“Shhh… I’m here, babe. Everything is going to be okay.”
She didn’t let up. Her sobs only grew heavier and deeper, her tears soaking my shirt. I placed my arm around her waist, my hand resting on her ass as I tried to shield her body away from the onlookers in the room. When I looked up, the firewatch was watching me quizzically, but I didn’t care. My care for anything except for Cassie was long fucking gone by this point.
“Get me a towel or something for her,” I lowly told Ruiz, who swiftly got up from her position. She brought me a towel that I placed around Cassie, then positioned her in my lap and gently swept her hair away from her face, placing soft, consoling kisses on her cheek.
“Uh… Sergeant Cruz, I had the A-duty call for the MPs. They’ll be here any minute.”
I didn’t even look at the firewatch as he spoke, just simply nodded my head and continued to console Cassie, whispering how much I loved her in her ear.
“Hey, man. You want me to stay? The MPs just got here,” Riley asked, looking concerned and worried.
“Do whatever, man. I don’t fucking care.”
Four MPs and two EMTs ran up to the room, stopping in the doorway where Allen lay, painfully breathing in his own blood. They surveyed the scene, mentally putting the picture together before asking any questions. One of them pulled Riley aside and asked him a few questions as I continued holding Cassie. She had finally stopped sobbing, but was moaning from the aches and pains that asshat had ravished on her body.
“What did he do to you, Cassie? Please tell me. Please.”
She stilled, growing silent as I waited, hoping she would tell me exactly what had happened to her. She never said anything, just clung tighter to me as the tears began to fall once again. With every tear a piece of me died, fearing the worst and knowing that there was absolutely nothing that I could do to erase it, or to take her pain away.
“Um, Sergeant Cruz, I’m Sergeant Nicks. The EMTs here would like to take a look at Pfc. Bennett.”
“She isn’t dressed,” I grumbled, not wanting to let her go.
“I—I know that, Sergeant, but they’ll need to check her out.”
Riley walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder, looking sympathetic.
“Man, just let them do what they’ve got to do. They’ll take care of her.”
I stared into his eyes for a few seconds longer, seeing the sincerity pouring through them, but still not wanting to let her go. I finally looked back down to Cassie, who I knew needed medical attention, then I turned to Ruiz.
“Get me some goddamned clothes for her. Get me something.”
She quickly moved to Cassie’s drawers, pulling out a pair of panties and some mesh shorts. I took them from her, picking Cassie up and moving her over to her bed before dressing her. A big bruise was beginning to take shape on the side of her face, her nose was bleeding, and she had marks on the sides of her neck. Tears stung my eyes as I looked down on her, feeling helpless and drained. She held up her wrists, mouthing, “It hurts,” as I wiped a tear away from my face and then hers, taking her back in my arms.
Two more EMTs came into the room and loaded Allen up, wheeling him out of the room. I turned to Ruiz and told her to get dressed since there would surely be more people coming to investigate what had happened in this room. She nodded her head, and for the first time since I had met the girl, I saw decency in her eyes. She looked sad, scared, and concerned.
She looked human.
The EMTs came for Cassie. Riley walked behind them to try and get me to let her leave with them, but I didn’t want to let her go. I was too afraid that she would break, or I would break, or one of us would break if we were pulled apart. This traumatic fate had sealed us. She was my lifeline--the air to my fucking lungs, the blood to my fucking heart. I knew that there was nothing else in the world more important than her.
“Hey, Alex, they need to take her, man,” Riley cautiously stated, once again putting his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t budge, I felt like any second that she wasn’t in my arms was a second too long. “Alex—“
“I fucking know, Riley. Fuck!” I yelled. My frustration was mounting as a few large teardrops rolled down my face. I finally let her go and the EMTs carefully loaded Cassie up on the stretcher as she winced from the pain of merely touching her body. I sat on the bed looking as they held her in place, not strapping her too tightly for fear of hurting her even further. I sat with my hand over my mouth as a few more tears trickled down, the saltiness mixing with blood as it fell onto my hand.
Once they were done loading Cassie up, they began to push her out of the room, prompting me to follow. Sergeant Nicks stood, standing before me and saying, “If you don’t mind, Sergeant Cruz, we’d like for you to stay behind so we can get a statement.”
I looked at him through the gloss of my eyes and then over to Cassie.
“Get my statement at the fucking hospital,” I answered back, not even bothering to look at him as I followed Cassie out of the room. Riley walked out behind me, throwing his arm around my shoulder as I tried hard to hold back more fucking tears. It hurt too much to see her in this state, and to know who the culprit was—and what that animal was capable of doing to her—flooded me with an inane amount of visuals that did nothing but make me sicker with each step I took. When we made it to the bottom, I saw Allen’s dick in my head again and I fucking lost it, violently throwing up as I prayed to anyone who would listen to please not have allowed that sick, demented bastard to put his shit inside of her. My head was spinning as I grew weaker with the thought, making me dizzy and unable to swallow.
“You okay, Alex?” Riley asked, steadying me on his arm. “I’m not letting you drive like this.”
“Fuck off, dude. I’m going to the hospital.”
“You’re not driving yourself. Here, Private Jacobs is my A-duty, he can take you in my truck.”
Riley tossed the keys to Jacobs, who looked stunned but quickly walked out to the parking lot, not saying anything to anyone. I looked around at the mass amounts of spectators who had formed around the area, my eyes landing on Dalton who looked about as sick as I was, and had been crying as much as I had, if not more. Our eyes met and he nodded, letting me know that he was right there with me. Ruiz was there as well, the same broken look I had seen in the room was still filling her face.
I waited for the EMTs to load her up in the back of the ambulance before Riley pushed me off in the direction of his truck. Once I was there, I hopped in and Jacobs took off for the base hospital, gunning it to get me there without a lag in time between our arrival and hers. I jumped out as he came to a stop, still feeling my stomach churning from my earlier thoughts, but finding enough resolve to brush past the people moseying along near the entrance. I rushed to the front desk, sweating and breathing hard, nearly scaring the nurse who stood there to help me.
“I’m here for Pfc. Cassie Bennett,” I breathed, nervously running my blood riddled hands over the back of my neck.
She stared at me for a second before typing something into the computer, then warily looked back up to me, politely saying, “She’s just being brought in. It’ll be a while.” She typed something else into the computer and then looked back at me and asked, “Are you family?”
The question froze me. I wasn’t Cassie’s family. I wasn’t anything to her. As far as everyone knew, I was just an instructor and she was just a student.
“No. I’m not.” I answered, hoping she would look beyond it and allow me to see her.
“Well I’m sorry—“ she stopped and I slid my ID card to her before continuing, “Sergeant Cruz. You’ll need to take a seat in the waiting area and we’ll let you know when the doctor has examined her, and if she can have visitors.”
I slowly turned away from the counter, feeling bogged down with overly sensitized emotions. I was certain that she was scared, hurting--emotionally and physically--and right now, all I wanted was to see her…to hold her…to console her… to just let her know that I was here and she was safe. That wasn’t going to happen, so I sat down in the first open seat I found, blowing out a heavily lodged breath, then dropping my face in my hands as I choked back a new set of tears that were threatening to spill. My phone buzzed, pulling me out of my overwhelming sadness and giving me something else to focus on.
Riley: Hey! First Sergeant O’Hara was up here. He’s speaking to EVERYONE about what happened. He’ll be at the hospital either tonight or some time tomorrow.
Me: Good shit. Did you speak to him?
