Disclaimer: I don't own Law & Order SVU

Title: Desperate

Author: ReadingRed

Chapter Two: Determined

Benson was crushed when Stabler told her the mother had died. Where would this little boy go? Who would take care of him now? She hated giving children news like this. She thought about asking Stabler to do it, but she knew Mikey was familiar with her. He might take the news better if it came from her. No, he wouldn't take the news well from anyone. He mother was dead. His world was crushed.

She looked back into the hospital room where Mikey sat on the bed. He looked so small, so serene. The boy gave her a little smile and she forced herself to smile back.

"I'll do it El. I'll tell him his mother is dead." Benson told him.

Stabler gave her a knowing look. He hated this part of the job too; he knew how hard it was to break this kind of news to someone, especially when that someone was a child.

"I'll come with you. No sense in doing this alone."

Benson and Stabler entered the room and went to the hospital bed little Mikey sat atop.

Benson sat down on the corner of the bed and took Mikey's hand in hers. Stabler stood behind Benson supportively. He didn't want to spook the child by getting to close. A man had hurt Mikey's mommy and the boy had seen it. Stabler knew that children often developed fears of people who looked like the attacker, and he didn't want to put Mikey through any more pain.

"Mikey. Sweetie, I'm so, so sorry but I have some bad news. Your Mommy was hurt too bad, and the doctors couldn't fix her. I'm sorry but she had to go to Heaven." Mikey gripped her hand harder and started shaking his head back and forth.

"I'm sorry Mikey but it's true. The doctors did all they could but she was just hurt too bad. I'm sorry." Mikey started to cry silent tears. They were pouring from his eyes. Benson expected the child to wail, to beg her to bring his mommy back, but the boy stayed silent. He just cried and cried. Benson knew then that this boy was accustomed to pain. He was used to people around him being hurt; maybe he was used to being hurt himself. She knew that this boy had been through hell in his short little life, and judging by his reaction to this news, his first trip hadn't been last night.

Olivia pulled the little boy onto her lap. He tucked his head under her chin and wrapped his arms around her. Olivia felt his hot, wet tears drip onto her shirt. She stroked the boys head and whispered to him that everything would be alright. She told him that she would find the man who hurt his mommy and she would lock him up forever. She promised him that she wouldn't ever let anyone hurt him again. She meant every word. Somehow she would find a way to protect this little boy. She would make his life better.

Benson and Stabler stayed with Mikey for an hour before they had to leave to go back to the crime scene. In the time they had spent with Mikey he had become more comfortable with them, staying close to Olivia. But he hadn't said a word. Now Benson and Stabler were back at Mikey's apartment, going over the facts of his mother's case.

"Anything on next of kin?" Benson asked. She wanted to get Mikey home with his family, if he had any. The boy didn't need to be in the hospital at a time like this. He needed to be with people who loved him.

"No handbag, no wallet. Prep took everything he could. And this guy's very careful, so far no prints, no semen, no hair." Stabler told her as they walked through the apartment to the master bedroom where the mother had been killed.

"Why would he target this apartment?" Benson asked puzzled. It wasn't especially nice. There were no indications from outside that the home had anything valuable in it. Just as she was coming to a conclusion, Stabler voiced her thoughts.

"Easy access, ground floor, no gates, the locks are a piece of crap." Stabler said, waving his hand toward the window. "No rhyme, no reason. Maybe whoever did this, did it because they could." It was a sick thought, but a realistic one.

A crime scene tech standing nearby said "from the looks of it, I'd say he forced the window open with a screwdriver." The man went on to tell them a little more of the crime. "Victim's on her back, he gets on the bed startles her, she struggles. He grabs this lamp from that table" he says picking up the lamp in its evidence bag and motioning to the bedside table as he speaks. "Knocks her out with two blows."

"Our victims face was a mess. Are you he only hit her twice?" Benson asked skeptical.

"Blood doesn't lie." The tech said, pointing to the wall behind the bed. It was covered in blood splatter. Benson felt sick for a moment but forced herself to listen to the tech told her and Stabler more about the crime.

"See that single line on the ceiling?" he asked.

Benson nodded. "First blow starts the blood flow, second makes that pattern. And after the rape he beats her some more, but it's over kill, she's already unconscious."

Benson once again had to force the bile back down her throat to ask another question. She wasn't sure what made this case so much more difficult to deal with. Then she knew. It wasn't the woman, it was the child. She hurt for Mikey. It pained her to know that he was without a mother now. She knew she would find his mother's killer, she would do that for Mikey.

"Well how'd you get that?" She asked.

"Blood splatter on the pillow in concentrated in one area. It doesn't look like she moved to evade the blows."

It made Stabler sick to think that someone could do this to a woman. He thought of his own girls, and imagined what he would do if this happened to Elizabeth, Maureen, or Kathleen. Quickly he forced those thoughts out of the way, that wouldn't happen to his kids.

"All the damage was to her face. This feels personal. Maybe it's not some random break in we're looking at." Stabler says walking around the room. He can't look at the blood covered bed any longer.

"If she was knocked out during the sexual assault, maybe Mikey slept through it." Benson says with false hope. She knew deep down that Mikey had seen it or had at least been awake when it happened. The way the little boy acted made it obvious that he had seen violence.

"I don't think so, see the hand prints?" the tech asks, pointing to a perfect set of tiny hand prints on the wall, a sick parody of the ones Elliot's children made at school.

"Maybe Mikey tried to way Mommy up, got his hands in the blood, could've happened after the perp left." Stabler said looking down at the hand prints on the wall. He heart twisted in his chest for what the little boy had been through. No child deserved this.

"Possible" the tech concedes, "but see the urine stain?" he asked leading them to the door of the bedroom. On the left side of the door was a dark stain on the light carpet. "Boy hid in the doorway, watching."

"Mikey" Benson cut in. "The boy's name is Mikey."

"Fine, Mikey hid in the doorway. Mikey saw it all." The tech said with a grim face.