Hi, so here is another chapter, this one deals with the aftermath of the previous one and sets up a long arc for the next five or six chapters. I might have taken some liberties with procedure but most of this i think is accurate.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.


Prosecutor's Daughter

Chapter 9-After The Storm


It had been Amaro surprisingly enough that had come hurtling through the door that was Liv's office to tell Rafael that they had lead that he better get a move on that he better take the vest being offered him and put it on.

Either Murphy had agreed to him coming or Rollins had all but threatened him but either way the man didn't seem to worry that there was a DA with them who had never so much as held a gun never mind fired one before. Not that looking back he could remember this at all. In fact looking back he was surprised he was able to put one foot in front of the other. His whole head had become a cloud of white noise and he barely remembered Amaro parking the car in front of what looked like a cluster of abandoned buildings before the younger man opened the door and stared at him with a hard expression.

"Look I don't wanna be rude Barba, god knows what I'd be like if I was in your shoes but right now we are walking into God only knows what and I don't have time for you to fall apart on me. If you're coming then I need you awake and alert. This is my career on the line and also my life so please…"

And somehow that was enough to pull him out of his fog.

And that was the point where he began to start remembering things.

He forced himself to keep moving up the stairs, behind Nick. There was something going on in the radio's with Liv and Lewis and to be honest Rafael was kinda ashamed of himself because he didn't really pay much attention to the fact because it was clear that Avri wasn't being made to take part. Of course that could just as easily mean his little girl was dead but the second he started thinking like that his head started spinning and he had to cast his thoughts away from it because otherwise he might end up killing himself as well as Amaro.

The gunshot happened just as Murphy gave the order to crash through the door. He had to shove himself past Nick and Fin who had both ran to Liv's side. Her face was vacant almost, spattered gruesomely in blood and even though he desperately wanted to shake her, to ask her where his daughter was he knew it would do no good because Liv was not in a state to answer any kind of questions.

Amanda was helping a little girl down from the ropes binding her and it was when she moved that he finally saw her.

Avri

Oh holy hell Avri.

She had the same shocked look on her face that Liv had. He took her in desperate to see if she had any injuries but aside from a head wound and the way her knee was twisted she seemed to be ok. Well, physically anyway. Fin was cutting her down and then she was loose and she staggered forwards as if looking for somewhere to go and she half fell into his arms.

"Hey baby" he said into the now short hair. It still smelled the same of that herbal green tea crap that was like six dollars a bottle and he almost laughed even though there was nothing funny about this situation whatsoever. Avri stumbled a little bit more-clearly her leg was injured and Rafael tightened his grip on her waist so that she was half falling into him.

"It's ok" he said again as he helped her down the stairs, down another set of stairs and out the building. She flinched as she came into contact with sunlight for what must be the first time in at least a day but still she didn't say anything. He all but placed her in the car and then Fin was getting in the front seat with a rather apologetic look on his face and Rafael was leaning against it desperately trying to not throw up to cap it all off.

He was seriously thinking of apologising to anyone who he had told to be calm when in this situation. Because when your kid went missing…it really was the worst feeling in the world, there were no words to describe that kind of feeling. That kind of agony.

There was someone stood behind him and he turned to see Murphy stood behind him. Rafael didn't know what he looked like but he suspected that it must be bad to elicit this response from the man.

"She's gonna need to be checked out at the hospital. She's…err…she's gonna need a rape kit Barba so…also she's…don't let her touch her face or anything, all of it, the blood the bruising, the skin under her nails, all of it's evidence, forensics is at the hospital now but they gotta do some pictures before the Doctors can look at her…I'm sorry Barba really I am but…when IA get there she's gonna need to be ready for an interview as well"

Rafael stared at him for a second. He knew all of this, this was normal, as a prosecutor he knew how this worked but he supposed it was very different to seeing someone you loved go through this. He supposed that was why they usually separated the loved ones from the victim (and fuck he supposed that made his little girl a victim now) while they did the processing of the evidence.

Throat to tight to speak however he nodded, turned around the car and slid into the other seat. He could deal with his own emotions later. Right now he had a daughter to support and he would do that the only way he could. There was a pause where he tried to regain control of himself because breaking apart was mostly undignified and also he knew that Avri was close to a breakdown herself.

She still hadn't said anything, she was sitting in the car, her face glazed with shock and her eyes still wide and blank. Gone was the spark inside the brown and even her hair had seemed to lose it's shine. Lewis had cut it roughly so it was just touching her shoulders but she was still alive and he prayed to a god that long ago he had stopped believing in-that she would remain that way.

Forcing himself to look…really look at his daughter he saw that she had turned her head to him. It was the first movement she had made since he had managed to find her. The look of confusion on her face was too painful to put into words.

"Dad" she said very quietly. She seemed almost surprised to see him there.

"Yeah baby it's me" he said finally.

Avri looked around the car and then back at her own bloody hands.

"Is he dead?" she asked finally.

"Yeah" he said and then he threw caution to the wind and wrapped one arm around her shoulders which were cold. "Yeah Avri he's dead"

"Oh" it was a tiny little word and then Avri didn't say anything until they got to the hospital.

They wouldn't let him in while they took the pictures and while they checked to see if Lewis had…

He didn't want to think about what he would do if Lewis had…

Instead he decided to focus on breathing…breathing was good.

And he was still stood outside the door when he was allowed to go in some time later.

Well, until he heard Avri call for him later.


It had taken a long time for Avri to acknowledge her surroundings. She chalked that up to both the drugs that they had given her since she had set one foot inside the damn place and then again the shock that seemed to be vibrating throughout her whole body. There was a pause where she stood there and tried to think about what had just happened but whenever she did that either her knee, the throbbing in her head or a flash from the camera snapped her out of it.

The woman taking the pictures of her fingernails, of her bruised face and of the injury to her knee smiled at her once or twice but didn't say much. Perhaps she believed it would be kinder that way. Weather that was the case or not Avri didn't care. The nurse didn't speak to her either but instructed her to change out of her ruined jeans into a hospital gown. She made it seemed no allowances for privacy either but at this point Avri figured through the cloud of fog in her mind that dignity and privacy had both been shot to shit.

She considered just what she was going to do next when the nurse decided to speak.

"Ok so now I'm going to do a rape kit, so I'm going to need you to lie back and spread your legs for me"

Like hell. Avri knew that she hadn't been raped, she had come bloody close but she hadn't and she would be damned if someone was going to make her feel even more violated than she felt already. Lewis was dead, there was no trial to prepare for and she didn't think she could stand another person touching her that she didn't know or trust.

The nurse smiled at her in a way that she supposed was trying to be sympathetic but only made Avri want to smack that stupid smile straight off her face.

"I'm afraid it's procedure. Your whole body is evidence"

"He didn't rape me" she said flatly. "And I refuse a kit so you can take that swab and shove it. Dad!" it was a weak cry of that she knew but she was sure the other man would hear her and she was more than sure that he would come through the door if she shouted loud enough. There was a split second before the door opened drowning out the nurses cry that he couldn't be here and it was NYPD policy. He took one look between the two of them and seemed to understand.

"Out" he shouted pointing a finger at the door. The nurse spluttered but apparently she could sense a losing battle when it was placed in front of her and therefore she disappeared through the door probably to go warn someone that the girl they had rescued wouldn't do what the NYPD wanted. Avri couldn't give a shit to be honest. Well she didn't give a shit about much right now anyhow.

Her Dad crossed the room and Avri felt the words suddenly tumble out of her as if the last barrier she had to them fell apart.

"I wasn't raped. He didn't…I wasn't"

Her Dad stared at her for a long time and then when he spoke it was with a slightly incredulous tone.

"Are you sure, Avri…I don't want you to lie to me because you think I cannot hack it. If he did then I promise you I will help you deal with it but…"

"I'm not lying Dad" she said feeling suddenly very tired. "He didn't touch me…"

Well that was a lie but she figured she could deal with that when it came out in the open.

Her Dad stared at her for a long moment and then he was like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Oh thank god" he said coming around the bed and hugging her. Her arms wouldn't work right but she did want to hug him back…very much. Eventually her Dad pulled back and she managed a small smile that was ruined by her eyes filling with tears that she couldn't control. She could feel a small sob building and she suspected that it would be the first of many.

"Oh darling" her Dad said finally. "I know…it's gonna be ok I promise"

She wondered if he really believed that.

Instead she closed her eyes and lay back on the bed trying to pretend (and probably failing all things considered) that she still couldn't see the smirk on Lewis's face behind her eyelids.


The last couple of weeks were…trying to say the least.

It wasn't that Avri was showing emotion, he had been expecting that, if she'd have woken up in the night screaming he would have been prepared for that, it was that most of the time she wasn't sleeping period. He had taken a few weeks personal leave and his mother had stopped by more than once because at some point he had to leave the apartment and Avri wasn't setting foot outside the door.

It was that his daughter wasn't saying anything at least more than the one syllable that got him to pass her something. Her hair was still uneven and the only thing different was that Avri was locking herself away in the shower until he would force her to come out her skin red and sore from the scrubbing. Most of the time he would get up at one or two in the morning and still find her up staring blankly at whatever shit was on the TV and even when she did lie down in bed he was willing to bet all his money in the bank that she wasn't sleeping.

And the problem was that she wasn't talking to him and he had no idea of how to talk to her.

His mother had tried as well but nothing was sinking in and while he knew soon enough that they would both have to resume normal lives it wasn't a good sign when the DA called him to tell him to take the conversation in a different room and then drop the bomb on him the Brooklyn DA was calling a grand jury investigation into Liv's actions into the shooting of William Lewis.

He told Avri this expecting sort of reaction, fear, anger, at this point he would take anything.

Instead all he got was a raised eyebrow and with that Barba went to the peace of his room and wondered if it was wrong to call Buchanan and beg him for his help in case they ended up indicting Avri for conspiracy or something. Which considering the Brooklyn DA and the last time that they had had a run in wasn't beyond any possibility.

Avri just tied her hair back the day of the jury investigation. She dressed in one of her dresses with a little collar but it was a different pair of boots than the ones she usually wore which were probably still in evidence.

If Rafael hadn't been so desperate for her to talk to him about what was going on in her head then he would have been very proud. It was the first time she had been out in weeks and she was pale and looked so impossibly young without her make up.

The ADA met them at the door.

"I won't be long Miss Barba I promise" was all he said and then they were gone and Rafael had had barely enough chance to level a glare at the fucker for putting Avri in this situation.

He didn't know what had transpired between them in that room, or what had happened with Liv or Murphy but they had decided not to charge her. Avri had been staring at the wall when he told her this and Rafael was just about to wonder how the hell he was gonna get her to eat something when she spoke again this time for the first time all day.

"Dad, can you book me an appointment with someone to do my hair? I wanna get it fixed…can you come with me?"

It was thing she had said since she had been taken captive, it was the longest sentence she had had and Rafael didn't know if that meant things were going back to normal, if Avri could weather out this storm or not or if they even could but it was with a genuine smile that he picked up the phone and he looked up he would have seen something resembling a smile on her face also.


And let me know what you think, with any luck the next chapter will be here a lot faster than this one.