Protection

Finally safe

After Dr Manning finished sorting out Ambers arms I laid down with her and quietly talked with Voight as she slept. After about 15 minutes she starts to twitch slightly in my arms. I look down at her sleeping form to see her eyes scrunched up. I knew exactly what was happening so I start shaking her trying to wake her up. She wakes up panting tears and sweat on her face.

AMBERS POV

I feel heavy blows against my stomach and my neck. I look up to see Matthew standing over me. He shouts different things such as "you're ugly" "you need to lose weight or nobody will love you" "you don't deserve to be here" "you should be dead instead of your mum". I feel my body being shook. I open my eyes and sit up my face drenched in sweat and tears. I wipe my face before Erin and Voight could see that I was crying. Erin sits up from her position to be facing me. "Are you okay honey?" I nod my head too scared to talk in case I cry again. Erin hugs me but as she does I flinch. After a quick second I melt into her touch and hug her back as I shake. After she lets go I start itching my hand. Erin looks down at what I was doing and when she realises she pulls my hands away from each other. I try to move my hands closer together again she holds them both tight. "Stop it Amber you don't deserve that" I shake my head and look down trying to hide the tears in my eyes. "Voight would you mind going and telling Jay I'm not gonna be home tonight please?" He stands up and hugs Erin and waves goodbye to us both and leaves us two girls alone. "Amber?" I look up at her as the tears fall down my cheeks. "I know you don't want to talk about it but I need to know. Did Matthew sexually assault you?" I start crying more. She pulls me in for a hug as Dr Manning walks in to the room. I feel her nod towards her and she leaves again. They two of us just stay laid in the hospital bed together. All throughout the night I kept a tight hold of her. I think it's because I thought that if I let go I'll wake up and find it was all a dream.

I feel so grateful that Erin is staying with me tonight. I don't think I'd be able to stay here all night on my own. After my nightmare, even though Erin wouldn't stop pestering me to, I couldn't sleep. I feel like it's gonna be a long time before I'm okay again. Yay... "Amber? Are you going to sleep yet? You need sleep." Erin really just wanted me to sleep. I know she means well but I can't. "I can't Erin... I'm sorry..." She pulls me into a hug and I tense up. I can tell with the way she stopped. I lent into her and embraced it. All that was going through my mind was 'you're safe. stop flinching' I feel like when I flinch, it just disappoints her. Throughout the night, we had multiple conversations about school and Erin's place in intelligence. When morning came, the same brunette that came to get me away from Matthew appeared at my door looking at me and Erin. "How did you two girls sleep last night?" Erin gave me a knowing look then turned to the brunette "We didn't sleep at all Jay. Did we Amber?" I just sit looking at Jay unsure of him. Erin hugs me. Apparently she can tell what's going through my head as she speaks up, "Amber this is Jay Halstead. He is my partner at work." He nods towards me and I just look at him. I knew it wasn't nice but I have my reasons for being like this. It's not like my childhood was filled with sunshine and daisies. Well actually it was. I was an outside kid. But still it wasn't the best. Jay stays with us for a little while talking to Erin whilst I lay against her chest listening to them both. After a little while, Jay headed home and me and Erin just sat there in silence until I spoke up. "You like him. Don't you?" Erin looked at me with a bit of shock, blushing she flustered to deny it. "N-no I don't... W-what makes you say that?" I smirk at her. "You're a police officer you shouldn't condone lying." I continued to tease Erin about her crush until Dr. Manning came in. "How are you feeling this morning Amber?" I look away from Erin to look at her, "I'm okay thank you Dr. Manning. How are you?" She smiles at me. "I'm okay this morning as well. How did you sleep last night?" I rub the back of my neck and look at Erin. "She didn't sleep at all. Did you Amber?" I shake my head. Dr. Manning looks at me disapprovingly. What is it with women and their disapproving looks at me? Erin speaks up next as I stay looking down. "Is Amber okay to go to the canteen to get some breakfast?" Dr. Manning stays quiet for a minute to think then speaks up. "Yeah you can go to the canteen to get some breakfast then I want you to take a nap Amber then you guys can head out." Dr. Manning leaves after this and I look up at Erin. "Erin I'm not hungry." I sit up so that I can look at her. "Amber I want you to eat at least something small please. I don't know when the last time was that you ate so I want you to eat." I start to panic slightly. "I-I ate a few hours before... before you guys came last night." Erin shakes her head. "Amber that was at 6.00pm that we showed up last night. I want you to eat please."

Time skip(a few hours later)
ERINS POV

I finally managed to get Amber to eat after about an hour. She had an apple and a bushel of grapes. We headed back to the room that we stayed in the previous night and I made sure that Amber went to sleep. After a little bit of arguing she gave in and laid down and took a nap. She slept for about 3 hours peacefully before she woke up rubbing her eyes, seeming a lot happier. "Hey honey. You feeling better now you've slept?" She sleepily nods whilst still rubbing her eyes and stretching. "Once you're awake properly, we'll head out and head down to the precinct to go see everybody because we need to figure out if it's okay for you to stay there during the day whilst I work and Voight needs to see you." Amber sat up really fast looking at me in fear. "W-why does he need to see me!?" I instantly see the panic in her eyes and try to comfort her. "Hey hey hey. It's okay. I'm gonna be in there with you and he just wants to talk to you about what the plans gonna be for living arrangements."