Alex sobbed all the way to SPS headquarters where she was taken into an examination room and all of her various injuries were photographed and taken note of and she sat around for what seemed like forever, still sobbing, until one of the agents came back to get her. Then she was put in the back of another car and taken to Rosewood Transition Station and shown to her room that she would be sharing with three other submissives. The room was empty, so Alex assumed that the other submissives were somewhere roaming around the large facility. The facility appeared to be clean and well-kept, and for that Alex was at least grateful.
"You'll be sharing a room with Marla, Emily, and Denise. If you have pictures with you that you want to put up on your wall, feel free to do so. Breakfast is at seven, lunch at twelve-thirty, and dinner at six-thirty. If you want a small snack between lunch and dinner, there will be a snack table set up in the recreation hall between two and four. You are not allowed to hide food in your room, we have plenty to go around and you will not starve. If you are restricted to your room as punishment, then your meals will be brought to you but there will be no snack offered between lunch and dinner. You are free to spend as much time as you want outside in the yard unless it's raining. We have a section of the property where you can plant flowers of your choosing and help make our facility a little more beautiful. We have a small library that is open from nine AM to eight PM. You are welcome to browse and check out any books that catch your fancy, but be warned that our librarian has been known to spank submissives who don't return their books on time or carelessly lose track of their books. You are to be in bed by ten, lights out at eleven. We do a bed-check at midnight and any submissive found wandering the halls for any reason other than needing the nurse is spanked. The TV is kept off after dinner and is not to be turned back on until after breakfast the next morning. There is no running or shouting in the dormitory. Women are not allowed in the men's dormitory and men are not allowed in the women's dormitory. If someone in authority tells you to do something or tells you to stop doing something, you obey or you will be spanked. If you feel ill, go to the nurse's station. We also have a gym area; I understand you're receiving physical therapy, so you'll do that in the gym. Do you have any questions?"
"No." Alex said. She had finally stopped crying long enough to be able to listen as the rules of the facility were explained to her.
"Good girl. Now, put your bag on your bed and come with me. All of our new arrivals are required to go to the punishment room and watch a spanking so you will know what to expect if you misbehave and hopefully avoid it. This afternoon, Janelle is being spanked for hoarding food under her bed and letting it rot."
Alex gulped. During her six weeks in captivity, she had been forced to watch people being beaten and tortured, and had even been forced to participate in the beating of a young boy. She tried to remind herself that by law, there was a difference between a spanking and a beating. Beating a submissive was illegal and a facility like this that was designed to help submissives surely wouldn't leave themselves open to legal action by beating a submissive. All it would take was one submissive complaining of mistreatment, and if their complaint was found to be true, then the Transition Station would lose its license and be forced to shut down. Alex obediently put her bag on her bed and then was taken down a series of hallways until they reached a door. The door was opened and Alex was ushered inside where she was greeted by the sight of a woman sitting in a chair in the center of the room and another woman standing in the corner with her hands on her head.
"Alex, this is Claire, our disciplinarian for the women's dormitory. Claire, this is Alex, our new arrival."
Claire was a slightly plump, motherly looking woman and something about the woman's kind face immediately put Alex at ease.
"Hi, sweetheart. I don't want you to be afraid of me because of what you're about to see. I have a job to do and I do it well, but I genuinely care about all of you girls. Just make sure you're a good girl and you don't get sent to me, please, but if you ever need anything I am always here to help you with anything you might need or to just listen and be a friend. This room is completely soundproof, so if you ever get sent to me to be disciplined, you can feel free to make all the noise you need to, all I ask is that you lie over my lap as still as possible and not try to get away until I am finished." Claire smiled.
Alex nodded and sat down on the small sofa in the room, getting a perfect view of what was about to happen.
"Janelle, come here, darling." Claire addressed the woman standing in the corner.
Janelle slowly turned from the corner and walked over to where Claire sat. Janelle already had a few tears streaming down her face and her face was brick red, embarrassed that her punishment was about to be witnessed by this stranger, but she remembered having to watch the same thing when she first arrived at Rosewood. It was actually a quite effective practice. New arrivals usually stayed out of trouble for quite a while after being made to watch a spanking.
"Tell me why you're being punished." Claire instructed.
"Because I hid food under my bed and it rotted, Ma'am." Janelle replied.
"And this isn't the first time we've had to address this issue of you hiding food in your room, is it, young lady?"
"No, Ma'am."
"I think we need to increase your therapy sessions to three times a week again to help you understand that while you are here, you will always have enough to eat. Food will never be used as a punishment or as a weapon to manipulate or coerce you. I'll talk to the therapist about it before your next session, but for right now, I'm afraid your bottom has an appointment over my knee."
Claire pulled Janelle's sweatpants and panties down to her knees and Janelle practically threw herself over Claire's lap to preserve her modesty in front of her audience. Alex caught a glimpse of the badly-healed brand on Janelle's hip claiming her as somebody's property. Collars were the most popular sign that a submissive was owned, but occasionally a submissive would choose a tattoo on their wrist that said 'property of (dominant's name here)' instead of a collar, particularly if the submissive had a high-profile job. Before she met Olivia, Alex had been a lawyer, but after meeting Olivia she had chosen to quit her job to dedicate herself fully to being Olivia's submissive and chose to be collared. Brands, particularly brands like this one in the shape of a swastika that had obviously been done with a hot iron without proper aftercare and had obviously been done to humiliate Janelle since she was Jewish, were illegal. Claire gently patted Janelle's bottom for a moment and then raised up her left hand and brought it down sharply. Alex jumped in surprise as the sound echoed in the room and Janelle whimpered. Alex watched, almost mesmerized as Janelle's lightly tanned skin was spanked to a blushing shade of pink and then to a bright shade of red. Janelle stayed as obediently still as she possibly could while she cried and listened to Claire's gentle scolding while Claire's left hand taught her naughty bottom a proper lesson. Alex tensed a little when Claire picked up a wooden hairbrush.
Meanwhile, there were more tears being shed as Olivia sobbed in Don Cragen's arms. True to her word, she had called him the second that the two agents had left with Alex and he had immediately made several urgent phone calls and then rushed over to the apartment to comfort his distraught daughter.
"I don't understand! Why would Michaela do this?! I took her in, I cared for her, I loved her! And she and Alex were so close! I don't understand any of this!" Olivia sobbed.
"I don't understand it either, baby, and unfortunately, we won't have any real answers until Dave Kloss and Michaela are found."
"We're working on that 'round the clock, Liv. We'll find them, I promise, and you'll get your girl back." Elliot said from where he sat beside Olivia holding her hand.
Elliot's phone beeped, alerting him that he had a text message.
"I'm needed down at the station. Carisi says they might have found something and need an extra set of hands."
"Why are you still here? Go!" Olivia demanded, anxious for them to follow each and every possible lead.
"Go on, son. I've got her." Cragen assured him.
"Daddy, can I stay with you tonight?" Olivia looked up at him with vulnerable chocolate brown eyes.
That night, Alex lay in her bed cuddling Justice close to her heart and listening to the gentle breathing of her sleeping roommates. The dormitory monitor quietly stuck her head in the room and glanced around to make sure that everyone was in their bed, then she left to check the next room. Alex had pretty much kept to herself all day, mostly just sitting quietly out of the way and people-watching. A few people had tried to engage her in conversation, but after a couple rounds of receiving one-word answers they had quickly given up.
That's for my good girl to remember that I will always love her, protect her, and come back for her, Olivia's words echoed in Alex's mind as she cuddled the stuffed cat in her arms. She so desperately wanted to believe those words.
It was 2:00 in the morning when Alex woke up screaming, startling all of her roommates out of a sound sleep, bringing both the dormitory monitor and the nurse running to find out what was going on. It took thirty minutes for Alex to stop screaming and another forty-five for the dormitory monitor to soothe everyone back to sleep.
"Just relax and go back to sleep, honey. You're safe here, I promise. Good girl." the dormitory monitor soothed as she gently tucked Alex's blankets around her.
The next day after breakfast, Alex decided to explore the library. Monique was supposed to come see her for her physical therapy session, but not for a few hours. Alex browsed the shelves for a while until something caught her attention and tears filled her eyes. It was a book that she and Olivia had been reading together but hadn't gotten the chance to finish. Alex checked the book out and took it back to her room to sit on her bed and read. She got lost in the story and the next time she looked up, the dormitory monitor was walking into her room.
"Alex, honey, Monique is here for your physical therapy session. She's waiting for you in the gym."
Alex hurried to the gym, overjoyed to see someone she actually recognized.
"Hey, Alex. How are you doing?" Monique offered a friendly smile.
Alex shrugged. Her voice didn't seem to want to work and she wasn't sure how to answer that question. Physically, she was okay. Mentally and emotionally, not so much.
"That's understandable, you've been through a lot. You've been doing so well in physical therapy, though. The next time you see Olivia, she's going to be so proud of how strong you've gotten. Let's start by stretching, and then since we have all this fun equipment available that I don't have in my therapy room at the hospital, let's try some of it and see how you do."
Alex nodded and carefully got into position for Monique to help her stretch.
"Good girl. Ten more seconds… nine… eight… seven…"
Alex tried to breathe through the tension in her muscles as Monique counted down the seconds, lying on her back with a rubber ball between her knees, squeezing the ball and at the same time lifting her hips. Alex hated 'bridges' with a passion, but there was no denying the effectiveness of such an exercise.
"Okay, take a few deep breaths, then get up and let's see how you do on the stationary bike." Monique said.
Alex found that she quite enjoyed the stationary bike and the exercise was a good way to get rid of her pent-up anxiety. Monique praised Alex for a job well done, and Alex returned to the dormitory to take a shower and rest before lunch.
Later after lunch, Alex was due to have her first session with one of the therapists. She sat on a chair in a hallway waiting for her name to be called. A door opened and a woman addressed her with a friendly smile.
"Alex, Dr. Kloss is ready to see you now."
Alex walked into the small office and screamed in fear before she passed out.