Here is chapter 2. Hope you enjoy!
Oh and thank you to aarent and Detective Mariam K for the incredibly kind reviews. They warmed my heart and are greatly appreciated. =)
This chapter was written by 11Alexandria7 =)
Two weeks later
Monday, January 28th 9:32am
SVU Squad Room
It had been two weeks since Jessica had joined the SVU squad and she still hadn't made much headway in breaking into the group of the very close detectives of the 1-6. It was more than frustrating, but Jessica promised herself that she would make this work.
"Coffee?" a voice asked.
Jessica picked her head up from her desk long enough to meet the kind eyes of Monique Jeffries, holding out a cup to her.
"Umm-" Jessica started nervously.
"Don't worry, Munch had nothing to do with this pot." Jeffries quickly interrupted.
Jessica had discovered Munch's coffee by accident and had never wanted to taste anything quite like that again.
With a sigh of relief and a smile, she accepted the mug allowing it's hot body to warm her cold fingers.
"So how you holding up Jess?" Jeffries asked, knowing how tough the first few weeks are here at SVU.
Jess sighed once again. She looked up at Jeffries, her only friend in this precinct, aside from Cragen of course.
"I can't get the picture of a bloody, beaten up Sharon out of my mind. I can't sleep at night. Is this how all the cases are?" the young distraught detective asked.
She had already had 3 cases in the short two weeks she'd been there. It was pretty overwhelming.
"You never really do get used to it, but eventually you learn to live with it. Putting the creeps behind bars helps a bit." The wiser detective said.
"I cannot tell you how much I wanted to punch that douchebag when Cragen cuffed him." Jess' fists curled into balls. She had trained for this squad for a month, but nothing compared to the real thing.
"Just be glad Stabler got to him first. He can afford getting into trouble right now, you can't." Jeffries said smirking at the memory of Elliot clocking Sharon's rapist.
Jess only smiled in response as she turned her head back to the paperwork that seemed like a small hill compared to the mountains on everyone else's desk. She figured it would be too soon that her desk would be covered with the same amount of paperwork.
"Hey Jessie."
Jess closed her eyes and inwardly cringed as memories flooded her mind.
"Be a good girl Jessie and nothing will happen."
"Just like that Jessie… You're doing it right."
"You can't fucking run away from me Jessie!"
"Jess?" Jeffries asked when the young detective became unresponsive.
"What? Oh sorry." She said blushing, "Please don't call me that Cassidy.
Jeffries gave her a skeptical look, but didn't say anything.
"What? Jessie? It's cute." Cassidy said in his annoyingly oblivious voice.
"If she doesn't want to be called that don't call her it Cassidy." Jeffries said throwing him a look that told him not to mess.
"Fine, whatever." Cassidy replied trying to seem uninterested. He went back to whatever paperwork was on his desk as Jeffries walked away.
"So, I like that shirt you are wearing."
This had been going on the entire time she had been working there. For whatever reason Cassidy just kept hitting on his partner.
Completely disgusted, Jess ignored him and wished there was a way to make him stop. First of all, there is no dating between partners. Second of all, she was 23, and he was 35. That would just be weird. Third of all, he is kind of creepy… Not to be mean, but what 35 year old hits on his 23 year old co worker? Seriously.
"Where did you get it?" Even with her ignoring him he persisted.
Jess looked down at her faded grey sweater. It had been a gift from her best friend. Even if she knew where it was from, she wouldn't tell him.
As she was about to tell him where he could stick this particular sweater, Cragen walked out of his desk.
Unbeknownst to Jess, the look on his face was one rarely ever seen around the squad room. This immediately had all 6 detectives quiet.
"We have a new case." Cragen said solemnly.
"Cap, what is it?" Elliot asked, afraid of what was about to come. Cap was always the strongest in the unit, and to see him so frail was unnerving to him.
"There's been a shooting." Capt continued.
Immediately all the detectives shoulders dropped.
"What school?" Olivia asked sadly.
"Not a school."
Silence filled the room.
"The Children of God Orphange." Cragen continued lowering his head.
A sharp intake of breath was the only sound in the room after the devastating news.
"We need all of you on this, it is a high priority case as I'm sure you understand. But from what I've heard so far… There really is no way to prepare you. Mandatory evaluations with Huang will follow later, but for now we need all the bodies we can get on this case." Cragen's worry lines were long and thick with grief.
After letting the news sink in, Cragen gave out a few orders and headed back into his office.
"Cahill, my office please."
Jess barely heard him over her own loud thoughts. An orphanage? She'd never even heard of someone doing such a thing. Although she is beginning to learn that there is much more evil in this world than she had ever known.
"Uh, yes Captain?" she said following him in.
"Do you think you can handle this?"
"Yes sir, I don't want to be treated any differently than anyone else here." Jess said. She was getting frustrated that everyone was using her age as an excuse to belittle and bully her.
"You've been on the job for two weeks. Most detectives won't see something like this in their entire careers.
Oh, so he hadn't been picking on her actual age. Just her age as an SVU detective.
"You said you needed all the bodies you could get, sir. I can handle this." Jess said.
"Ok, but if you need to talk at all, do not hesitate to come to me." Cragen said with a warm – well, as warm as it could get considering the circumstances- smile.
"Thank you, sir." Jess replied beginning her walk out the door.
"Oh and Cahill?" Cragen added as an afterthought.
"Yes, sir?" she turned around and asked.
"Call me Cragen, call me Cap, or Captain, but stop calling me sir." Cragen said only half joking.
"Yes Captain." Jess replied returning the smile.
As the detective arrived on the scene it was an absolute mess. Camera crews and niosy citizens surrounded the yellow police tape with uniforms trying to hold them off. CSU was running around trying to get as much evidence as possible while different ME's examined the 14 dead bodies of small children. There were other frightened children who had survived and caretakers and nuns trying to console them, all while the bitter cold nipped at their faces.
Jess had never seen such chaos.
"Ready?" Cassidy asked looking at her. For the first time since she had met him he didn't look like a smug asshole. She didn't want to punch him for the look on his face or his unwanted advances. He looked as scared as she assumed she did.
"No, but let's go." Jess said taking a deep breath willing her legs to move towards the building.
The smell was the first thing that hit her when she stepped into the building. It was like a cold, hard slap to the face. She had never smelled anything so horrible in her entire life. The smell of death.
Then she saw the first body. A little girl, pretty as can be. Couldn't be more than 8. Her hair was blonde and in pigtails and she wore a too small… pink? shirt. She couldn't tell the color due to the amount of blood on it.
Next to her was a little boy… He was holding her hand. He had tried to protect her Jess guessed. Probably the same age. His other hand was clutching something.
"Jesus." Cassidy mumbled.
Jess bent down to see what exactly it was, only to find a Rosary in his little hands.
Tears threatened to spill as the ME in the room started listing the injuries of the two children, but Jess wasn't listening. She made her way out of the room and into the next only to be met by 4 more dead children. A little boy and three little girls. They were sprawled out on the floor in no particular order and the frozen looks on their faces were of terror.
Jess had had it. She needed a breather, so she made her way outside the building trying to ignore all the bodies and the blood on her way. Finally she made it into a little garden in the back that was covered in snow.
She retched like she had never before. Violently almost. Everytime she would think she was done, another little face crept into her mind and she retched some more.
She didn't notice the hand rubbing circles on her back until she was finally done.
"Here, drink this." The voice said handing her a bottle of water.
Jess gladly took it and sipped it, she couldn't get the faces of the kids out of her mind, but at least she could get the taste of vomit out of her mouth.
When she turned around she was slightly surprised to see a just as pale Olivia.
"I've never seen anything like this in the 5 years I've worked here. I can only imagine what is running through your head only having been here 2 weeks." She said.
"I just don't understand. How could someone do this anyone? Let alone kids. I mean, they can't be older than 10." Jess looked down sadly.
"I don't get it either, but it happens." Olivia said offering her a hand, "We should get back."
Jess only nodded and took her hand, but before they could turn around to head back to the building, a voice broke out into the air.
"Detectives, we found fluids on three of the bodies." An ME called to them.
Jess' head dropped as she trudged back to the building to hear the details of the kids' deaths, and now rapes.
I hope you liked it =)
Reviews are always welcomed =p
Thank you for reading!
SilvrBlade is up next!