WARNING ; Deals with rape.
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TC sat on the sofa and looked out in the dark room. He was gonna sleep out there that night, he had let Chris take the bed. It reminded him of when she lived there, those times she had thrown him out of the bedroom and he had to sleep on the sofa. Sometimes he hadn't even done anything, he smiled at how she sometimes had blown up over small things that seemed like nothing to him. Now she was so quite and insecure, she had asked him several times if he was sure he wanted to sleep on the sofa. He went over to the door in to the bedroom and opened it slowly, just stood there in the doorway and looked at her. She was asleep, but tossing and turning in the bed, she made a whimpering sound and hit the air with her hands. TC rushed over to the bed and sat down, he saw the tears streaming down her chins.
-"Don't do this to me", she begged in her sleep, "God, no".
TC said her name over and over and tried to shake her to make her wake up, but she just started to scream. TC started sweating, he felt helpless. He got up and went around the bed and laid down beside her, and took her in his arms and held her tight so she could barely move. He whispered comforting words to her and rocked her forward and backward like a little baby. She stopped fighting and after a little while she was laying calmly next to him, just her breath was still uneasy.
-"TC?", she whispered.
-"I'm here. Finally awake....that's good", he stroke her sweaty hair away from her forehead and loosened his grip around her so she could turn around.
She was laying on her back with her head turned away from him.
-"Can you stay here tonight?", she asked.
-"Of course I can, love. I'll stay right here with you".
She turned to him, he looked into her eyes and lent forward to kiss her. She draw back immediately, tears started running again.
-"Don't...no don't, please", fear was lightning in her eyes. He reached out a hand to her.
-"I'm sorry, Chris. I wont do it, I'm sorry. Come back here, just let me hold you".
She moved closer to him again.
-"I need you", she said so quietly he could barely hear it, before she buried her face under his neck. A misplaced feeling of joy filled him, she had said she needed him, she had never said that before. He liked it, he just wished it had been said under other circumstances.
TC entered the firehouse around noon the next day. He was anxious about leaving Chris alone, but he had to send out some papers. He rushed through the door and almost ran over Monica who was blocking the stairs up to his office.
-"Would you mind?" he said angrily at her.
-"Not at all", she smiled at him. "If you just tell me about last night. I heard some noises from your house, like you were pleasing a woman, Lieutenant."
He shook his head and rolled his eyes, then pushed her out of his way so she almost fell on Jamie who had walked up behind her.
-"What was that all about?", Jamie looked after TC.
Monica shrugged.
-"Well, I think Chris is back, if you know what I mean, and believe me, she was screaming last night", Monica enjoyed telling her gossip.
-"Good for her, good for TC. I don't think you should butt in, leave them alone", Jamie said, turned around and went back to her desk.
Monica looked after her, a bit disappointed that her story didn't catch Jamie's attention.
Cory came through the door of the firehouse. When Bobby saw her he rushed over to her.
-"Hi, how are you", he said and gave her a hug.
She was holding her arms in front of her like she was freezing.
-"Eh, I don't know. I...I left my purse here that day that....that", Bobby cut her off, he knew very well which day she meant.
-"No worries, I'll go and get it for you", he said.
-"Is that TC up in the office?", she asked when she saw someone moving around up there.
-"Yeah, he just got in. Why don't you go up there and I'll go and get your purse", Bobby was already heading for the locker room.
TC was resting his head in his hands when Cory came in. He jumped up when he saw her.
-"What are you doing here?", he went around his desk and took out a chair for her.
-"You should be home resting", he said.
-"I needed my purse and..", Cory started.
-"You could have told me, I would have brought the purse to you", TC said.
-"Yeah, but I needed to get out. I could stay there and feel sorry for myself forever or try to get out."
-"How is that working for you?", he asked a bit concerned since Cory didn't look like she was doing too well.
-"Eh, you know. Nice with the fresh air, hell with all the happy moms that are out playing with their kids", she tried to make a small laugh at the end of the sentence, but it failed and sounded more like a gasp for air.
Bobby came through the door behind her with her purse in his hand.
-"Here you go", he said when he handed it to her.
She smiled at him and thanked him.
-"Are you driving today lieutenant? Saw Chris' car outside", Bobby asked a bit curious. Chris' car had been standing in the driveway since the day she left. TC hadn't even looked at the car, and definitely not driven it.
-"Ehm, yeah. I needed it", TC answered.
-"Okay, thought maybe she was back, sorry man", Bobby said and headed for the door.
-"She is", TC mumbled. Bobby looked at him like a questionmark.
-"That is great.....right?" he was confused. For over 2 months TC had walked around like a ghost because Chris had left. When she was back he didn't seem happy at all.
-"Yeah, it's great", TC said with a worried expression in his eyes that he tried to hide without any luck. Bobby nodded and smiled, he knew he should get out of the office, it was clearly something the Lieutenant didn't want to discuss with him.
-"I thought you'd be thrilled", Cory said the second Bobby looked the door behind him.
-"I am, don't get me wrong, I truly am. But....I don't know"
She knew what he meant, just like she had noticed last night, there was something wrong.
Before she got to say anything there was a firm knock on the door.
-"Come on in", TC said.
A man in a black suit opened the door.
-"Lieutenant Callaway?", he asked.
TC got up and walked over to the man to shake his hand.
-"Lieutenant TC Callaway", he said.
-"I'm Agent Aaron Brown, headmaster of the FBI Academy in Quantico".
-"Oh", TC said with a worried voice. -"Nice meeting you"
-"Could I get a word with you in private?", Agent Brown looked at Cory.
-"This is Sergeant Cory McNamara", TC said and Cory got up and took Agent Brown's hand, who introduced himself to her.
-"Still. I'm not here to talk cop to cop. This is personal matters".
-"Yeah, I understood that", TC said and went back to behind his desk and pointed at a chair so that the Agent could sit down. He didn't tell Cory to leave the office, and she got a feeling that he wanted her to stay, so she sat down in silence.
The Agent looked at her again, but started talking since the Lieutenant seemed fine with her being there.
-"Officer Christine Kelly is your wife, am I right?", he asked TC.
-"Yes", TC nodded, "She is."
-"Have you been in contact with Officer Kelly lately?"
-"She came home yesterday, she's there now as far as I know", TC said fast with a nervous voice.
-"We got worried when she hadn't been seen around the academy for three four days, there was nobody answering her phone or opening the door to her apartment. We called you as well, but got no answer there either. So we decided to get into her apartment to check and see if everything was okay", the agent paused and looked at TC. –"It's good to hear that she's with you now, but I need to talk to her. We found blood in her apartment", he said slowly.
Cory looked at TC, she could see that his hands were shaking and he tried to rub them together to make it stop.
-"Yeah, I can....I can take you there now", TC said and got up. He looked at Cory with a helpless expression in his eyes.
-"You need a ride home, Sergeant McNamara?", TC asked her.
-"I'll be fine. Maybe I'll come over and see Chris later if that's okay. I need to get out a little", she whispered the last sentence so that the agent wouldn't hear her. But he was already on his way down the stairs and TC ran after him.
TC parked the car in the driveway and got out. Agent Brown got out too and they walked together up the narrow path to the frontdoor. TC unlocked it, with a silent prayer that everything would be fine when he opened the door.
Chris was sitting on the sofa with her legs dragged up to her and her head resting on her knees, she got up when she saw that TC wasn't alone.
-"Officer Kelly", the man said and smiled to her.
-"Agent Brown", she answered.
-"It's a relief to see you up and about, I most say", the agent walked towards her and shook her hand. She looked at him with a confused look.
-"But still, we need to have a talk", he said and TC offered him to sit down on a chair. TC himself walked over to Chris and made her sit on the sofa and sat down close beside her.
The Agent told the same thing to Chris as he had told TC at the office, that they had gone into her apartment since there had been no signs of her anywhere. Chris didn't say anything.
-"What worried me when we got in there was that we found blood on the floor in the livingroom", Agent Brown said and looked at Chris to get a reaction. She avoided his eyes and didn't say a word.
-"Do you know where that blood comes from, Officer Kelly?"
Chris just shook her head.
-"As a police officer you know that this is a serious matter. Unidentified blood in an apartment belonging to a woman who all of the sudden disappeared", he looked intensely at her.
-"Do you have to be a police officer to know that?", TC thought to himself, but kept quite.
-"We have taken DNA tests of the blood and will have the result shortly, within hours I will presume. You might as well tell us, we will figure it out either way", he said with a definite, but still gentle voice.
TC laid an arm over her shoulders, and looked at her. It was obvious that she knew perfectly well who that blood belonged to.
Chris knew that the agent was right, that they would get to know it no matter what.
-"It's...."she started quietly, so quite that Agent brown had to lean forward to hear her.
-"It's...it's my blood", she said and swallowed, still avoiding any eyecontact.
TC felt nauseous, he had suspected that during the entire conversation, but had a childish hope that there was another explanation. Chris could try to tell them that she had cut herself while making dinner or any other excuse she might come up with, but TC knew that couldn't be true. So it would explain the blood, but not her disappearing from the academy she had dreamt of going to, the academy she had risked their marriage for. It wouldn't explain her behaviour, her breakdown on the boardwalk last night, the nightmares.
-"It's you blood?", the agent looked at her, and she nodded.
-"Why is your blood on the floor, Officer Kelly?"
-"Ehm, I...There....I just", her body started shaking, the tears pressed so hard there was no way she could hold them back. TC dragged her close to him and held her tight, just like he had done last night. The agent got worried, the Officers reaction made it clear to him that something had taken place in that apartment.
-"What happened there?", he asked, using a tender voice.
-"It didn't.....happen....there", Chris said, still crying heavily.
"That...was...just where he....where he..."she didn't manage to complete the sentence.
"That was where he", Agent Brown repeated.
-"So there is a man in the picture", he continued.
-"Did a man come to your apartment and took you away from there?", he asked her, knowing that if he should get this story he had to ask her the question, the woman was in no shape of telling the story herself.
TC looked at her, she nodded and cried even harder.
-"Do you know where he brought you?"
-"A warehouse", she stuttered.
-"A warehouse", he repeated, "far away from your apartment?"
-"Couldn't have been", she mumbled, the crying wasn't so intense anymore.
-"Hmm", the agent was making notes in his notebook.
-"What happened then?"
Again a wave of tears hit Chris and she broke down on TC's lap, he stroke her back over and over and tried to calm her down, but it seemed impossible.
-"Did he offend you in any way?", Agent Brown continued.
She just nodded.
-"What did he do? It's important that you tell me, you know that"
TC already knew, the feeling he had gotten last night after her reaction when he tried to kiss her had been confirmed.
-"Did you get sexually offended?", the agent was still asking questions.
Again all he got for an answer was a nod from Chris.
TC rubbed his forehead with his hand and closed his eyes.
-"Was it a rape, Officer Kelly?".
TC didn't look at her, but he felt her movement in his lap. He felt how she nodded.
