can't change what you don't know

get out!

*three weeks later*

Tatum Halstead, the now 14 year old, was doing better than ever. She has began to feel safer when doing things and she's starting to think maybe Peter and her mom aren't gonna come back, that she'll never see them again, but only time could tell. Today seemed normal, her school day was normal, the weather was normal, everything was in place at least. She was sat in her music class waiting for the bell to ring, "boo" Matthew jumped up from behind her, nearly making her drop the instrument she was holding, "Jesus Christ matty, I shut myself" she laughed and shook her head. That's another good thing, she's gonna back to being close with her friends again.

Finally, the bell rang at the end of the day so they all flooded into the halls, "see you tomorrow!" Her group waved her off as she ran towards jays truck.  She smiled and hopped inside, "hey tink" he smiled, still referring to her short stature.  Tatum smiled, "hey" she nodded and put her bag down on the floor.  Jay smiled, "you can either come back to the district or go home" he began driving slowly so she could make her decision.  Tatum nodded, "district" she smiled, sure she felt safer but she didn't feel that safe to be on her own yet, after all they still hadn't found the pair.  Jay nodded, already figuring that would be her answer.  He drove to the district and pulled up before the pair got out and made their way into the bullpen, she said hello to everyone as per usual then went into the break room out of their way.  She liked to close the door while being in the break room since she would rather not hear about murders and violence at this age.

It didn't take long before jays shift was over, "fancy a beer and a movie?" Jay nudged haileys leg. Hailey looked up and smiled, "sure" she nodded. Tatum appeared with her school bag on her back and her coat on, "home time?" She smiled hopefully. Jay nodded, "it sure is" he groaned and stood up as hailey done the same. Hailey had arrived to work in jays truck anyways so she just went home with them, Tatum didn't mind at all, she rather liked hailey, maybe more like a mother figure too. When they got home it was around 8pm so Tatum wanted a bath, "imma go run the bath" she ran off upstairs. Jay nodded and just watched her run away, hailey smiled and hung her jacket up before the adults made their way into the kitchen for beer and snacks, some juice for Tatum too.

                  After a while of jay looking for the snacks he came to the conclusion that they actually needed to restock on them, "Tate! Imma nip to the store with hailey for some snacks, don't go in the bath until we're back!" He yelled from the bottom of the stairs, he doesn't like her getting in the bath or shower at all when he's out, firstly because someone could break in then she wouldn't have a clue, and secondly because anything dangerous could happen to her and no one would be there to help.  Tatum heard his calls as she finished putting cold water into the bath, "okay!" She called back, she decided to sit on the toilet, with the lid down of course, and just watch tiktoks until they were back since she too didn't like going in the bath while there was no one home.

Jay and hailey had been out at the store for about 5-10 minutes already and they weren't back yet but that didn't alarm Tatum since the store was quite a bit away and she knows how fussy jay is with snacks, she hadn't moved from the toilet since she had tiktoks to watch, what more could she possibly want? She knew jay had locked the front door and the back door was always locked unless it was a sunny day and they would be in and out, so she thought she was safe, but clearly not. It was around 8:55pm exactly when Tatum heard a quiet thud from downstairs, at first she was a little worried since she was home alone but shook it off when she realised the TV was on and it was probably just a sound effect or something random from the film jay had put on, but she was wrong, very wrong...