7/30/12 A/N: REALLY IMPORTANT! There is a small, 600-word snippet of a section which I felt couldn't hold up as a chapter on its own but also didn't fit at the beginning of this chapter, so I tacked it on to the end of the preceding one ("Merit Badges.") I hope this doesn't cause any confusion! Head back and read the last bit of the last chapter for the updated version! I promise you won't regret it!
May 24
9:12 pm
"How is she?" was Elliot's first question as the attending doctor exited Audrey's hospital room.
"Well, she's better now," Dr. Wilson replied. "We had to sedate her to administer the exam. Enough to keep her lucid but also to lie still. She's not talking much but she keeps asking to see you, Detective Stabler."
Elliot nodded, but said nothing.
"She was also repeating the name 'Jack Levy,'" the doctor said. "Does that name mean anything to you?"
"Levy?" Olivia repeated, shooting a look at Elliot, who was already on his phone with the lab, giving them the name to run. "Were you able to get any physical evidence?" she asked.
Dr. Wilson nodded slowly, lowering her voice and stepping away from the door to the room. "We collected semen and hair samples. It should be no problem for your people to extract a DNA signature. We also collected a blood sample to test for drugs and alcohol."
Dr. Wilson hesitated for a brief second.
"What is it?" Olivia cocked her head to the side.
"She has no defensive wounds on her hands or arms or genetic material under her nails to suggest she fought off her attacker."
"That's not unusual," Olivia said. "If she'd been sedated or had been drunk—."
"And we won't know that until the tox screen comes back," the doctor said. "Normally I wouldn't bring this up, but there are a few things that just don't add. The sex was at least a little rough, and she has lacerations and bruising consistent with that… ."
"You're saying she's lying to us?" Elliot queried as he hung up his phone and rejoined the conversation. Olivia could hear the tension in his voice; she shot him one, quick look in the hopes of quieting him.
Dr. Wilson calmly asserted herself. "I'm only telling you what the evidence told me," she said. "I know not every rape victim fights back to the extent that we'd be able to find evidence of it. But the injuries we're seeing now could result from a well-endowed partner, and we see it in members of the BDSM community as well," she said. "This is far from slam dunk evidence of sexual assault."
"Why don't you leave the detective work to us," Elliot ran his hand over the stubble on his chin.
"Anything else?" Olivia countered.
The doctor flipped open to another page in her notebook. "She has a number of injuries that haven't healed from her previous assault," she closed her book. "I thought that was strange. I would have expected to see new tissue growth by this point, but the lacerations to her clitoris, labia minora and majora… they've not only not healed, but I'd say they've been frequently re-opened since they were first inflicted."
"They weren't just re-inflicted during tonight's attack?" Olivia asked.
The doctor shook her head. "Like I said, if that were the case, I would still be able to see evidence of new tissue growth and healing, and I don't. In fact, some of the larger unhealed lacerations look to be infected, leading me to suspect they haven't just not been properly cared for but have been exacerbated," she sighed. "Sexual intercourse would have been excruciating for her."
"Surely that suggests something," Elliot turned to Olivia. "I mean, who willingly inflicts that kind of pain on themselves? How many rape victims do we see engaging in consensual sexual activity this far out from their assault? It had to have been forced."
Olivia turned the question over to the doctor. "Is there anything else that could cause that?"
The doctor shrugged. "Aside from sexual activity?" she burrowed. "It's not uncommon for rape victims to clean themselves obsessively and I suppose that could account for it. But masturbation or the simple act of touching oneself are also possibilities that shouldn't be ruled out."
Elliot turned to the doctor once again. "So you're saying some of the evidence points to rape, but what you're seeing could have been caused by anything from sex to showering?"
"The evidence points to a multitude of conclusions."
He was close to crossing a line as he stepped forward and raised his voice. "Well then, in your professional opinion, was Audrey Middleton raped or wasn't she?"
"El?" Olivia rested a hand on his arm, and he backed off.
However, the doctor didn't seem perturbed. She thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Detectives. I just don't know."
As the doctor walked away down the hall, Olivia sat dumbfounded. "So what do we know?" she asked. "Audrey had sex; that much is undeniable. It was rough enough to cause some mild bruising but not to the extent that it's conclusive it was rape. Her external injuries show evidence of never being given a chance to heal… ."
"Could she have been victimized all along?" Elliot knew he was reaching with this one. "Someone in her building who knows her schedule, maybe has a chance to see her daily. A power-assurance rapist who is gentle and considerate with her?"
"Elliot, she's been in almost constant contact with you since it happened. You'd think she would have said something," she shook her head. "Maybe she has a boyfriend."
"Maybe she was too scared to talk."
"Maybe it's not rape at all. Maybe she had consensual sex with someone, but twisted it in her mind into something it wasn't."
"That doesn't make sense."
"El," Olivia soothed. "I know you want to believe her. But we have to be open to the possibility that Audrey is a confused, frightened victim who made a mistake. We won't know until we talk to her."
Elliot blew out the breath he'd been holding onto and crossed his arms again. "Did you call Huang?"
"He said he'll meet us at the precinct."
"If we can get Audrey to agree to come back with us… ."
At that moment, a nurse walked out of Audrey's room, interrupting their conversation. "You can talk to her now, but don't take too long. We need the room."
For a moment, neither of them moved. They were standing on the threshold of the hospital room, armed with information that made them question the veracity of the claim their victim had made, and for the first time, they didn't know how to proceed. After days of supporting Audrey through the tortuous process of confronting her rapist, they wanted nothing more than for her story to be true. But they knew what she said could change the light in which the evidence had been presented to them.
Stepping into that room could change everything.
Elliot cleared his throat. "Ladies first," he offered.
"She was asking for you."
It was unlike them to be so reticent; Elliot was ashamed. He shuffled his feet and took a deep breath, then quickly strode through the door.
Like a bandaid, he told himself.
They approached Audrey's bed; she sat at the end, her legs dangling over the edge. Her clothes and jewelry had been tagged and sat in sealed evidence bags on the bed behind her. The clothes she wore were hospital issued - a pair of nondescript grey sweatpants, a loose fitting long-sleeved white undershirt, and a grey hooded sweater that seemed to match the pants. Her shoes had been given back to her, their once shiny patent leather now scuffed and pitted from the wear of the day.
Elliot came around the foot of the bed, coming to stand slightly off to her side. "Hi Audrey," he said.
She barely acknowledged his presence.
Olivia knelt in front of her and checked her pupils. "She's still out of it," she responded, her voice barely above a whisper. "I can't believe they cleared her to go home."
Elliot turned his attention to Audrey. "Audrey, honey, do you know where you are?"
Audrey glanced around her. "A hospital?"
"That's right," Olivia nodded. "St Vincent's."
Audrey closed her eyes. "I was at home," she said.
"Do remember talking to us at the station?" Elliot asked.
"Not really," she replied. "I remember being at home."
Olivia went with it. "Was there anybody else with you?"
Her face registered her confusion. "I think it was Jack," she said.
"Jack Levy?" Elliot asked.
"I think so," she said. "He's my boss. How do you know him?"
Olivia's eyes shot up; she leaned over again. "Audrey, was he the one who raped you?"
Audrey shook her head. "Can I go home now?"
Elliot put a hand on her shoulder but Audrey jerked away. "Please, I just want to go home."
"We can't let her go by herself," Olivia said, flipping open her cellphone. "Her apartment is a crime scene."
Elliot covered a reassuring hand over Audrey's. "We'll find you a place to stay tonight. For now, we'll stay with you."
Olivia pressed the phone to her ear and began talking to Fin on the other end, giving instructions to secure Audrey's apartment.
Audrey fastened her attention on Olivia for a long moment before turning back to Elliot. "Okay," she whispered.
Audrey braced her hands on the end of the bed and shuffled forward. Elliot hooked a hand under her elbow to help her down.
Olivia pulled her phone away from her ear. "They got thirteen hits for Jack Levy," she said.
"Just look for the one who works in web design," Elliot replied.
"Did you catch that?" Olivia asked Fin. "Yeah, the guy's her boss… ."
Elliot's stomach twisted inside out as he wrapped an arm around Audrey's back and escorted her from the room.