Author's note: Because I was asked nicely, here's the next chapter :) Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, it means a lot to me and gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling inside!

She could hear her coming up the stairs, slowly as if to elongate the torture. Each creaky step made a new wave of nausea wash over him. Her body was braced for a fight but she knew resistance was futile. Then it happened. Her door was flung open, the light was switched on and her duvet was ripped off her as the woman rushed at her screaming all sorts of profanities she didn't know even existed. The beatings rained sown on her and the pain flashed through her body, ripping it apart cell by cell. 'You ruined my life…You evil child…I'm going to make you pay' the alcohol was strong on her breath making the nausea rise further into her throat. The woman leant over her getting closer and closer 'I'm going to make you pay…"Then the screaming began...

"Erin, Erin, look at me" a concerted voice cut through the screaming that was ringing in Erin's ears.

She wrenched open her eyes, almost blinded by the bright lights of the room; she couldn't work out where she was. There were people in the room trying to hold her down and she could still heat the screaming. She looked around the room desperate for some relief from this terror

"Erin" the voice came again and she turned her head and felt some relief wash over her

Leo was standing over her trying to get her to focus on him. His steady brown eyes never wavered as he gently spoke to her, repeating her name to keep her attention. The screaming had lessened now and at that moment Erin realised how raw her throat felt. She took some gasps for air and the screaming stopped. It had been her screaming in terror, she kept her focus on Leo as she tried to steady her breathing. A new wave of nausea washed over her, rising higher and higher in her throat making her body shudder. She felt her head being pushed forward as a cardboard dish appeared under her. She retched and vomited, feeling the sick burning in her throat, her lungs screamed for oxygen and she gasped taking in big gulps of air.

The sickness passed and her head became clearer, she leant back onto the pillows still trying to control her breathing.

Leo apparently satisfied she had calmed down, sat down on the chair next to the bed

"Do you feel better?" she heard Doctor Myles ask and she was suddenly aware of other people in the room

"Yeah…" she said shakily

"It was a dream Erin, you're safe" Leo was saying to her gently

Erin suddenly felt a stinging sensation in her hands and looked down to see deep scratches littering her arms

"You were really going for it" Doctor Myles said gently picking up a dressing and wrapping it around the cuts "But Erin you have to remember it was only a dream and dreams can't hurt you"

"It wasn't a dream" Erin said her eyes brimming with tears "It was a memory"

"Of your mother?" Leo asked and Erin looked up quizzically

"How did you…?

"You were talking in your sleep" Leo said gently

"Do you feel like your going to be sick anymore?" the doctor asked, Erin shook her head still visibly pale from the nightmare

"Erin, I'm going to give you some medication that's going to calm you down and make you a bit sleepy" he said fiddling with a syringe

"No, she'll come back" Erin almost screamed with fear "She'll be there, as soon as I close my eyes she's there waiting for me"

"We won't let her hurt you" the doctor continued. The adults in the room was still confused at this ambiguous 'she' but they had a fair idea of who she meant

"You need some sleep Erin" Leo said gently "I promise you no one is going to hurt you here. She can't get you here"

Erin nodded and the doctor leant forward and injected something into the catheter in her hand. The medication took effect almost immediately and Erin felt her muscles become heavy; she tried to blink away the tiredness and fighting against the oncoming drowsiness

"Don't fight it Erin" she heard Leo say

She looked up into his strong, caring brown eyes and felt soothed. There was no anger there, no hatred, no violence, just kindness. That was something Erin has never seen before and she wondered if she was dreaming now. She must be dreaming, no one had ever cared this much for her before. She was convinced she would wake up soon in her cold, draughty bedroom, her mother shaking her awake, yelling at her. Maybe she would be lucky this time and her mother wouldn't break any bones, she could just get away with a black eye or a bloodied nose. And then she would be back in reality, the lonely reality in which Erin Jones was a lost and lonely soul. As the tiredness started to overwhelm her she struggled to keep her eyes open, she wanted to take one last look at Leo before she woke up, then she would have something to hold on to.


A few minutes after the sedative had taken effect and Erin was safely asleep. The adults stepped outside the room

"How did you calm her down like that?" Doctor Myles asked "She was hysterical"

"I had a daughter, I know how to cope with the nightmares" Leo said, a lump of emotion rising in his throat as he remembered his family

Myles nodded understanding not to push Leo any further on the subject

"I have never seen a nightmare as bad as that. She must have dug her nails about an inch into her arms"

"She was terrified" Leo sighed "Goodness only knows what happened to her in the past"

"She's safe now" The two men turned around to see DI Johnson standing there, his face was drawn and he looked tired "I thought I'd find you here"

"Her mother?" Leo asked

"We recovered the body of what we are pretty sure is Karen Jones. We're eventually going to need identification from a family member but she's gone now and she can't hurt Erin anymore"

"I think she's done enough damage already" the doctor sighed "I think that nightmare was enough evidence of that"

Leo shook his head; he couldn't believe that anyone could make their own child that frightened. He'd never seen someone that scared before, the doctor was right she had been completely hysterical; the fear had been so strong it had made her vomit. He closed his eyes and sighed. He dreaded to think of what damage had been done to Erin both physically and mentally


The next day Harry was in the cutting room starting the autopsy on Karen Jones. As he started to make the first incision he heard someone enter the room from behind him

"Erin doesn't take much after her does she?" he looked up and saw Nikki standing there in a pair of scrubs, pulling on a pair of latex gloves

Harry looked down at the body and had to admit Nikki was right. The two had very little in common apart from having dark hair. The woman's eyes were darker and colder than Erin's. Her face was more simply constructed than Erin's and had no air of innocence like Erin's

"Maybe that's a good thing" Harry said glancing across at Nikki "Are you coming to help then?"

She nodded "Leo thought you could do with a hand. He can't do it as he's already too involved"

"We're all involved" he frowned

"Who thought one girl could cause so much difficulty"

Harry snorted "Pot, kettle, black, we're always having to get you out of the scrapes you get yourself into" Nikki just glared at him in reply

They continued their banter as they worked on the post mortem. After a whole Harry stopped and turned to Nikki

"Do you think suicide?"

"The radial artery has been cut, common with suicide attempts like this but…."

"…She doesn't seem the type to do this" he finished for her

"I would have said it was because she felt guilty about what happened to Erin but she didn't seem to care what happened to her daughter in the slightest" Nikki pulled a face

"That's what was making me wonder as well, I ordered a tox screen, I don't think this is as straight forward as it seems. I mean look at the arms, there are track marks, that's got to be years of drug abuse" Harry sighed

Nikki poked around in the body further "That liver doesn't look in great condition either, alcohol abuse?"

"It wouldn't surprise me. There's some residue under the fingernails, I think we're going to need a DNA sample from Erin so we can work out if any of this is from Erin" Harry called to the lab technician to take a photo of the body

"I'll go if you want to finish up here" Harry nodded

"You want to see if she's doing ok, don't you?" and this time it was Nikki's turn to nod "Does she know about her mother yet?"

"No…Leo went to tell her last night but apparently she had a nightmare…I think more of a flashback and she wasn't in the right state of mind for anything after that" Nikki said sadly

"I dread to think what's going on in that head of hers" Nikki murmured in agreement

"What I want to know is how it went unnoticed for so long. There are meant to be checks in place for this sort of thing but yet for Erin…nothing" her eyes were brimming with tears now

"It'll be ok" Harry soothed

"Will it Harry?" she said almost angrily "She's probably emotionally scarred for life. We don't know what went on but we do know that no one in the world gave a second thought to a lonely, frightened little girl who had no one in the world to look out for her"

Nikki turned away from Harry and rushed out of the cutting room with tears rolling down her face. She hauled open her locker door and grabbed her clothes. With a great deal of force, that Nikki didn't even know she had in her; she slammed the locker door shut with a crash. The release of anger seemed to calm her down and she took deep, shaky breaths to calm herself. This type of mood wouldn't help Erin in any way; the poor girl had seen enough anger already. Nikki knew she had to stay strong for Erin. She wasn't going to let this girl down, she remembered when she had run away and her teacher, the only one who cared, had come looking for her. Erin had no one, Nikki was determined this was going to change. She wouldn't let Erin be on her own any longer, if no one cared enough to look out for Erin, Nikki Alexander would have to look out for the girl herself.