After the initial shock of Lizzie's outburst passed both Mr. & Mrs. McGuire rushed to soothe their daughter. Sam reassured her that he wouldn't let anything or anyone hurt her while Jo put her arms around her. She instinctively began to rock Lizzie just like she had when Lizzie was a baby while softly saying "It's ok baby, nobody's gonna hurt you."

While the McGuire's were doing this Detective Kepley sent Doris to get the police department's psychologist. By the time Doris returned several minutes later with a middle aged woman carrying a doctors bag Lizzie had calmed down slightly. "Mr McGuire" Detective Kepley said getting Sam's attention. "This is Dr. Janet Owens the department's psychologist. She's been helping us on several related cases and would have been here earlier except she was needed elsewhere."

"Detective Sanchez already filled me in on the basics of what happened." Dr. Owens said as she set her bag on the table and opened it. "Mrs. McGuire try humming or singing her favorite lullaby when she was a baby. It should help calm her down." Sam look at her with a puzzled look on his face while Jo just nodded and began to hum Hush Little Baby. "Mr. McGuire lullaby's are one of a child's earliest memories of love and safety and it reaches them on a purely emotional level which is all she will respond to right now."

"Oh." Sam said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Dr. Owens nodded her head and asked "Yes is she allergic to any medications?" while she started to prepare a shot for Lizzie.

Sam thought a moment then replied "No."

"Sam come here and sing to her." Jo said in a soft yet urgent tone. "She always loved your singing."

Sam began to sing the lullaby in a rich mellow tenor voice that surprisingly soothing to everyone in the room. As he moved closer and knelt down besides them Dr. Owens was able to approach without letting Lizzie see the syringe in her hand. While Lizzie's attention was focused on her parents Dr. Owens deftly administered the shot without Lizzie even noticing it. "I've given her a sedative to help calm her down." she said softly as she stood up. Then she went over to the two detectives and said "Let's give them some privacy."

Within 10 minutes Lizzie was sound asleep in her mother's arms. After that Sam carried her to the office with a couch that detective Kepley led them to. As they had made sure that she was sleeping comfortably on the couch Dr. Owens said "She should sleep for 3 or 4 hours at least and I think it would be best if she was at home in her own bed when she wakes up. Also I would recommend that getting her back to her usual routine as soon as possible which should help reduce the effects of the trauma she just had." Both of the McGuire's nodded in agreement.

"What we were hoping to do was ask Lizzie to identify not only the men in the pictures and videos but also whoever took them as well" Detective Sanchez said as they stepped into the waiting area outside the office. "Obviously we won't be able to do that right now."

Both Mr. And Mrs. McGuire nodded their heads in agreement then Sam asked "So just what will she have to do to help."

Detective Kepley said "First we'll need her help in positively identifying these men so we can arrest them. After that she'll need to work with the DA's office in prosecuting them."

"Sure we'll do what ever is necessary," Mr McGuire replied, "but to be honest I wouldn't mind at all if they resisted arrest and got roughed up or worse in the process." Although he knew they couldn't say it, Sam McGuire could tell by the look on the two detective's faces they felt the same way.

Meanwhile at Kate's house

Kate had an afternoon dentist appointment for semi-annual exam and cleaning during 5th period that day. So she left school after lunch ended. By the time the appointment was over 6th period was already started so she went home early instead. When she pulled in she saw her dad's car in the garage which was not unusual but she hadn't expected it. As she made her way through the kitchen she stopped long enough to grab a soda and a snack. On her way through the living room to the stairs she heard her dad talking on the phone in the den so she decided to say hello. As got near the entrance of the den she heard him say "I know where there's a look alike to shoot it with.. All we have to do is give her a wig or better yet dye her hair and you can't tell the difference between the two." There was a few seconds of silence the he said "Don't worry this girl has experience doing this. I've got it all covered." Just as Kate stepped into sight he said "I have to go now I'll talk to you about this later." After he hung up the phone he went and gave Kate a hug saying "Hi baby I didn't hear you come in."

"Daddy I asked you not to call me baby anymore." Kate said after she returned the hug. "Pleeease." Although Kate would never admit it she didn't really mind him calling her baby except when her friends were present but if she didn't remind him each time she might forget to do it when her friends were around.

"Ok honey." He agreed although knew the real reason she said it then asked "Why are you home from school early? You're not sick are you?"

"No I just had a dentist appointment and when I was done there it was too late to go back to school." Kate answered. "It sounds like you're working on something, I hope you don't have to go on another business trip right away cause you just got back from the last one."

"I'm working on something for one of our customers and yes I'll have to go on another trip but it won't be for at least a couple of weeks." Mr. Sanders took off the headset and unclipped the phone from his belt then placed it on it's cradle to recharge. "I don't know exactly when it will be but I'll only be gone a few days and I should be back in plenty of time for the holidays. Ok."

"Ok, it's just that I miss you when you're gone and you go on so many trips." Kate replied. She suspected that the frequent business trips her father made for the company had a lot to do with her parent's marital problems. She hoped that he would be home long enough so they could fix whatever was wrong. "I'm gonna go to my room now and get started on my homework."

"Ok and if you need any help just let me know."

When Kate got to her bedroom she set the backpack with her schoolbooks in it on the desk before she sat on her bed and kicked her shoes off. As she lay back on the bed she thought about what had happened at lunchtime.

As she was going through the serving line in the cafeteria with Lizzie, Kate spotted an empty table in the back of the room and headed there. After they sat down and began to eat Kate asked "So have you told your mom & dad like I suggested?"

Lizzie gagged a bit on her food when she heard that. It was obvious to Kate that Lizzie deliberately took her time as she finished chewing and swallowing her food giving herself more time to think about her reply. Kate wondered why Lizzie seemed so reluctant to talk to her parents or at least her mom. With anyone else it was understandable but she knew that Lizzie and her mom were really close and Lizzie often went to her mom for help.

"Well." Kate prompted impatiently.

"No I haven't and I'm not going to." Lizzie said as she watched Kate's reaction. Upon seeing Kate's face she explained "I just can't cause I'm too scared and besides I know they'll kill me if they find out. I just can't tell them."

Kate could tell from the tone of Lizzie's voice that it would be best if she just dropped the subject for a while. Seconds later both Kate and Lizzie were startled by Miranda's voice saying "What can't you tell who Lizzie?" Kate looked at Miranda as she sat down next to Lizzie. She also saw that Gordo and Ethan weren't far behind Miranda.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Lizzie snapped a Miranda then quickly got up and left leaving her unfinished meal behind.

"Whoa." Ethan said as he sat down across the table from Kate.

"I don't know what I said or did but Lizzie's mad at me." Miranda answered.

"Maybe it's because you've got a reputation as a gossip," Gordo commented in his matter of fact tone, "and she was probably talking about something private."

"You got that right bro." Ethan said inn an almost congratulatory tone. "Miranda did you know that you have a rep as the biggest gossip in the school and your first semester here is only half over."

Kate saw that what the boys were saying was hitting Miranda pretty hard. As she started to say something to take some of the heat off Miranda Kate was thoroughly surprised at what she was about to do. Previously Kate would had reveled in Miranda's discomfort and she would've done anything she could to make it worse. "Lizzie isn't really mad at you Miranda, it's me that she's mad at."

Kate could hardly believe that she had done that for Miranda but she also knew that it wasn't right to let Miranda take the blame for something she had done. Kate thought about calling Lizzie after school was out to apologize then decided to wait until tomorrow to do it.

Lizzie's Bedroom

Later that evening Lizzie woke up in her bed thinking that was one hell of a nightmare she had. "That's the worst one yet." she muttered to herself groggily as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. A few seconds later she realized that the light in her room was all wrong for morning and that she was wear her regular clothes not her pajamas. Then she knew that it hadn't been a dream at all. She was wondering how she got her in her own bedroom when the last place she remembered being was at the police station. Just then her mother walked in with what smelled like a cup of coffee.

"Oh good you're awake. How are you feeling? Do you need anything Honey?" Mrs. McGuire said as she walked to the chair next to Lizzie's bed.

"Yeah I need to go to the bathroom first then I need a drink." Lizzie said as she sat up and swung to the floor where she kept her slippers by the bed. She didn't really need to go to the bathroom but it would buy her some time to try and sort out the confusion she felt. It turned out that she really did need to go and it gave her even more time to think about all the questions she had. Why was her mother treating her like she'd been really sick or hurt when she was neither? Now that her parents and the police knew about all those really dirty, nasty and bad things she had done with John and his friends why hadn't they punished her yet?. What was eventually going to happen to her? These things and many others had her so confused she couldn't even think straight right now.

On her way back to her room Lizzie realized that she was gonna be asked a lot of questions. Some of those questions would be ones that she didn't want to answer and others that she couldn't answer. Just outside her bedroom door she noticed that in spite of being confused, frustrated and most of all scared she also felt relieved now that her secret was out. While stepping into her room she saw of Matt's RC cars speed past her feet into the room. Before it made it any further into the room she snagged it by the antenna and tossed it down the hall then slammed the door shut. When Lizzie turned back around and saw her mother sitting next to her bed looking right at her she remembered that she'd been warned about Matt's cars.

Mrs. McGuire just looked and said "Don't worry about it sweet pea, just don't break them ok."

Lizzie was more than a little puzzled by her mom's reaction but she nodded her head in acknowledgment and said "Ok." As she sat on the bed she noticed there was a bottle of cream soda, a plate of spaghetti and a couple of pieces of garlic bread on her night stand. She looked at her mother and Lizzie saw a look of sadness and pain on her face. That look made Lizzie feel even more ashamed of herself.

"I'm sorry mom, I am so sorry." Lizzie apologized but once that was said she couldn't stop. "I'm sorry for the way I acted today at the police station but I was just so scared. I'm scared all the time and I just wish I could stop being scared. I'm sorry for doing all those dirty, nasty, terrible things. Most of all I'm sorry for disappointing you and dad by not being the good girl you wanted me to be." Lizzie continued on like that non-stop for several minutes more and by the time she had finished Lizzie was forcing her words out through her uncontrollable sobs.

Mrs. McGuire moved to sit on the bed beside her daughter and put he arms around Lizzie to comfort her. "Lizzie you have nothing to be sorry about, nothing at all. We're not disappointed in you at all."

Mrs. McGuire spent the next couple hours comforting Lizzie until she had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion caused by all the stress of the day. If Lizzie had been awake she would have heard her mother sobbing softly as she closed the door on her way out.