POISON IVY

CH 14

ROSE

That was the best night sleep I had in a long time. I didn't know if it was the combination of my own bed, a fresh shower, or the company I had before I fell asleep. Speaking of that company, I still can't believe I met someone like him. He made me feel so comfortable and safe. No one has ever made me feel as safe as he did.

I was laying there enjoying my last few moments before I had to get out of bed when I heard my phone ding. I rolled over to grab it to see that It was a text from Dimitri. He was checking in on me. That was super sweet and made my heart skip a beat. I texted him back and told him I had just woken up. He told me he was on his lunch break and wanted to see how I was doing. I told him that I was doing good and that I was about to get ready to go to my first therapy session. He wished me good luck and said that he would text me when he was done with work.

I had slept in so late that I had missed several texts and a couple of phone calls. I went through the missed phone calls and voicemails first. One was from Lissa reminding me of my first therapy session today, the other was from Detective Croft. I quickly texted Lissa and told her I had just woken up and that I didn't forget. Then I dialed Croft's number hoping it was good news. I got up and started pacing waiting for him to pick up and he did on the second ring.

"Detective Croft, how can I help you?"

"This is Rose Hathaway, I just got your voicemail to give you a call." I said nervously and started chewing on my lip anxious about what he was going to say.

"Rose, heard you were out of the hospital, hope you're recovering well."

"I am thank you for asking. Is, is.. everything ok?" I stuttered.

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you, it's good news. We got him, Jesse is in police custody." I almost collapsed, I was so relieved they got him. I sat down on the couch to steady myself and started crying. Tears, happy tears for once left my eyes.

"You, you, really got him?"

"We did and this time His family can't bail him out."

"I don't know how to thank you."

"Although I'd like to take the credit for this, I'm not the one that found and arrested him. He was in New York City hiding out in one of the apartment buildings his family owns. The NYPD received an anonymous tip of his whereabouts and picked him up. But I will be the one to make sure he is held accountable for everything he has done."

"You don't know how relieved I am."

"There's something else that I need to tell you. He is currently in the ICU at one of the city's hospitals. Apparently when the police got to the apartment they found him unconscious on the floor. He was beaten so severely that he was barely recognizable. I was actually on my way back from seeing him when I called you. I also want you to know He gave me a full confession. He confessed to what he did to you, what he did to Meredith, and some things that we didn't know about that he was doing illegally." I don't know why, but I found this all funny. I started laughing through the tears and couldn't stop.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh"

"No it's ok, everyone reacts differently, it's ok you laugh, cry, or even scream."

"Thank you, for understanding. I'm not a horrible person and honestly don't want harm to come to anyone."

"No, I get it and completely understand. He has put you through a lot."

"So what happens next?" I asked.

"As soon as he is stable he will be brought to our county jail awaiting trial. Right now he is only being charged with what happened to you on that Friday night. But we are going to be working on finding evidence to back up his confession and will add that to his charges as well. If we can get the evidence he most likely won't be able to bond out."

"Do you think he will be able to get a bond before that? If he gets bonded out he will be gone."

"I'm not going to let that happen. We have plenty of evidence against him for what happened to you. Meredith had also decided to be a witness as well. Because of the statute of limitations he can't be charged with what he did to her. But I promise you this. I won't let him get away this time."

"I don't know how to thank you for taking this so seriously. It means so much to have someone believe me."

"My sister went through the same thing with a very abusive husband. Unfortunately even I couldn't prevent what happened. In the end he killed her then himself. She never got the justice she deserved. That's why I decided to become a detective and made it my life's mission to get people like Jesse off the streets." That hit me hard, I was alive and his sister wasn't . That could have easily been me.

"I'm so sorry about your sister. That could have so easily been me."

"It could have been you,but it's not. You're strong, you're here and I'm by your side making sure it doesn't happen again."

"Thank you again."

"You don't have to thank me." I did, he didn't realize how much his support meant to me. Jesse had gotten away with so much for so long. Not one cop had ever seemed to listen or believe me.

"Is there anything I can do in the meantime to help?"

"There is. If you have anything to back up the abuse, like pictures, texts or emails. Anything I can use to build a case against him."

"I do. I took pictures of my injuries, saved all his texts, plus I have a couple of witnesses to what happened at the Dragomir's party. "

"Sounds good, if you can get me a copy of everything that would be very helpful."

"That I can do." I heard keys and then my door being opened. Lisaa walked in and stopped when she saw me on the phone.

"I've got to get back to work. Just email me everything you have, my email should be on my card that I gave you. Also don't hesitate to call if you need anything. And again Rose, I'm happy to hear you're back home."

"Will do. You have a great day Detective Croft."

"You can call me Hans."

"Alright Hans I will keep in touch." And with that we hung up. I sighed and took a deep breath. It was a lot of information to take in. Lissa waited patiently for me to say something.

"They got him Liss. He's in police custody." I said as tears started to flow down my face. The weight of everything hitting me at once. She ran over and embraced me and I put my head on her shoulder crying even harder. She held me till I stopped crying and collected myself.

I told her everything that Croft had told me. How they found him in NYC and how he was in the ICU. She sat there holding my hands the whole time.

"How do you feel right now?"

"Relieved, happy, scared. I'm still trying to process it all. Maybe it's a good thing that I have an appointment with a therapist today." I kinda laughed, I really wasn't looking forward to having to talk to a stranger. I have suppressed my feelings for years and didn't know if I was ready to bring those up.

"I know she will help, you just have to give her a chance. Although he won't admit it, she helped Christian so much." I knew she was right, but that didn't mean I was ready.

"Speaking of said therapist, we need to get going or you're going to be late."

"Let me get dressed and we can get going." I quickly picked out a pair of jeans, t-shirt, and a hoodie. I was going for comfort today, not style. I grabbed my wallet,phone and put on my well worn converse and we headed out the door. Lissa used her key to lock the door behind us and we headed to her car. We got in and I fastened my seatbelt. I knew Dimitri was at work, but I wanted to send him a quick text to let him know the news.

DIMITRI

They got him, he's under arrest.

I'm so glad to hear that! How are you doing with all of this?

Relieved. But a bit nervous about what is to come next.

Understandable, just know you have people in your corner.

Thank you, that's means a lot

Would you be up to a little celebration tonight?

Depends on what you have in mind?

How about dinner?

Your speaking my language comrade

Again with the nickname

You know you love it?

Whatever you say roza

Roza?

Sorry sometimes my English slips, it's your name in russian

I kind of like it. Hey we just pulled up to my therapist office. Text me when you're off work and we can plan a time for tonight?

Sounds good roza

I'll be waiting for your text comrade

————————————————————————————————————

I was so nervous to see Rose that I was sick to my stomach. I was on my way to her apartment to pick her up for our date. Is it a date? I really wasn't sure. I did know one thing: I was going to talk to her about why I left the other night and knowing Croft. No, I wasn't going to bring up what Adrian had told us. Ivan had said to me that it really wasn't my business to tell her. He was right, but at the same time I didn't like keeping something big from her. How would she react to me knowing before she did? The whole situation was a big mess. Here I just met this girl that I could actually see spending the rest of my life with and I was keeping a big secret from her. Yes it was really early to say, but I have never felt this way about anyone, even Whitney who I was ready to propose to.

I pulled up to her apartment building and sat in my Jeep for a minute to calm my nerves. There was just so much going through my mind and I really wanted to make this night a celebration. She was scared of what Jesse might do to her when he was on the run. I knew what a relief it was for my mother when she knew my father wasn't going to return and she didn't have to look over her shoulder all the time. I sucked up my feelings and grabbed the bag of pastries I had picked up for her. I knew she had a sweet tooth and wanted to bring her something, but not flowers again.

She had given me the code so I could get into the building. I punched it in and opened the door, walked in and took the stairs to her loft. When I knocked on the door I could hear music playing. It was quickly turned off and the door opened. There she stood in jeans and a simple sweater, hair flowing down with curls and a huge smile on her face. She absolutely took my breath away. She led me into the loft and shut the door behind her.

"I just have to go put my shoes on then I'll be ready to go." She turned and quickly walked to her "room". I stood there patiently waiting for her to come back. Her flowers I had gotten her were still on the counter top. I was looking at them when she walked up behind me.

"I'm kind of proud of myself that those are all still alive." I turned around with the bag of pastries in my hand and her eyes lit up.

"You know comrade , you don't have to bring me something every time you see me."

"Who said these were for you? I could have brought something for the fish" She put her hands on her hips and pretended to pout.

"Really? I don't believe anything from that place is safe for a fish"

"Well since I don't want to kill your fish it might be for you."

She reached out to take the bag from me. I quickly put it up out of her reach. She tried grabbing it.

"Hey, no fair you're taller than me!"

"You didn't say the magic word."

"Please and thank you." She batted her eyes and there was no way I could say no to her.

"You're welcome." I handed her the bag and she tore it open. She looked at what was inside and gave me the biggest smile.

"How did you know I love chocolate donuts?"

"You told me."

"I did? I don't remember that. What else have I forgotten?" The smile left her face and she started to look sad.

"Hey, look at me." I took the bag out of her hand and sat it on the counter. I then gently put my hand on her chin and lifted her face up so I could look her in the eyes.

"You're not giving yourself credit. It's not even been two weeks, you do realize you suffered a traumatic brain injury. You're doing amazing, You are amazing." In that moment looking into those beautiful brown eyes I wanted to kiss her. But I felt that I needed to ask for her permission first. I wanted her to feel safe with me and wouldn't do anything without her consent.

"Would it be ok if I kissed you?" She got the biggest smile on her face.

"I'd thought you would never ask."

"So that's a yes?" She rolled her eyes at me.

"Yes, kiss me already." That's all I needed to hear. I moved my hand that was on her chin to her cheek, put my other hand on the other cheek gently pulling her face towards mine. She started to get up on her tiptoes to reach me, so I leaned down to get closer to her so she didn't have to stretch. Our lips touched and It was like coming home. Everything felt right in the world and all the stress from the day just melted away. Her lips were soft against mine and I could taste a hint of cherry on them. It was a slow sensual kiss letting us explore each other. I moved my hands gently towards her hair, it was just as soft as I imagined it would be.

I was the one to pull away first because I knew if I didn't I would probably take this too far too soon. She looked up at me and puckered her lips in a pout. So I went back in for another short little kiss.

"Although I would love to stay here and kiss you all night, we have reservations to get to."

"Reservations? Fancy."

"I wanted to make our first date memorable." Her cheeks got a bit red.

"So this is a date then?"

"I would like it to be if that's ok with you?"

"I would like that very much."

"Then let's get this date started." I reached out and took her hand into mine and led her to the door.

Thank you to everyone who has liked and favored this story. This is my baby and the first ever story I have posted. It means so much to me that people actually like what I write.