Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed/alerted. It seriously makes my day guys! So thanks. This is a short chapter sorry, but as I haven't posted anything for quite a while, I got up off my ass and wrote a chapter. Please, don't ask when the next chapter is coming, because I don't know. I've got a heap of SACs (assessment tasks) coming up in the next fortnight, so please be patient.

Love and hugs/cookies to all that have read/are reading this.

xx peace-and-war

Chapter 3- Baby Steps (Casey and Stephanie)

Casey

As a former SVU prosecutor, I'd seen the worst of the worst, rape victims who had to rekindle every aspect of their life, and the ones who were viciously murdered, whose families needed justice to move on.

I did not realise that my own daughter would fall into the former category, and because of a man that I loved, that I thought I loved, and… I don't know.

It sickens me, how could Tim do that? To two thirteen year old girls, what if he had done that to my four year old daughters?

I have lost all respect for him, and I hope he rots in hell.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Isabelle and Elizabeth were at the Benson-Cameron household, and Steph was staring into a bowl of Cheerio's, stirring them occasionally with her spoon, but not eating.

She was released from hospital 24 hours ago, after a 12 hour observation, full body exam, a psychiatrist consult and an official police statement.

It kills me inside to see her like this. I have no clue what the hell she is feeling, whether she is feeling at all. I don't know anymore.

I was told by the doctor that she was inflicting self harm, based on the scars on her stomach and upper thighs, think razor blade cuts, all parallel, all horizontal, all deep enough to cause pain.

The psychiatrist told me that the reason she was inflicting self harm was because, the pain that Timothy caused was unbearable, and cutting made her feel better.

I held her hand though out the exam, and during the pelvic, she was clutching my hand, gripping it like she was afraid I was going to leave, and she buried her head in the pillow, like she was ashamed.

She shouldn't be ashamed, because it wasn't her fault. I just hope that she, and Hayley can get through this, because I don't know what I would do if she doesn't.

Stephanie

Everybody's got their problems,
Everybody says the same thing to you,
It's just a matter of how you solve them,
And knowing how to change the things you've been through.
I feel I've come to realise,
How fast life can be compromised.
Step back to see what's going,
I can't believe this happened to you.

By the way that everyone is talking, I should be feeling something, anger, sadness, something. But I don't. I feel numb, like ice has penetrated my skin, freezing my insides.

Is there anything that could make me feel?

I don't know.

Am I going to be okay?

I don't know.

Is Hayley going to be okay?

I don't know.

Will my so-called-stepfather rot in hell?

I sure as hell hope so.

But, then again I don't know.

There is so much that I don't know, that I probably don't want to know.

Still, I would like a choice.


Casey

'Steph?' I saw her sitting, curled up in the couch, mindlessly staring at the television.

'Yeah?' She kept staring at the tv, like I wasn't there.

'Did you want to do something today?' Her gaze shifted from the television, to me.

'I was going back to bed.' She began to get up, her pyjama pants getting caught on the bottoms of her feet, as she made the motions to pull them up, she decided to sit back down.

'You've been doing that for the past two weeks, Steph. I want to go out, and I want you to come with me.'

Stephanie bit her lip, and replied with- 'Fine. I'll go get dressed.'

I smiled at her.

I knew this wasn't going to be easy for her, this was the first time that she'd left the house since Timothy was arraigned, and sent to jail without bail.

Baby steps. She needed baby steps.

Song belongs to Sum 41- The Hell Song.

Please, read and alert/review.

xx.