Chapter Text
“9-1-1 what’s your emergency” came the all to familiar line as the phone was answered.
“Hi I need help, this kid got on my bus ten minutes ago and I think she’s hurt. She’s not moving or conscious. I’m stopped outside of Beats Bakery.”
“Help is on the way sir but I need you to check for a pulse, can you do that for me?”
“Yeah yeah, hang on one second.”
He gently pressed his fingers into the side of her neck and breathed down the line in relief.
“Yeah she’s got a pulse.”
Truck 118 pulled up behind the bus with the ambulance behind it and out stepped it’s crew. The captain entered the bus and made his way to the back where the driver was, he got out of the way for the man and Bobby then began checking on the girl, she couldn’t have been older than sixteen and she was battered to hell. While he waited for Chim and Hen to reach them with the gear, he checked her neck for any sign of spinal injuries and then her breathing and pulse. With those three things clear and safe, it was a good sign that she was likely going to be ok despite her current state.
Hen and Chim took over once they’d lugged their gear and the stretcher into the bus, Bobby stepping outside of the bus so he could call it into the police and have them come down. Athena was the next on the scene, observing the girl and her injuries as she was brought out of the bus on a gurney.
“How’s she looking Hen?”
“I’m not gonna lie, I think someone has been beating on this girl for a long time. She’s got some older bruises and some scars. She’s hurt pretty bad, I can’t really tell what kind of injuries she has at the moment.”
The girl came too and went into an immediate panic when she saw everyone surrounding her. She sat up fast and grabbed the front of Chim’s shirt to push him away, despite the pain that it caused her.
“Hey hey, you’re ok, you’re safe.” Bobby tried to reassure her, hands held with his palms out in front of his body to get his point across. “You’re hurt and by the look of it, pretty badly. We’re just here to help you.”
Hen managed to sedate her while Bobby talked to her and then the team shared a concerned look between each other. She was definitely scared of something or someone, that much they could tell. She had no identification on her so at the hospital they had her down as a Jane Doe until they could find out more about her. A doctor came into the waiting room a few hours later with some files in hand and gave them to Athena.
“You might want to call the detectives for this one Athena, this girl has been here in this hospital eight other times in the last two months, every time with some sort of suspicious injury. It was always reported to CPS but it looks as if that never went far.” The doctor shook her head and shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. “Her name is Billie Taylor, I contacted CPS again, they’re sending someone down now, we also had to contact her father, even though I wish I didn’t have to, still, he won’t be allowed to see her until someone from CPS talks with her and you.”
“And how is she doing now?” Athena asked, eyes skimming over the medical records in her hands.
“She had to have surgery, a metal plate in put in under her eye because the break was too severe to heal on its own. She has some internal bruising, two broken ribs, her nose was broken but we fixed that too and she has more stitches than any kid her age should have.”
A man rushed in through the front doors, making a show out of acting panicked and he did a damn good job at it too. Athena on the other hand saw right through the act and even introduced herself to him so that she could explain what was happening with his daughter. He definitely didn’t like being told that he couldn’t see Billie until both the police department and CPS had done a thorough investigation, she could see the cogs working in overtime as he tried thinking up some sort of excuse like he always did.
Athena waited for the detectives and for CPS before she left and went home, greeting Bobby with a tight hug and tired smile and he happily returned it and pressed a kiss to her head.
“How’s the girl doing?” He asked her, pulling away so that he could make the both of them coffee, something they both needed.
“She’s in rough shape, they had to put a metal plate under her eye because she had a severe fracture there, she’s got some internal bruising and broken ribs, a lot of stitches.” Athena leant against the counter and watched Bobby move about the kitchen. “That poor girl has been in the hospital eight times in the last two months and the more I learn about this Bobby, the more I suspect that it’s domestic violence.”
“I don’t know how anyone could do that to another person let alone their own kid.” Seeing anyone hurt was a tough part of the job but a kid, that was a lot tougher. “So what happens now?”
“Well Detective Ransone is taking it over now and he will investigate everything along side CPS, so hopefully the poor girl can catch a break, a lot of that will come down to her talking to Ransone and CPS, I just hope that it’s not too late, that it hasn’t gone on long enough to scare her into keeping quiet.”
Athena’s phone buzzed on the night stand around four in the morning and she reached around for it blindly before answering and pulling it to her ear.
“Yeah.”
“Athena, it’s Lou, I’m getting nowhere with your girl, I was hoping you’d come down and talk to her. She’s clearly scared and I think that me being a man isn’t helping that at all.” Ransone spoke down the line, currently stood in the hall of the hospital.
“Right now? Lou it’s four in the morning.”
“I know but she isn’t sleeping, she isn’t eating and she won’t talk to anyone.” He pleaded, “I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do here.”
“Ok, I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Everything ok?” Bobby mumbled, rolling over to wrap his arms around her.
“No, Lou hit a brick wall with the girl and she’s not sleeping or eating so I’m gonna go down and see if she’ll talk to me.”
Bobby sat himself upright and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heels of his hands, a second later and he was out of bed and pulling on jeans and a shirt.
“Baby you don’t have to come with me.” Athena got herself dressed and then pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“I know but I want to.”
She didn’t question it or argue about it, it would be nice to have Bobby there, having learnt to lean on him for support more lately and he happily provided it. He peeked through the window of her room while Athena talked with Lou and then he quietly let himself into her room. It broke his heart to see the girl so battered and hurt and it was more than just traumatic.
“Hey.” He slowly approached the chair beside her bed and sat down. “I’m Bobby, I was one of the firefighters that helped you on the bus.” He kept his voice even and soft as he talked to her. “I hear you aren’t eating or sleeping, I get that. I find it hard to eat and sleep when I’ve had a tough call. I don’t like talking about it either but I’m learning that it’s better to, it doesn’t happen over night, it takes time.” He could have smiled when she finally looked at him, it was something at least.
“I’m not hungry and I’m not tired.”
Bobby nodded, “ok then, you don’t have to talk about it either, not if you don’t want to but I’ll be sitting right here if you do want to.”
“Ok.” She nodded, Athena and Lou watching the two interact from the window outside her room.
“Ok.”