I know, I know, it's been a while since I've updated. Almost two months. You would think with all this quarantine and stay-at-home order, I'd have more time to write and update, but unfortunately they consider my job essential so there's that. Anyway, thanks to dhnysports88, YaleAceBella12, decadenceofmysoul, Sanchezashley, Mercy156, Taylor Noelle Hood, Daisyangel, and IzzieC for all your reviews on the last chapter. It makes my heart light that all of you are siding with Anna.
Again this takes place between episodes 17 and 18 of season 4.
By the time the secretary finished calling around, Ms. Martha was coming out of her office with Becky. "I'm sorry," Claire said, looking up at the headmistress. "I couldn't find a sub this late in the day."
"It's okay. We'll work it out with the library monitor," the headmistress told her. "Ms. Stover, you can join your class in the library. Did Mr. and Mrs. Reagan say when they'll be joining us?"
"Mr. Reagan said he'd be here shortly but he is coming from Manhattan so it could take some time."
"Ms. Reagan, stay put, I am going to go speak with Mr. Ray. Claire, please alert me if Mr. Reagan arrives before my return," Ms. Martha instructed.
Claire nodded and Ms. Martha left the office. "Where did you learn to punch like that?"
"Like what?" Anna asked the secretary. Claire spun the monitor of her computer. There on her screen was the video of the encounter. It was paused at the point where her fist collided with Mr. Ray's nose. "Oh, my dad and uncle."
"Of course you did." Claire rolled her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Anna asked affronted. There was nothing wrong with learning to fight from her dad.
"It's just every time a girl learns to fight, they learn it from an older male relative. It's so cliché and it's never like the girl wants to learn to fight because she wants to learn, but rather learns to fight because that man expects it of her."
"Well first off, of course it's cliché, it works. Men are taught to fight so why not teach your little girl? Second, it's stereotypical to think only boys should learn to fight. Third, my dad learned to fight in the Marines so he knows what he's doing. Who better to learn from? And fourth, when I learned, I had a one year old little brother and a brother going into kindergarten reading at the third grade level. You think I wasn't learning to protect them, you're wrong. And on top of all of that, I begged them to teach me."
"I guess that makes it a bit better," Claire said.
A few minutes later the headmistress returned. She went back into her office to wait for Danny's arrival. When he did arrive, he looked angry. "What did you do?" he hissed at his daughter.
"The right thing," Anna answered as Claire informed Ms. Martha Danny was there over the intercom. They went inside the headmistress's office when requested and took the offered seats.
"Will your wife be joining us, Mr. Reagan?" Ms. Martha asked.
"She's stuck at work. What happened?" Danny asked.
Before Anna could tell her side Ms. Martha spoke. "There was a confrontation earlier this morning between your daughter and the substitute English teacher, Mr. Vincent Ray. It seems there was a misunderstanding between Maryanna's friend Rebecca Stover and Mr. Ray when Maryanna stepped in. In the end it escalated to violence and Mr. Ray received a broken nose," Ms. Martha explained.
"Who escalated it?" Danny asked.
"Mr. Reagan, the concern here is that your daughter needlessly attacked Mr. Ray. I have managed to talk him out of pressing charges as long as Maryanna is suspended. Violence is never the answer, Ms. Reagan. Because of that you will be suspended tomorrow and Friday as well as Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following spring break. We're going to go ahead—"
"You didn't answer my question. Who escalated it, Headmistress?" Danny cut across her.
"Your daughter did. As I was saying—"
"What's going to happen to Mr. Ray?" Anna asked also interrupting.
Ms. Martha gave her a stern look. "He's going to take the afternoon off and will be back first thing in the morning—"
"You can't do that," Anna protested.
"He said it was the least he could do with Mrs. Maryland out," Ms. Martha said.
"You're going to let him continue to teach? Didn't Becky tell you why I punched him?" Anna asked outraged. It was taking everything in her to stay seated in her chair.
"You punched a teacher?" Danny asked, looking at his daughter.
"Ms. Reagan, Ms. Stover did explain why you thought you had to, but Mr. Ray assured me you didn't hear what you thought you did. We will look into this but—"
"Misheard? There is no way I "misheard" what came out of his mouth," Anna protested.
"Ms. Reagan, please," Ms. Martha said. She looked exasperated.
"You can't let a criminal teach at this school and jeopardize every female student here."
Danny stared at her in shock then looked at Ms. Martha. "Criminal? What is she talking about?" Danny asked.
"I can assure you, Mr. Reagan, we background check every teacher and substitute we hire here at St. Agatha's Secondary Catholic School. There isn't a criminal in the building and we are very proud of that," Ms. Martha answered.
So Danny turned to his daughter with an expectant look. If Ms. Martha said there wasn't a criminal in the building, he wondered why his daughter said there was. He trusted his daughter but he knew he had to verify things. Anna swallowed and turned to face him head on. "I have never, ever used your position or our last name to get anything done. I like to think of you as a Marine instead of an NYPD detective so I don't have that chance to be that Reagan or be tempted to use our last name. Right now though, right now, I am begging you to call in every favor you've got to get this man out of our school and every school in New York City. Blackmail is illegal in this state."
"Blackmail?" Danny asked. Ms. Martha looked shocked too.
"Yeah. Though I'm not completely sure that's the correct legal term. It may be more coercion than blackmail. On TV they call it "the SVU, Special Victims' Unit"."
"We call it the SVD, Special Victims' Division. They investigate special cases mostly of a sexual nature though sometimes it's cases that involve kids and child abuse."
"Maybe you should call them," Anna said. Danny's face instantly clouded over. Anna could tell her father didn't like that thought. She could also tell he was trying to connect the dots but wasn't quite getting there. "Mr. Ray was trying to blackmail me into sleeping with him and told me I wouldn't be the only one to do it for my grades. Please, you have to get someone to investigate this man."
"That's a serious accusation, Anna." Danny turned back to the headmistress. "Did he say any of this when you talked to him?" Danny asked.
"Of course not. He mentioned that he offered her extra credit and they could speak after school but there has been no hint of impropriety from such a wonderful teacher," Ms. Martha said.
"He flat out lied to your face." Anna protested loudly. "Don't you ever wonder why the only people who speak highly of him are the boys? Dad, you have to hear this." Anna pulled her phone out of her pocket and played the recording.
When the recording ended, Danny stared at her concerned. He shook it off after a moment then looked at Ms. Martha. "Misheard? Misunderstood? That sounds like your teacher just tried to coerce my child. Like she said, that's illegal in New York. Is this the first time you're hearing of this?" Danny asked.
"It's the first time I've heard this recording," Ms. Martha admitted.
"But not the allegation? This has happened before?" Danny asked. There he went. Straight off into detective mode and what Anna really needed right now was her father. Him getting angry would not help her case at all. Then her phone buzzed.
Anna touched his arm. "There's some girls here who want to talk to you," Anna said, looking at the text she just got.
Danny looked at her then nodded. He and the headmistress followed Anna to the hallway right outside the office. "Ms. Martha, you can't suspend Anna. She was standing up for us when you wouldn't," Becky said.
"I regret that it has come to this—" Ms. Martha started.
"If you had just listened to them last month, it wouldn't have come to this," Matt said.
"Last month? So there have been allegations against him before?" Danny asked, turning to the headmistress. Matt looked from Danny to Anna.
"Everyone, this is ..." Anna trailed off at a crossroads. She really didn't want to let everyone know about her family but she really wanted to help the girls affected. "Screw it, there's only two months left. Everyone, this is my dad, Detective Danny Reagan with the NYPD," Anna said.
Matt nodded. He could deal with talking to cops. "A couple of us have gone to our guidance counselor about the rumors and last month Tara Marshall started a petition to get Mr. Ray fired but Ms. Martha said she needed more proof than 1000 signatures on a petition and a few girls saying that it happened to them," Matt said.
"Petition? Ms. Martha, what are they talking about?" Danny demanded. Usually he'd be stoic and unflappable but the insinuations were shaking him.
"We investigated and spoke with Ms. Marshall as well as a few other girls but found nothing of concern," Ms. Martha said.
"Because you wouldn't listen to her," Matt snapped. "I mean, Sarah—" Danny, Matt, Anna, and Ms. Martha turned to Sarah.
Sarah frowned. "Tara told me what happened. At first I didn't believe her, Tara's too smart for that but then I got it. I convinced her to start the petition when she told me that it had happened to other girls. But she told me when you and the school board talked to her that you kept insisting that she heard him wrong, that her grades were slipping because senior year was stressful, and you were disappointed that she found herself doing that with him," Sarah explained. "Then we heard other girls saying the same thing. After the petition failed, we didn't know what to do. I guess Anna made that decision."
Anna looked up at her dad to see his jaw tighten. "I'm going to need a list—" Danny said.
He was slipping further into detective mode and Anna needed him to be her dad. "Dad, please. Just be my dad right now," Anna begged.
Danny looked down at her then at the rest of the students. "Okay," Danny said. He excused himself then stepped back into the office and made a phone call before stepping back into the hallway. "There are two detectives on the way down here. They will be speaking with anyone who wants to come forward about these allegations."
"I know this is going to be tough on all of you but I'm—" Anna caught Derrek's eye, he nodded, "Derrek and I will stand behind anyone who comes forward. You won't have to face the backlash from anyone alone," she said. Derrek nodded.
"Same goes for me," Matt said. She could see the girls nodding and taking it in. It meant a lot to have three athletes backing anyone who was too scared.
"Why doesn't everyone head to the library? The detectives will be in to see you soon," Danny said. The kids exchanged looks but followed orders. Anna looked at her dad wondering if she should go too. "You stay put," he told her before turning to the headmistress. "So, are you still going to suspend my daughter?" he asked.
"I understand that this situation needs to be investigated and the recording makes it seem like she had a valid reason to be angry with Mr. Ray but violence is never the answer and perhaps your daughter needs to further understand that." Ms. Martha turned to Anna and went on. "For punching him, Ms. Reagan, you will serve two days, in-school suspension."
"Ms. Martha," Anna started.
"Do you want to be benched for the entire season?" Ms. Martha asked.
"No ma'am."
"Then take the two days. This is no doubt a traumatic situation so why don't you go ahead and take your daughter home."
"Don't you dare suggest you know how I or any of those girls feel. It was traumatic sure but you're the one that hired him; that allowed him to abuse his position for the last three months; to take the trust we're expected to give and use it to further his own goals and directly influence our mental health and vulnerability. No girl should ever have to worry about that especially in a Catholic school. I'm being punished for doing the right thing and it's not fair."
"There are policies in place—"
"That obviously failed."
"Okay, stop," Danny told her, resting a hand on her shoulder. "You could use a break. I'll get you lunch and we can talk."
Ms. Martha nodded with the idea. "I apologize for failing you and the rest of the girls who have been touched by this. The recovery will not be easy and I know I speak for the entire school board when I say we are willing to do anything to help you all through this. We will also cooperate fully with the NYPD in their investigation and work to restore the proper grades to those who are affected," Ms. Martha said more to Danny than to Anna.
"Thank you," Danny said before Anna could reply. He used the hand on her shoulder to guide Anna towards the front doors where they came across the other two detectives. Danny said a few words to them so softly Anna couldn't hear them then he led her down to the jeep. Instead of taking her home like she was pretty certain he was going to do, he pulled up outside of his station house. "You and I have to talk about this at some point but right now, I want you where I can see you. And Anna, this isn't a punishment," he said as he put the car in park.
"You still don't like what I did though." She turned to look at him.
"I don't like that you punched him or that it took violence for it to come out, but if there is one thing that this situation brought to the surface that makes me proud, it's that my little girl will do everything she can to make sure no one suffers needlessly."
"Thanks, Dad." He didn't say anymore so they went inside.
"Anna?" Baez said as she dropped into the seat next to her dad's desk.
"Detective Baez," Anna answered.
"I'm sure you've got homework you should be doing, studying or something?" Danny said.
"Are those detectives going to question me?" Anna asked, instead of doing as he suggested.
"They'll probably want a statement. Get on that homework," he insisted.
Anna sighed and heard the sergeant's door open. She saw Gormley in his doorway. He looked at her and frowned. "Reagan, my office," Gormley said. Danny shot Anna a look to stay put and do her homework before following Gormley into the office.
"Everything okay?" Baez asked.
"Not exactly," Anna answered but didn't go on. Instead she pulled out her phone and made a call.
"Jack Boyle," the voice said on the other end.
"I know you're very busy and probably have something scheduled today but I'm in a complicated and perhaps tough situation and I may need a lawyer. Do you think you can help?"
"Do you need me now?"
"Not yet, maybe later."
"Do your parents know what's going on?" Jack asked.
"My dad does, but I'm not sure where he stands on the issue."
"Give me a call or text when you need me and if I'm not stuck in court, I'll get there soon."
"Thank you." Anna hung up and turned back to Baez. "I will be okay; I just want this to be over. Not just for me, but for every other girl affected by that stupid, substitute teacher." She could see the wheels turning in the detective's mind and hoped she wouldn't have to spell it out for her. Danny exited the sergeant's office preventing Baez from saying anything.
"You said you had homework," Danny said.
"Yes, sir." Anna pulled out a notebook and a pen. However the pen wouldn't write. She dug through her bag but couldn't find another. One appeared in her sightline. She sat up and realized Danny was holding the other end of it. That pen worked so she used it to write out her statement but didn't sign it. She wanted to be sure the detectives wanted her statement and if they did and wanted to question her, that Jack read it first before she made it official. About an hour and a half later, Danny nudged the book she had switched to reading since she was done with her statement. Anna looked up to see Baez holding out what looked like a burrito and a bag of chips. Anna took them and by the time she finished them and the small cup of soda, two detectives walked in and one bent to speak with Danny. He looked up at the woman suspiciously. Anna couldn't hear what she said but whatever she said next seemed to calm Danny. He turned to Anna.
"They want to talk to you now. Just tell them everything. The recording will tell them everything anyway," Danny said.
"Can I use the bathroom first?" Anna asked, chewing on her lip.
"Uh, sure. You know where it is," Danny said.
Anna tucked her written statement into her back pocket then made her way to the bathroom slowly as she texted her former uncle Jack hoping he'd make it to help her. She knew that he was busy and he may not be able to make it despite what he had said. She also knew that her dad would be there and she wasn't in trouble so she shouldn't have been so worried but part of her saw the way Danny was detaching himself and wanted someone there who would back and defend her completely. She just hoped she could stall long enough for him to get there. She was trying to pump herself up on the way back from the bathroom when a hand pulled her aside. Anna looked up to see Jack Boyle.
"Tell me what happened," Jack said. "Short and to the point." So Anna handed over her written statement so Jack could read it over. Once he was done she played the end of the recording. "Oh wow." Jack instantly pulled her into a hug. "I am so sorry that you are going through this. I'm sorry you were ever put in this situation. I'm sure your entire family will have your back. Did you give this to the detectives yet?" He motioned to the statement.
"No. I wanted to see what you thought first."
"This is fine."
"Thank you. We should get this over with."
Jack nodded and followed her over to the two SVD detectives and Danny. "Jack Boyle. Anna has agreed to talk to you and share the recording of their argument. Treating her as anything other than the victim of a ruthless offender will put an end to the conversation," he said.
"Mr. Boyle, we can promise that we would never treat her that way," the woman detective said.
"You called a lawyer?" Danny asked.
"It's just in case, better safe than sorry, right? I didn't do anything wrong but there's a lot of bad people in the world," Anna told him.
"Okay. Anna, Jack, these are detectives Mitchell and Annetti from the SVD. Sarge has volunteered his office for us to use." Danny said. He motioned first to the woman then the man as he introduced them. They all stepped inside the office to get the interview over with.
So what do you think is going to happen next?