Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to Dick Wolf.

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Alex was fuming. The second she heard the door open downstairs, she raced to meet her mother. "Where's my friend?" she growled.

"With a foster family," replied her mother calmly. "Where she'll be safe. And she isn't your friend anymore, Alexandra."

Alex stamped her foot childishly, on the verge of hysterics. "I want to see her!"

"Alexandra, I forbid you from going near that girl."

"You can't stop me!" screamed Alex.

She was more out of control than she could ever remember being. She never talked back to her mother like this and she hadn't thrown a tantrum since she was two. But this was Olivia, her only friend, and they needed each other. She couldn't have been given Olivia only to lose her so quickly. She had to do something. The question was what.

* * *

Monday morning, Alex stormed into the parking lot of the school. "Elliot," she barked. "I need to talk to you."

Elliot, who had been listening intently to something Kathy was saying, looked up. "Hey, Cabot. What's up?"

"I need to talk to you, Elliot," Alex repeated. "It's about Olivia."

"Kathy, I'll see you later," he said. She pouted, but he added, "It's important," and she let go of his arm.

Elliot jogged over to Alex. "So, what's up with Benson?"

Alex buried her face in her hands and took a deep breath. Finally, she blurted out the whole story. When she was finished, she looked up to see Elliot staring at her, his mouth wide open in disbelief. She was horrified to find that she was blinking back hot tears.

"So," said Elliot, breaking the silence. "What do we do now?"

Suddenly Alex felt like her legs couldn't support her anymore. She was overwhelmed and sank down, leaning into Elliot. He caught her in his arms and held her limp body. Alex let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. "I don't know."

* * *

Olivia felt like a robot. There was nothing to break the monotony – every day she walked to and from school, made meals, cleaned the house, helped the children with their homework, went to bed, woke up, dreaming every day of Alex and Elliot. But every day that hope seemed less and less likely.

She'd stopped eating and lost weight. There wasn't enough food in the house anyway and it was all disgusting. She gave her meals to the little ones, Jennifer and Bailey. They were sisters. They had a brother, too, but he was only six months old and hadn't been allowed to stay with them. Jennifer cried for him every day, even though she was only three.

She took care of the children. She'd realized after three days that they had to work together or else they would never survive. Their foster parents didn't care about them; they just cared about the money the state paid them for taking in children. So the older ones had to look after the younger ones.

Jennifer and Bailey both adored Olivia. She read to them, played games, taught them how to make puzzles and how to do cat's cradle, how to make puppets and dolls from socks – all the tricks she'd learned as a child. And every night before bed, she told them stories. They would snuggle close in Olivia's bed as she told them stories about a girl named Alex who was a superhero in disguise, who caught criminals and put them away forever. Even though she looked like an ordinary girl, she was everybody's champion.

* * *

A week later, Elliot and Alex had concocted a plan. After school one day, they drove to the ACS office. Elliot walked up to the secretary sitting at her desk. "Excuse me, we're looking for Olivia Benson's caseworker."

"Do you know the caseworker's name?" asked the secretary.

Elliot looked at Alex, who shook her head.

"Then, I'm sorry, but I can't help you," said the woman. "This is confidential."

Elliot leaned close to the woman in an effort make himself seem intimidating. "Lady, this is my friend we're talking about. We need to find Olivia Benson. Where is she?"

"I'm sorry," repeated the secretary calmly. "But I can't help you."

Alex burst into tears.

* * *

One day as Olivia was dropping the little ones off at daycare, she caught sight of something on the ground. It was a twenty dollar bill. "Wait a second," she told Jennifer, whose hand she was holding.

Every morning, Julia took the boys to their elementary school and Olivia dropped the little girls off at daycare before walking to the high school. She still refused to think of it as "her" high school.

She knelt down and picked up the bill. Then she had an idea.

After dropping the girls off and giving them goodbye hugs, she walked to the nearest subway station and bought a ticket. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She knew she'd be punished if her foster parents found her skipping school, but it was a chance she had to take.

She climbed onto the train and sat down. She was on her way to see her friends.

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