Kate was on her knees, concrete biting into the skin and bone as the cold metal barrel pressed into her forehead. She could feel blood trickling from her nose and mouth, the metallic taste making her stomach roll as she fought to keep her eyes open.

"You'll die just and you lived, puta. On your knees. Like the filthy slut you are."

The black, harrowing eyes of Eduardo Guterra burned with malice as he towered over her, a sick smirk on his face. Before he could pull the trigger, Kate heard a voice calling her name in the distance; a voice she recognised instantly.

Hank.

"Or maybe…maybe I'll make you watch me kill him first, eh?"

"No. No, you've got me…just do it…kill me."

She leaned forward as far as she could without loosing her balance, pushing her clammy forehead harder against the barrel, the metal leaving a circular indentation on her skin. Kate could hear the voice getting louder, she only had a few seconds before he walked right into Guterra's trap.

"Hank, no!"

Guterra laughed as Kate called out her warning, lifting the gun so that it was now pointed over Kate's head. She turned as far as her body would allow from her position on the floor and watched as Hank entered the room completely unarmed and her stomach sank.

"Kate?"

They locked eyes and Kate silently pleaded with him to leave. But he ignored her look and remained where he stood, his warm gaze becoming icy as he stared Guterra down.

"Let her go."

Guterra laughed again, the sound making Kate feel physically sick and tears began to stream down her face. His eyes were alight with sadistic mirth, finger moving to rest on the trigger.

"Looks like he's made the choice for you, bitch."

"No! HANK!"

Kate thrashed against the sheets, her eyes snapping open to scan the room, frantically searching the darkness for a trace of either Hank or Guterra. Her heart was hammering in her chest, the oversized t-shirt she had worn to bed sticking to her damp skin, sweat trickling down her spine uncomfortably as she sat bolt upright in bed.

She blindly reached for the lamp on the bedside table, flicking it on to the lowest setting, bathing the room in a dim glow as the familiar surroundings came into focus.

'It was just a dream.'

Kate repeated the five word sentence over and over in her mind, breathing deeply to try and calm her racing heart but the vivid image of Guterra firing two rounds into his chest refused to be erased from her mind.

Her eyes were drawn to her phone, wanting so badly to call him to reassure herself that he was okay but she immediately rejected the idea. She had just asked him to give her some space, it wouldn't be fair to call him in the middle of the night just to make herself feel better.

Reclining against the headboard, she closed her eyes for a few moments and focused on her breathing.

'In…2…3…4…out…2…3…4…"

When she finally felt some semblance of calm, she shuffled back down the bed and closed her eyes. It took a while for sleep to reclaim her but Kate's last thought before succumbing to the darkness was that she would not rest until Guterra was either in a cell or a body bag.

By eight am the team had reconvened in the bullpen, coffee percolating in the air as they reviewed everything they knew about Guterra and his associates.

"Okay, so we know he's in Chicago, probably lying low with these two."

Adam was pacing back and forwards in front of the whiteboard packed full with evidence pictures and intelligence that was leading them ever closer to pinning Guterra down.

"Jose Valdez and Mario Rojas. Both known members of the Guterra's inner circle." Sam supplied, her eyes fixed on the board.

Sam and Kate were stood shoulder to shoulder, adopting an identical stance with their arms folded across their chests. Every cop had their 'one that got away' and Hank could see from a mile away that Eduardo Guterra was that one for both of them.

"As far as we know, aside from funnelling drugs into the city from Mexico, Guterra has no ties to Chicago. There is no logical reason why he keeps popping back up here." Jay had vocalised exactly what everyone else was thinking, what Kate had been mulling over for the best part of a year.

Before she could analyse the potential theories any further, her cell phone began to buzz on her desk. Not bothering to check the caller ID, she swiped the screen and answered.

"Meadows."

"Kate? It's Elliot…Stabler." The late, unnecessary addition of his last name almost drew a chuckle from Kate.

"Hi Elliot…Stabler. Everything okay?"

Kate noticed Hank's head spin in her direction when she said Elliot's name but she refused to acknowledge the look of jealousy that passed over his face before he was able to mask it.

"Liv, Ayanna and I are en route to Chicago." His tone was tense and she could vaguely hear the tell-tale signs of an airport tannoy in the background.

"You are? Why?"

"Walker said you're familiar with Eduardo Guterra."

Kate's heart dropped.

"Yeah, we've got intel that he's bunking down somewhere in the city with a boatload of Mexican coke."

"Kate, you can't move on him until we get there." He pressed but Kate was already beginning to lose her patience with the guessing games.

"The hell's going on El?"

He sucked in a breath and, in her mind's eye she could see his chest expanding and eyes closing.

"He's got at least six tender age children with him. He's not just moving drugs, Katie. He's trafficking kids."

'No, no, no, not again.'

"Jesus fucking Christ."

Every single pair of eyes settled on her as she finished her call, promising Elliot that they would hang tight until the three arrived in Chicago. Gripping her phone tight in her hand, she raised her chin to the ceiling, silently steeling herself for what was likely to be a rough twenty four hours.

"That was Elliot Stabler, New York Organised Crime. He's on his way to Chicago with his Sergeant, Ayanna Bell and SVU's Captain Olivia Benson. They've got reason to believe that Guterra has at least six child sex slaves that he's planning to sell in the city."

"You have got to be kidding me?" Kim whispered, her chin dropping to her chest.

The team were reacting exactly as Kate predicted they would, all of them wearing expressions of icy fury tinged with nausea.

"They've asked us not to move on Guterra until they get here so we've got at least a couple of hours to burn until they land at O'Hare."

And she was right. It was just after midday when Olivia Benson appeared at the top of the bullpen steps with Elliot and Ayanna in tow. Benson's natural leadership came to the fore as she made the introductions, aware that the Intelligence Unit had yet to cross paths with the two members of the Organised Crime Task Force.

"So, Guterra's hunkered down somewhere in the city?" Her deep brown orbs floated between Hank, Sam and Kate, unsure of who was running point on the case but, when both Hank and Sam turned their eyes to Kate, she took the reins and looped them in on what they knew so far.

"Over the course of forty eight hours, we've had at least ten DOAs all with huge amounts of fentanyl in their systems. Packages with the Guterra logo were found at seven of the ten crime scenes so, whoever Guterra has moving coke for him in the city, they're cutting it with lethal amounts of fentanyl."

"Any idea why he's in town? Last report said he was under a rock in Mexico." It was Elliot who posed the question, ocean blue eyes locked on Kate's from across the room.

"Still trying to figure it out. He hasn't got any ties here so…" Kate tapered off, her eyes suddenly going wide. "Oh my god."

"What?" Kevin was immediately at her side, eyes tracking over her in concern.

Kate lifted her eyes to meet her partner's, warm brown meeting bright hazel.

"I know why he's here Kev." She whispered, her gaze breaking from Kevin's to settle on the Deputy Super Intendant.

"He's here for us."

"What do you mean, here for you?" This time it was Hank's voice cutting sharply through the otherwise quiet bullpen.

"He wants us to know that he's still doing business right under our noses."

"Why would he take such a big risk just to yank your chain?" Jay asked, still not convinced that such a prominent criminal who was on the radar of every main agency in the country would take such a big risk just to get under the skin of two CPD cops.

"Trust me Jay, if you had spent as much time in this prick's head as I have, you'd know how much of a psychopath he is. This is exactly the kind of high he lives for."

Her eyes landed on Benson.

"We only knew about the drugs. What about the kids?"

Olivia spent nearly thirty minutes briefing the Intelligence Unit on how they unearthed the child trafficking ring and Kate struggled not to empty the contents of her stomach at the detail Benson gave in her update. These cases always made Kate feel sick to her stomach but, now she was preparing to become a mother herself, it suddenly hit even closer to home how horrific this experience must be for both the victims and their parents.

According to Benson, three of Guterra's victims had been taken from New York, one from Philadelphia, one from Indiana and one from Arkansas.

"These are only the ones we know about, it's likely that he has more victims we aren't aware of."

Olivia cast a glance around the room.

"As much as I want this bad coke off your streets, I need the focus to be on getting these children home to their parents."

Every head in the room nodded in agreement. Hank stepped forwards, moving to stand just in front of the whiteboard containing the images of Guterra's associates.

"So, we got two options. One, we use those two pricks flip on Guterra. Or two, we figure out how Guterra is planning to selling these kids and get someone to pose as a buyer."

He looked around the room, all heads nodding in agreement.

"I think we cover all bases and do both." Olivia locked eyes with Hank, the two leaders nodding at they mobilised their teams, half moving out to track down Valdez and Rojas and the other half running down leads on how to get involved in the 'auction' for the children.

Kate, Ayanna and Kevin were sitting elbow to elbow around Kate's computer screen as she tapped away on the keyboard, Elliot stalking behind her like a caged lion.

"El, can you stop pacing. You're making me nervous."

He muttered an apology and came to a stop, leaning his hands on the back of Ayanna's chair.

"So we know Guterra uses an encrypted auction site, listing the children as one would list a piece of furniture on Ebay."

Kate tapped a few more keys before biting out a curse, letting out a breath through her teeth, her three colleagues turning towards her.

"Jesus. This is…I don't think I can break through this. It's too sophisticated for a basic set-up."

Then an idea hit her.

"Ayanna, can you get Slootmaekers on the phone?"

The OC Sergeant nodded, pulling her out her phone and dialling her Tech Expert. When she answered, Ayanna put her on speakerphone so Kate could walk her through the problem.

"Hey Jet. Listen, the encryption on this thing is airtight. The ciphertext is not something I've ever seen before."

"Well, that's not saying much is it?" Came Slootmaekers' dry response and Kate couldn't help but grin and the younger woman's barely veiled insult.

"Alright…ouch. You gonna help me or not?"

"Just loading up your IP address. When the alert comes up on your screen, click permit."

Kate followed her instructions and soon enough, Jet was controlling Kate's computer remotely, whizzing through the files and data at breakneck speed.

"Hmm. Guess I was a little hasty in my assessment of your abilities Detective. This is pretty unique stuff."

"I accept your apology." Kate snorted, watching with rapt attention as Slootmaekers systemically worked through the firewalls. After a few moments, Jet broke through the final piece of encryption and pictures of clearly distressed children began to appear on her Kate's screen.

"You're a superstar, Jet. Thank you!"

"Don't mention it. Go catch this douchebag."

With that, Ayanna killed the call and the four of them reluctantly perused the website, Kate struggling to ignore the bile rising in her through at the explicit nature of the images.

"There, there's one left."

Ayanna was pointing to a picture of a very young Latino boy, with wide brown eyes and a messy mop of jet black hair. If Kate had to guess, she would say he was no older than four or five years of age.

"Alright, here we go. Sarg?"

Seconds after she called for him, Hank emerged from his office with Benson and Miller in tow, moving towards the team gathered around the computer.

"We're on Guterra's auction site, there's one kid left. We're going to need the 1505 funds. The bid's already at £50k…with three minutes left."

Before he could utter a word, Sam was stepping forward, jabbing a finger at the screen.

"Do it."

With a nod, Kate waited until the last possible minute before putting in her own bid, securing the buy for just under £100k. Leaning back in her chair, she felt Elliot place a palm on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze before moving off to speak with Benson, the two secluding themselves into quiet corner, their voices hushed.

"Now we wait for instructions."

"Excellent work Kate."

Kate lifted her gaze to meet Hank's and, for the first time that day, she let her eyes linger on his for a few moments, the nightmare that had plagued her still fresh in her mind. She had promised herself that she would take some time to figure out what she wanted, telling herself repeatedly that putting some distance between them was the right thing to do. But if there was one person in the world Kate couldn't lie to, it was herself. She knew deep down in her soul that no amount of time or space would change how much she loved the man in front of her. Whether she liked it or not, he was a part of her now.

"Thanks Sarg."

Within the hour, they had instructions on how to pick up their 'purchase' and Ruzek, Halstead, Upton and Burgess had Rojas and Valdez in the interrogation rooms. Kate watched on through the thick glass as Hank and Benson got to work on Valdez who remained arrogantly impassive under questioning.

"We know you're hiding him, Valdez. It's only a matter of time until we find him and then…" Hank leaned back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other; the picture of nonchalance. "…there's nothing I can do to help you."

"But if you give us Guterra, we can cut you a deal." Benson leaned forwards, bracing her elbows on the table. "We're talking about children here, Jose. Innocent children."

Still Valdez didn't move, his eyes focused on the glass in front of him.

"How would you feel if that was your child? How old is Jorge now? Seven, eight?"

It was the first time Kate had seen anything even close to emotion flash on Valdez's face since he sat down two hours ago. She knew Benson had seen it too and the seasoned cop seized the opportunity.

"If not for yourself, do this for Jorge. He doesn't deserve to grow up with his father behind bars. If you co-operate, you'll be out in time to attend his graduation, his wedding, hold your grandchildren."

The room fell silent. Kate was stood in between Stabler and Miller, her eyes unmoving as she watched Valdez turn his options over in his mind.

"I don't know where he is…but I know where the auction is going down tonight."

'Bingo.'

Kate released a long, shaky breath that she wasn't even aware she was holding until her heart began to hammer in her chest.

"Captain Benson, ladies and gents." She muttered, patting both Sam and Elliot on the arm as she left the observation room and made her way back to her desk.

The information that Valdez gave tied back to the instructions they'd received from the auction site. The exchange was taking place at an abandoned warehouse in Roseland and so the team were all circled around a blueprint of the building, planning a tactical approach to ensure Guterra had no escape route once they had him pinned down.

"The building has three ground-floor points of entry and exit, Adam, Kim, I want you two covering the south-east, Hailey, Jay, you'll cover the west side and the rest of us will breach from the front. The warehouse itself is open plan with three levels, including the roof. Trudy?"

Hank lifted his eyes from the blueprint to the face of his colleague.

"We're going to need units to hold down the perimeter, particularly if they decide to run."

When she nodded in understanding, Hank's eyes slowly scanned the faces of everyone in the room.

"We have three objectives. Our number one priority is to get all the children out unharmed. Number two, Guterra leaves that warehouse in cuffs or a bodybag. And number three…" His eyes settled on Kate. "…we all go home tonight. Understand?"

He knew just how much nailing Guterra meant to her. He had held her when she woke in the middle of the night, tears streaming down her face with Guterra's name on her lips. He knew how it tormented her soul to know that she had this animal in her grasp six years ago and she hadn't been able to put him away.

The rest of the unit had already dispersed, heading downstairs to gear up which left the two of them alone.

Hank rounded the desk between them and stopped a few inches in front of her.

"Listen, I know there's a lot of history here for you but…" He reached for her shoulder, his warm palm gentle against the soft cotton of her henley. "…please promise me you'll be safe out there tonight."

She allowed the corner of her mouth to tug up into a smile, watching his face relax slightly at her expression.

"I promise I'll do my best to not get shot on your watch, Boss."

He huffed out a light laugh, recalling a very early conversation the two of them had in his office.

"Just do me a favour? Don't get shot on my watch."

"That's all I ask."