Flashback to Now



Chapter 7



"Um, sure Liz. What's going on?" Ty asked, still concerned. This was weird. "There was carbon monoxide at the apartment. I can't sleep there tonight. Sully and I fought again." Liz's face crumpled. Ty knew immediately he asked the wrong question. "I'll set up the couch for you, is that ok?" He asked. Liz just nodded.

Liz and Sully fell asleep at the same time. It was a rough night for both. Neither would get much sleep.



Sully was restless. He was dreaming a dream he dreamt many, many times in the past. The dream reflected life so well. He hadn't been there for much of it, but he dreamt it so clearly, almost perfectly in detail and in truth.

*Sully dreaming* She had just returned home from school. Her father was already home. This couldn't be good. "We have a new neighbor," he slurred. "They're having a party but they didn't invite me." Liz didn't know what to think. She didn't want to go to a party. She quietly went to her art table in the back of the living room. She was trying to escape the smell of alcohol on her father. She started to make an ashtray out of clay. She painted it orange. "What's our neighbor's name?" She asked her father timidly. "Officer Sullivan. Irish dope, he probably drinks," her father laughed at his own joke before falling asleep in his chair. She knocked on the neighbor's door. Laughter and music spilled out onto the corridor as the door opened. The man stared at her. "Yes?" He asked. "Officer Sull-ee-van?" She asked. "Yes?" "I made this for you, thank you for being my neighbor," she gave him the ashtray and ran off into her own apartment.

It was only a day later and Liz had returned home from preschool again. Her father was in his chair. She had never seen a look like that on his face before. "Where have you been?" "At school, Daddy," she said, backing away a little. A strange look came over his face.

The desk clerk looked at Sully quizzically. "Sully, there is a young girl on the line looking for you," she said. "Who?" He asked. "I don't know but she's crying," the clerk said. "Hello?" He answered the phone. "Officer Sull-ee-van? I need heeeeelp!" the voice wailed. "My daddy won't wake up and my face huuuurts!" Sully recognized the voice as his new neighbor. He and Ty raced to the apartment. The door was open. Liz was standing in the doorway, blood caked on her lip and under her nose, eyes and lip swelling. "Oh my god," Sully breathed. "Pwease help my Daddy," she implored, but her eyes asked him to help her instead. Sully then saw him, lying on the floor face down in a puddle of his own vomit. He rolled him over and he groaned. His pants were soaked. Sully moved him into another room and helped him clean up. Then he took Liz into his apartment and cleaned up her face. Ty left to go to the station and fill out a report. He called shortly to say that he was told to have Liz stay there and wait until her father dried out. "Umm, you want a story?" Sully asked the little girl. She nodded. "Ok, well, I have Goldilocks and the three bears, you want to hear that one?" Sully asked. She nodded again and shyly climbed into his lap as began to read.

It was months later when Liz came home to an empty apartment and waited. And waited. And waited some more. She went looking for her Daddy. The bruises from the day before were still apparent. She knew she shouldn't be at the bar but she was hungry. "Daddy?" She gently shook the man slumped over the bar. He didn't move. "Hey! Little girl, you shouldn't be here," a gentle voice said. She whimpered. "What's your name? I'm Pete," the bartender said. "I'm...I'm Liz," she stammered. "What do you need honey?" Pete asked. "I need my Daddy to come home. I'm hungry," she said. Pete looked angry all of a sudden. "Hey Al! Why didn't you tell me you had a kid? Go home and cook for her for God's sake!" Pete looked at her closely. "Honey? What happened to your face?" Liz hurried out the door. But that wouldn't be the last time she saw Pete.

Four years later and Sully was still taking Liz in to his apartment and washing the blood off her face after washing the vomit and uron off of her father. Liz began to open up to him, telling him how her mother left after leaving the hospital with her when she was born, how her father used to just sleep and not hit her. DSS had come by once or twice, but her father was always clean and sober when they came, no one took her away. Sully felt powerless. It was on that day that Liz was in a particularly good mood for having her face punched to a bloody pulp. "Papa Bear! I want to hear the guitar again! Teach me Danny Boy again!" She squealed. "You know it would be so much fun if Pete were here! He'd give me more cashews like at the bar!" Sully smiled in spite of himself. He knew she had gone to the bar quite a few times to retrieve her father, and had a good rap going with the bartender there. It was just as he had taken the guitar out of the case when her father charged into the apartment. Sully had no power, he had to let her go back with him. "What the hell were you doing there? Huh?" Al raged when they returned to the apartment. "You were sleeping! He's my friend!" Liz trilled. "Friend? Friend? You don't make friends with cops!" He picked up the frying pan, and Liz cried out as it came crashing down onto her head. She blacked out. Pete had come to the apartment shortly after to return Al's wallet, which he had left at the bar. He called an ambulance, and got Sully. Sully made the collar even though he was off duty. Pete and Sully sat waiting in the hospital together. The doctor came out, and said, "She's got burns, the pan was hot when it hit her. And she's got a concussion. Child's services have been called, they'll be looking for a place for her. Unfortunately if her dad gets cleaned up he can get her back." Pete immediately jumped up. "I haven't taken them in a long time, but I can take in foster kids. Let me do it, she'll feel better." Sully was upset by this, he wanted to take her. Pete looked at him, "Sully, lets go see her, ok?" Sully stayed until Liz fell asleep again, then he met Ty, and they drove the RMP out to the canal.