I glanced at the clock, it was 6:30 am. Maura would be down in 5 minutes.
"Morning..." I said sitting up and stretching.
"Morning!" Jane replied.
Maura then bustled into the room, looking pristine. I don't know how she does it, but at half past 6 in the morning she looked amazing, but that's my sister for you. Where as Jane and I were looking awful and half asleep, not even out of bed yet, and Maura was ready to leave for work. This was a daily occurrence.
I was hoping Jane had forgotten all about our conversation last night, but she hadn't.
"Letter." Jane mouthed at me.
I pulled a face, and reluctantly walked out of the room. I returned with the letter in my dressing gown pocket. I handed it to Jane when Maura wasn't looking, then went and joined my sister in the kitchenette.
"Morning Maur..." I smiled at her.
"Morning sweetheart." Maura smiled back.
I saw Jane get off the sofa and walk towards us, so I made an escape out of the kitchen.
I stood and listened from the hallway.
"Hey, Maura." Jane called softly.
"Come sit with me a second." She smiled.
I heard Maura pull a stool out and sit down next to Jane.
"Faith came down last night after you'd both gone to bed." Jane started.
"Do you want me to have a word with her?" Maura interrupted, getting completely the wrong end of the stick.
"No, Maura. Shush for a minute." Jane said firmly.
"We had a conversation, and there's something I need to tell you before I ring my boss." Jane said slowly, making sure she had Maura's full attention. By the silence that followed, I'd say she did.
"You know that she was witness to a shooting years ago?" Jane started.
"Where are you going with this Jane?" Maura asked, I could hear the concern in her voice, as if she was almost scared.
"Well the reason Paddy kept moving Faith was because the gang who were involved didn't want any witnesses and would stop at nothing?" Jane continued.
"Yes! I know that!" Maura replied. Everyone knew that.
"Well they know she's here." Jane said, and she put the letter on the table.
"You have to go to your boss. Get it sorted." Maura replied, speaking at about 500 miles an hour. She was panicking.
"And if I do that, the only thing we can do is investigate, arrest, charge and imprison them." Jane finished.
"Which means a trial." She added. There was a long silence. I decided to walk back into the room.
"Or you can ship me on to the next family." I said quietly.
"NO." Maura and Jane both said unanimously. I put my hands up in mock surrender.
"It was just a suggestion" I muttered.
"Come here Faith." Maura called over to me.
I cautiously walked over to her. She reached out and put an arm around my waist and pulled me to her for a hug.
"It took me long enough to get custody of you the first time. You're going nowhere. We can fight this." Maura whispered to me, stroking my back to comfort me.
I grumbled in response. I'd had just about enough of things going wrong in my life as I could take.
"We should get going." Maura said, completely ruining the cuddling moment, but it made Jane smile, how I am as bad as she is with people. Jane always said 'it was in the genes' or something.
Jane & I went and got ready to leave the house.
It was a really awkward drive to work, and it made the drive feel like it took ages, but in fact we got there quicker than normal so I guess Maura has finally learned how to drive with her foot down.
We walked into work, everyone seemed really surprised to see Jane, but happy. She told me to stay at her desk and not to move, if I needed anything Uncle Frankie would sort me out.
I'm not very good at staying put, so when Uncle Frankie went to the loo, I slipped down to the cafeteria to go and see Aunty Angela.
It didn't take Jane very long to come and find me and have a go at me.
"This doesn't look like my desk." She shouted waving her arms around as she spoke to prove her point.
"Leave the kid alone Janie, she just wanted some food." Angela chimed in to defend me.
"Stay of of it ma'" Jane snapped at her.
"Faith, will you come with me upstairs please." Jane asked.
I followed he to the stairwell, we never took the stairwell.
"Why are we going the long way?" I asked, very confused.
"Because we need to talk." Jane told me.
"Right." I replied.
We stopped in the stairwell.
"I've spoken to my boss, and they've launched an investigation. You're not going to like this, and neither do Maura and I, but because of your age and the circumstances, its not just a case of taking a witness statement. They have to put you through interrogation." Jane said to me seriously, but trying to soften the blow.
I glared at Jane. It's not the first time I'd been interrogated, but Jane had promised it'd be the last.
"As soon as we get up there, they wont let you see me or Maura until they've spoken to you. " Jane added.
I groaned.
"Korsak, my partner will interrogate you, but I'll be stood behind the glass and he knows that, so he knows not to go too hard on you." Jane added.
We slowly walked up the stairs, and I prepared myself for the next few hours.
Jane was right. The second we stepped through the doors, Korsak whisked me off into the interrogation room and Frankie took Jane and Maura off.