Infamous
Disclaimer: We've been down this road before. You know the drill, Dick Wolf owns the SVU characters and I only claim ownership of the original ones.
Olivia scooped the little girl up in her arms. Karen stared at her with eyes wide with fear as Olivia hugged her close. Olivia carefully removed the tape from over the little girl's mouth. As soon as she could, Karen began to scream.
"No! No! No! Don't!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Shhhhhh," Olivia comforted as she removed the tape from Karen's wrists and ankles "Its ok honey. We're here to help you." Olivia stroked the little girl's back, but Karen would have none of it. As soon as her legs and arms were free, she started fighting furiously.
"Olivia," Elliot said calmly as he stepped over the body of the dead coyote and put a hand on her shoulder "We should get out of here before anymore wild animals show up."
Olivia nodded and carried the still kicking and screaming child back to the car.
"Byron!" Karen screamed as soon as she saw him asleep in the back seat of the sedan. She started to fight even harder and Olivia let her down. She hopped in the back seat of the car with her older brother and started to cry. The little boy wrapped his arms around his little sister as she wept, clutching to him for dear life.
"Karen," Byron said as he too cried.
Olivia stood there watching the scene, wanting to be able to break down, wanting to be able to cry too but she knew she couldn't. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Elliot with his eyes already misting over.
"You okay?" he asked her. He knew she wasn't.
She just stood there, knowing that if she spoke the tears would come so she just shook her head and turned her gaze away from his. She felt him pull her into a tight embrace. She didn't fight him, instead she hugged back just as hard.
"Its okay Liv," he whispered into her hair "We found her, it's over."
She felt the last walls of her defenses fall "No," she said simply as the tears started to come in droves "It's far from over for that little girl not by a long shot."
Elliot stroked her back "We should call Munch and Fin," he told her, trying to regain his composure and knowing that Olivia was completely right, it was far from over "We should let them know that we found her."
Olivia nodded, pulling away from Elliot "We should take her to a hospital," she said, attempting to wipe the remnants of emotion from her eyes "Get her checked out. Make sure she's okay."
Elliot nodded and the two walked back to the car. Olivia went to the back seat to see if Karen needed any help with her seatbelt. Karen had settled down considerably.
"Sorry," she said to Olivia as Olivia helped buckle her in.
"Its okay," Olivia reassured the girl. It was perfectly understandable that the child would react that way to strange people given what she had just been through.
"Where are we going Olivia?" Byron asked just before Olivia closed the car door.
"We're gonna go to a hospital sweetie," Olivia answered as she got into the passenger seat of the car.
Byron's eyes grew wide "Why?" he asked fearfully.
"We want to make sure that your sister is alright." Olivia answered in as kind a tone as possible. Lots of kids were afraid of hospitals and the issue had to be treated as sensitively as possible.
"I'm fine," Karen protested a bit too quickly.
"Let's just make sure, okay?" Olivia said, turning to look at the small girl. She looked way too small to be six years old.
Elliot caught Olivia's worried look "Are you guys hungry?" he asked the two children.
Olivia's look turned from concern to confusion almost instantly "What?" she whispered to Elliot.
"If we take them to eat before the hospital they might be more willing to go," he explained to her.
Olivia just looked at him. She nodded, deciding to yield to the more experienced Elliot in this matter.
The truth was that Elliot had no clue what he was doing. He was just hoping that it would be easier if they got them something to eat first. Considering how long Karen had been missing, it was safe to assume that she was hungry.
Both children nodded and Elliot turned the car in search of a place to get dinner.
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White hobbled down a side alley in Manhattan. He had made it back to the city with very little difficulty. After ditching Jenna's car at a bus station he had clung to the bottom of a bus until it had arrived in Manhattan. He was on his last legs, on the defensive; his best chance now was to find where Crawford and those two other cowards Daniels and Sullivan had run off to. The problem was that he had no clue where to look for them.
He turned the corner and noticed an open window that looked like it led into the basement of an apartment building. He crawled through the window and dropped to the floor, landing very painfully on his injured leg.
"Son of a bitch," he cursed under his breath.
"That you Rich?" an all too familiar voice came from the darkness.
"Crawford you bastard," White seethed angrily. He looked around for the source of the noise so that he could give it a good punch in the jaw.
"That's definitely him," came Sullivan's voice "and he's pissed."
"No shit Sully," Daniels added then coming up to White "You managed to get away from the cops you lucky ba-"
White's anger finally manifested itself in the form of a hard punch to the left side of Daniels' face.
"Damn it," Daniels said clutching his face "What was that for?"
"What do you think?" White asked angrily "Lets see you left me at the mercy of the cops. You abandoned me and ran off to God knows where. Why do you think I'm pissed Daniels?"
"Whoa man," Sullivan stepped between the two men "We shouldn't be fighting. We should be planning how we're gonna get back at those two detectives."
"Correction," Crawford interrupted "One detective, one bitch." All four men laughed desirously.
"You'll all get your chance," White told them "all in good time." He took a seat on an empty crate that had probably once held paper or nails or some such thing "Just remember," he continued "I get the first ride."
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"Don't worry sweetie," Olivia encouraged Karen "The doctor is just gonna make sure you aren't hurt," after getting the two children dinner they had finally convinced them that nothing bad would happen to them at the hospital and now that all four of them sat in an examination room and the doctor was ready to take a look at Karen, the little girl was having second thoughts.
"No!" she screamed as she kicked at the doctor.
"Honey its okay," Olivia told her as she held her hand.
"No!" Karen screamed again "Grandpa says that bad things happen to little girls in the hospital," she started to cry.
Olivia pulled the little girl into her lap and stroked her hair while she cried.
"At first glance," the doctor, a woman named Silvia, with long wavy blond hair began "She appears to be malnourished and psychologically distressed."
Karen cried out "I don't want them to take me away."
Olivia looked the little girl in the eye "Take you away where sweetie?"
"I don't wanna go," was Karen's only response.
Byron made as if to whisper something in Elliot's ear. Elliot leaned his head towards the little boy "What is it?" he asked.
"Grandpa says that doctors like to cut up little girls and boys." Byron whispered softly "Is that true?" Byron was starting to doubt the things that his grandfather had told him.
"No, of course not," Elliot reassured him.
Byron got up from his seat and went over to where Olivia sat with Karen. He whispered into Karen's ear, she stopped crying and stared at him in disbelief.
"You're sure?" she asked.
Byron nodded and smiled at her.
Karen nervously got back onto the examination table "No knives?" she asked Silvia in a timid voice.
"No knives," Silvia answered reassuringly.
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"I can't believe that someone would do that," Elliot mumbled to himself as they drove over the bridge into Manhattan. Karen hadn't been sexually assaulted but the examination had revealed numerous healed and healing fractures as well as bruises, cuts and burns. Just to be safe, Silvia had examined Byron as well and she had come up with the same findings. Both children had been victims of long term physical and psychological abuse, confirming Elliot and Olivia's worst fears.
"Its awful," Olivia said quietly so as not to wake the two sleeping children in the back seat. Olivia could believe that such horrible abuse took place, she knew that Elliot was aware of it too but that never made it any easier when they came across it in their jobs.
It was two thirty in the morning and Olivia could tell that Elliot was just as exhausted as she was "You want to stay at my place again?" she asked.
There had been know question in Elliot's mind that he would. With White still on the loose he didn't want her to be by herself. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was that he didn't trust White.
Olivia had called ACS already and the social worker who was on call had informed her that they wouldn't be able to place the children until the morning if at all. So Olivia had discussed the situation with Byron and Karen and both of them had jumped at the opportunity to stay at her apartment, another reason why Elliot didn't want to leave Olivia by herself.
They pulled up in front of the 1-6 and got out of the sedan and into Olivia's car. Olivia carefully picked Karen up in her arms and put her in the back seat of her car so that the little girl could remain asleep. Karen moaned slightly and grasped Olivia tightly when Olivia tried to straighten up again. Olivia smiled and gently loosened Karen's grip placing her hands over those of the little girl "Go back to sleep sweetie. We're almost home."
Byron woke up when Elliot tried to move him and he made the trip from one car to the other completely under his own power, if somewhat groggily. When he had climbed into the car he stretched and yawned and curled up into a ball.
Elliot got into the driver's seat as Olivia took the passenger's side "They're so precious," Olivia said in a whisper "How could anyone treat them so poorly?"
Elliot turned to her in the dim light from the street lamps "There's never an explanation Liv," he answered sadly "After all these years I couldn't tell you 'why?' If we knew the answer we would be out of a job."
"I would love to be out of a job," she said turning her head to stare out the window "If it meant that there were no more rapists, no more child abusers, no more lonely children who go to bed every night wondering if their mother will…" she trailed off.
Elliot turned her to face him "I can't make what has already happened to these kids go away. The only thing I can do is help them now, to make sure that what happened to them doesn't happen again."
Olivia let her head rest against his chest "Let's go home," she said softly.
Elliot nodded, started the car and headed for her apartment.
Elliot pulled the car up in front of her building. Olivia got out and picked Karen up from the back seat again. The little girl automatically through her arms around Olivia's neck as she continued to doze. Byron got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk next to Olivia while Elliot went to go park the car.
Just as she had the night before, Olivia felt a presence behind her but when she turned, there was no one to be found. There was only the front door to her building and beside it the small window to the basement of the building. For a moment Olivia could swear that she saw a light flicker in the window but she quickly dismissed that thought as Elliot came up beside them.
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Olivia tucked the blankets securely first around Karen then Byron. She had decided to let the two children have her bed, she would be perfectly comfortable on the floor.
"Are you sure you don't want the couch?" Elliot asked softly from the door to her room "I could sleep on the floor in here."
"No its fine," she told him "I'd rather be here if they need anything."
"Olivia," Elliot said, standing beside her and pulling her close "I just don't want you to get too attached." He told her matter-of-factly.
"Elliot," she protested "I'm fine."
He pulled her closer and for a moment the line between partner and lover disappeared and he acted without thought to the consequences. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips "Good night," he turned and headed out to the living room.
Olivia stood there, her lips still tingling from the sensation of having his flesh pressed against hers. It had felt unbelievably right. It had been the most perfect kiss that she had ever experienced. It was just a simple kiss but it had been accompanied by such a warm feeling, something in her had woken up the second his lips touched hers.
She took her pillow and blanket and lay down on the floor, drifting off to sleep with the thought of that perfect kiss fresh in her mind.
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Barely two hours later, the ringing of Olivia's land line shook her from her sleep "What the…" she tried to answer it before the ringing woke the children. She wondered who it could possibly be. If it was work related, they would have just called her cell phone "Benson," she answered in typical fashion.
"Hello Olivia," she froze at the sound of the familiar voice.
"What do you want?" she asked, taking the hand set into the living room with her and leaving the children to sleep. She shook Elliot awake, not bothering to be gentle.
"Wha-" Elliot began.
Olivia put a finger to her lips and mouthed the word 'White'.
It was then that Elliot noticed the phone in her hand.
"Don't bother trying to trace this call," White was saying "It's a pre paid cell."
"What do you want?" Olivia asked again, her tone becoming more distressed. Elliot put a calming hand on her shoulder.
"I see you found that little girl," White continued with no reguard for her question "I'm glad."
Olivia started to shake. How did he know that they had found Karen?
"How's Elliot doing?" White asked in a mocking tone.
Olivia felt her stomach knot up. He knew that Elliot was with her "What do you want?" she asked again, her tone was one of absolute terror.
White's smile was evident in his voice when he answered "Why Olivia. Only the same thing I've always wanted, you."
TBC
A/N: I know its been a while but I'd appreciate the feedback. Please review.
