Gillian was quiet on the drive home. She seemed distracted and spent most of the drive staring out the passenger side window. About halfway to Cal's place, soon to be theirs, he placed a hand on her forearm and ran his hand along her it. She turned to him then, expecting a question or comment. He went for a comforting smile instead and waited.
After a minute she sighed and asked, "What?"
"What, what?", he returned.
"You look like you're afraid I'm going to cry or something."
"I'm never afraid of you crying. Any excuse for a cuddle, love."
He achieved the objective of getting a laugh from her. She gave nothing else away though.
"Are you alright, Gillian?"
"Ha. Are you?"
He looked at her and she read the 'Stop deflecting' in his expression and gave in.
"Of course not, Cal. This case, this whole situation… it's awful. Amy Hamilton has years of therapy ahead of her. Claudia Kabuso went through hell for years before dying, presumably scared out of her mind. Those children were born into a living horror show. It's a miracle that baby survived the last week, and the little boy… He's so lost. And those poor kids could end up living in group homes just like their mother for their entire childhood. The baby will likely get adopted easy enough but separating him from his brother would be so traumatic. And older kids with troubled pasts and special considerations like that, they have seriously reduced chances of finding permanent or even long-term placements. I can't stop thinking about it."
"You've gotten attached to him."
"I guess so. Probably closer than I should, professionally. But how could I not? He needed someone to show him the world is a safe place. I couldn't exactly just find him there and dump him on the police while he waited for some social worker to come along and ditch him at the hospital. Not when I have the training and experience to help."
"I'm not judging you for it darling. I get it. I spent about half an hour with them and I'm a bit attached."
"It'd be a lot easier to just be his therapist rather than his saviour or whatever he sees me as. It's one thing me getting attached, I can distance myself and understand it all better. He's started to get attached to me. I'll be working with him tomorrow a little, social services think it will help him progress to maybe engaging with people better, maybe even work on getting him talking. He's responded well to my techniques so far. But I need to limit the time I spend with him, so I'll be there for the questioning at the police station too."
"Alright. Just… talk to me, yeah? Let me know how you're feeling and what you need. Don't shut me out here. I could do with it too probably. This week has been… well, it's been disturbing to say the least, eh?"
"Yeah. Let's get a full confession out of those creeps tomorrow. Put this week behind us."
When they got home, Emily was still up watching TV and studying.
"Oi. What you doing at the weekend?"
"Not much. Maybe heading to the mall, little studying. Gotta finish off the last of the college applications and get them away. You guys want to do something?"
"Yeah. Need a hand moving some stuff from Gillian's."
Gillian was shooting daggers eyes at him.
"What?"
"You were supposed to double check if she was ok with it first," she said to him incredulous.
"You said yes? You're moving in?" Emily asked with a curious smile.
"Only if you're sure you're ok with it. I'm keeping my place, so it's really fine if you-"
"Gillian! Stop. I told you, it's cool having you around more."
"More doesn't mean constantly, Em, it's a totally different-"
"Gillian! It's good. Besides, if I hate it, I'll be moving out next summer anyway," she finished with a cheeky smile, waiting for the distraught looks on the two adults before laughing and turning back to the TV.
The next morning, Cal and Gillian returned to Belle Haven police department to begin the task of briefing the cops on Charlie Morris. They went through the tapes of the previous day, analysing every detail of Charlies face, voice, and body movements. He responded best when they used Caleb against him. He revealed the most in those moments, indignant in his defence of himself and his mistrust of his brother's ability to keep his mouth shut.
It was clear that he was willing to turn on his brother if he thought he could save himself. This meant that they couldn't fully trust anything that he claimed about Caleb's involvement. Caleb was devoted to his brother too, but more naïve about the situation. This meant that even if Caleb corroborated Charlie's story, it could be because his brother had instructed him in what to say. They couldn't be certain of anything. And if they went to trial, Amy's testimony and statements would be shredded by the defence because she was so young and timid following the ordeal. They would sow seeds of doubt into the heads of any judge and jury easily, simply because the victim was a child, and the word of children was easily dismissed.
They were confident that they had enough forensic and DNA evidence on the horizon to incriminate both brothers, but they had to be sure that the right brother was charged with the correct crimes. They could only hold them in custody for a limited time, but they decided they would wait a few more hours until they had a more complete file. Concrete evidence would be the key to getting the truth from Caleb, and they would be able to get to Charlie through him.
With time to kill, Gillian decided to head to the hospital. Cal decided to tag along.
Gillian entered the small private room first. The boy had been left alone. The doctors kept regular checks on him, but he seemed a lot more relaxed when he was left by himself in the room. He startled when the door opened and moved to hide, until he noticed who his visitor was. He paused in his action and stood in the room just looking at her. He seemed at a loss in how to respond. His instinct to hide overridden by the presence of his new friend. His happiness at seeing her again warring with his upset at her leaving him alone, and perhaps at the fact that she had taken his baby brother away yesterday and was yet to return him.
She greeted him with a friendly "Hi", and when he didn't run for cover, she smiled and turned to wave Cal inside.
The boy tensed up with the arrival of the second intruder.
"You remember my friend Cal?"
The boy's eyebrows drew closer together, his eyes slightly squinting. He clearly remembered Cal but seemed unsure as to how he felt about him.
"Hiya", Cal smiled, "I just wanted to see how you are. I hope that's ok?"
The boy moved back to his child sized hospital bed and stood behind it, wanting to put a barrier between him and them.
Cal watched as Gillian went about working with the boy. He always enjoyed watching her work with children. She was such a natural with them, and her therapist bedside manner with troubled children amazed him every time. She seemed to almost always know exactly how to manage the situation, even with extreme cases like this.
After a while, a doctor and a nurse arrived at the room to check on him. There must have been a shift change since his last check-up because the boy immediately took cover, clearly unfamiliar with the two.
"Max, why don't we take a step back and sit down until Dr Foster gets this young man settled again?", the doctor advised.
The little boy poked his head out when he spoke, a spark of intrigue lighting his tiny face. Watching his reactions closely Gillian noticed something in the way he reacted.
"Max?"
"Yes?"
The little boy was confused now. His gaze shifted between the nurse and Gillian. Gillian smiled at him, and understanding dawned on her face as recognition dawned in his.
"Your name is 'Max'", she said to the little boy, a question as much as a statement seeking confirmation.
He didn't say a word, but for the first time he acknowledged her words with a nod of his head.
"Hi Max", she sighed happily, looking to Cal with delight. They had a name to call him by. Cal beamed at his partner. A small victory in the day felt like a weight being lifted.
"Welcome to the world Max," Cal chipped in with kindness.
