Chapter 4:

Elliot thought the pounding sound was in his dream. "Elliot! Elliot wake up!" Elliot's eyes jerked open. Damn, he thought. He jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans. He walked out of the room, pulling on an undershirt as he went. The pounding started getting louder.

"Alright I'm coming I'm coming." He pulled open the front door, astounded at who stood in front of him. Kathy.

And his kids.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, letting his surprise show. Kathy looked angry.

"Its Sunday. You were supposed to pick up the kids yesterday. Fortunately for you I decided to bring them over." Her voice matched her expression. Elliot finally remembered.

"Oh, god, guys I'm sorry. I've been working on a case."

"Of course," Kathy folded her arms. Elliot looked past her to his kids.

"Well come on in." He stepped aside.

"Oh holy-" he jerked his head behind him to see Maria running down the hallway to his bathroom. Damn, he thought. He turned back to see his ex-wife standing there, her mouth gaping open and her eyes bulging out of her head.

"Case huh?" Elliot lowered his eyes. Kathy pushed past him into the house. "I need to talk to you. In private!" Elliot turned to his kids.

"Come on in," he said, ignoring Kathy. The four kids walked past him into their home. "Hey I'm sorry about all this. Its just this case I'm working on."

"Sure dad," Maureen said bitterly dropping her bag down in the hall way. Elliot closed the door and joined Kathy in the living room. She stepped closely to him. Her eyes were full of fire and rage.

"How could you?" her voice was quiet. "You abandoned your children for some trailer trash?"

"She's not trailer trash!" Elliot stopped, realizing this was only going to gethim in more trouble. "I'm working on her case." Kathy was silent for a moment.

"I guess you decided to bring your work home with you after all."

"Kathy don't be like that."

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't."

"I'm not sleeping with her, she needed a place to sleep."

"So what's wrong with her place?"

"She was raped at her place." Kathy didn't say anything. "Look, she's a good kid." Just then he heard a loud thunk.

"Ow, what was that for?" he heard Maureen scream. Elliot ran towards the noise. Maria ran out of the bathroom and out the front door. Maureen was on the ground, holding her cheek. "She hit me! That bitch hit me! All I did was try to comfort her!" Elliot was confused. He looked behind him. Kathy was looking angry and smug.

"A good kid huh?" Elliot didn't say anything. Instead, he ran past her to try and catch Maria. He'd lost her once he wasn't going to do it again. He was out the door and down the path quickly but Maria was already down the road, running fast.

"Maria!" he yelled. This wasn't making any sense. Why did Maria hit Maureen? Why did she refuse to talk to Olivia? What the hell was she talking about last night?

Elliot turned towards his neighbors house. He squinted slightly in the sunlight. He could see a dark window, facing his front yard. He walked closer, from that window you could see not only into his front yard, but his back yard as well. It still didn't make any sense. Maria's last name was Rodriguez. He knew for a fact that his neighbors were named Palenti.

He heardthe door slam. He turned his head slightly to see Kathy walk down the stoop and to her car. She was driving away before he could say or do anything. He walked back into his house. Kathleen was getting ice for Maureen. The two girls were giving him dirty looks. Elliot kneeled down before Maureen.

"How's your face?" Maureen refused to pull her hand away. "Come on let's see." He gently pulled her hand away. His eyes bugged out and he jerked his head back. "Woah!" he said jokingly. Kathleen came over and pulled Maureen away.

"This isn't the time for jokes dad." She said as the two girls walked away. Elliot sighed heavily. His own children were mad at him. This case was more of a hassle than anything else. Elliot stood up, grabbing his cell phone off the kitchen table. He dialed the number for Olivia. Three rings later she picked up.

"Liv," he stopped a moment to let her speak. "Yeah I'm fine. Yeah I found Maria. Look, I found something out. I need you to look for birth certificates on the Palenti family. Yeah I think there's something strange about Maria." he waited for a second.

Olivia nodded, confused slightly. "Yeah, ok." She nodded again. "Sure. Ok, bye." she hung up the phone. "That was Elliot. He wants us to look up birth certificates with the last name "Palenti.""

"What does that have to do with Maria?" John asked.

"What makes you think it does?" Cameron asked even more confused than the others.

"That's all he's been able to think about." Olivia got slightly jealous. She didn't understand why. She ignored the feeling.

"He said he thinks he found a connection." She turned towards her computer and started typing something. She waited a few moments while things came up. "Palenti isn't a very popular name. There's only a few families in the city."

"Do we know who we're looking for?" John asked. "Like a specific person?"

"He said something about his neighbors." Olivia began typing again. "So, let me see if I can find something with that." She waited patiently as the results popped up. "Margo Palenti, home address in Queens." Olivia read more before looking up at the others. "She's sixteen years old."

"Does she have a driver's license?" John asked curiously. Fin stepped behind Liv, resting his arm on the back of her chair and the other on her desk.

"Let me look." she typed up a few things and again, waited for a moment as a picture of a slightly attractive brunette teenager popped up. "Oh my god." she barely whispered.

"Damn," Fin said behind her.

"What?" Cameron exclaimed slowly rising from her desk, clutching her old battle wound. She stood beside John, who had just joined the two other detectives.

"Wow," he said calmly. Cameron's jaw dropped as she recognized the picture.

"Maria Rodriguez."

gasp, pant, fall ow! I finished the chapter! Granted it took me a million years, but I did it. Go me! Well tell me how you like it! Now this is the FINAL installment of this little story idea. But fear not I still have plenty of stories coming, and trust me I feel like I should kill munch off again. More people read the replacement than this one or celebrity. Hmm, oh well. Ooh just so you know, next svu story I make, besides being unrelated to Cameron Holiday, will be a murder story where the guys try to find a murderer who does some REALLY sick stuff to his victims. But you'll have to wait!