Olivia wanted nothing more than to go home, cuddle Noah and snuggle up with Brian that evening. She had spent what felt like days going back over the surveillance tapes they had recovered from each of the crime scenes. Nick was working on finding a link between their latest victim and their suspects, as well as trying to confirm the links with the other two victims. Amanda and Fin had gone to break the news to the husband and everyone was working flat out trying to get sufficient evidence for arrest warrants. Additionally, they were trying to track down potential suspects for Charley's assault and everyone was exhausted. Since this case had broken they had each been lucky if they had got three hours sleep a night. Olivia entered her apartment and threw her keys onto the coffee table. Brian's mom was standing in the kitchen, feeding Noah his dinner, but her son was being stubborn and non-compliant. Olivia smiled at the picture. She loved her son with all her heart and Brian's mom was great with him. Just as she was about to join them her cell phone buzzed in her pocket.
"Benson," she answered automatically. "Hi… yes its ok that you called… slow down… no it's ok… no don't worry about it… yes of course… I'll be right there."
She ended the call with a sigh, and bent down to pick up her keys. "Carol," she called to her partner's mother, "do you mind staying a while longer? I have to go back out for a while. Brian shouldn't be long."
The elderly woman smiled, "no sweetheart, do what you've got to do. Me and my handsome grandson will be fine."
Olivia smiled and hurried out the door. She loved it when Carol said things like that, it made her finally feel as if she had a family. She jumped behind the wheel of her car and sped off, perhaps a little too fast. When she pulled up she was greeted by Timothy who said, "thank you, I didn't know what else to do. She won't stop drinking, and I thought you might be able to make her see sense."
Olivia placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'll try. You did the right thing calling me."
Timothy stopped in front of her, causing Olivia to have to stop in her tracks abruptly. He looked at her, his eyes filled with pain and sadness as he said seriously, "please help her. I can't bear to see her like this. I love her, I adore her and it's killing me to see her so broken."
Olivia hid her shock at his revelation well. "Trust me, I won't let her self destruct. I'll do everything I can to support her through this. But maybe you should tell her how you feel."
He shook his head. "Now is not a good time."
Olivia couldn't help but disagree, however she didn't press the matter. Sometimes a victim needed to be reassured that they were still loved, and that those close to them didn't look at them any differently in order to find the strength to move on. They stood in silence in the elevator. They entered to see Charlotte sitting with an open bottle of whiskey that was more than three quarters finished. When Olivia had left earlier it had been almost full. Charlotte was staring blankly out of the window as she sipped her drink, she didn't notice that anyone had entered the room. Tentatively Olivia and Timothy approached her, not wanting to startle her. "C," Timothy said quietly. She jumped in fright and spun around, shaking violently as she did. He raised his hands in a bid to show that he was not going to hurt her but she still looked at him with suspicion. Olivia had seen this so many times before, women who could not trust, even those who were closest to them. She had seen far too many women become hyper vigilant, aware of the tiniest sound, wary of everyone they met.
"Charley, please, you need to stop," Olivia pleaded. She was hurting for her young colleague more than she knew.
Charley raised the glass to her lips rebelliously. "It helps with the pain."
Timothy sighed, a sound that did not go unnoticed by either woman. Charlotte glared at him. "If you've got a problem leave. Go and smother Blair. Although I'm sure she needs you about as much as I do."
Timothy's face visibly crumpled as her words hit home and Olivia shot him an apologetic look. "He's just trying to help."
Charlotte scoffed. "Like you are you mean? Coming into my home, telling me what I can and cannot do, what I need to do. Making me press charges when I didn't want to, making me go over and over what those bastards were going to do to me. Just because you were too weak to move on Olivia, doesn't mean that I'm as pathetic as you are."
This time it was Olivia's turn to crumple at the weight of her words and Timothy placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. But Charlotte wasn't finished.
"And you Timothy," she all but spat at him, "hanging around trying to be my knight in shining armour, it's just a joke! I told you last night I was fine, I don't need saving. What's the matter, can't get the company of girls who aren't your sister's friends? Well messed up situation or not I would never look your way, I have some standards. And coming from me that doesn't say much," she added with a cruel laugh.
"That's enough," Olivia interjected, seeing that Charlotte could go on breaking Timothy's heart all night. "Lash out at me, fine. Leave him alone, he has been nothing but kind to you."
Charlotte cast her a dirty look, "I don't want him to be kind, I want him to leave me the hell alone!"
Charlotte pushed past her and headed towards the elevator doors when she saw that neither of them were moving. "Fine, I'll go." With that she disappeared from sight, leaving Olivia and Timothy to stand alone in her apartment.
Olivia felt the pain that her colleague was feeling. The initial stage after a vicious assault where you don't know which way is up and it is easier to lash out than to face what has happened. But Charlotte was a police detective, and if she wanted to return to work she didn't have the luxury of being able to act like this. She had been through one hell of a trauma, but she had to face it head on. Running and hiding in a bottle was not going to help.
Olivia stepped out into the street from the apartment block, having followed Timothy when he stormed after Charlotte. They were nowhere to be seen. Walking towards the entrance to the underground garage she felt uneasy but forced herself to keep walking, one hand on her gun. She felt as though someone was watching her, waiting for her and it was unsettling. She was not easily spooked, but when she had a bad feeling it normally turned out to be right. Her cell phone rang, and she almost didn't answer it, thinking that she really just wanted to curl up in bed. Reluctantly she pulled it from her pocket and answered wearily, "Benson."
"Thought you'd want to know we've found Michael's dad. He's in prison for multiple counts of rape, including Felicity Greene and Helena Tanner," Amanda said down the line.
"Tanner… he raped Nathanial's mom?"
"Yeah, and that's not all, Felicity Greene used to be married to Wilder. She divorced him the month that she found out she was pregnant."
"Shit," Olivia exclaimed. So Michael Wilder was a child of rape. Like her. There was a long and uncomfortable silence.
"Liv, you still there," Amanda asked. Olivia shook herself back into the present, cleared her throat and asked, "when did he attack Helena Tanner?"
Amanda shuffled papers around in the background, "the police report says it was November 1986."
"Nathanial Tanner was born July 1987. They're brothers."
"Liv, we don't know that for sure…"
"It explains a lot. They are brothers, both conceived by rape, never knew their father until they were older. It must have been him who taught them to think that women are just there for their pleasure."
Amanda had to admit that she agreed with her colleague. They had seen crazy messed up families time and time again, and how sometimes there was just no saving some people. It was a harsh reality of their job. It was one that was hard to come to terms with, as every instinct screamed that you fight with all your might to save people from the darkest moments of their lives and there was still a part of her that believed that most people had a redeeming quality somewhere. She wanted to believe that about these boys, she wanted to believe that there was something in them that could change, that they weren't born to be rapists as a result of their parentage. And she knew Olivia was trying to believe that too. Every case like this touched a nerve with Olivia, given that she hadn't had the best start in life. It touched a nerve with Amanda too, her father had been a gambling addict and now she had become one as well, in spite of always promising herself that she would never succumb to his weakness. Maybe it was just something that she was born with, destined to be as a result of her genes.
The detectives ended the call and Olivia continued to cautiously make her way towards her car. She was alert, especially after what had just happened to Charlotte. But she was also exhausted. Finally she reached her vehicle and opened the passenger door to throw in her purse. She had no longer closed it again when she felt a hand at her back and before she knew what was happening she had been thrust forward, her head colliding with the hard, cold metal. She was dazed but reached for her gun. Before she could, however, a gloved hand pulled it from her holster and trained it on her, aiming for her head. She blinked a couple of times, trying to clear the fuzziness from her mind and saw that she was faced with two assailants, dressed in black.
"Scream and you die," one hissed, while the other reached down and roughly pulled her to her feet, his grip on her arm far too tight.
"You don't want to do this," she said, keeping her voice calm, "I'm a cop."
Her attacker didn't say anything, but forced her up against her car, holding her there with one arm, pinning her, while the other ran up and down her body, searching her, exploring her. She struggled against him but stopped when the second man advanced towards her and pressed her own gun to the back of her head. She cleared her throat and open her mouth to try and reason with them when she was spun around to face them.
Her arms were pulled in front of her and her hands bound together with a thick cable tie. She wanted badly to fight, but with a gun to her head she didn't dare. There would come a moment when they were distracted and she could make her move, but the time was not now.
"Stop, you don't have to do this," she implored them, but this only resulted in a thick scarf being forced into her mouth and knotted behind her head. When her attacker did this his sleeve rode up and she was able to see the snake tattoo on his right forearm. Her eyes widened as her suspicions were confirmed, it was their rapist. Once again she felt hands running up and down her body, roughly grabbing her all over, in intimate places that only Brian should touch, but eventually stopped when they discovered her car keys in her pants pocket.
She was led around to the rear, and she began to struggle against her captor as she realised that they were intending on putting her in the trunk. She had no intention of becoming trapped, not like this. Not again. She had spent enough time in the trunk of a car in her lifetime and she felt herself succumbing to a flashback of when she was abducted by William Lewis. This was just the window of opportunity her attackers needed, they wasted no time in violently shoving her into the dark space while she fought against the terrible memories that had resurfaced. Through the gag she let out a faint whimper as the lid was slammed shut, leaving her in darkness.
