Hello IPS fans! I hope there are some of you still out there - and that you are still interested in the continuing story of Sadie. This story takes place 6 yrs after Paper Stars, Paper Hearts ends (not counting the epilogue). I'm rating this one M as well - cautiously, for violence against minors, just like the first one. Keep a tissue handy right from the beginning - this one hurts. But fear not, I'm a firm believer in happy endings :)

Disclaimer: I don't own nothin' except the plot and the original characters that appear within this story.

"Trust is like a vase-

Once it's broken,

Though you can fix it,

The vase will never be the same again."

-Author unknown

Trust was something that had always come easily for Marshall (Mann) Fielding – which was ironic given the fact that most of his career had been spent in Witness Protection. He had seen the worst side of humanity and yet he still believed that people were inherently good and for the most part, trustworthy.

All that had changed the day he had made a promise to protect a little girl named Sadie. It wasn't the first time he'd made such a promise. Marshall often got stuck with the single parents because his partner did not deal well with children while Stan often referred to him as a natural. But he had had no idea at the time he made that promise that he was opening Pandora's Box – that his promise would change not only his life, but his partner's life forever.

And yet, as Marshall bent down to place a kiss on the top of Sadie's head as she slept, he couldn't exactly say he was sorry. He regretted the trauma and the invisible scars that Sadie would carry for a lifetime. He regretted the fact that his parents thought he was dead and that Mary had had to leave her family behind. And he regretted the fact that he now looked at every stranger that approached his family with suspicious, untrusting eyes. But he could never regret the way his life had turned out.

As he closed Sadie's bedroom door, leaving it open just a crack, he felt Mary's arms circle his hips from behind, coming around to trail up his chest. He captured her hands in one of his and leaned back into her, sighing deeply.

"She asleep?" Mary whispered, leaning her head against his bare back.

"Yes, I don't think she fully woke up. She was just moving around in her sleep, moaning-" he broke off at the emotion that rose in his throat.

Mary sighed and kissed the skin between his shoulder blades. "The nightmares have gotten less intense and frequent over the years, Marshall-"

"I know. But it's been six years, Mary! What's going to happen when-"

She shivered against his back. "Please, don't talk about it."

He spun around, pinning her against the wall. "We have to!" he whispered fiercely. "Carmen is going to be out on parole soon and she's going to want her back. We always knew this was a temporary situation-"

Mary threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest. "I can't – please, Marshall. She's – she's our – we can't just-" Mary broke down completely.

Marshall fought the tears in his own eyes as he held her tight. "I know, I know. But we have no legal right to her; you know that as well as I do."

"But surely, I mean, Carmen's been in prison. She can't just take her from us."

"Mary, she's her mother-"

"But we're her family!"

Marshall recoiled at the ferocity of her tone, knowing that it was pointless to fight a mother bear. Where was King Solomon when you needed him? "Come on, let's go back to bed. We're not going to figure this out tonight."

Mary dropped her arms from his waist and followed him down the hall. Neither of them noticed the small figure framed in the doorway behind them or heard the click of the door closing.

Sadie stared at the glow-in-the dark stars on her bedroom ceiling for a long time after Mary and Marshall had gone to bed. She wasn't as oblivious to things as the adults in her life thought she was. She had seen the concerned looks and heard the whispered conversations that suddenly stopped when she came within earshot for several months now. She knew that her birth mother was due to get out of prison a couple of weeks after her birthday – and her birthday was just a month away now. Sadie rolled over and thumped her pillow angrily. She had been dreading her tenth birthday for years – as soon as she understood that once she turned ten, she would have to leave her family. How could she leave the twins, Andi, and baby Riley for a mother she could barely remember? And most of those memories weren't happy ones – the happiest was her fourth birthday and Uncle Marshall had been there. It seemed like he had always been there – him and Aunt Mary. She couldn't leave – she wouldn't. Somehow, she had to find a way to stay.

She was just turning over to try and get some sleep when she heard the door open and the little pitter pat of footsteps approach her bed.

"Dee?"

Sadie smiled and sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes and pretending she had just woken up. "Bee?" she said sleepily. "What's the matter?"

Andi stood at the foot of the bed, clutching Mr. Bear and twirling her hair with her free hand. "I had a bad dream."

Sadie lifted the covers. "Do you want to sleep with me?"

Andi nodded and jumped up, scrambling for the warmth of the bed and her adopted sister. Sadie cuddled her close and tucked the covers around both of them. "Do you remember your dream, Bee?"

"Dee went away. Bee sad."

Had Andi heard the adults talking too? She smoothed Andi's hair back from her forehead. "Well, I'm right here, see?"

Andi nodded and popped her thumb in her mouth. "Stay with Bee?" she mumbled around the digit.

"All night long. Now go to sleep, little sister."

"Love you, Dee."

"I love you too, Bee."

Carmen had always wanted to be an actress. When she had been in high school, she had thrown herself into drama, completely embracing the characters she became onstage, pretending to be someone else for a few short hours every day. Being locked up in the hospital ward in Riker's had been one of the safest places for her to be – she had been out of the general population and her child had been born under tight security. The fact that she had had to pretend to have lost her marbles for a couple of years was a small price to pay for her baby's safety.

But she knew that if she had any hope of being reunited with Sadie once her sentence was over, Carmen would have to allow the doctors to 'cure' her and return to the general population. Not that one could ever be happy in prison, but she had felt a certain measure of safety in the locked hospital ward, as if even the Forellis couldn't penetrate that tight security.

She had been in the women's ward for over a year now and even though nothing had happened Carmen couldn't relax. Trust no longer came easily to her and she looked at everyone with suspicious eyes from the guards to her roommate Giselle.

The cell door buzzed and Carmen looked up from her bunk.

"Mail for you, Forelli."

Carmen inwardly cringed at the use of her married name but reminded herself it wouldn't be for much longer. She held out her hand but the guard simply tossed the opened envelopes onto the bed.

"Sorry, no love letters." The guard cackled as the door slammed shut and the lock buzzed again.

Carmen picked up the precious missives and held them to her heart, before looking at the envelopes. One was from her mom and Gemma, her baby girl that she had only seen twice since she had been born. Gemma was five years old now, and she always sent pictures that she had drawn in kindergarten. The other letter was from a lady named Eleanor that Carmen had never met – but she told her all about Sadie and how she was doing in school, her achievements, and how happy she was.

But today there was a third letter. Carmen frowned as she pulled the single sheet of paper from the unmarked envelope and stared in shock at the cut out letters on the page.

"Bad news?" Giselle asked from her bunk in the opposite corner.

Carmen's head shot up and her eyes narrowed as she focused on her roommate. Careful, she could be an informant. I can't trust anyone in here. She pasted what she hoped was a convincing smile on her face. "No, just some surprising news, that's all."

Giselle raised her right eyebrow in disbelief but didn't say anything as Carmen stuffed the letter back in the envelope and rolled over, facing the wall away from her roommate's prying eyes. She clutched the letters from her daughters to her chest and closed her eyes, fighting tears as the words from the anonymous letter danced behind her lids, mocking her:

You will never be free, Angela.

A/N: Hmm, I wonder who sent Carmen that note? So much more to come - please review! They feed the muses!