One of Kate Fleming's first memories was of cowering under her duvet at night, along with all her toys as she listened to her parents fighting downstairs. Theirs didn't seem a happy marriage and nearly every night they would hurl abuse and sometimes objects at each other.
Kate would lie there, not making a sound, imagining that someone would find her and take her away to somewhere nice. Being no older than five years old, she loved Disney films and it was always a handsome prince that would rescue her and take her off to his kingdom.
A couple of years later, it wasn't a prince but a fairy godmother who appeared and helped Kate.
It was after her father had returned home very drunk from the pub. Her mother refused him entry to the house and soon the whole street could hear them arguing and swearing at each other before things turned violent. A neighbour must have called the police because soon there were blue flashing lights outside Kate's window.
Curiosity got the better of her and she couldn't help but peek between the curtains in her room and watch her father be put in the back of the police car. It was the last time he would ever be at the house. The policeman who had put her father in the car looked up suddenly and saw Kate at the window and pointed at her for a colleague.
Knowing she had been seen, Kate panicked, wondering if they were going to take her away as well. Grabbing a couple of her favourite toys she scrambled to hide under her bed. Lying on the floor, Kate could hear footsteps slowly ascending the stairs and then her bedroom door opening with a squeak. She saw someone in tights and black shoes enter her room.
Kate held her breath hoping she wouldn't be heard. The next thing she knew however, a woman with blond hair in a bun and a black hat with a band of tiny black and white squares around it and a silver badge at the front peeked under her bed.
"Hello, sweetheart," she said as she caught sight of Kate. "You gonna come out?" she asked. Kate remained where she was. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said. "I just want to make sure you're ok," she explained. "What's your name?".
"My teacher says I shouldn't talk to strangers," Kate informed the lady.
The lady smiled at the very smart child. "Your teacher is right," she said. "How about I tell you my name and then I won't be a stranger? I'm Lisa,".
"My name is Katherine, but my mummy and daddy call me Katie," Kate said ,"but I like Kate better,".
"Why's that then?" Lisa asked.
"Makes me sound more grown up,".
"Oh, is that right?" The lady said. "How old are you then?".
"Seven and three quarters," Kate informed the lady proudly. The three quarters were very important to her.
"Wow! That is quite old," Lisa said. "I'm twenty four,".
"That's really old," Kate said.
"You going to come out?" Lisa asked Kate as she was still under the bed. "We can talk better then, and my knees are starting to hurt,".
Kate did as she was told and taking Lisa's hand allowed herself to be taken downstairs where her mother was nursing a bruise to one of her eyes. She refused to be taken to the hospital to be checked out when Lisa suggested it.
After checking mother and daughter were ok and giving them a phone number to call if they decided they weren't , Lisa and her partner were on their way. From then on, whenever Kate was asked what she wanted to be when she was grown up, it was always that she was going to be a Police Officer. She wanted to help other people, the way Lisa had helped her and her mother.
Despite her father no longer living with them any more, Kate's life didn't change much for the better as she had hoped. Her mother had a very bad habit for picking the wrong men and Kate witnessed her mother go through a lot of unhealthy relationships in her teenage years. Disney films were long since forgotten and Kate knew no-one would come and rescue her. She was going to have to do it herself.
She worked hard at school and went to police training college. She hadn't been a Police Constable long before she met Mark in a pub. She had vowed that she would never be like her mother in a bad relationship. She would only settle down with someone who loved her unconditionally, and she thought with Mark she had found that. They started dating and then got engaged. Looking at photos of her wedding day, she seemed happy because she thought she had found her Prince Charming.
It was only now, after they had been married five years and had a three year old son, that Kate began to realise that that she had been wrong.