Castle of Glass.
"All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." – Winston Churchill.
Amanda Rollins was nothing if not resilient. She fought through escaping her overbearing mother, non-existent father, and her gambling addiction. She had dealt with her sister Kim's drama regarding her life, and her abusive boyfriend Jeff.
Until Kim forced her into shooting her now fiancé Jeff.
The aftermath of that has left her shattered, broken and wanting to lose faith in everything she believed in.
Rollins stood in her bare, empty apartment, after seeing the note that Kim had left,
I helped myself to a few things. I'm sorry Amanda.
"She took everything." Rollins looked around her living room, and walked into her bedroom. It was as bare as the living room, and everything had been taken. Her books, her clothes, her jewellery. Everything.
"She took everything Fin. Everything."
Rollins sobbed into Fin's shoulder.
"Don't worry Amanda. We're like a big family. We help each other out."
She pushed away from him. Her face was tear-stained, and she had a look of determination, one that was saying, she got into this mess, and she's going to have to get herself out of it.
"You guys have already paid for my bail. I can't ask you to help with this."
"You're not asking. I'm telling." Fin had his own equal look of determination on his face.
"No. I'm going to have to figure this out on my own." This was her mess, her struggle, and she needed to fix it.
"Have it your way. You know where to find us." Resignation appeared on Fin's face. He began to walk out of her apartment.
Rollins struggled to get the next words out, her pride almost getting the better of her. "Fin?"
"Yeah?" He turned around, almost hoping for her to say, yes, I need help.
"Thank you." She meant every ounce of that. For not telling her that her sister was stupid, for telling her that she was stupid.
"That's what we're here for." She knew what he meant by we, the whole SVU squad had been better than amazing for the last couple of days.
As soon as Fin walked out of the door, she fell in a sobbing heap on the floor. Everything had been taken from her by her sister, without a care in the world. Her reputation, dignity, personal possessions, even her hope. She had nothing. That was where she slept that night, on her hardboard floors, broken, crying herself to sleep.
In a heap on the floor was where Olivia Benson, Nick Amaro and Odafin Tutuola found Rollins in the morning, tear stained and curled into herself, when they came armed with breakfast. As soon as they saw her, they knew this was something they would never mention again, as they have all been in that position before physically or metaphorically.
Nothing could have been a more pleasant awakening for her, having her much beloved squad coming to support her through probably one of the toughest times in her life.
She knew she could rebuild her castle of glass. All she needed was hope.