I See You

51

After the paper work was completed, Lena was finally free to go home, free to return to the horrible kitchen were everything had taken place. The young woman had changed into a pair of shorts and a light shirt that her father had gotten from their house that same day; she allowed her mother to comb her hair and pull it gently into a braid as Detective Monroe walked into the room.

"How are you feeling?" asked the man, he tried to smile at Lena.

Lena looked at Monroe and smiled, her lips felt cracked no matter how much lip balm she applied and it hurt her as her lips stretched to form the smile "Better" she whispered.

Monroe held her gaze and they both knew that what Lena was saying was just a lie for her parent's ears.

"Glad to hear that" he said, Monroe looked at Margaret, she was sitting behind Lena, both of them over the bed, and it almost gave Monroe the impression that they were just two friends braiding each other's hair.

"Did you talk to Ryan?" asked Margaret, not taking her eyes off her daughter's hair.

"We did" answered Monroe "And with Jonathan" there was a silence "Things don't look good for Ryan"

"I'm sure they don't" whispered Margaret, Lena bit her lower lip and then dared to ask.

"What about my house?"

Monroe looked at her and Margaret looked at Monroe, the detective smiled gently and looked down at his feet before looking up at Lena again.

"It's been cleaned up this morning" Lena frowned, then her eyes took a surprised expression, Monroe smiled at her look and continued "Your mother has a lot of big friends in the city"

Lena turned around to look at her mother "It's been cleaned up?"

"You would be surprised to know how many people work at cleaning those kinds of things" answered Margaret, she finished the braid and smiled at her daughter "Of course it was done after all the evidence was taken"

"Here" said Monroe, he had walked up towards Lena, the young woman turned around to look at him and then looked down at his extended hand, he was handing her a card; Lena slowly took it and looked up at Monroe "I know your dad is a psychiatrist" he looked at Margaret "But this is the number of a support group"

"Have you worked a lot of cases like this one?" whispered Lena as she examined the card.

"I gave one to Junior and Nicola too" Monroe continued "And yes, I have worked a lot of these cases"

"Do they all end like this?" Lena inquired, she felt a knot in her throat.

Monroe took a deep breath, he looked down at his feet and then his eyebrows rose for a few seconds before he returned to look at Lena and her mother.

"No" he glanced at Margaret "You might not want to believe this at first, but you are one of the lucky ones, you and your two friends"

"How are we lucky?" Lena looked at Monroe, she felt her mother's hand land reassuringly over her shoulder.

"You are still alive" said Monroe "It usually does not go like this"

Lena felt her stomach turn, she couldn't believe how close she had been to death, nor how close Nicola and Junior had been to death too.

"Well" said Margaret as she stood up, she grabbed a back pack that lay over the floor "We should get going now, your father must be bringing the car"

"Of course" said Monroe "We'll be in touch" and with that he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving mother and daughter to finish picking up before leaving the hospital as Peter Severide waited outside the room for both of them.