Chapter 27

Trowa shook his head. "She won't come out as long as I'm here. I've screwed this up beyond repair."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Trowa. How could you have known how she would react if she refused to tell you?" Cathy asked.

"You don't get it, Cathy. The place we found her was deplorable. My team walked in on a girl being raped and that wasn't the worst part of it."

"What's worse than that?"

Trowa wondered if he ought to tell Cathy. He was about to when the Manager emerged from the bathroom with the girl.

Trowa jumped up and moved to the girl because he was certain she wouldn't come to him. He spoke quickly, gently grabbing her arm so she couldn't run off before he got to apologize. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you stay. I should have insisted that you go watch TV or something. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have assumed that you knew about the attic."

He held her loosely so she could pull away if she wanted as he searched her eyes for some sign of hatred or terror or (did he dare hope?) forgiveness. Her eyes told him nothing. She was probably in shock. Or else she hated him and didn't want him to find out. It was probably that one. He sighed and let her go.

"You don't have to sit here and listen to this. I don't think I'm telling them anything else you don't already know. You can go watch TV."

Trowa was surprised when the girl shook her head.

He frowned, forgetting momentarily that it might send her running again. "You're sure? I don't want to add to your nightmares."

She thought this over for a moment before shrugging. Trowa watched, surprised, as she went over to the table and took a sip of her hot chocolate. The Manager sat as well. Cathy stared at Trowa expectantly.

Trowa took his seat and cleared his throat. "So…um…anyway, I reported what I'd found and Heero sent me to find Duo and Quatre because they were supposed to search the lower levels and Heero wanted to know what they'd found. When I found them, Quatre was arguing with Wufei about her." Trowa gestured to the girl.

He gave the girl an apologetic look. "I…I thought you were dead, given what I'd found and the way you looked and how limp you were in his arms."

The girl's expression stayed neutral.

"We took her into our tent because we thought it would be the safest place for her. She fell asleep and Wufei did a cursory inspection of her injuries," Trowa continued. "He found out that her knee was dislocated so he tried to put it back in place, but she woke up and kicked him. So I held her while he popped her knee back in and, honestly," Trowa looked at the girl, "I expected you to scream bloody murder. But you didn't."

The girl gave him a slight shrug.

"So when I let her go, Quatre noticed that my shirt was covered in blood and that's when we found out about her back." Trowa looked at the Manager. "She's been whipped pretty badly. That's what Cathy was helping her with. Dr. Po said it was infected when we brought her in but as far as I know it's healing alright. So anyway, we took her in to Preventer Headquarters first thing in the morning. On the way we had to give her a saline drip. We restrained her arms to keep her from pulling out the needle in her sleep and she had a night terror which resulted in her wrists being torn up. As far as we know, she's not suicidal." Trowa looked to the girl for confirmation and the girl shook her head emphatically.

"We falsified her charts so that anyone who tried to find her wouldn't be able to. She's spent the last week sleeping and having nightmares. Dr. Po said her knee was well enough to walk on yesterday morning. Unfortunately…" Trowa paused, not sure if what he was about to say would upset the girl again.

"Unfortunately the man who hurt her slipped through our grasp and found out where we were hiding her. He convinced Colonel Une that he was a lawyer interested in making sure she was being treated fairly and he was actually supposed to meet with her this morning. But he slipped up. He set up a press conference to convince everyone we were holding her against her will and she happened to see it. If she hadn't…I don't know what would have happened," he admitted. "This was the first place we could think of where she would have a chance at being safe. We wanted to place her with a woman so she wouldn't be uncomfortable but everyone else we thought of was too high profile. There are so many people here that she can hide in plain sight. It wouldn't be out of place for her to wear wigs and makeup if it made her feel safer. And really, with the tour about to start it might make her harder to track down. The others are supposed to be distracting Chase until I can get back and then we'll do everything we can to lock him up. As soon as we get him behind bars I can come get her. I just….didn't know how else to keep her safe."

There was silence as Cathy and the Manager absorbed this information. The girl looked down at the table. Trowa was certain she thought she was in trouble.

"Trowa, did you read this letter that Sally sent to me?" Cathy asked, breaking the silence.

Trowa shook his head. "No. Did she say something I should know about?"

"Well, not really, it's just that she sent cash. I don't think we need it, will you take it back to her?"

"Hold onto it, Cathy. You'll need to pick her up some shoes and who knows what else."

"But—" Cathy didn't want Sally's money. She could afford to take care of the girl on her own. It wasn't like she had a lot of bills. Currently, the majority of her money went into a slush account so she could settle down when she decided to retire. She didn't see keeping the girl as being so expensive that she would even need to dip into it.

"Cathy, it's from a Preventer's account. Normally we'd have given you a card, but we didn't want to risk having it traced. You let me know if you need more and I'll get it to you."

Cathy rolled her eyes. "You're so stubborn sometimes Trowa."

Trowa smirked. "I learned it from you."

The Manager shook his finger at them. "You two quit squabbling or I'll assign you to the elephants again. Don't think you're too old, either." He kept his grin in check. He knew that Cathy was glad to see Trowa and in truth, he was as well. It would be nice to have him back on a more regular basis. He was excellent with the animals and his physical strength was a great asset to the circus as well.

"Speaking of the animals, how're those new tiger cubs working out?"

"Not bad, they're still a little young to be put into the ring but the training is going well. Come and I'll show them to you."

"So what do we do about this Whitaker guy?" Duo asked.

"Well…I'm not really sure," Heero admitted. "We know he's Chase's client and he owns the house we raided. I think we ought to see what Wufei and Quatre found out before we go after Whitaker."

Duo nodded. "So should we start with the ritzy place then?"

"I think that would be wise. You said there were video cameras, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Whoever lives there is more paranoid than we are."

Heero frowned. "Do you have the address? It's possible I can tap into the feed from here."

Duo gave it to him and watched over his shoulder as he worked his magic on the battered laptop.

Heero swore under his breath. "It's the same block I got trying to hack the feed at the house. The digital signature's the same. Whoever lives there is in on it."

Duo swore. "I'm goin' in. We gotta get these guys."

Heero nodded. "I think we ought to do a little more recon before we try to raid the place. If we don't have a warrant, Chase might be able to get them off and we won't be able to stop them."

"Leave that to me, 'Ro. You get on 'Fei and Quat and see what they've got. I'll be back later."

Heero grabbed Duo's hand and pulled him in for a kiss. "Just be careful. I don't want to have to explain to Une why you've been shot again."

Duo smirked. "I'll be careful," he promised. "I'll call if I need backup."

"You're supposed to be doing recon!" Heero called as Duo went out the door. Heero sighed. His boyfriend was going to be the death of him someday.

Cathy looked at the girl after the two men had left. She still had many unanswered questions, but if the girl hadn't talked to Trowa, it was likely he wouldn't know anyway. The girl looked like she wasn't sure what to do.

"Do you want to try and eat something else?" Cathy asked gently. She didn't want to frighten the girl and Cathy hoped she was feeling better now.

The girl gave her a small, uncertain nod. Cathy wondered if it was because she was afraid or if she wasn't really feeling well enough to eat again.

"Why don't we try Sally's nutrient shake recipe? I think we have everything for it." Cathy didn't want to give the girl something that would make her sick again and thought that a smoothie would be sensible for now. She pulled out the recipe and got all of the ingredients together.

It didn't take long to make and Cathy soon slid a large glass of smoothie over to the girl. The girl looked at the glass but didn't make a move to take it.

"Oh, sorry, I guess you're not that hungry, are you?" Cathy took the glass back and poured a bit into a small juice glass. She was a little worried that she wasn't giving the girl enough, but if she wanted more, all Cathy had to do was give it to her. The girl took the smaller glass and took a small sip before taking a slightly larger drink. Cathy put the rest of the shake into the freezer.

After a few minutes of digging in a drawer, Cathy found a small pad of paper and a pencil. She gave them to the girl.

"Sally's note said you don't talk. You can write things down, can't you?"

The girl nodded.

"Great! I need to know your shoe size and your favorite color and your favorite foods and if there's anything else you can think of that you need."

The girl looked at the paper for a moment before picking up the pencil and writing. Cathy waited patiently. Trowa wouldn't be pleased if Cathy tried to push her too hard too fast. The girl slid the paper over to Cathy.

Cathy was surprised it took the girl so long to write so little. This wasn't going to be an overly effective form of communication until the girl's other shoulder was better.

'Don't know. Green. French Toast. A coat?'

Cathy frowned and looked at the girl. "You don't know your shoe size?"

The girl flinched slightly and shook her head. Cathy was too shocked at the information to realize it was her frown that had caused the girl to be upset.

"How can you not know?" she asked.

The girl bent over the paper.

'I haven't worn shoes in over three years.'

Cathy couldn't think of anything to say to that. She stared at the girl as she tried to come up with something to say that wouldn't make the girl feel bad.

"Well…then…why don't you try on a pair of mine and we'll see how close the fit is?" Cathy blurted out. She was a little proud of herself for coming up with something positive to say about the girl not being allowed shoes for more than three years.

Cathy grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her into the bedroom. Cathy let her go as she opened the closet and started rummaging through the pile of shoes. She had several pairs that she never wore anymore. Maybe one of them would fit the girl.

The girl tried on all of Cathy's shoes. They were all too big. One pair was only too large by a size and a half, so Cathy handed them to her. She helped the girl tie the laces tight enough to keep the shoes on her feet.

"You can borrow these until we can get into town tomorrow and get you some that fit, okay? Come on, I want to show you around a bit."