Brave Enough

Three

"Alright James. What's going on?" Athena asks. "I'm going to help you stay safe."

"He's a cop. You can't help. No one believes a cop would beat and break a twenty-year-old. They will just blame me for it. This knife and bottle they're psychological weapons against me. I know this but I still let the fear in. I can't help it. The bottle is a reminder that I'm a failure. The knife is a reminder that I got lucky that time." James starts to lift her shirt over her head.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Are you going to flash an officer?" Athena asks. Buck rests a hand on James' shoulder.

"Athena it's okay. This is technical evidence," he assures her. He nods at James who pulls her shirt off. Athena and Hen gasp.

        "Ten stitches and a lie. He cut me down the chest and told the er doctors I was clumsy and fell on a knife I had dropped. They believed him. That's when I knew he would always get away with it. There are so many other times. I finally got out after," James stops and looks at Buck.

       "Buck. Why don't you go to the other room? I think this might be a conversation best handled without you," Athena orders in the disguise of a suggestion. An order Buck knew to obey.

      "I'll be in the next room. If you need help call me in," he says.

      "Okay James tell us everything," Hen says.

        "It started out fine. He'd hit me or yell but it wasn't bad. He always apologized. But then when I wasn't wanting sex he'd get really aggressive. And at first, he'd kind of respect it. But then he got mad and started raping me. Once a week to twice. Until it was every day. Then after a year, I found out I was pregnant..."

****

      "911 what's your emergency?"

       "Help I'm stuck in an elevator! I'm at the Hilton on Caine. Please, I don't like small spaces. Please help!" A man yells in a panic.

"Alright, sir. Help is on the way please remain calm," Maddie says. The line clicks then goes dead. "You're welcome, sir. Have a nice evening."

"Alright, what happened last night. I have never seen a girl look so spooked. Plus if I recall that call from a couple months ago she was the patient," Eddie says. Hen just stares ahead at the truck walls.

"I don't know everything Athena made me leave the room when James started to freeze up. But from what I do know she dated a cop when she was in college. He was abusive like Doug was with Maddie but worse. She has a scar on her chest going vertically between her breasts from where he took a knife to her chest for not making him what he wanted for dinner," Buck's fist balls up tightly his knuckles turning white. Hen places a reassuring hand over his fist.

"She will be okay Buck. She has all of us backing her up. Athena was so pissed that he was arrogant enough to believe that he'd get away with his crimes because he's a cop. She's making her take record of any type of communication between him and her. Any threatening note, phone calls, texts the whole works. Athena will catch this bastard. You don't even want to know everything. She had another panic attack by the time she was done telling us."

      "I wish I could've stayed home with her today. She barely slept last night and I'm pretty sure she stopped breathing at some point. I offered to have her and Cleo move in but she refused," Buck says.

      "She'll open up when she's ready. It was big for her to tell you about Colin. She didn't have to trust you take her home yesterday. She also could have refused to stay at your apartment and from what it sounds like in your bed," Hen says giving Buck her judging look.

       "We didn't have sex Hen. I just held her. It felt nice lying close to her. I want to feel that every night. Regardless of her safety. It feels good knowing she's safe in my arms though," Buck says. Eddie, Bobby, Chim, and Hen all laugh. "What?" Buck asks defensively.

      "Kid when you want to hold a girl in your arms while you sleep. Or want to wake up to her every morning. Hell even just knowing you can keep her safe," Bobby starts looking around. "That's when you know she's the one. Focus guys. We have to extract a young man from an elevator without letting the elevator drop with him in it."