Protection

New home

-An hour later-
"Amber are you ready to go?" I walk out of the bathroom in a hoodie and jeans, my hood up. I start to put on my trainers and stand up without tying them. Erin notices this as we begin to walk out. "You need to tie your laces otherwise you're going to trip up." I rub the back of my neck not looking at her "I-I don't know how to tie them..." She instantly crouches down and ties them to make sure that I won't get hurt. I thank her and we slowly walk out, trying to take it steady just like Dr. Manning told me too.
We get in the car and Erin drives us to the station as she had to work today. As we walk in I hide behind Erin, keeping extremely close to her. The woman behind the desk spots the two of us and speaks up. "I'm guessing this is the famous Amber Jay was talking about last night?" I wave slightly towards her. She seems like a nice lady. The lady lets us up into the bullpen where everybody is sat. Erin stops at the entrance. "Everybody! This is Amber." Again, I give a small wave and Erin leads me to her desk where there is a spinning chair. I will always be a child at heart. I jump on the chair and spin. So much for taking it easy I guess. Erin stops me and it takes me a minute to be able to focus again. "I'm gonna go talk to Voight for a minute. Behave and I'll be back out in a few minutes. Jay make sure she doesn't spin she needs to take it easy." As Erin walks away I roll my eyes behind her back towards Jay earning a chuckle for him and a stern glare from Erin. For the next 5 minutes, I sit on Erin's chair slowly rotating myself in my own little world until Erin comes back out and stops me so she can talk to me. I look up at her to see Voight right behind her. "Hey! I was enjoying the slow rotation. Why'd you stop me?" Erin crouches down in front of me and my mind instantly tells me something bad is happening. "Tonight, I'm gonna drop you off at Voight's house. I will come back and stay there but I'm going to head to my place so that I can set up the guest bedroom for you." I instantly panic. There it was. "N-no. I'll come back with you. Please. I'll behave. I'll even help. Please let me come back with you." She looks at me with that sympathetic look people give to puppy's or babies if they fall over. "Amber this isn't for punishment. I just want you to take it easy. You can stay in my room and Voight won't come in unless he really needs too. Okay?" I pull my knees up to my chest and try to focus on my breathing like the councillor at school taught me too. I look up too see everyone staring at me so I stand up and try to get past Erin but she blocks me from getting out. "Erin please let me out!" I try pushing past her but she blocks my way then takes my hand and leads me into a private room off to the side of the bullpen. As soon as she closes the door, I slide down the wall. Erin walks over to me and takes my hands in hers and rubs the back of my hand with her thumb. It's relaxing. She sits against the wall with me and I rest my head on her shoulder.

ERINS POV

"Would it be better if I maybe see if you can use Voights phone and I call you on it so we can talk over the phone until I'm back?" I don't get an answer from her so I look down to see that she had fallen asleep. I gently pick her up and lay her down on the couch, covering her in my jacket so she doesn't get cold. How can somebody do something this bad too a kid? I walk out of the break room and whisper shout to everyone. "Amber is asleep in the break room. Any of you go in there or speak too loud that it wakes her up you will have to answer to me. Understood?" Everybody nods at me so I go and sit at my desk. She may not have had somebody in the past but I'm going to be her person now. We catch a case after sitting around doing nothing for about an hour. Voight walks out of his office to fill us in "House fire. Boden thinks it's potentially arson. Erin you're staying here with Amber so if she wakes up she's not alone. If we're not back when she does take her home." Everybody leaves and I continue with some paper work that I needed to catch up on. After about half an hour of this I hear a door opening and I look up to see Amber walking out of the break room rubbing her eyes. "You ready to head out kiddo?" She nods at me and goes into the break room to put her shoes back on. After a few minutes I hear a frustrated shout from the break room. Amber walks out with her laces trailing on the floor behind her. "Are you okay honey? What did you shout at?" Amber speaks up still sounding frustrated. "I tried tying my stupid laces but it won't work!" I walk over to her and give her a hug to calm her down. When she pulls away I crouch down to tie her laces but she backs away. "I'm just trying to tie them so you don't get hurt honey." She replies with a serious look on her face. "There's no point. If I fall over it's my own fault. If I can't tie my stupid laces and I fall over then it's my own stupid fault!" I sit her down and tie her laces to her annoyance. She looks down and says thank you then stands back up. "Hold on Amber. Sit back down please." She sits back down and, just like earlier, I crouch down in front of her. "Where's all this coming from? It's okay to not be able to tie your laces. I didn't learn until I was a teenager." She stands back up "It doesn't matter... Thank you for tying them." I smile at her, taking her hand in my own and we walk out.