***A/N****

Here's the final chapter of Bella's questioning.

Chapter 21- Defeated

BPOV

As soon as he asked, "Who's Charlie?", my head flew up to look at him.

He was still writing in the file, but when I didn't answer, he lifted his gaze from the page distractedly.

Once he saw my face, he stopped writing. "Are you alright Miss Swan?"

I nodded my head, and then caught myself, and opened my mouth instead. "Yes I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Ok, good. Does the name Charlie mean anything to you?"

How did he know Charlie?

" Umm, yes it does, but can I ask where you got that name?"

He was looking at me with a steady gaze. "You mentioned it that night when we found you. Right before you passed out."

I mentioned Charlie? Why would I have mentioned Charlie? Maybe when I hit my head I didn't know what I was saying?

"Umm, Charlie's my dad."

"Is he one of the people you wanted to reach out to today? Do you want us to call him for you?"

My heart broke a little when he said that. If only I could.

"Umm no, no. Thank you, though. Um, my dad's not around right now. I'm not sure why I would have mentioned him when you found me."

He continued to look at me for a moment or two, and then reached over to grab the phone, and end the recording.

"You did great Miss Swan. Really."

I gave him a skeptical look. "Really? I don't feel like I gave you anything at all. I'm not sure how any of what I just said is going to be helpful to you to find this guy."

He and Detective McCarty gave each other a look. It was definitely a look.

I looked at them anxiously. "What? What is it? Did you catch him already?"

He cleared his throat. "Why don't you ask me your questions, and I'll tell you everything we know so far, ok?"

"Did you catch him?"

If they did, would that mean I would have to pick him out of a line up? I didn't even remember anything about the entire damn day, let alone what this shithead looked like. How would I pick him out? I felt myself starting to hyperventilate, and Esme squeezed my hand again.

"It's ok Bella, it's ok. Just breathe. Let Edward tell you what he knows, and then we'll deal with it, ok?"

"Miss Swan," Detective Cullen began. "We didn't catch the man who assaulted you, but we do know who he is."

My eyes went wide.

"His name is James Dolan."

The name he asked me about during questioning. I let that sink in. So the asshole had a name.

"He has a record for armed robbery and various other offenses."

"If you didn't catch him, how do you know who he is?" I asked.

"We retrieved a piece of evidence from the scene with his fingerprint on it. It was a notebook. We're assuming it's yours."

"Is it black with gold trim?"

"Yes."

"That's mine."

"It's down at the station in evidence lock up, but I'll get it to you and you can see if anything else about it sparks a memory."

"What...what about my other personal belongings? My bag and wallet and cell phone? Were any of those found as well?"

I didn't like the idea of a stranger having my things.

"No, we didn't find anything like that. Do you think there's a possibility those items are in your apartment?"

I thought about it and it didn't seem likely.

I shook my head. "No, not if I was attacked while walking to the train from work. I would have had them with me."

That was one of my biggest fears, the one I didn't want to deal with the past two days. If my bag was stolen, then the key was gone, at least I thought so anyway. The last place I remembered having it was in my wallet, but I couldn't be sure. I didn't remember taking it out, but maybe I did, maybe there was a possibility I left it in the apartment. I hoped so.

My last link to Charlie, or at least what I thought was a link. I'd never made enough headway to find out. If it was truly gone, I guess I'd never know if it could have led me to him.

I looked up with a start, when Detective Cullen continued speaking,

"That's what we thought, so we're going on the assumption your personal effects were stolen by Dolan. He has a history of these types of offensives."

I could feel the anger building inside me."So he broke my arm, and bashed in my face, for what, thirty bucks, or whatever was in my wallet, and a cell phone?"

After looking at myself in the mirror this morning and seeing what that asshole did to me, I was furious. It was all for a little bit of money?

"Yes, we're pretty certain it was a robbery for drug money or..." He hesitated for a moment, and I could tell he didn't want to tell me what he was thinking.

"Or what?" I asked.

He didn't answer.

"Detective Cullen...or what?"

He and Detective McCarty exchanged a serious look, and Detective McCarty nodded his head.

Detective Cullen turned back to me. "We think it was a robbery or an attempted sexual assault..., or a combination of the two."

I didn't even register the fact he said 'attempted'. All I heard was 'sexual assault'.

I stared at him and my vision started to blur and I began to hear a ringing in my ears. I could see him talking to me, but I couldn't hear any sound. I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate, my breathing coming in and out in quick gasps.

Oh my God, did he rape me? Was I raped and they didn't tell me? Oh God, Oh God. What if I was pregnant? What if I had internal injuries and didn't know it, what if...

Suddenly, I saw Detective Cullen's face directly in front of mine. He had risen from the chair, and was leaning over me with one hand cupping my face, while he tried to get through to me. Slowly, I started to focus on him and heard the tail end of what he was saying.

"…...not raped."

I shook my head and focused my eyes on the face in front of me.

"Miss Swan, can you hear me? I said you were not raped. He did not sexually assault you. Miss Swan, can you hear me?" He was searching my face with frantic eyes, looking for some kind of acknowledgment.

I started to come back to my surroundings, and saw Esme next to me with tears in her eyes, her hand still holding mine.

I started taking deep breaths, as I tried to get my breathing back to normal. Detective Cullen was still hovering over me, his hand still on my face. A few tears escaped my eyes, and ran under his palm.

"Can you hear me? Miss Swan, can you hear me? Nod your head if you can hear me."

I nodded my head, his hand following the movement since it was still cupped against my cheek.

"y.. , yes, I can hear you."

He was leaning down even more now, and was directly at eye level with me. He stared into my eyes. Hard.

"You were not sexually assaulted. You were not. Ok? Ok?"

I nodded at him again. It looked like he wasn't fully convinced I had come back to myself, but he did remove his hand from my face, and straightened up.

He stood to his full height, and ran both hands through his hair, while letting out a long, shaky breath.

"Jesus Christ, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought the Doctor told you the extent of your injuries. That asshole did not sexually assault you. You're ok, you're ok."

I looked up at him and said quietly, "You're sure?"

"I'm absolutely positive. They did a rape kit on you when you came in. Jesus, they should have told you that, I'm sorry"

He was still running his hands through his hair, as he walked back over to the chair and sat down. Detective McCarty was standing off to the side with what can only be described as a look of barely contained anger on his face as he looked over at me.

"I'm sorry I didn't catch that piece of shit. I chased him for quite awhile, but don't you worry, he's gonna make a mistake, and when he does, we're gonna nail him to the wall, preferably by his balls."

He looked over at Esme with a quick look of remorse. "Sorry, Mrs. C."

"Don't apologize Emmett." Esme said, with her own look of anger. "I'd like to be the one holding the nail gun pointed at his balls, if you think you can pull some strings and make that happen."

We all looked at her for a moment and then broke out in laughter, Esme smiling, Detective McCarty smirking, and Detective Cullen softly chuckling with his head in his hands. It definitely lightened the mood.

Detective Cullen looked up at me.

"What other questions do you have, that I might be able to answer?"

I looked down at the blankets.

"Do you know where he is?"

He sat back in the chair and put his arms on the sides.

"We don't have an exact location, but we think he might be in Michigan or Wisconsin."

"Will you be going after him?"

He and Detective McCarty looked at each other again, and when Detective Cullen looked back at me, I could see his jaw tense.

" Unfortunately no."

He ran his hands through his hair a couple more times.

"There's a warrant out for his arrest. As soon as he does something stupid, and we know he will, the warrant will come up, and he'll be arrested...but, um, no...they haven't authorized a search for him since it's outside our Jurisdiction. If we get word he's back in the area, then we can probably do something. We've put Washington and Michigan State Police on alert."

I was watching him as he spoke. His jaw was clenched, and his hands were fisted at his sides. He looked like he wanted to punch something. I knew how he felt.

It was starting to sink in I'd probably never get justice. How many times did I listen to Charlie complain about this very thing? I was one of hundreds of people in the city who got jumped every day. Did I really think the Michigan or Wisconsin State Police were going to go on a manhunt for a petty thief who stole a wallet, and broke my arm? I thought my chances of that happening were a big fat zero. They had their own problems.

Even if this guy did do something 'stupid' like Detective Cullen said, and they caught him, what good would that do? I couldn't identify him. Would charges even stick? It would be my word against his. Maybe the fingerprint would be something, but who knows, and what's the jail time for something like that? One to two years and then the guy takes a plea and does six months? That's if the charges even stick.

I looked up at Detective Cullen with defeated eyes, realizing what a lost cause this was. He looked back at me, and I could tell he knew what I was thinking, and his expression told me all I needed to know. He thought the same thing.

***A/N***

As always, Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! I love to hear how you think it will play out.