Jeopardy - A Luke Brooks fanfic (Contains Self Harm And Triggering Topics)

18. The care home.

Soon Steve parked his car outside the care home, behind the mini van and turned off the engine. He grumbled as he climbed out of the car, Laura opened door for me and the three of us walked up to the front door in silence. Steve unlocked the door and the familiar sound of screaming kids filled the air. "Hey you found her!" Jason yelled over the noise, pointing at me. Jason was one of the other care workers, along with Fiona, Sam, David, Mark and Occasionally Meredith who was a work experience student, I didn't like her one bit, she was a month older than me but treated me like a ten year old. "Yeah, she had a nightmare and freaked, poor thing." Steve replied, pulling me in for a hug. I squirmed, wanting to hide away for the rest of the day.

"Well, tomorrow is Wednesday which means most of the kids are back to school and we can finally relax a bit." Laughed Laura following Jason Into the kitchen. Steve let go of me and ruffled my already messy hair, "what time have you got work? Time for a coffee?" He asked as we followed the others into the kitchen. Jason had put the kettle on and Laura began chatting away, "the kids have all eaten, Fiona popped in earlier and helped me out." Jason began talking to Laura as he made coffees on the workspace next to her. " I need to get showered and stuff though, I guess I can squeeze in a quick coffee." I replied to Steve and sat down at the table with him. Steve smiled and offered me a lift to work, I knew he was worried about me 'running off' again and would be keeping a close eye on me.

Laura and Jason walked off to find Meredith and David, Steve excused himself to do some paper work and I was left alone in the kitchen. "Hi Saskia." Came a voice I didn't recognise, I turned around and Charlie was stood in the door way. He'd had his hair cut off, he had nice fresh clothes and the first thing I noticed was his piercing bright blue eyes. "Hi Charlie, you look better!" He smiled and took a carton of juice from the fridge, "thank you for the smoothie yesterday, Anna is a lot happier now and we're both settling better." He said and sat down at the table with me. He looked sad somehow, as if he was hiding something behind his smile, like me.

"You're welcome, it was nice to actually have some of the kids talk to me without them running away." I laughed, Charlie laughed along with me and choked slightly on his juice box which made us both laugh more. "Hey, you're welcome to a smoothie anytime, and if you ever need anything, just look at me as an older sister." I reassured him and he thanked me, running off to find his new friends. I was glad that I'd actually made someone happy for once, it was nice to feel appreciated. I quickly finished my coffee and put the mug by the sink, I got away with most of the duties and cleaning rota's around the house now, which was good, but I would rather clean the house top to bottom than have to tell Luke everything that had happened lately.

Finally in the comfort of my bedroom I picked out a black skater skirt, my work shirt and a pair of light blue vans. I grabbed a clean towel from the back of my door and headed towards the bathroom, as I entered I stood on the body of a Barbie and soon found it's head floating in the untrained bath tub. I knew exactly how that Barbie felt, it's body firmly planted on the ground but the mind somewhere completely separate. I tried hard not to think about confronting Luke and explaining every thing to him, but it was hard. As I emptied the random toys and empty shampoo bottles I thought over and over about what to say. 'hey Luke, I've lied to you the whole time I've known you, my dads a murderer, my mums buried in the ground and I don't have a real home' that would go down well.