When the past arrives in the present

New Beginnings

Hailey POV

We pull up to my place and I look over at Sophie who is fast asleep in the passenger seat. I give her a gentle shake to wake up her. She practically jumps out of her skin.

I say "Hey you're okay. We're home. I sent Jay to get your stuff from the squad room that Kim and Adam had collected from the storage space you were living in when we were investigating you. Sorry about that by the way."

She replies, "It's okay you were just doing your job." I told her, "Cmon let's go inside and I'll give you the grand tour."

We made our way inside and I give her the tour. We finally reached her room. She walks in looking around and I say, "This is your room and tomorrow we can decorate however you want."

Sophie looks at me in disbelief "Are you serious? You don't have to do that Hailey. You're already doing so much by letting me stay here."

I reply, "Yes kiddo I'm serious you deserve to have your own space and place to call your own and I'm glad I get to do that for you."

I pull Sophie into a hug. She flinches when I first stepped towards her but relaxed once she was in my arms.

I ask "Is it okay me giving you a hug?"

She nods her head yes. I release her from my arms and tell her "You can always say no or pull back if anyone touches you and you don't want them to or feel uncomfortable."

Sophie nods her head in understanding when there was knock at the door. Sophie's expression on her face turned from relaxed to scared. I assured her she's safe and it was probably just Jay. I open the door and grab her stuff from Jay and tell him thanks for dropping it off. Jay leaves, we agreed earlier when I asked he wouldn't come in yet I didn't want to overwhelm Sophie anymore than she probably was.

Sophie and I pull out her stuff and I realize she barely had anything to wear. I made a mental note that we would have to go shopping.

I asked her if I could wash her stuff and she could borrow a pair of my PJs. She nodded.

Sophie looked up at me and quietly said "uhh.. Hailey?"

I reply, "yeah kid?" Sophie was shaking a little I could tell she was nervous.

She asked, "Do you... well... uhm.. could could I maybe take a shower? I understand if not it's not a big deal."

I move closer to Sophie and grabbed her hand and said "Absolutely. You never have to ask to eat, drink, or shower here. You can do that whenever you need to okay?"

Sophie hugged me said, "Thank you. Thank you so much Hailey."

I pulled her tightly into my arms rubbing her back for a minute. We got up and Sophie followed me into the bathroom I showed her where the towels were and gave her a spare toothbrush I had as well as a pair of my pjs.

I said, "Okay well I'm going to go put your clothes in the dryer. You can lock the door if you want to but I promise I won't come in." I shut the door behind me.
I heard a little click indicating she had locked. Then I switched her clothes from the washer to the dryer and went and changed into my pjs as it was late, in fact it was almost midnight.

A little while later Sophie emerged from the shower while I had finished folding her clothes. I then showed her where the hamper was to put the towels and her old clothes in.

I saw Sophie yawn, the poor girl must be exhausted. I said "I think it's time for bed Soph, if you need anything tonight you just come and get me. It's not a problem at all. I'm here if you need anything. Okay?" Sophie replied "Understood. Thanks again Hailey, Goodnight."

I say "Goodnight kiddo."

Several hours later
Hailey POV

I'm woken up to screaming. I look at the clock as I run towards Sophie's room and see it's 4:10am. I enter Sophie's room and see she's still a sleep, obviously having a nightmare.

Sophie's thrashing around and screaming "NOOOOO! HELP SOMEONE HELP. PLEASE NO IM SORRY!"

I tried to wake her up. I stroked her hair, gave her a little shake and said "Sweetie please wake up." Slowly the thrashing eased up until came to a complete stop.

Sophie woke up her eyes wide and big and instinctively brought her knees to her chest. She looked terrified.

"Your safe kiddo." I say. Sophie's big blue eyes looked into mine and I wrap my arms around her. Then I look at Sophie who has tears rolling down her cheeks I wipe away her tears. I tell her to follow my breathing deep breath in and then a deep breath out. I do this with her and a little while later Soph finally calms down.

Sophie looks at me and says "I'm sorry for waking you up. I didn't mean to."

I tell her "It's okay. Do you want to talk about it?" She looks at me and hesitantly says "It's stupid it was about Julio. He found us at the safe house. I watched him killed Jay and then he he killed you. And he was about to kill me when you woke me. It's stupid I know. He is dead and he can't hurt me but it felt so real."

I reply, "First of all it's not stupid. It's totally normal that you're still a little worried. I'm alive and safe, Jay is alive and safe, and you are safe. I promise Julio is dead and I'm not going let anyone hurt you okay?" Sophie nodded.

I told her to go back to sleep and that I would stay with her until she fell asleep. Sophie eventually falls asleep in my arms. I didn't want to move and potentially wake her up, so I decided I'm going to sleep with this sweet girl in my arms.

Author's note: That is it for this chapter! Let me know what you think. Next chapter Hailey has to deal with something in her past. Stay tuned!