Cracks

Chapter 4 Names and numbers

Trevor Welsh sighed as he dropped his briefcase in the hallway floor and hung up his coat. Not for the first time he considered changing careers. Seeing so much misery every day was enough to drive anyone insane, and unfortunately not every case had a happy ending. But it were the few that did that made him get up in the morning to head for his office. And there were cases that stayed with him. Some quite literally.

He stepped into the kitchen and kissed his wife, Amanda, who was just finishing making dinner. "Welcome home, honey." She smiled at him. "How was your day?"

He smiled apologetically. "You know I can't talk about my cases. They are confidential."

"I know," Amanda nodded, "but hypothetically?"

Trevor sighed. "Hypothetically there is too much misery in this world."

"Hmmhmm," Amanda mused, "you have that look again. Is it the one case again?" She remembered that one day, a little over two years ago, when he had gotten home from work looking all defeated. She didn't know what had happened, he could not tell her, but it had aged him. And even without knowing what had happened, she could tell it was not like any other case he had ever had.

"That one case?" Trevor questioned surprised.

Amanda sighed sadly as she plated the table. "I don't know what it is, Trevor, and I know you can't tell me, but I've seen a change in you. Something happened, and you haven't been the same since."

A regretful smile passed over Trevor's face. He could guess what his wife was referring to. She was right. There had been a case that still bothered him to this day. He had gone over it again and again. Could he have done things differently? Should he have tried harder? Would it have mattered? The Scott girl had been just another case on the pile, just a number on his list, another file he had to work through. Her story wasn't even out of the ordinary, just what he faced every day. Unhealthy home life, getting involved with he wrong people, foster home after foster home. But after a while she had started to grow on him, and he truly wanted her to succeed. For a moment he had believed things were going in the right direction. Until the incident.

"Honey?"

Trevor blinked and looked at his wife. "Hm? Sorry honey, you were saying?"

Amanda smiled sadly. "You haven't touched your food yet."

Trevor sighed. "I'm sorry. I was distracted."

His wife placed a hand on his arm. "It still bothers you, doesn't it? Whatever happened that day wasn't your fault."

Trevor smiled sadly. He knew she meant well, And she was right. It wasn't his fault. Still, perhaps if he had handled things differently... but they were understaffed and overworked and there were too many cases, always too many cases to handle them properly.

He patted his wife's hand and picked up his fork to eat. "It tastes lovely," he said.

...

Allison stared at her History book with a bored look on her face. Why did they have to learn things that happened a hundred years ago? All that mattered was what happened now. Living in the past never did anyone any good. She knew that first hand.

Still, History was one of the few classes she wasn't screwing up. She might not read well, but she was good at remembering facts. And what more was history than facts?

When the bell rang for lunch, she wasted no time rushing out of the classroom. The rest of the students hurried out of her way. Some gave her wary glances, others whispered behind her back. She knew they thought she was rude. And arrogant. She didn't feel the need to change their minds.