Chapter 6
East Eighty Third Street, Manhattan, New York
Thursday, September 10th 2015
1.16 am
Olivia stood beside Don Cragen now changed into a pair of slacks and a large sweater. She clasped onto his hand as she watched Fin and Elliot hammer at the door and call that the NYPD were outside.
They watched in anticipation and desperation as the door was broken down and the cops rushed inside. Olivia mumbled prayers under her breath as she hoped for the safe return of her oldest child.
"Clear!" Voices echoed from the house to Olivia's ears and slowly the hope she had in her heart bled out and she realised that if Melissa had been there then she wasn't anymore.
"All clear!" Munch yelled from the open door and Olivia felt Don's hand squeeze her own in reassurance.
"Get CSU inside no stone get's left unturned!" Olivia yelled and she slowly turned back to the car and with her father she headed back to the one six knowing there was no need for her to stick around when it was clear she wasn't needed there.
Manhattan SVU, Manhattan, New York
Thursday, September 10th 2015
1.49 am
"I've put an APB out on Reeves, he had a record so that's something." Olivia sighed as she dropped herself into her desk chair and looked at her father sat opposite her.
"We'll find her Liv." He reassured and she nodded, she was all cried out now and was too deep in cop mode.
George Huang who was sat in the office with them was keeping a very close eye on the expectant mother in front of him. She was dissociating and that could only mean trouble, he just hoped when Melissa was found dead or alive that Olivia would snap back into being a parent.
The phone's echoing call had all of them jumping out of their skin but Olivia was quick to pick it up and slam it to her ear.
"Cragen." She answered. "We're on our way."
She slammed the phone down and grabbed the car keys and Huang and Cragen said nothing as they followed her hurried footsteps, she'd obviously learned something new and she wasn't about to stop and fill them in on the details.
Abandoned Warehouse, Manhattan, New York
Thursday, September 10th 2015
2.49 am
"Think about this Liv." Cragen told her as she pulled on a bullet proof vest.
"I have." She replied dryly.
"If she's in there and you or her get shot what about the rest of your family, our family?" He asked her desperately.
"Just make sure once everyone arrives they react ok?" She told him as she pulled out her gun and headed for the small side door.
He looked at her and nodded, all the units were miles out and it could take nearly an hour for them to arrive and Olivia wasn't about to sit and wait when her daughter could be being raped and tortured in a Warehouse a few feet away.
He wanted to go in with her but she'd made it clear he wasn't to follow her inside, this was something she was going to do alone even if it was going to cost her shield.
Her heart hammered in her chest sending pulsating vibrations to her head. She wanted to find her daughter and nothing was going to stop her, not her job and not the law. She saw a light and walked hurriedly keeping her gun at arm's length ready to shoot if necessary.
She turned into a doorway and saw her daughter sat tied to a pole.
"Mom!"
"Mel..."
A kick to the hand sent her gun flying and Tyler Reeves stepped out of the shadows. He clasped at Olivia's biceps and she at his as they struggled to overpower one another. Thoughts of her family and rescuing her daughter gave Olivia the strength she needed to hold him off but she couldn't overpower him, he was strong, muscular and visibly psychotic.
"Mommy!" Melissa squealed and she frantically searched for something she could do to help her mother.
A knee hit Olivia in the gut and she doubled over in pain until she heard it. One single gunshot. Then she saw Melissa stood shaking with her police issued weapon in her quivering hands.
"Mel." Olivia gasped running to her and taking the gun from her hands before wrapping her arms around her daughters trembling figure.
"The knife." Melissa whispered. "He was..."
"I know baby." Olivia replied, she'd seen Tyler Reeves pull out a knife too, it now lay in his dead hand.
"I had to..." Melissa cried.
"I know baby but listen to Mommy." She cupped her daughter's filthy tears stained cheeks in her hands. "When the police ask Mommy shot the gun ok? You have to tell them Mommy shot him."
"Ok." Melissa nodded before bursting out into tears and being pulled back into Olivia's arms.
"Liv! Mel!" Elliot came running into the room, he stepped over Reeves body and pulled the two sobbing girls into his arms. "What happened?"
"He pulled out a knife after kneeing me in the gut ... I had to shoot." She whispered her voice trembling with the lie that spilled from her mouth, she would tell her husband the truth eventually but not now, she couldn't tell him while CSU and EMT's were rushing into the room.
"Ok I've got you both." He whispered as he held them stopping the EMT's coming anywhere near them.
"Detective we need to check them both over." One EMT told him and he slowly let go of them and backed away.
"Check her over I'm fine." Olivia whispered stepping back and wrapping an arm around Elliot.
Melissa was untied from the railing and she was put on a stretcher to be carried out. Olivia and Elliot followed behind, Olivia frantically wiping the gun that her daughter had used to kill her kidnapper, she knew it was going to be tested and she had to make sure that no one suspected Melissa of firing the weapon. She then held it in her hand in the same way she would have if she would have shot him, just to make sure her prints were on it before she handed it over to Fin who was waiting to take it to ballistics.
Olivia climbed into the ambulance behind Melissa and said nothing. Elliot told them he would follow them in the car but Olivia still said nothing, she'd gone into shock as she clutched her daughter's still trembling hand.
Mercy General, Manhattan, New York
Thursday, September 10th 2015
4.11 am
Olivia and Elliot sat beside their sleeping daughter's hospital bed. The rest of the SVU squad was outside in the waiting room.
"The rape kit was negative." Olivia told him breaking the silence. "Hymen intact, no sign of penetration, no bruising."
A sigh of relief left Elliot's body. Their little girl hadn't become a victim of rape but she was still a victim in many ways.
"Why did he take her?" Elliot asked softly.
"I don't know, she had a few bruises on her upper arms, her wrist is broken, he's no one we've arrested, we've not been involved with any of his family, I think it may have been a random snatch for ransom and when he found out he had cops kid he panicked." Olivia suggested and Elliot nodded, the idea was plausible.
"What happened in that warehouse Olivia?" Elliot asked softly.
"He kicked the gun out of my hand and went to fight me, he kneed me in the stomach and pulled out a knife and Mel ... Melissa grabbed the gun and shot." Olivia cried softly and Elliot reached his free hand over his daughter's sedated body and took her free hand in his own. "Our little girl shot someone El."
"I know baby." He whispered. "We'll get her help, it can't be Huang because he can't know."
"No one can find out that she shot the gun Elliot." Olivia told him firmly.
"I know, just make sure you and Melissa are on the same page about what happened, you wiped the prints?"
"Of course I did." Olivia snapped.
"Good, anything that doesn't add up in what you say happened can be put down to EED on Melissa's behalf, you just make sure you stick to the same story, you're a cop and have to remember extreme amounts of information in tough circumstances, one break in your story Liv and they're going to know." Elliot rubbed his thumb over her hand as he talked and she nodded in agreement.
"I know El, no one can know Melissa shot that gun." Olivia sighed, she didn't want to be involved in some major cover up but this was her daughter who would have to be arrested for murder until it was proven to be self defence, which it wouldn't be because it was Olivia he was going for with the knife, Melissa's life hadn't been in any danger when she shot the gun.
"I'm going to see everyone outside." Olivia whispered letting go of Elliot and Melissa's hand, leaving father and daughter alone for a while.
Olivia left the room with heavy shoulders and heavy heart. When she arrived the waiting room Don Cragen was the first to wrap her up in an embrace and she finally broke, the tears flooded down her cheeks and she made no attempt to stop them.
"Ok Princess." He whispered as he stroked her back. "Come on calm down, she's safe now."
Olivia took five minutes to compose herself and wipe her tears before she filled the group in on what the doctors had said.
"No rape, no penetration, broken wrist, some bruising on her upper arms, we won't really know what happened until Melissa tells us." Olivia informed them and they all felt a little bit more relaxed hearing that she wasn't raped or sexually assaulted.
"How is she?" Fin asked.
"Sedated, I requested that they sedated her for the rape kit, those things can be so traumatising and I didn't want her to know she had it done." Olivia explained. "She should sleep till morning and then they'll discharge her."
"That's great news Liv." Munch smiled softly.
"Yeah, I'll bring her in tomorrow afternoon to give her statement, once she's been home and showered and seen her siblings." Olivia informed them, she was Captain anyway so she didn't have a superior to ask her when to bring the child in.
"Ok, CSU finished up at the house Liv and they found some of Melissa's hair in the living room by a heater, we think she was tied up there because O'Hallaran found rope fibres there too." Fin told her.
"What difference does it make? He's dead." Olivia spat.
"We still have to close the case Olivia you know that." Munch told her gently.
"I know, I know but this isn't just any case is it Munch that's Melissa that's the little girl who watched her birth parents get killed and was kidnapped when she was just six years old." Olivia snapped angrily, she was too tired for this.
"I know Liv but look at what's happened in the seven years since that happened, she got two amazing fathers, yes she lost one but she still knows he loved her and she has Elliot but to top all of that off she has you, and she will need you to be strong for her now." Cragen whispered softly to calm her down.
"I know." Olivia sighed. "I know, now I'm going to go back to my baby and my husband, Dad go home to Mom so she can relax and Munch and Fin get some sleep and I'll see you at the house tomorrow."
With that she turned on her heels and left knowing she had plenty of time to talk to Melissa and make up a story that would be plausible to how Olivia shot her gun killing the perp when she was on the other side of the room.
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