"Tessa, wait," he called, sprinting the few yards between them and wrapping his arms around her from behind, bodily restraining her as she fought him, weakly kicking as she cried out.

"NO! NO! Let me go!"

Tom forced her around so he could see her face. "Tessa, stop! It's me, Tom…" he paused as she stilled, staring straight into his eyes with a frighteningly vacant intensity. Recognition spread faintly across her features as she stilled in his grasp.

"I'm not going to hurt your," Tom finished softly, slowly releasing her shoulders; stepping back just a hair. His gut told him not to move back too far since she looked about as steady and secure as a leaf clinging to a branch at the last days of autumn. One good, stiff breeze and she'd come tumbling down. "What happened?" Tom pried carefully again. He had his hunches, his fears more like it, but he needed to hear it from her.

Tessa looked at him blankly, her eyes flashing with terror for a moment as she thought about the question. Her lips parted slightly, then closed as she blinked slowly and began to turn away from him, intent on walking back to the gym.

"I've gotta go shower," she slurred. Her voice weak and the words dragged out.

She made it three or four steps before she swayed as her knees buckled. Tom just managed to catch her before she hit the ground hard. His gut did a somersault though as he watched her head snap back sharply before he could reach up and support it. Cursing to himself, he lowered her to the ground and checked for a pulse and to see if she was still breathing. Satisfied she had just lost consciousness, he looked desperately across the field for anyone else around. Thankfully, he spied a couple of freshmen heading out the side door to cut through the track to get to the student parking lot.

"Go get an ambulance!" he hollered to them, and was pleased to see the turned and went back into the school right away.

Looking down again at Tessa, he felt the knot in his gut tighten as he took in the array of scrapes and cuts across her arms and legs. The already darkening red marks around her wrist and the clear imprint of a fist along her right cheek confirmed his suspicions. A bluish red bruise was just starting to settle under her right eye. Lacking a backpack or even a jacket, he sat down next to her and gently laid her lower legs across his lap in the hopes the elevation would help her wake up.

Tom kept a constant dialogue going with Tessa, telling her to wake up and that it was going to be okay now. He kept talking when the students he'd flagged down returned with the school nurse, the principal and whoever else had been in the office or halls when they'd come dashing in. Then he'd stopped talking and allowed himself to be led away with the other students. The principal had allowed him to call his "dad" privately before he'd detained him for almost half an hour while he got Tom's story. He didn't break his cover once and was planning on going to the hospital as soon as he got out when he realized he'd never found out which one the ambulance had taken her to. He remembered hearing them leave, siren going, about ten minutes after he'd arrived in the principal's office, just after he'd gotten off the phone with Fuller. Sighing, he turned his car towards the chapel and sped off. He only marginally managed to avoid a speeding ticket as his worry began to creep up on him in the down time he had during the ten-minute drive from Reardon High School.


"Which hospital did they take her too?" Tom burst into Fuller's office, ignoring the rule to announce himself. This time, Fuller didn't seem to mind. He looked as if he'd been expecting it actually. He narrowed his eyes slightly however and spoke into the telephone receiver briefly before hanging up and addressing Tom.

"I just got off the phone with Hoffs. She's going to be the face in uniform for this," he began, putting up his hand as he saw the officer begin to protest. "You're too close right now Hanson, and you're already working one case there. You can't move on this one without blowing your cover."

The captain paused as he watched the younger officer consider his words. He could tell the instant the man had found the truth in them because he moved from his place standing, tense, in the middle of the office, to sitting in one of the chairs in front of Fuller's desk. Hands clasping the arms of the chair, Tom leaned back, then forward again, as he met his CO's gaze and worked to reign in his emotion and focus on the job.

"Okay," he finally spoke, his voice low and slightly less intense, less desperate. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait." Fuller's first words in answer caused Tom to squirm in his chair, but he remained silent, allowing his boss to continue and complete his statement and outline their plan of action.

"Hoffs is going to phone back with a status report of Tessa Lamontagne's condition. Then we hear Tessa's statement as soon as she's able to give it to Hoffs. You study for whatever test your teachers have planned for you tomorrow, get so rest and go back in there in the morning. Back burner the coach unless he's a suspect and keep your eyes and ears open for anybody looking to own up to this afternoon." Fuller paused momentarily to allow Tom to process the plan a bit before he continued, "in the meantime, since I know you're not going to go home and twiddle your thumbs get over to your desk and get the report on Coach Henderson written up. I'll let you know as soon as I hear from Officer Hoffs."

Fuller looked sharply at Hanson, gauging the man's reaction to the plan. He nodded slightly in approval as the younger man nodded his head in agreement before standing up and exiting the office to his desk. For the time being, Fuller decided, his resident loose cannon was contained.


Tom was so intent on the report he was typing he didn't hear Fuller's phone ring once then silence. He didn't hear the low conversation his superior had and didn't hear the frustrated sigh the man allowed to escape as he just barely refrained from slamming down the phone receiver.

Thus, the sound of his superior's voice calling him abruptly caused Officer Hanson to startle as he slid the carriage of the typewriter back home and yanked the completed document from the machine. Moving quickly around his desk, somehow managing to avoid smashing his knees into the piece of furniture, Tom marched back into Fuller's office – not bothering to close the door behind him as he moved into the room.

Glancing up at the wall, Tom found to his surprise that it was after six o'clock. He hadn't even noticed as the chapel staff had slowly filtered out for the day until he'd stood up and taken in the empty station. He'd been more distracted than he thought apparently, since a report that normally would have taken him about an hour to get typed up properly had taken him almost three.

"Hanson," the younger officer snapped his attention back into reality as Fuller spoke again, softer this time as he watched the man in front of him once again stand frozen momentarily in the middle of the office until he'd collected his thoughts. Fuller waited until Tom had sat down, in the same chair as earlier, placing the report on his desk as he did.

"Yes, sir," the officer replied, his focus tuning in intently on his boss, "any news from Judy?"

"According to the attending physician in the Emergency Room, Miss Lamontagne sustained multiple injuries consistent with a serious beating," Fuller didn't mince his words as he spoke, but instead jumped straight into the promised briefing. "Two broken ribs, an assortment of cuts and bruises, he knocked out one of he molars with a blow to the face but managed not to break any of her facial bones by some miracle. She's got a minor concussion and they're keeping her for observation since she keeps lapsing in and out of consciousness. He…"

"He, sir?" Hanson interrupted Fuller for a moment, feeling for the last detail that he lacked. None of the evidence he had seen could have been attributed exclusively to a male attacker… Unless.

"Yes Hanson, He. Miss Lamontagne was also sexually assaulted. Luckily she didn't make it to the shower like you said she wanted to. They were able to collect a substantial amount of evidence according to Officer Hoffs. She's staying at the hospital until Miss Lamontagne regains consciousness long enough to give a statement." Fuller paused here, allowing the information to settle in Hanson's mind. He watched, carefully, as the officer looked first livid, then hurt, then oddly neutral as he reigned in his emotions for the unnumbered time that day.

"So, what exactly do I do tomorrow?" He asked slowly.

"You go in same as before, and keep your eyes and ears open. I'm going to check out Keith's story about detention and track down the coach to pinpoint the kid's whereabouts today after class. I'll find a way to meet up with you and compare notes. Hopefully we'll have a report from Hoffs by then with a positive I.D. I really want to make an arrest on this one as soon as possible, and people's memories will be soft by the time the weekend's over."

Tom nodded and sat for a moment before moving to stand up, "Is that all Coach?"

Getting a distracted nod from Fuller, Tom rose and moved towards the open doorway.

"Oh, and Hanson," the man's voice called him back just before he reached the doorjamb. "You might want to sign this." Fuller gestured to the report Tom had placed on his desk. His eyes twinkled a bit as he watched the officer return and sign the report. He was pleased to see a small grin beginning to form on the officer's lips before he said goodnight and heading out of the chapel.

Fuller sat back at his desk and paused to recollect his thoughts. Hanson smiling was a good thing. He knew the younger man took it more personally when a girl had been assaulted or abused. There was a bit of old-fashioned gentlemen that lurked beneath the tough guy rebel that was Hanson's persona. He didn't doubt for one minute that Tom would grab onto every piece of information he could get the next day. He only hoped that if Tom figured out who the guy was for sure, that he didn't break the bastard's nose in the process of bringing him in.


Tom sat in Mrs. Barnes' class, growing increasingly frustrated. All day he'd tried to get a lead on what had happened to Tessa and had come up with nothing. Either nobody knew anything had happened, or faculty had put the fear of god into the small crowd of people who had been there after school and had seen the ambulance. The more he thought about it, Tessa wasn't in the know popular faces category and it had been fairly late after school. In a big school like Reardon, there could very well be no talk at all about the incident and it wouldn't be unusual. That really ticked him off the more he thought about it. It made it seem like the jerk had gotten away with it.

Tom found himself growing caught in thought and didn't notice lecture had stopped until Mrs. Barnes called his name a second time. "Thomas, Mr. Donnovan would like to see you." Ignoring the looks from the other students, Tom gathered his stuff and exited the classroom. Waiting in the hall, just past the classroom door, the Principal stood, his face somber.