Thank you for all the reviews faves and follows so far. I'm glad most of you are enjoying the story. To Guest. Don't worry. Elliot will be fine. I have a reason for this story-line. Someone is involved that you will never suspect and It will lead to something better for Elliot. To my other guest reviewer, I went back and edited the chapter with a little help from a friend. To answer your question, yes. I do have access to Grammarly. I corrected everything marked in red, but there were a couple of things that apparently the program wasn't picking up. I re-read before posting, but I guess I missed some things. Thanks for pointing them out. I fixed them. I'll check more thoroughly this time.
Arraignment didn't go as Casey hoped it would. The prosecuting attorney was Rafael Barba, who had just taken the position at Organized Crime a few months before. He had found out that Elliot's family was in hiding and therefore considered Elliot a huge flight risk.
Right before he was taken to Rikers, Casey squeezed her friend's hand and whispered, "We'll get you out of there. Liv's team is digging deep, and they won't stop till they find the truth."
Elliot nodded tensely. He knew his friends wouldn't give up on him. After he was out of sight, Casey made a call and made sure he wasn't put in the general population. If she couldn't keep him out of prison, she would at least make sure he remained safe while he was there.
About half an hour later, while sitting at her desk, Olivia heard her phone ring.
"Benson," she answered.
"Liv, it's Casey," the voice on the other end spoke.
"How did arraignment go?" Olivia asked, dreading the answer.
Casey sighed. "Remand. The ADA argued that his family is in hiding and he knows where they are, so he's a huge flight risk."
"Damn.," Olivia cursed.
"We'll get him out Liv. We just need to keep digging. Something doesn't feel right about his arrest. We just have to figure out what it is," was Casey's determined reply.
"Well, Fin, Amanda, Kat, and Even Carisi are on it. I am, too. Against orders," Olivia admitted.
"I don't answer to Garland, Liv. As soon as we find something, I'll take it to 1PP," Casey told her.
"Thank you. Hey, Case, who's prosecuting this case?" Olivia inquired, pretty sure she already knew the answer.
"ADA Rafael Barba," Casey confirmed.
"That's what I thought. He'll be hearing from me really soon," came Olivia's angry reply.
"You know him?" Casey asked in surprise.
"We're friends. He used to be the ADA for SVU. He took the job right after you and Alex left," Olivia clarified.
"He seemed like a real shark," Casey responded.
Olivia huffed."He's got his good qualities. However, I don't think compassion is still one of them, considering what he just did."
"Well, he doesn't know Elliot, and he was just trying to do his job, but he was pretty harsh. Hey, Liv, I gotta go. I promised to keep you posted," Casey told the SVU captain.
"Thanks, Casey. Bye," was Olivia's reply.
"Bye, Liv," Casey returned.
After hanging up the phone, Olivia sighed and stood up from her chair. She grabbed her phone and keys and headed out.
"I'm heading over to Organized Crime to talk to Barba. Elliot's been remanded to Riker's," Olivia informed her team.
After she had left, Fin turned to the ladies with a smirk. "I don't envy Barba right now."
Amanda huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, Liv's gonna rip him to shreds."
"I thought he was her friend," Kat spoke up.
Fin looked at Amanda then back at Kat. "They are friends, but Benson and Stabler have a bond like no other. They have always been fiercely protective of each other. Their bond sometimes got in the way of the job, but in the end, it made them better cops. My point is, Barba just got Elliot remanded to prison when Liv believes he's innocent and anyone who knows him knows he'd never jump bail or skip out on a murder trial. He has too much integrity for that. Olivia's gonna go set Barba straight."
"Ah," Kat replied, knowingly. Even in the short time she'd known Olivia, she could tell that she was fiercely protective of those she loved and it had taken her about five minutes to see that there was something special between her captain and her former partner.
Barba was looking over Elliot's file when he heard his door burst open. His head shot up and he swallowed hard when he saw a furious Captain Benson standing before him.
"Liv, I... I didn't..." stammered nervously.
"Save it, Barba," Olivia spat out.
"He's a flight risk, Liv!"Barba protested.
"You didn't need to remand him. He's not a flight risk. He'd never run from an accusation. He has too much integrity. He'd stay and fight it out. I know him. You don't," Olivia informed the ADA forcefully.
"He has the means to flee. I'm not taking any chances. That's all I'm going to say. I shouldn't even be talking to you. This isn't your case," Barba retorted.
Olivia was hurt and beyond angry by now. She couldn't speak for a few moments. Then she took a shaky breath and in a trembling voice, quietly ground out, "Elliot. Is. Innocent. I'm gonna prove it." With that, she stomped out of the office and headed back to the 1-6.
When she arrived back to her squad room, she was quickly intercepted by Fin. "Amanda's got something."
"Fantastic!" Olivia exclaimed in relief heading into the room.
She quickly approached Amanda and asked, "What've you got, Rollins?"
"Well, I think I know why the OCU was so gun-ho to take over this case," Amanda told her boss, bringing up a picture on the board.
"What am I looking at?" inquired Olivia.
"That's Alfredo as a boy. The man he's with volunteered at a youth center as a mentor. Alfredo was one of the kids who was involved in the program. Take a closer look," Amanda said as she zoomed in.
Olivia looked more closely and her eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Is that who I think it is?"
"If you think it's Captain Burgess from Organized Crime, then yes," Amanda answered.
"So he knows Josue and he took the case. At the very least that's a conflict of interest," Olivia said, thoughtfully.
"We're gonna need more than that, Captain. Technically, it was a conflict of interest for us to question Elliot," Kat reminded the older woman.
"Only for me and Fin. That's why I had Amanda do the interrogation," Olivia pointed out.
"He might be turning the interrogation over to his detectives," Kat gently replied.
"But Liv and I never tried to hide our connection to Stabler. Captain Burgess never revealed his connection to Josue," Fin put in.
"Exactly. Something is going on there, and I want to know what it is. Keep digging," were Olivia's orders.
"I'll go see if Carisi can find something," Amanda suggested. Olivia nodded her permission and Amanda headed out to Carisi's office.
Carisi smiled widely when he saw his best friend. "Hey."
"Hey," Amanda replied. She held up two take-out bags and added, "I brought lunch. I picked it up on the way over."
Carisi smirked and asked, "What do ya want?"
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "What? Can't a girl just bring her boyfriend some lunch?"
Carisi nodded slowly. "Sure. But I'm betting that's not the case this time."
Amanda sighed, but she had a smile on her face. "Ok. You're right. We need your help. We need all the information you can dig up on Captain Ron Burgess from Organized Crime."
"May I ask why?" inquired Carisi.
"He has a connection to Josue Rodrigues," Amanda told him.
Carisi looked through old newspapers and casefiles as he and Amanda ate their lunch. They worked for about an hour with not much success.
Just when they were about to give up, Something caught Carisi's eye. "Hey, Manda? I think I've got something here."
Amanda looked at the paper with him and her eyes widened. "This is just what we need. It show's he had a motive and means for murder and then he was able to use Kathy's murder to frame Stabler! Dominic, I love you!" Carisi was happily surprised when she spontaneously kissed him on the lips.
After kissing her back, the ADA inquired, "Hey, Babe, speaking of love, when are we going to tell everyone about us?"
Amanda leaned back in her chair and sighed. "I want to. I really do, Dominic. It's just that the past several months have been so crazy and I wanted it to calm down a bit. I don't want to just throw it out there in the squad room. I want to tell everyone at once when we're all having a good time together."
"I get it. I just want to be able to tell the world how I feel about you," Carisi told his girlfriend.
"I know. Me, too," Amanda admitted, kissing him once more. Then, looking at her watch, she lamented, "I'd better get back. I need to tell Liv what we found and then she can call Novak."
"Ok. I should get back to my paperwork. Call you later," Carisi replied.
Amanda gave the man one more kiss. "Ok. I love you."
"Love you, too," was the ADA's response.
Amanda left then and headed back to the station.
She knocked on Olivia's door and entered without waiting for an answer.
"Liv, I think we got him."
"Rollins? What do you mean?" Olivia asked.
"Burgess. It turns out that his daughter was raped around the time Alfredo was involved in the youth center. The DNA pointed to Alfredo, or rather, Josue. By the time Burgess figured it out, Josue had gone off the grid. I think he found out somehow that Alfredo attacked Kathy Stabler. He finally found his chance to get revenge and then Kathy's murder gave him a scapegoat. He framed Elliot," Amanda told the older woman.
"Great job, Amanda. Tell Carisi I said the same to him. Now we just have to figure out how to get enough proof to question Captain Burgess. Garland won't go after a Captain without real strong evidence."
"Well, you could find out if Andy was able to trace that phone number. Kat could try and find out how Elliot's gun ended up in New York," Amanda suggested.
Just then Olivia's phone rang. She looked at the ID and sure enough, it was Andy calling.
"Hey Liv, I was able to unblock that number, finally. You won't believe this. It was registered to Captain Ron Burgess from Organized Crime."
"Thanks, Andy. You have perfect timing. That's just the information we needed," Olivia replied.
After ending the call, the SVU captain called Casey. "Hey, Case. We have new information that needs to get to 1PP. Can you stop by and get it?"
"Sure, Liv. I'll be right there," Casey agreed.
Casey arrived within twenty minutes and was debriefed on the new developments. She took the articles with her and headed out stopping by Taru to get the evidence from Andy. From there, she headed straight for 1PP.
It turned out, the evidence was enough for IAB to bring Captain burgess in for questioning. After hours of interrogation and information about the weapon that Barba had dug up, along with roadblocks from the union rep, Burgess was finally ready to confess.
"Fine. I did it. I killed that piece of garbage that raped my daughter. He got away with it then. I wasn't gonna let him escape another time," the Captain spat out. His union rep tried to get his client to shut up, but it was too late.
"Did you also frame Agent Elliot Stabler?" questioned the IAB sergeant, Journey Mason.
Burgess smiled smugly."Yes. It just happened. I found out Alfredo, or Josue, or whatever his name is, killed the guy's wife. I've also heard stories about his vicious temper. He was the perfect fall-guy."
"How did you come across the gun?" was the next question.
At that, the captain stiffened."That doesn't matter."
"It does matter, actually. We need to know if Stabler's family will be safe. The only way to guarantee their safety is to be certain everyone who's after the family is locked up. Now I'm going to ask you again. Where did you acquire the weapon?" Sergeant Mason demanded.
She was met with silence.
Getting right up in Burgess' face she yelled, "WHERE!?"
"Alright! I have an informant. He had a friend who worked for Rodrigues. He got it during the raid. He got away at that time, but the cops got him soon after," confessed the OCU captain.
"Where's this informant?" inquired Mason.
Captain Burgess sighed, "My informant was killed a few days after getting the gun to me. One of my officers found him in an alley. Guess someone found out that he was a snitch."
"My client isn't saying another word," insisted the union rep.
"It doesn't matter. He's already said quite enough. He's going to be going to prison for a very long time," Journey informed him.
A few hours later, Casey Novak entered the SVU squad room all smiles."
"You got some news for us, Councilor?" asked Fin.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Where's Liv?" was Casey's response.
"With a victim. We got a new case. She'll be out soon," Kat told her.
Sure enough. Olivia walked out of her office a few minutes later along with an anxious-looking teenaged girl. A woman who appeared to be the girl's mother followed behind them. Olivia said goodby to the two of them, promising to do everything in her power to bring the perp down. After they left Olivia turned and noticed Casey. She approached her friend with an expectant look on her face.
"Casey? Please tell me you have good news," she pleaded.
"Captain Burgess confessed to both the murder and to framing Elliot. Elliot's being released as we speak. I'm going up to Riker's now to bring him home. I thought you'd want to come with me," Casey told her friend happily.
Olivia surprised the attorney by pulling her into a tight hug. She recovered quickly and returned the hug. When the two pulled apart, Olivia's eyes were very bright.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Casey just nodded and softly replied, "I'll wait for you outside." As she walked towards the elevator, she turned back for a second and called out, "Liv, you're gonna want to call Alex. Tell her to bring the rest of Elliot's family home. It's safe." Then she waved to the others and got on the elevator.
Olivia turned around only to be pulled into a hug by both Fin and Amanda. Kat squeezed her shoulder. Their boss gave them all a shakey smile and grabbed her coat and purse before heading out. During the elevator ride, she called Alex, telling her it was time for the Stabler family to come home.
At Riker's, she waited anxiously beside Casey for Elliot to come out. When she spotted him coming towards them, the very sight of him nearly brought her to tears again.
"Elliot!" she called out. He looked up and noticed her for the first time. His best friend. His partner for better or worse. His Olivia.
Elliot's steps quicked and before he knew it, the physical distance between him and Olivia was closed and they were in each other's arms. They just held onto each other for several minutes before Casey cleared her throat uncomfortably. Elliot and Olivia pulled apart and smiled at their friend sheepishly.
"I hate to break up this happy reunion, but we should probably get out of here," the redhead quipped.
Elliot smiled again and hugged his attorney. "Thanks for everything, Case. I can't believe I was framed by the captain of Organized Crime of all people."
Casey returned the smile and hug and replied, "It wasn't just me. Olivia and her whole squad disobeyed orders to prove your innocence. Even their ADA worked on your case. He and Amanda actually found what we needed to get a confession. Barba even helped us in the end."
"The ADA who got me locked up in the first place?" Elliot asked incredulously.
Olivia chuckled. "One and the same. He's actually a good guy, El. He's determined to do his job right. His brain tends to get in the way of his heart sometimes."
"If you say so," Elliot conceded skeptically.
"Come on. Let's go home," Olivia encouraged, linking her arm through his.
As they walked out with Casey following behind, Elliot inquired, "When can I see my kids? Is Alex coming to take me back to them?"
Olivia shook her head with a smile. "The danger's gone, El. Alex is bringing them back to New York as we speak. They should be back later tonight."
Elliot got tears in his eyes. "Thank you."
Olivia just pulled him close once more. By that time, they had reached Casey's car, so they got in and Casey drove them home.