It was dark. It was dark and cold. Detective Olivia Benson was in a position she had never prepared herself for. She fought perps everyday and brought them to justice. She took care of the victims. She cared about what she did. She loved and hated her job and most of all she thought she was ready for anything. She was wrong.
--
"Hey Elliot have you seen Olivia this weekend?" Fin said walking into the office.
Elliot glanced at the desk across from his. It was empty. Thinking back he had not seen or heard from Olivia since she left Friday. "No actually, I haven't seen her since Friday. Have you tried calling her?"
"Yeah. She's not picking up her cell. I just tried her home phone."
"What?" Olivia didn't just ignore her phone. She always picked it up. Usually in record time.
"Well since she's late today I was gonna head over and see whats up. Do you wanna come?"
"Yeah. Give me two minutes to print this report and grab my coat. Something is really wrong here. Olivia doesn't just skip work.
Fifteen minutes later they were in front of her apartment building.
"Olivia open up its Fin." Fin was knocking on the door.
"I've got a key Fin." Elliot said quickly slipping the key into the lock.
"Wow, when did she decide to trust you with a key." Fin joked.
"Is that any of your business?" Elliot gave a half smile and pushed on the door.
The lights in her apartment were off. Fin switched the lights on.
"Looks like she hasn't been home in a while." Fin said surveying the room quickly. The bed looked un-slept in and the answering machine on her phone was blinking.
Elliot shook his head in disbelief. The whole apartment was empty. It was like Olivia had just up and left without telling anyone. But that wasn't like her. She would never not turn up at work. Nothing fit.
"Hey Liv its Fin. Cap was just wondering why you were late. Better get here soon before he starts getting angry. Decided to try your home phone because you weren't picking up your cell. Call Cragen. Oh yeah Casey says they need you for the Cortman case, so you should contact her today. Soon if you don't want to piss her off." Elliot whipped around to see Fin looking down at the answering machine.
"No new messages. Check erased messages…"
"El she's not here…" Fin looked startled. "It looks like she hasn't been home in a while…"
--
Cragen surveyed around the squad room. Elliot and Fin had gone to Olivia's to see why she was still not here. It just wasn't like her.
"Captain." Cragen turned around to see Munch. The look on Munch's face was not what he had hoped to see. "They can't seem to find Olivia. Her apartment looks like it hasn't been touched all weekend."
Cragen sighed. This was not what they needed. "Call Fin and Elliot and tell them to get down here."
Twenty minutes later they were all in Cragen's office. As he looked over the detective in front of him he saw the same protective look in each one of their eyes. Suddenly he realized that his crew had over the past couple years become a family. There was an unspoken code among them. They were there for each other and they cared. They really cared about the cases, the victims, catching the perp, but most of all, they cared about each other. When the possibility of one of their own getting hurt arises they cannot help but worry and he knew, as their captain, that they would fight like hell. No matter what.
"Guys…. Something is wrong here." Cragen started not really knowing what he should say.
Cragen's phone rang and everyone jumped. Without really thinking about it he looked down at the caller's ID. It was Olivia's phone. Quickly he snapped open his phone.
"Olivia!"
"Well well captain we finally get a chance to talk." A gravely, deep voice came across the phone. "Put your phone on speaker and we can chat with all of your detectives."
--
Olivia groaned as she felt the world spinning. What's going on. Where am I? Olivia's eyes shot open as she tried to sit up. She couldn't move. After a couple minutes she realized that her arms were stuck above her head. Suddenly everything came back to her. Saying goodbye to everyone at the office, stepping into the bar for a drink, getting to her room and opening her door to a stranger with a gun, and a dull pain in the back of her head. Then darkness.
Breathing deeply Olivia surveyed her surroundings. She was sitting in a small room on an unfamiliar bed. The only light came from a little lamp sitting beside the bed.
Who's bed. How long had I been out.
"Glad you woke up Princess." An unfamiliar man was standing in the doorway. No, it was the man from her apartment. "I just made a phone call. Do you want to talk with your little detective buddies?"
Olivia's eyes widened.
What was going on here and who was her captor?
"Who is this?" Cragen demanded into the phone.
All the detectives were crammed around the phone listening to a call coming from their missing co-worker's… no missing friend's phone.
"C-Captain…" Olivia struggled to say without moving too much for fear of touching her skin to the knife now at her neck.
"Oliva!"
"What's going on?"
"Where are you?"
"Who's the guy with you?"
All The detectives struggled to talk at once.
"Shut up!" The gravelly voice came across the phone again. " Do you want me to kill her?"
There was a sudden hush in the room. Nobody moved, nobody breathed, nobody wanted to hurt Olivia.
Cragen silently grabbed the cable off his desk and plugged the phone into his computer. He then sat down and started up the software that recorded and tracked the phone call. The phone call that might cost one of his best detectives her life.