"Oh my God honey come here" Lauren said pulling Emma into a hug. She was completely shocked.

'How could someone do this to such an innocent girl' Lauren thought to herself. She let Emma cry on her shoulder for a long time.

Alexis checked the food and saw that everything was going good. She decided to sneak a little coffee before going back with Lauren and Emma. Walking back into the living room she stopped dead in her tracks seeing Emma crying on Lauren's shoulder.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lauren noticed Alexis come back into the living room. Alexis look angry and sympathetic standing there.

'Can you get some tissues?' Lauren mouthed to Alexis.

Alexis nodded and ran to the bathroom to get tissues and a cold face cloth. Running up the stairs so many things were running through Alexis' mind. She was really worried about Emma and needed Lauren to fill her in.

Lauren tried to soothe Emma as best she could. She couldn't remember the last time someone cried on her shoulder.

"Shh.." Lauren said trying to calm Emma.

A few minutes later Alexis came running with a cold face cloth and a pink tissue box.

Lauren sighed in relief as Alexis came. She took the face cloth from Alexis and put it on Emma's face. Emma made a small squeak as Lauren put the cloth on her face. Alexis rubbed Emma's back as she cried.

Around 10 minutes later Lauren, Alexis and a sleeping Emma sat on the couch. When the oven timer went off Alexis ran to turn it off so it wouldn't wake Emma. She got to the kitchen and took the food out then went back to the living room to wait for the food to cool down.

"I think I'm going to take her up to the spare room to let her sleep for a while" Lauren said to Alexis.

"Ok" Alexis said picking up the tissues and going ahead of Lauren to get the room ready for Emma.

Lauren picked Emma up and brought her up to the room. Alexis had already pulled the covers down so she could slip Emma in. Carefully and slowly she placed Emma on the bed and pulled the covers up.

"Why would someone do this to her," Alexis said as they walked out of the room.

"I don't know Alex. I really don't."

About 20 minutes later Emma comes downstairs. She tried to smile to Lauren and Alexis but the smile fell of her face and it turned into a frown. Emma then ran over to Lauren and hugged her. Lauren hugged back and let her cry for a while. She brought her back over to the couch and sat down again.

"Emma would you like to try and call your dad and see if we can help" Lauren asked Emma handing her a tissue.

Emma nodded and seemed to get a bit happier at the mention of her dad. She liked her dad. He would always take her out for ice cream and help her with her homework.

"Ok" Lauren said looking over and smiling at Alexis. Alexis smilied back. They had made progress.

They called Emma's dad and Emma told him the whole story. He told them that he would be there in 20 minutes.

Emma's dad pulled into the driveway about 20 minutes later. He rang the doorbell and Alexis opened the door.

"Oh I must be at the wrong address. Sorry," Emma's dad said. He starts walking away.

"Wait," Alexis called, "Are you Emma's dad?"

"Ya."

"Then you've come to the right place."

"Come in."

Emma's dad walked into the front hallway and Emma came running out.

"Daddy!" she screamed smiling.

"Hey Pumpkin" he said picking her up.

They walked into the living room and sat down. Everyone listened as Emma told her dad about what her mom was doing to her. Lauren noticed that Emma's dad's face turned happy to see his daughter and then pain and sadness.

"And she did this to me" Emma said pulling up her sleeve to reveal the bruise to her dad. Then she continued on explaining. Emma's dad stared off into space. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. Lauren handed him some tissues and he took them still not fully back to reality. Emma finished telling the story and her dad hugged her letting her cry on his shoulder.

"I think its time to go home" Emma's dad said.

"Ok" Lauren and Alexis said.

"I'll take care of this" he said walking towards the door.

Lauren nodded in agreement.

"I'm here for you Emma" Lauren said and Emma smiled back.

"Me too Emma," Alexis said. Emma smiled wider.

"Thanks guys," Emma said as she ran up to hug them.

"It's no problem Emma," Alexis said.

Lauren looked up at Emma's dad.

"Thank you," he mouthed to Lauren. Lauren just smiled.

Emma reluctantly let go of Lauren and walked over to her dad.

"Bye," all 3 of them said to each other as Emma walked out of the door.

"Well I guess it's just back to the two of us," Alexis said.

"Ya it's back to the two of us."