SetYourMindFree: I have no idea where that part came from, god the way my mind works it scares me sometimes, I love it I'm not good at it but I love playing.
Wynter Nytes: thanks a million for being my beta!
That night, Elliot and his family, minus Maureen, were all seated at the kitchen table.
"Anything new happen at school?" Kathy asked, directing her question mainly at Kathleen.
"Nothing really. I have a friend coming over tomorrow after school, though." Kathleen replied.
"Kathleen." her mother sighed. "I wished you would have asked first." Kathleen shrugged an apology. "Does this friend have a name?"
"Jaden."
"Why don't you invite her to stay for supper?" Kathy offered.
As his wife and daughter conversed, Elliot sat wondering if Kathleen's new friend was the girl that they were looking for back at the precinct. In the morning he would request that the captain hold off on picking Jaden up at school. Maybe he could earn Jaden's trust by means of getting to know her better as a friend, not as a detective.
Later, when all the doors and windows were locked and the three Stabler children were safely tucked into their beds, Elliot and Kathy lay awake in their bed, cuddled close together.
"You seemed preoccupied at dinner today. You want to talk about it?" Kathy asked. Elliot sighed and rubbed his slightly balding head.
"It's just a case that I'm working on," he replied. Kathy was silent for a moment, knowing that Elliot never wanted to divulge the horrors of his career to his family. She decided to venture forth anyways.
"You want to talk about it?" Kathy asked again.
Elliot shrugged his shoulders. "Kathleen's new friend might be the girl we're looking to talk to."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't know." Elliot thought for a moment. "I'm going to talk to Cragen about it in the morning."
"Is she in any trouble?" Kathy inquired. She wouldn't have her daughter mixing with someone that could prove to be troublesome. Elliot shook his head.
"We're not sure of anything. Do you think Kathleen knows anything?" Kathy rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling.
"God I hope not," she replied. "She seemed to really like Jaden. She'll be crushed if anything happens."
"I know. I'll talk to her in the morning." Elliot reached over and switched off the lap on the bedside table.
It was about two-thirty in the morning when Elliot awoke with a start. At first, he couldn't figure what had caused his to wake so abruptly. Then, he identified sounds coming from the kitchen downstairs. Elliot looked over to where his wife soundly slept,
before silently slipping out of bed. Quietly, he crept down the stairs to the kitchen where he found Kathleen, rummaging around the cupboards.
"Kat?" he rubbed his eyes. Kathleen jumped about a foot and scattered crackers everywhere.
"Geeze dad! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Elliot smiled slightly and stepped further into the kitchen. He looked at Kathleen scrambling to
clean up the crackers, before asking,
"Why aren't you in bed?" Kathleen paused and her attitude seemed to change. She shrugged and put the crackers back in the cupboard.
"Just a lot on my mind I guess." she said, and took a seat at the table. Elliot took a seat across from her.
"Humor the old man." Kathleen sighed and rubbed a hand across her face.
"I sort of over heard you and mom talking on my way to the bathroom, I think… I think you might be right." Elliot's eyes widened. Kathleen continued, "Yesterday in gym, down in the locker room, I saw that her back had this huge bruise on it. She told me that she got it from skateboarding."
Elliot nodded in understanding. "You don't believe her?" Kathleen leaned back in her chair and adopted the expression of someone with too much on their mind.
"I really don't know what to believe. I mean, she's an aggressive skater…" She trailed off.
"As long as she's here, she'll be safe" he said, more to himself than to Kathleen. Kathleen stood and walked out of the kitchen, pausing beside her father.
"Dad, promise that you won't act all weird around her." Elliot grinned and kissed the top of Kathleen's head.
"I promise."
Once at school, Kathleen made it top priority to find Jaden. The school was huge, so it was going to take some time to find her. Down in one of the bathrooms, on the basement floor, Jaden was in one of the stalls, inspecting her most recent bruise. She froze when she heard the door to the bathroom open.
"Jaden are you in here?" It was Kathleen. Jaden quickly pulled her shirt back down before grabbing her belongings off the hook on the stall door.
"Um yeah," she called out. "Hang on a sec." she made sure her shirt covered the entire bruise before stepping out from the stall. She flashed Kathleen a smile and made her way to the sink. "Hey, we're still on for today, right?" she asked as she ran the cold water over her hands. Kathleen nodded and shifted her backpack to a different shoulder.
"Yup! Oh, by the way, mom says you can stay for supper." Jaden seemed surprised at first, but quickly recovered.
"That's nice of her." she replied coolly. At least I'll be away from the house, which also means being away from him! Jaden thought.
"C'mon, we've got to get to gym!" Jaden said with fake enthusiasm. Kathleen smirked and followed Jaden out of the bathroom.
"Let's just hope that there isn't going to be another thrilling game of dodge ball." she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Jaden gave a sly grin and pulled out a slip of paper from her pocket.
"I'll be sitting out anyways."
"Aww, lucky you!" The two girls left the bathroom and ventured out into the hallway. Believe me, if you knew, you wouldn't think that I'm lucky.
Elliot walked straight into Cragen's office as soon as he got to work. The minute his detective closed the door, Cragen knew that something was up.
"Cap, I want to hold off on picking Jaden Scott up." Cragen set a file down on his desk.
"Explain why we should do that" Cragen said, observing his detective with critical eyes.
"There might be an easier way then just showing up at her school and pulling her out of class." Elliot replied. Cragen raised an eyebrow and leaned against his desk.
"And what would that be?"
"Kathleen has her coming over after school. I think we should wait for a while before we interrogate her. She might be more comfortable around me when we question her later." Captain Cragen mulled this over in his head before nodding.
"Alright. We'll wait, but don't let her know you suspect anything." Elliot smiled grimly and turned to leave, but was stopped by his captain's voice. "Elliot, as much as you don't want to hear it, Kathleen is very much involved in this. Sooner or later we're going to have to talk to her."
Elliot's hand was frozen to the door knob. His captain was right. Kathleen was going to have to be interviewed. The door to Cragen's office opened suddenly, snapping Detective Stabler out of his trance. Olivia entered, her face grim.
"Mercy General just called. Our 'modern- day-vampire' took another victim." Captain Cragen nodded.
"Alright. Olivia, you and Elliot go talk to her, ask if she'll be able to work with a sketch artist." They left, leaving the Captain with his thoughts.
Outside, the sky was painted a dark gray that threatened to open at anytime. The walk to the car was silent, but Olivia could tell her partner had a lot on his mind. As they got into the car, she decided to break the silence.
"Penny for your thoughts." Elliot was startled out of his reverie, and gave a short reply.
"Kathleen." He turned the engine on. Olivia looked concerned.
"What? Is she okay?" Elliot pulled out of the parking lot.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, she's fine. It's just, Jaden Scott might be the girl Kathleen is having over after school." Olivia looked surprised.
"They know each other?" Elliot nodded.
"Apparently so." Olivia sat back in her seat.
"Does Kathleen know anything?" Elliot shrugged.
"This morning she told me that while they were in the locker room she saw some bruising." he replied. "Ill talk to Kathleen when Jaden leaves." Olivia smirked.
"Just hope that it goes better then your soccer talk with her." Elliot groaned. His partner wasn't going to let him live that one down.
The memory of his daughter telling them at the dinner table, her trying to hide from him, them playing soccer, her saying 'Dad I'm still a virgin okay?' as she kicked at ball back at him, the ball rolling past him- it was all still very fresh in his mind as if it had happened just yesterday.
In one of the hospital rooms a young girl sat on a hospital gurney, her knees pulled in close to her. The sights and smells that surrounded her made her want to pass out. There was a soft knock on the door before it opened. Olivia entered and felt a pang of sympathy run through her. The latest victim couldn't have been more then twenty-three; she looked so small on the large gurney.
"Amy, my name is Detective Benson, and this is my partner Detective Stabler." Olivia introduced themselves. "Do you mind if he comes in?" Olivia asked because she saw that look in Amy's eyes when she saw Elliot walk in behind herself.
"Sorry it's just that-." Amy's gaze was directed at Elliot. Olivia smiled reassuringly.
"You don't need to apologize." Olivia pulled out a pen and a note pad. "What can you tell us about the man that attacked you?" Amy looked terrified as the memory resurfaced.
"He actually bit me; he left two marks like fangs!" she cried out. Olivia wrote this down before gently asking,
"I have to know if he penetrated you." Amy shook her head.
"He tried too, but I fought back." she said with satisfaction. She pointed to her black boots with a six inch heal.
"Ouch. Could you see if he had a pocket knife? "Elliot's question made her visibly uncomfortable. Amy decided it was time for the male detective to leave.
"Uh, could your partner-." she began, but was cut off by Elliot.
"Liv, you want a coffee?" Elliot knew that was his cue to leave. Olivia nodded and Elliot slipped out of the room. Amy pulled up the hospital scrubs that she had been issued just enough so that the upper part of her thigh was exposed, showing two letters neatly carved into the delicate skin: V.W.
"He left this." she said, her voice wavering. Olivia tried hard not to wince at the sight of the marred flesh.
"Amy, do you think that you would be able to work with a sketch artist?" Olivia asked. Amy nodded, her jaw set determinedly.
"I think I can."
The two of them talked about what happened that day. The one thing that didn't match up with the previous cases was the car trouble. The perp was getting more confident, more experienced. Before he reentered the room, Elliot went to go speak with the doctors that were assigned to Amy. When he returned with the cups of steaming hot coffee, he found that Amy seemed calmer than she was before he had left.
"You've been through a lot but we'd like to bring you down to the station to get your statement and have you work with a sketch artist." Amy nodded.
"Okay." She got up off the gurney and gathered her things. Elliot could tell from her mass of books that she was a student, and quite swamped with work.
"You're going to have to talk to my professors." Amy added. Olivia nodded.
"We'll take care of that."
The ride over to the station house was silent. Amy had gone through a lot in the last few hours- it was a lot to take in. When they entered the precinct, instead of using one of the interrogation rooms, they had to wait for twenty minutes before an interview room was open. Amy sat next to Olivia's and Elliot's desk.
"I need you to repeat what you told me at the hospital." Olivia said, pulling out her pad and paper to make sure everything was accurate. Amy nodded and closed her eyes.
"Well, I was pulling an all- nighter at the campus library. I finished probably around eleven, so I went to go see a friend before I headed home." She paused to take a deep breath "I stayed in her dorm until quarter after four, then I headed home. I was a block away when I was pulled into a dark alley. That's when he knocked me down and tried to- you know, but I kicked him, but not before he left his mark."
"Okay, we'll have you work with a sketch artist, then an officer will take you home." Olivia was just finishing up writing down her statement.
It took Amy and the sketch artist less then an hour to get the drawing of her attacker perfect, right down to the scar under his right eye. The drawing looked like something from a horror movie.
The school day only seemed to go on forever. The only thing that Jaden was looking forward to, was going home with Kathleen. She was just finishing up at her locker when Kathleen gave her a light tap on the shoulder.
"You ready?" Jaden smiled and grabbed her things and stepped on the tip of her skateboard, making it pop up so she could hold it.
"I am now." They began to leave the school. "Hey thanks for the supper invite, Jamie's going to be at a friend's house, so the house would have been empty." she lied. Kathleen grinned.
"No problem! I just hope the twins don't annoy you." The two of them started walking to Kathleen's home, well, Kathleen walked anyways, Jaden was coasting along the side walk.
"It's cool. Jamie can get annoying, but it's fun when you get to play role- model."
"It can get a bit crazy sometimes, but there are more girls to over- rule the house." Kathleen said.
"It's just Jamiers and me, and my father." Jaden replied, somewhat quietly.
Changing the subject, Kathleen noticed the relief of Jaden's face- she thought it must have been a sore subject "You know, I know someone who might like you."
She opened the front door. "Mom we're home!" she called inside. Jaden looked taken aback.
"Me? Someone likes me? Not just 'likes,' but 'likes- likes?'" Kathleen laughed and put her hand on Jaden's shoulder.
"Whoa take a breath girl."
Kathy Stabler came to investigate the voices she knew to be her daughter and friend.
"Where do you want me to put this?" Jaden asked as she tapped her prized skateboard with one hand while she untied her shoes with the other.
"Uh you might want to bring it with you to my room." Kathleen replied.
"You two girls have fun." Kathy said as they slipped up stairs. She seems to be a good kid, god I hope that Elliot's wrong. Kathy knew, however, within her heart that Elliot's and the rest of the detective's suspicions were probably dead on.
Up in Kathleen's room the girls were just about to get down to work when, all of a sudden, Jaden crossed her arms. She tried to look mad, but she couldn't help but smile.
"I refuse to work until you tell me who." she said in stubbornness.
"Hmmmm, I'll never tell." Kathleen replied in a sing-song voice. It reminded them both of that movie 'Don't Say a Word.'
"Come on! You can't leave me hanging like this!" Kathleen giggled, enjoying tormenting her friend. She relented, however, when Jaden made the puppy-eyed look.
"Alright! Remember English class?" Jaden suddenly adopted a horrified look.
"Please say that it's not Bryan!" Kathleen laughed out loud.
"It's one of his friends, the one that attempted to hit you with the ball in gym."
"You mean the hottie that sits right behind me? I just said that out loud didn't I?" Jaden asked.
"Oh yeah."
"Let's get some work done okay?" Jaden was trying to stop herself from turning a million shades of red. She wasn't doing a very good job at it either.
Elliot came home at around five-thirty. The first thing he did was kiss his wife. Kathy grinned, but looked surprised.
"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining or anything." Elliot smiled.
"Do I need a reason to kiss my wife?" he pulled her closer to him and both leaned in for a second kiss, but stopped when they heard what sounded like gagging. Naturally, they both thought the sound originated from one of the kids. Looking over towards the door, they saw the twins there, pretending to gag at the sight of their parents kissing.
"You two are real comedians, you know that?" remarked Elliot. Kathy smirked.
"Hmmm, I wonder where they got that from?"
"What can I say? I've got good genes." Kathy lightly punched Elliot on the arm and turned to the twins.
"Alright! You two get started on your homework, and leave your sister alone."
"Translation: sit at the table." Elizabeth said as she and her brother sat down
"I'm going to go check on Kathleen." Elliot left the room to go "check" on his daughter
"More like interrogate her." Dickie elbowed his sister playfully in the side
Up stairs Elliot stood in the hallway, listening to the girls talk before he made his move.
"Alright last one before we take a break." He recognized that voice. "What is the theme of the novel? Select a quotation and explain."
"Good vs. evil." Jaden quickly came back with.
"Huh?"
"Well," Jaden began, "When Dracula was sucking Mina's blood and is walked in on by Van Helsing, Lord Godalming, Quincy Morris, and John Seward…"
"Got a quotation to go with that, miss 'I can't believe that I just said that?'" Kathleen's comment got a smile from her father.
"Well if you turn to page 288..." Jaden rose to her feet and began to pace back and forth as she recited the line: "Kneeling on the edge of the bed… was the white clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man clad in black."
"So good vs. evil and the good guys win, oh and nice impression of the teacher by the way." Kathleen replied.
There were a few moments of dead silence. Elliot took that as his cue to move on it. He knocked before entering. Opening the door, Elliot found his daughter sitting on her bed and her friend was standing in the middle of the room. She quickly took a seat on the floor against Kathleen's bed
"Hey daddy, this is Jaden." Kathleen said cheerfully.
"Kathleen's been talking about you non stop." Elliot said as he studied the girl in front of him.
"Really?" she sounded a bit embarrassed about it.
"Supper is going to be ready in ten girls."
"Alright. Please tell me that you didn't cook!" Kathleen teased.
Elliot scowled at her playfully. "Thanks a lot."
Just as Elliot was about to turn and leave he noticed slight bruising on Jaden's wrist as she reached up to brush away a stray hair. Leaving his daughter's room, Elliot retreated to the office, where he then proceeded to call Cragen.
"Cap, I think we've got our next case."
Hey sorry that I've taken so long getting this one up, I've had paper after paper and I've been sick the last few days I hoped you'd enjoy this one.