Thank you once again to Hollie, my original number 1 reviewer from all of my old stories!
Jess pushed open the doors to CID, followed closely by Callum. Sally was with Rosie, who seemed quite happy with the toys she was playing with. Jess spied Mickey and Stevie chatting and headed over to them with the rap sheets about Lloyd Lawrence.
"Doing anything?" Jess asked innocently, perching on Mickey's desk, Callum stood next to her.
"Well it depends on what you're about to ask us." Mickey said with a grin.
"Ok then, I've got a potential drugs case here. A young girl has been left on her own in her flat while her father is out doing something important. He gave her a key to look after what we think is a safe full of drugs. The girl was chased across the Farmeade this morning by a guy wanting the key, who most likely knew what was in the safe. So, we're going to go over to her flat now and find out. Are you coming?" Jess asked, passing the rap sheet to Mickey and Stevie to read.
"How old is the girl?" Stevie asked, looking up.
"Six." Callum said disgustedly.
"And her dad has left her on her own?" Mickey asked, incredulous.
"Yep and it's not the first time apparently. She was obviously in a state when we caught her. There's no other family members that we have found yet and we haven't been able to get hold of her dad. I think even if we do get hold of Lawrence she won't be going back there anytime soon." Jess said sadly.
"You rang social services?" Stevie asked.
"I've dropped them a quick email with the bare bones, but the nurse in A&E has reported it as well." Jess replied.
"Ok then, let's go." Mickey said, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair and following Jess and Callum out of CID.
"Ok Rosie, what we're going to do is wait for my friends to go in first, and when they say it's ok we can go and find the treasure chest." Jess said, crouching down so she could explain it to Rosie.
"Ok, can I get my teddy as well?" Rosie asked, her hands clasped to her chest.
Jess smiled, "Of course you can sweetheart." Jess stood up, turning to Callum, "All ready?"
"Yep. We'll shout the all clear ok?" Callum said, slowly opening the unlocked door.
"POLICE!" Callum shouted as he ran into the house, followed closely by Stevie and Mickey.
Jess could hear them running through the flat, shouting clear as they checked each room, and after a few minutes Callum walked back to the front door.
"Ok there's no one here. Take her to find the safe, make sure she doesn't touch anything though. We might need stuff as evidence." Callum said, moving out the way so Jess could get past.
"Right then Rosie, let's go find the treasure chest! Lead the way." Jess said, following Rosie through the flat and up the stairs. She walked into what Jess assumed was Lloyd's bedroom and opened the wardrobe doors. She pulled a few bits of clothing out, and pointed.
"It's there." Rosie said.
"Ok, thanks honey. You just sit on the bed while I open it, yeah?" Jess said, lifting Rosie onto the bed and kneeling down in front of the wardrobe. In front of her at the back of the wardrobe was a heavy looking safe. Jess fished the key out the evidence bag, putting on her gloves. She placed the key in the lock, gently turning it. She could hear the clicks as the locks were undone. "Sarge!"
Callum came running up the stairs, "Have you found it?"
"Look at that." Jess said, moving out the way so Callum, Stevie and Mickey could see what was inside the safe. The inside of the safe appeared to be pure white due to many bags of cocaine stuffed into every corner.
"Oh my God." Stevie whispered, looking closely at all the bags of drugs.
"What would have happened if she had managed to get that open?" Mickey said, voicing what they were all thinking.
"That doesn't look like treasure!" Rosie said with a confused frown, peering round Jess' legs to the contents of the safe.
"Rosie, come over here for a minute." Jess said, turning Rosie away from the drugs, "That there is something very bad which we need to take back to the police station with us. You were so good in helping us find that, thank you very much. Shall we go and get your teddy and some clothes and toys packed?"
"Ok, but where am I going?" Rosie asked, taking Jess' hand and leading her through to her own bedroom.
"We'll be going back to the police station, and then my friend Nicola who was with us earlier is going to find some lovely people for you to have a sleepover with!" Jess said with a small smile, going through Rosie's draws for clothes.
Rosie looked unsure at what Jess had just said. She walked across her room to her bed. "Look Jess, this is my teddy. Mummy gave it to me before she died. I always sleep with it." Rosie gave the small teddy a hug and placed it in her backpack.
"Sounds like your mummy was a very nice person. I gave my son a teddy when he was born as well." Jess said, smiling as she remembered.
"You're a mummy? You don't look old enough!" Rosie said innocently. Jess turned to the door when she heard a laugh, and saw Callum standing there watching. She glared at him before answering Rosie.
"Well I am old enough I promise. He's two now." Jess said, putting the last of Rosie's clothes in the bag.
"Is he cute?" Rosie asked, holding her arms out so Jess could slip her jacket on.
"Oh yes, very handsome. Come on then, back to the station we go." Jess said, slinging the backpack over one shoulder and leading Rosie out the flat.
As she finished her shift that night, social services had just called to let them know an emergency foster family had been found. Now Rosie was just another number in the system, and they still hadn't been able to contact Lawrence. Jess sighed as she pulled her trainers on. She was happy that she had found Rosie and helped her, but at the same time she hated splitting families up and taking Rosie away from her home. Jess stepped out of the locker room, deep in thought, not seeing Callum walking towards her. She walked straight into him, dropping her bag. Callum picked it up for her, handing it back.
"Are you ok?" he asked, looking at her intently.
"Yeah, thanks, sorry I should have been paying attention. Was Rosie ok when she went?" Jess asked.
"She was crying, she said she wanted to stay with you." Callum said with a small smile.
Jess sighed, "I know. I feel so bad, because we've taken her away from her home."
"But what she knows is a parent who is away a lot and who is a drug dealer." Callum said.
"I guess. I can't help but think what I would do if I came home one day and Luke wasn't there. It would kill me." Jess said, looking into Callum's brooding dark eyes.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Callum said with a nod as he walked off down the corridor, followed by Jess' eyes, wondering if she had said the wrong thing.
"Dan? I'm home!" Jess called as she hung her coat up. She took her shoes off, walking to the living room. Dan was sitting there in the dark, just staring out the window, an empty glass in his hands. "Where's Luke?"
"Bed." Dan said quietly.
Jess looked at her watch; it was 9:30pm, Jess was nearly two hours late. "Oh no, I'm so sorry, I had a really big case at work and..."
"I don't want to hear your excuses." Dan said, turning towards Jess.
Jess frowned, "Dan, they're not excuses, I can't just leave midway through an investigation."
"Your family should come before the job Jess. You just don't want to spend time with me anymore do you. Ever since we've moved to London you've changed. You work later, you come home and only want to go to bed, you don't want to go out anymore, we barely have sex. You've changed." Dan said softly.
"I've changed because working for the Met is a lot more fast paced than back home. I'm exhausted when I get home, I just want to sleep. And it's not that I don't want to go out, I'm just too tired. I'm sorry." Jess said quietly, ignoring the comment about the non existent sex.
"Sorry isn't good enough. Luke misses you when you're not here to take him to bed." Dan continued, standing and taking a step towards Jess, gently placing the empty glass on the side table.
"Well maybe if you explained to him why I was late, he would understand." Jess said, not realising that she had been walking backwards away from Dan's advances until her back was pressed against the wall.
"He thinks you don't love him anymore." Dan said, putting a hand either side of Jess on the wall, blocking her in.
"No he doesn't, he knows I love him. You're putting words in his mouth!" Jess hissed.
Dan's jaw was set in a stern line, his grey eyes blazing with fury, "Don't you tell me what I was doing." Jess shook her head in disgust and started to duck under his arm, but he was too quick. He shoved Jess backwards hard, her head bouncing hard off the wall behind her. Her vision was clouded with explosions of colour, and a feeling of nausea wound its way round Jess' body. "You never learn do you." Jess sank down the wall, her hands braced on the floor, trying to stop from falling to the side. Dan's foot connected with her stomach. She cried out in pain, her arms wrapping around her middle, trying to stop the blows, but he just carried on.
"Dan! Stop it." Jess murmured, sliding onto her side on the floor, but then it went black.
Jess came round in the dark living room. She took a slow deep breath in, instantly feeling sick. One arm was over her stomach, the other over her head. She slowly pushed herself up, more explosions of colour clouding her vision. She leant back against the cool wall, feeling her ribs for any possible fractures. She winced as her fingers pushed against a tender spot, knowing that there was a definite fracture there. Her fingers then reached up to her face, gently pushing against her cheekbone and her nose. From what she could feel, nothing was broken on her face, but she was sure there would be some bruising. She reached around to the back of her head where Dan had first pushed her against the wall. Her hair felt sticky from the congealed blood; she would need to wash that out.
She stood herself up slowly, using the chair next to her for support. She stumbled out to the hall, flicking the light on. She winced as the brightness aggravated her swollen eye. She looked in horror at her face: one of her eyes was swollen, the beginning of a bruise forming; there was a bruise on the line of her jaw which went down her neck; her lip was split and there was blood still pumping from it. Jess tried to hold back the choking sobs that were threatening to erupt. She then took a look at the rest of her body. One shoulder was bruised from where she had used her arm to protect her head and Dan had kicked her. And then she lifted up her top and couldn't tear her eyes away. Her stomach was a patchwork of bruises, purple, black and blue which went up her ribs to just below her breasts.
Jess couldn't remember the last time Dan had really gone for her like this. There was no way she was going to let Luke see her like this, so she slowly made her way down the hall, using different pieces of furniture as support until she got to the bathroom. She started to run a hot bath, determined to clean herself up as much as she could.
Jess emerged from the bathroom an hour later, having got all the blood out her hair and off her body. The bathwater had been a murky red by the time Jess had got out. Her bruises had stung even more when the water hit her, but that might have been where her muscles were suddenly trying to expand after being contracted for so long through the beating.
Jess couldn't believe that she had ended up as a victim of domestic abuse. She was a police officer and her abuser was her husband, a police lawyer. It shouldn't have been her, it shouldn't be anyone; the one in four women who were the victims of domestic abuse probably agreed with her. But Jess would take all that and more if it kept her son safe from Dan.
Jess rubbed in the last of the arnica cream on her face, hoping it worked quickly on the bruising and swelling. She swallowed some paracetamol and ibuprofen before padding slowly through to the living room, using the walls as support. She had a cloth in her hand, ready to wipe up the blood that was on the wall and floor. As she got in there she froze, seeing Dan sat on the sofa. He stood up, an apologetic look on his face, the one he always wore after beating her up. His face turned from apologetic to shocked to horrified as he took her in.
"Oh God Jess I am so sorry. I don't know what happened, I just lost it and couldn't stop. Come here honey." Dan said, close to tears. He rushed over to her, trying to take her hands to pull her into him.
Jess pulled away and burst into tears, "I can't do it anymore Dan. I just can't." She turned and ran up the stairs, wincing through the pain. She went into Luke's room, lifting the sleeping boy from his bed, wincing as his weight aggravated her injuries. She carried him into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. She needed to think what to do next, and until then there was no way Dan was coming near her or her son.
