Disclaimer: Don't own, not making money off this.

Author's Note: Thank you for the great reviews guys. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter. It was a roller coaster to write, I hope it's a roller coaster to read. Shellster: Thank you so much for you condolences. They mean a lot to me right now.

Sins of the Father

Chapter Fourteen: Tango to Hell

So you think, "Might as well,

Dance a tango to hell."

Tango Maureen, RENT

Grace sat down wearily in her chair and rubbed her knee. She had been one month without the brace, two months back at work and still was suffering some minor aches and pains. The doctors and therapist had told her to never expect the knee to go back to 100. Of course, she grinned, dancing with Bobby until two in the morning probably wasn't the best thing for her healing knee.

"How are you feeling?"

Grace looked up and stopped rubbing her knee. Dr. Rodgers was standing in the office doorway. "I'm feeling fine."

"Knee hurting?"

"It's a little stiff. Nothing to worry about."

Rodgers gave her a quick nod before laying down a small stack of files. "These are the autopsies that the intern did today. I was wondering if you could look over them and double check the paperwork."

"Sure," Grace added them to her stack of paperwork for the five autopsies she performed that day. Rodgers picked up the picture frame that was sitting on Grace's desk. It wasn't until she was released from the hospital that Grace actually put out some pictures, giving her office a more personal touch. She had noticed Rodgers sneaking peaks and asking about the people in the photos, obviously pleased by the change of décor.

"This is a great picture," Rodgers laughed as she set the frame back down on the desk. Grace had just put it out that morning. It was of her and Bobby on Valentine's Day. They had decided to double date with Alex and Terry. Alex had snapped the picture of them head on in a tango starting pose with semi-serious looks on their faces. It was one of Grace's favorites.

"Yeah, I kind of like it."

Rodgers gave her a shrewd stare. "You and Goren seeing a lot of each other lately?"

Grace wondered when her boss was going to get around to that subject. "I guess so."

"Maybe I should find someone else to look over the intern's paperwork."

Grace laid a hand on the top of the files. "Goren's working late tonight."

"Ah. Well, I'll leave you to it then. See you tomorrow morning."

Grace waved a good bye as Rodgers made her way out of the office. She gave her knee one last quick rub down before starting on her paperwork. She breezed over the intern's work and found it to be very good. She jotted down a couple notes about being slightly more thorough on findings and moved on to her own paperwork. Around six o'clock her office phone rang.

"Harris."

"Grace, it's Alex, you're never going to believe this."

"What? What happened?" She heard Alex take a deep breath on the other line.

"We got Nicole Wallace."

"Great. I'll be right over. Just let me make a call first."

"You don't have to come," Alex said. "I just thought I'd tell you we got her."

"I want to see this first hand. I'll see you soon."

Alex laughed. "Okay then. See ya."

Grace hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket. Pulling out her phone she hit the speed dial for the SVU switchboard. When the automated operator came on, she dialed the extension she wanted. Two rings and the person picked up.

"Benson."

"Detective Benson, this is Dr. Harris from the ME's office. I need some information from you if you have a few minutes."

When Grace stepped off the elevator she could practically feel the buzz in the bullpen. It was like the day before Christmas break in a classroom: everyone was there because they had to be but no work was getting done. Captain Deakins wasn't in his office and Bobby and Alex were away from their desks.

Grace squared her shoulders and dared anyone to stop her but no one gave her a second look. She passed by the visitors rooms which were all empty. That only left the interrogation rooms. She went to the middle room door and opened it to find Captain Deakins and a very lawyer-looking man facing one of the two way mirrors.

"Who are you?" the lawyer asked. Deakins gave her a slightly suspicious look before answering the question.

"This is Dr. Grace Harris, she works at the ME's office." He turned to look at Grace. "Did Goren call you?"

"No, Eames."

"Oh," he said before pointing to the lawyer. "This is ADA Ron Carver."

Grace crept up to the mirror and looked through the window. She immediately recognized all three people in the room. Alex was leaning back in her chair, watching Nicole Wallace stare her down. Bobby was pacing around the room like a caged lion. She had seen that look before whenever he was close to cracking a case. It was merely single minded determination. And Nicole looked emotionally solid as a rock.

"Let me talk to her."

"Yeah, right," Deakins said.

"No, really, let me talk to her."

The captain gave her a hard look. "Maybe you didn't understand me. No."

"Look, I talked to this woman for three days. She sat across from me and spilled my secrets as well as Bobby's. Let me repay the favor."

Deakins looked back into the interrogation room. Bobby was still pacing. Alex was pinching the bridge of her nose. The police captain gave Carver a fleeting look before looking back at Grace.

"If you can get into that room and stay long enough to get any information out of that woman, I'll try to hold back Goren and Eames from interrupting."

Grace nodded. "Deal."

"Wait a minute," Carver started to object but Deakins knocked on the glass and cut him off. Grace headed out of the room and stood by the water cooler in the bullpen and watched Bobby and Alex switch rooms, frustration written on their faces. As soon as they were safely in the observation room, Grace made her way towards the interrogation room.

"What's going on?" Goren asked. His captain merely looked like someone had caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. Goren groaned. "Don't tell me we've hit another legal technicality."

Carver held up both his hands in a placating manner. "I have nothing to do with this."

Goren looked back into the interrogation room to see Grace entering the room. Deakins hit the button so they could hear what was going on.

"What's she doing in there?" Goren demanded.

Eames rubbed her face tiredly. "I shouldn't have called her."

"You called her?"

"I thought she would want to know. She was thrilled," Eames answered defensively.

"We can't let her shred her mind," Goren said as he started for the door. Deakins grabbed his arm though and he turned to look at his captain.

"Just listen to who's shredding who's mind in there."

Goren looked to Eames for some support but she merely shrugged her shoulders and directed her attention to the mirror. He rubbed the back of his neck and took up a stance next to his partner. Grace had taken a seat next to Nicole, who was watching the red-head very guardedly. Grace looked like she normally did: jeans, sweater and her hair was down in loose curls. Any signs of her beating had been long since healed except for a slight stiffness to her knee.

He braced his hands on the ledge of the observation window. He would let Grace try to play her game with Nicole but at the first sign of damage, emotional or otherwise, he was going to be the first one in there. They had come too far, invested too much into their relationship to have Nicole Wallace tear them apart.

"So," Grace was saying, "Bobby's been looking for you since November. How did they catch you?"

Nicole glanced at the mirror before giving Grace a disarming smile. "I made the unfortunate mistake of befriending Bobby's brother in a casino. I guess you never know who you play poker with."

"You'd make a good poker player."

Nicole showed the slightest twinge of being uncomfortable. Goren shifted on his feet. Maybe Grace knew what she was doing.

"You really think so?"

Grace shrugged. "Sure. Anyone who goes through what we went through," Grace motioned to Nicole, herself and then at the mirror, "becomes very good at hiding emotions."

Nicole's cold hearted demeanor came back. "What are you suggesting we all went through?"

"What was it you said to Bobby over the phone? Wasn't it something about it's the sins of our fathers that bind us altogether?"

"He told you about that?"

Grace waved her hand in a very Goren-esque gesture. "He told me everything. About those sins, though, they would be what? Abandonment?"

"Yes, those who have been abandoned always end up abandoning those they love. It's inevitable, Grace." Nicole cocked her head to the side. "Tell me something, are you and Bobby happy?"

Grace gave Nicole a very sly smile, one that Goren had come to know very well. She was getting ready to unleash that barbed tongue of hers.

"How did you know about Bobby and me? Do I smell like him?"

Nicole laughed suddenly. "What?"

"I can't smell anything," Grace admitted. "All the formaldehyde from college burned away the lining in my nose. I couldn't even tell you if the man wears cologne. But I figure since we had lunch today and he hugged me maybe some of his cologne rubbed off on my clothes. Do I smell like him?"

"It was merely a guess, nothing else."

"Oh. Well, why did you want to know?"

"To warn you. Coming from such similar backgrounds, you're both doomed from the beginning. His father abandoned his family, your father did the same. It's not a matter of if, Grace, but when." Nicole leaned on the table and smiled wickedly. "So, who do you think will leave first? Will you? Will you leave Bobby before he leaves you or will you allow him to leave?"

Goren watched Grace's reaction very closely but her face remained stone still. Even her fingers didn't move. He could feel Eames' gaze on him but he ignored it, searching for anything in Grace's demeanor to tell him that she didn't buy into Nicole's words. Then he saw it. A heartbreaking look of sadness crept into Grace's face but it wasn't the kind of sadness she had ever shown him. This grief was full of pity. And when Nicole noticed it, he could practically see her blood pressure rise.

"You've never been in love, have you, Nicole?"

"Love is highly overrated, dear."

Grace shook her head in all seriousness. "You wouldn't say that if you had ever been in love."

"Then you tell me, Grace. What is being in love like?"

A shy smile passed over Grace's face. "It's like the world has gone from black and white to color."

The triumphant smile on Nicole's face faded somewhat.

"Is there any point to this?" Carver spoke up.

Goren let out a short laugh and crossed his arms. "Oh, yeah. There's definitely a point to this."

Grace had leaned forward to look at Nicole head on. "Did you ever feel that way, Nicole? Did you ever meet someone that just made the world seem to be so much fuller of life than you believe it to be?"

Nicole remained strangely quiet.

"No one, Nicole? What about your boyfriend? You know, the one that beat me within an inch of my life."

"I didn't mean for that to happen."

Everyone jumped to attention behind the glass. Carver was the first to find his voice.

"She just admitted to being at the crime scene with the butchered drug bodies and Grace's beating. We can definitely connect her to the drug running now."

"I know you didn't mean for that to happen," Grace said. "That's not your style, is it?"

"Style?"

"Yeah, style. You know, if you wanted me dead, I would be dead. Like your Thai victims, your daughter-"

"I did not kill my daughter."

"Oh, that's right," Grace scooted her chair closer to Nicole. "She was swept out to sea and found inland in iron rich soil. I forgot. But don't you see, Nicole? This all goes back to our father's sins. Those indiscretions fall on us."

"Yes, they do."

"I was surprised when you didn't throw a certain indiscretion at me when I was in your company those few days before Thanksgiving. You see, Nicole, we share the same sin. That sin that absolves us from all crime that we commit in this life because of the severity of what was done to us."

Nicole looked very uncomfortable. Goren had to admit, he was feeling slightly alarmed at where this conversation was going. Grace had never shared any form of abuse with him. He highly doubted after everything else they had shared that she would leave that piece of information out.

Grace moved closer still to Nicole. "Maybe you left out that part of my past because it wasn't my father who committed it, but rather his brother. Was that why, Nicole?"

"I...I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," Grace's voice dropped to a whisper and she glanced up at the mirror briefly. "You see Nicole, I've been in that locked room, waiting to hear someone, anyone, to come down the hallway to rescue me from what happened behind that closed door."

Goren couldn't believe that she was using his words to break through Nicole's defenses. That was why she looked up at the mirror. She was asking his permission to use his words. A new sense of pride and love for Grace hit him as he watched Nicole's eyes widen and she started to shake her head.

"No, no, that never happened to me."

"Nicole," Grace wrapped her hands around Nicole's, "it wasn't your fault. It was his, it was his entire fault. What he did to you made you the killer you are today."

"No!" Nicole screeched and stood up so fast her chair hit the concrete wall with a loud thud. "It's not true!"

Grace stood up just as fast. "His sin fell on you and you've tried to wash it away with blood because soap and water doesn't remove the stain!"

"It never happened!"

"You can't leave the room that he locked you in until you acknowledge where you are. He put you in that room and locked the door. You didn't wander into it, you didn't even go looking for it. He drug you in there."

"No."

"He forced you to stay in that room, no escape and all for him."

"No!"

"That's why you let your French boyfriend run all over you. That's why you watched him beat me and didn't do anything to stop him."

Nicole was almost in tears. "I told you that wasn't my idea. I didn't want him to hurt you. I tried to stop him."

"Like you tried to stop your father when he-"

"STOP!"

Goren watched in horror as Grace launched herself at Nicole and wrapped her arms around the other woman. Nicole struggled against the embrace like a wild animal but Grace held on with more strength then Goren knew she had.

"Nicole, listen to me, it wasn't your sin, not back then. It was your father's sin. It was his fault."

A heart wrenching sob filled the interrogation and observation rooms. Nicole collapsed against Grace, a shaking and sobbing mass.

"He said I was so pretty," she muttered. "He said it was my fault for being so pretty."

A pained looked came across Grace's face. Goren had little alarms going off in his head but he kept telling himself that Grace almost had a confession out of Nicole so to just sit tight. Grace kept her hands on Nicole's shoulders.

"Did you kill all those people that your files say you did?"

Nicole nodded. "I was trying to wipe away what my father had done."

Grace breathed in a ragged breath and closed her eyes. "And your daughter?"

"She was so pretty, too. Bobby was right."

"We've got enough on her to possibly seek the death penalty now," Carver admitted.

"Finally," Deakins spoke up.

"Well, let's get Grace out of here so she can recuperate from a round with Wallace," Eames suggested.

Goren led the way, something still nagging at his mind. He opened the interrogation room door and found both women still on the floor. Grace saw him come in and immediately pushed Nicole off her. Goren grabbed the Aussie's shoulders and lifted her to her feet.

"It's over, Nicole."

She turned and gave him an ice cold stare through her tears. "Yes, I suppose it is."

He passed her off to the two officers that were waiting at the door. Grace was standing up but was leaning on the table, an arm across her chest. Her head was bowed and he could see wet droplets had fallen on the shiny, metal table.

"I wouldn't shed any more tears over her, Grace," Eames said.

Then Goren noticed that the droplets weren't coming from her eyes, but from her forehead. It was sweat, not tears. He stepped forward and laid a hand on Grace's shoulders, forcing her to look at him.

"What's the matter, Grace?"

Those familiar green eyes found his. Her skin was an ashen white. She swallowed forcefully and blinked back the pain and apology in her eyes. Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke.

"She found the pen I had in my coat pocket."

Before it registered in Goren's mind what she had said, Grace's knees gave out. Goren caught her and laid her down on the floor. Eames cursed loudly behind him before screaming for a paramedic. Grace's silver inscribed pen was imbedded in her chest from an upward thrust. A direct shot to her heart.