A/N: This second chapter is a little shorter than the last one, so sorry for that and the wait. After I got some feedback I was more inclined to update ;). Hope you enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you guys.
Obsessed
Part 2
Rachel wasn't athletic. She was never first to finish the mile in gym class, but she was never the last. Despite her usual stamina, she was quite sure that as she ran away from Aaron's dysfunctional home she could win the Olympics with the speed she was going. She wasn't sure if he was following behind her, but as she weaved through the yards of the neighborhood, heading for Puck's house, she felt miles ahead. She climbed over two fences in the process, but didn't slow her pace until she was literally at Puck's front door, banging her fist on it as if her life depended on it.
His truck was in the driveway, he was definitely home, and right now he was taking too long to answer.
She spared a glance over her shoulder, fearing what she may see, but was met with a view of a nicely trimmed lawn and a clear blue sky. No one was in sight.
As the fear of threat began to dwindle she felt the adrenalin leave her body and realized how out of breath she was. She leaned forward, taking in as much air as possible, which she realized was becoming more difficult with all of the panicking she was doing.
When the front door finally popped open Rachel didn't even wait to be welcomed in and took two steps over the threshold and slammed the door shut behind her.
"Berry?" Puck said incredulously as he watched her try to catch her breath in his entryway.
"Call the police," she managed to get out.
"What?" he said in surprise.
"Call them! Now!" she said roughly, and turned back to the door, twisting the locks into place frantically. Puck walked away from her quickly, into the other room.
When the locks clicked into place she felt a wave of relief wash over her and leaned her back against the wall, slowly sliding down it. She heard Puck from the other room talking into the phone. She heard him saying, 'I don't know', a few times, but other than that all she could hear was her pulse in her ears.
Puck walked back into the entryway a few moments later, phone in his hand.
"They said eight minutes," Puck said oddly, looking down at her. Rachel nodded and put her face in her knees. "They kind of want to know what's going on… and so do I."
Rachel didn't talk. She was pretty sure if she tried she was going to fall to pieces, sobbing and crying, and she was also pretty sure that Puck was not someone who would deal with a sobbing Rachel Berry very well. So instead of talking, she shook her head to convey that she wouldn't.
When Puck realized that she wasn't going to talk to him he sat down beside her on the floor and told her awkwardly that she could scoot closer if she wanted to, and that he "wasn't going to bite".
Despite his offer, Rachel stayed where she was, not moving a muscle, shaking slightly.
When two loud knocks on the door interrupted the silence Rachel yelped in surprise and jumped about three feet up and away from the door.
"Whoa, calm down. It's just the cops, Berry," Puck said easily and stood up to unlock the door beside her.
"No! Make sure it's them before you unlock it!" she insisted, eyes wide and watching.
"Alright, calm down," he said lazily. He pushed back the drapes on the side window and spotted two officers clad in uniform, moving out of the way to prove to Rachel that they were, indeed, officers. "Happy?"
Rachel nodded and stood up on shaky legs, using the wall as support. The door opened and the two men walked in, giving Puck suspicious looks.
"We got a call…" the officer said with his chin up. He looked over at Rachel, who looked horrible, and then back at Puck, who looked fine.
"Yeah, uh, I called. My friend came to the door – this is Rachel – and she told me to call. She hasn't said anything though, which is pretty weird. She talks a lot most of the time. I think she's scared or something," Puck explained. He wasn't nervous, nah, cops were used to him. Actually, he was pretty sure that the one with the mustache had been the one to arrest him when he stole the ATM. For the moment, he knew that this whole situation was pretty weird and he understood that they needed the facts. Plus, he didn't want to be blamed for whatever shit Berry had gotten into.
"Miss? Any input? We take false calls very seriously," the cop said sternly and Rachel nodded but still didn't talk. The cop took a few steps towards her and she jerked away immediately. He stopped his advances as his partner's hand shot forward onto his shoulder.
"She may be in shock, Eric," the mustache-cop said warningly. "We should wait for the paramedics to get here."
"Right," Eric nodded in affirmative and turned to Puck. "What can you tell us about her?"
"Rachel Berry, she's a… friend of mine, I guess. We go to McKinley."
"She's underage? How old?"
"Uh, seventeen I guess? I don't know her birthday."
"You don't know your friend's birthday?" he said with snarky accusation and Puck narrowed his eyes.
"Aw, c'mon, you don't know my birthday," Mustache said easily and rolled his eyes. Puck wasn't sure if this was a good-cop, bad-cop thing or just Eric being an asshole and mustache being nice.
"What is she doing here?"
"Like I said, I don't know. I was upstairs and heard some serious knocking on the door so I answered it. She basically fell into the house, out of breath, and slammed the door, locked it, and sat on the ground. She told me to call the police, and since she looked pretty freaked out I decided I should listen. She hasn't said anything since then."
"So you say," Eric said with a 'tsk' and Puck narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah, I do say, because that's what happened!" Puck said defensively, annoyed with this guy's attitude.
"Alright, calm down Puckerman. We don't need you to get into any more trouble, alright?" Mustache interjected and pulled his partner away to talk to him alone. Puck glared but turned away from the cop and looked back at Rachel, who had been watching silently.
"So you're in shock?" Puck said with calculative look. He raised his arm and waved it slowly in front of Rachel's face to try and get a response.
"I'm not catatonic, Noah," she said softly and flicked her eyes up to meet his.
"She speaks!" he said playfully and looked back at the cops. "You good to talk to them now?" She clenched her jaw and nodded slowly, taking a step forward to leave the house.
"Hello," she said, getting the attention of the officers. They turned to look at her and the one with the mustache nodded nicely.
"Hello, Rachel, are you ready to talk to us now? We can wait for a paramedic if we have to, but you seem better now." Rachel shook her head.
"Can we call my dads first? I-I really want them." She felt herself get choked up at the end and stopped talking. Eric gave his partner a look (dads?) and Mustache shrugged.
"Sure, we just need a number." He pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and Rachel told him the number.
Her dads said that they would be at the police station in about fifteen minutes, despite the fact that they worked about twenty-five minutes away from it. They were horrified by the call (Rachel was not a criminal, so anything to do with the police was bad news for their baby), but quick to be at her aid. She hung up the cell phone and thanked Mustache as she handed it back to him.
The short chat with her fathers had calmed her significantly and when she sighed in relief she actually felt like things were going to be okay for the first time in hours. That was, until she remembered exactly what happened and how important it was to tell the police about it.
"I forgot! You need to go to Aaron's house; he was there with his mother. He was so angry, and he shoved her out of the way. Oh, God, I can't believe I forgot! He lives two blocks away, that's why I came here," Rachel suddenly spewed out the information (that made no sense to anyone but her) and walked up to the officer frantically. "She may be hurt!"
"Calm down, Miss Berry," Eric said seriously. "You need to tell us, slowly, what is happening."
"I got rear-ended on County and Aaron got out of the car and threatened me into his car, so he took me home to meet his mother, and I ran away because he was so angry and he shoved her. You have to go, he's dangerous!" Her eyes were wide with worry and she obviously didn't take the 'stay calm' advice by any means.
"You're going to have to come with us then, Rachel, and show us where this Aaron lives," Eric said seriously and started towards the police cruiser. Mustache politely led Rachel towards the car and she skipped forward and got into the back seat.
"We may need a further statement from you, Mr. Puckerman, so don't be surprised if we call. Thanks," Mustache said quickly as he walked away.
They were in the car in seconds and pulling away from Puck's house, the ambulance, which had pulled up about a minute before, trailing behind them. Puck, who was still standing in his doorway, was totally confused. He shut the front door, glad to be done with the cops for right now, and pull out his cell.
You owe me an explanation, Berry, no excuses!
He sent the text quickly, looking at the phone blankly, as if expecting answers to pop up on his screen for the questions concerning the last fifteen minutes. Of course, none came.
XxXxX
"It's this one, here," Rachel said frantically, pointing out the window. "The garage is opened, his car is gone!" The fear in her voice didn't go unnoticed by either officer but neither commented, more worried about the danger inside the house than in Rachel's mind.
"Stay here, Miss Berry, do not leave the vehicle," Eric advised and Rachel nodded.
She watched as the two officers walked up to the front door cautiously and knocked. They stood for about a minute before opening the door themselves (which must have been unlocked), and walked into the house.
Rachel watched as if it were a movie, transfixed by what may be inside the house. It was about two long minutes before one of the officers, Mustache, left the house, running towards the ambulance. She watched as two paramedics ran forward with a stretcher and disappeared in the house. It was after another minute the paramedics receded, carrying Aaron's mother on the stretcher. She wasn't moving but Rachel couldn't see much else. She looked back at the doorway and saw Eric on a cell phone and Mustache walking towards the cruiser, where she was.
She pulled open the door and looked at the officer expectantly.
"We need to know who 'Aaron' is, Rachel." It wasn't a question, and his voice was serious.
"Her son. He's a student at McKinley, I don't know what grade he is in or anything else about him. Is she going to be okay? I told her to leave with me! I asked her to come with but she was confused… I just ran away! Is she going to die?" Rachel was bordering hysterics, her eyes brimming with tears as she questioned the officer.
"It looks like she is going to be fine, Rachel. She has a concussion, according to the paramedics, but that's all they can tell for right now."
"How!"
"I don't know, but if you calm down and help us understand we can figure it out," he said stiffly, seeming to be annoyed with her frantic questions. Rachel took a few breaths and tried to calm down. She wiped away the tears that had fallen from her face and looked back at the officer, ready to talk.
"I don't know what is going on, really. I was on my way home from school and this boy that I didn't know hit my car. I pulled over and he seemed to know me and… I think he was stalking me or something. He thought we were in love, and I had never even talked to him before! And then I tried to get away and he shoved me, and he wouldn't let go of my arms, so I pretended to go along with it so he wouldn't hurt me anymore and-and," Rachel's face fell and she dissolved into a puddle of confusion as she tried to recall what happened. She was so lost, she was scared, and now she was feeling guilty for what had happened to this woman. That could have been her!
"This is my entire fault, I shouldn't have done a-any of this!" She started crying and the officer gave up trying to understand everything.
So far, he had gotten the idea that this unhinged teenage boy kidnapped Berry, brought her to his house, and then attacked his mother for letting her go. For the moment, that was enough. They had done a preliminary sweep of the house, coming up empty, and since Rachel had mentioned a car missing from the garage they assumed he must have driven off by now. Now they were waiting for backup to keep an eye on the premises while they escorted Rachel to the station.
Until then, Mike (aka Officer Mustache) would stake out the joint with Eric and quietly muse over how this was not how either of them had imagined the day would go.
XxXxX
Rachel had been at the police station for about an hour and a half before they finally let her leave. Her dads were there, worried sick and doting on her almost immediately upon her arrival. The first course of action was a medic checking out her arms and taking a few pictures of the bruises Aaron had left for evidence. After the initial check-up she was brought into a small office with her dads beside her. Five minutes after reassuring her dads that she was fine (for the most part), a detective entered the room and sat at the desk opposite of the family.
"Hello, my name is Detective Carter." The petite woman extended her hand to Rachel first and moved down the line to her dads. "I'll be the lead investigator of the case, so if you wouldn't mind explaining what happened, Rachel, I am ready to listen. I only ask that we have no interruptions and save all questions until the end." She directed the last part of the introduction to Rachel's fathers who nodded in agreement.
Rachel smiled at the two of them and gave them each a reassuring squeeze of her hand. They were sitting on either side of her, one dad per side, a wall of protection.
Despite the long-winded explanation, her fathers managed to stay quiet through most of it. Detective Carter was attentive and seemed to be appreciating the details Rachel was providing and didn't tell her that she was talking too much (a complaint that she got most often).
Only in the middle of the play-by-play did Rachel struggle. She had to stop to compose herself for about five minutes after getting through explaining what had happened on the drive to Aaron's house. This part, too, had seemed to concern the detective the most, although she had sat in silent discontent throughout Rachel's speech.
After recounting what happened Detective Carter looked down to read her notes before asking the questions she must have compiled.
"I am going to repeat the facts back to you so please tell me if I am correct or incorrect, okay?" Rachel nodded. "You say you had never talked to Aaron before today?"
"Yes, not that I can remember, at least. He said I helped him pick up his books and that's when he realized we were… meant to be." The detective nodded.
"And Aaron also recounted to you what he referred to as 'your first date'. It was on Valentine's Day and you were apparently sitting in the booth behind or next to him." Rachel nodded this time and the detective looked up at her, seriously.
"You do not remember seeing him? This is important to have on file. It needs to be known that you have no connection to this boy." Rachel's brow furrowed in confusion.
"I don't… I don't remember seeing him there. I was with Finn the entire time, I hardly remember seeing my friends there, let alone a boy I didn't even know. Why is that important?"
"It is important for if you press charges-,"
"Which we will!" Hiram declared sternly.
"Let her finish, daddy," Rachel looked at her dad, who sat back somberly.
"And I have no qualm if you do press charges. If you do it is very obvious that the defense will take an insanity plea and, according to what you have told me, it will be very much warranted. If granted, it will mean his sentence will be carried out in a mental institution and he will be released upon medical/doctor approval. Depending on the amount of time spent in a hospital, the charges he is found guilty for, and if he is charged as a minor or an adult, Aaron could either be put on probation and released back into society or carry out the rest of his time in a prison.
"If you decide against pressing charges, it is possible to come up with an agreement with the family, Aaron's mother, to have him institutionalized until he is deemed safe by a doctor. As I said, I have no problem with the idea of pressing charges, but from monetary and temporal standpoints it would seem this second option would be in your best interest. The only negative to this option would be that a molestation charge could not be put forth and he would not necessarily receive equal punishment for the misdeed… depending on how you define 'punishment', but that is a different matter all-together." Detective Carter looked at her fathers seriously and sighed, putting the folder down meticulously. Rachel noticed how it lined up perfectly with the desk.
"Cases concerning mental health are always more tricky. For this reason I would suggest careful contemplation before making any decisions about pressing charges."
Rachel looked down at her skirt as she played with the hem of it. This was crazy. Her entire world had just been turned upside down in the course of three hours. Why couldn't she have just had a normal Friday night? What happened to staying in and watching movies with Kurt?
"Oh no," Rachel said aloud, causing all three adults to look at her. She looked up and was met with three sets of eyes on her. "I, eh, forgot that Aaron had my purse. He made me give it to him when I told him I had to go the bathroom at his house. All of my things were in there – my phone, IDs, credit card…"
"Your phone?" Detective Carter asked quickly.
"Yes," Rachel admitted in defeat. Great.
"So we no longer have proof of the text messages you mentioned?" she asked for clarification. Rachel shook her head and put her head in her hands.
"I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Rachel. None of this is your fault, these things just happen," Detective Carter said with conviction. Rachel nodded, her throat tight as if she were about to cry again, but didn't speak any further.
"That's all that I have for now. If we have any more questions for you, Rachel, we'll give you a call. If you just give me a few minutes to process these notes I can give you the necessary paperwork to sign and the three of you can be out of here in no time. I know it has been a long day, I'm sure you can't wait to get home," she said sympathetically as she stood up. She grabbed the folder off of the table and strode out of the office with direction.
True to her word, she was back within five minutes and handed all of them necessary paperwork as well as a business card with a recommended counselor for Rachel. Her fathers did most of the talking on the way out and Rachel stood in the background quietly, more anxious to get home now that she was so close to actually leaving.
The car ride home was quiet, in which Rachel sat uncomfortably in the back seat, musing about how badly she wanted to shower and how this urge to clean herself was probably not the healthiest thing.
"How do you feel about seeing a counselor, Rachel? I know the detective only mentioned it briefly, but your father and I agree that it may be a good idea," Rachel's dad LeRoy was sitting in the passenger seat, his body turned towards her in order to look at her fully and gauge her response. Rachel looked down at her lap and realized that it was probably a good idea, despite the mar it would put on her perfect record for NYADA. But that was irrelevant now, wasn't it? Now that she had been stalked, kidnapped, and whatever else, her name would show up on the Internet searches with multiple news hits anyways…
"I think that would be a good idea," Rachel admitted reasonably.
"I need a new phone," she said next, trying to change the subject to something more 'traditional-teenager'; cell phones were a good route.
"That is another thing I'm sure we both want to mention." Hiram gave his husband a quick look of support and he continued. "We can't believe you didn't tell us about those text messages, sweetie. You should have let us know as soon as it began. No one harasses our daughter and gets away with it!"
"I didn't want to worry the two of you. I thought it was just a prank, considering all of the lewd things people already say about me at school – and those are definitely because they're jealous of my talents, don't worry daddy!"
"People say things to you at school?" LeRoy asked sounding concerned. Great! Now they were going to become overbearing and nosey. Rachel sighed.
"Not so much say as draw… on the girl's bathroom stalls. It's not a big deal, and obviously it is just the jealous girls since it is in the girl's bathroom. And you knew all about the slushies, but those have stopped due to the anti-bullying campaign last year," Rachel explained level-headedly. She didn't like her fathers worrying, it made her uneasy knowing that they were uneasy.
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't tell us, baby. If anything like this happens again you have to let us know."
"Don't worry, I think I've learned my lesson." Rachel hadn't meant to sound so biting, but she couldn't help it. They made it sound like all of this had been her fault and preventable! As if this hadn't scared her! She wasn't stupid. She really had learned her lesson. If she received any more dirty text messages she wouldn't hesitate to tell someone.
"No need to be condescending, Rachel. We're just worried for you. We want you to trust us," LeRoy explained levelheadedly, with a sad look on his face. She had to give it to them; her dads had a knack for treating her like an adult. Unlike many of her peers who often bickered and yelled at their parents, Rachel and her fathers had discussions that usually ended in hugs and tea.
Much better than the alternative, no doubt.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude. I'm just…" she didn't finish the sentence because, quite frankly, she didn't know what she was. She was scared, stressed, tired, hungry, upset, and still feeling pretty dirty for reasons she didn't want to think about.
"I know, Rach. We're almost home and we'll fix you up a nice plate of tofu stir-fry with some tea, how does that sound?"
"Perfect." And she meant it.
For the record, I have no idea how actual legal proceedings work, so this is all from what I picked up from television shows and made up. Nothing that 'Detective Carter' says is legitimate in reality, only in the realm of the story!
More to come, and don't be too shy: leave me a review!
