This is the sequel to Desperate. I don't think it's 100% necessary to have read that one first, but I would if I were you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Law & Order: SVU

Title: Taboo Baby

Author: ReadingRed

Chapter One: Friday's Findings

"Baby Boy Doe, six pounds two ounces, Caucasian." The doctor said, briefing them before they went in the NICU to see the baby. While the doctor spoke, Benson was putting on a blue gown over her clothes and Stabler was washing his hands.

"How long was he in the trash?" Benson asked still shocked at what had been done to the infant. It seemed that no matter how long she was on this job; no matter how bad things looked, someone would do something worse. Throwing a baby out in the trash to die was just about the worst thing Benson could imagine anyone doing. It was so unnecessary. The mother could've given the baby up for adoption or even dropped it off at a fire station or an emergency room and under the Safe Haven law she would've been safe from any prosecution. Instead she decided to throw the baby out with the trash.

"He couldn't have been born more than two, three hours before they found him" the doctor answered. He led them through the glass doors and into the NICU to see the baby.

"Garbage truck was a block away" Elliot said silently thanking God that someone had found the baby in time. If the truck had come just a little sooner the baby would have been picked up with the trash unnoticed and would be dead by now.

"His umbilical cord was clamped off with this or he would've bled to death" said the doctor holding up a baggie with a plastic clip inside covered in blood. Benson took the bag and held it up looking inside.

"Gourmet Coffee" she read.

"Guess he interrupted breakfast" Stabler quipped. "What are his chances?"

"He was lethargic from dehydration and hypothermia but otherwise healthy. We got fluids and formula in him and some nice warming lights and he perked right up" the doctor led them over to an isolate with a crying baby inside. The small child had an IV stuck in his arm and was crying at the top of his lungs voicing his displeasure. Elliot's heart stopped. It was the same feeling he got each time he saw his children for the first time, the same intense protective feeling, the same rush of love and affection. It surprised him. He didn't even know who this baby was and he loved him.

"He never got to bond with his mother. He needs all the human contact he can get" the doctor said seeing that both Benson and Stabler were wanting to touch the baby.

Benson looked down at the infant. He was beautiful with a light dusting of dark hair. The baby's face was scrunched and he was crying but his skin was clear and pink. He was wonderful. She felt a connection she had only ever felt when she was around Tommy. The world seemed to melt away as if it was only she, Elliot, and this tiny baby who existed.

Olivia snapped back to reality when the doctor said the baby needed human contact. This was Elliot's domain, as the father of five he was well acquainted with babies, aside from little Eli, Benson had never been around infants. Tommy had been four years old when he came to live with her.

Olivia knew that Elliot would give the baby some of the contact that he needed. She looked over at Elliot with a small smile on her face; he wasn't paying attention to her though, just as she suspected his focus was on the baby. She watched him slide his hand into the isolate and gently stroke the baby's tiny fist.

The child quieted at his touch, the cries softened to whimpers and the baby tried to turn his head to Elliot's hand. Stabler grinned; his kids had done the same thing when they were little.

"Welcome to the world there, tough guy" Stabler told the child.

Already the boy had been through so much. He was not even a day old and already he was alone in the world. Benson and Stabler stayed with the baby for about an hour. The nurse let Olivia feed the baby a bottle of formula and after that the little guy fell asleep.

Benson and Stabler left to go see what they could get from the crime scene.

"Sanitation picked up all the garbage. Dog owner kept them from hauling away our crime scene" said the crime scene investigator as he led Benson to the place where the baby had been found.

"Let's hope the mother didn't have twins." Benson said looking down at the pile of bloody items.

"Baby was stuffed in a bag with these old clothes and sheets. Box was meant to be his coffin" the man said sadly.

"Any identifying marks on it?" Benson asked hoping for a lead. She looked at the pile of trash strewn across the sidewalk. What woman would pick this place to be her baby's final resting place? What kind of monster must someone be to let their baby die like a rat in a pile of garbage? The crime scene investigator pulled her out of her musings with more information about the case.

"No, placenta must've been wrapped in that" he said pointing to a bloody t-shirt to Benson's left.

"The sheets she gave birth on. There's a lotta blood." Benson said as she carefully picked up the blood covered sheets to examine.

"Yeah, stains are probably amniotic fluid." The CSI told her.

"Low tread count but nice stitching on the border, color's taupe" Benson placed the sheets back down on the pavement and looked around the neighborhood. "Who lives here?" Benson asked pointing to the house closest to where the baby had been dumped.

"Joe and Candice Sheppard, Fin's inside with them now."

"What do we know about them?"

"Based on an anthropological profile of their garbage. He's a conservative, she's a liberal. Favorite food is mu shu pork from Wok This Way, had it delivered three times this week."

"Sounds like somebody had a craving" Benson said.

"I don't think Mrs. Sheppard could've been pregnant."

"Why not?"

"She's fifty-one years old."

After following a lead from the Sheppard's, Benson went to a local coffee shop to check out a potential baby dumper, a woman who panhandles outside the café. Benson saw the woman trying to persuade passersby to give her money. The woman was clearly pregnant, and just as clearly unstable.

Benson convinced the woman to go to a hospital to see if the baby was alright. Surprisingly the woman was not pregnant but instead had a rare medical phenomenon called pseudocyesis that mimicked the signs of pregnancy. Needless to say that lead led nowhere. They decided to end for the day; well actually Cragen sent them all home, because, for now, the case wasn't going anywhere.

Benson couldn't get the little boy off her mind so she decided to go see him, but first she had to pick her son up from after school care. Tommy's elementary school wasn't far from the precinct so her drive was a short one.

Benson parked right outside the front doors and went inside. She made her way to the gym where the kids in the after school program spent their time. The doors to the gym were closed but she could see Tommy through the glass pane. He was shooting baskets with another little boy. Tommy threw the basketball through the hoop and he and the other boy cheered when the ball reached its goal. Benson watched her adopted son jump up and down, his hands thrown up in the air.

She loved seeing her little man happy, after what he had been through in his short life she was amazed he had somehow become the happy healthy little boy she saw before her. Olivia opened the door to the gym and told the teacher with the clipboard which child she was here for, the teacher nodded and wrote down Tommy's name and Benson went to collect her son.

"Tommy" she yelled over the sound of the many children in the gym. Tommy heard her voice and looked around the gym searching her out.

"Mommy!" He shouted dropping the ball and racing over to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist hugging her tight.

"Did Elliot come too?" He asked craning his head to the side trying to look past her to see if her partner was there. Her partner and son had formed a tight bond after Elliot helped rescue Tommy from his abusive father. Elliot and she agreed that boys needed strong role models and Tommy's biological father was anything but, so now that Elliot had his kids full time he would take Tommy most weekends to spend time with Maureen, Kathleen, Dickie, Elizabeth, and Eli.

"Nope, sorry bud just you and me. Hey, I met someone today who is very special and he told me he'd really like to meet you. What do ya say? You want to meet my friend?"

Tommy looked up concern written all over his face. "A boyfriend?" He asked cautiously. She hadn't dated anyone seriously since she adopted Tommy but she had gone out a few times. Tommy hadn't liked it and she understood why.

Tommy's biological father had killed his mother when Tommy was only four years old, as if that wasn't bad enough Tommy had watched the entire ordeal. It had been just over a year since then and the memories had started to fade, but certain things would trigger the memories. Olivia knew the boy still wasn't comfortable around most men and that Olivia dating someone would scare him. Tommy was afraid that her boyfriend would kill her too.

The last time Olivia had gone on a date Tommy had nightmares for a week. She knew that someday she would start dating again and she would have to help Tommy be ok with that, but for now she wasn't going to push the issue. She had no plans to date anyone anytime soon, she was happy to spend her free time with Tommy, Elliot, and the Stabler kids.

"No babe, not a boyfriend" that answer calmed him and a smile took over his face.

"Okay!" Tommy said happily. Together they exited the school and drove to the hospital.

"He's not sick is he?" Tommy asked.

"No he's not. The doctors want to keep an eye on him so he's going to stay here for a while" Benson said taking Tommy's hand in hers. She led him to the elevator and let him push the button to level six. The doors opened and Tommy had a flash of recognition.

"Hey this is Eli's hospital!" Tommy said, referring to Elliot's baby boy. Benson had taken Tommy to visit Eli here when the baby was still in the hospital. Eli's birth had been traumatic.

Kathy and Benson had been driving to a doctor's appointment when they were hit by another car. The crash caused Kathy to go into early labor. She delivered Eli fine, she even named him, but soon after the birth, complications from the crash caused internal bleeding that the doctor's didn't catch in time and Kathy had died.

Eli was now seven months old and the family was starting to pull itself back together. Stabler had rearranged his schedule as best he could and now he had most weekends off and was usually home by six on weekdays, if he wasn't Benson would try to be there to pick up the slack.

"Yeah it is. I'm surprised you remember. That was a couple of months ago." Benson said smiling at the five year old. "But we're not here to see Eli" they went to the nurses' station and Benson showed her badge and told the nurse who they were there to see. The nurse smiled at Benson and Tommy and took them to the nursery where Baby Doe had been moved. The lady motioned to the door indicating that it was the room the baby was in.

"Looks like this baby has quite the following" the nurse quipped before leaving. Before Benson had time to think on that statement Tommy opened the door and went in. Inside the room were Elliot, Maureen who was holding baby Eli, Kathleen, Dickie and Elizabeth all of them crowded around a small bassinette that held the sleeping newborn.

"Elliot!" shouted Tommy. He ran over and pounced on the man, it was only through years of experience at being a father that gave Elliot the quick reflexes to catch the small child.

"Hey buddy" Elliot said to the child before placing him down on his feet. Stabler looked over the heads of his children and smiled at Benson. "Looks like you had the same idea."

"Yeah, I guess so" Benson said laughing. "It just didn't feel right going home a leaving this little guy here all alone" Olivia walked farther into the room and looked down at the baby, he was just as beautiful as before.

"Mommy, what's his name?" Tommy asked.

"What?"

"What's the baby's name?" Tommy repeated. Benson looked at Stabler and he looked back at her.

"Tommy… this baby doesn't have a name." Benson said, deciding to be vague on the details. She wasn't sure what Elliot had told his kids and didn't really know how to explain that this baby's mother was more concerned about which trash pile to throw him in than what she was going to call him.

"He's gotta have a name, how else will we know what to call him? We should give him one" Tommy said looking around at the others in the room searching for someone to second his decree. "Elliot, can we pllleeeessssee give him a name?" Tommy said giving Elliot his patented pouty look. Elliot looked up at her and shrugged his shoulders.

"It can't hurt. I mean it won't be official or anything, but he's right, every kid needs a name" Elliot said. Cheers went up from the kids in the room. Maureen, Kathleen, and Elizabeth huddled together and Dickie and Tommy did the same, all five kids trying to come up with the best name for the baby.

"Any ideas?" Benson asked Elliot. She had sat down in a chair close to the bassinette so she could be near the child; Elliot had done the same on the other side.

"I wanted to name Dickie, James, but Kathy didn't like it. You got any ideas?" He said looking over the top of the bassinette so he could see her face.

"Well Tommy's full name is Thomas Aaron Benson. When I adopted him I gave him the middle name Aaron because he hadn't had one at all before. That had been my favorite name; I really like James though, maybe James Nathaniel, we could call him Jamie for now." Before Elliot could reply both groups of kids came over. Maureen's group went first, led by the eleven year old.

"Okay, we all like the name Johnny or maybe Andrew and we could call him Andy." Maureen said, nine year old Kathleen and seven year old Elizabeth nodding along with her. The boys went next, Dickie taking the lead.

"Well me 'n Tommy wanna call him Andrew too, maybe we could call him Ender like from those books ya know?" Dickie said.

"What do you guys think of the name James?" Elliot asked.

"It's nice" said Maureen, and of course the younger girls agreed with her. Elizabeth agreeing convinced her twin, and Dickie liking it was good enough for Tommy.

"Well then how about we call him James Andrew, or maybe Jamie?" Benson asked the kids. All the kids grinned at that and Dickie and Tommy gave each other high fives. Benson looked down at the sleeping baby.

"Welcome to the world, James Andrew."