It had been about a week now since Katie brought baby Tatum home and it had been difficult. Everything with Tatum was going fine and she was getting on and adjusting well to her new home, it was Noah that was the problem. Lately, Noah had been getting much more agitated, much more easily, and at the slightest things. At first, it was the dogs barking, and then it was Katie working out too loud, and then it was her not coming home on time or not making dinner for him, and to say all of this was hard on Katie, was an understatement, her life was turning into hell.
Katie and the unit had just finished a relatively tough case, and the fact that she was sore and miserable all day, didn't help either. As Katie pulled up to her parking lot, she couldn't help but notice that Noah had gotten home before her, she knew she had come home at her normal time and he had just come home early, but he would still be mad at her. She also knew that he'd had a very rough day which meant he was going to be very hard on her too.
As Katie got out of her car and walked around to the back so she could get Tatum since she had picked her up from Cindy's house since she watches the baby during the day she couldn't help but be relieved that Tatum was with her. Katie knew that Noah would never hurt the baby, he wasn't that bad of a person, and she knew that since Tatum was with her she would at least be able to get to the nursery and get Tatum put down for the night before having to face the music. As Katie entered the apartment she saw Noah from the couch, she saw the half a dozen open beer bottles on the coffee table and knew that it was going to be a hard night for her.
"We need to talk after you put Tatum down Katie." She heard his voice from the couch.
"Alright, give me a few minutes and I'll be out," Katie responded with a sigh.
Katie took Tatum to the nursery and got her to sleep before going to her bedroom to change her clothes. Katie took a minute to herself to mentally prepare herself before going out to talk to and face the wrath of Noah. Once she was ready she slowly made her way out to the living room and took a deep breath before making her presence known to Noah.
"Noah," she breathed out in a quiet voice, "What did you want to talk about?"
"You know that dinner is supposed to be ready by the time I get home, right baby?" Noah asked in a chilling voice.
"Yeah, I know, but you were home early today and I had a rough case and I just didn't have time. I love you, baby, I promise, I'll have dinner ready tomorrow." Katie responded in a begging tone.
"You better have it ready tomorrow, or else your gonna feel ten times worse tomorrow night than you will after I'm done with you tonight," Noah said in a scary, chilling tone.
The next few minutes were a blur for Katie, all she could remember were the words that Noah was saying to her. For the next few minutes, Katie endured all of the hits, kicks, and slaps that Noah sent her way as a punishment. Minutes later, after it was all over, Katie was forced to get up as the dogs came over to her licking her face to tell her it was dinner time and she heard Tatum crying because it was time to be changed.
Going to work the next morning was hard for Katie. She had to get Tatum changed and into her car seat and to Cindy's house, which caused a lot of pain since the majority of the beating she took the night before was to her arms. She also had to get to the district and make her way up to the bullpen while also trying to hide the pain from her friends, which wasn't super easy when they watched your every move. As soon as she got up to the bullpen she was greeted by Jay approaching her.
"Hey," he said in his normal cheerful voice, "we got a case already, we gotta go pick up a witness." He said to her.
"Alright, let's go, let's take your car," Katie responded.
While they were in the car, Jay couldn't help but notice Katie's discomfort as she tried to find a comfortable way to sit. Jay considered asking her why she was in pain, but this has become a normal thing for Katie and he knew that she wouldn't give her an honest answer.
As they pulled up to the scene Katie finished reading the case file that Jay had handed to her so she could catch up on the way over. She couldn't help but notice that, even though they were picking up a witness and not a suspect, they were in a sketchy neighborhood and the person had priors, and as much as she hoped that he wouldn't, the person would probably run.
Before they had even reached the door, Katie was proved wrong as she saw the person bolt from a gate on the side of the house. Katie groaned in annoyance as she and Jay took off running after the suspect. The suspect only managed to get a few blocks after he ran into an ally and came to a dead end which was both good and bad for Katie. On one hand, Katie knew that she would soon have the man in custody, on the other hand, she and Jay had split up and she was still in pain so she was going to have to fight the man alone.
A few minutes later, Katie had taken down the man and was now just trying to get cuffs on him as Jay rounded the corner. Seeing Katie's exhaustion, Jay took over and cuffed the man for Katie.
"Hey, Katie, you okay?" He asked seeing the look of pain on her face as she rolled off of the suspect and onto the ground.
"Yeah," she replied between breaths, "I'm just tired and he put up a good fight," Katie responded. Jay decided not to press any further, even though he knew she wasn't being completely truthful with him.
Later that night Katie was happy as she pulled up at the apartment, Noah wasn't home yet and wouldn't be for a while, and she saw Cindy's car, which meant that Cindy had brought Tatum home and was now just waiting for Katie to arrive before she left. Katie unlocked the door and walked into the apartment with a smile as she saw Cindy waiting for her and cleaning up the kitchen.
After talking with Cindy for a while about how Tatum had been during the day, and thanking her for cleaning the kitchen up and trying to pay her extra for everything she had done, Katie said goodbye to the woman. Once Cindy had left, Katie went and sat down on the couch. She looked at the clock and noticed that Noah wouldn't be home for about another hour, so she decided to relax for half an hour before starting to get dinner ready.
Katie didn't remember falling asleep, but she knew that she had and that it had been a huge mistake once she heard Noah come through the door. It only took a few seconds before she was pulled up to a standing position and yelled at by Noah.
"You good for nothing, useless, bitch!" He screamed in her face, punching her in the face at the end of the phrase. "I told you to have dinner ready when I was home! But instead, you're sitting on the couch sleeping!" He screamed in her face.
After that, he was done with words, and all Katie could feel was the pain. She could feel every kick delivered to her stomach, every slap to her face, and every punch to her ribs. She thought that it would be over soon, they were almost always over at this point, but Noah just kept going and going and Katie realized that she needed to get her and Tatum out of there and away from Noah as soon as possible before something really bad happened.
When Noah was finally finished he walked out of the apartment, leaving Katie on the floor, alone and bleeding. Katie took this as her opportunity to get help, she couldn't stand up so she crawled her way to the couch where she had left her phone and grabbed it. Still lying on the floor she called the first person she could think of.
"Hello?" She heard the voice answer, "Katie? Are you there?" She then used all the energy she had left to whisper out her response.
"Help… Please… you were right…" Katie said.
"Katie, what's happening? I was right about what?" The person on the other end of the line asked.
"About him… you were right… I need help…"
