Maura had sat down on the oversized teddy bear in the corner whilst still holding on to the little girl in her arms who, at that moment, appeared to be rather nervous but she soon calmed down as she rested for a while in the woman's arms.

Jane had sat down beside them and wrapped her arms around them too so that had helped her calm down a lot quicker too due to the comfort offered by the both of them at the same time.

After some time alone for the three of them and after some extra time talking to the team that she was working with, Melody returned to the interview room with a soft smile on her face, "I heard you had pancakes this morning at the precinct", she started with as it was a neutral topic.

Alessandra nodded with a big smile, "Frosty and Old Man was there too", she revealed before stating with amusement, "Old Man got syrup in his beard".

Melody chuckled along with the little girl, "That does sound fun", she responded.

The small child nodded, "Mamma got chocolate on her and then Mommy did because Mamma dabbed her with it", she said with a hint of laughter, "She dabbed me too, I had chocolate on my nose". "That's not where chocolate is supposed to go", Allie stated, "Mamma says it's supposed to go in your mouth, not on your face".

Doctor Kingston nodded before beginning the interview, "Is it okay if I show you a couple more photos?", she asked the little girl, "So that you can tell me whatever you can remember about them?".

Alessandra nodded, already understanding the pattern and the what she has to do, "Okay", she said softly.

Melody smiled encouragingly and opened up her folder on the table before extracting the first photo.

The photo was of a dark haired woman with brown eyes and a tanned complexion who was wearing a cerulean blue bikini and sunbathing on the beach in what appeared to be a tropical destination.

"Do you know who this is?", Melody asked her as the little girl looked at the photo in front of her.

Alessandra moved the piece of paper around on the table with a singular finger as she thought for a moment, "Marcia", she said with a smile, "Marcia came to stay with us at the cabin too but she only stayed with us for a few days".

"Do you remember anything about her?", the FBI Psychologist asked her patiently.

After a few seconds, the child nodded, "She's from Chile", she said with a smile, "Kind of like the word 'chilly' when you're cold but she said it's warm there". "Marcia tried to teach me a little bit of Spanish", the child revealed, "She wasn't there long enough for me to learn very much though".

Marcia stubbed her toe on an unknown object in the darkness of the basement on her way back from using the 'toilet' which, in reality, was nothing more than a bucket in the corner with a piece of wood on the top that had a hole in the middle. They had to be careful when sitting down on the wood as it was not only cheap and flimsy but it also had a few splinters sticking out from its surface.

"What was that?", Alessandra questioned with fear lacing her voice as she curled up tighter to a tattered piece of material that used to be the blanket that she had been taken with as it had been used to cover her head when 'Santa' left the murder scene with her.

"I stubbed my toe", the woman replied simply as she gradually made her way over to the child who was curled in her bed. The 'bed', of course, not being an actual bed at all but the dreaded hole in the ground. A hole that she knew she would most likely end up in at the end of her 'stay' with the child in the basement but instead of sleeping she would be beneath the ground.

Alessandra tilted her head slightly as she thought about what the woman had said for a moment, "But what did you say?".

"I said something that I should not have done", Marcia revealed as she inched nearer to the hole whilst reaching out her hand, now on her hands and knees, in order to try and find where the hole was so that she would not accidentally fall down into it. "I said a very bad word", she explained, "One that you should not repeat".

"What language was it?", she asked her rather than questioning the demand that she does not copy the word in the future.

"Spanish", Marcia answered with a smile as she finally reached the hole and then calmly and carefully climbed down inside so that she was lying with the child.

"I don't know very much Spanish", Alessandra revealed, "I know Italian though".

"That's okay, I don't know very much Italian", the dark-haired woman admitted with a smile, "Would you like to learn some Spanish?". The offer came out mostly out of boredom as she did not know what to do in the basement of the cabin and nor did she know how long she would be trapped there for as it had already been three days. On one hand she was wanting to leave and wanting it to end but on the other hand, she didn't because she was certain that the day she left the cabin would be the day that the horrid looking man took her life.

The little girl nodded, "Oh, yes please", she said in an excited whisper.

"In the morning I shall teach you some things", Marcia offered quietly as she tugged the blanket up to cover the little girl and tuck her in as best as she could, "We'll work out how much you know and then I can teach you a little bit more".

"I know hola, si, no, horchata, tortilla, churros, burrito", the little girl said softly with very good pronunciation, " la Cerveza, el vino, and el jugo".

"That is great sweetheart", Marcia whispered in reply, "Get some sleep now, it has been a long day".

Alessandra nodded in the dark and curled up a little bit more, "Okay", she whispered softly, "Goodnight Marcia".

"Goodnight", the woman whispered.

"Do you remember anything from the day that you first met Marcia?", Melody prompted after there had been a long gap of silence as the little girl looked down, studying the photograph that still resided on the table in front of her.

Alessandra bit her lower lip slightly as she thought about it for a moment, "Santa brought her to the cabin really early in the morning", the child revealed, "She didn't want to be there though because she kept screaming that she wanted to go home". "She woke me up", the curly-haired child stated with a pout, clearly she had been unimpressed at being woken up,

"When she came into the basement she was still yelling so I told her she had to be quiet". Alessandra looked up at Melody, "I told her that there was no point in saying that she wanted to go home because it doesn't work like that". "It never works like that… it doesn't matter how many times you say you want to go home, Santa will never let you", the little girl stated, "I tried it… I tried it lots of times but they never let me go home". "I told Marcia that too", she continued, "I told her that shouting and yelling won't get her what she wants". The child looked down for a moment before continuing, "It just gets you time in the box or another punishment like having to stand in the corner with something balancing on your head", she revealed, "Because the shouting annoys Santa and you don't get to go home".

"He gave us both the yucky water that day", Alessandra said with a sigh, "I had to go to sleep too, it wasn't fair that she made all the noise and I got punished too".

Jane tightened her arms slightly as they were wrapped around the little girl who, at that moment, was sat on her lap as she herself knelt on the ground in front of the table acting like a chair as the child still did not want to sit on the actual child-sized chair that was sat right beside them.

Alessandra had stopped talking again and was leaning back more against Jane.

"Do you remember anything else from that day?", Melody asked her patiently.

The child shook her head in a negative manner, "No", she replied simply.

Doctor Kingston smiled reassuringly, "That's okay", she said softly, "Do you remember anything about the day that she left?".

Alessandra looked down at the photo for a moment as she thought about the question that the psychologist had just asked her, "She went home", the little one said softly, "She told me she was going to fly home to Chile to her parents".

What the little girl did not know was that the woman's parents had died six years previously in a car crash whilst on vacation in Australia so, in fact, Marcia had not said that she was going to Chile. Marcia had only told Alessandra that she would be going home to be with her parents. It was her way of saying that she was going to heaven without saying the actual words because she knew that she was not going to survive what she had overheard the men planning.

"Do you remember anything else about her stay at the cabin with you?", Melody asked her.

"She smoked", Alessandra revealed, "She smelled like smoke when she came to the cabin and she started getting agitated after a while then she told me she needed a cigarette". "Cigarettes aren't healthy for you", the child stated, "Mammina said that they're disgusting sticks of gunk".

Melody bit her lip trying not to laugh at the face that the child pulled when she was describing the items that Marcia had been craving at the time due to her addiction.

"Papa used to smoke but he gave them up for Mammina lots of years before I was born", Alessandra continued, "He said that he never wants me to smoke them, not ever so I promised him I never would". "Even if he isn't here to tell me off", the little girl continued, "I won't do it".

Maura smiled sadly, although the facial expression was missed by the little girl, and pressed a loving and gentle kiss on the side of her daughter's face.

"Do you remember anything else about her?", Doctor Kingston asked her politely.

Alessandra thought for a moment, "Her sister's name is Lana and she had a brother called Miguel but he died when he was five". "Marcia wasn't very good at pushing me on the swing", she said, switching topics at a random time like a typical child, "Every time she pushed me the swing went wonky but I think she might have hurt her arm". She frowned slightly, "I asked her what was wrong with it but she kept lying and telling me there was nothing wrong with it", she revealed. Alessandra raised her arm which was still in a cast but she had gotten so used to it being on there already that she behaved as if it wasn't there at all, "Santa hurt my arm when he pulled me up from the hole for me to be on the camera for Mommy", she said softly.

Jane bit her lip and scrunched her eyes in pain at the memory of watching the footage.

"Get up", he demanded as soon as he was beside the hole in the ground, the hole that resembled a grave, "Get up and show Detective Rizzoli how ill you have become because she has failed to find you", he almost spat her name.

The little girl shook but did not move at all.

Her lack of movement angered him, "Get up!", he demanded as he repeated his request in a louder and more forceful tone of voice.

Gradually, the child removed the blanket from her shivering form and sat up on the dirt floor.

Her face was pale as she looked up at him as well as at the camera. Her eyes slightly pink yet sunken, and she had tears residing upon her cheeks whilst her eyes glistened with more that were yet to be shed. She wore pyjamas that seemed to be too small for her, the trousers were swinging at least an inch above her ankles whilst the sleeves of the top failed to meet her wrists or the top of her trousers, causing her stomach to be slightly showing.

It was clear that the child was underweight and malnourished by the appearance of her overly thin frame and dry, almost scaly skin.

Despite the nightwear being too small for her, the little girl had barely grown since being taken from her home just over a year previously which suggested that the pyjamas were already too small when they were given to her. She had lost weight over the time she had been held captive, that much was obvious.

"Get out of there", Hoyt demanded rather harshly.

She was having issues with her concentration as well as paying attention and her reaction times seemed to have been slowed but whether that was due to malnutrition or her illness was uncertain.

"Alessandra!", the voice boomed, again echoing around the rather dark and damp room, "I told you to get out of there".

Slowly the little girl nodded before she moved to follow his orders, she seemed to be off balance as she struggled to climb out of the two feet deep grave-like hole in the dirt floor of the basement room.

The camera was placed on a small table at the side before the silver-haired man reached down and yanked her up by her arm making her squeal slightly at the pain from the forceful movement.

She scrambled up as she was forced to stand by the man when she stood her chest moved up and down rather quickly as she attempted to force oxygen into her lungs. The wheezing was rather prominent and she could not help but cough rather violently as she stood shivering with her blanket still remaining in the depths of the hole.

"Santa", she said softly, "I don't…", a cough interrupted her speech for a moment, "I don't feel too good".

"Tell Detective Rizzoli", Hoyt demanded as he signalled to the camera although he was to the side and not seen on camera anymore, "Tell Janie how you feel", his voice said her name as if he were something from a horror movie, taunting her.

The little one was crying, she rubbed her eyes tiredly as she looked at the camera just like she had done previously when she was ordered to, "I don't feel well", she said softly, her voice was quiet and timid, "I..", again she was interrupted with violent coughs that wracked her entire body.

"And what else?", the man questioned, prompting her to speak more.

Little Alessandra Mai Harmon was shivering and she was holding her arm, clearly in pain from the forceful tug that he had given her, "My chest hurts and…", she was struggling to talk, her breathing was irregular and she seemed dazed, "It hurts to breathe".

Hoyt smirked off camera, "Is there something you would like to ask the nice Detective?", he asked the child in a menacing manner whilst the word 'nice' seemed slightly sarcastic.

Her curls were tangled, clearly unwashed and were rather long resulting in them covering her face slightly as she looked down momentarily before looking back up again and towards the camera, "Please…", she was cut off again by her body's need to cough, "Please come and find me".

She was almost begging Jane through the camera, she had been forced to do it, to begin with as she did not even know who Detective Jane Clementine Rizzoli actually was but after a while she began to see the woman as a superhero that would come crashing in to save her and take her away from the mean man that she only knew as 'Santa' although deep down she knew he wasn't really the jolly old man from the books her mother would read to her.

Alessandra was wheezing and struggling to breathe as she cried in front of the camera, it was not done for the purpose of torturing the woman who would eventually be viewing the footage but simply because the little one did not feel well and that scared her.

Hoyt moved to kneel down in front of the camera so that he too was at the same level as the camera and that of the child. His arm went around her, putting pressure on her injured arm which made her squeal with pain, "Hurry", he said in an evil tone, "Hurry Detective Rizzoli, your time appears to be running out".

The last thing that was filmed before the camera was shut off was the little girl violently coughing, almost doubling over as she struggled to breathe.

The feelings of helplessness and horror were flooding back to her as she tightened her grip on her adopted daughter just a little bit more but not enough to squish the child or to cause her to worry. She remembered the signs of malnutrition that Maura had pointed out to them and the preliminary diagnosis of the injury of the child's arm, all of which she hated as she hated the fact that Alessandra had been forced to go through all of that but also she was annoyed at herself for not finding the little one sooner.

"Do you think that 'Santa' did it to her too?", Alessandra asked with her head slightly tilted to the right side as she spoke, "Is that why her arm was sore? Because 'Santa' pulled her like he did me".

"I don't know, Alessandra", Doctor Kingston replied honestly as she knew that it would not be a good idea to lie to the child but, in reality, she did not know the answer for certain as it could have been someone else that injured her or it could have been an injury that she had previous to being kidnapped by the horrid man. Although, the latter was extremely unlikely when the violent nature of the men was taken into account.

Alessandra looked down with tear-filled eyes, "That's not good", she whispered, "I know that hurts a lot when that happens". Her voice was rather quiet when she spoke and it was hard for them to hear her so the agents knew that when listening to the recording that the volume would have to be temporarily pushed up a little higher to hear it properly, "My arm still hurts sometimes", she admitted, "I pretend it doesn't though so then I can be strong and brave".

"You don't have to pretend anymore, Allie", Maura said softly before Melody could respond, "You never have to pretend with us". The Chief Medical Examiner cupped her daughter's cheek softly and pressed a kiss lovingly to Alessandra's forehead, "We love you so much and if you're in pain then we can give you medication to make sure that you're okay", she explained, "Do you understand?".

The little girl nodded as she leaned her cheek against the woman's palm with a little more pressure, "Yes", she replied quietly as she moved to hug her mother.

Maura did not hesitate to tug her daughter carefully into her arms and to hold her close to her, "No more pretending, okay?".

"Okay", Alessandra agreed straight away as she snuggled up against her.

After giving the two of them a moment together in silence, Melody opted to prompt the child to continue speaking, "Do you remember anything else? What about the day that Marcia left the cabin?".

"It was raining when she left", Alessandra stated, "I remember because when it rained water would get inside the basement when it ran down the walls". "It made it muddy around the sides and it made it colder too", she explained, "But it did make it easier to draw on the walls when it was wet". "I don't like dried mud on my feet though", she said as she cringed, "It feels gross". "I'm glad my bed didn't get wet very much though", she continued, "Although when it got really, really wet then it did get wet".

Maura leaned her head on Jane's shoulder, it was hard for them to listen to what the child had been through but they knew that it would have been even harder for the child who had to actually go through all of that herself.

"We had a hurricane one time", Alessandra revealed with slightly widened eyes, "I heard them say it on the tv and everyone left to go somewhere else". "I'm not sure where they went but I know they locked the door because I couldn't get out of the basement", she continued, "I wanted to hide from the wind and stay in the basement but I wanted to get away from the water to go upstairs".

"Santa!", the child screamed in the empty cabin, "Santa! Let me out! It's raining inside, please let me out". "Come back and let me out Santa!", she cried out as the tears streamed down her face, "It's cold and wet, my bed flooded".

The cabin was quiet other than the sounds of the strong winds outside, the sounds of the trees hitting things, and the sound of one tree, in particular, smacking the upstairs window. The rain was running down the dirt walls of the basement and the hole in the ground that the child referred to as her bed was filled a third of the way as the water had nowhere else to go as it flooded into the basement level of the cabin.

"Detective Jane!", she called out as that is who she had been told would rescue her one day and that was looking for her, "You can come rescue me now if you want". "It would be a really good time to", she continued, "I need you, please!".

Alessandra begged in desperation to be taken away from the wind and rain, she hated the storm and it scared her, "Please get me out", she cried quietly as she remained partially up the rickety wooden stairs whilst being careful not to get any splinters from the tattered wood.

She managed to cry herself to sleep, her body giving in to exhaustion as she lay curled on the staircase with the weather swirling around the house.

When Hoyt and the other two men returned to the cabin three days later, the little girl was still trapped in the basement although the dirt around the top of the basement had been partially washed away and the entire basement had been transformed into a mud bath. Luckily the writing on the inside wall of the bed had remained but that was only because the water had not run into the hole from the top but travelled through the actual dirt as the graves that had been dug in the basement gave the water a better travelling path to get through the ground.

Eighteen trees outside had been either torn from the ground or broken down whilst many had damage that had not completely destroyed it. The fence needed fixing as it had a tree lying on the top of two of the sections and there were random items of debris that were scattered around the property.

The cabin, which was poorly built, was miraculously still standing, or at least most of it was. The roof had been taken off for the most part and the top level of the house was wrecked due to the lack of roofing cover and four of the windows were smashed whilst the back door was missing. Even if the door to the basement had not been locked and bolted then it would not have been possible for the child to open it as there was what appeared to be part of a tree in front of the door which blocked the way for any sort of movement.

For four days the little girl had survived on leftover food that she had stashed away, a few random items of food that Hoyt had so 'kindly' thrown into the basement before he left which was simply one chocolate bar, two bags of crisps, and a pizza box with a single slice of pizza along with one juice box and half a bottle of water. When she got thirsty she would drink the muddy water that ran down the walls although she tended to avoid that as it tasted 'funny' to her and made her pull faces.

When they finally allowed her out of the basement, she was covered in mud and dirt as well as being soaking wet. Her eyes were bright pink from crying and her voice was croaky from screaming out for the first couple of days until she gave up and only cried out on occasion. Her clothing was ruined, she was thirsty, and the basement was uninhabitable - not that the men cared of course because after half a day she was thrown back down there. Once she had helped to tidy up from the storm of course.

As a reward for helping tidy up, she was given a dry blanket and a plank of wood to sleep on so that she would not have to lay in the wet mud at the bottom of her bed. The other reward happened to be multiple splinters, bruises, cuts, and scratches as well as an allergic reaction to an unknown item that resulted in a rash all over her chest. Hoyt never investigated the rash and itchiness, nor did the others as they simply did not care at all.

"Do you remember anything else from the day that Marcia left the cabin?", Melody Kingston prompted her carefully.

Alessandra shook her head, "No, just the rain", she said before pausing for a moment, "Oh.. and a scream but she probably just saw a spider… she's scared of them you know".

Spider, Jane thought to herself, I've never heard Hoyt called that before, she knew that the scream was not likely to be anything related to a spider which meant that the little girl who was now in Maura's lap had most likely heard Marcia's last scream.

The reality was that she had heard the death of the 34-year-old Chilean woman that day as the rain poured down outside and Hoyt took the woman's life. She had not died instantly but he had gagged her so that she would not be heard by the child who was locked in the basement at the time.

That had been the last day that Marcia had been alive and it had also been the day that Hoyt had ordered the other man at the cabin to bury her on the property. Marcia was buried less than a meter away from the tree that housed Alessandra's swing with the child completely unaware of that fact. She was under the impression that, for some reason unknown to her, the men liked to dig in the ground quite a bit and make a mess.

It turned out that the little girl was often a useful key in making his victims be quiet which resulted in a higher level of fear in them although if he wanted to hear them scream then he would take them to one of his other properties, especially his 'friend's' warehouse near the harbour as it was empty and the owner used it for a similar thing. It had been John, the owner of the warehouse, that had 'gifted' Marcia to Hoyt to begin with as he had the woman in his 'possession' for two days previous to gifting her.

John went by many names including but not limited to; 'Jacob', 'Tim', 'Jason', and 'Keith'. He was a cruel man who often kidnapped women for himself or for others when they 'ordered' a woman from him. They would specify what they wanted and he would get that for him, much in the way that someone would purchase something from a store. He was a cruel and heartless man who had no family or real friends as he was psychopathic with a substantial lack of socialisation skills.

"Okay", Melody said softly, "How about we take a break? You can get yourself a treat from the vending machine and whatever drink you want too. Then we shall come back in here and I will show you one more photo, is that okay?".

Alessandra nodded, "Okay", she said with a bright smile as she got up from where she had been sitting on Maura's lap and started to tug on her hand, "Come on Mommy, Melody says I can have anything".

Maura smiled in return and followed the child out of the room but the child turned at the last minute, "Come on Mamma! It's chocolate time".

Jane laughed, "Okay my little Turtle, I'm coming", she replied as she got up from the floor and followed her daughter out of the interview room.

Whilst the three of them went to the vending machine with money that Melody had given them from a special fund that allowed for snacks and drinks etc for the children being interviews, Melody was in the observation room with the agents.

Melody leaned back against the closed door of the room and sighed heavily, This may be the hardest case of my career, she thought to herself.

"You're doing great", Agent Jackson stated with a nod, "She's giving us a lot of information and you're keeping her calm, well done Kingston".

"I'm just glad that she didn't know what the scream was", Agent Jennifer Summers stated, "I hope she never finds out".

The other agents nodded, most still looking at the now empty room.

"That hurricane was bad, I remember it", Jennifer stated, "I took my kids and went to stay with my mother for a week". "I can't imagine leaving them behind to suffer the storm by themselves, especially not in such a horrid place", she said quietly as she fiddled with her necklace.

The others agreed with her, there was a lot that they did not understand on a personal level as to why it had happened to or around the little girl but on a professional level, they understood the statistics and psychology behind the actions of the criminals.

"Which photo do we have next?", one of the agents asked her, unsure of which photos were in Melody's folder at the time.

Doctor Kingston nodded, "The next photo is of a 26-year-old student; Thalia Haines", she stated.

Agent Jackson took over from there with the information that he had in the file in front of him, "She went missing from campus and the kidnapping was captured on CCTV. She was wearing a light pink blouse at the time along with a pair of jeans". "She was found nine weeks later and had a child's drawing folded up in her pocket of multi-coloured butterflies escaping out of a large black scribble in the middle of the page".

"The drawing symbolises her desperation to escape", Melody explained, "She wanted to be free to go home but couldn't".

The team were grateful that working together the little one had been found and was now home with loving parents. It was good to know that the little girl that they had been searching for was no longer trapped with that horrific serial killer and his so-called 'friends' anymore.

Fifteen minutes later, Melody reentered the interview room where Jane and Maura were both sat at the table with Alessandra on Jane's lap. Alessandra was sipping her drink which was a strawberry juice drink and she had a bar of chocolate on the table that had been opened up with the chocolate inside broken up into pieces. The chocolate left was only crumbs and she had insisted that she share it with both of her mothers.

"Did you enjoy your snack?", Melody questioned as she sat down in the spot that she had been in originally and placed her folder back on the table in front of her.

Alessandra nodded, "Uh huh", she replied simply before elaborating a little bit, "I had a Hershey's chocolate bar with cookie pieces in it and a strawberry juice. I have shared with Mommy and Mamma though so that they could have some as well because they always share their things with me too".

"That was very nice of you, Alessandra", Melody stated with a smile.

Alessandra simply smiled in response as she leaned back against Jane.

"Are you ready to take a look at another photograph?", the psychologist asked her carefully, "This will be the last photo for today".

The little girl nodded, "I'm ready", she replied straight away.

Doctor Melody Kingston opened up her file and slid the A4-sized photograph forward so that it was in front of the child, "Do you know who this is?", she asked her softly.

Alessandra nodded making her curls bounce a little as she did it, "That's Thalia", she answered, "I don't remember her last name though, but I know it was something beginning with the letter H".

One of the bodies to be discovered was that of a 26-year-old female student who had been taken from campus, this time a CCTV feed at the university had picked up the abduction and Hoyt was seen on the footage with two men. One was driving and one grabbed the girl, Hoyt, however, seemed to be quite happy to stand by the side and even smiled at the camera as if taunting the Detectives. Campus security called law enforcement but by the time they managed to do anything the van was gone and so was the girl. She was missing for 9 weeks before her body was found and she seemed to have been held captive for the longest amount of time out of all of the women.

Her name was Thalia Haines; she wore a pair of jeans with a pink blouse and in her pocket was a folded up piece of paper. The paper was tattered and torn but marked with crayons. It was a drawing that was clearly done by a child and due to Alessandra's fingerprints being found on the paper it was hypothesised that she had been the one to draw it. The drawing was of butterflies of various colours but in the corner was a dark squiggle. Maura had hypothesised that the squiggle symbolised the location that she was being kept in, the darkness and horror showed in it made tears spring to the eyes of the medically trained woman.

"That's okay if you don't remember her last name", Melody reassured her as the little girl was sat in silence trying to remember the name for them, she was unaware that it was a piece of information that they did, in fact, already know.

"She goes to university and studies animals because she's going to become a vet", the little one revealed with a smile, "Isn't that amazing? She said she wants to go to Kenya and save the Rhinos". "One day, I want to go and visit her there so I can see all of the animals too", Alessandra continued.

"That definitely is amazing", Melody agreed with an encouraging smile on her face.

"That's where she went when she left the cabin", the little girl stated despite it not being true, "She went back to school so that she could finish her studies and go and save the Rhinos". She was unaware that what she was saying was not true and that it had been a lie to make her feel better, "She only had a few months left of her studies which means she's probably living in Kenya now with the Rhinos".

"Do you remember anything from the day that she came to stay at the cabin?", the woman asked her carefully after a moment of silence.

Alessandra nodded, "When she came she was wearing a pink shirt", she said softly, "I remember because it had marks all over it and so did her jeans". "She told me that she had fallen over when she left campus", she said as she looked down at the photograph of Thalia before admitting, "I'm not sure she did though".

"What makes you think that?", Melody questioned carefully.

"Too many people fell over on their way to the cabin or at the cabin", Alessandra stated, "Don't you think that's a little suspicious?".

Melody was unsure how to respond but she did not have to worry about that as the little girl continued.

"I think she got pushed over or pulled on the ground", Alessandra stated, "That happened to me sometimes if I was misbehaving and refusing to go inside or go back down to the basement to go to bed".

Jane tightened her grip momentarily on the child, giving her a brief squeeze before kissing the side of her head in a reassuring manner to remind her that she was safe and that both of her mothers were there for her.

"Do you remember anything else from the day that she came to the cabin?", Melody asked the little girl after a moment.

Alessandra nodded, "She had a bag with her that had her study things in", she said with a smile, "She taught me a lot about animals from her school books and she let me use her pens and pencils too so I let her use my crayons". "She stayed with us at the cabin for lots and lots of nights, a lot more than Marcia did", she continued, "She did lessons with me in the basement so that I could pretend I was at school although the other students were just imaginary". "I liked Thalia's school lessons", she admitted, "They were fun because they were mostly about the animals that she was learning about at school". "Did you know that a shrimp's heart is in its head?", the little one questioned.

Melody shook her head with slightly widened eyes, "No, I didn't know that", the woman admitted.

"Thalia taught me that", the little girl said with a smile, "And she said that snails can sleep for up to three years! I think Mamma would like to stay in bed for that long, it sounds like quite a nap, doesn't it?".

"That definitely does sound like quite the nap", Melody agreed, "Although it might be a tad too long".

Alessandra nodded, "I think it might be too long too", she said softly before continuing, "Thalia liked the Rhinos the most though so she told me lots of facts about those like their horns being made out of hair, isn't that amazing?".

Melody nodded with a smile, she was rather amused at the enthusiasm that the little girl had for the information that she had been taught at the cabin by the young student. "Do you remember anything else from when she came to the cabin?", she prompted her in order to attempt to get a little bit back on track rather than to continue with animal facts that the little one was enthusiastically sharing although when interviewing a child it was expected that at some point the interview could go off-track or abruptly end when the child decided to end it.

"Santa took her phone away", the little girl revealed, "He told her that she wouldn't need it anymore but he didn't take her laptop out of her bag". "Thalia tried to get the internet on her laptop so that she could call someone and so that we could both go home but there wasn't any connection", Alessandra said softly, "That's why he let her keep it because he knew that she couldn't do much with it". "She had her school notes on it though and she had things downloaded on it too", she told Melody, "The battery died though and we couldn't charge it so we didn't get to do very much on it for long".

"How about we watch a movie on my laptop? I have Anastasia downloaded because the little girl I babysit loves the movie", Thalia said with a smile, "We won't get to watch all of it because the laptop battery is running out but we can watch quite a bit of it".

Alessandra nodded, "Okay", she said happily as she was quite excited at the idea of getting to watch a movie, even if it was just part of one. The two of them curled up in the 'bed' with the blanket and started to watch the movie on the laptop but Thalia did not have to worry about the battery dying as the child was fast asleep before the laptop battery gave out.

Thalia sighed as she brushed a stray curl away from Alessandra's face, "You remind me so much of Emilia", she whispered, "We'll get out of here...we have to". She so much wanted to believe that she would but after just a few days of being there, she was unsure. She was realising, however, that the more useful she was to the horrid man then the more he left her alone, all she had to do was to keep the child occupied, keep her happy, and keep her out of his way. On the other hand, she knew that it was not going to keep her alive forever. She knew that there would come a time when that would not keep her alive anymore.

"Do you remember anything else from her stay at the cabin with you?", Melody asked her after a moment.

Alessandra paused for a second before answering the question, "She let me watch Anastasia on her laptop", she revealed, "I love that movie, it's one of my favourite movies".

"We did a lot of drawing together at the cabin and she pushed me on the swings too", the girl continued, "We got to go outside too in the field to pick flowers and make daisy chains but one day they forgot us and we had to sleep outside in the field". "It was very cold outside at night and I got lots of bug bites", she revealed, "I'm not so keen on sleeping outside but the stars were really pretty and Thalia told me stories about stars".

"Thalia gave awesome cuddles", the child said with a smile, "She would give me snuggles all night and she would swing me around in the grass to make me fly like a bird". Alessandra smiled as she remembered the fun that she had with the woman whilst at the cabin despite the two of them being in captivity, "She was really good at making up bedtime stories although all her stories were about animals and her stories aren't as good as Mamma's are". "Mamma changes stories that she knows about Princesses and things to add more fun bits in like Princess Cinderella playing baseball and the dwarves from Snow White being Officers", she said with amusement in her voice and a smile on her face.

"What else do you remember about Thalia's stay with you?", Doctor Kingston asked Alessandra.

Little Allie thought about it for a moment as she tried to remember anything else, "We spent a lot of time outside and Thalia sneaked me some extra food sometimes although if she got caught in the kitchen then she got shouted at by Santa", she revealed, "He hit her once because she stole a slice of pizza for me". "I was really hungry and I begged her for food so it was my fault that she got hurt", the little one said as she sniffled a little.

Melody reached forward and very cautiously put her hand on top of Alessandra's in order to get her attention, "It was not your fault, Alessandra", she reassured her firmly, "None of it was your fault, he did it so it was his fault".

"But I made her do it", Alessandra mumbled.

Doctor Kingston shook her head, "You didn't hit her though, so that means it wasn't your fault", she said softly, "Would you blame someone else if you hit someone?".

Alessandra shook her head, "No", she admitted.

"Then you can't blame yourself for someone else misbehaving", Melody said softly trying to reassure the child that it was definitely not her fault, "Did Thalia blame you?".

The little girl shook her head, "No, she said it wasn't my fault", she revealed.

"There you go then", Melody said with a smile, "It wasn't your fault, Thalia said so".

Alessandra smiled a little happier now that it had been reaffirmed to her that it had not, in actual fact, been her fault that the man had hit Thalia with the back of his hand and split the woman's lip in front of her.

Jane hugged her daughter and pressed a loving kiss to the top of her head, "It was never your fault", she whispered to her, "I promise you that".

Melody waited for a moment before she continued with the interview, "Do you remember anything else about Thalia? Or her time with you?", she asked her gently.

Alessandra nodded, "Thalia pulled funny faces at me to make me laugh sometimes and she was always trying to make me laugh and smile", she said softly, "She hated it when I cried, especially if I cried out from my nightmares and wanted my Mammina or Papa". What she did not know is that the reason the woman disliked those things was mostly down to her fear that the noise would get them both into trouble at night although she did genuinely hate to see the little girl she was growing to love in such distress.

After a couple of hours of the interview where Alessandra told Melody all about their time outside, their time drawing, and the other things that they had gotten up to during their time together at the cabin, the conversation changed slightly. "Do you remember anything about the day that Thalia left?", Melody questioned.

The little girl went quiet but nodded briefly.

"What do you remember?", Melody prompted cautiously.

"She was crying a lot", Alessandra stated as she kept her eyes focused on the photo in front of her, "She told me that she was going back to school so that she could learn more about animals and go and save the Rhinos but she was so sad". "I begged her to take me with her so I could go to a real school and so that I could help her save the Rhinos", she said as she started to cry, "But she wouldn't take me with her".

A/N: Thank you to all that have added this story (or me) to their subscriptions or favourites list.

Also an extra thank you to those who have left reviews for me or who have messaged me about the story.

Thank you 'CharmH' who is leaving a review on each of the chapters that she is reading, that is totally awesome!

Thank you to 'sally rally', 'vbbneighbour', 'luckpenguinbuddy', and 'sweetkid45' who never seem to fail to review each chapter and who along with all other reviewers give me a boost to continue with this story. You are all fabulous!

'luckypenguinbuddy' - I do hope that the 'build-up' was worth it.