"So Casey's not the only victim here," Voight said when Liv and Elliot returned to the hospital.
"26 year old male, raped, beaten, fractured skull, his clothes were found near the body but his wallet and phone were tossed in a dumpster two blocks away, the cash was gone. Turns out he was a male escort returning from a call, it's not an exact match but it's close enough for us to work with. His family is on the way to the morgue to ID the body," Olivia said. "Has Casey said anything else?"
"No."
"Hey!" Elliot looked and through the window to Casey's room they could see someone leaning over the bed who was not one of the hospital staff. "Hey!"
He and Olivia grabbed their guns and charged in. "Police, show us your hands!"
"Whoa!" the man stood up and turned around with his hands high in the air.
Both detectives recognized him as the man from the picture on Matt's phone.
"Kelly Severide?" Elliot asked.
"Yeah, what the hell's going on?" Kelly demanded to know.
The detectives holstered their guns, "What're you doing here?"
"What?" the Squad lieutenant asked, at a total loss.
"Who told you what was going on?" Olivia asked.
"I did," Hank answered as he stepped into the room.
"What?"
"Why?"
Everybody in the room started talking over each other until Voight raised his voice above all others and was yelling at them, "ENOUGH!" when the noise died down he less than subtly said to the detectives, "Can I see you outside?" He turned to the two lieutenants who were both looking at him, very confused at the sudden turn of events, and told them, "Talk among yourselves, I'll be back in a minute."
Both of the firemen were breathing heavily after that sudden fiasco. Kelly turned to the man sitting up in the bed and asked him, "Casey, what the hell is going on around here?"
"I don't know, I just want to get out of here," Matt told him.
"What do the docs say?" Severide asked.
"They want to do another MRI before they discharge me," he said, the frustration clear in his voice, "I want to go home, Kelly."
"I know...what happened? We were all worried about you."
"I didn't mean to worry anyone," Casey said. "I thought I'd be back in time for next shift and nobody would know."
"Know what?" Kelly asked.
"Why did you call Kelly Severide and tell him what was going on?" Olivia asked Hank out in the hall.
"What happened to nobody at 51 needed to know what happened to Casey?" Elliot asked.
"He needs somebody out here he trusts," Voight said for an answer, "and he doesn't trust me and he's sure as hell not going to trust you two. Severide's his best friend, if anybody can get through to him...it'll be Kelly."
"You think he can get Casey to answer our questions?" Olivia asked.
"I think Severide is going to want the son of a bitch who did this caught just as much as we do," Voight told her. "Now so far nobody else at 51 knows anything except that we've found Casey and he's in the hospital, they don't know why he is, they don't know what happened to him, and we're going to keep it that way until further notice."
"Why didn't you tell us?" she wanted to know.
"What would you have done?" Hank asked.
"Well for starters not busted into a hospital room ready to shoot someone," Elliot stated the obvious. "We thought his rapist came back to finish him off."
"So now what?" Olivia asked.
"Docs aren't gonna release Casey for a couple days, I figure we keep Severide close, maybe we can crack through this shield Casey's got up," Hank answered.
"That'd be a first," Elliot said. "Guys generally don't want anybody knowing they've been raped, it's especially not something they tell their guy friends about."
Voight responded, "I'm hoping by not giving him that option, we can get through to him."
"How did Kelly take the news?" Olivia asked.
"How would you if it was your best friend? He wants this guy dead, and he wants to get Matt home to Chicago," Hank said. "For that matter, so do I...but I know you gotta get him talking first."
"You really think it'll work?" Elliot asked.
"We got the time," Voight pointed out, "why not try it?"
Voight found Severide in the hospital cafeteria downing a cup of coffee. "How is he?"
Kelly crushed the paper cup and tossed it in the trash can, "He fell asleep a little while ago. He wouldn't tell me anything."
"Not surprising."
"How the hell did this happen, Voight?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Hank said. "Casey didn't tell you anything about coming here?"
"No, he said his mom got a place in Florida and he was going to head down there and see her this weekend," Kelly answered.
"So back to the original question, what was he doing here that he didn't want anybody at 51 to know about?" Voight wondered as they left the cafeteria and walked down the corridor.
"You think he's in some kind of trouble?" Severide asked.
"If he wasn't at the beginning, he sure got it now," Hank said. "Whatever happened, somebody made it clear to keep his mouth shut."
"So now what?" Kelly asked helplessly.
"All I can say is stay with him, let him know he's not alone, sooner or later he has to start talking," Hank told him.
Kelly was visibly beside himself. "This is so messed up, Hank."
"I know it, that's why I called you, he needs a friend right now or I don't think he's going to get through this."
Kelly's eyes shifted and looked to the side, then back at Hank and asked cluelessly, "What do I do?"
"Start by talking to the detectives."
"Why? I don't know anything."
"I know...but I think you need to hear what they know," Hank told him.
Kelly sat in an interview room at SVU, Olivia and Elliot sat on the other end of the table facing him.
"Casey didn't tell me anything about coming to New York...I don't know what he was doing here, I don't know what happened to him," he told them.
"We know this is a hard time for Matt, and for you, Kelly," Olivia said. "We understand why he doesn't want to talk with us, it's actually very common for rape victims, especially males, coming forward is generally a lot harder for them because they know people are less inclined to believe them."
"If a woman accuses somebody of rape, it's made out to be a he said/she said, if a guy accuses somebody, if it's a woman they say he just got lucky, and if it was a guy, then everybody assumes he's gay," Elliot said. "Either way he's risking being ridiculed by everyone around him."
Kelly uncomfortably shifted in his chair and pressed his hands together between his knees and glanced down.
"There's another reason he may not want to talk about this," Elliot continued. "We're still waiting on the DNA testing but it's possible that during his attack he became aroused and ejaculated."
Kelly squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then looked at them in disbelief, "What?"
"It's not uncommon, Kelly, it's another reason why so many victims are too embarrassed and ashamed to come forward because they think it looks like they wanted it," Olivia explained. "It's just a purely biological reaction, it doesn't mean anything."
"But defense attorneys are notorious at twisting it to be a sign of consent," Elliot added, "It's the ultimate Catch-22, if he goes public with his attack, he's going to be bombarded by people on all sides who make him out to be a willing participant."
"But if he doesn't press charges, the rapist walks, and is free to do it again to somebody else," Olivia said, "and Matt will never get closure. I've been working at SVU for a long time and I've seen plenty of victims who regret not pressing charges against their attacker, but win or lose, I've never seen one who regrets facing them in open court."
Kelly was visibly growing more and more uncomfortable as the conversation progressed and he looked like his head was going to explode. For the second time that day he found himself helplessly asking, "What do I do?"
"Do you think he would confide in you about his attack?" Olivia asked.
"He hasn't so far...I don't know what to say...I don't know what to do."
His mind reeled back to when he first arrived at the hospital earlier that day.
Voight had given him Casey's room number and given him most of the details of what had happened so he wouldn't be too surprised when he got there. He'd also advised Severide not to tell anybody else at 51 any details about Casey's attack. He didn't even remember how he'd lasted through the plane ride to New York, he didn't remember getting from the airport to the hospital, he just remembered marching down the hall to Casey's room. He stopped just outside the door and felt the color drain out of his face when he saw Casey lying in the bed. He willed himself not to respond to anything that happened when he was in there, he had to be there for his friend.
He opened the door and stepped in, "Casey."
Matt looked up and saw him, and his face immediately became an expression of disgust and horror. "No! Get out, Kelly...I don't want you to see me like this."
The sheer panic written all over his face was evident as he yelled at Severide to leave the room. But Kelly didn't listen, instead he walked over to the bed and spoke over Casey, telling him, "It's okay, Matt, it's okay, calm down."
"Oh God," Casey groaned, "did Voight call you? What did he tell you?"
"It's alright, Casey," Severide assured him, "I know this wasn't your fault."
Casey's words stopped being coherent and he was frantic with terror at Severide's presence, it took a while but Kelly was finally able to get him to calm down. He leaned over and wrapped his arms around Casey and hugged him and told him, "It's going to be okay, you're safe now."
"Who else knows?" Casey's voice was small, but full of fear at the possibilities.
"Nobody else knows, nobody else will know," Kelly promised him, "it's okay, calm down. Are you in pain? Do you need anything?"
Casey shook his head, "No, I don't need anything, I don't want anything, I just want to get out of here and go home and forget all about this. I didn't want anyone to know, Kelly."
"It's going to be alright, Casey, just take it easy," Kelly told him.
Casey's resistance was starting to wear down and he reluctantly admitted as he clung to his best friend, "I'm glad you're here."
Kelly tightened his hold on Casey and continued to assure him, "It's okay, it's okay, you're alright."
The next thing he'd heard was a voice behind him saying, "Police, show us your hands!"
"Look, Kelly," Olivia's voice drew him out of his thoughts and back to the here and now, "There's no easy answer, but Matt is luckier than most victims, one thing they often face is a lack of a support system as they recover from their assault. The fact that you came 1,000 miles to be with him knowing what happened to him..."
"It wasn't his fault," Kelly said defensively.
"Nobody's saying it is," Elliot replied. "But a lot of the vics we see, they don't get a lot of help from their family, their friends, they're terrified to let them know, because they think even the people they've known their whole lives won't believe them."
"Sometimes they're right," Olivia said, "and it's our experience that men especially don't want to disclose something like this, especially to their best friends," Olivia added. "Since Matt already knows he has your undivided support, he's better off than most of the people we see on this job. There might not be anything 'right' you can say to him, but just knowing he's not alone and you're not judging him is going to help him tremendously."
"But is it enough?" he asked.
Voight stood beside Casey's hospital bed and hovered over the blonde man who appeared to be sleeping, but Hank suspected otherwise. Finally Casey opened his eyes and grumbled, "You're a damn vulture, you know that?"
"Not the first time I've been called that," Hank said as Casey sighed and turned over. "Matt, what happened to you wasn't your fault, you know that."
"I'm not talking about this, Hank," Casey told him, "Not to you, not to those cops out there."
"They're just trying to help."
"I don't want their help."
"Casey, you could've died, twice. You're not stupid, Matt, I know you can appreciate what that means."
"What are you doing here, Voight?" Casey asked. He turned back to face the cop and asked him, "How did you even know where I was? Why'd you come to New York?"
"My people and I had to come out here last year to find Erin's brother, Teddy, who got caught in a child porn ring...then we had to come back a few months ago to help catch Gregory Yates, the guy who killed Nadia, you remember her. Both times we worked with those cops that you were playing dumb with earlier. They're good people, Matt, all they want to do is help."
"I don't want their help!" Casey snapped. "I don't need their help! And I don't need your help either."
"Maybe not but right now I'm all you've got," Hank told him firmly.
"LEAVE-ME-ALONE!" Casey screamed at him.
Voight was unfazed by his outburst. "You saw the men that did this."
Casey shook his head.
"You said you didn't because you thought that way the questions would stop and the investigation would die out, it's not going to work that way, Casey," Voight was surprisingly calm as he spoke to the lieutenant. "Look, I know we got history together, and I know I'm the last person you want to see-"
"Oh you have no idea," Casey grumbled. He rolled on his side again to face away from the Intelligence sergeant and said half under his breath, "Some days I wish I had killed you."
Hank didn't respond, and whatever he might've been thinking at that time, he kept to himself. He reached over and put his hand on Casey's shoulder and told him, "We're going to find the people that did this, Matt."
Casey shook his head in response.
"Matt, no matter what you were doing out here, what happened wasn't your fault. Why didn't you tell anyone you were coming to Manhattan?"
"It's nobody's business," Casey weakly insisted. "It's none of your business."
Voight was silent for a minute, he moved his hand onto Casey's back and rubbed it calmly, he heard as well as saw Casey recoil under the touch.
"When I got promoted to head the Intelligence unit, I made something very clear to all the detectives working under me. Tell me the truth so I can lie for you. No matter how bad the truth is, I gotta know so I can help...it's the same thing here, Matt."
"I'm not talking about it," Casey repeated with his face half buried in the pillow. "Leave me alone."
Hank could see how hard this was for Casey to still come to terms with and he knew they wouldn't be getting anywhere anytime soon, he'd back off for now but he wasn't going to drop it.
"Those SVU detectives aren't the enemy here, Matt," he pointed out. "All they're trying to do is help you, and they will, if you'll let them."
"I don't want anybody's help," Casey said dejectedly. "I just want to go home to Chicago and forget everything that's gone on here."
Voight decided to leave Matt alone for the time being, as he headed towards the door he could just barely hear Casey say to himself, "I wish I never came here."
That got his attention and he looked back at the blonde man with his back to Hank. Whatever was going on, Voight wasn't going to drop it, and he knew Olivia Benson and her unit wouldn't either.
