Ok, so there's swearing coming up, and violence. I'm sure you can read through it…just be warned. Please review! It means so much!
Enjoy!
Chapter 4
Catherine backed up, not wanting to cause harm to herself or Lauren. "Do you want to?"
Lauren was tired of all these questions. She was just tired in general. "No." She knew that if she said anything else at all, she would get hit. Lauren was honestly surprised that she hadn't been hit already.
"Please, tell us what happened next," Brass said carefully, looking at Daniel out of the corner of his eye.
Lauren sighed and talked through remaining tears. "I found her lying on the stairs, and there was blood everywhere. I don't know how I didn't see her when I walked in." A fresh burst of tears came flowing out. "As soon as I saw her I ran to the phone and called 9-1-1."
"That was the right thing to do," Grissom said softly. This whole time he had just been standing, watching her. Lauren looked up. She liked Gil, and she didn't even know him. She nodded.
"Then dad came home. He saw her and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a soda," she said with hesitation, only looking at Grissom. Daniel looked at her.
"Shut the fuck up, Lauren, if you know what's good for you," he said. She closed her eyes and cried.
"Hey!" Brass again yelled.
"Jim, get her away from him," Grissom said in low tones. Brass looked up at Gil and contemplated what he said. He then dismissed the idea. He knew Daniel would get mad if Brass did that.
"He just walked right past her. I knew he did it. He had to of. He hated her and was always hitting her."
"Lauren, shut the fuck up," Daniel ordered.
"He sat down on the couch and turned on the T.V. and just watched it. I asked him if he did it and he just looked at the T.V." Lauren was now angrily sobbing. Now would be the time to get it all out. "I was crying and crying. I think he did that to my sister, too."
"Alyssa?" Grissom asked.
"Yes," she nodded in surprise. How did he know?
"Lauren," said Daniel.
She once again ignored him and continued on. "I went over to him and again asked him and he threw his soda down and hit me-" here she motioned to her bruise above her eye "-and then I tried to fight back. I knew he did it. He just kept on hitting me." She pulled up her shirt to reveal a tan, flat, stomach with dark purple, blue, black, green, and yellow bruises on it. "He did it all," Lauren sobbed, pulling her shirt back down.
"You fucking slut!" Daniel screamed, grabbing his daughter. Immediately Brass, Catherine and Grissom stood up. Officers outside the door came in to try and break it up, but they feared Daniel would hurt Lauren even more if they tried anything. "I can't believe I didn't damn kill you, too! I knew I should have, fucking shit of a 'daughter'!" He punched her, again and again, in the face and slapped her. The officers tried to break them up but Daniel was strong.
Lauren was screaming, and Catherine watched it while crying. Grissom couldn't get in between Daniel and the officers, so he had to just watch. He couldn't stand watching Lauren get hurt, though. Finally, one of the officers grabbed Daniel in just the right place to make him let go of Lauren. Grissom watched him throw his daughter down against the wall. He saw that she was covered in blood and was sobbing.
Grissom ran over to her and picked her up a bit, supporting her and comforting her, every now and then running his hands over her hair. He had never been good with comforting people at this age, but suddenly he found that he was doing a good job.
"Lauren! You're no fucking daughter of mine! Shit you're nothing of mine!" Daniel screamed as the officers pulled him out of the room.
"It's ok, Lauren, it's ok," Grissom said calmly. He felt his eyes water but didn't care. She was tense and Grissom knew that, from past experience with abuse victims, it was because they thought they were going to get hit. "It's Grissom. I'm not going to hit you." At this the muscles in her body relaxed a bit.
"It's all my fault," Lauren sobbed. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, it's not your fault. Don't ever say that." Grissom sat stroking her hair, supporting her. "Catherine, go get medics."
Catherine nodded and ran out of the room. Brass looked at Grissom.
"I'm sorry I didn't move them. I should have." With that he left the room to help Catherine find paramedics. The two sat there, now both crying.