Fin and Munch raced towards the apartment building, hoping that it was a
false alarm, but the fact that the phones went unanswered hung heavy.
The twenty minute drive was made in since that was broken only by the sound
of their siren and the radio chatter that had dropped off to units calling in
locations and ETA's. Munch reached over and cut the sirens as they got
closer to their destination, but left the lights on to help clear the way.
"Suspect is on premises and armed, it's confirmed that this is a hostage
situation. Requesting directions on how to proceed."
"Be advised that SVU are on their way and will take charge when they arrive
on site. Hold for further instructions until they arrive."
There was a moment of silence before the radio came to life again.
"SVU mobile one, be advised that your Captain is now on his way to join you,
you are to assess and take command until he arrives. Armed response is
approximately 5 minutes from the location."
Munch reached for the radio and braced himself against the console as Fin
manoeuvred to avoid a car that had decided to ignore the flashing lights.
"Acknowledged, be advised that we have arrived on scene. Mobile One out."
Munch unbuckled his seatbelt launching himself onto the "safe" footpath.
"Fucking morons think flashing lights mean that they should go, you'd think
that they actually wait until they hear sirens or see the lights before they
can go for a drive."
Fin slammed his door and fastened his flack jacket into place. "I'm just
glad I was drivin', otherwise we'd be history now instead of bitchin about
it." Fin approached the group of police that had gathered. "Ok tell us
what's going on."
"We arrived on scene and approached Detective Benson's apartment as
directed. We could hear people inside, but no one answered the door. After
a couple of attempts one of her neighbours approached us. Mrs Alfonzi
informed us that she was in her apartment and that she had company."
Fin nodded as he looked around, more police were arriving and approaching
them. "I'll take them, you take the neighbour."
"Where's the neighbour now?" Munch asked as his partner walked off.
"She's in our squad car, we knew you'd want to talk to her."
Munch nodded again. "Ok o and join the others."
Fin checked his badge was displayed as he approached the uniforms that were
gathering.
"Ok, first up we need to clear the fifth floor, as well as the on above and
below. We'll set them up in the coffee shop that is just down the road."
Fin said as he noted the people who were starting to stop to find out what
was happening. "We know that Detective Benson is in apartment 5C and is
with an armed person. We have to assume that she is being held against her
will and may be injured as shots have been heard and Detective Benson has
not responded to any attempts to contact her."
"Do we know who the person is?"
Fin shook his head. "Not officially. We need to get tithe building cleared
quickly and quietly and keep the sight seers back."
Fin watched as the uniforms hurried off to do as directed, each wearing
their flack jackets and their weapons close at hand. One thought kept going
through his mind, Why her, why now?
He waited for his partner, occasionally giving an order, or guiding one of
the civilians towards the coffee shop.
Munch lead and agitated Mrs Alfonzi from the squad car towards the coffee
shop where Fin was directing the situation.
Her head pounded as sounds started to filter through her brain. She tried to
move her hand to try and sooth some of the pain away, until she noticed that
her hands were tied together behind her back.
No not tied, she realised, she was handcuffed and she was sitting.
What's going on, she wondered, was anyone else here hurt? Was Elliot all
right or was he being held here as well?
"It's about time."
Olivia groaned and tried to open her eyes, and immediately regretted it as the
light sent spikes of pain into her already throbbing head.
"Oh come on now, your not going to let a couple of bumps and bruises from
letting us have this talk. I know I've been looking forward to it for a long
time."
She cracked her eyes again and recognised her surroundings, she was in her
apartment, she had been home, relaxing when someone had knocked, no not
someone...
"Kathy?"
"Well done." Kathy moved over to the window to look out again. She knew
that they were out there, was surprised that it had taken them so long to
arrive.
"Kathy think about what..."
Olivia stopped as she felt the butt of her gun hit her face again.
"Oh I've thought about it, and I know. I know that you've stolen my husband
from me, poisoned him against me, worked away at him for so long that now
he's taking my kids away as well. I can't let you do that you slut."
"Kathy" she pleaded, they had been going around in circles for what felt
like days now trying to rationalise with her, but every time it looked like
she was getting somewhere something happened and Kathy would go off again.
"Elliot love you, he has always been faithful. He loves you and your kids
so much."
"Liar!" Kathy stopped pacing and stood in front of where she had Olivia
cuffed. She pointed the gun at Olivia an squeezed on the trigger a little.
"It was never enough for you was it?"
Olivia sighed, every part of her hurt, the only thing she was glad of was
that no one else was here to get hurt.
"We are friends, partners, that's all, nothing ever happened between us. I
would never let anything happen, I respect you both to much. He loves you
to much to let anything happen Kathy,"
"You've taken everything from me and you still can't stop lying! You think
I'm going to believe a word that comes from your whoring mouth?"
The phone rand and startled both of them. Kathy tensed her finger and the
gun went off, Olivia cried out as the bullet tore through her shoulder, the
recoil having thrown the shot off.
The pain was unbelievable, and she thanked whatever god there was that
Elliot and his kids weren't' here to witness this, she heard her answer
machine kick in and then Cragen's voice asking for someone to answer,
"Go away." Kathy almost screamed down the line before slamming the phone
again, and then started pacing again.
"Kathy, end this now, it doesn't have to go any further than this." Olivia
ground out around the pain.
"Yeah sure, I'll just walk out there and say hi, how are you? Oh yeah and
ops your golden girl a little bullet wound, but I didn't mean to do it."
Olivia tried to move to ease the strain the her shoulder was under. "I'll
talk to them, tell them I had an accident, that you were helping me."
"Yeah sure, and then everyone will run in and everything will be fine. Face
it bitch, I have nothing left to loose because of you, and everything to
gain with you not being here any more."
As she watched she saw that her partners wife was loosing touch with reality,
and that this was not going to end well. the phone rang again and this time
Kathy didn't wait for the machine.
"Of course you'd ask about that whore, you don't ask if I'm all right, your
all the same. " Kathy spat into the phone. "You don't believe me? Fine
then hear for yourself."
Kathy shoved the phone in her direction and then kicked her. She pulled the
phone away and listened for a moment. time was running out and she knew it,
she ran through what the police would be doing now, trying to take her mind
off the pain, but was brought back to the present when she heard Kathy's
maniacal laugh.
"You can't get me anything I want. You can't give me my husband and
children back, you can't turn back time and make this piece of shit not be a
part of our lives. She has taken them all from me, poisoned them against
me, and she even has all of you so called detectives fooled into thinking
that she is innocent."
Olivia watched as Kathy hung up and then tore the cord from the wall. She
closed her eyes and drew in her breath for one last attempt.
"If you don't talk to them they'll break the door down, you could get hurt.
What will your children do if something happened to you?"
She watched as Kathy advanced then pulled her from where she sat, and knew
that the Kathy that she had known was gone.
"Well they'll have to go through you first, whore, and since you don't think
you can be hurt then I uses I'll be fine."
Then everything went haywire, time seemed to speed up and at the same time
slow down. She saw her front door smash open and the armed men swarm into
the room, behind them she could see John and Fin, she heard the commotion
that was going on, but it made no sense to her, she felt Kathy move the gun
so that it rested in her lower back and then there was simply mind numbing
pain as she felt herself falling. Her shoulder still hurt, but now another
pain was making itself felt in her stomach and another in her thigh. The
room seemed to dim for a moment and then John as there talking to her and
Fin was on her other side. She could feel them pressing down, probably to
stop the blood that she could feel starting to pool around her. Then the
pain started to fade away, and the noise around her started to dim, she reached her
hand out and touched Fin's arm and looked at John, saw the worry on both
faces and felt a wave of sadness wash through her.
"S'rry" she wanted to talk, but it was hard, "Tell El...tried..." she took
another shaky breath, "Tell El...love..."
She couldn't' go any further, everything faded away until there was nothing,
her last thoughts were of Elliot, his kids and her family.
John watched as tactical advanced on the door, they had orders not to shoot
unless necessary, but he had a bad feeling. One look at his partner told
him that Fin felt the same thing. He wondered again how they had all missed
what was going on, how had things gotten so out of control, he wondered how
Elliot and the kids were holding up, and how far away they were.
The door disintegrated and the tactical team flooded into the apartment.
he and Fin eased in and moved in opposite directions, Kathy was behind
Oliva, they could see that blood had soaked Olivia's shoulder as Kathy
screamed at them to back off.
"We can't do that Ma'am, you need to release Detective Benson and come with
us."
John saw the anger flash through Kathy's eyes, and he knew that there was
no way this was going to end well
"I have a name and all you bastards care about is this lying whore." Kathy
screamed, "My name is Katherine Stabler, and this whore is a liar and a
thief, she doesn't deserve anything!"
John saw Fin edge around closer to them as he spoke up to keep Kathy's
attention on him.
"Kathy, it's all right, Elliot's on his way, I'm sure we can work this out."
Kathy looked at hi, he thought that he was getting through to her but then
he saw it, the last and sad look as she shook her head.
"There's only one way John, only one way to end this, she has to die John.
It's the only way to fix everything, can't you see that?"
Then all hell broke loose, he heard the shot that Kathy fired and then the
tactical guys started shooting as well. It lasted no more than 30 seconds,
then there was total silence as people started to move. He raced towards
Olivia, only looking briefly at where Kathy lay as he knelt down next to
Olivia. He could see at least 3 wounds that were bleeding freely, he tried
to stop the bleeding as he yelled for a bus.
"You're gonna be fine Liv, just hang on a little longer." Fin said as he
also tried to staunch he flow. he couldn't believe it, it wasn't supposed to
happen to her, she had saved him once, it just wasn't supposed to happen
this way.
"Stay with us here Liv, helps on the way." John said.
He watched as a peaceful expression passed across her face, watched as her
hand touched his partners arm and her eyes focused on him. The he saw the
sadness.
"Hold on Liv, just a bit longer," John said, he wanted to demand that the
medics be there now.
"S'rry"
They could both see her struggle to talk, words half formed and slurred. He
wanted to tell her not to talk, that she had to save her strength, but he
couldn't get the words out.
"Tell ...El...tried..." She took a another shaky breath as if gathering all
her strength, "Tell h'm...love..."
He felt his heart clench as her voice faded and her eyes closed.
"Where's the damn bus!" Fin yelled.
"There coming up the stairs now," one of the tac guys said from near the
door.
John looked over at his partner and saw his own emotions mirrored. He then
looked over to Kathy. He could see the gun had been secured and he could
also see that she was dead. The two tac guys that had shot were handing
their weapons over as the scene played out, and all he could do was pray to
a god he thought he'd given up on that this was all for nothing.