"Benson."

"Hey. It's Amanda."

"I know. But Rollins, are you aware of what time it is?"

Amanda glanced at the clock in the kitchen. 1:30 A.M. Her eyes went back to the young girl laying on her couch, Remi. She was sleeping, a blanket laid over top of her. Amanda should be doing that right now. Sleeping. She planned on going into the precinct early tomorrow, but she wanted to keep her eye on Remi.

When she brought her into her apartment, Remi almost passed out. Luckily, she didn't. Amanda was able to keep her up-right long enough to get her to the couch. She sat Remi down, poured her some water in a glass, which Remi downed in one gulp. Amanda heated up two slices of left-over cheese pizza from the night before and gave that to Remi too. She must've been really hungry because she asked for more once she finished the two slices. But before she brought two more slices over, Amanda found Remi asleep. The poor girl needed it. She draped a blanket over Remi and took the slices back to the kitchen, ate them herself.

From the kitchen, she watched Remi laying still on the couch. Frannie pattered her claws against the hard wood between where Amanda stood in the kitchen and Remi, eventually deciding to sit beside the couch, staring at her.

Amanda only wondered why Frannie liked Remi so much. She didn't usual act so friendly with people she'd just met. Yet, dogs are dogs. They have their reasons. It was none of Amanda's business really. She was not some dog whisperer.

"Yes, I'm aware, but this is important."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Sarge, it's already tomorrow."

Amanda heard Olivia scoff on the other end. Maybe it was a bit too late, or early, for sarcasm. Sass. Whatever that comment was.

"That was not what I meant, Amanda."

"Sorry. I didn't really plan on being up so late. Early. Whatever."

Silence. Amanda waited for Olivia to say something on the other end before she were to continue, explain why she called in the first place. She didn't want this call to result in an angry sergeant when she came in for work for her shift. The others would get on her ass for it.

"Olivia, I—" Amanda started, but Olivia cut her off.

"I'm already awake, so you might as well tell me what's so important that you felt the need to call me."

"I found a twelve-year-old girl on the steps of my apartment building after taking Frannie out. I didn't really think anything of it at first, but I don't know. She just gives me an off feeling. Frannie's been attached to her since I brought her in."

"Wait, you're telling me that you brought a girl into your apartment, and didn't think, I don't know, to bring her to the station?"

Amanda knew she was going to be hit with that question. How was she supposed to bring a girl that was barely able to stand up on her own into the station? "She was injured, starved and dehydrated. There was no way—"

"Rollins, did you consider taking her to a hospital?"

Now that Olivia brought it up, Remi never told her why she couldn't be taken to a local hospital. She fell asleep before Amanda could possibly question her, before Remi could even say anything. What was she supposed to tell Olivia? She had no idea of Remi's reasoning. With each passing second, Amanda's mind kept wondering. There had to be something... Amanda's first thought was that maybe Remi was a run-away. And the place she was running away from was somewhere that she feared going back to. If she was admitted to a hospital, she would risk being found. Or she was pissed at her parents and ran away in protest. Kids did that all the time. Or she did something she regretted and left whatever town she lived in. She didn't want to deal with the repercussions. There were so many scenarios that Amanda could think of. Just from working at SVU and from what she'd seen, she could think of a dozen more. Yet, Amanda didn't want to assume anything, despite all of the situations that went through her mind. Whatever it was, she hoped it was nothing daunting.

"I did. I told her that it would be best if I took her, but she refused. She said that she can't and that she would explain it, but I never got the chance to ask before she passed out on my couch."

"She can't. That's all she told you?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately."

"Once she wakes up, ask her. If her reasoning involves anything that would allow us to do further investigation—"

"Bring her to the station, got it." Beat. "I'll see you in a couple hours."

"Yep. Get some sleep, Amanda."

"Thanks, Sarge."

Amanda pulled her phone away from her ear and hung up, letting out a sigh as the black case of her phone hit the counter top. She knew then that she definitely wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. There was too much on her mind that was keeping her awake. Her mind was running way too fast in continuous circles. She didn't know how to stop it. If she did, maybe she could acquire some sleep, but now, there was no way. Her self-declaration of not sleeping tonight was going to kick her in the ass once work hits her.

She was setting herself up to be buried deep into the dirt, but she didn't care, at least not at the moment. She held too much worry and concern to pull her eyes away from Remi for one second. And even if there was nothing the SVU could do to investigate or help Remi, she knew she was going to have to bring her to the precinct anyway. She wasn't going to let her alone in the apartment. She wasn't going to push her into the streets either. SVU could help Remi find a home or be sent back to her home depending on her situation. Maybe search her up in the system, see if there's a ping. Talk to child services. Whatever she'd have to do to make sure that Remi was in a secure spot, she would do it. Amanda usually didn't grow attached to people, especially victims like Olivia did, but this was something different, and she couldn't place her finger on it.

"Your boss seems nice."

Amanda jumped a bit at the sudden voice that rang through her ears, but exhaled when she realized that the voice belonged to Remi. She was too in her head to notice that Remi woke up, sitting up and holding the blanket close to her body. Frannie had moved too, now joined Remi on the couch. Her two front legs and her head rested on Remi's lap.

"I mean, from what I heard. She also sounded tired. I don't blame her for getting mad at you for waking her up. I would be too. Can I have some water?"

Amanda parted her lips, processing all that Remi said. Her tiredness was finally getting to her. Some of what Remi said at first sounded like gibberish to her, but she was eventually able to wrap her mind around it even though she was too tired to think. "Uh yeah, sure." She collected Remi's glass from earlier that evening from the coffee table and went to the kitchen to fill it. "How did you know I was talking to my boss?"

"The title you called her: sarge. It's short for sergeant."

"You know," she handed it to Remi, then sat down in front of her on the coffee table, "there are other higher-ups besides the sergeant."

"I do know, but by the way you talked to her and how she talked back, I just assumed. She sounded authoritative." This time, Remi drank the water slower, embracing every bit of the clear liquid that hit her tongue. She wrapped both her hands around the glass, as if she was holding a mug.

Amanda lifted an eyebrow. "Honey, I didn't have her on speaker. There was no way for you to know what she sounded like. There was no way for you to hear her side of the conversation. How much of it did you even hear?"

Remi kept her eyes on the water in her glass. It was still. There was nothing interesting about it. "I know that you told her about me. How I wouldn't let you take me to the hospital. I heard her ask why or something like that. She sounded confused. She also said that I should tell you..." She paused, taking a small sip from the glass. "You said something about a station. L-like a police station? Your boss' title makes sense, fits the job. I've heard it before." Another pause. "Anyway, she then told you to get some sleep. I didn't hear anything after that. You ended the call."

Amanda stared at Remi in awe. How did she hear the other end of the phone call? Amanda was all the way in the kitchen, and yeah the speakers leaked sometimes during phone calls, but there was no way for Remi to hear what Olivia said. She was too far away. "Are you playing some kind of trick on me?"

Remi stayed silent and set down the glass on the coffee table next to Amanda. She gently patted Frannie's head.

Amanda stood from the coffee table and paced a few times. The silence meant she was being serious, right? Or did she want Amanda to figure out the answer herself? Whatever it was, Amanda hated being left unanswered. She was too tired for this, over-analyzing everything that she heard Remi say. Trying to come up with some kind of explanation. All she wanted was to sleep, but she already established that she was getting none of that tonight. She wished she was. Maybe then, this would be easier to process. Whatever this is.

"So, you're being serious? You actually heard everything my sergeant said."

"Yes, Amanda."

Amanda stopped in front of Remi. "But how... how is that possible?"

Remi set her attention all on Frannie, petting her and making kissing noises with her lips. Frannie's nose was trying to find Remi's other hand—the one that was still bruised a bit, however, not as bad as it was when Amanda found her—but Remi kept it at her side, receiving a frustrated bark from Frannie. Amanda watched Remi interact with Frannie and quieted Frannie down when she barked. Frannie stood and hopped off the couch, going into the kitchen to her water bowl. Remi tried to call her back over. Frannie kept her nose in the water bowl.

Amanda assumed that maybe this was difficult for Remi to talk about, which explained the silence Remi was giving her. Or maybe Remi was just too scared to tell her. Scared of how Amanda would react. Scared that Amanda wouldn't believe her, especially if it was something crazy like—

"I'm not human," Remi muttered, catching Amanda off-guard.

That, she wasn't at all expecting. What was Amanda supposed to say to that?

She shifted on her feet, and her eyes wandered to Remi's hand at her side. She cleared her throat. "How about I patch up your hand there and you can tell me all about it, okay?"

Remi looked up to Amanda and nodded. Amanda left Remi to get the first aid kit from the bathroom, coming back with the white box in hand. She sat down beside Remi on the couch and opened up the kit before placing it on the coffee table. She searched through the kit and picked out a few things: gauze, bandage wrap, wet towelette packets, and anti-bacterial cream.

She opened up a towelette pack. "What makes you think you're not human?"

"I don't think, I know," Remi said and held out her hand to Amanda.

"Well, how do you know?" Amanda gently dabbed Remi's hand with the towelette. Remi didn't seem to flinch, even when Amanda was cleaning off the more exposed wounds that were no longer bleeding thanks to Frannie. She found that to be strange, that Remi didn't react much to what looked to be rather painful. She wondered if it had something to do with Remi saying that she wasn't human.

"Me and my siblings aren't like the other people there. We can do things that they can't. They said that they made us that way so we can defend the country more efficiently."

Amanda finished up cleaning Remi's hand and set the towelette next to the first aid kit. She took the anti-bacterial cream next. "What kind of things?" She put some of the cream on a q-tip and spread it on Remi's open wounds and scrapes.

"We're faster and stronger. They trained us to do all kinds of things, but I am the weakest out of my other siblings in my unit. I sometimes couldn't keep up with them."

"And why is that?" Amanda asked, putting the used q-tip on top of the towelette. She grabbed the gauze and placed it on Remi's knuckle. She made sure that it was going to stay, then taking the bandage wrap. She started to wrap Remi's hand.

"Lydecker said that scientists messed up my test tube." Amanda perked up at the mention of a name. "Like they spilled it or something. I don't know. I guess some things in my DNA are human when they shouldn't be. I don't know why Lydecker didn't kill me when he found out. He's a very strict man. He liked to push us past our limits. I didn't like that."

Amanda finished wrapping Remi's hand and attached a safety pin to keep the bandage in place. "This Lydecker, is he in charge?"

Remi nodded. "He sets all the rules. He's probably leading the search to find us." Amanda let go of Remi's hand, and Remi examined it for a moment. "Thirteen of us, including myself, escaped after my big sister, Max, had a seizure. They were going to take her away. My big brother, Zack, made sure that wasn't going to happen. We hated it there. All we did was train and train and train. There was no time to have fun. I don't even know what fun is." She shook away the thought. "If it weren't for Zack, I wouldn't be sitting in front of you right now."

"Don't think about it like that, okay? You're safe here." Amanda gave Remi a soft smile and ran her hand over Remi's auburn locks.

She didn't expect Remi to lean into the gesture. She didn't expect Remi to tell her so much either, and she wasn't even sure if she could fully believe Remi just yet. For all she knew, Remi could be making this up, yet how she spoke made everything she said sound genuine. Amanda sensed the fear and tiredness in her voice, especially whenever Remi brought up Lydecker. Whoever he was, Remi feared him and she feared the possibility of him finding her. Amanda didn't blame her. From what she heard, the place Remi was talking about sounded like hell. No kid should have to go through that.

"You should get some more sleep, Remi. You've been through a lot, and you deserve a break." Amanda stood up from the couch to go to her bedroom to get herself some sleep too, but Remi's hand grabbed her wrist before she could. "Is something wrong?"

Remi hesitantly pulled her hand back, settling it on her lap. "Please don't go."

Amanda sighed and sat back down on the couch. "I won't. I promise. Just go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," Remi whispered, shifting on the couch a bit so she could lay down. Her head landed on Amanda's lap.

"Oh." Amanda lifted her hand up before setting it gently on Remi's head. Now, she definitely knew she wasn't going to get any sleep, but she didn't have a problem with it, at least that was what she thought. After she knew Remi had fallen asleep, Amanda found herself dozing off, sleep taking her too.