Lucy groaned as she rolled out of bed. Her father had been more rough than usual the night before. Jude & her mother were gone for the weekend and her father had taken advantage of the fact no one in the house could hear her cries. She had tried to be quite but he refused to stop until he got something out of her.

She walked to the shower, avoiding the mirror so she didn't have to look at her bruises. Once Lucy was dressed she looked at her phone seeing she had some messages.

One was from Tracy wanting to work their project and the other was from Mike. Lucy hadn't really talked him since that night she called the SVU detective. They didn't talk for about a week after that night but now Mike was texting her at least once a day. He would be aggressive then be asking for forgiveness then would go back to being aggressive. Lucy just needed sometime away from him. She needed to clear her head & think. She had texted him back more than once asking him to give her space but he refused to listen. She was getting to the point were she was keeping phone more off than on.

She texted Tracy back, setting up a time to meet & ignore Mike's.

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Sean watched the two teenagers at his dining room table & smiled it was nice to see Tracy hang out with more people. Sean had worried about him last year, starting a brand new high school had been tough. They had gotten him caught through out the summer but what he went through isn't something you just bounce back from. Tracy seemed to be doing good though.

Many things about Lucy reminded Sean of Tracy when he first moved in with him. He stomach tighten as he saw all the things Tracy used to do. Things he develop because of his past with his mother.

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"Ugh. Can we be done for the night, please?" Lucy asked her head against the table. Tracy laughed, "I'm sorry. I just want to get it done as soon as possible so we don't have to worry about it & have plenty of time to fix anything if we need to."

"Well at the rate you're going this thing will be done before the end of the weekend." Lucy groaned.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Tracy ducked as Lucy threw pens at him.

The two of them had spent all day working on the project & Lucy didn't want to admit it but she actually had fun. Sean didn't hover but he did pop in on them. He made them stuff to snack on all day & would give them little tidbit that made Lucy laugh more than be of any real help.

Eve though Tracy was a bit of a control freak about how to set up the project he would actually listen & agree with some of her ideas. All throughout middle school everyone would scorn her ideas & groan when they got her as a partner in team projects. She hadn't expected to enjoy herself but she did for the most part right up until 9:00 when she thought the should call it quits for the night but Tracy insisted that they do a bit more. It was now twelve am & Lucy finally was able to get Tracy to be done.

"Where did your dad go?" Lucy had noticed he hadn't been in the kitchen for a while.

"To bed." Tracy nodded his head down the hallway where the bedrooms where.

"He trusted us enough to leave us alone?" She joked.

"Well he knows nothing going to happen."

Lucy stomach tied itself into knots. Did he know? Did Tracy spill his big fat mouth to his dad? Acid burned her mouth.

"You know, because of my girlfriend & all." Tracy tried to hide his smirk.

"You're an asshole." Lucy bit, trying to hide her own smile. "I should head home."

"You can stay the night here." Tracy offered. At her silence Tracy quickly added, " I'll take the couch, you can have my bed."

" I don't have any clothes."

"If you don't want to stay you don't have to." Tracy offered her an out.

Lucy licked her bottom lip as she thought about it. Her father no doubt was waiting for her to come home. He was one of the reason that she didn't really put up much of a fight to get Tracy to quit the project.

"If your dad wont mind." She said hesitantly.

"Nah. It was actually his idea. He brought it up before he went to bed." Tracy shook his head.

"OK." Lucy gave a small smile, "But I'll take the couch. I'm not such a bitch that I'll kick you out of your own bed."

"Oh sure that's where you draw the line." Tracy ran as she threw more pens in his direction.