"Emma, your daughter's in reception. She said she needed to speak to you." Smithy shouted to Emma who was standing talking to Phil at the top of the CID stairs.
"Got ya." She replied before returning to her and Phil's conversation for a few minutes. When she was satisfied that she'd told Phil everything about the burglary case, she rushed down the steps and punched the code frantically into the keypad before entering reception. "Elle, in here." She said, taking her daughter by the hand and leading her into the front interview room.
"I'm scared Mum." Elle whimpered as she sat down on the edge of the desk. "It's…its only an hour until we have to be there." She added softly, burying her face in Emma's shoulder.
"Hey, come on don't worry about it, I'll be waiting right outside for you and then it'll all be over. Don't think about it baby, it's what you want and it's what's right for you at the moment." Emma said reassuringly, sliding Elle off the table and onto her knees. They sat for a while curled up on the chair until Will walked into the room and knelt down next to them.
He tucked Elle's hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead. "How's my big girl?" He asked, taking her hand in his.
Elle bit her lip and tried to smile. "…Scared." She replied giggling. Will raised his eyebrows at her and grinned back.
"Don't sound that scared, does she?" He said, nudging Emma. "Come on sweetheart, you'd better be going and I have to get back to work." He added, ushering the pair of them out of the room and waving them off. Sighing heavily, he dropped into the now empty chair in the interview room and began to draw patterns in the dust on the table. It had been hard on the whole family, what with Elle being pregnant and everything. They'd been trying not to show Elle quite how stressed they had been but as the days ticked away and the abortion got ever closer it was beginning to take its toll on Emma who was now unpredictably bursting into tears at regular intervals. He thought it had been hard putting up with Emma (who had wanted to be pregnant) for nine months but it was nothing compared to his daughter being completely hormonal.
The sooner this day was over, the better. He got up, on hearing Smithy asking about him from the reception desk. Quickly slipping out of the back door of the interview room he entered the writing room and pretended to be doing some work until Smithy appeared in the doorway. "Hey Will, Emma said she left her mobile in her locker so can you pick it up before you go home." He said, beginning to leave the room before turning back and seeing Will's blank expression and dark circles under his eyes. "Are you alright mate?" He asked, leaning on the desk next to Will.
"I…uh well kind of." Will muttered, refusing to look him in the eyes. "It's Elle, she's got a doctor's appointment today. That's why Emma's got the afternoon off." He explained, leaving out as much detail as possible.
"Yeah I knew that…but what's this got to do with you being worried and tired and trying to fool me that you're just fine?" Smithy asked, his coppers instinct telling him there was more than what Will was telling him.
"Uh it's a family matter, she probably wouldn't thank me for telling you." Will said, twisting his fingers in his palms. Smithy just gave him a look so Will opened his mouth again. "Elle got herself knocked up." He said bluntly.
"Ahhh okay so now I know why you've been all worried. How's Emma coping?" Smithy asked, dropping his sergeant manner and becoming friendlier.
"Well besides the amazing amount of times that she breaks down in tears every day, fine, just fine." Will replied sarcastically. His shoulders slumped and he stopped trying to make the situation funny. "She took it pretty well at first, well I thought she did but then…but then she let it all out and…and god it was scary." He said drawing breath.
Will walked along the corridor to their bedroom. Elle and Mickey were asleep in their rooms and all of the lights downstairs had been turned out. He pushed the door open and entered the bedroom to find it in pitch darkness and completely empty. "Emma? Emma are you there babes?" He called softly so as not to wake their sleeping children.
He padded across the floor to the bathroom. He stood outside for a minute, just listening. Then he stepped inside and saw the scene before him. Emma was lying curled up in the middle of the floor in her pyjamas. There was a half empty bottle of vodka lying next to her on its side. Rushing over to her, he shook her shoulders gently and relief flooded through him as he saw that she was still conscious. Tears were coursing silently down her cheeks and it looked like she'd been crying for some time as her eyes were red and sore.
"Come on baby, you need to go to bed." Will said, lifting her gently off the floor and carrying her through into the bedroom. He put her down but still kept a firm grip round her waist so she didn't sink to the floor and flipped back the duvet before sliding her under the covers and tucking her in. He walked round to the other side of the bed and got in next to her.
Wrapping his arms around her waist he whispered softly in her ear. "Talk to me Em, I can't help you unless you tell me what's upsetting you." She turned around in his arms and he saw the pain in her expression for the first time.
"How should you react to the news that your fifteen-year-old daughter is pregnant?" Emma asked him quietly. "I just don't know how to deal with it. I'm scared, not just for her but for us. What's this going to do to our family?" She asked him again another very difficult question.
"I don't know babe but Elle doesn't need us to be crumbling. If we can't deal with this then how is she supposed to? It took a lot of guts for her to tell us all about it, the least that we can do is reward her by being supportive of the decisions she makes. She really does need us now. As for what's going to happen with our family, I seriously think that this could pull us all back together, Elle's already realised that we're not the bad people that she thought we were, you and David always had a special bond that I could never touch. Maybe we should stop spending time with the ones that get on with us best. I think that you should do some things with Elle and we should do things together as a family again as well." Will said, thinking deeply.
"I guess you're right." She mumbled, snuggling in closer to him. "I…I love you babe, I'm sorry for being so insecure. I didn't mean to drink that much, it just…it just felt right." She said, turning away in shame.
"Look you don't have to drink to feel right, come and talk to me and I'll make everything better." He said kissing her softly. "I love you and I'll do anything to make you happy." He said nuzzling his face into her neck. "Night night sweetie."
Smithy coughing brought Will back to the real world and he blushed, realising that he must have been staring off into space for a good few minutes. Fortunately for him, Smithy was also in a world of his own and sitting on the edge of the desk, deep in thought.
She'd been so happy, we'd been so happy when we found out that she was pregnant. We didn't care that we were young and I'd only just been made sergeant. It was probably just meant to happen because we didn't even think about looking back once we'd agreed to keep it. Everything had gone really well, the first scan was positive and the regular blood tests showed nothing wrong. But she still lost our baby.
"It's not your fault baby." Smithy said for the millionth time. "What happens happens, you can't change it, don't get upset over it, we can't do anything more."
"But…but something must have gone wrong." Nicola said tearfully, turning away from Smithy and beginning to sob. "I was supposed to protect my baby, but instead I destroyed it." She wailed.
Smithy was silent for a long time. There was nothing he could say, nothing he could do that would console her. She'd convinced herself that it was her fault and there was nothing he could do to make her change her mind. Even the counselling hadn't helped. He thought after two failed suicide attempts that she'd have quit while she was ahead but no, he'd caught her with the razor blades again that night.
It was several months later and Smithy walked along the sterilized ward. He couldn't even bring himself to think about what he was about to do. He sat wringing his hands. "I…I can't make this work now Nicola, I'm so sorry." He said, getting up off the plastic chair and making his way towards the door.
She didn't say anything, she just sat and looked at him. She looked so peaceful, so innocent in her white straight-jacket. It didn't look like she had it in her to hurt herself, how wrong appearances were. After the fourteenth time, they'd had to put her in the secure unit. It was more than Smithy thought he could handle.
Meanwhile across Canley, Emma and Elle were sitting in a waiting room that smelled very strongly of bleach and disinfectant. "Danielle Fletcher?" A nurse called, coming into the room. Elle stood up and smiled weakly back at Emma.
"It'll all be over soon honey." Emma said encouragingly, squeezing her hand and then letting her go. She watched her little girl stumble across the room and follow the nurse into an office. She knew she'd have to let her go eventually, but she'd pictured it being when Elle left home to go to University and that they'd be tears of happiness in her eyes, not tears of sadness. She'd grown up more in the past few weeks than she'd ever done in her life so far. She was now mature beyond her years and acted like a twenty-year-old, not a fifteen-year-old.
Half an hour later, Elle returned looking distinctly paler but definitely happier. She leant heavily against Emma and wrapped her arms tightly round her mum as if she never wanted to let her go again. "I've still got the rest of my shift to finish but your Dad's been on since 6am so he can take you home while I finish up my hours." Emma said as she started up the car ten minutes later.
Emma smiled as she watched her daughter lead the way through the station, she knew it like the back of her hand. Every few rooms she passed, she stuck her head in them to see if Will was there but no such luck. Eventually they stopped outside the writing room and Elle bounced in seeing that her dad was sitting at a desk. "Daddy!" She squealed, flinging herself at him. He caught her easily and sat cuddling her for what felt like eternity.
Smithy smiled over at Emma and they both left Elle and Will to it. "I take it Will told you." She said grinning at him. He raised one eyebrow and then laughed.
"Yeah he did. How are you coping?" He asked, resting a hand on Emma's arm.
"Oh you know, was drinking straight vodka…now I find talking helps a little bit more. At least I don't have a blinding headache when I get up!" She said jokingly. "Seriously, I'm just glad it's all over and I've got my little girl back again." She said collapsing into the chair behind the custody desk.
"If it's any consolation then you can always talk to me if you don't think you can face Will." Smithy said kindly.
"I'll remember that." She said smiling genuinely back at him. "Aww come here you big old softie." She added pulling him into a hug.
"No domestics in custody." Gina said as she passed them. "That applies to the prisoners AND you two, PC Fletcher, Sgt Smith!" She laughed, seeing their expressions.
Emma leaned back and sighed, at last she could relax, it was all over now.
By the way the PC Fletcher that Gina was talking to was Emma...her and Will are both PC Fletcher lol please review xxxxxxxxpip