IMPORTANT INFORMATION. PLEASE READ.
So some of the reviews that were left for the last chapter made it seem like you guys were kind of annoyed with me/how the story is going. I just want to address some things before I go any further with the story. 1) I'm sorry if you don't like that I put Jude and Connor in the story. But, I was planning on introducing Connor before I even published this. I hope it won't deter you from reading the rest. 2) Some of you were confused as to why Jude couldn't fend off the college kid. I was trying to portray that no matter who you are, a trained spy or an average Joe, you can fall victim to abuse. Just because Jude was highly trained for that kind of situation doesn't mean that he wouldn't freeze in the moment. Sexual assault/rape is something that NO ONE is ever prepared for. You never know how you will react. I felt like I built Callie and Jude up to be these super-humans who couldn't destroy anyone who tried to hurt them. I'm trying to show you that that isn't necessarily the case. I hope I didn't upset too many of you with the last chapter. Please read on.
Stef's POV
"Oh, um, I'm sorry but you've been mistaken." Dr. Mendez paused and looked at the kids who were staring at him intently. He leaned in closer to Lena and me. "Maybe the three of us should go talk privately."
After he said those words my heart nearly stopped beating. Was Jude more seriously injured than we thought? Was he going to survive this?
"No!" Callie jumped up from her seat as she shouted. "I want to hear what's happened to my brother. I need to be there to protect him." Her face was plastered with determination but her chin began to tremble.
Dr. Mendez eyed me for an answer.
"Its fine, she can come with us." I stood and put an arm around Callie while being mindful of her bruises.
Lena, Callie, Dr. Mendez, and I walked down a long corridor to a private waiting room. We all sat down and waited for the doctor to speak.
"Is my brother dead?" Callie's words broke the deafening silence. She stared straight into the wall.
"No, Jude is alive and he is going to stay that way. But, his injuries are worse than you were led to believe." Dr. Mendez cleared his throat and rolled up his sleeves. "Jude was brought in with a broken eye socket, most likely caused by a hit to the face, severe abdominal bruising, and… and signs of a vicious sexual attack." The young doctor's words bounced around in my head. I tried to make sense of them but I couldn't.
"Jude was… he was raped?" Callie asked through tears. "Someone raped my little brother?"
"I'm sorry, but it looks that way. I need to perform a rape-kit so I can gather evidence. When I brought it up to him he became violent; we had to restrain him. He keeps asking for Callie." He motioned to Callie. "I assume that's you?"
"If you take me to him then I'll try and talk him into it. He'll listen to me."
Once again, Dr. Mendez looked to me and Lena for approval.
"Of course, go ahead and take her to him. We'll go back and wait with our other children." Lena stood, pulling me with her. We walked out of the room and down the hall hand-in-hand. Just before we got to the waiting room Lena stopped walking and pulled me into a hug. She wept into my shoulder as she clung onto me for dear life.
"Everything is going to be alright, my love. It's going to be a long recovery but we will help him through this. He's going to be okay." I rubbed my wife's back and tried to soothe her sobs.
"Why did this have to happen? Those two have been through so much… and now this? I just want to keep them at home forever so no one can ever hurt them again." Lena pulled back and wiped her tears off her cheeks. "What do we tell Mariana and the boys?"
"We let Jude decide what he wants everyone to know." I took Lena's hand in mine once again and we finished the walk back to our other kids.
Callie's POV
Dr. Mendez led me down another long hallway. The walk felt as if it took years. But we finally reached a dimly lit room at the end of the hall.
"He's in there. I'll be right out here if either of you need me." Dr. Mendez motioned to the door.
I walked in slowly. There was a single bed in the middle of the room. Machines were beeping all around me accompanied by Jude's soft breathing. Bloody bandages covered the countertops.
"Bravo?" I called out. The blankets shuffled a little and I saw Jude's wet eyes staring back at me. I ran to his side and pulled him into my arms. "Oh Jude I'm so sorry." I cried. "I promise that I will find whoever did this to you and wring their neck."
"Callie… why did this happen? Why did this have to happen to me?" Jude sobbed into my shoulder. He tried to grab onto me but the restraints prevented him from doing so. He whimpered when his movements were hindered. "Will you take these off of me? I feel so powerless in them."
Jude raised his hands up to me and revealed the soft cuffs that bound his wrists. I nodded and unhooked the clasps.
"Now, when the doctors come back in you can't try and hurt them. They are only trying to help you." I enclosed his hands in mine and laughed at how much larger his were than mine. "When did you grow up? I used to hold your hands all the time when we were little. When did you get bigger than me?" Tears sprang to my eyes when I remembered the little boy who used to cling to my side.
Jude smiled weakly but it soon disappeared. "They want me to do a rape-kit. I know that it will help them collect evidence but I don't think I can be violated twice in one night." A tear fell from his eye and he quickly wiped it away.
"This will be different. You will be in complete control. If you say stop, they'll stop. No one will make you do anything you don't want to do. And I'm sure with all of the pain medication you're on you won't feel a thing. We need to catch this asshole, Bravo. The evidence will help us do so." I brushed his messy hair away from his face. The deep gash on his eyebrow and bruises that had already formed made me want to throw up. "Do you think you can do that?"
He sighed deeply. "I guess so. But I want you and moms to stay in the waiting room. I don't think I could do it with any of you in here." His cheeks flushed deep red.
"Okay, that's perfectly fine. I'm going to go get the doctor and tell him your decision, okay?" I waited until he nodded to continue. "If you need me just tell a doctor or nurse and I'll be here before you know it." I kissed his forehead and caressed his cheek. "I love you buddy."
"Love you too, Cal."
I hugged him one last time before I left and then went to go find Dr. Mendez.
I found him at the nurse's station reviewing a patient's chart.
"Is that my brother's?" I asked when I approached the desk.
"Uh, yeah." He closed it and set it down. "How's he doing?"
"As best as can be expected. And he agreed to do the rape-kit. I told him that you would stop if you told you to. Make sure you go easy on him. And I took the restraints off of him. He isn't dangerous, just scared." I didn't wait for the doctor's response but heard him telling a nurse to prepare a kit as I walked down to the waiting room.
Connor's POV
I paced back and forth in the ER waiting room. Jude was unconscious when my dad and I found him and he didn't wake up until the doctors put some fluids in him. They made us leave the room. And later I heard Jude scream and then someone told a nurse to put restraints on him.
"Connor, you've been walking around this room for nearly two hours. Let's go home and get some rest. I'm sure his family is here by now. We can come back tomorrow if you want." My dad had been telling me that we need to go nearly every fifteen minutes. But I refused every time.
"No. I'm staying. WE are staying until we know that Jude is okay." I said directly. "I'm going to go check the other waiting rooms for Callie and her family."
I started to leave but ran directly into a blonde woman.
"Sorry buddy, I didn't see you there." She said. Her voice was tired but her eyes were kind. She peered around me and looked at my dad. I waited for his cheesy pick up line, but she spoke first. "Agent DiNozzo? We met a few weeks ago when I brought Callie in for her interview at NCIS."
She knew my dad?
"Stef, right?" My dad got up and walked over to us.
She nodded and the small smile left her face. "Thank you for bringing him in. And you must be Connor." She said to me. "Thank you so much for calling Callie. We were getting so worried. I was actually on my way down here to see if you guys were still here."
"Is Jude okay? He was in bad shape when we found him." My heart was beating super-fast. I'd only known Jude for a short period of time but I felt like we were on the path to becoming really good friends. After all, he was the only kid my age that I knew.
"Uh, well Jude is going to be fine, but it is going to take him some time to heal from this." Stef said sweetly.
"Can I see him? I understand if I can't but I just wanted to make sure that he was okay." I looked down at the ground waiting for my dad or Stef to shoot me down, but it didn't happen.
"If your dad doesn't care, I could take you to see him. I'm sure he'd like to see you." Stef smiled down at me.
I looked up at my dad and pleaded. "Please dad? It won't take long and then I promise we can go."
"Ahhh, sure why not? Just come down here when you're ready to go. And tell Jude I say to get better soon."
I thanked him quickly and followed Stef to Jude's room. We stopped just outside the door.
"I'm just going to warn you that he probably won't be in a very good mood. It's nothing against you, he's just had a rough night… as you know." Stef smiled at me again and patted me on the shoulder.
I nodded and opened the door slowly. Jude was laying in the inclined bed with his eyes shut. When the door shut his eyes popped open and he whipped his head to the side to see who had come in.
"Connor? Is that you?" He squinted his eyes as he strained to see me.
"Uh yeah. I hope it was okay that I came in. Your mom said I could see you before I left. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay…" I took a few steps closer. That's when I could really see the damage. The entire right side of his face was turning black and blue. Bruises were starting to form on his arms and there was another bruise in the shape of a hand over his mouth; almost like someone pressed their hand tightly over his mouth to keep him quiet.
"I'll be fine in a couple of weeks. Thanks for checking in." He smiled a little. "You can come in Connor. You don't have to stand by the door."
I laughed nervously and walked over to his bedside. "Oh! I have something for you!" I unzipped my book bag and tore out the drawing of him from my sketch pad. I handed it to him and he smiled wider. "I really like to draw people."
"Connor, this is amazing! You should go to art school or something!" Jude examined the picture closely.
I blushed and smiled at the compliment. "Thanks Jude. I wasn't sure if I was going to give it to you or not… you know since we just met and all. I thought you might have found it kind of weird. But I figured you could use a pick-me-up while you're here."
"I don't think it's weird at all. Thank you, really. I totally love it." He set the picture down on his lap. "And, uh, thanks for bringing me in here tonight. I don't think I would have been able to get myself here."
"Dude, we weren't just going to let you freeze out there!" I joked. He laughed which caused me to laugh too.
"I guess this means that I won't be able to go to the batting cages with you on Saturday." His smile faded.
"We could still hang out! I mean if you want to… I could bring some video games over and we could go to the cages another day." I offered. I hoped that he would agree. I was really looking forward to hanging out with Jude and hoped that he would still want to hang with me.
"Yeah, that sounds great! I mean, I'd have to ask my moms but I'm sure they would be okay with it."
"Sweet! Here, put your number in my phone. I'll text you so you have mine and then you can just text me when you ask your moms." I handed him my phone and he quickly put in his number. "Thanks! Well, I should probably go. My dad has to work in the morning and I'm sure you need rest. Let me know if you need anything. I'll make my dad drive me over here." I joked.
"Thanks Connor." He smiled and closed his eyes. I think the pain medication was starting to take a toll on him.
I walked down the hall to where my dad was and sent Jude a text.
Hey it's Connor! Prepare to get destroyed in COD on Saturday!
I smiled thinking about hanging out with him. I'd been in DC for nearly two months and I didn't have any friends. It was nice to know that I wouldn't be lonely forever.