Disclaimer: Own no one in the World of Wolf. Original characters, I'll own up to.

Chapter 11 – Found

"Why me?" Eliot asked.

"Because you agree with him," Huang said.

"What?" He busied himself with some files, trying to find anything but this case to look at right now.

"He's guilty and deserves to be punished," Huang said. "You said so yourself, or so I've heard."

Eliot shrugged his shoulders. "Detective Cassady thought so, too, so-."

Huang continued ignoring Eliot's protest. "Eliot, you've worked with him before. He knows you're a fighter, a protector. I need you to remind him that he was once, too."

Eliot still wasn't buying it. "Look, I don't see-."

"He's asked for you specifically for a reason. I know he wants to help solve this case, but part of him believes he belongs back there with them in that hell to pay for what's happened."

Elliot looked at him. "Are you sure you don't need to see a shrink of your own, because that theory sounds crazy."

----

Eliot Stabler closed the door behind him, fully aware of the audience that watched on the other side of the glass. He didn't want to know McCoy's reason for the request. Eliot wasn't about to admit to Olivia the reasons behind his anger towards the other man or the convictions he held that McCoy did indeed rape Neela Simmons. Nothing he read in the scribbled pages he took from Olivia changed that. The simple reason was that people were capable of doing the most evil of things even behind a façade of good character.

It wasn't fair to hold that opinion of McCoy, but Eliot did just that. The fact that Munch chastised Eliot for it, as if he knew full well the reasons behind the 'faulty' logic only irritated Eliot. Olivia had always been about supporting the victim until all the facts were found. In this case, they supposedly were – they just didn't meet Eliot's level of satisfaction. That aimed at a man who, of all people, should have known the importance of upholding the law annoyed Eliot the most.

He sat down, back to the window, aware that the intercom was turned 'on' on the other side. "Heard you wanted to see me," he said, folding his hands together on the table.

"I owe you an apology," Jack said.

"For what?" Eliot said.

Jack didn't make eye contact as he continued. "I've not helped you or your team to the best of my ability. There's a lot I've not said to those who need to know."

"I'm listening," Eliot said, leaning back in his chair.

Jack nodded. "And brooding," he said. "You believe what Cassady believes, what Rubirosa believes."

"How do you know?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "I just do." He paused. "She had my ring after all. That with the physical evidence, why wouldn't others believe I'm guilty," he said. "You know what you see. You've experience to support that."

"Yeah," Eliot said, wondering why he was hearing this confession that no one else believed. "You could say that."

"She was the first to die," Jack said. "The first one I saw die, even if we did disable one of them. Nina wasn't going to die standing still. She had no intention of dying."

"Nina?"

This time Jack looked up. "She hated that name, Neela. Neela Natalie was her grandfather's idea. Only certain people she'd allow to call her Nina. She'd have allowed you to call her Nina. She'd have liked you. She'd have laughed at the odd circumstances, but agree with you to a certain point."

"I'm sure," he said nodding. "But, she can't; she's dead. Want to explain that to me?"

"That's what I'm trying to do," Jack said, looking back down. "Nina was a prostitute-."

"That's no reason to kill her," Eliot said.

"-who was saving up to go to community college," Jack continued in monotone. "She was hired to… I don't know how she figured out something was wrong, but… She offered to help, told me how she'd take something along with her to get a message out. The ring was the smallest, and the closest if all went well. Obviously, it didn't."

"So, Nina was the first," Eliot said. "How do you make it a point to remember them all and yet you can't give us the names of your captors?" He didn't give Jack time to answer. "All you've given us is Mark Bruner and he escaped after Neela died. So-."

Jack shook his head slowly. Ever so softly he said, "I couldn't let Bruner win again."

Eliot moved his chair to sit beside Jack, but Jack moved away from him and sat on the floor, knees brought up close to his chest. Reluctantly, Eliot joined him.

"Thank you for saving them, the younger ones," Jack whispered. "Have you found their brother, yet?"

Eliot had to think about it for a moment. "You mean the Reardon case? We're still looking."

"When you find him," Jack said, "tell him to come home."

"Why would I do that? There's no home for him to go back to."

Jack looked Eliot in the eye. "She told me to have someone tell him to 'Come home.' He'll know what that means."

"What else should I tell him?" Eliot didn't have all day to waste with this snail pace storytelling, and by the looks of McCoy, he wouldn't have the strength to continue much longer.

"That she believed in him, and she loved him. He could keep the family together, safe."

Eliot noticed the distant look in Jack's eye and wondered what was to come. "What happened with you and Sasha?"

"The man you guys caught, Marolf, is the one who killed her. She knew one of us was going to die. Sasha insisted that we make the 'best of it' and ignore them. She knew how to tune out her surroundings, she said, and focus on who was in front of her.

"I tried to keep it from going… I had to… She knew what would happen if we didn't and assumed I'd die as a result. I knew otherwise, yet how does one… Soon, she had me enveloped in the bubble she created and we talked. She talked of her siblings and how I would save them. I would bring her brother home.

"For a woman – a child so young to be so mature… I… She…" He took a deep breath. "She told me her dreams. She wanted to be a child advocate, protect others from her fate. Sasha knew she had it in her to be a defender, she said. Had a lifetime on the job and learned from the best.

"She didn't hold any resentment towards her brother for doing what he had to do. He was the surveyor, the one who had to find a safe place to go to. Sasha knew he wouldn't approve, but she supported the others the best way she could. She learned what she swore her daughters would never learn - when she would have daughters. There would be plenty of time for that, she said. Sasha was only…"

At this, Jack choked back a sob. "Sasha was the soother, she said, the appeaser. That was her purpose, just as her brother was the shield. Sasha…" This time, the tears flowed.

"Sasha was seventeen," Eliot finished for Jack.

Jack nodded. "The others… Most of them were older; most without families. Some were so far lost that it was all to get a name from them when… I should have just said all the names at once and yet…"

"You said them aloud eventually," Eliot said. He decided it was his turn to confess. "I read the pages you wrote. None of those girls vanished into oblivion." He decided to test a dreaded theory Huang had. "Who is Jackie?"

Jack stood up, pushing his back against the wall for balance. "Lilly died because she laughed. Sherry died because she spat in his face." With each name, he moved away from Eliot, closer to the corner, never making eye contact. "Daisy died because she knocked over a beer can. Maggie died because she asked for a coat. Annie died because he was 'bored.' Ruthie died after she kissed me. Jessie died because he stabbed her. Ellie died knowing her husband cheated on her. Jenny died because she kicked him. Kimmy jerked away from him. Debbie ran from him. Peggy punched him. Libby had three children. Teri wanted to be a dancer." Jack's frantically paced voice tethered Eliot to follow.

He backed himself into the other corner now, making it quite a challenge for the audience to watch, Eliot thought as he tried not to crowd Jack.

"You're allowed to be furious with me, livid even," Jack whispered.

Eliot grabbed the man's shoulders to still him. "Listen to me!" he said shaking the man before him.

The door beside him swung open as Munch and Fin pulled Eliot back. Jack slid towards the floor, more from pure exhaustion than anything else. Eliot pulled free hard enough to lunge for the other man and catch him before he hit the ground.

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"We're here," Lennie said as soon as they entered the apartment. He knew he shouldn't have let Jack go to the precinct, knew he shouldn't have left him alone in the IR with Stabler of all people, and worse, knew he could have prevented it from the start.

At least he could let his friend know that another one was caught and that Wendy Douglas had made the positive identification. Lennie knew Joe would call him later to share details that Ed would 'conveniently' forget.

He rose to get a glass of water when Jack's hand tensed in his.

"Evelyn…" he started. Lennie paused, waiting for Jack to continue. "Evelyn tried to stay…, but they wouldn't let her."

Lennie encouraged Jack to sit down before he could fall down again. Jack's eyes glazed over as he shook.

"She's…was…a doctor. They…They brought her in after…after I was shot…Marolf aimed for Kimmy because… she pulled away from him…when he and the others… Evelyn…She eased the pain."

Tears rolled down his face. Lennie brushed them away as Jack continued.

"She…she was going to get…married, but….they fought and…she planned to…" Jack went into a coughing fit that jerked his body forward. Lennie kept an arm across Jack's chest until they subsided. "Evelyn called off the wedding."

Lennie thought he had a last name to go with the first, recalling details of a fiancé accused of murdering his bride-to-be. Making a note of looking up the details of the case, he felt he had a better idea of the timeline now.

"She was gone, Lennie." He paused as if to find the strength to continue. "Her bloody necklace…" He tightened his grip on Lennie's hand. "Don't go, please?"

Lennie shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere, friend." He kept his promise, holding on as the man beside him slipped further into an abyss.

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"What the hell were you thinking, Eliot!"

The detective stood in front of his commander, hands behind his back and continued to take the tongue lashing. The glares from Olivia and the others hurt more than this.

Don Cragen threw down a thick folder onto his desk, the thud equaling a punch in the stomach for Eliot. "This, this is evidentiary information. How much you added to it, I don't know!"

Eliot could speak up in his defense but chose to remain silent. His colleagues all admitted having difficulty hearing what the conversation was about a couple of days ago. If McCoy asked for him alone, then Eliot wasn't going to share the contents with the others. But Munch…

"Dismissed!"

Quietly, looking the part of the chastised child, he went back to his desk where Olivia handed him a piece of paper. "Want to go?" she asked. "He gets off work in a few hours, they said."

He had a list of preferred destinations he wanted to go to. Hell with a handful of scumbags was topping it. "Where to?"

"We might have found the Reardon kid," she said. "I'll drive."

He nodded. "Sure." At least his partner wasn't giving him the silent treatment.

Munch pulled Eliot by the shoulder to face him. "Follow me," he said.

Eliot sat watching the video aware that Munch and Huang were watching him. The minutes before the two hours he watched sickened him. To promise murder if McCoy didn't have intercourse with Sasha… While there was some audio from the tape, Eliot could hear the conversation in his head all too clearly, even if it was an abridgement.

To watch Sasha's stabbing sent pangs through him; to see McCoy struggle to reach out for her as Marolf pulled her away to repeatedly stab her angered him. A screaming McCoy as his shoulder was pulverized with a metal tenderizer only to be salted later, forcing McCoy to pass out sent shivers down Eliot's spine. That was a detail left out along with the fight McCoy endured to keep Sasha in his arms as she lay dying. To hear another man's voice coldly say, 'Pry them,' left Eliot numb as the static played.

The room still dark, Dr. Huang asked, "What did you say to him to set him off?"

"Nothing," Eliot said. It was the truth as far as he could tell. Was he about to tell these guys that McCoy practically asked for a beating from him as punishment? Hell no. Was he going to press Huang about his knowledge of Jackie? Maybe. Was he going to go after Munch for keeping this to himself for months? Hell yes.

"You know about Jackie?" Eliot asked, turning to both men. "Given the rape and sodomy that McCoy's mentioned regarding the other victims, one can only assume-."

Munch didn't look away from Eliot as he said, "Jackie is probably already dead." He leaned forward, arms crossed. "I suppose you want to see the second tape?"

Eliot didn't flinch. "Along with this in its entirety, you bet. But, for the record, Jackie isn't dead. Not yet, anyway."

Huang nodded his head slowly as it dawned on him what Eliot was saying. "It's imperative that you don't let him out of your sight."

"From what you and Skoda told me," Huang said, "he's testing the realities. Those last few events are pushing him towards the wrong one."

Eliot couldn't help it as he said, "Wait, there's a right one?"

Both men ignored him as the doctor continued. "If we could keep from having to bring him in to identify the others as they're found, that could help."

"But, without his I.D.," Munch said, "we're running a risk of these scumbags getting off scot free."

"Yes," Huang said, "but seeing them only invites him to make the wrong choice."

Eliot didn't like the sound of that; added to what he heard from McCoy before his collapse only increased the concern. But first, he had a visit to make, and bad news to break to a dead girl's brother.