Erin was utterly exhausted; Janet, Nikki and Harry had all gone home and it took all the energy in Erin's body to drag herself up the stairs and into her room. She hadn't felt so fatigued since she'd been living on the streets and it was not a feeling she particularly wanted to remember

"Have you taken your medication?" Erin looked up to see Leo standing in her doorway

"Yes" she said quickly and Leo frowned

"Really?" he questioned and Erin nodded "So what are these?"

Leo pulled a packet of pills from behind his back and dropped it on Erin's lap. She looked down at them and saw her stomach lurch when she saw the medication for that day was still firmly nestled in its packet

"You never used to lie" Leo said sitting down on the end of her bed

"I never used to have anything to lie about"

"Erin…" Leo warned noticing the frustration that was building in her face

"I just want everything to go back to normal" Erin grumbled "I hate everyone treating me like I'm made of glass and that I'll break into a thousand pieces at any moment"

"No one's treating you like that" Leo's tone was one of assurance but Erin was not buying it

"Yes they are!" she shouted "And if you can't see that then you're more stupid than I first thought" Erin bit down hard on her tongue as she saw the hurt on Leo's face

Leo stood up stiffly and walked out of her room, clearly not in the mood to argue with Erin "Take your medication" he told her before swiftly shutting the door behind him, leaving Erin in the company of the shadows which came with the darkening night.

"She really shouted at you?" Nikki's face was sculpted into an expression of shock

Leo nodded slowly "I've never seen her loose her temper before over something so trivial"

The next morning had come still bearing the heavy stillness that had fallen over the Dalton household from the previous nights events. Leo had called Nikki round that morning, knowing that he had to attend a meeting, despite his reluctance he knew that his presence would only irritate Erin more and the best thing for her to do was to give her so space to cool off.

"She's probably just overtired from what she's been through in the last few weeks" Leo assured Nikki who still looked very worried

"Has she said any more about it?"

Leo shook his head "I'm still uneasy about leaving her alone…"

"I don't mind looking after her, you know I don't" Nikki smiled kindly

Leo gave a quick glance at the clock "I've got to get going now" the unwillingness in his voice was evident "You know where everything is so help yourself"

"It'll all work out Leo" Nikki told him "She cant stay angry at you forever"

Leo wanted to believe Nikki's words but he knew Erin better than anyone and he didn't like this change on her personality one bit.

Erin buried herself deeper in the duvet as she heard the successive knocks on her door

"I'm going to work now" she heard Leo's muffled voice through the door "Nikki's downstairs and she'll be staying all day if you want someone to talk to"

Erin bit down on her lip making sure she didn't make a sound; she wasn't going to give Leo the satisfaction of it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this angry, it was a horrible fire of lava building up inside of her and it threatened to spill out at any moment. Finally she heard Leo go away and she rolled over in her bed, wincing slightly as she put a little too much pressure on her wrist and the stitches pulled in her stomach. Erin gave a muffled scream into the covers, as much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't okay at all.

As Harry walked into the cutting room he knew something was immediately wrong with Leo. The older man's eyes reflected a certain amount of exhaustion and had lost the sparkle Harry was used to seeing

"Leo?" he said moving forward to the pathologist who was currently elbow deep in a chest cavity

"John Doe in mid-twenties looks like the cause of death was an overdose" Leo said removing an organ and placing it on the scales

"How's Erin?"

Leo ignored him and carried on "I cant quite work out what these pills are, they're too digested to see a brand name, we'll send off fro a toxicology report and hopefully that should shed some more light"

"Leo!" Harry said a little louder and the older man finally looked up at him "What happened?"

"Erin shouted at me last night" Leo said, cursing himself at how pathetic it sounded

Harry chuckled softly "She's a teenager Leo, they're not exactly know for their happy cheerful moods"

"But this is Erin"

Harry paused for a moment thinking over what Leo had just divulged. Sure enough he couldn't remember a time when Erin had ever really shouted, there had been times when she'd gotten into a scuffle at school but not one time could he remember her ever raising her voice. He was shocked by this as for a girl who had been through so much pain; she certainly had a lot to shout about.

"It's out of character admittedly" Harry finally said "But it's not totally impossible. She's not had the best start in life and she's had a tough time of it lately"

"It's not that" Leo said pushing his hand back into the corpse "You must understand that it really pains me to admit this but when she shouted at me, she looked so much like her mother…"

Author's note: I know this is a bit of a short chapter but I thought that was a good point to end it there.

I apologise profusely for my lack of updates to this story and the others. I have had a couple of exams at school and revision pretty much took over my life. I also had writer's block on this story and was seriously considering just deleting it but thanks to your kind comments, especially from charlotte88, I got my muse back and decided to carry it on

I am trying to make more for fanfiction, and I will try to update more regularly, consider it a late new year's resolution!