Montserrat had just sat down to have some breakfast when someone knocked on the door. "You have got to be kidding me," she put her fork down and glared at the door. Sonny had told her he would be coming by to pick her up for work. It was a nice gesture but Montserrat was almost sure it had to do with the fact he wanted to catch brief moments with her roommate instead.
Bitterly, she got up from her chair and went to answer it. Her momentary annoyance was forgotten when she came face to face with a tall, black haired man. However, with the black curls over the man's head it wasn't difficult to place him."Hi, Damian," Montserrat greeted Kara's older brother. "I didn't expect you to be here."
Likewise," Damian Mackie had a charming smile that only seemed to get better as the years passed by.
"Kara didn't tell you I was rooming with her for a while?" Montserrat left the door and went to retrieve her breakfast on the table. Damian walked in and closed the door for them. "I've been here for a couple months now."
"No, I think she did. I just missed it when she rambled on about other things," Damian shrugged, making Montserrat chuckle. "But you look great. I haven't seen you in a while."
"Try two years," Montserrat slipped some oatmeal into her mouth.
"Well it's kinda difficult to get ahold of one of New York's finest Detectives," Damian's dramatic bow was met with a roll of eyes. He chuckled and looked into the hallway. "Is my sister ready? We promised our parents we'd be on time."
"It's so cute they're having a little anniversary day with their kids," Montserrat smiled.
"Well you know, maybe we can catch up afterwards?" Damian casually asked.
"I'd have to check my schedule," Montserrat laughed at such an ironic line. "It's not a lie. My job really is that unpredictable."
There was another knock on the door and this time Montserrat was sure it was her partner. She held her oatmeal bowl and walked for the door despite Damian attempting to do it for her.
"Morning," Sonny stood tall and cheery. He crinkled his nose the moment he smelled oatmeal. "Who eats oatmeal these days? How old are you again?"
"29 you jerk," Montserrat frowned and turned back for the apartment.
Sonny still smiled as he walked into the apartment, but when he saw Damian he immediately got serious. "Morning."
"Uuh, morning," Damian slowly greeted back and glanced at Montserrat.
"He's my partner from work," Montserrat was hurriedly trying to finish her oatmeal. "Sonny, meet Damian. Damian, meet Sonny. Damian is Kara's older brother, my friend and yadda, yadda…"
Sonny shook his head while his partner practically devoured her oatmeal. Still, he shook Damian's hand. "Nice to meet you. Kara mentioned you. Well, she mentioned you and Montse's brother. You're both architects, right?"
"Right," Damian nodded. "We're actually working on an important company building right now."
"I know that," Montserrat swallowed the last of her oatmeal and dumped the bowl into the sink. "I've had to babysit three times in one week because you guys can't get things right."
"Not true," Damian swayed his head. "Sometimes we just wanna get drinks."
Montserrat gave a deadpanning look. "You better be lying."
Damian took one step back and called for his sister. "Hurry up, Kara! Before Montserrat shoots me!"
Kara emerged stuffing things into her purse. "Whatever you did I'm sure you deserve it."
"Oh some sister you are," Damian rolled his eyes.
Kara had a good comeback ready to go before she saw Sonny. She beamed at his presence. "Hi! Are you picking up Montse again?"
The ginger in question shook her head and narrowed her eyes at them. Using me as an excuse to go all googly-eyes on each other.
"Yeah, she asked me to," Sonny didn't even notice the flat out lie he said. Montserrat gaped and had half a mind to smack him. She felt one month into SVU granted her the perk of smacking a co-worker if they deserve it.
"Always so kind," Kara's big smile didn't go unnoticed by her brother.
Damian cleared his throat. "We do have parents waiting. You can do this another time."
Unlike Montserrat who thought about smacking, Kara did it. Damian groaned when his sister's hand smacked him on the chest. "I'll...be in the car…" Damian gave a wave for Montserrat and Sonny then headed out the door.
"I'll see you later," Kara very sweetly told Sonny as if they already had plans.
"Of course," Sonny stepped aside so she could walk out. Kara smiled all the way out, as did Sonny.
"Seriously?" Montserrat crossed her arms and was unamusingly looking at her partner. "You're just gonna stare at my roommate's ass right in front of me?"
"I -I was not-"
"Don't you lie to me, Dominick Carisi," Montserrat pointed at him. "And just so you know, when I use your full name it means I'm serious. And I'm serious right now."
Sonny playfully rolled his eyes. "Are you ready?"
"No! Because you keep showing up early just to meet with Kara and leave me hanging with either half of my breakfast or nothing at all!" Montserrat's exclaim was met with an amused smile. "I need to eat to survive if you've forgotten!" she made way for the living room but stopped just to point at him. "And I definitely didn't like it when you came in ten minutes after my alarm went off! What the hell even was that!?"
Sonny couldn't stop laughing. It had been honest accident that allowed him to see what Montserrat looked like in the morning. He learned that she had a much more colorful vocabulary in the early hours. "Alright, alright, what if I buy you some cannolis to make it up?"
"...turn those into almond brownies and a vanilla latte and you, my friend, have a deal."
Unfortunately, their deal wasn't made through on account of an urgent case they were both called onto. They followed the directions and sure enough came to a building swarming with officers.
"What the hell happened?" Montserrat called to Fin who was overseeing the procession.
"Little girl somehow got out on that balcony. It looks like she's stuck," Fin pointed to the higher levels of the apartment building where they could see a little girl out on a balcony, over a table. She staggered every second or so, threatening to fall over.
"Where are the parents?" Sonny scowled, outraged the little girl was left unsupervised up to that point.
"Neighbors don't know. Amaro and Rollins are with ESU trying to get inside," Fin said and pulled up his phone. "The door's barricaded."
"Is Liv here yet?" Montserrat figured their Sergeant would be inside the building trying to get into that apartment but so far they hadn't heard any communications from the inside.
"Nah, she's at Baby Boy Doe's hearing. She was on her way last I heard."
"What?" the ginger woman said in confusion. "Who?"
"Earlier case," Fin waved it off and focused on the fact two men were throwing ropes over the front of the building. It seemed like the apartment was still inaccessible.
As soon as they had the girl in safety, the remaining detectives rushed into the building. Thankfully, Olivia arrived not too long after that.
"Check it out, someone left her with everything she could possibly need," Nick pointed to the kitchen table of the girl's apartment that was covered in food, toys and movies.
"Yeah except a mom," Montserrat mumbled as she passed him, though she was heard quite fine.
She went into the hallway to see what else they could find but it was a surprisingly clean apartment. Laundry was closed locked but the bedroom and the bathroom weren't. Opposite of her, Sonny and Fin took check of the plumbing and found that the hot water was off, as well as the stove in general.
"Girl's name is Maddie. Mother's Jenny Aschler. We haven't located her yet," Amanda was informing Olivia after the Sergeant arrived.
"How is Maddie?" Olivia peered around the blonde detective to see the young girl sniffling on the couch.
"She's scared, not hurt. She pushed a chair to the balcony door, unlocked it. Says she climbed out there to feed the birds."
"We didn't notice before but these are meals that you can eat without any preparation," Montserrat picked up a pack of crackers. She then reached for grapes that had been neatly pursed into a Ziploc bag. "And others that have already been prepared. My Dad used to do this when my brother and I were young and he had to work overtime. This mom took all the precautions."
"But she did leave her daughter unattended and locked in," Fin reminded her then looked to Amanda for a better explanation of that bit.
"Maddie says her mother left her for two sleeps," Amanda explained quietly so the girl wouldn't hear. "And she was told not to let anyone in."
"What could be so important that a mother would just leave her child like this?" Olivia sighed. Her mind was already particularly clogged with the details of the hearing she'd been in. Mothers not attending to their own children was the worst thing they could do.
"Hey Serg," Sonny came by with his phone in hand. "Found mommy." When he showed them the picture of the woman, things made less sense.
~0~
Jenny Aschler was horrified to hear what happened to her daughter - almost happened thanks to the police. Her nervous eyes flickered between Olivia and Nick. The fact they had to come to prison to talk her already didn't bode well for her.
"Is Maddie okay?"
"Now you're worried?" Nick raised an eyebrow at her, unable to believe if she was being honest or not. The woman already seemed jittery and anxious. "You knew you were on probation. Why were you shoplifting?"
"I-it was Maddie's birthday. She's always wanted one of those, uh, American girl dolls? They're $200," Jenny explained the best she could. "I mean, who has that kind of money? Where is Maddie? I wanna see her."
"She's with child protective services," Olivia saw Jenny's eyes widen even more.
"Just...just till I get out, right? I'm due out in a few hours."
"Listen, you left your six-year-old unsupervised for two days. You can't just get her back," Nick thought that would be been an obvious but Jenny was actually hopeful. "All right, you're looking at new charges here-"
"Hold on, Nick. Slow down," Olivia urges him to take it easy so that they could have a better understanding of Jenny's situation.
"You can't talk to him like that. You're gonna make him mad," Jenny quietly said to Olivia, instigating confused faces from the two.
"Look, I'm not… I'm not mad," Nick started again, and slow for her to understand. "But you left your child alone, all right? This is serious."
"Jenny, you told your public defender that you thought your husband was gonna be able to take care of Maddie," Olivia was sure that they saw that in Jenny's file. They'd even talked to the defender briefly before coming to see Jenny.
"We're separated," Jenny lowered her gaze to the metal table.
"So, what, he bailed on you? He said that he couldn't watch her?"
"I never asked him," Jenny knew how that sounded so she quickly added to explain for herself. "It's too dangerous."
"Dangerous? What do you mean?" Nick asked her.
"Gary can't be alone with Maddie. He has...needs. If I'm not there to take care of them, somebody else has to - I won't leave him alone with my daughter."
Olivia saw honest fear for Maddie and couldn't just ignore it. This was more than a neglect case. "So Gary isn't Maddie's father?"
" No. Maddie's father's in Attica."
"So Gary's Maddie's stepfather? Has he ever acted inappropriately with her? Has she said something?"
Jenny looked up from the table, her reddened eyes looking between Olivia and Nick. There was a lot tell.
~0~
Montserrat and Amanda were both amazed at what kind of men surrounded Jenny Aschler's life. Between them and Fin, they had reconstructed the connections between Jenny, Bobby Aschler and Gary Aschler.
"This woman's had a tough life," Montserrat mumbled as she pinned a photograph of Jenny at the center of their board.
"Yeah, Bobby Aschler-" Amanda looked up from her laptop to point at the indicated photograph of the man, "-is Maddie's biological father and he has a long record. The lovely ending is he's now doing a bid in Attica for cooking meth."
"This prince, he pimps Jenny out, gets her pregnant at 16, and then just turns her over to his brother Gary," Montserrat took a seat at the edge of the table. "And she has quite a long record too."
"Anything outstanding?" Olivia inquired.
"Define that," Fin leaned back on his chair. "I mean, she's been in and out of jail from multiple drug arrests which only stopped two years ago."
Olivia put her hands on her hips and gazed at the board they had set up. Despite Nick and Sonny not being back from their visit to Gary, they'd managed to pull up several pieces of information on Jenny that just didn't equal to a terrible, neglectful mother. "She sounds more like a probable domestic violence victim. I'm not sure that charging Jenny with neglect of a child is in Maddie's best interest. If Jenny does more jail time, the stepfather may ask for custody."
"Not if he's in jail too," Montserrat threw in the option they would all love.
"Yeah, but that'll only happen if we can get Jenny to testify against him."
"So...we talk to her again?" Amanda asked.
Olivia gave the nod. "If we can convince family court that she's a D.V. Victim, maybe she and Maddie can get the help they need."
~ 0 ~
Despite Jenny being released from prison, she looked no better. With her daughter ripped from her, she seemed even worse than when she was in prison. She took a seat in the interview room and anxiously watched Amanda and Nick come in. They didn't beat around the bush, they just cautiously began to interrogate her about her life at home, especially where it concerned Gary.
"Well, of course Gary never touched Maddie. I won't give him the chance," Jenny took to playing with the tips of her hair. It seemed like a nervous tick as she tugged on the tips.
"So what makes you afraid that he'll do something?" Amanda proceeded to push for more specific details. "Cause he hurts you?"
"He-he has needs, like all men."
"So what does he do to you, Jenny?" Nick's question was met with silence. He sighed and pushed again. "Look, you have to start talking to us. If you're lying to get back at Gary, you're gonna be in trouble here-"
"Stop yelling!" Jenny suddenly exclaimed, getting silence despite almost shrinking back in her chair. Her eyes quickly met Nick's and revealed momentary terror in them. "I'll be good. I promise. I'll do whatever you want."
Nick was at a loss in that moment. He was pretty sure he hadn't been shouting. Maybe he'd spoken a little louder than he had wanted but it definitely was not yelling. "Jenny, you don't have to - Hey, Jenny, nobody's yelling-"
Someone knocked against the window of the room, letting know someone had to come out. Nick knew who that would be. With a sigh, he got up from his seat and returned to Olivia's office where the rest of the team was. "Look, I wasn't even pushing her that hard-"
"It's not you," Olivia assured him no one was blaming him. "It's something else going on here."
"Care to take a wild guess?" Montserrat was leaning against the window and attentively listening into Jenny's interview.
It came as no surprise to anyone when Jenny disclosed that her husband Gary was taking advantage of her under the guise of marriage privilege.
~0~
"Jenny Aschler abandons her six-year-old, claims she's afraid her husband will abuse her kid, and now she's accusing him of raping her?" Rafael wanted to ask if there was a list somewhere that gave anything else the woman was claiming.
"No, weren't you listening?" Montserrat tapped her index finger to her ear for emphasis. "She thinks because they're married, it isn't rape."
Behind her chair, Olivia was pacing back and forth. The case was obviously more frustrating for the Sergeant and now Rafael was wondering how long it would take her to make a hole in his office. Amanda, who sat in the chair next to Montserrat, wondered the same thing.
"So she hasn't said no, she's living in fear, and you think she's gonna agree to confront this guy in court?" Rafael knew those odds and had to scoff out loud. "I'm a prosecutor. She needs a social worker."
Olivia came to a right stop at his words. "Hang on, this is more than a simple child neglect case. The only reason that Jenny left Maddie alone-"
"-for two days while she went to jail…?" Rafael finished for her though earned himself exact glares from her and Montserrat.
"Seriously, aren't you listening?" Montserrat genuinely asked again. "She only did that because she thought her daughter was unsafe with the stepfather. You have to trust a mother's instincts."
"Yeah, Fin and Amaro went and saw this guy. They say she made the right call," Amanda then added on.
Rafael swayed his head while he thought about the not-so-subtle plan the three women were clearly on. "So you want me to charge the husband with D.V., so a family court judge will give her a second chance?"
"Jenny was wrong to leave Maddie alone. There's no doubt about that, but she's also a victim," Olivia didn't think she needed to be so descriptive but if he wanted it all then she would be. "She suffers with symptoms of PTSD. The father is in Attica, and this guy should be there too."
"Seriously…" Montserrat tapped her ear again, nodding at him to go on.
Rafael playfully rolled his eyes at her. "Alright, fine. See if he's dumb enough to confess to something he doesn't realize is a crime."
"Thank you," Olivia gave the nod of gratitude and started leaving first.
"See how easy it is when you just listen," Montserrat's comment made it difficult for Amanda not to chuckle.
Rafael was not so amused. "Oh yeah, so brave when all three of you come in against me."
"Didn't think you so scared so easily, councilor," Amanda's remark then made Montserrat laugh.
As Amanda walked towards the door, Montserrat quickly leaned over the desk just to whisper, "Kind of puts the belt to shame, don't you think?"
While she laughed, Rafael glared. "Get out of my office," his command was simple and calm. Though he was straight faced, unamused, a smile wormed its way across his face when he heard her laugh echo from the hallway.
~0~
When Montserrat returned home, she was surprised to find not only her roommate, but Damian and Montserrat's older brother, Gael. Kara was sitting at the couch flipping through a magazine while the two men discussed in the kitchen.
"Uh, hi," Montserrat said slowly since none of them acknowledged the fact she'd just walked in.
Kara waved but was more focused on her magazine. "I'm trying to learn this hairstyle for the salon, shush!"
Montserrat rolled her eyes and walked towards her brother instead, leaving her things over the table. "Gael, what are you doing here? What about Ivana and Juliana?"
"Dad's with them," Gael came over and hugged his sister hello. "I didn't think I'd catch you. Kara says you don't come home until midnight sometimes."
"When she's lucky," Kara made sure to add.
"Go back to your hair, Mackie," snapped Montserrat before answering her brother. "The hours are all over the place but that's not important. What are you doing here?"
"My fault," Damian waved a hand. "We're getting back from my parent's anniversary when Gael called with a problem from work."
"Is everything alright?"
"Just the usual. Customers who aren't satisfied with our work," Gael rolled his dark eyes. He brought his hand to his brunette hair and pushed it back. "I was already in Manhattan so I thought it be easier to meet here. That a problem?"
Montserrat chuckled. "And miss the chance to make fun of my big brother? Never."
Gael shook his head. "I was done anyways. We're thinking of dropping by Casey's tomorrow to see if she can help us."
"Casey is at court most of the day. Good luck with that.."
It seemed like the men were considering her comment, leading Montserrat to conclude whatever problems they were having at work must be big. Casey was a prosecutor, after all, not there for personal problems.
"I thought your job has lawyers of their own," Montserrat commended and grabbed a coke bottle from the kitchen table without caring whose it was. As she headed for the living room, she missed Gael's glare for stealing his bottle. Montserrat sat down beside Kara and the blonde roommate immediately chucked her magazine to the side and turned to Montserrat's hair.
"Yeah but we want someone who won't mind explaining us the exact details of the problem," Gael went into the kitchen and when they heard the fridge opening, it was assumed he would be getting another coke.
"And exactly why would you think Casey wouldn't shout at your ass for being annoying?" Montserrat took a swig of her stolen coke bottle, scrunching her face when Kara pulled on her hair.
"Sorry! I'm trying the hair style!" Kara apologized and went right back to work.
"Do you think your cousin will really mind if we go talk to her?" Damian asked, his seriousness coming off as amusing to the two siblings.
"Nah," Montserrat shook her head, though Kara stopped her with hands pressed to both sides of Montserrat's head.
"See our cousin is sharp and possibly evil, but she loves a good contract," Gael returned from the kitchen with a coke bottle. "And she's family."
"She'll kill you if she ever hears you call her evil," Montserrat muttered. "And I will remind you she's a Homicide ADA so she'll know how to make it look like an accident."
Gael rolled his eyes. "It's getting late and I gotta get back to my girls."
"Yeah, you keep leaving my nieces alone," Montserrat pointed at her brother in warning. "You know I'm dealing with a case of a mother who left her daughter alone for two days."
"Hey I left my girls with a good babysitter," Gael reminded her. "I'd never leave them alone. I'm not a bad parent."
"...but Dad used to leave us alone sometimes," Montserrat's comment made him pause just as he was getting his jacket from the kitchen table.
Gael shot his sister a look, looking offended but not for him. "Don't you ever imply that our father was a bad parent."
"I'm not-" Montserrat didn't seem the least fazed even when he continued with an increasing louder voice.
"-Dad had to work sometimes and there was no one to look after us! Everyone else worked and they couldn't just leave their jobs-"
"-Gael, I know-"
"If you want to talk about a bad parent then maybe you should think about Regina instead." Gael angrily put on his jacket, ignoring the wide-eyed looks from Damian and Kara. He wasn't even going to dignify his sister with a glance. "She's the bad parent for what she did to us."
With those words, he stormed out of the apartment.
"Uuh…" Kara stopped doing Montserrat's hair - which seemed more like a wild mess than anything else - and leaned back. "What just happened?"
"I made my big brother mad, story of my life," Montserrat put her coke bottle on the coffee table.
"Montse, are you okay?" Damian walked over to the couch and sat on the arm rest.
"Don't worry about it," Montserrat scoffed lightly. "I'm used to Gael's attitude when it comes to Regina." She pushed herself up from the couch, knowing she was being watched by the Mackies.
"Who's Regina?" Damian asked.
"My mother," Montserrat answered on her way into the hallway.
~ 0 ~
Olivia thought bringing Jenny to a psychiatrist would help them better in her case, but she ultimately got more than what they thought they would. The brief evaluation brought SVU to Jenny's mother - who had nothing but bad things to say about Jenny - and that then gave them view of what happened to Jenny as a child.
Now, the conference area was full of photographs of Jenny as a child that the squad was looking through. They were all pretty suggestive but nothing against the law.
"How old was she in these?" Amanda stopped when she found a particular photograph that made her want to stop altogether.
"Five, six, seven," Nick answered, since he and Fin were the ones who had returned with the photographs from Jenny's mother. "Stepfather took all of them."
"These are the photos he gave to Jenny's mother?" Montserrat gawked at how clueless the mother had to be for her not to realize what her ex-husband was doing. "Where are the ones that he kept for himself?"
"Let's find out," Olivia was already a step ahead by the time the rest of the squad finished going through the pictures.
She'd gotten ahold of a contact who came back with answers rather fast. And since those answers were rather awful, it required the presence of the entire squad and their ADA. Now they were all gazing at new pictures of Jenny they could have gone without seeing.
Agent O'Connell from the FBI was the one to expose the team to the actual, deeper truth of Jenny Aschler. "I recognized her right away," the man admitted as he switched through some of the photos they had. "We searched for her for over a decade. Called her 'Lacy unknown.'"
"Lacy is the name that the stepfather calls her in the videos," Amanda remembered. "How many videos are we talking about?"
"Hundreds. And thousands of stills. There's videos of her being tied up, raped, sodomized. Some of them were customized. He would take requests, posing her. She has chat rooms devoted to her."
"And so...the mother never realized that this was happening to her kid?" Montserrat couldn't think of a more clueless (or purposely blind) mother than Jenny's.
"Whether or not, we can't exactly prove it," Nick bitterly said beside her.
"We kept looking for Lacy, but after a while, we assumed there's no way she survived her childhood," O'Connell turned off the screen. "I'm shocked she's still alive. But for what it's worth, there's a couple hundred guys in prison for downloading her images."
The last bit interested Rafael most. "These videos are still being distributed even a decade later?" he asked just to confirm.
"Every day in every country in the world. A lot of pedophiles are collectors. They share clips, trade files on the darknet. As fast as we pull sites down, new ones pop up."
"One favor. Notify me when you find someone new in possession of these images."
"Of course," O'Connell agreed and started gathering his belongings to leave.
"Thank you for coming," Olivia said on his way out.
"So how do we move from here?" Sonny wondered after it was just them again. It was a tricky case since most sides were already shut by law.
"The stepfather took these videos, and he's the one in the videos raping her," Rafael moved so that he could face the entire squad. "Where is he?"
"Jerry Dobbs. He died in a car accident two years ago," Fin responded, looking bitter about it too. Jail time would've been a been a more fitting punishment than sweet death.
"I hope he suffered," Rafael muttered before switching tactics. "What about the mom?"
"Mom couldn't have been that clueless," Montserrat shook her head. "She must have known."
Olivia scoffed there. "Well, if you let her tell it, her daughter's been nothing but trouble ever since she was born."
Rafael knew where she was going with that and would not let her. "You can't make that case. Let it go."
"Let it go?" Olivia repeated, her mouth falling in open incredulity. "So nobody has to pay for what was done to Jenny?"
"There may be one avenue of recourse, if Jenny is capable of handling it," Rafael said once Olivia calmed a bit. He wasn't going to subject himself to a round of shouts.
'She's emotionally fragile. She's so traumatized, she doesn't remember this stuff. She's blocked it out-"
"Maybe if you show her these images…"
"Now hold on," Montserrat cut in once she and the rest of the team caught onto the intention. "You want us to show Jenny…" she pointed to the darkened screen behind Rafael, "...that?"
Before he could point out it was the only way to get Jenny some retribution, Amanda chimed in. "She has been acting out her whole life, high-risk behavior, but, you know, she has a right to know what's been triggering her."
"That's the emotional argument," Rafael pointed at her and continued on with what he'd been trying to get at for minutes now. "Legally, there's a possibility of restitution. But first Jenny has to identify herself as Lacy unknown."
"Ah, and you leave that assignment to us," Sonny's sarcasm was a shared sentiment amongst the squad.
"Who else would take it?" Rafael had good sense to take his leave. He definitely loved being a prosecutor sometimes.
The rest of the squad almost drew sticks to see who would get the assignment. In the end, Olivia made the graceful sergeant move and volunteered.
Amanda drew the smallest stick.
~0~
Days later brought no better moments for Jenny. After realizing - and accepting - she was Lacy, she was institutionalized to help her get back on her feet. Montserrat and Olivia visited Jenny when they felt Jenny would be able to have a conversation without affecting her health.
Jenny appeared better than the last time they'd seen her. Yes, she did appear to be a little jittery but it was nothing compared to the first time they met her.
"So how you doing, Jenny?" Olivia decided to start easy.
"I feel better," Jenny quickly said, as of her answer would carry the weight of whether or not she'd see her daughter again. And it probably did. "The first week, I just slept through, adjusting my meds. There's group crafts." She made a brief glance at the nearby tables in the room where several patients were immersed into small art crafts. "How's Maddie?"
"She's fine. She's in a foster home," Montserrat answered almost as fast as Jenny had. She assumed Jenny could only think about whether or not her daughter was fine. "And the doctors say you can Skype with her. We can help you set that up."
Jenny tried to smile but she ended up biting her lower lip. "I'm not gonna get her back, am I?"
"You just have to take care of yourself now so you can take care of her," Olivia said kindly, hoping that Jenny would see this was only for the best.
Still, Jenny could not find much peace. "The social worker told me medicaid won't let me stay too much longer, and Gary's so mad. He's not paying my rent."
"You're in for a fight, Jenny, but that's where this restitution money we talked about can help you," Montserrat reminded. Yes, the money's origin was not a good one but the intention of the money was.
Olivia cleared her throat before she cautiously started to explain the real reason they were visiting Jenny. "There's a sentencing hearing coming up soon. It's... it's an EMT who's convicted of possession. But you could write a victim's statement. It's a... it's a letter."
Jenny tried to follow, and she was. "A letter?" the two women nodded for her answer. Jenny considered her options, and her feelings, clearly for the first time. If she deserved some restitution then she thought she also deserved to face at least one person who had hurt her in her life. "If it's okay, I wanna go. I want him to look me in the eyes. I want him to see me."
Both Montserrat and Olivia exchanged surprised glances. Of course they would let Jenny go, they just hoped she would be strong enough to follow through.
~0~
"You can put that one over there," Amanda pointed Fin to an empty spot on the interview table.
"Nick, that one can go there," Montserrat nodded to the small space at the edge of the table, opposite of Fin.
"You know, you two could help," Sonny said as he walked into the room carrying another box of papers. He, Fin and Nick simultaneously shot Montserrat and Amanda identical glares for their lack of assistance.
"Put some muscle into it and keep bringing them in," Amanda motioned the three to go get more of the boxes.
They were bringing in the notifications of arrests from the Lacy unknown case for when Jenny would stop by. Unfortunately, there were a lot of boxes to bring in and Montserrat and Amanda took the 'supervising' job.
"Are those - are those brownies?" Fin stopped when he caught Montserrat handing a brownie to Amanda.
"We're waiting for lunch to be delivered," Montserrat shrugged.
"You're both a lot of help," Sonny put down another box on an empty chair.
"Easy there Carisi, or I won't let you into my apartment for Kara anymore," Montserrat smirked when she drew the right attention from the rest of the team. Sonny looked ready to murder her on the spot.
"What's this?" Amanda began in a teasing manner. "Does our baby face have a crush on a girl?"
"That's not - stop looking at me like that!" Sonny snapped, but it didn't help when he heard Fin laugh from behind.
"If you're all done teasing, I could use some help," Nick said since he was the only one still bringing boxes in.
"Thank you," Sonny gestured at Nick as a prime example of what professionalism looked like.
"I'm sure we can discuss this crush at lunch," Nick made the remark as Sonny headed out of the room.
"God dammit!" they then heard the cry of the lanky detective.
Almost as soon as they were finished filling the interview room with boxes, Jenny and Olivia returned from their trip to court. Despite not being able to directly ask how the sentencing had gone, they could see Jenny was looking better. Still, it came to falter when she realized what was in the interview room.
"What's all this?" she sifted through a box without actually looking into the papers.
"As part of this process, the FBI has to notify the victim of each individual arrest. And there was a long backlog of 'Lacy unknown' downloads, so, during your recovery, we had them sent here," Olivia explained and soon began to see Jenny once again shrink in her spot.
"So I have to open all of these letters and then go to court and testify every time?" Jenny gazed at all the boxes in the room and though they multiplied in that one moment.
"Most of these men have been convicted. You can file a civil suit. But where you have the most leverage, Jenny, is with men that are awaiting sentencing."
"Every time," Jenny said in disbelief. "So I'm gonna be dealing with this for the rest of my life?" she didn't need Olivia to answer to know. "I can't. I just can't do it. I just can't!"
"Jenny-"
"Thank you, but no…" Jenny couldn't help herself and rushed out of the room.
When Olivia emerged from the interview room, the face she wore expressed everything that'd gone wrong. "Well…" she came to up the closest desk which was Fin's.
"I assume she didn't like the boxes," Amanda went first.
"No," Olivia confirmed. "It's going to be hard for her accept it…"
"It would be for anyone, Liv," Fin said as a means of comfort for the sergeant. Anyone who knew Olivia would know that by now she was blaming herself even when she had no logical fault.
"Hey, we just saw Jenny and she didn't look so good," Montserrat said when she and Sonny walked into the bullpen with their carry-out.
"It's a process," Olivia left it at that.
"Well, lunch is served," Sonny put down each member's order on their desk. "Tips are accepted."
"But not required," Nick made a motion for the man to step away with his waiting hand.
Sonny rolled his eyes and returned to his desk. As Olivia went to take her order from Montserrat, she saw Rafael coming in with an unusual expression. "Hey. You're smiling, Barba. Why is that freaking me out?"
"I've seen him smile...when he eats," Montserrat's remark earned herself various snickers from the rest of the squad, but not from the ADA.
"Sit, eat, be quiet," he pointed her back to her desk. Montserrat dutifully returned to her desk but still smirked proudly. "I came in with good news," Rafael went on to explain before she took another jab, which she seemed to enjoy doing a lot. "Jenny may have caught the first break of her life. The list that Corbett gave us with other pedophiles has a CEO on it. Roger Pierce, worth 20 million."
"How does that help Jenny?" Olivia forgone her lunch in that moment.
"I reread the violence against women act. Technically, the way the law is worded, it mandates that each offender compensates the victim for all losses. The forensics team that you put on this estimated Jenny's need for restitution at over 4 million." And that's where Rafael's smile returned, quite wide too. "I'm going after Pierce for all of it. It's called joint and several liability. He's free to chase after the rest of Jenny's victimizers to collect the money. It becomes his problem, not hers."
"We can actually do that?" Amanda asked just to make sure they weren't going to lead Jenny down a farce.
"I'm going to do it in…" Rafael checked his wrist watch, "...about an hour when you bring Roger Pierce down. Eat lunch fast, will you?"
"Wow, you're still good," Montserrat said, this time getting a smirk back from him. "Oh, so that doesn't earn me a snap?"
"Not when you say smart things," he promptly quipped with. "So, what are we eating?"
"Not steak, so don't even ask," she motioned with a finger for him to come to her desk so he could see what lunch was.
"As long as it's nothing barbecued," he playfully warned her.
The mere act raised questionable looks from the rest of the team. The detective and ADA seemed a bit too comfortable with each other as if this wasn't the first time.
What an odd sight it was.
~0~
"Hi, do you know where I can find Detective Novak?" Kara Mackie stopped Fin and Nick as they emerged from the interview room, both carrying boxes of Jenny's case.
"She should be here, helping," Fin said rather sourly though knew Montserrat wasn't the only one who was avoiding the helping of bringing Jenny's papers back to storage.
"Did you need help?" Nick asked the woman neither of them had ever seen before.
"I'm her roommate, Kara Mackie," Kara stuck a hand out to shake but remembered neither man could afford letting go of their boxes. "We just had plans tonight."
"Lucky break you have," Nick nodded towards the hallway where they could hear conversations coming closer. He left Kara with the promise that Montserrat was coming then followed Fin out with the boxes in hands.
"So that's it? We're done with Jenny's case?" Amanda was asking.
"Pierce paid all of the $4 million of the restitution so it's done," Rafael confirmed. "You can tell Jenny tomorrow when it's all in paper."
"Seriously, you're good," Montserrat remarked with a matching impressed smile on her face.
"You still had doubts?"
Montserrat rolled her eyes, along with the others around them.
"I'm going to call Jenny right now and tell her the good news," Olivia said before making a beeline for her office. She didn't want Jenny going to sleep tonight with the idea that her life was going to remain a mess.
"Kara?" it was Sonny who noticed the blonde roommate standing near their desks.
Of course Kara broke into a big smile when she saw him. "Sonny, hi."
"That the one?" Amanda whispered to Montserrat who went 'mhm' in response.
"What are you doing here? Are you alright?" Sonny asked Kara, for a moment believing the worst.
Kara was quick to ease his thoughts. "I'm fine! I'm really fine! I-I just had plans with Montse."
"Oh…" Sonny sheepishly smiled and glanced back at his audience.
"Smooth," Montse said under her breath before moving towards her roommate.
"I'm Kara Mackie, by the way," Kara extended a hand towards Amanda.
The blonde detective smiled knowingly, eyes flickering to Sonny every second or so. "We know."
"And I'm not drunk this time so hello, properly," Kara smiled at Rafael, though a bit embarrassed from her drunken moment at the restaurant months ago.
"Nice to see you again, Kara," he nodded.
"Ready to go?" Montserrat asked Kara afterwards, already smiling. "I'm in a good mood today."
"That's new in this job," Kara blurted out, not that it mattered for Montserrat.
"We just watched him blackmail $4 million out of a stuck up, pedophilic CEO," Montserrat pointed over to Rafael.
"I did not blackmail-"
"-kind of what it looked like."
Rafael tilted his head in mild offence then glanced at Amanda and Sonny to see what they thought. Amanda made a face, indicating she was inclining towards Montserrat's claim. Sonny made a hand gesture indicating he was half and half.
"You know what, I'd like to see either of you try the same and succeed," he left things at that. That earned himself some rolling eyes.
"Relax, councilor, we're just teasing," Montserrat raised her hands to show she was done. She backed up to her desk to grab her purse and jacket. "I'll bring you some...what did I say I would bring next time it was my turn?"
"French food. You said French food," Rafael said a bit too fast.
"Of course you remembered," Montserrat swung her purse around her shoulder. "But next time you get me Chinese food." She flashed him a smirk then started heading out with Kara.
"We'll see," Rafael said but of course Montserrat knew there was no doubt he would follow through with his promise. It'd been like this for weeks now, after all. He noticed the odd stares from the others and realized what they must be thinking. "I'm going to see how Liv made that call," he decided and turned right for Olivia's office.
Montserrat walked alongside Kara towards the elevator, but she was dealing with her nosy roommate. "Kara, what do you want for dinner?"
"Uuh, whatever the hell you and the ADA are having apparently," Kara's smirk could crack her face in two.
"Don't even start," Montserrat pressed the elevator button and waited for the doors to open. "I've got a lot of material of you and Sonny, if you're going to play this game."
"But you are having meals with him?" Kara put a hand on Montserrat's arm.
"Not like that, they've just been...business lunches and dinners," Montserrat shook Kara's hand off her and tried to keep a straight face. She knew how it sounded, but honestly it'd been exactly what she said. Somehow, they'd fallen into a routine of buying lunch or dinner for each other every once in a while. It was nothing fancy, and definitely nothing promising, but just a simple...gesture.
It was just that. It really was...
"Lunches and dinners?" Kara laughed.
"We take turns paying, it's not a big deal!" Montserrat stepped into the elevator and turned around, catching sight of Kara's big smirk.
"Mhm," Kara nudged Montserrat on the side. "So how come you're blushing?"
"Shut up."
Kara's laughter filled the elevator.
Author's Note:
Thanks for the reads! And since all the reviews pretty much said the same I'm gonna respond to you guys in one go: thanks so much for your kind words! It really makes my day knowing someone out there likes my stories! :)