Chapter 13
Spike was proud of Buffy. She had come so far in such a short amount of time. He smiled as she seated herself in front of Captain Robert’s desk with an air of confidence. Of course it helped that she knew she was right. So, when she looked his captain right in the eye he wanted to cheer for her.
“What’s up?” Roberts asked, leaning back in his chair. It was a move he used to regain the upper hand when someone came charging into his office with news they felt was important. Until he, as the captain, also felt it was urgent he would remain relaxed.
Buffy looked over at Spike expectantly. At this point it was a police matter so she was going to let him handle it but be there to answer any questions that the captain might have.
“Buffy was going through the files yesterday,” Spike said, leaning forward on his elbows. “She noticed on the evidence list something that wasn’t right. There was a pair of underwear found in Peterson’s house with her uniform. It was assumed to be hers but she’s insisting that it isn’t.”
“Are you sure?” Roberts asked, letting his chair come up just a little.
“Yes,” Buffy said then gave him the same explanation that she had given Spike.
It was hard to gauge his captain’s expression. He listened attentively, nodded a couple of times but other than that, Spike couldn’t tell if he believed Buffy or not. She ended her explanation and waited for Roberts to say something. When there was no reply, she turned to Spike. He reached over and covered her hand without thinking. Touching her was becoming an addiction that he couldn’t stop.
“Let me follow everything you’ve told me in the last couple of days,” Roberts said, leaning forward. He folded his hands on his desk. “You think this girl is Faith Monroe and you think that this underwear is hers.”
“No,” Buffy said. “I know that the girl is Faith Monroe and I know that the underwear isn’t mine. Does it hurt to at least try to find out if it’s hers? Or at least prove it’s not mine?”
“She’s right, captain,” Spike said. “If we can prove that they aren’t Buffy’s then at least we have to assume there was someone else.”
“True,” Captain Roberts said, with a shrug. “What if it was a girlfriend or something?”
Before Spike could reply, Buffy gave a soft laugh. Her eyes were closed while she rubbed her forehead.
“He didn’t have any girlfriends,” she said in a soft monotone. “Girls like me laughed at him. He showed them, didn’t he?”
“Pet, you okay?” Spike knelt beside her. She was spacing out somewhere. The words were spoken as if someone was directing her to say them. It worried him as she kept her eyes shut but her lips kept moving. He shook her shoulder lightly. “Buffy, what’s going on?”
Her eyes snapped open then she looked up at Spike. Her fingers traced along his cheekbone. “Yeah, I’m fine. Captain Robert’s said girlfriend and I remembered something. He….he used to talk to me all the time. I guess he wanted my reactions to things. And he told me about him not having girlfriends.”
Suddenly understanding where her aversion to the dirty talk came from, he squeezed her hand then turned back to his Captain. “Well?”
Roberts nodded. “I need an official statement from Buffy on recognizing Faith, whatever she remembers to back it up and about the underwear,” Roberts said. “When she’s done then I’ll send an officer with you to go to the evidence room. I want it all official. No loopholes in case it goes to prosecution. Understand Nagle? No shortcuts.”
“Yes sir,” Spike agreed. He was ecstatic. It was now an official investigation. Buffy had been completely vindicated. He wanted to hug her but refrained. There would be time for that later. A lot of time, he hoped.
“Could…I know I shouldn’t ask,” Buffy said, glancing between the two men. “Is there anyway that Kate could be the one? I mean with the statement and everything.”
“It’s fine with me,” Roberts said. “I’ll call and have her pulled in. She’s been itching to be a detective. Let’s see what she can do.”
~~~~~~~
The room was overwhelming. Boxes upon boxes stacked from floor to ceiling on steel shelves. Each one was marked by case number, date and filing code. Buffy trailed behind Kate and Spike staring around her in bewilderment. The realization that in each of those boxes was a story in which someone had been wronged, hurt, or murdered was too much for her. She blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks. It wasn’t just the room or the unseen faces of victims that belonged to each box that was bothering her.
The memory she had revealed to Spike kept replaying in her mind. Her attacker’s taunts and cruel words tore through her soul again. Some were clear but most were sounds that were only known by the tone with which they were said. She knew the moment her mind began to reveal to her what had happened. When Spike had said the word ‘pussy’, she had heard his voice. All of it was there. Every moment locked inside her hiding, but now a wind was blowing through, moving the curtains aside to allow her glances at once was.
“Buffy, you coming?” Spike asked when her feet faltered and she stopped to take a deep breath.
“Yeah,” she said, holding out her hand. Grateful when he didn’t question her but only entwined his fingers with hers. The touch of his skin next to hers sent a wave of calm through her tattering emotions. He squeezed her fingers. She smiled up at him, staring into his eyes made cobalt with emotion, as his thumb rubbed against the back of her hand. It made her wish they were alone so she could seek the comfort she needed in his arms.
They turned to continue following Kate who thankfully hadn’t witnessed the brief moment between them. The rows seemed to stretch forever as they headed toward the back, toward the older cases. Buffy shivered in the blast of air conditioning that kept the room icy. She pulled her jacket tighter around her.
“It should be in this row,” Kate said, leading them down another cavern of shelving.
Spike dropped Buffy’s hand as he helped Kate search for the proper box. The two muttered back and forth to one another as they called out the numbers that should lead them to the right one. Buffy stepped back, wondering what would be revealed. She had read the evidence itemization. Her mind knew what was in the box. Her cheerleading uniform, the underwear they were searching for, his journal, baggies with trace evidence that proved she had been in his car.
It was all the things that had convinced twelve people that he had taken an innocent girl and made her his sexual slave for almost two weeks. She stumbled back as her mind gave her another flash. It was of the first time.
Her hands chained over her head, the smell of the dirty mattress beneath her naked body, his taunts telling her that she belonged to him now, the touch of his hand as he twisted her breast painfully, the hot stench of his breath on her face, on her lips and finally the first agonizing thrust of his penis into her unprepared body.
The memory washed over her in a horrifying tidal wave of sensations. Everything felt like she was there again. Looking around her but seeing only the place of her confinement, she panicked. Her first cry was no louder than the sound of a small puppy whining for its mother’s teat. No one else heard her. The second broke free from her as the room spun around her. Then they wouldn’t stop and she fell backwards trying to find purchase in a place that was tilting wildly. Someone was calling her name but she was alone again. Alone in the hell that she once feared she would never leave.
“Buffy,” a man’s voice cried.
He tried to grab her and she lashed out with feet and hands.
“Don’t touch me, oh, please don’t touch me, not again,” Buffy sobbed, hitting an unmovable object. He wasn’t going anywhere. She curled into a tight ball, praying that he would leave her alone. Someone fell. She didn’t know who. She didn’t want to look. There were voices, arguing, and she covered her ears with her hands. Someone was trying to hold him back. Someone saying she would handle it. Was it Faith? But, no, Faith had been so cold to her. This voice was softer, gentler as she called to Buffy.
“Its okay, Buffy, its Kate,” the voice said while her hair was stroked. “You’re safe, sweetie, you’re safe.”
The words continued to be murmured in a soft rhythm until Buffy could focus on it. And, slowly the world began to right itself. The fear abated as her tears began to subside. She found that breathing was becoming easier. The cement floor was cold and wet beneath her cheek. She pushed herself to a sitting position. Refusing to look up she wiped at her face with her sleeve. She took several deep breaths as she wrapped her arms around her knees. Feeling more in control she looked first at Kate. The woman smiled at her. There was no malice, no pity in her gaze.
Relieved Buffy forced herself to look at the man sitting on the floor across from her. She gasped at the ravaged look on his face. Her rejection of him had torn at someplace inside of him that needed her to need him. She held her arms out to him. He scooted over to her, burying his face in her neck as she enveloped him in her arms. She gently rubbed his back.
“I’m okay,” Buffy whispered when she felt Spike shudder. “I just got overwhelmed by everything for a minute.”
“I get so scared when you go away like that,” Spike whispered back, revealing more than he wanted. “All I want is for you to come back.”
She felt his kiss just below her ear before he pulled away. They stared at each other for a moment then they smiled. Understanding was between them. It didn’t matter that no one else might accept what they were to each other. But they knew. They had shared so much during the night. The hours holding one another, saying all the things they couldn’t speak aloud.
Spike stood and held his hand out for her. She accepted it. Allowing herself to be pulled to her feet.
“Are you going to be okay to do this?” Kate asked breaking the spell between them.
Buffy knew they wouldn’t push her. They would give her whatever space she needed in order to deal with it. But she wanted to know. She wanted to take the next step no matter how painful it would be. Spike was there. And Kate was. Someone she was quickly thinking of as a friend. She was safe so she nodded.
“Yeah,” Buffy said.
Spike reached up to take the box off the shelf. He led them to a table on the other side of the shelving. It was Kate that was the official officer on duty there. She was the only one authorized to sort through the evidence. Buffy sat at the table and watched as the items were pulled out. Kate placed them in a stack.
There it was. Buffy’s uniform. She stared at it. Lost for a moment to the pride she used to feel when wearing it. Then it was gone. She shook her head as a bag was placed in front of her. It was the yellow underpants. Her finger traced over the plastic for a moment before she picked them up to look them over.
“They are definitely not mine,” Buffy said. “They’re bigger than what I wear.” She looked up at her friends. They were exchanging a look that she wasn’t sure she could decipher. It irritated her. “So, now what?”
“Now we have them checked for DNA,” Kate said. “That way we have physical proof that they aren’t yours. I believe you,” she jumped in before Buffy could say anything. “But this way no one can play on your memory. And it shows there was another female involved whether voluntarily or otherwise. It will bear checking into to find out.”
“Thank you,” Buffy said. “I appreciate your help.”
“Ever thought about being a cop,” Spike said with a smile. “You’re solving a case that we never knew we had.”
“You’re putting us to shame,” Kate agreed. “Let’s just hope this girl got away or was his girlfriend that is alive and well somewhere.”
Buffy realized with a start that she had assumed Faith was dead. Was there another memory just beneath the surface that would let her know? Or was it something that she had made up because death was something that she had prayed for so many times during her captivity? Suddenly feeling guilty for surviving, she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to go forward with this. She prayed that Kate’s hopes for Faith to be safe were real.
to be continued…
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