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.She was just thankful he was still breathing.Brodie led her across the frosty ground to the sidewalk and helped her back over the railing.Terry, clearly worried about her, brought her the shoes she’d discarded.Brodie leaned against the railing, holding a piece of his tattered shirt against the cut on his temple.Kristen stood beside him, neither saying a word.A corpsman approached and offered her an ice pack for her cheek.She took it thankfully, and then noticed Brodie’s hands.His knuckles were laid open and bleeding, the bandage on his left hand was torn and bloody.Without a word she took the ice pack meant for her cheek and placed it on his lacerated knuckles.“Jesus, Sean,” Graves whispered as he walked up after speaking to a pair of MPs.“Sorry, Jason,” Brodie said with a hint of embarrassment.He then glanced at Kristen, “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital, Lieutenant?”Kristen shook her head.“But you should go, Captain.” She motioned to the cut by his left eye.“That might need a few sutures.”Brodie didn’t respond but instead motioned toward the duty van that had been brought around and was now waiting for them at the base of the hill.“You’re going to freeze to death out here.Why don’t you wait in the van with the others?” His voice and demeanor had returned to normal, except for the tattered uniform, the gash to the side of his head, and bloody knuckles.“No, sir,” she insisted.“I want to do something I should have done eighteen months ago.”Kristen had always regretted never reporting Fitzgerald for having tried to rape her while she’d been at Corpus.Since that night, she’d often wondered how many other women he may have assaulted since he attacked her, and if those assaults might have been prevented had she’d spoken up then.The Provost Marshall, a full commander, walked up, and Kristen and Graves greeted him politely.But the grumpy commander—recently dragged from a nice warm bed—ignored the others and dealt with Brodie.“Did you have to beat him half to death?” he asked as he looked Brodie over.Brodie appeared unmoved, and Kristen got the impression this was not his first time speaking to the police.“He assaulted one of my officers.”“Then you should have called me,” the commander told him.“Bad business, officers fighting officers.We have enough trouble keeping the enlisted men around here in line without this kind of nonsense.” The Provost Marshall was basically the base commander’s chief of police and responsible for good order and discipline on Sasebo.Kristen could see he was planning on arresting Brodie but saw no hint of concern in her captain’s eyes.“I couldn’t agree more,” Brodie concurred.“Just as long as no one puts a hand on one of my officers.”The commander nodded and looked at Graves.“Whom did he allegedly assault?”“Me, sir,” Kristen interjected, determined to do what she could to keep them from placing handcuffs on Brodie.The Provost Marshall’s annoyed expression changed dramatically when he looked at her.Kristen didn’t know how bad she looked, but she could taste blood from a cut lip, and her cheek was already swelling.Plus, her normally perfectly coiffured hair looked like a haystack.She then realized, as she saw a flash of anger on the Provost’s face, that two men pounding on each other was one thing and fairly common, but there still existed a bit of a chivalric code enforced in the military.Spousal abuse and physical abuse against women ranked up there with child molestation on the maggot ladder among most in the military, and the Provost Marshall was no different.“Are you okay, Lieutenant?” he asked as his tone of voice changed dramatically upon seeing her.“I can have one of my patrol cars take you to the hospital and have the ER check you out.”“No thank you, sir.I would like to stay with my captain.”The Provost nodded thoughtfully and then motioned toward an ambulance where Fitzgerald was being loaded up for transport to the hospital.“And the guy with his face beat in, he assaulted you?”Kristen nodded and then pulled back some of her thick hair to show the gouge marks where Fitzgerald had dug his fingers into her slender neck.“Yes, sir.”The Provost Marshall’s tune changed rapidly as he saw the fresh gouge marks on her neck, and his jaw tensed angrily.But just as Kristen thought everything was calming down, she heard a low growl beside her as Brodie moved off the rail.He’d seen the fingernail gouges on her neck and the berserker fury was returning.“Sean!” Graves warned and grabbed Brodie’s right arm as Kristen gripped his left.The Provost Marshall stepped in between Brodie and the ambulance and held up a restraining hand.“Hold on there, Galahad,” he cautioned.Brodie swallowed his rage and stood, a dangerous scowl on his face.He cut his eyes away from the ambulance and now glared at the Provost Marshall.“Well?” Brodie demanded through gritted teeth.The Provost eyed Brodie cautiously and then looked at Kristen.“Excuse me, Lieutenant, but do you believe there was a chance your attacker may have intended to…” he paused and shot a nervous eye at Brodie who looked about ready to go off again.“I don’t know for certain if he was intent on raping me,” she admitted, no longer afraid that people wouldn’t believe her or that they might use such an incident against her.Brodie and Graves would stand by her.She was certain of it.“Thankfully, this time there was someone around to make certain it never got that far.”“This time?” the Provost asked.Kristen could almost feel the beast just below the surface as she continued to grip Brodie’s arm.Graves apparently noticed it too, because he kept his hands firmly on their captain.“Lieutenant Commander Fitzgerald tried to rape me eighteen months ago when he was my Officer-in-Charge.”The Provost rocked back on his heels.For a junior officer to accuse a senior officer was a serious matter.But the Navy was working hard to clean up a tarnished legacy when women were not always treated properly.Any such allegation was no longer quietly swept under the rug, and if she persisted with her charges, there would be a full investigation.“Are there any witnesses to this, Lieutenant?”Kristen knew without any witnesses there was no chance of Fitzgerald being convicted of anything.“Not eighteen months ago,” she admitted.“We were in his car and alone.” She then added, “But there were others.” Kristen explained how there had been other women in the unit, and she believed she wasn’t the only one accosted by Fitzgerald.“Would you mind coming down to PMO and filling out a report, Lieutenant,” the commander asked.Kristen glanced at Brodie who responded with a slight nod, “Whatever you want to do, Lieutenant.”“Absolutely,” Graves agreed earnestly.“Whatever you need, Kristen.”Kristen welcomed the support of her two senior officers.It was a far cry from what she’d become accustomed to elsewhere.“Thank you, gentlemen.” They were simple words but were said with heartfelt sincerity.The three of them went with the Provost Marshall to his office in the same building with the base police.Brodie and Graves stayed with her as she filled out the first report about what happened that evening.Then another, reporting what had occurred eighteen months earlier in Corpus Christi [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]