The next few weeks seemed to drag by for Emma as things were getting tough at home again. Will was doing so much to help with Elle and Mikey that she didn't think it was fair to unburden all of her worries on him as well. Instead she had taken up Smithy's offer of a friendly ear from time to time and as such they became closer as friends and the Sergeant/PC relationship all but disappeared.

Sitting on the side of his desk Emma tilted her head to the side and looked at him. "Something's bothering you isn't it." She said matter-of-factly. "What's up?" She added looking him in the eyes. He squirmed nervously and tried to shake off her questions but her gaze was so penetrating that he eventually gave in.

"My…my ex-girlfriend Nicola." He began slowly. "Nicola and I were together for a short while when we found out that she was pregnant. For some reason it didn't seem to matter that we barely knew each other, it just felt right and kind of meant to be. Everything was going great, the first scan was positive but then nothing. Our baby stopped feeding and she miscarried. There was nothing I could do or say that would console her, she had convinced herself that it was all her fault. She started self-harming and then the suicide attempts started. She was placed in a secure unit in a mental hospital six months after the miscarriage." Smithy finished, a few tears escaping and sliding down his cheeks.

"Awww come here." Emma said opening her arms for him which he gratefully fell into. "You never said before, all this time I've been confiding in you about my problems and I didn't know that you were hurting as well. I'm so sorry."

"It doesn't normally bother me much. Things like that are fairly easy to lock away…it's…it's just she sent a visiting order yesterday. We broke up over fifteen years ago and haven't had contact since. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to react to this." He stammered, tears still dripping off his face and onto Emma's shirt.

After a while he managed to compose himself and put a smile back on his face. "So how's the family, still as pesky as usual?" He asked grinning at her.

"Umm you could say that." Emma replied softly.

"Why what's wrong?" He asked her, placing a hand on her arm comfortingly.

"It's Elle again. She's got a new boyfriend and at first he seemed great. He made her happy and he seemed like a really sweet kid. Its just last week I walked in on them talking. I didn't hear the whole thing but it sounded to me like he was asking her for sex. I don't think that she'd risk getting pregnant again, not after what happened last time but I mean she's fifteen sometimes decisions like that are hard to make when you're that age." Emma said chewing her lip worriedly.

"Hey, hey listen to me. You've got one smart little lady at home, she's not likely to do anything that she doesn't want to. It might be an idea to speak to her about it though, just re-enforce the idea that just because she has a boyfriend doesn't mean she has to have sex with him. She might just need that extra little bit of re-assurance." Smithy said putting her at ease.

Meanwhile Will had returned from his early shift at work and he unlocked the door and stepped into the house noiselessly. He put his keys down on the table in the hall and walked into the kitchen, putting the kettle on to boil. Stopping he frowned, it was just past lunchtime, nobody else should be home. Apprehensively he made his way towards the staircase and crept up the stairs one at a time.

He pushed his bedroom door open and saw thankfully that it was empty, then he turned and listened. The noises, those unmistakeable noises were coming from Elle's bedroom. It couldn't be…surely she would be…Will put his hand on the door handle and pushed his way into the room. He stood staring wide-eyed at the bed. Elle screamed as she saw her Dad and he quickly shut the door and slid down the wall.

A few minutes later Elle's boyfriend rushed past him and slammed the door on his way out of the house. Will's shoulders sank. Last time he'd messed things up with Elle, this time he was determined to do a better job of handling these kinds of awkward situations. Getting to his feet he knocked gently on the door and walked into her bedroom.

"EllyBelly…why?" He asked disappointedly sitting on the edge of the bed. She was still facing away from him, staring blankly at the wall and refusing to speak. "I thought you learnt your lesson last time. You're still underage." He said in a more neutral tone of voice.

"He…he wanted to. I didn't want him to dump me." Elle whispered tearfully. Will didn't really know how to reply to this but he still wanted to handle it by himself. Sliding further up the bed he put his hand gently on her back and began to rub it slowly.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Elle you have so much more to offer than that. That kid doesn't know what he's missing out on if all he thinks he has you for is sex. You're clever and funny and unbelievable cute." He said proudly.

"Thanks Daddy." Elle whimpered as she turned and buried her face in Will's chest. "I didn't want to…you know…I was just so confused…I still am so confused."

"I know baby girl, I'm confused as well." He replied pulling her onto his lap. "Still you should get yourself checked out, we can't really afford a repeat performance of last month can we?" He added pulling her to her feet and walking down the stairs with her.

They sat in silence as Will drove towards the clinic. Why again? Why now? Why Elle? He thought to himself as he watched her bite her nails nervously. She was such a sweet kid, why did she deserve all this to happen to her?