Chapter 2 – Back on track

Reeves Residence

"So this is the place?" Amy asked getting out of the car and looking at the posh house.

"Compared to your apartment it doesn't look like much, how much is the rent on your place anyway?" Olivia asked, Elliot wasn't with them it was simply a girls only exercise.

"More than enough but the view of the park makes up for it, also I get a reduction in the rent from the guys because I do most of the cooking and cleaning."

"Cleaning up after 2 guys I bet that's fun." Olivia sighed as they walked to the front door.

"Jack is spotless, and Leo has the en suite that he cleans himself so it's not that bad. So what is the girls name again?" Amy asked struggling to remember.

"Della Reeves she's 14." Olivia replied knocking on the door.

"Detective Benson, and you are?" Mrs Reeves asked Amy as she opened the door.

"Amy Novak, I'm a detective and I also work at the rape crisis centre, I'm here to speak to Della." Amy replied showing her badge.

"Is she the one you told me about?" Mrs Reeves asked Olivia who nodded. "You better come in, I can't promise anything though."

"Mrs Reeves all I want to do is speak to Della." Amy replied.

"Do you have any experience of what she's going through?" Mrs Reeves asked.

"Plenty." Amy replied as Mrs Reeves showed them in.

"Hi Della, I'm Amy I was wondering if we could have a chat?" Amy asked walking into the lounge where Della was sat.

"Ok, but can my mom stay?" Della replied first making sure her mother agreed.

"Anything you want, you're 14 is that right?" Amy asked sitting down on the chair opposite Della, Olivia and Mrs Reeves sat down also.

"Yeah." Della replied.

"I remember when I was 14, always getting into trouble off my parents. Getting crushes on the boys in my class, hanging out at the mall with my friends, that's what being 14's like for most teenage girls isn't it." Amy said naturally trying to break the ice with the young girl. "And then something happens to turn it all upside down doesn't it, just one simple thing and everything changes."

"Were you?" Della asked Amy who nodded.

"How old were you?" Mrs Reeves asked.

"I was 13, a year younger than you, and I'm now twice that age." Amy told Della whose jaw dropped in amazement, as did Mrs Reeves', they couldn't believe that the confident detective sat in front of them had been raped. "I'm not here to tell you that it will one day just vanish and you'll forget about it because I can still remember exactly what happened to me. But what I can tell you is that by pursuing the investigation you can get closure and begin to move on with your life. Olivia tells me that you've decided to drop the case, do you mind telling me why?"

"It's too hard, I don't like talking about it, and mum wants me to try and have a normal life, well as normal as I can now anyway." Della replied pulling her arms tightly around herself.

"You think that you can't have a normal life because you've been raped?" Amy asked somewhat amused.

"You hear stories all the time about girls who've been raped that end up going off the rails, I don't want that happening to Della." Mrs Reeves replied not impressed with Amy's attitude.

"Well I have a pretty normal life; I went to high school, hung out with my friends, graduated and then became a cop. I have my own apartment, a job I enjoy and I'm happy; in my opinion that's normal. True I have drank myself silly sometimes but that's part of growing up, both my older sisters have done the same thing at some stage." Amy replied.

"Did your parents support the investigation?" Mrs Reeves asked.

"Yes, but there wasn't enough evidence to take it to court, there wasn't the forensics there is now, but if there had been they would have supported me all the way because they did then, They were there at my side when I had to identify him, they defended me to the neighbours when they blamed it on me. I know it was hard for them but they supported me, they also encouraged me to move on with my life, and to be honest I think I handled the whole thing much better than them."

"What was it like when people said it was your fault?" Della asked.

"It was horrible I won't lie to you, but I knew and my family knew that I'd done nothing wrong, it didn't matter what other people thought. It upset me and them; in fact someone upset my eldest brother so much that he punched them in the face when he told me he said he'd do it again if he had to because it wasn't my fault."

"Your brother really punched someone over it?" Della asked.

"Yeah, my eldest sister had to hold him back from punching another person too; it was his way of dealing with things. Do you have any brothers or sisters Amy?"

"An older brother."

"I bet he wouldn't mind beating up the man who hurt you, I know all 3 of my brothers wouldn't stop to consider it, and actually my sisters would most likely do the same."

"I suppose so, but how did you deal with it?" Della asked warming towards Amy.

"Well I cried a lot, scrubbed myself clean so hard with a scrubbing brush that I made myself bleed, screamed at people, picked fights with my sisters and brothers, all of whom are older and bigger than me. I locked myself in my room and forced my sisters to sleep in the lounge because I wouldn't let either of them into the room. I stopped eating and one night I broke into the liquor cabinet that my dad kept locked up and drank almost everything in it until I passed out."

"Why?" Della asked.

"Because I thought it would make the pain go away and it didn't, I wanted to feel clean again because I felt ashamed of what had happened; but it didn't work and all I did was upset the people who cared the most about me."

"What made the pain stop?" Della asked crying, Mrs Reeves made a move to go to her daughter but Olivia held her back.

"Let Amy finish." Olivia whispered to Mrs Reeves.

"Facing what happened, I had to identify him in a parade, I had to pick him out and show him for what he was, it was hard but I felt better afterwards. Then I started to speak to someone, a councillor, they helped me get through and put my life back together, they enabled me as you say to live a normal life. Like you I was young when it happened so I had and you have your whole life ahead of you. I know it's hard to believe this now but you can begin to move on from this. Go back to school, go to the school dance, go to college, and be like every other 14 year old in your class. I know it won't be easy, and I'll be honest with you it takes time to get over it. But you won't be able to do it until you face up to what happened. Continuing with the investigation is how you do that." Amy replied putting her arms round the crying Della and hugging her.

"I want to do it." Della sobbed.

"Do what?" Amy asked wanting Della to say the words.

"Stop the man who raped me." She cried, this time Olivia let Mrs Reeves comfort her daughter.

"Well done, that can't have been easy for you." Olivia said to Amy as they were walking back to the car.

"The whole reason I got into the counselling side was because I wanted to help people face up to what had happened to them, give them the benefit of my experience, that's all I've done with Della." Amy replied.

"But it takes courage to do it. Not a lot of people in your situation have that courage."

"Not a lot of people had my family behind them. My parents weren't worried about how things would look to the neighbours; their primary concern was to make sure that I was ok. That's how things should be, they encouraged me to face up to things and for that I'm thankful."

"How many siblings do you have?" Olivia asked curious of how she spoke of them.

"Three older brothers and two older sisters, from youngest upwards it's me who's 26, Casey and Cody are 29, then there's Brandon he's 33, Sophie the eldest girl at 35 and George Junior he was 38 last week, we're just a typical big catholic family." Amy recalled watching Olivia's expression change.

"Casey is a twin? She never mentioned that, are they alike?" Olivia asked amazed.

"Temper wise, but not so much in appearance." Amy replied getting into the car, "I'm glad they've finally seen sense and decided to pursue, will you keep me informed on how it goes?" She asked.

"I'll try and go better on that." Olivia replied starting the car.

Precinct

"Good work; and a good call on brining Amy in on it." Cragen said to Olivia after she'd told him the good news.

"Thank you, it was all down to Amy, she was amazing with Della. Captain I was wondering if?" Olivia asked.

"Amy could be temporarily reassigned to us for the duration of this case?" He finished.

"I know she's on suspension but if anyone is going to make sure Della goes through with it I think Amy can, she's a natural with her." Olivia added.

"I'll call her Captain at vice, see what I can do." Cragen replied.

"Did you know Casey was a twin, and she has 2 sisters and 3 brothers?" Olivia asked Elliot as she sat down on his desk.

"No, she's a twin?" Elliot asked.

"Twin brother, I wonder why she never said."

"Like she never mentioned Amy being raped." Elliot said as Casey walked over to them.

"She was 13 when it happened, the guy was never prosecuted, not enough evidence to convict, my family made sure that everyone in town knew what he'd done though, they left and for people it showed that he was admitting his guilt, for us it helped things get back to normal, meant that we weren't likely to run into him when we were out shopping for groceries. As for my twin brother I never mentioned because it's not a big deal, if you'd have asked me I would have told you. Congratulations on getting the case started again Olivia; let's hope she can give us a name." Casey replied.

"It was all Amy's doing, she's a remarkable woman. I've spoken to Cragen about getting her to help us with the case so she can be at Della's side, they really made a connection." Olivia added.

"Let's hope she gets her suspension lifted then, it'd be a shame to let your work today go to waste." Casey sighed.

"I think the only way she's going to give us a name is if Amy's the one asking her; also she's been trained to deal with people in this situation better than Elliot and I. She can also answer the many questions I'm sure Mrs Reeves will want to ask." Olivia said.

"Amy has an answer for most things in my experience." Casey sighed.

"I can't believe she punched a pimp, I've read the case notes and compared to her the guy was massive, she's definitely got guts." Elliot laughed thinking about it.

"That or she was dropped on her head too much when she was a baby; I'm responsible there I'm afraid, let me know if you get her on board. If you can't, I suggest asking the questions somewhere my sister is allowed." Casey added with a smile as she left them to get on with her work.