Title: Unexpected, Chapter 5

Author: Sorsha711
Fandom/Pairing: Fin/OFC; Munch/OFC, O/E
Rating: M, for language and references to violence; some adult situations
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to Dick Wolf. Sigh! Summary: Across a crowded squad room… Yadda Yadda Yadda… a Fin-centric sequel to Making a Connection. The oh-so-sexy Fin, a beautiful ACS counselor, a heartbreaking case, and Munch/Arwen playing matchmaker. What more do you need? OK, a little OE.

Feedback appreciated!!!

Unexpected, Chapter 5

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Fin held his position as several SWAT members pushed past him to rip away the barricade. The body of the young gang member he had shot lay sprawled on the floor of the landing. Finding the space otherwise empty, the SWAT team moved cautiously down the stairs in search of others hiding below. The sound of additional gunfire announced the unwillingness of those hiding there to surrender.

"Officer down!"

John's second shout broke Fin's fixed stare on the basement stairs. Sprinting in his direction, he found his partner kneeling next to a SWAT officer, applying pressure to a pulsing wound at the back of the other man's knee. Grabbing his radio, Fin barked an order, "Officer down! This is Det. Tutuola, Badge # 43198. Repeat, officer down. We need a bus. We're in the stairwell right side of the main lobby. Hurry!"

"Make that three down, Fin," Olivia shouted from several steps further up. "I got two more up here with me."

After confirming John was uninjured, Fin moved quickly up to her side, adding her information to his call as he went. "You OK, Liv?"

Without looking up, she nodded. "Nothing serious… nicked in a couple of places, but no direct wounds thanks to your warning. You? John?"

"Both of us are fine," he replied. "You're sure…"

"I'm sure. See for yourself," she offered, briefly extending her arm for him to inspect.

Finding nothing more than two places where bullets had grazed her arm, Fin nodded. "Be sure to let the EMT's treat that. I'm going up. You OK here?"

"Yeah, go."

Looking up as John joined him, Fin glanced back at the officer his partner had been helping. "Felder… is he…?"

"Bled out; I couldn't stop it," John growled, mentally forcing himself to ignore the other officer's blood that was covering his hands. "I think the bullet hit a main artery. You get the bastard that shot him?"

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Fin nodded. "Yeah. Gang kid with a semi… maybe 16. He was hiding behind that barricade. Didn't SWAT check it before…?"

"Yeah, they did… first thing," Liv inserted. "It looked secure… no sign anyone was hiding behind it, so Morris and Felder told us to keep going. If you hadn't…"

"Later," Fin bit out. "John… you with me? I'm going up."

"Go," John ordered. "I have your back."

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"Detectives… down here."

Quickly scanning the hallway of the second floor for signs the other officers had missed someone hiding, John and Fin moved quickly down the hall in the direction of the uniforms clustered around a suspect cuffed and lying on his stomach at their feet. "What did you find, Donovan?" John demanded,

"In there… little girl hiding under the bed," the young officer replied, his revulsion at what had been taking place in the room before their entry obvious. "We found this sick fuck cowering in the closet. He must have been raping her… she has blood on her legs. His boxers have blood on the front…"

Deliberately looking the other way as the officer directed a sharp kick to the prone man's side, John slowly entered the room. "Floor secure?"

"Yeah. There's a little boy… maybe 7 or 8, in the room across the hall. A second little girl is in the room next door. Marino's sitting with them both. Second girl looks to be about the same age as the boy. Sick fucks that were with them took off down the hall. Watanabe and Klein have them cuffed on the stairs," was the reply. "Those two look too traumatized to know which ends up, but this little girl… she won't let us come near her."

"Call for a bus to transport them to the hospital," Fin instructed. "John… you got this? I want to make sure the building is secure before we go much further."

Sighing, John nodded. Grabbing his radio, he called Cragen. "We've got three children up here, Cap. Donovan is calling for a bus to transport them to the hospital. At least one of them is injured from what appears to be a rape. I'm going to try to get her to let me help her. Fin is continuing the search of the upper floors."

"Understood. We didn't find any vics on the first floor… just gang members and a couple of older men… probably clients. They are all in custody. Elliot's team entered the basement… found a locked room with nine children huddled in the corner. He's arrested those that survived a shootout down there. I'll take care of those children… Liv will give me a hand once she's finished on the stairs. Tell Fin Elliot is on his way up to help him complete the sweep of the rest of the building," Cragen's voice replied.

"Right." Seeing Fin's nod, John took a deep breath and slowly walked toward the bed and the brutalized child hiding underneath.

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"Chris… it's me."

"Fin!!! Are you… the others all right? Casey and I've been listening to the police radio with Sergeant Matuszak. The reports…"

"I'm fine… my partners too. This was the place, Chris. We found sixteen kids here... several with signs of sexual trauma."

"Damn!"

"Meet us at the Harlem Medical Center Hospital… take my car. The first five are on route there with Liv. John is bringing another five in a second bus that's just pulling out. Thessa's with him… but I couldn't find Candi. John has a little girl that he found just after… it looks like she was being raped when we arrived. She's clinging to John and he'll need help getting her settled. I'll be leaving here with the last six in a few."

"How bad…?"

"We got one cop dead… another seven on the way to the hospital. Add on six dead gang members and four with injuries. We also found the bodies of a three kids that appear to have died sometime in the past few weeks… probably since they opened this hellhole. Its bad here, baby… real bad. You need to be prepared."

"Candi… is she one of the…"

"No. Maybe Thessa knows where her sister is, but she wasn't one of the dead. I'm the one that found them, so I'm sure. We'll find her, Chris, but tonight, we have 16 kids that need us… that have to come first."

"I understand. I'll call my supervisor and get some crisis counselors down here to help us," Chris sighed. "Casey and I will meet you there."

"Good. Cap asked me to see if you would make that call. We'll need all the help we can get."

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"Alan… Chris. I…"

"Yeah, I know what time it is. SVU just busted a child prostitution ring. I'll need help…"

"This is bad, Alan. We have 16 kids on their way to Harlem Medical. SVU also found the bodies of three children that died sometime over the last few weeks. There was a shootout… a cop died."

"I'm not being hysterical, damn it! We need to get on top of this tonight if we want..."

"Capt. Cragen has requested…"

"No, I'm not trying to tell you how to do you job though God knows somebody should! I'm giving you a report as your liaison to SVU… and as an experienced caseworker at the scene. This is bad and we need to get our act together! We need counselors…"

"No, I don't think it can wait…"

"I'll need help down here, Alan. This is too big for one caseworker to handle alone. If you don't want to come down, fine. Give me the OK to call in…"

"Have it your way! I'm heading over there now. I'll do what I can until you get your beauty rest and decide to send us some help!"

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Fin eased open the door to the small ward the hospital had assigned to the children rescued from the tenement. Scanning the room, he was not surprised to find Christine sitting in the middle of one of the beds with Thessa and several of the other children huddled around her. His partners, John and Olivia, were likewise surrounded on nearby beds. Casey was sitting in a rocking chair, a little boy sleeping in her lap.

Christine's worried gaze lifted at the sound of the door opening. Her lingering worry over his safety was washed away at the sight of Fin watching her from the doorway, obviously uninjured, but clearly exhausted. Her soft "Fin?" drew him toward her.

Sitting cautiously on the edge of the bed so as not to disturb the children, Fin caught her hand in a comforting grip. "They asleep?" he whispered.

"Yes… the meds the doctors gave them," Chris murmured back. "A few hours of hopefully dreamless sleep are the best we can do for them tonight."

Leaning over to tuck a wisp of hair behind her ear, he observed, "Looks like you're a one person show since you've drafted the rest of my crew to help in here. Haven't the other counselors arrived?"

Gently rubbing the back of one of her charges as his sleep became disturbed, Chris shook her head. "Alan… that ass decided to go back to sleep and wait until morning to organize a response. My report wasn't enough to get him out of bed in the middle of the night. It apparently takes someone with a little more pull to get him going. I finally gave up on him and make some calls to the counseling staff on my own... without his authorization. That was less than an hour ago, so the others won't be here for a while."

Frowning at this news, Fin asked, "Does he know what you did yet?"

"Yeah, the Police Commissioner called our Director to complain about Alan and told him what I did. Said that, if it was bad enough that he was here, ACS damn well needed more than one lone caseworker trying to handle the needs of 16 traumatized children… that it was a good thing I had the balls to do what was needed even if my supervisor didn't," she replied. "Abrams was livid to be put into that position…. and tore Alan apart. He's probably on his way here to do the same to me."

"We didn't have enough drama going on around here, beautiful?" Fin teased, all too familiar with the incompetence of her direct supervisor. "Had to get the ACS Director involved in a war of words with the Police Commissioner?"

"Yeah, that was my plan all along," she shot back, needing to vent a little while the children were sleeping and didn't need her full attention. "You know me so well."

Leaning over to press a quick kiss to her lips, he agreed. "Yeah, I do. You do what you have to do to take care of your kids. ACS is lucky to have you."

"You may not be the most objective person to ask when it comes to the wonders of Ms. Dupree," Liv teased from the nearby bed. "But the rest of SVU happens to agree. You did what you had to do, Chris. Let the brass handle Tandy."

"Abrams has done a lot to improve ACS since he came on board as director last year, but there are still way too many political hacks in key positions. Alan's a holdover from past administrations with more than enough powerful friends to keep him in his position. He'll be furious with me… put it off on me if he can… maybe even fire me, but I just don't care at this point," she confessed with an exhausted sigh. "Hopefully, the counselors I called will be here before the kids start waking up. There won't be enough of us to go around otherwise and these kids will need all the individual attention they can get."

Squeezing her hand, Fin nodded. "Hang in there. It will settle down in a few days and you'll go back to running the division behind the scenes while Tandy takes the credit."

"If he doesn't fire me for this… I did call in staff against his direct order." Shifting slightly to ease the strain on her back, she changed the subject. "Anyway, that asshole is the least of my concerns at the moment. These children were terrorized on top of being abused and exploited. The gang members threatened, starved, and beat them to keep them in line from the little they have told us. They are my focus for now."

Dropping his gaze to the children nestled against her, he asked, "How are they doing?"

"Jessie, the little girl that John brought in, had to have stitches to repair the damage that…" Struggling with her revulsion over what had been done to the children, Christine added, "They are all malnourished and have injures in various stages of healing. The doctors say they will recover… physically anyway. How about the ones you brought in?"

"They're still with the doctors. They will be brought in here afterwards." Noticing that Thessa was awake… was watching him with huge, scared eyes, Fin whispered, "Hi Thessa. I'm Fin. Remember me?"

Nodding slightly, the little girl shifted over to crawl into his lap, her thumb in her mouth reminding them both just how young she was. Curling into a ball, she began to sob. "Want my sister. Want Candi."

Wrapping her in a protective embrace, Fin began to rock her gently. "We'll try to find her for you, baby. You're safe and we'll look for Candi in the morning. It will be OK."

Refusing to make eye contact with the others adults in the room, Fin said a silent prayer he could keep his promise.

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