Dempsey got a cab back to his flat late that evening after having called Spikings and reassuring him on Harry's health. It was too late to eat and to be honest he was too tired and too worked up for any food to pass his lips. He couldn't stop thinking about what happened on the docks and what went wrong. He couldn't get his head around it. Why was Harry standing in front of the car? She had shared nothing of what O'Cryon was doing with those girls behind those closed doors. Something must have happened and Dempsey feared that what his partner witnessed will have a greater impact on her than he would really have liked. Tomorrow morning he will go to the office and find out more. He will hopefully get to interview O'Cryon and he also wanted to meet this Ada girl that Harry begged him to look for.

Later in the morning, he'll go to the hospital to spend some time with Harry. Hopefully, she'll be awake by then and they'll be able to talk. He needed to hear her voice, needed to understand what happened and above all why she felt the need to throw herself in front of a car. If he was honest with himself he missed her terribly and just wanted to hold her into his arms, anything else came second to his need for her.

The night was filled with nightmares about the shooting at the docks, he kept seeing his partner's bleeding body, her tearful eyes looking straight at him. It was driving him crazy. At 5 AM he gave up on sleep, had a long shower to try and feel more human. After a couple of cups of coffee and a quick breakfast, he was ready to go to the office.

The desks were still empty when he arrived but the light was on in Spikings' office.

"Hey, chief. Long night?"

Spikings, with his tie undone and his shirt a wrinkled mess, looked up from his desk where a half-drunk glass of Whisky stood next to his hand.

"Long night, long day….", he sighed, "I thought you'd be at the hospital today, no?"

"The quack advised coming towards lunchtime. Apparently, the effects of the anaesthesia should have worn off by then. I thought I'll interview O'Cryon in the meantime and talk to this little girl, Ada, to whom Harry seemed to have taken a shine."

"I see. Well you can't interview O'Cryon, he's still in hospital unconscious and the life prognosis doesn't look good, to be honest. And you're too close to this anyway. The problem is that the bullets that shot him were fired by Makepeace and I think I need to warn you that this compromises things a bit. So for the time being you and Makepeace are off this case. I strongly suggest you just concentrate on getting Harry back to health which also includes not pissing her off, which you seem quite adept at doing!"

"Great!", Dempsey sighed, annoyed that he couldn't talk to O'Cryon. "Do you have any idea what happened while Harry was undercover? Any idea at all what she might have witnessed?"

"Well, so far lieutenant, your guess is just as good as mine! I suggest you ask her yourself when you see her. But, please, handle her with kids' gloves! We don't want to add extra stress to her current state, get it, Dempsey? "

"Don't worry, boss. All that matters to me is to have her back in good health. Anything else I couldn't care less right now to be perfectly honest with you."

"Hum, thought that might be the case," said Spikings with a twinkle in his eye.

Dempsey looked at his boss, unsure, scratching his neck, thinking that changing the subject was safer. He asked him about Ada and what he knew about the young girl.

"Ah yes, Chas mentioned it yesterday. The social services have her for the time being. They're going to bring her here around 10 AM today so you can talk to her then. But Dempsey, she's 10, terrified and she's a victim here. So, I don't know what your angle here is but tread carefully. She's not one of your usual suspects you can submit to your rather unorthodox interrogation methods!"

"Who do you take me for? She's a kid! I'll wow her with my usual charm!", smirked Dempsey.

"That's what I'm afraid of Lieutenant!", sighed Spikings.

"I'll get the report done before I go to the hospital chief.", said Dempsey as he was leaving his boss's office.

Spikings' eyebrows shot up in surprise: did he hear well? Is Dempsey going to write a report willingly? Harry really did a number on him….Well, well, well that could all be for the better in the end. For the first time in the past couple of days, Spikings relaxed and a grin appeared on his face.

Trying to focus on the report and not on Harry lying in a hospital bed was harder than it looked but, with the help of a copious amount of coffee, Dempsey managed to pull through and submitted his report before 10 AM. Just in time before Ada arrived with her social worker.

A rather stern woman stepped into the office followed by a young girl clutching a rather old teddy in her arms. Her blonde curls framed a pale little face, fear was written all over her features. She hid behind the woman's body and barely dared lookup. She looked so small and fragile. What on Earth was she doing among this shipment of girls? It made no sense at all!

"I'm looking for a lieutenant Dempsey, please?" inquired the woman. "My name is Louisa Smith, I'm from Social Services ?"

"Hi, that will be me, miss. Lieutenant James Dempsey. Nice to meet you." shaking the social worker's hand. Kneeling down in front of the little girl, he smiled at her, "And you must be Ada, right? My partner told me about you and I thought it would be nice to get to know each other too."

"I don't know your partner, sir. Who is he ?"

"My partner's a she, sweetheart. You know her as Jacqueline? But her real name is Harry. You see she really is a police officer and was there to look after you all and make sure the baddies got arrested."

She was stunned and her eyes filled with tears, looking everywhere around her, clutching her teddy against her chest. "Where is she? I want to see her. She promised…", her lips wobbling.

"Shall we all go sit down in a room down the corridor, far more comfortable than here and I'll explain everything to you. Shall we? I'm sure your teddy would love some biscuits, what do you think, hey?" asked Dempsey while showing them the way to the family room.

Over his shoulder, he shouted, "Yo, Fry, tea, biscuits, hot chocolate, the work please, OK?"

"Sure Dempsey, I'll bring that right away" as he moved past them down to the canteen.

Dempsey directed Ada and the social worker on a sofa and he dragged a chair and sat opposite Ada.

"Yesterday, Harry asked me to look for you and to bring you here so she knew you were safe, you see. Can you tell me how you got to know Harry?"

"She looked after me from the moment I arrived on the boat. She was really nice to me, you see I was so scared when I arrived, I don't know anyone here."

"Yeah, that's Harry. She's nice like that. You see Ada, I'm trying to understand the situation a bit better. Where do you come from Ada? You speak really, really good English for someone who is not from here. Where are your mum and dad? »

"My mummy always spoke English to me, she said no one really spoke Romanian so she wanted me to speak good English. She always talked about London and how magical England was. She had made a deal with Mr O'Cryon to come here and I was supposed to follow later. But she got very sick and died last year », she burst into tears holding onto her teddy. Dempsey took her on his laps and hugged her tight « Come here, sweetie. Shhh, it's gonna be alright, ok? Why were you on this boat honey? »

« Mr O' Cryon was furious and told my stepdad that he'll take me instead. And one day they put me on this boat and we travelled for a long time, I was so seasick, » her tears kept on falling, crumbling on Dempsey's chest. « I miss my mummy so much but Harry she was a bit like my mummy. You see, she read me stories to help me sleep at night. She made sure I had something to eat every day and she kept the old men away from me. I didn't like them very much."

"I bet you didn't. Were there a lot of old men coming to see you?"

"It depends. Once or twice a week they came to pick some of us but Harry always made sure I hid in a cupboard or in a room whenever they came. Where is she? Can I see her now? She promised she'd look after me" and she started crying, holding on to her teddy for dear life.

At that moment, Fry arrived with a full tray of biscuits and hot drinks, looked stunned to see Dempsey holding a pale-faced crying little girl in his arms with so much tenderness. That was certainly an unusual sight for his normally loud and shouty colleague! Not knowing what else to do, he left just as quickly as he came in.

"Here Ada, have a biscuit. What's the name of your teddy ?"

"Harry said I should call him James because that was the name of her guardian angel and she said if I had a James looking after me then I'll be just fine."

Wow…. god, Dempsey raised his eyes to the ceiling trying to prevent his tears from falling.

"Can I see Jacqueline now please?" begged the little girl.

"Well, Ada, I'm afraid you can't see her right away. Jacqueline or rather Harry is away for a few days. You see when we arrested the bad men, she got injured. Nothing serious, so don't worry, but she needs to be looked after by the doctors for a few days so she can't come to see you here. That's why she asked me to make sure you were OK."

"Oh no", cried the little girl, "I want Harry. I don't want to stay in that place. She promised me she'd look after me and take me to her castle". Dempsey looked at her absolutely gobsmacked. God, she had really taken a shine to the young girl. But to be honest, he could see why. She was like a fallen angel and he understood this inexplicable need to protect her from this hideous world she should have never come in contact with.

"She should never have promised such things to a child. Look what she's done. Completely irresponsible! Come on, are you done now? Can we go?", protested the social worker, clearly unhappy about the whole situation.

"In a minute, miss.", frowned Dempsey, "And, for your information, my partner NEVER makes empty promises, EVER!" Turning again towards the little girl again, Dempsey asked the little girl with a gentle, soft voice, "Ada, it's really important you tell me anything you've seen or heard when you were with the other girls. Did they say anything you thought was odd or unusual?"

"After they came back, after the old men picked them up, some girls were crying, others were very pale and sick, and some others didn't act normal anymore. You won't make me go with those old men, will you? They scare me" she said, tears falling from her eyes.

"Oh no, don't worry sweetheart. You're safe with us now. Nothing is going to happen to you. I'll make sure of it. You know what? My name is James too so your Teddy and I will look after you, right?"

"Are you Harry's guardian angel then?"

Dempsey nodded, chocked up by the emotions, unable to utter a word. He held the little girl a little bit more tightly, kissing her hair.

"For the time being you're going to go back with this lovely lady here and as soon as Harry can see some visitors, I'll take you to see her myself, what do you say? In the meantime, here's my name and my phone number here. If you need you can call me anytime, OK? But I promise I'll come to see you in the next couple of days to check on you no matter what."

He waved them both goodbye and walked back to his desk. He was shocked and a bit wowed by this little girl and what she'd been through at such a young age. He really needed to talk to Harry and understand what it was she promised that little girl because he felt really lost right now. His emotions were all over the place after talking to Ada and he needed his partner by his side more than ever. So much had happened in the past 24 hours, he lived in a sort of daze, emotionally exhausted and yet completely wired up. He walked into Spikings' office, gave him a summary of what Ada said and informed him that he would now be heading to the hospital to see Harry.

"Send her my regards, please and tell her I'll be popping in to see her as soon as I can…. And Dempsey? No need to come back here, you look awful, get some rest!"

"Cheers boss…I think!" said Dempsey as he walked off.