Leo fiddled with the knot of his tie as he tried his best to straighten it with his shaking hands. It was the day that he would be interviewed by another social worker to test his suitability as a foster parent. Having gone through reams of paperwork and checks on his background Leo thought he was ready for this but he couldn't shake the nervous feeling off. He knew that this interview was the key moment and he had to make a good impression

"Any regrets?" a voice came from the doorway and he saw Erin standing there looking as nervous as he was

He shook his head "I have never been surer of anything in my life"

Erin gave a quick smile apparently comforted by his words. Leo looked across at the young girl and couldn't help but smile. She'd been staying at his house for a week since their meeting with Robert and already she was making remarkable process. The cuts and bruises were healing nicely and she wasn't looking quite so gaunt now. She was trying her hardest to put on a brave face but Leo knew that she was still haunted by the years of abuse and the nightmares were still coming back every night

"Come on" he said walking out of the room "We're going to get this sorted and then it's going to be a fresh start for us all"

Erin hesitated before she started to follow him; Leo noticed this and turned around to face her

"Erin?" he said recognising there was something troubling the young girl

She paused before finally saying "Do you believe in second chances?"

"Yes I do"

"Mum didn't" she said dropping her gaze to the floor

Leo sighed softly "Erin, she's gone and she can't hurt you anymore. This is going to be a fresh start and I promise you I will always keep you safe"

Erin murmured something in reply and her posture relaxed a lot more and even managed to give Leo a weak smile as they left his house


"Professor Dalton, being a forensic pathologist would involve a lot of irregular hours, how would you balance your job with having a vulnerable child in your care?"

The question came from an older social worker sitting in the corner of the room chewing on the end of her pen. Leo had been quizzed by a small group of social workers including Robert Davies and Jane for the past ten minutes and had had a whole range of questions fired at him

"Well…" Leo began "Not as irregular as it first seems. A majority of cases come through at perfectly reasonable times. And even if they didn't there would still be people who I dearly trust able to look after Erin"

"I assume these would be Nikki Alexander and Harry Cunningham?" Leo nodded "And have they had an experience with vulnerable children before?"

"They've been with Erin from the start and I know that she trusts them. She needs to be around people who she can trust, maybe Harry and Nikki haven't had lots of experience but they can offer her a trustworthy and reliable companionship which is what she needs right now" Leo said defensively and the social worker nodded

"How will you cope with Erin's 'unpredictable' nature?" this question came from Jane and Leo could hear the spite in her tone

Leo fought back the urge to shout at the woman and focused on keeping his tone calm and steady "From what I've found of Erin she's only been what you call 'unpredictable' because she's never known any different. Living with her mother meant she had to adapt to her rapidly changing moods and then living on the streets meant she had to make rash decisions just to stay alive. But I think this is all a part of Erin, I don't think the issue here is to do with coping with her 'unpredictable' behaviour but instead trying to embrace that part of her character and show her that she shouldn't be afraid to be herself and express her true feelings" Leo finished

Jane flushed, angry at Leo avoiding her trap as the other social workers murmured in agreement and scribbled notes down on their notepads

"Erin's going to need to go through counselling for the abuse and the rape, do you think your lifestyle can cope with this?" another question came

Leo nodded "As I said before, there are people I can trust to be around her if I can't be. Right now she needs someone she can trust and she needs a place where she can feel safe"

"And you think you're able to provide this?"

"Yes" Leo said shortly and the social worker scribbled something down nodding as they did so


Erin was with Harry and Nikki in the lab whilst Leo was away being interviewed with social services. The two pathologists were keeping a close eye on Erin and they had noticed she'd been quiet for the entire morning. Erin had been trying to distract herself with her favourite book but the words became blurry before her eyes and she seemed unable to take any of the plot line in. After reading the same paragraph over and over again she frowned in annoyance

"Pride and Prejudice?" Harry said looking over at the book she was attempting to read "I never took you for an Austen fan"

"I'm not really, only this book" Erin said folding the worn page down "When you're alone and you don't really have a family. You sort of immerse yourself in fictional families and try and persuade yourself you belong somewhere" she said sadly

"And there's me thinking you were pining away after Mr Darcy" Harry teased

"He's a fictional character from the nineteenth centaury, I am not that desperate" she said scornfully and Harry laughed

"Nikki is" he said raising his voice so the female pathologists could hear him "She's got a collection of about twenty 'Mills and Boone' at home and they look very battered and well read"

"And how would you know?" Nikki said raising her eyebrows "And anyway this is coming from the person who watches CSI and actually makes a list of all the medical mistakes"

Harry flushed red and murmured something before retuning back to his paperwork

"Leo told me you're going back to school next week" Nikki said sitting down beside Erin

"Yeah…" Erin said unenthusiastically

"You're not a big fan of school?" Nikki questioned

"Everyone picks on me. People in my class and the teachers, all day every day" she said avoiding Nikki's gaze

"What about friends?"

"I don't have any" Erin said bluntly "No one wanted to go near the girl who looked like she'd gone ten rounds with Amir Khan"

Nikki sighed sadly knowing full well what it was like to be the one left alone in the corner of the playground watching everyone chatter away in their groups, left all alone only watching never belonging

"At least you'll have school work to distract you" Harry said coming over to join them looking worried by this sudden revelation by Erin

"I'm crap at every subject" she said bitterly "And all the teachers know it"

Nikki and Harry shot each other worried glances. They hadn't heard Erin use this dark and bitter tone for a while and they were worried about what was going on in her mind

"Maybe it would be possible to move to a different school" Nikki said gently "After all Leo's place is quite a distance away from where you used to live"

Erin murmured in agreement but didn't sound convinced


Leo entered the lab a few hours later and was caught at the door by Nikki who had pulled him aside for a quick word

"How did it go?"

Leo sighed "I don't know. I tried my best but Jane was there and you know how keen she is on me" he said sarcastically "How's Erin been?"

"Very quiet" Nikki said frowning

"She's been like that for the last couple of days" Leo said rubbing his forehead

"She was talking to me about school. I get the impression she didn't have a good time there"

Leo nodded "I saw her old reports. Her grades are good considering what she had to go through but the teacher's comments are just malicious. One teacher called her an 'anti-social pupil who has little or no talent at the subject'"

Nikki sighed angrily "So if it wasn't bad enough she was being beaten black and blue at home, she was also being abused emotionally at school"

"I was thinking about getting her transferred. I haven't talked to her about it yet but from what I've found out and from what you've told me, putting her back in the same school would be hell for her"

"Do you think it's too early for her to go back to school in general?"

Leo shrugged "I think we have little choice. I've had the education authority writing to me, telling me once she's settled then she has to make a choice about her education"

"She's seventeen so she doesn't have to be in formal education…"

"I think it would do her good to get some routine back into her life" Leo said "But we haven't really spoken about it formally yet. I want to try and get this fostering complete but it seems never ending"

"Are you regretting it?" Nikki said looking concerned

Leo shook his head "No, I'm not giving up on Erin but all the paperwork and formalities seem to go on and on"

"I guess they're trying to make sure she's safe"

"Shame they didn't do that when her mother was breaking the bones in her body" Leo shook his head

"I know" Nikki said sadly "But she's here now and that's all that matters"

"She was asking me about second chances this morning. All I want o do is make her feel safe for once. But I don't know how I can do that if she doesn't believe in herself" he said sadly

Leo and Nikki looked across at Erin who was sitting over the other side of the lab picking at the corner of her book. Her eyes were full of sadness and she looked so lost. Even immersing her self in fiction to create a world in which she could escape seemed to no longer work. Although Erin was surrounded by more people than she had ever been before, the pains of loneliness and the years of abuse still cut deeply into her heart. After years of abuse she was forgetting what pain felt like, she only felt numbness which was worse. Pain would still make you feel alive but numbness just made you feel more and more lost.

Authors note: Sorry I haven't updated this for ages. Last week was getting back into the school routine and the week before I was away on a Biology field trip in the middle of nowhere (literally) where I got to count plants for a week. Thus I do apologise for being an awful person and not updating this. I'm sorry if this chapter was a bit bland, I do have an idea for later chapters but I need to set it up first, so I apologise doubly for being a bit of a hermit these past weeks and for being a boring hermit with this chapter