AUTHOR'S NOTE…...

WARNING: This is Nikole's point of view and what she has gained from her life with the 7 and Trent Malloy, and what led up to it.

However, most is in a flashback form and deals with implicated child abuse, death and it's aftermath. I WOULD NOT normally write anything like this, but I felt that this was a pertinent part of the story and how trust can be given easily, but how much harder it is to give it again once it is broken. If you do not like anything like this, you can wait for the next chapter or go onto other fiction

Sadly enough, things like this have happened near where I live, recently.

Nikole Morgan

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone, In a world that she can't rise above, But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place, Where she's loved concrete angel

Trust. As Nikole Morgan sat in the snow covered alley, her thoughts floated to that one word. She trusted no one for years. Growing up in foster home after foster home, she had found one girl that she could trust. A girl who hid her from the abusive hand of their foster parents, even though they were the same age. The eight year old girl would take careof her, though she, herself, was covered in bruises. Now,17 years later, Nikole tried to block out the memories, but couldn't.

She could see the shadows on the wall from her hiding place under the bed.

The teacher just looking at the marks but never saying a word about it.

The neighbors turning out the lights as her best friend's screams ripped through the silent winter night, for helping Nikole with her homework.

The police coming to take her away from there on an anonymous tip.

Attending the funeral of her friend, with the detective that rescued her at her side, as she laid a single yellow rose on the casket.

Several foster homes and orphanages, being told she wasn't wanted because she never knew her parents.

Learning that "A nice family had adopted her." She would never believe those words again, nor would she ever trust. That died with young Elisa Marie Tanner, and could never be brought about again. Even with Officer Conrad Astro and his wife Annette.

She sighed as she looked at the needle in her hand and shook her head. Old habits die hard. Pain made you stronger and pain meds was the cowards way out. She would NOT use them as long as she could make that decision, and she could. She leaned back against the wall, and looked up at the sky, closing her eyes, memeories assaulted her again.

For months since her adoption, she had fought them tooth and nail, not letting them get close to her. Never speaking a word unless it was 'yes'm' 'no ma'am' 'yes'ir,' 'no, sir'. They took her to pick out paint and decorations for her very own room across from theirs.

Later she was told that they were a little surprised when she chose a muted dusty rose paint and roses to cover her room. She would then tell them finally that her and 'Lisa would play in the rose garden when they could, but hide also when it was too loud in the house. Roses were a sence of comfort and still was.

The first Christmas with her new family, holding onto the old bear that 'Lisa had given her, staring at the tree with multiple presents underneath. Her foster mother coming to sit on the floor by her, with a big cup of hot cocoa and whipped topping and cinnamon. Annette asked gently, afraid to touch the child and scare her, if she was okay. The 14 year old girl turning to her and throwing her arms around Annette's neck, taking her off guard.

Annette and Conrad reading the Christmas story to her.

Her very first real Christmas at the age of 14, after years of neglect.

Turning Sweet 16 and leaning that the Astro's were her grandparent's, having themselves just learned.

Meeting her biologic parents for the first time, when they finally got out of Witness Protection after having sent away several people for drug running.

Meeting her 'uncle' the president and becoming his personal agent, due to her street experiences.

Still not fully trusting anyone, but learning to, as she signed her name to the application for the military.

Being brought into the Rangers, and given a group of her own, albeit temporary.

Meeting Devlin 'Vin' Tanner for the first time and learning that he was her best friends baby brother.

Both grieving at her grave in Texas, while on military leave.

Him finding out that she had chosen the angel that marked her grave.

Tracing the words on the concrete

Elisa Marie Tanner

May 16, 1990- April 25, 1998

Sister

Friend

Angel

"May she rest in peace forever in the rose gardens in heaven"

Her finally learning to trust, in the forms of a long-haired, Texas sniper, and a black-clad, green-eyed commanding officer.

They trusted her to get them through and to have their backs, as they had hers.

Her family wasn't expecting retaliation from the Quinn family in the form of the children, since they were so young when their parents had been arrested, but they had learned of their family and were taking it out on the family thaat put them away, and the officers involved.

Trust is earned not given, and her family, as odd and make-shift as it was, had earned it and needed her to watch their backs. And she was, hence the reason Vin Tanner now had a bruised neck.

"I promise to take care of Vin, 'Lisa. Don't worry,' the words of her eight year old self drifted on the wind as she made her way to the end of the alley.

AUTHOR'S NOTE….

If you are or have suspecions that someone, young or old, is being abused, call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD

Or the Domestic Abuse Hotline at 1-800-572-7233