Chapter 2 "No Place Like Home"
"She wont talk to any of us." Olivia Benson explained to Fin. "She keeps asking for the Captain." Fin sneered.
"You guys take a walk. I'll loosen her lips." Fin was still burning up from being spit on. That was just nasty!
"If anyone's gonna' try to tune this girl up a little it'll be Olivia." Elliot Stabler said sternly.
"I don't think Fin was gonna' tune her up. Just say some things that others might find a little questionable. You know how Fin gets." John Munch came to his partner's defense. Olivia and Elliot nodded in agreement. Fin's temper could get out of hand and he did tend to fly off the handle.
"Give it a shot. We'll go try to find Cragen." Olivia said.
"He's down in Narcotics for some reason." John informed them.
Fin walked into the interrogation room and saw the girl that had spit in his face leaning back in a chair, looking too relaxed for his liking. He wanted to kick the chair out from under her so bad.
"Detective Tutuola." Fin snapped out, pointing to himself.
"Nice to see you again." Jessie attempted to be civil. He was someone she would be working with from then on, after all.
"What's your name?" He asked with an aggravated edge as he paced the floor in front of the table she was sitting at. She'd refused to give her name at the scene and was still refusing.
Jessie had been in many interrogation rooms but had never been the one being interrogated. She started to fidget. She pulled a chair out for Fin.
"Sit," She said. "You're making me nervous." Fin cocked an eyebrow and reluctantly sat. Jessie sighed. "I don't like people standing around me when I'm sitting." She explained and then mentally scolded herself. She didn't like giving people information on how to irritate her. She knew Fin would use that in his interrogation and probably hang it over her head in the future.
"Those two other girls you were found with were high as a kite." Fin said.
"Yeah, don't surprise me." Jessie rolled her eyes. Fn made a mental note that she rolled her eyes a lot.
"But you're not." He pointed out. Jessie grinned.
"I don't do drugs."
"Then why were you in that apartment?"
"Babysitting." Jessie replied.
"You being pimped out?" Fin asked pointedly. Jessie knew her face had just turned a zillion shades of red.
"Hell no!" She shouted angrily. "I'm not a whore!" She leaned back and crossed her arms. Fin made another mental note that she was sensitive to the subject of sex or prostitution.
"Look," Fin said with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry for what I said. I was out of line." Jessie nodded.
"Sorry for spittin' on you." Jessie said. Fin cocked an eyebrow. Had he just heard what he thought he heard?
"Yeah, that was nasty." Fin smirked. Come on, slip again, he thought.
"Yeah, I'm, er, sorry about that." Jessie laughed but a mischievous look passed over Fin's face.
"You're not from New York!" Jessie straightened in her chair.
"And what makes you say that?" Jessie felt her muscles tense up.
"Let's see," Fin stood up and slowly started walking around the table. "You're clean, which shows you aren't someone from the streets. You're sober and if you don't do drugs that means you really aren't one of Cortez's people because all those people are moron drug addicts who depend on him because of their addictions, and," Fin was standing directly behind her. She felt his heat on the back of her neck and the hairs on her arms stood up. "You let your accent slip. You're Southern." Fin bent down and said into her ear, "Who are you really working for?"
And right before Jessie had a chance to say another word the door opened and in stepped Captain Cragen!
"Thank God!" Jessie exclaimed and jumped out of her chair. She wanted to hug the man! Cragen stepped into the room; following behind him were Detectives Benson and Stabler, and the tall lanky man with glasses that she'd seen at the apartment.
"I'd like you all to meet our newest addition to SVU," Captain Cragen said and Jessie stood a little straighter. "This is Detective Jade Harper." Jessie extended her hand to Fin and smiled as wide as she could as she saw his shocked expression.
"Friends call me Jessie." She said, laying her Southern accent on as thickly as possible. Fin shook her hand, still in shock.
"This is Detective Olivia Benson," Cragen pointed to the woman that had driven her to the station. Jessie smiled and shook her hand.
"Finally another woman!" Olivia laughed, sounding almost grateful.
"I'm Munch. Detective John Munch." The tall lanky man took Jessie's hand and kissed the top of it. She laughed. He had calm down brown eyes, a weathered handsome face, and a kind smile. Jessie knew he and she would become fast friends. And then there was the handsome Detective Stabler.
"Elliot Stabler." He stuck out his hand and grinned. Jessie shook his hand and smiled somewhat shyly.
"And I believe you've met Fin Tutuola." Elliot pointed to Fin, who was still in a state of confusion and shock. Jessie winked at him and laughed.
"Oh yeah," She said. "We've met."
"So, if your name is Jade then why do your friends call you Jessie?" John asked while taking a seat in one of the chairs. Everyone except Jessie seemed to follow suit. The Captain, John, and Olivia sat in the three chairs in the room and Elliot and Fin sat on the table. John offered Jessie his seat but she politely told him she'd rather stand. She'd done nothing but sit for two weeks! She was sick of it!
"My full name is Jessica Jade Harper. All my life people called me Jessie or Jess." She explained. "When I started working Gang Division I started going by Jade just in case any pissed off perps wanted revenge. It would slow down an idiot for a few days anyway." Jessie giggled.
"You worked with gang members?" Fin asked in shock. Jessie grinned. "That's one of the most dangerous jobs out there!"
"Yeah well, I connect well with all sorts of people. I can get inside their heads and read them well." Jessie tapped herself on the head. Elliot remembered about how Jessie had guessed he was in the military. "I've helped a lot of teens get off the streets, even back in uniform. I sort of proved myself I guess. I wound up being one of the top and youngest detectives in the division." Jessie shrugged. The story was boring to her. "I know its dangerous but I enjoyed it. Alls I wanted was to help those kids. I could identify with them."
"How the hell do you identify with poor black gang members from the hood?" Fin asked, nearly laughing. She was some country kid, he thought. She has no idea what its like. Jessie smiled and leant against the wall.
"I didn't just work with black kids, Detective Tutuola," Jessie informed him. "I've worked with black, white, Asian, Hispanic. You name it. Stupidity isn't reserved for any specific race of people." She said. "I can put myself in just about anyone's place. I see it as being all in the mind. It just has to do with getting inside peoples heads."
"What do you know about being a black boy growin' up in gang and drug infested streets?" Fin asked.
"Just about as much as you know about what it's like to be a poor white girl in the country working on a farm, I suppose." Fin Tutuola sat back with nothing much else to say. Elliot cleared his throat.
"You said something about Laura?" He asked. Jessie felt a tinge of sadness as she filled the detectives in on all she knew about Laura.
Laura Sanchez was a twenty-year-old girl that Jessie had met the first day of going under cover. She was Marco's girlfriend (or one of them). Jessie gradually talked to her about changing her life a little. Laura had wanted to make a better life for herself. One night, about a week into her being undercover, Marcos called the apartment they'd been staying in and asked for Laura but Jessie told him she'd left and Jessie couldn't stop her. She hadn't been back since.
"She had plans on leaving the city," Jessie said quietly. "I guess Marcos found her cause' I ain't heard from her."
They all went over the details of the case and filled Jessie in on all she'd missed. With all the evidence they had against Cortez he was sure to get a needle in his arm.
"Am I in any danger from being undercover?" Jessie asked.
"Nah," Fin answered. "Cortez doesn't exactly have the most street credibility out there and you weren't in love enough to meet anyone important. His gangs a bunch of pansy assess anyway. They wont be a threat."
"Good," Jessie said firmly. "Because I want to be the one to arrest the son of a bitch."
"And you're gong to get your chance." A woman's voice came from the door. "From what I just read on the case I've got more than enough evidence to convict him." Said the woman. She was an average heighten blonde in a rather nice suit.
"A.D.A Casey Novak, meet Detective Jade Harper. Just transferred from Dallas Texas P.D." Casey stuck out her hand as Cragen introduced them.
"Friends call me Jessie." Jessie smiled and shook her hand firmly and Novak smiled back.
"Arrest him." Casey said and turned and left the room.
"Do I have time to clean up a bit?" Jessie said.
"Yep," Said Cragen. "We'll have to track this guy down. He seems to move a lot so it may take a while." Jessie nodded.
"I'll show you to the showers." Olivia offered kindly.
"Could you show me where my things are? I need to change." Jessie asked.
"Her stuffs in storage closet number forty-two." Cragen told Olivia.
"Thank you. It was nice meeting ya'll." Jessie said and followed Olivia down the hallway to her things and then to the showers.
"Where's she living Don?" Elliot asked the Captain. They'd all moved their little pow-wow to Cragen's office when Olivia returned.
"Well, she doesn't have a place." Cragen said, glancing around the room.
"Where's she gonna' stay?" Fin asked.
"I don't really know." Cragen answered honestly.
"I'd offer her to stay with me but my place is too small as it is." Olivia said regretfully. She'd wanted a new place for a long time on account of the limited space in her apartment.
"She told me before she left to go undercover that as long as this place had somewhere she could sleep, showers, and a place to store her stuff that she'd just as soon stay here." Cragen told them.
"You can't let her do that! She'd be so uncomfortable!" John protested. "Plus, its creepy in here at night."
"She could stay at my house?" Elliot offered. Everyone turned to look at him. Cragen raised an eyebrow. "She'd have her own room and bathroom." Elliot tried. Since Elliot and Kathy's divorce a year before his house had seemed much too big. The only time it felt like a home was when his kids would visit him. It would be nice to have life in the place.
"No," A stern voice came from the door. They all turned and were shocked from what they saw. Jessie stood there, her hair clean and straight. Elliot noticed its color now that it was down and not in a ponytail. It was a dark brown with reddish and blonde highlights. She'd put on a bit of makeup that made her eyes stand out. Her eyes were a mixture of blue, green, and gray. Elliot couldn't put his finger on it. And Elliot wasn't the only one impressed.
Fin was a bit taken aback also. She was beautiful, Fin decided, but not in a classic way. She had something different. She had a country vibe to her, which gave her uniqueness. He knew she was the type of person who felt like she could face anything.
"Where's the rodeo?" John asked with a chuckle. Jessie looked down at her black Justin Roper boots, Cruel Girls, and Ariat belt. Jessie laughed. Back in Texas that would have been considered being very nicely dressed.
"I'm sorry," She said. "Apparently our dress codes are a bit different. In Dallas you had to at least dress in nice jeans." She glanced at what her co-workers were wearing. "I guess we were more casual. I don't have any dressy clothes like that." Jessie pointed at Olivia's dress pants. "And I can't run in shoes like that." Pointing at Olivia's black loafers. "You must be talented." Jessie added. Olivia laughed.
"It's fine," Cragen said. "Don't think about it at all. You've got other things to worry about."
"Yeah, like finding a place to sleep." Fin said.
"Here will be fine till I can find an apartment." Jessie said sternly.
"There's no way you're going to find a decent apartment for an affordable price this time of year." John reasoned. It was early in the month of November and Jessie knew that prices would sky rocket because of Christmas.
"I'll be fine here." Jessie said.
"I'm afraid your first order under my command is to stay with Elliot here until at least after the New Year." Jessie glared at the Captain playfully but then broke into a friendly grin. These people were already making her feel at home in such a strange, huge, new place.
"Ya'll are really close, aren't ya'll?" Jessie asked.
"Like family," John said, walking over to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. "And I have a feeling you're going to fit right in." Jessie grinned and clicked her heals and said,
"There's no place like home!"
Authors Note: okay, its going to be a bit of a love triangle! I really need help on who Jessie should end up with!
