Elizabeth swore that she was going to be ill at the images she was seeing. Looking at the photographs in 808 Broadway, she peered down onto them as Laszlo stood behind her, a hand resting on her back as he glanced over her shoulder. He had seen his wife turn pale and had grown concerned, knowing that she was anything but a weak woman to swoon at such horrors, but these images were particularly gruesome.

"My God," John whispered, hands in his pockets as he longed for nothing more than a long, stiff drink, but he knew that was not going to happen. And so he simply looked away from the photos, his gaze catching Sara's and she simply nodded once.

Laszlo reached a hand around his wife, his fingers trailing over one of the photographs, his fingertips dancing over the face of the small girl whose ears, nose and tongue had been cut from her body. Her hair had been cut too, leaving her almost bald. There were fingers missing from her hand and her neck had been slit. She must only have been about seven year's of age and Elizabeth closed her eyes, turning away as Laszlo squeezed hold of her arm tightly, trying to keep her grounded.

"Who is she?" Laszlo was the one to question.

"Her name is Josephine Jones," Sara said. "Her mother came to me when the police said that they had no leads."

"Did they try to have any leads?" John questioned then.

"According to Marcus, who sent her mother to me, they didn't try too hard. The girl came from the poorer side of the tracks and had just moved here from England," Sara concluded, moving her fingers into her skirts and feeling her palms sweat.

Elizabeth moved away from the table, Laszlo turning his head over his shoulder to watch her go, making sure she was fine as she glanced out the window, clearly getting some fresh air for a few moments. He remained mute and turned to look back to the images once more, finding that his stomach was also feeling queasy from them, but he pushed that to the side and knew that he had to ask the questions that needed to be asked.

"Does the mother have any suspicions as to who would have wanted to do this to her daughter?"

"None at all," Sara said and she reached for the bourbon on her drink's cart. She poured a glass and downed it in an instant before filling another glass. "She said that her daughter was doing well at school. She had friends…her mother seemed loving…she has a younger sister too."

"The father?" Laszlo pushed for more.

"Absent," Sara said. "He left them as soon as they arrived in New York. Ran away with a barmaid to Oklahoma, apparently."

"So…a random killing?" John questioned and Sara stood before Elizabeth, handing her the glass of bourbon. Elizabeth took it wordlessly, not bothering to sip on it but simply downing it in one, feeling it burn her throat for a few seconds as she clung to the empty glass.

"Killings are not random, John, not usually, anyway," Laszlo declared, picking his gaze up from the photographs. "Whoever killed Josephine took their time with her. They knew what they were doing…there was a reason behind this."

"But what reason could it be?" John questioned. "I will never understand how someone could do this to a child…hurt them…torture them…"

"And that is because we are not in their shoes. We are not able to understand because we do not want to understand," Laszlo declared. "This child clearly went through a lot of pain and I can only imagine what her mother is feeling. Tell me, is she able to pay for your services?" Laszlo turned to Sara who shook her head once.

"I couldn't turn her away," she said. "But this place…it costs a fair fortune to run and I already have Bitsy looking over old newspaper cuttings to see if there is any other case similar to this and Marcus checking police records."

"Tell her that I shall cover the cost," Laszlo said, not even bothering to hesitate and Elizabeth watched him begin to move around the room, pacing back and forth. It was as if his offer was not an issue for him and Elizabeth suspected it wasn't. But his empathy was clear and she wondered if he was thinking what she was thinking. They had two little girls who would be Josephine's age one day soon.

"That is quite the offer, Laszlo."

"It is not a big issue," Laszlo decided on saying to her. "What is an issue is finding out who did this to her daughter."

"Cutting out the eyes…ears…nose…why would anyone do that?" John asked.

Laszlo opened his mouth to speak, but Elizabeth was already talking.

"Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil," she said, both hands holding onto the glass in her fingers, not wanting to let it go. She squeezed it tightly in her hands and leant against the wall by the window as they all looked to her and Laszlo nodded his head once. He had also considered that.

"It could be that the killer thinks that by removing them then the child cannot talk…cannot disclose secrets, despite the fact that she is dead. It is almost a ritual in some cases," Laszlo continued. "As for the hair and the fingers, I cannot comment on those just yet. It might be that I need to return to my books at home and the Institute. However, it seems that we should start trying to find a profile of the killers once we have begun our research. I assume that we are able to start in the morning, yes?"

"You have no other pressing business?" Sara questioned and Laszlo looked to Elizabeth who nodded once.

They did have pressing business with Charlotte. And he had promised her that they would work through whatever was upsetting her the following day. And he wasn't going to go back on that promise, not if he couldn't help it, anyway. He said nothing for a few seconds as Elizabeth continued to stare at him, her gaze almost pleading with him. Nodding his head to her, he then looked to Sara.

"I can have Stevie bring a selection of books here," he informed her. "And I will try and join you when I can."

"The same goes for me," John agreed. "I had promised Violet that I would help her choose wallpaper tomorrow for the new guest bedroom she is decorating."

John suddenly realised how shallow that sounded. He was going to pick wallpaper instead of helping on a case that was clearly important. But Violet was already upset that he had left her alone that evening, the soft scowl on her face enough to tell John that they would be having a conversation when he returned home that night.

"I will ask Bitsy to come in tomorrow and see if Milly is also available then," Sara commented.

"I will come as soon as I can," Laszlo assured her. "And it would be helpful if we could speak with her mother to try and gain more details on her daughter's life."

"I already interviewed her," Sara said.

"I know and I do not doubt that you have done an excellent job, Sara, but my job is to read people and I will know if there is anything she was hiding," Laszlo told her. "Please, do not think that I am belittling the work that you do. I just want to help."

Sara sighed once, but she nodded her head. She could see that was the case. Saying nothing further on the matter for she did not want to argue with Laszlo, she bit down on her tongue and Elizabeth left her glass on the table next to her.

"I will visit her tomorrow and see if she will come and talk to us again," Sara relented. "In the meantime, I suspect we should retire for the evening. The hour has grown late and I did not mean to take you from your anniversary party, John."

"Violet will understand," John said to her, but they all remained mute, not entirely certain if that was true, but none of them intended to challenge John on it.

Instead, they bid their goodnights, Elizabeth pecking John on the cheek and hugging Sara before taking Laszlo's arm. They took the stairs down the building and came to the sidewalk, finding Stevie waiting for them. Laszlo held his hand out to his wife and she took hold of it, letting him help her up and into the carriage. He closed the door and told Stevie to take them home as John took his own carriage and Sara the same.

"Promise me you'll be careful," Elizabeth suddenly said to her husband and he saw her run her hands up and down her arms, almost as though she were cold. He shrugged out of his jacket and awkwardly managed to wrap it around her shoulders, leaving his arm draped over them as she moved a hand to his thigh.

"I promise," Laszlo said to her, voice earnest.

"I mean it Laszlo," Elizabeth said. "Working on these cases…we know what has happened because of them."

Laszlo remained silent for a few seconds, knowing what she was talking about. The first case he had worked on had been horrid and he had almost lost his wife. They had both lost Mary and they still missed her. Hiring Diana as the new maid had taken its toll on both of them for a short while, neither of them wanting to replace Mary, not really. And then the second case had almost cost Charlotte her life too. She had been in hospital for such a long time and Laszlo remember explicitly how his marriage to Elizabeth had suffered because of it.

"I know," Laszlo told her, voice earnest and gentle as he felt her lean against him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I worry about these things just as much as you, my darling."

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt, Laszlo, not anymore."

"And we will do all we can to avoid that," Laszlo promised her, kissing the top of her head. "We do not know what we are dealing with yet, but you and the girls will always be my number one priority. Nothing will change that."

"I don't doubt you," Elizabeth promised her husband and he kissed her on the forehead, letting his lips sit there for a few moments before closing his eyes, the two of them lapsing into silence for the rest of the journey home.

…

"What is this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you both sat there and staring?"

"Because we are not leaving this table until we get to the bottom of what is going on," Elizabeth said to Charlotte.

They were sat around the dining table the following morning. Elizabeth had changed into a green dress with three-quarter sleeves. Laszlo wore a grey, tweed waistcoat over his white shirt and dark trousers, a necktie hanging under his collar and tied neatly, the green contrasting with the brown of his waistcoat. Charlotte, on the other hand, was dressed in her nightgown, hair tied into a messy bun at the nape of her neck, her hand holding her fork and picking at the eggs in front of her.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "There's nothing going on."

"Well, there most certainly is something going on because you've never behaved like this before," Elizabeth said and Laszlo remained sat up straight, hands gathered in his lap as his wife took a sip of her tea. "So, what is it?"

"There's nothing," Charlotte responded.

"So why are you suddenly acting like a spoiled brat?" Elizabeth asked, her tone curt as Laszlo looked over to her, knowing that she was still angry and upset after their conversation the previous day. "Because I never thought that this was you, Charlotte."

"Maybe I just got bored of being the perfect adopted daughter of crazy Kreizler and his whore?"

"Charlotte!" Laszlo snapped loudly and she dropped her fork down onto her plate, the noise of it clattering as she shrugged her shoulders animatedly, looking between the two of them.

"That's what they say, anyway," Charlotte said to them, her voice also rising and Elizabeth shook her head. She had done everything in her power to shelter Charlotte from the rumours. She had done everything to keep her from hearing them, but she should have known that sooner or later she would find out. She was going to school and Elizabeth couldn't keep things from her forever.

"That might be what they say, but you do not need to repeat it, nor do you need to entertain them," Laszlo snapped at her. "We may be many things, God knows we both aren't perfect, but you should know it is cruel to repeat such things to us. Do you not feel that?"

Charlotte shrugged once more. "Do you know how hard it is?" she demanded from both of them. "I have to go to school every day and they would taunt me about being adopted by you two…how you would turn me into a freak because I came from your Institute…and then you had Emily. You had Emily and they told me that you wouldn't want me anyway because you have your own children now."

"But you know that's not true," Elizabeth said, an edge of desperation to her voice as she spoke. "You have to know that we love you just as much as we love Emily and Lucy. You might not be related to us through blood, Charlotte, but we still see you as our daughter. We love you like one of our own."

"How can you? It's not possible," Charlotte snapped at her. "It says so in one of Laszlo's book and they all say it at school. They all tell me that it's not possible."

"They're wrong," Elizabeth said and Laszlo could hear the tell-tale wavering of her voice, almost as though she were about to break down. "Charlotte, you have to know that they are wrong. I don't understand any of this…what have we done to make you feel this way? What is written in books…what people say…none of it means anything because I know how we feel about you and you have to know it too."

"It's not possible."

"Of course it is," Laszlo said to her, seeing Elizabeth poke at the corner of her eye, dabbing it and trying to hide the fact tears were building up. "I know that I have all of these books and matters of the heart…analysing individuals…it isn't always accurate. What is written down is not always true. As Elizabeth said, it is about how we feel."

"And you believe that?" Charlotte deadpanned, folding her arms over her chest. "You? The man who rationalises everything?"

"I confess I used to believe it was nonsense. I believed that love was nothing but chemicals in our body reacting…and technically it is, but I...it doesn't stop us from feeling how we feel."

Charlotte went quiet then, almost as though she didn't know what else she should be saying to the two of them. Elizabeth and Laszlo exchanged hesitant looks between themselves. They just wanted the best for Charlotte and they wanted to know what had caused her to feel this way, but it seemed as though it was coming from people at school. Children could be nasty, Elizabeth knew that much. She remembered back to her time at school and the bullying that had taken place at times. She just never wanted her children to be involved in it. She had hoped it would never happen.

"If your friends at school are saying these things then they're saying them because they want to upset you, Charlotte," Elizabeth said to her and dared to move a hand out to the table, her hand resting on top of it, almost longing for Charlotte to take hold of it herself. "And I don't know if they are really your friends if they are talking to you like this."

"Elizabeth is right, Charlotte," Laszlo continued, looking to her and remembering his own time at school. "People can be cruel, and we know that more than most. But if they are saying these things to you then they're not real friends."

"How do you know that?" Charlotte demanded from Laszlo, rising her voice. "They said that I can trust them and that it's you who lied to me. They told me things you didn't. They told me how you were the one to ruin Elizabeth's marriage…that you manipulated her to fall in love with you and that you can't be trusted."

"Charlotte, you know that's not true. I told you about how I met Laszlo. I told you about my husband and what he did to me."

"And they said that you lied because you killed him so you could be with Laszlo," Charlotte responded.

"No," Elizabeth said firmly. "I didn't…it…"

She struggled to find the words because the truth was that she did feel responsible for Jacob's death. She had been the one to push him down the stairs while he had been attacking Laszlo. She couldn't deny that. She had done it. Laszlo saw her struggle for words and he shook his head, taking over again.

"And you believe them over us?" Laszlo asked. "Do you know how hurtful that is?"

"But how do I know the truth? How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"Because we love you," Elizabeth said, leaning closer to her and longing for her to embrace her. But she didn't. Instead, she moved to her feet and Elizabeth felt the pain in her chest grow, struggling to control her emotions. She wanted to reach out to her adopted daughter. She wanted to take her into her arms and hold onto her and plead with her to see reason. Whoever her friends were, they had done a good job in manipulating her.

"I'm going to go and get changed," Charlotte said and made a move to stand up, but Laszlo shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said to her and she remained hovering in mid-air. "You're going to sit there and you're going to tell us who has been planting these ideas in your head so that we can get to the bottom of this and talk to the school."

Charlotte's eyes widened at that, mortified at the idea of the two of them going into her school and talking to her teacher. What would she do? Talk to the girls? Have Charlotte move classes? She didn't want any of that. It would be too embarrassing.

"You can't go to my school!" she snapped, one leg kneeling on the dining chair as her other planted on the floor, both hands resting with palms flat on the dining table. "Why would you do that? It would be tragic! Why would you do that to me?"

"Because these girls are not your friends!" Laszlo snapped back, knowing it was wrong to raise his voice, but he just wanted to get through to Charlotte. He just wanted her to see some sense. He didn't know what more he could do. "If they are saying these things then they are trying to hurt you."

"Or are they trying to protect me from you?" Charlotte responded.

"Protected from me?" Laszlo asked, his voice now on the verge at breaking from hearing that. "You…do you feel that you need to be protected from me?"

Charlotte glanced down then, her cheeks tinting red as she couldn't even meet Laszlo's eyes. Elizabeth stood up then, seeing the hurt in her husband's face. Laszlo was the one who remained composed. He was the one with the ability to control his feelings, but at that moment in time, she could see he was struggling to do just that. Elizabeth moved around the table to Laszlo's side, standing behind him and resting a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it firmly.

"Do you not understand that we have feelings, Charlotte?" Elizabeth pleaded from her. "You say these things…throwaway comments…but they hurt us. They hurt us and it is almost as though you don't care. It is almost as though the five years I have known you mean nothing to you now."

Laszlo could see that Charlotte was struggling to look at both of them, feeling his wife's shaking hand on her shoulder as he reached his hand up to take hold of hers, holding onto it gently. She sighed and shook her head.

"You can go and change if you want, but you won't be attending Jennifer's birthday party this afternoon," Elizabeth said and Charlotte looked up at that, almost as though she didn't feel that her actions had consequences. Her eyes widened and she shook her head, mouth gaping open.

"That's not fair!" she snapped.

"Life isn't," was all that Elizabeth said to her.

"I bought her a present. They'll laugh at me if I don't go because you said I couldn't."

"Perhaps it is for the best if you don't spend time with friends who make you act like this, anyway?" Elizabeth said to her. "And perhaps you just need time to realise that your actions are hurting us?"

"You're being mean," Charlotte said and Elizabeth scoffed.

"It's called parenting. You might understand one day."

"If it means being like you then I don't want to understand!" Charlotte yelled at her.

"Fine, but you're still not going to the party. So go and get changed and just sit in your room," she said to her and Charlotte stormed off, her stomping footsteps enough to let them know that she was still angry with their decision, but Elizabeth didn't care. She was exhausted. Finally, she came to the top of the steps and slammed her bedroom door.

Elizabeth collapsed down in the seat next to Laszlo's, letting her arm wrap around her husband's shoulders as she clung tightly onto him, not wanting to let go. She bent at the waist as he did the same, kissing her softly on the top of her head.

"I don't understand what is happening," Elizabeth complained, a hand running down her cheek. "I don't know why she is behaving this way…how they can have such an impact on her."

"Children can be easily influenced and Charlotte might be turning into a young woman, but she is still only fourteen. She is still a child in many respects."

"I just don't know what we can do," Elizabeth said to him, sighing loudly and sitting up straight, tossing her hair behind her shoulders and looking to him for a few moments before she shrugged, almost as though she was lost and had no answers. And Laszlo understood that. He felt the same way. "What can we do to make her not act like this?"

"I don't know," Laszlo confessed. "But we cannot let this go on. We need to contact the school and her teacher to see if she can keep an eye on the situation. It might be the best way. I fear that moving school…having her change class…she will just resent us more, but if we have to do that then we will. I don't want these children poisoning her mind anymore, Elizabeth."

"Nor do I," Elizabeth agreed with her husband on that point, but she had to confess that she felt just as lost as Laszlo did.

"She is lashing out because she feels that we will not love her as we do Lucy and Emily…almost as though she is pushing us away because she thinks it will protect herself…that she will be proved right…and those kids at school are pushing such a message. I just don't know what more we can do because I can't treat her like a patient at the Institute. She isn't a patient anymore. She is our daughter."

"I'll try to talk to her later when she's calmed down," Elizabeth said to Laszlo with a nod of her head. "You should go to 808."

"I don't know if it is the right time for me to go," Laszlo said.

"Charlotte needs time to calm down, Laszlo, and Sara was trying to persuade Mrs Jones to be interviewed again," she said to her husband. "You go. I'll be fine here. Diana has taken Lucy and Emily to the park for the morning and they won't be back until after lunch."

"You're certain?"

"I'm certain," she said and Laszlo leaned in to kiss her, his beard rubbing against her sensitive skin as he kept his lips light against hers for a few moments. Pulling back, he continued to watch her for a few moments, unable to look away as he saw her fingers lace together and a sad smile formed on her features as she looked down.

"It's funny," she said to him. "I never thought that I would be upset about people calling me your whore after all these years…but hearing Charlotte say it…that cuts deep."

"She doesn't understand," Laszlo said, head firmly shaking back and forth. "She doesn't truly understand what she is saying, my darling."

"Perhaps not," Elizabeth mumbled. "Still doesn't mean her words don't hurt."

"I know," Laszlo said and he reached out to embrace her.

The two of them sought comfort in each other's hold, Elizabeth resting her chin on his shoulder, her cheek brushing against his neck as her hair tickled his neck and he longed to keep her close to him for as long as possible, his hands running up and down her back as she kept hers wrapped around his waist.

"We'll work though this," he assured his wife. "Things will get better."

"I hope you're right," she said and kissed him on the cheek before pulling back, a hand running along his beard-covered jawline as he tucked her hair behind her ear, letting his fingers tangle into the curls for a few moments. "Just promise me you won't be late home."

"I will be back as soon as I can," he said to her. "Perhaps Diana might like to dine with us this evening?"

"I think she has a date this evening. She is seeing a young lawyer."

"Is she really?"

"Yes, it's quite sweet. She's in the first throes of love."

"I remember that feeling quite well," Laszlo said, a dark chuckle escaping him despite everything as he stood up, Elizabeth moving with him and she nodded, a sad smile forming on her lips as she too remembered that feeling. She remembered the feeling of longing whenever she walked into a room and wanted Laszlo to be there. She remembered the way her heart raced whenever she saw him. She remembered how she wanted nothing more than to be in his company.

And those feelings still remained. Her love for Laszlo had not disappeared. If anything, her feelings had grown much deeper.

"You don't feel that anything has changed, do you?" Elizabeth suddenly asked him. "That our feelings have changed…our marriage…you see so many couples have children and grow to resent each other. They grow further apart from each other…"

"I don't think so," Laszlo said to her. "At least, I feel no different to how I felt all those year's ago when I realised I was in love with you. I doubt that will ever change."

"Same," Elizabeth agreed with him.

He bent forwards and kissed her once more, keeping it short and brief before pulling back. Elizabeth watched him shrug into his jacket and she helped him button his boots before he left, picking his cane up on the way out and giving his wife a final kiss goodbye.

Elizabeth went about tidying the dining table, keeping herself busy while being acutely aware that Charlotte was upstairs. She began baking a cake for dessert that evening when she heard the door open. Diana must be back with the girls. Sure enough, two minute's later, Lucy ran into the room, squealing loudly and reaching for her mother who bent down and managed to pick her up, letting her lick the batter covered spoon as Diana carried Emily into the kitchen.

Elizabeth finished baking the cake with Lucy's help, Diana entertaining Emily. She tidied everything away and saw that lunchtime had come and gone, but there had been no word from Charlotte. Elizabeth asked Diana to keep an eye on Emily and Lucy in the parlour before she grabbed a glass of lemonade from the kitchen and heading up the stairs.

Knocking on the door to Charlotte's room, she waited patiently. "Charlotte?" she questioned. No answer. Elizabeth sighed. "If you're going to ignore me than you should know I am rather persistent."

Still no answer.

Elizabeth pushed the door open then and walked in, fully expecting to see Charlotte on her bed, head buried in one book from her large collection that Laszlo had bought her. She didn't have the heart to throw any books away and so she had three full bookcases against her wall. Looking around the room as she saw that the bed was still unmade, Elizabeth frowned. She wasn't at her desk. Her schoolbooks were sat there in a pile, completely undisturbed.

"Charlotte?" Elizabeth spoke, her voice shaking as she placed the glass down on the dresser by the door. "Charlotte?"

She moved back from the empty bedroom and towards the bathroom, her voice growing frantic as she called out for Charlotte. But the bathroom door was open and empty. Elizabeth continued to shout her name, the panic in her voice growing increasingly evident as she wondered just where she could have gotten to.

"Mrs Kreizler, are you alright?" Diana called up from the bottom of the staircase.

"Diana…did Charlotte come downstairs?"

"She's not here," Diana said, seeing the woman clinging to the bannister and peering down in the foyer as her pulse raced, blood pumping into her ears. "What is it?"

"She's not upstairs," Elizabeth said, voice shaking and her legs feeling like they would give out at any moment. "Charlotte's not here…Diana…I need you to call Laszlo at 808."

"Of course," Diana said and Elizabeth straightened herself out as she heard Diana begin to make the call downstairs. Pushing her hands through her hair, Elizabeth wondered just where Charlotte could have gone.

…

A/N: I'm so excited to see that people are interested in the sequel! It's great to have you back and reading – things are definitely going to pick up with a few twists and turns along the way. Any predictions yet? Let me know your thoughts!