I own no one but my own people

Nearly two hours and a sedative later, Olivia sat up in her bed with Elliot sitting next to her, a never ending stream of steady tears rolling down her cheeks. "We know," she whispered softly, "without a doubt it's him who committed the murders?"

Elliot nodded his voice as soft as hers. "The evidence fits, Olivia. Munch and Fin just called and said the store where the belts were bought had Jeremy's phone number on file and he was the one ordering all the mass shipments, there was a hair on Kathleen that they already did a preliminary testing and found it matched the other murders… Plus we have him on camera kidnapping Alex and trying to kill you. He's out guy, Liv."

Olivia sniffed and wiped her tears away. "I should have seen it," she mumbled. "I should have noticed something was wrong. He murdered thirteen different people, Elliot. What kind of mother does that make me so that I can't even spot that?"

"You're a good mother, Olivia. Jeremy…" Elliot sighed, shaking his head as he did so. "Jeremy's just a bad person."

Olivia shook his head. "No he's not. Something made him this way. He was a good boy, Elliot. Something changed him."

"I agree," said Elliot, stunning Olivia with his words. "He was a smart, loving, kind teenager who got suspended for fighting another boy who pushed a girl because he grew up respecting women thanks to you. But whatever happened to him that made him change this drastically happened and we can't change the fact he murdered and raped over a dozen people with Alex about to be added to the list."

"He's my son," Olivia whispered, trying desperately to get Elliot to understand. "I love him. I'd take a bullet for him but at the same time I hate what he did so much I just wanna cast him out of my life forever."

"He put you in a difficult position, Liv," Elliot told her gently. "I know you love Jeremy, Liv. This is why you gotta help make this right."

"I don't know what to do," Olivia admitted as she wiped her tears away.

Elliot sat on the edge of the bed and picked up her phone from the bed side table. "He knows he's in trouble. He has a kidnapped victim and a living witness. All of his attacks were perfectly in control down to the last detail. He won't do good under chaos like he is now. You need to try to talk him down because you know they'll find Jeremy and Alex and SWAT won't hesitate to shoot him."

At Elliot's last words Olivia's heard jerked up and she stared open mouth hand wide eyed at him. "No… Elliot, you can't let them do that! I don't care how many people he's hurt, I can't lose my son!"

"Then you gotta try to talk to him, Liv. Get him to turn himself in." Elliot pulled out of his phone and quickly dialed a number. "Hey, Huang, it's Stabler. I need a trace on this line." There was a long pause before he nodded. "Yeah it's for the… the Benson case," he muttered ignoring Olivia's eyes. "Alright yeah. Thanks."

Elliot hung up and handed his phone to Olivia who eyed it wearily. "Shouldn't we call Cragen?" she asked, trying as long as she could to stall

"He's on his way," Elliot told her. "He's also trying to get a hold of… someone who he thinks can help."

"Did you try calling him before?"

"Yeah. He wouldn't speak to anyone long enough to get a trace."

"So then what makes you think he'll talk to me?"

"Because despite everything he's done he's still your son. He needs to talk to somebody. You gotta call him, Liv. It's the only way to help him."

Olivia nodded and let out a shaky breath before she took the phone from him, trembling as she dialed a number she had long ago memorized.

It rang once, twice, three times. She half hoped that he wouldn't pick up the phone but by the fifth ring he was greeted with a smirking, "Hey, mom. I've been waiting to hear from you."

Olivia closed her eyes at her son's words and she had to take a moment to compose herself before she spoke. "Jeremy? It's your mother. I… I know that you tried to kill me. And that you hurt a lot of people… Including Alex."

There was another long pause before he laughed. "Took you long enough to figure it out. What was your first hint, huh, Mom?"

Olivia heard a rusting in the background, her heart jumping into her throat when she heard a voice in the background. "Olivia, help!" Alex screamed followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a loud cry.

"Don't hurt her!" Olivia begged. "Please don't hurt her!"

Jeremy chuckled at his mother's pleas. "It's way too late for that."

Her heart pounded against her chest. "Wha… what do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough. I assume that you're tracing this call?"

"Baby, I just want you to be okay. They're going to kill you if you don't turn yourself in." Her eyes filled with tears once more and a sob caught in her throat. "I don't want you hurt…"

"Funny you say that now but you could have cared less about me before this."

"Jeremy, that's not true. I always cared about you. You're my son."

"Bull shit!" he barked. "You never gave a damn about me and don't pretend to give a shit now just because you wanna get Alex out of here safely!"

Jeremy took a deep breath before he spoke again. "But none of that matters now."

A fear Olivia never thought possible raged through her. "Jeremy, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that me and you; we're gonna see each other real soon. We can talk all day and night then. See ya soon… Mom."

The last thing Olivia heard was Alex's scream before there was a beep that told Olivia he was gone.

"He's hurting Alex," cried Olivia as she wiped away her tears. "We gotta save her. I don't care what she did to him, we have to save her!"

"I know," Elliot told her gently as he took her phone from her. "We will, I promise."

Elliot quickly called Huang back "Did you get the location?" He waited a moment before he grabbed a pen and pad of paper form the bed side table and quickly jotted down the address. "Thanks, Huang."

He quickly hung up again and glanced over at Olivia. "Cell towers put him somewhere on the Wild Wood boardwalk in Jersey. Any idea why he would go there?"

Olivia nodded, still wiping away fresh tears. "We used to go to the boardwalk every summer for at least a week. He always loved that place. He'd swim in the ocean, ride the coasters on the boardwalk, go to the haunted house, and he'd eat salt water taffy. He loved it but would only get it from this one little vender outside our hotel, nowhere else. Before we'd even check in our hotel he'd go and get a heaping bag of it that'd be gone before the first weekend was up," she chuckled weakly before she glanced down at the blanket and began pulling out a loose string. "We stopped going there when he was twelve. Said the ocean didn't interest him anymore and he could 'care less about a stupid candy'."

Elliot struggled not to remember that Jeremy, when he was eleven, asked Elliot to go with them on their summer trip and lit up the room with his smile when he agreed to go. He too had eaten that same candy from that very same vendor… "Do you remember where you guys stayed?"

"We'd always stay in the Sunny Side Hotel, its very kid and pre teen friendly," Olivia explained. "Water beds, video games, sports, dances, water slides, whole pages of kid food on the menu… He had a ball every time we went."

Elliot reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. "You were a good mother, Olivia. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

"When why did he do this?" she whimpered. "Why is he like this?"

Elliot opened his mouth several times before he sighed. "I don't know how to answer that, Liv. But this isn't your fault. It's his."

Olivia didn't retort with what she knew was the truth; that she was to blame for this. Jeremy was a good person. She was the reason why all those people had been killed… It had to be.

Elliot took her silence as acceptance that she wasn't guilty and pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed a familiar number. "Captain, its Elliot. We got the location and we need SWAT and a hostage negotiator at the Sunny Side Hotel in Wild Wood New Jersey. Alex is still alive but we think she's hurt. Did he get a hold of the guy yet? Well tell him it is very much his fucking concern!" he shouted. "It's time he stood up and be a fucking man! How long ago did you talk to him? Well what's the number because this time I'LL call him! Let him say no to me!"

"Elliot, who are you talking about?" Olivia ordered.

"I think he's talking about me," a voice answered from the doorway. An arrogant voice that Olivia knew all too well.

Both Elliot and Olivia turned and saw a smug, cocky good looking man who was leaning up against the door frame looking down at Olivia with that same damn look that had made her fall for him in the first place.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded, glancing back and forth between Elliot and the man who she never expected to see again.

The man shrugged and walked, or more like swaggered, into the hospital room and stood at the foot of the bed. "I heard my son is in trouble."

US Marshall Andy Eckerson took a deep breath. "And I'm gonna try to get him out of it…"

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