The Black Market Baby Scandal
(Chapter Seven: An Act Of Desperation)
Olivia sat in front of the desk staring at the name plate with the gold etched lettering. Elliot was running the show this time and she was along for the ride. If Cragen found out she was even here, there would be no way she could dig herself out of the shit she would be in. But she couldn't just sit in the car either. This child, was her child. The baby stolen from her arms nearly twelve years earlier. And she was going to do whatever it took to bring her child home. Even if that meant losing her job.
She pressed her lips together and fidgeted nervously in her chair as Elliot tried to reason with the woman.
"I understand your situation, Detective Stabler. But my job is to protect these children. I cannot release any information to you about Sarah Foster until you can produce a warrant for the information. You show me that and I will gladly help you with what ever you need. My hands are simply tied."
"I will be back with that warrant."
"And when you are I will me more than happy to assist you. But until then…."
Olivia's eyes shifted to the picture frames on the woman's desk. She picked one up staring at the blue eyed little boy in it as Elliot opened the door to leave.
"You have children?" She noted aloud.
"Yes. That is my son Joshua," she said with a smile, "he is three." She handed Olivia another frame containing a picture of both of her children. "And this is his sister Caitlyn, she will be seven in March."
"They are beautiful. You have a very lovely family," Olivia replied.
"Thank you, Detective Benson, my children are my world."
Olivia smiled a warm smile as her eyes shifted to look at the woman.
"Could you imagine if one day they were just gone. For years everyone told you that they were dead and you would never get them back, never see them again."
The woman scoffed and jerked the frame from Olivia's hand.
"Just to find out nearly twelve years later that they were stolen from you and sold to the highest bidder. That your children were not dead, but alive and only miles from you the entire time. Wouldn't you want them back? Wouldn't you want someone to help you to find them? To be reunited with them? To know they were safe and hold them again? Sarah Foster is my child! She was ripped from my arms minutes after her birth by a doctor who told me hours later that she was dead. That man sold my baby, my daughter to the Fosters. And now my baby is out there somewhere and I cannot find her without your help. I am asking you, from one mother to another. Help me find my daughter."
By the time Olivia finished her little monologue she and the woman behind the desk were crying. And though he would never admit it, Elliot himself became a little misty eyed as well.
"I'd like to thank the academy," Elliot mocked her as they walked out to the car.
Olivia looked down at the address on the paper in her hand. "Hey, that was real. It was all real. Besides, it worked didn't it? If she needed to see a desperate mother begging for help, that was what I was going to give her as long as I got what I needed."
"How did you do that?"
"I took a couple of acting classes in college. I needed the elective credits and the professor was hot. We learned how to channel our emotions into our character. The emotion was real, so it wasn't hard to slip into it. I just took everything I was feeling on the inside and brought it to the outside."
"Damn Sybil," Elliot said with a smile. He rubbed her shoulders. "You okay? It really is a little scary how you can just slip in and out of the emotion like that. You know, we really have not talked much about this. About how you feel. It might help to just get everything out. It isn't healthy to just hold in emotion like that."
"I'm okay, Elliot. I mean it hurts. And I am still so afraid of all the bad things that could keep me from getting my daughter back. But I will never stop fighting for her. I will never give up. I am only a victim as long as I allow myself to be one."
"That's my girl. Now lets go see if we can meet miss Emily."
"Sarah."
Elliot turned his head and looked into her eyes.
"Her name is Sarah, now."
Elliot nodded his head in agreement.
"You know the funny thing about that? Sarah was one of the names I had picked out for her when I was pregnant. But I decided, just a few days before I had her that I like the name Emily better."
"Then she ended up being a Sarah anyway." Elliot smiled and shook his head.
"What?" Olivia asked.
"I still cannot imagine you pregnant. Did you have a big baby belly?"
"I got huge." Olivia held her arms out mimicking a large belly. "And she was still five weeks premature."
"You ever think about having more kids?" He asked before he could stop himself.
"Sometimes. I would just like to get this one back first."
Elliot smiled and opened the car door for her.
"Let's go find your daughter."
They drove several miles into a suburb and pulled up in front of a school.
"The Jensen family's house is three blocks from here, but she would be in school right now. How do you want to do this?"
"I want to go running in there and grab my child and take her home with me and hold her and never let go. Obviously, that is not an option."
Olivia tipped her head to look at him.
"I don't want to scare her, Elliot. The Fosters were killed in a car accident on their way to pick her up from school. If we show up now she is going to assume something is wrong with the Jensen's. She will be so scared. I can't make her go through that again."
"So…do you want to maybe go grab a quick lunch and give her time to get out of school. Then we can go to the house."
"Where are the foster parents right now?"
"Scott and Mary Jensen," Elliot looked down at the face sheet the woman had given them on the foster parents. "Says dear old dad runs a lumber yard a few miles outside of town and mommy is a homemaker."
"Mary Jensen is not her mother. I am her mother."
"I'm sorry, Liv. I was just playing around. I wasn't thinking."
She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I know you didn't mean anything by it. I didn't mean to snap."
"I know that." The car was quiet for a moment. "Hey, you know I would never do anything I thought would hurt you, right?"
"Yeah, I know."
Elliot brushed her hair from her eyes.
"So, what would you like to eat?"
"Coffee is fine with me. I'm not really hungry, El."
"Liv, you just picked at your breakfast. Even the pizza last night, you may have eaten two bites. When was the last time you actually ate a meal?"
"I just have so much going on. All of this. And I'm nervous. If I ate now I would probably just throw up."
"It is almost over," he said slipping his hand into hers.
"No Elliot, it is just beginning. After this we have to decide what to do. Is she going to stay with the Jensen's or come live with me? I want her. God, I want her. But I want what is best for her. Even if that isn't me."
"Why don't we go visit Mrs. Jensen and explain to her what is going on. Maybe she can call her husband and we can all sit down and work something out. Sarah will be getting home from school in a couple of hours. Then we can meet her. I agree with you. We need to do this in the most non-threatening way we can. This child has already gone through more than any kid should ever have to. She lost her parents and was taken from her grandmother and placed into foster care. Now she is about to find out that the parents that raised her, really weren't her parents at all. That her mother is alive and has come for her. That is a lot to deal with for an adult, let alone a twelve year old kid."
"She is eleven, Elliot. She won't be twelve for three more months."
"I'm sure you will have her home by then. And three months from now we will be having a birthday party and thinking back to this day."
"I hope you are right. I don't want this to be hard on her. I don't want her to have to be dragged through a custody battle like those other kids that were recovered. I would even be willing to work out some sort of visitation schedule. I just want to be in my daughter's life. I want to be her mother again. I want my child back."
"And we're gonna get her."
They drove to the Jensen residence and Mary Jensen called her husband at work and asked him to come home. She put on a pot of coffee for their guests as the four of them sat down for the talk. Both women cried as Olivia told her story to the couple. Scott Jensen shared with Olivia the plans he and his wife had for adopting Sarah. There was a lot to be worked out and somehow, someone was going to lose.
"It is time for me to go get Sarah from school," Mary Jensen said as she excused herself from her seat to put on her jacket and grab her keys.
Olivia felt a knot in her stomach as she stared at the floor.
"Detective Benson, Olivia, would you like to go with me?"
"You don't mind?" Olivia asked looking up at her.
"Not at all," the woman said forcing a smile and try not to cry.
Olivia looked back at Elliot.
"Go, I'll wait here with Scott. It will be alright."
Olivia nodded her head and followed Mary Jensen to her silver SUV.
They sat for several minutes outside of the school without seeing a single child.
"Are you going to take her from us?" Mary Jensen asked.
"I am not going to lie to you. I want her. She is my daughter."
"I knew it was true the moment I looked at you. She is the spitting image."
"I know you love her. And I thank God she had someone as wonderful as you and your husband to take such good care of her. I don't want to take you out of her life completely, but I do want her to come and live with me. Eventually. I don't want to just jerk her out of your home. She has been jerked around enough already. I'm thinking maybe visitations to start out. Just give her some time to get to know me. Then eventually move her in with me, in Manhattan. I thought maybe we could work out a joint custody thing. Where she can have us all in her life. I don't see any reason she can't have all of the people who love her. I don't want her to have to lose anyone else in her life."
Mary smiled. "I am just glad that you are willing to work with us. We have always love Sarah as our own child. We have only had her a matter of months, but we love her very much and don't want to give her up. I think you have the right idea. I am sure we can all sit down and work something out. We don't want to lose her either."
Mary took a deep breath and wiped her eyes.
"Here she is now."
Olivia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She listened as Mary's car door opened and she heard a child's voice. She opened her eyes once more and turned to look at the girl.
She was a really beautiful child. Medium height and a small build. Her dark hair was long and straight. She had it pulled into a pony tail. Her big brown eyes glistened in the sunlight and she had a glowing smile. She was a happy child and the sound of her laugh made Olivia smile.
"Sarah," Mary began as the girl climbed into the back seat and buckled her seatbelt, "this is my friend Olivia."
"Hi, Olivia. It's nice to meet you."
Olivia gulped and tried to keep from crying as she stared into the little girls eyes. Her little girls eyes. "It's nice to meet you too, Sarah."
"Look Mary," Sarah said in excitement. "I got an A+ on my math test!" She passed the paper to the front of the car and smiled from the back seat. "I missed one there," she said pointing, "but I got all three bonus problems right. So, I actually got a 102 out of 103."
Olivia smiled. She had always been good at math as well.
"Great job, honey! You will have to show Scott when we get home."
"So Olivia, have you and Mary been friends for a long time?"
Olivia looked at Sarah and then at Mary.
"Umm, no. Actually we have only been friends for a little while."
"Oh. What kind of music do you like?"
"A little of bit everything. You?"
"Hmmm. I don't know, fun stuff. But, I'm not allowed to listen to rap."
"Ehh, it's over rated," Olivia said looking over her shoulder at the girl in the back seat.
"I let her listen to pretty much anything, unless the lyrics are too bad. I listen through her CD's before I give them to her. Some of that stuff just is not appropriate for kids her age."
Olivia watched through the mirror on her visor as Sarah pulled an mp3 player from her back pack and slipped in her ear buds.
"So what are you listening to now?" Olivia asked trying to keep up the conversation with the girl.
"The Black Eyed Peas."
Olivia smiled as Sarah began to hum and bounce around in her seat.
"You thought I was going to say Miley Cyrus, didn't you? That stuff is for little kids."
Olivia laughed and looked back at Mary.
Before long they had arrived back at the Jensen's house. Elliot stepped out on the porch with Scott as Olivia climbed out of the car and watched Sarah run across the drive way and into the house.
"Sarah, put away you things. Half an hour of television, then I want you to start homework."
"Okay," she called back to Mary.
Scott and Mary walked back into the house as Elliot stood on the steps beside Olivia.
"How did it go?"
"Good. She has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down. But she likes me, so far."
"What is she like?"
"A typical eleven year old, like every other typical eleven year old. She is good at math, like me."
"She is beautiful, Olivia."
"She is, isn't she."
"She seems like a great kid."
Olivia smiled at him. "God, I don't want her to get hurt in all of this. I am about to crush her universe, Elliot. Turn her world upside down. And the last thing I ever want, is to be the one who makes her cry."
Elliot could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
"She deserves to know the truth, Olivia. I think the most important thing here is that we all just keep in mind that she is just a little girl. Try to think of things from her standpoint."
Olivia nodded. "We should get inside. I want to talk to them and figure out how we are going to break this to her. And her thirty minutes of television time would probably be the best time to discuss that without worrying about her walking in unexpectedly."
They stepped inside to discuss details with Scott and Mary. In the end they agreed that it would be best if Scott and Mary sat down and discussed everything with Sarah over the weekend. On Sunday, Elliot and Olivia would come to dinner at the Jensen's house and that would give them all time to sit down with Sarah and answer any questions she may have, together.
The Jensen's were going to contact their lawyer and set up a meeting with Olivia's about working out a custody agreement. They were all determined to settle this like adults and to keep this as easy on Sarah as possible.