Chapter Eight: Speaking the Real Truth

It had begun as a busy day for everyone in the SVU, but as the clock kept ticking, matters were going a little bit deliberately. Elliot was doing paperwork as well as Fin, and Olivia was on her computer doing much more work. Unlike the other detectives, John was just sitting at his desk staring into space.

"John, don't just sit there; do something for God's sake." mentioned Elliot.

"No offense Munch, but you are one lazy bum. You get hired here and you just take advantage of the "free" time you have, looking at the ceiling, when you could be helping us out on this case. Come on, John, show your manly side and do something." said Fin, while everyone else was about to burst out into laughter.

"What, are you calling me a woman, Fin?"

"Oh, so know you're against woman? Despise me now, do yah? joked Olivia.

"Not exactly, Benson. Sometimes it's just fun to have a woman to pick on."

"Don't think I won't come over there and hurt you know, cause I'm not afraid to, John."

"Children, children, children," said Cragen as he opened his door to go into the chatty squad room. "Shut up and let's get some work done over here." He then went up to the large chalkboard that had been in the room for as long as they could remember.

"So far all that we know is that our victim is Kelly Como, 13 years old." Cragen said while putting her picture on the board. He wrote "victim" above her picture.

"Now all we need is the perp." He said, while writing "perp" above a box that had a question mark in it, a box immense enough to fit a large picture, the size of Kelly's, in it.

"So the only person we could have suspected as the perp was Kelly's mother, Rhonda." Stated Olivia, while putting a picture of Rhonda on the board, although not beneath where Cragen had written "perp" with the pallid chalk. "But her alibi rules her out. Although there isn't enough evidence to depict her as a drunk, I still believe she is one. Me and Elliot even noticed the fact that she had tons of empty vodka bottles scattered all over her counter. In my opinion, I don't think that is the safest place for Kelly to be living in. But like I always say, I can't just jump to conclusions."

"But like Liv said before, she could be involved before she went to the bar. Kelly could have run off to Central Park after her mom beat the crap out of her." explained Elliot.

"And what kind of reason so we have to believe that Rhonda was involved with this?" asked Cragen.

"Captain, this lady is a drunk." stated Olivia.

"Just because she may have been intoxicated most of her life, it doesn't verify that she was the one who physically attacked her daughter."

"I know what your saying and I agree with you for the most part. But there aren't too many drunken mother's who weren't involved with a crime, especially this one."

Everyone could comprehend that the real reason Olivia was taking the blame out on Rhonda was because she knew what it was really like to have a mother who was always under the influence, and she happened to be both verbally and sometimes physically abusive. During times likes this, it was very difficult for Olivia to ignore the fact that Rhonda's alibi had already ruled her out, and that there was inadequate evidence to find her guilty, if she was. The only way they could find out who really did this to Kelly, was to ask her again at the hospital. The sooner they would be able to find out who did it, the sooner they could put him or her in the lock-up.

"Benson, go to St. Vincent's. There is some way you can convince Kelly that we need to find out who beat her up. You really need her to open up." demanded Cragen.

"As of right now, I'm on my way, Captain."

Olivia opened the door to Kelly's hospital room, where she was lying on her bed, reading the latest issue of Teen People. There were dark circles under her hazel eyes, and it looked as though she hadn't slept in days.

"Hi, Kelly." greeted Olivia, forcing a smile.

"Hi Olivia." responded Kelly.

"How have you been feeling?"

"Not too great. My head is killing me."

"Well I hope you feel much better, Kelly. But I cam here to ask you a question that would really help my partners and I on this case."

"Yeah?"

"I know that you said you weren't sure who hurt you like this, but, Kelly, do you remember anything from the attack?"

Instead of replying back to the detective, Kelly just turned her head, and went back to reading her magazine.

"Kelly," began Olivia, as she slowly took the magazine from Kelly and placed it on the small table that was near the hospital bed, "I know that you must know something." Once again, Kelly turned her head. This time Olivia was for sure that she knew who had her beat her half to death, and she was too afraid to mention the person's name.

"I, I can't." This time tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I, I really can't." More tears flooded from her eyes.

"Kelly, you've got to tell me his or her name. Sweetie, I know you're scared and all, but we really need to open up and tell me the name of who did this to you. Was it your mother, Kelly? Was your mother, Rhonda?"

"I, I can't!" More tears were running down her cheeks.

Tell me, Kelly, was it your mother?"

Finally, Kelly gave in, and slowly nodded her head.

"So it was your mother?"

She shook her head yes again.

"Kelly, tell me what happened."

Kelly tried wiping away the tears, although they kept coming out from her eyes, although not as much as before. "Last night, I went downstairs," began Kelly with sobs in between, "because I had really bad cramps. So I went into the fridge, because I was thirsty, and, oddly, a lot of times water would calm down my cramps. And my mother was in the living room. She heard me crying because my cramps were so horrible. And then she told me, she told me that I wouldn't have had cramps if I wouldn't have made the mistaken and gotten pregnant. But I told her (more sobs), I told her that I didn't do anything wrong, and that it wasn't my fault that I had a baby living inside of me. I just kept telling her over and over that I was, that I was raped, but she just wouldn't believe me. And then she picked up a bottle of vodka, and she was just started drinking, again and again. She told me that I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life, and I just told her I didn't, when the bottle slid out of her hands. It just broke apart into bits and pieces. But then she took the sharp edge of it, and, and she hit me really hard. And my head, it started to bleed. Then she took my by my hand, and threw me against the wall. And she slapped me over and over, and told me that she just wanted to kill me and my baby. And then I just ran out. I noticed that a few minutes after I left, she just took her green Subaru and drove off, most likely to the bar. I didn't know where to go, so I just started running. The cramps were getting worse, I was still bleeding, and it just hurt to run, but I had to. All those years, I've been my mother's slave; getting her whatever she wants. She just never accepted for whom I was, and she always said that I had bad genes and would turn out to be bad, like my father." Kelly paused for a second. "I just didn't know where to run to, so I just kept running and running. And then that's when I got to Central Park. I was just so tired of running that I stopped. My heart was pounding really fast. I just started crying, and I screamed for help. That was when this young couple came by, and the said they'd help me. But I just collapsed, and the next thing I know I'm in the stretcher ready to go into the hospital."

Olivia didn't know what to say. She just sat there, and the whole entire time while listening to Kelly, there were so many flashbacks of her dreadful childhood and how she had to deal with a drunken mother every night, and like Kelly, giving her what she wanted. "Kelly, what you just told is really going to help us. We know what your mother did to you know so-"

"No! No! You can't tell her! Just, please don't tell her I told you this!" interrupted Kelly, with a look of fear.

"Kelly, we're going to have to arrest your mother. What she did to you, she's going to have to have consequences, Kelly."

"But if she finds out-"

"No, Kelly, there's nothing your mother can do anymore to physically abuse you. But now I'm going to prevent any more bad things to happen."

"So if she finds out, she can't hurt me?"

"No. You're safe now, Kelly."

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