Eating breakfast proved to be a difficult feat the next morning. The old coffee was dumped and a fresh pot was brewed. No food had been consumed, their appetites still suppressed from everything they had gone through the day before.

It was like they were hungover—their bodies and heads ached; the smallest sound hurt; and they both desperately craved sleep.

At one point during Jay's emotional episode last night, he had wandered back into Shawn's room, convinced that it was all a dream. But the blood was all there, along with the smell. He ended up falling asleep against the wall in his son's room, the bright yellow walls no longer serving their purpose.

After they each had some caffeine coursing through their veins, Jay and Erin got into the SUV and made their way to Shawn's school. They wanted to clean out his locker as soon as they could—hopefully there would be evidence in there of why he did it.

The ride to the school and walk to the principal's office was silent. They sat on the couch in the office, waiting for classes to start in order to have some privacy while they went through their son's possessions.

The principal had offered her condolences on behalf of the school before leading them to the hallway with Shawn's locker. She put in the code and slightly opened the door before stepping back.

With a bit too much force, Jay slammed the locker door open, not wanting to delay the matter any longer. He was surprised to see the lack of belongings and personal memorabilia that many teenagers—including himself—usually had.

At the sight of the empty locker, Erin turned on her heel and made a beeline towards the exit, only to be halted by Jay's gentle hand on her arm. When she turned to face him, the tears choked her words. "He was so sure of it that he cleaned out his locker days ago and I just thought he had extra homework." Jay brought her into his chest, attempting to soothe her by rubbing her back. It usually worked, but he knew nothing would work at a time like this.

He's not sure how long they stand there, but he hears a bell, and soon the hallway is littered with teenagers. Everyone's eyes are on them and he can hear all the whispers. He doesn't like the pitying looks thrown his way, and he doesn't miss the eye rolls and giggles from a select few. He takes note of their features—they seem to be the popular clique of the school.

Slowly, he leads them away from the crowd and out of the school, towards their car.

The autopsy had been scheduled for that morning while they were at school, so they went straight to the hospital, wanting to be close to their son. They sat for what felt like ages in those plastic chairs again before Dr. Shore (now married to Dr. Rhodes) made her way out to them. She took them to a private room to explain her findings.

"So the obvious cause of death was loss of blood." She started with a sigh. "There was also injuries sustained to his body that is consistent with repeated trauma. I've included it into my report that it could've been from playing a contact sport—"

"He didn't play any sports." Jay replied coldly. "He stopped a year ago."

"Okay." Nina breathed deeply again. "It could be caused by a number of things. There were multiple bruises on his chest and back. One of his ribs was also bruised, and there were two others that had small cracks…" Both Jay and Erin seemed to tune Nina out, not wanting to listen to the torture their son had been through. "... his injuries are consistent with physical abuse."

That seemed to snap their attention back onto Dr. Shore's words.

They had both been hoping that Dr. Rhodes' words from the day before were false. Only the autopsy would confirm it. Everything else was circumstantial.

As Erin and Nina spoke more in detail, Jay's mind was elsewhere. Who would dare put their hands on Shawn?! He was the son of two cops for fuck's sake! He didn't have to think hard—his mind immediately went to the group of teenagers looking at them and smiling when they were back at the school.

He should've known.

It happened to him in high school.

How could he have been so blind to it?

Here comes the rain again

Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again

Becoming who we are

Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day

Please leave me a review!