Chapter 6

Olivia clutched the backpack to her chest as she felt the rain patter lightly against her face and skin. She didn't remember falling, but she remembered landing, and apparently so did her body. Despite having landed on a filthy mattress rested carefully on the dumpster below, her right hip hurt like Hell where she'd landed on it, and every time she tried to move, pain shot through her upper body and gave her a headache. However, when she heard the clanging overhead of someone scrambling down the fire escape, she knew she had no choice but to move. Against her body's protests, she pushed herself up, and with the help of her renewed adrenaline rush, she carefully climbed out of the dumpster and began to run. Well, at least, she tried to run. The pain in her hip made it impossible for her to put any more pressure on her leg than it took to speed walk.

Suddenly, she heard yelling above her, and she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun going off and a bullet whizzing past her head. She didn't dare turn around for fear of seeing her pursuer right behind her, but kept moving, hoping that someone might see her and help her out. However, as she made her way out of the alley and down the street, she realized that help might be hard to come by in this part of town. Unfortunately, when Brian had gone apartment shopping, he hadn't thought about what kind of neighborhood he'd wanted to live in once he'd actually bought a place. So, naturally, Brian had bought a nice apartment for a cheap price in the dirtiest, shittiest part of town. When she'd had her gun on her, Olivia hadn't had much of a problem visiting him here, but now that she was alone, injured, and unarmed in the dead of night with a kidnapper/possible murderer chasing after her, she began to question Brian's competency in purchasing real estate.

"Get back here you bitch!" Stefan screamed, firing his gun again. This time, Olivia forced herself to break into a sprint, and though her body screamed at her more loudly than Stefan did, she forced herself to keep going, reminding herself that whatever she felt now would be nothing compared to what Stefan would do to her if he caught her.

Suddenly, just as she turned a corner, Olivia felt herself being yanked into a narrow side alley, where a man with a strong grip kept one hand clamped over her mouth while he wrapped his other arm around her torso, keeping her arms that were still clutching the backpack against her chest. Olivia felt panic wash over her like white fire in her veins, but didn't move, silently trying to decide who she'd be better off fighting back against. Should she fight back against this man and undoubtedly make herself known to Stefan? Or should she take the chance and see if she could fight off this man once Stefan was out of earshot? As she heard Stefan's footsteps grow closer, a feeling of dread began to wash over her at the thought of being at his mercy again, and she silently decided to take her chances with the stranger who'd just grabbed her. At least then she could possibly talk him into letting her go. In this part of town, no one was innocent, and chances were good that she could convince this new man to let her go in exchange for her promise to turn the other way on some petty crime he'd committed in the past. Sure, it went against her conscience, but at this point she valued her life much more than she valued turning in some bum for a petty misdemeanor.

"Don't speak," the man whispered in an old, broken but surprisingly friendly voice as Stefan got closer. "I'm helpin' you."

Well, that was different.

Olivia nodded quietly, and the man released her. They both held their breath as Stefan passed, and Olivia sent up a silent prayer of thanks to whatever divine being was listening that he didn't turn and see them hiding in the shadow of the alley. After a few minutes, the man reached his head out and looked around, then took a few steps out to make sure that Olivia's pursuer was gone. Satisfied, the man, homeless, as Olivia now realized, returned to their spot in the alley and gave her a wide, yellow-toothed grin.

"I dunno who you pissed off, miss," he said in a cracked voice, "but I've been in some sticky situations in my day, and it seemed like you were in one."

"You have no idea," Olivia breathed gratefully. "That guy held me captive in my boyfriend's apartment all day, and I only got away by falling 6 floors from a fire escape onto a dirty mattress in a dumpster. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't come along."

The man's eyes grew so wide they looked like porcelain dinner plates, and his dirty white eyebrows seemed to fly to the top of his head. "You don't say!" he cried. "I'd assumed you just owed him money or somethin' like that."

Olivia shook her head. "I wish it was that simple."

She suddenly grimaced as her hip politely reminded her of her injury by sending a sharp spasm of pain up the right side of her body, this time more intensely than before.

"I have to get to a hospital," she said softly, lifting up the corner of her shirt to see her quickly swelling hip. "And I need to call someone. I need to call Bry—" She stopped suddenly, remembering seeing him drop lifelessly to the ground after being slammed into his apartment window. She pushed her grief to the back of her head and desperately fought back tears, reminding herself that he could still be alive, and that the sooner she got herself help, the sooner she could get back help to him too. "I need to call my friends." She looked at her new friend sheepishly. "I don't suppose you have a phone on you, do you?"

The man shrugged, holding up his dirty gloved hands to emphasize his lack of a cellular device.

"Unfortunately, no," he smiled, "but the rain has stopped, so you can probably see if you have one in your nifty backpack there."

The backpack! She'd totally forgotten about Stefan's backpack! She gingerly dropped to her knees and began to rifle through it, pulling out anything she saw that might help.

"Water bottle, duct tape, bandana…" Olivia listed things as she pulled them out, setting them on the ground as her new friend watched with wide, curious eyes. Suddenly, her hand closed around something leather-bound, and Olivia found herself face-to-face with Stefan's journal. "Oh, God…"

"What's that you've got there?" the man asked innocently. "You're actin' like it's gonna bite you."

Olivia didn't say anything, but began to silently flip through the pages, afraid to read what Lewis had been detailing about her. In her hands was a trove of information that before, she might have jumped off a bridge to be able to read just so that she could use it as evidence against Lewis. But now, it felt heavy in her hands as the memories of her with Lewis filled her head and began to mentally weight her down. She'd worked hard to move past her experiences with Lewis, and she wasn't sure that she was willing to relive them, especially through Lewis's eyes.

"Find the phone yet?"

Right. The phone.

Olivia searched the bag through and through, but there was no sign of a phone. Even after searching through every pocket, the most helpful thing she found was Stefan's large, expensive-looking wallet.

"Of course, no phone," she sighed. As the rain began to start again, Olivia zipped the backpack shut and slung it over her shoulder, using the wall as a brace to push herself back to her feet. "By the way, I totally forgot to ask for your name."

"Stan," the old man grinned, shaking her hand. "And you are...?"

"Olivia," she smiled, deciding not to mention the "detective" part yet. "So, any chance you can point me to a hospital?"

Stan beamed. "You bet! I'll even take you there. It's really not far."

He held out his arm for her and let her use him as a human crutch the whole way to the hospital, and she was glad for it, because even with his help, by the time they reached the hospital she could hardly stand. But Stan had helped take her mind off of her pain by telling her stories about his life. She learned that he was an Italian immigrant who came to New York when he was 6 years old, and that he'd served for 8 years in the US military overseas before falling ill and returning home to hard times.

"I can't say I never did no one wrong in my life, but I can say I never killed nobody, even in all my years of military service," he said proudly. "If nothin' else, I can be proud o' that. I served my country and no one had to die at my hands for it."

He told her about his dream of opening a bakery in New York, but that after his brief stint in gambling and losing all of his money to debt and divorce, that dream was pretty much gone, especially at his age. He told her about his family and his travels and his passions, and when they reached the doors of the hospital, Olivia was almost reluctant to go, she wanted to hear the rest of his story so badly. Luckily for her, Stan insisted on staying with her in the hospital, and after she'd left a message on Cragen's phone, gotten her x-rays, and was put up in a hospital room, Stan pulled up a comfy chair right next to her bed, insisting that he had to stay there until he knew she was going to be okay.

"I've gotta make sure that that punk doesn't come back, after all!" he said, smiling. "If he comes after ya again I'm gonna hafta lay him out!" He held up his fist boldly.

"Thank you," Olivia laughed. "Honestly, Stan, I can't thank you enough for all that you've done for me. If you hadn't stepped in and helped me, I don't even want to think about what would be happening to me right now." After thinking for a moment, she reached across the bed to Stefan's backpack, pulling out Stefan's wallet and handing Stan all of the cash inside, which she estimated to be about $2,000. "Stan, I want you to take this money and live the life you've dreamed of living. I know this won't cover everything, but hopefully it can help get you started." He tried to refuse, but she closed his hand around the money. "Once my friends get here, I'll have my own wallet, and then I'll take you shopping to buy a new tuxedo for job interviews, and I'll put you up in an apartment and help you buy all of the groceries you like. You just have to promise me that you won't gamble this money away."

With tears in his eyes, Stan nodded earnestly. "You're a good lady, Miss Olivia." He hugged her gently, careful not to hurt her newly bandaged hip. He wiped his eyes and sniffled, a new sense of joy building up inside of him. "Now you get some rest, and I'll watch over you until your friends get here."

Olivia nodded gratefully and closed her eyes, allow sleep to envelop her for the first time in what seemed like forever. However, downstairs, a black, plate-less sedan had parked outside and a tall man closely resembling a notorious, now dead convict strode into the hospital lobby, flashing a charming smile at the receptionist sitting at the desk.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked politely, looking up from her computer monitor at the approaching figure.

"Yes, actually, my sister was just committed here and I was hoping I could pay her a visit."

"Of course! What's her name?"

Stefan smiled wickedly. "Olivia Benson."

Notes: Hi everyone! Sorry I took so long to update but I hope the longer chapter makes up for it. I'm working really hard to update as fast as I can, so even though it may take me a long time to update sometimes, please know that this story is always on my mind! I haven't forgotten about it, it's just taken me a long time to work up the energy to write again. The past couple of months have been hard and I've had neither the time nor the energy to even consider writing again. So, that being said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to hear your feedback! I've got big ideas for what's coming up and I'm excited for you all to see it. :) So please, continue to be your wonderful, patient, supportive selves and I'll talk to you guys again soon! Thanks!