Chapter 2 – Getting To Know The Past

"Can I ask you a question?" Sara asked tentatively after a bite of her veggie sandwich.

"You can ask anything you want, doesn't mean I'll answer." Shelly hid the sting of her words behind her grin.

Sara laughed. "You are so much like some of my co-workers." She shook her head lightly then turned serious. "Why are you so hostile towards law enforcement?"

Shelly looked down at her chicken strips and sighed. "Police haven't exactly helped me in my lifetime. I believe they have the wrong killer behind bars for my friend's murder. And they still haven't caught my best friend's and my… uhh… my best friend's rapist."

Shelly berated herself silently at her slip and kept her head down as Sara's eyebrow rose in suspicion. "We are trying to find who raped you Shells. I promise I won't stop 'til I do." She placed a hand comfortingly over Shelly's.

"Yeah, that's what the others said." Shelly mumbled.

"What?"

"Uhh, nothing. I have faith you'll catch him." Shelly plastered a bright smile on her face.

It was fake.

"Are you finished?" Sara asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah. I'm not that hungry anymore."

"Okay. How about we head to my apartment. I have the next two nights off so you can stay with me if you want." Shelly smiled shyly and Sara could tell this was a real smile.

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When they arrived at Sara's apartment, she pushed Shelly playfully into her bedroom for clothes. After finding a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants each, Shelly fell asleep on Sara's bed within seconds and Sara went out to the living room.

Before Sara had left work that morning, she had grabbed Shelly's DNA profile from Greg along with the case folder that held all the information about Shelly's father that she had told her.

With decaf-coffee in hand, a comfy seat on her sofa and soft music playing through the stereo, Sara opened the file and started her list about Shelly's father. She started with physical features that Shelly had told her about and that she had figured out herself just from looking at the young woman.

Hair – Curly, brown, short

Upper Body – Broad shoulders, Est. height 5'10"–6', Muscular chest

She thought to herself. 'Her mother had told her that she has his facial features.' So she wrote,

Face – Blue eyes, Small nose, Soft/pink lips, High cheekbones, deep dimples, Cleft chin

She was about to continue to brainstorm more about his personality when she was interrupted by a loud scream then a door slamming. Next came retching and soon after, dry heaves coming for her bathroom.

When she entered her bedroom and only came across tousled sheets, the mixed scent of sweat and vomit and the more gentler sounds of dry heaving coming from the bathroom, she realized that Shelly must have had a night terror.

She started to change the sheets as she heard the sink turn on. When she came back inside the room with fresh sheets, she heard a cupboard door closing. She smiled faintly, though slightly irritated at the intrusion of her privacy; she was happy and relieved that the scared yet strong young woman was comfortable in her company.

When Shelly exited the bathroom after washing her face, brushing her teeth, and swallowing a cap full of mouthwash, she saw Sara perched comfortably against the headboard of the bed.

With a supportive and understanding nod of her head, Sara beckoned Shelly over. After she sat down and wrapped her arms around Sara's neck, Sara asked, "Want to talk about it?"

Shelly pulled away slightly but relaxed into Sara's supportive arm left around her shoulders. "I … when my mother was uhh … killed," She chocked on the last word, "I was sent to many different houses." Shelly paused then took a quick glance at Sara. "How many houses did you get sent to?" She asked.

Sara knew the question was a stall tactic but she also realized that it could be because Shelly wanted to know that she could trust Sara with her burden. Although Sara only ever told Grissom about her past, albeit in minute detail, she felt a connection, an understanding with Shelly and so didn't feel too uncomfortable talking about it. Especially since she was going through everything that Sara had.

"I went through only three homes. I was twelve when I was thrust into the system so I didn't have as many years as you."

"You're lucky then and I wouldn't call them homes. Homes are where loving pictures hang and happy families live. I've never had or been inside a home. My best friend Celeste, we called her Cels, had a nice house but it still wasn't a home." Shelly took a deep breath. She turned back to Sara. "Do you have a best friend who you could trust everything with?"

Sara was caught off-guard. Thinking back to San Francisco, she knew she didn't have one there because it was all about her studies and work. That was until she met Gil Grissom, Entomologist Extraordinaire, as her friends and her had jokingly called him. That was until she met him at his seminar. They had become long distant friends but not best friends.

She thought about now, in Las Vegas. 'Griss and I were good friends but we screwed that up. Warrick is cool even after our rocky start but he's not someone I could tell everything to. Catherine and I are getting better but I still wouldn't ever label us friends, never mind best friends. Greg is a good friend but no. Jim is great but he's not a best friend. And Nick, he's probably the closest thing to a best friend here but still, no; I couldn't tell him everything.'

"No." She finally answered on a dejected sigh.

"I only have Cels. I was just starting to trust this one guy, the only guy I've ever thought of trusting but he turned out to be one of the biggest bastards I'd ever met."

"Was that to do with your dream?" Sara asked gently and when she felt Shelly tense, she gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.

Shelly nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. When she could, she started in a voice a shade lower then a whisper. "He had me pinned. I couldn't do anything to help her."

"Help who?" Sara interrupted softly.

"Celeste. Her and I, we were spending a lot of time with this guy, Devion. He was pretending to be our friend. Cels already trusted him but I was still weary, and rightfully so." Shelly paused to take a ragged breath. "It wasn't the first time for me." She finished bitterly.

"Wasn't the first time you were attacked?"

"No, raped. And it wasn't the last either. We were 14 then, he was 18. The next time I was…" She swallowed hard, "raped was when I graduated high school. I was 16."

"You graduated a year early? Congratulations."

Shelly half-smiled at Sara's attempt to lighten the mood but quickly turned serious again. "He was my former foster care-giver…"

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Shelly stood up from her place on the sofa to see who was at the door. She had returned home early from her school's graduation celebration to get ready for the party that her friends were holding for her. She had already changed and was ready to be picked up so she sat waiting, writing in her poetry notebook.

When a knock came at the door, she grabbed her over-night bag from the chipped wooden table that sat in the hall and opened the door, fully expecting her friend J-Q to be standing there ready to leave. "Hey J…" Before she could say anymore she was shoved back into the house, her bag dropping to the floor.

"Where is your room?" The man growled.

Shelly punched the masked man in the stomach and tried to pull her left wrist out of the man's grasp but instead he managed to tighten his grip enough to make her fall to one knee. "No fighting Shim, just tell me where your room is and we can enjoy the rest of our time there until Miss Rusterin comes home from her every night drunk fest."

'He knows me.' Was the only thing she thought when she heard him call her by her nickname, Shim. J-Q gave her that nickname when she proved that she could shimmy open any lock on any door in no time flat.

As she thought about that, the assailant had dragged her halfway down the hall. She started to flail and kick, hoping to nip the assailant even the slightest bit that way he would be thrown off-balance and she could run but it was to no avail. He continued to drag her until they were in front of a door labeled 'Shim's room. Stay the FUCK out! That means you Ruster'

"Ahhh, Shelly, always the bitch I see."

"Only to assholes who deserve it." He tossed open the door and threw her onto her bed then pounced on her forcefully, pinning her hips with his and her wrists with his hands. She could feel his arousal sitting against her thigh and started to struggle some more but again, to no avail. "Who the fuck are you?" She yelled.

He shook his head in a sad manner then tsked. "Am I that easy to forget, Shelly-babe?"

Her eyes opened wide at the nickname. She saw the assailant smile evilly before he shifted both of her hands into his right then with his left, flung his mask off. "Rhory." She gasped.

"Hi Shelly-babe. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?" She was paralyzed with frightened recognition. Instead of replacing his left hand to her wrists, he brought it down and ripped her shirt off. His arousal grew bigger at the sound of Shelly's scream. "Don't fight me babe. Nobody can hear you now. Rusterin is out getting drunk and the little ones are all out fuckin' doing god-knows-what. Besides, if anyone heard you, why would they even care? You've done nothing to help them so why would they help you?"

As Rhory bent down to kiss her neck, Shelly bit down hard on the exposed flesh where his neck and shoulder met; it only helped in making him more aroused.

He tore down her pants then whispered, "Thank you for wearing the baggy pants tonight Shelly-babe. It's definitely a time savor." He then ripped down her underwear before unzipping his own jeans.

She screamed in agony as he penetrated her. The whole time he was raping her he whispered sentiments of love in her ear, seemingly imagining her cries of pain as cries of pleasure.

She tried to fight back but it only increased his enjoyment so she finally decided to detach her mind from her body and let her mind wonder over other things such as the baseball scores and when the next game was going to be. Her mind was brought back to her body when Rhory bit her right ear then growled. Just as he was about to find release he whispered softly, "I have waited many years to give you this graduation present Shelly-babe. Ever since they took you from me four years ago. I only hope it was as enjoyable for you as it is for me" With that he found his release.

He didn't get off her right away; instead he lied there on top of her until he heard someone knock at the door a few minutes later. Before getting up he whispered in her ear again, "I hope this time you won't forget me." He then quickly stood up, zipped up his jeans, hopped out her bedroom window and ran.

She lied still in her bed, not even moving when she heard footsteps slowly creeping towards her room. 'If he's coming back then let him, I just don't give a shit anymore.' She thought.

Celeste was walking up to her friend's room and yelled, "Shim, I'm coming in. Your door was unlocked so I hope you don't mind that I just…" She stopped short at the sight of her friend lying in bed with silent tears streaming down her face. She was lying flat on her back, bruises already on her wrists and a tiny bit of blood seeping onto the sheets from between her legs. "Oh god Shelly. Not again." She whispered before running to the side of the bed and dragging her friend into her arms.

Shelly pushed gently at Celeste. "I need to shower and get ready for the party." She said in a voice so hollow and empty that it brought more tears to Celeste's eyes then seeing her friend lying after being raped had.

"No Shells, don't be stupid." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed J-Q. When she finished her call she turned back to Shelly who was looking straight ahead, supposedly at her wall of posters but Celeste knew that she wasn't really seeing anything. "Fuck tha party Shells. We stayin' right here tonight. Nobody's ever going to hurt either one of us ever again, you hear me? Never." Celeste sat and rocked her friend to sleep then stayed with her for the rest of the night.

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"Little did we know at the time that he gave me a gift that would last a lifetime."

Sara gasped almost inaudibly. "He got you pregnant." She stated softly.

Shelly nodded. "A gorgeous, blue eyed, blonde haired little boy and despite the way he was conceived I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I love my son." Shelly's smile was bright, genuine, and full of love. Sara smiled through her shock.

"He was and still is my life savor; Cels too for that matter. We were going through gun gangs and everything, except drugs. I would never, ever sell that death to kids. Yet," Shelly's expression was thoughtful then quickly regretful, "I sold them guns."

She looked to Sara expecting to see disgust but instead met with understanding.

"I know what you went through. Although I never sold guns or drugs or even got into gangs, I do understand how going through what you did would make you seek family. The gangs, they became your family." Sara pulled her closer. "But remember, you got out."

Shelly nodded against Sara's shoulder. "Because of my baby boy, I did."

"What's his name?" Sara whispered as she felt Shelly dozing off again.

Shelly yawned. "Brennan Gillian Dulson O'Brien." And in the comfort and warmth of Sara's arms, Shelly fell into peaceful slumber.

A few minutes later Sara pulled away gently, as not to awake the sleeping teen, and scooted into the living room to add to the profile she was building on Shelly's father.

Personality – Strong willed, Stubborn, Compassionate, Soft hearted when family involved…

She decided that she should get some sleep so she could have the energy to keep up with Shelly the next two nights. She fell into sleep thinking, 'First, we'll go out to eat, then shopping for clothes for her, then we can go to the 24 hour coaster, then whatever she wants…'