Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my own creation. John Munch belongs to Law and Order: SVU. This came to mind after watching a Homicide episode where Tim Bayliss says a line that caused me to think of Maria's past. Time to bring out her skeletons in the closet. Not going to say the line, but will be borrowing it for later on. It should be easy to notice if anyone has watched Homicide as much *I* do! LOL!
"Honestly, we're not having this discussion." Maria said for the second time while on the way to a crime scene. She and her partner, John Munch, were in the midst of playful banter of who was going to be the primary on the case. Both had practically answered the phone at the same time and Don Cragen wasn't going to step between their turf war. "I answered the phone a milla-second faster then you did, so I am the primary." She pointed her index finger to herself and glanced at him as she turned down the road where the squad cars were sitting.
Munch shook his head and slightly frowned. "Fine, but if you don't like the causes of the case, I take it and call it. Deal?"
"Deal." They shook on it and stepped out of the car. "What's going on here?" Maria asked a uniform who was talking to a possible witness.
He pointed in the direction of a covered body in the bushes. "Got a nine year old girl named Adva Feinburg from Brooklyn. She was found by the hiker over there," He pointed to the person he had been talking with, "and called nine-one-one once he made sure the little girl was gone or still hanging on. The body is nude with lacerations or cuts on body and signs of sexual abuse that seems to have spanned on for a while now."
Frank inhaled a slow breath and slowly exhaled. "Okay, then. Anyone get a hold of her parents or a guardian of some sort?" She bent down, pulled on a glove and lifted the sheet. The girl's dark hair was damp from the morning dew and her skin was white as fresh snow. Dried blood covered her body where the lacerations were and her dark eyes were wide open, frozen in terror from her torture. Her barely formed chest was disturbed by old healed scars. Maria glanced further down her body and saw what appeared to be blood from being raped over and over again before being killed. Jesus Christ.
The uni swallowed for a moment and muttered, "No sign of a guardian, but someone came forward who was looking for her. Says she's her twin sister." Both Munch and Frank looked up at the younger man and he pointed in the direction of a little girl wrapped in a blanket and sitting in a police car.
"Let me guess: your first dead girl?" John asked flatly, pointing out the uniform should have pointed out the twin sister was right there. "Next time, point out any family or friends first before we uncover the body and flash an image no one should have to see. Okay?"
The young man nodded quickly and swallowed heavily as he went back to his questioning. Maria recovered the girl and stood up. "Well, how about you talk with the hiker while I talk to the sister?" Munch nodded and gave her a look only she could understand. Focus on the case. The little girl is the case. She walked over to the police car, opened the other side of the back passenger door and slid in next to the little girl. The child sat perfectly in the seat with the thick blanket wrapped securely around her. Her dark eyes stared straight ahead and showed the loss and fear she had experienced. Having worked with children many times before, Maria knew better then to jump her with questions and decided to take it extra slow. "My name's Maria. What's your name?"
The dark-haired little girl slowly turned her head in Frank's direction and stared right at her. She gradually opened her mouth and whispered, "Abigail," before staring straight ahead again. "My sister's dead?"
"Yeah. My friend over there is named John and he and I are cops. We're going to protect you and find who did this to your sister-"
"You can't save me," Abigail muttered, cutting her off. "No one could protect Adva and she's gone. You can't protect me and I'm going to end up dead, too." She choked out the last few words as the tears began to fall. "No one can."
Knowing getting her to talk wasn't going to happen, Maria reached into the pocket inside her coat and pulled out a card. Wordlessly, she slipped it between two small fingers that stuck out of the blanket and gave her a small smile when Abigail turned her head. "If you want to talk, my home, cellphone and work number are on here. Okay? You may believe I can't help you, but I will listen if you want to talk." The little girl nodded her head slowly and pulled the card slowly into the blanket.
John Munch lifted his eyes from writing down his notes to watch Maria exiting the car and closing the door to keep the heat in. The expression on her face told him exactly what he was feeling.
M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M
"Are you sure you still want this case, Mar? You have an extremely hard time when it comes to kids," John pointed out as they headed back to headquarters once they were finished with questioning and finding a place to house the living sister until the parents were found.
Maria softly snorted and went back to staring out the window. "You don't take kid cases well either, too. You take them a little harder then I do, however, but you hide it much better then I can." He glanced over at her for a second and earned a look from his already troubled partner. "Don't give me that look, John. You're still not getting this case. I promised the living sister I would protect her and find who did this to her twin. A promise is a promise in my book."
Munch raised a hand as a signal he was giving up. "Okay, Mar. You win. But," He slowed once they hit traffic under a dark bridge and leaned over, pointing his index finger at her. "If you start having issues with this and Don notices, I'm taking over. I don't like watching you grieve over a child during a case. You know we do that once the case is done and over with." Something flashed in his dark brown eyes and Maria cracked a small smile. She knew that look very well and resisted the urge to lean over and give him a tiny kiss. "I don't want to watch you wallow in your pain over this little girl. If you want to wallow, at least let me wallow with you?"
"Okay. Fine." She grasped his finger and shook it, as if sealing a deal. "You know, we keep making these deals and we might just loose track."
"Nah, we won't." He straightened up as the traffic started moving and glanced over in her direction. "I love you, by the way."
Frank laughed and responded with, "I love you, too. No matter how much you piss me off over your silly small things or how many arguments we have, I still love you more then anything." He laughed and grinned. "I mean it, John. Now, our next step is to find the parents of the dead little girl and her sister so we can break it to them one of their daughters is dead. That part never gets any easier."
Once they arrived at headquarters, they first headed straight to Captain Don Cragen's office. "So what do we have?"
"A dead nine year old girl named Adva Feinburg. Cuts, bruises, lacerations and signs of sexual abuse going back possibly a year before she murdered. She also has a twin sister named Abigail and social services is watching her until we find her parents."
"Any idea where they are?"
Maria shook her head. "Abigail wasn't straightforward with where she lives or where their location is." She slide down into a seat and sighed. "Either she's too traumatized to say where or she probably doesn't know where they live. From her name and accent, she's not from around here."
Cragen leaned forward in his seat and asked, "Where do you think she's from?"
"Somewhere where the Jewish population hangs out: Manhattan, Lower East Side, maybe Brooklyn. From her accent, she could be from overseas as a legal immigrant. They might have moved and then Adva was killed or the abuse started and then she was killed." John explained, slightly shrugging because neither of them really knew.
"What makes you think it's the parents?"
Maria shook her head slightly. "We always look to the parents when there is a sign of abuse and we all know that. Abigail probably doesn't want them to know she was out looking for her sister. We won't know until we dig deeper into what happened."
Don nodded his head and stood up, signaling them to walk out of his office, following them. "Work out all leads and, once the parents are found, talk to them. If you can get the living sister to talk, go very slowly and see if other abuse is going on. Do you think the sister could have done this?"
"Absolutely not. Her behavior doesn't give me the vibe that she did it and from the amount of blood on the body's genitals, I don't believe she's capable of doing it."
"I hope you're right, Frank. I really hope you are right."
It was well past midnight and Maria Frank was still sitting at her desk, going over her paperwork of the case and glancing at the photos of the crime scene if something caught her eye. Everyone else had gone home to their waiting beds except for one other person - John Munch was nodding off at his desk, resting his feet on his desk and resting his head against his hand. He desperately wanted to crawl under the covers of his bed - their bed they shared - but he didn't want to leave her alone. If she stayed all night, so was he.
Shaking her head and lightly slapping her face to get to wake up a little more, Frank glanced down at the crime scene photo of the little girl, splayed out like a ghostly angel. Her dark hair and dark eyebrows stood out against her very white and cold skin, giving her the impression of a ghost.
Her eyes scanned over the lacerations cut into her flesh and her body suddenly went cold. A voice echoed in her head and she jumped up from fear, her heart pounding heavily in her chest. The cold, deep voice she had ignored since she was a young teen traveled through her sleep-fogged mind like an unwanted spirit making it's appearance. Deep breaths, girl. Take a few deep breaths and you'll be okay.
John lifted his head and saw she was standing up, bracing her hand on the desk. "Are you okay, Mar?"
Maria shook her head once more to snap her back to reality and lifted her head, giving him a small smile. "Yeah, I'm okay. The need for sleep is just making me a little jumpy. Heard a car outside and it made me jump." She reached for her bottle of water and gulped it down, finally feeling her heart slowing down. "Maybe I should call this a night and get some sleep. Clearing my mind might just help a little."
"M'kay," He stood up and got themselves ready to go home. "Do you want to eat anything or are you not feeling up for it?"
She considered it, but shook her head slowly. "Nah. I can't think about that right now. I just want to go home, hug my puppy and get some rest before doing the same thing all over again."
"You have to eat something, Mar. You haven't eaten anything all day-"
"And neither have you!" She shot back, her eyes glaring in his direction. He heavily sighed and bit his tongue - he knew better then to start her up when she was already running on low. Heavily sighing and taking a hold of his hand once she made sure no one was around as they headed to the car, she whispered, "I'm sorry."
John offered her a small smile and squeezed her hand before releasing it. "Don't worry about it. Just...what has you all wound up tight about this case? Didn't we make a deal about swapping cases if it bothered either one of us?"
She waved her hand in front of her face and answered, "I promised the twin sister we would find who killed her sister and I keep those promises. I know we made that deal, but it's not bothering me enough to want to give it to you. Does that make sense?" He nodded and they both got into the car together. "Zev's going to need to be let out since Dean's been watching him while we were working."
"I'll take care of that, no problem." He placed a hand on the back of her neck and leaned over to kiss her temple. "Anything specific for the night or do you just want to crash for the night?" Maria shook her head and took a hold of his hand again. His dark eyes watched her fingers outlining his fingers and knuckles. "What's the matter?"
She said nothing, but continued to slowly and gently glide her fingers along his hand. After five minutes of sitting in silence, Maria wordlessly reached her hand out and pulled John towards her for a silent kiss. Tilting his head to the right, Munch allowed her to take control and slowly pulled his hand from her's to rest on the back of her neck. Moments passed as they sat in silence and exploring each other's mouth until Frank finally pulled away and gently touched his face with her fingertips. "Let's just go home," She whispered softly, giving him a small smile, in which he returned.
Driving home in silence, John would carefully turn his head to see her staring out the window and into the darkness of the night, watching as random people walked along the sidewalks until the pulled up to her place. Once they made it to her door and she unlocked her, Maria cracked a small smile when their now six month old bloodhound puppy, Zev, leaped up and placed his massive paws on her chest. "How's your day been, boy?" She asked in a small voice as she rubbed behind his ears and earned a well deserved lick to the face.
"Dean's left a note on the fridge about his day and looks like he was well behaved." John answered her question, reaching for his leash. Snapping it to his collar and pulling Maria into a small hug, she tilted her chin up and whispered, "We'll be back. Going to bed?"
"Yeah. You can make yourself some dinner, but I'm going to bed to rattle around the case until I pass out." She gave him a small smile when he kissed her nose, but that was it. No arms wrapping around him for a hug and no returning his concerned affection for her. "I'm probably going to be getting up early in the morning anyway and head into work to see if Warner has any news from the autopsy."
Once John had left with Zev, Maria walked into the bedroom and slowly sat down, her hand pressing against her temple. Those lacerations, She thought, why...? It can't be. There's no way it can be... Closer her eyes for a moment and attempting to calm herself, Frank leaned on her knees and pressed both palms against her forehead. No. It's just not possible.
To be continued...