They were walking through the hallways of the hospital now, following a nurse, who was showing them the way to a small examination room. Bobbie was looking around her, trying to remember all the emergency exits she saw along the way… hoping she would get the opportunity to run away. She was counting her steps, remembering every single sign that was hanging on the walls to find her way out later. Emily was following Bobbie's eyes, she knew what she was trying to do and she wasn't gonna let that happen.

They entered the examination room, but there was nobody there yet, the nurse told them to sit down and wait here, the doctor would get here in a minute.

"Nervous?" Emily asked, she didn't let Bobby, who was constantly looking at the door, out of sight.

"A little bit." Her hands were ice cold and she was having a hard time breathing. She was trying to hide it though, she didn't want Emily to think that she was some helpless little kid who needed protection. She was a big girl. She didn't need help. She just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.

During the car ride she had been surprisingly calm, she was in her own little world. She always was, she was almost living a fantasy world that she created herself, especially in stressful situations. However, she couldn't pretend that this wasn't real anymore. She wasn't able to stand up to her foster parents. She was weak. She let it happen way too long and when she finally realized that she couldn't handle it anymore, she ran away. She had messed up really badly and it was all her fault.

Now it would eventually all stop, but what did that mean in the end? Would she have to live in a group home- or an even more violent family? That had happened to her before, it was part of the reason why she didn't report the abuse when she first came to this family. It could always get worse, that's the one thing she knew for sure. Besides- who would have believed her anyway? She was 11 years old and had been in over 20 foster families- ok, at some of them she only stayed for a couple of days, but still. She had a bad reputation, she was known as a runaway and troublemaker. Everyone- foster families and social workers- always tried to get rid of her as fast as possible.

She knew about her bad image, but she didn't even care anymore. When she was little she was very naive, a good girl, she had always tried to play by the rules. She used to be very quiet and always did what everyone else was telling her, however, as she got older, she had come to the conclusion that this behavior wouldn't get her anywhere. She didn't even try to get her foster parents to like her anymore, she always acted cocky and was a real tomboy. She usually stayed in her room reading all day long and sometimes she would stay away for days and not tell anyone where she was going. The funny thing is that most of her "parents" didn't even report her missing, some of them had so many foster kids to look after, that they didn't even notice that she was gone.

The doctor came in and started talking for a while, she said that there were police officers in front of the door who would come in and ask her some questions as soon as the exam was over. She told them that her social worker had already been contacted and that two other police officers were on their way to her foster parents. Then she started asking questions about Bobbie's medical history and asked her about her injuries. She gave honest answers- for a change. Emily was sitting next to her, she didn't say much, but she listened and payed attention to every detail of her story. When she was finished she looked at the doctor who had stood up and was now walking outside of the room to call a nurse to assist her with the exam.

"Do you want me to stay or do you want me to leave the room?" asked Emily, she wasn't quite sure if Bobbie wanted someone to be with her and hold her hand or if she needed more space and privacy.

Bobbie didn't know that either. A part of her wanted Emily to leave, but she also didn't want to be alone with the doctor and the nurse, who were treating her like an object and for some reason she trusted Emily.

"Stay" she said quietly.

She had to get changed into a hospital gown and sit down on the examination table, they documented all of her injuries and took care of them. It was extremely exhausting. She was in a lot of pain and she didn't like having all the hospital staff around her touching her without asking and giving her injections without warning her. One time she teared up and almost started crying again, but this time she won the fight against the tears. She was laying on her back now and had closed her eyes. She wasn't tired anymore, but the lights above her were blinding her and she was feeling extremely sick. She had to talk to the officers who had been waiting outside. She didn't lie to them, but she also didn't tell them the whole story. She left some stuff out, mostly because she wasn't comfortable talking about some things they did.

Around 3 am Mr. Walters arrived, Bobbie could tell that he was angry, which scared her even more, because most of the time, he had the most perfect poker face. She heard him fighting with the officers way before he even came close to entering the room. Bobbie didn't hear the full conversation, but one thing was clear: He didn't believe one word of her story. She was lucky though, everyone else seemed to trust her. Emily was standing right next to the table, she was holding her hand now and talking to the doctors. They were confident that she would be allowed to leave the hospital this morning.

"So… what now" Bobbie looked at Mr. Walters anxiously, where would she end up this time?

"Well, I was just informed that your foster parents were arrested. They tried to deny everything at first, but as the police officers were investigating, they talked to the other foster kids that were living with that family as well and noticed that they also showed signs of abuse. I will start looking for a new family for you, meanwhile you will stay in an orphanage"

She nodded and was about to get off of the examination table to get changed, when she felt Emily's hand holding her back. She looked at her, but Emily was looking at Mr. Walters.

"I can take her for a while if that's possible. I mean until you found a good family for her."

For a few seconds he didn't say anything, instead he looked at Emily as if she had lost her mind.

"Are you sure you want to do this? As far as I know, you don't have any experiences when it comes to fostering and ummm… Bobbie can be quite difficult at times."

"I am pretty sure I can handle it" Emily said with a slight smirk on her face.

"Ok… then I will get the paperwork ready" He left the room, Emily and Bobbie were alone now.

"Why are you doing this for me?" Bobbie asked, she had no clue why Emily would offer her to live with her for a while, she had already done enough for her.

"I don't know, I guess I just know what it's like to be alone."