Chapter 3 - Something For The Pain

 

The Captain thanks Beth for being so open and forthcoming with information that he knows couldn't have been easy.  

Both her and Jon sat there in tears and he understood it. With his big stature, he gets up and leaves, after he assures them that a warrant will be issued in the morning and he had no doubt that Dalton would be apprehended, very soon.

With the Captain gone, Beth gets up to get something to drink, she asks Jon, "Can I get you anything?"

He gets up and follows her, "Let's see what the king has." Hand in hand they walk into Richie's gourmet kitchen and rummage through the fridge.  Finding fresh fruit, Beth was happy. She snatched the watermelon and the peaches and sat down.  Wanda had cut her fruit, just like she likes it. Jon grabbed lunch meat and slapped together a sandwich.  At the table, Jon looked at her loving, grabbed her finger and asked her, "Are you okay babe?  I know that wasn't easy."  She locks fingers with him, hooking onto the corked pinkie. 

 

With a chunk of watermelon in her mouth, she starts to say, "I've been better."  But juice shot out of her mouth and landed on Jon's face.  She couldn't help but laugh, and neither could her. 

 

Wiping it off his face, he can't help but look at her, watch her every movement.  He knows he has never met anyone like her, so pure and full of heart.  Is he the reason that all of this tragic stuff is happening to her?  Is she getting some of his karma because of things he's done in the past.  As far as he knows, the only tragic and bad things that happened to her before he met her was the abusive childhood and the loss of Brian.  Not that they aren't bad in and of themselves, but since she's met him it's been one nightmare after another.  He looks at her battered face and her split lip and wants to cry.  The spark in her eye that shined bright when he was around is gone.  Did he lose a big part of her?  Can he relight the spark?  "Do you want to go to the hospital now?" 

 

"No." she replies.

 

"When do you want to go then?"

 

"I'm just going to wait and call my doctor in the morning." she tells him.

 

He doesn't know protocol, so he asks her, "Do you think that's a good idea?  Don't they need to do tests and stuff?"  Really having no idea what to say.

 

"Yeah, maybe." she looks him in the eye.  She sees something that she's not seen before and it scares her.  "Do you want me to go?"

 

"I do.  I want it all on paper.  I want this asshole to go away for a long time."

 

"So do I.  I just hate the thought of telling the story all over again." she admits to him.  She yawns and stretches, "I'm really tired too."

 

"Let's just go and get it all over with, so we can start putting it behind us.  So you can have piece of mind."

 

"Ok. We'll go when you're done eating." and she gives him a weak smile.  He knows that she doesn't want to do it.  Hell, he doesn't want her to do it.

 

They finish eating and clean up their mess, after all they are guests in the Sambora house.  When they get ready to leave, they make their way through the house that's way too big for just Richie and Ava, and find Richie in his studio.  He has a couple of friends over and Beth only recognizes one of them.  Jon and the men shake hands and say their hellos.  Jon doesn't want to get involved in a conversation with Richie and the guys, so he just told Richie, "We're heading out.  We'll be back later on, I'm not sure when."

 

Richie stands up and walk over to where Jon and Beth were standing.  Beth made sure to face the right way so that those men couldn't see her face.  She was embarrassed and wanted to curl up into a little ball and roll away.  "Here's my keys, the code for the gate and the alarm is 78007800.  Original, I know." he laughs at himself, "I needed to remember it on nights when I would get drunk.  Easy.  Anyway, if you need me, call me."  He leans in and kisses Beth on the forehead and gives Jon the one armed hug. 

 

"Thanks." Jon tells his best friend of many years, and no thanks was ever needed. 

 

Jon puts his arm around Beth and together they go out and get into Richie's BMW.  It's almost morning, they can hear birds chirping but the sun hasn't broke the horizon.  It's still dark out.

 

"Los Robles is just up the road, this time of the morning should be a quick in and out."  she tells Jon as she fastens her seat belt. 

 

"Is that where you want to go?" he asks her, wanting her to be the most comfortable as possible. 

 

"Yeah, that's fine."  Jon starts the car and heads down the winding driveway.  When they crest the hill and can see the gate, that's when they wished they were anywhere but there.  Flashes were enough to blind someone and there were many of them.

 

"God damn it, who told them?"   He bangs his hand on the steering wheel.  "Who the fuck talked?" 

 

"Maybe no one, Jon.  Don't assume." she says, not wanting to think that someone that knew what happened opened their mouth.  "Maybe someone spotted you and that's why they are here?  Just to see what you and Richie are up to."  She didn't believe a word that just came out of her own mouth, but she didn't want to believe the alternative either.

 

"Someone opened their damn mouth." he says as he creeps up to the gate, waiting for it to open.  Beth prepares herself and covers her face with her jacket. 

 

"Be careful, don't run anyone over." she jokes with him from under her jacket.  "I don't want to take anyone with us."

 

Jon navigates them out of the driveway and out of the neighborhood and on the way to the hospital.  He notices that Beth is quiet, so he asks her why.  "What's got you so deep in thought?"  He reaches over and takes her hand.  With her hand in his, he kisses hers and follows that with, "Penny for your thoughts."

 

Beth chuckled, rolled her head to look at him and says, "Even you Mr. Bon Jovi do not have enough pennies."

 

"Talk to me babe.  Don't shut me out." he pleads

 

"I'm not shutting you out, I'm just thinking about what they're going to do at the hospital.  I watch enough TV to know that I'm not going to like it."

 

"I'll be with you every step of the way."

 

"I know but then I ask myself if I want to go through a trial.  I don't want this on the front page, Jon." 

 

He squeezes her hand and sinks at her, "Maybe you won't have to testify.  Maybe he'll take a deal and just go away." he tries to make her feel better, even if it's only a little bit.

 

She rolls her eyes, "I couldn't get that lucky."

 

"I have faith.  We have to have faith."

 

The physical exam was almost as humiliating and invasive as the assault was.  Beth was poked at, prodded in and photographed.  They did a rape kit and took blood to test for pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.  When they are done with Beth, the kit gets handed off to a uniform officer and Beth is told that they are done.  The nurse handed her some literature with rape counselor phone numbers and locations, and wish Beth well.  Beth smiled at the nurse.  Beth is redressed and her and Jon leave the hospital.

 

They managed to get out un-noticed and back to Richie's without incident.

 

In their guest room, Beth kicks off her shoes and sits on a cedar chest that's at the foot of the bed.  She looks around the room and sees pictures of Richie's life, all over.  Pictures of him, him and Ava, him and Heather, and him with his band of brothers.  The room had a masculine feel to it, but Beth loved the way that it was decorated.  The room had the Sambora class and a gypsy feel.  Jon had to use the restroom when they made it to the room.   He comes out of the bathroom drying his hands with a towel.

 

"Are you ready for bed?" he asks her, hoping she wants to shut it off for a while.  She needs to rest and he can see it in her face.  She's exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally. 

 

Beth look up at him with a dazed look and said, "What?"

 

"Are you ready for bed?" he sits down next to her.  "Are you okay?"  he knows that she's not okay, he knows that she is dying inside and that she is going to need her time.

 

She leans over and rests her head on his shoulder, "Yeah, I'm ready for a Xanax, a hot shower and bed."  She looks out the window. 

 

Jon gets up and gets her medicine out of her bag and a glass of water from the bathroom, against his deepest of beliefs, he hands her the pill and the water.  She takes the medicine with a big gulp of water and tells him "Thank you.  Not only for getting it, but for not getting on me about even having it."

 

"Beth, if this helps you, I'm fine with it.  I just get concerned, you know that."  Beth stands up and walks into Jon.  He wraps her in the loving embrace that she needs and follows with, "I will do whatever you need me to do and I will get you whatever you will need to get through this."

 

"I know you will, and I love you even more for it."  She kisses his chin.  "I need a shower.  Will you join me?" she asks, with the sweetest voice that he's heard from her.

 

" I would love to."

 

She goes in the bathroom first and starts the water.  He lingers behind, wanting to check his phone to see if everything is okay back home.  No missed calls and no pressing emails.  He heads into the bathroom and strips.  When he joined her in the shower, that's when he was hit with the reality of the bruises on her body, and the assault that she suffered through because he had sex with her.  The water made them shine, to be even darker than they already are.  She has many bruises, some not yet fully purple.  He is speechless.

 

He moves in to be close to her and reaches around to get the washcloth.  Wetting it, he soaps it up and tells her, "Turn around, I'll wash your back."  And she does.  Seeing the bruises that are on her back, he can't fight it anymore.  He started to cry and feel bad about what he'd done.  He thinks that if he would have told her in New York that he was going to Greece, she would have changed her travel plans and Dalton never would have caught them together. 

 

"Hey, what's going on?" she asks him as she grabs his hands.  "Jon, what's the matter?"

 

"This never would have happened if I would have told you that I was going to Greece.  You would have changed your travel plans and we never would have had to deal with Dalton."

 

Wrapping her arms around him and kissing his chin, "I had that thought already, but when I searched my soul, I know I would have still gone to Greece.  I'm supposed to be with you, not anyone else."

 

"I don't think you would have." he tells her.

 

Beth knows Beth better than anyone and she tells him, "Jon, I still would have gone to Greece.  You have to believe that.  I missed you like crazy when I was there, before I found out you were there."

 

"Look at your body, babe.  You are so bruised.  Your beautiful face is bruised and your lip is still pretty swollen.  Are you in a lot of pain?"

 

"All that will go away, Jon.  I won't look this scary forever. The pain is mild, feels like I pulled muscles or something"

 

"Baby, you are not scary looking.  You're gorgeous"

 

"Do you feel better now?  You are not responsible for what happened.  So wipe that thought from your over active brain."