Silent Misery - Repercussions and Recovery Chapter 2

by HidingInSight

There was a gentle knock on the door. Gibbs' head jerked that way. Fornell murmured a word of calm and withdrew.

"Come in," he called.

A tall redhead in olive green scrubs came through holding a silver clipboard. She stopped just inside the door and guided it softly closed behind herself.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Jessica. I'm going to be your nurse today. What's your name?" Her voice was pitched low and soothing. She stayed where she was and did not approach them.

"Jethro," Gibbs said.

"Nice to meet you, Jethro. Sorry it has to be under these circumstances," she said with a smile. "Okay if I come over?"

"Sure," he said, uncertain why she was asking permission. Jessica bobbed her head and crossed to the bed. She pulled over one of the stools and straddled it, putting herself at Gibbs' eye level.

"What's your last name?" she asked.

Gibbs shook his head.

"He's a federal agent," Fornell said. "We can't put his name out there."

"Fair enough," Jessica said. "Pick something."

"What?" Gibbs asked.

"We could call you Jethro Doe, but that sounds weird. So pick something." She smiled again and Gibbs couldn't help but smile a little in return.

"Fielding," he said. Fornell frowned, not recognizing the name.

"Jethro Fielding it is," Jessica said and made a note on her clipboard.

"Who's he?" she asked, pointing her head toward Fornell.

"FBI Agent," Gibbs said. "A friend."

"Okay. You want him to leave?" she asked. "This is going to get real personal for a while."

"He stays," Gibbs said unequivocally, overlapping Fornell's declaration of "I'm staying."

"Okay," she said again. "If you change your mind, want him to leave at any time, you give me the high sign and I'll get a couple of toughies to escort him out. Kay?"

Gibbs nodded with a half-smile. She could try.

"Can I get your name, friend?" she asked.

"Fornell," he said, then added: "Tobias."

"Tobias," she repeated and offered a hand to shake. "As we move through this, if you feel things are getting too heavy and you need to step out, we can get a counselor in here to sit with Jethro."

"Won't be necessary," Fornell said.

"Okay. I want you to know it's available. Just in case." She turned back to Gibbs.

"You know anything about the SART program, Jethro?"

"Heard of it," Gibbs said. "Never paid much attention."

"That's alright," she said with a smile. "It's kind of an 'ignore us until you need us' thing. It stands for Sexual Assault Response Team. I'm a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, meaning I've been specially trained in handling these cases. I'm going to be your guide through the next couple hours. It's not going to be easy, but I'll help you through it, okay?"

"Okay," Gibbs agreed.

"I need you to know that you're safe here. The person who hurt you can't get to you here."

"Not past him," Gibbs agreed, tossing his head slightly toward the G-man. Fornell felt his heart swell a little.

"I'm glad he makes you feel safe. I'm going to take your vitals, get an IV started while we talk. That okay?" Gibbs nodded. He wondered at the 'kid glove' treatment, but had no objection to it.

"Did you undress here?" she asked, indicating the butcher paper. When Gibbs nodded, she said: "Good" and crouched down, reaching for the edges of the paper on the floor. She carefully folded it up, trapping inside whatever might have fallen from his clothes. She carried it over to the counter.

"How old are you, Jethro?" she asked as she rounded the bed to the monitors. He told her. She unwrapped a Velcroed blood pressure cuff and unlooped a set of heart monitor cables with sticky patches already attached. She stretched both of them out over the bed so she could approach him from the front.

"Where are you from?" she asked, and he answered. "You married?" She continued to make apparent small talk while she cycled the cuff, put a pulse oximeter on the tip of one of the fingers he had under his head, reached down through the neck of the gown to apply the heart monitor leads and took his temperature. The routine was familiar, and Gibbs started to relax. His heart rate and rhythm appeared on the monitor, showing a rate of 76 regular beats a minute. Fornell knew that was slightly elevated from his normal 60 to 64. Not that he was surprised.

After noting his vital signs on her clipboard, Jessica quickly went over his virtually non-existent medical history while she took an IV kit out of one of the cupboards. She smoothly started an IV in his available forearm and drew several vials of blood, then hung a bag of saline. That done, she retook the stool, clipboard in hand.

"I understand you've got some acute injuries we're going to have to take care of. I'm going to get the rest of my team in here momentarily to help with that. Are you in pain?"

"Yes," Gibbs said, surprising Fornell, who expected him to deny it.

"Tell me where your worst pain is."

"Backside," Gibbs said without hesitation. Jessica made a note.

"On a scale of 1 to 10..." she started.

Gibbs interrupted her, having heard the explanation of the pain scale many times before. "About an eight. Maybe a nine. Sharp." Which made Fornell's eyes widen further.

"Are you bleeding?" she asked.

"A little, I think," Gibbs said. "It was pretty bad. My partner bandaged it."

"Partner?" she asked.

"Work partner," Fornell clarified. "They were attacked when a case went bad."

"How is he?" she asked.

"He's here too. Possible broken ribs," Fornell said.

"Okay. After that, what hurts worst?"

"Head," Gibbs said. "Hit it on the concrete."

"Is it a headache, or actual head pain?" she asked.

"Actual head pain is about a three, but I've got a pounding headache, seven or eight." Another note.

"Kay. What else?"

"Muscle aches and strains, some impact injuries. Shoulders, low back, knees. Nothing above a five."

"Okay." She wrote rapidly. "Anything else?"

"Wrists hurt. Where they were tied."

"Can I see?"

Gibbs moved his hand out from under his head and showed her both wrists. There were red, raw marks around both, the right one almost a complete circle and oozing slightly, the left less severe as it had been partially protected by his watchband.

"Thank you," she said, and made a note. "I'm going to take your watch off, get it out of the way," she said. When Gibbs nodded permission, she pulled a pair of latex gloves out of a pocket and pulled them on, then carefully removed the watch. She stood and set it on the counter.

"We'll need to sample that. You can have it back when we're done." She removed her gloves and quickly washed her hands before returning to the stool.

"What about your neck?" she asked next.

Gibbs remembered the feeling of being strangled as the bastard wrapped a beefy hand around his throat from the front. He took a harsh breath.

"I can feel it, but it's not bad."

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Good." She made more notes. "Here's the plan: I'm going to give you some pain medication, then talk to you a bit about what happened while my team gets organized. We'll make sure the bleeding has stopped, then get into the actual exam. Okay?"

Gibbs nodded.

"We're going to take it slow, step by step, and we won't do anything without explaining it first. If at any time you want us to stop, or not do something, just say so. You're in control here."

"It's okay," Gibbs said. "I'm not your typical fragile victim. Just do what you have to."

Jessica shook her head. "It doesn't work that way, Jethro. Something really bad has happened to you, and we're not going to complicate matters by forcing you to endure anything more against your will. There's no such thing as a 'fragile victim.' There's just survivors of sexual assault. We'll take it by the numbers."

"Okay," Gibbs said, and Jessica nodded.

"Have you ever had morphine before?"

"Yes."

"Any problems with it?"

Gibbs shrugged a little. "Too much makes me throw up."

"That's good to know." She stood and crossed again to the cabinets. Setting her clipboard on the counter, Jessica opened a cabinet to reveal a medication vault. She pulled a keyboard out from under the vault, started tapping, and less than a minute later, a bell dinged. She opened the vault and removed a two vials, pushing it shut again.

"I'm going to give you some Reglan, to prevent nausea, and a titrated dose of morphine. You weigh, what, 180?"

"About that," Gibbs said.

"Okay. Here we go. You start having trouble, you let me know right away." She drew a dose out of the first vial and injected it into his IV, following it a minute later with a smaller dose from the second. She dropped both vials into her scrub shirt pocket.

"That should kick in pretty quick," she said as she retook her stool. "As we go through this process, my team and I are going to ask you a bunch of questions. Some of them are going to be very personal. Some of them you're probably not going to want to answer. But they're all important, and they're all necessary. They're the same questions we ask everyone who ends up in your position, no matter who they are. If at any time you think we're getting too personal for Tobias's ears, we'll have him step out."

"Understood," Gibbs said.

"We can also put up a privacy screen if you'd like," Jessica offered.

Gibbs rolled his eyes up to look at Fornell, asking a silent question. Fornell gave him an 'up to you' look.

"How confidential is this process?" Gibbs asked Jessica.

"Completely," she said without hesitation. "Your computer records are password protected, only accessible by me and my team. The forms I'm filling out will have only your medical record number on them. Later on, we'll talk about whether you want to get law enforcement involved or not. That decision is entirely up to you. If you decide to report your assault, your records can be redacted as necessary. So you can feel free to tell me whatever you think we ought to know."

Gibbs again consulted Fornell. "Go ahead," the FBI man said.

"Don't need a privacy screen. He's seen it all before. Many times."

Understanding dawned, and Jessica nodded. "Ah. I understand," she said. "Thank you, Jethro, that's helpful." She made a note, then turned to Fornell. "It's important you let Jethro answer the questions I ask. You're going to want to help, but I need to hear it from him. Okay?"

"Got it," Fornell said.

"Good. Let's get started." She pulled on a lanyard around her neck until a small pager-like device appeared from under her shirt. She punched three buttons on it before tucking it away again. Pulling a form out of the back of her clipboard, she squared it up on top.

"First, some questions to help us gather the best evidence we can. Have you cleaned up at all since the assault?"

"No."

"Showered, washed your hands, brushed your teeth?"

"No."

"Have you combed your hair?"

"No."

"Changed clothes?"

"Not 'til I got here."

"Good. We'll let you get cleaned up as soon as we possibly can. Okay?"

"I'd appreciate that," he said, and she smiled.

"Have you had anything to eat or drink since the assault?"

"No."

"When and what was your last meal?"

He had to think for a moment. It seemed like lunch was days ago. "Sandwich and fries, around 1:00. Last coffee maybe an hour before it happened."

"Have you gone to the bathroom since the assault?"

"No," Gibbs said.

"Have you vomited?"

"No."

"Smoked?"

"Not in years."

"Good," Jessica said, and made a bunch of checkmarks on a form before tucking it away and turning to another.

"How you doing so far?"

"Fine," Gibbs said.

"How's your pain?"

"Better. Still present."

"I can give you a little more if you need it," Jessica said. "Just let me know."

"Not yet," he said.

"Alright. Let's move on to the assault itself. Where were you when it happened?"

"An abandoned building outside Fort Washington."

"How long has it been?"

"Hour and a half, maybe two." She looked at her watch and made a note.

"Was the person who assaulted you male or female?"

"Male," Gibbs answered.

"You said you hit your head. Were you conscious for the entire event?"

"Yes."

"You didn't pass out from lack of air?" she asked.

"No," he said, and a sudden shiver ran over his body, remembering. Fornell placed a hand over his on the mattress. The beeping on the heart monitor had accelerated slightly.

"Do you know if you were drugged?"

"I was not," Gibbs answered.

"Okay. How many men assaulted you?"

"One."

"You were penetrated anally?"

"Yes."

"What did he use?"

Gibbs flinched slightly. "Excuse me?"

"Did he use any foreign objects?" she rephrased the question.

"No. Just fingers and... his penis." He cleared his throat. Fornell watched his face from a distance of less than two feet. There was pain there, and something else so faint Fornell couldn't identify it. Gibbs was trying hard to maintain his composure and was mostly succeeding. The thing he couldn't control told the tale: his heart rate had risen into the 90s.

"Did he use lubrication?"

"Spit," Gibbs said and Fornell clenched his jaw to keep silent. The indignities kept piling up.

"Did he use a condom?"

"No."

"Did he ejaculate inside you?"

"Yes."

"Anywhere on your skin?"

"No."

"Okay," she said again. "Did he perform any other sexual acts on you or have you perform any on him?" she asked.

"He made me... suck him," Gibbs said, and his voice cracked a little. Fornell squeezed his hand where it lay on the bed with a gentle, wordless murmur. Inside, the fed was screaming. He wanted to hit something. Better yet, shoot something. Or someone. When he found the son of a bitch responsible for this, he was going to kill him. As God was his witness.

Fornell suddenly realized the beeping on the heart monitor had almost doubled. Jessica saw him looking and stood, moving around the bed. She poked a few buttons and the beeping was silenced. A slight push changed the monitor angle so Fornell could no longer see the readout.

"No worries," she said to him as she sat down again. She turned back to Gibbs.

"Are you okay to keep going?" she asked.

"Yes," Gibbs said.

"How's your pain?"

"Tolerable," he said.

"Okay. Let me know when it starts to get bad again." Gibbs nodded. "Did your attacker ejaculate in your mouth?" she asked.

"No," Gibbs said.

"Was there pre-ejaculate present?"

"Yes," Gibbs said, and licked his lips.

"Did you bite him?"

"He'd've killed my partner if I had," Gibbs said and the defensiveness was clear.

"I understand," Jessica said without any trace of condemnation. "I'm not saying you should have. I'm just wondering if we'll be able to find traces of his blood in your mouth."

Gibbs shook his head. "No."

"Did you scratch him or otherwise get a hand on him in any way that might have left his DNA behind?"

"No. I couldn't. My hands were tied behind me."

"Did you fight him before he got you tied?"

"Briefly. There were three of them. They were armed. They took me down pretty fast."

"Three men?" Jessica asked, raising her eyes. "You said there was only one."

"There were three there. Only one of them... participated."

"Did either of the others touch you?"

"One of them. On my jacket. My wrists." He thought for a second, then shook his head. "That's all, I think."

"Okay." She made a note.

"Did the man who assaulted you do anything else to you?"

"Tried to choke me out. Smashed my head into the floor. Stretched my shoulders all to hell. Scratched me up pretty good against the ground when my shirt pulled up."

"How many times did you hit your head?"

Gibbs thought about it, reliving the attack in fast motion. He began to tremble slightly.

"When he was... raping me... he had one hand in my hair, pulling back hard, the other hand around my throat. When he let go, I fell forward. There was an impact, on the side. Then later, he hit the same side with his hand hard enough the other side bounced off the concrete."

"But you didn't pass out," she confirmed.

"No."

"Where?"

Gibbs raised a hand and pointed, his fingers ghosting over a soft spot he could feel in his scalp. "The damage is here."

"I'm going to take a quick look, okay?"

Gibbs nodded and moved his hand. Jessica stood and leaned over him. She parted his hair around where he'd been pointing. It took her a second before she, too, was feeling at the spot.

"We'll send you for a CT later, get that checked out." She sat down again, and Gibbs reached for Fornell's hand.

"Just a couple more questions for now. Did he perform oral sex on you?"

"No," Gibbs said.

"Fondle your genitals?"

"Yes."

"Hard enough to cause injury?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Gibbs said.

"Did any other intimate acts take place?"

"No," Gibbs said and Fornell squeezed his hand.

"Did he use any weapons on you?"

"No."

"Okay. We're almost done this part." She changed forms again.

"Have you been intimate with anyone else in the last 48 hours?"

Gibbs blinked, looked at Fornell, opened his mouth and closed it again.

"Yes," Fornell supplied. "With me. Last night."

"Were you penetrated?" she asked Gibbs.

The Navy man's face took on a slight redness, the closest Fornell had ever seen him come to blushing. He could feel an echoing heat in his own face. He couldn't believe he was about to discuss his bedroom activities with this stranger. He didn't talk about stuff like that with anyone. Well, no one but Jethro anyway. Finally he spoke.

"Fingers. And toys," he said and cleared his throat. He hoped she wouldn't ask for specifics.

"Okay," Jessica said. Her tone and expression were purely clinical, and both men were grateful. "Remember, Tobias, I really need Jethro to answer these questions."

Fornell made a 'go ahead' gesture with his free hand.

"Did you get any ejaculate on your skin?" she asked.

"Yes," Gibbs said, the memory increasing the redness. He coughed a little.

"Have you showered since then?" she asked.

"Twice," Gibbs said.

"Good. Have you been on the receiving end of anal intercourse within the past five days?"

"Why do you need to know that?" Gibbs asked, his voice hardening a little. It was clear he thought that question was one step too far. Questions about the last day or two he understood. Beyond that seemed a little more invasive than necessary. Jessica didn't appear bothered by his tone.

"We consider DNA to potentially be present up to 120 hours after it's deposited, if conditions are right. The conditions inside the rectal cavity aren't the best, but we've recovered samples from there days after deposit in other cases. So we need to know if anyone other than your attacker might have left anything behind in that time period." Again, her tone was clinical and without judgment.

Gibbs took a breath. "Yes. Friday night, and Sunday morning. And before you ask, it was him." He raised Fornell's hand a little.

She turned back to Fornell. "Tobias, we're going to need a sample of your DNA to separate out any contributions of yours that might still be present."

"That's fine," Fornell said.

There was a buzzing sound from Jessica. She pulled out the same device she'd tapped at earlier and looked at it.

"My team is ready. They'll be here momentarily."

Gibbs nodded. Jessica continued.

"Was there anyone else in the last five days?" she asked, looking at Gibbs again.

"No," Gibbs said.

"Would your answer be different if Tobias wasn't here?" she asked, staring directly at him and looking for the tell.

"No."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay. That's all I have for now," she said. "When we're done, before you go home, we'll have a conversation about potential exposure to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and hepatitis. For now, you just need to know that a course of prophylactic antiretroviral medications may keep you from developing diseases even if you were exposed."

"I understand," Gibbs said.

"There's some potential side effects we need to talk about before you decide whether or not you want to start the full drug course, but the first dose should be administered as soon as possible after exposure for best effect. We can give you the first dose now, and if you decide after we talk not to follow through with the program, it won't hurt you."

"Do it," Gibbs said.

There was another light knock on the door, and Gibbs started, his head whipping that way.

"It's alright, Jethro. It's my team," Jessica explained. "Are you ready?"

Gibbs nodded. He released Fornell's hand and returned his own to the mattress. Fornell sat back a little.

"We're ready," Jessica called out, and the door opened. An Hispanic man and two black women, all in scrubs, came through. Gibbs got a look at the man and his body stiffened, his breath drawing in with an audible gasp. Jessica's eyes narrowed.

"Jethro? What's wrong?" she asked.

Gibbs shook his head rapidly, feeling pain spike in his head.

"Jethro?" Fornell asked. "What is it?"

"He..." Gibbs said, then drew another deep breath. "Nothing."

"It's something," Fornell said. "What?"

"It's me," the Hispanic man said, and Fornell could hear regret in his voice. He stopped just inside the door. The two women moved into the room toward the opposite wall, staying away from the bed.

"Jethro?" Jessica said. "This is Marc. He's our doctor. He's not going to hurt you."

"I know," Gibbs said. An involuntary shiver moved over him.

"Is it that he's male, or is there something more specific?" Jessica asked.

"He..." Gibbs stopped, took a breath, tried again. "He looks like..."

To be continued...

That's it for now. Hope you've enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think so far.