Title: One of Their Own

Author: SVUFanatic611

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: SVU and its associated characters are not mine.

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Dean Residence
December 4, 2003
-10:42pm-

Olivia and Munch proceeded to drive to Greg Dean's house. Olivia was still a little pissed at John. 'How could he just go off like that? That's not like him at all. Does he not see that he is going to get in serious trouble for something like that sooner or later?'

"So, do you think Phillip did it?" Munch asked, breaking any sort of comfortable silence that had existed.

"I don't know," Olivia answered a little reluctantly.

"I don't think he did it," Munch said, but still not sorry for roughing the boy up a little.

"Why don't you think so?" Olivia asked. 'If he's going to cross off a suspect, he better have a damn good reason…especially for this one.'

"Well, for starters, he's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box…"

"That doesn't mean he didn't kidnap her. We've both had our share of stupid criminals," Olivia interrupted, preparing to argue.

"He's not smart enough to do this sort of planning. He's not the type to plan ahead. We know this was premeditated, or pretty well thought out, hence the note to Elliot. If she broke up with him yesterday, he had no real time to think things through. There's no logical way he could've done it."

"Maybe he's smarter than he was letting on. We shouldn't eliminate him as a suspect."

Munch noticed the irritation in her voice. He knew she wanted this case solved. She always got like this when she was tired, hungry, and on a mission to find a criminal. It wasn't a good mix.

"Olivia, it's early in the investigation. We don't have any suspects. You saw how nervous he was when we saw him looking at porn. I think he would've been a little more jumpy if we were talking about a girl he was hiding."

Olivia jumped at the beginning of his comment, not hearing the second part. "Well, our 24-hour clock started awhile ago. We should have a damn suspect!"

"Calm down, Olivia. I'm just trying to figure this out. If you want to vent, then fine. Go ahead, vent, but don't expect me to just sit here and not do my job. We're a team. Just remember that."

Olivia took a deep breath, looking hard at the road. "I'm sorry, John. I guess I'm letting this case get a little too close to me."

"I understand, Olivia. You're not the only one feeling that way."

She looked over at him and gave a weak smile. "Thanks."

Before Munch could respond, they arrived at the Dean's. It was a quaint house, a little run-down. Weeds covered the front yard, the lawn was shabby and paint was peeling off the walls and doors.

"Good to see they cleaned up for our arrival," Munch commented. Olivia didn't say anything and walked to the door with John at her side. As they got closer, both of them could hear a male voice yelling. Olivia knew the man yelling was inebriated. She had grown up with that tone of voice. Olivia pounded on the door.

A young boy of about sixteen answered the door. He had brown hair and he looked a little thin to Olivia. "Can I help you?" he asked, sticking his head out from inside the house.

"Are you Greg Dean?"

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Greg answered, being as polite as he could.

"I'm Detective Munch and this is Detective Benson. We know it's late and we hate to disturb you, but we'd like to talk to you about Kathleen Stabler."

"Kathleen? Is she okay?"

"You know, I was going to ask you the same thing," Olivia chimed in. "What's going on in there?"

The boy's face became an expression of worry. "Um…nothing…nothing's going on."

"It doesn't sound like nothing," Munch said, looking into the boy's eyes.

"It's nothing, really," he started, trying to get the detectives to stop the third degree. "You said you wanted to talk about Kathleen. Is she okay?" he asked, walking out of the house and closing the door behind him.

Olivia let go of the subject for the moment. "We don't think so," she said. "Somebody kidnapped her."

"Kidnapped? When?" he asked, with genuine worry in his voice, as he moved to the swinging bench on the porch and sat down.

"We were hoping you could help us with that," Olivia asked, taking a seat next to him. "We heard you went to the library with her earlier this afternoon."

"Yeah, we did. We had to look up facts for a paper we were doing."

"What time was that?" Munch asked.

"Umm…we got to the library around four and left a little after five. When I called her that night around seven, her dad said she wasn't there, but she told me she was going straight home. She said her father wanted her to get back."

"Where did you go?" Olivia asked.

"I went home," he answered. He was beginning to feel guilty. "I should've walked her home like I promised," he said softly.

"Listen, this isn't your fault," Olivia said, trying to comfort him. "You couldn't have prevented what happened."

Greg didn't have a chance to respond. He heard his father beginning to rant again. "Listen, I've gotta get back in there."

"Just one more question: Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Kathleen?"

"Have you talked to her ex-boyfriend? His name is Phillip O' Brian. They broke up yesterday and he was pretty pissed. But, that's the only person I can think of. She was…er…is like Ms. America. She's smart, pretty, popular, and caring. She gets along with everyone, even the most unpopular people. Nobody I know well would do something like this."

The boy walked inside and closed the door behind him. The yelling still continued but subsided a little.

"Well, I guess we found out what he was hiding," Olivia said with a heavy sigh.

"What do you mean?"

"When Kathy mentioned him, she said she always felt he was hiding something when he was around her. This has got be it." Olivia paused, contemplating the situation. "Well, what should we do?" she asked.

"You mentioned an address book you got from her room. Let's go check that out," Munch said.

"Yeah, I know that. I meant about him," she said pointing toward the door. "What should we do about him?"

"Well, we can't bang down the door because we hear yelling. We have no obvious proof of abuse. How about we go to the precinct and I'll look into any abuse accusations coming from this address while you check out the address book. We can check out the school in the morning. It's got to be closed at this time of night."

Olivia sighed, giving a look at the door. "Alright, as long as you drive. I might run us off the road."

"Wow."

"'Wow' what?"

"Fin doesn't normally trust me driving."

Olivia laughed a little, went down the stairs, and slipped into the passenger seat. Munch followed and drove them back to the precinct in silence.

SVU Squadroom
-10:57pm-

"So, how are you doing with the address book?" Munch asked Olivia after she had been searching for about five minutes.

"Well, let's just say Kathleen is one of the most meticulous high school students I've ever seen. For each of her friends she has listed, she has their first, middle, and last name, an address, phone number, cell phone number, and email address. I guess we'll get more specific with who she hung out with at the school tomorrow. Did you look up any abuse accusations from the Dean house?"

Munch saw how worried she was becoming for Greg. "I've got zip. Maybe he was just yelling, Olivia. Yelling doesn't indicate abuse. It indicates that certain parents don't know how to talk to their kids."

She sighed, taking it as an answer she didn't like. "Yeah, maybe you're right. How about you get some sleep? There's not much we can do right now and we've got a big day tomorrow. You need your rest; you look tired."

"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? Come on, Olivia. I'm not the only one who needs some shut-eye."

"I can't sleep. I won't be able to."

Munch realized it would be useless fighting with her. "Alright, suit yourself then, but if you fall asleep while talking to somebody, your ass is mine."

Olivia stayed at her desk, flipping through the address book, wishing she could go to the school now.

Norman Thomas High School
December 5, 2003
-8:03am-

"Hi, can I help you?" asked the woman at the front desk.

"Yes, actually you can. I'm Detective Benson and this is Detective Munch, NYPD, Special Victims Unit," began Olivia. "We were wondering if we could have a minute with the principal."

"Can I ask what it's about?"

"Kathleen Stabler."

"Kathleen? Is everything okay? Is she in trouble?"

Olivia looked back at John. She really didn't want to go into any sort of detail. "That's what we need to find out. It would really help if we could talk to the principal. The sooner, the better."

"She's got a free minute right now. I'll tell her you need to see her."

She left the desk and dialed the extension to Mrs. Leonard, the principal. After a few words, she turned back to Olivia and John.

"She can see you right now. Her office is down that hall, second door on your right."

"Thank you."

They followed the directions and found the office door open.

"Good morning, Detectives. I'm Mrs. Leonard. I understand you want to talk to me about Kathleen."

"Yes, we do."

"First of all, I will only cooperate with you if you cooperate with me. I'll answer your questions if you answer mine, and I only one have to start off with," she stated, firmly, walking up from her desk and shutting the door.

Olivia, taken back by her straight forwardness, answered hesitantly. "We can only answer so much because it is an open police investigation, but we'll try our best."

"It's not often I have two NYPD officers come to my office and ask me about one of my best students. I want to know exactly why you're here."

John, deciding that it was best to just tell the truth, answered her. "Kathleen's missing. We need to talk to some of her friends and we were hoping you could help us out with that."

Mrs. Leonard seemed surprised and answered in shock. "I'll help you in any way possible."

"You said Kathleen is one of your best students," Olivia commented.

"She is, academically speaking, of course. I mean, that's the only reason she was ever in my office. I like to offer congratulations to my scholars in person. I was constantly asking to see her in my office to offer her recognition."

"Can you name some people she hangs around with?"

"Well, I see her a lot with Greg Dean, but that's about it. She's a sweet girl who is always nice to everyone. I'm sure she has more friends."

"Have you noticed any change of behavior in Kathleen? Did she mention anyone bothering her?"

"I honestly haven't spent enough time with her to find out. But, one person she would've talked to if she had any real problems would be Mrs. Johansson."

"Where can we see her?"

"Her office is just around the corner. I'll introduce you."

Mrs. Leonard led the detectives to the office and introduced the woman to them.

"I've got a meeting. I'm sorry I couldn't help you any further, Detectives," Mrs. Leonard said, excusing herself.

"Thank you for your time," Olivia said, then turning her attention to Mrs. Johansson. "Mrs. Johansson, we were wondering if Kathleen Stabler had come to talk to you at all recently."

"Actually, she had, about a week ago."

"We understand that what she said is privileged, but whatever you can help us with would be greatly appreciated."

"I'm not a child psychologist, Detectives. I just try to get the point across to the students that if they need anyone to talk to, I'm here. Nothing is really privileged; however, I do promise my students the utmost confidence."

"Like I said, anything you could share would be great."

She sighed and gave into the detectives. "Kathleen came to talk to me about her boyfriend, Phillip. She said that he was beginning to become quite aggressive, but she was afraid what he would do if she broke up with him. I told her that she had to get out of the relationship. I wasn't sure if it would come to the point or not, but I was afraid he was going to become physical. It wouldn't be completely out of character for the young man."

"And how did she respond to that?" Olivia asked.

"She agreed and asked what the best way to break it off would be. I told her there was strength in numbers and to take a friend to go with her. I know the boy wouldn't try anything if there were witnesses."

"Do you know anyone she might have asked?"

"Well, Greg Dean is a good friend, but I saw her come to my office with Gabby Lawson. I've seen them together on campus a lot. Maybe you should talk to her."

"When can we do that?" Munch commented.

"We can pull her out of gym class, but it can't be for too long."

"Of course, we wouldn't want to keep her from her dodgeball studies."

Mrs. Johansson rolled her eyes, picked up her phone and called the front desk to get Gabby out of class. Within minutes, she came in with nervousness written all over her. "Someone said you wanted to talk to me, Mrs. Johansson," she started, trying to keep her eyes off the detectives.

"Actually, these two want to talk to you and they'd appreciate the complete truth, Gabby. Now, I'm going to leave you three alone to talk."

She walked out, closing the door behind her, and Gabby took a seat on the sofa against the wall. "Well, what do you want?"

"Are you and Kathleen good friends?" Olivia started, in her gentlest voice, trying to make the girl comfortable.

"Yeah, we are. Why?"

"We just need to know if she had talked to you about anyone who had threatened her or had been bothering her."

"Well, there's Phillip O' Brian, her ex- boyfriend, but other than that…nope. Kathleen's a real nice girl. She doesn't have any real enemies."

"Have you noticed any change in Kathleen's behavior?" Munch spoke up.

"Well, no. She seemed kinda stressed, but she's always like that. She's involved in a lotta things. But she seemed even more uptight than usual."

"Do you think it was because of what was happening with Phillip?"

"I guess," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. "But I don't wanna speculate about why she was feelin' the way she was."

"Well, thanks for your time, Gabby. We appreciate it." Olivia said with Munch's silent agreement.

After Gabby left, Olivia and Munch let themselves out of the office and walked toward the front desk.

"Okay, everyone we've talked to says that Kathleen is some sort of goddess who is practically perfect in any way. Why would someone want to hurt her? I mean, it's not like we have much to go on," Olivia said, stating the obvious.

"Except for the fact that everyone we talked to had another thing in common. They all mentioned Phillip."

"Do you wanna chat with him again?"

"Love to," said Munch, smirking.

"But let's keep hands to home, shall we?" Before Olivia got any further, her cell phone rang. She answered as Munch went to the front desk to pull out Phillip.

"Benson," she answered.

"Olivia?" came a scared voice from the other line.

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's…It's…It's me…Liz," she replied, through her tears.

Olivia set aside her questions of how Liz got her cell phone number, and focused on the girl.

"Liz, what is it? Is everything okay?"

"No! Everything's not okay! Kathleen's gone! You gotta help us, Olivia! Please?"

Olivia's heart sank and she tried to contain her emotions. "I'm trying my best, sweetheart. I really am."

"You promise she's gonna come home?"

Olivia thought before she made any real promises. "Honey, I can't promise anything, but Munch and I are trying our best and we're doing really well." 'Okay, so you lied a little, Olivia.'

"Olivia! You gotta promise! I want Kathleen back!"

"I know you do, Liz. I want her back, too. I really am trying," Olivia answered, holding tears back.

Liz seemed to calm down and she sniffled her tears away. "You really are trying?"

"Yes, we really are trying and I can promise you that."

"Okay…"

"Liz, where are you right now?" Olivia asked, growing worried for another Stabler girl's well being.

"I'm in my dad's office. He said I could stay home today. I actually gotta go. My mom is calling me for breakfast."

"Alright. Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks, Olivia."

They exchanged good-byes and hung up.

"Who was that?" Munch asked, coming up from behind her.

"Liz. Liz Stabler."

"Is she alright?"

"Elliot and Kathy told her and Dickie this morning. She's pretty shook up."

"Poor kid," said Munch softly.

Trying to get off the subject, Olivia spoke up, "So, did we get Phillip out of class?"

"Yeah, he's on his way. They said we could use Mrs. Johansson's office again."

"You ready?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you want me to sit this one out?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I'd think it'd be best."

"Alright. I'm actually going to take a look at Kathleen's locker."

"Okay, good luck."

"Yeah, see you in a bit."

Munch left and Olivia saw Phillip round the corner. 'Here we go…' she thought

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A/N - I want to thank all of those who have reviewed so far! Your reviews are invaluable! If you have reviewed, then you have a shout out, but if I have forgotten you, I hope you can forgive me for forgetting you in the first place and then let me know so I can get you up there!

Meghan-the-Melancholy – Trust me, I don't hate you! I actually appreciate you taking the time to constructively review my story, because I know you don't like doing that, as you stated. So, thanks for that! I would rather have someone leave me a review that tells me what I could do to improve than have someone lie to me and tell me that every part of it is great and have me go on writing in the same (maybe wrong) way. So thank you for your honesty, it's always something I appreciate (as an author and a person) and, again, I don't hate you! )

Lauren, Kathryn, Vertigo Mac, aserene, Diane, Coz, ZILENABLACK, Maya Beebop, Natalie, Tracy, SammieJo, Cartly – Thank you all for your kind words! I feel so loved! I'm glad you like my story (and enough so that you'd take your time to review it). They mean so much to me and I don't know if you know how much they cheer me up after a bad day at school or something. So, thank you and I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters!

Last, but definitely not least, Singing Daisy – Thanks so much for your kind words about being a goddess! I sent you an email, but I don't know if you got it or not. I hope you did! Enjoy the upcoming chapters!

I've got two questions for you guys: 1. Whose POV would you like to see next? 2. Inspiration is coming to me for a sequel for Finally, I Know. I was thinking of doing the story from Olivia's POV. What do you guys think? Would you read it, or should I keep it as it is?

Well, thanks for reading, and until next chapter, Jessica.