Deputy John Stilinski leaned wearily against the nurses' station in the pediatrics ward of Beacon Hills memorial Hospital, waiting for news about the victim of his latest case.

If there was any sort of case that John hated, it would be cases that involved children, and especially child abuse cases. It was obvious, right from the moment he walked into the clearing, that this was one of those cases.

John couldn't understand what would drive anyone to hurt a child, especially one as young as the baby currently being examined and taken for x-rays and other tests and scans. The same infant that Talia Hale's young son had found abandoned in the woods.

When the baby, for the moment being classed as a John Doe, had arrived at hospital he had been given an IV line, with fluids running into his system, as well as an dose of pain relief appropriate to his size and approximate age. John had seen him since then, and it had already seemed to do the baby some good, a little color returning to his skin, and his heart rate a little better now that he was warm and not quite so dehydrated. It was a promising start, although it remained unclear as to what sort of injuries had been inflicted on the child.

John's boss, the current Sherriff of Beacon Hills, Sherriff Jones, had been in touch. Despite being 70 years old, with white hair and a white moustache that kind of made him look a bit like Stan Lee, the man was still very bright and clever, and kept himself very well informed on each of his deputy's cases.

Of course, this case was unique. Kids got lost in the preserve all the time, but none this young. It was obvious that the baby hadn't gotten himself lost, and that he'd been abandoned out in the woods by someone. One of the other deputies had been given the job of looking through local records to see if the baby's description matched any of the local kids about his age. They'd already checked missing person's reports for Beacon County, and for the surrounding counties as well, but nothing had matched.

John blinked and stood a little straighter when he saw one of the nurses, Melissa McCall, approaching him with a sad smile on her face.

"How is he?" John asked.

Melissa sighed, "he's going okay. He's still unconscious, but the fluids are really helping his vitals. The scans showed no sign of internal bleeding, so that's a good thing. Dental x-rays indicate that he is between 15 and 17 months old, although for a child his age he is very underweight. The doctors will be able to tell you more, but it looks like he hasn't had any permanent damage done to him."

"Thanks Melissa," John rested his hand on Melissa's shoulder. He knew Melissa fairly well, as his wife Claudia was one of Melissa's best friends. He couldn't imagine how hard a case of abuse like this was for her, especially as Melissa had a son only a few months older than the baby. Scott was a bright and bubbly little toddler, affectionate with everyone who he encountered, although Melissa was his favorite person in the entire world. Considering that there was only a few months age difference it made the condition the baby from the woods was in look even worse.

Melissa led John into the room that the baby had been put in, and John immediately noticed that the baby looked more comfortable now, lying sound asleep in a crib, naked with the exception of a diaper, and attached to various monitors recording his vital signs. Two doctors were standing next to the crib, watching the baby sleep.

"How's the little guy going?"

"He's fighting," One of the doctors replied, "Considering the condition he was found in he's doing really well, far better than I expected. His head MRI and CT scans came back clear, and his x-rays showed that while he does have fractures to his arm, ribs, and some of the bones in his feet, they all have some signs of remodeling. Once you've taken your photographs we'll attach splints to make sure they heal correctly…He's lucky that none of the fractures require surgery to correct."

"He has cuts on his back, thighs and abdomen, and cigarette burns to his shoulders, hands, arms, legs and feet, not to mention the worse case of diaper rash I've ever seen in all of my career," the other doctor added, "I hope you catch the bastard that did this to him, and that he or she rots in jail for a long time for this."

"So…definitely abuse?" John asked for confirmation.

Both doctors nodded, "Without a doubt," the first doctor confirmed confidently.

John began to photograph and catalogue the little boy's injuries, "So…how long do you think this has been going on for," he asked as he worked.

The second doctor spoke up, 'I'm glad you asked that, Deputy Stilinksi. Although he's been pretty badly injured over the last few months, we didn't see any sign of older injuries on the x-rays…or anything else to indicate that he was abused, before, say, February of this year. No healed fractures, no scars, nothing."

"So…it's all happened in the last few months..." John thoughtfully said to himself, noting the information in his case file, "So…something's changed and the abuser took it out on the kid?"

"Possibly" the first doctor nodded and John finished his work and stepped back, allowing the doctors to carefully splint the baby's fractured limbs, and bandaging the wounds that hadn't already been bandaged to keep them clean, before draping a blanket over his legs and abdomen to keep him warm.

Throughout the whole process the baby slept, his heart rate and breathing within normal levels, according to the monitors. John found himself unwilling to leave, resting his weight carefully on the side of the crib the baby was sleeping in as the two doctors left. This time it was Melissa who put her hand on his shoulder.

"We're going to find who did this to you," John promised the baby solemnly, "and we're going to make them pay. We'll find you a new home, where you'll be loved, and you won't be hurt like this."

As if the baby had heard him, he shifted, his eyes fluttering open sleepily as he looked up at John and Melissa. The baby didn't make a noise, but John noticed the way his breathing caught in his chest, as if he was going to start crying.

"Hey, it's okay, little guy, we're going to help you. We're not going to let anyone hurt you, not anymore."

Tentatively, John lowered his hand into the crib, brushing it against the baby's less bruised cheek, before running his finger gently down the arm without a splint on it. He stopped, frozen in shock, when the baby gripped his finger tightly when he ran it over the baby's palm. A little smile appeared on the baby's face, and John couldn't help but smile back at the baby.

"Looks like someone likes you," Melissa observed with a smile. John just shrugged, before he went back to looking at the baby, whose grip loosened as he drifted off to sleep again.

In that moment John had felt an attachment form between him and the now sleeping baby. He knew he wasn't supposed to get attached, but in that moment he hadn't been able to help it. The look in the baby's eyes as he'd looked up at him, the emotions the baby was feeling…weariness, loneliness, fear, desperation. It had all been there, written in the little boy's eyes.

More than anything John wanted to wipe away the boy's bad emotions and replace them with better ones…happiness, feeling safe, belonging, feeling loved and cared for. John wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but he knew that he was going to try.

TEEN WOLF

When John finally got home that evening he found Claudia sitting on the couch, watching the news on the TV. Sherriff Jones was on the screen, reading a statement asking for any information about the mysterious boy in the woods. In the background of the shot John was visible, watching the Sherriff deliver his speech.

"How are you?" Claudia asked, rising to her feet and embracing her husband tightly. John buried his head in her hair. John knew that Claudia understood how hard this case was for him, how hard all child abuse cases were for him. As much as they'd tried they'd never been blessed with children of their own. There had been a little hope, but four heartbreaking miscarriages later John and Claudia had known that they would never have biological children of their own. They'd considered adoption, but there hadn't ever been a good time to really get the process started.

"I'm ok," he admitted heavily, "I can't understand why someone would hurt him like that and then leave him out in the woods to die. The docs are amazed he's started improving so much already. It was a minor miracle that he survived so long out in the woods. I went back out to the scene after I documented his injuries and other than the tracks from today the most recent prints I found in that clearing were at least a day old, more like two days. It's rained since then, and I'm just glad it was as warm as it has been, otherwise he wouldn't have made it this long."

"and you have no idea who his parents are, or who abandoned him out there."

"He doesn't match any missing person's files on our records, and the Sherriff checked with every family that had a baby in Beacon Hills within the timeframe of when they think he was born. Nothing unusual to report there. Whoever he is, he wasn't born here."

"I'm sure you'll find his parents, what are you guys going to do with him in the meantime?"

"He'll be in hospital until his injuries are healed and he's put on some more weight. They'll probably have to assess him to see how he's going developmentally too. He's really too young to see a psychologist, but he'll be checked out to see how he's going in his head as well. If we haven't found his parents by then, or if his parents were the ones who did this, then he'll have to go into a foster home. Social Services have already been contacted. They've already told us that it would be best if he went straight into a long term foster home to give him some stability. He's too young and vulnerable for a group home."

"I'm sure the right place will be found for him," Claudia stated optimistically.