When Leo got back later that evening, the house was still heavy with the tension that had not left from that morning. He walked into the living room to find Nikki just settling a sleepy looking Alice down in her carrier
"Hey" Nikki smiled at him as Leo set his briefcase down and shrugged off his thick overcoat
"How's Erin?" he said glancing up in the direction of the stairs
Nikki sighed as she turned away from Alice "Erin hasn't come down all day. I tried taking her up some lunch but she refused to even open the door to me"
Leo grimaced, he'd hoped that Erin would have come round in the company of Nikki, he knew they needed to have a talk and had been desperately wishing that Erin would be in a civil room that evening, but apparently fate was not going to be on his side tonight.
"Thank you for trying" he said giving Nikki a weak smile as she collected her things
"Will you be all right tonight?" she asked him
"We'll cope" he assured her "Now go on back to home and stop worrying so much" Leo chided as he noticed a shadow of apprehension flicker across her face
Nikki forced a brief smile onto her face and as she gave Leo a peck on the cheek goodbye, she couldn't help but shift her gaze to the top of the stairs where Erin's room was. She was worried about Erin and knew that her fears were being confirmed by Leo and probably Harry as well.
Erin sat in her darkening room, engulfed by the gloomy shadows that were pushing the last dregs of daylight out of her room. Her whole body ached and she really wished she had taken her painkillers, but that would have meant leaving her room, something she was not prepared to do.
Suddenly she heard the door creak open and she had to squint as a chink of light flooded the room
"Erin" she heard Leo say softly "Do you want something to eat"
"Not if it's made by you" she snapped
She heard Leo sigh "I don't like this attitude Erin" his tone was one of warning
"Well I'm fed up with what everyone thinks!" she shouted, her face contorting into an expression of anger
"You are well within your right to be angry and upset" Leo reasoned with her "But I will not have you being rude. Is that understood?"
"Get lost!" she screamed and slammed her bedroom door shut, closing herself off to Leo and the rest of the world
The night was long and hard for Leo, he lay awake the whole night long listening to the crashes and thumps from Erin's room. He could only assume she was demolishing her room in another passionate fit of anger. Half of Leo wanted to go in there and stop her before she really hurt herself but the other half knew not to give any attention to these actions as it would only drive Erin into another fit of rage and he wasn't going to give her any recognition for her bad behaviour.
"I hate you!" the scream was muffled by another crash from the room but Leo just rolled over in bed
"I wish you'd just left me there in the car park" this statement was followed by a stream of expletives Leo wasn't aware that Erin even knew
The profanities and threats were kept up long into the night and soon Leo dropped off to the sound of Erin expressing her deep and burning hatred for Leo and the rest of the world.
Erin woke the next morning feeling utterly exhausted. Her voice was hoarse from screaming long into the night and her body ached from the strenuous activity of destroying her room. She was lying curled up on the floor, ignoring the protests from the rest of her body, as she sobbed gently into herself. These weren't tears of emotion, Erin had long since passed that stage, but these were tears of frustration, anger and confusion about the direction in which her life was leading.
Leo hadn't been to speak to her that morning, but she'd been able to hear snippets of hushed phone calls throughout the few hours she'd been awake. The doorbell had been rung a few minutes ago and she heard Leo mutter a greeting. Although his voice had been muffled, she could hear it had a different quality to it, instead of his usual tone; it seemed to be laced with a sort of emotional tiredness to it. Something that Erin had never heard before and although she would never admit it, it was something that pained her to the very depths of her soul.
There was a brisk knock at the door and Erin immediately internalised her crying. Listening intently to get any clue to who it was, she shivered as another wave of emotion mixed with pain rippled through her body. The door clicked open but Erin refused to acknowledge her visitor. Instead she curled herself up in her duvet and tried to block out the fast approaching events.
When Harry Cunningham stepped into Erin's bedroom he was appalled at the utter bombsite that he was met by. All of the girl's possessions were streamed across the room. Her wardrobe had been ripped open and her clothes scattered into colourful heaps on the floors, books lay abandoned on the floor, their pages wounded by a seemingly vicious. A soft toy dog lay on its back, looking worse for wear than it usually did and Harry couldn't help but notice the stuffing that seemed to emerge from a rip in the bed was lying on its side and Harry could see the frame had splintered from a whole room was falling apart from the items inside the room to the walls which looked as equally damaged as the rest of the setting.
As he stepped further into the room, he noticed the centrepiece of all the chaos; Erin Jones was lying curled up in her duvet so tight it practically cocooned her. The duvet shook as the young girl sobbed out the rest of anger. Harry was not going to be deterred by this sudden expression of passive emotion, he'd spoken to Leo and they both knew what needed to be done
"Erin, sit up properly" he called to her in a stern voice
The duvet froze, obviously shocked at hearing a new tone of voice that wasn't usually associated with the current speaker
"Go away" came the muffled reply
"Erin Marie Jones, sit up right now!" Harry half shouted crouching down on the floor in front of her
Registering the use of her full name, the girl uncurled herself from the duvet and Harry was suddenly greeted by a wild, angry expression which didn't seem to fit Erin at all
"Erin Marie Dalton" she hissed
"Really?" Harry questioned "Because right now I'm not sure you deserve the surname Dalton. Not with your appalling behaviour"
"Get lost" she shouted but Harry only shifted himself closer towards her
"Erin, I truly sympathise for your situation, really I do. No one should have to face the abuse you did, no one should have to feel so alone like you were for so many years. But what I will not accept it this appalling behaviour from you" Harry said sternly "You're hurting everyone you care about Erin and it is unacceptable"
"Go away!" Erin screamed and lunged towards Harry in a fit of rage, ingnoring the rush of pain which swept through her body
Unluckily for Erin, Harry was too quick for her and had already pre-empted her manoeuvre. He took her firmly by the shoulder, being careful to avoid her arm, in such a way she was unable to hurt herself or anyone else. She flailed and tried to fight his hold but his strong arms kept her still and all she could do was scream at him.
Eventually the screams subsided and Harry now held a shaking young girl who was trying to catch her breath
"Are you finished now?" he asked and she nodded
"Go away, I hate-" she said shakily
"We're not having anymore of that" Harry told her sternly, interrupting her before she could fly off the handle once more "You are going to listen to me. I'm not quite sure what's gotten into you recently but it's got to stop. You're hurting everyone around you, especially Leo"
"Leo doesn't care…"
"Of course not" Harry said sarcastically "That's why he was on the phone to me this morning, he was so upset because of how much you've been hurting him"
Erin twisted her head to look at Harry in shock, she didn't realise how much she'd hurt Leo. She had just been so angry and so frustrated about everything that had happened to her….
"I know you're hurting right now" Harry said interrupting her musings "But you can't go on like this. It's not fair on everyone else when you take your anger out on them"
"They don't understand how I feel" Harry unwrapped his arms from around the young girl and watched her closely
"That's because you're not letting them understand. They can't come near you without you verbally abusing them. How can they understand how hurt and angry you are if you don't communicate properly with them?"
Erin just shrugged and refused to say anything. As Harry studied the young girl he noticed how she was hunched over slightly, cradling her casted wrist close to her body
"Have you hurt yourself?" he asked,
Erin nodded "Can I take a look?" he asked gently and the girl mumbled in affirmation
Harry gently took the girl's casted arm in his lap, her felt the weight of the cast agaisnt in his hands and could see Erin wince as she moved her arm. The cast didn't look damaged but Harry could see that there was something wrong. Above her elbow where the cast finished, there was fresh bruising and her elbow was positioned at an awkward angle. As he moved his gaze down to the bottom of the cast where her fingers were he could see that they were swollen and some were set at an unnatual angle
"Can you wiggle your fingers for me?" he asked gently
Erin slowly followed his instructions and tried to move her fingers. She winced in pain and Harry saw she was unable to move the badly angled ones
"Can you push against my hand?" Harry placed his palm against hers and Erin tried to give it a push but pratically made no effect. The pain in her face was evident but Harry carried on his examination "And can you pull my fingers" he said holding out his hand
Erin tried to pull but gave a wince at the sudden motion and her eyes filled with tears.
"I think you've broken it again" he told her "you're meant to be taking things steady and razing your room to the ground probably hasn't helped your wrist to heal. We need to keep it elevated for the moment"
Harry rummaged amongst the debris on the floor until he came across her discarded sling. He gently took her arm and positioned it so he could slip the sling around it. He made sure the injured limb was carefully nestled in the material and secured in place so Erin couldn't cause any more damage.
"How are the ribs?" he asked
"Sore" she muttered, her voice still hoarse from the screaming
"Have you taken your painkillers recently?"
Erin shook her head "Okay" Harry said gently, not trying to push the girl too hard. She was calm now and Harry was determined to keep it that way
"Shall we go downstairs?" Harry asked, knowing that her wrist needed sorting out. He gingerly stood back and held out his hand to her.
Erin nodded and tried to stand upto grasp his hand but immediately fell to the floor once again,, the pathologist winced as he saw her broken arm thud to the floor. A sob escaped her lips and she curled up in a ball once again, her face contorting with pain
Harry immediately shot to the floor next to her, trying to uncurl her was a vain attempt as she was coiled so tightly. But as he pulled back her duvet and flung it across to a clearer part of the floor, he noticed why she'd been in pain. The girl's left leg was blotched with black and blue and had swollen up to at least double the size it normally should have been
"What happened?" he said as he helped her sit up properly
"I fell over" she sobbed
"When you were throwing things about?" he asked and she nodded slowly
"Is it broken?" the girls voice was filled with fear
"I'm not sure. Can you move it?" Erin tried but let out another cry of pain
"We need to get it looked at again, as well as your wrist…" Harry told her firmly
"It really hurts" she sobbed and Harry nodded sympathetically
"We need to get your downstairs" Harry said, as much as he didn't want to move her leg, he knew they had to get her seen too
"No!" her voice quivered at the thought of it
"I'll be as gentle as I can" he said stepping over towards her andscooping her up into his arms
Erin winced at the movement and her body pulsed with pain with each step that Harry took
Leo looked up as Harry entered the room, he'd heard the shouts and screams from upstairs but he hadn't expected this. Harry entered the room with a sobbing Erin cradled in his arms
"Set her down over here" Leo said getting up, his face full of concern for the young girl "What happened?"
"She hurt herself last night. From what I can work out she punched the wall and it seems to have undone any recovery the fracture was making" Harry told him simply "I'm not sure what she's done to her ankle. It looks like she's taken a bit of a fall..."
Leo nodded and immediately assumed his position next to Erin as he cradled her on the sofa "There's some ice in the freezer Harry" he said and the young man nodded
"I'm sorry" Erin managed to blurt out through her increasing tears
"Ssh" Leo soothed "Let's just concentrate on you for the moment. Can I check you over?" he asked and she nodded
Leo carefully unwound himself from Erin and grimaced as he took a look at her arm
Harry came back in with a bag of ice wrapped in a tea towel "Her arm is definatley broken" Leo told the younger pathologist "I can't tell if her ankle is, there's too much swelling at the moment"
The younger man nodded "This is going to hurt Erin but it'll help I promise" Harry said perching on the edge of the sofa and applying the ice to her ankle "We need to stop the swelling"
The girl let out a moan of pain as the coldness seeped through to her ankle and she gripped onto Leo tightly. The older man placed a comforting kiss on the top of her head and knew that things were slowly getting back on track
"We need to get her checked over" Harry said "Her wrist is starting to swell as well"
"I'm not going to hospital!" Erin protested
When Leo looked down at her, all the traces of her mother had gone and all he could see now in Erin's face was her utter contempt for hospitals.
Author's note: I am such an awful, awful person. Not only for what I'm putting Erin through which is actually very nasty but for not updating.
I am really, really sorry but school went all hectic (well still is hectic) and I've had a pretty catastrophic couple of weeks which really put me off writing or updating any stories. Believe me I did try but when I tried to write this chapter it ended very miserable and not how I wanted it to go at all.
I'm sorry I had to take such a break from updating but the mood I was in, well the evil would have triumphed over good and Erin would have turned into a completely different and horrible character and I wouldn't have been able to use her ever again.
But now things are settling down (fingers crossed) and I have my nice muse back (not the nasty muse that nearly made me kill my characters off) and I will try and get back into writing this story some more.
