Wednesday, November 3 – The precinct

The whole unit was working late. A 4-year-old girl had been kidnaped earlier that day and the 1-6 had so many leads to follow that none of the detectives were expecting to be allowed to go home that night. Elliot who had spent the day trying to retrace the steps of the family before the girl was kidnapped, was now deeply focused on a videotape of the store where the girl was last seen.

"Damn, look at this Elliot!" Munch exclaimed, motioning the TV.

Elliot quickly left his desk and walked across the squad room. Detectives had already started to gather in front of the TV and were blocking the view so Elliot had to shove some of them to reach the screen. When he saw the smoke escaping from the building's windows, he felt like he got kicked in the stomach. A crowd had formed next to the building. Dozens of cops and medics. People running and crying. Down the screen, Elliot could read "BREAKING NEWS : terrorist attack against a pharmaceutical industry in Medford, Oregon. 29 people killed and 13 people injured".

"How could you possibly know something like that would happen?" Munch asked, almost like a reproach, like Elliot had anything to do with this.

"I didn't…" Elliot answered. He couldn't believe it. "Someone turn up the volume! Where is the remote?" He asked, agitated.

Cragen appeared in the squad room with the remote, a concerned look on his face, and he turned the volume up.

The young journalist was interviewing a forty-something-year-old man. "… driving in the neighborhood. There was a lot of people waiting outside the building. I thought it was weird of course, cause it was more than 10pm. I thought they were thieves or something like that so I stopped my car to tell them I would call the police. And then boom! I heard the explosion. God it scared the hell out of me! I called the cops right away of course…" Elliot was no longer listening. He was trying his best to scan the scene behind the journalist and her witness. Where are you? Elliot wondered. Come on, show yourself!

A few feet away two policemen were trying to subdue a furious hefty man. When they walked past the journalist, the man faced the camera and shouted « I got the traitor! I killed the fucking cop! ». At this very moment, Elliot forgot everything about his case, everything about this kidnapped little girl, everything about… everything. Like the whole world had suddenly disappeared, leaving him in a complete darkness. Nothing mattered anymore. As his brain was taking in the news, the blood drained from his face, his throat tightened and he lost his balance. Munch and Cragen both caught him just in time to keep him from falling.

"Elliot what's going on?" Cragen worried. "You look like you're going to be sick. Come here, sit down". He gently led his detective to the nearest chair but Elliot was not listening to him. The man's voice was resonating in his head over and over again. I got the traitor! I killed the fucking cop. It couldn't be happening. "Olivia…" he whispered barely inaudible.

"Olivia?" Cragen repeated. "What about her?" he inquired.

When Elliot looked back at the screen, everybody's eyes followed his gaze. When they apprehended what Elliot's condition was implying, a deathly hush echoed in the squad room.

SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU-SVU

If you didn't get it, the "furious hefty man" was Dereck.

This chapter is very short but it's all about Elliot finding out about Olivia so there was nothing more to say for now. I'll give you more about what happened in the next chapter but… just a little more ^^

I won't have much time to write this week-end so I'll update on Monday around noon hopefully (UTC +1)