57Lexi sat on a hard wooden bench in the emergency room waiting area, intently working on her sketch while continuingly looking up at the swinging doors Jill had been whisked through. She had tried to go with her, but the hospital staff said she had to wait outside while they examined her. Lexi had considered fighting to stay with her friend, but she was afraid they'd throw her out, and she needed to be here.
It's all my fault, she thought to herself, having repeated the same sentence over and over again. If she hadn't convinced Jill to go to the party this never would have happened. Or it could have been avoided if she had kept a better eye on the girl instead of becoming wrapped up in her own drama. There were several things she could have done differently to avoid this horrible tragedy from occurring.
After she had found Jill, Lexi had walked her downstairs and tried to find Cassidy, since they then could have gone to the hospital immediately. But Cassie had left with Roger after their fight, leaving Lexi no choice but to wait for the ambulance to come.
Luckily they didn't have to wait long before the ambulance arrived, along with a cop car. Whether the cops came because of her 911 call or because neighbors complained about the party, she had no idea. But as soon as the sounds of sirens were heard everybody raced to get the hell out of there. The paramedics had to push their way through the throng of fleeing kids to get to the two of them. Lexi continued to stay with Jill as the paramedics whisked her away, insisting she ride with her in the ambulance. It was only once they arrived at the hospital that she could no longer be at her friend's side. Since she couldn't be by Jill's side, Lexi decided to help her in another way, which was getting a pencil and scrap paper and sketching an image of Jill's attacker.
Lexi looked down at her phone by her side, having called her dad and Annie right after Jill had been taken away. She was about to call them again when she saw the two of them walk into the emergency room. "Dad."
"Lexi." He ran over as she scrambled off the bench, engulfing her in a tight hug. "Are you alright?"
"I'm okay," she said as she let go of her dad and hugged Annie. "I'm not the one to worry about right now."
"What's going on?" Annie asked. "All you said on the phone was Jill was being taken to the hospital."
Lexi sighed deeply as she let go of Annie. "Jill was drugged, and I think she might have been raped."
Annie gasped as Jeff's face darkened at hearing the news. "What? What happened?"
"I was going to go home and went upstairs to look for Jill. Some guy with a goatee came out of a bedroom and ran past me. And when I looked in Jill was there completely out of it."
"Did anyone see the guy after he ran?" Annie asked. "Did Sasha's brother know what happened?"
"He…he wasn't there," she said in a small voice.
"What?" Jeff said seriously. "I thought you said-"
"He and his wife went to a concert and it was just us. I'm sure I'll be grounded for being at a party with just kids my age, and right now I really don't care. Although in my defense, I didn't know they wouldn't be there until after I got to the party, so I didn't actually lie to you guys."
Jeff briefly shared a look with Annie before telling Lexi, "We'll talk about it later. What happened after you found Jill?"
"I called an ambulance and we were brought here. They won't let me see her, I have no idea what's going on."
"Excuse me?" a woman asked the receptionist. The Winger family looked over as a middle aged couple with heavy Minnesota accents approached the front desk. "We got a call that our daughter was taken here. Her name is Jill Turnlington."
"Are you Jill's parent's?" Lexi asked, even though the answer was obvious.
"Yes, we are," the woman stated as they went toward the Wingers. "Who are you?"
"Lexi. I…I was with your daughter tonight."
"You were the one she said invited her to the party," Jill's father said in recognition.
"Yeah," Lexi said in a small voice.
Sensing her discomfort Annie stepped toward to divert attention from Lexi. "Hello. I'm Annie, Lexi's stepmother. And this is my husband Jeff, Lexi's father."
"Richard, and this is my wife Lois," Jill's father hurriedly said.
"Do you know what's going on?" Lois asked. "We were told our daughter was here and she had been drugged. What happened to her?"
Lexi looked towards the ground, unable to look the Turnlington's in the eye. "Someone at the party drugged Jill, and…" Her voice shook as she trailed off, unable to finish telling Jill's parents what had happened to their daughter.
Lois buried her face against Richard as her husband held his wife. His face contorted in pain and disgust as his eyes blazed in anger. "How could you let this happen?!" he questioned Lexi, his voice growing louder with rage. "If you hadn't dragged her to that party this never would have-"
"Hey!" Jeff yelled at Rich. "Stop yelling at her! This isn't her fault."
Richard looked at Lexi, feeling extremely ashamed of his actions. "I apologize, of course I don't blame you. I just…this is a very upsetting thing to deal with."
"I get it," Lexi told him, even if a part of her agreed with his accusations.
"Excuse me," The group looked over as a man in a dress shirt and tie approached them. "I'm Detective Lowes," he stated as he pulled out his badge. "I've been informed that a young woman was drugged and assaulted at an underage house party."
"Yes, our daughter," Lois tearfully said.
"I'm sorry for that Ma'am," Detective Lowes told her before looking at Lexi. "I was told a friend of hers came here with her. Would that be you?"
"Yeah, I came with Jill," Lexi told him.
"I'd like to ask you a few questions."
"I'm going with her," Jeff told them.
"Sir-"
"I'm Lexi's father, and she's under eighteen, so a parent should be with her during any questioning."
"Alright, let's just step over here so we can speak in private," Detective Lowes said as he walked away from the others, with Lexi and Jeff following him.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"So you said you and Ms. Turnlington arrived at the party not long after 8pm with two others, correct?" Detective Lowes asked as he took notes.
"That's right. My friend Cassidy Edwards and her boyfriend Roger Smith."
"And what time would you say you found Ms. Turnlington in the state she was in?"
"I called for a cab to take me home around 10 p.m., so, I don't know…10 or 15 minutes or so after that."
"So by your estimate, that leaves close to a two-and-a-half hour window when she could have been drugged," Detective Lowes stated.
"Right," Lexi said in frustration.
"Do you recall who Jill was talking to at the party?" he asked.
"Why does this matter? I already told you, it was a guy with a goatee who drugged and raped her!" she yelled.
"I understand that, but first we have to to piece together everything that happened leading up to that," the detective told her. "Please answer the question, who was Jill spending time with at the party?"
"I'm not sure, I wasn't with her for most of the time." Guilt flooded Lexi as she tried to recall when she had actually seen Jill during the party. "I know she was talking to Scott Parker and other members of the school hockey team for a while. But she could have been talking to others."
"So you don't know if she was talking to the person you've accused before you saw him exit the bedroom later on?" Detective Lowes specified.
Lexi glared at him, hating that he was using the word 'accused' to describe Jill's rapist. "No, I don't know if she spoke to him or not," she replied stiffly.
"I thought this was just collecting a statement, because it's starting to feel like an interrogation," Jeff pointed out.
"Just let me do my job, alright Sir?" Lowes huffed, turning his attention back to Lexi. "What made you decide to leave the party when you did?"
"You don't have to answer that," Jeff told Lexi.
"What are you, her lawyer?" Detective Lowes asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I am," Jeff said, catching the detective muttering 'terrific' under his breath. "And since Lexi isn't under suspicion of anything, as you've stated, you should be asking her questions that relate to the crime at hand. What she herself did at the party is irrelevant to what happened to Jill."
"I'll decide what's relevant in this matter Sir," Lowes grumbled. He wrote down a quick note before looking back at Lexi. "So you decided to leave the party, and went to tell your friend, am I correct?"
"Right. I couldn't find her downstairs, so I went to look for her upstairs. That's when he came out of the bedroom she was in."
"What do you remember him looking like?" the detective asked.
"You know what he looks like. I sketched his face," Lexi insisted.
"Yes, I'm well aware of the sketch," the detective said as he indicated the drawing tucked under his arm. "But I'd still like you to tell me what the accused looked like in your own words."
"He was stocky, and didn't look much taller than me. He had a goatee and short dark hair. He was wearing a red shirt and dark brown pants. I only looked at him for a few seconds. He ran away as soon as he saw me."
"So you only saw him as he ran past you, is that right?"
"The guy was adjusting his pants, I know he did it!" Lexi yelled, becoming aware that people nearby were looking at her.
"Miss, please calm down, alright?" Detective Lowes asked, in a gentler tone then he had been using throughout the interview. "What happened after the guy ran away?"
Lexi took a deep breath as her dad touched her shoulder to calm her. "I went into the room and Jill was in there completely out of it. She was babbling and was covered in urine, I think she peed herself. I called 911 and walked her downstairs and sat with her until the ambulance came."
"Did anyone say or do anything while you were waiting for help?"
"Not really. A few people looked at us, but I think they thought Jill was just drunk."
Detective Lowes's pen moved across the line paper before he closed his notebook. "That's good enough for right now. If I need to speak to you again I'll let you know."
"You're going to find him, right? He's not going to get away with this," she said with determination.
"We'll do our best, Miss," the detective said before heading out of the emergency room.
"Yeah, he was helpful," Jeff said with sarcasm. Lexi sighed in agreement as the two of them went back to the waiting room. "Where'd they go?" Jeff asked his wife at seeing the Turnlington's no longer there.
"The doctor came a few moments ago to talk to them," Annie said while waving her hand down the hallway.
At hearing that Lexi told the two of them she was going to the cafeteria to get something to drink. She started walking in the direction of the café, but once she saw that her dad and Annie weren't paying attention to her she covertly doubled back and went in the direction Jill's parents went.
She tiptoed down the hallway, keeping to the walls to minimize being immediately seen. She turned a corner when she saw Jill's parent's with a doctor. Lexi quickly slipped back and hid behind the wall as she listened in on the conversation.
"I don't understand," Lois said in disbelief.
"As I said," the doctor continued, "your daughter wasn't raped. We've done a thorough examination and there's no evidence of sexual violation. Her hymen is intact and there's no vaginal tearing or bruising, or any signs of penetration, consensual or otherwise. Nor was there any signs of penetration involving any of her other orifices." Jill's parent's cringed at hearing their daughter described in such clinical terms as the doctor continued. "We couldn't find any semen or foreign pubic hair on her person, nor were there any telltale bruising on her thighs. Considering everything, I can safely tell you whoever drugged your daughter didn't rape her."
Lois sobbed in relief as she leaned against her husband. As Richard held his wife Lexi sagged against the wall, feeling relief flow through her as she took in the news she was hearing. She kept herself against the wall to keep from being discovered as she continued to listen in.
"So you're saying our daughter is alright?" Richard asked. "That nothing happened to her."
"I wouldn't go that far, Mr. Turnlington." The two parents stiffened as the physician elaborated. "Obviously she was drugged, and until the blood analysis comes back we're still not sure what exactly she was given. Most date rape drugs cause no permanent effects besides blacking out, but a person can still have unforeseen adverse side effects from the cocktail. She's sleeping right now and we're keeping an eye on her vitals. We'd like to keep her overnight to monitor her until the effects completely wear off.
"And there is one more thing you should know. When your daughter was brought in she was covered in urine. At first we thought she had peed herself, but her entire dress was soaked through. We did a urinalysis and it tested positive for male hormones. From what we can gather, someone urinated on her while she was drugged."
"Someone peed on Jill?" Lois asked in disgust.
"Yes, unfortunately."
Lexi groaned in revulsion, feeling sick at hearing that. Her brief relief had become replaced with newfound hatred for the man who had drugged and urinated on her friend. It didn't matter if he didn't rape Jill. Lexi was going to make sure he paid for what he did to her.
She was so focused on didn't immediately notice the doctor and Jill's parents walk in her direction. At the last moment she caught sight of them and quickly bolted down the hallway, briskly walking back to the waiting room.
"I thought the cafeteria was over there," Jeff asked, pointing in the opposite direction she came out of.
"Yeah, I went there. But then I went to the bathroom," Lexi quickly said. Her dad and Annie looked at her as if they didn't quite believe her, but didn't pursue the matter any further.
Lexi sat next to Annie, mulling over what she just heard. It was disgusting what had happened to Jill. But why would someone drug a girl just to urinate on them. Was it a sick fetish the person had? Or maybe they had planned to do more and just didn't have time. But I didn't knock on the door and interrupt him, he left on his own, she thought.
She looked up as Jill's parent's came back to the waiting room. "The doctor spoke to us and said Jill's going to be fine. They said…they said she wasn't raped," Richard said, himself still unable to believe it.
"Really?" Annie asked. "Are they sure?"
"The doctors examined her and told us she wasn't…" Lois stammered, unable to actually say the word out loud.
Lexi acted relieved, mirroring her dad and Annie's reaction so it seemed she was just finding out the news. She looked at Jill's parents as Richard cleared his throat. "They're keeping Jill overnight, but she should be fine in the morning. There's really no reason for you folks to be here anymore. You should go get some sleep."
"If you need anything, don't hesitate to call me," Jeff said as the three of them stood up. He pulled a business card out of his wallet and handed it to Richard. "If Jill needs a lawyer or you need legal advice or anything."
"Thank you, I appreciate it," Richard said.
"I'd like to stay here," Lexi announced.
"There's really no reason," Richard told her. "Jill is still unresponsive and visiting hours are not until the morning."
"But-"
"Lexi, it's been a long night. You can come back and see your friend in the morning. But right now it's best if we go home," Annie said.
Lexi looked pleadingly at her dad, but from the look on Jeff's face she already knew what his answer would be. "Okay…" she said in a small defeated voice.
Before she would move Lois stepped forward and hugged her. "Thank you for calling for help and watching out for Jill."
Lexi stiffened at the praise, feeling shame rather than pride. Because no matter what anyone said, this never would have happened if she hadn't insisted Jill go to that damn party.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Jeff pulled into a parking space, rubbing his eyes before looking over at Annie, who had fallen asleep on the way home. It wasn't that surprising. It was 2 a.m. and he himself was exhausted. He could only imagine how someone in the late stages of pregnancy was doing.
He was about to wake her up when he looked at Lexi in the back seat. She was staring out the window, having said nothing during the car ride from the hospital. "Are you okay? I mean, I know you're not okay. I just mean…"
She looked at her dad, deciding to voice what she had been mulling over. "What's going to happen to Jill's attacker?"
"What do you mean? The police are going to work to catch him-"
"I know that. I mean what's going to happen if they do get him. Will he still be put away for what happened? I know sexual assault is tough to prove in court, even with a ton of evidence. And will it be harder to punish him since Jill wasn't actually raped?"
"I don't know," Jeff said, wishing he wasn't aware of how brutal rape trials could be, even if it was clear as anything the guy was guilty as fuck. "It's late, can we talk about this in the morning."
Lexi nodded her head before getting out of the car and walking to the apartment. Jeff gently shook Annie's shoulder, feeling guilty for waking her. "Babe, we're home. You've got to get up."
"Just five more minutes," Annie groaned.
"Just make it to bed and you can sleep as long as you want."
"Okay,' she groggily agreed as she got out of the car and followed Jeff inside.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Wake up, wake up.
Lexi swatted at the alarm clock before realizing it wasn't her alarm that was waking her up, but her father. "What."
"It's Detective Lowes. He wants to talk to you."
She took the phone, still feeling half asleep. "Yeah, what do you want?"
"Respect like that is the reason I became a cop," Detective Lowes sarcastically replied. "I need you to come down to the station. We might have just brought in the guy who drugged Jill Turnlington last night."
Lexi's body stiffened, sleeplessness instantly leaving her at hearing that news. "What, are you sure?"
"We're not positive, which is why we need you to come down and make a positive ID, since you said you saw him. How soon can you get here?"
"I'll be there right away."