She was so angry... her thoughts seemed to swim around her in a red haze of her fury.

Cassidy Collins was pissed. WHo the hell did Brock think he was, kicking her out? How much money had she brought in for him--acting as an errand girl, fencing some of his stolen shit, picking pckets? FUcker, fucker, fucker! How dare he? And he'd known she was clena down to her last twenty, the basterd, how was she supposed to cop a room on a twenty? She could always sleep on the street, but not when it was 20 fucking degrees below!

Her beath came out in streams of vapor, her green eyes were hard with anger. Not pulling her weightk... what a load of bullshit. SHe pulled more than he did, practically. The teen jamed her hands in her pockets as the cold began to eke through her coat and gloves.

"Come on, come on, just one car," she muttered, her words coming out on small puffs of steam. One of them, a reject from the dump apparently, passed her, then slowed down and rolled a window down. "There you go, hot damn!" Pleased with her luck, she shoved at her hair and began to walk--no, no strut--towards the window. With any luck he wouldn't be fat and she could hook enough to spend the night in a motel.

Luck, it seemed was on her side. Not only was he not fat, he was clean-shaven and almost hands--well, not ugly at least. "Hey," Cassidy said, cocking her hip as she leaned down to the window.

He watched as she came swaggering to the window, brimming with confidence. His eyes swept over her body, showcased as much as it could be in the brittle cold, over her neck, her breasts, her legs... He practically shuddered in anticipation...

Thoughts... these thoughts kept running through his mind--what it would be like to hear her scream, what that cocky face would look like after it was bruised from his hand. He felt himself harden just thinking about it, had to inhale hard as the scent of blood filled his nose and the screams he wanted almost as much as her body filled his ears... "How much?" he asked, but his voice was not his voice, it was too hoarse, the accent off, unfamiliar.

"Eighty for an hour of whatever you want, honey," the girl responded, smiling a little, trying to play up her pitiful looks as best she could.

"Get in," he told her in that odd, husky voice as he unlocked the door.

She obliged, hopping into the car, whose heater mercifully worked, without a second thought. "Fucking cold out there," she told him. "Got anything to warm me up?"

He pulled out a bottle of vodka, passed it to her. "Try this."

"Score." She looked young, but took a pull from the bottle with the familiarity of a long time drinker. "Damn."

He motioned to her, waiting for her to pass the bottle back. His fingers wrapped around the cold glass as he lifted it to his lips, as the harsh, astringent taste ran down his throat. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as she pulled her gloves off, ifnoring him as she warmed her hands over the heater. He raised the bottle again, shifting his grip this time as he slammed it across her face. BLood smeared the bottle as her lip split open and, stunned, she tried to lift her hands to protect her face, but he clubbed her with it again. The violence was stunning, arousing, as he parked the car, ripping at her clothes, beating at her just to hear her choked cries. She cried as he rammed himself into her and it made it better, the pressure building inside of him, higher, higher, higher

Todd ripped at his covers, hardly aware that he was screaming. Hers were ringing in his ears, almost drowned out by the gutteral sound of the grunting--his grunting--as he raped her, as he beat her and enjoyed it. His body was taut, so hard it hurt, and horror and confusion rolled over him in waves.

"Todd?" She called out. She'd been feeling his distress all night, but of course she couldn't do anything. He wasn't the kind to want close comfort it seemed... But that was really all she'd been able to pick up in the few days that he'd been with her.

"Todd? Are you okay darling?" She asked softly from the door, wanting to go in to be closer to him, but hesitating.

With her own children, it was far more simple. They'd always wanted her presence. They wanted her to hold them and be near them. But Todd was so different, and knowing his background, she couldn't help but hesitate, not really knowing what would help him.

But in the end she decided to take a few steps into the room.

"It's okay. You were just having a nightmare." She said soothingly, trying to do her best to calm him. "You're safe. There's nothing to worry about."

He was sweating profusely and in the cool room quickly shivered. He thought he might retch, but didn't as he pulled the blanket around his shoulders. Todd was glad Victoria stayed away, he still felt shaky and strange and having someone who was still essentially a stranger would have probably shattered what self-control he had left.

Shuddering, he shook his head as she told him it was a nightmare. "No! No... It was real, it was real--I--he," he felt like he couldn't breathe and his words were coming out on top of each other. "He's killing her, you have to call somebody, the cops, someone!" he managed at last, panicky but trying to will his body to relax.

The image of her face flashed into his mind, pale and bloody. And for one swift, unsettling moment, it aroused him. Todd retched this time, but didn't lose it. "He's kiling her!" Lurching to his feet, he swayed as he gripped the bed.

She frowned deeply as he began to panic. Maybe his life had been more troubled than anyone had ever known. "Todd. It's okay. No one's hurt. You're at my house, your new home. Safe. Nothing is hurting you and you haven't hurt anyone." She said soothingly, moving closer out of habit.

As she saw him convulse slightly she grabbed the trash can just in case, moving quicker than any human could. After all, time was important if she didn't want to wind up washing carpets or bedding.

Victoria put an arm around him as he stood up, swaying. "Todd. Sit okay. Just relax. Everything's okay, it was just a nightmare." She said soothingly, leading him back to the bed. His skin was hot, even warmer than she knew most humans to be. "Are you feeling sick? Before the dream I mean. You feel warm..." She said as she let her cool hand settle on his forehead.

"NO!" Todd snapped, with more force than he had intended too. His chest was still heaving, the sweat making his skin clammy. "It wasn't a dream!" He shook off her hands, anger flashing into his eyes as she tried to baby him, convince him he'd dreamed it all. "I am telling you it happened. I..." he faltered a little, but then shook it off, "I don't know how. But if you don't call the cops and send them to... to..." Todd pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes as he tried to remember, dropping the blanket accidentally so that the scars on his torso could be seen, but too preoccupied to notice.

"Its... it's an alley off of... Duquense Stret, downtown." Todd said slowly, reluctantly dragging up the details of his dream--his not a dream. "I know it sounds stupid and crazy, but I don't care! It happened--I know it did!" He could still feel the sting in his knckles from when he'd hit the girl... even feel the way thecartilage in her nose had crumpled beneath his fist... he shuddered a little.

Wrapping the blanket around his shoulders again, he looked at Victoria. "I think she's still a live. But she won't be if you don't fucking listen to me!"

"Todd! Listen to me! It was just a dream." She said as she out her hand under her chin to make him look at her. "You haven't left the house. You've been in bed all night. I would know if you'd left after all." She said simply, her voice more forceful than it had been before.

"Now. Lay back down. Go to bed, you have school in the morning." She said with a frown as she stood up.

She frowned, clenching her teeth as he swore at her. "Todd. We had this discussion the first day. I don't want to hear that language, especially when it's directed at me." She said sharply. But his insistence on it being real made her wonder. Especially as he named a street that was indeed down town. Not in the best part either. That was where she went to hunt sometimes...

"You've been through a lot recently, so I understand that you're stressed out. You need to relax though and get some sleep. If you want, I can go there myself to make sure nothing's out of sorts. There's no need to call the police for a dream." She said, frowning at him. "If I told them the truth, they would just ignore the call. They do things like that you know. But if you get back in bed now, I promise I'll drive down there just to be sure. If there is someone hurt, I can help them more than the police can."

Todd shook his head furiously as she continued to tell him that it was a dream, feeling the anger that she wouldn't believe him build in his chest. "It was NOT a dream!" he shouted hotly, hishands curling into fists. For a moment it seemed as though he might strike her, but her turned instead and flung his pillow across the room in an enraged display that caused no damage but did little to make him feel better.

He tried to take a deep breath, do something to make the pressure in his head go away. "It's a grey car, it's rusty, it's a-a Chevy," he said insistently, pacing to try to work off the nerves, the unsettling anger that had set in. "I've never been to that part of town... I haven't but I can tell you how to get there. I swear to God, it's not a dream. I've had dreams before. I've had bad dreams before, and I know they're dreams hwen I wake up. This wasn't a dream." He wanted to swear again, but figured she'd just use it as more reason to not believe him if he did.

Todd's head shot up though as she spoke about maybe checking it out herself. It was just because she wanted him to go to bed, but she couldn'y deny it if she went, if she saw... "You can't go alone," he objected automatically. But then... she was right, wasn't she? He was here... he wasn't there, wasn't hurting anyone. He looked down at his hands. They were big. Like he'd inherited from his father. And they were clean. No blood, no nothing. But it had been so real...

"Todd... Please. Think it through. I know it might have felt real. I've had dreams like that too." She wasn't afraid he would hit her. She could move much faster than he could, and besides, even if he did hit her, it wouldn't hurt her one bit.

"I know the way Todd. I've been there before." She said looking at him, remembering what kind of car he'd said.

She repressed a laugh as he said that she couldn't go alone. "Todd, darling. I wouldn't offer to go if I couldn't handle whatever I might come across." She said with a smile. "I'm tougher than I look. I could probably even take you on." Victoria let a small grin slip.

"But... It was just a dream. I know it might have seemed real, and if you think it was, I'll be more than willing to go make sure it wasn't." She really didn't believe in clairvoyance or any other supernatural powers. At least not in humans. Maybe if they became vampires, then perhaps. She'd always been good at calming people, sensing their emotions. And she'd brought that gift with her.

But now that she thought of it, it was strange that he was still insisting it was real, and even panicking because of it.

"Do we have a deal? I'll go take a look if you go back to bed?"

He hated the idea of sitting in bed waiting for her, wondering, hoping he was worng but knowing he wasn't... Todd didn't figure he'd be getting back to sleep for a while if he was reduced to waiting here for her. But he didn't want to argue any more either. She'd probably get all huffy and tell him he'd either go back to bed or she wouldn't go anywhere... yeah, that's what she'd do. It'd be just like her, he figured.

"All right," he agreed reluctantly, dragging his fingers through his hair. "Can I... if you're going and I gotta stay, can I have one of my pills?" Todd asked. He hated the pills and didn't like taking them, but he also didn't want to sit around and twitch the whole time she was gone either. When Todd got stressed, he sometimes to where he couldn't calm down and had stayed awake for nearly four days strait one time... that hadn't been pleasant.

She nodded, smiling softly as he asked for his medication. She knew he didn't like it, that much she'd figured out quickly. "Of course. And I promise I'll tell you if I found something, first thing in the morning." She said, her subtle way of saying he better be asleep when she got back.

She went to her bathroom and took his medicine from the cabinet, bringing a cup of water with her.

"Here... Just try to relax okay? I'm positive it's nothing. You've been through a lot lately. Anyone else would be having even more trouble adjusting than you. Just remember though I'm here to help you. I'm not out to get you or anything else like that. I just want to help you. Me and Tyler both." She said, reaching out to brush a strand of his hair gently, ever so briefly.

"Try to get some sleep. I'll be back soon. If you need anything, you have my cell number." She said as she stood up.

Todd had to get up again as she went to get his medicine, trying to bleed off the nervous energy taht just kept building up. He took the cup and the pill she handed him, remembering to add a thank you before he swallowed it and drained the water. He wanted her to get going already. He didn't need her mommying him. As she spoke, he resisted the urge to say something snappish in response. He didn't want a lecture, he wanted her to go.

"I'll be fine," he said dully, though he didn't miss the irony of reassuring her of that after waking up in a raging panic attack. Todd supposed he had to sound crazy, insisting that he knew something bad had happened and he knew it would be easy for Victoria to say she was going and then wait for him to go back to bed and... not go. He'd lay down, he decided, and watch to make sure he saw her car leaving.

She doubted he'd sleep, but if he was laying calmly in his bed at least... Well it would get him to relax.

It was a wild goose chase she was sure, but she'd promised him that she would indeed look. Besides, what would be the harm in driving out there just to make sure? None really, except it would be faster if she didn't drive.

But she backed out of the driveway, closing the garage door behind her, and headed off to the street that he'd named. She wasn't sure what she'd find there... But if she did find something, should she tell him? Should she really let him think that he'd seen someone being hurt and possibly killed?

No... No she couldn't let him know that that dream, nightmare, vision, whatever it could be, was actually true.

Todd flopped down onto the bed as she left his room, but was too itchy to stay there and hopped back up again after she left. Pacing a little, he gnawed on a thumbnnail, and glanced out the window every couple of seconds. He didn't understand where the anxiety came from. Before the surgeries, he couldn't remember ever feeling this frustrating ants under the ksin sensation. Thinking about it, he traced a hand over one of the scars. He didn't really think it was the actual surgeries that had done it, but sometimes had to wonder...

As the meds began to take effect, he sat down on the bed again, let his head fall into his hands. Todd despised the slow, stupid way the pills made him feel, but it was better than going and going and going like some insane Energiezer Rabbit nobody could stop until his head blew off when he crashed and burned.

God he hoped she didn't find anything. Buth e also didn't want to be crazy.

She made her way faster than any cop would have, down the streets, through the stoplights and signs where she knew no one was coming at this hour.

The street came into view and she frowned, parking the car smoothly on the side of the street.

Out of the car now, she could smell it... Blood... And lots of it. It made her hungry, but she could resist just about any temptation. She followed it though, moving quickly along the street. No one was there, she knew that much. But there was blood coming from somewhere.

There! At the side of the ally, next to the dumpster was a girl. Curled up on the dirty pavement, her clothing ripped, torn and bloody... Cuts all over her face, probably more than a few broken bones.

She whipped out her phone, flying over to the girl as quick as a shadow. Dialing the emergency number for the hospital, she ordered an ambulance, using her name to rush the situation. She was still alive, but barely. Her pulse was slow, weak. And she could barely feel the girl's breath. It... it had to be a coincidence. He couldn't have done this to her, no matter what he might have thought. He'd never left the house, she knew that for sure.

Once the ambulance got there, she helped to load the girl onto the stretcher, following the ambulance to the hospital. What the hell was going on?

Cassidy was drifting. She had tried to fight as he had hurt her, but he'd been so strong... horribly strong. She'd heard her own bones snapping as she'd given up on fighting, on struggling, unable to do anything but lie there as he had raped her, ramming himself into her as the blows had rained down. There had been an impossible amount of pain. It was inhuman to be able to feel that much. Agony didn't begin to describe it. He had stopped beating her, but had kept hurting her, kept doing things to her even as she slipped towards that space between the pain and the nothingness.

That was the space she was in now. The pain came dimly, in trickles that eked through the comforting black after he had finally left her, as used and bloody as an old needle among the rest of the trash. She'd hardly noticed. She swam in and out of conscious and unconscious, really hovering in between as the blood began to freeze on top of her, in her veins and the cold began to race the injuries to see which would get to kill her first.

Then there was light. Then there was blackness. It was a slow, confusing waltz.

The ambulance had arrived and Victoria hurried in after the girl.

Her signs had been getting weaker, steadily slowly, dropping. She'd lost far too much blood, and her body was in bad condition. How long had she'd been laying out there? who was to say.

"Have you started the transfusions yet?" She asked one of the nurses sharply.

"Yes... But..." She seemed hesitant.

"But what? Is she improving any?" The nurse shook her head.

"That's just it... One of her lungs was collapsed, broken rib.... We've tried inflating it again, but her oxygen levels keep falling... She's could have possible brain damage, even if she ever wakes up..."

Victoria frowned. "Her pulse?"

"Still weak. She's not responding to any of the medicines. Her BP's still too low... she's lost too much blood Dr. Adams, I don't know if there's anything we can do at this point."

"Do we have a name at least? A contact or any personal information?"

But before the nurse could respond a loud beeping began to come from the room, a nurse called for a crash cart. Her pulse and blood pressure had suddenly fallen.

One of the interns had already lost his dinner. The trauma surgeon figured the boy would either toughen up in a week or would be headed to the hallowed halls of psychiatry. Wasn't his concern, in any case, his concern was trying to stop the bleeding. It would be an easier task if he could narrow the source of the bleeding down to one particular spot instead all over the goddamn place. She was a lake of blood inside--the surgeon figured the cold cutting the circulation down to the rest of her body was the only reason the heart was still flailing away.

As the heart monitor began to wail, he stepped back, nearly slipped in the blood on the floor. He could keep pouring more blood into her, but there was no point. It poured out as fast as they gotit in. "I'm calling it," he said, glancing at the clock. "Two-fifty one AM." He yanked down his mask. "And shut that goddamn machine off." Peeling out of his bloody surgical garb, he tossed it all in the trash. There hadn't even been time for him to sweat.

"Victoria," he said, a bit surprised to see her. "What are you ding here?"

Victoria frowned as the monitor was flicked off, the beeping stopped. There was only one reason for that.... The girl was gone.

She was frowning, looking into the room as the surgeon came out. His question caught her off guard, leaving her to think quickly. "House call... I was on my way home and I saw her laying just in the alley..." She said, still frowning. "I don't know what happened. I saw her and called for the ambulance."

The woman looked back at the room. "Internal bleeding? What kind of injuries? I think she was attacked. The marks on her arms...." She muttered. Who would do this to someone else? Let alone a girl... She couldn't be that old. "Any ID on her at all? Leads on family? Background?" She asked.

"Attacked?" Harold asked, actually looking a bit surprised. "By a silverback gorilla, maybe. Basically every bone in her chest was crushed. I don't know how long she must have been there before you found her, but I think it's a good thing you didn't come along much earlier. If you think she was attacked, I would hate for you to have run into whoever attacked her." He frowned deeply. "I just don't... This kind of damage wouldn't look out of place in a head-on collision, Dr. Adams. I thought that's what it must have been--a hit and run."

He scratched at his sparse hair. "There was a driver's license. It said she was eighteen. It's hard to tell with the beating she took, but the license looked face. A good fake, but fake." Harold paused, trying to remember what else the liecense ahd said, but then they'd only looked in the hopes of mayeb seeing any indications of allergies. "I think the name was Brittany Collins. But that doesn't mean much if it was fake."

No... Not a car... A car wouldn't have done this unless it ran over her a few times...

Someone had attacked her. A car wouldn't have torn up her clothing, or given her those slender cuts on her face and arms. A gorilla? No... Vampire... Perhaps.

She nodded as the surgeon said that the license looked fake. It was possible.

"A car would explain a lot of it though. But why would she have been in the Alley if that was the case? Unless the driver stopped to move her." She frowned. If she'd been the person she would have taken the body elsewhere to dump instead of just the near by alley.

Besides... Todd had said she was being attacked... And right now, she believed him. "Tell the autopsy team I want the full report. And I want them to do a rape kit as well. If she was attacked and someone or some ones did this to her... I want to make sure the cops can find them... I've seen a lot of stuff here... But never anything like this." She said frowning, almost glaring at the wall.

"I have to get home though. Todd's having problems adjusting. I didn't want to leave him for the call, but I didn't have a choice." She said as she turned to grab her coat from the near by rack.

Harold flapped a hand as she relayed orders for the autopsy team. "Yeah, yeah. Suspicious death, standard procedure. Like they'd do anything but a ful exam." He managed to fight back a yawn. He was only halfway through his shift, but he was already exhausted... with luck he'd be able to catch a quick nap. "I'm betting on 'them'. If one person did this, I hope to God whatever they were on isn't getting passed around."

He frowned a little in thought as she mntioned a Todd... "I thought your boy was Tyler... Oh. Right. The foster." Harold hadn't worked on the boy, but he remembered the doctor on call that night talking about how the kid had been worked over pretty good. Not as good, or bad, as this girl, fortunately. "He still taking antibiotics? He had to have the emergency appendectomy, right?" He bet "trouble adjusting" was an understateemnt. Far as he'd heard, that kid was gonna be a basket case--every possible kind of abuse from the father and all.


OOC: ... Yes. Bwah.

"That would be the one." She said with a fond smile. "You know me. Can't say no." She gave a soft chuckle.

"I'm sure he'll be fine though." She said, knowing what the man wasn't really saying. "He's rough around the edges and a little rebellious, but what boy isn't at that age?" She asked.

"Anyway, but make sure they do an entire exam. I want everything on there. Every last scratch, every last scrape and bruise..." She muttered, pulling on her coat and heading out of the room. She had to get home after all, before he could think that something had actually been found.

Less than ten minutes later she was closing the garage door again and made her way into the house. She moved quietly to Todd's room, to see if he was asleep or if he was still up. She'd had time enough to think of what she should tell him, and knew she could pull it off easily.

The pill had helped him relax, but he didn't have an easy time falling asleep. Part of it was the fear that if he did, he'd be back in the dream again... Todd was terrified not just of what he had dreamed, but how it had made him feel, even if only for an instant. As a result, he would fall into a doze only to jerk back to wakefulness, his eyes flying open to make sure he was in the room, in the bed... exactly where he was supposed to be.

It was in one of those moments that Victoria poked her head in. Todd turned almost immediately, propping himself up on one elbow to look at her. "Did you... was there anything there?" he asked, afraid of what theanswer might be.

She shook her head. "I didn't know if you were right or not, but I went to check..." She said softly, moving to sit down by him.

"I didn't find any girl there. I drove through several times and went in the alley's just to make sure, but I didn't find anything." She hated lying, but would the truth really have been any better? If he knew, he probably would just blame himself, thinking he did it. "It was just a dream. It's okay Todd." She knew he didn't really like contact, but she couldn't help raising her hand to run her fingers through his hair.

"You've been through more than anyone could ever imagine. It's only natural that your mind can't handle everything. It's nothing to be ashamed of. They'll go away once you have time to adjust. It'll get better." She promised.

"Go to sleep now... Do you want to make you something to take with you for lunch tomorrow?" She asked, smiling down at him.

Todd automatically shook his head. "But I saw it..." he said, more to himself than to Victoria. Was he really hoping some girl was hurt real bad, maybe even dead, just so he could convince himself he wasn't crazy? He stiffened a little as she ran her hands through his hair, still uncomfortable with anyone touching him, but didn't pull away.

"It's not what happened to me that made me dream what I dreamed," Todd objected, though even he wasn't so sure of that at this point. Maybe it was. He had no idea how, but maybe it was. Maybe it was, like, some of the leftover drugs hanging around in his system.

As she asked about lunch, he just shook his head. "No... I'll just get lunch at the cafeteria," he said, laying back down and closing his eyes. Todd was silent for a few moments and seemed to be heading for sleep before he spoke agian. "Victoria? Have you heard anything about the test resulst? They're supposed to be coming in soon, right?"

"I know it seemed real darling." She said softly. "I've had dreams like that to. I would wake up, swearing they were real until I remembered the truth." After Jason had died, so many nights when she actually slept, she'd seen him, so real it was as if she could touch his face, kissing him just like he had before. "I've had dreams like that Todd. But just think about it. You haven't left the house, you've been here all the time. You've never been to that street." She tried to use logic to calm him. If he looked at it like that, she thought it would at least sooth him for tonight.

"Okay. Just let me know if you change your mind though." She said with a smile, stroking his head as he lay back down.

She got up as his eyes closed, keeping her smile in place.

"Hm? Oh... The results usually take a week they said... So probably Tuesday." She said quietly. "Don't worry about that now though, just go to sleep."

Fast Forward!

Howard Duckworth, the chief ME, was a busy man. But when the body of a girl came in that looked like it had been trampled beneath a herd of wild horses, he too k it. NOt many horses in Demaitre to do some wild stampeding. After spending as long a time in the business as he had, thhings didn't shock so much anymore, thuogh he had to admit that a case this severe was rare.

The entire right side of her ribcage was broken, turning the chest cavity into a mess of bone chips and shredded lung. Both arms were also broken, the right one shattered severly enough that the bone pkoed through the skin in a couple of spots. The face waas also pretty much a loss, shattered cheekbones, fractured jaw. A few teeth were missing. Looked like blunt force trauma, maybe a bat... He tweezed a shard of glass out of the cheek, a bottle could have done it too. Punctures on the throat and breasts, signs of vaginal and anal rape... His report was going to be novel-sized.

A light knock on the door, Victoria was frowning there. She'd been told that the report would be finished by now, and she wanted to look it over closely. Someone had done this to her... And the only thing she knew to do something like that was a vampire. Only a vampire would be strong enough to do to a human what had been done to the girl.

And Todd had said that someone had hurt her. That he'd seen her being attacked. No wonder why the dream terrified him... Watching someone be brutalized like this...

But that still left the question about how he had seen it. How he had known what was going on.

"Hey, it's Adams." She said as she stepped into the room. "Sorry to bother you. But you're the one checking on the Jane Doe right?" She asked as she lingered in the door.

Howard looked up from where he waas filling out the reams of paperwork associated with death. "The one that got trampled by nonexistent, horny horses? Yes, that would be me." He took his reading glasses off, set them on top of the paperwork. "I've got my preliminary findings. They're pretty straightforward. She was beaten to death by someone very strong or a number of strong someones."

He ruffled his half-full head of hair. "YOu found her, right? Well, anyway, I printed her. She's Cassidy Collins, sixteen. Ran away from her family a while back, got picked up once or twice on little hoodlum in training charges. Pickpocketing, undeage drinking, stuff like that."

"So we know who she is at least..." Though she wasn't sure if that was a good thing really.

"But yeah I found her. Downtown, not in one of the better parts really. I've heard of prostituting going on around there, never seen it though..." So she had been raped though. "More than one possibly? Did you find something that made you think it was more than one person in the vaginal exam?" She asked curiously, moving in further.

Sixteen... So young...

"I didn't see anything suspicious when I found her though. Did you see anything else unusual? any marks that didn't really fit in?" She asked with a frown.

"It wasn't the rape that made me think multiple assailants, it was the severity of the beating." Duckworth clarified, pushing a copy of the preliminary finding s towards Victoria. "That or the assailant was approximately six-nine and built like Schwarzenegger." The medical examiner shrugged. "Or hopped up on something very potent, I suppose."

He raised an eyebrow at her next question. "Unusual? Well, not... there were some puncture wounds. Looked like he beat her with a bottle and that left some cuts, but these were more like pencil-sized stab wounds. Everything else was consistent with a spur of the moment attack. A bottle was probably handy, so he used a bottle. Other wounds are consistent with a beating."

"Puncture wounds? The size of pencils?" She blinked, curiously. A large vampire.... Stronger than she could imagine. "That's strange, considering all the other wounds were gashes..." She muttered, opening the file and glimpsing over the file. It was your basic beating, just someone who was far stronger than the human body.

She looked over the file though, frowning deeply.

"What if it was just one person though..." She muttered to herself. But she shook her head.

"Do you have the pictures yet? Or do the police have those? They do have the file right? Whoever did this, we need to make sure they can be found. Whether it's one person or several. Or we could be seeing a lot more of this." She muttered.

It was hard for her to remember that she was a doctor, not a police officer. She wasn't responsible for bringing these people to justice, and honestly... she didn't want to run in to whoever could do this to someone.

Howard rasied his eyebrow again. "Yes, I've sent everything to where it's supposed to go, Victoria." He paused, studying her. "Don't get too wrapped up in this. It's horrible, yeah, but there's nothing you can do. If this is some slobbering inbred running around, he'll get caught. If it's not... well, he'll still get caught."

Standing, he stretched, the buttons on his shirt straining over his belly. "So, that boy you took in... have you started therapy with him yet?" he asked curiously. HOspitals, and the morgues attached to them, were as much a hotbed of gossip as the nearets hair salon... the topics just tended to be different. "If you haven't, I know a pretty good one... hasn't been around here long, but he's pretty good with abuse cases.

"Too late for the warning..." She murmured. She couldn't help it... Todd had seen her dying... How could she really explain that? "Thank you though... I'm sorry... I don't mean to assume you don't know what to do." She apologized. "Do you mind if I take this copy?" She asked, tucking it under her arm. She'd give it back if he needed it, but she wanted to look it over more.

"Hm? Oh... No I'm still trying to find one. I... I want someone who's not going to treat him like a kid. He doesn't like that and I don't think it will help. He's been through a lot and he's grown up rather quick." She said with a sigh.

"Really? Well, do you have the number? I'd like to give him a call, maybe set up something to see how Todd likes him. After all, if he doesn't like the guy it won't help." She said with a sigh, shaking her head.

"No... go ahead," Howard told her, watching her tuck it under her arm. "That's just a copy of a copy anyway." He plopped back into his chair, shuffling through papers and books and empty coffee cups. "Like I said, he's pretty good with abuse cases... I think the police department gives him a call every now and then to evaluate witnesses and the like," he said as he rooted around for his address book.

Finally finding the battered blue book, he flipped it open, scanning the names inside. "Ah, here he is..." Grabbing a scrap of paper, Duckworht scribbled down the name, address, and phone number. "I, ah... I had a friend once whose daughter had been having some issues. He does good wokr."

Victoria nodded as he mentioned the psychiatrist again.

"Okay. Thanks." She said with a smile, taking the card. "I'll call him and see if we can set up an appointment. If Todd likes him, we'll go with him." She said with a smile.

"Thanks for everything Harold. Can you just e-mail me the full report when you're done though? I want to look it over." She asked hopefully. She knew she shouldn't get to involved, but she had to figure out if it really was a vampire. If it was, there were people she could get a hold of that would help her find the guy.

"I have to get going though. The... results from his test are in... I should get home just in case he gets too curious." She said with a sigh.

Howard waved a hand. "I really shouldn't be feeding this, but I can do that," he told her. Wagging a finger at her, he put a stern look on his face as he added, "But let the police do the detective work, okey doke? That's what they're there for."

As she left, he turned in his chair, thinking. Picking up the phone, he dialed quickly, let it ring twice, then hung up. It wasn't long before the phone rang again. "Duckworth. Yeah. The boy's foster mother was just here. Yeah. Found the body. She's hooked, I can tell. Yeah, yeah. I told you about her, right? Yeah, okay, good. Well, I gave her the number. She said she'll call. Yeah, right. Okay. I don't know when. Probably soon. Yeah."

He hung up, sat for a few moments, then turned back to his paperwork.

It wasn't long until she was home, zipping through the streets like she always did. The mail had already been picked up when she pulled up, Tyler's car was in the driveway.

"Hey mom." He called with a smile as she came in through the garage door. "You get that case figured out yet." She frowned slightly, looking for Todd.

"Don't mention anything about that to Todd okay?" She asked softly. "Did you get the mail though?" He nodded. "Was there something in there from the hospital?"

"Yeah, it should be in here still." He said shifting through the papers, but he couldn't find it. "Huh... It was here."

Victoria sighed. "Don't worry about it. It was something about Todd... He probably grabbed it before." She said shaking her head. "Have you seen him today?" But Tyler shook his head. "No, not for a while anyway."

She'd been expecting that. But if he hadn't been around... It probably wasn't good news. Knocking softly at the door she called out softly. "Todd? Are you in there darling?"

"You can come in," Todd said as Victoria knocked on the door. Why not? It was her house. He was sitting in the little window seat, looking at the dusky sky outside... clouds and the threat of snow made it seem later than it really was.

The letter was on his desk. Rather than being ripped open, contents strewn about, it had been opened carefully, the paper that had been inside unfolded and laying face up on the desk. Todd didn't look towards the door, his face only partially reflected by the window glass and unreadable.

"The test results came today." He sat very still, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. "It's positive. I have HIV."

Entering the room, she sat next to him, closer than usual. She had to comfort him. It wasn't her not to try at least. "I kind of figured... When I heard you'd hadn't been out of your room." She said quietly.

"But don't worry... It'll be okay." She said surely. "There are so many medicines now that can help you. And even if those fail... Miracles happen." She insisted. So what if it wasn't really a 'miracle' that had saved her. But the same thing could save him if he wanted.

"A while ago, years ago when Tyler was even little. I was diagnosed with a cancer. A cancer that was said to be incurable. I was given only a few months to live... A much shorter time than someone even with AIDS. But miracles happen Todd. And medicine's advancing every day." She said with a smile, pulling him close.

"But I have the name of someone you might want to talk to. One of the other doctors gave me his name and I figured we could go together to talk to him, and if you like him, maybe we can start to help you." She smiled, looking over at him. "How does that sound?"