Joe's Coffee shop

Corner of e. 72nd street and Lexington avenue

Upper east side

May 18, 2005

"What a morning," groaned Amy as she pulled in Joe's Coffee Shop. She had made six stops. One stop was to get herself breakfast, the second stop was for Benson's coffee, then Stabler's, then Munch's tea, and then Fin's coffee. This was the last stop. She went inside the diner.

Now Joe was a friendly character. He knew everyone that always came in to get a cup of coffee, especially the regulars. So it came as a surprise when Amy walked in and asked what Cragen had in the mornings.

"Ahhh," he said, "So your one of Cragen's kids?"

"Yeah," replied Amy, "I saw the logo on his cup a couple days ago and so since I have to get him some coffee today, I thought I would try his way."

"Right. Two black coffees with one sugar coming right up!"

So Joe got two black coffees with one sugar prepared while Amy silently laughed to herself. It made sense. Fin liked three sugars in his, Benson liked two, Stabler wanted plain black coffee, and Munch wanted tea. So someone had to have at least one sugar in their coffee. Joe set two coffee cups on his counter.

"There yah go miss. Hope you enjoy it!"

"Thanks!" said Amy and left the shop.

While driving along Lexington Avenue she began to think about the bet she made with Munch and Fin yesterday. She smirked to herself when she stopped at a red light on Lexington and 79th Street Transverse RD. She began to think about Munch's reaction to her joining the squad from the past couple of days. First day he didn't even look her in the eye, but he talk to her. Second day he looked her in the eye and talked to her. So what would the third day bring? "Perhaps," she thought as the light turned green, "He'll call me by my name. Maybe he'll give me something. Nah, better not get too hopeful on that one." She smiled sadly to herself. "Why? Why did it have to be me?" she said to herself. "I'll never understand why he put me in that orphanage." She sighed and continued driving.

Svu Squad room

"Well, well look who's here," said Munch with a smirk.

Amy set down the tray of coffees and one tea and began to hand them out. "There," she said. "Where's the Captain?"

Cragen strolled out of his office as if he was on cue. He saw his favorite coffee shop logo on the cup. He grabbed it and took a sip of it.

"Well may I be the first to congratulate you Amy. You have passed the test."

The squad almost dropped their cups. "WHAT!" they all shouted.

"Yeah," said Cragen laughing at their shocked faces, "She got it right. How did you do it?" he asked her.

"Well the first day Benson send me to your office, I got bored so I started to look around. My eyes fell on the trash can and that coffee cup. The owner knows you I guess so he helped me out."

Everybody was still in shock. Munch and Fin were looking at her with pitying look. Before they could even ask if they had to apologize, Amy shook her head.

"Sorry. A deal is a deal. You promised that if I won you two would apologize. So?" she asked them.

"Wonderful," said Cragen. "Now you two can become good buddies again like you use to be."

They both sighed. Munch began to scratch the back of his head and turned to Fin. "I'm sorry about what I did, you know the tackling part and the car," he muttered.

"Plus the insulting part," interrupted Amy.

"Oh. Yeah, that part too."

"Yeah. I'm…umm…sorry about the black eyes and the insulting part," said Fin. They both shrugged and shook each other's hand and gave a pat on the back.

"There! Are you happy now?" they both said.

"Yeah, I guess," said Amy shaking her head, laughing.

"We'll now that were buddies again," said Cragen, "I want you guys to head over to CSU and see what else they found at the crime scenes."

Arraignment 57

"What's next?" asked Judge Pamela Mizener. It was noon and she wanted to enjoy her lunch.

"The people versus Alex Rosewater. One count of first degree murder and three counts of drug possession."

Judge Mizener looked amused. "How does your defendant plea?" she asked.

"Not guilty," said Alan Cumming, Alex's lawyer.

"Bail, Miss Novak?" she asked.

"Due to the client's unlimited amount of wealth and resources we asked that he be reprimanded without bail," said Novak.

"What resources?" asked Cumming.

"Like owning a port, a yacht…" Novak began to say.

"Okay, okay. I get the picture Miss Novak. Due to being a politician, Mr. Rosewater is reprimanded without bail and will sent to a high security facility of his choice.

She slammed the gavel and court was dismissed. Novak packed her things and left the court room. Security guards escorted Rosewater out.

Outside, Novak was swamped by the media, eager to get pieces of the trial. She pushed through the crowd just to get to her car. Alex's lawyer ran to her car and knocked on the window.

"Hey Casey can we make a…"

"Sorry Alan. The ADA's office wants to take this one trial. No deal." Casey turned on her car and left Alex's lawyer who was being swamped by the media.

Csu crime lab

West End and 11th avenue

Manhattan

They entered the building. Benson and Stabler went to a room on the right while and Munch, Fin, and Amy went to one on the left.

The crime lab technician in the room Benson and Stabler went into began to explain to them what they found. "That chemical you found is what they used in hospitals to clean up bodies before they do emergency surgery. They can only get it through licensed providers." Then he pointed to what look like car mats.

"We didn't search his car," said Benson.

"I know, but some people brought them to check for any bodily fluids. I sprayed an aluminum substance to see if there was any blood that was washed off. Can you kill the lights?" he asked.

The chemical reacted and showed a big blue spot on the carpet mat. Benson and Stabler were shocked.

"Well I'll be damn," said Stabler, "Amy was right on the money."

"Jeez, she's that smart and she's on the force? She should be here instead of SVU," said Benson with a surprising smile on her face.

Meanwhile in the other room...

"What you guys found in the pier was amazing. All the stuff you see here is probably worth over half a million at least," said the technician, "I had to call in someone from Narcotics just to identify this stuff."

Fin let out a low whistle. "Nice. So he's like a Wal-Mart of drugs. Buyers come to him to get what they need and then they turn around and sell the stuff on the streets. No wonder we had such a big problem tracing the stuff while I was in Narcotics. The people that would talk would be on his hit list forever."

"So what's all here?" asked Munch.

"Marijuana, Cocaine, you name it, he had it. This dude had to be rich to afford this," said the technician.

"He was," said Amy. "He was a politician."

"Well he's bound to get elected next year, now isn't he?" he said.

Outside in the hall...

"Casey just got off the phone with me," said Benson. "Sounds like they're sending Rosewater to a very nice, high security place."

"What, Sing-Sing or Rikers wasn't good enough for him?" asked Munch.

"They want to protect him from the media and other people who want to get him," she said.

They walked down the hallway and out of the building. They were walking to their cars, talking to each other, not taking a care a black car was following them. "So what do we do now?" asked Stabler.

SCREEEETCH!

Before someone could answer his question, the black car sped up. One of the people in the car rolled down a tinted black window took aim with a gun at the detectives.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" yelled Stabler.

BAM! BAM! BAM! Three gunshots were fired as everyone got down behind a car. Munch seized Amy by the neck and pulled her down with him.

BAM! BAM! BAM! More gunshots were fired. Everyone took out their guns and began to fire at the black car, all except for Amy who was putting in an emergency call with some difficulty because Munch kept trying to keep her head down every time it rose an inch. "Suspect is in a black sedan, shooting at five detectives at the Manhattan CSU Crime Lab! Send back up immediately!" she shouted to her phone.

SCREEETCH! The black sedan began to drive away. Everyone looked up as they saw the black car going away. Munch was still holding Amy's head down.

"Get...off...of...ME!" Amy yelled while kicking Munch off of her. She got up and began running with Stabler, Benson, and Fin. Munch got up and was right behind her. They stopped right in the middle of the street to take aim but the sedan was gone.

"Who the hell was that?" panted Benson.

"Somebody who doesn't want us alive," said Stabler.

Fin heard sirens and saw the back up Amy had requested for. "Late as usual," he muttered.

Everyone turned their heads to the coming cop cars. Somebody was determine to make sure they were not alive alright. Somebody who had a grudge against them and was determined to see them dead.

SVU squad room

Novak ran into the office. She had just heard it on the media and came to tell Cragen what had just happen. Cragen was on the phone when she entered his office.

"Yes, I understand. Thank you," and he hung up the phone. Novak began to talk, but he interrupted her. "I already know Casey."

"Then you'll be happy to know that I did some digging. It seems Alex made a phone call fifteen minutes before they were shot at," she said and she threw some phone records from the facility Rosewater was staying on Cragen's desk. "I got the transcripts too."

Cragen was grabbing his coat when he stopped dead. "Why that son of a CENSORED. Where is he being kept at Casey?"

"At some facility in Staten Island. Silver Lake I think," she replied.

Cragen grabbed his coat and walked quickly out of his office. Novak had to jog just to keep up with him. "Slow down will you? I can barely keep up with you in heels. You've gotta calm down.'

"Oh, I'm calm alright, I'm very calm. Where are you going?"

"I'm going with you just to make sure you don't screw this up," she said.

SILVER LAKE FACILITY

ROCKLAND AND MANOR ROAD

STATEN ISLAND

Cragen walked into the facility in a very bad mood. He was past his boiling point. Nothing made him madder than hell if one or all of his detectives were in danger. Novak was still running to keep up with him.

"Alex's lawyer his on way. He's is not too happy about this."

"So I am Casey."

"Don, stop! If you lose it in there while you're talking to him..." she made a grab for his jacket. Cragen pushed her hand away and wheeled around. Novak took a step back. She was not used to the look that he was giving her now.

"Casey, I don't like it when someone puts a hit on one of my detectives. In this case that CENSORED put a hit on all of them. I know he did it whether him or his CENSORED lawyer deny it. He just made my day and now I'm gonna make his." He began to walk at a fast pace again.

Novak grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. "Just calm down," she said exasperated. "I don't like it either, but you've got to understand that you are not the only who is angry here. I am too! But I'm not marching into some jail and about to take it out some guy that we have in custody! We gotta do this by the book if we want to get him on this, alright?"

Cragen sighed. Novak was right. If Alex did this, then they had to play by the rules. "Okay," he said. They waited outside of a small room until Alex's lawyer showed up.

He showed up fifteen minutes later in a very bad mood. Novak was getting off a nearby payphone when she saw him come in. Cragen stood up and Novak followed right behind Alex's lawyer.

"It's four something in the afternoon and here you are dragging me out of my nice..." Cumming began.

"Oh shut up," said Novak as they entered the small room. Alex was already there, waiting for them. He had a smirk on his face.

"I suppose you are here because of the shooting Captain Cragen." Rosewater said pleasantly. Cragen glared at him.

"The ADA has agreed to offer a deal for the safety of the five detectives that were shot at today," said Novak. "Either he tells us who he hired to shoot a whole squad of detectives or he gets the death penalty.

"What kind of deal is that!" exclaimed Cumming.

"We were already seeking the death penalty before he did that little stunt of his. If he tells us who he hired to shoot a squad of detectives, we'll reduce his sentence to life in prison. No parole either," she added as Cumming began to ask.

"Wait a minute here! You don't even have proof that he hired people to shoot them!"

"Oh yes we do," said Cragen angrily. "We checked on your wife just to see if she placed any type of communication, but she has been in our custody. You see we've been trying to relocate her and the only access she would have to any type of communication would be anything in a precinct, which means every move of hers was being watched. However, we checked your phone records from here and what did we find? During your free time you were placing a call fifteen minutes before the shootings began! Can you explain that?"

The lawyer was getting very angry now. "How do you even know the time?" he asked.

"BECAUSE ONE OF MY PEOPLE PUT IN AN EMERGENCY CALL RIGHT AFTER THE SHOOTINGS BEGAN!" roared Cragen.

The lawyer nearly fell over his chair. He regained his balance and whispered to Alex. After that, he straightened his tie.

"Okay, we'll take the deal," he said.

Rosewater took a deep breath and then said, "Okay, I placed the call. During my free time, I went to the phone room here and I called two of my best hit men, Alan and Ian. I gave them the names of your detectives and I told them where the precinct was and to follow the detectives. Whenever the time was right, I told them to kill anyone of them. Seems like they failed or you wouldn't be here now would you? Miserable old..."

"Where do they live?" asked Cragen trying to keep his temper down.

"They live on the same building I do, fifth floor."

"How did you find out the other detectives' names?" asked Novak.

"When they sent me here yesterday, I began to rummage through some old newspapers of their achievements. That's how I found out," he said smiling.

Cragen could not hold back any longer. "If you ever pulled the little stunt you just did today, I'll personally see that they put the needle in your arm," he hissed and he stormed out of the room. Novak gathered her things and went after him leaving Cumming speechless and Rosewater in his thoughts.

Outside of the room, Novak was mad. "That comment was out of line. You know better than that."

"Damn right," he said and began to walk fast pace again. Novak sighed and ran to keep up with him. "Wait up! How many times do I have to tell you that I can't run in heels?"

SvU Squad room

He walked into the squad room. He had dropped Novak at the courthouse so she could get two warrants for the arrests. He had headed over to the crime lab but an officer had told him that they went back to their precinct.

"WHY THE HELL YOU GUYS LEFT THE AREA!" he yelled.

"Nice to see that you're in cheerful spirits Cap," said Munch.

"The media was pure hell, so we left. But we made sure we weren't being followed," Stabler leaning back in his chair.

Cragen sighed. "Novak is getting a warrant right now to arrest the people who did this you guys." He looked at his watch and saw that it was 5:30. "Who wants take out?" he asked them.

"I'm hungry," said Amy. "So I'll eat anything."

The phone rang and Cragen picked it up. It was Novak.

"Listen," she said. "I got the warrants. I send another squad to pick those two up. Is the..."

"Yeah they're fine," he said.

"We'll get them Don, don't worry," she said. "I'll call you when we get them, okay?"

The remainder of the day was really spent in silence. Novak had called and said they got them and that they were in Rikers being booked. Finally, they began to leave one by one and Amy went upstairs right after Cragen left.

She put on her boxing gloves and began to practice her kickboxing moves on the punch bag that was upstairs. The day had gotten to her; someone had tried to kill her friends. Then after while she got tired and took off her gloves. She grabbed her gun and went on the rooftop to relax.

It was cool and breezy that night. She sat their on the roof thinking about the whole day. So much had happen that some parts of the day were blank. Her friends were shot at and if she could had the chance, she would wring Rosewater's neck for what he did.

CREEEAAK!

Amy stood up and pulled out her gun. She pointed it into the shadows. After what happen today she was not going to let someone shoot at her again. "Whoever you are, you better come out if you don't want to be crippled for life," she said.

"Easy. It's just me," said a familiar voice.

Munch loomed out of the darkness. Amy put her gun away. "What are you doing here so late?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that question," he said taking off his hat.

"I'm poor. I have nowhere to go dumb ass. Unlike you who goes home in a nice, cozy apartment waiting for one your wives to call you and ask for more money," she said with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"I didn't come here to discuss my marital status with you. I came to explain my actions that I did ten years ago."

She looked at him. "Oh so now you want explain after a ten year gap. What ever happened to sending a Hallmark card entitled 'I'm sorry for what I did ten years ago', hmmm? I mean Hallmark has any card for any occasion and they even have a 99 cent section. You couldn't spare 99 cents on a stupid card?" She walked past him and inside the precinct again. They were thumping sounds which meant she was kickboxing again. Munch sighed, went inside and shut the door.

He moved around her so he wouldn't get hit with the punching bag or with one of her fists. She was very mad now. He sat on one of the bunk beds and watched her for the longest time.

Indeed, she was very angry. She kept punching and kicking the bag really fast until it was swinging in every direction. Finally she missed the bag and it caught her in the stomach. "Ooofff," she cried and went down.

The bag swung back and then came back at her again. Munch readied himself to leap up and catch it, but Amy was much quicker. She jumped up and delivered a right hook as it came at her. The force of the punch send it back and came out her again, but she caught it. Munch relaxed and she took off her helmet, mouth piece, and boxing gloves. She put them on a table and sat down next to him on the bed.

"I'm listening," she said. She was looking at the floor when she said it. He gave a puzzled look at her before taking a deep breath. He took off his glasses and put them on the table next to her boxing items.

"What I did ten years ago, I thought I was doing the right thing. I knew if I accepted the responsibility of taking care of you then...then...well...I knew what came with it. Questions like 'Where would you go to school?' and 'Who could I trust to leave with you when I got slammed with overtime?' always came up in my mind during the meetings. I always thought I could pick you up after school, but I didn't want to disturb your mind any more by seeing all the things I saw. When you lost your parents and when I saw how fragile your mind was, I couldn't do that."

"In other words you didn't want me to become a serial killer or deranged person who blew up on every insulting comment said to me," she said still not looking at him.

He nodded. "That and I never wanted to give a kid the responsibility of taking care of me. About half of my life is gone and I still don't know how to do the dishes. I rely on a dishwasher for that job."

She smiled at this comment. He saw this and began to feel more confident. "I thought placing you in an orphanage would be the right thing to do. I know the system would be responsible of taking care of you, so if anything happen I could blame it on the system. It seemed like a fool proof plan, but I didn't realized what it would do to you in the long run."

"So when you turned eighteen, I thought to myself 'I think now is a good time to explain what I did.' But when I showed up at the orphanage they told me you left that morning. I went into a depression-like state. I went on a drinking binge for weeks until my old partner found out what I was doing and he put a stop to that."

Now Amy looked at him and stood from the bed. She looked at him straight in the eye. The last two statements hit her with such fury that before she knew what she was doing, she lashed out her anger like a samurai striking someone with his sword in one clean swipe.

"SO YOU THOUGHT THAT WHEN I TURNED EIGHTEEN, THAT I WOULD UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THEN, HUH? EVERYTHING WOULD BE JUST HUNKY-DORY! WELL LET ME GET SOMETHING STRAIGHT! JUST BECAUSE I HAD RECENTLY LOST MY PARENTS AND GONE FROM ONLY CHILD TO ORPHAN DOESN'T MEAN I WOULDN'T HAVE UNDERSTAND. I WOULD HAVE! I KNEW WHAT YOU DID FOR A LIVING! DAD TOLD ME! MY GOD YOU ARE REALLY PATHETIC! YOU WENT ON A DRINKING BINGE BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT I HAD LEFT FOREVER AND YOU HADN'T GOT THE CHANCE TO EXPLAIN YOUR ACTIONS! THAT IS REALLY A LOUSY EXCUSE! YOU COULD HAVE EXPLAINED IT THEN AND YOU KNOW IT!"

There were tears in her eyes now. She began to walk around, sobbing as she did. "I was alone for three years in a place I thought I would never end up in. You want to know what that's like? You have to watch everything you own so the others don't steal it from you. Your damn social worker doesn't give a CENSORED because she's too busy with other cases. So when I turned eighteen, I was ready to get out of that mad house you put me in. I'm surprised that I didn't go insane inside that place."

"My parents had left a will, leaving all their possessions and a car that they had bought for me before they died. I had no where to go. That's how I met Leena in the Bronx. I got lost so I asked her where I was. She was on break and she offered me something to eat. After I told her I had no where to go, she took me to her place and I lived there for awhile before joining the force in '98."

"But I didn't want to stay there forever. The Bronx reminded me of the orphanage; I had to watch my back every single second. So I went and applied for a transfer after six years in the Homicide Unit; the only one opening was SVU in Manhattan. I thought you were still in Baltimore all this time. I guess I was wrong."

She sat down next to him again and began to cry. She sobbed miserably into her hands. Munch was pretty close to tears too. "All this time she kept it up...it's a wonder she hasn't had a mental breakdown yet," he thought to himself. He took off his coat and wrapped it her around as he cradled her in his arms.

Amy cried into his shirt. She didn't care that she was the only person she hated in her life. For once in her life, it felt good to feel comforted by a person she knew. Munch's tears now had started falling down his cheek and one of them landed on her head. Amy looked up at him. "You're crying," she said. "I've never seen a grown man cry."

He looked at her. "And it had to be me first, huh?" he said softly. "I'm sorry...I never knew. I am so sorry."

She looked up at him. "I thought I never would be saying this, but I forgive you. Something tells me I should and I don't know why."

Exhausted, she leaned her head on his arm. He smiled and he finally felt at peace. After ten years, it felt good to have the closure he so longed for in his own life. Right before Amy dozed completely he told her, "You're the bravest girl I know, Amy," and she too finally fell asleep, with the closure she had so longed for many years too.

The next morning, Amy stirred from her sleep. She got up, Munch's coat slipping off of her. Munch was no where to be found. She looked at the clock on the small table. It was 7:30 in the morning!

She had slept in! Anxiety began to replace her grogginess. She began to put her boxing stuff away. She put on her glasses and began to put on new clothes. She was in the middle of tying her shoes when Munch came upstairs from the squad room. He had made breakfast for the both of them. He looked at her with confusion.

"What's the rush?" he asked.

"I have to get ready for work and sneak out without the others knowing that I am..."

"Relax. On trial days, the Captain lets us come in a little later. And the others don't know that you're poor?"

She looked away from him. "Yes and I want to keep it that way," she muttered with some embarrassment. She looked what he had fixed for her; toast and an apple. She took the piece of toast and examined it. "Fancy breakfast in bed. I guess there wasn't much food, now was there?"

He nodded. "Well yeah. Plus I'm simple. I don't make elaborate stuff for meals." He sighed and looked around the room. "Don't you have more stuff than this?" he asked.

"It's in storage. Sometimes I go and dig through stuff, but most of it is stuff I don't need..."

"And yet you still keep it with the hopes of owning your own place so you can enjoy it again," he said with a sly smile. He had guessed what she was thinking in her mind. She nodded for a reply. "Since you're family, why don't you move in until you can find a place of your own?" Munch asked.

She took a bite out of her piece of toast. She was chewing and thinking at the same time. She finally swallowed and looked at him.

"Well it can have some benefits. First off, I'll teach you how to cook" (Munch gave Amy an incredulous look at the mention of this), "make sure you don't get in anymore fights with your partners, and try to keep you out of trouble. I guess something good can come out of it, but..."

"You're afraid that everyone will find out your secret and you'll be embarrassed since you're living with me."

Once again, Munch was right on the money. She nodded to him. He sat on the bed and looked at her in the eye.

"Sometime in our life we are going to fall down. Sometimes we fall down many times and yet we still manage to find the strength to get up and keep going. But once in awhile, we need help getting up. Even though we had always got up by ourselves in the past, sometimes that extra help is needed just to get on our feet before we start going where we need to go."

Amy was silent for a while. "You know I got a whole bunch of crap lying around here," she said finally.

"All the more reason for us to pack right now," he said with a smile.