"This is outrageous!" Claire Stephenson cried.

The army of police officers and CSU technicians who were busy turning her home upside-down ignored her, save for Munch. He shook his head and said, "Actually what's really outrageous is the décor in your living room. It looks like Dr. Seuss on acid! I really hope you didn't pay somebody to design that place for you."

"Just goes to show that all the money in the world can't buy good taste," Fin muttered, as he strolled past Munch.

"What was that?" Claire shouted haughtily after Fin. "What was that remark! You, there! Repeat what you just said!"

Munch rolled his eyes in disgust behind his sunglasses. 'Her royal majesty is displeased!' he thought with distain. He had originally been looking forward to this search of Stephenson's house, figuring it would rattle this frosty ice queen. But the battleaxe proved to be ever defiant.

Stephenson strode up to Munch and said, "What did your partner just say?"

"He was complimenting you on your good taste," Munch wearily told her.

"I know he made a snide remark, just like you did!" Stephenson said, waving a finger in Munch's face. "I will remember every snippy comment of yours and mark it down in my journal. It will be useful in my lawsuit against you and your department."

"You have that right," Munch said evenly. When he saw Trevor Langan enter the room, he added, "And here comes your lawyer, now! You two should have some fun sitting down and discussing tactics."

"I assume you have a warrant for this obscene display," Langan said.

In response, Munch handed him the warrants, which Langan spent the next minute glancing over. The frown on his face only intensified.

"I want these peons out of my home, Trevor!" Stephenson ordered. "I want them out of here right now, or else I--!"

"Claire!" he shouted, cutting her off. When she had become quiet, giving him a stunned look in the process, Langan calmly said, "Just let them do whatever they want. Do you understand? Do not get in their way."

"What the hell do you mean?" she cried, with renewed fury. "How dare you even think to allow these mere trolls--"

She was interrupted again when he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the opposite side of the room, out of earshot. Langan began speaking rapidly in a frenetic whisper, and as she listened to her attorney speak, Claire Stephenson's expression changed from her usual haughty iciness to a look of genuine concern. Then, as Langan finished, Stephenson's look of concern was replaced by an expression of outright fear.

'Well, well,' Munch thought with a slight smile. 'Finally, a crack appears in that unyielding armor….'

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia strode up the steps leading to Eric's apartment. She took her lunch break so that she could try and see what the hell was wrong with him. She used her key to open his door, only to find the chain was latched, which prevented the door from opening all the way.

"Eric," she called through the slit in the door. "Open up. I want to talk to you."

The door slammed shut in Olivia's face. And for a minute, she thought it would stay shut--until it abruptly opened again, revealing a blond woman who held a cardboard box filled with Olivia's personal items.

"Eric doesn't want to speak to you," she said. "Would you be so kind as to take your stuff and leave?"

"Who the hell are you?" Olivia asked.

The woman made a disgusted face. "Who I am is not important right now. Just, please, take your things and leave."

"If Eric is breaking up with me, then I'd rather hear it from him, if you don't mind," Olivia told her.

"Haven't you hurt him enough!" the woman cried.

"I don't know who you are, or what you're talking about," Olivia said.

Eric appeared behind the woman, looking angry. "She's talking about how you've been cheating on me, Olivia."

Olivia gave him a stunned look. "Cheating on you? Are you insane?"

"I saw you at the station," Eric said, waving a finger at her, as if Olivia had been a bad little girl. "I saw you hugging that blond bitch."

"Her name is Alex Cabot," Olivia replied, now growing angry. "And I wasn't cheating on you with her, Eric."

"That's not what it looked like to me!"

"Alex has just come back from being in the Witness Protection Program," Olivia said. "This was the first time I had seen her in over a year. We were just catching up--"

"And feeling each other up, as well, I understand," the woman smugly said, as she placed the box on the floor at Olivia's feet.

Olivia repressed an urge to slug the little trollop right in the mouth. Instead she glared at Eric and asked, "Who the fuck is she? What does she have to do with any of this?"

The woman grasped Eric's hand and said, "You might as well tell her, darling."

When she heard that, Olivia's eyes grew so wide with shock, that they nearly fell out of her head. "Excuse me, did you just say, 'Darling'!"

Eric now appeared sheepish. "Um, Leslie has been a huge help to me these past few days."

Olivia glared at the happy couple before them, and it hit her like a ton of bricks. "You son of a bitch…." she said, still stunned. "How dare you!"

Eric held up his hand. "Now, Olivia, it only seemed fair that since you've started cheating on me, that I should seek solace in the loving arms of Leslie."

"But that's just it, you dumb shit," Olivia angrily said, "I wasn't cheating on you! I was NEVER cheating on you!"

Leslie shook her head in disapproval as she turned to Eric and said, "This is exactly what I've been telling, you, honey. She's just too violent a person to reason with. All police officers are like this. Your relationship with her was doomed from the start. You know, I really think that--"

"Leslie, fuck off," Olivia calmly told her. Suddenly growing tired of this situation, she picked up the box of her stuff. "Look, Eric, I'm not going to stand here and take the blame for something I didn't do just because it suits your rationalization of cheating on me."

"I wasn't….you-you were the one who was cheating on me, first," Eric said anxiously. "Just remember that!"

"When you saw me with Alex, she had just told me that she's getting married," Olivia said. "And I gave her a hug of support, that's all. Do I still love and care for Alex? Of course I do. But what we had is long over."

"That's what she says," Leslie reminded Eric. "But can you really trust her?"

"It looks like what we've had is over, too, Eric," Olivia sadly muttered, as she turned around and walked down the hallway with the box in her hands.

"Olivia, wait," Eric said, as he followed her into the hall. "It's just that you've been avoiding me these past few days, Liv. You never called, you haven't kept in touch, and--"

Olivia shook her head. "You knew full well I was working full time on a kidnapping case--which ended very well, by the way. But the fact that I wasn't always able to keep in touch never bothered you before, Eric. You were always so understanding about that. What changed? You meet little miss karma in there? Did she convince you a civilian would be a better fuck than a cop?"

"I heard that!" Leslie said, poking her head out the door. "Eric, are you coming back inside?"

Despite the lost and confused look on his face, Eric gave her a little shrug. "Uh…look, I'm sorry, Liv."

When she realized that, with that casual shrug, her relationship with Eric was effectively over, Olivia solemnly nodded. "Yeah, so am I, Eric," she said, as she handed him his key. "Take care of yourself."

He returned to her the key to her apartment. "You too, Liv."

She carried the box of her personal items out to the car and placed it in the back seat. Olivia got into the driver's seat and was about to start the car, when she abruptly sat back and let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Olivia whispered, as she stared at the waning afternoon sunlight on the side of a building. She'd rescued Lilly, helped Elliot arrest Childs, found out the former love of her life was getting married, and broke up with her boyfriend all within the course of a single day.

'Talk about riding a frigging rollercoaster,' she thought wearily. 'If I get anymore ups and downs today, I'm gonna need seasick pills!'

And in spite of the crushing hurt and depression that she presently felt, Olivia still broke into a smile when something just occurred to her. "My boyfriend's been cheating on me all this time, and I never knew it until now," she muttered to herself, chuckling. "Some great frigging detective I am!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Casey smiled when she saw Alex Cabot coming out of the main doors of the One-Six. "Hey, Alex!"

When Alex glanced up at her, she looked dazed and shell-shocked. "Yeah, uh, hey," she replied, without much enthusiasm.

"Is everything ok?" Casey asked with concern.

"Uh, oh God, um…uh," Alex muttered under her breath, as she walked past Casey, waving her hand. "I can't get into it now. I gotta go!"

'Oh Christ, what happened?' Casey nervously wondered. When she emerged from the elevator, she practically ran into the SVU squad room, half expecting to find a disaster. Instead she found Munch seated at his desk with a taciturn look on his face as he gazed over pages and pages of records.

Casey had originally intended to meet with Munch and Fin at the One-Six once they phoned her to say that their search of Claire Stephenson's residence and business was done. But her brief encounter with Alex gave Casey the jitters. "Was Alex just in here?"

"Yeah," Munch said. "She stopped by to say hi."

"Did she seem weird to you?"

"Yeah," Munch replied, deadpan. "But I thought that was because she's been living inNorth Dakotathe past few years."

"John, shame on you," Cragen chided, as he entered the squad room. "North Dakotais a beautiful state."

"It's also a part of the great conspiracy created by the dairy association to force people to drink cow milk," Munch said. "When the fact is that goat's milk is known to be much…." He stopped once he saw Casey slowly shaking her head. "What?"

"It just occurred to me that I happen to be surrounded by crazy people today," Casey said dismally.

Just at that moment, George Huang strolled into the squad room and stared at Casey. "Why do I always walk in on these weird conversations?" he jokingly asked.

"You're a shrink," Munch called over to him, "you should be used to that sort of thing by now."

Cragen pointed at Munch. "You get back to those LUDs!" He glanced at Huang and added, "This way, Doc. We've got a live one in the Box. Casey, you'll want to see this, too."

"I've got some news for you, Don," Casey said, as she followed the men into Cragen's office. "Rachel Gibbons has agreed to testify against Charles Beauchamp in court."

"Yeah, Munch told me before," Cragen said. "Talk about a much needed shot in the arm for your case."

"That's great news!" Huang said, smiling. "How did you convince her?"

"I didn't," Casey told him. "She came to my office of her own accord."

Cragen gestured at the two-way mirror, which showed Fin and Elliot in the interrogation room with Childs. "Meet Samuel Childs."

Casey gazed at the bull-like man as he sat serenely at the table. Elliot was walking back and forth in front of him while Fin leaned against the wall on the far side of the room.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Childs said calmly.

"You hit her!" Elliot roared at him. "You hit that little girl in the face and sent her to the hospital, you son of a bitch!"

"I was nowhere near that house," Childs told them.

"It doesn't matter what you say, man," Fin said. "The little girl identified you as her assailant."

"Then she's mistaken," Childs replied coolly. "Children are often not the best witnesses. You boys should know that better than anybody."

Casey held her breath when she saw the rage within Elliot's eyes. She watched as the man she loved pounded his fist on the table in front of Childs. 'This isn't an act,' she realized, 'he's really pissed!'

Yet Childs was not the least bit intimidated by Elliot's outburst. Elliot leaned over the table, and when he and Childs were face to face, he said, "Claire Stephenson is letting all of you hang out to dry. You realize that, don't you? Now that you and your buddies have been caught, she's washing her hands of all of you."

"Claire Stephenson has nothing to do with any of this," Childs said.

"Wrong!" Fin said. "She's the mastermind behind it all. And if you help us put her away, we might be able to help you."

"You're looking at life behind bars this time, Sammy," Elliot said. "Kidnapping, assault on a minor--and, if your gun turns out to be the one that killed Marcus Sewell, you're also going down for murder. So help yourself by helping us get your boss, Claire Stephenson."

Childs simply smiled at the both of them. "You guys have very vivid imaginations. Claire Stephenson has been an old family friend for years. I know her well. And she would never be involved in anything illegal."

Huang glanced away from the two-way mirror with a thoughtful look on his face. "He's been in jail before, I assume?"

"Yes," Cragen confirmed. "He did fifteen for armed robbery."

"He's got a real 'lifer' mentality," Casey commented.

"Which makes him and the others the perfect stooges for this kind of thing," Huang said. "If they get caught, there no big deal in going back to jail for them. In fact, they may even welcome it."

"Plus they'll be loaded with whatever Stephenson paid them," Casey said. "That'll be a big help for anybody in jail, plus serve as an incentive for them to keep quiet."

Olivia appeared at the door. "Hey, Cap?"

"That was a real short lunch break, Olivia," Cragen said.

"Uh, yeah, I lost my appetite," Olivia muttered with a frown. "I just got a call from ballistics--Childs' gun matches the bullet that killed Marcus Sewell."

"Great news," Cragen said. He went over and tapped gently on the two-way mirror.

Inside the interrogation room, both Elliot and Fin quickly took their leave of Childs. When they entered Cragen's office, the Captain said, "We heard back from ballistics: Childs' gun was the one that killed Marcus Sewell."

"Good," Elliot said with a grim nod. "We'll hit him with that when we go back in."

"Yeah, like that's gonna make a difference," Fin said dourly. "Dude's hardly flinched since we started working on him. It's like talking to a mannequin."

"His attitude may change once he hears about the gun," Elliot said. He glanced at Huang and asked, "What's your opinion Doc? The news about the gun should shake him, right?"

"Either that, or it will make him shut up and want to talk to only his lawyer," Huang said with a sigh. "You want my advice, Elliot? Don't hit him over the head with it. Save the theatrics when you tell him. In fact, I've noticed that Fin's been playing 'good cop' in there. It might be better if he told Childs, alone."

"Got it," Elliot said, as he left the room with Fin.

Olivia was almost out the door as well when Cragen called her back in. "I know I asked you to step down from the case, Olivia. But I was wondering if you could help Munch go through Claire Stephenson's LUDs? We're a little short-staffed right now."

"No problem, Captain," Olivia said, as she went out the door.

When she was gone, Casey asked, "You told Olivia to step down from the Beauchamp case?"

"Yeah, since she's so close with Lilly and her mother, I thought it would be best if Olivia got some distance from the case right now," Cragen said. "Truth be told, I really don't want her alone with Childs, or any of the other kidnappers right now."

"You think she might get violent with them?" Huang asked.

"Let's just say I'd rather not find that out," Cragen replied.

Casey didn't think Olivia would go over the edge, yet she still thought it was a good idea on Cragen's part to keep her away from the case because of her personal ties with Lilly and her mom. "Have the other kidnappers arrived, yet?" she asked Cragen.

"They're on the way right now," he replied.

"All right, I've got to go," Casey said with a glance at her watch. "Call me if anything happens."

"Will do," Cragen told her.

Before she left, Casey stopped by Munch's desk. Olivia sat with him, and they were both intently going over Stepheson's phone records.

"Anything?" Casey asked hopefully.

"We've just double-checked, now," Munch said, looking peeved. "Every phone call coming in and going out the Stephenson household has been accounted for. She hasn't been in touch with the kidnappers--at least, not with her household and business phones."

"TARU is going through Stephenson's email, now," Olivia said. "They told me they'd call if they got anything…but so far, I haven't heard from them."

"Did Childs have a cell phone when you arrested him?" Casey asked her.

Olivia shook her head. "No, no cell phone at all. My guess is Childs dumped the cell phone somewhere once he saw the raid on the kidnapper's place. He was using a pay phone when we spotted him."

"We've got the kidnappers cold for abducting Lilly, the attempted abduction of Linda, and we also got Childs for the murder of Marcus Sewell, and even for arson in the One-Six," Munch said. "But tying Stephenson to all of this won't be as easy. She's covered her tracks too well."

"We still have to go through Stephenson's business records," Olivia said. "Maybe we can find useful something in there."

"Let's hope so," Casey said. "All right, I'm out of here. As always, if anything develops--"

"--we'll give you a call," Munch said with a nod.

Casey glanced up and saw both Elliot and Fin leaving the interrogation room with defeated expressions on their faces. "What happened?" she asked.

"Once Fin told him about the gun, Childs lawyered up," Elliot said with a shake of his head."We're not getting anything out of him from now on."

Elliot looked so depressed that Casey wanted to give him a hug--yet that felt like it would be out of place here and now. "They're bringing the rest of the kidnappers down later," she said hopefully, "maybe you'll have better luck with them."

"We'll give it our best shot," Elliot said. "Even if it means staying all night."

That thought startled Casey to the point where she almost blurted out, "But we haven't slept together in almost a week, now!" Yet she kept her calm, cool exterior in place, thanks in part to her court room skills as a prosecutor.

But Elliot still seemed to notice her consternation, and he gently directed her over to the doorway, away from everybody else. Once they were out of earshot, he said, "I'm sorry, Case. But I need to end this one properly. We owe it to Lilly and Linda to make sure that Stephenson bitch doesn't get away with this."

"Believe me, Elliot, I understand," Casey said. Then, in sotto voce, she added, "But just for the record, I really miss you terribly at night."

"Me, too," he said, as he gently caressed the side of her neck. "But at least this gives us something to look forward to when it's all over."

"Yeah, Stephenson on trial for conspiracy," Casey said with a smile. "I can't wait!"

When Elliot gave her a mock-frown in response, Casey's smile grew into a broad grin. "Oh, were you talking about something else, Detective Stabler?"

"You know I was, ADA Novak," Elliot replied, just before they shared a passionate kiss.

"Ooooo, look! Elliot's dating the DA!" Munch called from across the room.

Elliot just pointed at Munch in a threatening manner.

"Look out, Munch, you've just been fingered," Olivia said, grinning.

"Is that bad?" Munch wanted to know.

"Could be worse," Fin replied, as he got a cup of coffee. "You could've been fingered by the fickle finger of fate."

"Jeez," Olivia said, "try saying that real fast five times!"

"You wanna bet me?" Fin asked seriously.

"All right, now I'm really out of here," Casey said with a laugh.

The rest of the day was relatively quiet for Casey. Once she returned to her office, she got to work on several other cases, making phone calls and meeting with several more victims. She went over the testimony of a forty five year old woman who had been raped by a fellow co-worker--her case was going to trial within the next few weeks, and Casey was pleased to see that the woman was more than ready to face her attacker in court.

When the day had come to a close, Casey got ready to leave--but not before checking with Hector about the status of Alex Borgia. She was disheartened to learn that nothing new had happened. Alex was still missing, and with no ransom demand, it was looking particularly ominous.

She returned home, resigned to spending yet another evening without Elliot. At first Casey didn't think the loneliness had bothered her too much, until she woke up in the middle of the night tightly clutching a pillow like a long-lost lover.

"Oh Christ, I'm so pathetic," Casey said with a groan to the empty room, just before she fell back to sleep.

When she awoke the following day, the first thing Casey did was check her messages. Nothing from Cragen, which was bad news, since that meant they weren't able to crack the other kidnappers as of yet. The One-Six will be Casey's first stop after she checked in at her office.

Casey strolled into the office of the District Attorney at a brisk pace, determined just to make a brief stop in her office to check messages and then leave. But a shocking scene had brought her to a complete stop in the main hallway.

People--both men and women--were standing around crying. And they weren't victims; they were her fellow ADAs and the secretaries who worked the outer office. Casey's first thought was that there had been another terrorist attack--but she would have heard about it on the news by now, wouldn't she?

She found Ron Carver, an ADA who worked with the Major Case Squad, standing morosely by the wall. "Ron, what is it?" Casey asked. "What's wrong?"

Ron had removed his glasses to wipe the tears from his eyes. He put them back on and regarded Casey sadly. "You haven't heard?"

"I just got in," Casey said. "Heard what?"

"They found Alex," Ron said, his soft voice almost a whisper.

Although Casey knew what was to come next, she almost didn't want to believe it. "Is she…is Alex…."

"She's gone, Casey," Ron said despondently. "Alex is gone."

Casey flinched as if she had been physically struck. The very first thought she had was, 'This is so wrong!'

To Be Continued...