⚠️ TW: ᴅɪsᴄᴜssɪᴏɴs ᴏғ sᴇxᴜᴀʟ ᴀssᴀᴜʟᴛ
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- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
- 𝚃𝚘𝚖 𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗'𝚜 𝙰𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 -
- 𝟽:𝟹𝟶 𝙿𝙼 -
THE RAPPING OF knuckles against Tom's apartment door dragged the young officer out of the long awaited slumber he was engulfed in on his sofa. He slowly rose to his feet, letting out a groggy yawn and stretching his tired limbs as the knocking continued. When he opened the door, he couldn't believe who was waiting on the other side.
"Hey pal, how's it going?" Booker greeted. "You catch some z's?"
Oh, you've got to be kidding.
"Come to twist the knife?" Tom sniped, quickly turning on his heel and heading back inside.
"Don't worry," Booker replied, following Tom into the apartment. "I didn't come here to gloat,"
"Then what do you want?" Tom questioned, slumping back down onto the couch and silently begging for this awful day to end.
"I wanna find out what happened to Tracy Edwards, and you're the only person who knows as much about it as I do."
"You're too kind," Tom scoffed.
"Oh, believe me, it's not a compliment," Booker assured him. "I think you're a screw up, Hanson! You let your personal feelings and your own prejudice cloud your thinking! That's why this case has been a trainwreck, not because of anything me or Richards did,"
"My own prejudice?!" Tom couldn't believe that Booker had the nerve to go down that road with him. "That's rich coming from you! You're out there burning crosses and dropping the N-word like it's just another Tuesday! But I guess it's all okay because you're Internal Affairs, right, Book? You can do anything you want so long as you throw another officer under the bus!"
"You're one to talk," Booker shot back. "You burnt me, Hanson! You broke into my apartment to try to find dirt on me for raping a minor! You didn't do any real police work, you just got lucky when you figured out I was Internal Affairs,"
"I was onto you the whole time," Tom argued. "You've been acting suspicious since day one! Everything I laid out about you this morning was corroborated by someone else. I didn't come after you for no reason. I don't break the rules to set somebody up. Next time, you might wanna be a little more discreet."
"C'mon, don't kid yourself," Booker scoffed. "You've been gunning for me more than any of those jerks we busted yesterday. So what's your damage, Hanson? Let's lay it all out on the table,"
"You're my damage," Tom sneered, not wasting a moment."Everything you do is a slap in the face to good cops. You wanna talk about police work, but all you did was act like a dumb redneck and pal around with those bigots. You didn't care about solving the bus shooting, you didn't care about the racial attacks, you didn't even care if those kids hurt Tracy! You were just here to sniff me out and say whatever you wanted without consequences. So, forgive me for not recognizing what a model citizen you are,"
"Hey, I'm glad I'm white! I make no bones about it!" Booker boasted, completely unashamed in his declaration. "But that doesn't make me some neo-nazi!"
"... You're a piece of work, Book," Hanson chuckled dryly. He stood up and made his way over to the kitchen. The fact that he was even giving this asshole the time of day was ridiculous.
"I'm tall," Booker continued as he followed Hanson to the fridge. "I'm good looking—"
"And very humble, too,"
"—and the system works for me, Tommy. I know it. I don't go around pretending like you do," he retorted. "You wake up, and you're just another pretty white boy with the world on his hip, but you're too scared to admit it,"
"Scared?" Tom repeated coldly, grabbing a can of beer out of the fridge.
"Yeah, scared," Booker persisted. "Because if you acknowledge that the system works for you, you'd have to admit you're glad to be white! Just like me, and just like our cross burning buddies we threw in jail last night," He explained. "You wanted to prove I was a racist so bad just to prove to yourself that you aren't one," he finished. "That's prejudice, my friend,"
"If I wanted a sermon, I would go to church," Tom slammed the fridge shut. "So why don't you just hurry up and put this in gear, Booker, 'cause I've already got a shrink," Tom usually wouldn't broadcast the fact that he goes to therapy, but he had a hunch that Booker already knew.
"You might think I'm a bad guy, but I care about my job and this case," he argued. "I want justice for Tracy just as much as you do. So do you wanna help me with this thing, or not?"
"I don't wanna help you," Tom told him bluntly. "I wanna help Tracy Edwards. So tell me straight out, what were you talking to her about after school?"
"... I was apologizing for what I said to her in the cafeteria," Booker admitted. Tom thought back to that day in the cafeteria and remembered the perverse remark Booker had made about the girl's body when she blew off Marty. The nagging voice in the back of Tom's head that reminded him that Booker was untrustworthy whispered to him that he could still be lying. That despite all the evidence presented, Booker still could've had some involvement in the girl's attack, but Tom tuned it out.
He'd made enough of a fool of himself today by jumping to conclusions. Instead, he took a moment to remember how quick Booker was to apologize to Richards after he'd offended her in Fuller's office yesterday. How he chased after Judy when she'd been forced to expose their relationship this morning. Based on this pattern, Tom guessed he wasn't the type of guy who liked women to be mad at him.
He was telling the truth.
"It was when you mentioned the cigarette burns that I thought you did it," Tom explained, pursing his lips before adding "... sorry." He cleared his throat right after the apology left his mouth, refusing to let it linger in the air. "The only other time we saw her was when she came into the cafeteria. She was okay then, wasn't she?"
"But then she stormed out," Booker reminded him.
"Because she was mad at you and Marty?" Tom asked, only remembering how the two of them catcalled and leered at her from afar.
"No, she was already mad," Booker noted. "She was over at some other table, I saw her yelling at somebody,"
"Who?" Tom asked, grasping at the possibility of their first real lead in this case and praying it wasn't another false start.
"I couldn't see, you know?" Booker shrugged. "She was behind some people. Cheerleaders. She could've been arguing with one of them." At the mention of the cheerleaders, Tom realized there was someone else who might have a better understanding of this case that the two of them were missing.
"I think I know who might be able to tell us who Tracy was fighting with,"
-/-
- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
- 𝙹𝚞𝚍𝚢 𝙷𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚜' 𝙰𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 -
- 𝟾:𝟷𝟻 𝙿𝙼 -
"Come on, Judy, it ain't that hard!" Danika laughed, playfully scolding Judy as she watched her friend fail at recreating Diana Ross' dance steps from The Wiz.
"I don't exactly have enough time to learn whole dance routines anymore," Judy chuckled. They were in the living room, the coffee table pushed aside as they turned the space into a makeshift dance floor. The movie played out on the TV screen, the scene of Dorothy and the Scarecrow dancing along the yellow brick road as they sang the jaunty, soulful tune 'Ease on Down the Road'. They'd spent the better half of ten minutes rewinding the scene with Danika trying to teach Judy the dance steps she'd taught herself as a kid.
The musical was a childhood favorite of theirs. It came out around the time Judy had moved off the block. Danika was only 10, and on one of the rare occasions Judy made the trip across town to babysit, she'd taken Danika to see the film. They'd all fallen in love with the bright colors and funky soundtrack, but what Danika had always loved the most were the dance numbers.
Danika remembered sitting in the theater and being blown away by the Emerald City sequence. All of the citizens strutted around in their color changing costumes and danced in the streets looking carefree and fabulous. A young Danika and Dominique pooled their money together to buy a bootleg VHS of the film from the guy who sold movies out of his trunk on the the corner of their block, and it had proved to be a good investment. They spent countless sleepovers watching the low quality recording and teaching themselves to dance.
Being home with Judy tonight attempting to blow off steam and watching that old film reminded Danika of simpler days. So she couldn't help herself in offering to teach Judy to dance. They'd rewound the tape try after try of her clumsy steps, and they laughed at her every awkward move. Beneath the sound of their laughter and the music blaring from the TV, the faint sound of knocking could be heard.
"Probably the neighbors," Judy said as she headed towards the front door. "Just keep it playing, that's enough dancing for me tonight." Danika paid little mind to Judy as she opened the door. Instead, she focused on her dance moves, matching the campy, quirky steps to near perfection as she twirled around the room, her muscle memory carrying her through the scene as she sang to herself. She was so enthralled in her performance, she hadn't even noticed Judy return to the room.
"Hey, I've seen this flick," Booker's familiar voice cut through the air. Danika spun around and froze mid step when she saw Judy standing at the threshold of the living room with Booker and Hanson in tow. Hanson stared at her, his eyebrows skeptically raised as he drank in her appearance. She was still dressed in a fluffy pink bathrobe, a ratty old t-shirt wrapped around her hair, and she was wearing absolutely no makeup. Maybe it was for the best if Danika never returned to work after this. "Nice moves, Dani," Booker mused, biting back a laugh.
"H-hi, what's up, guys?" She stuttered, plopping down on the sofa and doing her best to ignore the way her cheeks began to burn.
"We're trying to put together this thing with Tracy Edwards," Tom informed her, his voice unexpectedly soft. "We think you might've seen the suspect." Tom looked so much more worse for wear than the last time Danika had seen him. His hair was a mess, his beard was unkempt, and there were dark circles under his eyes that told her he'd been losing sleep.
"I'll just clean up..." Judy mumbled, easing her way past the two men. Danika could feel the awkwardness radiating off the three of them as Judy hurriedly tidied up the living room. She brushed past Booker with downcast eyes and small, self conscious smiles. She hardly even acknowledged Tom's presence.
"Jude," Tom attempted to help Judy straighten up the pillows on the couch, but she didn't glance in his direction. "Can we talk?" He asked, lowering his voice as if Danika and Booker would be blind to him trying to get back in her good graces if they couldn't hear him. But it was a small living room, and not even the sound of the Tin Man's creaking joints could drown out Tom's desperation.
"Nika, I'm gonna go ahead and do the dishes," she announced, fleeing the room with what they all knew was just a flimsy excuse to get out of there. Danika couldn't blame her. If she was stuck in a room with a guy she spent the night with and the guy who shamed her for it, she'd be out the door in a second flat. Judy had lasted way longer than her.
When the three of them were left alone, Danika paused the movie and gestured for Tom and Booker to join her on the couch.
"You guys think I saw who hurt Tracy?" Her brows knitted together. She'd only spent one class period with Tracy and hadn't even talked to her during their lunch period. The time between when she last saw her and when she got attacked was so protracted, it could've been anyone. "I don't know if I can pin anyone down..." With the number of mishaps during this case, Danika didn't want to lead them down another wrong path.
"She was arguing with someone the other day at lunch. She was over by where you were sitting with the cheerleaders," Tom explained. "Did you happen to see who she was fighting with?"
"Oh. Actually, yeah," Danika could see the spark of hope ignite in the two officers' eyes. "She was fussing with some girls over at the next table. Three of them, I think." she recalled. With all of the commotion surrounding Tracy's attack, Danika had almost forgotten about her little scene in the lunchroom.
"You hear what they were fighting about?" Booker asked.
Danika shook her head. "I just heard Tracy blow up at the tail end of it..." Tracy's defiant yell of 'I can do whatever the hell I want!' Echoed in Danika's head. That was the last time she'd seen her before the attack, storming out of the cafeteria with little explaination. "But... some of the cheerleaders did tell me that she might've been sleeping around..."
"Great. That leaves every guy in school as a suspect! We're back to square one," Tom huffed, growing frustrated once again at the lack of progress.
"We can go up to the school tomorrow and have Dani point out the girls that were messing with her. We could probably narrow it down to their boyfriends," Booker suggested, but Danika shook her head.
"Who knows if we'll get anywhere with them," she frowned. She knew firsthand that a kid involved in a crime first instinct is to lie. Enough time has already passed that anyone involved has probably already come up with a story for their alibi. It would just take more time trying to pick their lies apart— time that they didn't have. The longer they spent coming up empty in this investigation meant the less time they had before Tracy was subpoenaed. Only one person could tell them what they needed to know.
"We need to go see Tracy,"
-/-
- 𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟺 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟾 -
- 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜, 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎 -
- 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚢 𝙴𝚍𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜' 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 -
- 𝟿:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼 -
Tom knocked on the front door of the Edwards' house, and Danika fidgeted with her hands as she waited for the door to open. This was their last shot at cracking this case. The door suddenly swung open and they were greeted by the frowning face of Tracy's mother.
"Don't you bother us!" She blurted, staring daggers at Tom and Booker, recognizing them from the cross burning incident the other night. "I'll call councilwoman Travers and she'll have your badges!" The threat was not a light one. Councilwoman Travers had been on the news in the days since Tracy's attack criticizing the incompetence of the police force for failing to protect her while in the school. Like everyone else, she was angry about the attack, but her going on a tirade did little to make this case go any smoother.
"M-Mrs. Edwards," Danika cleared her throat, "the police are at the end of their rope," she explained as gently as she could. She understood Mrs. Edwards' frustration. Her child was suffering and the media had made a circus out of it, but if they wanted to help Tracy, she needed to cooperate.
"Mrs. Edwards, if we don't find some good answers, they're going to subpoena Tracy and put her on the stand. That's just gonna make things worse," Booker added, and they could all see her demeanor soften as the thought of her daughter being forced to testify resonated with her.
"... Please, let us help her," Tom pleaded with a sincerity in his voice that clearly touched Mrs. Edwards.
"...Okay, but only one of you," she agreed. "I don't want you ganging up on my daughter,"
"I'll go," Danika volunteered. "It might be easier for her to talk to another woman about this," she explained, looking back at the two men for their opinion, but to her surprise, neither objected. "Okay," she nodded. "I'll be right back."
When she entered the house, Mrs. Edwards pointed her up the stairs. She found Tracy easily, her bedroom door was open and Danika could see her sitting on the edge of her bed. She carefully crept into the room, and Danika was glad to see that Tracy was looking a lot better.
Her bruises were beginning to fade and, without all the blood caking up her face, she looked almost normal—if not a bit roughed up. Her hair was different, though. Like Judy had said, the girl's hair had been cut. It looked rough now, uneven and choppy in several places as opposed to the sleek ponytail she'd had it styled in a few days ago.
Whoever hurt her really wanted to humiliate her, and the pitiful look on the girl's face made it clear that they had. It was a look Danika recognized all too well. Of shame and embarrassment. A simmering rage burning beneath her silence.
"Hey, Tracy," Danika greeted, a timid smile on her face as approached the teen. Tracy didn't look up or even acknowledge her presence. She just kept staring past her. "I don't know if you remember me. I'm, uh, Dianne. From school? We met the other day during gym."
No reply.
Danika chewed at her bottom lip.
"I-I'm actually a police officer, even though I may not look like it," she laughed a little, gesturing to the bright, multicolored jumpsuit and headscarf she'd thrown on before leaving the apartment. Tracy reacted then, if only a little. Her eyes scanned Danika up and down, and the officer was relieved she was at least hearing her.
"My real name's Nika," Danika continued. "And... Well, I'm sure you know a lot of us wanna find out who hurt you. You've seen the news and the cops and... you're not talking," she chuckled nervously, unsure of how to go about this. "And, um, my friends downstairs? They've been trying to piece it all together, but it keeps coming up short—"
"Just leave me alone and let this go away," Tracy blurted. Her voice was heavy and hoarse, presumably her first words in days.
Now we're getting somewhere, Danika thought, happy to have gotten the girl to say something despite it being a nonstarter. Danika opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Tracy turned her back on her. She crawled into her bed and curled into herself, lying with her face to the wall.
"I wish that I could," Danika sighed. "But this isn't going to go away. Not until you start talking." Danika was only met with more silence, and with a heavy heart she realized that if she wanted Tracy to start talking, she needed to start talking first.
"You know, I've been where you are," Danika admitted, moving to sit beside Tracy on her bed. "Something... not very chill happened to me when I was about your age." She looked to Tracy, trying to gauge any sign that she was still listening, but it was hard to tell.
She continued anyway.
"I was at a party and this... guy..." She took a deep breath, exhaling a shakily as she attempted to dig up those purposefully buried memories. "I was drinking and I... he... I—" A nervous giggle ripped from her throat as she failed to vocalize her grief. "I guess we don't have to get into the details," she decided, hating how hard it was for her to just spit it out. Especially now, when a girl like Tracy needed to hear it. To know that she wasn't as alone in this as she thought she was—but Danika could hardly stomach it.
Thinking about it made her blood run cold. Made her stomach tie in knots and transported her back to a time in her life she was actively running away from. None of this was okay. She wasn't okay, and she didn't know how she was going to convince Tracy otherwise...
But maybe that was the point.
"Look, Tracy, I know how hard it is to talk about it because I never talked about it. Obviously, I still can't. I just did what you did. I wished it hadn't happened and that it would just go away. But keeping quiet doesn't make things better." she sighed. "I guess I realized that when I saw you in the showers the other day. It scared me so much," she admitted, her eyes beginning to water as she recalled the battered image of Tracy from days ago.
"Seeing you like that felt like looking at myself from the outside. The shame, the helplessness, that... pain... It's always been with me, it just took a while to come bubbling back up to the surface." She explained, wiping away a stray tear from her eye before it spilled down her cheek. "You can't just pretend this didn't happen, Tracy. Believe me, I know how much easier that is. But if you don't start talking, the police are gonna subpoena you," she warned. "They'll interrogate you and rip you apart and treat you like the criminal,"
"... They'd do that to me?" Tracy asked, and Danika held back a smile, relieved that she was still listening.
"Trust me, I've been on the other side of it," Danika lamented. "Back when... that thing happened to me, I didn't wanna tell anybody because I didn't think anyone would believe me. I'd been drinking a-and even though I said no a thousand times... I felt like everyone would just tell me it was my fault," she sniffled, getting emotional. "But that's where this whole thing gets a little confusing to me, Tracy. Everyone believes you were raped, but you didn't even take a rape kit. You're in a position that most victims never get to be in. Nobody is doubting you, you just have to work with us so that we can help you,"
Tracy remained silent, and Danika shifted closer to her. "Tracy, if you're not talking because somebody threatened you, you have to remember, they're just kids," she reminded her, reaching out to caress the girl's choppy hair. "Or some middle aged creep living off a teacher's salary. They can't do anything to you ever again. We won't let them." She promised, determined to make Tracy feel safe and protected. However, she was again met with no response, and this time the silence made Danika feel uneasy. "Tracy, is there some other reason you're afraid to speak up?"
"...yes," Tracy mumbled, her hand moving to wipe her eyes. Danika sat for a moment, thinking over what other reason there could be to make the girl so afraid to tell the truth. Then it dawned on her that whatever Tracy's truth was might not be what the public wanted to hear. Danika took a deep breath, and mustered up the courage to ask a difficult question.
"Tracy... you gotta be real with me... Did anybody rape you?"
Danika waited through the expected silence, listening to the sound of the crickets chirping outside for who knows how long until Tracy slowly shook her head.
No.
Danika let the heaviness of Tracy's confession marinate. It seemed Booker had been right from the start. The media had taken this whole thing too far and had them all looking at the angle that sold headlines instead of the one that led to hard facts. But now knew the truth was out, so maybe Danika they could piece this together properly.
"Then what happened?" She asked, remaining patient with the teen. "... Does this have anything to do with the girls I saw you arguing with at lunch the other day?"
"Yes," Tracy whimpered, sniffling as she nodded her head.
"Tell me what happened, Tracy. It's gonna be okay,"
"... I slept with one of their boyfriends," she admitted, her voice wavering as she began to recount the story. "They followed me into the showers after school. One of them put gum in my hair, and when I slapped her, they jumped me! They just went crazy!" She explained through teary eyes. "They ripped off all my clothes... they cut off my hair! And they just kept hitting me and hitting me!" She sobbed, openly crying now as she explained the details of her assault to Danika. "I don't know what happened, they just went crazy!"
It took all of Danika's strength to just sit and watch the girl breakdown in front of her. It was a sorry sight, and Danika was blinking back tears. But if there was one thing she would admit Tom had been right about, it was that her grief wouldn't do any good for the victim. They needed to be strong for them.
"W-why didn't you tell anybody when we found you?" Danika stuttered.
"I didn't know what to do!" Tracy cried. "I stayed there all night just wishing it would go away. Then everybody kept saying I was raped... I just didn't know what to do!" She repeated over and over. "I don't want you to arrest them, I just want to make this go away," she sobbed. "Please, god, tell me what to do!"
Danika, now knowing the full story, was the one to fall silent this time. She didn't have the answers—or at least not ones that Tracy wanted to hear. They couldn't respect her wishes if they wanted to solve this case, but they couldn't just leave this thing alone. At the end of the day, it was out of both of their hands. Danika reached out and placed a hand on the teen's back, gently caressing her as she cried. It was one of the only small comforts she could offer her right now.
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A/N: Finally finished with this arc!! Like i said before, time is gonna move faster going forward. And have much more chill storylines than this one. i'm lowkey thinking i maybe should've started with a different episode plot to introduce everyone but oh well lol
Nika & Tom positive interactions to come starting next chapter! ANd also just wanted to say: just because Booker didn't get confronted by a poc character for his use of slurs and problematic behavior this arc, it WILL come up later in the story. its just in this case no, poc character heard him say what Tom has heard.
Also, what are ya'll's opinion on booker anyway? His character is def a love him or hate him one in the show so i'm just curious.
but thanks for reading. pls remember to vote and comment :)