(Oh my goodness you guys. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful reviews. Some of you were concerned that the story would be ending soon, but JJ still has a lot of healing to do. Here is Chapter 25, I hope you all enjoy.)

My mom and I had stood in the middle of the conference room, holding each other and crying for what seemed like hours. Finally, she pulled back to look at me. She swiped her thumbs underneath my eyes then pulled me back to her, turning back to the two women sitting at the table.

"What do we do? What happens now?" she asked.

"I'll go call the police. They can come here so JJ can do this in a familiar place." I heard Ms. Prentiss' chair scrape back as she began to exit the room. My tears redoubled at the thought of having to tell everything. Not only that, but tell it to someone I didn't know.

My mom guided me into a chair, then pulled out the one next to it so she could keep her arm around me. I pressed my face hard into her shoulder and she stroked my hair, whispering that she loved me, over and over.

The door opened. We all turned to look as Ms. Prentiss poked her head in. "They're here." She stepped aside and a man and a woman came in. I sized them up through my waterlogged eyes. She was tall and willowy, with curly black hair and dark skin. He had a graying goatee and drooping eyes that seemed to hold more sadness than anything else. "I have to go back… Fourth period is about to begin." Ms. Prentiss told Mrs. Strauss.

The principal nodded. "Go. Thank you." She stood and shook their hands. "I'm Erin Strauss, I'm the high school principal."

"I'm Detective David Rossi, this is my partner, Detective Tara Lewis." He turned to my mom and I and she shook their hands.

"Sandy Dawson." her voice seemed to be a million miles away.

"And you're JJ?" Detective Lewis asked.

I nodded, unable to speak. Everyone seemed to glance around uncomfortably, unsure of how to begin.

"You're free to use the room, of course. I… I'll leave you to it then. I'll be in my office. Mrs. Dawson," she cleared her throat. "JJ is obviously excused from the rest of classes today. You can take her home afterwards."

"Thanks," my mom replied, rather stiffly.

Mrs. Strauss left the room, closing the door gently behind her. I sat up in my chair. My mom took my hand, holding it firmly in her own.

Detective Lewis pulled a legal pad out of her bag, along with a pen. "JJ, you can call us Dave and Tara. If you need to stop at any moment and take a second, that's completely okay. Are you ready to begin?" she asked gently.

I nodded uncertainly. I didn't want to do this at all. I wanted to close my eyes and for none of this to have ever happened: not the paper, not my father, not Ros, not anything.

"Is it okay if we record this?" Detective Rossi asked, pulling out his iPhone.

"Why?" my mom asked.

"It's just so that nothing is forgotten, and so that JJ has to repeat the story as few times as possible." he said gently. He opened the voice recording app, and before he hit record I could see many other recordings listed. I didn't know if it should make me feel better, knowing that they had heard so many awful things that nothing I said could surprise them.

"Alright, let's start simple. Can you state your full name for the recording?"

I swallowed thickly. "Jennifer Elaine Jareau."

"When is your birthday?"

"January 30."

Detective Rossi smiled at me. "A winter baby." I nodded. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm a junior."

"What do you do for fun?"

"I play soccer, and I just started on the debate team."

"Hey I read about your team in the paper. You went to State, right?" Detective Lewis asked.

I nodded. "Last Saturday."

"Where do you live?" he asked.

"I live with my mom and my step dad, Mark."

"What about your birth father?"

I kept my eyes on the legal pad she was writing on. "I stay with him every other weekend."

My mom's hand tightened around mine.

"JJ… When did the abuse start?"

I forced myself to breathe. "About… About a year ago."

"How did it begin?"

"I… He…" I cleared my throat. "One night, I was in my room. We had just started back to school. He had been on the phone with my mom most of the night. He was mad because… My mom and Mark wanted to take me on a ski trip for Martin Luther King Jr Day weekend, but it was his weekend. I went to bed, but I woke up around 2."

"What woke you up?"

"He was in my room… He was crying.I could tell her had been drinking."

"How?"

"I could smell it on him."

"Did you say anything?"

"I asked him what was wrong, and he said that it wasn't fair that he had lost everything." I began picking at the the skin surrounding my thumbnail.

"Everything? What does that mean?"

"He said he had lost Rosalind, and then my mom, and now he was going to lose me."

"Who is Rosalind?" she asked.

I licked my lips. "My sister. She died when I was 11."

"That must have been hard." Detective Rossi said gently. I nodded. "So he was crying… What happened next?"

"He… He laid down beside me. He put his arm around me, I thought… I don't know I thought he was just lonely, that he wanted a hug, but…"

My eyes filled with tears again and I took several deep breaths. "He got underneath the blanket. And then he began to touch me."

Detective Lewis gave me a sorrowful look. "I know this is hard, and you're doing a great job, but can you tell us where?"

I nodded, fighting to keep from crying. "He… My chest. Over my tee shirt. And I didn't say anything, because it didn't feel real, it felt like a nightmare! But then… He started to kiss on my neck… And his hand went lower, be… between my legs." The last part came out in a whisper, and beside me I felt my mom's body be overcome with sobs. She squeezed my hand so tightly that it felt like the bones would splinter, but part of me welcomed the pain. Every word I was saying was murdering her. This is exactly why I didn't want to tell anyone.

"Perhaps… JJ would you like some water?" Detective Rossi asked. I nodded gratefully. "Mrs. Dawson, maybe you could help me find a vending machine."

"No," she said thickly through her tears. "JJ needs me, she can't… I need to stay."

I forced myself to look at her. "Mom… It's okay. You can… Go get some water. It's okay. I promise."

Her face was red from crying, and it made her blue eyes shine brightly.

"Are you sure, Jen? I can stay. I'll pull myself together. You don't have to do this alone."

I shook my head. "No. Go. I don't want you to listen to this. I don't want you to have all of this inside your head. I'm alright. Go."

She pressed a hard kiss to my forehead. "Okay. Okay but I'll be in the hall. If you need me, I'll be right outside."

"I know. It's okay." Detective Rossi gently led her from the room, leaving me at the table with Detective Lewis.

"You're doing great. Do you need a second before we begin again?" she asked.

I took another deep breath. "No. Let's get this over with. I want this to be done."

After I was finished, having told every gory detail burned into my brain from January through Thanksgiving break, Detective Lewis had me a sign a paper saying that everything I had told them was true. She led me out of the conference room and my mom leaped up from where she was sitting on the floor against the wall.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded, already a little sick of that question. "I just want to go home."

The meeting with detectives had gone through my regular lunch period, but I strangely wasn't hungry. When we got home, my mom and I both stood in the entryway, staring at each other.

"I'm going to make an appointment with Dr. Morris. I'm sure once I explain… everything, that he can fit you in immediately. And maybe he can suggest another therapist, maybe a women if that would make you feel more comfortable. Someone who specializes in… these things. And that way we can get a head start-"

"Mom?" I cut off her frenzied rambling. "Can we just… Can we watch a movie? Is that okay? I think… I don't want to talk to anyone right now." I saw her take in a breath to interrupt me but I pressed on. "I know that I'll have to eventually, but right now I just want to curl up in your bed and watch a movie. Can we do that?"

Her face softened. "Of course Jen… Of course."

A few minutes later, we were snuggled together underneath her heavy duvet, the opening sequence to It's a Wonderful Life playing on her TV. My arms were wrapped around her middle like a small child, and she gently rubbed my back. We sat in silence. My eyes hurt from the sheer volume of tears that had been shed, and I allowed them to begin to inch close before she spoke up.

"JJ. Why… Baby, why didn't you tell me? I would have… God. Why did you wait so long?" Her

I let out a heavy sigh. "I… I don't know. It just… I didn't want it to be real. And telling someone made it real. And… You have to deal with so much. I didn't want to give you more bad news."

She took in a deep breath, then took my chin in her hand, forcing me to look up at her. "Listen to me. It's not your job to take care of me, okay? That's my job. And you can tell me absolutely anything. No matter what. I'm so sorry I didn't make you feel that way, I just…" Her eyes gleamed with fresh tears and she looked at the ceiling as she gave me a humorless smile. "I'm so sorry JJ. I feel like I failed you as a mother."

I shook my head violently. "No! No mom, please… don't. You didn't fail me. You're right here."

We hugged each other a little tighter, and returned to watching the movie.

We must have fallen asleep, because the next think I knew, the sky outside the windows was a dark, inky blue and Mark was standing in the doorway. "Well don't you two look snug as a bug in a rug." I peered blearily at him through my swollen eyes.

My mom pressed a kiss into my hair. "I'll be right back, okay?" She extracted herself from our pile and exited the room, pulling him with her. I watched as the DVD menu screen repeated, over and over.

Was this my life now? People having whispered conversations about me down the hall? I looked down at my hands. While talking to Detective Lewis, I had picked and bit and scratched at the skin around my fingernails until they were bloody and raw. I tucked my hands beneath the blanket, unable to look at my chewed up fingers any longer.

My mom came back into the room. "Mark's ordering a pizza." She went to the DVD player and put in Meet Me in St. Louis then returned to sit with me on the bed.

When I had settle my head back onto her chest she took a deep breath. "I spoke with Detective Rossi on the phone. They… They arrested your dad."

A wave of panic rolled through me, and my entire body felt too hot. "And?"

"He fought it at first but… But he eventually admitted to everything."

I let out a shaky breath. "Oh my god." She nodded. We sat for a moment. "Are you… Are you going to call Travis?"

I could feel her sigh, her chest moving beneath me. "I'll call him tomorrow. I have to tell him but… It can wait till tomorrow." We laid in silence and watched Judy Garland on the screen. A while later, Mark brought the pizza up. He didn't say anything, didn't touch me, just gave me a sad smile. We ate it on the bed, and mom put in a new movie. We fell asleep in that same position, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, I slept soundly through the night.