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Chapter 12: JC
"Are you sure we are allowed to be here?" I ask Lance as we, along with Joey, Chris, and Justin make our way into the studio where the Boy Meets World set is located.
"Of course. The red light wasn't flashing and I got Ryder to put us on the clearance list to be on set. I thought you wanted to surprise your girl and my fiancé," he answers.
"I still do but I'm just getting a bad feeling about this whole thing. I mean, the whole set is empty. Where is everyone?"
"Maybe they finished for the day," Joey offers as we walk around some sets and into the main area, which is what the audience sees.
"I guess so, there's no one-" Chris starts as we hear a big crash and see a black man run from one of the bedroom sets and run away, between sets, towards the exit.
"Oh God! JC, that's Kate!" Justin exclaims, drawing my attention to a limp body on the bed of the set. God, that really does look like her. Please say it isn't so!
"Crap! Justin, stay with her. I'm going after that bastard! I don't care who he is but no one hurts my Kate!" I shout before taking off in the direction that the guy had gone. Joey, Chris, and Lance are all running with me, noticing that our only trail is tiny drops of blood lying on the floor. He cut her! That jerk is definitely going to pay! However, once we reach outside, the trail stops and we can't find a single person around that looks even close to black. Joey and Chris take off to find security as Lance and I rush back inside so that I could check on Kate.
"Justin, is she okay?" I ask as I near the bed.
"I don't know. I'm scared to move her because I don't know what he did to her," Justin answers.
I look down at her and begin silently crying as I realize that the bastard has totally violated her. Kate's shirt is torn, her pants around her ankles, as well as her underwear, and her bra looks like it was cut with a knife. I use the blanket she is on and place it over her as I try to find a pulse. There is definitely a strong one, which makes me wonder why she isn't responding to any of us. As if she read my thought, her eyes fly open and she lets out a scream.
"Kate! It's okay, it's just me, JC," I say, trying to calm her down. It just seems to make it worse though.
"No! Get away from me! Don't touch me!" she screams repeatedly as I try to hold her down to prevent further injuries.
Just then, security and a paramedic team shows up and take over. I feel Justin and Lance each wrap an arm around me as I watch helplessly as the paramedics check her over and move her onto the stretcher to take her to the nearest hospital. The security approaches us and asks us what happened, which we all answer truthfully. I leave them though when Kate is taken away to the ambulance and jump in, watching from the corner, crying as I saw her struggle against and away from the hands that were now trying to help her. What exactly did that guy do to her? God, why did it have to happen again to her? Why to my sweet Kate?
When we get to the hospital, she is taken to ER, leaving me to sit out in the lobby, worrying about her. God, what if only we had been there sooner? Could that have prevented this from happening? Who was he anyway and why did he choose her? Kate so didn't deserve this to happen to her again. No one ever deserves this. What has she done to cause her to be raped twice? This so doesn't make any sense!
I lose all sense of time as I remain there, seated in the lobby. Even having the rest of the guys there doesn't help me at all. What if I had just been there a few minutes earlier? None of this would have happened. Why wasn't I there earlier to stop this?
My thoughts are ceased when a doctor comes in and asks, "Is there a Joshua Chasez here?"
I get up and walk over to him. "I'm Joshua. How's Kate?"
"Well, I have to ask, what relationship do you have with her?"
"I'm her boyfriend for a couple of months."
"Good. She will need your love and support for a while I suspect. Kate has been raped today, as well as cut with a knife in some places that weren't fatal. She has calmed down a lot but still shrinks away from the male touch. She may be okay when she sees you or she may panic. I want you to know though that it isn't anything against you but just her subconscious telling her not to trust the nearness of males. It may be that she has flashbacks to the traumatic event as well."
"Will she be okay?"
"She should be. I have given her a couple forms of a drug that should eliminate any chance of her having a child from this and am at least happy to say that she can still have children in the future, something that not every victim is able to say. Just be careful around her right now because anything can trigger a bad memory of the event and I'm not sure how she will handle it."
"I understand. Can I go see her?"
"Sure. It's right down that hall and to the right, room 17."
"Thanks Doctor," I say, before telling the guys where I am going and actually entering her room. I see her lying down on her back in the bed, looking rather unlike her usual character. "Kate?"
"JC? Where's Alex?" she asks.
"With Danielle. Don't worry, he's fine. Are you?"
"I don't know anymore. JC, why are you crying?"
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are. I can see that even from here. Your standing at the door doesn't hide it."
I straighten up from where I am slouching against the wall and cautiously walk over to the bed. As I get closer, I realize exactly how much she was physically injured. "Kate, are you sure you are fine?"
"Yes, I am. Just some surface cuts."
"Good. I'm so sorry that this happened to you again."
"Don't be. It did and it's just the past. I just wish that I could get images of him out of my head. What are you doing here anyway?"
"The rest of the guys and I all thought that we'd surprise you and Danielle with a surprise visit for a few days. Unfortunately, we were the ones in for a surprise."
"JC, that was really sweet of you though."
"Excuse us miss. Could we possibly get your statement about what happened?" an officer asks as he and his partner enter the room.
"I guess so. What do you want to know?"
"What happened and what does he look like?"
"Well, he is black, 5'9" or 6', with brown, dark looking eyes. That's all I can remember."
"Could it be the same guy from your past possibly?"
"I don't know."
"We need you to tell us what happened," the other officer says.
Kate closes her eyes and remains silent. A tear rolls down her cheek and I wipe it away with my finger. Her eyes immediately snap open and I cringe as she lets out a scream. "Shh... Kate, it's just me, JC."
Her eyes come into focus as she recognizes me. "God, I thought you were him."
"I'm not. I think you better tell these officers what happened though because it may help."
She nods her head and allows me to lean down and give her a kiss on her forehead before she starts.
"I was heading offset to go home to Alex when this arm grabs me around my waist and starts dragging me towards one of the sets where a bed is. I scream and scream but no one is around to hear me. Everyone had already left, leaving me to be the last one there. He pinned me to the bed with his body and restrained my arms with his. I struggled a lot and even managed to bite his arm. Unfortunately, it just enraged him and he pulled out his knife to wave in front of my eyes so that I knew he had it. When he realized that the sight of the knife didn't stop my struggle, he slapped me across the face and then proceeded to tear off my shirt, pull down my pants, and cut open my bra and remove my underwear. I managed to knee him but that only pissed him off more. No matter what I did, I couldn't escape him. That's when he started beating me more and cutting me with that knife. At some point I just blacked out and that's all I know."
Oh God... She's suffered so much. I can't help but feel totally helpless as I watch her cry and struggle to say what she did. I'm so scared to even touch her now because she just seems to get flashbacks to the incident. How can I help her when I can't even be near her without causing her distress?
"Is that all Miss?" an officer asks.
"Yes. That's all I remember and that's more than I care to," she answers.
"Thank you. We will have your friends help out the artist to sketch a portrait of the man and will do our best to capture him. Don't worry. He won't hurt you again. Sir, can we speak with you outside?"
I nod my head and follow them out. "What can I do to help officers?"
"Well, the young lady has definitely gone through major trauma. Be patient with her but try your best to make her feel as comfortable as you can. She may not respond right away with improvement but we believe that she will come out of this just fine. Do you think that you or your friends could do that sketch for us?" an officer asks.
"Sure. I think they are better at it right now. All I saw was red when I saw the guy take off from doing what he did to Kate."
"Understandable. Thank you for your time. If you think she remembers anymore or if anything else happens, please call us at this number," the other officer says, handing me a card with their names and the phone number they could be reached at.
"I will. Thank you for coming out so fast," I say, accepting it.
"No problem."
The two officers turn around and leave to go ask the other guys for their aid while I go back into Kate's room. She looks at me and I feel my heart break even more as I see that beautiful face of hers so discolored from those hits. "I look terrible huh?" she asks.
"No, of course not," I respond.
"You are sweet for trying but I know that I'm not a pretty picture. I'm so sorry JC."
I walk closer until I reach her and grab her unbandaged hand as I say, "For what? There is nothing to be sorry about Kate."
"I'm sorry that this whole thing happened. I mean, some guys consider this as cheating on them because it was having sex with another man. God knows that the only guy I even wanted to ever experience that with was you."
Whoa... "Kate, I'm flattered that you did want to experience making love with me for the first real time. However, don't you dare let this make you think that we won't when you are more ready later on. More importantly, don't be sorry for the error that someone else did against you. That man is the one that needs to be sorry, not you. How could I even think of you being forced into having dirty sex as cheating on me either? Did you want to have sex with that man?"
"No, of course not!"
"Then don't think about it that way. I certainly don't. I love you too much to let you go at any time, especially now. I love you Kate and I mean that with every cell of my body. Please let me be here for you throughout all of this."
"JC, if you did that, it would be proven that you are the best boyfriend in the world, not to mention overall guy. I was so scared you'd leave me after this."
"Why? I thought you knew me better than that."
"I do but... I don't know, it would be understandable if you did. I love you JC," she says, kissing my hand that she held in hers. I smile and lean down to kiss her gently on the lips before hearing Justin, Lance, Chris, and Joey come into the room.
"Whoa... He's moving in on her already! Didn't think that he would," Chris says as I straighten up.
I look at him and ask, "Why not?"
"Well, I don't know. I thought she was still jumpy from the... Well you know... Event."
Kate says, "Chris, it's okay to talk about it in front of me. I really am okay now."
"Sorry, it's just that I didn't know if you were really comfortable talking about it or if you were still jumpy."
"I'm fine. Thank you all for chasing him off. I've been told that you all are my heroes."
"Well, we just wished we could have caught the bastard. If we had, then the title of hero would apply. However, we didn't so we can't be called that," Justin says.
"Think of what could have happened if you didn't run him off though. So much more pain and bad memories could have been created, although by then I was passed out."
"Justin's right though. We should have caught him," Lance responds.
"Somehow, he will get his own medicine back in some form. I believe in that and that God wouldn't let him go unaffected by what he has done. Thanks for just being here."
"If we weren't, we wouldn't be friends, now would we?" Joey asks.
They all approach the bed and take turns giving her a kiss on the cheek or forehead at that time, before Alex comes in with Danielle.
"Mommy?" he asks as he approaches the bed uncertainly.
"Yes Alex, it's me," she responds.
"Mommy hurt?"
"Yes, but it is better now that you are here with me. How is my big boy?"
"Okay. Danielle got me ice cream and it was yummy. Can I see you?"
Kate looks at me and I see that she's nervous about his reaction of seeing her in the condition she is in. I smile reassuringly at her, knowing that Alex is a good boy that should understand. I pick him up and sit him on the edge of the bed, with me partially supporting him.
"Mommy? What's wrong?"
"What do you mean Alex?"
"Why are you crying?"
I could see relief in her eyes as she says, "I'm just happy to see you Alex. Can you give Mommy a hug?"
Alex happily complies and hugs Kate, causing her a little discomfort but she doesn't let on as she hugs him back. I notice Danielle silently crying in Lance's arms as she looks on at the scene. I feel my own throat tighten as everything hits me all at once. The chance that I could have lost Kate entirely, that Alex could be orphaned, that she has been violated in the worst way again, that she is experiencing so much pain, and that I couldn't help her besides just being there whenever she needed me, if she ever did. At just that moment though, she looks up at me and mouths "I love you," giving me the only comfort that I really needed at that moment. I smile back and return the expression, hoping that it brought as much joy to her as it did me.