Chapter Two

Once the doctor left the room, Elliot called Liv to let her know what was going on. She had asked if Aaliyah would be up to talk about the accident. Elliot agreed to the interview but suggested he be in the room.

"Liv," Elliot said on their way to her hospital room. "Aaliyah's English isn't very good. She's from Sweden."

"Alright, if you wanna translate that's fine. How did you end up fostering her?"

"Her parents were part of a drug cartel in Italy, but she was living in Sweden with her mom, who was sex trafficking girls. Her parents were both killed during a shooting. Not by us, but we found her while searching the apartment. She somehow was back in Italy with her dad when they were killed."

"Wait? Italy?" Liv asked, shocked to find out where he spent the last decade.

"Yeah, after I left SVU, I got a job doing security which lead to one thing and then moving to Italy," he quickly explained as they had reached Aaliyah's room. "She's really shy and scared of meeting new people."

Opening the door, Olivia found the little girl lying in the too-large bed. She must have been around the age of 3, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She looked like she could be Kathy and Elliot's biological daughter.

"Hej Aaliyah, det här är min vän Olivia. Hon skulle vilja prata med dig om bilolyckan," (Hi Aaliyah, this is my friend Olivia. She would like to talk to you about the car crash.) he said, sitting on her bed.

The girl nodded her head "Yes".

Oliva began asking her basic questions. If she saw the person who ran into their car, if she knew what happened, if she remembered anything specifics about the crash. Aaliyah replied that she didn't see the driver.

When Olivia was done, Elliot walked her back to the waiting room.

"Look Liv, I'm sorry," Elliot said.

"We don't have to do this, right now." But one look at his face showed her that there was no escaping this conversation. "Alright, you're sorry. Sorry for leaving? Sorry for walking out?"

"Liv—"

"I had to find out from Cragen," she explained.

"I just thought, if I heard your voice, I wouldn't have been able to leave."

Before she could even think about what he just implied, her phone rang. Amanda said they found out more information about the other driver and Liv had to make her way back to the precinct.

~oOo~

"From what we know there were two people in the car, both male. Based on these text messages, they were hired to hit the Stabler's car," Amanda explained, handing Liv the iPad. "Do you know if Stabler is working for anyone? Any connections to someone wanting him dead?"

"I can find that out."

Calling back Elliot, she handed all gathered information to Amanda.

Finally getting home, Liv checked in on Noah, and then fell into a dreamless sleep.

~oOo~

The next morning, Liv made her way into work where she and Amanda further investigated the case. And then, she got a call from Elliot. Liv quickly got up and made her way to the hospital.

Hurrying along the hospital hallway that leads to Kathy's room, she found Elliot standing outside the door, looking through the window, his eyes fixed on a point inside the room. Walking up to him, Liv's gaze followed his.

The bed was empty.

Kathy didn't make it.

Elliot turned around to her and fell into her arms. All Olivia could do, was pull him tighter and hug him back.