TW: Mentions and discussions of rape.
oOo
She was surrounded by a cold darkness. Takagi was standing in front of her. His forehead was blown open and his bloody brains were dripping down his face. "Charlie…" he said softly. His expression somber.
Charlie gaped at him. "Y-You're alive? But I thought…"
He reached for her. "Charlie…" He repeated, his voice was raspy, his eyes going wide with an urgency she didn't understand. Charlie suddenly felt afraid.
"Am I dead?" She whispered fearfully.
"I'm so sorry." Mr. Takagi croaked and his cold clammy hand gripped her wrist with surprising strength.
Another hand appeared and ripped Takagi's away from her. "Don't mind him." She turned and saw that Hans was standing next to her. He was dressed in his fine suit and his hair was styled again, looking just like he had on Christmas eve. He held up his gun and said "You belong to me now." before leveling his gun at Takagi and shooting him. Charlie screamed as Takagi flew back and dissolved into the darkness.
oOo
A slow steady beeping invaded the haze in her mind. She opened her eyes to a dark room that she recognized in relief to be one belonging to a hospital. Finally! She thought as she lolled her head to one side to look around, her head swimming from whatever was still in her system. Her arm had been properly rebandaged and wrapped in gauze. She couldn't see under the covers but she was willing to bet that her leg had been treated too. A thought was able to come together through the fog. I need to warn the FBI.
She tried to lift her hand to touch her face, and a cold lump of fear formed in her stomach when she realized that both of her hands were cuffed to the bed on either side of her. Of course she began to freak out, and the spike in her blood pressure and heart rate brought the night nurse in to check on her. When the nurse opened the door Charlie saw that there was at least one officer waiting outside of her room.
"Oh!" The nurse said when she realized that her patient wasn't dying, just panicking, and went to retrieve the doctor. That's when all the questioning began. She stared at him blankly as he continued to ask what her name was, if she remembered what had happened to her, and if there was a family member or friend they could call for her. He had a slight French-Canadian accent.
She breathed a shaky but strangely relaxing breath. "Charlotte Durant, yes, no." She tried to keep her voice aloof, blunt even, but she cracked a bit at the end.
The doctor gave her a strange look, possibly at her own accent, before continuing. "Miss… Miss Durant?" She nodded. "Look, if you're feeling up to it, there's a policeman outside who would like to talk to you about what happened."
"Forget him," She said.
"Miss, if you would just-"
"Call the FBI."
"I beg your pardon?"
She swallowed the thick lump in her throat. "My name is Charlotte Durant, I work at Nakatomi Plaza in California. I'm not sure how long it's been but… on Christmas eve we were all taken hostage in the building and-"
"Wait, wait, you were there?" The doctor asked, his posture straightening a bit. He'd seen it on the news. The whole world had seen it at that point.
She nodded carefully, still feeling lightheaded. "A man named Hans Gruber kidnapped me and I've been his hostage since Christmas up until-" She stopped talking because the doctor had muttered a quick "Just a moment." before running off to speak with the officer outside, telling him to get someone on the phone with the Americans.
Charlie waited patiently for him or someone else to return, though her heart was pounding still. She wanted to curl into a ball and cry, or celebrate the fact that she was still alive, but mostly she just wanted to go home, take a shower, and sleep in her own bed. Unfortunately it would be over a month before she could do that.
It took about an hour for word to go through the channels and finally reach the FBI and two and a half more hours for them to send out a team to see her. In the meantime, someone at the hospital had learned of her identity and leaked to the press that a patient claiming to be a hostage from the infamous terrorist attack was found, and the agents just barely arrived before the crowd of reporters and vans that swarmed the hospital parking lot had grown to an unmanageable size. Several times the local police had to get on to the news crews for blocking ambulances. Many of them were from stations out of town.
Charlie had fallen asleep at some point before all of this and awoke to the sound of clicking and found someone in her room, a tall broad-shouldered someone. Her first thoughts had been Gun! and Hans! and she screamed, trying to crawl out of the bed. She felt stitches rip along her leg again-AGAIN!- as she put her full weight on her bad leg, trying to leap off the mattress. Is this real? She wondered in a panic as she stumbled and fell back against the bed when the handcuffs on the gurney kept her from getting up. The man was already turning to leave when two officers from down the hall came in to see what the emergency was, but the damage was already done. The officers each grabbed him roughly by an arm and hauled him out while two nurses arrived and attempted to calm her. She ignored them, pulling and twisting her arms, trying in vain to free herself. She didn't seem to care when the metal began cutting into her wrists. When she refused to be consoled they ended up having to sedate her. It was safer for everyone when she couldn't hurt herself. She couldn't even panic as she was forced into another chemical sleep.
The next time she woke, it was a slow process again, trying to fight against the drugs in her system that were telling her to stay asleep. She heard movement in the room with her and flinched, her eyes snapped open, wildly looking around for an attacker. What she found instead was in no way a threat, at least at first glance. It was a tall lanky sort of man, maybe about her age. He was dressed like a librarian right down to the sweater vest and khakis. She was so caught off guard, expecting another burly stranger in the dark, that she forgot to scream. She forgot to be afraid.
He had been reading something on a clipboard- her medical chart- but had stopped reading when he saw her flinch out of the corner of his eye. When his eyes found her open ones they widened slightly in surprise. She tensed, feeling like she'd sprung a trap. The heart monitor beeped faster.
"Hello." He said gently, not moving a single muscle in case she became agitated. "My name is Dr. Reid."
She stared at him for a second before saying the first thing that came to mind. "Y-You're a doctor?" Her voice was weaker than she'd meant to sound. Weak and fearful.
He nodded, a small reassuring smile. "I am, I promise. I'm here with the FBI."
She swallowed nervously. "You want… you're here for my statement?"
Very slowly and very carefully he placed the clipboard back on the end of the bed as he spoke. "Well, yes eventually we can get to that. Right now I just want to make sure that you're okay. You've been through quite an ordeal."
"FBI and a doctor?" She asked, sounding a little impressed. He couldn't be single too, could he? She glanced at the edge of the clipboard that she could see from her vantage point. "What does it say?"
His eyes flicked to the chart and then back to her. "It's just a list of your injuries." He replied.
"And what are my injuries?"
Now he did appear to be nervous, or at least uncomfortable.
"W-well… you've got multiple lacerations over your right arm and leg that appear to have been caused by broken glass. Those were stitched before your arrival to this hospital. In fact, several days before you arrived here. You have a fracture to your left zygomatic bone which is causing your black eye, a gunshot wound through your left shoulder that had also been treated before arriving, and…" He swallowed before continuing. "and bruising and lacerations along, uh… the inside…" He stopped to gauge her reaction. "W-We can talk about this later-"
"What are my injuries?!" She raised her voice slightly.
"We really should talk about this later, Miss Durant." He said, his own voice never changing from the gentle controlled tones, just becoming more urgent as his eyes finally left hers. "When you're feeling better."
"I'm feeling fine now." She replied, trying to match his calm demeanor.
"I'll let my team know." He said, and as if that was the end of the conversation he made his way to the door.
"W-Wait!" She called after him, a hint of fear back in her voice. "Don't leave me like this." She brought up her hands as far as they would go, showing where they were still cuffed to the gurney. Someone had been nice enough to bandage the skin of her wrists where the handcuffs had cut her earlier. "Please." She couldn't help that her voice broke. She felt pathetic.
A sympathetic look passed over his features for a brief second but then he nodded to her. "I'll talk to someone." And he was gone.
She took a shaky breath as tears escaped and rolled down her cheeks. She felt even more pathetic when a short time later Dr. Reid returned with two more people and everyone saw her crying. One of the people was the officer who had been outside her door when she first woke up.
"I've spoken with my team and we've agreed to remove the restraints on the condition that you promise you won't be a danger to anyone." Dr. Reid spoke quickly, almost practiced. "That includes being a danger to yourself."
"I'm not suicidal." She snapped, embarrassed that people might think that of her. "I promise I won't try to hurt anyone. I just want to go home… and be left alone."
The doctor nodded, motioning for the officer to step forward.
The officer approached her bed, not noticing how she tried to shrink into the bed when he walked up, and began unlocking the cuffs around her wrist. Charlie pulled her arms closer to herself and let out a shaky sigh. Using her better arm to try and lift herself into a sitting position was harder than she thought and when they saw her struggling with it, the second person walked forward and pressed a button on the gurney to lift the upper half into an upright position for her.
"Why was I handcuffed in the first place?" She asked softly.
Dr. Reid started to answer "Well from what we understand the local police thought you may have been a prostitute-" but he was cut off by the other person, a woman, when she slapped his arm and gave him a stern look.
Just when I thought I couldn't feel any more embarrassed. Charlie thought ruefully.
"Miss Durant, this is my colleague Agent Prentiss, she's going to ask you some questions."
Charlie nodded to say that she understood and Agent Prentiss pulled up a chair to sit next to her gurney, putting them at almost the same height. They waited quietly while the other officer put his handcuffs back on his belt and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"Miss Durant," The agent started. "Do you mind if I call you Charlotte?" Her tone was just as neutral. Safe and calm.
Charlie shrugged her response.
"I understand that some people call you Charlie?"
That got Charlie's attention, she looked the agent in the eye curiously.
"We've done extensive interviews with many of your colleagues. It was your boss, Holly Gennero, who insisted that you were still missing this whole time." She explained with a friendly smile.
"Is Holly okay? And John?"
"They're alright." Prentiss said quickly and Charlie let out another shaky sigh of relief. "Charlie, we just want to know what you remember from that night."
"He's gone to Germany." Charlie replied immediately. That's what she had wanted to tell the FBI, and now she had done it.
"I'm sorry?" Agent Prentiss asked.
"Hans Gruber." Charlie said, his name tinted with disdain on her voice. "He was saying that they were going to catch a plane to Germany. But that was… I don't even know how many hours ago, but even still you guys can find out where he went, right?"
Prentiss gave her a considering look for a second before asking "Why do you want to know where he went?"
"Don't you?" Charlie asked. "I thought you guys were going to put him behind bars? He's still out there."
Prentiss looked over her shoulder to share a look with Dr. Reid before turning back to Charlie. "There are people working around the clock to find him. You don't have to worry about him." She assured. "We're here to talk about you."
Charlie felt cold suddenly. "...Me?"
Prentiss nodded, her expression passive. "We want to know what you remember from that night. Anything at all could be helpful."
"Didn't you get enough of the story from everyone else?" Charlie asked, trying not to fidget.
There was a short silence before Prentiss answered in a gentle voice "Charlie… you were the only hostage that was not kept with the group. People said you were with Hans Gruber almost the entire time, and we need to know why."
Charlie had meant to be strong, collected and calm, but ever since she woke up- both times- she had been on a razor's edge, barely containing these huge emotions that threatened to blow up. She managed not to fly into a rage or start bawling, but she couldn't stop the fat, wet tears that streaked down her cheeks. God, I'm so pathetic.
oOo
It had been hard and embarrassing to relive, but Charlie gave the agent a sort of watered down version of her take on what happened at the Christmas party. She told the truth about meeting them in the lobby, Takagi's death, and how from nearly the beginning of the night she was privy to crucial elements of their plan but had no way of relaying the information to anyone. She spared a few details for the first time when she relived the part about the police trying to force entry to the building and being blown up for their troubles. It was a touchy subject and both agents took note of her reluctance, but did not push her. In truth she didn't want to have to reexamine too closely the moment where she began to feel attracted to the man who had taken her hostage.
She continued to tell them about her escape just before Ellis' execution and finding John McClane but once again, she began to spare details and was less descriptive when she told them about Hans finding them and reclaiming her with his detonators. She told them how he'd shot the glass trying to injure McClane and then tackled her into the shards. She glossed over how she was able to trade her life for the code to the vault. She was even less truthful when she told them how she was brought to the vault room where Theo was trying to crack the safe, skipping right over the part where she did it for them. The picture she painted was of her being dragged around helplessly and being incredibly lucky that they kept choosing not to kill her, which wasn't too far from the truth. She started to tell them about Hans cleaning her wounds and removing the glass but stopped short and that was where her story ended. She couldn't bring herself to relive that part; where she was drunk and delirious and his hands were practically groping her. There was too much happening between her and Hans that she was sure had been an act on his part and now she was feeling duped. Regardless, it was another moment where she felt herself falling for his effortless charm even more.
Prentiss started asking questions about her time with the remaining thieves after they escaped, and Charlie immediately shut down, and not just because the first few days were still hazy. She simply said "We spent the next few days driving to and then through Canada until they left me. My injuries were slowing them down… I thought they were just going to kill me." and wouldn't elaborate further in any way.
When it became clear that the interrogation was going nowhere, Dr. Reid took the chance to excuse himself from the room, thinking that the presence of a male may be making it hard for her to talk about it. But the female agent still couldn't get a proper answer out of Charlie. She only became more upset and closed off, begging to be left alone.
"Charlie, do you have any idea why he would bring you along with Takagi in the first place?" Prentiss asked.
"No, I don't." Charlie stressed. "I thought he was going to kill me to make a point to Mr. Takagi but then he killed him instead." She was crying again, her eyes wide as her mind showed her the image of his head split open, brains splattered across the room. She blinked quickly trying to force away the image. Her dream from last night flashed through her mind and she couldn't help but cry harder. He's dead now and I let that monster have his way with me. She felt dirty and used.
They took a break for what was technically a very early breakfast, and despite her hunger Charlie couldn't get herself to eat very much. She didn't feel like it. Even after the nurse came by and got on to her about it twice. She was sure the agent planned to return and continue to question her at some point but she fell asleep again. The next time she woke to a nurse coming to bring her more food and to tell her that a transport back to the states was being arranged for her.
"What day is it?" She asked as the nurse pulled the tray of lunch up to her bedside. Charlie ignored the food.
"January 2nd." The nurse replied automatically.
By the time another one of the agents came to see her she had only picked at the food, pushing the rest around the plate to make it look like she had eaten any, and was staring at the window where the curtains were drawn. She turned immediately when she heard the handle being turned and the door opened letting in some light from the hallway. The man who entered was not wearing hospital scrubs or a white coat so she assumed that he must be another agent. He was maybe in his late fifties or early sixties, and wore his shirt with the sleeves pushed up his forearms. "Hello." He greeted, leaving the door ajar behind him but not actually stepping any further into the room.
She frowned at his strange behavior. "Are you another agent?" She asked quietly.
"I am." He nodded. She saw him briefly glance at the chair that was still near her bedside from when the other agent had been there. It took her just a second to realize that he was giving her space. "My name is Agent Gideon."
"You want to know about the incident." She said, her eyes staring at her hands in her lap.
"Well, sort of. Mostly I would like to talk to you about Hans Gruber… would that be alright?" It was strange. This man had a genuine quality to his voice. When he spoke, Charlie was under the impression that she had his entire attention, and he did seem really concerned for her well being. He wasn't talking down to her or giving her the impression that she was in some kind of trouble. His voice was gentle in a reassuring way whereas Dr. Reid and Agent Prentiss had used neutral tones when speaking to her, but their voices had been a reserved gentle as if she was a wild animal or…
It dawned on her then. Victim. She was a victim. They were treating her like she was made of glass because it was very likely that she would break. Hell, she'd already had a meltdown earlier and had to be sedated. No wonder they were on their toes around her. She sighed heavily and answered his question. "Yes."
He didn't move from the door. "Are you sure? If it makes you uncomfortable to talk about it we don't have to."
"I need to." She replied, glancing up long enough to see something between pity and acceptance pass over his face for a second, and then he slowly approached her bedside chair.
She had been preparing herself to talk about something difficult, like anything that happened after Christmas. But mostly Gideon just wanted to know how Hans had been acting throughout the night of the robbery. What was his reaction to this? How did he respond to that? Did he seem to be acting this way when this happened? It was easy to answer those questions because they seemed to be all about Hans, and only him. That is until Gideon began to subtly slip in questions about her, starting with the exact touchy subject she wanted to avoid.
"When the SWAT teams tried to enter the building and were subsequently blown up, there was a moment where John McClane was arguing with Hans Gruber over the radio and a third voice was briefly heard getting into a scuffle with Mr. Gruber. Was that you?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I tried to take the radio from him so he couldn't keep ordering the attack."
"Weren't you afraid he would hurt you for that?"
"Yes. And he did." She thought of how he tackled her into the wall, the way he looked so smug and pleased as he ordered the attack. She remembered how he had tackled her a second time into the broken glass on the floor without a care for her safety. How could I have forgotten about how careless he was with me after only a few days?
Gideon nodded. "And a few hours later, just before they cut the power to the building there was another conversation on the radio." Charlie thought about it but didn't know what he was talking about. When he saw she wasn't following, he elaborated. "I believe McClane was asking Gruber about you. About what he was doing to you."
Oh. That. She thought. She had actually completely forgotten about that as well until this moment because nothing actually came from it. At least, not immediately. "He… he was threatening to rape me." She finally managed to say. "He said it to make John mad."
"Did he rape you?" He asked it so frankly yet with such a delicate tone.
"N-No." She shook her head firmly, her arms crossing over her chest, her eyes locked on the far corner of the room. As far away from the agent as possible. "Not there."
There was a slight pause as Gideon processed that information, but he was quick to move the conversation along. "What did he do after he said that?"
"They took several trips to load the ambulance."
"No, Miss Durant… What did he do right after he said that?"
She swallowed nervously, her heart racing as she remembered. The heart monitor betraying her panic. "He attempted to remove shards of glass from my-my leg and… clean the cuts."
"Did he say or do anything else?" Gideon continued prompting her.
"He told me he was taking me with them, in case they ran into trouble down the road. After that, John appeared. He had a gun but Hans told him to toss it. He said he was going to kill me if John didn't do what he said."
"Did McClane toss the gun?"
"Yes… but he had another one. Hidden somewhere. I didn't see where."
"Did Hans Gruber shoot him?"
She had a feeling he already knew the answer to this but she replied anyway. "He tried. I don't think he did though. The power went out at that point and…" She debated whether or not to tell him that John had shot her.
"Is that when you were shot?"
"Yeah… when the lights went out I grabbed his arm trying to keep him from shooting John."
"Did he shoot you for that?"
"...I'm not sure." She lied. He probably already knew that it had been John's bullet that hit her, but just in case he didn't know she wasn't going to sell him out like that. "It was dark and everything happened so fast. He might've?"
Gideon was quiet for a moment but Charlie didn't dare look at him. "What did McClane do then?"
"He ran. Hans was shooting at him so… he just ran."
"Did Gruber go after McClane or stay with you?"
She didn't know why but the question felt like a trap. She thought about it for a second but answered "He stayed."
"Did he try to help you?"
"I don't know. I wasn't very coherent at that point." A half truth. "The next thing I really remember is that they took me to the ambulance and I passed out in there." She finished with a small shrug of her uninjured shoulder. "They were using the ambulance as a disguise and he said they needed a patient anyway, so they used me."
"How long after they kidnapped you did he assault you?" Once again, she tried to shut down as they sat in a long silence. He already knows it happened, why does he need me to say it?
He continued softly. "Charlotte, when you were first brought to this hospital they preformed something called a 'rape kit' on you, do you know what that is?"
Her heart thumped hard, her throat felt dry. She nodded anyway, feeling tears threatening to form again.
"What they found showed clear signs of sexual and physical abuse…" He let that hang in the air while she still refused to meet his eyes. "It was Hans Gruber, wasn't it?"
The tears formed and fell and she was quick to wipe them away. That was all the agent needed to know the answer, but she managed a weak "Yes." after a few seconds.
"Was it at all consensual?"
She immediately shook her head, closing her eyes tightly as a fresh wave of tears fell. It wasn't a complete lie. That's what had hurt her the most about all of this. Right from the beginning she had known that Hans was a murderer before he even shot Takagi in front of her, and a thief when she realized he was trying to crack the vault, and a liar because of the first two things. She had no reason to trust him and every reason to fear him, but he was also incredibly charismatic and before she knew what had happened she let her guard down around him. She had allowed herself to believe the act that he clearly put on around her, that he could actually be a nice guy at times, that he really could be normal. That he might care for anyone other than himself. The first time they had been intimate had made her believe that he could be kind and caring. He had been so mindful of her injuries and so focused on her own pleasure when he could have just taken what he wanted and left her high and dry. This first time it really was consensual.
"How many times?" The agent's voice cut through her thoughts.
"I don't know." She lied, then remembered what Hans had said. Basing a lie on the truth can help make it convincing. She could trust a liar to know how to lie. "The last time was just before they left me behind."
"Charlie… what happened to you wasn't your fault." He said with a pointed tone. "None of this is."
"I know that." She bit out, though not at him. "It's his fault."
She had been avoiding his gaze as she spoke, it was easier to talk about the difficult stuff when she wasn't looking someone in the eye. After she finally admitted that a rape took place, they sat in silence for a while but she did eventually look him in the eye again. She was surprised by what she found. There was no judgment or pity as she had expected, just a gentleness that made her, for just a moment, forget that she was in a really shitty situation. Her gaze fell back to her hands and she asked something she had been wondering about. "Someone was in my room earlier, before Dr. Reid came in to question me, or read my chart I guess."
It was Gideon's turn to sigh heavily. "I apologize for that. There should have been more of an effort made to protect you."
"Who was it?"
"A reporter." He answered. "No doubt you'll be in the headlines tomorrow."
It took a second for her to process that. "...What?!" She shrieked and he actually jumped slightly. It was the first real outburst she had shown.
He began debating something for a moment before he decided to tell her. "I'm sorry. The incident at Nakatomi Plaza has been the top story all week, most countries are covering it too, and… when people heard that a hostage had been found they began setting up camp outside the hospital. One of the reporters was able to sneak in." He stopped talking as he heard her breathing become more shallow and panicked. "He's been dealt with and nobody else is going to get in again."
"How did they know I'm here?"
"My guess is that one of the nurses or doctors tipped off one of the locals and news spread from there." His expression took on notes of pity again. "As I said, the security around here was lacking and you were not given the proper protection and consideration."
"He took my picture." She realized, remembering that she had heard clicking noises. "He took my picture!" She repeated in a whimper as a fresh wave of panic seeped in. The heart monitor began beeping faster in response.
oOo
A.N.: Despite the addition of the BAU team from Criminal Minds this is not really a crossover so I'm not going to label it as such. Feel free to PM me if you disagree.
