Man, they weren't kidding when they said that writer's block is a pain in the ass :P
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own anything except for my own characters and plotline (yet) :P
Flashback
"Why would I want to work for that woman?" Herm asked and took a big bite from his sandwich.
"Her name is lieutenant Amanda Wolfe." Horatio responded annoyed.
"What ever."
"Look you guys." he said, looking at Wilson and Herm. "This is a great opportunity. It's even better than getting into homicide. It's better pay, more normal working hours, or at least as normal as they get with our work, and even if we work murder too we get a lot of variation, so we won't get too depressed. It's a good job!"
"Why would she want us though? She doesn't even know us. Not the way she knows you at least." Wilson asked.
"I recommended you." he shrugged.
"So she's just going to give us a spot on her team that I guess a lot of other cops want, considering the benefits you mentioned, because you asked her to?" Carl said doubtfully.
"Well, no. Not exactly. She wants you to help on the next case, and if she thinks you're off any use she'll take you in. You could see it like a work interview. If it goes well, you're hired. If not, you'll just go back to patrol, no big deal."
"Well, I guess it's a good opportunity… Fine, I'm in!" Horatio turned to his other friend who had been silent for a while.
"Fine, me too. I need the extra money to get a new place anyway." Herm mumbled.
"Great! I'll go tell her." Horatio took his food plate and left the table with a smile on his face.
-/-
Horatio was on his way out the day after, knowing that the next day would be his first as a part of Wolfe's investigation team, or, as the other officer had called it (not him), the WIT. But his smile quickly faded when he saw a staggering woman with bloody clothes literally fall in through the door.
"Ma'am, can I help you?" Horatio said and hurried over together with a few officers, but the woman didn't respond, she just stayed on the floor seemingly lost. "Ma'am can you hear me?" He reached out to take her hand but the moment he touched her she started screaming and he quickly took his hand back, which got her to stop.
"What the hell is going on?" Wolfe said and hurried over to Horatio and the officers who were now too scared to touch the woman in case they'd get the same reaction. "Ma'am?" The woman finally looked up and Horatio saw that she was very young, 25 at highest. She had a split lip and bruises over both her eyes, which were staring at them with terror. "Ma'am, I'm lieutenant Amanda Wolfe, I'm going to help you. Is it okay if I touch you?" The woman nodded carefully and Amanda took her arm and slowly dragged her to her feet. Horatio immediately made a motion to help her but one look from her got him to stop. "Ma'am, can you tell me your name?"
"Ma-Maria." the woman responded quietly.
"Maria, what happened to you? Did someone hurt you?" She only nodded to a respond. "Okay, you know what? I'm going to let my coworker call the hospital and we'll get you checked out, and then we'll take your statement. Is that alright?" Amanda said softly, nodding to an officer to make the call. Maria nodded again. "Okay. Come sit here with me." The two women went and sat next to the reception and suddenly, as if they'd just remembered, everyone went back to their jobs. Everyone except Amanda, Horatio, Ron and Wilson who'd appeared next to him out of nowhere.
"O'Connell is telling Morris that we're taking this case." Ron informed the other two while they watched Wolfe wrap a blanket around Maria, saying things to the woman that they couldn't hear.
"But we're not officially…"
"Look at her." Ron said and nodded against the women. "Do you really think that some paperwork is going to stop her?"
Horatio shook his head, knowing that the older officer was right. Whenever Amanda had her mind set on something, she'd always make a way to get it.
"I'll go get Herm." Wilson mumbled when the paramedics came in and tried to take the woman with them.
"No!" Horatio heard her say with panic in her voice, but Amanda quickly got her to calm down thorough whispering something that no one could hear in her ear.
"I'll go get Herm. Your bachelor can come in handy." Horatio inflicted, even though he really wanted to go with Amanda.
"It's in genetics, not in… Well, whatever this is. But if you insist." he shrugged and followed Ron as he made his way after the paramedics. Wolfe was already in the ambulance with Maria, still whispering soothing words to her and keeping her calm.
-/-
"So, you guys figured out what's going on?" Horatio asked when he and Herm joined Hill, O'Connell and Wilson at the hospital.
"The woman's name is Maria Santos. She's twenty-two, goes to the Miami University studying law and lives alone." O'Connell said quickly.
"That, and the fact that she was beaten, is all we know. But in these cases, best case scenario is that she was mugged." Hill said.
"And what's the worst case scenario?" Horatio was surprised to hear Wilson respond stiffly.
"Rape."
"She was still carrying her bag when she walked in. She wasn't mugged."
"We don't know anything for sure until Amanda comes out." Ron said. "And speaking of the devil…" Amanda came out from the hospital room looking rather pissed off.
"Wolfe, what…?"
"Rape." she said bitterly. "She was raped. The address in on the slip. You guys go there. Wilson and Hill, I want you to check out the crime scene. O'Connell and Herm, I want you to check for witnesses around the area. Try to find anyone who heard or saw something. Caine, you stay with me and take care of the victim." She handed Hill a paper slip with the address on and then retreated to the hospital room without another word.
"Ok, you heard the boss. Wilson, Herm, O'Connell, with me. Caine, you just wait here, she'll probably get out soon." And the four of them left.
Horatio waited for another hour, not daring to go in to the room after seeing the look on Amanda's face, before she came out again. She still looked pretty pissed off, but she also looked scared and sick.
"You okay?" he asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, I just need to get whoever did this and give him a…" She looked up at him and shook her head. "Never mind, let's just find him."
"Yeah…" Horatio murmured in lack of words. Even though Amanda had managed to keep her emotions pretty much in shape since what happened to Thomson, she'd gotten pretty pissed off a few times and it hadn't been a nice sight. But this was different. She seemed more upset than angry, but he couldn't figure out why. But then again, he'd never worked with rape before, or met a victim of it. Maybe it was just how talking to the victim made you feel.
-/-
"Jonas Kin." O'Connell said loudly. "He was spotted by some neighbors and later pointed out by Maria in a lineup. He owns a couple of rental houses downtown and he's got a lot of money. Kind of explains Kendall."
"Kendall?" Horatio asked confused, looking in at the smug looking man who was sitting with his lawyer in the interrogation room, talking to Morris.
"The lawyer. He's a really expensive." The sergeant explained.
"And a real pain in the ass." Wolfe continued from behind them. "How come every guy I arrest ends up being a big shot who can afford a great lawyer like Kendall?" Horatio stared at her. She wasn't kidding, she really wondered.
"Faith I guess. You're the only one who can get to them despite their lawyers and connections, so Faith gives you their cases." Hill said matter-of-factly.
"I don't believe in Faith. Or God." she responded bitterly. Morris stood up and left the room and Wolfe quickly approached him. "So?"
"So…"
"What did he say?" Morris sighed.
"He kind of confessed."
"He kind of confessed?" He sighed again.
"Did you know the girl was a prostitute?" Wolfe swallowed.
"She mentioned it."
"And you didn't find it important to mention to me?"
"It doesn't matter, rape is rape."
"No it's not."
"What do you mean it's not?" she said angrily, getting a few heads to turn their way. "That you're a prostitute doesn't mean that you can't get raped!"
"I know that Wolfe! Please calm down and just listen, will you!" Morris said just as angrily. "The DA isn't going to be willing to take this to court, no matter what you or I think, because no judge or jury is going to convict a man that's being accused for raping a prostitute. It's hard enough to get people who's raped children convicted, and they don't have Kendall as their lawyer."
"So you're letting him out." It wasn't a question, but a statement, but Morris answered anyway.
"Yes." The two of them stared at each other for a while and the detective's expression soon changed from annoyed and angry to, what was that, shameful? "I'm sorry." he said in a much lower tone than before. Amanda just turned around and left without a word. Hill was fast to follow. Horatio tried to go after them but O'Connell held him back.
"You don't want to get involved in that." he said in a low voice, but Horatio ignored him and walked past the sergeant.
"Amanda! Amanda, wait!" he shouted when he caught sight of her and Ron in the parking lot.
"What do you want Caine?" she asked roughly.
"I just want to talk. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." she answered shortly and glared at him while opening the door to her car.
"Amanda, I know that something's wrong. I can tell." He put his hand on the door handle and stopped her from entering the car. He was standing close to her now, too close for her liking it seemed since she inhaled quickly and took a few steps back, before turning her back at him completely and going behind the car where a silent Hill was standing and watching them.
"Stay out of this Caine." Amanda said, her back still against him.
"Why is this bothering you so much? I know that rape is something bad, but it's not the end of the world. And can a prostitute even get raped?" Horatio immediately realized that the words had been a mistake, but it was too late. Amanda immediately turned around and faced him again, and she started taking a few fast steps against him before Hill got a hold of her arm and stopped her.
"Come on, Amanda, let's got home." he said to her, but she didn't seem to hear, her eyes were still glued at Horatio.
"Of course it's not the end of the world for you! Or any man at all. But it is for her!" Normally, in a situation like this, he would expect her face to be lit up by that fire she got in her eyes every time she got angry, but it wasn't this time. She had the same look in her eyes like the one she'd had in the hospital, but ten time worse. She looked hurt, more than anything, as if he'd betrayed her in some way. "You have no idea how it is to feel like you want to crawl up in yourself and just disappear! Or how it is when all of the people that you trust and who should help you turn their back against you! You…"
"Amanda, calm down. Let's just go." Ron interrupted and practically dragged her to the passenger seat of the car, before going back to the drivers' side, where Horatio still was standing, speechless. "Give some room, will you." Ron didn't sound angry, or upset, he just sounded tired. Horatio immediately backed away and let him go in, and then watched them drive away.
"What the hell was that about?" Herm said from behind him. He looked up and saw O'Connell, Herm and Wilson standing there, the latter ones staring at the sergeant.
"I might tell you a lot my friends, but this has to be where I draw the line."
"Why, because you don't want to loose the job she just gave you?" Herm asked skeptically.
"No, because it's not my story to tell. And before you say anything; I know I always say that, but this time I mean it." O'Connell sighed. "It's time for me to get going. My wife is waiting for me. Goodnight you guys." The officers gave him a brief answer as he walked away.
"I bet he'll have told us by the end of this week." Herm said.
"I don't know, he really didn't seem to want to say this one." Wilson responded.
"Yeah, but it's O'Connell. He'll tell eventually. What do you think Horatio?"
"What? Oh, right, O'Connell." Horatio said as he snapped out of his thoughts. "I don't really know…" He drifted off again, thinking about the look on Amanda's face only minutes earlier. "I think I'll leave too. See you guys later." He left before they had any time to answer. He really needed to sort this out with Amanda.
Ok, I know I promised I'd explain everything about Amanda and Graham (Ryan's father) in this chapter, but I'm kind of in the middle of a writer's block and I only got this far, but I didn't want to put you guys on hold for much longer, so I decided to post this half-done chapter. I promise to try to hurry on the next chapter, although I guess you've all probably already figured out what happened ;)
As always: RnR away!