Chapter 2
Elliot didn't drive straight to the DA's office. He was too angry to just sit through hours of security footage and wait for her attacker's face to pop up, because he already knew who her attacker was. It wasn't like there was any question in it- it had to be Gabriel Duvall.
Bastard who had raped dozens of women over the years, and they finally get close to throwing his ass in jail, and suddenly the prosecuting attorney is nearly beaten to death? Hell of a coincidence.
He supposed it was only a matter of time- Casey didn't have the safest job in the world. She prosecuted some of the sickest people in one of the most dangerous cities in the US- it wasn't surprising one of them eventually went after her. But that didn't matter. She wasn't a cop; she was supposed to be safe. She wasn't supposed to be in danger of becoming a victim.
Shaking his head, Elliot knocked loudly on Duvall's door, his hand clenched into a fist. He knew that Duvall was going to turn into Casey's nightmare after this- he wanted to be Duvall's nightmare for doing this to the innocent ADA; turning her into a victim.
Duvall opened the door and Elliot forced his way inside, slamming the door against the wall as Duvall backed away in shock. "What do you want?"
"Let me see your hands," Elliot growled, grabbing the bastard's wrists and holding them up so he could see Duvall's knuckles. No cuts or any other signs that he had punched anything recently, but that didn't mean he wasn't behind this.
"What's going on?" Duvall stammered, and Elliot glared at him before pushing him away.
"You're a smart guy, right? Where gloves?"
"I- I don't where gloves, I don't like the way my hands feel." Elliot searched around the small, messy apartment for any evidence of what Duvall had done to Casey, and Duvall asked rather than stated, "I didn't do anything?"
"Where were you tonight?" Elliot asked, deadly quiet.
The bastard tried to avoid the question. "You're gonna have to leave me alone, or I'll call Jason-"
"Call your lawyer," he laughed. "Call your mommy for all I care. They can't protect you from me. Now answer my question- where were you tonight?"
"I just got back from the diner," he stuttered, and the note of fear in his voice gave Elliot a sense of grim pleasure. "Roast chicken, creamed corn, carrots-"
"Shut up!" Elliot yelled at him, pushing Duvall away. He didn't want to hear about what the bastard had eaten after he'd beaten Casey half to death. He looked around again for any signs that Duvall had been at the DA's office earlier that night before glaring at him again and hissing, "You'd better hope somebody saw you there."
SVUSVUSVU
Olivia glared at her watch again. It had been an hour and a half since they had gotten Casey to the hospital- no word on her condition yet. Normally, that would not be a cause for concern, but Casey's condition was critical. That's what the EMT had said, and that meant her case would be a first priority. What the hell could be taking them so long?
It had felt like an eternity, but finally, finally, the doctor came out into the waiting room, the doctor who knew if Casey was okay, who knew that she was at least still alive. He called for Detective Benson and suddenly, her exhaustion replaced by a nervous, horrible fear as she got to her feet and hurried over to him, trying to choke out her frantic question.
The doctor nodded and understanding and said, "Ms. Novak's condition is stable. She has a grade three concussion, a dislocated hip, and several broken ribs, which are her most serious problem. She is lucky there wasn't any internal bleeding, and we've stabilized her ribcage so there shouldn't be any problems arising from that, as long as she refrains from any strenuous physical activity. Also, we found glass shards in some of the wounds, several of which we had to stitch up- she'll have to be careful not to tear those open these next several weeks. We also ran that rape kit; she's in the clear. No signs of sexual trauma or penetration."
Olivia heaved a heavy sigh, nearly passing out with relief. She may have Casey's blood on her hands, but not her death. Thank god.
"Thank you so much," she said softly. "Can I see her?"
The doctor nodded. "Yes- we weren't that busy tonight and managed to get her admitted already, but you should know that she's still unconscious. The nurses should of gotten her situated…" He consulted back with Casey's chart before looking back at her and giving her the room number.
Olivia thanked him again before asking him when she would be able to come home. "Well," he started, "we're going to keep her at least 24 hours for observation, because of her concussion. We'll be monitoring her pretty closely and if things look good, we can release her, but she'll have to come back for regular checkups."
She smiled at him before heading off to Casey's room, unable to stop smiling. Yes, Casey was pretty severely injured, but she was still alive. She was going to be okay.
When Olivia raised a hand to brush her hair out of her eyes, she saw that her tan skin was covered with dried, black blood... Casey's. Olivia shuddered when she realized she quite literally did have Casey's blood on her hands, she had to fight the urge to go wash and scrub at it until it came off, because she did not like seeing it.
But she was already at Casey's room and she wanted to be there when Casey woke up. She owed it to her to be there with her... especially because she wasn't with Casey when she needed her the most.
She could wash the blood off later. Right now, she was going to go be with Casey.
Olivia took a deep breath and slowly entered the room, freezing for a moment when she raised her eyes to look at Casey.
The ADA was still asleep, hooked up to several wires to monitor her heart rate and an IV, a slim tube of oxygen under her nose. The numbers on the heart monitor were faster than her pulse had been in her office, but they weren't that steady enough to keep Olivia calm.
She was covered in vicious bruises, ranging in colors from red to blue to purple, like many of the abrasions she saw adorning on the flesh of victim's, just... never on her friend's. Suppressing a slight shiver, Casey swallowed back her guilt and closed the door to the hospital room. The sound woke Casey out of her restless sleep and she stirred slightly, moaning quietly. Casey turned her head slowly to look at the detective, moaning again, and narrowing her eyes to try and focus on the detective. "Li... Liv?" she asked softly, starting to struggle to push herself up onto her elbows as her face contorted with pain.
"Hey, sweetie, it's okay. Don't get up," she said softly, walking forward to stand next to Casey's bed. "It's all right."
Casey winced again, slowly lying down again, staring at Olivia in confusion. "Wha... what's going on?"
Olivia smiled kindly at her and tried to break it to her gently. "Well, you're in the hospital... you were attacked, sweetheart, and your attacker beat up you pretty badly. Don't worry," she said quickly when Olivia saw the panic in the ADA's swollen, battered eyes. "You're going to be okay."
Olivia walked closer to her and sat down on the bed next to the bruised, broken body and resting her hand on top of Casey's. "Who- who did this?" Casey asked shakily, starting to tremble.
"Well," the detective said gently, "I was hoping that you could tell me."
But this only confused Casey more. She tilted her head to the side and she asked hoarsely, "But didn't anyone see? There... there were so many people there."
Olivia frowned, unsure of what Casey was talking about. "Where?"
Casey watched her uncertainly, wondering what Olivia was trying to do- she had been in the squad room as well; she knew what she was talking about. "In the squad room," she said, shrugging slightly, her fear growing when she saw Olivia's expression contort in first confusion, then sadness.
I can't do this... Olivia looked back up at Casey's pale face, so bruised and swollen and battered... she couldn't tell her the truth. Casey wasn't a victim yet; Olivia could just tell her that she was in a car accident or something, that's why she couldn't remember...
Yes, Casey wasn't a victim.
But what Olivia had to tell her now was going to make her one.
"Oh, no, honey," Olivia said softly. "That was this afternoon. You were attacked at night, after dinner, in your office. Remember? We were talking, and I went to get coffee, and..." I left you alone and he came up there and hurt you, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry...
Casey stared at Olivia, pain mixing with panic as her words clicked together to form a message that couldn't possibly be true, but it had to be, because Olivia wouldn't lie to her, and certainly not about something like this. But she can't remember what Olivia's talking about. She shook her head, tears coming to her eyes, and her detective's expression grew frightened for a split second before Olivia carefully wiped her face blank and asked, "You don't remember?"
"No," she half-said, half-sobbed, shaking her head again. "No, I can't, it's all blank!"
"Shh, shh," Olivia tried to soothe her, squeezing her hand gently. "It's okay, Casey, it's okay. It's just gonna take a while for you to get your memory back."
Casey shook her head again frantically when she realized something. Immediately, the question burned in her throat, begging to be released but too horrible to be said aloud, but... she had to know. She couldn't live with not knowing. "Did he ra-" she choked on the word, sobbing again as she struggled to force it from her throat, no matter how terrifying and horrible it sounded out loud, "did he rape me?"
That single word made her want to throw up, but Olivia rested a hand on her shaking forearm and met her eye, saying softly, "No."
But this only made the ADA cry harder, maybe out of relief. She sobbed painfully, begging, "Why can't I remember?" Her voice- god, was that really her?- was wrought and torn with fear and pain as she pleaded for something, anything to give her peace from this living nightmare.
Olivia moved closer to her and told her, "You don't have to. We're gonna find this guy. Elliot's at your office right now looking through the surveillance tapes, okay?"
Casey heaved deep, wracking sobs, holding onto Olivia as if her life depended on it. The detective's hand on hers was the only thing holding her to reality right now, the only thing convincing her that, despite all the voices in her head crying, It's all a bad dream, it's all a nightmare and I'm gonna wake up! that this nightmare was really happening.
Olivia gently comforted the crying ADA, her detective mind saying that Casey would have to remember what happened- not just for the case and so she could get justice, but so she could really heal from this. But as her friend- was it really best for Casey to see through the hazy blur of her memories to the one she wanted to remember more than ever? Should she really see this bastard beating her senseless and leaving her broken and bleeding on the floor? Was that what was best for her?
Yes, Olivia decided, she was going to have to remember. Because no matter how much those memories would frighten Casey, no matter how horrifying it would be for the ADA to remember what he'd done to her, leaving this amnesiac to live in the shadow of forgetfulness wasn't an option. Casey was going to have to remember. That was the only way she would be able to heal from this.
Olivia had been comforting Casey as best as she could, but once her initial outburst was over, Casey had fallen silent, as if afraid that if she spoke up, she would start crying again and wouldn't be able to stop. Olivia could tell the ADA was struggling to stay awake, so she squeezed the ADA's hand gently and said, "Hey, Case? It's pretty late, and I'm sure you're exhausted. Why don't you get some sleep?"
Casey shook her head and hastily wiped another tear from her bruised cheek, wincing slightly. "No, no," she said, her voice still hoarse. "I- I've only been awake a couple minutes, not that late, and I don't want to pass out on you- hey, why don't you go home, get some rest? I'll be okay here."
"Casey," Olivia said softly, "I'm not going home right now. I'm staying with you until I'm absolutely sure you're okay. Don't worry about me. Anyway, your only priority is rest, sweetheart- look, I can see how tired you are. Just close your eyes; get some sleep."
Normally, Casey would of protested, but... she was so, so tired. And sleep sounded so incredible. With all the painkillers in that cursed IV coursing through her bloodstream, it sounded so, so wonderful.
When the ADA nodded at her, her eyes glued on her lap, Olivia smiled at her and turned the light out over her bed.
Without Olivia's hand on hers and the light out in the hospital room... suddenly, she can't do this. It's so dark she can't see. She can't see and it scares her. She can't see anything; what if her attacker's there? What if her attacker's waiting for her in the darkness; what if he's back and is going to hurt her?
If Olivia's hand was on hers again, she could feel safe- she'd know, without a doubt, that her detective was there with her and that she was safe. But she can't ask Olivia to do something like that for her- after all, her detective was here in this hospital room all night with her and she didn't have to be. She couldn't say anything.
When she saw her faceless attacker looming in the darkness again, she wrapped her arms around herself and crushed herself against the uncomfortable mattress, trying to roll away from Olivia and whimpered when the pain conquered her and she lay still.
"Casey?" Olivia asked worriedly. "You all right?"
The ADA shook her head, tears in her eyes. "No... yes... I just- I'm fine, Liv," she sighed in defeat, giving up trying to explain. She didn't want to tell Olivia anything that made her seem this weak. She was a grown woman, for god's sakes; she shouldn't be scared of the dark.
"Case, talk to me."
Olivia hesitated, then said softly, "Casey, sweetheart, you don't have anything to be ashamed of here. After what just happened to you, I wouldn't expect you to be acting like everything was okay- because it's not. Just tell me what you want; what you need. Please? Let me be there for you."
The ADA paused before averting her eyes and mumbling, "Um, could you please turn on the light? And, after that, not let go of my hand? I mean, if it's not too much just trouble, I don't want to-"
"Shh," Olivia told her, patting her shoulder gently before turning the light back on. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of," she repeated it. "You don't have to embarrassed. It's just me and you here; you're okay, Casey." She gently tugged the hospital blanket higher cover Casey's battered body, then rested her hand on top of Casey's and asked, "Is that better?"
Casey nodded, her eyes closed tightly in embarrassment. She couldn't believe how pathetic she was being- and now her friend, this amazing woman who Casey looked up to, could see the weak woman she really was.
Normally, the shame and embarrassment would of kept her awake; she wouldn't be able to sleep. But now, with all these painkillers coursing through her body and everything, everything still hurts, sleep would make an incredible escape and these sweet drugs are making her sleepy.
When Olivia saw that Casey was asleep again, she sighed sadly, shaking her head. She felt horrible. This was all her fault- if she had just stayed five more seconds, Casey would of been fine. Olivia had known there was someone coming up; she'd been there when she'd gotten that call for flowers- hell, she'd even passed the bastard when she was leaving Casey's office for coffee! But no, she'd left and now Casey was in the hospital because of it.
Sighing softly again, Olivia tried to swallow back her guilt as she squeezed Casey's hand gently. Right now, this wasn't about her. It was about Casey, and Casey needed her to be strong for the both of them.
