Harry pulled up outside number 23 Richardson Way. The terraced house was exactly the same as all the other houses on the street. There was nothing unusual about the house or the street, it was so typical, it could have been any street in London. He got out of his car and went to unload his equipment, pulling his jacket around him as the bitter wind whipped around him.

"Dr Cunningham, forensic pathologists" he said to the police officer standing guard at the cordon tape.

The officer nodded and lifted up the tape, as Harry ducked underneath it and went towards the open front door of the house where he could see a team of SOCO's trawling over the house, looking for any evidence. He was pointed in the direction of the body and he made his way into the kitchen where he sighed as he saw what lay before him. A woman in her mid-thirties was lying sprawled out across the floor in a pool of blood. He could see jagged slash marks across her wrists and arms.

"Suicide?" a voice said from behind him and Harry looked up to see DI Johnson standing there looking grim "I asked to stick with this case since I'm dealing with Erin" he said answer Harry's unasked question

"So this is Karen Jones then?" DI Johnson nodded

"It looks like suicide but I can't rule anything out until we get back to the lab and I can do a proper examination of the body, there's something not quite right about this but I can't put my finger on it" Harry frowned

"I want to show you something" the DI stood up and left the room with Harry following

He led Harry up the stairs and into a small room. The walls of the room were painted in a pale pink which had been dirtied by the years. Parts of it were covered up by drawings and sketches, others covered up with posters of animals. The bed in the corner was covered by a crumpled duvet and Harry could see a tattered soft toy dog lying near the pillow. The desk on the other side of the room was covered with scarps of paper and a few notebooks and a few shelves held a couple of worn books. The shabby room despite not being the most inspiring place gave off an air of innocence and Harry sighed loudly

"Erin's room?" He questioned

James nodded "Pretty dismal isn't it"

"These are good" Harry said looked at the drawings tacked to the wall

"She's got a talent that girl" The DI said sadly "Poor kid…it's wasted in a family like this. I mean the mother probably beat her senseless and so she ends up taking her chances on the streets and then she's found nearly frozen to death"

"What worries me is how it went unnoticed for so long" Harry grimaced

"It knocks your faith in society doesn't it?" DI Johnson said and Harry nodded

"Still at least she's safe now"

"You'd think she would have been safe with the people who were meant to love and care for her, if they can't even do that then what chance does she stand against the rest of the world"

Harry had no answer to that question, he only hoped that deep down inside Erin would keep fighting and she wouldn't give up on the world just yet


Dr Myles walked into the side room and sighed. Erin was lying there, staring into space, her face expressionless

"Are you going to talk to me today Erin?" he said gently

She turned over and hid her face away from him

"You need to eat something today…I know hospital food isn't great but if you don't eat anything it'll make you feel a lot worse"

"Nothing can make me feel worse than I already do" she murmured

Dr Myles looked up, surprised that she had broken her silence "Why's that Erin?"

But she just shook her head and he took this as a sign not to push her any further. But this was progress; shed started to speak again and was making a recovery

"Do you feel sick today?" Erin gave a noncommittal shrug "Well your temperatures coming back up nicely, though I do want to keep you in for a few more days just to be sure"

Erin murmured something inaudible which he took as a sign of consent.

"I think Leo's coming to see you again today" he said hoping that she would open up to him "He wouldn't want to see you in this state"

"He doesn't care" she said bitterly

"Oh that's not true at all. He cares a great deal about you. He could have kept walking when he saw you but he didn't. He took you to get dry and warm instead. He's very worried about you Erin, all of us are. We don't like to see you this sad, all we want to do is help you"

"Then you'll just bugger off like they all do" she said with silent tears falling down her face

"No, I'm not going to let that happen, neither is Leo and neither is DI Johnson, the man who came and spoke to you yesterday. We're going to make sure you get better and we're going to sort all of this out. But Erin you have to let us help you, we need to understand what's going on in that head of yours"

Erin made no reply and Doctor Myles decided to lave it there for the moment "I'll be back to check on you in about an hour Erin and I'm expecting you to have eaten something by then because otherwise you're limiting your options on how we can help you"

The door clicked shut and Erin turned back over and gazed at the shut door. Silent tears became audible sobs and racked her small frame. Her world had changed so much; she'd taken steps she'd only imagined in her wildest dreams.

She lay back on the pillows and pulled her blankets around her, suddenly feeling drowsy. Her thoughts kept coming back to Leo, the only person shed ever known who actually cared about her. He was a stranger he wasn't meant to care about her but he did. Erin couldn't understand that at all. It didn't matter, when this was all over she'd be left alone again, alone like she was sitting in her cold little bedroom nursing another injury, crying herself to sleep as she listened to her mother downstairs with the men she'd brought home. Erin shivered, those were the worst times, and she'd thought all men and women were bad like her mother and her men but then she'd met Harry, Nikki and Leo. They weren't bad human beings, they cared about her, they wanted to make sure she was alright. Erin felt a fresh wave of tears fall down her face, her mother had said she'd cared about her and then she'd broken Erin's arm in a drunken rage only moments later. But these three new people in her life wouldn't hurt her would they? Erin didn't know what to think anymore, she just let the fatigue overwhelm her and dropped off into a fitful sleep

Authors note: Bit of a serious chapter this one isn't it? Sorry I didn't update yesterday but I might be nice and put another chapter up today to make up for it. I'm going to have a fanfiction updating session today to make up for me deserting my beloved stories!