Chapter Fourteen

1x14 - Forced Entry

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"I wanted Justice!" The desperate cry of a broken man.

"Leonard, Justice is not for you to dispense." Horatio took a deep breath - ever since he had realized that they were talking to the wrong victim, he had been dreading this moment. "And now you're going to pay for it."

The stunned, numb look on the other man's face brought him no satisfaction, just pain and sorrow.

When Detective Bernstein moved to put the cuffs on Leonard, he almost stopped him. There was just something perversely wrong about cuffing a rape victim, something that left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Watching as the man was taken to Booking, Horatio wanted nothing more than to scream at the injustice of it all. He had just been forced to arrest a rape victim for the murder of his rapist. For the murder of his rapist, dammit!

If only Leonard had spoken up, had reported the rape. If only Horatio could have obtained Justice for him. If only.

But the social stigma against male rape was still far to strong: even if Leonard had reported it, the chances were good that he would have had a hard time convincing anyone to really listen to his story, to give him the attention he deserved. People just didn't want to hear that men could be raped as easily as women. They didn't want to believe it. And publicly admitting the fact that he had been raped would have been yet another blow to his fragile and damaged sense of self, at a time when he was already hurting and ashamed. Intellectually, Horatio knew these things, he did. He knew that the odds of Leonard actually gaining Justice from the System for the assault against him were slim. He knew it, but he didn't have to like it.

It broke his heart, thinking about it. If he couldn't protect men like Leonard Murphy, then why was he even doing this job? To Protect and Serve: the police motto. His motto. And yet, he couldn't do either when the victims didn't even trust the system enough to report a vicious crime.

Why didn't you come to me? I would have listened, would have brought your rapist to Justice. I would have. I swear it.

It didn't have to end like this.