It had been almost a week since the last time Namine had been to the Home and seen her friends. She missed them a great deal, even Axel and Zexion and Demyx and Riku, who she still didn't know as well as she would like to. She missed Doctor Marluxia and his kind smiles, the way he signed and spoke at the same time out of courtesy to them. She even missed the Ward Father, Lexeaus, for being so kind to her every time she saw him.

I want to go home. I don't like it here. It's too quiet and sad.

Unfortunately, Namine had no means of getting to the Home. Her aunt didn't know sign language and even if Namine wrote it down, she doubted the blond woman would bother to read it or would agree to the request. She could, of course, get out of the condo on her own. There was little point to that option because she didn't know how to get to the Home. It was probably too far for a six-year-old to walk, anyway.

Her best option was to write it down and hope Larxene was willing to pay attention to her for once.

Using the back of a page torn from one of her coloring books, Namine wrote out her request in blue crayon, trying to make her handwriting as neat as possible. It was better than it had been, thanks to her lessons at the Home. Maybe the improvement would catch her aunt's attention.

When she was satisfied with her work, the girl took her sheet of paper into the living room, where her aunt was lounging on the couch, watching TV. Namine felt a longing for the way things had been before, when she'd have run and jumped onto the couch to hug her aunt. They'd have both laughed and sat together telling jokes and silly stories. That hadn't happened in a long time, and Namine missed it.

As it was, she approached the couch with slow, quiet steps until she stood before her aunt. The woman's eyes remained fixed to the flatscreen mounted on the wall. Namine wished she could make some sound to gain her aunt's attention, but if that was possible, she would be in the situation she was now having to deal with.

Determined, she lifted her makeshift sign over her head, as high as she could, but Larxene continued to act as if the child wasn't even there. That wasn't enough for Namine to admit defeat, though. She lowered the sign and moved forward to touch her aunt's hand; the woman shifted out of her reach and Namine felt tears at the backs of her eyes.

Was her own aunt so unwilling to acknowledge her that she purposefully made it as difficult as possible to communicate?

No, Aunt Xene wouldn't do that. She loves me. We're family. She's just tired and doesn't want to be bothered.

Even to herself, Namine didn't seem convincing. Her aunt hadn't shown any sort of positive emotions towards Namine almost the entire time they'd been living together. Only once had Larxene hugged her and tried to reassure her—when she arrived at the police station to see Namine just a few hours after the murders. Since then, she'd almost seemed to turn off her emotions, especially in regards to her niece.

"I love you," Namine signed, even though she knew her aunt wasn't paying attention and didn't understand sign language anyway. But she still signed it, needing to let her aunt know that she still cared, even if Larxene didn't. Then she crumpled up the sign she'd made and threw it in the trash before going back to her room.

If Aunt Xene doesn't want me, I'll go where someone does.

Namine didn't allow herself to hesitate as she put on her shoes and coat and filled her backpack with clean clothes and what little travel-ready food she could find in the pantry. She made it all the way to the front door before she paused and looked back towards where she knew her aunt was still lounging. There'd been a time when even putting her shoes on would have garnered questions about what she was doing. Now, she was completely ready to take on the outside world on her own, and no one had even noticed.

Tightening her grip on the straps of her backpack, Namine opened the door and left the condo. The halls of the condo were empty seeing as it was mid-afternoon and most people were still at work. In the lobby, though, a young woman with long black hair spotted Namine and approached her.

"Hi, sweetheart, are you okay?" the stranger asked with a concerned smile as she bent down to be near eye-level with Namine.

The white-blonde girl nodded because this woman probably didn't know sign language—there was no point in explaining that she was going home.

"Are you sure?"

Another nod, then Namine started walking towards the main doors of the building.

"Hey, wait!"

Impatient but unwilling to be rude, Namine stopped again and turned to see that the woman was following her.

"Here." She was holding out a small bit of paper, which Namine accepted. Upon closer examination, she realized it was a business card. The woman smiled kindly. "If you need anything or end up in some kind of trouble, call that number and ask for Tifa. Okay?"

Namine smiled gratefully and nodded for a third time. It always surprised her how kind some people were while others could be so cruel. The woman watched as Namine left the building and started off down the sidewalk in the direction Larxene drove in whenever they were going to the Home. At least, she hoped it was the right way.

Contrary to inside, there were countless people going this way and that outside, making it difficult for Namine to tell what direction she was walking in. She had to put more focus into not running into someone than she would have liked to—she knew she needed to try to recognize as many landmarks as possible if she wasn't just going to get lost, but the other people were so much taller than her that it was almost impossible to see anything else. Still, she was not prepared to give up so easily.

XXX

The phone on Marluxia's desk rang and everything stopped. Children and doctor stared at the object in surprise, waiting to see if it would ring again. That phone rarely did anything more than sit there, lifeless save for the glowing of the numbers and the little lights that went on and off to let Doctor Marluxia know if someone was using one of the other lines. He'd never made a call on it—preferring to use the one in his office—and if anyone needed anything, they usually came by to see the children and talk to him.

But it rang again, almost insistently, so the pink-haired man got up from where he'd been playing with Axel and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Come to the office right away. It's an emergency."

Marluxia knew better than to repeat the E Word in front of the children. It would only upset them and make whatever emergency was taking place that much worse. "Send Lexeaus to watch the children."

"He's already on his way."

As if on cue, the door opened and Lexeaus stepped inside. He and Marluxia locked gazes and nodded to each other before Marluxia hung up the phone and was on his way out of the room without any sort of explanation to the children that were watching him worriedly.

Countless panicked thoughts ran through his head as he power-walked towards the office. What could have gone wrong? Was someone hurt? If it was an emergency big enough to call him away from the Silents, it had to be serious.

"What? What happened?" he asked the moment he entered the office, nearly breathless. Wordlessly, Saix held out a phone, which Marluxia took with shaking hands.

"This is Doctor Marluxia Shizen." He tried not to sound as worried as he felt.

"Dr. Shizen, this is Officer Tidus."

No. Marluxia's grip on the phone tightened until it creaked in protest. "What can I do for you, officer?"

"We have a little girl here accompanied by a woman and you were the person she wanted us to contact about her."

Little girl? "I'll be right there." He didn't wait for Officer Tidus to give him the station's address—there was only one it could be—and he was out the door before Saix had a chance to ask what had happened.

Marluxia's hands were shaking so badly he almost dropped his car keys when he tried to unlock the door, and his knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly as he drove; it took everything he had not to go as fast as his car was able to.

Namine was at the police station. Why? What happened? Was Larxene the woman who was with her? No, it couldn't be. If it was Larxene, she'd have just taken Namine home or brought her to Fuseiai's herself. It had to be someone else.

"Why is Namine in a police station?" the doctor demanded under his breath. It had to be a nightmare for her to be there; this was the first time she'd been in one since her parents were killed.

The moment he pulled into the station's parking lot, Marluxia all but jumped out of his, barely taking the time to throw it into park and shut it off first. He took the stairs in bounding leaps and yanked the door open to burst into the lobby.

"Namine!"

Blue-violet eyes searched desperately until he saw a flash of white-blonde hair moving towards him. He ran, arms outstretched, and scooped Namine into his arms the moment she was within reach, holding her close and almost crying out of relief that she at least appeared unharmed. The child clung to him, face buried in his shoulder

"Namine, are you all right? What happened?" he asked quietly, rubbing her back in a soothing manner. She didn't loosen her grip on him, which wasn't a surprise, so he decided to go to the next best source of information. Moving in the direction Namine had come from, he began searching for the woman who had supposedly accompanied Namine to the station.

A woman stood as he approached, smoothing her clothes as she did so, and offered her hand with a smile. "Dr. Shizen, my name is Tifa. It's nice to meet you."

Marluxia shook her hand, still holding the child. "Thank you for helping Namine."

"It was my pleasure. She's a sweet little girl."

"Yes," a fond smile took over the doctor's expression and he stroked Namine's white-blonde hair, "she is."

"Are you her father?"

The question made him chuckle a little bit—did he really seem that attached to her? "Her therapist. Namine is a patient at Fuseiai's Home for Troubled Youths. She's one of several children I'm in charge of, though she lives with her aunt."

"Oh, I see." Tifa looked at Namine as if trying to figure out why she would be a patient at the Home. "Is she all right?"

Marluxia smiled at her concern. "Yes, it seems so. Just shaken up, though I'll be sure to give her a full examination once I get her to the Home and contact her aunt."

Nodding, Tifa handed the doctor a second business card, this one with a different phone number hand-written on the back. "I saw her leaving the condo complex where I live and gave her my card so she could call me if she needed help. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know that she's okay."

"Of course. Thank you again for helping her contact me."

The two said their goodbyes and, after he'd talked with the police who had been in charge of calling him, he left the station with Namine still held safely in his arms. Only once he'd gotten her buckled into the back seat of his car and started driving back towards the Home did he take a deep, steadying breath.

"Namine." He glanced at her in the review mirror to make sure she was paying attention. "When we get back, I'll need you to tell me exactly what happened today and why you were at the police station, okay?"

The girl nodded her understanding then went back to looking out the window, silent and still as always. Marluxia had been hoping for a little bit more of a response than that, but he didn't push it. Hopefully, the story of what had happened wouldn't be anything extreme. He did, however, hope that it would aid him in proving to Mr. Fuseiai that Namine wasn't safe with Larxene and needed to be placed under custody of the Home.

If her leaving the condo on her own, getting lost and ending up at the police station to be picked up by her therapies wasn't enough proof, he didn't know what more he would be able to let happen. This incident was already too much for him—anything worse would destroy him, especially if Namine got hurt. The Silents were his family, the closest thing after Luxord, and he wasn't going to sit by and let Larxene neglect Namine if he could do something to stop it.