Chapter 9: Scars

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"Jay." Will said, sticking his head around the bedroom door where Jay was.

"Yeah?" Jay answered as Will walked into the bedroom shutting the door behind him. "How is she?"

"A couple of stitches on her collar bone aside from that it's all bruises." Will explained. "You said it's her fiance who did this to her?" He asked.

"Yeah, from what we know it's been going on for quite a few years." Jay said.

"I counted at least ten scars, not including the newest one, a few look like burns." Will said.

"She does have a dangerous job but that's too many." Jay said.

"What can you do, as a cop I mean?" Will asked.

"Domestic violence is up to four years but we can probably get him on assault with a deadly weapon." Jay said.

"The bastard needs more than four years." Will said.

"Mhm." Jay agreed.

"I need to head off." Will said.

"Thanks for this." Jay said.

"Its no problem, you look after her." He said.

"I will. See ya." Jay said, following his brother to the door. "Hey." He said, gently lowering himself onto the sofa so not to startle Cass who was hugging her knees to her chest and staring blankly into space.

"Hey." She replied, looking at him with a small smile. "Have you heard anything from Voight?" She asked.

"Antonio is just about to tell everyone what's happened." Jay said.

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"We've got a new case." Antonio said, walking out of Voight's office where he had been explaining the situation to Voight. "This one is being bumped down to gangs."

"What's the new case then?" Burgess asked, packing the photos on the board into a box.

"Domestic abuse." Antonio said.

"Is that an Intelligence case?" Ruzek asked.

"The victim makes it Intelligence." Voight said from his office doorway.

"Who?" Upton asked.

"Cass." Antonio said, receiving several confused looks. "Jay's with her now but we don't know where her fiance is."

"I want to know everything on Ryan Nelson, where he grew up, where every single family member lives, where he works, anywhere he could be hiding." Voight ordered. "Upton go with Dawson to Cass's place."

"Copy." Everyone said before silently getting on with their work.

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"Hailey and Antonio are on their way to the apartment, is there anything you want them to get?" Jay asked Cass, they had put the TV on but Cass was still spaced out.

"My gun should be on the bedside table, there's a knife wrapped in a towel under the sink." Cass said, her hand landing on her collarbone.

"Is there anything you want?" He asked.

"My detective badge should be on the table next to the door." She said.

"I'll make sure they pick it up for you." Jay said, getting up from the sofa to call Antonio. "Hey." He said when Antonio picked up.

"Hey, you're on speaker, Haileys here." Antonio said.

"How is she?" Upton asked.

"Honestly?" Jay paused. "Not good, she's barely talking, not eating." He listed.

"We'll get him." Upton said.

"What do we need to get?" Antonio asked as they walked into the apartment.

"There's a knife wrapped in a towel under the sink." Jay said before pausing.

"Got it!" He heard Upton call in the background. "He stabbed her?" She asked, unwrapping the towel and seeing blood.

"Not exactly." Jay said before pausing for a second. "And Cass's gun should be on the bedside table. They will both be covered in his prints."

"Do you know what happened?" Antonio asked as Upton bagged the gun.

"Not exactly, but I've got an idea. Can you grab her detective badge for her on your way out?" Jay asked.

"Of course." Antonio said, grabbing it and putting it into his pocket. "Did he clean up? It stinks of bleach."

"She did." Jay said.

"I'll call you as soon as we get anything." Antonio said, hanging up. Jay went back into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to Cass before speaking.

"How long has it been going on for?" He asked softly.

"Three and a half years." Cass said. "It wasn't everyday. Not even every week." She added.

"What did he do with your gun?" He asked, studying her face for an answer before she spoke. Cass explained what Ryan had done and said before letting a few more tears escape. "Come here." Jay said, hugging her and allowing her to cry into his shoulder. "I promise you he will never hurt you again."

"You can't know that, domestic abuse is only four years max. Four years then there's no one stopping him." She said.

"There is now. You've got me, Voight, Dawson, the whole team. He's never gonna get near you again." He promised.

"They're all gonna look at me differently, the cop who was abused by an accountant. What kinda cop does that make me?" She said, still crying.

"A human one." Jay stated.

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Three weeks later

"Antonio." Cass said, standing up from her desk and gesturing to the break room. They had caught Ryan the same day as Jay had found Cass and she had gone back to work a couple of days after. It had taken a while for everything to have a sense of normality again, she was still staying at Jay's, still had regular nightly nightmares and still had the scars but she was trying her best to move on with her life.

"What's up?" Antonio asked, shutting the door behind them.

"It's the sentencing today." Cass said quietly. Due to the evidence and testimonies of people from both New York and Chicago, Cass wasn't needed to testify.

"Are you gonna go?" Antonio asked, Cass nodded.

"Will you come with me?" She asked. That was another thing, her confidence had been ripped to shreds, almost worse than her life.

"Of course." He said, leading her out of the break room and after running it past Voight they headed down to the courthouse.

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"On the counts of domestic abuse and assault with a deadly weapon of a police officer, the defendant was found guilty. I therefore sentence him to 12 years in Jail." The judge said. Antonio helped Cass to her feet and lead her back to his car in silence.

"12 years?" Cass said quietly as Antonio got into the driver's seat. A few seconds later a few tears escaped.

"Hey, that's good." Antonio said, taking her hand in his and running his thumb along the back of her hand.

"Yeah, I don't know why I'm crying." She said with a small laugh. "I guess I'm just relieved."

A/n: And that's the end...

I have a couple questions for you guys:

 - Do you want a sequel because I already have some ideas in mind?

 - Do you like this way of writing? (taking a few months to write the entire thing, then publish it all in one go) Or would you prefer if I posted one chapter at a time, as I write it?

Thanks for reading and please leave your answers in a comment x


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