"I am not above arresting your daughter and having her prosecuted in adult court for what was said to Isabel" Joey growled angrily as he stormed into the Principal's office and seeing the girl who attacked Isabel and her father. Making sure his badge was very much visible, he watched both the father and daughter eye the gold nervously.

"Mr Grant" Principal Sun smiled cautiously. Knowing Isabel was the daughter of two police officers scared the petite Japanese woman.

"You can't arrest me" Lindsay piped up with as much confidence as she could manage. This tough guy wasn't going to scare her. Holding an ice pack up to her nose that Isabel had clearly broken, Lindsay tried not to show her fear for Joey.

"You threatened, harassed and assaulted the daughter of a police officer. I think I can"

"Now Mr Grant can we please talk rationally about this?" Principal Sun continued softly

"Mr uh..." Joey asked as he turned to Lindsay's father

"Harris"

"Mr Harris. You seem like an intelligent man, do you read the newspapers?"

"Yes..."

"So you must have read a couple months back about a serial killer by the nickname of 'The Surgeon'?"

"Yes..."

"Seems that your daughter read about that same story and that Isabel and her mother were the two victims that survived" Joey continued and he put his hands in his pockets and started to pace. He did the same thing when interrogating a suspect and it gave him a sense of power. "I know that everyone read about what happened; who was involved and now know details of the case I myself wish were kept out of the media for my family's sake. Isabel and her mother are incredibly strong for not letting their ordeal consume them both and Isabel especially doesn't need to be harassed at school. She was traumatised enough from the events of six months ago without your daughter saying that the psychopath that tried to kill her should have tried harder"

XXXXX

"Two weeks in-school suspension, 75 hours community service and a promise to stay away from me until graduation or you'll issue an AVO. You may as well have arrested her" Isabel chuckled softly as she walked with her father through the halls of her school back to his car. Principal Sun thought it best that Isabel took the rest of the day off to get her lip and cheek checked out.

"I wanted to that's for sure" he smiled and wrapped his arm around Isabel's shoulders "You should never have to hear anything like that from anyone"

"I know..."

"And you had every right to snap"

"No I didn't. I should have just ignored her. I should have walked away"

"From what I heard, you couldn't have walked away with her pinning you to your locker. She then backhanded you causing that nasty gash on your cheek" Joey sighed relaying what Principal Sun had told him. She had gotten first hand reports from 20 or more onlookers explaining exactly what happened.

"That's when I may have broken her nose" Isabel giggled before turning serious "Hoyt's gonna haunt Mom and I for the rest of our lives isn't he?"

"He is in prison, he can't hurt you anymore"

"Dead or alive just the thought of him will be enough"

Joey didn't know what to say to his daughter as he opened the car door and waited for her to slide in. He hated that he couldn't have done anything then or could do much now. His daughter was hurting and he didn't know what to do. Driving back to the precinct, the pair travelled in silence. Isabel wasn't in much of a mood to talk especially as she thought about the new obvious scar that would soon form on her cheek.

Isabel and Joey rode the elevator in silence as they travelled up to the floor of the Homicide Department. As much as Isabel just wanted to go home, Joey had to go back to work and there is no way Jane would let her daughter be alone in her state.

"Hey... What the hell happened to you?" Jane gasped as she saw Isabel and the injuries to her face.

"I uh fell down the stairs at school, tripped over my own feet" Isabel chuckled softly and stood still as her mother surveyed the gash on her cheek "I'm just gonna go see if Maura will stitch this up for me. I don't need another scar"

Isabel quickly slipped away before either of her parents could protest. Jane took a step to follow her battered fifteen year old but Joey stopped her "Let her go"

"She didn't fall down a flight of stairs did she?" Jane sighed and looked back at Joey as Isabel disappeared into the elevator.

"Come into my office and we'll talk"

XXXXX

"Hey Maura" Isabel smiled weakly as she walked into the morgue and put her backpack down by the door. Surrounded by death and crime scenes her entire life, Isabel wasn't a rookie when it came to the morgue. The teenager sometimes felt more comfortable down in the cold room watching her mother's best friend solve the mystery of someone's death.

"Good afternoon Isabel" The medical examiner chuckled while she was elbow deep in a man's chest. "Bad day at school?" she asked noticing the cuts on the teenager's face. By the depressed emotion on Isabel's face, Maura expected that the fifteen year old had experienced a rough morning.

"I remember you telling me a couple years ago that you used to be scared of people and interacting with them" Isabel began as she sat up on the empty morgue table beside to where Maura was working "How did you get over your fear?"

"Systematic Desensitisation"

"Systematic what?"

"Desensitisation. Repeated exposure. The more I interacted with living people, the emotional response commonly known as fear began to become less prominent" Maura responded. From the very start Isabel called her a walking search engine because much of what she said could be found in a Google search. As much as it usually amused Isabel, the teenager simply nodded and thought about what it all meant.

When Isabel went back to school after Hoyt's attack she was the biggest gossip topic for weeks. People would whisper as she walked past or try to get a look at the scar on her neck. Ignoring the whispers for the most part, Isabel kept to herself and only really spoke when she was spoken to. The usually bright and bubbly girl was now shy and reserved and just not the same kid.

Isabel hoped that six months after the attack she had just slipped through the cracks and went about her days seemingly unnoticed. Being pushed around by Lindsay jostled her and Isabel just wanted to hide away from the world. Fear of the whispers invaded the teenagers mind once again.

"What happened today?"

"Can you stitch this cut up for me please?" Isabel asked quickly avoiding any chance to talk about what happened earlier that day.

"I don't have any anaesthetic, it will hurt if I do it" Maura sighed softly knowing that Isabel would talk when she was ready.

"That's ok. What's a little pain right?"

"Isabel..."

"Please?"

"Ok" the medical examiner nodded and finished up her autopsy before pulling off her gloves and gown. Finding clean gloves and everything she needed to stitch up Isabel's gash, Maura set herself up beside the teenager "I would feel more comfortable if you had some sort of numbing agent before I did this"

"Trust me, I won't feel it"

Maura nodded and rubbed the large orange antiseptic cotton bud over the cut watching Isabel's reaction to pain very closely. No-one ever wanted to have stitches without some sort of anaesthesia. Taking the first stitch very slowly, Maura watched as Isabel closed her eyes and started to breathe deeply. More of a yoga fan than her mother, Isabel practiced one of the many meditation techniques Maura had taught her over the years. The breathing exercises were usually the most effective techniques to get the teenager to sleep after a Charles Hoyt related nightmare.

Jane walked into the morgue as Maura began the second last stitch and opened her mouth to protest the unauthorised medical procedure but was quickly waved down by Maura. Isabel had stayed calm and controlled for the last half an hour as they slowly stitched up the cut on her face and Maura wasn't about to let Jane ruin that. Even though Maura didn't know what happened to the girl she was sure that surprising or upsetting her was not the best option at that moment.

Waiting til Maura had finished stitching and packing away her equipment, Jane sat up on the table next to her daughter silently. Joey had filled her in on everything that had happened at school and after an angry rant about throwing Lindsay in prison with the rest of Boston's scum, the concerned mother calmed down and tried to think about her daughter was feeling. A silent tower of strength through Hoyt's attack, Isabel couldn't always be expected to keep her emotions to herself. Keeping those feeling bottled up could eat a vulnerable young girl like Isabel alive.

"Do you mind if we boycott Gnocchi night at Grandma's and just have Thai or something for dinner tonight?" Isabel asked after sitting quietly beside her mother for ten or more minutes.

"With pleasure" Jane chuckled softly "I'm not up for dealing with Rizzoli family fun tonight either"

"Does Rizzoli family fun include you grilling me about what happened at school today? I really don't want to talk about it..."

"Your dad filled me in on what happened but I would like to hear your side of it all"

"You want to know why I asked the school to call him and not you..."

"Well yeah that too" Jane sighed softly. If Isabel ever had a problem, Jane was the first one there. If there was something wrong at school, Jane was the one they called. It had been Isabel and Jane against the world for so long that it was strange for Jane to be left out of the loop.

"I asked Principal Sun to call Dad today because I didn't want to see you hurting again when you looked at the girl who said Hoyt should have tried harder to kill me. I didn't want her to see you get angry because it would have meant she won... it means Hoyt has won"

"I can't let him win"

Thoughts?