A/N: In honor on Common Law airing their 1st season finale tonight at 10/9 CST, I'm posting my first 'Common Law' multi-chapter fic. Not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. Rated T for mentions of rape, bloody scenes, mild language and whumping of our favorite detectives. My internet isn't working great, so until that is fixed I won't be able to update this. I couldn't wait to post it, so here you go, Commers!

Warnings: language, angst/violence, mentions of rape.

Disclaimer: I don't own Common Law. If I did... we'd all know if it was renewed for a second season. * shrugs *

Chapter 1

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."

- Albert Einstein

Detective Travis Marks checked his gun one more time before stepping foot out of the car. He and his partner Detective Wesley Mitchell, along with half of the LAPD were about to enter an old house on the outskirts of town in the hunt for a man dubbed "The Collector" by the LAPD, who is wanted for seven brutal murders in the past three and a half months. Giving directions to the officers, Wes and Travis took the front door.

The weather was cool and crisp as it was early in the morning, around 3 at the latest and there weren't any lights on in the house. "Everyone be prepared. This guy is highly dangerous and most likely armed." Wes said into him comm. Given the signal, the groups moved in from the front and back of the old run down place, weapons drawn.

Travis moved through the house quietly, checking each room he went in and out of. Wes motioned that he was going up stairs, taking a few officers with him. Detective Marks nodded his head and went to the kitchen. The beam from his flashlight lit up the room and Travis felt his stomach drop.

Blood was splattered on the floor, counters, and sink. A bloody hand print on the fridge door. Knives lay discarded, along with bowls and other household items. A noise close to him brought Travis from his thoughts and he went to check it out.

Gun at the ready, Travis was about to open a door that led to the basement when a strong arm lashed out on his arm, knocking his weapon out of his grasp. Travis ducked to the side as a hand aimed for his head. A glimmer flashed in the moonlight from the knife that was in between the enemy's palm.

"You cops needa mind your own damn business," a deep voice boomed getting ready for another charge.

"That'll be kinda hard, Justin," Travis started as he sidestepped another slash at his body. "seeing that this is my business." Justin growled and ran full steam towards the weaponless detective, knocking him onto a table. The two fought and Justin punched Travis with his free hand, dazing the man.

Seeing stars, Travis was unable to prevent the knife from meeting is destination as is cut across his bicep on his left arm. Holding back a cry of pain, Travis gritted his teeth together before kneeing the criminal in the midsection and shoving him off his body.

Doubled over, Justin lost the knife and it fell to the floor with a crash. "your gonna regret that, cop," he hissed through clenched teeth. Travis didn't say anything, just got ready for an attack. Justin didn't see the detective look to the ground and then back up, while Travis saw that Justin wasn't going to go out without a fight.

"There's only two ways you can come out of this, Justin," Travis started, ignoring the pain that radiated from his arm. "Either you leave here in cuffs, or in a body bag. Your choice,"

"How 'bout this!" Justin reach behind his back and pulled a small gun on the detective and a single shot rang out.

Justin Tucker lay on the floor, dead. A single bullet hole in between his still open eyes.

Travis looked at the body and then turned around only to find Wes who was just now lowering his rifle. Walking over to his partner, Wes asked, "You alright?" gesturing towards Travis' still bleeding arm with his flashlight.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, holding back a grimace. Making his way over to where Justin's body lay, Travis picked up his gun and light and headed to the basement door once again saying to Wes, "I heard something coming from here." He slowly opened the door and descended the wooden stairs, Wes keeping close behind him.

The two detective shone their lights throughout the basement and found a very disturbing sight.

Bloody tools stood in a corner and some lay in the middle of the concrete floor. A large black tarp sat a few feet away, being held down by rocks that were stained red. The strong smell of copper filled the room and both men began to feel sick.

"This much be where he," Wes paused for a lack of words. "you know,"

Travis didn't answer, instead walked towards the back of the dark room in search for a light switch. His flashlight came in contact with a hanging string and he pulled it. A dim light came on, barely giving off any energy.

"Wes!" Travis called to his partner. Wes came right over and saw what sounded so urgent.

A woman lay tied up to a pole in a corner. Her hands were being held at an awkward angle and her black hair was covering her face, her head lulled to the side. Cuts covered her arms and legs, blood stains littered her clothes. She wore only a tank top and shorts that were all too small.

Travis holstered his weapon behind his back and knelt down to check if the woman was even alive. Reaching out a hand, Travis placed two fingers on the woman's neck to search for a pulse when all of the sudden the woman jumped causing him to stumble back.

Strands of hair still covered her face, but the two detectives could make out the look of fear in her eyes. She tried to back away from the two men, but the wall and rope prevented her from going any where.

"Hey, we're not gonna hurt you," Travis said as he made another attempt to get closer to the woman, but she wasn't having any of it. Wes stepped up behind Travis and said, "The house is clear. I called the paramedics." as he bent down to reach Travis' level. But the woman didn't like that.

Her eyes grew bigger when she saw how close Wes was, which cause her to freak out. She tried and tried to back away from the men, shaking her head all the while. "Wes, step back." said Travis.

Not sure what was going through Marks' head, Detective Mitchell did as he was asked. Meanwhile, Travis raised his hands as if in a surrender, as he began to talk the woman down.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help." Travis continued. "Can I do that?"

The woman slowly stopped trying to back away. Travis took that as a good start and went to untie her hands slowly. The sound of footsteps came to his ears which meant that the paramedics had arrived. They made their way over, bags in hand ready to get to work.

"What do we have here?" one of them asked.

"Female, mid to late 20s, African-American." Wes said. "Multiple cuts on her arms and legs, a possible wound on her torso,"

One of the paramedics nodded as he took out a needle and filled it with a clear liquid. Wes noticed this action and spoke up, "I don't think that's-" he was cut off. "You've done your job, detective. Now let us do ours." he, Kevin by his name tag, said. His partner, Sara, motioned for Travis to back away, which he did.

Kevin leaned in and was about to inject the woman when she lashed at him with what little strength she had which cause the syringe to shatter to the ground. Travis was back at the scared woman's side in a flash.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said slowly trying to calm her back down. "they want to help you," the woman was scared and didn't trust anyone to get close to her. That much Travis was sure of.

"We need to sedate her before she hurts someone," Sara said moving towards the two people on the floor with another filled syringe. Travis held up a hand signaling the female paramedic to stop what she was doing.

"Just wait a minute, alright?" Travis asked. The two paramedics sent glares towards the detective, but didn't move to argue. "Hey, we aren't going to hurt you. We're here to help, okay?" said Travis to the shaking victim.

"I'm going to be right here with you, okay?" he could see she was beginning to calm down. Was he beginning to earn her trust? Looking up, the woman gave a slight nod.

"Alright, where's that gurney?" Travis asked the still silent paramedics, Kevin and Sara, who in turn answered. "We.. didn't bring one," Kevin said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "We didn't think anyone would be alive."

"You didn't-" Wes said, but stopped short of finishing what he was going to say.

"Its fine, I'll carry her." Travis looked at the woman and smiled. "We're gonna get you out of here. Okay?" still shaking a little bit, the woman nodded again, not saying a word.

Lifting her up in his arms bridal style, Travis began to make his way to the stairs. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but sigh at how lightweight she was. He could feel her ribs on his body and felt the stickiness of her blood on the palms of his hands.

Making his way out of the house and down the front steps, Travis gently laid her down on a waiting gurney. Red and blue lights flashed amongst the trees while the police worked to contain the scene.

"Sir, we need to get your arm checked out," someone said. Turning around, Travis saw a petite woman standing opposite of him, pointing to his wounded limb. "Its alright. You can ride with her if you'd like."

"yeah. Could you wait one second?" Travis jogged off to find his partner who was speaking with Captain Sutton.

"Hey Cap, you don't need me here do you?" he asked.

"I do, mostly because I want to know what happened." Mike said. "but seeing as you have some things that need to be cared for, I suppose the report can wait til later."

"Thank you, Cap," Travis said to the captain. "and Wes,"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for having my back, bro."

Wes watched his partner as he headed back to the waiting ambulance and got in. Sirens blaring, the vehicle took off towards the nearest hospital. "Any time,"

-xXx-

Travis Marks paced the waiting room with a fresh bandage on his arm. It took 22 stitches to close and two weeks worth of antibiotics to prevent infection. Not that he was counting. He would have to go back to the doctor in one week to check and make sure that he hadn't caught any thing, but that was the least of his worries.

He had been in the hospital for two and a half hours and still hadn't gotten word from any doctors or nurses. He was starting to wonder what was taking them so long.

Just when he was about to go to the desk and ask himself, a female doctor came in.

"Detective Marks, I presume?" she said. "I'm Doctor Rachel Owens,"

"Travis, please." he said as he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, doctor. How is she?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about." she began. "I apologize for the wait for her condition, but I won't sugar coat what I'm about to tell you," she waited a second before continuing.

"The woman that was brought in was in bad shape, to say the least. She was given a light sedative on the ride here, as we didn't know what kind of injuries she had. When she was taken back to the ER, most of the sedative had worn off.

"At first glance, I saw that she multiple lacerations on her arms and legs and what appeared to be whip marks on her back and shoulders. She started to come around not long after this and caused quite a scene. My team of four doctors and nurses couldn't contain her. My male nurses couldn't get close to her at all.

"After what seemed like hours, I had to send them to another station, which left me short handed on what needed to be done. After getting her vitals finished, I saw that she had burns on her fingers tips." she saw Travis raise an eyebrow at this statement.

"I'm afraid you heard that right. But then I came to another conclusion. Once her major injuries were taken care of, I had them give her another sedative so I could perform a different test. One that wouldn't have gone over well if she was awake."

"Doctor, are you saying," Travis couldn't even finish his sentence, but the Doctor Owens knew what he wanted to ask.

"Yes. I'm afraid I'm saying that she was raped."

A/N: Sorry for my lack of medical knowledge. I volunteer in a medical clinic and I've had a few hospital visits myself to get by with it in fanfiction. If I got anything wrong, I'm sorry.

A/N 2: I can't decide on a first name for Jane Doe and I need your help. Take a few seconds and review with a UNISEX name. Like Taylor, or Devon, or Alex, etc. Its still a few chapters before you know her name, but you'll understand more once her back story/history is reveled. I'll pick the best one for this story by Chapter 4 at the earliest.

Review with your thoughts! :)

Oh, and has anyone else see the trailer for Michael Ealy's (Travis Marks) new movie "Unconditional"? O.M.G. * dead *