Life Hacks/Charity-preg/rp-sld, "roses" (sensory-)/perfect/non-compete (town)/Danica/Do nothing, just keep cradling her till you get some other clues to go on
This is troublesome. With the reaction of instantaneous fear she had upon seeing her father’s angry face, it’s clear her father beat her regularly and that she fears him greatly. However, with her reaction to him driving away and how her first reaction to facing difficulty with Roni was to run and get him, it’s also clear she has some paternal loyalty to him. This is perfectly understandable as well. To a child, parential bonds are life itself. A child has it ingrained into their DNA to be loyal to their parents, and it takes a strong mind to be able to break away from that dependence.
This is what makes abuse cases like this so complicated. If you were to point out how her father had been abusive, that could easily make her feel like defending him. If you tried to immediately replace her father as a protective figure, that could cause her to reject you. She may also very much think the kind of abuse she suffered was normal, and expect that if you were to replace her father then you would be no different. There really were potential land-mines everywhere. Even checking her for bruises and such, if her father beat her regularly then she had probably been trained to hide her bruises. There’s no telling how she might react to such a thing.
Faced with all of this, you decide to avoid going down any of those dangerous paths for now. Rather, you should just offer comfort for now and let her calm down more. Right now is a precarious and sensitive time for her after all. One wrong word could alienate her from you. You need to deepen your relationship in other ways and allow her to grow more secure with you. After that, you can say whatever you want and there will be enough leniency to give you a second chance even if you do mess up.
“Are you Ok?” You gently ask her, holding her close to you as you continue to cradle her. “How’s your stomach?”
“Mmm..” Billy groans, seeming a little uncomfortable but not rejecting you. Her hands go back to her stomach, having been suddenly reminded of that.
“I can’t believe he did that!” Charity, who’s standing over your shoulder, cries out in outrage. “Was that your dad!?”
“Mmm…” Billy groans again, curling up into a tighter ball.
“Oh my God!” Charity begins walking around in agitation, “How could he just hit his son like that!?”
“Charity!” You bark at her, causing her to flinch. “Not right now, Ok?” You glance down at Billy and then back up at Charity. A flash of unwilling understanding flies across her face, and then it is quickly replaced by a look of rage and frustration as she stomps her foot with a grunt and then stalks off.
You can feel Billy seem to relax a little more in your grip at this point, and then with this relaxation a dam that seems to have been holding back her emotions simply erupts and Billy breaks down crying once again. “It’s Ok, it’s Ok.” You say to her, cradling her gently. “It’s alright to cry now. It’s Ok to cry after something bad happens.” With you having given your permission, Billy just cries even louder. It seems like even after she had let go of her emotions before, she was still holding something back. Now, with her acknowledge your permission, the flood gates were completely open and her wails and cries were being let out at full force.
As this was happening, you merely continued to cradle Billy in your arms. Billy, meanwhile, at some point decided to start clinging onto the open edges of your jacket and, in that manner, effectively mutually hugged you back while burying her face in your chest. After Charity stormed off, you could see Trish as well as a few other parents of the players beginning to gather around. After about 6 of them formed something of a half-circle, one of them began to shoo off anyone else who tried to approach so closely. Of them, because Trish had actually communicated with you before, she had approached the closest and she was standing over your shoulder as well with a conflicted look on her face. She seemed to want to say something, but was also hesitating for exactly what she was going to say.
“We should call someone,” one of the parents say. “The police or somebody…”
“But wasn’t that just a police officer that did that though?” Someone else murmured.
"Where are his parents?" Someone else said as they were looking around.
"Was that his father maybe?"
Conversations and murmurings like this rippled through the crowd of onlookers, and as this was going on the guy with the smart phone who had chased after Billy’s dad came back and now seemed to be pointing the camera at you.
“Hey!” He said, “did you get that guy’s badge number by any chance?”
Actually, while you didn’t pay any special attention to it, the moment the question is asked your edetic memory that you were given through the hack’s enhancement flashes a perfect image of the badge hanging from the chest of Billy’s dad with such clarity that you can easily read the numbers from your memory.
What will you do?
- Give the badge number
- Say you didn't, let the current situation continue
- Say you didn't and shoo off everyone crowding around
Say you didn't and leave for somewhere more private