Carlton sat at his desk, his face in his hand. Karen had given him three hours to find Gloria, before she had to take her police force back under control. There had been no luck. And Carlton had finally seen the background check on Nick.

Juliet came over to her partner and said comforting, "Everything's going to be fine, she's a smart kid."

"She was thrown through a glass window, after she called her mother's high boyfriend a jerk at the age of twelve, and now that same guy is back in her life, so don't tell me everything is going to be fine!" Carlton roared, it was killing him that Gloria had to go through that. "Five to seven years, they only gave that bastard five to seven years! And it took ten months to finally have the bastard behind bars. And they let him out after only five years! With the easiest parole too. What kind of parole lets him leave the state or live with his victim?"

"Maybe he lied about where he was living?" Juliet suggested. "Or maybe someone lied for him about where he would be living. I'm sure the system would never let him reside there if they knew Gloria lived there too."

"Are you suggesting my sister would lie for him then? That she would willing let the man who hurt her child back into their life?" he snapped.

"Well maybe," she said softly. "We've seen drug addicts disregard their babies health as long as they can score."

"My sister isn't a Goddamn drug addict!" he hissed even though he realized she had a good point.

Shawn had just finished filling Gus in about everything they knew regarding Gloria.

"They let that bastard out?" Gus yelled, shocking Shawn. He had hardly ever seen Gus truly yelled and mean it, something he reserved for when he was seriously angry. "After what he did to Gloria? She was twelve goddamnit!"

"I know, none of us can figure out why he was released either. You think once Gloria heard he was up for parole, she would have showed up to contest it," Shawn agreed. "One look at her stomach and no one would let that bastard out."

"Wait, you know what her stomach looks like?" Gus questioned suddenly.

"Nothing like that," Shawn assured him. He spoke the truth, he did not see Gloria's stomach when they were having a moment of passion.

"Shawn, I swear to God-" Gus began, but Shawn's cell phone interrupted him.

Shawn picked it up quickly, greeting with an overly merry, "Helllloooo!"

He paused for a long time and confused look crossed his face. "Uh huh, sure. I'll be right there."

"What is it?" Gus asked, worry evident in his face. Shawn never got quiet.

"My sister's in the hospital," Shawn told him, looking at him confused.

Shawn rushed to the hospital and quickly stormed the emergency room. He bombarded the front desk, almost yelling, "I'm Shawn Spencer, you called about my sister. Where is she? Can I see her?"

"Right," the woman at the desk said, flipping through the charts. "She's in room 2A, but you should really prepare yourself."

Whatever the woman said after the room number was lost on Shawn, he ran towards the direction of the room. He did not brace himself for what to expect, he just entered the room.

Gloria was lying in bed, glaring at her doctor, and snapped, "Can I have my clothes back now?"

"Not until your brother shows up," the doctor told her, probably for the sixth time, sighing.

"Uh, that would be me," Shawn introduced himself with a small wave.

Gloria quickly glanced at him, but then quickly glanced away. But Shawn had seen the damage he did to her face. Bruised cheek, black eye, cut lip and the ever-present handprints on her neck. He cringed and looked at the doctor for some answers.

"Well Mr. Spencer, if you mind stepping outside I'd like to talk to you about your sister's condition," the doctor told him.

"Well, I think we should get my sister her clothes first, so she's more comfortable," Shawn replied, smiling at Gloria who just looked at the ground.

The doctor nodded and exited the room. Shawn walked over to Gloria's bed and asked, "So sis, want to tell me what happened?"

She shrugged, avoiding his eyes. "They wouldn't let me leave unless I had a family relative come sign me out. So we're only half brother and sister. Mom was a whore, Mom is a whore."

"And our Uncle wasn't good enough? He's really worried about you, you need to call him and tell him what happened," Shawn explained kindly to her.

"It was nothing, my new Dad got high and hit me," Gloria defended, tears welling up in her eyes. "'Sides, I'll call him from what ever city I end up in."

"Gloria, please don't leave," Shawn pleaded, reaching out a hand to comfort her.

She flinched away before he could touch her and muttered, "Please don't touch me."

"I'm sorry, but please tell me what happened," Shawn begged.

"Nothing, I just want to get my clothes and get out of here," she told him, having a few tears slip down her face.

The doctor entered the room, with a bag of clothes. He handed Gloria the bag saying, "I really think you should spend the night, Miss Montgomery."

"Well I asked for a second opinion from Dr. I-don't-give-a-crap, and he says there's nothing wrong with me leaving," Gloria retorted and started pulling clothes out of the bag.

"Um, Doc, you needed to speak to me?" Shawn asked.

"Yes, please step outside for a moment," the doctor requested, and Shawn followed, with on last glance at Gloria. She was out of bed, pulling on her jeans.

As soon as the door shut, the doctor turned to Shawn. "I'm afraid your sister might try to kill herself if she unattended for any period of time. She needs serious psychiatric help after her ordeal. She doesn't seem to be giving her health any thought. She might self-destruct if she leave here."

"Huh, what happened to her?" Shawn asked.

"She came in here, bruised and bloody, with indication of sexual assault," the doctor explained.

"Rape? She was raped?" Shawn exclaimed. He ran his hand nervously through his hair. "Oh my God, you have to call her uncle. I'm not her brother, I'm her boss. Call her uncle, Detective Carlton Lassiter of the SBPD. Call him now."

"She won't let us file an incident report, she barely let us do a rape kit and that was only because we told her that was the only way to give her the Plan B pill," the doctor informed him.

"Oh my God," Shawn mumbled. "Okay, you call her uncle, I'll go in there and try and get her to talk."

Shawn entered the hospital room, trying to brace himself. Gloria was dressed, tying up her shoe. She glanced up at him and the nervousness in his face told her he knew. "So much for doctor-patient confidentiality," she muttered.

"Gloria…"

"Stop, we're not talking about it," she told him fiercely.

"But Glor, he…" Shawn could not bring himself to say it.

"Shut up!" she yelled at him. "I'm not going to talk about it."

"You need to report him, you can't let him get away with it," Shawn told her quietly.

"I didn't report it six weeks ago, why start now?" she mumbled bitterly to herself.

"WHAT! Was that what made you stop smoking? Him raping you?"

She turned away from him coldly. She was not going to deal with this also. She did not need her boss in her business. There was no way she was going to talk about that night she had been so high she could not move to defend herself, trapped by her own vice.

"Gloria, if you report this, your uncle can arrest him and keep you safe," Shawn encouraged.

"The doctor's looking for you," she told him indifferently.

Shawn sighed and muttered before he walked out the door, "Think about it Glor."

Shawn walked over to the doctor, and in his best Bugs Bunny impersonation asked, "Ehh, what's up Doc?"

The doctor was not amused and looked rather annoyed. "Yes, is there something I can help you with?"

"Didn't you want to talk to me?" Shawn asked.

"No, now is she going to file a report or not because we have a huge trauma coming in and we're going to need the bed?"

Shawn did not listen to the doctor, he whipped around and stared at the now empty room. "Shit."

Carlton was not listening to the chief or his partner as they discussed the new case. He was instead staring out the window directly behind the chief's head. It was getting dark out and Carlton was not even sure if Gloria was still in this shadowy city. He did not want to be in this office, he wanted to be out there looking for her.

"Detective Lassiter, at least appear to be paying attention," Karen snapped, breaking his gaze from the window to her.

Looking down on the ground he mumbled, "Sorry chief."

"Listen, I know you're worried about your niece, but you need to focus, you are the Head Detective around here," Karen reminded him.

He knew to say she was right and he will no longer be shrugging off his responsibilities for his niece since she was now a legal adult, but he did not say that. "Yeah, I'm worried about her, but I have a right to be. There's a man who's abusing her at her home, her mom wouldn't notice if the sky fell down, she's prone to drinking and using drugs to solve her problem, and now she's disappeared and no one can find her. So sorry if the fact that I am the Head Detective hasn't been in the forefront of my thoughts!"

"Detective Lassiter," Karen began, but he cut her off.

"No, I can't sit here any longer and wait to get the phone call she's been arrested or hurt or killed. I'm going after her," Carlton told his boss and started heading towards the door.

"What about this case?" Karen inquired, not sure to be angry with her employee or support him.

"Give it to O'Hara, she can handle it," Carlton explained, over his shoulder. He had every intention of walking out that door, but his ringing cell phone stopped him.

"What?" he snapped into it. "Yeah, I'm him, who are you?" His tone was sharp. "From where?" His voice became much softer, and the two female police officers could tell something was wrong. "Is she okay? What happened?" He needed to sit down, his legs were about to give out. "All right, I'll be right there."

Juliet and Karen stared at him from a few moments, taking in how the strong reliable detective they have always seen, look completely helpless sitting on the chief's couch.

"Carlton," Juliet began cautiously. "What's wrong?"

"That was Doctor Shivanee from the Santa Barbara Hospital," Carlton answered, but had to stop and steady his voice. He barely managed to keep his voice from cracking when he told them, "Gloria was raped."

There was a long pause, till finally Carlton stood up and said in a daze, "I need to get to the hospital."

Juliet knew her partner was in no condition to operate heavy machinery. "Here, I'll drive you."

He just nodded, still trying to convince himself this was all a bad dream.

Walking through the hospital doors, smelling all the sickness and death, Carlton knew this was not a bad dream. Seeing Shawn pace the floor nervously also helped snap Carlton back into reality. If Shawn was being serious, something very bad had truly happened.

"Shawn, where is she?" he asked, his voice strangely soft. Gloria was not in any of the rooms he had passed.

Shawn shook his head lightly and answered, "She's gone."

Sense left him, Carlton grab Shawn and shook him. "The doctor said she wasn't in any serious danger, how could she have died?"

Shawn quickly realized his mistake in word choice and corrected with a meek smile, "I meant gone like she left, not died."

Releasing him Carlton yelled, "Don't use words like that in a hospital Spencer!"

"Sorry, but Gloria ran away and is probably on a bus somewhere out of state," Shawn replied.

Carlton was ready to swear or punch something, when he remembered what happen last time he chased a bus. "No, she's not."

"She told me she would call you from whatever state she ends up in, she's heading out of the state," Shawn argued. "I don't even need to call on the spirits for this one."

"Good, because they would be wrong," Carlton shot back. "If I know one thing about Gloria it's that if you give her a chance to be center stage, she'll take it. And that kid from the bus said she would be singing tonight, she's not going to pass that up."

"So we're going clubbing?" Shawn asked with a gleeful smile.

A/N: so basically, you are now caught up to my writing... and it might take a while for the next chapter, but on the plus side this story is reaching it's end!! only a couple more chapters! yay!