We Know What You Did

12: Investigating

Sonny stood in the hotel room with Maya and two of Chelsea's other teammates.
"The other night you told me that you thought Tyler hurt Chelsea, what made you think that?" Sonny asked the girls.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Michelle spoke up, "She was acting strange. Not really talking to us. She was in her own world."
"And skittish" Tara chimed in. "She had just come back from talking with Tyler. She seemed physically uncomfortable. Something was just off."
"Did she say anything to you about it? Mention Tyler's name?" Sonny followed up. The girls shook their heads. "Ok, thank you, girls. If you think of anything, please give me a call." He handed them a business card and left the room. Sonny was half-way to the elevator when he heard someone call his name. He turned around and saw Maya walking towards him.
"Is Chelsea okay?" Maya asked. Sonny smiled at Maya's concern for her friend and reassured her that Chelsea was relatively okay. "What did he do to her?"
"He assaulted her" Sonny kept it vague.
"How bad? Chelsea's told me everything about what's been going on and she told me he took it too far the other night. How far did he take it?"
"What else has been going on?" Sonny asked. Chelsea hadn't mentioned any previous incidents.
Maya looked at him. "Ever since she ran away last month he's been abusing her. She didn't tell you?"
Sonny sighed and shook his head. "What did she tell you?" Maya didn't want to betray her best friend's confidence and hesitated. "I get that you don't want to break her trust, but I need to know so that we can make sure Tyler pays for what he did."
Maya decided that it was in Chelsea's best interest if she told Sonny everything she knew. She told him about how Tyler became overly protective of Chelsea and would rarely let her leave the house alone other than for school or soccer practice. She talked about how Chelsea confided in her when Tyler would slap her or hurt her. Sonny listened to Maya and grew angrier and angrier. Finally, Maya finished and Sonny thanked her for her help. He headed to the lobby to meet up with Fin and Amanda.
"What'd you find out?" Sonny asked as he walked up to the duo.
Amanda shook her head. "Not much."
"Nobody seems to know anything. Her coach said Chelsea had been acting distant but she assumed it was because it's near the anniversary of her mother's death." Fin said.
Sonny nodded. "I learned something. Her best friend told me Tyler has been abusing her for the past month. On the night of the assault, Chelsea told her friend that Tyler finally 'took it too far'."
———
Back at the precinct, Chelsea watched Netflix on her laptop, not really paying attention. Her phone buzzed and Chelsea ignored it. After the fourth notification, Chelsea finally picked up her phone and was surprised to see many messages from her teammates. She opened the group chat and panicked. Everyone was sending messages of encouragement and support for Chelsea. How did they know what happened? A text from Maya explained it all.
'Chels I'm worried about you. Your uncle said your dad assaulted you. If you need me I'm always here for you. I love you' Maya sent. Chelsea slammed her phone face down on the table. She noticed Sonny, Fin, and Amanda enter the squad room. She angrily stood up and marched over to her uncle.
"You spoke to my teammates?!" Chelsea asked loudly. The whole squad room looked at her.
Sonny sighed. "C'mon," he led her back into the conference room. "Yeah we spoke to your teammates." He told her. "We wanted to find out what happened that day."
"I told you what happened!" Chelsea was still talking loudly. "You didn't have to talk to them! I didn't want them to know!"
"Chelsea, they're your friends. They all care about you and are concerned about you." Sonny tried to calm her down but failed.
"I don't need them to be concerned about me!" Chelsea shouted. "I don't need you to be concerned about me!" Chelsea stepped closer to Sonny and lightly pushed him. "I DON'T NEED ANYONE TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT ME! I JUST NEED PEOPLE TO LEAVE ME ALONE!!" She began weakly hitting Sonny's chest.
Sonny looked out to the squad room and made eye contact with Fin and Amanda who responded with a sympathetic smile. "Chels" Sonny grabbed her wrists to stop her from hitting him. "Hey, hey. Calm down." He guided Chelsea into a chair. "Take some deep breaths for me." He sat down and positioned his chair so he was directly in front of his niece. Chelsea started to calm down and took a few slow breaths. "That's it. It's okay."
Chelsea wiped her hand across her face. "It isn't okay. It will never be okay."
"Don't talk like that. It will be tough, but you'll get through this." Sonny tried to reassure her.
Chelsea shrugged. "I don't know how. Uncle Sonny, I've lost both my parents. I'm all alone."
"You're not alone, Seabug" Sonny got out of his chair and embraced Chelsea. "I'm right here."

A/N
Thank you everyone for reading this! It means a lot to me that people are actually reading this. Please favorite and comment if you have any feedback!