Fix You

July 14th. Nicole and Antonio waited in the airport for their daughter's plane to arrive. They had not seen Heather since they moved to Levi. Heather was thrilled about the visit and so were Nicole and Antonio. The reason for the visit was not only to catch up with Heather, but also so she would be at the birthday party for Zachary that Sunday. Nicole, Antonio, Jess, and Nathan had opted to have Madison and Zachary's party the Sunday between the children's actual birthdays.

"Mommy!" the seven-year-old ran into Nicole's arms.

"You've gotten so big."

"We've missed you." Heather leaned from Nicole into Antonio's arms. "How have you been doing?"

"Good."

"Are you doing well in school?"

"Yes. I'm going to third grade in September."

"I know. I can't believe how much taller you are."

xxxxx

That Friday Nicole drove the five children to daycare. Even though Heather was a school-aged child and the After-School Room was open all day during summer break, Nicole thought Heather would be more comfortable with her brother in the Preschool Room.

xxxxx

"Elizabeth Stafford reported her nine-year-old adopted daughter of two years missing at seven-forty this morning," Brooke read. "Dana went to bed at nine and Ms. Stafford checked on her at eleven. The girl went missing between eleven and seven-thirty."

xxxxx

Forensic agents were crawling all over the child's room when Nicole and Jess arrived.

"It looks like she ran away," the agent told them. "Her pink bag is gone and some of her favorite toys and clothes are too.

It was always a relief to the agents when a missing child turned out to be a runaway. It made the chances greater that the child would be recovered before any harm came to him or her.

The partners sat down with Elizabeth Stafford once she calmed down.

"The fact that she ran away and wasn't taken out of her room is very good news," Nicole said.

Elizabeth registered no comfort by Nicole's news.

"Did you and Dana have an argument last night?" Jess asked. "Do you know why she would want to run away?"

Elizabeth shook her head, still to choked up to speak. "I know she missed her biological parents." She soon broke down again and told the agents how much she had always wanted a little girl and how she couldn't have biological children. She told how happy she was to get Dana. "She was already seven when I got her, but it felt like I had known her all her life. She's a little angel. Everything you'd want in a little girl. I just want my baby home."

xxxxx

Nicole spoke with Dana Stafford's former caseworker, while Jess stayed behind and questioned the neighbors to see if they had seen the child. Both agents were getting very different reports from what Elizabeth had told them about Dana.

"Dana is a very troubled girl," the caseworker said. "She has R.A.D.—Reactive Attachment Disorder. I did not think we would find anyone to adopt her. We couldn't even keep her in a foster home for more than a couple of weeks. Elizabeth Stafford was a God send."

"I hear she greatly missed her bio family."

The caseworker looked at Nicole oddly. "Dana hated her parents. Dana hated everyone."

xxxxx

Brooke had Elizabeth brought in when her agents, who were still in the field, informed her of the statements made by the caseworker and the neighbors, who told Jess that Dana was a terror.

"You neglected to tell my agents how troubled Dana is."

"It's not as bad as they make it sound."

"She was expelled from two schools. She has a serious disorder. Why did you keep that from us?"

"Because I was ashamed! She was my daughter! I should have been able to fix her. I couldn't love her enough to make her trust me."

xxxxx

Antonio reached the front of the home after patrolling the grounds. The daughter of his employer was coming up the walkway.

"Layla."

"Hi."

Layla and Antonio had become friends, but if she had it her way they would be more.

"I thought Dad gave you today off."

"He did, but I didn't have anything better to do and I wanted to make sure he was safe."

"That crazed fan sent him another letter."

"Yeah. But I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep the security system on."

xxxxx

"Anything?" Nicole and Jess went straight to Brooke upon return.

"Nothing good. When I finally got her talking she referred to Dana only in the past tense."

Nicole sighed. "She staged the runaway."

"Not necessarily," Brooke said. "We're not giving up. Jess, did you have any visions?"

"When I held one of her toys I felt a lot of turmoil, but nothing else."

"I have something," another agent approached them. "Did Elizabeth mention the girl was in therapy three times a week."

"A re-birthing expert," Nicole uttered, not quite a statement, not quite a question.

"Yes."

Nicole stormed into the interrogation room with Brooke and Jess in tow.

"Tell us what you did!" Nicole yelled at Elizabeth.

"I haven't done anything."

"You're lying! You killed that girl!" Jess and Brooke tried to stop Nicole to no avail. They were stunned by her outburst. "You and that quack shrink wrapped that girl in blankets and suffocated her and you dumped her body somewhere! Tell us where she is!"

"Agent!" Brooke was finally able to subdue Nicole.

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to shock the room. "In the San Francisco bay."

xxxxx

Nicole waited by the car at the bay. She couldn't bring herself to search for Dana's body.

Jess returned to the car. "We found her, the bag and the toys too. The M.E. still has to do an autopsy, but the cause of death looks like-"

"Suffocation."

"Yeah."

xxxxx

Five-year-old Kelsey Smith was strapped in her booster seat in the back of her mother's car, singing to herself. Pat was grateful that her daughter was distracted and would not see the tears she fought escape down her cheeks as she drove.

xxxxx

Jess easily put two and two together and didn't need to ask why Nicole was so upset about Dana, so she didn't plan on saying anything at all while she drove back to the office. She knew Nicole did not want to talk and it was easier for Jess to keep quiet, but her conscious got the better of her and she thought maybe Nicole needed to discuss her ordeal.

Jess bit the bullet. "How did you know about Dana?"

From reliving the trauma in her head over and over again, Nicole's defenses were down and she just began talking without realizing it. "I was six years old. It was my fifth foster home and the first one where I felt they actually loved me. They bought me things. They told me they loved me all the time. I wanted to trust them. I wanted to love them, but I couldn't. Then one day they told me that they wanted to adopt me, that they wanted to be my parents forever, but first they had to help me get better. I didn't know what that meant, but I was happy that they wanted to keep me. They started taking me to see Dr. Mathison almost every day. She told me I had to forget about my past and pretend that I was born to my foster parents."

"Re-birthing therapy."

"They prepared me for it for weeks and when the day came I was excited. I was going to be better and I was going to know how to love them, and they were going to be my parents. On the floor of Dr. Mathison's office there was a bunch of blankets spread out and she told me to lie on them. My foster parents and her rolled my up, tight, and just told me to fight my way out. I couldn't move. It felt like they were sitting on me. I told them I couldn't get out, they just screamed at me. I started to fight when it got harder to breathe, but it was no use. Eventually I blacked out and when I woke up I was in my bed at the foster home. Social worker came that evening and took me, put me somewhere else."

"Because she found out what happened to you?"

"No. Because my foster family told her they changed their minds about adopting me. Before the social worker came, my foster mother said she had wanted me to be her little girl, but she couldn't handle having a child that didn't love her and since I "didn't want" to be born to them, she couldn't be my mom."

xxxxx

Patricia Smith walked into the police station with her daughter's hand in hers.

The commissioner greeted her, but could tell from the expression on her face that this was no friendly visit. He put Kelsey in his office with some crayons and paper and sat with Pat in the questioning room.

"What is it, Pat? Is this about Drew?"

"No. Drew's fine…or at least he will be until he hears about this."

"Start at the beginning."

"You know I'm a teacher, right?"

"Yeah."

"All right, so since it's summer break I am not working and that has allowed me to spend my days with Kelsey. She's been so depressed this year and I was hoping being with me would cheer her up, and it did. But not because she was with me. Because she was safe." Pat got choked up again.

"Did something happen to Kelsey?"

"She was molested, Bert," Pat sobbed.

"Molested? When? By who?"

"At daycare. The daycare program at the library."

Sheriff Bert Harris took down all the details Patricia gave him, alleging her child had been abused by one of his citizens. He didn't believe it, but he followed procedure nonetheless. He went to his office to talk to Kelsey.

Kelsey was sitting at his desk coloring.

"Hey, Kelsey, how's it going?"

"Fine." Kelsey kept her focus on her drawing.

"Your mommy told me that you said some bad things happened to you."

"Yes, they did." Her eyes remained on the paper.

"Tell me what happened."

"Roger hurts the girls in his class. And me. But I'm not in his class anymore because when I start school I will go to Mommy's classroom when I get out."

"Tell me what Roger does."

"He takes you in the bathroom and does bad stuff."

"What bad stuff?" The sheriff's tone became involuntarily hostile.

Kelsey looked at him. It was apparent to the child that he was angry at her for bringing these things to light. "Nothing. He did nothing."

"You made this stuff up, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Harris returned the child to her mother and promised Pat he would look in to it, but he had no intention of questioning Roger. Levi was a good town, safe. Children were not abused and they certainly were not abused by his eldest citizen, a pillar of the community, not Roger Hall.

The two deputies came in the station just as Pat and Kelsey left.

"What was that about?" Deputy Lyle asked.

"Kelsey said Roger Hall raped her."

"Did the Smiths have some sort of feud with Deborah and Roger?" Funny how Lyle never for a moment considered the allegation was true.

"Not to my knowledge."

"How do we know the girl isn't telling the truth?" Josh, the younger smarter cop asked.

"Child molestation, Josh? Not in Levi. Now we have to keep this from spreading. I have to talk to that class today, so I can close this."

"But we can't speak to the children without the parents permission and we have to notify the child protection agency of all complaints," Josh said.

"We are not going to throw our best citizen under the bus over a bunch of lies told by a five-year-old. And we're not going to upset the town over nothing. No parent will be informed of this and C.P.S. will never hear of this, got it?"

"Yes, Sir."

"And nobody breathes a word of this to Roger or Deborah, give those poor old folks a heart attack."

"How will we talk to the children, Sir?"

"We'll think of something on the way."

xxxxx

Sheriff Harris and his deputies entered the Preschool Room and were greeted by the Halls.

"My deputies need a word with you both. I'll stay here with the kids."

While Lyle and Josh distracted the Halls outside the room, Sheriff Harris headed to the front of the class.

"Class."

All the children became quiet and stared at the portly cop.

"I need to ask you guys and couple of questions and it is very, very important that you tell me the truth, okay?"

The children nodded and said yes quietly.

"I want you to raise your hands like this if Mr. Roger or Ms. Deborah ever hurt you in any way."

All hands stayed down.

"Did anyone ever see Roger or Deborah hurt anybody?"

No replies.

"Good job, kids, now I have one more favor to ask you. We have to keep my visit here a secret. Don't tell your parents I was here and if Ms. Deborah or Mr. Roger ask you if I said anything to you, say no, promise?"

The children nodded.

xxxxx

During the distraction Deputy Josh excused himself and went to the bathroom that was built for the daycare. It was across the hall from the Preschool Room. This was the scene of the alleged crimes. The deputy looked around. It was a standard sized bathroom, no stalls, just a locking door, sink, toilet, and trash can. Josh slipped on a glove and rooted through the trash looking for condoms or condom wrappers as Kelsey alleged were used in her assaults. He found nothing.

xxxxx

Sheriff Harris emerged from the classroom. "Are you guys done here?"

"Yes, Sir,"

"Thank you for your time," he told the Halls.

"No problem."

"Have a nice day."

xxxxx

Antonio and Layla spent half the afternoon talking.

"Well, I better get going," he said. "It's my day to pick up the kids."

"See you Monday. Wish your little boy happy birthday for me."

"Will do."

xxxxx

Sheriff Harris closed the investigation, and to make sure Pat and Drew Smith wouldn't leak anything, he told them that all the parents knew and disbelieved Kelsey. The family would move out of Levi one week later.

No one knew that Kelsey partial disclosure only scratched the surface of the horrors that came with being a child in the care of Deborah and Roger Hall.