A/N: Oooo you're gonna hate me. I promise nothing bad is going to happen to Jesse and Noah. Rafa on the other hand...I don't own SVU or its characters. ENJOY.

Sunday – 8:47 p.m.

As soon as she heard it she was out of her seat.

The rest of the table perked up at that too, as well as the surrounding tables, all trying to figure out where the loud cry for her came from. Liv looked around wildly, forcing Fin and Carisi out of their seats, both men alert, as well as Amanda, who remained seated with Jesse on her lap.

She moved past a few tables, spotting the bathroom sign and she moved swiftly towards it, pushing past a waiter who was looking down the narrow hallway, a shocked look on his face. When Liv turned the corner, she stopped cold, seeing a gun pointing directly at her.

She hit the ground, not before the bullet could graze her cheek and she felt blood exploding against her back. The horrified screams and the patrons of the restaurant scattering disoriented her for a second, but she was back on her feet, just in time to see Rafael and Noah being forcibly dragged to a dark van that had pulled up in front of the restaurants, with a man shouting in Spanish and holding an automatic weapon.

Liv scrabbled across the floor after them, able to grab onto the shoes of one of the men, but he kicked her off and aimed the gun at her again. She rolled away just as the shot splintered into the wood by her head, the ringing in her eyes impossibly loud.

Carisi and Fin practically raced over Liv, leaving Rita and Amanda with Jesse to duck under the table. Amanda cradled Jesse to her chest, breathing harshly and trying to keep her squirming child from breaking away from her. There was chaos all around, but Rita moved closer to her, trying to get her to move.

She took a deep breath and stood up, prepared to race out of the restaurant to safety with her daughter, but was met with a hook to the face that forced her flat on her back. Blood exploded from her nose and her hands loosened just the slightest on Jesse's body, but it was enough that a man with a bandana over his mouth and a gun in his hand was able to yank her out of her arms by the back of her shirt.

Amanda screamed and sat up immediately, just in time to see Rita knocked to the ground, out cold. There was a heart stopping moment when all she could do was stare as her daughter, screaming and crying over the man's shoulder, terrified, but she sprang into action.

She reached for a steak knife on the table and raced after the man. Carisi had seen everything and joined her, running after the man, but he had too much of a lead on them. He made it into the van and the door slammed shut before they could both reach it.

The wheels of the van screeched loudly on the street and peeled away, leaving the sand to kick up and blind them, but in a last-ditch effort, Carisi took off down the street, yelling at them to stop uselessly. Amanda dropped to her knees, an anguished cry escaping her lips. The knife in her hand slipped to the ground as her vision blurred.

"No, no, no, no, not again, Fin. Please tell me not again. Please!"

Liv was wide eyed, tears dripping furiously down her cheeks as she gripped his biceps, nails digging into his skin. Her lip trembled and her hair was wild around her face, but he just shook his head and tried to get the words to come out.

Everything happened so quickly, he wasn't even sure where everyone had gone. He saw the van, and he saw Noah trying to scramble out of the door before it closed. He saw Carisi take off and Amanda with a knife, and he didn't know where Rita was, but that was it. Liv shook on the ground, near hysterics and Carisi was nowhere to be seen now. Neither was Barba.

"Liv, calm down," he said loudly, grabbing hold of her arms and hauling her up. He grimaced when he saw a man, face planted into his plate, with half of his head missing and some of the contents on Liv's neck and face and in her hair.

"Fuck," he whispered, half-carrying her to an empty seat. He could hear sirens growing closer in the distance and as he cleared a few tables, he could see Amanda passed out on the ground, blood dripping from her nose. A few feet away, he could see Rita on her hands and knees, disoriented with blood dripping from her nose as well.

He cursed, unsure of who to run. He could see Carisi running back full speed at them, a police car tailing him with a few officers hanging off the side. They had seen police cars full of officers patrolling the area all day, and he was glad for that. The faster they got there, the more likely they were to be able to catch up to the van.

"Oh God," Liv cried, leaning forward and rocking back and forth in the chair. Fin closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. He was near a breakdown himself, the adrenaline pumping through his veins making his heart race and beat so loud in his chest, he could barely hear a word Carisi said when he made it back to them.

The moment he was in the van, Rafael knew this wasn't going to end well.

His back hit the back of the van wall so hard he lost his breath and struggled to get it back, gasping as he grasped for any surface he could grab onto. Noah was at his side, but he shot away from just as quickly, calling for Liv, his little hand outstretched and his voice a shrill cry above the yelling coming from the front seat of the van.

He leaned forward to catch Noah when the man with the huge gun pushed him back without care, and he pressed Noah to his chest, quieting him the best he could with his shaking voice. There were a few terrifying seconds where he could see Amanda and Carisi running up to the van and with startling clarity, he saw that Jesse had been snatched as well, and was hanging over a masked man's back like carelessly.

Rafael reached up and grabbed her, hugging both of the kids close to his chest. He tried taking a few calming breaths because his heart was beating so hard and his vision was beginning to blur. He could feel both kids trying to burrow themselves into his body, and he did his best to keep a hold on them as they squirmed in his arms.

The van lurched forward, sending him tumbling a bit to the side as the door to the van slammed loudly, descending them into darkness. His harsh breathing was the only sound before a light from the ceiling flooded the back of the van, giving him a clear view of his surroundings.

A gun was shoved in his face, so close he could smell metal, and three men were crouched in the back of the van. Two sat in the front, from what he could see, and all of them were masked, except-

"You have ten seconds to shut them up or I'll beat you half to death with this bat."

Rafael looked at Juan, who swung a wooden baseball bat up and rested it against his shoulder. Rafael stared at him, trying to decipher if there was any truth behind the words, and when Juan began to slowly count down, he knew there was. That, coupled with the deadly way his hand gripped the tape wrapped handle of the bat, told him he was serious.

He went about trying to calm down a hysteric Noah and sobbing Jesse, shushing them both to no avail. He started to panic as Juan continued counting down, slight humor coloring his voice as Rafael grew more and more frantic.

"Noah, buddy, look at me," he said quietly, cupping the boy's face in his hands. Noah hiccupped and stopped crying, looking at Rafael with all of the trust in the world. "It's going to be ok. Stop crying for me please. Ok? Just stop crying and breathe."

Noah nodded, coughing and hiccupping as he shoved his little face into his neck. Rafael sighed and moved onto Jesse, with whom he had little experience with. The girl tended to shy away from him a little, only really coming up to him when Noah was present, so he used that to his advantage.

"Jesse, honey, calm down." The little girl looked up at him, fists curled into his shirt, but she didn't stop crying. It took several more attempts to even get her loud sobs to quiet into soft little cries against his chest and by the time she actually had quieted down some, Juan was starting at him, bat propped up against his leg. He leaned back against the back doors of the van and pulled out a cigarette, staring the children as if he was trying to figure them out.

It fell quiet for a few minutes as he continued to keep the kids as calm as possible. Noah had stopped crying all together and was just wrapped around him now, while Jesse still cried into his shirt, her little wracking with silent sobs, but calmer than she had been.

Rafael looked back over at Juan, ignoring the fact that there was gun still shoved in his face and he dared to speak, "What are you going to do."

Juan leaned forward and blew a puff a smoke towards them, "I'm not going to hurt them, if that's what you're worried about. Or you. You're merely a distraction." With those words acting as a balm to the fear he had of dying at the hands of these guys, he calmed considerably, making way for anger. His brow furrowed and his lip curled.

"You don't need them, then. You can take me."

Juan snorted and pulled out a flip phone that looked beat up and had seen better days. It was a burner, Rafael was almost positive. He'd seen quite a few in his days at the DA's office. "You won't capture the attention of the world, my friend. You'll be just another tourist that took one step too far out of town."

Rafael stayed still, staring at the camera until he heard a shutter, like the sound of a camera. Juan took a few more shots before he fiddled around and pressed a few buttons. He snapped the phone closed and gestured at the kids in his arms, "Them, on the other hand…there will be cries from your country to save these poor children. They'll care more about them, less about you."

Rafael had no qualms about that. He also had care in the world about his own safety. He wasn't quite believing of this man, and he wouldn't until they were released or forced to find a way out. He didn't watch Juan crawl back to his place leaning against the side of the van. He just focused on keeping the kids calm and cradled to him, trying to convey to them that they were safe without the use of words.

It felt like an hour later when the van finally stopped. They had gone up and over some rough terrain and Rafael's legs had fallen asleep along with the children he was supporting. Jesse was the first pass out, dried tear tracks on her sweet little face and her fists still curled around in the fabric of his shirt. Noah fell asleep only fifteen minutes or so ago, his face still hidden in his neck.

The gun had eventually been removed from his face, allowing him to get somewhat comfortable, but not completely. His back burned and the side of his head, where he'd slammed into the van wall when he was thrown in.

The man with the bandana in front of him flipped off the van light and threw open the door, revealing a few flood lights lighting up a small cabin like building. Rafael waited until everyone vacated the van, listening to them speak in Spanish. It was muttered under their breath, because Juan was aware he spoke Spanish himself. He supposed if they hadn't grabbed someone who was fluent, more threats would have been made just to freak out the poor soul this could have happened to.

"Hey. Get up. C'mon I don't have all day," Juan said into the car, his voice tripping over the words in English. He repeated them again in Spanish, with more volume and the bat he had earlier raised.

Rafael shook both of the kids lightly, bringing them back to reality. Noah seemed calmer after he woke up, but he still refused to move from his side against Rafael. Meanwhile, Jesse woke up, looked around, called for Amanda and then descended into tears once more. Rafael did the best he could, maneuvering himself out of the van with both children, but his legs were asleep and he was finding it difficult to move.

Once he got to the edge of the van and planted his feet on the dirt ground, Juan cooed and Jesse and reached out, trying to grab her under her arms to pluck her out of his grasp. Rafael moved swiftly away, feeling the pins and needles dance up his legs and nearly snarled at Juan, "Don't you fucking touch her."

Juan seemed a little taken aback by the comment, and then shook his head, snorting as he walked past them. He nodded at one of his associates, that stood near the door of the cabin/house and the man swung the door open, revealing dim lights. Rafael readjusted his grip on the kids, his arms tired and his back burning, but he moved forward quickly, refusing to look at the men staring him down.

Once inside, he stood by the doorway and watched Juan turn on a lamp on a nightstand by the bed, further illuminating the small space. And it was incredibly small. A tiny kitchen area with an old stove and fridge took up the entire left side of the space, connected to a small room that had to be where the facilities were. On the right side was a couch and a bookshelf that had a few books on it, coupled with what looked like DVD's. Next to it was a small television with a DVD player attached to it. All of this lead to the queen size bed that looked like it hadn't been used in years.

"This is your new home for the next week. That's how long it should take us to do what we need to do and get out of here before your American government comes to rescue you."

"A week?"

"A week…maybe more. Who's counting."

Juan moved past him and pointed at the fridge and cabinets. "There's food and water. Some kid's movies to keep them entertained. There aren't any forks or knives or anything sharp that you could use to attack, so you gonna have to use your hands."

Rafael looked at him, face twisted in confusion. Juan stopped and raised his arms, "What, you think we're some fucking animals? I told you we weren't going to hurt them."

Juan smiled and exited, slamming the door closed behind him. Rafael listened for a few minutes by the door since there were no windows for him to look out of. When he was confident the vehicle had left, he walked both of the kids over to the bed and struggled to get them to let go of his neck and shirt.

"I'm coming right back, ok? I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going to look outside," he tried to reassure. Noah started crying again, doing nothing but spurring Jesse back into hysterics. Rafael sighed and sat down on the bed with them, pulling them back into his chest. He began to rock them back and forth, humming some sort of tune that was pulling at the back of his mind. Later, he would realize it was the same tune his grandmother used to hum to him whenever his father went on one of his drunken rampages.

He looked around the small, windowless house he found himself in almost, almost, wished he was dealing with his drunken father right now instead of this.

Sunday – 10:02 p.m.

It was a fucking chaotic mess by the time they got any answers.

Amanda was sitting in the back of an ambulance, inconsolable as they cleaned up the mess from her broken nose and tried pleading with her, in broken English to go to the hospital. Liv was still sitting in the dining room, refusing to move and curled into herself, tears never stopping as she mumbled something over and over to herself.

Fin sat with Rita rubbing her back as she tried to stop the bleeding from her nose that was still intact, and Carisi…well he didn't know what to do other than lose his mind. He'd been trailing behind the Captain of the force down there, who spoke better English than the rest, but who avoided telling him anything other than placating words so he would stop following them.

The boat officials were down there on the ground as well, taking count of all of their passengers, with whom they called back to the boat. As soon as they had a headcount and could assess the situation, which could take hours, they were leaving the port and sailing back to Los Angeles.

Which was a predicament they were finding themselves in. None of them were leaving without Rafael, Noah, and Jesse safely back with them, but that would force them get their shit from the ship and get a hotel there somewhere. Liv and Amanda were in no mood to make any decisions on that front, both women barely holding it together as it was, so he went to Fin, where they sat discussing everything.

"I heard someone say cartel."

"Cartel activity? They avoid tourist cities."

"Didn't you read that story a few months ago? They hung a couple bodies from an overpass further into the city. Freaked everyone out. They claimed that was the only incident, though, and we know that's a big fucking lie now."

Rita and Fin shook their heads, watching a few officers walking the area, scanning the ground for anything. They didn't seem to be doing much, which was a serious problem for all of them.

"If it's cartel activity…what are the odds that these people are going to do much. You know how corrupt this government is?"

Carisi nodded, having heard plenty of stories. They turned their heads to the violence because of the outrageous money they gained from the drug trade. For a country that was borderline poor, there was no wonder as to they never tried to put a stop to it. He had never thought much of the cartels up until this point. Until they had just snatched people he cared about.

Children…who kidnapped children? Sick fuckers did.

"There's only one upside to this entire thing," Fin said lowly, drawing Carisi back in, "Is that Barba isn't gonna let anything happen to them. Plus, he can talk his way in and out of pretty much anything. It'll buy us some time probably."

Carisi looked over Fin's shoulder at Liv, who was still in the chair and still hadn't moved. His eyes found Amanda, who was sobbing into her hands. He'd never seen either woman like this, and it was working his emotion so hard he was near tears himself.

"Uh…excuse me," a man appeared next to them, dressed in clothing that told them he was part of the cruise line crew. "I'm sorry to interrupt…I suggest you all head back to your cabins. It's too dangerous for you to be out here now and we need a headcount so we can head back to LA."

Fin stood up and shook his head, "We're not going. We'll get our stuff and get off the boat."

The attendant looked a little struck by the statement, and tried to reword his phrase, like they didn't understand what he said in the first place. Carisi stepped in, finger pointed at his chest and his sudden anger exploding.

"We just had two kids and good friend kidnapped right in front of us. We'll get our shit and get out. We're not going back to LA!" Fin stepped up and pushed back on Carisi's chest, trying to avoid drawing attention to them or cause a scene. The attendant was wide-eyed as he asked, "They were with you?"

"Yeah. Like we said, we'll get our stuff off the ship, but we're not going back with you."

"Ok," the attendant said quickly, "I'll report to the headquarters. They'll want to know the reason why."

Fin stopped the man before he could walk away with a hand on the shoulder, "Wait. Did you already tell them the whole reason why you're headed back? Did you tell them that there were two kids and a man abducted that were on your cruise line?"

The man nodded, "Yes, sir. We had to. It was the only way to ensure our passengers could get full refunds for the trouble."

Carisi interjected now, calmed down some, "Do they release that info to the media?"

The man nodded again, "Legally we have to release information like this. I also suspect some of the passengers will have called home and said something by the now. The media will probably be all over soon."

Carisi, Fin, and Rita all looked at each other and then at the sea of the local police, still scouring the area and talking in large groups of people. They didn't notice the attendant walking away and back to the other two attendants that were waiting for him by the street.

"Well…if they won't do anything about it…our guys will."

It took nearly an hour, but the kids were passed out asleep on the bed finally, nestled together under a blanket on one side of the bed.

Rafael slipped off and moved further into the room, inspecting the cabinets of the kitchen and thoroughly, to make sure there weren't any tricks being played. All he found was some unhealthy junk foods that would keep them fed for a while, and he was grateful for that. That was one thing he didn't need to worry about yet.

He inspected the book case as well, seeing some Mexican cartoon DVD's that had seen better days propped up next to the bible and a few American classics translated into Spanish. There wasn't much more to this tiny space, other than the bathroom, where they had running water.

He found it a little odd they set up prisoners so nice, but he suspected it was because of the kids. Part of him wondered what it would have been like had these conditions not been so nice, or what if they hadn't chosen to take Rafael with them. His stomach churned at the image of them bound in chains and shoved in a metal cage. There were far worse scenarios they could have found themselves in, and it calmed him to know they weren't going to be facing harsh conditions.

Rafael sighed and splashed some water on his face in the bathroom, trying to rid himself of the grimy feeling. He wasn't going to attempt to take a shower…not until he had more answers from Juan. The man seemed to think he had given him enough of an explanation, but Rafael would persist until he got a time frame.

Two other little lives were depending on him, and he needed answers.

He thought of both Liv and Amanda, probably out of their minds with worry and thinking the worst. He wished he could talk to them, but his cell phone was buried somewhere at the bottom of Liv's beach bag because he had been in the water. He cursed and hung his head, trying to take a few deep breaths to calm down.

He exited the bathroom and flipped the lights off, intending to crawl into the bed with the kids and cuddle them until he lulled himself to sleep. Just as he was about to slip under the covers, the door swung open and revealed two large men, walking straight towards him. He didn't move, too afraid of what might happen if he did. They were holding guns, but they didn't have them pointed and they didn't even spare glances at the kids.

Instead, they grabbed him by the arms and drug him out of the house, causing him to stumble a little at the excessive force. He grunted when he hit the ground hard outside, scraping his legs and arms on the rocky dirt. The door the house closed, cutting off the light that was pooling outside.

A moment later, there was a bright white light and rained down on him and someone from behind yanked his hair back, forcing his head up and his eyes to make direct contact with the light. He winced and blinked a few times, squinting his eyes when the light was moved out of his face.

Above him was a camera with a blinking red light. It looked old and worn and behind it was Juan, who was smiling a little too much for his liking.

"Smile for the camera. You're about to a big star in America."

Rafael didn't have time to respond as the side of a bat connected with his face.