Cry
A/N: 17 year old Madeline tries to break up from her boyfriend, but he doesn't want to. He likes using her for something that no one should have to go through, and Madeline is terrified to tell anyone. But when he attacks her one day during school hours, she finally lets go. Each chapter is named after a song by Kelly Clarkson. I don't own SVU or Kelly…
Chapter 9: Because Of You
"Because of You I am afraid… Because of you"- Kelly Clarkson
PREVIOUSLY:
"Poor thing. She's probably exhausted. Has she talked to the detectives yet?" Nicole replies.
"No. that's what I'm trying to get her to do right now. I've talked to them and they've talked to her father, who says he can't come home until Tuesday. I'm also going to get her an appointment with my friend Sharon Austin, the rape crisis counselor." the strawberry blond woman tells her.
"Okay. She's going to need someone to talk to, so she can start healing."
Nicole hears a knock on her door and her secretary comes in, "You've got a student to see you…"
"Okay…" "Lindsey, I've gotta go, there's a student that needs to see me. Tell Madeline I said everything would be okay. And Mrs. Branson and I'll come by and see her after school if she wants…"
"Alright, I will. Talk to you later…" Lindsey replies and hangs up the phone.
LINDSEY YEARWOOD'S APARTMENT
MANHATTAN, NY1:00pm
Lindsey let Madeline sleep for a good hour before attempting to wake her up… "Honey? It's time to wake up…" the woman calmly says, gently rubbing Maddie's shoulder.
The teen squirms in her sleep before opening her eyes and yawns, "What time is it?"
"It's one in the afternoon. I let you sleep for about an hour. Oh, I talked to Mrs. McBride, she's back at school… and she's fixed your absences in the system, and your teachers know. And she said her and Mrs. Branson would come by after school if you wanted them to." the woman explains.
"Whatever they wanna do. But I'm not talking to Detective Benson." the teen replies.
"Baby girl, I know you don't want to, but I told her we'd come. She called again while you were asleep and I told her we'd be there by two."
"I guess. If she'll just ignore this and pretend it never happened after I talk to her, then yeah I will." Maddie says.
"You'll have to ask her that, I'm not sure it's going to work that easy. I really want you to go through with this… and I know your parents do too." Lindsey tells her.
"Let's just go and get this done. I wanna see Mrs. Branson…" the redheaded teen tells her coach.
"Alright. I'll call Mrs. McBride on the way over there and tell her."
"Hey coach… can I do something with my hair?" Maddie asks.
"Sure. I have an idea… you can get up on my sink, I'll get it wet, and then blow dry it." Lindsey replies.
"Okay. But I don't want to get this shirt wet… I don't have another one." the teen tells her.
"Don't worry baby. I'll let you borrow one of my old ones and you can put that one back on before we leave."
"Fine… let's just get this over with."
MANHATTAN WEST HIGH SCHOOL
1:10pm
NICOLE McBRIDE'S OFFICE
Nicole hears a knock on her door and gets up to answer it. "Hi Mrs. Patterson…"
"How's Madeline? Have you gotten any updates?" the woman asks.
"Come in, have a seat…" the brunette woman replies and closes the door. "She went to the hospital… they had to give her something to calm her down, she's completely traumatized, since I drove to the hospital, I brought her and Coach Yearwood back here, and now she's at Lindsey's apartment, and I talked to Lindsey not too long ago and she said Maddie is really scared that Travis is going to come back to hurt her and she tried to cut her wrist with a razor in the bathroom…."
"Oh god. I knew that boy was bad news when she started showing up to class with bruises, sometimes crying, and for days at a time she'd wear big hoodies, and I'd ask her if she was okay, but she'd just smile and not her head. She wouldn't talk about him I guess because she was scared her friends would figure it out or I'd overhear her… oh god." the woman tells Nicole.
"It's okay. Mrs. Branson's told me some of her friends have mentioned things like that to her, but told her not to do anything because they were afraid he'd hurt Madeline. She said she tried talking to Maddie, but she wouldn't say anything." Nicole explains.
"I just know they've been together for almost a year… and he's probably done some pretty bad things to her." Mrs. Patterson replies.
"Now we know he's not going to do anything else to her. Mrs. Branson and I are going over to Lindsey's to visit Maddie after school, and I'll let you know in the morning how that went." Nicole tells her.
"Okay, what about her parents… I know she said something about them being out of town?"
"The detectives called her father and told Lindsey that since he's like the CEO or something, he can't get out of his meetings until Tuesday, and she didn't say anything about her mother…" the brunette replies.
The bell rings to end fifth period and Mrs. Patterson says, "I need to get to class… Call me later if you find out anything else."
"Okay Julie." Nicole replies as the woman closes the office door.
16th PRECINCT
MANHATTAN, NY
1:15pm
Olivia Benson stood outside an interview room that had a 16 year old Travis Young inside. She was watching Fin and Munch interrogate him… and they were getting nowhere. "Travis, there's no use lying to us now… we know you did it, when she gets here and tells us that it was you, that's it. We have DNA… we just need you to give us a sample of yours to match." Fin explains.
"Fine, I'll give the DNA to prove that I'm innocent." the teen replies.
"Alright. When's this going to take place?" the lawyer asks.
"As soon as we can get the ME in here." Munch answers.
Cragen walks into the hallway and stands next to Olivia, "Madeline's here."
"Great. This interrogation is going nowhere. I'm going to talk to her." the woman replies to him and the ADA.
Olivia walks away and into the lobby to see the redheaded teen and her coach standing by her desk. She smiles at the teen, "Hi Madeline, I'm Olivia… do you remember me from the hospital?"
Maddie fakes a smile, "Yeah. I…. is he here?"
"He is sweetie. But he's where he can't hurt you." she replies looking over at Elliot.
"Now, my partner, Detective Stabler is going to talk to Lindsey while I talk to you… is that okay?" the brunette detective explains.
"Sure." Lindsey replies.
"W…. What if he sees me?" Maddie asks.
"I won't let him." Olivia reassures the teen as she leads her to an interview room.
"Really?" Maddie asks when she sees the very childish room Olivia has brought her to.
"It's the room we use to interview children, it's less scary then the normal interview rooms that we use for adults…" "And I know you're really scared right now, and I want to do everything I can to make this easier for you." Olivia explains.
"Well, you can just pretend it never happened, that would make it really easy." Madeline comments.
"Honey, we can't do that, unless you drop the charges, but then he's more likely to come back and do something else." Olivia tells her.
"Ugh. Fine." "But he said…" She starts talking, but Olivia cuts her off, "Listen, while you're talking to me, he can't do anything. And I won't let him find out that it was you who told me."
Maddie follows the woman into the room and plops on the couch. Olivia lets her get situated for a few minutes before she starts talking, "We're not going to talk about the bad stuff yet, but we'll have to get there eventually."
"The district track meet is Friday, and I don't know if I can run…" the teen quietly says.
"Why is that sweetheart?" Olivia asks.
"My back hurts, my legs hurt, I just hurt all over…" the girl whimpers.
"Honey, you'll be sore for a few days, but you should be okay to run…" Olivia reassures her.
"You didn't see my back. It's completely bruised up…" she explains.
"How did you get the bruises Maddie?" Olivia asks.
"He… He…" she stumbles on her words, but is unable to finish her sentence.
"He did what sweetheart?" Olivia gently asks.
The teen buries her head in her hands and starts to cry. Olivia gently places her hand on Maddie's shoulder, "Honey, it's okay… you can tell me…"
"He… kicked me every time I wouldn't do something for him. And today… he held me up by my arms and kicked my back in front of pretty much everybody that was trying to get him away from me when we were at school…" The redhead sobs.
Olivia's heart breaks for the girl as Maddie leans into her and cries. "Shhh…Shhh… it's okay. He's not going to hurt you anymore." the woman coos.
"I… can't do this… I wanna go back to Coach Yearwood's apartment…" Maddie cries.
"Sweetheart, I know you're really scared, and you're hurting all over, but I'm here to help you get better. Let's talk for a few more minutes and then we can stop…" Olivia replies.
"No…"
Meanwhile, Casey and Cragen are watching the interview and Casey is struggling to hold back tears of her own. "He's done a lot more to her than what he did this morning… I can tell by the way Madeline's reacting to Olivia's questions."
"She needs to talk… it's the only way we can convict him." Cragen replies.
"She's probably not going to talk to Huang… from what I hear, she couldn't even look at Elliot." the ADA tells Cragen.
"Well, from what I understand, Mrs. Yearwood has a friend that's a rape crisis counselor, and is going to get Madeline an appointment with her…" Cragen informs Casey.
"Okay, that's good. We just need her to say something to Olivia about the rape… or multiple rapes… and then we've definitely got a case against him…" Casey replies.
Back inside the interview room, Olivia has gotten Madeline to stop crying and they were talking about her track team.
"Honey, did Travis ever come watch you run?" the woman asks.
"Yeah, all the time. At first I thought it was nice to have him there supporting me, but then if I didn't win he'd kick me, slap me… or make me give myself to him…" Madeline replies.
"Give yourself to him… as in…" Olivia gently asks.
"Yeah… as in… you know… what he did this morning…" Maddie answers, unable to completely explain what was happening.
"Sweetheart, he raped you. More than once, if you would have told someone right away, none of this would be happening now." Olivia tells her.
"He threatened me. Told me he'd kill everybody I knew if I told anyone what he did. I'm really scared…." the redheaded teen cries.
Olivia hugs her and whispers gentle words in her ear. Madeline just cries, "Don't let him kill me… coach… or anybody…"
"Shhh… don't worry. Nobody's going to be killed. He just says stuff like that to scare you sweetie. It's all going to be okay…" Olivia reassures her.
Lindsey and Elliot approach the interview room and Lindsey notices Madeline crying in Olivia's arms, "Is she okay?"
Casey looks at Lindsey, "She's having a really hard time talking about what's been happening. But she did admit in a way that he'd raped her more than once, and that if she told anybody what he'd been doing, he'd kill everybody that she knew…"
"Poor thing… is there anything I can do right now for her?" Lindsey asks.
"I'm not sure how much more she's going to tell Detective Benson today, so it might be a good idea to take her home, and let her have some time to recover, and maybe you can try talking to her…" Casey replies.
"Okay. And I know she's terrified because he's here… and that may be hindering what she tells Detective Benson as well…" Lindsey tells Casey.
"Could be. I'm going to go in there and talk to them for a few minutes, and then you can probably take her home." Casey replies.
"That's fine." the strawberry blond woman answers.
Casey slowly opens the door to the interview room and Olivia notices her, "Hey Casey. What's up?"
"Mrs. Yearwood is finished talking to Elliot and was wondering when she could take Maddie home." the ADA answers.
"Now…" Maddie cries in response.
"Sweetie, I would really like to talk some more…" Olivia says.
"I can't do this. I really wanna leave…" Maddie cries.
"Madeline, we know you're really scared, and you're still hurting, but the sooner you talk to us, the sooner it goes away and you start feeling better." Casey says to the teen.
Maddie turns around to see the redheaded woman smiling back at her and sits up. "Can… can you make him go away?"
"Maddie, It's not that easy. I don't have a magic wand that I can wave in the air and turn him into a pumpkin, but I can make him go to jail for a long time…" Casey explains.
Maddie tries to smile at the woman's explanation, and Olivia notices that the woman's humor may be just what Maddie needs to help her heal. "So… you're like, a lawyer?" the teen asks.
"Yeah, I am. I'm an assistant district attorney, which means I work for the state and try to put the bad guys in jail." Casey explains.
Maddie tries harder to smile at the woman and Lindsey can see this through the one way window and smiles at Elliot.
"This is good… Ms. Novak is really turning her attitude around." Lindsey muses.
"Let's keep them talking. She may get some more information from her than Detective Benson could." Elliot replies.
"So… you're Casey?" Maddie asks.
"Yes, I am." the ADA answers.
"Okay, Is there a way to keep him from coming back and hurting me? I'm really scared he's gonna do something because he's threatened me so many times I don't remember all of them…" the teen says.
"Yes honey, there is. The easiest would be a restraining order. It basically tells him he can't go certain places or be within a certain number of feet from you." Casey explains.
"Can we do one of those?" Madeline begs.
"It might take me a day or two, but I'm going to start working on it right now." the redheaded woman replies.
"Thanks…" Maddie smiles.
Olivia sighs, "Hang around a minute Casey, I need to talk to you as well."
"Okay Olivia, will do." the woman replies and walks out of the room, allowing Lindsey to walk in.
"Hey honey, are you ready to go? Or do you still want to talk to Olivia?" the woman asks.
"Not right now… I really can't do it anymore." Madeline replies, a lot calmer than she was before.
"Okay, can we come by later, after she's had some time to rest?" Lindsey asks.
"Yes, and by then, Ms. Novak might have the restraining order ready." Olivia answers.
"Alright, that's fine with me." Lindsey replies and Maddie stands up and follows her out the door, and to the car.
A/N: Sorry for the super long wait. This story has been on the back burner because I've been working on others and have been busy with school, but I finally was able to sit and finish this chapter!! I hope you enjoy it. Next update will be sooner, I promise.