C.J. kept pouring over the information in the files and the evidence. Everything pointed to Ricardo being guilty. She paced and paced and after checking on Chris one more time decided to sit outside on the balcony overlooking the harbor. She looked out at all the people happily walking along wishing so much Chris could be one of them, not medicated upstairs in the beach house just trying to survive the day in a sense.

She noticed a sedan parked off to her right at the end of the row of beach houses. The person in the car seemed to just be sitting there, maybe with binoculars, but she couldn't be sure. Chris was asleep upstairs and C.J. wanted to check it out, but she didn't want to leave her. So she called down to the security guys who monitored the boardwalk and asked them to check it out. Sure enough, as she watched, the sedan backed right into the security patrol car. She ran downstairs and outside as fast as she could to see what was going on. She knew the guards didn't carry loaded weapons and would probably let the car take off and she wanted a license plate at least.

Not only did the car take off, but it sped right past her. She had to jump onto a parked car as she narrowly missed getting hit herself. She looked back in its direction but only saw part of the plate NTV. She kept saying over and over ntv, ntv, ntv as she then rushed over to the injured security guards. Neither had serious injuries so she took the pen out of one of their shirt pockets and wrote on her hand, ntv.

She then attended to them along with a couple of lifeguards that happened to be walking by and before she knew it, Hoyt was right beside her.

"Hoyt, look I need to get back to the house. Walk with me, ok?" she said as they started walking down the driveway to the beach house.

Hoyt stopped for a second and held her arm and asked, "I don't mean to insult you or anything, but you have a little something here on the back of your shirt and pants."

C.J. tried to look and noticed on the side some black dirt or dust. "Yeah, well, I had to jump onto this parked car here," which she just noticed looked filthy, "when the sedan drove past me to get away. I'm fine by the way, Matt has been working me out pretty good lately and my reflexes work just fine." She smiled and leaned over to him whispered, "And if you tell Matt that, I will kill you."

They chuckled as they made their way back in and then got serious again. C.J. told him to wait just a minute so she could check on Chris and then came back down and joined him on the balcony with two coffee cups.

"I noticed the sedan when I came out here. I'm guessing that since they took off, they weren't sightseeing." She said as she offered him a cup of coffee.

He took it and held on to her hand for a second, "And what are these letters?" C.J. just looked up for a second and then back at him. He knew exactly what they were, "A partial plate, huh. Just when were you planning on telling me….or my officers who already took your statement and told me you didn't see anything clearly enough to make out?"

Hoyt sighed as he watched her bite her lip. He knew Chris was one of C.J.'s closest friends and he knew how C.J. felt about her friends and their getting hurt. But she just had to let him handle this. "I know and understand how you feel C.J., but you have to let us handle this. Please. We are on the same team here. I like Chris and am as mad as hell that someone did something like this to her. I hate the fact that we have animals like this prowling my city, thinking they can do whatever they want to whoever they want. You're a lawyer. You know how this works…"

C.J. interjected, "You're right, I am a lawyer and I know exactly how this is going to go down. He might, and I mean might get arrested. Then Chris has to look at this scumbags face again and identify him. Then she has to relive that whole nightmare when she gives her statement, and that's just for starters. Then when this does go to trial, in what 6 months…a year? Then she has to face the animal in court and relive for an audience what happened. That's right before the defense asks her how many drinks she had that night? How many guys she has picked up at bars over the past year? How many boyfriends she has had and if she slept with any of them on the first date? She goes on trial at that point, not him."

Hoyt put the coffee down and put his hands softly on her arms and said as she took a deep breath, "I know. I've had to appear more times than I care to count on rape cases and testify as to the evidence we collected. I know it's going to be hard for Chris, but I also know she couldn't have two better people in this world to help her through this…and she will get through this. All because of you."

C.J. looked down and let one tear escape, which Hoyt noticed, "That's actually ironic because I think this happened to her because of me."

Hoyt looked confused, "What do you mean?"

C.J. told him to sit down and she shared with him what Chris had told her and the case they were working on. She made it clear she still didn't feel like Chris was ready to give her statement yet and was still sleeping. He said he understood and told her given the incident with the sedan today he would assign patrol officers in the area to stay close to the beach house, stopping by once an hour just to check in. In fact, he was going to tell the security patrols for the boardwalk to just park themselves at the end of the parking lot and call in if they saw anyone just lurking around to headquarters directly.

Then he pulled a business card out of his pocket, "Here, this was the reason I was on my way over here in the first place. I just heard the call come in over the radio and sped up a little bit. It's the name and number of rape counselor. Name is Dr. Wilma Randolph, she is one of the best in the business. She works closely with the department helping victims psychologically survive the experience and will walk them through the whole process from start to finish."

C.J. took it and thanked Hoyt again. He told her to call him directly if they needed anything and to lock the door behind him when he left. She did and went to check on Chris again.

Chris was sitting up on the bed, drying her eyes when C.J. knocked softly and walked in. "How are you feeling?" she asked softly.

Chris looked up at her and said, "Tired, I'm sorry I'm such a bother."

C.J. shook her head and walked over to the bed, "You are not a bother. You are family, and Matt and I are right here to help you. What do you need? Are you hungry?"

Chris shook her head and then said, "I want to take shower, I want to clean all this off me." She started crying again, but appeared almost too tired to cry.

C.J. nodded her head, "I have some fresh towels in the bathroom here and I have some clothes you can borrow until we go over to your house tomorrow and pick some things up. If you don't feel up to it, I can go. Whatever you feel like doing, ok?"

Chris nodded her head and started to ask something, but stopped. C.J. caught on and prodded gently, "What Chris? You know you ask me anything."

Chris drew her knees into her chest and asked humbly, "Would you just wait outside the door of the bathroom. I know it's stupid, but I would just feel better, safer I guess, if I knew you were right there guarding it."

C.J. smiled just a little and said, "It's not stupid and of course I will." She quickly made her way back to her room and grabbed a comfortable pair of sweats and undergarments for Chris and then helped her sit up. C.J. carefully unwrapped her ankle and then started to draw a whirlpool bath. They decided with her ankle injury she needed to just sit and relax. C.J. also pulled out several different varieties of soaps she had so Chris could decide which one she wanted to use and then helped her get into the bathroom where Chris closed the door, undressed and took her bath.

She began scrubbing almost as soon as she got in, but got frustrated. Nothing seemed to remove what happened to her. She realized that was what she was trying to do and it wasn't something she realistically could do. So she sat and cried as she tried to relax, but kept her knees firmly in her chest. She did feel better knowing C.J. was right outside the door and was watching over her.