Cordelia had been so enthralled in grading the test that she hadn't even noticed the girl left. Once she finished grading the test she counted up the points for each section and sat there stunned. She had made this test specifically so the girls wouldn't get perfect scores, even going as far as to put college level calculus on it. Elliott had aced it. A 98%. The girl hadn't been in a real school in years but apparently had taught herself calculus. She was brilliant, and here Cordelia was expecting to have to teach her everything. Cordelia had felt guilty for assuming the girl was that far behind, but there was a good reason for it. She got up and headed to Elliott's room for the two of them to talk, hoping she had given the girl enough time to calm down, but when she knocked on the door no one answered. She opened it and the room was empty, so she headed to the library to see if she was there, nothing. She called out for the girl but got no response. She checked the greenhouse, the panic settling in when she realized the girl was gone. She ran back to the house and checked Elliott's room again, this time searching for her backpack, which she soon realized was gone too.

She didn't know how long she had been gone, she never heard her leave. She had been grading the test for a little over an hour, in that time Elliott could have easily made her way to a bus station and gotten the hell out of there. Cordelia had no way of getting in contact with the girl, no phone number or anything. Cordelia cursed herself for not getting the girl a phone or even asking if she had one. She quickly grabbed her keys and headed to the car, knowing trying to get a vision of the girl was of no use.

She drove along the streets for a bit looking for her, hoping she didn't go too far. If she had gone to a bus station there was no way Cordelia would find her, she was already too far gone. The idea made Cordelia's stomach knot. She drove to the other side of town with a new focus. If she could find David, chances are he could help her find Elliott, or maybe she was with him. That is, if he was willing to help her. She headed to the corner store, hoping someone there would know how to contact him.

Meanwhile, Elliott sat on the floor of David's small apartment, arguing with the boy. "I'm not going back. I was just fine before and I'll be fine now. I don't need them." She argued.

"But you do need them Elliott. As annoying as they may be they're just trying to help you. You have to be able to control this thing, its obviously not going away." He responded. Elliott knew he was right, but she was mad, and she didn't want him to be trying to convince her.

"I can learn how to control them on my own. I've done it before. I don't need them for that. They want me to use it, they think it's some sort of gift. It's not, and I want no part of it. How the hell am I supposed to stay at that school? It's not free and I don't want to feel like I owe them something. I don't. They have no leverage on me." She responded emphatically.

"Ever consider they're just being nice?" David asked, earning him a doubtful glare from Elliott, "Maybe they don't actually want anything from you except for you to learn how to use your powers? Is that really so bad?"

"You don't know them. Somethings up I can tell. They're too nice. No one is that nice unless they're hiding something or they want something. Cordelia is trying way too hard to get to know me." She said matter of factly, earning a laugh from David.

"Did you ever think maybe she DOES want to get to know you? She supposedly in charge, wouldn't she want to get to know things about her girls? Like what makes them angry so she can help them control whatever they have?" He responded, amused at how worked up Elliott was getting. He knew he was right, and Elliott did too. Sometimes he would just laugh at the lengths Elliott would go to keep people out, but then again she was only hurting herself.

Elliott sat silent, defeated. She knew he was right, that she wasn't making sense. But something seemed off to her. She didn't like all the hushed conversations the witches were having, the way they looked at her, like there was something she wasn't being told. It was like she had a giant explosive sign taped to her back. She felt the same way whenever she met with her social worker or a new family, a giant "handle with caution" stamped on her forehead.

"Just give them a chance Elliott. Give it six months, if you really hate it that much then leave and I won't be mad. But this is good for you ok?" David said softly. He knew how she felt, like everyone was out to get you. But the issue with that is you also miss out on some really good things if you live your whole life that way. Just then his phone rang, the store was calling him. "I have to take this." He said, pulling himself to his feet and walking out of the room.

He answered the call once he was out of earshot, "Hello?"

"Hey David, there's a lady at the store asking if you know anything about a missing girl?"

"Give her my number, tell her I'm handling it and to go home."

"Ok, see you tomorrow."

"Bye."

Back at the store, the man on the other line wrote down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "That's his number, he says he's got it and to go home."

Cordelia looked at the piece of paper and thanked the man. She still was panicked, but the knot in her stomach uncoiled slightly. She headed back to her car, sliding in before punching the numbers into her phone, saving the contact. Every bone in her body told him to call her, to make sure she was ok and coming back, but she didn't want to risk making him annoyed or upset. He was in her corner and she wanted it to stay that way. She headed back to the house and locked herself in her study. She paced for a while, mad at herself for letting Elliott slip away so easily. Mad that she pushed her when she knew she shouldn't have. She beat herself up, blaming herself for Elliott's disappearing act, knowing it could've been much worse and they could've lost the girl altogether. She lashed out, the books on the wall flying to the floor. She cursed under her breath, realizing that she had just made a mess that she would have to clean up. Maybe Elliott's not the only one who has to work on controlling her powers, she thought to herself.

She decided that pacing was accomplishing nothing, Elliott still wasn't back and she probably wasn't coming back anytime soon, so she tried to trust David and take her mind off of it by finishing Elliott's file. The more into the file she read, the sicker she felt. There were countless photos of bruises and bone breaks from abusive homes, the few that they actually figured out. She read about how Elliott's foster father had chased her around the house until she ran out and climbed a tree, refusing to come down. The police managed to get her down and return her to the family, only for her teachers to discover that she had two broken arms the next day. She quickly realized this was eerily similar to the story Elliott had told Mallory when she first arrived, her stomach turning at the thought. There were x-rays of her broken bones, and the file noted that the doctors noticed a dozen old breaks that hadn't healed properly.

From ages 8-10 she had run away a total of 22 times. Each time she came back, and told the social worker of abuse, but the social worker couldn't prove anything so she was just left there until she finally ran away and wasn't found. The last few pages were photos of the girl over the years, a new one for each year she was in the foster system. Cordelia couldn't help but notice how each year the girl looked more and more broken, the final photo her looking far too underweight with eyes that looked like they had seen a ghost. There was one final page at the back, but at that point Cordelia had to throw up, so she closed the binder and headed towards the bathroom, puking up what little she had eaten that day. Her files were horrible, each case found a way to blame her for things out of her control. Cordelia wanted to kill every single person who had ever hurt her, social workers included. She was mad, furious that Elliott's life had been handed around so carelessly, like she didn't matter. A lot of it she blamed on herself, if she just kept the girl none of this would have happened, but then again who knows how that scenario would have turned out.

She sat back in her chair at her desk and reopened the file, wanting to finish the nightmare that it was, and flipped to the last page. Her stomach dropped as she saw what it was. She carefully studied the birth certificate and saw her name on the bottom as well as Hanks, their signatures scrawled out carefully at the bottom. She flipped the page over and saw a photo had been stuck to the back of the original. Tears fell from her eyes as she studied the photograph, one she didn't know was taken. It was of her and hank, holding Elliott right after she was born. Her adoptive parents must have taken it when they weren't paying attention. She ran her fingers along the photocopy, remembering the few moments she had with her daughter before they left, and she started to sob, shutting the file and shoving it off of her desk, moving to cradle her head in her hands. This never would have happened if Fiona hadn't convinced her to give the child up. None of this. She blamed her mother and herself for letting the old supreme get inside her head. Cordelia ruined this child, she was responsible. She signed the papers and gave her up, knowing it wasn't what she wanted. She did this.

She stayed in her study sobbing until far after 10pm, when she heard the front door open. She walked out in the hallway and saw Elliott standing at the bottom of the steps staring back at her. Cordelia looked like shit and she knew it, her makeup washed away by her tears, her eyes a florescent shade of red.

Elliott immediately looked guilty, she knew Cordelia had been crying because of her. David told her she went to the store, that she was looking for her, and it made her feel terrible. She was still angry at what had happened earlier, but she knew she really didn't have a reason to be.

After Cordelia had registered that it was Elliott, she walked down the stairs and stood in front of Elliott, staring at her for a few moments before pulling her into a tight hug. "I'm glad you came back." She whispered softly, one hand holding the back of the young girl's head. Elliott simply nodded back at the woman, and once they broke apart Cordelia ushered the girl into the kitchen. "Have you eaten?"

"Don't worry about making me food I'm fine." Elliott said rushed. She had already caused enough issues for the woman, she didn't want her to be worried about her. Cordelia shot the girl a look before the girl shook her head no. Cordelia hated that the girl felt like she was being a bother for being hungry, she knew from the file that some of her foster parents refused to feed her, and it just made her even more angry. Cordelia was normally in control of her emotions but today was a different story, and as she turned away from the girl a stack of papers flew off the counter, scattering on the ground. She put her head in her hands on the counter when the girl behind her whispered "I'm sorry."

"Would you stop saying sorry? You have nothing to be sorry about!" She said, her voice more frustrated than it probably should have been. The girl tensed up behind her and Cordelia knew she had to offer the girl some sort of explanation. "I read your file." She said truthfully.

She looked at Elliott and the young witch slowly nodded. "I figured you would eventually." She said softly, her face and body emotionless. Elliott thought she was mad about the file because of her, because of what she had done.

Cordelia's look softened as she walked toward the girl. "I'm not mad at you because of what's in your file, I know that's not the whole truth, that there was a lot they were hiding. I'm frustrated because of how they treated you. That's why I'm mad. I want to kill every single person who ever mistreated you, I'm furious." She said truthfully, tearing up a bit.

Elliott instantly felt the need to protect her, to make her feel better, so she offered "It's ok, im ok, don't worry about it."

"It's NOT ok. None of that was ok. You're afraid to tell me you're HUNGRY Elliott. You always have your guard up, you have panic attacks when something breaks and it makes a loud noise. That is not ok, you don't deserve that." Cordelia said loudly, the tone of it making Elliott slightly shrink back. The supreme took a deep breath and calmed herself. "I'm sorry I tried to make you light the candle earlier. I shouldn't have pushed you when you didn't want to. I had good intentions, but that doesn't matter."

Elliott looked at the woman broken in front of her, trying to understand why she cared so much. She literally couldn't wrap her mind around it. She just met her, why does she care how her foster parents treated her? But, since the supreme had just apologized, Elliott offered one of her own. "I'm sorry I left. I should've told you I was going out. I was just so frustrated and I needed to go somewhere else." She did mean it, she was sorry she got the supreme so upset, truthfully she didn't think she would care, or if she did she would just be mad, nothing like this.

The older witch looked up at her and nodded, accepting the apology. "I need to get you a phone, in case something like this happens again. I understand you wanting to leave, but I have to have a way to make sure you're safe." She said, the tone in her voice letting the younger girl know this wasn't something to be argued.

The girl felt guilty that the supreme wanted to get her a phone, she didn't have to pay for her, so she offered "I can buy a phone."

The older woman shook her head at her, "No, I've got it. We can go tomorrow; we need to get you some other things too." It hadn't gone unnoticed that the girl only had a few articles of clothing, and that she was squinting to read the words off of her book. She probably needed glasses, not that any of her foster parents would have noticed.

Elliott wanted to object, she didn't need anything else. But by the look on the Supreme's face she knew now wasn't the time to push it. The older woman searched inside the fridge for a moment before closing it and looking at the girl. "Come on, we're going out for food."

Cordelia went in search for her keys before ushering her and Elliott out the front door and into her car. Elliott didn't ask where they were going, and the drive over was mostly silent except for the radio. After a few minutes of driving Cordelia pulled into the parking lot of a burger place, the two of them hopping out of the car and heading inside.

They slid into a booth and Cordelia told the girl to get whatever she wanted, shakes included. The girl nodded then looked down, pretending to study the menu. She had been to this place before, although it was a long time ago. Cordelia ordered a burger with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, and grilled onions and a strawberry shake, Elliot ordered a burger with practically everything on it and an oreo shake. While the two waited for their food, Cordelia cleared her throat and asked "So, is there anything outside of what we've tested today that you can do? Besides the obvious." She didn't want to make the girl perform any other things she wasn't comfortable with, and she was hoping the girl wouldn't hide anything from her.

Elliott looked uncomfortable, and she wanted to say that Cordelia had seen everything she had to offer, but she promised David she would give this a fair shot, and that meant being honest. "Um, kind of. I can alter peoples dreams I guess? I don't know how to explain it."

Cordelia looked at the girl confused, she had never heard of anything like it. Elliott continued, "Like when I was in foster care and the younger kids would have nightmares, I was able to change what they were dreaming about, make them think about the good memories instead of the bad ones. I did it with you last night." Cordelia looked shocked, and Elliott worried she had said too much, she didn't mean to admit that she had done it to Cordelia.

"You did it to me?" Cordelia asked, looking for more of an explanation.

"Uh yea, you were having a nightmare last night about some guy so I… changed it I guess? Instead of you thinking about the bad stuff I pulled up happy memories about them." Elliott said, very unsure of herself. She didn't want to say she had saw Cordelia's dream about her ex-husband dying, or that she pulled memories of her having a baby, it just seemed a little too invasive for her, not that going inside her head wasn't already.

Cordelia remembered she dreamt about her husband the night before, she did almost every night. She wasn't upset about what the girl did, she knew it was coming from a good place, but she did feel uneasy. If Elliott could alter peoples dreams, chances were she could comb through memories and see them, and considering all the women in the house were hiding something from her, it wasn't a good thing. She worded her response carefully. "Ok, so can you alter dreams with memories, can you pull memories themselves?"

Elliott shook her head, unsure. "I've never tried." She said.

"Well how about you try now? Try it on me. Show me something." Cordelia said. She was terrified, but she needed to see what the girl could do. Elliott looked apprehensive but tried, easily entering the woman's head and grabbing a seemingly happy memory of the woman with a redhead. Delia saw the memory play in front of her, like she was watching it on a movie screen. It was her and Myrtle having tea before she was burned at the stake, the first time that is. Cordelia was stunned, she hadn't thought about Myrtle in a while, she had almost forgotten the moment had occurred. Once it was finished, she smiled softly at Elliott, who offered an unsure smile back.

"Good! That's something we've never seen before." Cordelia said softly. It wasn't a typical ability, it most likely came from her mind control abilities and it tailored itself to help the girl when she was in the foster system. "Just be careful with that one, some people might not like you poking through their minds." Cordelia joked, lightning the mood and making the girl giggle.

The two ate all of their food and talked, Elliott appeared to let her guard down a little bit more, offering some of the few good stories she had from her time in foster care. She even finally told Cordelia about how she met David. "We were placed in the same home with a not so great family when I was 8. He was older than me so I relied on him a lot to protect me. When we were separated he came and found me and made sure I was ok, and when he was out of the system he made sure I was safe and gave me money when I needed it. When I ran away I didn't see him for a while because I was moving around so much trying to not get caught. When he finally found me I stayed with him most of the time when I needed a place to crash. Eventually I just stayed with him at his apartment." Elliott recalled.

"Is he ok? I mean, is he doing ok? I worked at a corner store growing up, they don't make a whole lot, definitely not enough to pay for an apartment." Cordelia asked concerned.

"He's fine, he's working two jobs while he's going to school. It's hard but he's making it work. Lucky for him he got a full scholarship to school because he was in foster care, so that's taken care of." Elliott said truthfully.

Cordelia found herself still worried about the boy, going to school was hard enough, but working around the clock had to make it near impossible. "Why don't you have him come for dinner sometime this week? I would love to actually meet him and I'm sure the girls would love him. Madison would probably flirt with him all night, but I'm sure he could handle that." She offered. If he was really as important in her life as Elliott said, she wanted her to know he was welcome at the house.

"Yea, that would be cool, I can check with him and figure out a day. Thanks!" Elliott said, her face lighting up. The older woman paid and the two walked out of the restaurant, hopping back in the car. When the two pulled into the driveway at the house Cordelia turned to the younger girl, "You know you're sleeping in my room, right?"

Elliott was about to object, but considering the complete wreck Elliott had come home to find, she wasn't about to argue. She stopped herself for a moment, realizing she had just thought of this place as home. She had never actually thought of a place as home before. She tried not to focus too much on it as she nodded her head and went in the house, stopping by her room to drop off her stuff. When she entered the Supremes' bedroom, Cordelia handed her the same pair of pajamas she had the night before, nodding for her to change in the bathroom. She quickly did, pulling her wavy hair into two braids, and walked back out as Cordelia was walking back into the room. "You ready for bed?" Cordelia asked, Elliott nodding in return. The two of them hopped into bed, Cordelia choosing to read whereas Elliott went straight to bed, falling asleep in a matter of minutes. Cordelia put down her book and looked at the sleeping child for a few minutes, stroking her hair as she herself fell asleep.