Paige was out for her morning run when she saw Emma's limo pull up at the mansion. That was weird, she and Emma were the only ones at the school. Paige couldn't ski, and was tired of always being with the group, so she had decided to stay at the school instead of going to Emma's lodge. Sean had gone to visit his daughter and spend time with Moira. And Emma wasn't expecting any visitors.

The limo stopped in front of the school and Bumpkin quickly ran around to open the passenger door. Half helping and half carrying, he managed to get Cordelia out of the car. The girl was pale and shaky. Her clothes were a mess, her skin as white as the snow on the ground. As Paige got closer, she could see the bruise around her neck and the blood on her clothes.

Paige took one look at Cordelia and quickly activated the mind link Emma had put in her students. ("Emma!") Paige almost screamed for her teacher. ("Your sister... she's been hurt bad.")

Emma took over Paige's eyes and mentally cursed. ("Get Isabella. I'll get Celeste.") Isabella Martin was the school's new nurse who lived on campus with her husband, Abraham, the groundsman, and his mother Violet, the housekeeper. Celeste was the unofficial team mother, Emma's right hand woman, and lived a few miles from the school.

As Bumpkin helped Cordelia up the stairs, Paige ran off to the cottage where the Martins lived.

***

Abraham was up early this morning, carefully making Hollywood eggs for Isabella and his mother. His long black deadlocks were pulled back in a ponytail, and he had the heat turned up high enough that he didn't need to wear a shirt. Isabella liked walking out and finding him like that.

Sure enough, Isabella came out of their bedroom and smiled. She was a short woman of Hispanic decent. Her short, black hair was tousled by sleep and her eyes lit up as she saw him standing there. It reminded her of the first morning after Abe let her stay in his apartment when she had nowhere else to go, not long enough to be a lifetime ago. He had fixed his Hollywood eggs then too.

Walking over, she slipped her arms around his muscular torso, admiring the way her light skin played against his dark skin. "Mornin'," he whispered roughly.

"Mornin' yourself," she told him just before he spun around for a kiss. "Sleep good?"

He ran his fingers across her cheek, tracing the lines of a scar that was no longer there. "As good as you let me," he answered her with a grin. His wife smiled at him.

A knock at the door interrupted the moment. With a sigh, Abraham let go of Isabella and walked over to the door. Taking this job had meant being on call twenty-four hours a day. The blond-headed girl, Paige, stood on the front steps. "Isabella, it's an emergency- Ms. Frost's sister has been hurt." Quickly, the woman went back into her bedroom and got dressed, while Paige ran back to the school.

***

Celeste walked into her apartment and dropped her purse on the table where it belonged. Walking back into her bedroom, she took her name badge off and hid it in her sock drawer. Sometimes, she felt like the biggest hypocrite when she left her Friday night shift at the hospital. She was a volunteer rape counselor, but she still couldn't bring herself to tell her own sister about her rape, the resulting pregnancy, or her selling her own daughter.

Shrugging off her clothes, Celeste started towards the shower. It had been a hard night at the hospital. She had sat with three rape victims, holding their hand during the examination, trying to calm and comfort them while allowing the doctors and nurses to do their work. The youngest girl was ten years old, the oldest woman was sixty. And she had to intervene with the eighteen year old's parents, explaining what had happened to their girl. It took every ounce of self- control she had not to blow up at the calloused father, who called his daughter a liar.

She stepped into the shower and asked herself if what she did really made a difference. Turning on the hot water to spray her tense back, she remembered the way the elderly woman, Emily, had looked at her as Celeste had managed to convince her to tell her daughter what happened. The teenager, Amanda, agreed to press charges against her boyfriend. And the child, Elizabeth, knew that she didn't have to keep silent about what her uncle did to her. It was worth it.

Towelling off, Celeste walked towards her bed. Mentally and physically, she was exhausted. It had been a very long week and she needed to recharge her batteries. Thank goodness her sister was off skiing with her friend Jubilee. She pulled back the covers on her bed and climbed in. Before her head hit her pillow, she was fast asleep.

Two minutes after she closed her eyes, she felt Emma's presence in her head, telling her that she was needed. Quickly, she got up and left for the school.

***

In the life that was before she got involved with the mob, Isabella wanted nothing more than to have every guy's attention. She had the looks, the attitude, and the innate ability to get what she wanted. And then an accident took her looks away and she ran away from all that she knew.

Luckily, Abe found her and took her in. They formed a bond that was deeper than any she ever knew, and were surprised to discover that it was love. He held her after her rape and helped her on the road to recovery.

Cordelia was crumpled up in the fetal position on the clinic table: knees to chin, hands on feet. Her back was turned towards her sister and she didn't look up when Isabella entered the room. No one could hold her now.

Isabella and Emma exchanged glances, both looking at the girl from the viewpoint of experience. They knew, without having to ask, what happened. In the background, they could hear Paige calling Moira. Isabella knelt down to face Cordelia, but Cordelia's eyes were locked shut.

A slight sound let them know that they were not alone. Isabella looked up to see another woman standing in the room. This woman had an ageless quality to her, as if life had forced a lot of living into a few years. She must have been stunning at one time, but now most of her beauty had retreated into her heart.

She stood between Emma and Paige, two people who already looked like sisters. This woman's blonde hair and blue eyes made her look like a member of the same family as the other two, a fulcrum between them. Paige's baby blue eyes showed an eagerness to know the world and Emma's steel blues showed a willingness to conquer the world. This woman's sea blue eyes were more patient than Paige's and more tender than Emma's.

She walked over to the girl on the bed and gently touched her arm. "I'm Celeste," she told Cordelia. Cordelia didn't look up at the sound of her voice. Celeste then placed a hand on Cordelia's arm. The touch caused Cordelia to look up in surprise. Celeste rewarded that action with a smile.

Making a small gesture, Celeste made a "V" with two of her fingers. "Focus on me," she instructed the girl, as gently as a mother would talk to a baby. Cordelia responded by relaxing slightly, which earned her another smile.

"Moira's going to be here as soon as she can," Paige announced. Moira MacTaggert had delivered a lecture at a convention last night in Boston and spent the night there instead of going back to Xavier's.

Isabella quickly got out a examining gown and walked over to Cordelia. At this sudden movement, Cordelia started to hunch back into her ball. Celeste smoothly made the same motion and smiled. Taking the gown from Isabella, Celeste laid it down on the bed.

"Could everybody leave?" Celeste turned to the other women. "Cordelia needs to change."

Isabella started to object, but Emma motioned for her to leave the room. They quickly walked out into the hallway, where Isabella voiced her objection. "There are certain procedures that need to be followed."

Emma nodded curtly, "Celeste is trained in them." With Emma's permission, Celeste took part in a program based in Snow Valley that allowed a rape survivor to help a new survivor during the exam. So far, more women went into a support group setting quicker, and recovered faster.

Emma wrapped her arms around herself and frowned. She should be in there with Cordelia. After all, that was her daughter in there. But Celeste could do a great job, and be caring and compassionate. Emma lacked the ability to show those qualities.

Paige sat down in a chair some distance from the adults and sighed. Something in her mind was trying to force her to think about an incident she would rather not.

***

Paige was four years old and sitting in the kitchen while her mother rubbed lotion on her 'chicky hots.' The cool cream gave her some relief from the awful itching. It was dark outside, almost midnight, and Paige couldn't sleep.

Her mommy was singing to her, "Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world." No professional singer could ever match her mommy's breathy soprano. "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Paige smiled and enjoyed having her mother all to herself.

Suddenly, the dogs started barking. Paige's mother quickly moved to turn on lights, open the window and yell at the dogs. Seeing a deer was a very common occurrence. Paige got up out of her chair at her mother's gasp.

What Paige saw was a girl running across the snow covered fields. As she came closer, she could see that the girl was Li'l Bit, and Li'l Bit wasn't wearing any clothes.

"Tom!" Her mommy yelled as she grabbed the tablecloth. Paige caught the mail as it fluttered to the floor. Then her mommy ran outside and wrapped the girl in the cloth. Picking up the shaking child, she quickly brought her inside. Her daddy stood at the door, with a funny expression on his face.

Paige saw her big brother, Sam, standing in the shadows by the staircase. Quickly, she ran to hide behind him, sheltering herself under his arm. Their dogs, Laddie and Lassie, lay down across their feet as if to protect them.

Their daddy took the bundle from their mommy and hugged the sobbing child tight. Rocking her as gently as he would rock Joelle, he whispered, "It's okay, it's alright. Yer safe now." Lassie walked over to the two and whimpered softly.

While this was going on, their mommy quickly grabbed some clothes out of the laundry hamper and motioned for Tom to turn Li'l Bit around. Pulling a flannel nightgown over Li'l Bit, their mommy smiled at her. Li'l Bit reached out her arms, and her Momma G hugged her. Lassie slipped her head into the girl's lap.

Paige's daddy turned to the corner and motioned for Sam to step out of the shadows. Sam ran to his friend and hugged her. "Who hurt ya?" he asked. He saw the marks on her arms and the black eye that was starting to form.

"Uncle Timmy." Li'l Bit Walton had a lot of uncles, some who stayed one night, some who stayed a week. It was strange because her mother had no brothers, and no one knew who her father was. But all her uncles slept in the same bed as her mommy and would sometimes would give Miss Walton money. But this one was different, he had stayed at their place month for free. He was also their daddy's best friend. He stayed at the Guthrie's house a lot when he and his wife had a fight and slept on the couch.

Paige watched as her daddy got angry. He was madder now than she had ever seen him. As Sam promised that he'd never let Uncle Timmy hurt her again, her daddy started to call some people.

Her mommy turned to Li'l Bit and asked, "Would ya like ta stay here a spell?" Li'l Bit's face lit up and she nodded. "Then, Tom will go get yer stuff." Their daddy was already out of the door.

***

Paige shook her head, forcing herself back to the present. Li'l Bit had stayed at the Guthrie's for eight months, until her mother got out of the state hospital. She had gone there for help with what Paige heard called 'elbow trouble.' When she got out, she wasn't sleeping in the middle of the day or complaining about her headaches.

When she did think of that night that Bit had come to live with them, which was as rarely as possible, Paige remembered three things. She remembered the fact that her daddy never spoke to Uncle Timmy again, and had almost been arrested for beating him up. And she remembered that she didn't understand why the little girl had ran a mile and a half in the snow totally naked.

Now she did. Li'l Bit had been molested. And that knowledge was causing Paige to feel sick inside.