CH7

WORD OF WARNING, THIS CHAPTER IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. THIS STORY IS RATED M FOR A REASON.

READER DISCRETION, IS ADVISED. BUT IF YOU DON'T READ IT, LATER CHAPTERS WILL NOT MAKE AS MUCH SENSE.

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Kate was right on time. She was arriving at Castle's house at the same time as the ambulance to take Jessica to the hospital where she could get proper care. Then be questioned later after she woke up about her injuries.

She rang the bell to announce herself with the ENT's with a gurney waiting just behind here.

Suddenly the door opens and there is Castle with an 'I just kissed you' grin on his face that she just wants to smack off of. But refrained.

"We're here to take Jessica to the hospital." Kate tells him.

"She really should be receiving specialized care, Castle." Trying to get him to see the truth.

Rick hesitates. Jessica was so adamant about not going to a hospital and not wanting to go to the police. But he really does want what is best for her.

It only takes a few seconds, but he relents and invites everyone in. "She's just upstairs. Still sleeping." He tells them softly. Still not sure this is the best course of action.

Leading them all to the bedroom she is in. "You will need to be careful. She is hurt pretty badly."

Rick removes the comforter that is on top to expose her under the bed sheets. Thinking quickly, "Here, just loosen up the bottom sheet and pick her up using it to carry her with."

Kate helps with the fitted lower bed sheet and the EMT's start to wrap her up in it. And 1, … 2, … 3,… lift, onto the waiting gurney. The EMT's then start to try and remove the bed sheets, and Rick steps in, "Just keep them. I can get others."

The EMT's begin the process of moving Jessica to the ambulance. While Kate remains behind a moment.

"It's for the best Castle. She'll be fine." Kate tries to assure him.

"Have you seen the DVD?" Rick asks her.

Kate shakes her head. "I gave the bag to our ME to review. She'll tell me what she finds."

Seeing Castle's down turned face, "Are you alright, Castle?" actually a little concerned.

"It's just, …. I mean, …. What I saw." Rick just can't seem to put it into words.

Kate steps up, places a hand on each side of his face and looks him in the eye. And what she sees is tears starting to form.

"She'll be alright, Castle. We'll take good care of her." Trying to reassure Rick.

Rick just nods his head, leans in and kisses Kate on the cheek, "She really is a sweet kid." Rick tries to explain.

"I'll see you later, Castle." And Kate leaves the room and out the front door for her car. Wondering? He seems like a sweet and caring man. And he kissed me, twice. 'Damn it Kate, focus!' 'And you wanted to kiss him back' some voice tells her. 'Shut-up' is the response.

Kate follows the ambulance to the hospital and checks to make sure she will receive medical care and when she can come back to question the women. Is she mixed up in this case? If she is, how?

Arriving back at the 12th she heads downstairs to see Lanie and see if she is done reviewing what Castle gave her that was in the bag. Walking in she sees no one and calls out for Lanie. Not getting a response she heads for the little office Lanie has to do her paperwork in. Here she finds Lanie bent over her desk with her head on the table top. Crying?!

Concerned for her friend, "Lanie! Are you all right? What's wrong? Is it about what was in the bag Castle gave me?"

Looking up at Kate, Kate can now see she has been crying for some time. Her nose is red. As are her eyes. Everything about her body shows she is saddened. No devastated might be a better way to describe what Kate sees when she looks at Lanie.

With a shaky voice, Lanie responds, "That poor girl." Followed by a mere whisper even Kate can barely hear in the small room. "That poor girl."

Lanie picks up a disk and hands it to Kate. "Here, you should watch this. You should probably watch it with Captain Montgomery."

"What's on it?" Kate asks.

"Just watch it." Kate takes the disk and starts to leave. "Are you going to be all right? Should I send someone down?"

Lanie just shakes her head. "And Kate. When you watch. ….." Not sure just what to tell her. "Just, ….. just watch it Kate."

Now completely scared she takes the disk up to the captains office to tell him that Lanie has suggested that he watch it also.

Roy asks, "Why? Did she say what was on it?"

"No, sir. But when she gave it to me to view she was and had been crying for some time. She suggested that you view what is on it also."

Perplexed but knowing that almost nothing fazes that ME, he is now concerned as to what is on that disk.

"Give me 10 minutes and I'll be right there."

Kate simply nods and walks to the viewing room and places the disk in the drive and gets ready to start it.

True to his word Roy arrives about 10 minutes later and grabs a chair and sits next to Kate.

With a nod, Kate starts up the disk. Wondering, and not just a little concerned, about what is on this disk. What could possibly be on it to shake Lanie that much.

"Greetings, my name is Richard Castle. For those of you viewing this. I meet Jessica (motioning to the women laying on a bed that Kate recognizes from Castles house) some months ago. I told her to call me if she wanted to talk. It looked like she could use a friend. Tonight she called and I got her to tell me where she was, and I went and got her."

"When I saw her, her face was badly beaten and I wanted to take her to the hospital. But she refused. Next I asked if she had talked to the police about who had done this? At this point she became a lot frightened and said no. That she couldn't. Then I asked her who had done this, and she stopped talking at that point."

"She has not talked to me since that time. At present she is sleeping. Some how. I would like to clean her up and tend to her wounds, but figure someone must have done this to her. And for him to pay for this the police are going to need evidence. So that is where I'm going to start."

"First, (as they see Castle walk over to the bed) I'm going to do some scrapping of her finger nails. I doubt she fought back, but just to be sure." He then proceeds to scrape anything from under her finger nails onto a sheet of paper. When completed he dumps it into a bag. Seals the bag and writes something on it.

"Now for the other hand." Where they see him repeat the process.

They watch him spread out a couple of pieces of paper at her head. "Now I'm going to comb out her hair for any more evidence." While they watch Castle comb out her hair with a very fine tooth comb. Similar to the one used if you are checking hair for lice. He does this on one side then switches to the other. Bagging each and writing on the bag.

"Now I'm going to remove her shoes and bag them." Which the see him do.

"Now I'm going to do the same thing to her toes as I did to her hands. My reasoning for this, is she may have worn open toed shoes at some time. But while I say she probably did not fight back, can't be too careful."

They watch Castle repeat for her feet what she did for her hands.

"Now I'm going to carefully remove her dress and bag it also." They watch Castle carefully lift her up on one side to get to the zipper on the back. Slowly pull the dress a little to work her arms out. Then pulls the dress down past her feet and off. Then bag the dress and write on the bag. Leaving her wearing nothing but panties. Her bare chest showing that she was not wearing a bra. And with good reason.

They watch Castle move up to the side of the bed and hear Castle cry out and clamp his hand over his mouth. Then in barely more than a whisper, "Oh, Sweety. …. What did he do to you?" They watch Castle walk over and come back with a camera. "I'm going to take pictures and some close-ups of this and then move the video so you can see."

Castle then proceeds to take several pictures from a distance and then takes some up very close. The lens is almost touching her. Putting the camera down, Kate and Roy are now walking with the video it seems as Castle comes in close to Jessica with it.

"Oh, God!" Kate says before matching Castle's actions and clamping a hand over her mouth.

Roy for his part is silent, but is beginning to boil on the inside. He has kids at home. And if this was one of his?!

"There is severe bruising on her left side." As them see Castle's hand kind of skim over the area without touching it. "This area here appears to be recent. While this area appears to be older."

"I'm going to get some sticky tape and see if there is anything to lift off of these areas." And the video moves back to it's original location and they watch Castle apply small strips of tape to her and then place them over a piece of glass, and then bag it.

"Judging from the size and location of the bruising. I'm going to say it was a fist. Fairly large." As Rick makes a fist and compares the bruising to the size of his fist.

Next they watch Castle come back into view with a tape measure and measures the bruising and is making notes in a note book. Something Kate assumes was also in the bag Castle gave her.

"Now, I'm going to go down her hip and to her thigh on her left side." Finding nothing on her hip he moves down to her thigh.

"I think is see something. But I need to move her legs a bit." Watching a Castle get up and begins to spread her legs apart. He has barely started when suddenly. "OH, For The Love OF, …." And Castle backs away.

Kate and Roy can't see much from this distance, but both know dried blood when they see it. Castle comes back into view and has the camera again. Spreading her other leg wider. They can hear Castle, "SHIT!" He then starts taking pictures. Having finished with the pictures he appears in front of the video.

"Ok, I'm going to move this in for a closer look. I"ll warn you, it is not pretty." As the video moves in closer, Kate and Roy can see that her panties in the crotch area are caked with dried blood. And there is dried blood running down the inside of each thigh. There is also severe bruising on the inside of each thigh.

The video backs out and is returned to its position as before.

"Now I'm going to see if I can get blood samples and use some more stickies on the bruising."

After finishing this part. Castle is back with an object in his hand.

"I'm going to cut the panties away instead of trying to pull them off." And proceeds to cut them at one side and then move around the bed to the other side and cut on that side. Then he starts to pull the top front of the panties down.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" Is all Kate and Roy hear as Castle walks out camera range but can still hear him. "THIS ISN'T RIGHT! THIS ISN'T RIGHT! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" As Castle comes back into view and then back out of view to the other side. Now they watch him pacing as he passes in front of the video while mumbling. "This is not right! Not right. SHIT, shit, shit."

"Pictures, need pictures." Kate and Roy can hear him say. They can see him taking several pictures. Again from a distance and some very close. Putting the camera down on the bed. He steps into view of the video. And Kate and Roy can see the horror written all over his face. And that he is crying.

"I'm going to move the video in closer." He seems to be warning. "I hope whoever is watching didn't eat lunch recently." Yup, sounded like a warning that time.

As the video gets in close, Kate slaps both her hands over her mouth, and "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" Mimicking Castle without recognizing that she is. Roy simply slams his hand down of the desk, Hard! And does it twice more for good measure.

Both can see as Castle moves the camera around that someone has taken a knife to her and sliced her 'Vulva' into nice tight deep lines. Like what those commercials for super sharp knives show you can do with a tomato after just cutting thru some metal object. And are those, ... stitches?

Kate while looking, still with her hands over her mouth and not breathing, cannot find her 'Clitoris'. It's as if someone had cut it out and left a deep wound. Unconsciously clamping her legs closed thinking just how much that had to hurt when that was done.

Roy has gone from pounding the desk to hitting the tops of his thighs with both fists. One for each leg. Kate, still holding her hands over her mouth is now starting to cry and shaking her head. As if this would somehow clear away what she sees.

Castle, meanwhile has moved the video back to it's location. "I'm going to work my way up her right side now in a copy of what I did on the left side." And Kate and Roy watch as he does just as he said he would. Taking samples and bagging everything.

"Now I'm going to examine her chest area." Again he uses stickies everywhere he goes and bags them. And again takes pictures. "The ' Monster' seems to have left her chest alone. Maybe this piece of scum only likes women with bigger breasts? IDIOT!" Kate can hear his kindness of her chest size in his voice, which looks like a teenage boy, rather than a grown women.

"Now that I'm back up to her head area, I'm going to take some swabs of inside of her mouth. Maybe he forced he to do, …..! Yea! Not going there" And proceeds to practically clean out the inside of her mouth.

"I'm going to hate this part. Really hate this part. But I'm going to do a Rape Kit on her." They watch Castle as he walks off video and comes back with items that he needs. And they both watch silently and Castle does his work. Stopping part way and coming back with a pair of stainless steel scissors.

After finishing and bagging everything, "I really hope there is something in all that! I don't ever want to have to do that again!"

"I'm not a doctor, but when you are up close. I could swear this asshole has removed her Clitoris. Cut it right out. Well, the part you can see and touch, anyway."

"Ok, I'm going to roll her over now and look at her back."

Kate and Roy watch as Castle closes her legs back together and gets on the side of the bed and proceeds to slowly push to roll her over. After he succeeds, he stand back to survey the back side of her body.

"There appears to be some bruising at the base of her neck, and some bruising on the backs of her arms near her shoulders." Rick states. Then proceeds to take pictures, and proceeds to take samples using more stickies.

They then watch as Castle comes to the foot of the bed and appears to be spreading her legs apart. When suddenly, "OH GOD!" And he rushes off video. And moments later Kate and Roy can hear what sounds like someone vomiting in the distance. And a short time later the unmistakable sound of a toilet flushing.

Castle comes back into view, looking a little more pale then when they last saw him. And proceeds to take pictures and use still more stickies.

"I'm going, …. Going to use another, …. Another Rape Kit, on her, …. On her." Castle doesn't finish, just does what he said he was going to do.

"I'm, I'm, …." Rick just stops talking and suddenly the video is moving in closer to Jessica again. Soon the video is in close. Kate quickly puts her hand over her mouth and turns her head from one side to the other, looking for something. Finally bending over and emptying the contents of her stomach into the trash can next to the desk. Roy just shuts his eyes and tries to breath, before opening them again. Knowing that as the Captain he needs to see this.

Kate has seen a lot of bad things. Part of the job she likes is the messy ones. The ones that present a challenge. But this isn't a challenge. This, as a women, is a 'NIGHTMARE'.

Castle finishes what he said he was going to do, and turns to the video, "I'm done for now and going to turn the video off. I'm going to give her a thorough sponge bath, hook her up to an IV, give her some pain medication and some general anti-biotic's as well as a light sedative to make sure she stays asleep." Forever thankful that she has slept thru all of this. Now if he could just go back in time and prevent this from every happening in the first place.

Castle, looking straight into the video, still with tears coming down, "I don't know who is watching this. But I want this piece of scum. Give me just one minute alone with him, and you can have what's left of him. That's all I ask!" And the video ends.

Unknown to Kate and Roy, is that after turning off the video, he is now sitting on the floor with his back up against the bed, banging away at it with his back as he rocks back and forth, crying. Heavily. Deep heaving sobs, that take his breath away.

Kate is just sitting there looking at the empty monitor. Grateful that the nightmare pictures are over. With tears running down her face, and her bottom lip quivering.

Roy rises, turns to Kate, "I want this guy Beckett! I don't care what it takes, or how you do it. I want him!" Then turns and slams his fist into the door and walks away, leaving a hole in the door on this side. (hollow core door) Kate can hear him striding away and the sound of his office door slamming shut so hard, it's amazing the glass didn't break.

"So do I, sire! So do I." Kate whispers to empty space. Taking the disk out of the player and heading downstairs. It was time to go see Lanie. Kate needed someone close. Someone to remind her she is alive. With a little voice in her head that she did not argue with, at least not this time. ' Castle would be a better choice.'

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I know I'm going to get a lot of mail about this, and I'm really sorry for what happened to Jessica. However, thru research the practice of Female Circumcision is a lot more wide spread then you could possibly imagine. It is still practiced even today. And is growing. There are literally millions of women that have had this procedure done on them. Some by their own mothers, who had also undergone the procedure. A truly sickening thing to do to any woman, for any reason.