Trail Part 77

May 19, 2005

Judge Graboski had Novak and Cummings approach. "If I'm not mistaken, all the agreements of the deal have been meant?" he asked. He flipped through the papers that Novak had given him.

"Yes, your honor. The people had fulfill their agreement as well as my defendant," said Cumming.

"Very well then," said Graboski, "You may step down."

"Since the agreements of the deal have been met, you shall start your term today Mr. Rosewater."

The judge slammed the gavel and everybody left the courtroom. Novak gathered her things and left the courtroom last. Outside, the media had questions about the trial and the shooting from yesterday and she wanted to avoid them at all cost.

However, avoiding the media wasn't all that easy. She still got slammed with a pretty large group of people. She finally decided to make a statement to them.

"After what happen yesterday, the ADA's Office decided that the safety of the detectives overrides us seeking the death penalty against Rosewater who had information on the shootings. This information led us to two suspects who are suspected of the shootings and they are now in police custody."

"Miss Novak, it is said that Rosewater would have got leniency with his political power. Is this true?" asked a reporter.

"No, Rosewater is still a regular citizen with more obligations to fulfill. Politician or not, he would have still been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Now if you will..."

"Miss Novak, do you have any comments about the two suspect shooters that the police have in custody at this time?" asked another reporter.

"No I don't. Now please let me get to my car," said Novak angrily.

SVU squad room

Novak walked in into the now busy precinct. Munch and the new kid were still not here even though it was still past nine. After telling them about last night's and today's events, everybody wasn't too happy.

"So that's it then," said Benson "He gets away what he did to his own daughter by calling a hit on all of us forcing the ADA to deal with him in exchange that he calls off the hit and gives us the location of the two people who tried to kill us. It's not right."

"And there's no justice for his daughter," added Fin.

"I know," said Novak. "I didn't think it was right either, but your safety meant a lot more to me than some stupid politician getting away with murder. We had a perfect case, but..."

"It fell apart when he made that stupid call. He should have been denied phone privileges," said Stabler.

"Then he would have cried out abuse and we'd be in a whole other mess. At least his hit men are being prosecuted by McCoy. He'll give them something to think about in prison if they have any time at all," pointed out Cragen.

Fin began to play with Munch's Hawaiian doll. Surprisingly Munch had pasted the thing together pretty well. You could not tell that it actually broke. "Speaking of messes, I wonder where my partner is," he said.

"Why? You're the one that picks him up and keeps telling him to hire a driver," said Cragen.

"Well yeah he wasn't there at his apartment today. Maybe he somehow convinced the new kid to pick him up and she got lost finding his place. Explains why she's late too. Now I can finally sleep in," he said still poking at the Hawaiian doll.

"Speaking of the new girl, what are we going to do with her?" asked Stabler, "After all, she did figure out the case pretty much on her own."

"Why don't we throw a surprise party at her favorite place, like Chauncey's or something to that effect?" asked Novak.

"Excellent! I call Munch and tell him to call in sick so he can distract the newbie while we get a hold of her friend and ask where her favorite place was," said Benson picking up the phone.

"Fin and I will pick up the party favors," said Cragen and went to grab his coat.

"Can we get noise makers! I love noise makers!" exclaimed Fin to Cragen.

John munch's apartment

"It's neat for being a two bedroom apartment," said Amy walking in with her fifth box.

The apartment was neat for a guy living by himself. She had seen worse places than his. Munch got a little offended at her comment.

"What? You just notice that now? Not all men are slobs you know," he said looking up from an open box.

"I know that. It's just most apartments I've seen are pure messy, like my old partner," she said shaking her head. "That's the last box by the way," she added.

"Only seven boxes of nothing but clothes you don't fit in, books, and other items, what a record," he said.

Munch was digging through a box containing what look like to be nothing but packing peanuts. He finally came across a book that shocked him. He read the title twice before saying something.

"The Big Book of the Unexplained by Doug Moench? You've got to be kidding me! I always wanted to read this! But you don't strike me as a person who sees a conspiracy in a five year old's lemonade stand or in everything for that matter."

"Well then go ahead and read it. I mean it's not like all I have is manga, Harry Potter, and other kiddy books. I read other stuff too yah know," she said.

He kept digging. "A Super Nintendo Entertainment System and fifty-some odd games? A car guide from 2000? No wonder you know a lot about technology and cars too."

She took it away from him. "This stuff wasn't restricted for boys alone and it's not like I eat and breathe this stuff. I rollerblade and kick box most of the time. Those are my two favorite hobbies. Once in awhile, I play soccer with Leena."

The phone rang and Munch went to pick it up. After awhile, he hung up. "Who was that?" Amy asked.

"Some random idiot asking if this was pizza parlor," he said.

"Ohhh, okay. So where am I going to put this stuff?" she asked

"In that small room over there. Seems I'll have to get a few shelves so we can put up your books. Also we'll have to get you some nice clothes for work. No offense though, it's just the Captain wants us to look nice."

"Okay, but I don't see anything wrong with my hoodies and jeans," she muttered.

"Well let me call the Captain and tell him we're calling in sick. Do you have your cell phone?" he asked.

"Sure" and she tossed it to him. While he went to make the call privately, she went into the room that she would be sleeping in and walked inside.

Apparently this was like a storage room for him. On the small table she noticed a photo frame and went to look at it. She gasped who she saw who it was. She listened for him ending the phone call soon then took it out of the frame to inspect it.

It was Sarah Logan, the reporter who was raped and then killed in a bombing in her own apartment during her trial. She turned it on the back and saw a little note scribbled there.

Hey John!

I want to thank you for all the hard work you have been doing on my case. I can't wait until we nail this guy. You remind so much of my brother in many ways. I really appreciate the card you send me so I thought of sending you a photo of me and a little thank you note inscribed here would be enough thanks for the card. Thanks again for being there for me when I needed someone.

See you soon!

Sarah

She looked at it for the longest time then put it back in the frame and on the dresser. She would ask the Captain about it later. Right now she didn't want to ruin the happiness that her uncle was feeling.

She heard him getting off the phone, so she began to busy herself stacking boxes. Apparently these were from his divorces. Most of them had paperwork in them.

He walked in. "Ooppss! I forgot I had these in here. Seems we have to do more cleaning. Oh well, we have all day I guess"

"Yeah," said Amy nervously. While he was helping her put away the boxes, she took another glance at the picture. She was very pretty with her long hair and smile. Apparently she was very smart too from what she had heard by word of mouth. Apparently Uncle John had a crush on her and Amy couldn't imagine what pain he went and probably still went through when he found out that she died in a bombing. For the rest of the day, they cleaned up the room, went and bought new bookshelves (Munch had to get more nails than bookshelves because he kept losing them), got sky blue paint for her new room, had lunch, and then they went shopping for new clothes. She could not shake off that girl's face and the relationship (if there was one) she had with her uncle.

That night her room was done. They were both covered in paint and they were sitting on the floor, eating Chinese take out and admiring their work. "Nice job with the paint Uncle John," said Amy.

"Well you did an excellent job with the bookshelves. I don't think I couldn't have done better," he said laughing.

"Really now? I would think because you kept losing every nail that you could grab your hands on!" she laughed.

He looked around then at his watch and said "We should go and celebrate at your favorite place."

"You mean you want to go to the Bronx and go to Podley's Place?" she asked disbelieving.

"If it's your favorite place then yeah. I'll drive you to the Bronx or Canada for that matter. We should wash up then, but call the others and see if they want to come, okay?"

"Alright," and she picked up her cell phone. After they both took showers, Amy began to put on her new outfit. It consisted of a brown blazer and matching pants with a nice white shirt. A short brown top that went as far as to her waist would be put on top of the white shirt. It looked cute with her glasses and ponytail. She was about to put on her blazer when Munch knocked on her door.

"May I come in?" he asked through the door.

"Yeah, I'm decent," she replied.

Munch rolled his eyes and smirked before opening the door. He entered with a package wrap in some paper and gave it to her. She looked at him oddly.

"What is this?" she asked

"Open it," he said and watched her tear through the paper and gasp.

It was his holster from when he worked in Baltimore and part of his time on SVU. He had put it away when they came out with the ones that you could put on your waist. He had always saved it just in case he wanted to wear it again, but he never did.

Amy turned around over and over. It had his initials inscribed in the leather. It was black and a little big, but with some adjustments Munch got it to fit her just right.

"It's twenty-some years old. It's just about as old as I have been working in the force. Never thought I would save it for this long, but I guess I'd better keep it in the family or otherwise I might sell it or something," he said. "Here put on your badge on and let me see the outfit."

She did and turned around in a full circle. "Who would ever think that being cop could be so stylish?" she said in a prissy tone.

"Since today," he said and went to get up leave. "You might scare every baddie on the street with that outfit."

"Or get jumped by some admirer of mine," she added.

She ran to him and gave him a hug. He was surprised by this action of hers, but he smiled afterwards. "Okay, I love you too. Now please get off me."

She let go and before he left the room, he stopped and look at the table. He took the picture of Sarah Logan from the small table and went to his room. Amy grabbed her car keys waited for Munch at the door. The feeling of sadness began to replace the happiness she had. Why was it that she was feeling this way when she thought of Sarah and him?

Podley's place

149th street and southern blvd.

Munch and Amy walked in. Podley's Place was a cozy bar on the corner of 149th Street and Southern Blvd. Amy and Leena would always hang out here most of the time after solving a case.

They made their way to the back of the room. She had reserved a large back room for all the squad and Novak. When they entered, everyone leaped from their hiding places and shouted "SURPRISE!"

Leena, Benson, Stabler, Fin, Cragen, and Novak had been decorating the room all day. When Benson had call Munch that day to tell them of the plan, she had ask him to call her friend so she could join in the happy gathering. Munch was to keep Amy busy all day until late that night.

Amy was smiling and laughing with the rest of them after they had explain this to her. "I'd never thought or suspected this coming," she said with an amused smile on her face.

She took a sip of her root beer. Leena had explain to the others that she was not a drinker and that she believed it was stupid to drink in the first place. So they all had order root beer for that night. Leena said Amy called it the drink of the gods.

They took pictures and joked a lot. "Wow guys," said Amy taking a breather from the laughing, "I'd never suspected of a conspiracy where the whole squad and my best friend would join forces and create a surprise party."

"If you think that this was a conspiracy then wait till you here mine about a five year old's lemonade stand..." began Munch and everybody shook their heads as Munch began to explain his theory about why five year olds run lemonade stands. Finally everyone shouted "GIVE IT A REST JOHN!" and everyone, including Munch, began to laugh all through the night.