Thanks to everyone for all the great feedback on Chapter 1, I really am flattered and hope you all continue to read and enjoy this story. This chapter is the immediate aftermath. I've introduced the leading detective on the case into the story as well because he will eventually play a bigger role in all of this, not to mention I thought it would be interesting to get sort of an outsider's view point on all of this rather than just the main characters we all know and love. Not only is this story about Meredith and her recovery but it's also about how everyone else handles the trauma of the situation. I will try to update this as frequently as possible but they may take a while because I'm really trying to write this well and for great chapters it will take time. But please continue to R&R, reviews give me motivation.
Detective Vince Ryan has ghosts in his past. Like most people, he's had his share of trauma in his life. This is most likely the reason he became a cop in the first place, to stop the monsters lurking in the dark.
He's working late, as usual. The clock on the wall says its 1:42 a.m., he sighs at the time. He knows he should go home and that sitting around digging some more really won't help him but in his six years in the Seattle PD, four of them have been spent trying to catch a man who's seemingly untouchable.
"Hey Ryan, how long you gonna stay here and stare at your case files and victims?" Tony half-heartedly jokes. Vince runs his hand through his sandy brown hair now in frustration. He smirks at the middle aged, dark haired, short man now.
"As long as I need to, Contenado." He replies still half smiling at the man. He stands up now, towering over the 5'5" man next to him, he's got him by about six inches.
"Why don't you go grab a drink with me, I know you wanna catch that sick bastard but staring at your case files ain't gonna do you no good." He says motioning toward the young detective.
"I know I just, I gotta feeling something may change soon." He says trying not to sound too naive or crazy. Tony rolls his eyes a little now.
"The guy's careful as they come, rookie. I mean come on he's always careful, he never leaves his victims alive and the one time the condom broke we didn't even have enough on the guy to run a match on the DNA 'cuz there was nobody to testify against him, it's like trying to catch smoke."
"I know but sooner or later he's going to slip up, that's my golden opportunity." He says winking his bright green eye at the man now.
"You'll learn soon enough rook, there's some guys who just won't ever get caught." He says leaving Vince alone in his office again.
Vince takes his seat again; he grabs at his coffee and sips it, willing himself to stay awake. Whether or not Tony believes it, there will be a break through eventually and he wasn't going to stop until there is. He eyes all of the twelve victims on the board, studying the details about them.
Personally, none of these women were connected in anyway but physically, they're his "Type" so to speak. All blonde, all petite, all pretty girls. These women always seemed to be what he went for. He winces as he reads through their info again.
Jamie Tanner, Age 23
She was going to school to be a Kindergarten teacher. She had everything ahead of her but now… she was dead. The latest victim of the man he wishes so desperately to catch. A man whom he suspects yet has nothing on, a man whom he cannot get a seamen sample from because it would be an injustice to the human rights.
He snarls at the thought "an injustice to human rights", raping woman and killing woman is an injustice to public safety.
"Newbie, we found another one." Frank, a heavy set balding man says as he pops into Vince's office, he gives an exasperated sigh now.
"Is the Forensic team on it now?" he says as he loosens his tie slightly, suddenly feeling a bit nauseous at the thought of another petite blonde woman being found dead.
"Yeah but there's good news, she's alive." He says smiling now at the young cop, "Not to mention, he didn't use a condom." He says a bit too excitedly over the victim. Vince blinks rapidly for a few moments, trying to intake what was just said. He shoots up from his chair now.
"Where is she at?" he questions as he grabs his black coat off the back of his chair along with his car keys.
"Seattle Grace Hospital, she's being examined now and the teams collecting evidence."
Vince rushes out the door and down the hall, the adrenaline pulses through him in excitement at the break through he's just had on the case. He smiles finally, the man is going to be caught.
The thought boggles his mind; this will be the last woman he ever rapes. His keys jangle as he makes his way towards the back parking lot of the precinct.
"Hey Tony, you're about to eat your words." He calls out happily, the cops eyes shoot over to him now.
"No shit?" he questions in shock and excitement, "You mean that bastard finally fucked up?" he questions running after the cop now.
"She's alive." He calls over his shoulder, almost leaping out the door now, Tony rushes after him and gets next to him now.
"I'm not about to miss this." he says smirking at Vince now, "My boy Ryan's about to nail this sick son of a bitch!" he says celebratory. They get into his black SUV now and he slams the keys into the ignition. The light rumble of the engine makes him jump a little¸ or maybe it's the caffeine, who really knows?
They pull out of the parking lot and silence stretches over them both. Vince grips the steering wheel thinking about just how long he's been waiting for this day. The victims still flash through his mind and he suddenly feels guilty over the happiness he feels. Sure, they got the guy's DNA and the girl lived but… she was still raped.
A perfectly nice, young, pretty, blonde was raped; no matter what happens to her attacker, she will still have to live with the aftermath of it. He swallows hard and his mood immediately changes just at the thought of her.
"So we just pretty much caught your rapist and… you don't look happy." Tony says playfully slapping his arm.
"I'm happy I'm about to catch him… it's just that a girl got raped and I mean we don't even know what kind of shape she's in." he says guiltily.
"Listen greenie, the victims… they don't ever get easier but that don't mean you don't get 'ta be happy 'cus you found the guy." He says wanting him to take some pleasure in the fact that those four years of work has paid off.
"Thanks Tony." He says quietly.
"But 'ey, what are you gonna do once the guys caught?" he says trying to lighten the mood, "Get a life and get a girl or find a new case?" he jokes yet again. Vince stifles a small chuckle now.
"Not quite sure about that yet." He says to both himself and Tony.
"This is it here, right?" he says pointing at the large white building, Tony nods at him. He pulls in and continues to drive through until he gets to the deserted back parking lot. Patrol cars are parked all over and he can see the camera's flashing at the crime scene.
He gets out of the car and into the rainy depths of Seattle now, it hadn't been raining when he left the station but now it's seems to be pouring pretty well. He approaches the scene cautiously, bracing himself for what he was about to see. He stealthily slips under the yellow tape surrounding the area and is greeted by Chet, the main crime scene guy for the PD.
"Well, there's most definitely signs of struggle, we found these cloths out here and there a blood trail from outside to in here." He pulls out the blood covered jacket now and Vince internally winces. The ripped up brown cotton tea shirt and blue panties in zip lock bags make him want to go kill the guy now, his fists clench in anger at what at done to the girl.
"Where are her pants?" he questions.
"We think she managed to slip them back on before she drug herself into the back exit again." He explains.
"Has she been spoken too?"
"She hasn't said a word even while they were examining her, but the guy who found her said she had on her bra and her jeans and was huddled in the corner of the janitor's closet." Vince nods.
"Are they done with her, and how bad of shape is she in?" he questions.
"They're done with the pictures of her injuries and they should be finishing up with the rape kit now, I think she's a sleep though due to the blood loss their giving her a transfusion, she had a gash on the back of her head where she lost most of the blood, a concussion, dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, and cuts and bruises all over." He says grimly. "Physically she should recover but, she hasn't even said a word yet, I don't know if that's due to the shock or if she's just completely checked out mentally." He admits.
Vince nods at him and makes his way over toward the huge red blood stain on the tan concrete. He follows the trial and feels even more pity for the girl as he continues to walk down the long dark hallway. She'd most definitely drug herself, as beat up as she was, down the hallway and into the janitor's small office.
He continues on into the actual hospital now, the flight of stairs greets him as he goes up them toward the ER, where she was undoubtedly being treated for the injuries she's acquired at this very moment.
The buzz of the lively hospital floor takes him aback. He's admittedly never been to a hospital before in his life, he never really expected it to be so… busy, people were supposed to be relaxing and healing here, yet it's truly on of the most busy places he's ever seen. He chuckles slightly at the irony as he continues to walk toward the center of the madness.
The seven uniform officer's taking statements all nod at him respectfully and bode him silent congratulations on the break through. The kind face of Rita meets him as he continues to walk through the bustle.
She offers him a sad smile, her white teeth contrast greatly against her tan skin tone. "I finished the rape kit about twenty minutes ago, they moved her over to room 1822, over in a private wing of the hospital." She explains as they stop to meet one another at the round desk in the "nucleus" of the white washed area.
"Thanks" he says dumb-struck, he doesn't even really know what to say…
"Listen, she's pretty beat up and traumatized it's probably a better idea to interview her tomorrow." She says lightly, almost pleading with him.
"I'd love to but you know I have to interview as soon as I possibly can, if I want to arrest the guy I have to get her description of him, not to mention her account." He says a bit more coolly than he wants to.
"Ok, fine." She says walking away now, he sighs and shrugs his shoulders yet again. He gazes up at each room as he walks and catches a small group standing outside the room at the end. A petite Asian woman, a shorter guy with brown hair, an athletic looking guy with dark hair, a tall model- like blonde, a girl with shorter dark red hair who looks like she's lost, and finally a man about his height with dark hair who's pacing nervously back and forth.
He can see the tension in the group and wonders which ones- if not all are her family, brothers and sisters perhaps? He finds himself curious of the large group outside her room. The tall, thin man with dark hair stares at him now, like a guard dog or something; obviously this one's her husband…
"You can't interview her right now she needs her rest." Another voice says defensively from off to the side, an older black man greets him now, "Richard Webber, Chief of surgery." He says extending his hand out to the Vince.
"Vince Ryan, leading detective on the case." He says shaking his hand in return, "and I really need to interview her, it's essential that I get the information I need." He says trying to sound polite.
"She doesn't need anyone interviewing now." the dark haired man cuts in sharply.
"I know she's just been through something traumatic but I need to do my job and talk to her."
"Dude, I swear to god, if you don't leave her alone I'll kick your ass!" the shorter athletic looking one cuts in viciously stepping toward him now. Webber puts his hand against the man's chest, almost as if telling him to back down.
"I'm sorry Mr. Ryan but she's on heavy painkillers and sedatives right now so she can get some rest, medically speaking she's not strong enough to talk to or deal with much of anyone or anything right now." he says motioning for the man to leave. "But I suppose since Derek was the one who found her, you'd want to interview him?" he questions.
"Yes that would be helpful." He says deciding not to fight them about talking to the girl now. The dark haired man steps forward now, he looks like someone kicked his puppy, beaten, broken.
"Derek Shepherd." He says quietly extending his hand.
"You can both go to the conference room over there." He says motioning to the larger room on the left. Vince nods at him and walks toward it, Derek follows. They take their seats now and the anxiety builds in Derek's system.
"So you're the one who found her then?" he questions. Derek nods lightly as the memory of her broken, beaten figure replays in his mind.
"OK, first off what is your relationship with the victim?" he questions.
"Meredith." He says sharply, Vince shoots up from his note pad now and gazes at him, "Her name is Meredith." Derek says with increased clarity, she wasn't just some victim she was Meredith… his Meredith.
"I uh- so what was your relationship with Meredith?" he repeats. Derek freezes for a moment in panic.
"Meredith and I, we… it's really complicated." He says swallowing hard now. "We… we're kind of on-again-off-again so to speak, but I guess right now we're sort of… friends." He says still choking back tears like he has been for the past two hours since he found her.
"Ok, so how exactly did you know she was missing then?" he questions.
"My friend Mark and I were leaving and I noticed her jeep still outside the hospital."
"Ok, so it wasn't supposed to be out there then?" he questions
"No, she'd gotten off hours ago and shouldn't still be here."
"OK, so then you both went to look for her then?"
"Yes, I had Mark go look for her at the bar across the street then I went inside to look for her. I checked in the on-call rooms, the OR, the ER, the Skills Lab, the library, then I remembered she sometimes sleeps in the tunnels in the back." He says as his voice breaks slightly. "I could just feel that there was something wrong so I took the back exit outside and found her duffel back thrown against the wall. So then I kept walking until I found a clump of her hair and her clothes with a lot of blood on the ground." He says wincing at the flashes of memory hitting him.
The bloody jacket, torn up tee shirt and panties, all the blood on the ground.
"So you followed the trail of blood then?"
"Yes I followed it until it ended at the janitor's office." He says as his Adam's apple bobs and he hold back a moan and tears.
"Then you found her." He states.
"Then I found her… she was… bleeding a lot in the corner of the room curled up. So then I checked to see if she was still alive and she was so I woke her up for a minute and carried her over to the ER." He says as the tears finally make peak out of the corners of his eyes and the burning sensation in throat intensifies.
The memory of the horrible sight haunts him as he desperately tries to push it out of his mind like he did when he was twelve and he saw his father being shot right in front of his vey eyes and then dying. The fear, dark, and distraught feelings clouding him over take him and suddenly he's twelve again, and his father is dying right in front of him again as he desperately holds his little sister back and keeps his safe and quite with him.
"Ok that's really all I need." Vince says breaking his trance, Derek nods at him and rushes out of the conference room as he wipes his eyes before rejoining the crowd of people outside the small room.
To Meredith Grey the world is a blur, still spinning round and round like the carousel she was on the day Richard Webber left her mother there in hysterics; the dull pain within slowly starts to become harsher. Like quick sand slowly pulling her under until she can't escape it. The drowsiness lowers her sensations making her unaware of the world.
She's dazed, still in shock from what exactly just happened to her outside the hospital. She can smell him as he carries her; she inhales the wonderful scent and slowly feels safer than she had just minutes ago. She nuzzles into his warmth and she feels him tighten his grip on her. As she turns her head towards his chest and lies against it, her half closed eyes see the indigo fabric of his sweater and wonder where his jacket went.
It finally occurs to her moments later that he'd given it to her, which is why she feels so much warmer than she previously had. He walks with her and she can hear him lightly crying. She wants to say something, to comfort him, but she can't, it's like she's frozen: she can't speak, can't move, can't feel.
She feels like someone dropped a weight one her as her eyelids droop even further down, why is it so hard for her to stay awake? Her exhaustion peaks and the shaking starts, she's jolted awake by the force.
"Meredith you have to stay awake, ok? Stay awake for me Meredith and you'll be fine." She hears his voice whisper softly in her ear. She blinks rapidly, trying to will herself into what Derek wanted her to do, she knows she has to do listen to him, no matter how out of it she is. So she forces her eyes open.
She sees the walls zoom by her and they make her dizzier than she was previously, she inhales deeply and feels Derek's grip on her tighten. She soon recognizes the tunnels where she and her friends spend a great deal of their time.
The bright lights of the hospital hurt her eyes, she barriers her face into Derek's chest to escape them. All the noise and rushing around of the ER feels intensified to her, she's never really noticed just how noisy this place was or how many people were whirling around it. She can't see them but she can feel them all zoom by her and Derek.
"Derek! Get her on a gurney!" she hears the familiar voice of Richard Webber bark angrily. She can feel Derek start to lower but instinctively she wraps her arms around Derek's neck tighter.
"Mer, you're going to be ok, just go with Richard and Bailey." He says as their eyes meet. He feels sickly as he sees the lack of anything in her eyes, they look dead to him, no twinkle, no cloudy haze, not even fear illuminates them they look blank. She releases and feels the pillow meet the back of her head; it quickly starts to be stained with sticky, hot, red, liquid.
She hears the blinds whip to a close on all sides surrounding the trauma room.
"Ok, her heads going to need to be stitched up, Mark has 10 units of AB- ready, and I'll have Torres come in and look at her arm." Bailey says calmly as Richard paces around the room. She flashes a light in Meredith's lifeless eyes now, "Her pupils are equal and pretty reactive, Derek said he thinks she may have vomited while in the room so it's most likely a concussion but I'll have a head CT scheduled for later just to make sure it's nothing more", the chief doesn't even seem to be paying attention to her words and she rests her hand on his shoulder to catch his attention, he nods at her solemnly. "Ok Meredith, you have to sit up for me, ok?"
Meredith's slow for a moment, trying to comprehend what her resident's just said to her. It's like her mind and her body has disconnected, she has no control. After the extra seconds it takes to register she feels Bailey helping her sit up. She winces from the pain shooting through her ribs.
"Ok, little pinch Meredith." Bailey says soothingly as she sticks the needle into Meredith's head, she's taken aback when Meredith doesn't even flinch or anything, most patients have some reaction to the needle but Meredith doesn't even seem to feel it.
She carefully stitches Meredith's head, as she thoroughly cleans out the wound. Callie Torres checks out her shoulder, "Ok, she's dislocated it so when you done stitching up her head I'm going to have to reset it." Bailey nods at her now.
When the nurse named Debbie sticks her with the IV, Meredith continues to stay numb, away from the world around her. It's like she's high, unaware of her surroundings, in her own world in a sense.
"Alright, the AB is hung." The strawberry blonde woman says she stares at the three doctors for a moment, expecting some information out of them; she widens her eyes now slightly, indicating for them to speak.
"Can I help you with something Debbie?" the chief says forcefully, she jumps back.
"No sir, I just wanted to know what happened." She murmurs.
"It's none of your damn business what happened, all you need to know is she's hurt and we're fixing her, now please get out we no longer need you." She scrambles out of the room.
The slamming of the door an unknown amount of minutes later makes Meredith wince. The team of forensic people makes their appearance.
"This is the victim?"
"Yes, this is Meredith." Callie responds as both the chief and Bailey stiffen at the word victim used by the monotone voice of the man. Meredith continues to block out the world like she always does when bad things happen. It's her way of coping so to speak.
The team gets to work and Meredith's irises catch the bright flashing of the camera, like a firework lighting up the night sky on the fourth of July, except these fireworks aren't a safe distance away, there blowing up right in her face. The flashes bring her out of her trance and back into focus.
Why is there flashing?
She thinks, though the words won't come out of her mouth. The clicking noise of the camera is continuous.
Click, flash. Click, flash. Click, flash. Click, flash. Click, flash. Click, flash.
She closes her eyes with each harsh flash as they take pictures of her like she's in a museum on display. She winces occasionally as they take samples from her. From her hair, under her finger nails, from her skin. She finally realizes that Bailey's stitching her up in the presence of all this.
The people whom she doesn't at all recognize continue to take pictures, and samples, and try to question her. Their mouths are moving but she can't hear the words exiting them. Meredith Grey is unresponsive.
"Meredith, I'm going to do a rape kit now and set you up with and HIV cocktail and a morning after pill, ok?" Rita Garciez says kindly to Meredith hoping for some kind of response.
"Meredith, ok?" Bailey cuts in¸ Meredith finds the strength to nod, finally confirming she can still comprehend the English language.
Once the painkillers finally set in, Meredith Grey finally falls asleep and away from all the attention and the chaos around her.
She doesn't stay awake for the rape kit, she doesn't stay awake while they pop her shoulder back into place and set her in a sling, she doesn't know that the man had cut her across her stomach and she needed twelve stitches, and she most certainly doesn't know even with Mark Sloan's best work the jagged gash across her cheek will still scar.
Derek Shepherd feels hot and sticky despite the chill of March weather in Seattle. He can feel himself becoming more and more nauseous. The tight feeling in his mouth, the queasy shaky feeling throughout his whole body, and his uneasy stomach all but bring him to the ground.
He leans against the cold sterile wall of the hospital for support. He slides down it as his sweater slides up his back the more he slides downward. He lays his head back against it but quickly rests it against his clenched fist resting on top of his pull up knees.
He exhales, trying to process exactly what's just happened. He wishes that he's dreaming. He wishes he'd wake up and he and Meredith would still be together, that Meredith never drowned, and most importantly his Meredith was never raped.
He takes these moments to regain his courage, to put on the brave face he knows Meredith will need him to put on. He knows she'll try to push him away, but he also knows as hard as she'll try there's no way in hell he's ever letting her do so.
He was going to be there for Meredith Grey, like he promised her he always would be back when they were happy.
"You yelled at me and then you left."
"Meredith, I was being a jerk boyfriends do that sometimes, but this is the part where I say I'm sorry and we make up because Meredith I'm always going to be there."
He stands up from where he's sitting now and gains the strength to walk back over by her friends. He spots Cristina Yang walking quickly, her eyes only focused straight ahead of her, like a robot programed for one specific thing.
"Cristina" she sighs, he's the last person she wants to see or deal with right now, "Where are you going?" he questions, grabbing her arm now and pulling her off to the side.
"I-I can't deal with this right now I just, I have to go." She says finally holding back the flood of emotions she just wants to release.
"Your seriously leaving." He says staring at her now, she feels uncomfortable, being ridiculed by the perfect Derek Shepherd.
"Come down from your high horse and mind your own damn business!" she says angrily biting back at him now.
"I'm not about to mind my own damn business right now because Meredith needs you!" he yells now as the entire hospital staff turns to watch the drama unfolding in front of them.
"If I remember correctly, Meredith's needed you a bunch of times and you left her. I've always been there even when you weren't so you don't get to tell me that I need to stay and that Meredith needs me." Derek finds himself at a loss for words; he had left her, that painful detail he knows all too well.
Cristina Yang uses the opportunity presented to her to run. She can't deal with this, she knows that. Meredith needs someone who can handle it and she tells herself that it's not her nor is it Shepherd. Her friend is undoubtedly broken and she doesn't want to stick around and witness the shell that was once Meredith Grey. That painful outcome is one that's too much for her to handle. So Cristina Yang flees, because she honestly has no idea what to do and that scares her more than anything because from the age of ten, Cristina Yang has always known what to do, how to handle a situation, and most importantly, how not to get overly emotional about anything.
When Derek rejoins the crowd of people outside her room the mood is dark. No one speaks, because no one really knows what to say. So, no matter how out of character for some of them, they remain silent, mourning the unfortunate circumstances of their friend.
"Can we see her?" George O'Malley finally asks Richard Webber, breaking the silence falling over the room.
"She'll be asleep for a while and she's been through a lot I think what she needs is rest."
"With all due respect sir, we're all here to see Mer, and if she's sedated anyway I really don't think having people in the room with her is gonna do anything." Alex cuts in agitated. The chief simply nods at him understanding that the people all surrounding her room; Alex Karev, Izzie Stevens, George O'Malley, Lexie Grey, and Derek Shepherd are truly her family.
When Derek Shepherd enters the dimly lit room all the people entering with him seem to disappear, they're no longer even relevant to his train of thought. She looks smaller than usual, wrapped in a thick heavy blue blanket that seems to consume her like a black hole. There's a sling around her shoulder, no doubt from the dislocation. She's pail from the blood loss, and blue from the slight hypothermia she experienced from laying out in the cold.
The bag of bright red blood on the metal pole above her transfers the blood that she so desperately needs back into her body. The bandage across her cheek stretches about three inches, covering the nasty laceration she received from a jagged knife. He takes hold of her hand and it feels like ice.
He remembers the day she almost drowned and shudders. She was cold that day too; he almost lost her that day like he did once again this day.
Why her?
He thinks, wishing that it was he who was mugged in the parking lot, or hit by a car, or something that would take the place of the universe doing this to her.
Derek Shepherd has always been an optimist, despite the horror that occurred in his childhood he always manages to see the upside in every situation. He believes in magic, and soul mates, and the happily ever after at the end of all the little fairy tales your parents read to you when you're little, but in this situation, it seems the universe may have finally broken his sense of optimism.
In this moment he realizes how truly horrible of a place the world is. He hates the man who did this to her with his entire being. He wants the man to suffer, and for Derek Shepherd, wanting to harm another individual has never crossed his mind except for when he was twelve years old and those man shot his father, he wanted to kill those men but he was helpless and this case, seeing the love of his life lay there after what a man did to her, he feels helpless, and that, the helpless feeling of not being able to do anything, that, makes him lose all hope.