Callie was gone. And her defenses set in. Dr. Evans watched her guard fall. Her muscles tensed. She was prepared to protect herself. "Good."
She looked at him quizzically.
"You've allowed yourself the ability to protect yourself."
"Okay," she said, still unsure about what he was saying.
"Arizona, I am your friend. I am not going to hurt you," he said. "Do you think Callie would leave you alone with me if I was danger?"
"She has before."
He paused, not expecting that answer. "You blame Callie for what happened to you."
She looked away.
"Why?"
"Whose fault is this?"
"Yours," she said, wincing in pain when she drew the pocket knife against her leg.
"Wrong, whose fault is this?"
"Penny's." The knife traced another line up her other leg, it was pressed deeper into her skin.
"Wrong," Whitney breathed in her ear, holding the knife against her throat. "Who let this happen to you?"
"Callie."
"She let them take me."
"She was at the TED conference, right? You were walking home alone?" he asked.
"She wasn't there. She let them take me," Arizona said, her voice low and bitter.
Evans made a note and studied her. The level of simmering anger in her voice was disconcerting. He didn't think she was truly mad at Callie. But her conditioning and her need to be angry at someone for what happened to her was manifesting itself in anger towards Callie. "So what did they do when they took you?"
Arizona remained silent.
"Arizona, I need you to talk to me."
"She left me again."
"No, she didn't. She'll be right back."
Arizona watched the door. "They beat me," she whispered. "They whipped me. I didn't do anything wrong."
Evans watched the shift in her demeanor. She was breaking down, back to the childlike state Callie had described to him.
"I didn't do anything wrong. They beat my head into the ground. They hit my face with a belt. They stuffed me into a car. They blindfolded me, they gagged me. They hurt me. I don't know why they hurt me," Arizona rambled.
"What did they do after that?" he asked, trying to prompt her to more before she shut down again.
"They beat me and whipped me," she said. "They took my clothes."
"Did they rape you?" Evans asked bluntly.
"Yes," Arizona said softly after a pause. "They chained me down."
He nodded. He felt sorry for Callie; she seemed like a nice woman. But he feared for Arizona. She had been broken beyond belief. This was just the beginning of what had been done to her. It got worse. It got much worse. "Go on
