"Morning," Fin told Olivia as she sat down across from him in the squad room the next day.

"Yeah," she replied.

"You sound like you're having a great day so far." She sighed as she booted up her computer.

"Sometimes being the wicked stepmother sucks."

"Wicked stepmother? What happened?"

"Nothing. It's just…either I go against Kathleen's trust or Elliot's, and I haven't decided which yet." Fin shrugged, picking up a file.

"I recommend c) none of the above."

"I wish."

Cragen came out of his office, and taped up a photo on the dry erase board that was in the middle of the room. The senior photo of a pretty brunette high schooler smiled hauntingly at all of them.

"We've got a new case," he announced.

Munch, the great conspiracy theorist and hypochondriac, was out sick with whatever the latest disease was to hit the tabloids, so Elliot was tagging along with Fin and Olivia. As the three of them drove to the scene of their latest victim's rape and death – the M.E. was calling it an accidental drug overdose, not a homicide – Olivia went over the case file and shared the details with her partners. Time of death was somewhere between ten o'clock the previous evening and two that morning. According to the cops that had found the body, the area was an often-used location for parties.

When the car stopped, Olivia instantly recognized the neighborhood, even in the daytime. And Elliot recognized the look on her face. "What?" he asked.

"I've been here before." He frowned.

"Really? When, another case?"

"No, last night. I picked up Kathleen down the street." Fin decided to walk ahead of them before he got caught in the crossfire.

"What the hell was she doing over here?!?"

"This is where one of her friends lived that she was working with."

"And you forgot to mention this?"

"No. I was trying to find the right time or way to tell you." Elliot sighed.

"This wasn't it."

Their vic had been at a party, there was evidence of that all over the abandoned row house where her body had been found. Broken bottles, cups, and cigarette butts were littering the floor. Narcotics made regular sweeps of the area, and had found the door wide open that morning. The girl's parents were out of town and wouldn't be back until that evening, so the detectives paid a visit to her high school – Kathleen's school – in the meantime to try and figure out who had been on the guest list.

"What exactly happened last night?" Elliot asked Olivia as they waited in a conference room for the principal to retrieve one of the victim's friends for questioning.

"I picked up Kathleen at the address she gave me. I wasn't comfortable with the area and I told her about it. She said she was at…Aaron's house instead of one of her girlfriends."

"Aaron? Who the hell is Aaron?"

"I don't know; one of the boys in her class. I told her that she should stick to friend's houses where you or her mom knows the friend and she said okay."

"Why didn't you say anything to me?"

"Because until this morning, I didn't think that it was a big deal. Just a 'lesson learned' kind of thing."

"What books did she have with her?" Olivia frowned.

"What?"

"She told me that she was working on a history project, and I want to know if my kid was lying to me. What did she have with her?"

"Now that I think about it…I don't think she had any books. But maybe someone else from the group brought theirs, like the person whose house they were at. Or maybe they didn't need them. I don't know, Elliot."

He nodded. "I'm not a fan of maybe."

"Kathleen!" Elliot yelled as he and Olivia came home once they finally got off of work. Lizzie came out of the kitchen.

"She's upstairs, in her room, on the phone with somebody," she told them. "Rick's doing homework, and Ben's watching a video." At the mention of his name, Ben poked his head up over the back of the couch.

"Hi!" Elliot smiled at his son.

"Hey, buddy."

"I made dinner," Lizzie continued. "I just gotta take it out of the oven; I was keeping it warm until you came." Elliot hugged his daughter.

"Have I told you lately how wonderful you are? Leave it in the oven, though, okay? I have to talk to your sister." Lizzie nodded.

"You want backup?" Olivia asked. Elliot shook his head.

Kathleen looked up when she heard a knock on her door. "I'm on the phone," she called after covering the receiver with her hand. However, the door opened a moment later. "Dad!"

"Hang up," he told her.

"I gotta go," she told her friend. "Yeah, I know. I'll talk to you later. Do you mind?" she asked her father, sitting up halfway on her bed.

"How'd your project go yesterday?"

"Fine."

"Who's in this group again?"

"Megan and Lucy…and some other people."

"Whose house did I drop you off at? Megan's?"

"Yeah. And then her parents took me to one of the other people's houses."

"Her parents did?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you said they weren't going to be home?"

"W-well they were." Elliot nodded, leaning against her doorframe.

"Okay, we're going to start this conversation over again, and keep in mind the fact that I already know the correct answers to all of my questions. How'd your project go?" Kathleen sighed.

"What did she tell you?"

"It doesn't matter what Olivia told me, Kathleen. What matters is what you're about to tell me. You can either flat out lie to me, try another version of your half-truth story you've already been telling, or you could actually tell me the real story."

"We weren't doing anything."

"You hear anything? Like a party down the street maybe?"

"N-no."

"That's funny, 'cause we had a vic down there this morning. And she goes to your school." Kathleen frowned.

"Who?"

"Ashley Meadowland. Ring a bell?"

"We have a class together."

"And you know what happened to her for her case to end up on my desk, don't you?" Kathleen nodded. "Were you at that party?" There was a pause.

"I didn't do anything, Dad."

"That wasn't what I asked!" She didn't answer. "You're grounded." Kathleen shot up off her bed, livid.

"I'm eighteen; you can't ground me!" Elliot raised an eyebrow.

"Wanna bet?"

"Fine, then I'll go stay with Mom."

"You think your mother would be any more thrilled with your behavior than I am?"

"She'd trust my word."

"I do trust your word. I haven't searched your room yet, have I?"

"You wouldn't do that."

"You give me a reason to stop trusting you, Kathleen, and yeah, I would. I'm not going to get a call from the morgue asking me to come identify my daughter's body. I will do anything to keep that from happening whether you like it or not." She just glared at him.

"I want to go stay with Mom."

"Fine. I'll call her tonight; you can go tomorrow. In the meantime, come eat dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"I'll see you downstairs in ten minutes." He turned and left. Kathleen slammed the door behind him.

And so, by the next evening, Kathleen was back in Queens. To her shock, her mother grounded her as well, but she was too angry with Elliot and Olivia to go back to their house. She wasn't speaking to either of them, and after talking to her sister, Lizzie decided that she was mad at her stepmother as well for getting Kathleen in trouble. The whole house was divided.

Olivia woke up around three AM to a quiet, "Mama? Mama?" beside the bed. Ben was standing there, eyes wide and clutching a teddy bear.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"There a monster under my bed." Olivia picked him up and put him on the bed between her and Elliot.

"Rick was playing 'Resident Evil' with you in the room again, huh?" Elliot and Rick loved the game, but Ben got nightmares every time he happened upon them playing it. The little boy snuggled down next to her without replying. "You warm enough?"

"Uh-huh. Love you, Mama." She smiled.

"At least someone does."

TBC...

Thanks for the feedback I've received so far. I tried to take suggestions into consideration w.r.t. revising this chapter. Hope everyone had a good New Year's