Chapter 27 –

Emily reached across and gently tapped Kate on the shoulder, both of them had remained quiet since Mary had sobbed herself to sleep but they had been sitting together watching Star Wars on Kate's iPad until Emily had spotted Dave walking towards them. Kate grinned and passed the tablet to her mom before she crept out of the room and hugged her dad warmly.

"Hello munchkin, how are things in there?"

Dave nodded at the room and saw that Mary was still sleeping.

"Mary cried herself to sleep."

"Are you ok?"

Dave frowned as he looked at his daughter, he knew that Mary's ordeal was bringing bad memories back to the fore but that was also the reason why Kate had urged Dave and Emily to help Mary.

"Yeah, it was hard seeing mom holding Mary as she cried earlier, I guess that was how I reacted afterwards too."

Dave sighed, for a moment lost for words, he leant in and held Kate tightly.

"How about you and I go and get ourselves a cup of coffee?"

Peering over Kate's shoulder as he spoke Dave noticed that Emily had moved closer to the bed, a sign that Mary was stirring and he thought that it would be advantageous to leave the two of them alone to talk.

"Yeah that sounds good."

Kate smiled and linked arms with her dad as the two of them walked off in search of the cafeteria.

Emily had turned the iPad off as soon as Kate had left the room, glancing occasionally out at Dave and Kate but mainly keeping her concentration on Mary and it wasn't long before she noticed a glimmer of movement and quickly Emily edged closer to the bed.

"Mary?"

Emily spoke quietly as she reached over and put her hand on top of Mary's but Mary quickly moved hers away as she opened her eyes, staring briefly at Emily before she turned away and closed her eyes once again.

"It's ok Mary, come on look at me."

Emily kept her voice soft as her persistence paid off and Mary turned to look at her.

"Sorry."

"Sweetie you have got nothing to be sorry about."

"But I tried to..."

"Shh."

Emily smiled softly as she reached across and took a hold of Mary's hand, Mary closed her eyes and tried to withdraw but Emily persisted and refused to let go.

"You don't have to be strong around me Mary, you're not on the streets anymore, the man who hurt you so badly is dead, and you're safe here."

Mary opened her eyes, allowing a couple of tears to escape as she looked at Emily.

"He's dead?"

"Yes Mary he is dead."

Emily frowned slightly as she replied, watching Mary breathe a sigh of relief before she closed her eyes once again.

"I don't understand Emily."

Mary spoke with her eyes still clasped shut but Emily could feel that her hand had relaxed slightly and knew that she was slowly making a breakthrough.

"What don't you understand Mary?"

"Why you are here."

Mary opened her eyes as she spoke and watched as Emily prepared to speak but now that Mary had garnered some confidence she wasn't going to stop.

"Agent Blake, Alex, said that you aren't going to arrest me, even if you were it's not as if I'm in any fit state to go anywhere."

Emily patted Mary's hand softly as she listened, this was the tough street kid attitude that she had been expecting.

"I'm here as I want to help you Mary, you experienced a pretty awful ordeal and you don't deserve to be left alone to deal with it."

Mary nodded her head but then Emily felt Mary's fingers wrap around her hand and she squeezed it tightly.

"It's going to get better Mary, I promise you."

Emily smiled as she watched Mary drift off to sleep once again, unsurprised given the amount of healing that her body needed to do.

Dave felt his cell vibrate as he and Kate walked back towards Mary's room but he had a cup of coffee in each of his hands so he had to wait until they were in the room, entering quietly as they saw that Mary was asleep.

"Oh brilliant, thanks!"

Emily whispered as she gratefully accepted the coffee from Dave as Kate sat down and looked at her mom while Dave checked his cell.

"How did it go?"

"Slowly but she is definitely opening up more for me, Dave is everything ok?"

Dave lifted his head up and nodded.

"Yeah that was an email from Garcia."

"Ok, Kate?"

"I'll stay here mom."

Emily smiled and kissed Kate on her head before she and Dave took their coffee and went out to find a quiet corner where they could talk. It didn't take them long as they sat down on a couple of plastic chairs near the nurses' station.

"What did the doctor say?"

Emily looked expectedly at Dave as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Most of it we knew already, malnourished from living on the streets although no signs or traces of drug use, they also did a rape kit."

Dave let the words hang in the air as he stared at his coffee.

"I haven't even broached that subject with her yet."

"It's only early days yet Em."

"What did Garcia find out?"

Dave nodded his head as he remembered their conversation in the house earlier that morning, after agreeing that they would help Mary they had also agreed that they needed to know that there were no other living relatives available to take her in and there was only one person they could ask to do that task.

"Mary's father died two years ago of bowel cancer, there were no other living relatives nearby for her to go to so she got sent to a group home but ran away from there three months later."

"Her mom?"

"Died in prison five years ago, she got a hold of some heroin and died of an overdose, though she never had any contact with Mary."

"So there is nobody?"

"No, no grandparents, no aunts or uncles, even cousins."

Emily shook her head as she thought of the loneliness that Mary must have felt on the streets with no family to turn to.

"Do you want me to get in contact with Frankie?"

Dave raised an eyebrow as he spoke, Frankie was their lawyer and a family friend.

"Yes please, when Mary next wakes up I'll broach the subject of moving in with us."

Emily smiled as she spoke, watching Dave nod in approval before the two of them quietly entered the room and waited patiently with Kate for Mary to wake once again.