A/N: Hey! Ummm…so…yeah – I'm actually moving to Florida tomorrow on a bit of a whim. A charter school called me yesterday and basically offered me a 3rd/4th grade teaching position that starts this coming Monday (yeah, as in the 7th of August). So…this may be my last update in quite a few days. Haha! This is so weird and scary. Please enjoy this chapter and lemme know what you think!

Instead of giving in and allowing her parents to help her, Kelsey seemed to get angrier at everyone and became more withdrawn. Not knowing what else to do, her parents tried to keep an eye on her at all times, so she couldn't cut herself. They searched her backpack and found the razor she'd been using and confiscated it, but she would easily find and use a new one at school. She went straight from school to the lab each day and had to do all her schoolwork downstairs in the kitchen, where Nick and Sara could watch her. If Kelsey hadn't felt micromanaged before, she felt insanely so now.

She sat in her father's office one day, solemnly completing some algebra homework, when Warrick came in to drop off a file. Kelsey trusted him before, but now she felt betrayed by him. She'd heard her parents discussing her and Warrick's name.

"Hey, K-dog. How's the algebra coming?" He asked cheerfully upon seeing her textbook sprawled across the couch.

She only offered him an evil glare and went back to scribbling in her notebook. Warrick dropped the file on Nick's desk and put his hands on his hips.

"Kels, why the cold shoulder?"

"Because you ruined my life!" She slammed her pencil down.

"How so?" His green eyes dissected her mouth barriers she frequented with adults. Nick was an easygoing guy, he knew, but the man would get so frustrated with his daughter's mouth. Warrick tried to stay cool and listen to what she had to say.

"You ratted me out! You didn't even ask me first and you told them! You told them everything and I trusted you!"

"Woah, woah, slow down." He indicated with a calming hand motion. Nick and Sara hadn't told him anything further than they had talked to her and were trying to get the girl help. "I told them what?"

"That I was cutting myself!" The teary eyes girl informed him, not realizing Warrick had no idea what she'd been up to. Warrick was caught off guard. HE didn't know it had been that serious. It took him a few moments to formulate anything to say. He sat down next to her and took a deep breath.

"Kelsey, I had no idea you were cutting yourself. I did talk to your dad because I'm worried about you, but I was only trying to help."

"Well, you made it worse." She muttered.

"Because I said I was worried about you?"

"You put ideas in their heads."

"Ideas that were true, young lady. If you're really hurting yourself, we need to get you some help."

"We? So now you're on their side?"

"We are ALL on your side, Kelsey. Don't you see that?"

"Yeah, it really feels like you're all trying to make it better! Just stay out of my business!"

Kelsey slammed the door on her way out, leaving the one adult she trusted sitting puzzled.

CSI CSI CSI CSI CSI

The next afternoon, Sara and Nick got a phone call from Butterfield Academy, and not one they were happy about. Sara's phone rang while they were in the middle of photographing evidence.

"Sara Stokes."

"Hi, this is Dr. Maynard again. I'm sorry to bother you at work, but we found Kelsey in the bathroom with a razor. She was cutting herself."

Sara sighed and looked at her husband. He could tell from her face it was about Kelsey.

"You have her with you now?"

"Yes. Would you like to come in?"

"Yeah. Can I talk to her, please?"

"Certainly."

Sara heard the phone transwer and soon her daughter's sordid tone greeted her on the other end.

"What?"

"Kelsey, it's momma." She said in a soothing tone. Sara decided to make a point of not attacking her about the problem. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." She lied. Nothing was fine anymore.

"Sweetheart, you just sit tight, and daddy and I will be in, okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay. I love you."

The phone went dead and Sara almost felt like crying. She kept reaching out to Kelsey, hoping she would latch on, but time and time again she would push Sara away. Nick was waiting intently for news, his face deeply concerned.

"They found her in the bathroom again with another razor." She reported. Kelsey wasn't going to give up her escape, even if her parents, Warrick, the principal, and her teachers knew about it. She was a smart girl and found a way around them all.

Nick and Sara immediately drove to Butterfield, leaving Greg behind at the crime scene. They tried to think of what they were going to do and say. Sara had even been making Kelsey show her her shoulders each night, and now she wasn't even trying to hide it. They worried that she was going to do worse things.

"Whatever we do, we can't go in there angry and screaming." Sara decided responsibly. Nick seemed to have other ideas.

"Sara, this is the third time we've been called away from a crime scene, and she's only been there two weeks. She can't believe she can keep getting out of class or possibly kicked out. She's going to think she has control over all our lives."

"Don't we want her to start taking more positive control over her life? Baby, we've tried being strict with her and it wasn't working. We need a different approach."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Giving her more freedom. I think she feels suffocated."

"More freedom?" Nick gaped. "If we give her more time alone, she'll just cut herself."

"Maybe not if we get her more counseling and we keep talking to her."

"She doesn't talk to us."

"Because we're always all over her and breathing down her neck!" Sara pointed out, raising her voice slightly.

"Because we have to be!" Nick boomed.

They both breathed in and out deeply for a few moments, cooling down.

"Sara, I'm sorry." Nick took her hand and tried to keep his eye on the road and his wife. "I'm just so scared. I don't want anything to happen to her."

"I know, baby. Me neither." She whispered, and kissed his hand, their fingers remaining interlocked. "Let's just go in there calmly and work this out, okay?"

"Alright." He sighed, hoping he'd be able to do this.

CSI CSI CSI CSI CSI

Kelsey didn't look at them as they came in and didn't want to listen – she'd heard it all before. Don't cut yourself. Do better at school. Adjust your attitude.

Her mother kneeled in front of her and took her face lovingly in her hands. She looked so relieved, like a mother finding a child who had wandered off at the mall. Kelsey flinched a moment, but allowed her mother to touch her.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She could hear tears and trembling in her mother's voice.

Kelsey was sitting between her parents staring at the floor. Her mother held her hand in support as Nick started with the questions.

"Dr. Maynard, I only heard briefly from my wife. What exactly happened today?"

"Kelsey, would you care to explain?" Dr. Maynard suggested.

"I cut myself." She said simply, thinking they were avoiding the obvious.

"Yes, Kelsey, we know that." Nick said a little impatiently. "Where'd you get the razor and where were you?"

"Ummm…I'm not telling, and in the bathroom." Kelsey answered smartly.

Nick ran his hand over his face in frustration, so Sara took over.

"Sweetheart, we need to help you find another way to deal with your pain. We can't have you cutting yourself and skipping classes."

"We do have a school counselor that we could have you start meeting with several times a week." The principal suggested.

"What, so she can convince me to toss my razor away forever and become Little Miss High School? I'd rather not."

Kelsey used to stand in front of the mirror in her bedroom as a young child and dream about the things all little girls did – make up and prom dresses; being treated like a princess; every other girl wanting to be you. But somewhere in between then and now, she'd lost that. She couldn't care less and she knew that broke her mother's heart. She wanted her daughter to be happy, but right now it didn't seem to be in the cards.

"Kelsey, need I remind you that this school has a very strict no-tolerance policy about cutting classes, on top of our concern about your health."

"That's bull! None of you care about my health! You'll all be elated when I leave."

"Kelsey." Her father warned. She shot him a glare.

"As I was saying, our policy states that if a student is found to have cut class without due reason in excess of five times, she will be expelled. And you have done this three times already, on top of bringing what is considered a weapon to school."

"You're talking to me like my world will end if I don't go here. Are you forgetting I don't want to be here? I don't care"

"I think we need to have some further discussion at home." Sara sensed, knowing ganging up on Kelsey would only be like trying to tame a wild animal when she was angry.

"Super!" Kelsey perked superficially, and jumped out of her seat sarcastically.

"Kelsey, you still need to go to your last three classes and head over to the lab right after school. Got it?" Nick told her, his brow furrowed in un-amusement.

Kelsey heard him but did her normal no-response deal, slinging her heavy backpack over her uniformed shoulder. She walked casually down the hall, offering not even a goodbye to the adults like she'd just come out of the bathroom from touching up make up. The dark halls seemed to glower at her, as if warning her and railing on her for being such a horrible person. But she just didn't care.