawn trailed off, everything seemingly to click into place.

The girl in question just nodded my head mutely and traced the rim of her cup.

"Can you show me please?" At that moment, Shawn wanted to scream and punch and hunt this man down but Maya was more important in that moment and doing all that would only push her away and scare her.

Turning her blue eyes to Shawn, he got to see the damage that had been done to Maya. She was broken. She was scared. She was lonely. She was hesitant. But despite this, she shrugged the blanket off her shoulders and lifted her shirt up, just enough to show her stomach. It was dark purple and blue in some places and a sickly yellow in others.

She then turned her back to Shawn, exposing her back to him. Red, angry marks littered the once pale skin and Shawn had to cover his mouth to stop any noise coming out. "Maya, did he hit you with a belt or something?"

When the blonde turned back around, the tears leaking down her cheeks told him his exact answer, but at the same time, washed any make-up on her cheeks off. There was a hand-print shaped mark on the left side of her face that was beginning to show through the foundation – one of the only things she was allowed to buy to cover Wyatt's tracks.

"The first thing we are going to do is take pictures of this," Shawn told her, standing and looking for his camera. "We need evidence for the police-"

At the mention of police Maya stood quickly before crying out in pain and clutching her side, "P-police? Please don't." She asked him through gritted teeth.

"Maya, you cannot go back to that place and live like this. We're going to take pictures for the police and then I'm taking you back to the Matthews' place. You can stay there until we sort this all out," Finally finding his camera, he turned back to Maya. "I have a pair of clothes that should fit you from years ago. Don't ask me how I have them but I just do, although they may be a little big on you. It's just so we can take the pictures and you can change into some old sweatpants I have."

It was close to one in the morning as Topanga and Cory sat on their couch, waiting for Maya to come through the door with Shawn.

Topanga had her head resting on Cory's shoulder, eyes dropping shut as he was on his phone to try and stay awake.

Finally, the front door opened and Shawn walked through awkwardly carrying Maya, who was fast asleep. Her legs dangled from either side of his waist and her head was lazily propped on his shoulder, blonde curls everywhere.

Quickly standing, Cory moved to take the girl from his best friend's arms, pausing when she mumbled something in her sleep before dropping right off again. "I'll put her in our room," He mouthed to Topanga before disappearing down the hall.

Shawn and Topanga were left in the living room when Shawn ran a hand through his hair and dropped to the sofa. Topanga sat next to him and waited for an explanation. Finally, he cracked and told her everything Maya had told him, watching Topanga's face fall with every word. And when he had shown her the pictures, she had begun sobbing just as Cory walked back in.

As soon as he saw the scene, he tried to console his wife while listening to Shawn's story. Once it was all over, he was just as angry and upset as the others. "We need to report this to the police," He spoke the obvious. "But it'll have to be tomorrow. Maya's safe here tonight and we can sort this all out in the morning."

Both nodded in agreement when Shawn remembered something, "One of you might want to stay with Maya tonight." He then looked towards Topanga, "It probably be you, she seems to be hesitant around men and she thinks of you as a second mother."

"Of course, I'll stay with her, but why?" Topanga asked, already rising from her seat, her tear finally drying.

"She's been having nightmares and it's best if someone is there to wake her up from them. I don't know how bad they are but she told me she's been waking up screaming for months now," Topanga just nodded, not replying and made her way down the hallway, towards her and Cory's bedroom.

Once they were sure she was out of sight, Cory turned to Shawn, "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I don't know; I really don't know."

I wrote this yesterday before work so it's probably not the best and there's probably some of you thinking that it's stupid – don't worry, I think this is kinda weird too. I don't know, I'm not thrilled with it but at then again, that's for you to decide if you like of not. Can I just say that we are super close to 10k reads, which is pretty neat because this is chapter 10 of the book! Thank you all for reading and also thank you for nearly 100 follows along with fifteen+ reviews on Run Away Child. You guys are the best readers ever! :)