The rain poured down as Detective Olivia Benson marched across Central Park, dreading the morning ahead. Why do I have to do this every week?! She thought angrily to herself, I'm fine, I just wish they'd see that. She huffed and nearly didn't notice the little girl, crying with her face in her lap. Olivia quickly took her coat off and wrapped it around the little girls shaking body. The girl flinched and her head shot up. Olivia could see she'd been crying for quite a while.

"Hey sweetie, I'm Olivia. Do you want to tell me why you're crying? It's freezing out here." Olivia said, with her usual soothing tone she used, when talking to children.

The little girl looked up at her with terror in her eyes.

"You can trust me. I work for the police department."

The little girl jumped to her feet, the fear growing her eyes.

"I won't let you take me back, I won't." She screamed and ran off, leaving her pink backpack behind.

"Wait! You didn't tell me your you've left your bag." Olivia sighed and picked up the backpack.

Sod the support group. Olivia thought. This is more important.

She got up and headed back to her car, the rain slowing up a bit. Olivia couldn't help but think about the little girl, out there in this weather. She knew that there were thousands of street children in New York and it broke her heart that they didn't have a safe place to go and whenever she came across one that was as young as the little girl, she just desperately wanted to take them home and look after them. But street kids tended to be scared of adults especially the police, so it was going to take a lot to get the girl to come with her - that's if she could find her. Olivia opened her car and got in, she was planning on going to the squad room to do some digging on the little girl but she knew it would be a long shot. But she couldn't be any older than 9.

Olivia turned her computer on and waited for it to load, she couldn't get the little girl out of her mind. There was something special and different about this one, not one child had made her feel this passionate and determined. She typed her password in and got up the missing persons database. She started by searching missing children in New York,altering the filters to female, between 6 and 10. Nothing useful. She widened her search to national and scrolled down the page, she seemed to be doing this for quite a while until bingo.

"Yes!" Olivia shouted, out loud. everyone in the squad room looked up.

"Sorry" She muttered, and turned her head back to the screen.

MISSING

Emma Matthews

8 years old

Missing from Chicago, Illinois

3/01/15

Olivia stared at the screen, it was unmistakably the little girl she saw IN central park. But she's so tiny, how did she get from Chicago to New York at 8 years old. Olivia thought. She felt a tear slide down her cheek. Something awful must have been happening to her.

"Benson." Nick Amaro, another Detective in the SVU shouted. "There's someone here to see you, she said she'd only talk to you."

Olivia glanced down and there was the little girl clutching Nick's arm. So many emotions overwhelmed Olivia as she made her way over to the girl. She took her hand and led her over to one of the rooms they used to interview children. She needed to find out what happened to this little girl, that made her feel like she needed to run away.

Olivia sat down on one of the sofas and patted her hand next to her.

"Do you want to sit down next to me sweetie? Or would you rather sit over there?" Olivia asked, pointing over to the brightly coloured beanbags.

The little girl stared at Olivia with blank eyes, there wasn't any emotion.

"You can talk to me hunny, I won't bite."

"Sorry." The little girl murmured, still standing rooted to the spot. She looked absolutely terrified.

"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm Olivia, what's your name?" Olivia asked, just wanting to take the little girl into her arms and hold her.

"Emmy."

Olivia smiled, feeling so many emotions towards the girl.

"How old are you?"

"8"

"Okay hun. What are you doing all alone in New York?"

Olivia knew she needed to get to the bottom of what was happening. Her parents must be missing her, but she wasn't convinced everything was alright at home. This tiny girl wouldn't have ran this far for no reason.

Emmy stared at her with fear in her eyes, she started to cry and ran for the door.

"Emmy, no wait." Olivia shouted, getting to her feet and chasing after her.

"Don't send me back. Don't send me back." Emmy screamed over and over again, sobbing uncontrollably. She tried the door handle but Olivia had locked it earlier to prevent her doing a runner.

"Let me out." Emmy screamed, starting to get hysterical.

"Emmy. Come and sit down here with me." Olivia said, trying to make herself heard over Emmy's sobs.

"No, let me out. Please don't make me go back there. I won't go, I'll just run away again." Emmy desperately kept trying the door handle.

"Sweetie, I'm not going to make you go back anywhere you don't want to."

"You're lying." Emmy cried. "That's what they all say!"

Olivia struggled to know what to do, she needed to stop Emmy getting herself into her a worst state. She needed to get her to trust her. She carefully made her way over to Emmy, knowing touching her could make her worse. But she'd ran out of options.

"Please don't make me go." Emmy screamed, her voice sounded tired and weak. Olivia came down to Emmy's level and touched her shoulder. Emmy jumped and spun round to look at her.

"Please." Emmy said, tears rolling down her cheeks. Olivia held her arms out and Emmy threw herself into Olivia's arms, nuzzling her head into her chest.

"Sweetie, I'm not going to make you go back if you don't want too. But your parents will want to know where you are."

"Please Olivia, they hurt me." Emmy sobbed.

My heart broke into two, I was hoping that wasn't the case, although in my line of work it was more than likely the case.

"Okay sweetie." Olivia whispered, I didn't want to push her into talking too much right now if she wasn't ready. I needed to figure out what to do with her. I knew the state would send her to a children's home and i didn't want that for her but I didn't know if they'd let me take her home with me.

"I need to tell you parents you're safe, ok sweetie. I promise I'm not going to send you back."

"Olivia." Emmy said quietly, looking up at me. "Will you find my real mommy and daddy?"

I looked at her shocked.

"What do you mean?"

"They're not my real mommy and daddy. They stole me."