In James Bradley's view of the world, treason apparently still warranted a death sentence. Never mind the fact that none of the hostages had ever verbally sworn any loyalty to the man. But he was the one holding the gun and thus calling the shots, and communicating with the outside was the ultimate betrayal.

Unlike when Olivia surprised her earlier, though, Casey's entire life did not flash before her eyes. This time she found herself praying that Bradley would take her somewhere relatively concealed to kill her so Lynn wouldn't have to watch. As it was, Lynn had scrambled off her lap practically in hysterics and run into the waiting arms of Marian Longwood. "Just don't hurt her," Casey heard herself plead, her fear not for her own mortality but for Lynn's.

However, before Bradley could even twitch a finger, Olivia was on her feet, weapon drawn and trained on the gunman. "Police! Drop it, Bradley."

He blinked in surprise at the sudden turn of events. Olivia's lips curled into a barely noticeable smirk; he had assumed what she'd wanted him to assume, that she was simply on staff at the school. Despite his shock, he remained still in defiance of Olivia's command.

Olivia stared Bradley directly in the eye, showing him that she was not in the mood for games. "Unless you want to leave here with the murder of a school secretary and an assistant district attorney under your belt, drop it. Now."

A shadow crossed Bradley's face, his eyes darkening. It was a quick, fleeting darkness, but Casey knew in that instant, he'd figured it all out. He knew there was no way out, knew that he was never going to see Carrie Anne again. Knew he was going to jail for the rest of his life, no getting out early on good behavior, no chance of parole. And he also knew that since he was already going down for one murder, adding another one wouldn't change the outcome all that much. Casey kept a defiant glare on Bradley until he used his thumb to pull back the hammer of his gun. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and silently willed Lynn to do the same.

A shot rang out and Casey held her breath, wondering if she would even feel any pain. But after a second passed, she still felt perfectly fine. Then another passed and another after that. A frown of confusion turned down the corners of her mouth, and she chanced opening her eyes.

Surprisingly, she didn't see a bright white light or fluffy clouds or the Pearly Gates. She just saw Glendale Elementary School's cafeteria. At first she didn't understand. Why the hell did the afterlife look just like regular life? It wasn't until Lynn climbed onto her lap and threw her arms around her neck that she realized that she was alive and unhurt. She squeezed back, clinging to her little niece just as much as Lynn was clinging to her.

Now that Casey knew she was alive, it was time to figure out how. The gun had definitely fired; there was no mistaking that sound, close enough to make her ears ring. When she finally looked to where Bradley had been standing, she realized that the shot was fired from Olivia's gun. The detective had shot Bradley in the leg, forcing him to drop his weapon as he crumpled to the floor. She'd kicked the gun out of his reach and was now cuffing his hands behind his back while reading him his rights.

All around them the children were sobbing, their fear and tension and sweet relief all combining into one long-awaited release. The sound of shattering glass pealed over the commotion and soon the room was teeming with police officers, their guns drawn. Once they saw that the suspect was disarmed and cuffed, the situation thus successfully contained, the officers began a sort of triage, looking over the children for anyone who was hurt. After determining that the children were scared but uninjured, they started the process of bringing them out to their terrified parents, younger ones first.

As the first group of kids were being escorted outside, paramedics wheeled two stretchers into the cafeteria, one for Bradley and one for Lynn. Bradley was hollering, yelling nonsense and arguing with the officers, saying that he hadn't meant for any of this to happen and all he wanted was his daughter. For her own sanity, Casey needed to tune him out. She focused instead on prying Lynn off her lap and getting her settled on the waiting gurney. The poor child was visibly shaking now, both from fear and her rising fever, and her teeth were chattering.

The paramedics had a hard time getting Lynn to lie down. She complained that her neck hurt and she yelled and screamed and cried for her aunt Casey to come with her. One of the EMTs tried to gently explain that her friends needed time to check Casey out, too, but Casey shook her head in argument and rose on shaky legs that weren't quite ready to support her weight. Her knees were like jelly, but she caught herself on the stretcher before she could even stumble. Her hand found Lynn's and she grasped it tightly, allowing the girl's presence and need to give her strength. "I'm fine," she said, looking the paramedic in the eye. "I'm riding with her."

The two EMTs exchanged a glance between them and decided that there was no way in hell they were going to argue with her.

Casey had all of three and a half seconds before Lynn was wheeled out of the cafeteria, but she managed to catch Olivia's eye. Her extreme gratitude to the detective was something that she'd never be able to fully express, in words or gestures or looks, even all three combined. After all, she literally owed Olivia her life. There was no doubt in her mind that Bradley would have killed her if Olivia hadn't reacted first.

But when their eyes locked, Olivia somehow was able to tell. She just knew, knew that she'd saved Casey's life, knew that Casey would be forever grateful. She simply gave the ADA a calm smile, letting her know that it had been her pleasure, before following Bradley's stretcher out to the ambulance.

--

Olivia Benson spent the next few hours answering questions, giving her statement, and having a thorough checkup in the emergency room at Hudson Medical. By the time she was finally given the go-ahead to leave, it was almost ten o'clock at night. She'd had by far the longest lunch break in the history of the one-six, and she knew the guys were going to give her one hell of a teasing for it. Now her unexpected adventure was finally over and she was not ashamed to admit that she was absolutely exhausted.

So, apparently, was her partner. When she stepped into the waiting room of the ER on her way out of the hospital, she spied Elliot slumped in one of the chairs, his head resting on a propped-up arm and his eyes closed. A half-smile curled onto her lips when she realized that he had been waiting for her.

She sat down in the chair next to his, rested a hand on the knee closest to her, and shook in an effort to gently rouse him. He started awake and his cheeks colored in slight embarrassment when he realized that he had fallen asleep in the middle of the ER. "Hey," Olivia said by way of a greeting.

"Hi," he replied, clearing his throat. After running his hand over his face to wake himself up a little bit, he turned his head to look his partner in the eye. "Scare the hell out of us, why don't you? You and Novak."

She snorted in amusement and dropped her gaze to her hands. "Hey, this isn't exactly how I envisioned my day going when I woke up this morning."

"I can see why this wouldn't exactly be at the top of your list of possibilities," he said, giving Olivia a rueful smile. "Most people drop some of their lunch on their pants and call it a bad day. In your version of a bad day, you and our ADA get yourselves wrapped up in a frickin' hostage crisis."

"Hey, you have to admit, we keep life interesting."

"That you do." He met her gaze again, the easy banter giving way to his concern. "You all right?"

Olivia hesitated. Was she all right? She supposed that in the grand scheme of things, she was fine. Better than, say, Catherine Thompson, who she'd been told was in the ICU but was expected to pull through. And it wasn't like she'd never been held at gunpoint before. But still, there were sure to be nightmares and all kinds of emotions--anger, fear, relief, to name just a few--to work through. "Yeah," she answered eventually. "I mean, I'm shaken, but I'm fine otherwise. More than ready to get the hell out of here and go home."

She stood from her seat to indicate just how ready she was but after a quick look around, it finally dawned on her that someone was missing. "Where's Casey? They have to have let her out by now. Is she up with Lynn?"

"Um, actually …" Elliot cleared his throat again. Oh, his partner was not going to like what had developed in the time she had been in the examination room, not at all. "They're admitting her for observation and they've started her on a course of antibiotics. It's all preventative, of course--"

Olivia interrupted her partner with a wave of her hands, the universal gesture for back-on-up-a-second. "What?" she asked, her eyes wide. "Why?"

"Because of her contact with Lynn," he answered, squirming a little under her gaze. "Liv, she has bacterial meningitis. That child is sicker than any of us realized."