Hello readers! Chapter 3 is finally here!
I apologize about the breaks in the stories. I'm trying to separate it as best as I can with OOO, I haven't quite figured out why FF's document uploader keeps changing the original format I had in Word. It changes it when I upload on here by getting rid of the extra spaces I put in. I closed out the Pierce's and Morales's previous case as it was technically listed as a cold case in the show. It was a lead up to the main story really. Stick around for the next chapter, it get's a little juicy. ;)
And thank you for all the comments, it helps with continuing the story.
Enjoy!
-Stipestripe
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"The one from a few weeks ago? It was a blow out case" Aubrey said into her cell phone as she picked some lint off her suit jacket sleeve and let it fall to the drivers side floor in the car. Her last major case on the casino heist didn't go the way she was hoping. Morales and her had some smaller ones that they had been working on, but that one still chewed at her. "I know I can't get them all, just sad that it got put as a cold case technically. We know how it happened but not enough evidence to put anyone away. Half the family and a hooker was in on it." Aubrey was on the phone with her father. Her parents lived in New Jersey and she was setting up plans with them to visit the next month. "You know what's funny? I'll be feeling like I'm still on duty when I come by you. That damn sister of yours loves asking too many questions about my job. Yes, I know, but she still watches too many of those shows on-"
Morales tapped the hood of her car and walked around to the passenger door. "Dad, I gotta go, I'm still at work. I'll call when I get a chance" Pierce unlocked the door and Morales climbed in throwing a couple of bags into the back of the Charger. "I know, I don't know when, just when I get a chance. I gotta go. Yes, that's fine" She gave an apologetic smile to him as he reached for her binder and wrote something in her notebook. "Yes." Morales handed her the paper and she shook her head. Pierce reached over and put an address in her GPS. "No, I don't have that. Why would I bring that? You can't get that on a plane. No, Dad, I need to go. I can't drive and talk at the same time." She started the car and waited. "No, I can't. Bye, Bye!" Pierce pulled the phone from her ear, she could still hear him talking. She swiped to end the call and sighed.
"Daddies Girl" Morales said with is head down rummaging through a dufflebag.
"I hate doing that, but he talks a mile a minute and doesn't know what I have to go means. I don't know how my mom puts up with him"
"She must have the patient of a Saint" Pierce skipped anymore talk about her family and turned her attention back to putting the car in drive. "Are you all packed? We have to get going"
"Yes. My stuff is in the trunk. Is that all you brought?" She asked glancing at the back seat.
"It's not a lot"
"You pack like a woman"
"It's only 15 suits"
"I'd say that's hilarious but you probably aren't lying" Pierce shot at him with a toothy grin.
"Aren't you in a mood" Morales said with a smirk closing his reading glasses and resting his head against the head rest. Pierce took advantage of him resting and drove. They were heading towards LAX for an early morning flight to New York. An old detective friend of hers from NY had contacted her. When she had been working on patrol there she had a case about a young girl named Carly Holbart and unfortunately the girl had passed away under suspicious circumstances. They requested Pierce as an added detective because of her knowledge about the families whereabouts previously. The father, Patrick, had kept in some contact through the years after his wife, Madeline's, passing.
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"Not too shabby" Morales said looking up the building while Pierce removed her luggage from the trunk. She glanced over at him.
"The Lexington is pretty nice. This is Manhattan after all" she said setting his bags next to him. She handed the cabby cash and watched a bellhop throw her bags onto a cart. "Are you done sight seeing? It's cold".
"I never get sick of New York's sights" Morales said trailing after her through the front doors. Pierce wanted to let him know that seeing someone shit in a sewer grate would be on the sight seeing tour at some point but bit her tongue. He can see the wild side of New York on his own.
"Reservation for Pierce and Morales" Pierce said approaching the check-in desk. A bright eyed young woman gave a smile and checked them in. Her eyes fluttered from Pierce to Morales, another smile crossed her face as she looked Morales over. He was looking around the large open common area not paying attention to them. Pierce cocked an eyebrow at her and tilted her head, waiting. The young woman noticed Pierce looking at her and cleared her throat. She typed something into the computer and watched the screen.
"Yes, floor 9, Room 912"
"Double bedroom, right?"
"Yep. Single live-in space, double bedroom" The young woman put an emphasis on the double bedroom and glanced at Morales again. "Double full-baths, breakfast nook. We have a complimentary breakfast from 7am to 10am… Oh…" The young woman trailed off and squinted at her screen. "You don't have a check out date?" She sheepishly looked at Morales again. Pierce rolled her eyes. Christ, how obvious could this woman be?
"That's on hiatus, we're detectives from Los Angeles. All payment is going through the city, a name should be listed for setting this up. Cragen I believe".
"Yes, I see it, I was just double checking. This is a rare scenario."
"We won't be able to give you a check out date until we know. I can't ballpark this unfortunately… Lindsey" Pierce said looking at the young woman's name tag leaning onto the counter a bit.
"Makes sense" She said with a forced polite smile. "Your key cards, Sir" She handed Morales the key cards. All three were there. One for her, one for Morales and one for Olivia when she met with them. "Enjoy your stay… Please let me know if you need anything. There's a phone number listed upstairs to call down" she added while eyeing them both. Pierce turned towards the bellhop quickly and he took them up to the 9th floor and room. After settling with him on the tip Pierce crash landed into a cozy couch in the living room and pulled her phone out. Morales wandered into one of the bedrooms with his luggage.
"Hey, Olivia, it's Aubrey. Give me a call when you get a chance, Morales and I just got to The Lexington. We can meet soon, precinct or M.E.'s. Thanks" Pierce rested her head against the arm rest of the couch and let a decent sounding sigh out. This was going to be a long day, maybe a nap would be a good call right now. She closed her eyes as she listened to Morales shuffle around his room on the other side of the wall.
Twenty minutes later her phone went off. Pierce looked it over and read the text from Olivia, meeting at the M.E.'s office in a half hour it requested. Groggily she sat up and called out to Morales. He popped his head around the corner from his bedroom.
"You rang, Sleeping Beauty?" Pierce smirked and looked around the couch at him.
"Olivia wants us at the M.E.'s office. We gotta go" He went back into the room and Pierce stood up stretching wishing she could shower. She looked herself over at a mirror above a wall table. Besides looking tired she was presentable. Tearing away from her reflection she grabbed her handgun and badge off the small kitchen's island counter and set herself up to get going. Morales walked out of his room and looked over at her.
"How do I look?"
"Delightfully tall, dark and handsome" She rolled her eyes with the reply.
"Keep the compliments coming" Morales thought carefully at the next sentence. "Grows my ego" he replied opening up the door to the hotel hall. He could of said stroked but he would of choked with that. And knowing Pierce, she would have had a sharp reply back.
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An avoidance of the counter woman's stare downstairs and a quick drive got Pierce and Morales to the M.E.'s office. Once in the basement they navigated to the autopsy room. Pierce knocked and slowly opened the door. Two woman and a man stood in the center in front of a body. Pierce took a deep breath and shook her head seeing Carly on the slab. Shame, she was always polite and kind. Didn't deserve this.
"Aubrey! Good to see you, although not in a preferred situation" Olivia said reaching her hand out to her. Pierce grinned and grasped it. "This is my partner Elliot Stabler and coroner, Melinda Warner" Pierce gave a nod and pointed to Morales with her head.
"My partner, Ricardo Morales. I'm Aubrey Pierce. I worked a bit with Olivia a few years back here in New York". After an exchange of handshakes Aubrey looked over to Carly again.
"So… how did this happen?" She asked wandering over.
"Got struck by a cab after running out of a farmers market. Dead on impact." Warner said coming up behind her.
"She was working there under some company that hired underage teenagers. We're still working on that. There's quite a few questions with that itself." Elliot said with his arms crossed.
"The reason Special Victims is involved… well, her age and… let me explain what I found" Warner said picking up a clipboard. "Fractures of the zygomatic socket, scapula, radius, and ulna." She picked up Carly's arm "She has ligature and friction marks on her wrists and ankles."
"She was abused…" Olivia replied.
"When she wasn't being starved to death. Eyes are sunken, skin tents when it should retract. Heart is soft and floppy" Warner walked over to a desk and picked up a small container of a sample. "Trace amounts of lumen in her stomach. Absolutely nothing in her small intestine, and her liver is yellow and greasy. Causing Rhabdomyolysis. Her body was breaking down muscle for fuel." Pierce sighed and put her hand on her cheek.
"How did she manage to run?"
"Adrenaline. She also gave birth within the last year" Pierces chest throbbed with that information. She's just a kid. "Pelvic cradle spreads when a baby breaches the birth canal."
"Melinda," Morales said taking a step forward "Are you saying that car didn't kill the girl?" She looked straight at Pierce and then at Morales.
"Death was inevitable. The taxi just rushed the process. C.O.D. is enforced starvation. I'm ruling it a homicide." Olivia stared at Carly as well as Pierce, both holding disgusted looks and disappointment.
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Precinct:
Morales gave a "What the hell" look to Pierce as they walked through the doors of Olivia's precinct. Small white bags were around by the doors and multiple workers were mopping and hoovering water from the floor.
"Is the building falling apart?" He asked out loud looking up at the ceiling.
"Old pipes. City won't spring for new ones" A man in his 60's said walking past them into the large office. Olivia followed with Elliot and approached a couple of desks.
"Fix one leak, two more crop up and we're stuck in the mess" Elliot said quietly looking at the floor as he steps in a puddle.
"Finn's got video up of Carly's trail through the market over in sub-office two. I recommend looking that over" Olivia shook her head in agreement and headed into the office with Elliot in tow. The man turned to Pierce.
"Nice to formally meet, Aubrey. Thanks for coming here so soon. Cragen" He said sticking his hand out.
"Pierce, Morales" she shook it lightly and let go.
"Get to it. They're waiting" he said leaving to his office.
"What a charmer. I love a warm welcome" Morales grumbled. Pierce shrugged.
"New York" They entered the office where a TV playing surveillance footage was running. A black man looked over to them and then to Olivia.
"Liv?" he asked her still looking at them.
"Called in some help. Pierce knows Carly and her family. Hoping she can help with this mess. That's her partner Ricardo. LAPD"
"Pleasure" He said looking about the room. Elliot looked Morales over, most likely trying to figuring him out. Morales could be quirky at times. A new setting and basically the third wheel in the case had him annoyed for the most part. New York called Pierce to come, he was just a tag along that Lt. Gonzales had requested to join. Her reasoning that she had a gut feeling. Olivia turned back to the screen watching Carly run through the market.
"Whatever Carly is running from, she looks terrified."
"So does the kid running behind her" Finn said.
"It looks like they're both trying to get away… is he chasing her?" Pierce asked squinting at the screen.
Possibly could have been Micah? It was too hard to tell, she hadn't seen him for a while. This boy was older.
"Where did this start?" Olivia asked after a moment of silence.
"Farmers Market. They got lost in the crowd at the intersection" Finn replied back. He turned to Pierce and Morales. "Mission Farms is why she was at the market. I'm guessing the boy following her is too."
"She knocked over a display running, stall 50" Elliot said looking at a paper. "We talked to the woman at the stall and her husband and they let us know that she working there. They said this farm gives at-risk kids day jobs. They're only there on weekends, occasionally some weekdays."
"Where's the farm?" Pierce asked leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed.
"Long Island, Suffolk County. Apparently they rented a stall six months ago. They're set up three days per week max and paid in advance." Pierce furrowed her brow.
"So is it all minors that work there?"
"Yes. With parents consent. Paid less than minimum wage. They're charged for rides to the farm, food, even their drinking water" Finn leaned back in his chair. "Pretty soon they're in debt to the farmers. From the man at the Farmers Market management I was able to get the W-2 on Carly. It was a lower east side address on it, but they were evicted. Neighbor said it was about a year ago after her mother died."
"Right, cancer. Patrick, her father had contacted me after that. I wasn't able to get back in touch with him after that. It was actually about a year and a half ago. Tossed out with the four kids" Pierce had decided to wear her glasses today, she took them off and cleaned them on her blazer. "Have you guys been able to pull anything on his whereabouts?"
"No current location, no job, and no records of a missing person report filed on Carly" Elliot said adding in. "You think dad starved his kid?"
"No way, not Patrick" Pierce said darting her eyes at him "Granted, a lot of mouths to feed, no income, but I highly doubt that. Patrick would make sure the kids ate before he did. That's just they type of man he is".
"Did he have a sheet?" Morales said looking at the pictures of the parents on the table. "Any domestic violence calls to the residence?"
"No" Elliot shook his head "But the abuse could've started after the eviction". Pierce furrowed her brow and looked to the floor. She doubted that immensely.
"Holbart worked construction" she said putting her glasses back on. "Without money he probably hasn't paid his union dues. He won't get any work until he does."
"Okay… what about unemployment? Social Security?" Morales asked.
"Benefits stopped a long time ago." Olivia said bending down to grab a sheet of paper sitting next to Finn. "Registration is current to an old station wagon. We put out a BOLO" She handed it to Pierce.
"Huh… oh, yeah. That ugly blue beat up thing… You know, he mentioned that he stayed a couple nights behind St. Sebastian's on 116th the last time I talked to him. That was around the time he was fighting for custody of the children. It wouldn't hurt to check that out while we wait for a location with the BOLO" Pierce replied looking at the DMV sheet.
"How many children does he have?" Morales asked.
"Micah, 13, Savannah, 7, Lizzie, 5. That would be their current age"
"Yes, child services took custody a year ago for a couple of months. Holbart invoked is parental rights, picked them up, disappeared." Elliot said pointing to some more sheets on the other end of the table. Olivia stood up and made her way to the doorway.
"Elliot, you and Finn can stay here and see if you can pull anything else from that video. Anything remotely suspicious. You two-" she said turning her head to Pierce and Morales "we'll check out Sebastian's. He'll respond better with you there".
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541 East 116th Street
St. Sebastian's Catholic Church
Pierce and Morales followed Olivia down a crowded alley way. Homeless people were on both sides, a clear pathway went down the middle for a walkway. Pierce approached a couple of women digging through a grocery cart filled with second hand clothing and junk. She removed a picture of Patrick from her breast pocked of her blazer and held it in between them.
"Have you seen this man?" One of the women gave her an annoyed look and gestured down the alley way while responding in some foreign Asian language. "Thanks" she mumbled turning away. She flagged down Olivia and Morales and pointed farther down the alley. A few more yards down they were able to make out the top of a blue car. Walking closer it was a blue station wagon.
Morales grabbed Pierces bicep. "Aubrey…" he said quietly dropping his arm "This is bad...We can't tell Holbart that his daughters dead. Not here." He looked around and sighed. Pierce shook her head and continued to walk to the car.
"Doesn't matter where he hears it. The response will be the same if he's at the Precinct or here" Stopping at the side of the station wagon Pierce cleared her throat. The girls were brushing their teeth and Patrick was pulling out a jug of milk that was filled with water. "Patrick".
He looked up from behind the station wagon. It took him a moment to realize Pierce.
"Aubrey!" he said with a grin walking up to her. He set the jug down and set his hands under his armpits. "Long time no see!" He looked behind her and his smile faded. "Is it the car? I know I'm not supposed to be blocking the alley. I'm leaving in a minute" Patrick gestured to the girls behind him. "Police friends?" He asked looking past Pierce.
"Yes, my partner Detective Morales and SVU Detective Benson if you remember her from when Lizzie disappeared for the short while" Patrick picked up the jug and walked to the girls.
"Rinse with this" Morales took a step forward.
"Mr. Holbart, you need to come with us." He said wanting to take him back to the Precinct to tell him the news. Patrick shot up and walked to them.
"Please… don't take my kids, Aubrey" Pierce shook her head and looked at the ground before raising her eyes to Patrick. She took a deep breath.
"It's not that, Patrick. It's about Carly"
"You've seen her? Is that why you're here? Was she in the state where you started working? Is that why you're here?" Patrick asked in surprise. He put the jug down and quickly went back to the three.
"We should discuss this in private" Olivia said looking at the girls behind them. By now they had turned and were listening. Patrick made the connection and took a step back shaking his head. Sadness crept onto his face as it contorted.
"No. No, no, no, no, no." He said pointing a finger at them and putting the other on his hip. He turned away and closed his eyes. "That's- that's not-"
"Daddy, what's wrong?" The smaller girl asked walking up behind him. Patrick lowered himself down to their level and wrapped his arms around the girls.
"Nothing, sweetie, nothing. Everything's-"
"Please don't let them take us." Aubrey's heartstrings pulled as she watched him comfort the children. Her nose flared as she took a quiet inhale. She glanced at Morales and Olivia. She had looked away and he just stared at the floor.
"Let's go, Patrick" Aubrey said taking a step towards them. Patrick looked up at her and shook his head yes. His eyes were lined with water threatening to fall.
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Patrick sat staring at the empty table in front of him, a blank face as he was silently processing how his daughter might have passed away. Pierce set down a hot coffee in front of him and took a seat next to Olivia. They sat in one of the smaller offices, a lot cozier than the empty gray walls of an interrogation room. No need for that now, Pierce doubted any ill behavior from Patrick. The threatening aura of that room was not needed. Hopefully.
"Your daughter was hit by a car. She went quickly, most likely on impact if not right after" Olivia said folding her hands together on the table.
"Yeah, well, it's my fault" Patrick replied. Pierce tilted her head. "It's my job to look after them, and I couldn't even manage that."
"Mr. Holbart, when was the last time you saw your daughter?"
"About a year ago" he replied shamefully looking away. "She didn't run away, her and Micah were working farmland" Pierce clicked together that the boy behind Carly in the video may have been Micah.
"Carly and Micah… Did they work at Mission Farms?" Pierce asked jotting down his answers on her notebook pad. Patrick shrugged.
"All I know is it's someplace out on Long Island. When their mother died, I, uh… couldn't pay the bills" he lowered his gaze down to the table again, staring at the coffee cup. "I could barely keep food on the table. You know, not enough for them to eat regular anyway."
"You sent the kids away to make money?" Pierce asked looking at him a bit shocked.
"Aubrey, I had to. I had no choice" he said gruffly. He put his hands on the table. Olivia watched him closely. "I was told they could work out of town since they were too young to work in the city."
"Who told you that?"
"They lady, a Latino woman who came to pick them up." Aubrey leaned back in her chair and then stood up in disbelief. She turned so he wouldn't see her face. Olivia ran her hand through her hair looking down. This wasn't sounding good to either of them considering the ligature marks Melinda had found on Carly's body and that she had given birth at 15.
"Patrick…" Aubrey pinched her upper nose under her glasses and walked to the window of the office. "You turned two defenseless minors over to a stranger." Patrick cranked himself around to Aubrey.
"A woman would not hurt them, right!? And she gave me a phone number" He turned back to Olivia. "And I talked to them a couple times after they left."
"A year ago. So you then, what? Kind of lost touch with them?"
"No!" he shouted "The number got disconnected."
"What is this woman's name?" Olivia asked grabbing Pierces pen and notebook. Her eyes flicked to Aubrey who was staring at the back of Patrick's head.
"Magda. Magda Paloma." Patrick reached into his pocket and pulled out some cards and folded papers. "She was um, like, 35, short. She had a little scar over her left eye. And I even got the license plate right here" He set a paper down in front of Olivia. She jotted down the information.
"Let me guess" Olivia handed the paper back to him "she gave you and advance for their salaries?"
"500 dollars. Said Carly and Micah could work it off"
"You sold your kids to a predator is what it sounds like, Patrick" Pierce said with her arms crossed. She leaned against the window still.
"I love my kids. I got them work." He said slamming his hands on the table. "Lots of kids have jobs. Why are you being like this, Aubrey? I thought we were friends". Pierce approached his side and leaned down.
"You had other options, Patrick"
"No, I begged child services to help. Instead they dragged my kids away, crying and screaming. They split them up" He looked up at Aubrey with heavy sunken eyes. Eyes that had seen better days. "And Lizzie… Lizzie got her arm broken 'cause some other kid over there attacked her." He put his head in his hands. "There's predators in foster care too"
"When you spoke with your daughter, did she mention to you that she might be pregnant?" Olivia asked. Patrick gawked at her.
"No. She's too young! Why?" He looked up at her and then turned to Aubrey "Why!?" A tear escaped his eye. "Did she get abused?" Aubrey made her way back around to the table and stood behind her chair setting her hands on the back of it.
"Carly was starved. Beaten and sexually assaulted. The coroner found nothing in her stomach or intestines, she had ligature marks on her arms and legs and results showed that she had delivered a baby at some point." She answered him holding his gaze. Patrick's eyes released more tears and he looked away shaking his head.
"I sent them away so they could have food and shelter, so they would be safe" Olivia picked up a stack of photos and set it down in front of Patrick. The top one showed a black and white one of Carly in the street where the taxi had hit her.
"Does that look safe to you?" She said coldly. She set one aside and let him look at the next one. She repeated this until she got to the last photo. Patrick's eyes lit and he stood up.
"You have Micah?" Pierce's guess from earlier was correct. The photo on the table in front of Patrick showed Micah running behind Carly. "Where is he?" He read Olivia's face, she was surprised. "No, there's no way he would leave her bleeding in the street. He must be in trouble like she was, he's running too. You gotta help me find him."
"Patrick, we'll do what we can. We're done here. Take the girls and sit in the lobby in the corner for now" Pierce said walking out of the office. She passed Morales who had been listening on through the intercom. "Can you escort him and the girls to the waiting area?" she asked a uniformed cop.
"Elliot and I found something that you might want to hear" Morales told her. Olivia joined them as he led them to Elliot and Olivia's desks.
"Mission Farms is bogus. There's not a listing in Suffolk county or anywhere in upstate New York" Elliot said shaking his head. He sat behind his desk and crossed his arms.
"We can run the license he gave me" Olivia said handing Pierce her notebook.
"My guess is it's stolen. Number was probably a disposable, he said it's disconnected now so that would line up with that. Just a ghost. Another well-organized predator lying in wait." Pierce said rubbing her head.
"Dad's not much better, trafficking his own kids" Elliot said disgusted looking at Patrick.
"So far the only thing he's guilty of is poor judgment. A lot of kids get jobs" Morales said.
"Yeah, well, whatever happened to a childhood" Elliot chewed on the back of his pen. Cragen walked up behind Elliot.
"The work was legal, cut him loose. Morales is right"
"Got something you need to see!" Finn said loudly walking out of the 2nd side office. He had been trying to get footage of the chase from different sources. "A civilian caught our victim's foot chase on a cell phone. It's not what we think." The group followed him into the room and approached the screen. "Watch the left hand corner." The video displayed a group of people waiting on the corner of a street to cross the intersection. Micah was behind Carly. He shoved her forward. Pierce's stomach dropped.
"Micah pushed Carly into traffic?" Pierce asked Finn surprised.
"Why would he try to stop his sister from escaping?" Morales said shifting next to her. The crowded space around the screen was limited. His bicep was against her shoulder, height difference. She glanced up at him.
"Fear… Look at him. He's just as starved as Carly is. Gaunt."
"-And sexually assaulted and sodomized." Finn said handing her a file. "Charged with prostitution and resisting." Olivia covered her mouth Cragen and Elliot just looked at him with no expression. Signs that they've heard all this before. Pierce was disgusted.
"First they work the farm and then they're forced into the sex trade." Elliot said looking over Pierce's shoulder as she looked at the charges in the file.
"There's more money in flesh than produce."
"And private adoption" Olivia added. "Warner said that Carly had a baby. How much would an infant go for on the black market?" Cragen huffed.
"Thousands. A lot of pervs out there looking to raise a victim in-house."
Elliot interjected "Now, how is it a 13 year old is arrested for an act he can't legally consent to?"
"That's the first thing I'm going to ask the fool that pinched him" Finn said walking away back to his desk.
"Why don't you guys grab an early dinner, or break, or something?" Cragen said to the group. "I need to catch up on work in my office."
"I want to talk to you quick" Elliot said following behind him. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Liv" he told her over his shoulder. Olivia turned to Morales and Pierce.
"We'll be waiting until Finn gets back. You guys can use this office as a work space for the rest of the time you're here. Once I get an update and or an ETA from him I'll let you know. Keep your phone on you, go grab some food, there's a diner around the corner that's decent." Pierce shook her head in acknowledgment. After Olivia left Pierces rolled her neck, stretching it.
"A little more than you bargained for with this one?" Morales asked still standing next to her. Neither of them moved, comfortable where they were. Pierce set the file down next to her on the table.
"Yeah… I work homicide and not special victims in Los Angeles for a reason. I don't have what they have to deal with all… this" she said waving her hand up a bit on the last word. "Back to Back cases like this? Pardon my French, but it's fucked up. And Patrick was right. There's predators in foster care, schools, churches, everywhere. It's disgusting" Morales slowly nodded his head. He reached his arm up behind her to give her back a rub but hesitated and then lowered his arm. There were windows between the office and the main desk areas on the other side of the walls. The blinds were open. "Anyways…" She started saying while bumping his shoulder once with hers "I'm hungry. Take me to dinner"
"You got it" he said looking down at her with a small smile. Pierce was looking out the window now, her gray eyes reflecting the blue September sky outside.
