Hey guys, this update is very quick after the last - please dont get used to this, but I really had a lot of suggestions after the lead in from my last chapter. Please let me know how you think this is.

TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic violence


"Wow, so you guys had a great afternoon," Trevor grinned at Olivia and Noah as he took a forkful of the pasta she had made. He didn't know why she always put herself down as a terrible cook in the kitchen. The food tasted great.

"Yeah, it was so nice," Olivia replied even though there was something that was bothering her about the meeting with Kaci's Mom coupled with the few little telling statements that Kaci had made about her father.

"She keeps sending me messages about the bracelet, she really really loves it. She said she doesn't want to break it so she won't wear it to school but she's wearing it to dinner tonight with her Mom and Dad."

"So, Noah, what's Kaci's dad like? Does she talk about him much?" Olivia asked.

"Mmm not too much," he shrugged. "She said he's super strict. She has to be home at a particular time every day. He doesn't like it when she goes to people's houses because he doesn't trust other parents and she said her place is boring so she doesn't really like having people over there."

"Ah," Olivia nodded. "And does she get along with him?"

"I think so… she said he can be in a bad mood a lot but she thinks its because of money and he doesn't really want her to get a job."

Olivia and Trevor exchanged looks. Trevor could tell something was bothering this woman who he loved so much. She was pushing around her food, tension filling her face. She just nodded, trying to hide her frustration.

"Babe, I'm gonna ask something and I want you to be honest, k?"

Noah nodded, his expression blank. "Do you think that Kaci's dad might be hurting her or her Mom? Has Kaci ever expressed that to you?"

"No, Mom, never. Why are you asking me that? Trevor asked me that too." He glanced at Trevor who shrugged.

"I'm just asking because it sounds like her Dad is a bit too strict, I just had to ask. Maybe Trevor felt the same. You would tell me right? You know even that if Kaci asked you to keep it a secret, you'd have to tell me, yeah?"

Noah nodded seriously. "Of course, I would want you to protect her, of course I'd tell you."

"Okay good."

/

Olivia was tired from the drive and her afternoon. She climbed in to bed next to Trevor. He sat against the bed-head with his iPad out marking some papers for his class the next day. Olivia cuddled up beside him, leaning her head against his chest. "Almost finished baby," he promised her.

She realised she was making it difficult for him to concentrate on what he was doing so she moved away from him and laid her head on the pillow. "Sorry love," she chuckled, "I'll leave you to it."

"No, its okay…" he replied.

He put up his iPad and turned to her, resigning himself to looking at the papers after giving his morning tasks out to his younger students. "I can tell something is on your mind… you've been— not yourself all night; what happened when you dropped off Kaci."

Olivia thought for a moment. "I probably can't say because it's a police matter," she told him, honouring the privacy. "But let's just say it wasn't the first time I've met Kaci's Mom."

"If I ask questions, would you give me a yes or a no or a slow nod?"

"Maybe…" she replied. "But I can't stress to you how confidential this is."

"Did her parents hurt her?" Trevor asked.

Olivia shook her head, "thank goodness, no."

"Domestic violence complaint?"

She nodded.

"Severe or was just scared?"

"She wasn't just scared. She was a mess, Trevor. Her face was so messed up and I don't know how she could have hidden that from Kaci. She wasn't there, she was with her grandparents… who knows, maybe they made her stay with the grandparents til the welts went down, but …" she shook her head and drew in a deep breath, "he's a piece of human garbage and I can't see that being a one off." She paused, "when we were leaving, I saw spy cameras in the doorway - he would have potentially seen Noah and I there, so I feel worried. Kaci and Tara, her Mom, both kept making comments to each other about being quick because her father was due home — which read like they weren't allowed to have visitors."

"I'm sorry Liv, that's so awful."

"Just keep your eyes out for her, okay? Any single bruise or whatever — I want to know about it."

"Promise," Trevor replied, kissing her. "I know you know this is true, but you can only help someone when they want help, sweetheart."

"Yes, that's true but I also know that women in these situations don't always have the capacity and the means to leave, especially if she's not allowed to have a job— it keeps her dependant."

"That's true, I guess… Well, I'll keep my eyes peeled."

"Thanks baby." Olivia got close to him and wrapped her arms around his stomach, resting on his shoulder. She loved sleeping beside him. She loved the feel of his hands running through her hair or absently caressing her back— it made it much easier to fall asleep.

/

"Benson, are you gonna shit the bed on your catching and throwing again tomorrow afternoon at practice?" Blake Brinkley asked as the class filed out as the bell rang. "You really fucked up my play. You better get better real fucking fast, bro."

"I'm not your bro and unlike you, I didn't live my life to become a star football player and then brag about it for the rest of my life when I don't make the pro's. I've literally been playing this game for six months. Leave me alone."

Shocking Noah was the pain spreading through his shoulders as he was thrown up hard against the lockers by one of the jerks from the team. He winced as his head hit the corner of the metal.

"Are you actually kidding me!?" Trevor yelled from across the hall, "get to my office, the three of you, right now!"

"Are you okay?," another student asked, pulling Noah off the lockers. He gave his own head a rub where it burned with pain. "Yeah, I think so…"

"Noah, I saw that, you hit your head pretty hard. I think we might take you to see the nurse."

A little woozy from the pain, Noah protested. "I'm fine," he replied, "just a bump."

"Noah," Trevor warned him. "Come on, follow me." He reluctantly followed him a short distance down the hall, coming face to face with the three of his worst bullies. "Get in my office, the three of you," Trevor threw open the door and the three of them filed in. "Take a seat here, kiddo, I'll be out in a minute."

Noah took his phone out and started to text his group chat. "Guys, I haven't heard from Kace but was supposed to go meet her to walk her to class but just had an incident with Blake Brinkley and I'm outside Coach Langan's office, can one of you let her know I'm sorry?"

He saw instantly that both Katie and Adam liked the message. "What happened? Are you okay? Do I need to smash Blake? I'd love to, he's such an asshole. Haven't seen Kaci today, not even sure she's at school?"

"Yeah, I don't think she's here but she didn't answer my texts this morning either. She got a new phone so maybe she was updating it or something."

It was definitely uncharacteristic of her to not reply to texts - she was much faster at it than he was. He felt a little concerned, especially after his Mom had asked far too many questions — picking up on something that maybe he didn't have the maturity to. He made a mental note to call his Mom when she started work, just so that maybe she could check on Kaci since she hadn't texted or called or sent a single snap since she mentioned she was headed to dinner the night before.

Surprising him, the guys from the team left Trevor's office faster than they had arrived, holding slips that Noah recognised as referrals to speak to the principal. "Hey, come in to my office please, Noah."

He stepped in and closed the door behind him.

"I'm sorry this happened, kiddo, are you alright?" The professionalism dropped from his tone.

"I'm alright," Noah replied, "I just hit my shoulders and the back of my head but I think the pain's passed."

Trevor's office was big now that he was the head of the phys ed department. Noah took a seat on an office chair while Trevor went to find an ice pack. He returned with one and handed it to him. "Hold that on your head, okay?"

Noah nodded. "What happened? Why did Blake do that?"

"I might have provoked him," Noah told Trevor guiltily. "They just say stuff to bait me all the time and I just got mad. He told me that I better learn to throw and catch and I told him that not everyone lived their whole lives with the ambition of being a high school football player only to not make it in the pros and spend the rest of their lives talking about the only thing they ever achieved."

Trevor had to hide a smile. What Noah lacked in physical fighting, he certainly made up for in wit. "I need you to be careful, they're big guys, Noah, I don't want you to get hurt. That's no excuse for what they're doing and it's certainly not your fault, but I need you to tell me when they won't stop."

"They're not gonna stop just because you tell them to, Trev, Peter already got benched from one of the friendly games because of what he did to me and he hasn't stopped. Now he's just got hired muscles on the job."

"Well I imagine that Blake will get suspended after what he just did and I've warned them that if they are caught harassing or assaulting any of their team members or anyone else in the school for that matter, they'll be suspended from the team until further notice."

"Seriously? This team couldn't win without Peter."

"I disagree and if he keeps going then we'll find out," Trevor replied.

"I have to go to my next class, but you're going home. I'm about to text Mom to come and get you."

"Wait, why? I'm fine."

"Nope. Any head injuries are an instant parent called. You need to go home under supervision and I'll come straight back after my last class at 2 so Mom can go to work."

"Trevor, I'm really fine…" Noah said, "and I haven't seen Kaci today-"

"Noah, please humour me, Kaci will be okay without you today. I'm just going to tell my class that I will be a few minutes late and I'll take you down to the the nurses bay and call your Mom."

Noah sighed but knew better than to argue.

/

It was after 1 and Noah still hadn't heard from Kaci and he was more than concerned. He had even tried calling her and the phone went straight to voicemail. He could hear his Mom getting her lunch and snacks prepared for work as he laid out watching TV.

"Mom?," he called out, suddenly feeling his a little panicked about Kaci.

"One sec, babe…" she called back. She had been a little worried about Noah at first but apart from a bit of a headache, he was doing okay after a chat with the school nurse and then a quick FaceTime with Trevor's sister to make sure all bases were covered.

Olivia wrapped her sandwich in saran wrap and put it in to her lunch box and went to see what her son wanted. "What's up?"

He looked alarmed, "Mom, I'm really worried about Kaci and after the questions you asked me last night, I feel like maybe you saw something I didn't."

"What happened babe?," Olivia asked feeling immediately concerned.

"Kaci didn't come to school today, she hasn't answered any messages from me or Katie or even Adam and I tried to call twice and it keeps going to voice mail…"

"Do you think she might be sick?," Olivia asked, "does she ever take a lot of time off?"

"Sometimes… but not often, but she is always on her phone. She is allowed to use it up until bed time and as soon as she wakes up… she's usually the one who sends most of the messages on snap and there's nothing."

"Okay babe, don't worry, leave it with me. I'll get Trevor to find out if her Mom or Dad notified that she wouldn't be in school today and if school hasn't heard anything, I might get Uncle Fin to go to her apartment to do a check on behalf of the school, does that sound okay?"

Noah nodded, "Yeah, do you think she's okay? Do you think her Mom and Dad have hurt her?"

"No honey," she assured him, "I don't think that's likely, maybe her phone isn't working or maybe she's really sick and doesn't feel well enough to use her phone, it could be any number of things, please don't worry. As soon as I find out I'll tell you, okay?"

"Could you go instead of Uncle Fin? I feel like… no offence to Uncle Fin, you're nicer, he might not try as hard to get to the bottom of it."

"Honey, I promise with all my heart, Uncle Fin will be as thorough as I am. I trust him with everything. I wouldn't send him if I didn't think he could do the job."

"Okay," Noah accepted it.

"Trevor will be here shortly, I just want you to relax so I'm gonna go call him before he leaves work."

/

Olivia was now also alarmed. No notification of Kaci's absence and she knew that her own hunch was usually correct - it had been fine tuned down to a 6th sense over the years; now when something felt wrong about a situation, it's usually because there was something wrong.

She didn't want to upset her son unless there was a reason to so she said nothing. Trevor promised to try to follow up with a call to her mother before they made any further steps as it wasn't out of the ordinary for parents not to always report their child's absence until prompted.

She began to get dressed for work and Trevor was grabbing his stuff to leave as he called the Tremwell residence. As she carefully put her make up on with a sinking feeling, Trevor texted her. "Voicemail to Mom's phone and dad's phone is unlisted. Better check-in. It's unlike her to not show up to school and even less likely for no one to be picking up their phones."

"Noah wanted me to go instead of Fin," she explained by text reply, "so I think I'll leave as soon as you arrive and go grab Fin and go straight there," she finished.

"Sure. I'm about ten minutes away."

/

"Fin, I need you to come with me to do a welfare check," she told him, "it might be nothing but…"

The sergeant looked up at her as she entered from the lift, on a mission, her face set in a hard line. He knew the look, something was bothering her. "Sure, what are we looking at?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe a domestic assault or maybe nothing. Want to file it in the case notes while I go grab my gun?"

"Sure. You got an address?," Fin asked. "Apartment 37, 1097– I think, west 84th st. Mom is Tara Tramwell, we filed a report against her husband back around 6 months ago but she dropped the charges and went back to him. They have a 14 yr old daughter, Kaci— Noah's …friend." She added the last bit softly and Fin realised it meant something personal to her.

"Oh shoot. You know the girl?" Fin didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but as Olivia talked about her, he knew she had no idea. He felt for Noah too.

"Yeah, met her yesterday. It was her birthday. Plenty of red flags. When I dropped her off with Noah I noticed cameras at the door— lots of weird stuff, I'll tell you on the way." She made off to her office and grabbed her gun that she had started leaving at work just in case.

"You might want to wait a second…" he tapped at the computer and sighed heavily. "A call came in this morning from that address… I think Amanda checked it out. Let me check the notes."

With a heavy feeling in her stomach she walked back from her office toward Fin and pulled up the case file. "Mom and daughter at Mercy — husband is in lock up overnight for domestic assault and battery."

"Fuck!" Olivia remarked aloud, causing people to turn their heads. "I fucking knew it! I felt like something weird was going on.. I fucking called it." She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Let's get Amanda on the phone. I'm going to nail this son of a bitch!"

Amanda explained what had happened - that a vague call came through in the early hours of the morning from a young girl begging for help. The call was traced back to the Tramwell apartment. It didn't look good when she had arrived. Mom had wasn't conscious and Kaci was in a bad way with Dad missing. The uniforms waited until he turned up back at the apartment around 8am.

That was all Liv needed to know, she grabbed her pocket book and her things and told Fin she would be back.

Olivia arrived at Mercy, trying her very best not to say anything to Trevor until she'd spoken to Kaci or Tara. She made her way in and flashed her badge, looking for the ward and room. Finally, with the information she needed she took a lift to the third floor and followed the directions to the trauma ward. She found the nurses station and once again flashed her badge, explaining that she was following up from the evening before.

"Kaci is doing a little better today, but Tara was put in a medically induced coma to reduce swelling in her brain— did you get to read the report?" The nurse asked her.

"No, I didn't have time. What actually happened? Are you aware?" The nurse picked up the chart and passed it across to her. Olivia went over it quietly, feeling sick as she read. Tara Tramwell suffered repeated blows to the head, had facial fractures, broken ribs, a broken radius (wrist) and lacerations caused from broken objects."

Olivia made a face and slid it back across to the nurse. "And Kaci?"

The young nurse passed over Kaci's chart and Olivia was almost scared to look at it. It that she had presented with several facial contusions and appeared to be beaten with an object. Abrasions to her flank from possible kicks and was currently waiting on results for a cheek fracture and possible rib fractures.

The detective wanted to be sick. She went against every single detective instinct. She should have said something when she saw the cameras, instead she ignored it. Taking in to account that Kaci had openly told them that her father didn't want her to have a boyfriend or any boys coming over, the fact that he was to find out from the camera should have been enough for Olivia to insist on staying or at least speaking up about what she saw. She was more interested in not creating embarrassment for both her son or the mother.

She felt guilty.

"May I see Kaci?"

"Sure, she's in room 2. Are you questioning her? I can assist if you like."

"No, I won't be questioning her — I just want to make sure she's okay. This is part of an ongoing investigation. I'm a little familiar with her," she fibbed.

"Okay, let me know if you need anything."

Olivia was already halfway down the hall to the small girl's room. She knocked softly before letting herself in. Kaci's body was facing the window, looking out at the blue sky. "Hey sweetheart…"

She shifted slightly before whimpering in pain. "Don't move, Kaci, I'll come to you…" she circled the bed and was bracing herself for the tiny teenager's face. She tried not to react, but she almost gasped. Her eye was swollen shut, her lip split and the entire left side of her face blown up. "Oh, babe…" she murmured, smoothing her hair which she noticed was free of the braids they had been in when she said goodbye to her the day before.

She wouldn't have realised Kaci was crying if not for the hot tears that slid down her face. She whimpered as the salt water stung the cut on her face. "Its okay," Olivia stroked her hair, "I promise it's going to be okay."

"Where's my Mommy?," she sobbed, "is she okay?"

"I think she's okay, she's just getting some care. I'm going to go and see soon and I can find out some information for you."

"It hurts," the teen murmured in a tiny voice, "everything hurts."

"I know," Olivia murmured soothingly, gently rubbing her back, "I know it does and I'm so sorry that you got hurt, baby. This isn't your fault though, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I did. My hair… and my nails and-" she choked on a sob, "he broke my bracelet."

"Your hair looked beautiful, my sweetheart and your nails are so cute—" as far as Olivia could see— the teen's nails were completely normal and age appropriate. They were short, natural nails painted a soft frosted pink, in fact, probably the most basic nail art she'd seen on a teenage girl for a long time. "And as for your bracelet, don't you worry about that, we can replace it, the main thing is that you heal up quickly."

Kaci reached up to wipe her healthy eye. "Olivia can you please go see Mommy, I need to know that she's okay."

"Okay sweetheart. I just want you to know that I'm here okay? I don't have to go anywhere, I can sit with you so that you're not alone."

She nodded.

"I'll be right back," Olivia told her, finding it hard to peel herself away as she stroked her hair. She let out a breath as she finally turned her back to go and speak to the nurse again about Tara's prognosis.

She closed the door behind her and stood for a moment, taking stock of the situation and trying to figure out what to do. She couldn't tell him nothing, but she didn't know if she was ready for him to find out the ugly realities of what an unsafe household could look like. She sighed and went back to find the nurse she had spoken to earlier.

"So, what can you tell me about Tara Tramwell's condition? Kaci is quite distressed, I don't think anyone's really had a conversation with her about her Mom."

"Oh? I can come in and talk to her…"

"Its okay," Olivia waved her hand, trying not to be dismissive, "I can talk to her, I think the basics is going to be the best avenue, she's clearly not in a good way herself. Is Tara expected to make it?"

"We think so, her prognosis was good but it's hard to say exactly if she will have any permanent damage until she comes out of the coma. The doctor from neurology is going to come and check on her and I assume she'll be scanned to see if the swelling has gone down and if so, they'll reduce the drugs that keep her comatose, but I would say we're looking at a few days til we have some concrete answers."

"And what about Kaci? How long is she going to be here for?" Olivia needed to ask.

"Well, we're not exactly sure - we'll be calling social services in at some point in the next 24hours-"

"Do me a favour," Liv replied, "hold off on social services, I think she's got some relatives, I'm going to look in to that."

"Detective, can I ask, what's the personal interest?" The young nurse stared at her.

Olivia opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. Unsure of how much she would say. "I turned a blind eye when Tara told me that everything was fine back a few months ago, her daughter is very close with my son and I spoke to Tara a few days ago - there were some warning signs that I missed."

"Oh, so you know Kaci very well," she murmured.

"Not as well as my.. my boyfriend and my son," she replied, "but… she's the sweetest little thing and neither she, nor her mother deserved this…."

"No, it makes you wonder about the trash that did this, doesn't it?," the nurse remarked, "are you going to go and sit with her?"

"Yeah… I'm on duty, but if anyone asks, I'm here taking statements," Olivia flashed the nurse a weak, conspiratorial smile before heading back down to Kaci's room, stopping again out the front of it to text Trevor.

"Hi love, I'm going to come past home and talk to Noah shortly. It's not good, Kaci is okay, but it's not good and I think I need to sit with you and him and talk to you guys in person. We could all use a hug afterwards, I think. Love you so much."

She went back inside Kaci's room and took a wash cloth from the bathroom and soaked it with warm water. "I'm back sweetheart, are you comfortable? Would you like me to help you move to a different position?"

"No…" she replied softly, as if every syllable hurt as it came from her mouth.

"I'm just going to wipe your face very, very gently with a wash cloth, ok?"

She nodded. Olivia took to her swollen side first. She patted it down cleaning some dried blood that no one had bothered to wash off. She moved on to the other side of her face, the more healthy side.

"I asked about your Mom, baby. She took a bit of a hit to her head and I'm not entirely sure how, but her brain is a little swollen, so they take care of her brain by giving her some drugs to reduce it and they put her in a coma," Olivia explained. As soon as Kaci heard the word 'coma' she began to cry out.

"Wai-wait- it's okay, I promise… it's a very safe coma, sweetheart, okay? The doctors put her in the coma so that her body can rest and give her a better chance at reducing the swelling. The doctors will monitor her every day and as soon as its gone down enough, they'll take her out of that coma, and you can be there to hold her hand and when she wakes up she'll hopefully be feeling free of pain and all her bruises and swelling on the rest of her body will have gone down too."

She cried loudly, not even bothering to try to be brave. "I know it's so scary," Olivia reassured her, pushing hair messy hair out of her face, "but it'll be okay, I promise you and I'm going to be here to make sure of it."

She felt Kaci's hand grab for her hand. Olivia tried her best to smile at the teen and took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Mr Langan from school is gonna come in and check on you too, he's been so worried about you all day."

"Does Noah know I'm here?," she asked meekly.

"No baby, he doesn't, but he's been so worried too. I'm going to explain to him that you're here because he's waiting for me to find out if you're okay."

"I don't want to see him, I know he'll be upset and I know I look scary," she choked on a sob.

"That's fine, honey, I understand and Noah will understand too," Olivia replied. "For now it'll just be me and Mr. Langan…"

Olivia sat on the edge of the bed, "now listen sweetheart, I'm going to go back to your apartment to investigate later tonight. Is there anything you'd like me to bring back for you? Your phone? Your favourite stuffy?"

"I don't know where my phone is, Daddy got mad at Mom for buying it. She wasn't supposed to save money without him knowing—" she sniffed. "I didn't need to have a new phone," she sobbed. "I didn't want Mom to get hurt."

Olivia wanted to give her a hug so much. "Its not your fault, babe," she told her again, "its nothing you did, your Dad would have found a reason— being able to buy that phone for you would have made your Mom feel incredible, trust me on that, I'm a Mom."

She wiped Kaci's tears.

"I have a dinosaur on my bed, its a stuffy, his name is George, could you bring him?"

"Of course and if you want anything else, you just tell the nurse and she'll give me a call."

"Are you going to go now?" Kaci asked.

"Just for a little while… Do you have an iPad or a computer or something at home that I can bring so you can watch TV or something from?"

She shook her head.

Olivia opened her handbag that she had set down when she came in. "Guess what? You're in luck. You can borrow my iPad. I have Disney and Netflix on there if you want to watch something while I'm gone?"

"Thanks," Kaci murmured.

"Sometimes when I feel scared or sad, I turn something on for comfort, like a show that I have seen a lot times so I can just close my eyes and listen and I already know what the scenes look like. Do you have a show like that?"

She nodded slow. "New Girl…"

Olivia knew of the show but didn't know much about it. She opened up Netflix and found it on there immediately. "Would you like me to put it on for you?"

"Thanks…"

She turned the show on and let it play at a moderate volume. "Ok sweetheart," she rested it on the hospital table. "I'll go back to your place and see if I can find your phone and I'll grab George for you and if I see anything I think you might need or want, I'll bring it for you."

/

Olivia went straight across to the Tramwell apartment, Fin met her there. They went through and looked for anything that they might need. Olivia searched high and low for Kaci's phone in her bedroom before moving on to her parents room.

Eventually, she found the phone in the bedside drawer of what must of been her father's side. It was under a lock. Olivia pried it open with the help of something that Fin had found in the kitchen. Inside was not only Kaci's phone but also Tara's too. She handed Fin Tara's phone for evidence and decided to go through Kaci's as well. There were a few other things in the drawer including a woman's jewellery pouch that was filled with a wad of cash. Olivia was careful not to touch anything with bare hands but she put the pouch in in to an evidence bag too, thinking that it may have been money that Tara was squirrelling away.

She found the teen girl's dinosaur stuffy that was sitting on her unmade bed. She found a small backpack and tossed in a wall charger and went through some of her drawers until she came across underwear and camisoles and tossed around a week's worth of clean clothes under garments in to the bag. There was a book on her bedside table that she put in the bag too. She zipped it up and headed back out to meet Fin to drop him back at the station so she could go back home.

"She a good friend of Noahs?," Fin asked curiously.

"Yeah… she's Noah's first little flame," she told her co-worker feeling despondent and wondering how on Earth she was going to break her son's heart.

"Little Noah's winning heart's already, huh? That was bound to happen, he's such a good kid, Olivia."

"He is… and this little girl is a sweetheart. They're both entirely way too young, but even I have to admit that seeing them together is outrageously cute," she sighed, "this is going to change her though…"

"Probably, but who knows? Maybe this type of thing has been going on a long time, Liv, kids grow very good at living double lives."

"True," Olivia replied. She knew all-too-well about having a school personality and a home personality when she was a child. "Thanks for your help Fin, I appreciate it. Can you check in on what's happening to the father?"

"Of course…" Olivia pulled up to the curb and Fin got out, he gave her a little wave and watched him enter the 1-6. She let her head drop and sighed. She really wasn't looking forward to the next part.

/

"Do you want something?" Trevor asked Olivia softly as she came in the door.

"No sweetheart, I'm fine. Where's Noah?," she asked.

"He's having a shower. He's so restless and upset," Trevor informed her. "I've tried to keep him calm."

"I'm just letting you know that I can't stay, but he might end up not being able to sleep and if that's too much for you — I can call Michelle."

"No, I'm here, Liv," he told her taking her by the shoulders, "I'll stay with him. I'll give him a hug if he needs it, or I will sit here with him and watch TV all night and wait up with him in case he needs to talk or ask questions."

Olivia was about to explain what happened to Trevor, but Noah emerged from the bathroom and spotted her. "Mom, do you know if she's okay? She's still not answering me— Adam and Katie are worried now too."

"Noah, come with me, I need to have a talk with you," she told him. Noah looked at Trevor and then back at his Mom and froze.

"Is she okay? What happened to her?"

"Babe, please, come and sit."

Trevor followed and sat on the armchair. "Mom, she's okay, right?"

"Noah, I need you to know that what I'm about to tell you is very private. You can't tell your friends under any circumstances or else I might get in to trouble."

He nodded. His eyes began to fill with tears. "Something happened to her…"

"Yes, sweetheart, something terrible happened to her, but I've just seen her and spoken to her - she's still in shock but she's okay."

"Who hurt her? Did someone sexually assault her?" His blunt question smarted her; it was implied what Olivia's job was, but Noah had never called it exactly what it was. She realised she didn't even really know, but she assumed that that wasn't the case.

"No, honey. Her father attacked them both. We don't know why or how or any fine details, but Kaci and her Mom are both at the hospital."

"How hurt is she?" Noah asked slowly, wiping his eyes.

"We don't know for sure, but she might have a fractured cheek and a few broken ribs. She's got a lot of bruising and she's in a lot of pain but she did ask about you," she gave him a reassuring smile. "She's not ready for visitors, but I found her phone, babe, so I'm going to take that to her and when she feels like it, she might text you."

:How is her Mom?" Noah asked.

"Uh… we hope she'll be okay but it's too early to tell…" Olivia told him honestly. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"Mom…" he began, starting to cry. "I told you a lie last night…" he profusely wiped his eyes, "this is all my fault, I should have told you the truth."

"Tell me, babe… it's okay, and regardless of what you're going to tell me, none of this is your fault."

"When you asked if Kaci's Dad hurt her or her Mom— I wanted to tell you but I promised Kaci and swore on our friendship that I would never tell a soul… but she told me that sometimes her Dad is really controlling and hits her Mom and that sometimes he's hit her too — but he doesn't mean it and always apologises."

"Oh honey…" Liv murmured. "Its okay. Its very hard when our friends tell us things like that because we don't want to betray their trust, I understand." She wrapped her arms around her son and let him cry. She glanced at Trevor who wiped his eyes too and looked deeply upset.

Noah eventually pulled away. "So who is with her at the hospital?"

"Nobody, that's why I'm going back there. Maybe tomorrow night Trevor can go and sit with her for a little while and Michelle can come over."

Noah glanced at Trevor who nodded. Noah looked back at his Mom and agreed. "I don't want her to be alone, Mom…"

"We're working on finding her grandparents so maybe they can come and be with her and Noah, when she's ready I'll take you to see her, but I think right now its a bit early and it would be confronting for you to see her."

"Okay."

"I love you so much babe, I promise it'll be okay."

"Okay," he said again.

"I'm so sorry but I have to go… if you think of anything you want to ask me, just text me okay?"

"Okay Mom, are you mad that I didn't tell you the truth?"

"No," she smiled reassuringly at him, "you did what you thought was right and you're a very loyal friend, Noah, I'm not mad at you for that. I just want you to know that I need to know about this stuff. Sometimes being a friend is not always doing what your friend wants, but doing what is right for their wellbeing…"

Noah nodded with understanding. "Love you, babe," she kissed him. She had a sudden thought- "Honey, do you think I could borrow your iPad for a few days for Kaci? So she has something to watch TV on while she's in the hospital."

"Yeah, of course, I can just use my phone or my computer," he said. "I'll just get it." She knew that as her shift ended she would need to take hers back, it was her own, but she used it predominantly for work and sensitive information and possibly pictures were on it.

Noah returned a few moments later with his iPad. "Do you have anything private on here, babe?"

"No, I don't have my texts on there or anything," he shrugged. "Anyway, it's nothing that I'd feel bad about Kaci reading."

"Thank you Noah, this is really kind of you. I'll tell her that you've loaned it to her."

"I don't want her to lay in bed doing nothing, she needs something to keep her distracted." Noah told her, still looking deeply sad. He handed the charger to Olivia too, she was glad he remembered, because she would have forgotten.

"K babe, I'll see you in the morning. Do me a favour and don't send anymore texts to Kaci, she's going to be overwhelmed when her phone gets switched back on, so just wait for her to text you."

"Okay Mom. Please give her a hug from me and tell her to get better soon and that I really, really want to see her when she feels ready."

She gave her son a weak smile and kissed him again. "Goodnight Noah. Try not to worry and try not to stay up all night."

Trevor got up too and followed Olivia back to the kitchen to get her handbag and phone. "Liv," he stopped her, placing a hand on her arm, "stop for a second."

She turned to face him, wondering if he was okay. The truth was, Trevor wasn't okay. There had only been one other time in his teaching career where he'd found out a child was being abused by a parent and it had taken it's toll on him emotionally. This was different too, in a way. There were signs with the other child - lots of anger issues, bad behaviour, poor impulse control - things that when dug at a little harder, the truth came out.

Kaci was a perfect student; apart from being a little too chatty in class, she was immaculately behaved, smart and was always well presented. "This must be really difficult for you-" he remarked, "you look … devastated."

"I am," she replied, "I fucking knew something was amiss, Trev…" she closed her eyes for a moment with frustration. "I knew and I should have said something and I didn't."

"You just sat in there and you told Noah this was not his fault. This wasn't your fault either, the only person at fault here is the person who did the beating."

"I'm just so scared her Mom won't recover and if she doesn't… what kind of a fucking life is this child going to have?"

"Are her injuries that bad?"

"Yes," Olivia hissed, "They're really bad… she could wake up with a brain injury so severe that Kaci will be forever guilted over it… she's already laying there sobbing in pain and telling me that her Mom bought her the phone for her birthday by saving money on the sly that her father found out about. The world is on her shoulders right now and it hurts that I can't do or say a single thing to make either her or my son feel better."

Feeling as though Olivia was about to come undone, he slid his arms around her but her body stiffened. He wasn't used to that reaction from his affection. She slowly pushed him away. "I can't… I'm sorry, I just need to get through this tonight."

"Okay," he tried not to take it personal, he knew she was trying to stay brave, giving in to his affection may have made her emotions surface and while on shift, she did her best to hold it all back.

"Thanks for being with Noah, I really appreciate it."

"Of course. I'll be here when you finish too. For you," he murmured.

"Thanks Trevor."

"Liv…" his voice trailed. She looked up and met his eyes. "Liv, don't shut me out okay? I know you're upset and I know you're on work's clock so… I understand but, don't shut me out."

"I can't do this right now, you're right… I'm on the clock." More than anything she wanted to fall in to his arms and have him gather her up and make her feel better, but she knew if she came undone there was little chance of her being able to put back the pieces to go back to work and be any good for anyone.

"Okay. Can we talk when you get in?"

She nodded.

"K… I love you," he told her sincerely.

She looked at him, for a moment her eyes were clearer and as if she heard him. The corners of her mouth quivered but she swallowed the lump in her throat and cleared it. "I love you too," she murmured.

"Call me if you need to, I'll be here."

"Thanks Trevor…"

/

"Not sure what you said to her, Detective, but she's sleeping for the first time since she came in," the nurse smiled warmly at her. The nurse's name was Sam and she was on shift til change-over at 5am. She was helpful and kind and took a lot of care with the way that she had been treating Kaci. Olivia just smiled. She put the iPad up and replaced it with Noahs.

"I'm glad she's getting some rest," Liv replied.

"I was talking to a colleague earlier and I don't think I was supposed to show you the medical reports without a warrant," she remarked.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. We'll have access to them anyway by the time the father gets arraigned You didn't do anything wrong, Sam, please don't worry. Purely selfish reasons I wanted to know. It was Kaci's birthday yesterday-"

The nurse nodded. "What a day, huh?"

"Yeah," Olivia muttered, "this poor kid. Poor Mom, but poor kid…" She cocked her head a little to see where she had wiped Kaci's face earlier. She noticed more blood and realised that with movement, she was probably continually splitting a cut on her cheek.

"Do you think she might need some stitches here…" Olivia pointed to her face, "it seems to keep bleeding on and off. I wiped it clean earlier."

The nurse came around to to check, holding back from touching the young girl's face for fear of waking her up. "Yeah… maybe. I'll go and ask the doctor on duty to come and have a look."

Olivia took a seat and unpacked a few things from Kaci's bag. She plugged her phone in to the wall and turned it on. She started to go through a few messages between her Mom and her, looking for evidence of any ongoing abuse. She scrolled back; there was nothing too obvious. There was another number though, and after going through, Olivia realised it was coded.

How did you go in your Math homework? Kaci asked the person who was saved under Math Study Sarah.

The response was clear cut and Olivia realised the number was probably a burner. Math homework is very positive, I probably have well over 75 percent, I think you'll be safe when it gets handed to you.

After scrolling further through, the messages were almost always the same but the percentages changed based on what Olivia thought was code talk for her father's moods. The Math Study Sarah contact was Tara; it seemed crystal clear to Olivia.

On a particular day, Kaci enquired about the math homework, Sarah responded to tell her it was very difficult and that she should be careful of some of the questions because she was sure she would have been lucky to receive 15 percent and suggested Kaci stay back and study in the library for as long as she could.

It broke her heart that the mother and daughter duo had to have a secret language between them to ensure that Kaci was kept safe. It also made sense why the kids chatted exclusively via snap chat, because it was easy to clear the messages and she was sure that Kaci's father had no idea how the app was utilised.

"Olivia?" A croaky voice woke almost made her jump. She glanced over at Kaci waking up.

"Yes, I'm here my sweetheart…"

"My face… it hurts so much," she whimpered.

"Oh, sweetie," she put the phone up and stood up. "The nurse will be back in a few minutes and we can ask her for some pain medication, okay?"

She gave a slight nod. "My mouth feels weird, my lips…" she brought her fingers to them. Olivia pulled her hand away before she could touch the splits on them.

"Uh-uh, don't touch, honey, you have some cuts on your lips. Why don't we get some paw paw gel or something? Would you like a drink?"

"Yes please."

"There's some water here but if you would like, I can get you a cold soda like, maybe a sprite—?"

Kaci nodded. "Okay baby, here, I have George." She lifted the cute green dinosaur and lifted her arm, gently tucking the stuffy beneath it. "You give George a cuddle and I'll just be out in the hall to get you a drink. Sit tight."

She got herself a soda and got a sprite for Kaci as well. She passed Sam who stopped her. "The doctor is going to come in about 10 minutes to look at her face."

"Oh, thanks. It's okay if she has some sprite, right? She's awake and was telling me she was thirsty and that she's in a lot of pain from her face."

"Oh Olivia if you can get her to drink something sugary that would be great, her blood-sugar level is a little low. I'll come in with the doctor to assist and we'll talk about some pain management."

"Okay thanks," Olivia continued back to the room and cracked the cold can for the teen. She took the straw from her water cup and slotted it in to the tab. "I can hold it for you." Kaci opened her mouth and winced as the plastic straw irritated the abrasions on the sensitive tissue of her lips. "Take it slow, okay?"

She saw that she had no other choice but to drink slowly - as if every sip and swallow hurt. She closed her eyes and drank a few mouthfuls, taking her time. "Good girl," Liv soothed her. She caressed her hair for a moment as she drank until she released the straw from her mouth.

"You did good, babe. The doctor is coming in a second to check on your face. There's still a little bleeding so we might get you stitched up, k?"

Kaci nodded. "Liv, does Noah know now?"

"Yes sweetie, he does, he's very worried about you and he wanted me to give you a big hug— I don't want to hurt you so I think we might hold off on that hug for a little while."

"Don't tell him how ugly I look."

"You don't look ugly, Kaci, you're just hurt, when you heal up you'll be back to your beautiful self. It'll just take a few days for the swelling to go down."

"I feel stupid and ugly."

"Well I am here to tell you that you are neither of those things. I want you to know how deeply loved you are for your Mom to have gone to all that trouble to try to make your day so special yesterday despite how hard your Dad makes it sometimes."

"I hate him," she muttered, "I hate him so much, Olivia, I never wanted Mom to get hurt. He started hitting her and I had to help her because he was hurting her and then he hit me— usually Mom protects me from him but she couldn't get up and he didn't stop."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry that happened to you and your Mom. You were trying to be brave for your Mom and you got hurt and I am sure she'd have hated that, but maybe you saved her life by intervening sweetheart."

"But she still hasn't woken up and maybe she won't," she remarked. "I wish I never woke up."

"Don't say that, I am so glad that you woke up and so is Noah and Mr Langan and I'm sure the rest of your family and in someways, probably your father too."

"Yeah, probably just so he doesn't have to go to jail for murder," she replied.

"Your Mom has a very good chance of coming out of her coma without any side effects, sweetheart. The doctors are going to do the very best that they can."

"Okay."

"So… I found your cell phone in your Dad's locked drawer. I've just started charging it for you so if you feel like texting anyone, you can." She paused and turned to take Noah's iPad out. "And Noah wanted to loan you his iPad. I have to take mine back because it's for my job, but this one — this is Noah's and he wants you to hold on to it and use it until you feel better."

"Olivia, Noah is my bestfriend. I know he is basically my boyfriend, but … I don't want to make out with him and do all that crazy stuff, I just like to hold his hand and he gives me good hugs."

She smiled weakly at her. "You know what? I think Noah feels exactly the same. I think that's lovely that you have that. Maybe when you both are a bit older you'll feel different or maybe you'll start hanging out with other people, but either way — there's no shame in having a male friend that gives you affection and there's no shame in enjoying it."

"Dad said he saw Noah come in to the apartment…he was furious and then I didn't know how to lie so I told him about our walk and tried to explain we were friends and about my bracelet and he screamed at Mommy and I and after he was done, he made us get dressed up to go to dinner, making us think we were going out and then he caught me taking a photo of my bracelet to show Noah, Katie and Adam and he noticed my phone was new and that started everything… he called me so many names about my hair and my nails and Noah… and the bracelet." Olivia glanced at her arm where the bracelet had been earlier the day before, there was a laceration in a perfect circle.

"He ripped it off my wrist… I don't know where it went…"

"Don't worry about the bracelet. We can replace it. Noah and I want you to feel better. Mr Langan was very worried too so I think he's going to come and see you tomorrow, would that be alright?"

"Noah said he's a really good person so I trust Noah."

Olivia smiled. "I won't let anyone near you unless they're going to be really good to your heart, sweetie," she promised.

"Thanks…"

"Babe, do you have someone I can call like your grandparents or even your cousin that you mentioned in Queens?"

"I don't want to call my cousin, she's the one who told Dad Mom and I were there at the salon even though she knows how Dad can be. She would take his side… and my grandparents are in Europe for the summer visiting my great aunt in Norway."

"That's okay, we can contact them and let them know what's happened, they might want to come back. Do you have any other aunts or uncles?"

"Not on Mom's side. I dont want to call anyone from Dad's side."

"Okay, that's fine, we don't have to do that," Olivia smiled reassuringly as the doctor came in. He was a tall man with a kind smile, appraising the detective with a little more than a lingering stare.

"Captain Benson of SVU," she stuck her hand out to shake his.

"Dr Richard Swan," he replied, shaking her hand. "And this must be Kaci Tramwell… I like your dinosaur, sweetheart," he smiled warmly at her. Olivia circled the bed to give him some room, standing behind her.

"I'm right here behind you, honey," Liv told her, placing a hand upon her shoulder.

"OK Kaci, your cheek face looks very sore and tender so maybe we should have a closer look at it, would that be okay?"

She nodded. "Okay, I'm going to lift your bed a little bit, I'll do it very, very slowly and you let me know if you're in any pain." He spoke soothingly and kindly to her. Olivia felt her grabbing for her hand. She gave it a squeeze and tried not to react as she heard Kaci whimper as the bed was brought upright. "Okay… let's leave it there, thank you for being so brave, I know your ribs hurt too, are you comfortable for a moment?"

"Yeah," she let out a breath.

The doctor grabbed a pair of gloves as Sam arrived holding a stitches kit and a pill in a tiny little cup. He examined Kaci's cheek closely and thanked the nurse for the wipes to clean up the area to stitch. "Okay Kaci, I'm going to put a few little stitches in just to make sure that you don't keep bleeding. I'm going to do my best to make sure it doesn't hurt. As soon as I'm done, I have a pain management medication for you to take that might make you feel a little sleepy and maybe even a little sick in the tummy. If you start feeling sick, you just let Nurse Sam know and she can give you a pill to stop the nausea okay?"

Kaci nodded. "Olivia, will you stay?," she asked the detective.

Olivia rubbed her arm affectionately, "Baby, I already told you, I'm not going anywhere. I'll hold your hand and stay with you."

/

It was a little before 5am when Olivia walked in to her apartment. She had changed over with Sonny who had promised to have Amanda sit with Kaci for as long as she could when she started her shift at 9 after taking the kids to school and Levi to daycare.

She submitted notes from everything Kaci had disclosed about the night before which was more information than Amanda had been able to get since the teen had been in shock and struggling with injuries.

She felt depleted. She found Trevor asleep on the couch, waiting up just as he had promised. She felt thankful that he was there. Ruby greeted her excitedly when she closed the door. Olivia was able to smile at least as she crouched down cuddling the golden doodle tightly, patting her the way that she liked.

She didn't really feel much like talking but she knew she had all but blown Trevor off earlier when all he'd done was try to check in with her emotionally. She went in to the kitchen and turned the hot water jug on so she could make herself some camomile to unwind. While it boiled, she went back to the living room and gently shook Trevor awake.

"Hey…" he looked startled for a second — "what time is it?"

"Almost five," Olivia replied. She usually finished at 3ish, but it'd been a big night and she didn't want to sleep til she was sure that Kaci was out like a light. She suspected the dose of Demerol had been strong enough to make her sleep. She had stroked her hair until she eventually went to sleep— the same way she did for her son when he was unwell. "Sorry I was late…"

"That's okay baby, how are you doing?," he asked as he sat up.

"I'm okay," Olivia answered him smiling weakly. "Big night… you should go to bed. I'm going to just have a cup of tea to unwind and then I'll come to bed."

"Sweetie, let me go make your tea and you get ready for bed…" he suggested.

"That's not really necessary Trevor…"

"Yes it is. Please humour me, let me just … support you, I know that it's hard for you to let go of control, but come on, it's baby steps and this is a baby step."

"K…" she finally agreed, feeling herself caving.

Liv brushed her teeth and climbed in to bed and listened to the sounds of Trevor milling about in the kitchen.

He worried about her and worried about how she seemed to shut down while she was working. He had picked up on it more than once — her ability to become blank - for the light that seemed to leave her eyes and the stone-wall she put up to maintain her brave exterior. He knew about it, he'd been the master of it.

Olivia heard the lights being switched off. He made his way in to her bedroom and circled the bed to the side that she slept on and placed the boiling cup on the nightstand. "Here you go…"

"Thanks Trev…"

He leaned over her and kissed her forehead, smoothing her chestnut locks. "You're welcome sweetie," he replied. He disappeared in to the bathroom to brush his own teeth and to dress down in to his briefs.

He slid in to bed beside her after closing her bedroom door. "Do you want to talk about your night?," he asked as she carefully lifted her mug. "Careful, its going to be really hot."

She blew on the hot liquid a few times before deciding against sipping on it. She rested it on top of the blanket, holding on to the handle. She said nothing but looked in to the tea, trying to organise her thoughts. Having someone there by her side when she was getting in to bed after a particularly hard night at work felt foreign, much less someone by her side who was patiently waiting for her to speak so that he could take the time to really, truly listen, was something new and almost a little overwhelming.

"I'm here…" he urged her in a small voice.

"It was a hard night even if I didn't technically work-"

"You did work, you stayed with a victim because she was scared and needed somebody. You do that all the time, even I know that."

Olivia couldn't hold her tears back. She felt the sting behind her eyes and before she knew it they were sliding down her face. "Its okay," he murmured, using his forefingers to brush them away. "What you walked in to today couldn't have been further from what you were expecting."

She nodded, agreeing with him. "Some nights are just a lot…" she sniffed, wiping her other eye with the back of her hand. "Sorry, I didn't want to get emotional."

"Sweetie, it's okay that you're emotional, I don't care and I'm not judging."

She took her cup and placed it back on the nightstand and turned to him and leaned against his body, wrapping her arms around his torso. "I just feel so sad for her," Olivia uttered. "She is such a sweet girl and she is laying there going over every bit of what happened, over and over and thinking about how she could have prevented it."

"It's not fair," Trevor agreed. "I was thinking about it earlier and normally with kids and abuse, there's warning signs, but with her there was nothing. No bruises, no behavioural issues, no attitude, no bad moods or mood swings— she was masking in a very, very real way."

"I saw cameras and I was so focused on Noah and making her Mom comfortable with the fact that I wasn't there was a cop, just as a Mom that I totally ignored the rest of the red flags, Trev, and maybe if I had of spoken up—"

"You don't think she knew about the cameras?"

Olivia shook her head. "I know what they look like, they were small spy cameras. They'd be motion activated. Kaci already told us that her father wouldn't have been happy with a boy turning up and had to be home by a certain time. It just seems like everything is a control game…"

"Isn't it usually that way in a case of domestic violence?"

"Yeah… he controlled the money, when and where both she and Kaci could go - he played mind games. He withheld resources from them. I found coded messages between Tara and Kaci from a burner phone and a fake contact where every day Kaci was asking her Mom in a coded way what his mood was like. On the days that he was at home and furious, she would advise Kaci to stay at school and do homework."

"When you first investigated the domestic violence call back a few months ago - how did that go? Did he get charged or anything?"

Olivia shook her head, "It goes the way it normally does, she realised she had no resources, no money and nowhere to go and she'd have to go to a woman's shelter and realised what that would mean for Kaci and obviously threats are made, so she was too petrified to go and seek refuge with her parents for fear of what he might do…So she said it was a misunderstanding, dropped the charges and walked out with him."

"That's really sad…"

"If someone doesn't end up dying, it's usually not far off," Olivia told him, "and honestly, if that child loses her mother…" she shook her head, "I don't think she'll know what to do with herself."

Olivia felt Trevor's lips on her temple and closed her eyes, not even bothering to wipe her tears. "How was Noah after I left?," she wondered.

"He was okay, we actually cried but he's worried and he asked me a thousand questions. I actually told him he had to go to bed at midnight but he had trouble settling."

"I'm sorry if he was a handful and I didn't mean to drop the bomb and leave, I kind of put you in it, Trevor, I didn't mean to do that. It was shitty of me as a Mom."

"No, you were in the middle of your shift and I told you, its us now, I was happy to be here for him. He was fine, I know Noah well enough now to know what he responds to when he's upset. He just needed a hug and a bit of a pep talk but he is definitely going to fight you on going to school tomorrow."

"I think I'm gonna keep him home," she admitted. "I'll just say its because of his head, that I'm being extra vigilant but I know he's going to have a tough time facing his friends and talking to them about it."

"Well… I needed him at football training but maybe on Wednesday afternoon, depending on what's going on, I can take him to do some one-on-one training. His confidence might be shaken by those little shits from yesterday anyway."

"Oh yeah…" she swore, "I didn't even let you tell me what happened. Do I need to get Fin to go and scare them? Make them think I'm going to press charges? Because if that's what it takes to get these tiny grown men to leave my kid alone, I will."

"Actually…" Trevor thought, "maybe that would work. I have tried so hard to get the three of them to start acting right. Peter, the one who's the brains behind it all, his parents refuse to see any issues with his behaviour, they think that of course, teachers lie."

Olivia managed a laugh. "Well, I have their names. I'll get Fin on it tomorrow. Maybe it'll be motivation for them to be scared in to acting appropriately. And honestly, they assaulted my kid, that is a crime. I know Noah always acts like its no big deal, but I know it upsets him. He's sensitive."

"He is sensitive and why shouldn't it upset him? I had a bully when I was in school and it plagued me daily until I hated going."

"What did you do about it?"

"I ended up telling my Dad and had me point out the kid and then he went and threatened him," Trevor chuckled. "In hindsight it was so inappropriate, but that kid left me alone and never even looked my way again."

Olivia couldn't help but to laugh either especially when understanding what would happen if someone was threatened by a parent at Noah's school.

"Are you going to go back to sleep?" Olivia asked him.

"Yeah… maybe for an hour or so. I have my first class at second period so I can go in a little bit later and lay here with you until you're able to sleep."

"Thanks Trevor, for not giving up on me even when I'm being difficult to deal with."

"You're not difficult," he replied, "your job is just a lot and you know that and I know that and if this is what we have to do every time you finish a shift, then so be it. I'm here for it. I've signed up. "

"It's not always like this, just sometimes. Nights are harder because everything feels just that extra bit depraved after dark."

"I understand," he replied. "Why don't you just slide down and turn the TV on and put something on." He knew Olivia's pattern of dealing with hard nights — it was exactly as she had told Kaci. She found a comfort show; mostly it was reruns of I Love Lucy or lately she had enjoyed watching episodes of Fraiser. He didn't mind, he slept through a lot and it didn't often take her as long as she thought it might to get to sleep, not with another person beside her rubbing her back or stroking her hair or allowing her to feel safe in his embrace.

Olivia sat up straight and took a mouthful of her tea before slinking down beneath the covers. "Okay, what are we watching tonight? Fraiser or Lucy?"

"Mmmm, let's go with Fraiser again," she gave him a smile. "Thanks Trevor, for indulging my childish sleep routines."

He chuckled and leaned over her and kissed her softly. "Always… and I don't think it's childish. You need to do what you need to do to sleep, my sweetheart."

"Goodnight," she murmured.

"Goodnight. I love you."

"I love you too," she replied as he queued up the TV and set a timer. He set his alarm for 7:30 and slinked down beside her. She lay with her back to him, almost on her chest. He absently caressed her back as he usually did before they slept while he became engrossed in the episode he had pressed play on.

/

"I'm not going to school," Noah kicked his covers as soon as Trevor had woken him up. "I'm staying home with Mom. I don't feel like it."

Trevor sat on the edge of Noah's bed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Noah, I know you're upset, that's totally understandable. I can't tell you if you can stay home or not, but maybe go talk to Mom. She's awake and I'm taking her some tea and something to eat…"

Noah reached up to check his phone and saw that there were no new messages from Kaci and his heart sank. "K," he replied to Trevor. "Are you going to see her today?," he asked.

"I'm going to go across during my break and then I'll go again for an hour or two after practice. I'm pretty sure your Aunt Amanda or Uncle Sonny can come over or something — we'll work it out."

"I wish I could come with you…"

"I wish you could too, kiddo, but Kaci isn't feeling much like having any friends visiting her right now."

"Why are you allowed to go?," Noah challenged him.

"Because I'm a grown up and right now there's an absence of grown ups who can be with her. Her father is going to court today and her grandparents are abroad. It's better for her to have someone with her that she's familiar with."

"Okay," he agreed. He slowly sat up. "I'm gonna go talk to Mom."

"Noah if you're not going to school, you can't come to practice so tomorrow afternoon we're going to practice one-on-one, you got it?"

He stared at Trevor for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that's fair, okay," he agreed, "Mom will probably make me go to school anyway," he sighed heavily, rolling out of bed. Trevor and Ruby followed him as he schlepped down the hall, dragging his feet.

"Can I come in?," he knocked on Olivia's bedroom door - a habit he'd had to get used to. There was an unspoken rule now that if the door was closed, he was not to barge in because there was a good chance he'd see something that would have made him projectile vomit for the rest of his life.

"Of course babe, come on in," Olivia called to him. He opened the door and Ruby rushed past him, her tail wagging, hitting Noah in the leg— she was at least always able to make him smile with her happy, loving need for affection and her will to give it at command. Olivia patted a spot next to her on the bed.

"I think I'll stand," he told her, making a face.

Olivia cocked her head, "Noah, don't be silly," she told him with seriousness. Ruby jumped up beside her where she had just gestured to her son. She smiled, petting her. "Not you, Ru-boo, Noah needs a cuddle, not you, you got your cuddles last night!"

The dog humphed as if she understood. "Come on, down you get," she motioned for Ruby to get off, which she did. Noah took her place and called her back up.

"Noah, you shouldn't do that. It'll confuse her," Olivia told him. Ruby didn't seem to mind, she sidled up to Noah and rested her head on his chest. He smiled at her and leaned forward to kiss her fluffy head. "Babe, you don't have to go to school today if you don't want to."

"Really?" Noah asked, "I thought for sure you would make me go."

"I'm not a monster, jeez…" she sighed, "last night was a big shock for you and also for me and I think that you might need some time to digest what happened and I know how hard it'd be, going to school when you know what happened and having to lie to your friends, so you can tell them that you're not feeling very well or something. I'll text school and we'll probably have to inform them at some stage where Kaci is and what's happened."

"Thanks Mom, I really don't want to face anyone."

"That's understandable, sweetie, I get it."

Trevor let himself in and placed the tea down beside Olivia's bedside, swapping out her half-finished one from the night before. Trevor took a seat on the edge beside his girlfriend. "You guys okay?," he asked gently.

"Yeah…" Liv gave him a weak smile. "We're good, I'm exhausted but alright…"

"Okay, Noah do you want me to get you something?," Trevor asked him.

"No thanks, Trev… I'll get breakfast later."

"I'm just gonna shower and get ready for work. I won't be done til about 5:30 tonight and then I'm gonna go straight over to the hospital and then I'll be back here I guess when Kaci goes to sleep."

"Thanks Trevor, I appreciate you doing this—" Liv told him. "I know it's not your-"

"Stop," he silenced her gently, "I want to, this is really tragic and she needs to know that there are people out there are adults out there who care about her and who are going to be there for her."

Noah's face was getting red with frustration. Trevor knew he was upset with not being allowed to go with him to see her. "Noah, I can see you're upset—do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I just want to see her," he sputtered and with it came tears. "I want to know that she's okay."

"Babe, come here," Olivia opened her arms and gathered up her son. Trevor placed a firm hand on his shoulder, it always centred him, to let him know that someone was being strong for him, but it didn't change his feelings. "I know that you want to see her and you'll be able to, but we need to give her a little bit of time. She's in shock still and she's in a lot of pain and medication and I think if you saw her in the state that she was in right now, you'd be very upset and then that would upset her."

"How does she look?" Noah asked softly, not really considering that her injuries would be quite so severe.

"She looks very sore, babe and it upset me and made me cry so I can't imagine that for you it would be any easier." She thought for a second, "You know what you could do though? I have a little job for you."

"What?"

"Why don't you go on your phone later and find a place to buy some mermaid hair, you know, like that coloured strands that she had in her hair for her birthday, if you find some, you can use my and buy some for me and when Kaci is feeling better, we can fix her hair the way she had it for her birthday to cheer her up."

Noah gave a little smile. "Can I buy her a few things to cheer her up?"

"Okay, but call me before you put it through so I know what I'm up for," she winked at her son.

"Thanks Mom, at least it feels like I'm doing something… I feel helpless and sad. She hasn't answered any of my texts yet."

"Babe, I really don't think she will be up for answering texts for at least the next day or two. She was in a lot of pain last night that the doctor gave her some very strong meds that will likely keep her quite drowsy."

Noah frowned. "So… it's really bad."

"I don't want to lie to you, my sweetheart," Olivia told her son gently, "I want to protect you from some things, but I think in this case, you need to understand that what happened to her and her Mom was …tragic and violent and you need to just be very patient with her."

"Okay," he agreed.

"It must be really tough when you care about your friend so much, Noah, we get that, but I think it'll be nice if you put together a little package for her, I think she'd really like that," Trevor added.

Olivia smiled warmly at her man who was so patient with her son. "And, I can pass on a message for you or read her a text or something if you think of something you'd like to say," he continued.

"Thanks Trev…" Noah replied.

"We love you, kiddo, we are trying to protect you because this is not really a situation that anyone your age should be exposed to," he tried to explain.

"I know, but it just sucks."

Olivia stroked his hair. "I know it sucks, but we have to protect the both of you and also, honor what Kaci has asked."

Noah sighed and in turn Ruby side and pawed at his shoulder gently for some attention. Noah couldn't help but smile, turning his head to look at the pampered pooch. "I love you Ruby," he smiled, allowing the dog to lick his cheek.

Olivia and Trevor both made a face. "Yuck, don't let her do that, Noah, that's gross."

He chuckled.

"Okay, I'm getting ready to go. I'll let you guys know when I'm on my way out."

Rather than showering in Olivia's ensuite, Trevor grabbed a towel and his clothes and went down the hall to shower in Noah's bathroom.

/

"Okay, which way do you want to play this?," Fin asked Amanda as he perched his fist ready to knock on the door.

"I don't think I can pretend to be anything but pissed-off aunt, ready to bring this little jack-ass in for interrogation and lock him up for the night for messing with a kid half his size."

Fin cocked his head and gave her an impatient look. "Fine, we go in, we tell this little bully that he could potentially be slapped with an assault charge or an inciting hatred and violence charge."

"Is that legal?" Amanda asked.

Fin just shrugged and gave her a little smirk as he knocked on the door.

There was some commotion before someone opened the door finally. "Hi?" A large, tall man — not quite as tall as Trevor, but around 6'3, stood quizzical. Fin flashed his pocketbook badge at the man. "Hi, are you Mr. Blasko?"

"I am, is everything okay?"

"Everyone is okay today, sir, we're just here in relation to an assault involving your son, Peter. Is Peter home at the moment? It would be great if we could have a little chat."

He seemed confused, "Peter was assaulted? What happened to him?" He turned behind him and bellowed out to his son, making Amanda wince.

"Your son wasn't assaulted, sir, your son was involved in the assault that took place."

He sighed, "I suppose you better come in," he let the detectives in as Peter appeared from a room. He was tall too, taller than both Fin and Amanda but not quite as tall as his father. "You!," he pointed at his son, "I warned you to stop doing stupid shit, come with me…"

Looking a little bewildered, he followed his father to the kitchen. "Take a seat," he told the detectives and pulled out a seat for his son, "you, sit."

"What happened?," he asked the detectives.

"Sorry, I don't think we caught your name?" Fin asked, looking at Peter's father as he took his pocket notebook out to take some notes.

"Jim, J-ames actually, James Blasko."

"Jim? Is that what you prefer?," Fin confirmed. The father nodded.

He looked at his son, "your mother isn't home to argue you out of trouble, kid, you're shit out of luck."

"Okay let's just start with the basics," Amanda held up her hand, "it's my understanding, Peter, that you purposely took one of your teammates, Noah Benson, belongings, a shoe or a shirt and then tripped him over when he went to retrieve it a few months back, causing him to fall flat, it gave him a blood nose and he dropped a brand new phone which smashed."

"What?!" Peter made a face, "this so stupid, we were just messing around — it was months ago."

His father went to interject but Amanda was angry, "Listen," she opened her phone and scrolled through until she found the photos that Trevor had taken and slid the phone impatiently in front of the father and son, "this is not just horsing around, look at this kid's face, that's immediately after it happened." She slid her finger along the screen to show the photo of Noah's face the next day — the panda eyes from the bruising. "And this… you're lucky you didn't break his nose. He is half of your size! This is not a joke."

"You really did this?" Jim asked his son, "are you kidding me? I defended you when your coach benched you — was this what that was about?"

Peter said nothing.

"Since then, you've pushed Noah in to lockers, you've taken his things and messed about with him-"

"Peter this boy is your teammate, I didn't teach you to be nasty like this. What the hell?," he was furious with his son.

"Sorry, Dad," he murmured.

"Don't you dare be sorry to me, what about this kid? You're going to apologise to him."

"Well actually, that's not all. Yesterday morning Peter, Ryan and a boy called Blake Brinkley, all of whom we'll be visiting, decided to assault Noah again. Two witnesses say that Blake was put up to it by Peter to avoid his coach benching him for his behaviour again. Noah was pushed in to a locker so hard that he hit his head and his shoulder on the corner of the locker and had to be sent home with the school's hardline approach to head injuries."

Jim covered his face and shook his head. "Why would you do that, Peter? Why are you targeting this kid? Look at him, he looks half of your size!"

"Because he shouldn't be on the team!" Peter frowned but looked shaken by the police presence. "The only reason why the police are here is cos his Mom is the Captain of sex crimes."

Jim laughed out of sheer frustration. "Wait, let me get this straight — you're jealous of a kid on your team, half your size and full well knowing that his mother is a police captain, you decided to go and assault him anyway!?"

"It isn't assault, he was fine-"

"Uh, the law defines assault not you and your friends, pal, and let me tell you, you not only assaulted Noah Benson, but you are also responsible for destroying his property and you're very lucky that his mother decided not to take it further but to just go and buy her son a new phone without any fanfare because she was under the impression that the coach's punishment would stop your behaviour. If Noah had a concussion or any number of other head injuries, you'd be in that station being interrogated like the big man you think you are."

"We ain't messing about, kiddo," Fin told him, "Mrs. Benson still is choosing not to press charges and you might be thankful for her gracefulness about this, but you will stop targeting Noah Benson and anyone else for that matter or next time we visit you, you'll be accompanying us to the station, is that clear?"

He nodded.

"The officer spoke to you, you answer him properly," Jim was a mix of embarrassed and furious with his son.

"Yes sir," Peter replied.

"Good, I'm glad we're straight. I sincerely hope I don't have to make a second trip here."

"I would like to point out that Noah Benson is a really good kid who has been trying to keep all this from his Mom for months," she smiled sardonically at the smart-aleck teen, "so I guess you probably would have continued to get away with it all if you hadn't have been so threatened by Noah that it pushed you to assault him."

Jim stared his son down with disappointment. "Go to your room, Peter and you better collect all your damn devices and video games and have them out on the dining table for me in 15 minutes along with your homework, because your life is about to get incredibly boring."

Peter got up, his head hung low, making his way to his bedroom.

"Did the police captain's mother put you guys up to this?"

"No," Fin replied, "we don't take intentional head injuries lightly," he told the father. "But, hopefully this will scare your son out of bullying any other kids. If he keeps this up, his coach is going to be expelling him from the team because he's been continually warned as has Ryan Archer. We'll be going there next."

"Thank you for not pressing charges."

"If it were my decision he'd be in the precinct right now," Amanda replied, "because if someone laid a hand on one of my own kids, I'd want them to be accountable. I know you'll understand that feeling, Mr. Blasko."

"Yes, you're right… I do," he acquiesced.

"Thank you for your time," Fin told the father, getting up, pushing his chair back with a scrape against the tiles.

They let themselves out and waited til they were a safe distance from the block before Fin began to laugh, "you were so hard on that kid," he laughed, "he looked like he was about to shit his pants."

"Good," Amanda replied, "after what happened to Noah's girlfriend and how hard he was knocked yesterday, they should be scared. Let's go to this Ryan's place. The only one who doesn't apparently have a pattern of being a shitty bully is this Blake kid, maybe we'll go soft on him." Amanda shrugged, "well, we'll see how we go."

/

Trevor walked in to Kaci's room quietly. "Hey…" he greeted her, pulling the curtain back a little. The small girl turned to see who the voice belonged to. Trevor almost gasped when he saw her face; a feeling of distress washed over him. It was hard enough walking in to a hospital; something he just had to get past since his stay— since Lana. He tried not to lose any composure but there was something so familiar about the state of her bruising, the swelling, the marks all down her arms. He took a slow breath inward, careful to not give away his feeling of dismay. "I hope you don't mind me being here, I promised Olivia and Noah that I'd come and check in on you."

"Its okay," she murmured. "Olivia trusts you."

He offered her a little smile. She had Noah's iPad upright in front of her on the table playing a TV show; a cartoon, but she wasn't watching. "Olivia tells me that you were in a lot of pain last night, how do you think your pain feels today?"

"It hurts to eat," she replied, "to move my mouth."

"I can imagine," he glanced down at the untouched dinner. "What if I asked to get you some soup, would you like to try eating some soup? At least you're getting something in your tummy."

"I don't know… I'm not hungry."

"Maybe before I leave we could try," he suggested. "I'm just here to sit with you, honey, okay? So if you want to just lay there in silence or watching the iPad, that's totally fine with me."

"You don't have to stay, I know its awkward for you."

"Nope," he smiled, "it's not awkward for me at all. I don't have to stay, you're right, but I want to stay and keep you company, I know a thing or two about being in a hospital for days all on my own when I'm desperately sad over something that happened to someone that I love."

Kaci listened to him and was frustrated with herself when she immediately began to cry. She had no hold over her own emotions and she really didn't want to cry in front of her teacher. "Why were you in hospital?," she asked, ignoring her own tears.

Trevor felt his own eyes prickling, feeling akin to the teen for all the emotions she would have been experiencing not knowing what was to be the fate of her mother. "I don't tell many people this, but something bad happened to somebody I loved and I got so upset that it made me sick and I needed to go to the hospital and I didn't want anybody to see me or talk to me or even come anywhere near me because I felt like I was to blame…"

"That's how I feel, I'm to blame."

He pulled a chair close and sat down beside her bed, not wanting to stand over her, foreboding. "Oh, but sweetie, it's not your fault and you are not to blame," he replied, "and if I could talk to myself back then, I'd tell Trevor the same thing. It's just a set of ugly circumstances or choices that someone else made for you."

He grabbed her tiny hand. "I promise you, this is not your fault."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry," she apologised.

Trevor gave her a soft smile. "You can cry as much as you need to cry, I'm not scared of tears and guess what? I'm an emotional guy, I might cry too. But that's okay, tears are good, they help heal us."

"Okay," the girl nodded, looking at Trevor, sharing understanding. He watched the hot tears slide from her eyes, her left eye almost swollen completely shut. It was a lot for him to take in - the kind of hatred it would take a person to harm her — any child. "Its okay," he whispered. "I get it," he told her.

His own eyes were glassing over and he found himself wiping a stray tear away and blinking back the rest, wanting to be strong for her. "I'm sure that deep within her, somewhere, your Mom knows that her daughter needs her and she will fight for you, Kaci, I promise."

"I just want her to be okay," her voice whimpered as let go of a few sobs, "I want to see her so bad and give her a cuddle and tell her I'm sorry," he could barely understand her through her sobs.

The nurse came in to the room and frowned, feeling terrible for the little girl too. "Would you like to hug me?" Trevor offered, grateful that the nurse had walked in, he knew better than to show any child affection without consent, and even better if there was another person in the room.

She couldn't answer through her tears but he picked up on Kaci's nodding; her face crumpling with fresh tears. He stood up, trying to be very careful of her injuries and mindful of the ones that Olivia told him about. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, her body was so tiny, it felt like hugging his eldest niece; she was fragile and inconsolable. He felt her hands at the back of his shirt, gripping him tightly as she cried against him, leaning the right side of her face agains this chest, minding her opposite side.

"It's okay, get it out of your system…" he soothed her. The nurse meandered around, wanting to take Kaci's vitals and question her pain and decide whether or not to administer another mild sedative and strong pain killers.

Trevor stood for what felt like a short while in an awkward position, letting her get all her tears out of the way. Eventually, she loosened her grip and Trevor created a little distance. He looked at her and and gently let go. She sat back against the slightly upright bed.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt," the nurse spoke, "did you say you were Trevor?," she questioned him. He nodded. "Yes, I'm detective Benson's partner. She's on shift tonight and the other detectives were busy with other work — we chose to not leave Kaci on her own."

"That's so kind of you," she gave him a smile.

Trevor smiled back and said nothing. He turned to Kaci, "feel a tiny bit better?"

She shrugged. "Don't worry," Trevor told her, "it takes a little while before the tears begin to heal."

The nurse examined her face and measured her pain and promised to be back after speaking with the doctor. In the meantime, Trevor managed to hunt down someone to bring her some soup from the kitchen and Olivia had asked him to make sure he bought her a soda or a juice.

He helped her with her soup and she washed it down with a little bit of Pepsi. He felt satisfied that she had at least attempted eating. He checked his phone and just as he knew there would be, there was a text from Noah. Please tell Kaci that I am really sad that she's in hospital and that I can't visit but tell her when I do see her I'm going to give her the biggest hug and I really hope she and her Mom get better soon.

He relayed the appropriate parts of the message to Kaci who smiled faintly. "Tell him when I feel better I'll text him can you please say thanks for his iPad."

"Of course," Trevor smiled. He tapped back a reply and put his phone away just as the nurse came back with another.

"We're going to give you some pain meds again, Kaci, okay? You might feel sleepy like last night."

"Okay," she replied.

They cross checked the medication before administering it. "Don't forget to hit your nurse call button if you feel weird, or nauseous or need to ask any questions, that's what we're here for, okay?"

"Okay," she repeated herself.

Once they had gone she turned as slight as she could without hurting her ribs. "Trevor, could you please put Disney on? I want to watch New Girl."

"Of course," he took the iPad and played around with it for a few moments before putting it back and pressing play.

"I dropped my stuffy on the floor earlier and the doctor put him in that cupboard," she eyed a cupboard in the corner, "could you please get him?"

Without a word Trevor got up and pulled out a cute, well-loved dinosaur toy. It was endearing to him just how cosy she got, wrapping her arm around her toy. "There you go, sweetie."

"Thanks… don't tell Noah I still have a stuffy," she said quickly.

Trevor smiled, "your secret is safe," he thought about how Noah's own childhood toy didn't go unnoticed. It had been in his bed every time he'd gone in to his room to wake him up or urge him to bed.

Trevor turned the lights off and pulled out his own iPad from his work satchel and began to mark papers. He turned to Kaci, "you just tell me if you need or want anything okay?"

"K…" she replied in a tiny voice.

He became absorbed in the pile of economics essays from his 10th graders and when he looked up, Kaci was already asleep. He sat a little longer and finished what he was doing until a nurse came to check in. "Does she wake often?," he wondered.

"No, not really, we've been giving her a sedative to sleep along with her pain meds, she really just can't sleep without it. You're safe to go, she might wake up in the early hours to use the bathroom or something but aside from that, she'll go right back to sleep."

"Okay, thanks… how's Mom going?"

"We'll have more answers tomorrow, hopefully."

Trevor nodded. The nurse smiled at him, "thanks for keeping her company, she really is struggling being alone, but you guys are all doing her a solid being with her as much as you can."

"Thanks, we're trying…"

The nurse left him to it. He packed his things and paused, standing over her, making sure she was really asleep. He let out a sigh, feeling his shoulder's slump as the feeling of distress overtook him again. How the fuck could anyone do this?

He got back to his car finally. He couldn't wait to get back to Olivia's apartment and take 20 minutes for himself to have a shower and wash off the awful feelings that kept consuming him in waves— like grief that wasn't quite ready to surface.

He hoped for her sake her mother woke up soon, he knew he wouldn't handle it well if something happened to her mother, so he could only imagine what that would do to her the teen.