Chapter 31

By the time Laura and the team had made it to Samantha's apartment, everyone but Chris and a few officers, were gone. It looked like most crime scenes, except that this was where their friend had almost died. They went about collecting evidence for the trial that was to come in the following months, Laura took the smaller unfinished rooms and bathroom while Kassidy and Alex took living room. When Laura entered the other rooms her heart broke, she saw the used restraints and she also found William's bag. Laura also saw the used syringe as well as the tape and rope used to tie up her friend. She bagged everything and followed the rules to a "T", she wouldn't let him get off easy for what he had done to Sam. Kassidy and Alex bagged the evidence from the living room, the knives, another roll of tape and dusted every surface they could. After a few hours everything was back at the lab, the team was anxiously waiting to hear from Matt or Nick on Samantha's condition.

Nicholas spent most of his time reassuring Matt that everything would be alright, he also battled with whether he should tell him about his daughters repeated sexual assault. Nick knew it was only a matter of time before the doctors told him, they always did thorough examinations of their patients. Nick wasn't sure what Samantha would want at this point; he did know that if she had her way...Matthew would never find out. As it was William had survived as much as it chagrined everyone, and because of this there would be a trial, everything would come out then whether she wanted it to or not. With a heavy heart Nick decided he needed to tell his friend what had happened, "Matt.... I need to tell you something... I know Sam didn't want you to know, but I figure the doctors already know... it would only be a matter of time before they told you themselves...", Matt wasn't sure if he wanted to know what Nick was about to tell him, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it from the doctors either. He knew it must be important otherwise Nicholas wouldn't risk breaking Sam's trust and telling him. "What is it Nick? You normally don't break promises to people once you've made them...", Nick swallowed hard and took a deep breath before he told Matthew what William had done to his daughter.

"The night I went to Sam's apartment, the night William took both of us hostage... he took Sam into the bedroom." Nick was trying hard not to cry or break in front of his friend. "She was unconscious, when it happened, but I was awake and left out in her living room." Matthew had a pretty good idea of what Nicholas was about to say... but he wasn't ready to hear it. "Sam knew what had happened when I saw her next she'd been crying...I wanted nothing more than to comfort her and I couldn't." Nick told Matt about the second instance and that she was unfortunately awake for it, it was the one thing that would haunt Nick and Sam for as long as they both lived. He left out a few of the details that he knew really wouldn't matter at the moment as they'd come out in the trial, and while he kept it to himself he was sure William had raped Sam a few more times after he was gone.

It took a lot to shake Matt to his core, but after Nick told him what William had done, he didn't know how to process what he'd heard. He was angry, but he was also saddened, he'd dealt with victims of sexual assault throughout his career. But to have it happen to his own daughter, he honestly was having a hard time coming to terms with it. Shortly after Nick had told him, the doctors who had been working on Samantha came into to tell Detective Riley that she was stable and give essentially the same news. It was one thing to have a friend/coworker tell you it had happened, but to then have doctors corroborate it just made it more real than Matthew would have liked. The doctors were able to close the wound on Samantha's throat, luckily there would be minimal scarring and her voice would not be affected. As for the wounds on her stomach those unfortunately would scar, but if she wanted to could look into cosmetic surgery in the future. Sam was heavily sedated though; due to most of the trauma her body had received over the past few days so she would be out for a while yet. Doctors we're also working on flushing the drugs out of her system as well, it was a miracle that she had managed to stay alive as long as she had. According to the doctor with the amounts that were in her system at the time she came in, she should have been dead. The only thing they could figure was that between being as healthy as she was and the shot of adrenaline that William had given her had temporarily slowed her body shutting down. Once it was ok, Matt was able to go and stay in the room with Samantha, the others came by occasionally to check to see how she was doing and if he needed anything.

It was touch and go for the first few days, there were a few times Samantha's heart had stopped beating just like it had in the ambulance. Fortunately by the following Thursday she was finally stable enough and moved out of the ICU. Due to the severity of the trauma, she had suffered, the doctors had placed Samantha into a medically induced coma. By the following Monday they felt Sam was well enough to slowly bring her out of the medical coma. As she was beginning to wake up, the first person she saw was Matt, he had not left her side at all since she had been admitted. Even though she was still in a great deal of pain, she smiled when she saw her father, and Matthew smiled back even though she saw the pain in his eyes. While there was no permanent damage, it was still hard for Samantha to talk, but she was still able to sit up in bed by the afternoon and well enough that Nick and Laura stopped by. She was glad to see Nick had survived and, on the mend, but she could tell something was bothering him. Laura left with Matthew to go grab some drinks from the cafeteria while Nicholas stayed behind with Sam. "Its good to see you awake Samantha, I was honestly as worried as was Matt... William still managed to do a lot of damage." She could see he was avoiding the subject, and even though it caused her immense pain, she asked him what was wrong, "Nick...what's wrong... there's something you're not telling me..." It caught him off guard when Sam spoke to him, but he knew he couldn't keep it from her... "The doctors figured out what had happened Sam...I just wanted Matt to hear it from a friend...you know I wouldn't have told him otherwise...and with William still alive, its going to come out in the trial", Nick didn't need to say another word, it pained Samantha to know that Matt's only child suffered what no parent's child aught ever to suffer. She tried not to cry but it was too painful to keep in, Nicholas squeezed her hand, and she took comfort in it. Samantha managed to gather herself enough before Matt and Laura came back, they stayed a while longer, but soon it was only her and her father. Samantha gathered her strength again, "Nick.... Told you... what happened...", it caught Matt off guard as he had been going through some paperwork.

Its not a conversation any parent would want to have with their child, but Matthew knew it was one they would have to have sooner or later. What had really caught him off guard was that Samantha had spoken, he knew how painful it was, much like having a sore throat. "Sam... you should be careful; you're not fully recovered yet." Matt could see the pain in Samantha's eyes, and not from having just spoken, but from knowing that her father knew what was done to her. "Yes... Nick told me what happened about the same time the doctors came to tell me...", if he could have taken away the pain in that instance he would have. Samantha could see that her father wished more than anything to help her, but even so it wasn't enough, she knew there would be more heartache and pain to come. She didn't even try to stop the tears this time, she just let go, Matt came over and carefully wrapped his arms around his daughter and held her. He still wasn't quite sure about what the future held for them, but for now he would at least comfort his daughter and provide what support he could.