Chapter Five - Natalie Rose

Cornell Medical Center - Twenty One Hours Missing

Stacie hurried down the corridor of the hospital and met up with Danny and agents Jack Malone, Samantha Spade, and Martin Fitzgerald. They were the last people she expected to see at this time of day. She wondered if this meant something had broken in Maggie's case, and then realized by the looks on their faces that something had definitely happened.

"Dr. Callahan, we need your help." Jack Malone's tone was serious but somehow positive.

"What's going on, Agent Malone?" She looked up at Jack but her eyes darted over to where Danny stood. His face gave away nothing as he ran his hand through his short hair.

"We've brought in a young girl we believe is one of Bobby Harris' girls." Jack paused, allowing that information to sink in. "She attacked the john who had solicited her and managed to escape. We need to have her checked out and we also need to get some information out of her. Obviously, because of what she has been through, she will not talk to Danny, Martin or I."

"Men, in her eyes, only want to buy her and use her for sex. This girl has been deeply traumatized." Agent Spade added.

"We are going to send Sam in to question her, but we need someone with her. We'd like you to examine her, make her feel at ease, and back up Agent Spade. She won't give us any information unless she feels like she can trust us."

"Just follow Sam's lead." Danny said reassuringly. "She may be able to lead us to Maggie."

Stacie nodded, straightened her shoulders, and said, "What is her name?"

"She won't tell us. That's some of the information we need you to get." Jack stated, looking over at Danny and Martin. The girl hadn't wanted to be touched.

Stacie looked at the faces of those standing around her, took a deep breath, and said, "OK, let's go." before she and Sam walked into the examination room.

"Hi," Stacie began gently, slowly approaching the exam table where the girl sat in her hospital gown. "My name is Stacie. I'm a doctor here at the medical center. And this is my friend, Sam."

Sam smiled as well and quietly said, "Hi."

"What's your name?" Stacie asked, looking over her for any visible signs of injury. She had a feeling though that this girls injuries were the kind that are never visible, even to a doctor's eyes.

The young girl, not any older than fourteen or fifteen, had the look of a scared rabbit on her pretty face. She was of Hispanic descent, Stacie guessed and then wondered if the girl even spoke English. "It's alright. You don't have to be afraid. I'm here to help you."

She eyed Stacie suspiciously, looked around the room at Sam, and then back to Stacie's name badge. Once she was confident that Stacie was who she claimed to be, looking down at the floor, the girl said, "Natalie. Natalie Rose."

"Natalie Rose?" Stacie said with a smile, noticing that Natalie spoke with a slight Spanish accent. "Que nombre bonita."

"Thank you." Natalie replied quietly. "It was my grandmother's name."

Again Stacie smile reassuringly, and said, "I'm sure you wear it proudly. I've always wanted a flowery name. My best friend growing up was Lily and I just loved her name." Stacie moved to touch Natalie's cheek, but she moved her head away. "Tell me, Natalie, are you hurt?" Natalie finally looked up at her skeptically and Stacie tried again, "I just want to make sure that the man from the hotel didn't hurt you, OK?"

"Daisy."

"I'm sorry?" Stacie asked, looking over at Sam.

"Daisy can be your flower name." Natalie said.

"Daisy Callahan." Stacie said, trying out the name. "I like it. Thank you."

Natalie finally looked up and gave Stacie a half smile.

"Natalie, I'm just going to take a couple of samples from you, OK? They will help me make sure that you are alright. First, I need to take a hair strand and a mouth swab. Is that OK with you?"

Natalie nodded and Stacie smiled. "Good." She unwrapped a swab and bent closer to Natalie. "This will not hurt a bit." Natalie opened her mouth and Stacie rubbed the swab along the inside of her cheek. "Have you been sick recently?"

Natalie shrugged and said, "My food won't always stay down."

Stacie continued with the exam. Finally, Natalie said, "This man was not like the others they make me have sex with. I think he let me get away."

From the corner, Sam quietly asked, "Who makes you have sex with them, Natalie?"

Shaking her head, Natalie's eyes darted over to where Sam was standing. "No, I can't tell you. They will kill me. I have to go back."

"Sweetheart," Stacie said reassuringly, "nobody here is going to make you go back there ever again. Sam, and her friends outside that you met before, they are from the F.B.I. They will protect you. I promise."

Sam flashed her badge at Natalie, but again she shook her head in protest. "No, the policia are just like the others."

"Not these guys, Natalie. I promise you." Sam said, finally coming closer. "Please, Natalie. It's the only way we can help you."

Again, Natalie glanced back and forth between the two women's faces. "I don't know her name. We call her 'Mother'." She whispered, hanging her head in shame.

Her? Sam and Stacie exchanged glances. Bobby Harris had an accomplice.

"Do you recognize this man, Natalie?" Sam held up a picture of Bobby and Stacie could feel Natalie recoil in fear. Stacie held her close and smoothed out her hair. "Who is he?"

"Bobby."Natalie said quietly. "He told me that he loved me."

"How many other girls are there?" Sam asked, not bothering to take out her notebook for fear of scaring Natalie back into silence.

"Nine. Mother keeps us locked up in the basement until it is time to go to work."

Stacie had to clench her fists to keep the anger from rising up into her face. Son of a bitch, Stacie thought.

Getting back to the exam, Stacie noticed a pine needle caught in Natalie's hair and removed it with her tweezers. She showed it to Sam, who asked, "Natalie, do you know what pine needles smell like? Like Christmas trees?" Natalie nodded. "Okay, did you ever smell that from the basement?" Natalie nodded again. Sam took the tweezers and placed them in an evidence bag.

Running her fingers through Natalie's hair, Stacie said, "You have such beautiful hair, Natalie. Do you ever braid it?"

"Sometimes the other girls braid it for me. Like my mama used to."

Stacie looked down at Sam, who nodded her approval. She knew what Stacie wanted to ask. "Natalie, these other girls that were locked in the basement with you...was one of them named Maggie? She would have blond hair, like mine, and blue eyes?"

"Maggie is the new girl. She just came yesterday. I did not talk to her because she had to go to work right away." Natalie said quietly.

Stacie inhaled sharply. Maggie was alive. And being held as a sex slave. Stacie closed her eyes for a moment.

"Are you mad at me?"

Stacie's eyes flew open and she looked at Natalie. She took Natalie's hands in her own and looked her right in the eye. "No. I could never be mad at you. You have done nothing wrong." Stacie looked again over at Sam before saying, "I am just very angry at the people who have done this to you. And I want to find them before they can do this to any more girls."

"Me too." She said quietly.

Stacie managed to maintain her composure as she performed the rest of the rape kit on Natalie and then quietly slipped out of the room while Sam asked Natalie some more questions. In the hallway, she handed the evidence bags to Jack and said, "We'll need a little bit of time, but I'm sure the rape kit will give you a few different DNA samples to work with. There is trauma and evidence of rape. Natalie also has Cutaneous ulcers in her mouth. They need to be run for parasites."

Jack and Martin took the evidence bags to give to their lab guys and expressed their thanks before heading back to the office. Stacie leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.

"Are you OK?" Danny asked quietly, moving closer to her.

"I don't ever want to have to do that again." She opened her eyes and looked at Danny. "Maggie is alive, or she was as of this morning. That's something."

"Finding Natalie is a huge boost for this case." Danny reassured her. "Whatever evidence we get from those tests and what she's telling Sam is going to bust this wide open. We'll have enough to get Bobby Harris and find out where the girls are."

"And 'Mother'." Stacie remarked with bitterness. How could a woman do this to other young women? "How the hell did Maggie get involved in all of this. And how am I going to get her through the rest of her life? There are women out there that do not recover from this kind of thing."

"Yeah, but there are women out there that do. And most of them aren't as lucky as Maggie."

Stacie looked skeptically at Danny. "How do you figure that?"

Danny smiled and said, "They may not have a sister like you."

Stacie looked at him for a long time and then took his hand. "I've missed you, Danny."

Danny took her hand and raised it up to his lips. "I've missed you, too." he said, before kissing her soft skin.