Not Desperate

Chapter 19
The Blame Game

Yvonne wouldn’t speak. She just stared straight ahead, almost catatonic. Daryl was scared; he wanted to comfort her, hold her and make everything better. He wanted her to come back to him from wherever she was right now. He went to the kitchen and got her a bottle of water. “Please baby, drink this.” He crouched down in front of her, putting his hand on her knee for balance. “Look at me.” She turned her face to him and sighed heavily. “Thank you,” she said and took the bottle. He sat on the couch next to her and hesitantly put his arm around her shoulders. She rested her head on his. He didn’t know what to say, he just held her as she cried. He blamed himself for what happened, how could he not. He should’ve taken her home, or never came here at all. She was almost violently raped and it was all his fault. She was in shock, which was the only explanation for her allowing him to touch her. They sat like that for twenty minutes until Rick and Shane came in the door. Daryl immediately stood, “What’s going on Rick? You arresting that motherfucker?”
“Yeah. He’s going to the hospital first. You did some pretty severe damage Daryl. Broken nose, possible broken jaw.” Rick replied. He put his hand on Daryl’s arm and led him into the kitchen. “How is she?”
“She ain’t talking. Can’t stop crying. I want her to go to the hospital too, get herself checked out. I don’t think he was able to do it. I think she was able to get away before he could rape her, but I need to know.” Daryl pleaded.
“We got ambulances on the way. One for each of them. You can ride with her. Len hasn’t admitted to anything yet. Don’t have any witnesses except for her.” Rick said as he pointed to the living room.
“I’ll talk to her, see if she’ll want to press charges.” Shane said and started walking out of the room. Daryl grabbed his arm, “You ain’t asking her shit. You ain’t going near her. She’s not gonna forget anything before tomorrow, Rick can ask her then. She’s going to the hospital, then she’s going home.” Daryl said through gritted teeth.
“I’m just doing my job Dixon. Gotta talk to victims as soon as possible before she forgets her story. When she changes it later, we’ll know.” He said with a smile on his lips. Daryl went to swing his fist at him, but Rick stopped him.
“Shane, we can get her statement at the hospital, if she’s willing to give it then. Daryl, we’re not gonna force her to talk until she’s ready to.” Just then, two ambulances pulled up to the trailer. “We’ll get Len loaded up first. As soon as their gone, we’ll get Yvonne ready to go. Shane, you ride with Len; see if you can get a statement out of him. Daryl, you ride with Yvonne. I’ll follow in the squad car.”
Daryl held her hand the entire way to the hospital. She had stopped crying, but still wasn’t talking. They were met at the ER door by a nurse with a wheelchair. Daryl wouldn’t let the EMTs near her, he helped her out and into the chair. He almost flew into a rage when the nurse told him he couldn’t go back with her. Rick put his hand on Daryl’s shoulder, “She’s gonna be back there for a while. Let’s go get some coffee, maybe something to eat. I’ll leave them your cell number if they need you.” Daryl nodded and walked away toward the elevator. The doors opened as soon as Rick arrived. When the doors closed, Daryl heaved a giant sigh, “Goddamn Merle,” he said.
“Merle have something to do with this?” Rick asked him.
“Not with what happened to Yvonne, but he’s the reason I was there in the first place. He let me go this morning, from the job sight. He knew she was on my mind and told me to go see her. We spent the whole day together. I knew he’d want something for it, just didn’t think it’d be tonight. Didn’t think it’d be this.”
“What did he want?” Rick questioned.
“Turns out, it wasn’t for him, it was for Joe. Illegal, of course. Merle sounded off when he called, like Joe was threatening him. He sounded real nervous. He threatened me if I didn’t show up. Should’ve taken her home, but she wanted to go to the diner afterward. Ya know, that night we met, Len was eyeing her. He’s saying all kinds of shit about what he’d do to her. Knew he’s gonna be there; told her to stay in the truck. Didn’t even see Len go outside. Joe was talking to me, wasn’t even paying attention. Fuck Rick, this is all my fault.”
The elevator doors opened and they got in line at the cafeteria. “It’s not your fault Daryl. It’s that fucker Len’s fault. Sounds like Joe was distracting you. What does he want you to do?”
“Ya know the old abandoned department store building in town? Well, Joe bought it from the fucker that owned it, had everything transferred into his name, even the insurance. Wants me to use my expertise to check it out, find out where its weak spots are so he cash in the policy.”
“We’ll get Len for what he did, I promise that. And maybe, we can get Joe for insurance fraud, at the least.”
Daryl thought for a second and took a sip of his coffee. “Whatever you want Rick. I’ll do whatever you say. Just make sure they all pay for this, or I will.”
Merle sat in his truck, fifth of whiskey already gone, staring at his cell phone. He couldn’t be there when Joe talked to his brother. He knew he would never go along with the plan. Daryl had ethics, morals and a sheriff’s deputy for a best friend. He also knew that if (when) Daryl refused, Merle would be the one to bear the brunt of Joe’s ire. That was okay, Merle had endured worse to save his baby brother, but this time was different. This time, they wouldn’t stop at him, they would go after Daryl too, and possibly, Daryl’s woman. He knew about the whole thing with Len and hoped to hell that Daryl could protect her. The picture on his cell screen smiled up at him. She had the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. He needed her, needed to hear her voice. He wanted her to tell him what to do. She probably wouldn’t even pick up the phone for him, but he had nothing to lose at this point.
Rick and Daryl made a beeline back to the emergency room the minute his phone rang. They had been waiting for an hour and a half and Daryl had drank four cups of coffee; he practically flew from the cafeteria to see her. The doctor met them at the reception desk and told Daryl all he knew. She had a few cuts and bruises, a nasty bite mark on her shoulder that would heal, but leave a scar, and the entire left side of her face was bruised and swollen, but would also heal. “Is that all?” Daryl asked anxiously.
“Yes. The rape kit came back negative. We were able to get skin cells from under her fingernails and DNA from her shirt. It’s ready for the investigators when they come for it.”
“What about the other guy?’ Rick asked.
“Multiple lacerations to the face, some needed stitches. Black eye, broken nose and a couple missing teeth. He’ll live long enough to go to jail for this,” the doctor answered. “You can go see her if you want. I wouldn’t expect her to say a lot. We’ve given her some pretty good pain meds. When we can get her discharged, she needs to go home and rest. Someone should stay with her while she’s on the meds and bring her back in a week for a follow up.”
“I’ll do it.” Daryl said. He stopped cold when he saw her. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes, but he didn’t want her to see that. She lay so still and quiet, he didn’t want to wake her up, but he had to touch her. He had to prove to himself she was there with him. He laid his hand on hers and rubbed his thumb across it. She stirred a little and her eyes fluttered open. “Baby, it’s me, Daryl. Doctor says you’re gonna heal up real good. They’re gonna let ya go home soon and I’m gonna stay with ya, okay. I’m gonna take care of ya. I ain’t gonna leave ya alone again, I promise,” he said unsuccessfully fighting the tears. “God baby, I’m so sorry. I never should’ve brought you with me. It’s all my fault.”
“No, Daryl, it’s not.” Yvonne said sleepily. “Can we talk about this later? I’m just so tired.”
“Of course, sweetheart. Get some rest.” Daryl pulled one of the chairs next to her bed and continued to hold her hand. “I gotta find Shane and head back to the station,” Rick said. “Gotta get started on paperwork. I’ll call ya in the morning, to see how she’s doing. You let me know when she’s ready to talk. How ya’ll getting home?”
“I’ll call Merle or T. See if I can get a ride back to the trailer and I’ll take her home from there. Thanks Rick, I owe ya one.”
“You don’t owe me shit. Just take care of her, and tell her that you love her.”
They waited until she woke up to discharge her. She had slept for six hours and woke as the sun was rising. Daryl had called Merle, who said he would come by and pick them up. Daryl wanted to ask him about last night, where he’d been but couldn’t think about anyone other than Yvonne. Merle pulled up in his truck as Daryl pushed the wheelchair outside. He was horrified when he saw her. That son of a bitch Len and all his buddies were gonna pay with their lives if he had anything to do with it. When they got back to the trailer, he helped Yvonne out of his truck and into Daryl’s. She visibly flinched as she approached the passenger side door. She looked down and saw her crushed cigarette from last night, barely smoked. She was not going to cry, she’d cried all she was going to. She felt Daryl put his hand on her shoulder as Merle opened the door and helped her up. When the door was closed, Daryl looked at his brother. “You and me are gonna talk, whether you like it or not. You owe me some answers and you owe her more than that. I’ll call you later and you better answer. I won’t be back to work till tomorrow or next day. I’ll let you know.” He turned his back on his brother and drove Yvonne home.
“Thank you,” she said, so quietly that Daryl almost didn’t hear her.
“You don’t have to thank me for nothing. It’s my fault you were out there, my fault he hurt you. I’m grateful you’re talking to me, grateful you’re letting me be near you. I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me and never wanted to see me again.”
“You saved me. He could’ve raped me. You saved me, defended me. You hurt the man who hurt me. That makes me indebted to you. It’s my fault it happened. I just wanted to stretch my legs. I know you said not to get out of the truck, and I did. I did what you told me not to do. There was a reason why you said it, I know that, but I was just so stupid.”
“You weren’t stupid. I was the stupid one for bringing you with me, for thinking I could leave you alone anywhere near those guys. I know them. I know what they can do, what they’ve done. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to make this better for you, I’m gonna take care of you and Michael, I promise.”
“I don’t want to play the blame game, Daryl. It’s over, I know Rick needs a statement, I know I’ll have to testify, maybe, but can I focus on healing? I don’t care who’s to blame. No one’s to blame except that psycho who attacked me.” Neither of them said anything else until they got to the house. Daryl got her inside and into bed, “You stay here, I’ll run next door and get Michael.”
“Oh God! What am I gonna tell him?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. You rest, I’ll make breakfast when we get back.”
Daryl stopped Michael before he went into the house. “Something we gotta talk about buddy. Have a seat.”
“Is mom okay? She hurt?”
“Yeah Michael. She was in an accident last night. She’s gonna be fine, just some cuts and bruises, but she took a hit to her face. One side is swollen and bruised. Don’t be scared when ya see her, she’s gonna look like herself in no time.” Daryl told him.
“Okay. Are you gonna stay and help take care of her? Can she walk? Will she be able to take care of herself?”
“Yeah, I’ll stay. I already told your momma I would. She can walk and do things for herself, she’s just in a lot of pain. They gave her some meds that make her sleep. Go on in, go see your momma and get ready for school. I’ll drop you off. Gonna make breakfast too.”
Shane had just finished up the paperwork from Len’s statement when he felt his phone vibrate in his front pants pocket. When he saw who it was, he told Rick that he had to take it and would be back soon. “Hello,” he said as he walked out the back door of the station.
“Hello cuz. How ya doing this fine morning?”
“A whole hell of a lot better than you are cuz.” Shane replied.
What are we gonna do about this situation we’ve found ourselves in?”
“Working on a plan, don’t worry. He’ll pay for what he did. Both of them will.”