Alex sobbed in Claire's arms for a while, kneeling at Claire's feet with her head resting on Claire's lap until she began to slowly calm and her sobs died down to sniffles.
"There, there. That's a good girl." Claire soothed, gently stroking Alex's long blonde hair.
"I-I'm… s-s-so-s-sorry." Alex stuttered.
"I know, darling. You are forgiven. You don't need to be sorry anymore, you should be proud now because you were so brave. Do you think you can remember to keep a civil tongue the next time someone in authority gives you an order?"
"Y-Y-Ye-Yes… M-Ma'am."
"That's a good girl. You are welcome to stay here with me for as long as you would like, but as soon as you're ready, you are free to go watch TV or go outside or do anything you want to do. And you can rub your bottom as much as you want."
Upon hearing this, Alex gratefully reached back to carefully rub her spanked bottom as she lifted her head from Claire's lap with a sniffle.
"Poor baby, so many tears. Let's dry that sweet face." Claire used a tissue to gently help Alex wipe her eyes.
"Th-th-thank… y-you."
"You're welcome sweetheart. Do you want to hang out with me for a while and maybe take a nap on my couch, or are you ready to be on your way?"
"C-C-Can… I g-go… b-ba-back… t-to m-my… r-r-room… a-and… l-l-lie… d-down?"
"Yes, honey, of course you can. It's also almost time for snacks to be set out in the recreation hall if you want one."
Alex stood to her feet and carefully pulled her jeans and panties up, whimpering as the rough material rubbed against her punished bottom. She received one final kiss to her forehead and turned to leave the punishment room still gently rubbing her bottom. Claire got up from the sofa and went to sit at her desk, picking up her desk phone.
"Elizabeth, send in that naughty girl who was caught with that young man in the supply closet. And I'm running low on arnica, you'd better call the company and put the order in. Thank you."
"Captain Benson, if there's anything else I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask. I feel horrible that my brother did this to your family. He hasn't been right in the head since we were kids, but I never thought he'd do anything like this." Jason Kloss said as he walked out of Olivia's office.
"I'm just grateful you had enough humanity to come forward when you did, Jason. The trial is in four weeks. You'll be called to testify, but I'm not sure when, so keep the week of the sixth open."
"I plan to be there every day regardless, to support Alex and you, so I'll see you then."
"Fin!" Olivia called out.
"What's up, Captain?" Fin looked up from his desk.
"Round up the troops, we have an address."
"Copy that, Captain." Fin stood from his desk.
"Looks like there are five people inside. We've identified Dave and Michaela. There are also two unidentified males, and an unidentified female. There are drugs out in the open on the table, no weapons in sight." Declan Murphy reported as he climbed into the back of the unmarked van wearing his bullet-proof vest.
"All right, guys, we're going in. Carisi and Amanda, take the back door. Everybody got your vests on?" Olivia said.
"POLICE!"
The five people in the house jumped in surprise as the front door crashed open and chaos ensued as the detectives scrambled to take all of them into custody. Olivia hurried upstairs to make sure there was nobody else in the house when she was suddenly greeted by an unexpected meow and whirled around with her gun drawn.
"Stupid cat, you scared me to death." Olivia scolded as the cat rubbed against her legs and she gently shooed it out of her way with her foot.
"Mama!" a little voice rang out from down the hall.
Olivia walked down the hall until she came to a door that had the name 'Emma' across it in big pink letters. She fiddled with the handle and found the door locked.
"Emma? Are you in there, sweetie? My name is Olivia." Olivia called kindly through the door.
"I have to go potty!" the little voice whimpered sadly.
"I'm going to help you, sweetie. Somebody get me a crowbar!" Olivia shouted.
A few seconds later, Kat came running with a crowbar.
"Captain, we lost one. Michaela's in the wind. Everyone else has been taken into custody." Kat said.
"Screw my life." Olivia muttered under her breath, using the crowbar to pry the door open.
As soon as the door was open, a little girl with red pigtails bolted out of the room toward what Olivia assumed was the bathroom. Unfortunately, she hadn't made it in time and now had urine-soaked panties and urine dripping down her legs under her dress.
"I'm sorry! Please don't belt me!" Emma sobbed miserably.
"I'm not going to hurt you, sweetie. It was just an accident, and accidents happen sometimes. Can I help you get cleaned up?"
Emma let Olivia help her get clean and take her back into her room to change her clothes.
"Where's Mama?" Emma asked as Olivia popped a pink shirt with kittens on it over Emma's head.
"Was your Mama here with you?"
"Yes, she has pretty blue shoes, but I'm not allowed to play with them."
"Okay, well, your Mama had to go with the police officers. Did your Mama lock you in your room?"
"Yes, when Mama has parties I have to stay in my room. Sometimes men come over and come up to my room, then they give Mama money. It hurts a lot, but Mama says that if I don't let the men do what they want, we'll have to sell all my toys and live in a cave and eat spiders."
"Do you have a Daddy?" Olivia asked.
"Isn't Daddy still downstairs with Mama? He doesn't live here, but he came over for the party." Emma asked in confusion and Olivia sighed when she realized that Emma's father was one of the men they arrested.
"Okay, well do you have a grandma or an auntie or a nanny that we can call to take care of you?"
"No."
Olivia finished dressing Emma in dry clothes and picked her up to carry her downstairs where the squad was finishing up going through the house.
"Why am I always the pet police?" Munch grumbled as he walked out of the house carrying the cat in a cage.
"Don't hurt Gidget!" Emma whined with a trembling lower lip.
"We won't, sweetie, I promise. Amanda, call Child Services. Emma's mom is the blonde we just took into custody." Olivia looked at Amanda.
"No she isn't, silly. My Mama has red hair like me." Emma reached up to proudly show off her pigtails.
"Screw my life." Olivia muttered under her breath for the second time as she carried Emma outside to the car.
"Hold up, wait a minute. So, Emma is Michaela's daughter and Dave is Emma's father?" Barba said later as he sat with Olivia while she ate a late lunch.
"Yep. DNA test confirms it." Olivia said, taking a bite of her salad.
"Where is Emma now?"
"Child Services finally picked her up about an hour ago. That's why I'm so late taking my lunch break, she had a great time making a mess of all the files in my office and I had to re-alphabetize everything. Most kids go nuts over all the toys in the children's interview room, Emma just wanted to crumple my paperwork. At least she's easily entertained. What I'm still trying to figure out is how Michaela was living under my roof for all that time and I had no clue she had a kid. She never mentioned one word about Emma, and there was nothing in her paperwork about a pregnancy or a child. You'd think she would have said something."
"Unless Emma wasn't in her custody while Michaela was living with you. Didn't you say that you found Emma locked in her room while there was a drug party going on? What if Emma's been in the foster system before?" Barba mused.
"You're a genius, Barba." Olivia said as she quickly got up to return to her office. She had research to do.
"I usually am." Barba returned to his sandwich.
Alex was actually pleasantly surprised to find herself giggling happily with a group of girls as they sat outside in the sunshine chatting and planting flowers. At first Alex had been embarrassed to let anyone hear her talk, but nobody made fun of her for her stutter like she was sure they would. Spending time with the other submissives at Rosewood helped keep Alex's mind off of missing Olivia and worrying about what the future was going to bring. She had a court date in four weeks and she reasoned that there was no use fretting over it until then. The only thing she had to focus on right now was being a good girl and avoiding another trip to the punishment room.
"Does anybody know what these are?" Marla asked, holding up a small bunch of flowers.
"I think Danielle said they're called Peruvian lilies." Emily replied, kneeling nearby tending to a bed of daisies.
"D-Damn… b-b-bee-beetles… k-keep… e-e-eating… my… r-ro-roses." Alex grumbled.
"Here, try some of this. It's supposed to keep the bugs away." Denise handed Alex a spray bottle and Alex set to work spraying her roses.
"Girls, time to come inside for dinner!" the dormitory monitor stood at the door and called out to the girls in the yard.
"Yes, Ma'am!" they responded obediently and set to cleaning up the gardening equipment.
"Alex, sweetheart, Monique called to say that she's not feeling well and won't be able to make your physical therapy session tomorrow, but she said that you know your exercise routine and she wants you to spend your normal hour in the gym tomorrow." the dormitory monitor said as the group walked to the cafeteria.
"Y-Yes… M-M-Ma'am." Alex responded.
"Good girl."
Alex stood in line waiting to get her food and then joined her friends at their usual table. She looked down at the wooden bench she was expected to sit on and sat down slowly, wincing. It had been several hours, but her bottom was still tender.
"Claire got you good, huh?" Emily sympathized. A little bit of good-natured teasing could be expected among them when someone got in trouble, but mostly they all sympathized with each other when someone was sent to the punishment room. They had all been there, it was their one common experience that bonded them together.
"Y-Yeah. Sh-sh-she… w-went… e-easy… she… j-just… u-used… her… h-hand… b-b-but… sh-she… kn-knows… h-how… to use… it." Alex replied with a shy smile.
The next day, Alex decided to go to the gym right after breakfast just to get it over with so she would have the rest of the day to do things she wanted to do. She was delighted to have the gym mostly to herself aside from a few people who were walking laps around the gym since it was raining outside. Alex paced herself through her stretches and then began her exercises. She decided to skip the 'bridges' and spent the time she would have spent doing that exercise enjoying herself on the stationary bike. When her hour was over, she went to reward herself with a hot shower and then decided to curl up on the couch with the book she had borrowed from the library while a group of other girls were sitting around watching TV. That was where the dormitory monitor found her an hour later.
"Alex, sweetheart, you have a visitor. Please go to the recreation hall."
"Y-Yes… M-Ma'am."
Alex walked through the hallways bursting with curiosity, wondering who had come to see her. She had spoken to Olivia over the phone a couple of times, but with the impending trial, Olivia wasn't allowed to come see her. Alex passed by a submissive coming out of the punishment room with tears streaming down her face and carefully rubbing her bottom. There was no shortage of mischief in a place like this, Claire definitely earned her paycheck. In another hallway, a submissive was walking into Dr. Kloss's office for her therapy session. Alex turned to walk into the recreation hall and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wh-what a-are y-y-you d-do-doing h-here?"