Shaken

Chapter 14 -Flashes of Memory

"Hank, we don't even know how much she knows about what happened in the first place, I'm not so sure it's such a good idea to ask her about it right now," Erin spoke, gazing through the glass doors at her sleeping daughter.

Hank, Erin, Jay, and Dr. Charles had gathered outside of the doors of Piper's room.

"So far Piper is the only firsthand witness we can get ahold of who might have gotten a good look at the suspect on the day of the attack."

"The only one you can get ahold of? Does that mean-" Jay started to say.

"She's the only survivor from her classroom that's not braindead," Hank said bluntly. Perhaps more bluntly than he should have.

Erin looked at the floor trying to wrap her head around this reality, "So, if she talks to you she's going to have to testify."

"You and I both know I'll do everything I can to protect her from that." Hank tried to reassure Erin. Though truthfully if Piper ended up making a positive ID it was almost certain she'd have to make a statement in some form.

Jay looked at Dr. Charles who had been quiet up until this point, "What do you think?"

"Well, I haven't had an opportunity to do a full evaluation yet so I'm working based on very limited information but she's suffered quite a bit of trauma in the last week. I'm not sure if reintroducing her to the event is the best thing until we know the full extent of her trauma." He explained.

"Can we at least have her try to ID him? So I can get the evidence to convince the judge that we have enough to get him behind bars for now?" Hank tried to compromise.

Erin and Jay met each other's gazes, both wore a look of uncertainty.

Jay couldn't help but look at the irony of the situation. Over their years of police work he and Erin had worked to convince countless numbers of witnesses to testify, as well as many kids.

They both knew letting Hank get Piper's statement was the right thing to do.

"Look Piper's my granddaughter, you know that I don't let people mess with my family and get away with it. I need this to catch the guy that made this happen." Hank stated.

Erin nodded, looking up at Jay.

"You can get the ID, but if she gives any indication that it's too much I want you to back off," Jay said sternly to his father-in-law, he knew Hank had good intentions but ultimately his daughter's well-being came first, "and Dr. Charles needs to be present."

Hank nodded. He could respect that. Even if Jay's overprotectiveness got on his nerves he knew that ultimately Jay was doing what he needed to do to look out for his daughter.

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Piper clung to her Dad's hand as Hank sat the tablet in front of her. They had woken her up a few minutes before, allowing her a brief time to shake the drowsiness from her system.

"Ok do you recognize any of these men?" he said showing an array of pictures.

She looked at each one carefully, trying to overcome the haze in her brain to remember if she had seen them.

Then she looked into his eyes. Suddenly her senses felt heightened, where had she seen him?

She stared at his picture, her breathing getting quicker. Why did she know his face?

"Piper." Jay nudged gently, he could feel her nails digging into his skin.

Flashes of memory began to cloud her vision. She felt trapped.

She looked up sharply with terror in her eyes. "I don't want to look at it anymore."

"Did you recognize this guy?" Hank pushed on avoiding Jay's gaze, attempting to get her to confirm.

"Get it away!" she snapped at him in a way that her parents had never seen before. The panic she felt was blinding.

"Piper..." Jay bent down in concern, fear rising in him as he recognized the look on her face.

"No. no. no. no." She pushed the tablet, tears streaking down her face.

Erin stood up quickly to step in, "It's ok you don't have to look at it anymore ok? It's going away now." She said picking up the tablet and ushering a stunned Hank out of the room.

Jay wrapped his arms tightly around his daughter who had now resigned to sobbing.

"It's ok, you're safe, you're safe," He repeated soothingly, trying to breathe with her to help regulate her hyperventilation.


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Despite Piper's lack of affirmation for the ID the DA ruled that her reaction was enough to be considered a positive ID. Especially considering the suspect was at risk of fleeing the country if not captured.

"Boss," Upton said coming into Voight's office after he had returned from getting the go-ahead from the DA, "We've located the perp. FBI is en route."

Voight stood up from his desk.

"Do you want us to roll?" Hailey asked, "The feds are itching to get this bust."

Hank nodded and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, "Tell the FBI to lock everything down. I want this unit first through the door on this. I want to be the one to slap the bracelets on this son of a bitch."

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(A/N)

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you so much for reading and supporting my story :) it truly does mean the world to me.

Apologies for the late update and any possible typos things have been absolutely wild for me in the months since I last updated so it's been hard to find a lot of dedicated downtimes to write. I appreciate y'all for sticking with me ❤

Also, I need your opinions on something:

I've been thinking a lot about going back and editing this story to fit a more cohesive and polished storyline because when I started this story I really only had a dedicated plan for the idea and the first few chapters and there are some inconsistencies I'd like to fix and details I'd like to add but this would probably delay updates and so here's the question:

Would you all rather I continue releasing new updates and wait until the story is finished to polish it up OR would you rather I take a couple of months to polish everything up (potentially add 1 or 2 other chapters to the beginning) before I continue the story? 

Let me know in the comments.

Also as always, comments and suggestions are always welcome! I love to interact with all of you 💕

That's all for now! Be safe! I love you 🥰💞