Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope you enjoy this one, I really do, this was a beast to write and I hope that it makes sense. Next chapter will be SVU/CPD and then we get onto Bridget again. Next chapter also might be a smaller one so just keep that in mind as well.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
And please be aware of triggers for this story and this chapter are full of them.
Stand And Unfold Yourself
Chapter 10-Turbulence
Justin, Jocelyn and Hank talk as more on Bridget is revealed.
19th November 2014
"Hey Pops it's me. Look don't react okay but Jocelyn Cerpaski came to the prescient. She's the girl that knew Bridget. Were sat at the local Starbucks round the corner and…and were just gonna talk. But it would be really nice if you came along too. Just…just don't bring any of the cops or even Al. It's just gonna be the two of us. And…and if you can't come then that's fine. I'll tell you everything when I come back."
As far as messages go this didn't even get into the top ten of the confusing ones that Justin had sent over the years. In fact it was perfectly easy to understand.
"I gotta go" he muttered to Al.
"Where?"
"Just…just cover for me will you?"
"Oh no. I'll do that in Chicago where everyone knows you sure but this is New York, you gotta give me more than otherwise Benson will track your phone and send a full SWAT Team after you"
Shit. He was right and all.
He jerked his head and Al followed him. Jay and Amaro where working with…the animal in the box…while Rollins and Benson were trying to chase down any lead that got them to that room where a livestream was now showing an eleven year old boy about to be raped and tortured for the amusement of people hidden behind a screen.
"Justin's with the girl…Jocelyn"
"How did Justin achieve that?"
"Apparently she turned up and he just…asked if she wanted coffee"
"Coffee."
"Yeah Al…Jesus he left me a twenty second message that I had to strain to hear so I don't have all the answers. Just…just I need to go and speak to this girl and I can't do it with Benson breathing down my neck. Not after the last time"
Al raised an eyebrow and managed to communicate with more words what he was thinking than most nations did with armies.
"Look…don't tell me if it was Lexie you wouldn't have done the same thing"
"I won't. I nearly did do the same thing remember? She's my goddaughter. If it hadn't been for Benson and the genuine concern that she was going to shoot you I would have actively encouraged you. But this is New York and I don't know what their legal limits are on stuff like this so…"
He trailed off with a shrug.
"I gotta go and speak to this girl Al."
"I know. Go I'll cover you but I spoke to her today Hank and…and she wasn't receptive to the idea of you"
"I don't care if she was receptive to the idea of me then, this is now. Something has clearly changed"
"Yeah but—"
"You think maybe she's heard from Bridget?"
The look on Al's face was so pitiful it made his stomach turn but the truth of the matter was he wasn't too proud to beg at this point. If Jocelyn had heard from Bridget…if she was waiting for them right now, if he was seconds away from seeing her again…
Al's hand found his shoulder and Hank shrugged it off at once. The last thing he needed right now was to be comforted. He didn't deserve it.
"I need to go and see her" he said finally. "Just cover for me okay?"
"Okay but listen to me Hank you cannot react to anything that she says. And she is gonna say a lot. It's written all over her face what she's been through and she's also…she's gonna say stuff"
There was a long pause and Hank turned to look at him eyeing critically.
"Something that she said that I need to know about Al?"
Al sighed and Hank blinked. So there had been something that he had been said that Al was holding back. Al watched him for a second longer. "I think that she needs to tell you" was all he said and then—
"Just don't lose it Hank. We might need to keep this girl with us regardless of weather or not she can help us find Bridget"
He knew Al was being the Detective now, knew that he was thinking of the boy in the room that needed their help, but Hank honest to God couldn't care about that right now. He could worry about someone else's child when he knew that his was alive.
His phone buzzed again.
"I'm going" he said and Al nodded and then he was gone sending a quick text message to Justin to tell him that he was on his way. It had only been five minutes since the first initial message. Clearly Jocelyn was getting nervous, or perhaps Justin was. He couldn't blame either one of them to be honest.
Instead he ducked out of the prescient and down the street.
It didn't take long for him to spot them in the crowded coffee shop. Justin was recognisable even from the back. To be honest, if he was being honest, cop instincts would have helped him pick out Jocelyn within moments. She was sat on the very edge of her seat like she was a butterfly on a bush and she was looking around as if trying to constantly look for an escape route. Justin had done a good job of getting it this far but it was clear that she was desperate to not be here.
Justin turned when he came close and stood up and Hank watched as Jocelyn tracked all movements with those big eyes hidden under the sharp fringe.
"Hey Pops"
"Justin"
"This is Jocelyn. She…er…she spoke to Al this morning and now she wants to speak to us, I told her it was okay if it was off record"
He nodded absent minded. Benson would be pissed and he couldn't blame her. Everything that Jocelyn said about the room would be inadmissible. But to be honest he really didn't give a shit about that room right now. All he cared about was finding his daughter. As horrendous as what that kid…Henry was going through he could push it all to the back of his mind for now.
"Hello Jocelyn my name is—"
"I told your son the same thing I'm gonna tell you" she began staring at him. "I want to see proof that your who you say you are."
"You want to see my badge?"
"No" she said eyeing him as if he was grenade with the pin pulled out when he sat down. "I want to see proof that your Bridget's Dad. I want to see it because I don't believe it" she pulled a little at her nail with her teeth and then when she spoke it was in a voice of controlled calm, as if she was repeating an argument that she had, had with herself beforehand.
Hank shot Justin a look and as he did he caught sight of another photo that was on the table near her coffee mug. Justin and Bridget when they were kids. It had been one of those days where he had taken the kids down to Solider Field and they had tailgated through pre-game. Bridget had been content to sit and colour on the ground with her colouring book (at the age of five she had made it clear that she was not into football) and Justin and he had thrown the ball around for a bit. It had been one of those days that he had never considered perfect but looking back was utterly perfect in so many ways.
"Alright"
He too had pictures in his wallet. Several.
She took all of them looking over each one with those eyes that clearly didn't trust (not that he blamed her) and only when she had looked again at Justin's did she nod.
Hank breathed a sigh of relief. He knew they had just past a test of something and for the life of him he didn't know what he would have done if he had failed.
"I owe Bridget…a lot…she…there were times when she kept me going in that place and I should have done more for her but it was every man and woman for himself down there and when I saw an out I took it"
"I understand"
And he did. God how he did. He couldn't blame this kid sat in front of him looking so very tired and scared any more than he could blame his own. They had done whatever they'd had to do to survive.
She shot him another long look.
"I told your son I'm not testifying. I'm not…looking at that room again. I'm not some fourteen year old hooker. I've worked bloody hard to put all of that behind me."
"Alright"
She shot him another long look again and then he was quite prepared to beg she spoke again.
"They couldn't break her. Not at first. I used to…I used to tell just to stop because…because would just kill her but maybe they were afraid of killing her I don't know but she used to put up such a fucking fight. And it didn't matter what they did to her she just…fought like hell"
"Sounds like Bridget" Justin muttered.
"She was…she is…the closest thing that I have ever had to a best friend" Jocelyn said finally. "I just…I just wanted her to stop fighting because I wanted her to stay alive"
She shot Hank a look as if she knew he couldn't understand it but he did. He did understand it, he understood all of it but at the same time he couldn't help but feel proud.
Mad but true.
"What…er…what did they do?" that was Justin and so the blue eyes slid of Hank's face and towards his and her look was terribly pitying.
"What do you think?"
Justin inhaled a little bit.
"She couldn't do videos there was…I thought it was because she was fighting them every step of the way, she nearly gouged someone's eye out once but now…now I'm thinking that it might have been because they suspected you were a cop and that you would have access to stuff like this. Maybe…I don't…there was a hierarchy"
"Do you know who?"
"No. I never went near them. Bridget did. A lot of the time actually. They...they said it was how she paid rent and…and to be honest I think the leader—not that I know who he is!—got a kick out of being the one who raped the cop's kid himself you know?"
She looked up and gave a half apologetic little shrug and then she continued as if now she had started talking about it she couldn't stop herself.
"And then one day the unthinkable happened."
"She broke" Hank said flatly.
Jocelyn nodded.
It wasn't like he had not thought that was coming. There was only so much fight a person could have in them especially when subjected to this kind of torture. Bridget had been eleven and had been fighting a battle that was never supposed to be hers—hers or any child's. The fact that's he had gotten out of that room, out of the hotel room, out of it all was a miracle in itself. But it did add to the panic that he could feel. If she had been fighting for so long and then had only just given up…well…he had been on enough bridges trying to talk Perps down to know how that usually ended.
Jocelyn tapped her nails on the table for a second and then…
"It was you two that did it" she said finally
"Us?"
"Yeah" she said meeting Justin's surprised look head on.
"She…they told her you two were in prison?"
"Yeah we both were but what's that—"
"And that you both were dead"
There was a moment of utter stillness where Hank tried to process those words and then she spoke again.
"Bridget thinks you're dead."
"Bridget thinks you're dead."
"Bridget thinks you're dead."
"Bridget thinks you're dead."
Of course.
And suddenly he understood what Al had not wanted to tell him. He had understood why his best friend of over twenty years had told him that he couldn't afford to loose his temper, why he had reached out and gripped Justin's wrist so tightly he might have broken bone. He needed to stay calm, he needed his son to stay calm, and failing that he needed Justin to keep him calm.
"She thinks were…what?"
God. His son sounded so utterly confused. Like he could see what was in front of him but couldn't put the pieces together and it was the fourteen year old ex-prostitute that had to do so.
"They told Bridget that you had both been killed in prison. They told her that you were dead and that meant that you weren't coming for her. And she believed them. And so she broke"
Of course they did. And he could see it too. He could see his baby and her defiance and the look in her eyes that was in that photo scared beneath his eyelids and he could see the look on her face as she was told that they weren't coming for her.
"She thought we were coming to her up until that point?" he said quietly.
"She never thought that you had stopped" Jocelyn said as if she was thinking of what words to use.
Well…that was something anyway.
"When was the last time you saw her?"
"They threw me out. I was too old so they threw me out and…and I didn't see her after that. To be honest I didn't see her much before that. Only…only…only the last time she was just staring at the ceiling. That was the last time I saw her. Not speaking just staring at the ceiling. And the fight had gone. The fight always goes eventually, I just…sometimes I really did think Bridget would be the fucking exception to that" she shrugged a little as if that was all she could say about it.
There was nothing that either one of them could say to that.
And then Justin spoke.
"You think you might know where she's running"
"Well she isn't running home if she thinks your dead" Jocelyn said flatly. "She's not that stupid, she thinks all her bridges back there have been burned. She doesn't think anyone cares. And if she's killed one of the big payers like you say she has then she's going to worry about weather or not they come after her. If she's got anything left in her to worry about. She could already be dead. God knows with Bridget you could never predict what she was going to do. Took them by surprise on more than one occasion. Used to be in the early days they had to drug her just so that they could—" but she stopped talking abruptly looking at him and Hank didn't have to look into a mirror to know that his face was reflecting the horror that was bubbling away within him, strangling him from the inside out.
Jocelyn looked down at her hands again and then stood up and the speed of which she did it gave him whiplash.
"I'm done now" she said finally. "If you ever get any of them…if you find her…Bridge will know how to find me. But I am done with this. Please don't send anyone else after me. I need to breathe, I need to live and I need to do it without this around my neck"
"Thank you" Justin said finally. "Thanks Jocelyn seriously. This has been a big help"
Jocelyn shot him a look as if she didn't believe one word of it but she nodded and then…
"Bridget's got this way of giving people hope. And hope for them was infectious. But she's also got a temper in her. I wouldn't let her alone with any of them if you can help it. I've seen her go for the kill. First time I ever saw Bob looked afraid was when this small eleven year old went for his eye with her finger"
"Bob?"
"I only ever knew Bob" was all Jocelyn said. "But she'll know everyone in the place. She always did say she wanted to make the investigation easy for you"
She gave that half little smile and then she was gone and Hank leaned back in his chair feeling like his chest was going to cave in. Justin gripped his shoulder were Al had done igniting the age old bruise and he let some of the pain ground him until he was sure the panic attack he was on the brink of having had worn off.
"Pops?"
"Five minutes. Just give me five minutes"
Justin nodded but didn't say anything else.
Until.
"You know…when we get this guy. I don't think Bridget's temper is the one that he has to worry about"
Hank shot him a look.
"Meaning me?"
"Oh no" Justin said with a wry smile that made him look almost…frightening, for the first time he looked almost frightening. "I mean me"
There was a pause as Hank turned to look at Justin for a second.
"Okay"
I mean really what was he supposed to say to that?
"So what do we do now?"
"We go back and see if SVU have come up with anything"
Justin nodded but privately Hank thought that it was a placating measure. Personally, at this point he was just praying for a miracle that he wasn't sure they had.
Just stay alive Bridget. Just stay alive.
But he didn't know to who he was praying to. Or if it was any good. What was clear though was that time was now of the essence, and that it could be the enemy.
Either way Hank knew one, sure, clear thing that had come out of this conversation.
Time.
They were running out of it.
And there you go, I hope you enjoyed that one, I will bring you the next one as soon as.
Next Chapter-In which everyone is clutching at straws until a phone call is made and fate finally, finally throws Hank Voight a lifeline.