Chapter 3

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it.

-Vincent van Gogh

Dr. Lam reentered the room to find Adriana sitting stiffly on the bed and Daniel standing a few feet away watching the girl intently. "I have something to help the pain, do you want it?"

Adriana stared at her blankly and subtly shrugged one shoulder. Carolyn slowly approached the girl and started preparing to reinsert the IV into the girl's arm. Daniel found it somewhat disturbing how the girl impassively watched the needle slide under her skin.

Thoughts were flying around inside of Adriana's head. She didn't want these people to send her back to social services, but she doubted that would happen.

"Okay, you should feel better soon. Can you tell us your name?"

Adriana's dark eyes flicked between Daniel and Carolyn several times, finally landing on the former. Her soft voice held no emotion when she spoke, "They named me Kaylee when they found me. You called me Adriana didn't you? That's a pretty name," Her attention then turned to Lam, small brow furrowed in thought, "You brought me here, didn't you? Even thought you knew you would get in trouble… why?"

"Uh. Well, yes- I did- you would have died if I hadn't." Carolyn had been surprised at the question. These weren't the questions a normal child would ask after waking up in a strange place they had never seen before. "How- how did you end up on the mountain in the first place?"

The girl raised her eyebrow skeptically, "I thought that would be obvious, I walked there."

Daniel snorted slightly at the look on Lam's face. "You said they named you Kaylee when they found you? Who?"

The figure on the bed shrugged and looked at her hands, "I don't know. They told me that someone found me and brought me to the police, who gave me to the people who were going to be my foster parents. I was little then. They said I was around six years old or something. They said I didn't talk for months. They didn't know my name. I didn't know my name. So they called me Kaylee." She looked back up at Daniel, "Please don't make me go back there."

Lam stepped in, "You live in a foster home?" the girl nodded, "They did this to you?"

The girl on the bed stiffened and Daniel glared at the doctor. He slowly sat on the bed beside the girl, "It's okay, you don't have to talk about it right now. You know, I grew up in foster homes too. My parents died when I was little." Her dark eyes looked up at him, "I hated it." She nodded in agreement.

"Have you lived with them since you were found?" Lam asked.

The head full of dark hair shook slightly, "sixteen."

"What?" Lam asked.

"Sixteen foster homes."

Daniel was about to ask another question when the girl announced that she was tired, effectively closing the situation.

'I don't want them to send me away again. I don't want to go back to Social Services. These people are nice. I will be good this time. Then I won't have to go back.' She thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

……

A/N: Thank you for reviewing everyone. I apologize for the short chapter. Tori received some bad news a couple days ago and probably won't be writing for a while. Therefore, I am writing by myself. Which means no beta reading, and either shorter chapters or a couple weeks between updates.

Personally, I prefer longer chapters and fewer updates, but some people are the other way around. Please review and let me know what you want.

This is a co-written fic because both Tori and I have very different writing styles. Physically, I can't write parodies or any humor, other than my own witty, sarcastic sense of humor. Yeah.. So the next few chapters will be filled with angsty goodness. I'm just warning you.