Matt and C.J. woke up when the phone rang at 4am. Matt let go of C.J. still in his arms as he reached back over to the nightstand to pick it up. He pulled it to his hear and in a very sleepy voice said, "This is Houston." His eyes opened wide though when he heard Chris' voice asking for C.J.
"Chris what is it? What's the matter?" He asked, he could tell something was very wrong.
"I…I…just…ju….just need….t…to….talk….to C.J….pl…please." was all she could get out.
C.J. heard and turned and sat up, "What wrong? Is Chris ok?" she whispered as Matt shook his head and handed her the phone. "Chris what is it?"
Chris answered, "C.J., I need help…I….I….I did something stupid….something….something you told me never to do…..I can't….I just can't…..I can't believe….please help me…" Chris tried to say crying.
C.J. looked at Matt who also looked concerned and said, "Chris just tell me where you are and I'll be right there. Are you hurt?"
Chris looked back across the street, "I'm at the gas station…. across the street from…from the Nightlife Bar just….just down the street from our office. I told you about it the other day."
C.J. told her, "ok, I'm on my way, don't go anywhere alright. We'll call the police and have them meet us down there and….."
Chris started crying again, "No, please, no, no police…he said…please, please just come get me."
C.J. told her they were out the door and would be down there as soon as possible. Matt was already half dressed before C.J. put the phone down and had thrown a pair of her sweats on the bed so she could change quickly too. They both ran down to the car and raced over to the club. Matt parked at the gas station but they didn't see Chris.
They got out and Matt had his gun drawn just in case someone were trying to hurt her. He told C.J. to stay behind him as they slowly walked around the abandoned gas station. Then they heard sobbing coming from beside the building in the alley in the dark and went over and found Chris curled up in a ball, her clothing torn and bruises on her face and arms. Neither Matt nor C.J. could believe what they were seeing. Chris had clearly been hurt and left bleeding, alone, in a dark alley. How long had she been there? Who would do this to her? What exactly happened to her? She looked so terrified even though she wasn't looking at them at all. She was crying uncontrollably holding so tight to herself like she was hanging on for dear life.
They ran over to her and Matt blinked several times looking around. He saw the bruises on her face and the ones on her arms along with the blood coming from a cut on her cheek. Someone obviously hit her, in the face and it looked like, held her down. Matt swallowed hard as he thought through exactly what these injuries meant. She was shaking so much and didn't seem to register that they were there with her right away. It appeared to him that she was out of it. He thought that perhaps she might have a head injury because of how dazed she looked. He motioned to C.J. to stay with her as he checked out the alley a little better, but came right back.
C.J. couldn't believe what she was seeing. In her mind she flashed back for a brief second to when Robert Tyler had her pinned to her own bed, hit her and then threatened to rape her. C.J. cautiously and slowly kneeled down. She softly told her she and Matt were there and that they were going to take her to the hospital. Her heart was heavy as she looked over Chris' injuries. She thought she might have a facial fracture where the bruise was and watched how Chris held her arms over her abdomen. C.J. wanted to make sure she hadn't been shot or stabbed because she looked confused and didn't seem to recognize her right away or respond to what she was telling her.
Then, Chris cried out, "No, no, I can't go there. They'll know and he told me he'd kill me….that you couldn't protect me and he'd do it again." She drew her knees in closer to her and wrapped her arms around them even tighter shaking almost uncontrollably.
Matt swallowed as he knelt down beside her, "Who, who told you…Chris who did this to you? Tell me, I can keep you safe, whoever it was only told you that to scare you. Trust me."
Chris started crying again and C.J. touched her shoulder and Chris flinched and said, "Don't, please, I'm sorry, just…"
C.J. and Matt looked at each other, they were both thinking the same thing and didn't have to say a word. Chris had been raped. Matt was beyond furious. He almost wanted the slime who did this to still be around close so he could find him and make him pay. In fact unknowingly he was making a fist with the hand not holding the gun. C.J. was just as angry and knew that what she experienced with Robert, as terrifying as it was, did not include rape as he didn't get that far. She also knew that Chris needed to be treated at the hospital and knew that was not going to be easy for her. As a lawyer she knew the legal process and knew this was just the beginning of a nightmare for Chris.
The first order of business was to get her to the hospital though. She was injured and needed to be treated. So C.J. softly told her, "Chris, listen to me. It's important that we get you to the hospital…" Chris started shaking her head but she kept going, "you are injured and we need to get you checked out. You can stay with us, we really can keep you safe, but you have to trust us….can you stand?"
Chris looked at both of them for a second, she did trust them. She could see in their eyes that they were incredibly worried about her and that they cared about her. Most of what happened was still so fuzzy to her though. She just remembered some of the attack and the threats he made before he left. His face was fuzzy though.
No, she knew Matt and C.J. and she had seen them protect people every day and wanted so bad just to feel safe again, even if it were just for 5 minutes. When she finally did manage to stand up after the man left her, she cautiously left the abandoned apartment and limped over to the gas station. It was closed and she never felt so alone. She had toyed with the idea of trying to just drive herself home, but it was her right ankle that was hurt and she didn't think she could push on the gas pedal. All she wanted to do was go home and take a hot shower to remove what happened to her from her skin. She started talking to herself, saying 'I just need to call C.J…..they will help me….it won't be much longer….'once she stood up at the pay phone and when she heard their voices she felt so much better. She was lucky the phone was broken because she didn't have any money on her, she was barely able to keep her clothes together. She thought she saw him again so that's why she tried to hide in the alley.
She nodded her head to C.J. and Matt and said she could try, but she thought her ankle might be broken. After a couple of deep breaths she asked for help and they both reached out to her and helped her up. Matt offered to carry her and after about a second of walking on the ankle that all three thought was broken now, she accepted. He picked her up carefully and carried her to the car, carefully placing her in it.
He noticed there were still a couple of cars across the street at the night club and told C.J. to take Chris and that he would meet up with her at the hospital. She told him they would be at Methodist Central and to be careful as she knew he was going to the bar to get some answers and try to control himself. He squeezed her hand and told her to drive carefully and just take care of Chris and he'd meet up with her there soon.
Matt walked in and heard a man say, "We're closed man, you're gonna have to come back tomorrow night."
Matt, trying to reign in his fury walked right up to the bar. "I don't want a drink, I want information." He took out a picture in his wallet of him, C.J., Murray, Chris, and Uncle Roy at their wedding and pointed to Chris. "I want to know if you remember this girl being in your bar tonight."
The bartender sighed and said, "Look man its late and I'm tired."
Matt grabbed him by the collar and told him, "I don't care if you're tired. Someone hurt her tonight after she left your bar. Now you are going to think real hard for me and tell me everything you remember about her being in here and anything unusual that happened while she was here or just after she left. You understand?"
The man said, "Hey man, lighten up. Who do you think you are? You can't just come in here and threaten me." Then he looked at the picture and recognized Chris. "Yeah, she was in here with a group of women. They had a bunch of drinks, tipped the waitress pretty well and…., huh."
Matt picked up on the fact that he just remembered something and asked, "What? What is it you remember?"
The bartender looked back at him and his hand on his collar and Matt let him go. "Ok, well, the only thing odd was this guy that was kind of watching them. The only reason I noticed was because I kind of thought the chick was hot and this guy wasn't buying her a drink, only looking. I mean I would have bought her something, but he wasn't buying anything. Only coffee. I told him right before he left that he needed to buy something or get lost. He gave me a $500 tip so I left him alone. He left right after that…in fact….he left right after she did, it was about midnight."
Matt took a deep breath. Someone was watching Chris the entire time she was trying to enjoy herself and make his administrative assistants feel like family. Four hours were missing though, what had this animal done for that long? He suspected Chris may not remember the face of her attacker, but this guy could so he told him he was going to need to go down to the police department now with Matt.
Matt went over to the phone on the bar and called a cab and the officer that does the sketches to meet him there. He told him he just needed a favor since he didn't want to press Chris just now. He needed this guy to give the description before he forgot and he wanted to get back to Chris and C.J. He knew however, that they would be a while. He just hoped he could find this guy and make him regret ever putting Chris in his sights.