Chapter 10:

Hailey was now able to rotate her foot and wiggle her toes, but she still couldn't move anything higher than that. She sat by her window listening to the Christina Aguilera cd that Greg had brought. The last song started to play and Hailey turned it up. She listened to the words as she continued to stare out at the heavy rain. The storm was getting worse. Lightening lit up the sky so much that it looked like early morning. Thunder pounded the walls and shook the windows. Christina sang the opening notes and a burst of thunder let out. A quick picture flashed in her head, then followed by another, as if she were looking at a slide show. There was a jumble of medal. A screeching sound. Bright lights. Then she went into a flashback as Christina began to sing.

Once upon a time there was a girl
In her early years she had to learn
How to grow up living in a war that she called home
Never know just where to turn for shelter from the storm
Hurt me to see the pain across my mother's face
Everytime my father's fist would put her in her place
Hearing all the yelling I would cry up in my room
Hoping it would be over soon

Hailey stepped off the steps of the yellow school bus. She saw that her fathers car wasn't in the driveway. She opened the unlocked door and stepped into the foyer. "Mommy?" She walked into the kitchen and saw her mother crying over the sink. "What's wrong mommy?" Hailey was only eight years old and didn't understand why her father did this. Her father would get very angry and she once saw him hit her mother, like she had seen on tv. She saw the dark color around her mothers eye as she squatted down to Hailey's level.

"Mommy just fell down. That's all." Lynn said smiling through the tears. They heard a screech in the driveway and Lynn quickly stood up. The front door opened and was banged against the wall from force.

"Lynn." Her father, Dan, called out.

"I want you to go to your room sweetie, and lock your door. You do your homework and don't come out until I come to get you. Go!" she said pushing her daughter to the back set of stairs in the kitchen.

Hailey ran up to her room and locked the door as she was told. She could hear muffled voices as her father yelled at her mother. Tears began to form in little Hailey's eyes. She heard a loud slap and a thud. "Mommy." She cried out. Her screams muffled by her fathers loud voice. Knowing she was helpless, all she could do was cry.

Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the same
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday
And I'm OK I often wonder why I carry all this guilt
When it's you that helped me put up all these walls I've built
Shadows stir at night through a crack in the door
The echo of a broken child screaming "please no more"
Daddy, don't you understand the damage you have done
To you it's just a memory, but for me it still lives on

Bruises fade father, but the pain remains the sameAnd I still remember how you kept me so, so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gave
Every morning that I wake I look back to yesterday

It's not so easy to forget
All the lines you left along her neck
When I was thrown against cold stairs
And every day I'm afraid to come home
In fear of what I might see there

Four years later, twelve year old Hailey walked the three blocks home from school. She saw that once again her fathers car wasn't there but she knew that he would be home soon. She didn't want to go home, afraid of the mess that he had made, or the new marks that would be on her mother. She hardly had any friends because she kept to herself at school, so it wasn't as if she could go to their house. She tried to think of ways that she could help her mother leave her father. She constantly blamed herself for what he did.

That night after dinner Hailey returned to her room to finish her homework. She watched as her father downed drink after drink at the dinner table. She knew he would start his ranting any moment now. As if on cue he began to yell. She crept to her door and opened it just a crack. She heard them coming up the stairs. "You leave her out of this." Her mother said. Hailey knew he was coming for her. She flew across the room back to her bed. As soon as she got there her door slammed open and her drunken father barged in. It wasn't the first time he had abused Hailey but she didn't know how to prevent it. He took her roughly by the arm and dragged her from her room. She looked to her mother for help, but they both know she wouldn't be able to do anything. He roughly jerked her down the stairs, pulling her arm out of the socket, as her mother followed. "Let her go Dan."

"Why should I listen to you, you're nothing." He slapped Lynn across the face and then turned to Hailey. He pushed her against the bottom of the stairs. She fell onto them and grabbed her side where the stair hit. He gave her a kick to the side. "Please, no more." She cried out in pain. Lynn had to do something to protect her. "You want to pick a fight with someone you do it with me.' Dan looked down at Hailey and then turned on her mother. Hailey ran, as best she could, back up to her room and locked the door. She heard the front door slam shut and knew that her father was gone for the night. She tried to get up to go to her mother but she couldn't. She slowly fell back onto her bed and blacked out.

The next morning her mother was sitting at the edge of her bed. She woke up and looked around her room. Most of her room was packed into to large suitcases. She winced in pain and saw the bruises and welts on her side, she also felt her shoulder and couldn't move it, but it was nothing compared to her mothers condition."What's happening? Are we going away?" Hailey asked hopefully.

"You're going to stay with Uncle Grissom for a while." Lynn said attempting to hold back her tears.

"You have to come to mom." Hailey pleaded.

"Just you honey. I promise we'll be together again soon." She said as Hailey got up and got dressed.

Bruises fade father but the pain remains the same
And I still remember how you kept me so afraid
Strength is my mother for all the love she gaveEvery morning that I wake I look back to yesterday
And I'm OK
I'm Ok

Seventeen year old Hailey stood on the front porch of her old house holding Grissom's hand. He was leaving for Las Vegas in the morning and she wanted to finish her last year of highschool here. Her father opened the door. Grissom helped Hailey carry her things to her room and then went downstairs. He turned to Dan before leaving. "If you ever lay another finger, if you even so much as breath on that child again, I will find you and kill you." He said before leaving. Three things Grissom could never deal with were men beating their wives, sexual assault on children, and guys that deal death to kids. He couldn't stand leaving Hailey and Lynn there, but he couldn't help them if they didn't want it.