A/N: This takes place during "Musings..." another one of my fics, but you don't have to read that to understand it. This is the story of what the detectives are thinking during this case. The first chapter will be Elliot's POV, then the next probably Olivia, then Munch, then Fin, but I'm not exactly sure of that. It depends on how I write it. Hope you like it. I tried to add a lot of feelings and... yeah. Have fun!

Chapter One

Elliot's POV

The day that my daughter told me to talk to my wife, the only reason I listened was because of where I was being called to. Yes, we got a call to a scene, and yes, there was a rape, but it was different than all of my other calls during the day. This one was different. This one had to do with Lizzie. This one was at her school.

After I dropped Lizzie off at our house, just in time, I was told later by my son, Dickie, for dinner, Olivia and I rode over to her school. There was no crime scene tape, and there were no CSU officers. The vic must still be alive, I thought, pulling into an empty parking spot, and instantly chastised myself for the thought. It was like one of our witnesses in a hotel murder said once. "Guests become room numbers after a while." It was like that with victims, except they just became faces. My sanity couldn't afford for them to be anything else.

As we stepped up to the doors, an elderly woman opened them for us from the inside. She looked at us warily. "Are you the detectives I called for?" she asked, her lips pursed in a tight line that reminded me of many of the nuns at my Catholic high school.

"Yes, ma'am," Olivia said, pulling out her badge and showing it to the woman, who was somehow familiar to me. I couldn't put my finger on where I'd seen her before, but I had. "I'm Detective Benson, this is Detective Stabler. May we come in?"

The woman nodded and opened the door just wide enough for us to squeeze through. She locked it when she closed it, and her lips pursed even more. I didn't think that was possible. "Stabler, huh? Perhaps I should get another detective."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"I have your daughter in class, Detective. Elizabeth? I'm Mrs. Wurst."

I gave a relieved sigh. So that's where I'd seen her before. Open house, of course I'd have spoken to her if she taught Lizzie. "I think it will be fine," I said. "I can remain rather objective."

"Oh, no, young man," Mrs. Wurst disregarded, and I had a rather funny picture of her wagging her finger at me, a man about two heads taller than she. "I'm not having one of Natalie's friends' fathers talking to her. Your partner can do it."

"Natalie?" Olivia repeated, opening her notebook. "What would be her last name?"

"Derranger," Mrs. Wurst replied. "She's just in the other room with my colleague, Miss Templeton. You may go in to see her."

Olivia looked to me with her eyes raised amusedly and walked into the room Mrs. Wurst pointed to. I moved to follow her, but Mrs. Wurst grabbed my arm.

"Don't you dare tell Natalie that you're Elizabeth's father," she warned, and made me feel remarkably like a school boy who'd just been caught running in the halls. I nodded, holding back a smile, and walked into the room after Olivia.

There was a small, timid-looking girl in glasses with so many freckles on her face that when I first entered the room, I thought she was orange. Her hair was dark brown and violently curly. Her lip quivered as she saw me enter. A young woman, a pretty blonde, touched her shoulder and whispered, "It's okay, Nat."

"That's right, he's nice," Olivia said, smiling kindly. "He's my friend Elliot."

"I don't... couldn't I just talk to you?" she asked, hopefully. Olivia smiled and nodded.

"Elliot won't say a word, will you, El?" she asked me. I drew my fingers over my mouth as if zipping them, which got a small smile from Natalie. My heart lightened a little at the small signal of happiness. After what she went through and she could still smile...

"Can you tell us what happened, Natalie?" Olivia asked, kindly. Natalie sniffed a little, and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"I, uh, had detention tonight after school," she began, and I wondered why. I signalled to Olivia with my eyes to ask.

"Could you tell us why and with whom?" she asked, and I remembered that I loved being her partner. She could pick up on the subtlest hints.

"I didn't understand one of my Math assignments, so I didn't do it, and got in trouble with Mrs. Wurst," she muttered, giving an apologetic look to the woman standing in the doorway, who looked, if anything, defiant.

"What happened after that?" Olivia asked.

"I was walking out of the school," Natalie relayed. "When I got outside somebody pulled me into the bushes. Just came up behind me and grabbed me."

"Do you know who it was?" Olivia questioned and Natalie shook her head.

"No, he was wearing a black mask," she remembered. "Like a skit mask. And his voice sounded like he changed it deliberately, you know, so I wouldn't recognize it."

"So he spoke to you?"

"Yes, he said I'm going to do him a favor. For extra credit, he said. It was scary."

"I know, sweetheart. What kind of favor did he mean?" Olivia asked, gently setting her hand on Natalie's. Natalie's voice quavered as she answered.

"He told me to get on my knees and close my eyes. I said no way. He said I'd better, and he forced me down. He unzipped his pants and made me... made me..."

At this she burst into tears and I wanted nothing more than to rush over and hug her, cradle her in my arms, tell her it was okay. In my mind, her face shifted to become Lizzie's and shifted back. I shook my head, trying to get the image away, but I knew better. It would never go away.

"Natalie, I know this is hard," Olivia said, so softly that I could barely hear her, "and I'm sorry to have to put you through this. But thank you, Natalie, that was wonderful. You did great. Now, Elliot and I are going to take you to the hospital..."

"Why?" she asked, nervously. "I'm not... he didn't hurt me..."

"I know, sweetheart, and that's good, but we need to make sure that you don't contact any diseases or become pregnant..."

"You can get pregnant from that?" she asked, worriedly. Olivia looked at me with slight confusion that only her partner would notice.

"Well, of course, honey, if you had sexual intercourse..."

"No, no, he didn't rape me," Natalie argued, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. I noticed for the first time that they were beginning to tear up. "He made me, um..."

"Oral sex," I said out loud. Natalie looked at me as if she had forgotten that I was there but nodded quickly.

"Yeah, that."

Olivia looked at me again, this time her face was pained. I knew what she was thinking. All this guy had to do was not ejaculate or give her a drink of water and clean her lips off and we had no evidence. Damn them.

"Well, we're going to take you to the hospital anyways, to check for STD's, do you know what those are?"

"Yeah, we, uh, learned about them in health last year," Natalie sniffed. "I got an A on the test..."

"Good for you," Olivia encouraged with yet another smile. "Are you an A student?"

"Yes, all A's all my life," Natalie said. Olivia grinned at her and stood up. Natalie rose with her.

"You know, I never was. Could never get the hang of math. The equations confused me..."

As we walked to the car, I only vaguely noticed Olivia and Natalie talking. I knew Olivia was only trying to make Natalie feel better, but it was making me feel worse. Asking the victim questions, getting to know her... it all made it less anonymous and easier to get attached. I didn't know how Olivia could talk with her and not start crying instantly. Of course, Olivia had never been one to cry.

Unfortunatly, I always had been.