Thank you for reviewing since the previous chapter: Hirosapprentice, docebarbara, Anderson, W1cked, kutee, agirl00z, NZgleek91 (and thank you again for pointing out my major mistakes :/ ), BellaDora Soulmates, WhatHurtsMeMost, Dom380, TVHollywoodDiva, Jaely, gllover22, General Mac and Mrs. And Mrs. Berry-Fabray.
Posted: 23/11/13.
Doubt
Quinn strolled into the apartment, feeling mostly light and happy. She had just gone on a date with a woman she couldn't stop thinking about, so yes, she was in a very good mood... mostly.
She was startled when she found her aunt still up, sitting in the living area, glasses perched on the end of her nose and her head down, reading some papers. A pen was clasped between the fingers on her right hand, in case she needed it.
"And where have you been?" The older blonde asked without even looking up. She wasn't demanding, she was just asking. She felt a protectiveness over her niece, after seeing how her own sister, Judy, had ended up. If it hadn't been for her uncle, a judge himself, telling her to go to her sister, who needed help but would not ask for it, she probably wouldn't have known Judy had got a divorce let alone had a problem with Alcohol. She wished their mother had still been alive to hold them together, but she had passed when Alex had been in witness protection... she hadn't even been able to attend the funeral.
She knew Quinn was strong, but she knew like all the Cabot's, she could be vulnerable too, and even hid that Vulnerability, until it poisoned their insides. So she was protective, even if it didn't look like she needed to be.
"You're still up" Quinn commented lightly as she slung her purse off her shoulder and put it on one of the table before she joined her aunt, favouring the arm chair, over the other half of the sofa.
"I was going over an old case file" She sighed. It wasn't that old, it was one where their suspect had got away clean, when the Detectives and evidence pointed so strongly to them. Sometimes she'd read over them to learn from any mistakes.
"Not the Caray Case?" Quinn asked sceptically, wondering if she might be working on it anyway if she didn't think Quinn was truly capable, or just regretting that she'd given the case to Quinn in the first place.
"No, I trust you Quinn... at least I hope I can trust you." She joked lightly, seeing as Quinn had become somewhat secretive lately. "Where were you?" she asked again.
"On a date" Quinn tried to sound nonchalant. The smile wanting to break free wasn't helping though. She'd gone on a date with Rachel, and that made her tingle.
Alex saw the expression on her nieces face and couldn't help but smirk a little, "She must be special, to have you smiling like that."
"She is" Quinn agreed, still fighting a grin, even the doubt in her mind couldn't extinguish it.
"Oh... anyone I know?" Alex eyed her niece over the rim of her glasses.
"Um..." she looked to her fiddling hands in her lap, that were playing with her door keys "Detective Berry"
She did her best not to smile at her own correct accusation. She had a feeling it had been Detective Berry. "Oh, I did wonder, with the way you've been looking at her"
The younger blonde deflated in her arm chair then cringed "Am I that obvious?"
"Not really. I suppose Novak and I may have noticed more because we've seen you talking to her in private a few times" Alex suggested, she didn't know if Casey Novak knew, but she might have, it wouldn't have been hard from their point of view to figure it out.
"We didn't want to make a big deal about it" Quinn muttered defensively. At least she figured Rachel didn't want to make a big deal out of it, while Quinn wondered if it would be considered unprofessional if people who worked together were dating.
"Okay" The analytical person, Alex was, wanted to ask if it was really both of them, or just Rachel who 'didn't want to make a big deal about it', but Quinn's concentration was already starting to trail "Are you okay?"
"Yeah" she then smiled "Yeah, I'm fine"
"Is something wrong? Something to do with Rachel?" Alex checked, out of her protectiveness over Quinn.
Quinn seemed to fidget, not sure if she wanted to say what she was thinking... but, she wanted another opinion so she didn't just sit there and doubt herself unreasonably. "Um... well, she walked me to the building door from her car and..." she really couldn't meet Alex's eyes, this was a little embarrassing to her. "Well we kissed, but- maybe I was a little eager- but, I just don't think she was that into it. She completely tensed when I held her, and... like she was barely, um, moving"
"Maybe you just surprised her" The older blonde said, offering Quinn some reassurance.
"Yeah... maybe" Quinn mumbled, as she started off into space, and processed the ending of her date with Rachel. Would there really even be a second date?
Alex started tidying the file away and took her glasses off, folding them and slipping them back into their case. "It's early days Quinn" she sighed "I'm sure things will work out" she assured a little more, before getting up and slowly leaving the room to Quinn and her doubt.
...
Rachel's thoughts were stuck on the date and that kiss. She kept quiet as she unlocked the front door and crept inside, it had gone midnight, and with the stressful days they'd been having, she imagined both her roommates would be asleep, or at least in their bedroom.
She went to the kitchen first, for a glass of water, before she decided she'd go to bed, feeling tired too. Her mind wouldn't leave Quinn though, and that surprise of a kiss. As she took a glass from the cupboard she stopped, a shakiness washed over her as she remembered the last kiss she'd had before Quinn's. It was him, her attacker her... rapist. That's how she'd woken up during the assault, with his lips roughly smothering her own. She exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself again... it worked for now. She tried to dismiss the reminder of his rough, suffocating kiss, and replace those thoughts with Quinn's. She erased his harshness with Quinn's softness. Her kisses were calming, even if it had had her heart racing at the surprise and sudden closeness from the other woman, and her frail enveloping touch. Rachel had been worried it would immediately take her back to that moment in that dark place from her past, and that she'd panic, but she'd managed to relax... at least she thought she had.
"Are you sleeping in your clothes again?" A voice from the doorway startled and distracted her. She looked over to her friend to find her leaning in the doorway.
"No, I've just got in" she chirped back, not realising her voice would sound so happy, or relived. Not wanting her Detective friend to start analysing her she looked away again and got back on the task of getting herself a drink.
She didn't see it but Santana cringed "Oh god, did Q have loads of paperwork for you? I saw her arrive at the office as I was leaving, if I'd known there was that much to go over I would have stayed" she excused, feeling extra bad for leaving Rachel like that.
"No, actually," she took a sip of water as she calmed herself "I went out, on a date"
Santana's eyes widened, so much so Rachel thought they might drop out of her skull, she wondered if Santana had stopped breathing too. Finally, to Rachel's relief, she spoke. "You went on a date and you didn't tell me before hand?" she sounded disappointed, even angry.
"Excuse me?" Rachel scoffed, confused that this was Santana's reaction, anger.
She glared at the shorter woman, wasn't her reasoning obvious? "You're like my sister Rach, I need to scope things out for you, do a back ground check on the guy, make sure he's good enough for you, you know, all the crazy best friend stuff"
Rachel just smiled, ducking her head shyly a little, before muttering "You don't have to worry, you know them"
"... Who?" She tried to think of all the people she could imagine Rachel dating. Yes, there were a lot of nice looking Detectives and officers at the precinct she might have picked up, but Santana couldn't think of one in particular. "Seriously who? Help me out here"
"I was with Quinn"
The tired, pyjama wearing Detective just narrowed her eyes, a little confused herself now "You and Quinn?"
"Yes" Rachel just nodded, and waited for Santana's reaction.
Santana didn't even blink as she asked again, for complete clarification, "You and Quinn were on a date?"
"Yes" Again, the shorter woman nodded, still waiting for Santana's reaction.
"Okay..." she said slowly before walking into the kitchen so she could take a seat at the small kitchen table... she then looked up at Rachel questioningly. "How? You're not a lesbian"
Rachel debated the right words in her head as she joined Santana at the table, taking a seat opposite her. "Well in my younger, dating years I never dismissed the idea of dating a woman if I was attracted to her."
"So you're attracted to Quinn?" Not that Santana was entirely surprised, Quinn's wasn't bad looking. If the opportunity had ever come along, maybe in their college years, she imagined something could have happened. But Santana hadn't been single since the beginning of senior year of high school.
"Um, yeah" Rachel answered with some awkwardness, it wasn't that she was lying, she just wasn't sure how she felt about talking about... things.
Santana raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You don't sound so sure."
"I am, I'm just not confident talking about it" She explained.
"Oh, well sure..." she shrugged, Rachel would squirm if Brittany said anything to her in Rachel's presence, not that Rachel meant to squirm so obviously, and she felt guilty when she did. "So... how come Quinn?"
"Well, she asked me out not long after we joined SVU and I turned her down but... I with thinking, you and Britt are so happy and... you want to move on so maybe I should too. And I should start dating and..." she trailed off, realising the implications here.
"She was just there?" Santana cut her off questioningly
"Well yeah," Rachel agreed reluctantly, Quinn was offering, Quinn was interested in her, and Quinn was someone she felt comfortable with, as well as perhaps a few other things, "but when I thought about dating her, the idea... I don't know, it just didn't scare me, I kinda felt excited. So I asked her out, and we had a reservation for this evening but we missed it so instead I dragged her to one of our usual bars"
"So how was it?" Santana asked, like a normal best friend who wanted the gossip.
"It was a nice quick fix date" Rachel concluded, not sure how much she should say, or wanted to say.
She smirked a little as she asked the next question, "Did you guys kiss?"
"Yes..." Rachel answered shyly, bowing her head to hide a blush, "that was nice too." she added quietly.
Santana just smirked some more at her reaction. "So, Quinn asked you first, huh?"
"Um, yeah." Rachel looked up only when her blush subsided "She asked me the first time I went to the DA's office after we joined the bureau" She quickly explained, hoping Santana could keep this to herself, she knew Quinn might be embarrassed thanks to Rachel turning her down first, "and then she was a little awkward but asked me to go for a friend drink with her and... we had a nice time. And she bravely told me some things" she muttered. She was trying to assure Santana that Quinn was serious and it wasn't just a light hearted fling, in the blondes eyes.
"What sort of things?" Santana was somewhere between just wanting information for old time's sake and still being extra protective of her vulnerable best friend.
"Like... you have to promise not to repeat these" Rachel told the other Detective sternly.
Santana rolled her eyes, "I won't."
"You better not," she warned again, not wanting Quinn to hate her. "Promise." She demanded.
"Yeah sure, promise, whatever. Just tell me" Santana rambled out impatiently.
Rachel took a moment first, asking herself if she should really say anything... but Santana was her best friend, who else was she going to tell, "She told me she'd had feelings for me for a long time, and that's why she became distant"
Santana leant back in her chair, deflated and disappointed. "Oh that."
Rachel narrowed her eyes on the other woman, "What do you mean 'oh that'?"
"Well, I already knew that." The Latina just shrugged dismissively.
She just continued to do that Narrowed eyed glaring thing she'd learnt off her best friend, "You're not that good of a Detective San, how would you have already know that?"
"Well when we met that Moreno and it clicked that Q's dating women, and then thinking back to that way she always looked at you-"
Rachel scoffing cut her off, "You really remember that?"
"Kinda" she nodded.
She returned to the narrowing of the eyes for her next accusation "Apart from memorising your girlfriends body I doubt you've got much else stored up there"
"There's other stuff burned into my brain, Berry" Santana retorted with a know-it-al tone.
"Oh yeah?" Rachel dared. It was playful really, even if to an outside it sounded serious.
"Yeah." Rachel noticed as Santana's face began to soften, "Like that night. When I took the photo's for you, I still remember the photo's I saw on your camera before I took those ones. Like I said it didn't click until the other day, but there was something in her eyes when you snapped a shot of her"
Rachel's eyes brightened with some kind of hope. "You think?"
"She told you herself that she's liked you for so long" Santana just shrugged.
"Yeah... but-"
"Well you don't have to doubt it now" She added, knowing what Rachel was going to hesitantly get at. It was real on Quinn's behalf, very real, so it was safe for Rachel to feel and care without risk of getting hurt. She had so much more to battle than that though, and she didn't even really know it yet. "So, details. The kiss, did she use tongue?"
"Eww, Santana" Rachel punched her in the arm, making the woman wince with her usual dramatics.
{}=-=
Wallace University
Standler Quad
Monday, December 21
"There's no way Tyler raped Will," Nathan said as he fiddled with the books in his back pack, like he was trying to find something, "he went a little far sometimes, especially during encounter sessions, but he'd never do something like that"
"What's an encounter session?" Rachel furrowed her brow. With the case spreading out and more leads to follow to find evidence so Quinn could confidently go through with the letting Will off easy, Rachel had been sent to the University, to question Nathan, alone. She'd found him with his girlfriend, Alicia, on one of the courtyards outside one of the buildings.
"Um, Ty and one of the Brothers would take a pledge down to the basement and smack you around, see how much you could put up with, but, someone always went with Ty to make sure it didn't get too out of hand" he muttered, but Rachel could still hear.
"Someone like who?" She just pushed, she just needed him to point some fingers to give her an idea of where they needed to go next.
He wouldn't even look her in the eye, his bag was so much more interesting. "I-I don't know, they kept the basement dark, there was... um, loud music... um, I'm sorry I've gotta..." he quickly kissed his girlfriend before hastily leaving, heading to whatever class he supposedly had.
"He doesn't want to get the brothers in trouble" Alicia told Detective Berry. She cared greatly for her boyfriend, they were kinda in this together too, so she'd stand by him, make his excuses, without hesitance.
"If he keeps lying about what happened in that frat house, he's the one who's gonna be in trouble" Rachel warned, and it wasn't an over exaggeration.
"I'll talk to him" The pink haired girl told the Detective.
"You do whatever you have to do but if he doesn't start cooperating with us, Nathan's going to wind up in jail" she warned again, she could see the care Alicia had for Nathan, she just wanted the boy to know the risks right now, he was their only other insight to the frat.
Alicia just nodded in understanding.
Q~Q
The 16th Precinct
Olivia just put the phone down after getting their latest information. "Well that was Fin, the lab found nothing on the paddles seized from the frat. They've searched Xander Henry's apartment, Tyler spent a lot of time there with his dad but there's nothing there either" she sighed with great disappointment. She abandoned her desk to join her partner and Councillor Fabray at the Perspex board, with their crime notes pinned to it.
"And both the alleged victim and his best friend say there was no rape" Rachel sighed too. No word from Nathan yet either. "Also Nathans covering, he's still trying to show his frat buddies what a stand up guy he is"
"There is no case here, why are we even debating this?" Quinn knew she was disappointing Rachel, but without proof she couldn't do anything, they had no case, she had to say it. This was her big break she couldn't mess it up.
"We're waiting on the a certain someone to come forward" The younger Detective just muttered lowly.
Olivia spotted someone approach behind her partner, "Rachel" she warned, before anything else was said.
"Detective Berry?" Rachel turned around to find Alicia, looking a little nervous, but pleased with herself too.
"Alicia, is everything okay?" she furrowed her brow at the girl, was Nathan okay, had she pushed too hard?
"Yeah, I ah... I got what you wanted" the student pulled a book out from her bag, a damn big book that had barely fit in the bag to begin with. It looked old, or was just made to look old with its leather cover and thick paper pages.
"What's this?" The Detective asked, her brow still furrowed. Olivia and Quinn looked just as intrigued as Rachel took the heavy book and put it down on the nearest desk, Olivia's desk.
"The Tau Omega Initiation Ledger" Alicia sounded pleased with herself "They keep a journal of what they do to the pledges, this one goes back to the 70's-"
"Did you steal this?" Rachel halted all thoughts, all excitement of success from the student.
She didn't answer directly, she just abruptly said "It has everything you need to know-"
"We can't accept it" Rachel told her, with a sigh, they were close but still as far away as ever.
"It's all here" her stressed voice had gathered the attention of Captain Cragen, calling him out of his office. "Not just pledging either, its like an instruction manual" she opened it to a random page and read the first incriminating thing she could find "Spike a girls beer with grain alcohol and watch her eyes roll over. Tell her she can sleep it off upstairs and let the games begin. Just make sure you dress her again when you're done" she spat the words with disgust, they were vulgar, sick, how could anyone write such a thing, let alone do it. "Please, just read it" she begged the Detectives as their Captain stepped up behind them.
Olivia looked to the captain, "We've made cases before, with stolen evidence," she pointed out.
Cragen thought about it, then nodded "Okay, let's roll the dice"
...
"I think we cracked pledge Suzy's skull tonight playing hammer ball. We couldn't wake him up, so we dumped him outside the ER" Rachel read aloud to the full team, Captain, and still present and hands on Councillor.
"Where did this come from?"
"An informant" Rachel answered blankly. "And every entry is worse than the last, it's like each pledge class wanted to outdo the one before it" She added with disgust before sharing the book , passing it to her partner.
Olivia scanned over the other entries on the same page as the one Rachel had read, one caught her eye "Pledge Cathy was being a weenie tonight, so we showed him what we do to weenies. He'll crap blood tomorrow but we'll make a man out of him yet" She cringed. "That entry was dated the day Will Caray says he was raped"
Fin just shook his head, equally disgusted by the things he was hearing. "This wasn't an initiation, this was pure sadism"
"We should close these idiots down" Santana agreed, wasn't hazing alone illegal, let alone this shit.
"Does the Ledger give any names?" Quinn asked eagerly wanting to know who she was prosecuting.
"Just frat Pseudonyms" Rachel had read too much as it was.
"What's Tylers?" the young Lawyer pushed.
"The pledge master is referred to as Brother Dahmer" Olivia looked to her captain as she reported, with almost an eye roll at these boys further antics. The whole thing was sick even in its details.
"That's cute" Cragen muttered sarcastically.
"In reference to the serial killer?" Rachel asked. That sure was sick.
"I'm guessing so" Santana agreed for her, while the 'adults' continued to calculate what to do next.
"What do you want to do councillor?" The captain asked the young ADA.
"Well I was sceptical about Will's rape trauma defence but, I'll plead him out, man two" she nodded, knowing that would also appease some of the Detectives in the room. "With this evidence, he'll probably get 5 years probation"
"That's getting off pretty easy for murder" Fin sounded a little disappointed that he'd get off easy.
"If Will Caray was a woman who killed a rapist, would it be an issue?" Quinn argued back, not aggressively, just pointing out the different ways you could look at the case, now that they had evidence.
"The question is what do we do about the frat?" Santana interrupted, there was more than one victim, surely there was more than one perp "I mean Tyler Henry has already been punished, he's dead, but I bet he didn't act alone"
"Right" Olivia interrupted as she had found something else in the ledger "The day of Will's rape, two frat boys ran the initiation, Brother Dahmer and Brother Kong"
"Who's Brother Kong?" Quinn asked the obvious.
"The guy who's been writing in the ledger this year" Olivia reported.
"Let's get him, even if he just guarded the door he's still in accessory to rape" The captain gave the orders.
"Will should be able to give us his real name" The shortest Detective said as she grabbed her jacket.
"So should Nathan Angeli" Quinn reminded they had more than one option. Rachel and Olivia nodded in understanding, Nathan would be easier to manipulate, and they could take him out of his environment.
...
"I told you, I don't know anything about Will being raped" Nathan protested. He sat one side of the desk in one of the interview room, his Lawyer sat by his side to 'protect' him, and get a load of money in the process. The interrogation rooms were more basic than this room, but it was basically the same thing, more like a disguised interrogation room.
"Nathan, do you know anything about pledges being dragged unconscious to the hospital?" Quinn sat opposite, alone. The Detectives were watching from Cragen's office, which shared a wall with the room, in case there were any problems.
The student paused before finally answering her "No."
She pulled out a book, a photocopy of pages from the ledger, the real one was safely locked away. "Copy of the Tau Omega initiation ledger" she opened to a highlighted passage, one the Detectives had read earlier "We dumped pledge Suzy by the ER doors, Pledge Nancy dropped his legs twice so I had to take a Hockey stick to his knuckles" she then looked back to the boy with determination, she would break him. "You were pledge Nancy" she accused.
"We're not discussing a deal until I've had a chance to read that" his Attorney, James Woodrow, demanded. He wasn't about to let his client get buried.
"Knock yourself out, your client knows exactly what it says," she slid the copy across the desk to him. "You're already on the hook for helping Will dump Tyler Henry's body, that's hindering prosecution, two and a third to seven. With this I've got a shot at assault, depraved indifference, maybe even conspiracy to commit rape."
"Y-you gotta help me out" he almost begged the man his parents were paying for.
"What are you offering?" he asked the young, but not to be underestimated, ADA.
"Suspended sentence, no jail time, in exchange for Nathan's testimony against the fraternity" it was that simple for him to get out, so why did the boy look so hesitant?
"You've got a deal" the Lawyer answered for his client.
"Good," she let some satisfaction wash over her before she got stuck in with the questions and statement gathering. "Who was brother Kong?"
"Rob," he swallowed thickly, "Rob Sweeney."
...
As Detective Benson and Berry approached the frat house they found Pledges in bibs and diapers, drinking beer as the others chanted 'drink' at them.
"Detectives, want a beer?" Rob called out as he saw them approach. He held a hockey stick in both his hands.
"Yeah, anyone who doesn't want to be arrested for underage drinking I suggest you leave now." Olivia said dryly getting the desperate diaper wearing boys to quickly get inside. The other brothers hung around though, wanting to see what went down; these Detectives looked pissed.
"Rob Sweeney, you're under arrest for aggravated sexual abuse." Rachel grabbed one of his hands and her cuffs while Olivia took his hockey stick weapon away from him.
He scoffed and screwed up his face in confusion, "I didn't abuse anybody."
"What do you call beating up a pledge with a hockey stick?" Olivia asked, holding his own weapon in front of him, he didn't; look threatened by it though... unlike his pledges who might have.
"Pledge hockey?" he asked with a joke-y sarcastic tone. Oh how Rachel wanted to strike him across his smug little face with his own hockey stick as he said those words.
Rachel just started reeling off some form of the Miranda rights "You have the right to remain silent smart ass, you give up that right anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, in the unlikely event that daddy can't afford one for you, the court will appoint one to you..."
...
"Weren't you people ever young? Don't you know the difference between a harmless prank and assault?" this time they really had put him in an interrogation room, and Tutuola and Benson had been elected to talk to him. Quinn was standing in too.
"Well why don't you explain it to me? But speak up because I'm starting to lose my hearing" Fin requested with heavy sarcasm.
Any chance of conversation was cut off when the door to the room was opened abruptly, and in stepped Xander Henry, the murder victim's father. "Not another word, Rob" he told his sons frien.d "I want to see your arrest warrant" he glared at the young Lawyer.
"Mr Henry you can't represent this client," she accused. It wasn't right.
"Why? Because I might expose the fact that you cut a sweet heart deal with a murderer and now you've decided to prosecute an innocent kid," he suggested very angrily. Quinn had grown up with an often angry father, she could handle it... even if it churned her stomach a little.
"No, because Mr Sweeney's abuse of Will Caray led directly to your son's death, that's a clear conflict of interest" She said back, with equal aggression.
{}=-=
Chambers Of
Judge Lois Preston
Tuesday, December 22
"She's letting my son's killer go" Mr Henry started the argument before they'd even reached the red head judges office.
"Mr Henry can't be an objective advocate, he has a personal stake in this, he's the murder victims farther, he's representing the interest of his son" Quinn explained, desperate too to make her point, and win this thing, for the right reasons, and maybe for a certain Detective.
"It's incentive, not conflict" he corrected as they slipped into the Judge's office, Rob Sweeney in tow "My Son would want his best friend acquitted and his killers ludicrous defence discredited, there is no diverging interest."
"He's right, but it's your call Mr Sweeney." The judge decided easily, not that she didn't admire the young Lawyer's initiative and determination. Still, the law was the law. "The court will grant you a continuance if you want to find a new Attorney."
"I don't your honour" the smug boy made his decision just as easily as the experienced judge.
"The record must show that Mr Sweeney waved his right to alternate council" Judge Preston finished before finally getting to take a seat at her desk. As usual it had been a long day for her. "Is there anything else?"
Of course there was. Xander Henry pulled a blue envelope from his jacket and passed it to the judge "Motion to suppress the Tau Omega Ledger as a illegal seizure, your honour"
"Detective Berry received the ledger from an informant" Quinn tried to excuse, knowing her side of the argument would be weak.
"Alicia Morley, who broke into the Tau house and vandalised it to the tune of $4000 and stole the ledger" Henry corrected Quinn with information she had not been informed of. What vandalism?
She kept cool though. "Even if the ledger had been stolen that doesn't automatically make it inadmissible"
"It's inadmissible if she was acting in agent of the police" he argued right back, while the judge watched the tennis match discussion.
"Alicia came to the police on her own," Quinn defended.
"After Detective Berry told her to do whatever she had to to help the police make their case, which means she was acting under her direction, which means the ledger is inadmissible." Quinn didn't like the sound of that, Rachel might be in trouble even if it wasn't true.
"I agree" Judge Preston just nodded "Motion to suppress granted, the ledger is out"
...
When Quinn was done at Judge Preston's chambers she had to go straight to the 16th precinct, she 'd just got out of the elevator on the SVU floor when she caught Rachel in the corridor.
"Hey Berry!" she called out getting the woman to stop, turn, and look at her with those big brown eyes that usually made her melt, but right now she had to know what really happened.
"What's wrong?" she asked casually.
"Did you tell Alicia Morley to do whatever it takes to help you make our case?" she asked, angry, but trying to keep herself in control. She felt played, a little betrayed even... if that was the truth.
"What?" Rachel's face screwed up in confusion "no, of course not... I ah.." her face dropped "I told her to do whatever it takes to get Nathan to speak up, we knew he knew something. But I didn't tell her to steal" she explained fully.
"Was anyone else there, to vouch for that?" Quinn asked intensely.
"No" Rachel shook her head and sighed "Just me and Alicia."
"Damn." Quinn sighed too.
"What's going on?" It was obvious something had gone wrong, Rachel just needed to know how deep in the shit she was.
"The ledger is out because Alicia acquired it unlawfully. We already knew this could happen but now Henry is implicating that you persuaded her to do it" she sighed, more heavily than before
"Shit" Rachel seethed
"Indeed" Quinn agreed reluctantly "Sorry I yelled" she ducked her head ashamed. "By the way, I really enjoyed our date last night" they'd gone on a second date in the middle of the week, the kiss had gone better at the end too, though Quinn had still felt hesitance and tension from Rachel, and not the good kind. It had definitely been smoother though, anyway.
"Me too" Rachel smiled back shyly. Then her head went back to work "I'll grab Olivia and we'll go pick up Alicia, get all the details"
...
"Tyler's dad came to see me, he said I was going to get arrested for stealing the ledger, I freaked, I told him I was just doing what you told me" the girl snivelled in her seat in the interview room.
"Well, I didn't tell you to steal anything, and I sure as hell didn't tell you to vandalise the fraternity" Rachel kept calm, not wanting to upset the girl who was the only one willing to help them right now.
"I swear, I didn't wreck the place" she sniffed. All she had done was walk in and grab the book.
"Then who did?" Quinn asked.
"I don't know" she told them truthfully "Tyler's dad said I was going to go to jail, I'm sorry. I was just trying to help"
...
They got a uniformed officer to drive Alicia back to her dorm, they couldn't promise to make everything go away but Quinn was pretty sure she could get the girl's case to go away.
"Maybe the brothers vandalised their own frat house and made it look like a break in." Rachel suggested. They'd be filling in the rest of the team soon, but right now the Detective Lawyer duo just wanted to scope out their situation.
"Criminal trespass is just a slap on the wrist, a felony vandalism on the other hand buys you three years in jail." Quinn did point out, so Alicia would have got away for taking the book but not the supposed vandalism. Xander Henry was good at his job then.
"Tyler's father scares Alicia into saying I told her to steal the ledger makes it disappear." Rachel sighed as she paced the interview room.
"Yeah you've got to challenge her statement, tell the court you never told Alicia to steal anything, Olivia will back you up" Quinn reassured the Detective.
"And Alicia goes to jail for trying to help us out? I don't think so" she shoo her head, she wouldn't let that happen, not for her mistakes, even if it had just been a misunderstanding that had then been twisted by another Lawyer.
"Without the ledger all we have are the testimonies of Nathan and Will" Quinn argued... not that she wanted to put an innocent girl away, but she didn't like Rachel being in this situation either.
"And they've seen Sweeney in action, let them just pain the picture for the Jury" Rachel reassured Quinn it would be enough. Will had to speak, and Nathan did too now that he'd made a deal.
"Whoa, the word of two fallen pledges against the all American fraternity. Then Xander Henry will say they're lying, I can't prove otherwise, I lose" Quinn stressed as she watched Rachel think intently. At least she'd stopped pacing, it was starting to make Quinn feel sea sick.
"Quinn, Rob Sweeney enjoys causing pain, this is a bad guy who needs to be put away." The brunette reminded her- the woman she had been on a couple of dates with.
"Rach, I know..." she deflated. Then she used up the last of her determination for the day, "I'll do what I can, but in the mean time you, San, Olivia and Fin, you've gotta keep looking, find me something I can use to nail the bastard" she said softly, and passionately. Of course she cared, but she was constricted by the laws, and the laws within the laws.
"Thank you" Rachel muttered. That was all she could ask, she would do her part and Quinn would do hers and then they'd get the smug little prick.
The Detective then slowly walked round the table, stopping in front of the Lawyer. She stretched herself onto her tip toes and kissed Quinn, shyly, and simply, as that was all she felt she could do. Quinn pressed back, just a little, bowing her head to let Rachel's feet relax. But before she could take it further, and more intimate, it was over as Rachel pulled away, leaving the blonde more than a little disappointed.
Let us know what you think...
Sorry its shorter than usual :/