Moving on (Waterloo Road)

Chapter 3

At the hospital, Nikki struggled to fight back the tears as they sat at Lucy's beside; she was on a life support Machine as well as having a broken arm, cracked ribs and a major head injury.

"What's he done to you mom?"

"Who Nikki?" Rachel asked.

"My dad"

"Has this happened before?"

"It's usually just mental abuse; he was never violent"

"Has he ever hurt you?"

"No"

"You know it could take a while for her to recover; the doctor said the next 48 hours are critical"

"I know"

"Is there someone you can stay with?"

"I wanna go back to school"

"You dont have to; we can stay here for as long as you want"

"I want to go"

"Okay but...you'll have to go back to the cooler; maybe some time alone will help?"

"Fine; i love you mom"

She kissed her mom before she and Rachel headed back to the school where Nikki headed srraight to the cooler as Rachel sighed and headed to her office; she put her coat on the rack before sitting in the chair. She took out her phone and noticed Tom was calling her; she sighed and answered the call as she leant back in her chair and tried to act normal.

"Tom, sorry i missed your call earlier; things got really complicated here...course i missed you...i'll make it up to you, tonight, i promise" a knock at the door interrupted her, "I'm sorry; i have to go. I'll call you later; i love you"

She ended the call as Kim came in and sat opposite her.

"How did it go at the hospital?"

"Not good; the next 48 hours are critical. Nikki did start to open up though; it turns out that her dad has been abusing her mom mentally. He's never been violent before though so something obviously happened this morning for him to kick off; she didnt want to stay there. I dont even know where she's going to go tonight"

"Has she got any other family she can stay with?"

"Not sure; i dont want to push her too much. How did you get on?"

"Apparantly Rebecca made some wide crack about Nikki been a goody two shoes and having the perfect family"

"Which is why she went for her; how did things get this far and so complicated?"

"She didnt feel like she could trust anyone"

"Well, we're going to have to try and solve this and keep it quiet; i'll brief all the staff in the meeting in the morning. As for tonight, I'll sort something out for her"

"Do you want me to try talking to her?"

"I think she'll open up more to me...you know?"

"Okay"

"What a morning! I was hoping to get away early and spend some time with Tom"

"Maybe you still can"

"I have a duty to make sure Nikki is okay and has somewhere to stay tonight, at least"

"I'll make sure nobody goes near the cooler; keep all the kids in the canteen or outside"

"That might be for the best; okay, i'm going to get something to eat for her and let Rebecca go"

"Okay"