“Um yeah. Yeah I can meet you, actually I can meet you right now if you want, just tell me where you are.”

Shane starts to look around the room for her jeans, but Carmen has already found them and hands them to her. She shimmies into them with one hand and picks up a shirt from the floor.

“That won’t be necessary. Shay is in a safe group home right now, he couldn’t go home with you anyway–you have to approved first. I suggest you come down to the DCF offices tomorrow and we can talk then. Ok?”

Shane lets the shirt drop to the floor and doesn’t bother buttoning the jeans.

“Yeah. Yeah ok. Um what time do the offices open? Are you with Shay now? Can I talk to him?” Shane says as she motions to Carmen for a pen and paper. Carmen opens the drawer on the nightstand and hands Shane a pencil and a piece of scrap paper.

“The offices open at 8:30am. Yes, you can talk to him, but just know he is pretty shaken up. He needs you to be calm and assure him that he is safe and everything is going to be ok, got it? Make it quick.”

Shane has tears streaming down her cheeks but when she hears that little voice, a small smile spreads over her face. She takes a deep breath to calm herself and then hears:

“Shane?” a shaky voice whispers.

“Hey little man,” Shane says, “I heard you got into a little bit of a scrape, you feeling okay?”

“Uh huh…”

Shane hears his voice trail off and hears sniffles on the other line. Crying. He was crying, and Shane couldn’t be there for him. It killed her to hear him like this on the other line. It felt like someone ripped her heart out. She knows that for Shay’s sake she needs to be calm so she tries to push her emotions aside.

“Hey it’s going to be ok, alright bud? I know you’re upset right know but you’re staying at a safe place tonight ok? Nothings going to happen to you. Tomorrow I’m going to go talk to some people and we are going to try to see if you can come stay with me for a bit. Would you like that?”