It was an ordinary day at the district until it wasn't .They where working a case because they always where. And every lead was burning out, fast . It was frustrating. It always was. But there's something about this case that was getting to Hailey and she thinks it's because on all accounts their victim seems like he was good man, a caring husband and a loving father and maybe that's what stings. Because they lost something that she never had in the first place. She knows she has really thrown herself into the case. Barely even giving herself time to eat and sleep but she's getting desperate. Searching everywhere and anywhere hoping to catch a break. To give his family some sort of closure.
the day dwindles down slowly to the sound of scribbling pens and frantic typing. The whole team seemed relived when voight finally sends them home insisting that fresh eyes might be what they needed.
Hailey thinks if she wasn't so exhausted she would of protested. She doesn't remember how she got home, she can see herself moving but it's like it's not her body, like someone else is pulling the strings. And then she's lying in her bed waiting for sleep to invade her, she tosses and turns and pleads with her brain to the point that it's painful. She's just so tired.
When sleep finally takes over hailey's frail frame it's the opposite of peaceful. She can hear her dad screaming, she can even smell the stale scent of beer and tobacco and he's got that look in his eyes. Hailey would do anything to get away from him in that moment. But it's like she's glued to the spot, her gut fills with hopelessness, she knows what comes next.
As the belt connects with her body over and over she pleads silently to herself 'don't cry,don't cry, don't cry' . Because crying is a weakness and weaknesses are not tolerated in the Upton household. He doesn't stop until her skins more red and angry then her actual complexion. she watches him stumble to the fridge to grab another beer and pretend like nothing had happened, she lets the tears fall silently then.
her oldest bother scoops her gently into his arms. The only arms she remembers ever feeling safe in . Hailey let's the pain out then, Everything goes blurry after that. When she next peels her red and puffy eyes open she discovers her brother has been replaced by her mum. That was never a good sign, it meant the cuts that made it a struggle to breath where as worse as they felt.
Hailey watched as her mother desperately attempts to get the caked blood off her daughters back. And she is whispering to herself, The same sentences over and over. The room fills with false promises, promises that things where going to get better. promises that they where going to runway and live happily ever after. But that was just another fairytale. A fairytale Hailey learnt at the age of 7, was never going to come true.
Hailey wakes up then and she can't stop the tears from escaping down her face . She cries For her lost childhood, for every faded scar that litters her body, for the resentment she holds over her mum. She tries to ignore the pain radiating off her back insisting to herself that it's not there. But somehow it still throbs.