A/N: Here I am again with a new story! I really hope this goes well... Anyway, on to the story, I hope you like it and if you do feel free to say so! Enjoy!
PS: The songs and some of the things that will happen were inspired by the movie "Burlesque" FYI.
TW: rape
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Welcome to Burlesque
She winked at the crowd and with a smile she walked, hips swaying, behind the curtain. The minute she stepped into the backstage area her smile was lost and she rolled her eyes at how much chaos the other performers had created.
"Come on girls, get ready faster, next show is in ten minutes. Amanda you are up again." Ted, their coordinator and their boss's assistant, clapped his hands as if that would make them hurry.
The blonde removed the outfit of her first performance and started wearing the next one, not sparing a moment to look at the rest of the dancers. She put the diamond necklace and bracelets on and starred at her reflection in the mirror. The light emitting from the diamonds, despite them being fake, made her eyes brighter.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Queen Merilyn Monroe had said and she couldn't be more on point. Because those diamonds had kept her company for the past five years. She would put them on, go out on the stage, charm everyone with her glow and then come back here again only to put them back in the box. It was her love, her way out.
If you could consider that hellhole a way out.
"Amanda, I know you are pretty n'all but please stop admiring yourself in the mirror and come out here. The world is waiting to hear you and see you." Ted came from behind her snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Be right there love."
She fixed her wig a little and walked back to the stage area. A smile always on her face, despite it never reaching her eyes. The world didn't care as long as she sang and moved her body in a sensual way.
Teressa kept saying that the people paid to see them dance and hear them sing, their personal problems didn't matter.
So she learnt how to make them not matter.
The French are glad to die for love...
The crowd whistled and clapped when they saw her. The nicest view on Manhattan, that's what everyone considered her to be. Not that she wasn't a sight for sore eyes, because that, she was. But the way they licked their lips, the way they smirked, it made her feel like and object.
That part of the job, she hated.
Welcome to Burlesque.
Teressa told her when she complained about customers being persistent or grabby. So she did as her mommy had taught her; sucked it up and moved on.
Tiffany's, Cartier...
In her dressing room when she walked in after the show ended she found him there, sitting in one of the chairs. He was smiling yet again, another night where she would have to put up with him.
"You are not supposed to be in here." She told him dryly leaving no room for arguments. She was determined to put a stop to his little game.
Steve Ramsey.
He had been a member since the early years of 'Red Burlesque Lounge' and he paid good, always leaving a tip and apparently paying special attention to the lead performer. Which for the past year, to her misfortune, was she. After Gina got pregnant, Teressa decided to give the blonde a chance to shine and she did.
She shined so brightly that she soon became number one and people came to this place for her and her only. You'd think she liked the fame and the gifts, the compliments, the drinks, but no. She despised them. She despised him.
"Come on, Mandy. For how long are we going to delay the inevitable?"
"Don't call me that. And I am not delaying anything. Nothing is gonna happen, Steve, so just get out of my dressing room." She didn't look at him she just started removing the jewelry and any other extra accessories she had on from her last performance that night.
"No one says no to me darlin', you should know this by now."
He didn't give her time to scream, the punch across her face came before she could react. She felt the warm liquid run down her nose and lip and when she was about to yell for help he grabbed her by the throat and threw her on the floor of her dressing room. He kicked her once on the ribs. She doubled in half from the pain but he soon straightened her up.
"Don't worry, I am a guy who takes his time." His voice was low, it had an animalistic note to it. It scared her. But it didn't scare her as much as his weight on top of her did.
"No, no, please stop. I don't want to, please." She pleaded and all he did was laugh to her face.
"Oh, you want it, I know you do. You need a tough lover, remember?"
She kept telling him to stop, that she didn't want to but he pushed himself inside of her anyway. The tears didn't take long to appear on her face. Every thrust he made set her abdomen on fire, she could feel her vagina tear in half. The loud moan that escaped his lips about ten minutes later told her that he was done.
He got up, did his belt and headed for the door.
"I had fun, we should do it again." He said looking down at her, how she was curled up on the floor, her face stained with mascara smudges, blood trickling down her chin.
He laughed. Bastard had the audacity to laugh. Again.
The minute he exited her dressing room she tried to sit up. Everything hurt, so much that she quickly grabbed the nearby trash can and emptied the contents of her stomach, what little there was anyway. The vomiting only intensified the pain in her ribs and right at the moment she knew that something was probably broken.
Wouldn't be the first time.
She needed to get out of there. She needed to get out of there and fast. As fast as her aching body would allow her. With slow movements she took off her last performance's dress, the one that he raped her in, and let it fall on the ground. She searched through her back, wincing and hissing every time her hands moved. She put on a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt., grabbed her purse and walked out of her dressing room, silently thanking God that no one was there to see how much of a mess she was.
"Fin, what do we got?" She asked the minute she walked through the hospital's doors.
"Blonde, female, late twenties, told the nurse she was assaulted. Now, she told the nurse not to call the police and just to treat her wounds." The African American detective briefed his Sergeant in on the new case they caught only a few minutes ago.
"Her name?"
"Jane Doe." Olivia quirked an eyebrow. "Looks like she knows her way around here."
"Sergeant Benson?" A woman in baby blue scrubs approached her and her partner that were still standing in front of the counter at the nurse's station.
"Yes, Judith, hi. You were the one who called it in?"
"Yes, I know she said she didn't want to but I also know hospital policy so..."
"Room?"
"Exam room 3. She is quite defensive. We already did the rape kit so if she decides to press charges you'll have DNA."
"How long has she been here?" Olivia asked.
Fin had called her about thirty minutes ago and from experience a rape kit could take up to four hours to be completed.
"About an hour or so. She has two broken ribs, a fractured nose, a split lip and vaginal bruising and tearing. Bruising around her throat. She is traumatized and really pissed off. Her blood pressure is incredible high right now so please try and be gentle, okay?"
They both nodded, thanked nurse Judith and walked towards exam room three. Olivia knocked softly on the door and opened it slightly.
"Hi." She said when she spotted the white, pale figure sitting on the bed. Her head snapped and looked straight into brown eyes. "I'm-"
"A cop. God, I am gonna kill that nurse. I told her not to call you." She groaned and slipped off the bed letting out a moan from the pain the motion caused her.
There was a red angry handprint on her neck, her nose was blue and there was dried blood around the nostrils. Her lower lip was split, just like the nurse had told them. All in all she looked like hell and appeared to be in a lot of pain.
"Hey, hey take it easy." Fin said and was ready to approach her until the petite figure held up her right hand.
"I can take care of myself thank you. You are wasting your time, officers." She turned her back at them and walked to the chair to grab her coat and purse.
"Well, you told the nurse that something happened to you." Olivia tried again. "We are just here to help you."
She scoffed and finally turned to look at the detectives. "You can't help me."
"Well, right now we can't. But if you tell us who you are, if you tell us what happened to you, I promise you we can." She was using the voice she used with the victims. That soothing, reassuring, calming voice that made your heart melt.
For a moment the brunette saw the slight hesitation, the change in demeanor, everything in the blonde woman's beautiful ocean eyes told her that she might eventually open up to her. But that was all it was. A moment.
"I am nobody and nothing happened to me." She walked towards her, trying not to limp because of how sore her ribs felt. When she got right in front of the brunette she looked up, smiled kindly and walked passed her. "Have a nice night detective." She said to Fin who had stayed quiet during the entire encounter between the two women.
"If you pretend it didn't happen it won't go away." Olivia said when she heard the handle of the door being pushed down.
"From personal experience, it will." Was all the blonde answered before she exited the room.
She usually wouldn't give up so easily, she would usually push a little more, try and convince her that disclosing the assault was her best option but there was something about the blonde's eyes, the way she saw the fire burn inside of them, the anger. This woman, whoever she was, she wasn't her average victim.
And something told her that they would meet again.
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She was inside the Red Burlesque and had used her authority to be let backstage. When she walked in the first number was on, the fiery blonde she had met two days ago in the hospital, front and center, performing 'welcome to Burlesque' like a pro. She probably was one.
But she couldn't fool her.
She could see how her face contorted every time she had to bend over or sway her hips. Despite all the make up she could still see her swollen nose, her split lip. But the way she sang, the way she moved, it all covered it up nicely. So nicely that even she forgot all about it for a second.
The way her lips moved, her hips, the way her enchanting voice echoed throughout the bar.
She shook her head and started walking backstage when she realized that the first number was coming to an end. She walked past people, showing her badge to get them out of her way.
"That was quite impressive up there, Amanda." She said softly once she saw her entering the backstage area.
When she heard her voice, the blonde turned to look at her a mix of terror and fury in her eyes.
"How the hell did you find me?" She asked through gritted teeth, grabbing the other woman by the hand and leading her to her dressing room, ignoring her pain and the other girls yelling at her that she needed to be on in fifteen.
"I asked you a question..."
"Sergeant Olivia Benson, Manhattan Special Victims Unit." She closed the door behind her and looked as Amanda tried to change into the outfit of her next number.
"How did you find me?" She was having trouble with the zipper and moving your hands with broken ribs was a really hard task.
"Do you need some help with that?" The blonde groaned and motioned for Olivia to pull down the damn thing.
"Still not answering." She let the one piece fall to the floor and started putting on the leather one she had for her 'tough lover' performance.
"Nicest view on Manhattan."
"Damn posters." She muttered under her breath. "Fuck." She clutched her side that was still sore and wouldn't get better unless she rested.
"Hey, hey, let me help you. You are gonna hurt yourself even more." She stepped closer and after looking into blue eyes through the small room's mirror to make sure that it was okay to touch her, she straightened the back of the costume and zipped her up.
"Thanks." The blonde mumbled and bended to grab her leather hat from the couch. Her knees buckled, bending and leaning didn't help in the least bit with the pain.
"You still have ten minutes before you go on, Amanda please."
"Why do you care so much? I am just a performer at a place where most think it's similar to a strip club. People here treat us like hookers, they think that it's our job to satisfy their horny asses. No one else cares about what happens to us so, why do you?"
"Because what happened to you has absolutely nothing to do with what you do for a living. No means no, what your job is doesn't matter, not in my line of work."
She could see it, Amanda was having a change of heart she was ready to tell her something when a knock on the door brought her back to reality.
"Amanda, dear, they are waiting for you." A tall white woman with black long hair put her head through the gap.
"Yes, Teressa be right there."
"Oh, and Steve sends his regards." Her entire body went rigid to the mention of his name and Olivia noticed how her posture changed, how she stiffened.
Steve. They know him by name, he is a regular.
The woman left as quickly as she had come but it was a long enough interruption for Olivia to take a good look of the room. A long enough interruption for her to see blood spots on the grey carpet.
"I gotta go. Thank you for helping me get dressed and Sergeant, it doesn't matter, not now and not ever." She walked out with Olivia hot on her heels.
"Amanda you are hurt you can't go up there, it will only worsen your condition."
"Nobody cares about my condition!" Olivia was taken aback by the blonde's aggressive tone.
"Amanda, that can't be true."
"Welcome to Red Burlesque, Sergeant. Enjoy your night." The bitterness, the hurt, the coldness in her voice sent shivers down her spine.
She watched her walk away and get back on stage. She watched her as she put on a smile, one that didn't reflect in her eyes. She sighed and looked back at the open door of the dressing room. Of the crime scene.
She walked in, left her card on the make up table and hoped that maybe the blonde would come around eventually.
She could only hope.
A/N: So... do we like it? Do we not like it? It's kind of new territory for me, I don't know. I really hope someone reads this and likes this as much as I do. Till the next chapter, have a nice day or night!