angels like you (rini au)

F O U R T E E N

~chapter fourteen~
tw: mentions of domestic violence

Nini panted up and down at the top of the stairs as she eavesdropped on the conversation that was being held downstairs. She watched as her mom nodded in understanding while the cop spoke.

It came as a shock to Nini that morning when she came downstairs only to find Dean being taken away in handcuffs. She had been asked to stay home from school for the rest of the day, and she went back and forth between having conversations with a social worker from CPS and a police officer.

She isn't aware of how she ended up in this situation, she doesn't know CPS ended up at her door or how the cops started asking her and her Mom a bunch of questions about their domestic situation with Dean living with them. But one thing she does know, is that it's been a fairly scary experience.

They asked her about how she feels about her mom, and whether or not she feels safe with her.

"I love my mom. I do. More than anyone else on the planet. She's practically the only person that I do love, I barely know what the word means. She has never intentionally done anything that she knows would hurt me..emotionally or physically. She loves me too, I know that."

Almost every time she spoke, the social worker would nod and take notes. They also asked her if she felt like her mom was fit to take care of her.

"I do, I really do. I never really noticed this before, but she's really strong. And she is fit to take care of me. I mean, she's telling that cop everything. It takes a lot of strength and love to tell someone about all of this. She's really strong, she's strong enough. I don't want to leave her."

They had also asked her a few follow up questions.

"Only one other person knew. Jenn, the school guidance counsellor, suspected something was up a while ago but I brushed it off. But I had confided in a boy in my grade. I guess he's a friend, I don't know. I'm working with him on a school project and he's given me enough reason to trust him with something like this. And uh, yeah..he's pretty much the only person besides me and my mom who know."

She had finished all that needed to be done with the social worker and with the cop, and was now trying to get her head as close as possible to the point where she could hear what was being said to her Mom after she was dismissed.

"Thank you so much, really. I don't know how I could thank you enough," Carol said, as she stood up from the couch where she was seated. Nini jumped back behind the stairwell in fear of being seen eavesdropping on the private conversation.

"Anytime at all," the social worker responded, shaking Carol's hand. They informed her, that they'd be checking up on the two of them from time to time, which Carol agreed to. The two of them headed out, and within seconds Nina was running downstairs to meet her mother, both of them having the same look in their eyes. It was a look of hope, which neither of them had seen in the other for quite a while.

"Mom?" Nini asked, and her mother knew what she was hinting at without her having to say it. "He's gone."

Nini's eyes brightened as those words came out of her mom's mouth. "He's gone?" she asked again, tears filling up her eyes. "He's gone Nini," he mom answered.

Nina felt her heart lift up a little, the same time that the weight on her shoulders did the same thing. For the past few years, she had been feeling like she was carrying the weight of the world on her back, and it was hard to handle. But now it was finally over.