WARNING: The rape will be mentioned in this chapter; nothing too graphic will be included. If this is hard or upsetting for anyone please don't read.
Author's Note: I hope you're all staying safe and healthy! As always thanks for the comments, reviews, favorites, follows, votes, and so much more!
Enjoy!
Song (On Wattpad): Leave a Light On by Tom Walker
Chapter Seven: Is There A Chance...
PS: Excuse the mistakes, please.
Sylvie stayed wrapped around Matt the whole night. Her eyes went closed and stayed closed the second she laid her head on his chest which felt like it was a nice, firm pillow. It was the most sleep she had since the rape happened a couple of nights ago. You'd think that her dreams would have been plagued with images of Owen like they had since the second it happened, but they weren't. She could honestly say that she had a night full of restful and healing sleep.
Matt, on the other hand, hardly slept any at all. As soon as his eyes caught sight of Sylvie in that park yesterday he felt the feeling of protecting her overcome his body in a way that it never had. He replayed their conversation where she told him what happened to her over and over again. He could find Owen he'd murder him with his bare hands. No, he really would. He'd do anything to take this away and make it better for her.
He knew they had become close recently, but did he think that something like this would make them even closer? No, never. He always liked Sylvie; even when he was happy and married to Gabby there was just always something about Sylvie that pulled him in.
Their quiet, dark bubble of sleep and intense thinking was interrupted at about one in the morning by a loud crashing through the front door. Sylvie's eyes flew open the second she heard it. She tried to sit up in bed and sink away as far as she could from the door, but she felt a strong, warm hand gently pull her around the waist. She wanted to scream at first before she remembered that the hand belonged to Matt.
"Shhh. It's okay, Sylvie. It's just Emily; she texted me about five minutes ago when she was still in the parking lot and told me that she was here."
Sylvie breathed out a sigh of relief and laid down before she turned to look at the man beside her who was hidden by the darkness that colored the room. "Thank you...you don't have to stay, Matt. I know this is pretty weird." She whispered while silently praying that he would choose to stay where he was so that she could fall back into a blissful sleep where the word rape has no place.
Matt reached an arm out and pulled her closer. "I'm not going anywhere, Sylvie."
Sylvie smiled before she laid her head back on his chest and drifted back off to sleep. She stayed like that wrapped around him like a sloth on a tree for the rest of the night until mid-morning the next day when they were both woken by the loud interruption of her cell phone.
They both groaned as soon as they opened their eyes and were smacked with the blinding, bright light.
"Hello," Moaned Sylvie into her phone as she tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes.
Matt's ears ached as he sat up in bed and tried to figure out who Sylvie was talking to. He normally wouldn't have been so nosey, but he could tell that as soon as the other person started talking Sylvie's mood instantly changed.
"Yes, I'll see you soon. Thank you. Goodbye." Said Sylvie as she took the phone from her ear and hit end call.
Matt got out of bed and did a small stretch before he turned to her and asked, "Everything okay?"
Sylvie sat on the corner of her bed and slowly nodded her head, "Ummm...yeah. That was just a Detective Sasha Adams. She said she's in charge of my case now and she'll be over in a little while to get my statement."
Matt nodded and was about to say something else when he noticed Sylvie's overall mood shift. "That's good news, right?"
Sylvie looked up and gave him a sad shoulder shrug, "I don't know. What if she acts like Burns? What if no one takes me seriously and Owen just gets to go on with his life like nothing ever happened?"
Matt quickie walked over and next to Sylvie on the edge of the bed, "Sylvie, you can't think like that. We have to stay positive right now. Okay? If nothing happened here then we'll go to our next move which is roping in Voight and his team."
"You hate Voight." Giggled Sylvie as she looked up and caught Matt's eyes which looked to be sparkling in the morning light.
"Eh, I don't hate him that bad."
Both giggled after Matt said that. They both sat there on the edge of the bed enjoying the silence and peacefulness of the moment before Matt jumped up and started gathering his stuff and putting his shoes and jacket on.
"Thank you, Matt, for everything. You have really been amazing."
"You know, you really don't have to keep thanking me for everything."
Sylvie smiled and shook her head, "No, I really do. There's no way that I'll ever be able to repay you for what you've done."
"Maybe one day when you're feeling better you can make me a batch of your Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins that I like so much."
Sylvie giggled before she got off the bed and walked over to stand in front of Matt, "I think I can arrange that."
Matt smiled and was about to say something else before his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He gave Sylvie a sympathetic look before he fished it out of his pocket and read the new text message.
"Sorry, it's just one of my clients from a job. She just wanted to do a walk through with me this morning."
"Oh, Matt. I'm so sorry. I had you so wrapped up in my life that I didn't even think about you and how busy you are. You should have left last night after Emily got home."
Matt shook his head and quickly responded on his phone before he put it back in his pocket and turned his attention back to Sylvie, "No, it's fine. I'll just go there before I go to the loft and shower and then I'll come back here."
"Back here?" Questioned Sylvie as she wondered what she had missed in their uncomplicated conversation.
"Yeah, I should have enough time to do all that and be back when Detective Adams gets here."
Sylvie blinked back at him in utter surprise, "Oh, Matt. You don't have to do that. I know how busy you are. I'm sure I'll be okay."
Matt shook his head and quietly walked over to her bedroom door where he quickly unlocked the lock and stepped out of the room, "Sylvie, I promised you I'd be here and that's what I'm doing."
"Thank you." Whispered Sylvie before she and Matt said their goodbyes and he was out of her apartment.
Matt had actually been surprised at how quick he was able to finish up with his client and make it back to the loft. He had just made it through the door and was headed for the shower when he heard Kelly call out his name from the kitchen.
"You just now getting in, man?"
Matt took his coat off and slung it on his bed before he walked into the kitchen and greeted Kelly with a nod.
"Hey. Yeah, I spent the night at Sylvie's."
Kelly's eyebrows slightly raised, "At Brett's? Was she okay? I know Stella said you called yesterday asking if she knew where Brett was?"
"Yeah, she'll be okay. I'm actually on my way back over there after I have my shower."
"Okay," Smirked Kelly as he walked over to the stove and turned his popping hot bacon.
Matt shook his head at his friend's crazy antics and went to take his shower.
Honestly, the second he left Sylvie's he had this unexplained heaviness in his chest. It was weird. Definitely a feeling he had never felt before. Even with Gabby he never felt this protective.
A couple of miles away, Sylvie sat on her bed and stared at her bedroom door as soon as she heard Matt leave the apartment. He has been so amazing to her since she told him. How could she have ever thought that he would have been any different? He has been here and made her feel safer than any man ever has.
Something had definitely shifted between them. It wasn't just friends being friendly anymore...it was something else.
Sylvie's thoughts were quietly interrupted by a soft knocking on her door. Her heart started to beat a little faster after she heard it just because she didn't know who it was. But, she instantly gained the courage, she felt she had been lacking since the rape took place, and got off her bed, walked up to her bedroom door, and she unlocked the lock slowly so the door slid open.
Sylvie smiled immediately when she saw Emily standing there in her PJs holding two steaming, hot coffee mugs in her hands.
"Hey, I figured you could use this after yesterday's eventful day."
Sylvie gave her friend an even bigger smile before she opened the door and ushered her in. They both settled on Sylvie's bed where they got under the comforter and drank their coffee in silence for at least a minute before Emily started talking.
"So...do you think you're ready to tell me the truth about what really happened to you?"
Sylvie looked at her friend and slowly nodded her head before she set her coffee down on her bedside table and took a hard breath. "Since this is like the fourth time now it's a little easier to say but...I was raped"
Emily gasped and almost spilled her coffee before Sylvie took the mug from her hands and set it on the bedside table beside hers.
"Oh, Sylvie. I'm...I'm so."
"Don't," Interrupted Sylvie before Emily could finish uttering what she was going to say. "It's okay, really. I mean it's not okay, but I'm okay. Or at least I'm going to be okay."
Emily didn't know what to say; even bruised, battered, ... and raped her friend was still one of the strongest people she knew.
"I tried to report it last night...but the detective he wasn't a good fit; so I have a new detective coming today and she's going to talk to me and hopefully I can report it."
Emily nodded and tried to look like she was listening but she was still having a hard time comprehending anything that Sylvie was saying.
"Sylvie...I should have been here. It was the other night, wasn't it? When you were supposed to go out with that guy from your gym. It was that night, wasn't it? Was it him? The guy you had drinks with? I knew you were acting differently after that night?"
Sylvie nodded and tried not to shed a tear as she watched her friend put the pieces of her puzzle together for her.
"Yeah...it was him."
Emily looked enraged when Sylvie told her that. She actually looked a lot like Matt when Sylvie told him.
"Do you know where he is? We need to go and make him pay?" Asked Emily as she tried to scoot and get off the bed, but she was quickly stopped by Sylvie's small, cold hand that wrapped around her wrist and halted her movements.
"No. Please I don't want that. I've already had to talk Matt off the ledge more than once. I don't want anything to happen to guys not because of me."
"Sylvie, he..."
"I know, and I'm going to report it and hopefully make him pay for what he did. But, I'm not gonna have anyone I love do anything stupid that'll cost them their life or take away their job. I just can't do that. Okay? Will you please just help me do this my way?"
Emily sat there for a minute before she quietly agreed and pulled her friend into a hug they both needed as they shed tears together. They sat for a while before they pulled away and started laughing for no particular reason except for the plain fact that they both needed it.
"Hey, what's going on with you and Casey? He's been around you a lot recently. Did you tell him?... Has he been helping you through this?" Questioned Emily as she tried to break the ice some and get them both on track with happier days ahead.
Sylvie smiled at the mention of his name before she answered "Yeah, he was actually the first person I told and he's been here for me ever since. I don't know how I would be here without him."
"That's great, B."
They broke apart and started getting ready not too long after that. Sylvie looked at the clock and noticed that she only had an hour or two before detective Adams arrived. She asked Emily if she would be there while she reported with Matt and Emily quickly agreed.
It wasn't too long after that, that they had both stepped out of their bedrooms freshly showered and changed when they heard a knock on the door. Sylvie tensed immediately when she heard it. Lots of thoughts swooshed through her mind before she was broke from her scariness by Emily who marched to the door and swung it open like she was ready to kill someone.
They all let out a laugh when they saw that it was Matt standing there holding fast food bags and a drink holder carrying three chocolate looking milkshakes.
"Hey," he shyly answered as he stepped through the open door and made his way to the kitchen table where he sat the food down.
Sylvie smiled at how sweet he was before she made her way over to the table where he was unloading burgers and fries out of his brown paper fast food bags, "Matt, you did have to do all this. I mean you made dinner last night and everything."
Matt shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the kitchen counter to grab a few napkins, "Ehhh. I was hungry and I figured that you all hadn't had the chance to eat yet."
"I love you, Matt Casey." Announced Emily as she was already stuffing her mouth full of warm, greasy french fries.
They all laughed and sat down to eat not too long after that. Sylvie couldn't help but think about how nice it was to sit down and have a meal with her favorite people in the world without thinking about rape, Owen, and other things. It was nice to carry on with life as nothing had ever happened.
They were all shoving their mouths full of burgers and laughing when a slight but powerful knock on the door boomed through the apartment.
Sylvie's first instinct when she heard the knock was to cower and hide. She hated that. That was one side-affect from the rape that she absolutely despised. Every little unknown and sometimes known sound seemed to scare her and torture her with anticipation.
Matt and Emily both saw how she reacted. Emily got up to stand by Sylvie's chair while Matt stood up and very confidently walked to the front door. He was surprised when he slid the door open, with the chain still on, and it revealed a small, muscular middle-aged blonde-headed woman.
"Hi! My name is Sasha Adams. I'm a friend of Hailey Upton, and I'm the detective that called Ms. Brett this morning."
Matt immediately welcomed her in, "Ugh, yeah. Please come in. My name's Matt Casey. I'm a friend of Sylvie's."
"Hi, Matt. It's nice to meet you." Said Sasha as she stuck out her hand for him to shake.
Sylvie and Emily quickly cleaned the table and put the food away as soon as they heard Sasha introduce herself from behind the door.
"And, you're Ms. Brett, I presume?" Asked Sasha as she walked over and stood in front of Sylvie who was suddenly regretting her decision on not wearing makeup and covering up her cuts and bruises that still lingered on her face like they were fresh from impact.
"Please call me Sylvie. It's very nice to meet you."
They both shook hands before Sylvie turned and introduced Emily to Sasha.
"Well, Sylvie. It's clearly no secret about why I'm here. What do you say to you and me going somewhere a little more private so that you can tell me everything and we can get this reported and hopefully get your case started."
"Umm...I think I would prefer if Matt and Emily were able to stay with me."
Sasha nodded and began unzipping her coat before she hung it on the coat rack, "I completely understand that. I have just found that a lot of victims tend to hold back on information when family or friends are around."
Sylvie nodded and gave a very hesitant and scared look to Matt and Emily.
"Sylvie, we'll be out here the whole time. Neither of us will go anywhere." Offered Matt as he watched her look back and forth between the two of them and start to shake a little.
"Yeah, B. We'll be here the whole time."
Sylvie nodded at both Emily and Matt before she led Sasha into her bedroom. After Sylvie closed the door she almost locked it but as her hand was hovering over the lock she suddenly changed her mind and decided that she didn't need to lock it.
Both she and Sasha sat on opposite ends of Sylvie's made bed. As soon as Sasha sat down she grabbed a recorder and notebook from her pocket so she could begin taking Sylvie's statement.
"So, Sylvie, tell me about yourself."
Sylvie tried to make herself comfortable on the bed before she began talking, "Well, there's not really much to tell. I'm a paramedic at Firehouse Fifty-One and I've been in Chicago for about five years now."
"Oh, where are you originally from?" Asked Sasha as she looked up from her notebook.
"Indiana. Fowlerton, actually."
"Hmmm, I've never heard of it before."
Sylvie nodded, "Yeah, it's a pretty small town."
"Well, thank you for telling me a little bit about yourself."
"Of course. Um...you said you were a friend of Hailey's, right?"
Shasha nodded and immediately smiled at hearing her beloved friend's name, "Yes, I have known Hailey for many years now. She's a great cop. I knew when she called me yesterday and told me about your misfortunate meeting with Detective Burns that I had to help."
Sylvie cringed at hearing the lazy detective's name, "Yeah, Matt and I didn't think he was the right one to continue with."
"Honey, I don't think anyone thinks Burn is right to continue with." Said Sasha causing both her and Sylvie to let out a small laugh.
"Okay, as much as I hate to do this Sylvie. I need you to tell me everything about your rape."
Sylvie gulped and nodded her head. "Umm...okay. Where do you want me to start?"
"Do you know who did it?"
Sylvie looked down at the ground before she opened her mouth and spoke, "I...I know his first name. He wouldn't tell me his last name."
"Anything helps, Sylvie. Even the smallest of details."
"His name's Owen."
"Okay, how did you two meet?"
"We met at my gym. I was running on the treadmill when he walked up to me and handed me my water bottle that had fallen on the ground."
"Okay, did the rape happen that day?"
Sylvie shook her head and started fiddling with the hair tie on her wrist. "No, we made plans to go out a few nights after that and he canceled on me. So he texted me the next day and we made plans to go out with drinks that night."
"And, it happened then?"
"Yeah," Nodded Sylvie, "It happened then."
"Okay, do you have messages or calls between the two of you?"
"Umm, I have text messages on my phone between us."
"Do you think you can screenshot all of the messages and send them to me?"
"Of course," Agreed Sylvie before she pulled out her phone and quickly sent the pictures to Sasha.
"I also need to ask you if I can take pictures of all of the marks on your body."
"Yes," Whispered Sylvie before she stood up and started taking her clothes off so that Sasha could get a picture of every mark on her body.
The picture process, itself, took about fifteen minutes because every time Sasha would capture one mark on Sylvie's body more would pop up like roaches.
After Sasha was done with the pictures Sylvie got dressed again and sat back down on the bed before she began telling Sasha the full story of how her night out with Owen went.
"Okay, Sylvie. I can't thank you enough for being brave and reporting it. The first thing I'm going to do is try to track Owen down and get his statement. I saw security cameras in your apartment hallway, so I'm going to get an order for those and view the footage of Owen and yourself out. Do you happen to have the clothing that you were wearing that night?"
Sylvie nodded and immediately got up and went to her closet where she dug out the bag of clothes she had saved and put up that night. "Here, this is everything I was wearing. I saved them because I didn't know if I was going to tell anyone or not."
"Thank you, Sylvie. You have no idea how much you are helping yourself and thousands of others."
Sylvie gave her a sad smile before she closed her closet door and made her way back over to her spot on the bed.
"Okay, and I need to ask you about a rape kit. I know days have passed, but in some cases, any rape kit can help in court."
Sylvie agreed and they quickly set up an appointment for the next day when Sylvie would go get the kit done.
"You do believe me, right?" Quietly asked Sylvie as she lifted her head up and watched Sasha finishing writing in her notebook.
"Sylvie, of course, I believe you. Trust me, I've been in your shoes. When I was eighteen one of my father's best friends was driving me home one night and he pulled over his truck and raped me right there on the side of the road. I tried to tell my mother and father, but neither of them believed me. So, I left the first chance I got and went to my grandmother, who was the only, and I mean only, person to believe me."
Sylvie looked stunned as she listened to Sasha tell her story. "Wow, I'm so sorry. I can imagine my parents not believing me."
"Yeah, it was hard, but I lived through it and so will you. I not gonna lie to you, recovering is the hardest part of a rape. But it's something that will make you stronger than you ever were."
Sylvie agreed and told her thank you for sharing her story with her.
"Okay, Sylvie, I need to ask you one more thing and then I think we'll be finished here for the day."
"Okay," Whispered Sylvie.
"Is there a chance that you could be or will fall pregnant due to the rape?"
Sylvie froze after the words left Sasha's mouth. What if she was pregnant with Owen's baby?
...
Uh oh! Do you think Sylvie is or will end up pregnant!?
What did you think!? Again, sorry for any typos, misspellings, or anything like that. I write late at night with no glasses on, lol.
Thanks again for reading and the support!
Stay safe and healthy, everyone! I will see you next week!
YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! Have a blessed, safe, and healthy rest of the week!
