Thanks to all of you who have reviewed and added to alerts and favs! This fic is being written so nicely it's amazing. I haven't had ease like this since OSAS! Yay for no more writers block! :)

Chapter 5

It was dark in Hyde Park, and she was freezing. She hadn't realised how cold it was out. Hell, she didn't even know what year it was, much less the month and season.

Molly stared at the ground. In 2011 she had heard some of the people in her year say that they felt like an inconvenience, but she had never understood what that really meant until now.

It was this horrible, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, complete with the feeling of utter loneliness and desolation. She just wanted to sob her heart out, to scream at the world, but knew she couldn't. She had brought some of this on herself, as it were.

It was starting to rain. It was a freezing cold rain, soaking through her jumper and chilling her to the bone. Molly hugged her knees to her chest in the hope of warming herself up at least a little bit. She sat in this position for what seemed like hours, merely listening to the patter of the rain on the pavement in front of her and the whisper of wind through the trees.

"You look like you're freezing," said a deep voice behind her. Molly jumped up off the bench and turned around cautiously. A boy about her age was standing behind the bench. He had long, dark hair and even darker eyes. However, they were sparking with kindness and his face was full of apology.

"Sorry, love! I didn't mean to scare you like that!" he said with a slight Italian accent

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What do you want?"

The boy held up his hands as if to show her he was unarmed. "My name's Tom. I was going to show you a place where you can get out of the rain."

Molly peered at him cautiously, unbelieving.

"Honest," he said. "I've got a place with some friends to keep warm during the rain."

Molly considered it. On the one hand, she wanted to get out of the pissing rain. On the other, she had no way of trusting this person.

Screw it, she decided. I'm already dead anyway. What's the worst that can happen?

"I'll go," she said.

Tom smiled a truly happy smile. "What's your name then?"

"I'm Molly.

"Well Molly, what's your story?"

"What?

"Why are you standing out here in the pouring rain instead of indoors with a parent or someone? You don't exactly look old enough to be on your own yet."

"I ran away."

"Why?"

"My mum is in love with her boss and basically told him she didn't want me and that if she was able drop me off at my father's she would."

Tom's mouth opened in a silent 'ah'. "I see. That's horrible. Well, we've got a place for you for as long as you'd like to stay."

"Who's we?"

"Me, my older sister, and four others. The other four are runaways like you. My sister and I kind of run everything. Our uncle helps out. He donates us food from his restaurant once a week."

"So you're kind of a Good Samaritan or something."

"I guess you could say so. I'm not religious in the slightest though. I just want to make the world a bit better. Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people. Sharing all the world," he quoted.

"Ah. Lennon's ideals."

"Is that a problem?"

"No. God, no. Lennon had the right idea."

Tom smiled. "I own every record by him and the Beatles. I still can't believe he died. I remember the day I found out about it. God, 1980? I was thirteen."

"How old are you now?" Finally! A way to figure out what year she was in.

"Sixteen. I'll be seventeen in May. How about you?"

"Fifteen. I'll be sixteen in July." So she was in late 1983, or early 1984. She guessed it at October. That was the month in 2011 in which she died.

"So you were twelve."

"I got into Lennon after he died, unfortunately," she responded truthfully. "When I was about thirteen. I had lost Mum, and loved his lyrics of peace and everything."

"Nasty divorce then?"

"You could say that," Molly said softly.

"If you ever want to tell me about it, you can."

Molly nodded as they stopped in front of a small, slightly shabby, house.

"It's not much, but here it is!" Tom announced proudly. "Let's get you inside. We've got some warm clothes."

Molly nodded, starting up the steps, but slipped on the wet pavement of the steps and she fell. The last thing she knew was the feeling of her head colliding with something extremely hard before the whole world went black.

~(*)~

Alex stared desperately at Gene. "We can't call it off, Gene. Not yet."

"Alex, face it. We've been out here since 6.30 and haven't found anything. It's nearly midnight. We shouldn't even be looking in the first place .Unless there's foul play involved…"

"What about the note? Doesn't that make it seem like she may be in danger?"

"Bolly, calm down. My guess is that she's just angry and she'll be back when she's frozen to the bone from this bloody rain. She might already be back. Let's go back to your flat, you can change into something dry, and if she's not back, we can wait. She'll be back before tomorrow, Bolls. I promise."

Alex nodded sadly. "I just…it's my fault," she said defeatedly.

"No it's not, Bolly."

"I didn't recognise her!" she wailed. "I didn't recognise my own daughter!"

"You said it yourself. She looks completely different now."

"I still should have known. I'm her mum."

Gene put his arm around her. "Bolly, do yourself a favour and stop thinking."

Alex merely sniffled, taking one last look around Hyde Park. She was certain Molly would come here, after she remembered that this was Molly's favourite place to go. However, she saw no sign of her daughter in the park.

"Let's go home, Gene."

~(*)~

The first thing she was aware of was a throbbing pain in her head. It was enormous, throbbing in unison with each beat of her heart. Every throb made the pain just a bit worse, keeping her in complete agony. She heard someone groan. Surely that wasn't her?

"She's waking up," said a voice.

"About time," said another. "She's been out nearly a day."

"Don't you think we should have taken her to hospital Tom?"

Tom. She knew that name. Tom. He was the one who had taken her out of the park. He was showing her a place to stay.

"No. She's fine. Besides, if she went to hospital, they might alert her mum, and that's the last person she wants to see at the moment. Let her have her freedom."

"What do you think, Kate?" asked the first voice doubtfully.

"She's waking up. As long as there's no memory loss or anything, she'll be fine."

Wanting to know who was all standing above her, Molly opened her eyes a crack. The bright light assaulted them, increasing her headache tenfold. She was almost feeling nauseous from pain.

Molly groaned again. "Too...much...light," she managed to whisper.

"Jimmy, draw the curtains."

Behind her eyelids, the light decreased slightly. Molly attempted to open her eyes again. This time she was able to keep them open a crack. She blinked and they opened a bit further. She kept blinking, and finally, they opened all the way. Five people were standing around her, and a sixth was kneeling next to her.

"Welcome back, Molly," said a voice. She looked over at the person who spoke. It was Tom, his eyes glittering with relief.

"What happened?" she moaned. Her head really hurt!

"You slipped on the wet pavement and hit your head," said the girl kneeling next to her, who she immediately guessed was Tom's sister. They shared the same dark hair and eyes. "He brought you in and took you upstairs, and you've been out cold since last night."

"What time is it?"

"Half five in the evening."

Molly's hand went up to her head, planning on pushing some pressure against it in hopes of relieving the pain. However, her hand brushed against a plaster and along with an extra painful throb, it sent a burning pain throughout her skull. Molly whimpered.

"Charlie, go get some painkillers."

A young girl with golden hair and baby blue eyes left the room.

"That was Charlie," said Tom. "She's the youngest, at twelve. He gestured to a ginger girl standing beside him. "This is Ella. She's fifteen like you. Jimmy here is sixteen," Tom said, pointing to a blonde with a face full of mischief. Tom pointed to the last boy, who had dark brown hair and grey eyes full of anger. "This is Ethan. He's fourteen."

"Hi," Molly managed weakly.

They all nodded their hellos and walked out of the room, except Ella, the girl who had to be Kate and Tom.

"I'm Kate, by the way," the girl said with a dirty look at Tom who just shrugged. "After we get you that painkiller, Tom and I will leave. This is Ella's room and you'll be sharing with her, so whatever she does in here is yours to put up with."

"Don't worry," Ella said with a soft Irish lilt. "I'll be quiet. I only want to read."

Molly said nothing, merely closing her eyes. The light still was hurting her head. She heard someone walking up the stairs loudly and the door opening.

"I've got some paracetamol," Charlie said quietly, something Molly thanked God for. If her voice had been much louder, she didn't think she would be able to stand it.

"Thanks, Charlie," Kate said in a dismissive tone. "Molly, can you sit up for me?"

Molly pushed herself up as best she could, only managing to get up to her elbows. She started to see spots, and the pain in her head doubled. Kate put a couple pills in her mouth and held a glass of water to Molly's lips. Molly swallowed gratefully, and lay back down.

"Thank you," she mumbled. Her eyes closed once more, and this time sleep claimed her. Kate, Tom and Ella stared at her for a moment before the girls turned to Tom.

"Do you think Luigi will give us food for her?" Kate asked.

"I'm sure he will. I'll just explain what happened. Although it doesn't really look like she will be eating much for a few days anyway."

"You might want to get going now though. The coppers will be arriving to have 'lunch' any minute now and you know how it gets when they're there. Besides, you're late."

Tom nodded. "I'll get going then."

"You sure you don't want any help?"

"Nah. You need to be here to make sure Molly's okay, and I'm not taking Jimmy. Not after last month."

"Yeah. Hunt'll probably try to arrest him again."

"Still, that bird saw things fairly. She'd distract him by wiggling her tits or something."

Kate slapped him on the back of the head. "Don't talk about women like that."

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Just go, Tom," she grinned.

Tom walked down the stairs and out of the house, waving to Ethan and Jimmy on his way out. Charlie was nowhere to be seen, but he figured she was in the back, trying to persuade the neighbour's cat to come over.

That was one thing he was thankful for. If the neighbours knew what they were, they never said a word to anyone. Admittedly, it wasn't the best neighbourhood in London, but it was better than where they could be living. Tom and Kate's uncle Luigi had bought the house after their mum died, intending to live with them. Luigi had for maybe six months, before he decided it would be better just to stay at the restaurant. Kate had been sixteen at that point and decided to just live in the house, and thirteen-year-old Tom with her. Luigi made them to promise to ring if they ever had trouble, and they had lived there since. Luigi came to check on them often, and offered them jobs in his restaurant. A year later, Tom had passed Jimmy on the street. That was when he came up with the idea to house runaways or homeless kids. He had talked to Kate about it and they both talked to Luigi who approved wholeheartedly. They had made an agreement. Luigi would provide food once a week, enough for each person who lived in the house with them. If they brought someone new in, the new person must visit with Tom. Otherwise, Luigi would only serve enough for the people he knew were in the house. That way, no one could sneak a double portion, although his portions could hardly be called small.

Tom stepped into the trattoria, ignoring the crowd of rowdy officers in the corner. They were used to seeing him and him, them.

"You're late today!" Luigi said in his native Italian.

"Sorry, Luigi.," Tom responded, also in Italian. They had decided to speak in a language the coppers couldn't understand, so the whole operation could stay quiet, just like Tom wanted it to. "We had something unexpected pop up."

"Oh?" Luigi enquired.

"We've got someone new in the house. She fell going up the steps and has been out cold since last night. She woke up just before I was about to leave."

"You didn't take her to hospital?"

"We didn't want to. She's a runaway. If they contacted her mother..."

Luigi just nodded. "You're going to try and persuade her to go back, right?"

Tom shook his head. "I don't see the point, Luigi. She'll decide when she wants to go back. I have a feeling it won't be too long with her. She's not like the others."

"Try to persuade her," Luigi said, pointing to the female officer that usually sat with DCI Hunt. She was on her own, a nearly empty bottle of wine sitting next to her. The coppers were shooting her sympathetic glances, but she didn't even look up from a sheet of paper on the table. "That woman over there, her daughter ran away last night. Imagine if that was that girl's mother. Imagine how the girl's mother is feeling."

"Thanks for the guilt trip, Uncle, but I'm not going to pressure her into anything," Tom said, starting to wonder about the girl he had brought to their home last night. "I'll suggest it, sure, but if she doesn't want to go..."

Luigi merely sighed.

"I know I didn't bring her along tonight, but can you still give me some food for her? She's not able to come at the moment. She was having trouble sitting up. I'll bring her by next week," Tom said pleadingly.

Luigi nodded. "What's the girl's name?"

"Molly," Tom replied. The woman's head snapped up as soon as she heard the word, staring hazily at Tom. She stood unsteadily, and stumbled over to him.

"What do you know about Molly? What do you know about my little girl?" she slurred desperately, grabbing him by the lapels. Hunt had stood up when she did and approached her.

"C'mon Bolls," he said gently, looking at Tom apologetically as he pulled her off of him.

"He said Molly, Gene. I heard him. He knows something."

"Or you could be attacking him for saying his sister's name, Bolls. Think it through."

She looked at Hunt desperately, pleading with him to let her go. "My baby."

"She'll turn up Bolls. Just you wait."

The woman dissolved into tears. Hunt picked her up gently, and disappeared up the stairs.

Luigi merely looked at Tom dangerously.

"I'll talk to her when she wakes up again," Tom conceded.

Luigi nodded. "You bring the whole group here next week. I'll prepare you a big dinner. And she can see how the signorina is coping. See if that changes her mind."

"But Luigi!" he protested. "You know what happened last month with Jimmy and Hunt!"

"Next week. All of you. Or I stop funding everything."

Tom nodded. "Yes Uncle."

"Good. I'll get you the food now."

Tom sighed. Molly would have some explaining to do when she woke up, that was certain. In the meantime, they would need to keep a low profile. The last thing they needed were cops after them.

Luigi came back with a bag of food and set it on the table. "I'll see you and all your friends next week."

"Until next week."

With that, he walked out of the restaurant, wondering how he was going to explain all of this to Kate.

to be continued