☆ ゜・ 。。・ ゜゜・ 。。・ ゜★

14. attached

Jocelyn scanned through the notebook that Sonny wrote his notes for his upcoming exam coming up. She spent more time trying to read his messy handwriting than telling them the questions and also bugging him about how a kindergartener have better handwriting.

After he helped her study for hers, she repay him with helping him study for his. She laid down on the couch as Sonny sat on the other end. He watched her as she was looking for more essay questions, multiple choice. He hides his smile under his hand.

"Can we take a break?" He laughs at her whine as she closes the book and puts it on the coffee table. "This is why i became a cop, these questions are hard."

"Im the one becoming an ADA, not you, imagine how i feel." Jocelyn looks at him, still laying on the couch. The way he smiles makes her feel safe. His smile lines, the way his eyes squint.

"Come on, at least you miss your days as rookie or something, right?"

"Sure I will."

"Lets say you do pass this exam." She sits up, propped herself up with her elbows. "You become the new Barba, are you going to miss me?"

"Ill make sure to stop by every day just to see you."

"You better." She cracks a smile. "But none of that work stuff, like come and hang with me, okay?" He just nods. "You're going to miss me." She sings. Sonny starts to turn red, kicking her legs off of his side and heads to the kitchen. "They all do, it's nothing to be ashamed of." She follows him. She sits on the barstool, watching him pour more wine.

"Im not ashamed of you."

"Good!" She claps her hands. "Just don't forget about me, i know those ADAs think they are all that, they won't be as good as a partner than me."

"You think Barba is all that?" He makes her smile. Any chance he has, he will make her smile.

"You better not tell him. Its some type of leverage he will use against me." She continued to smile. "He won't let it go either."

"Sounds like Barba." They laughed it off. "So, have your results came in yet? Its been what? A few weeks now." Sonny leans over the table, hands resting on the edge.

"No. Its killing me." She rubbed her face from the anxiety of it.

"Liv is probably waiting for the right time. Its been busy last few weeks. With Amaro gone, Amanda with the baby, she's running around."

"You're right." It was not bothering Jocelyn that Liv hasn't said anything yet. Shes just really impatient. Her whole life shes been like that. If she wants it done, she wants it now. You can ask her siblings and Jensen, god it made them believe she's a mother. And thats where the bossy part of her comes to play. Thats the thing of being the eldest girl in a Latino household.

"Question for ya." He changed the topic. Sonny didn't want to bother her about the whole exam, it would too bother him if they didn't say a word. "Mets or Yankees?"

"What?" She frowns.

"Do you like the Mets or the Yankees?" She chuckles as he waits for an answer.

"Dom, i think you're forgetting that im from LA. I'm a Dodgers fan."

"Oh Jocey, you're breaking ma heart here." He pretends to be shot, holding his chest. She laughs with him. "My partner is rooting for the most awful-"

"Watch your next words Dominick Carisi!" She pointed at him, getting down from the stool and walking up to him.

"Nothing is better than the Mets!" He praises.

"The Mets suck this year!" They start making points about their teams, whos won more, better players, pitcher. They stood in front of each other, arguing like an old couple.

"This lowers my expectations of you Jocey." He jokes.

"Ouch!" She laughs softly, pretending to be hurt. "Come on Dom, you wouldn't do that to me." She gets closer. Sonny's heart started to beat faster. "You don't want to make me feel bad right?"

"You acting innocent won't help." He earned a smirk from her. She knew how to play her cards, she flirted back with no hesitation. He's surprised that she isn't with anyone, if he could, he would folded and give in. "I can make an exception for you."

"What will I have to do?" She hums in response.

"I have something in mind, but im afraid i cant tell you. You might say no." Sonny's phone rang, he got a text. He reached for it. Jocelyn saw his face went to smirky to serious in a second.

"Girlfriend found out about us?" She tries to brighten the mood.

"No girlfriend." He made clear. He puts his phone in his back pocket. "We got called in."

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Jocelyn was sent to the hospital to check in with the boy they found wandering the streets alone. She was trying to get the boy to speak, she spent her time playing with him.

"The dinosaur goes rawr!" She roars. The kid stayed quiet. "You like dinosaurs?" He nods. It was mostly nods as responses and no talking. Which was strange. The kid is already a few years old, he had to know, right? "Let's try our little game okay? My name is Jocelyn and i bought some juice, and you are?" He shrinks down, not wanting to. "You are? and what did you buy?"

"Bruno." He whispers to her, leaning closer to her.

"Bruno." She repeats. "Your name is Bruno and you bought bananas." She gave him a warm smile. "Bruno, whats your last name amor?" he scoots his chair closer to her again, the wooden chair hit her knee as he was that close.

"Bruno."

"Okay Bruno, how old are you?" She shows him her hand, three fingers. "Tres?" She tries speaking in spanish to see he understood that more. "O cuatro?" Jocelyn looks up to see the doctor coming in. "Ill be back okay?" She stands up and heads to meet her halfway. "We just got a name, Bruno. He has to be three, shouldn't he be talking by now?"

"Delayed speech. I mean im not surprised. No ones taking care of him." Jocelyn turns back to look at Bruno, so calm, so innocent. "He was filthy, several cavities. Vitamin D were low, so hes not getting out much."

"Neglected, but any signs of abuse?"

"Nope, no broken bones, no sign of sexual trauma." Jocelyn thanked god for a second. "I do want to run some more test and i'd like to talk to the parents. Do you know where they are?"

"I would gladly give them up but we don't know where and who they are."

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Jocelyn stayed behind the room with Bruno as they took some blood samples and check ups. Liv and Amanda walk in.

"Anything on the parents?" Jocelyn crosses her arms.

"We are going to ask around, we need you to come and help cover more ground." Amanda looks at the kid on the bed. Shame.

"Doc wanted to take more tests, no signs of abuse." She lets them in. "Poor thing." She glances one look at Bruno as she follows the two women out. Then a murderous scream came from the room. Bruno had jumped off the bed and ran to Jocelyn, grabbing her leg and crying to her. The kid attached to her leg was showing her not to leave him. Her heart broke to see the boy in this way. "Bruno..." The nurses try to get him off of her. "Ill stay, ill stay. im not going anywhere." She looks at Liv who agreed to let her stay for him. Jocelyn scooped the tiny boy into her arms and took him back to the bed. As Bruno saw that Jocelyn sat down next to him, he stopped crying and looked at her. He was attached. The love she has given him, that missing part that he needed was filled by her and he didn't want to let that go. Bruno didn't want her to leave like his mother did to him.

Bruno had fallen asleep so she stepped out and grabbed a snack. She hit the vending machine, looking at the many options. Sweet, salty, fruity.

"Jocey." She turns to see Sonny. "There you are." She forgets that she was hungry and turned her attention to the man in front of her.

"Whats wrong? Did we get anything?" Her eyes glanced to see if he was okay. She saw how extremely sweaty Sonny was. "Why are you sweaty?"

"We found out Brunos moms name, Manuela, we headed to the apartment. The place was like a furnace. As we got in, his sister Keisha, locked in a cage, passed out." Jocelyn covered her mouth in disbelief. A child locked in a cage in a hot room.

"Is she, is she okay? Is she going to be okay?" She asks him. Sonny's face fell, not looking back at her. "Dom?" She puts her hand on his, getting his attention back.

"No." He lets out. It took a minute for him to get himself back. "Starvation, infections. Her organs are shutting down." He almost breaks. Jocelyn's stomach turned as she knew that little girl wasn't going to make it.

"Oh Dominick." She said softly. He shakes it off and clears his throat.

"Fins out looking for the mom, I'll go with Keisha-"

"I'll go with you." They walked together to the room the girl was in. She looked so tiny and so vulnerable. The two stared through the glass. "What goes through someone's head? What makes them leave their children alone?"

"I ask myself the same thing." Jocelyn puts her hand on his arm for comfort. "If i had kids, I wouldn't even leave them alone if i was to get the mail. To leave them alone, house that hot, don't get me started on the cage. A damn cage? She is a child not some animal. Only if I found her sooner-"

"Hey..." She stops him. "Dont do that. Don't blame yourself. You did what you could. The only person to blame is Manuela. Not you." He nods to her. "Dom, look at me." He did, his sad eyes looked back at hers. "Not your fault."

"Detective, Bruno is starting to wake up." The nurse tells her. Jocelyn lets go of Sonny.

"I'll keep an eye on her, go find Manuela." she walks away. Jocelyn quietly walks into the room and sits back on the chair and sees the little boy starting to wake up. Sonny sees her with the kid, smiling, reading him a book. He takes it in and heads to talk to Keith. 

As Bruno and Jocelyn played with the toys, the doctor comes in, Jocelyn steps a side and tells her that Keisha unfortunately did not make it. Jocelyn's heart broke for the girl.

They had arrested Manuela, made headlines, then arrested the people in the child services for faking reports and Barba was looking good on TV making the case known.

Jocelyn was back in the unit as they found Bruno somewhere to go for the time being, it took two nurses to hold back Bruno and a Carisi to keep Peña walking away. She felt bad, she can hear his screams as they head to the elevator.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

"Is there anything Barba can use?" Liv asked as she walks in. Jocelyn sat down as she looks through the mountains of papers in front of her.

"You know Keith backdated the reports right after Keisha died?"

"Wasn't just Keith."

"What?" Liv frowns.

"Turns out the caseworkers like to lie a lot." Jocelyn scrunches her nose.

"Dozens of other caseworkers reports were scanned in that day, all generic, all filed the morning she died."

"Do they even care about kids?" Jocelyn rolled her eyes, but she sat up straight as Dodds walked.

"Whats going on here?" All eyes on him now.

"Just um, catching up on some paperwork." He did not buy it. He hums, then points at Liv's office.

"A word sargent." Liv takes the lead and Dodds followed. Jocelyn lets go of her breath that she didn't realize that she was holding. Sonny leans over her chair, looking down at her and she did the same. Their eyes did the talking. Jocelyn gets up and gets coffee from the breakroom. She sees Sonny rushing out of the office.

"Where did Lankenstein go?" She pointed at the direction that Sonny went.

"Don't you have like tracking device? You guys always know where you are going." Fin jokes.

"Ha!" Jocelyn fakes.

"Hes going to see Keith, he wants to talk." Amanda tells her. Jocelyn follows Amanda to her desk. She groan as she sits down, finally off her feet.

"Any names yet?" Jocelyn asks.

"I have some in mind." Rollins rubs her swollen belly.

"I honestly cant wait to see it." She smiles. Jocelyn did have a thing for babies. Her weakness. At first, when she was in high school she SWORE to never have children. She was honestly scared about popping one out herself. But when the twins came into her life and then her niece and nephew, she started to give in. She didn't want to be tití jojo forever. So when she married Jensen she made it clear she wanted children and well, she was never going to have any the way Jensen was in his grind of being the best of the best.

"You want any?" Rollins smiles.

"One day. I want a big family." She dreamt. "Just waiting for the right guy."

"Peña." Liv calls her out, "Go see Manuela, its going to be her last chance to see Bruno." Jocelyn nods and heads out.

She held Bruno's hand as they walked in to see his mother. They waited and watched as the other inmates were talking to their loved ones. Then Manuela came in. Jocelyn had hatred boiling in her the moment she had done to her children. One wrong turn and Peña will not hold back.

"You know I missed Keisha's funeral. My transportation showed up three hours late." Jocelyn bit her tongue. Now she feels guilty.

"Thats why you are seeing Bruno now." She snaps. Manuela rubs the boys back in a slow caring way as he plays with his toy cars.

"Im doing 8 years. By the time I get out, he'll be halfway to a man." Dont you dare Jocelyn Nicole Peña.

"They found him a home, where he will be loved."

"I don't care, hes my son and I want him." She cries.

"And what about Keisha? Did you ever care?" There it was. "I hope Bruno won't remember any of this and im hoping that he won't remember you." She snarls to Manuela. Jocelyn sits straight and looks at Bruno as Manuela stares at Jocelyn, shocked and hurt by her words.