Whoops! Had to repost this due to some formatting issues.
A/N: Italics are people's thoughts
Chapter 8
Ow! Goodness, my head hurts. "Ma..." Wow, that's some coughing fit. Now not only does my head hurt, but my chest hurts too. Why is it so dark? The night light in the living room must have burned out. I can't see the glow under my door, but it's never this dark. I can't even see out my windows. Where are my windows? If only my head would stop pounding. Okay, take a deep breath Serena or you'll start coughing again. "Momma!" She had to hear me coughing. She always comes running when that happens. Unless she got called in. Funny, I didn't hear her leave. "Carmella?!" Ouch. I gotta stop trying to shout. Okay, get up and find her. Wait, I'm not in my bed. This isn't my room. Why am I on the floor? Where am I? Slow your breathing Serena. If I'm not home, I don't have my cannula or my oxygen mask. I. Can't. Flip. Out. Don't panic. I'm the daughter of a great cop and I am prepared for emergencies. My whole family are police officers so nothing bad will happen to me. Now li...
A door in the ceiling opens and a rope ladder is lowered. Serena can see that she is in what is essentially a hole in the ground. There is nothing but dirt surrounding her. She can see roots and rocks packed solid to form walls. There seems to be room to move around, but her eyes are focused on the shoes descending the ladder. A man climbs down about 5 steps before he reaches up and closes the makeshift door above his head. Serena is thrown back into darkness until she sees the man turn on a large flashlight and work his way down. He reminds her of a grandpa, but an active one like Uncle Don, not the ones in the old people's home.
"Oh, Heaven! You're finally awake." He speaks in a singsong voice as he walks over to a lantern across from where Serena lays and fills the room with light, causing her to squint. "Here, let me take a look at you Heaven girl" he said as he knelt in front of her and pulled her into a sitting position.
"My name is Serena Ben..." she began before she was backhanded across her mouth.
"You were not given permission to speak!" The singsong voice was gone and replaced with a deep growl. Serena's eyes went wide, and she was shocked into silence. The last time she cried, she was in the hospital getting her bandages changed, but that was years ago. Tears worried her mother. Olivia Benson was known as a badass and Serena wanted to be just like her. Strong. Brave.
Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Momma, where are you? I've never been slapped before. I've seen Elliot and Uncle Fin grab the bad guys a few times, I even saw Momma knock someone out with her elbow once, but I never realized how much that stings. Don't cry, just pay attention and stay quiet. Okay, I can finally see so look around. Dirt, dirt, dirt, lantern. What is that a hole in the ground over in the corner? Hopefully some animal doesn't live in there and decides to pop up. Look at him. I'll need to be able to describe him to Elliot when Momma finds me. Short white and black hair with the same kind of bushy moustache. His eyes are green and there is a part of his left eyebrow missing; like he was cut a long time ago and the hair never grew back in that one part. His belly hangs over his belt a bit. His shoulders were wide, even wider than Elliot's and I think he's taller than him too. Oh Elliot! Please come get me!
"Now Heaven, does anything hurt?" The singsong voice was back, and he was feeling all around Serena's body. She just stared back at him, trying to fold in on herself. Her eyes were trying to catch his. "Oh, you can answer when I ask a question."
"My name is Serena Benson and..." she was once again cut off when he jerked his hand up.
"I asked you a direct question Heaven, and you will give me a direct answer. Do you understand?" he asked sternly. She nodded. "Good, now Heaven, does anything hurt?"
She was visibly shaking as she nodded her head. "My head really hurts. My chest hurts too. I have breathing problems" she explained as she started to cough again and wheezed.
The man just nodded. He took a small plastic bag out of a backpack that she just noticed was on his back, He shook out three brown pills and a bottle of water. Serena just stared at the pills in his hand. Taking anything from strangers was a big no-no engrained in her head since before she could walk.
"Take these. They are just ibuprofen. I'm giving you three adult ones because it will help the pain that's already in your head and loosen up your chest. It will also head off the pain to come." He lowers his gaze when he talks but especially as he said the last sentence. It gave Serena chills, but she took the pills from his hand and drank the water down.
'The pain to come?' Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Is he going to beat me? Leave me here in darkness for God knows what to come eat me alive? He just sat down. Why is he staring at me? He's looking at me now but not when he was talking to me. Momma, I'm scared.
They sat staring at one another for about a half-hour before he spoke again. "Well, those should be in your system by now. We can get started."
-SVU—
It was one of those quiet days that Elliot hated. Sure, he was a sergeant now but all that really meant was more paperwork. To him it was just a title and a pay raise. Munch was officially "retired" even though technically he was working cold case and Cragen has one foot out the door. As long as he was still on the street with his partner, Elliot could take the changes. Yesterday he helped Fin wrap up two open cases while Olivia took off for Serena's birthday. Today felt off causing him to feel uneasy. He would rather have the room full of perps than just the squad milling around. He would never wish harm on another human being, but he would give anything for a case call right now. He thought to himself how that was such a horrible thought as he sat and watched his partner chew on her pen cap. She was catching up on paperwork, which is exactly what he should have been doing, but here it was going on 10:00 and the day was already too long. Sighing heavily, he grabbed a file off the top of his inbox and sat staring at it. When he finally decided to put his pen to work, Liv's phone rang. Finally.
Olivia was aware that Elliot was on edge. He was radiating agitation. She read the same line about 5 times and was just about to call him out when her phone rang. "Benson. What? I'm sorry, this is Serena Benson's mother and I think you are calling the wrong parent." She looked up and was not surprised that all of Elliot's attention was now focused on her. It was the school attendance office and they were questioning Serena's second day of absence.
"You don't understand, I walked Serena to school this morning. I kissed her goodbye and watched her walk in. Why are you asking me why she took another day off? She should be in class." Olivia's breathing picked up exponentially and her heart started to pound out of her chest. She locked eyes with Elliot knowing that in doing so, he would help her to calm down. What she saw was her own growing fear reflected back at her. This damn woman was insisting Serena was absent.
"Do me a favor and check whatever class she is supposed to be in now. I'm on my way." She hung up the phone as she simultaneously stood up and grabbed her jacket. Elliot of course was right in sync with her as always as they headed towards the elevator.
As she sat in the sedan, her thoughts began to run away from her. "Serena never misses school, El. Only on her birthday, they should know that." She kept hitting redial to Serena's phone, which kept going to voicemail. Of course, why would she have it on during the school day? Sometimes Liv thought she raised her too well.
"Calm down. It's probably just a misunderstanding. How many Serena's are in her school anyway?" he questioned. Even in his head he didn't sound convincing. It wasn't like her name is Amanda or Courtney or something shared with 18 other girls. Liv didn't answer, and Elliot just drove faster.
As soon as they parked in front of the school, a security guard was there to tell them to move. Elliot flashed his badge. "I'm Sergeant Stabler and this is my partner Detective Benson, SVU. Please take us to the principal's office." Yeah, sometimes Elliot really liked his title. The office was abuzz with activity and it didn't seem to be the ordinary day type.
"Detective Benson, I'm so sorry. I don't even know where to start" said Mrs. Greene, the middle school principal. She was a fair educator who worked hard to keep her school on top and she had a soft spot for Serena, who has been taking classes there even when she was still in the elementary school.
"Where is my daughter?" Olivia asked. She was in no mood to be placated and was ready to dish out some hell.
"I'm Sergeant Stabler, Detective Benson's partner and Serena's godfather. Why don't we start at the beginning? When did you notice Serena was missing?" Elliot interjected before Liv went off on the woman before she was able to give any answers. They stood shoulder to shoulder and he could feel her tremble, but he couldn't tell if it was from fear or anger. Probably both.
"Follow me" said Mrs. Greene as she escorted the detectives to the security office. Along the way she told them what she knew. "When Serena didn't check in to homeroom, they sent her absence to the attendance office who then checked to see if she was in first period. She was not. They assumed she took an extra day since she was off yesterday. It's why her name was one of the last called, we thought she just added on to yesterday's absence."
"I walked her to those doors at 7:50 this morning, like every other morning. I kissed her goodbye and watched her walk down the hall. She came to the intersection, turned around and waved and disappeared to the right down that hall there. Her body was inside this building before I ran to the subway, so tell me where she went!" Liv's voice was strong and firm to anyone who didn't know her. Elliot, however heard the waver.
Mrs. Greene was very nervous, looking to Elliot for perhaps some intervention but his stress level had shot up to meet Liv's. This was not a misunderstanding.
"After you told the attendance office that she was in school and that you were coming in, we checked our security cameras and found this." Mrs. Greene led them to a set of monitors that showed the hallways, exits, and common areas of the school. Right in the center was a recording of just what Liv described. They watched Olivia say goodbye to Serena and Serena turned around to wave before turning down the hall. She then made an unexpected left.
"Wait!" shouted Elliot and Olivia at the same time. "Rewind that" Elliot said. "She met up with someone." As they replayed the footage, they saw Serena walking down the hall when she abruptly stopped and looked left. Her mouth was moving as if she was having a conversation before she turned and walked into another room. Actually, Elliot noticed that she seemed hesitant to go. Serena looked down the hall to her destination and seemed to be called back by whomever was in that room. She did go willingly though.
"Take us to that room" demanded Olivia. As they hurried down the hall, that feeling of absolute dread began to settle in her stomach. This is not happening. We are going to find her, she may be hurt but we will find her, and she'll be okay. This became her mantra as they stood where Serena was on the video. When Mrs. Greene opened the door, they found Serena's backpack on the floor of what was a janitor's closet with stairs that led down to the basement. When the detectives left Mrs. Greene in their dust, they found an open door at the bottom of the stairs leading to a small empty back lot.
Olivia's legs went out from under her. Oh God. Please God no. Not my baby.
Normally, Elliot would've been on the ball and caught her before she hit the ground, but he too was in shock and denial. Serena was gone.
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