{ Picture of Hunter in the side! But just imagine him 3 years younger! )

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"Daddy! I want my Daddy! No! Want Daddy! I want my Daddy!"

I struggled to hold Hunter as he thrashed around in bed. He'd slept in my bed for the past week, and each night he woke up with a scream. I'd decided that until he could sleep without the nightmares, he was staying with me. Some nights I didn't even bother trying to get to sleep. I'd just be woken hours later to a screaming and crying Hunter. Sometimes it was just easier to hold him until he woke, just to calm him down as quick as possible. I wanted him to have closure. To feel safe. Protected. Otherwise I wasn't doing my job properly.

"Daddy!"

"Hunter, it's ok!" I assured him, holding his waist. "It's ok, you don't need your Dad. You really don't need you Dad. You don't need him. You've got me, I'm here. Chris is here, you're safe."

"Daddy," he whimpered. "Want Daddy!"

He thrashed around in my arms, desperatley struggling to get away from me. He kicked at my legs, scratched at my arms. And as his head threw back in my face, my arms released him and I fell back, clutching my mouth. I spat out blood into my hands and took in a deep breath. Usually I'd be angry, want to fight back, but I couldn't.

This was a terrified 13 year old boy. I could never hurt him.

"Hunter," I reached forwards but he jumped off the bed and crawled down to the floor. Moving towards him, I held my arms out but he didn't run into them. Instead he slid away, not meeting my eyes. He was so fragile, so innocent and scared. All I wanted to do was hug him. Needed to hold him and let him feel safe.

"FUCK OFF!" He screamed as I wrapped my arms around his waist. i was going to pull him back onto the bed but he was struggling too hard so I had no option but to use force to hold him to the floor. Turning him over onto his back, I stared into his eyes.

"Look at me Hunter," I said calmly. "Look at me. What's my name?"

"Fuck off!"

"What's my name Hunter?"

He slowly looked into my eyes and whimpered. "Chris?"

"That's right," i murmured. "I'm Chris. And you're safe with me, aren't you? Do you feel safe?"

He shook his head, trying to move his hands. "Want Daddy,"

"Hunter," I sighed and pulled him up onto my lap. Like in the basement, he wrapped his legs around my waist and his arms around my neck. "Do you feel safe now?"

He shook his head again.

I mentally groaned. I didn't know what the fuck to do.

***

Hunter held himself into my chest as I opened the front door. It was cold, so I'd given him one of my shirts. He wore that along with his boxers, and he looked adorable. The shirt was my old school football one, and it was absolutley huge which meant it was even bigger on Hunter.

"Do you wanna give him the money, Hunter?"

Hunter took the 10 dollar bill out of my hand and then slowly turned towards the man. He took a few small steps, and then held his arm out. He hid his face down as the man took the money. And as soon as it fell from his hand, Hunter ran back inbetween my arms.

"He's shy," I explained.

The man shurgged. "It's alright. Enjoy your pizza,"

"Thanks,"

As I closed the door, I turned to face Hunter with a smile. He was adorable, and he'd just been brave enough to stand close to a stranger. He was improving, but maybe that was just because he loved pizza.

"You're so brave!" I cried and ruffled his hair. "You're so brave Hunter! I'm so proud of you!"

"Chris that's pizza!"

"Oh my God," I chuckled. "You're so adorable. Go through into the kitchen and get some plates, ok?"

"Ok!"

I smiled to myself as I walked around and sat down on the couch. Hunter made me laugh, not because he misunderstood things but because he was just so adorable with the way he tried to understand. Like the way he thought pizza was peter, the way he hugged me even when he wasn't scared. The way he could go from absolutley terrified to hyper as hell in less than a minute.

I mean, upstairs he'd been terrified. But after I took him downstairs and held him for a few minutes, and told him I'd order pizza, he was fine. Actually he was more than fine. He was-

"Chris I found stones!"

What the hell?

Standing up and rolling my eyes in amusement, I headed through to the kitchen and expected to see a pile of stones. But no. This was Hunter.

"Chris!" Hunter jumped up and ran over to me. "I found stones! Look, stones!"

As I looked over towards where the kid pointed, I burst out in laughter. Hunter hadn't found stones. No. What he had found was nothing close to stones.

"Hunter that's not stones. That's coffee,"

***

"Coffee's nice," Hunter murmured as he sat on the couch, drinking the coffee I made him. He looked adorable, like always and I couldn't help but smile as I wrapped my arm around him.

"Yeah well don't fill yourself up on coffee," I chuckled. "Eat your pizza before it gets cold,"

"Ok," he put his coffee down on the table in front of us and then ripped a piece of pepporoni pizza from the box. "Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we watch the film?"

"The film we were watching earlier?"

"The one with the dog!"

"Scooby Doo?"

"Yeah Chris! Watch Scooby Doo!"

"Ok kid," i sighed and reached forwards for the remote. Turning the dvd player on, I pressed play from where we left off with Scooby Doo and the Boo Brothers. It used to be my favorite movie admittedly.

"That's Scooby," Hunter told me as he ate his pizza. "The dog,"

"I know kid," I smiled. "I know,"

***

"You ok?" I asked Hunter as we sat in the waiting room at the Doctors. We were waiting for his therapy session with Dr Brown who was more than 30 minutes late.

He shook his head, pouting.

"What's up?"

"I want coffee,"

I sighed and ruffled his hair. "I'll make you some when we get home, ok?"

"Ok!" He smiled.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Dr Brown walked out with a familiar looking women. He was with her quite a lot. I think her name was Lisa.

"Sorry I was late Chris," Dr Brown said. "My session with Lisa went on a bit longer than expected,"

"It's fine," I sighed. "You just need to be quick cause the kid's bugging me for coffee,"

"You like coffee Hunter?"

He just nodded. Hunter didn't like Dr Brown. Or any other guy unless he sold pizza. I mean, last night was the closest he'd ever been with a stranger. Apart from the strangers his Dad..sold him to. God, it made me cringe just to think about it. It was fucking disgusting.

"You ok, Chris?" Lisa asked. "You look a little pale. Do you want me to sit with you for a bit?"

"No you don't have to," I brushed her off. "I'll be fine. Just.." pissed off at John Storm for fucking hurting such an innocent little kid who was too fucking cute for his own good. "..I'm fine,"

"I'm gonna get you some water," Lisa smiled. "I'll stay until Hunter's finished,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "It's fine,"

"You gonna be ok Hunter?" I asked the black haired boy as he grabbed his lip.

"He'll be fine," Dr Brown assured me. "I'll call you in if we need anything, ok?"

I hesitated, ruffling Hunter's hair. "Ok. I'll be right our here. See you soon,"

"Bye Chris," he murmured and hugged me tight before walking away with Dr Brown. I turned around again to face Lisa, sighing a little.

"Sorry, you don't need to stay."

"I want to," she reassured me. "You've got a really cute kid by the way,"

"He's not mine," i admitted. "Wish he was, but no. I adopted him a few months ago,"

"I red about Hunter in the news," she explained. "Did you change his name? I red it was Gabriel,"

"Complicated," I sighed. "I just hate how they put it in the news. It's nobody else's fucking buisness!"

I realized my tone and face palmed myself. "I'm sorry. I just..I get really.."

"I understand," she smiled. "I know it's hard. If anyone had ever hurt my daughter, I'd be in jail for murder."

"I'm pretty sure her Father would never let that happen,"

"My husband passed away," she said quietly.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok," she murmured. "It's been 11 months,"

"How's your daughter?"

"Dealing," she sighed. "That's how I met Dr Brown. I made her go to therapy,"

"Are you guys...?"

"Oh God no," she chuckled. "He's not my type,"

***

Hunter seemed kind of pissed off. I think it was because he wasn't getting all of my attention for once. I didn't mean that in a bad way, because it was my own fault. I'd let him become too dependant on me. Now there were consequences.

Me and Lisa sat downstairs on the couch with a glass of wine. Mine was small, I didn't want to drink much and end up getting angry, scaring Lisa off and upsetting Hunter.

"Chris!"

"Shouldn't you go see him?" Lisa suggested. "He's been screaming for you for 10 minutes now,"

"He can't be dependant on me forever," I sighed. "It hurts me to know he needs me, but I can't. If it's something serious he'll come down."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Now where were we?"

***

I walked into Hunter's room after Lisa left. He was on the floor, in the corner, hugging himself as he shook. He was whimpering; crying.

"Hunter?"

He didn't say anything. He just lay there, whimpering and crying. He looked so scared but I had no idea what was wrong. So I knealt down to him, and placed my arms on his shoulders, lifting him up to fall back into my chest.

"Oh God," I gasped as I stared at his wrists. They were all cut up; scratches and slits and cuts and marks. I looked to his hands, and he was holding a pair of scissors. The blades were covered in blood.

"Hunter, why did you do this?" I whispered, trying to keep calm. "Why did you do this?"

"Didn't," he whimpered. "Dad did,"

"No Hunter. He's not here. You did this yourself,"

"No! Dad did it!"

"Hunter-" he brought his hand up towards me and before I knew it, the edge of the scissors stabbed into my thigh. "Shit!"

He crawled away from me as I touched the blood spiling from my jeans. He threw the scissors down and I looked to his chest. I could see some blood? smudging into the shirt.

"Hunter take your shirt off," I said. He looked at me in fear but I just stared. "Hunter, I said take your shirt off."

"I'm sorry," he whimpered as I came closer to him. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Stop it," I sighed. "And take your shirt off. Now,"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm-"

I grabbed the edge of the shirt and ripped it up over his head. Grabbing Hunter by the arm, I yanked him closer to me as he tried to pull away.

"Stop struggling," I said as calmly as I could. "Hunter, stop!"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

And then I realized why Hunter was freaking out so much. I'd just forced him to take off his shirt, forced him to take off his clothes, ripped his shirt from his chest. The only person that had ever done that was John. And right after, John had raped him.

"Oh God," I cried and hugged him so tight. "Hunter I'm sorry! i'm so sorry! I promise you you'll be ok. I promise I will never hurt you. I promise you I'll never hurt you. I'm so sorry kid. I'll never hurt you. I promise,"

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(AN) Shit's gonna go down soon guys! Be patient!