"Kristoff, please, you should eat something. Otherwise you'll be hungry in school."

"I'm not going to school," Kristoff stated and pushed his porridge plate farther away.

"You have to go to school. I let your skipping slide on Friday, but not today," Bulda said strictly.

"I don't care. I'm not going, not before you let me see Elsa," Kristoff huffed irritably, not ready to give up an inch to his mother.

"We talked about this. We are not preventing you to see her to be mean, she's just too—" Bulda started explaining the situation, for what felt like millionth time, but was interrupted by the doorbell and Axel's barking.

"I'm gonna get it!" Ingrid screamed while surging down the stairs. Bulda couldn't really see her, but she sure could hear her, pounding down those poor stairs.

"No! I wanna get it!" Knut ran after his sister. Kristoff and Bulda could then see them running towards the vestibule through the opened doors in the dining area. The twins were trying to pull each other farther away from the door to get there first themselves, before both disappeared in the vestibule.

Bulda and Kristoff could hear some talking coming from the front door, and waited patiently. Soon, the twins reappeared, but with two serious looking individuals with them, female and male. Both were tall and slim and wore neat clothes. Knut and Ingrid showed them the way to the dining room, holding hands with each other like they often did, all of their previous disagreement forgotten. Then they left, sniggering quietly together. Before Bulda had time to ask anything, the female pulled out an identification card and said: "Good morning, ma'am. We are sorry to disrupt your morning, but I'm detective Dahl and this is detective Olsen, and we're from Tromsø's police department. We have some questions concerning the girl that was brought to hospital from here."

"Is she okay?" Kristoff asked quickly, eager to know how her friend was doing.

"She's getting the best possible treatment for her illness," the male, Olsen, answered vaguely.

"That's not really an answer," Kristoff scowled.

"Look son, we're not really doctors here. All we want, is for you to tell us what you know about this girl and who she is. We can start with the name. What is her name?"

"That's none of your business. If you want to know, you can ask her," Kristoff snapped to them, rudely.

"Elsa. That's what you called her, right honey?" Bulda said, helpfully. Kristoff looked at her with face full of betrayal. How did she dare?

"Elsa, okay, thank you. Do you have last name?"

"I don't know. Kristoff?" But Kristoff didn't answer, he just crossed his arms and looked pissed. "Kristoff, behave. Excuse me, I have to go to see that the other kids leave for the school." And with that, Bulda left Kristoff alone with the detectives.

"I get it, you want to protect your friend, but the best thing you can do, is tell us what you know. We want to help your friend too, and find her home and family, people who can take care of her," the female cop, Dahl, explained, kindly.

"Elsa doesn't have a home or family, and she doesn't want to go back where she came from." Kristoff said, his voice tight.

"Okay, but it's still important for us to know everything. If Elsa doesn't have anyone, we'll have to find her a new home and family. And if she does have a family that isn't good for her, we'll have to look into it more. The best for Elsa right now, is to find her origin."

Kristoff sighed and slumped down onto his chair. "I don't know, okay? We didn't really talk about her life before. I don't know her last name, or where she is from. Elsa didn't like to talk about things like that."

"Did she ever mention anyone from her past? Perhaps some adult friend?"

"I don't know. Her father, I guess. Yeah, she mentioned her father couple of times. And umm- I think she was bullied in school, or something. Elsa didn't have any friends."

"Father! That's a great start. What did she say about her father?" the male detective pressed on, sounding excited for getting something to work with.

Kristoff shot a hesitating look for his mother who walked back to the room after seeing the other children to school. She gave him approving smile and nod to continue, so he did: "Nothing much, just that he made Elsa do most of the housework, Elsa didn't see any problems with it, though. And then he wanted her to call her sir instead of dad. Over all, he didn't sound like the nicest person out there for me, and Elsa didn't really talk about him."

"Did she mention a name? Any names?" Dahl tried.

"No."

"Are you sure? This is really important. We can't help your friend, if you are not cooperating with us," Olsen squinted his eyes, suspiciously.

"She never mentioned any names or any places she had been in. I'm not lying!" Kristoff was getting a little frustrated.

"Okay, we believe you. No need to lose your temper," Olsen said and lifted his arms up a little, as sign of surrender.

"We have one last question. We need you to be honest with us. But I think it would be easier for you to answer if your mother would wait in the other room," the female detective subtly pointed the door for Bulda.

"What is this? Are you accusing my son for something?" Bulda asked, getting a little unsettled.

"No, no, we're not accusing him of anything. We're just trying to—" Dahl started, trying to calm the situation. But she was interrupted by the male detective blurting out: "We need to know if you've been intimate with Elsa."

"Olsen!" Dahl hissed warningly.

"Intimate with Elsa?" Kristoff asked, confused. He looked to his mother for answers, but she just had a flabbergasted expression on her face.

"Yeah. You know, have you touched her, in her private parts? Possibly with your own private parts, or fingers, or with something. We're not judging, you're a big fellow and she's a pretty gal. It wouldn't be shocking if you had, since you two have been quite close and—"

"Olsen! This is completely inappropriate!" the female detective seemed to completely lose her cool when she was trying to get her partner to shut up. Kristoff's face was flushed red when he understood what the detective was implying. Bulda was horrified of what they were asking of her son.

After he recovered from his shock, mortified Kristoff yelled with high pitched voice: "Eww no! That's gross! I don't like Elsa like that, she's like a sister for me!"

"They're twelve-years-old, for goodness sake. Why are you asking him questions like this?" Bulda asked with an offended tone.

"We're sorry ma'am. It's- We're- We think it would be the best if we tested your son anyway. Just in case," the female detective seemed to be in loss of words. Kristoff was confused, he didn't understand what she was talking about. Getting tested for what?

Bulda, on the other hand, seemed to get what the female detective was implying. "You want to test my son for STD, don't you? Oh my gosh! Does that poor girl have STD?"

"We cannot tell you that, ma'am. Just that it would be the best for your son to get tested. I know that he said that they didn't do anything, but I wouldn't take any risks," Dahl said, not unkindly.

"We should leave now, think what we said. Have a good day," Olsen said right after his partner had ended her sentence. And with that, they both turned around, every intention to leave the house.

"Hey, wait!" Kristoff yelled after them. "Can I go to see her? In the hospital, you know?"

"She's not really up to any talking, but if you want to see your friend, I don't see why you couldn't," and then they were gone.

"Mom pleaseeeee," Kristoff begged his mother to let him go.

"Fine. If Pabbie agrees to drop me to work and drive you to Tromsø, you can go."

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Kristoff jumped up and down and rushed to the old homestead, located on their yard, where Pabbie's room was.

"I don't think we're any closer to find out who the girl is," Olsen groaned while driving them back to Tromsø.

"No, I think we are. Do you remember that Swedish business man who was murdered in his car in early July?"

"That case in Rana? With that burned car? It was Anders Weselton, right?"

"Yes, that one. Didn't he have a twelve-years-old daughter named Elsa? The one who couldn't be found after child welfare realized that there should be a child?" Dahl asked, wanting to confirm her of suspicious.

"Oh yes! He did! And this girl matches perfectly that case, doesn't she? Blonde hair and fair skin, if I remember it correctly," Olsen was getting excited for the idea of breakthrough.

"Yes, I'm sure she's the one. I'll have to call there and make sure that this is the right missing person, but I'm pretty sure she is. The poor girl doesn't have any relatives to take care of her though, no one even asked for her after her father died."

"But I bet she could help solve the murder case though. Maybe she knows something more about Weselton's actions, more than just the tax fraud they were able to unveil."

"Considering the state the girl is in, I think Weselton could be involved in pedophile ring and human trafficking. Maybe he got in disagreement with those people and was going to rat them out, or something. That would certainly give the murderer a motive."

"Hmm. She could have gotten the chlamydia while on the run though. Who knows what has happened to her while out there alone?"

"She could have, but the doctor said that she most likely had had it for a year, considering the damage it had caused. She has been on the run six months at most, probably less. It's more likely, that she was sexually abused before she ran away, and that might be the reason for her hiding. That boy mentioned, that she didn't want to go back to where she came from."

"You're right, we'll just have to get her to speak and maybe we'll solve way more than just the murder case. She might not be willing to speak though, she seemed to be terrified of us and the hospital staff, and back then she was completely pumped up with drugs. I doubt she'll be any more willing to cooperate with us when she's not heavily sedated."

"She's seems to like that boy, maybe we can use that to help us later on. But now, I have to call to Rana and talk with them about the case," Dahl ended the conversation, and pulled her phone from her pocket.

Kristoff pressed a button and spoke to a mic, unsurely: "Umm… Kristoff Bjorgman. I'm here to see my friend, Elsa." Then he waited for a moment and the door buzzled. He shot an uncertain look to Pabbie, wanting reassurance. Pabbie provided that with a small smile, and a pat on the back. Kristoff walked in and towards the small waiting room. There he sat down on the couch, nervously.

Kristoff felt uncomfortable sitting down. He fidgeted some time, and then got up and walked to look at the time in the clock, and then walked back to the couch to sit and fidget on. He repeated this at least twenty times in fifteen minutes, even though, he could easily see the clock from where he sat.

"You're Kristoff, right? Miss Elsa is this way," a nurse had come to the lobby and was showing Kristoff a way to his friend. He glanced Pabbie, but Pabbie just ushered him to follow the man, alone.

Kristoff walked through a hallway with the nurse, his heart pounding in his throat. They arrived in a long room with five beds. All the beds were occupied and there were so many tubes and wires on every single of the beds, Kristoff felt sick to his stomach. In the very last one, laid Elsa. She looked so tiny, just lying there, attached to machines. Her thin arms laid on top of the covers, wires on top of her hand and some strange clip on her bony finger. There was a mask on her face. Her platinum hair laid lifelessly on the pillow, and for the first time, Kristoff saw it being free. Her skin was sickly pale and she had dark bags under her eyes, despite for sleeping most of the days. There was a monitor keeping track of her heartbeat, and possibly other functions too. Kristoff sat next to it and hesitatingly reached for Elsa's hand. She didn't even stir.

"Hey Elsa. It's me, Kristoff," Kristoff said awkwardly, and waited. But there was no answer, so he decided to go on. "I'm sorry for not visiting earlier. I wanted to come to the hospital with you, but mom didn't let me. And then they brought you here, so I couldn't visit without getting a drive. Pabbie brought me today. Do you remember him?"

He waited for a moment, again. And then he swallowed a lump that had built up in his throat. "It's hard, seeing you like this. I feel like you should wake in any minute, and then we could go to wander into the woods again, like we used to when you still lived in that abandoned house." Kristoff gave a gentle squeeze for Elsa's hand and shuddered a breath. It was so hard to look at the pale little girl sleeping there. For the first time, Elsa stirred a little because of the pressure on her hand, and then slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelids looked heavy and she had her eyes only half-opened. There was a hazy look in her blue, glazed eyes.

Kristoff felt a little nervous. He wasn't sure, if he had been allowed to wake Elsa up. He turned to glance the nurse behind the glass window, watching a monitor, but he didn't seem to mind, so Kristoff turned his attention back to the girl. "Hey my little traveling snowflake. Where have you been wandering these late days?" Kristoff whispered to Elsa, voice full of affection.

"Mm. Mom was here. Oh Kristoff, she wasn't at all like I had imagined," Elsa murmured, sounding delirious and kind of dreamy. Her words were jumping around and it sounded like they got stuck in her throat and she had to push them out.

"Your mom? She came here?" Kristoff asked, confused.

Elsa kept a long pause, and closed her eyes. It was so long, that Kristoff actually thought that she fallen back to sleep. But then she half-opened her eyes again, smiled a little, and put her right hand on top of Kristoff's hand, which was holding her other hand. Then she murmured: "Hmmm. Thank you for coming."

"Of course, I wouldn't leave you here alone at all, if I had a choice."

But Elsa didn't answer anymore, she had drifted back to her slumber, her right hand now limply falling off of Kristoff's. Kristoff helped Elsa to more comfortable looking position, and then got up and kissed her forehead softly. His lips ghosting on her forehead, he whispered the final promise: "I promise that I'll take better care of you than I have, no matter of what." And then he left Elsa to rest in peace.

A/N I know this is really dialogue-heavy chapter, I hope you don't mind. Thank you so much for your support, I love reading about your thoughts in the comment section. Let me know what you think about this chapter, and we'll see in the next one!