AN: Hello my lovely peeps! I've been working on this story for a while and I'm excited to finally start posting it. I have several chapters completed and ready to post, so let's get the show on the road! I'd love to hear from you. I hope you enjoy and have a great day.

I do not own Law and Order SVU or the characters.

Now

She hadn't looked at him all week.

No, she hadn't looked at him all , she looked at him when they were discussing a case, but not when he asked her how she was doing. Her eyes would lock onto the nearest object while she lied, claiming that she everything was fine.

Selfishly, he needed her here. He hadn't told her yet, but he was going through quite a bit himself. That's without mentioning what had happened between them a month and a half ago…Every time he tried to tell her, she would magically have something to do or somewhere to be.

He needed her to look at him.

Olivia snuck a glance at Elliot as he drove to the hospital to meet Heather. It was the only way she could do it, when he couldn't look back at her. Elliot could read her eyes like a book, and she wasn't ready to give him a preview of the next chapter.

"I can see you out of the corner of my eyes" He informed with a bit of a grin. "You ready to talk about it? Or are we going to pretend that it didn't happen for another month?"

For a moment, she had felt bad for giving him the cold shoulder every time he tried to get her to open up, but that comment alone was enough for her to be reminded of exactly why she didn't want to talk to him. Throwing him a bone, she closed the conversation with "Maybe after work", meaning never.

"He made me call him Daddy" Heather explained with the blank stare that Olivia was all too familiar with. If you didn't look at them, they couldn't see your pain.

"Where did he keep you?" She carefully asked, trying to stay professional. The girl's pain was obvious, and she wanted nothing more than to tell her that they would catch the bastard, that everything would be okay, but she couldn't.

"In a concrete room".

For the first time in a while, Olivia shared a glance with Elliot, willingly. He knew what she was asking him to do.

"Do you know where? Do you have an address?" He pressed further upon Olivia's silent request.

"I don't know" She sighed.

They took her to the hospital to have her examined, holding any further questioning off until it was complete. Once the exam was done, they went to the station. It would be easier to get her full statement without her whole family around. Olivia watched as Elliot practically doused himself in hand sanitizer, but she decided not to ask any questions. They made sure that Heather was as comfortable as one could be in a time like this as they settled in the interview room to finish taking her statement.

Olivia's heart broke with every question, as it always did, but something felt different this time. This monster kept her locked in a concrete room in the basement for years. All she had was a mattress and a bathtub that wasn't even connected to anything. He used a garden hose to bathe her like a dog. "What did you use for a toilet?" Elliot asked.

Heather's eye twitched a bit as she prepared to tell them. "A lawn chair with the seat cut out over a bucket".

Olivia could only imagine the shame and embarrassment this girl had experienced over that very lawn chair. That wasn't the only thing she could imagine though. For some reason she couldn't stop herself from imagining the smell. A wave of nausea crashed over her as she struggled to push the thought away. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her stomach, which didn't go unnoticed by Elliot. Just when she thought she was in the clear, a second wave hit even harder.

"Detective?" Elliot asked, his way of checking on her on the job. The next thing he knows she's pushing past him, practically running out of the room and down the hall.

"Excuse me for a moment" He said as he ducked out of the room, hoping Munch would keep an eye on Heather.

He spotted Olivia in the middle of the squadroom, hunched over the trash can by her desk. He hadn't seen Olivia react like this since their very first case together. She heaved several times, only stopping when her stomach was completely empty. Something was definitely up.

"Hey" He whispered as he came up behind her. She rested her forehead against her clasped hands while her elbows sat on the edge of the bin. Gently, he let his hand touch her back, rubbing a few small circles before pulling it away. He had to remind himself that they were not alone, and although no one else knew what had happened to them, he didn't need anyone making accusations. "You okay?"

She nodded, unsure of what to say. Of course she wanted to tell him. She'd have to tell him eventually.

"I'm just going to change the bag" She mumbled, kicking herself.

"I'll tell him tonight" She told herself.

She would try.

They drove around the city for hours trying to jog her memory. All she had to go off of was the smell of flowers as she ran by and a funeral home being on the corner of the road. It was dark when she escaped and he wasn't wearing a uniform. They had pushed her a little too hard, causing her to have a meltdown and beg to go home. Olivia felt awful. Heather was clearly struggling to function, jumping at any loud noise and beating herself up for getting confused. So they took her home, but not without an unexpected appearance from the press.

When Elliot pulled up to the station, he turned off the car and turned to her expectantly.

"What?"

"Are we going to talk about it tonight?"

She had forgotten about her half-assed agreement to hash things out after work. "I don't know El, I'm still not feeling one hundred percent" She trailed off.

"Well then there's something else I need to talk to you about" Elliot said with a seriousness that she couldn't ignore.

"Fine".