Chapter Six

(The trial part is a little weird, I wasn't too sure how I wanted to write it. I knew I didn't want it to be a full section of the story, so I just made something random up)

The next few weeks flew by pretty quickly. It was now the middle of July and both Noah and Emma were both out of school. Olivia had been made Emma's permanente foster mother, for the time being, until at least her trial is over. Emma had yet to come in contact with her attackers since she had made the positive IDs.

Elliot had still not yet told his family about Emma. He and Olivia had both decided to wait to tell his family until after the trial. To spare everyone the stress of two different events.

Emma, had gotten ready for trial and put on some clothes that Olivia had let her borrow. They fit her pretty well considering Olivia is a bit taller than she is. Lucy had arrived to watch Noah so he wouldn't have to come to court. Olivia and Emma drove down to the court house, where they met with Carisi, and prepped for the day.

"All I have to say is that the defense will have a field day with you living with Captain Benson. Are you sure that you are willing to go through with that?" Carisi asked, making sure Emma understood what could happen.

"If that means that they'll be behind bars. Yes."

Carisi and Emma walked into the courtroom. Olivia couldn't watch her testify, for she was testifying right after her, and had to wait in the waiting room.

"Ms. Stalber-Wheatley, please describe the attack for the jury." Carisi started out with.

"Well, I was walking home from a friend's house when these two men jumped me. I don't remember much of the attack, the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital to Captain Benson."

"Are those two men in the room right now?"

"Yes, they're over there." she said pointing to the two men.

The next line of questions wasn't too bad from Carisi, it was just your typical questions to get everything covered. But now it was time for the defense to ask the questions.

"Ms. Stalber-Wheatley, isn't it true that Mr. Wheatley is your father?" Buchanan stated.

"Yes," Emma said with shame.

"So why would your own father, and step brother want to attack you?"

"I don't know,"

"You don't know? So couldn't it be true that they weren't the ones who attacked you at all?"

"It's possible, I guess." At this point Emma's heart was raising, worried that the jury might believe the defense's side of the story than her own.

The next witness was Olivia. Emma had sat down by Kat and Amanda. She was worried about what kind of questioning Olivia would get.

"Captain Benson, what is your relationship with the victim?" Buchanan asked.

"She's a friend and a victim. Nothing different from any other victim."

"But, isn't it true that you are now her legal foster mother? So wouldn't that mean your line of judgment might be false? Especially since she's the daughter of your ex-partner's former wife?"

"Objection!" Carisi said standing up. "Captain Benson's relationship with Detective Stabler is irrelevant to the case. Furthermore, the case of Kathy Stabler's murder is also not relavent to this case."

"Your honor, the jury has the right to know if Captain Benson's involvement in this case, is bias"

"Overruled, you may answer the question Captain." The judge mentioned

"I am Emma's foster mother, yes, but I took her into my home, before knowing she was Kathy's daughter. My squad and I have been working this case like it was any other."

The day felt like it was never going to end, but thankfully it did. Olivia took Emma back to the precinct. Carisi met with Buchanan because he wants to make a deal before this case gets any worse.

"Do you think the jury will believe us?" Emma asked.

"I think Carisi is doing his best to convince them, but Wheatley has power of his own-" Just then Olivia's phone rang. "Carisi, please tell me this is good." Olivia was one the phone for the next few seconds. Liv put her phone back in her pocket and said, "Carisi wants us to come down to Rykers. He said Wheatley will only make a deal, if he talks to you."

Emma took a deep breath, "Alright,"

Olivia drove down to the jail with Emma. She decided it was best not to tell Elliot about their little meetup, for she knew he was already stressed about everything.

"Ms. Olivia Benson," Wheatley said as both girls walked into the cell. "Surprised to see you here, I was hoping Detective Stabler would have brought Emma."

"What do you want?" Olivia said, cutting to the chase. Emma sat down across from Wheatley.

"Emma, my, my, Emma. Thought I'd never see you again." Emma looked portified yet tried not to feel too scared. "You look exactly like your mother," he continued, "Pitty, that my ex-wife had her blown up." Olivia looked like she was about to punch the life out of this guy, but she kept her cool. "You're probably wondering why your mother ever wanted to give you up. Well lucky for her, I had her wrapped around my finger." Emma looked at him intrigued by his words. "Well, that got your attention," he said, leaning in close. "When I was with her, I barely even knew her, but when she told me she was pregnant, I knew that she wouldn't want to keep the baby. But of course, her being a faithful catholic she had to go through with the pregnancy. But after you were born, I knew she didn't want you and I couldn't have a baby on my hands, so the only way I could get rid of the problem was to threaten the only person she loved. Her family. I told her if she didn't give you up, I would go after her children, and her husband. But that's enough for now." he said signaling to the guards he was ready to leave.

Emma and Olivia walked back to the car. Both of them were shocked by the news they were just given. They weren't sure what to expect by their visit, but that certainly wasn't it. They arrived back at Olivia's apartment when Carisi had called telling them that Wheatley plead guilty on the assault charges and will get 10 years, and Richie Wheatley also plead guilty for the assault and will do 5 years. Granite he couldn't add more time or anything to their charges because they had even bigger charges against them that would give them more time.

Olivia called Elliot the good news about the case, but left out the part on how Richard Wheatley had requested Emma to come speak to him, before making a deal. She had also decided it was time for Elliot to tell his family about Emma, that they had waited long enough.

Olivia had gone over to Elliot's apartment where he and Eli had been staying. Emma stayed home with Noah. The apartment was quite small for all 5 Stabler kids to be there at once, but they squeezed in.

"Dad, is everything ok?" Kathleen asked, worried about what this meeting could be about. They kids had their suspicion as to what this could be about, but they weren't going to make any conclusions.

Olivia looked at Elliot, "Go on, you can tell them."

"Alright," he said, taking a brief pause. "Kids, when your mother and I were split up, she had a relationship with a man."

"Why is this relevant? Mom dated a few guys during that time." Kathleen added.

"Right, only this guy got your mom pregnant."

"Wait, are you saying you're not my father? Some other guy is?" Eli said.

"No, this was years before you," Elliot explained. "Liv caught a case, and during the DNA testing, the result came back with matching DNA to your mom's, and-" He took a deep breath before saying the next part of that sentence, "Richard Wheatley."

"You're saying the guy who killed mom, knocked up mom?!" Dickie said.

"Uh… yeah, if you put it like that, yes."

"So this is actually not at all what we were expecting." Kathleen stated.

"Yeah, we always thought it would be you knocking up Olivia." Dickie added pointing at Elliot, then Olivia. Elliot had an angry look on his face, but Olivia just kind of brushed it off.

"Are we ever going to meet her? How do we know she's not playing for the other side?" Maureen asked.

"I mean if you guys want to meet her, I'm sure we could all go out for dinner one night." Olivia suggested.

"So does she live with her father? Or?" Eli asked.

"Well that's actually a very complicated answer," Olivia said, pulling up a kitchen bar stool, and sitting on it. "You see, Wheatley, even from the beginning was a dangerous man, and he had threatened you all if she hadn't given up the baby, so she did what she had to do, to make sure that you all were safe."

"So she gave up her child, just to save us?" Kathleen asked, clarifying the given information.

"Yeah, but look, your mother probably wanted to tell you guys honestly, but it must've been hard for her to keep that a secret from you guys, let alone hide it."

"She's also been staying with me the past month or so," Olivia chimed in.

"What?" Kathleen asked in shock. "I mean I know you're a good mom and everything, but I never thought you'd take in a victim like she was your own."

"You know, I probably wouldn't have done it either, but something about her just felt different, and I guess I know why."