Ruby followed El into the park where they were out in a more open space. El had found a bench to sit on and Ruby joined her. It hurt Ruby that El hadn't gotten the justice that they were still fighting for, and the fact that Max Tyler was still free to torment her made Ruby feel physically sick.

No one was suffering more than El thought. She was being called a liar by the law and by the perpetrator of the sexual assault against her. There had been some dark days, El would never deny that, but most days she felt incredibly alone. Of course, she understood why Kate and Jo took things into their own hands, she just wished they hadn't because every day was absolute torture. Now here she was trying to fight off a panic attack and a seizure because of the stress of seeing him again.

'When do I get peace Ruby?' El gasped, her hands shaking vehemently. The fear in her was like nothing Ruby had ever seen before. She had seen El scared, but not like this, 'He…He is still out here…M…Making up stories about me. I didn't want him to have sex with me, I didn't want any of it.'

'I know.' Ruby said softly, 'We all do. Liv, mum and your mum have all been trying hard to get a conviction for the second time.' She was trying to make El see that there was a bright side coming, she just needed El to see it. Gently, she grabbed El's hand and met her gaze and spoke just as gently to her, 'This man won't win. No matter how bleak all of this looks and has looked to you for a while, you will get justice.'

'Double jeopardy states that someone can't be tried for the same crime twice.' El ground out. The conflict in her gut was unlike anything she had ever felt before. In her mind, Max had won, and would always win.

'If it's the same single crime! He did this twice El.' Ruby said to her, 'He won't get away with this.'

'He has.' El admitted defeat, 'He has won, and he knows that.' She saw Kate and Olivia approaching, 'I think we should get home…I can't stand being here.' She got to her feet and approached Olivia and Kate, uttering beneath her breath, 'Everywhere I go, he will always find me. My hell won't end.'

Ruby shared a look with Kate as she approached her. It was clear that everything had become far from perfect once again. It was soul crushing but she knew that Olivia wasn't going to give up on her, it was just going to take a little longer than they thought.

…

The car ride home was incredibly quiet, Kate was resting her elbow on the car door, leaning on her arm. Her thoughts were racing around her head. She couldn't dish out her own justice like she had wanted, and this criminal was terrorizing her sister. If she had killed him, El would have been living the life she wanted by now. The woman she had fallen in love with was a police officer that took her job seriously both at home and abroad, so if she was going to take justice into her own hands again, she too would get in trouble. Olivia kept Kate in check, and Kate was very well aware of that fact. Most of the time, she was thankful for it. In this situation, it was a necessary evil.

Olivia had picked up on Kate's mood and chose not to say anything whilst El and Ruby were present in the back of the car. If anything, Olivia had more questions for Kate than she had answers. The fact that "alienness" was being brought up all the time was starting to become incredibly suspicious. Of course, Olivia didn't believe that aliens existed, nor that she was sitting in a car with three of them, but she believed it was some sort of joke about her identity and where she was truly from. If she was not British, and born abroad, Olivia was asking herself why Kate would keep her identity so secret.

Ruby was feeling troubled too. El was spiraling and she feared for even her own safety now. This prompted some unwanted feelings inside her gut, and what she was thinking just came out. Vocalizing exactly what she was feeling, 'Mum?' Her voice shook unexpectedly.

Kate glanced up into the rear mirror to look at Ruby, 'Yeah? What's up Rubes?'

Ruby couldn't help her stammer, 'I…I..I.' She cleared her throat, 'I think I'm going to go to Carla's for a bit…I just…' She stammered. Trying to find a reason without feeling like she was betraying her newfound family was incredibly hard, 'I just…'

El looked at her like she had grown another head. Sometimes El struggled with communication, but it was clear what was happening here, 'You're leaving because you can't handle everything? Why did you even bother being a part of this family if you can't pull through all of this with us? Is that what you do when it gets hard, do you just run?'

Kate understood where El was coming from, she just found that it was incredibly harsh, 'El, that's not what's happening here. Carla was her mother way before I was, if she wants to go and see her for a bit, that's all. It's nothing against you.'

Ruby was horrified that El even thought that and clambered for an explanation, 'I…El, no! I'm not going because things are hard, I just need some time to get my own head together, and to see my mates down south as well.'

'So you're leaving then?' El sneered, 'It's alright Ruby, everyone leaves me because I'm a monster. I get it.'

Olivia was incredibly confused, 'You think you're a monster? Why on Earth would you think that?'

El was incredibly hurt right now, lashing out was her way of coping. Whatever El's response would be to that question terrified Kate. Still, El glared at Olivia, 'Because I'm capable of things that even your human brain wouldn't understand!'

Olivia was at a loss for words. She looked at Kate for an explanation, and Kate was stuck for one. She and Olivia exchanged looks and Kate appeared clueless. The arguments would only get worse when El decided to take things further. She took off her seatbelt and sat forward, aiming her argument towards Kate, 'Why can't you do anything right?'

Kate was stunned, 'I'm sorry? What?!' She looked over her shoulder and saw that El was closer to her now, 'Put your seatbelt on!'

El refused to listen, 'No. I want to know why you always decide what justice looks like. If we had just gone through the correct channels maybe I wouldn't still be in this position.'

'El-' Kate was stuck for an answer, 'I've said sorry, how many more times can I say it to you?!'

'BECAUSE YOU NEVER MEAN IT! YOU AND MOM TOOK WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY DECISION INTO YOUR HANDS AND NOW HE IS STILL OUT THERE! HE WON'T EVER LEAVE ME ALONE AND THAT'S ON YOU!' El's anger was incredibly clear, 'YOU KILLED THAT ONE GUY, THAT GUY THAT DID SOMETHING AGAINST YOU! THAT'S OKAY WHEN IT'S FIGHTING FOR YOU, BUT ME?! I NEVER ASKED YOU TO!'

Now Kate had had enough and she slammed her hands on the steering wheel, 'ALL I EVER DID AND DO IS IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF EVERYONE IN THIS FUCKING FAMILY, YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU CAN LEAVE!'

El lowered her voice now, glaring at her, 'Is that what you said when you dropped the atom bomb on those people? It was in their best interests?'

Olivia was now incredibly confused, 'I'm sorry, what?'

El ignored Olivia and carried on tormenting Kate, 'Where else have you committed genocide and argued that it was done in their best interests?' She then lowered her voice and angrily snarled at her, 'You are nothing but a big bully and a coward that can never do the right thing.'

Kate swallowed the lump in her throat and glanced back at El. Thoughts now surged through her mind. She was questioning everything she had ever thought she had done right. Of course, she regretted the mass genocide that she committed and she never lived it down. She knew El was angry and upset, but dragging the past up with a human in the car who didn't know half the story was just awful, but then El said something that made Kate turn her head.

Through the red vision of her anger, El sneered, 'I wonder what Isabella would think?'

It was like a pin dropped. Kate snapped her head around, and grabbed a hold of El by her shirt. Now Kate was seeing red, she forgot about everything else. Anger burned in her gut as she met El's gaze. The sneer was like something Olivia had never heard out of anyone before, 'Say her name again, I swear to God El. I only ever do things in your best interests, so do not throw her name in my face!'

'MUM!' Ruby shouted as she saw the truck in front of them. Going down the motorway and 70mph, Kate was distracted with her argument with El. Olivia looked ahead of them after hearing Ruby's anguished shout. Shock and the realization that they were about to crash hadn't hit her, it didn't have time to. By the time Kate looked ahead of her, she slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The force of hitting the truck and the impact would soon become clear.

The car smashed into the back of the lorry that was stationary, part of the front of the bonnet crumpled into a compact mess. Ruby had been saved by her seatbelt, her face cut by the impact of airbags. Kate's legs had just escaped being crushed, as did Olivia's. Both women in the front were knocked unconscious by the impact, but we're otherwise okay, minus a few cuts and bruises caused by the glass from the windshield shattering.

El had been thrown so far forward that she was now lying chest down on the bonnet surrounded by shards of glass. The impact and the fact that she had not worn her seatbelt meant that she went straight through the windshield. Unlike the others, El had internal bleeding, a few crushed ribs and a lung that had been ruptured and was slowly filling with blood. This could not have been more critical.

Behind them, Max Tyler had been following in his car. He immediately got out and ran to the car. He had plans with El, but seeing the mess of her on the bonnet of the car, he thought better of it. Another commuter had gotten out of their car and called for an ambulance and police. He saw that Kate and Ruby, along with Olivia, were all unconscious. When he tried to get Olivia out of the car, he explained to the commuter that Olivia was his wife and that he was going to get her to the hospital quickly. With no reason to believe otherwise, the commuters allowed Max to get Olivia into his car. The exit was about a couple of cars away, he snaked his way through the traffic with Olivia beside him in the passenger seat.

What he would do, he would prove how much lower he could sink.

….

It was another fifteen minutes until Kate regained consciousness. El had already been taken to hospital with blue lights and sirens. She was the most critical patient and she was prioritized over Ruby and Kate. When Kate opened her eyes, everything was a blur and noise. It was so loud that she had a splitting headache. Her thoughts were incredibly clouded, and seeing the paramedics in front of her was extremely confusing, but that's when she looked around the car, seeing the air bags deployed and the windscreen almost completely shattered. Lazily her head dropped back to her side of the car where paramedics and on site doctors were trying to talk to her and gauge how she was feeling. They'd already been monitoring her heart rate and blood pressure. Much to their confusion, the two hearts were like something they'd never seen before, but they took care of her like every other patient.

'Can you hear me? Kate?' One of the male doctors asked her. Immediately, Kate assumed that Ruby, Olivia or El had told them her name. Simply, she nodded, 'Yeah…I can hear you.'

'Are you feeling any pain that we should be aware of?'

Kate shook her head, 'Where's my kids? Nevermind me, where are my kids and Olivia?'

'Your children are being taken care of Kate. We are looking after you.'

Kate immediately tried to get up, hissing in agony as she did so. It became evident that she had probably broken a rib or two.

'Kate, stay there for us.'

Ignoring their better judgment, Kate took off the wires that were monitoring her heartbeat and she pushed herself through them. Blood from a cut on her face had trickled down her face to her shirt and she was a bit bruised. There was a little nausea too as she stumbled to a nearby ambulance. For the minute, Kate couldn't remember what had happened. The moments before the crash were an absolute blur.

Spotting Ruby sitting in the back of an ambulance, Kate made her way there, only to be stopped by some road traffic police officers, 'Kate? Kate Fleming?'

Kate shrugged them off, 'Get DCS Carmichael on the phone. I'm not answering your questions right now.'

One of the officers looked extremely dismayed. By this point, every local force in the area knew who she was and how incredibly stubborn she was. Still, the officer continued, 'Kate, Carmichael is already on her way, but we need to ask you-'

Kate stopped and glared at him, 'I have to check on my daughter, is that a problem officer?! Quite frankly, I have far too much going on. I can deal with you later!' A new wave of nausea hit Kate and she stumbled to a crash barrier where she threw up over the side. All of the paramedics were concerned and tried to get her to come and get treatment in the back of an ambulance.

Moments later a silver car pulled up and Carmichael got out. By this point, she had been briefed on what had happened. She knew just how critical El was in hospital and she also knew that Olivia had gone missing. Her main priority was to get Kate to have treatment. Paying no mind to the condition of the now smashed up motor, Carmichael rushed over to Kate and grabbed a hold of her arm as she fought off paramedics, 'Kate! Kate! You need to tell me what happened here and you need to get treatment.'

Understandably, Kate was incredibly disoriented and confused as to what happened. The shock and adrenaline was running through her veins. Even Carmichael knew that adrenaline quickly ran out.

'I don't know what happened.' Kate said to her, 'I can't remember what happened!' It was only a matter of time until she did remember and that's what frightened her at this point, both Carmichael and Kate were terrified of what it would mean when she remembered.

'It's okay that you don't, but you need to be seen to in case you have any internal bleeding.' Carmichael tried to be firm, but this was a sight unlike any other. It hit Carmichael at that moment, she didn't know who Kate's next of kin was. If it was Jo, she was going to get a horrific phone call.

'I can regenerate my injuries.' Kate brushed off, while heading to Ruby's ambulance. When she reached it, she saw that she was sitting on the step in the back. Her injuries were minor scrapes. Ruby already knew what had happened to El. When she came to, she saw her niece laying on the bonnet, clearly conscious and wheezing for breath. It was horrific and a sight she wouldn't forget any time soon.

Seeing Kate heading towards her merely filled her with dread.

'Is your sister in one of these ambulances?' Kate asked her as she stumbled over, 'Where is she Ruby?'

Carmichael tried to get between them, but she knew how hard that was going to be. Still, she put herself between them, 'Kate, El has gone to the hospital. Her injuries were a little more than what you and Ruby have.'

Kate looked between them, confusion hitting her. Going by the looks on their faces, it didn't take long for the penny to drop. Her face pale once more, 'How bad?'

Carmichael had to be both friend and police officer now, 'What do you remember before the accident? Ruby can't tell you, I need for you to remember yourself.'

'Are you being my mate or a police officer?' Kate hissed, 'I can't remember!'

'What about your day, what were you doing?'

'We were…' Kate was so confused, 'We were having a picnic…We were on our way home because Max Tyler showed his face…' The ringing in her head and ears wasn't helping. There was something else her subconscious was blocking. For Ruby, watching her mother go through this turmoil was incredibly difficult. Ruby remembered everything now that much of the shock had worn off.

Kate was troubling her mind to try and get the thoughts out. There was a moment where she paused. It had hit her. The moment it did, Carmichael and Ruby saw it in her face. Her actions were going to be incredibly unpredictable, and this is what they had to prepare themselves for.

'El and I got into an argument about something…Her…She…She…' Kate was struggling, but the penny dropped, 'She took off her seatbelt and sat forward. I snapped, grabbed a hold of her, and I took my eyes off the road…'

The horrible realization hit her. She looked over at the car and saw the gaping hole in the windshield. A new wave of nausea of denial now hit her, 'Oh no…Tell me she didn't…Tell me…'

Carmichael had to be the police officer here, 'You were travelling at 70 miles per hour. Your car made impact with the truck and because El wasn't wearing her seatbelt…Kate I am so sorry, but upon impact, El went through the window. Right now she is in hospital in an extremely critical condition fighting for her life. Right now she is having surgery to save her life. That's all I have.'

'Jesus!' Kate gasped, 'This isn't happening!' The shock was coming in waves, 'She's going to live, she's got to live.' Tears streamed down her face now. Never had Kate wanted to pray more, 'She has got to live.'

Carmichael sighed and walked closer to her, 'Kate, you do realise that you have just admitted to causing an accident through due care and attention, putting lives at risk?'

'You're not arresting me. I'm seeing her first, don't you dare!'

Carmichael took a breath. As much as she didn't want to, she had a job to do, 'Kate Fleming, I'm arresting you for driving with due care and attention, careless driving and endangerment of life. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention, when questioned something which you may later rely on in court.' She continued softly, 'Kate, so you understand what I'm saying to you?'

Sadly, Kate knew exactly what was being said to her. All she could think about was the fact that El could be dying because she couldn't keep her anger in check. When she looked back at Ruby, she felt nothing but guilt and shame. With a look of sadness in her face, Kate looked back at Ruby and simply said to her, 'I'm sorry.'

Among all the shock, Kate realized something, 'Olivia, where is she?'

'I will tell you when we are at the station.' Carmichael said firmly. She couldn't have Kate losing it before she had even gotten into custody, 'Now turn around please. I will need to breathalyze you as is procedure. I do have to ask, who is El's next of kin?'

'I am.' Kate replied quickly, 'And Jo is still mine, I haven't had the chance to change it yet. '

'That's all I needed to know. Come on, let's get you to the station.' Carmichael said quietly as she clicked the handcuffs on Kate's wrists. She knew now that Kate probably had very little chance of being a police officer again and it both saddened and disappointed her to no end. She could have done with someone like Kate on her force again, but that more than likely wouldn't happen now because of the same reason she went to New York to begin with, lack of controlling her anger.

Ruby was terrified for El and Olivia. She knew that Olivia had been taken, and she knew just how bad things really were for El.

She could only pray for a miracle.