A/N: HELLO! To anyone out there still reading my stories, thank you for doing so. Here is the second instalment of my Scott and Bailey fic. So SOrry that it has taken me so long to get this uploaded and I will make the excuse of exams kicking my teenage ass. Exams really suck people. They take time, energy, emotions, a lot of thought but most of all they use up your fanfiction writing time. Anyhow, here we go!

Disclaimer: Ha like my mind is brilliant enough to come up with a TV programme such as Scott and Bailey. Therefore, characters don't belong to me in any way, shape, form, galaxy, species, race, or any mixture of all mentioned formerly.

After two weeks of being 'imprisoned' in hospital, Rachel was finally being discharged. She wasn't allowed to go back to work for another two to three weeks but she was happy to be getting out and was staying with Gill for the next month without fail, so every cloud has a silver lining and all. Gill would wake up early, get breakfast ready, shower and dressed for work before she woke Rachel up. Once the brunette was awake, bathed and situated downstairs Gill would leave for work.

Helen Bartlett was on trial for the concealment of crimes and the abduction of a police officer. She was supposed to be going on trial for attempted murder of a police officer but Rachel refused to testify if Helen was prosecuted of attempted murder stipulating that Helen never set out to kill anyone apart from herself but panicked and in a drunken haze, accidently stabbed Rachel. Gill didn't agree with her at first but came around after Julie and Janet both spoke to her, showing Gill that Rachel was just trying to do the best for Helen and Louise. Rachel wasn't looking forward to testifying but knew that if she didn't, it could mean bad things for Helen considering Rachel was such an influence on the prosecution.

Rachel was nervous. She was in court today and neither Janet nor Gill could really get the time away from work to come with her. Neither had been called as witnesses today but Rachel had so Julie had agreed to accompany the younger detective to the trial. Gill said she would call Rachel at every opportunity possible but with the beginnings of a serial killer case on their hands, the entirety of syndicate 9 were being run ragged. Early mornings, late nights, Saturdays and the occasional Sunday over the past month. On top of that, syndicate nine's very own Sherlock had been on forced medical leave longer than expected, Gill often having to take time off work to run Rachel to the hospital for her appointments as the young woman would not go otherwise, instead, try and deceive her. This along with the bi annual departmental review was causing major stress for everyone from the newest Police Constable to the Chief Constable.

"Hey" Rachel whipped around, only to be face with someone she really didn't want to see right now. Nick Savage.

"What the hell are you doing here?" was Rachel's cold reply.

"I heard through a friend that you were testifying in favor of the defense and I wanted to talk to you. I am going to sit in on the trial. It's an open one." Nick so helpfully informed Rachel.

"Well I really don't have time to talk right now, sorry" Rachel began to walk past Nick but he grabbed her arm as she tried to pass him.

"God I've missed you Rach. Please just listen to me. I don't think you know what you are doing. You are supporting the woman who stabbed you Rach, what's going on?"

"Get off me Nick. I know exactly what I am doing and I know exactly what you are doing. I am not going to fall for your tricks again Nick. It nearly got me killed and it did kill my child. So get off, walk away and leave me alone." Rachel saw Julie over Nick's shoulder and sent her a terrified pleading look.

Instead of letting Rachel go, Nick pulled her too him and wrapped his arms around her slim body. His hands on her body made Rachel feel physically ill and she longed to be in the safety of Gill's arms. Rachel was thrown back in time, to a period in her life when she was still a kid, living at home with her siblings and father.

It had been a particularly gruelling day at school and all Rachel wanted to do was get her work done, eat with Alison and go to bed, but her father had a different idea. It was only 5 in the evening and Stephen Bailey was already beyond drunk. Rachel guessed that he had been for most of the afternoon as well but that didn't matter right now. She knew she was in for a bad night so she had to get rid of Alison. Dom was already out meaning he probably wouldn't be seen again for a few days and Rachel was going to send Alison to the party she knew Ali had wanted to go to but couldn't because of her and Dom.

"Hey Ali, I know you want to go to Melissa sleepover so why don't you go? Dom's not here and I can take care of Dad for a day. You go and enjoy yourself." And with that Rachel walked out the kitchen leaving Alison staring at the door in astonishment.

20 minutes later, Rachel found a note left on the kitchen side from her sister.

Thanks Rach! There's dinner in the oven, £25 on the counter and just call if you need me for any reason. See you tomorrow night. Xx

Rachel smiled sadly. It was only another 5 minutes before the shouting started and a further half hour before the blows started to reign down. Hit after hit was placed around Rachel's body, even in his drunken haze, her dad managed to avoid the visible places. Her father would beat her on regular occasions but neither Dom nor Alison knew and she wasn't about to let them find out now so Rachel resigned herself for another few days of pain. Rachel lost all recognition of the time that past, she lost count of the number of times he'd hit her and lost count of the tears that had fallen in the process. By 9:45, Rachel Bailey had passed out in her bed from the pain radiating through her newly beaten torso.

Rachel was thrashing around in Nick's arms, not that he noticed the woman's distress, trying to protect herself from harm. She was only pulled out of her flashback when DCI Dodson appeared with a uniform by her side, to escort Nick Savage of the premises.

Rachel was going into full blown panic mode. She looked around, hunting for an escape route, her breaths coming in shallow, rapid succession. She felt dizzy and faint, she needed Gill.

"Rach?" Julie's voice sound as though Rachel was underwater. She needed to sit down.

"Okay, come on Rach." Julie took the DC by the arm and gently led her to the toilets.

"I'm gonna call Gill okay, just stand there a sec" Julie was worried but could hear that the young detective's breaths slow at the name of her girlfriend.

"Heya Slap" Gill was very cheery considering the stress everyone in the police force was under at the moment.

"Hey, listen are you busy?" Julie didn't particularly want to talk with Gill over the phone.

"What's happened? Is Rach alright? Are you alright? I'm on my way" Gill hung up before Julie could even open her mouth to reply. Well that was easier than I thought it was going be.

"Julie?"

"Rach, are you alright?" She asked the tired looking woman.

"Yeah I think so but I really would like Gill, however I know she is working and I am not going to disturb her."

"About that…"

"Oh god, you called her, she's gonna be pissed. When she's sees I am okay and that everything is fine, she's going to be mad at me. Julie I need you to call, tell her that I'm fine. She's gonna be mad." Rachel started to back herself against a wall, her breathing picking up the pace again.

"Rach you need to breathe otherwise you are going to pass out. Just breathe, in through your mouth and hold for 3 then let it out through your nose for 5 seconds." Julie sounded slightly frantic now, knowing that she had promised Gill to look after Rachel during this process. Rachel only looked blankly at Julie, almost as if she has resigned herself to some kind of trouble

Julie's phone rang and Rachel's breathing got even worse when she realized that it was Gill's ringtone. Julie was conflicted but ultimately, she knew her friend needed Gill so she answered the phone.

"Where are you? Why didn't you answer sooner? What going on?" Gill's voice was frantic and it was in that moment that Julie knew she had done the right thing.

"We're in the bathroom of the east wing. I had to try and keep her calm and what happened was Nick bloody Savage."

"Okay be there in a second."

About a minute late Gill burst through the doors looking frazzled and very out breath. Rachel cringed and tried to curl in on herself, not knowing what was to come. Much to her surprise, Gill immediately moved to embrace Rachel, which gave the younger woman the safety to finally break the last wall of hiding, sobbing uncontrollably into Gill's shoulder.

"Sh. You're okay Kid, I got you" Gill sat with Rachel in her lap on the floor of the toilet, rocking back and forth gently, trying to soothe the frantic woman in her arms.

Julie eventually sat down to the side of the pair already on the floor and sighed lightly, trying not to draw attention to herself. She was thankful that Rachel had insisted on getting there and hour and a half earlier than necessary, meaning they still had time to get Rachel to calm down before the trial was due to begin. The three of them sat on the bathroom floor, waiting for the situation to calm down. The small sniffles and whimpers were broken by Rachel's soft and quiet voice.

"He was here and I couldn't stop it. With everything recently, it brought the memories to the surface. When he grabbed me, god I felt like I was a kid again. Back at home, alone with my father trying to take care of Alison and Dom" Rachel was beginning to get worked up again so Gill soothed her by whispering into her younger girlfriend's ear.

"You couldn't have known what was going to happen Rach. Are you feeling a bit better now?" Gill asked.

Rachel's only reply was a small nod, her head still buried in the crook of Gill's shoulder.

"Let' stand up then. We'll wash up and then I am going to take the rest of the day off. Once we are done here, we are going straight home and I'm am going to cook you dinner while you have a nice warm bath. How does that sound?"

"That sound wonderful, thank you." Rachel's voice was still mousy but Gill could hear the small amount of happiness that seeped into the woman's voice. Gill knew she had been working quite a lot this week and that often meant that she and Rachel hadn't had any quality time with each other really. However, Gill knew that Rachel understood but was still happy to hear the younger woman get excited about spending time with her girlfriend.

"Okay then, let's get this over with"

Thanks for reading! Please Read and Review. Chapter 3 to come as soon as I write it and no sooner unfortunately! :)