Chapter 4: Chloe

Chloe was lounging around the tiny two-bedroom flat she shared with her mother on the second floor. She was just wearing a t-shirt and panties, waiting for their washing to be finished. She didn't want to put her jeans on, her only other clean clothes, as they weren't comfortable for just chilling out in private.

She was reflecting on her short life to date; 'I'm 14 almost 15' she liked to say to people. She'd been saying this for a while, but now it was true as it would be her 15th birthday in only seven more days. She knew that she wouldn't be getting a big party; there'd be no major presents (her mum couldn't afford them) and no friends (she didn't have any having just moved here). But she was still looking forward to being able to say 'I'm 15 going 16'.

It had been a hard, deprived life so far, but she still seemed to have a strong inner self. Although she was struggling at school, it was because of the constant disruption of changing and missing school, rather than her intelligence. She was smart enough to know that when she was able to attend class, she was bright and quick, picking up things first go.

Unfortunately, she rarely had an opportunity to make friends, moving house and school all too frequently, usually because they were evicted for non-payment of rent. They always seemed to be poor and struggling.

She had been looking forward to making this fresh start here in Canberra with just her and her mum. The troubles of Sydney seemed a long way away, but she was still secretly scared that her mom's abusive ex-boyfriend would find them. But through it all, she had never stopped loving her mum and really appreciated the efforts her mum made to protect and cherish her. Yes, she definitely loved her mum and felt very close to her.

Already she was as tall as her mum, 162 centimetres, and she was proud of her breasts, which were b cup (just). They were already bigger than her mum's. She had short, blonde hair framing quite a pretty face, she thought, and was more than pleased with her figure, especially her legs. Boys often flirted with her, even though she only seemed to wear second hand clothing from the charity shops, but she never had the opportunity to get to know any of them. Not that she was interested in exploring her sexuality with them; she knew she was too young for that.

One drawback to being attractive she remembered angrily was having the unwanted and unwelcome attentions from sleaze buckets like her mum's ex-boyfriend. She hated the way he leered at her whenever her mum wasn't around. He was always brushing past her so that he could 'accidently' touch her inappropriately, his hands frequently squeezing her bottom or breasts whenever no one was looking. The final straw was what happened the day they finally left him, as he managed to get his hands under her clothes momentarily despite her best efforts to prevent him from touching her. He even seemed to get pleasure from hurting her developing breasts.

On a happier note, she loved reading books whenever she could get them from the library. She'd turned into an avid reader, particularly interested in books about horses and always dreamed that one day she would be riding one. She met a girl at school that had a horse and just loved listening to her tales. But she was realistic enough to know that horse riding was yet another pipe dream.

Riding her push bike, participating in school sports when she could and sometimes jogging with her mother kept her pretty fit. The only reason she hadn't gone with her mum today was the need to get the washing done, as they had no clean clothes and she'd encouraged her mum to go for a run as she had so little recreation. And it was certainly a lovely day for a run in the nature reserve. She'd been with her mum last Saturday and loved seeing all the kangaroos.

Chloe's day dreaming was interrupted by knocking at the front door. At first she thought her mother must have lost her key while out jogging. She knew she should have been home some time ago, so maybe she had been looking for a lost key. Nevertheless, she put the security chain on to peer out, just as her mother had insisted, in case it wasn't her. In fact even more so in case it was her mum, because she'd be in trouble if she didn't check before opening the door.

"Yes?" she asked timidly, once she had seen it wasn't her mum. She didn't recognise the strange man, clearly dressed in running gear. Chloe was instantly worried something had happened to her mum. She held the door open the little bit the chain allowed and peered around it, making sure that no one else was there.

"Chloe? Hello, my name is Stephen. Your mum, Katherine asked me to come and fetch you. She gave me her keys" the man said to her holding them up for her to see.

"Where is she? What's wrong and why would she send you?" she asked fearfully, instantly concerned the something must have happened to her.

"She had a bit of an accident while jogging. I found her and took her to hospital. I'm sure she's alright, but they want to keep her in overnight, so she asked me if I'd mind telling you, so I offered to bring you to her. That's why she gave me her keys and here's the policeman's business card. You can ring him if you have any doubts" he told her.

"Poor mum, she can't seem to take a trick. We've only been here a few weeks. Bu ... but why are the police involved?" she asked suddenly seeming even more worried.

"Well I was sort of speeding taking her to hospital and they caught me, but they ended up escorting me to the hospital to make sure there were no hold-ups" he explained, before adding "you might like to get your mum some pyjamas and some clean underwear plus her toiletries as she'll probably be in hospital for a night or two, I guess."

"Do you mind waiting a few minutes while I put on something more respectable? I can't go to the hospital dressed like this" she replied after a few moments of thought. He looked and sounded like a trustworthy man, but she couldn't ring the police anyway, because they didn't have a phone; landline or mobile.

Although he couldn't see what 'this' was, he could understand she might need to change, so told her he'd wait outside, which made her relax a bit more. He wasn't trying to worm his way in and anyway, he did have her keys and could have just opened the door if he had wanted to.

She quickly closed the door, stripped off her t-shirt and put a bra on before putting the same t-shirt back on and then dressed in her jeans and joggers. Hastily grabbing her mum's nightwear and some undies as well as a few things from the bathroom, she threw it all in a small overnight bag and went out the front door.

At least she didn't take an age getting changed, probably because she was worried about her mum, Stephen thought, as she came out the front door carrying an overnight bag with her mum's things and locked it behind her.

"Here you better keep these" he said to her, handing over the keys that her mum had given him, which made her feel even more relaxed.

In a little over ten minutes, they were pulling into the hospital car park and then he led her into the front entrance and up to the reception area.

"I just realised that I only know your mum's first name. Who should we ask for?" Stephen asked Chloe as they walked in.

"It's Jones now. She's using her maiden name since we ran away from that bastard" she said with venom, before adding "sorry, I know I shouldn't swear, but when I have to refer to that abusive sicko, I get angry. My name has always been Jones, but mum had been using his name, even though they weren't married. He insisted."

Stephen smiled reassuringly at her, but obviously decided that he shouldn't follow up on that issue. Instead, he found out where they had to go. Katherine was still in the ICU they were told and then the lady explained that meant the Intensive Care Unit.

After checking at the desk of the ICU, they were told they would have to wait as she was being treated at the moment, so as Stephen and Chloe sat in a waiting area, he explained to her what had happened in past couple of hours.

"Wow, did you really carry her all that way? She must have been embarrassed having to take her top off" she shyly said then added "thank you for helping my mum. She's really had a hard time lately and I know that she'll thankyou herself when she's able, but can I ask you why you've done so much for us? I don't know many strangers who would do all that you've done."

"Well if you knew them, they wouldn't be strangers, now would they?" he laughed at her, getting little giggle from her, which he hoped would make her feel a bit better, then went on to say "I've got to confess I've found the whole thing quite exhilarating and am glad to have been able to help. Besides, seeing your mum in her bra was reward enough. Oops, that wasn't a very appropriate remark to make to a young girl" he apologised, although was pleased to see it just made her laugh.

"I'll have you know I'm not a young girl. I'm 14, nearly 15" she said trying to keep a straight face and pretend she was angry, but spoiled her effort by laughing as she added "I wish I could have seen her face when you asked her to take her top off, not that you'd have seen much in her sports bra and not that she's got much to see up top either, just like me."

"Well I don't know. She looked pretty good to me and anyway she'd have been even heavier to carry if she had large boobs" he laughed, still trying to cheer her up and succeeding as she burst into a melodious laugh.

"You can go in and see your mother now, dear" a nurse walked up to them and told Chloe a few minutes later.

"Thanks, but can Stephen come in too?"

"Oh are you the man who saved her?" the nurse asked excitedly.

"Yes he is" Chloe replied proudly, with clearly a little hero worship in her voice.

"Well OK, but don't stay too long."