A little bit of a filler chapter, but it does get more interesting, I promise! Thank you to everyone who's left feedback or taken the time to read what I have so far. I really appreciate it :)

Olivia

Wednesday, September 13th

Elliot let me drive. A sure sign that either he was mad, or he was upset. This time, I think it was both.

I could semi-understand why he was mad at me. I had left without saying goodbye. I had played fast and loose with Haley's case. We hadn't even been getting along that well before her case came out. But still, Huang had tried to get a message to me, and he had gotten through on his first try. Elliot didn't try. And he had found Dani . . . maybe it wasn't that he was mad at me, but mad that I wasn't her. Maybe I had pushed her out. Cragen could have sent her back to Warrants.

But why should I feel bad? If he was mad, I had the same right to be. He had been playing fast and loose for months before I requested the transfer. He had been moody and stubborn, and I had never said a thing. Never complained. And then he had just been fine with another partner.

I stopped and looked over at him. He didn't look angry. He had when he had come into the squad, but now he looked worried, distracted. Damn. One of us would have to stop being stubborn first. I decided to give it a shot.

"So you said Kathleen changed schools?"

"Not yet. But she sure as hell isn't going back to her school after this." Silence again. The light turned green, and I started to move again. "She came to see me this morning because she got into Manhattan Prep. They've given her a full scholarship and want her to start next week."

"You sound like you're not sure."

"Well, she wants to move in with me."

"Has she talked to Cathy about this?"

"Oh no, she's left that up to me." He sounded like he was going to continue, but stopped as we drove past the ME's van. Slightly beyond that, I could see where they had blocked off the crime scene, and the inevitable spectators that had gathered around. I pulled into the first parking spot I saw and switched off the engine.

"Are you going to be okay with this?"

He looked up at me, surprised. "Why wouldn't I be?"

I shrugged. "You're wound a little tight, that's all."

"I'm fine. Let's go."

I didn't believe him, but silently followed him.

"Can I help you?" The 12-year-old uniform asked Elliot as we ducked under the crime scene tape. We flashed out badges and he stepped back. Further below, I could see the victim's body covered by a blue sheet. In the sunlight, you could still see the blood stains underneath the sheet.

"Nice to see you back, Detective," Warner greeted me.

"Feds couldn't keep me forever. What happened here?"

"Victim's Angela Manning. Sixteen years old. Her school ID was in her back pocket, along with $50 in cash."

"Cause of death?" Elliot asked.

Warner pulled back the sheet. Angela had been a small girl, with pale blonde hair and perfect skin. Through the middle of her forehead there was a small bullet hole. "She was dumped here naked. There isn't enough blood for her to have been killed here." She pulled back the sheet further to reveal medium and large stab wounds across her body. "I don't know whether it was the bullet of the stab wounds that killed her yet."

"Raped?"

"No fluids, but evidence of vaginal trauma."

"When was she killed?" I asked.

"My best guess, sometime between one and three this morning."

"Anything else we should know?"

"You're probably looking for more than one killer. There were two knives used to stab her. I'll give you a call when I know more."

Elliot and I took off in silence. When we got back in the car, I finally asked the question I had been dreading.

"Did you know her?"

He shook his head. "3000 students in that school. I've never seen her before."

"Where to?"

"Her parents. I don't want uniforms doing this notification."

Elliot

Home of Patrick and Eleanor Manning

"How?" Eleanor Manning asked, slowly sitting down.

"We're not too sure yet," Olivia replied in a calm, even tone. She always managed to do that when we did notifications. "But she was shot. We found her body in central park. Do you know where she was last night?"

"She stayed over at her friend's- um, Jenna Mason. I don't like her staying out on weeknights but Patrick talked me into it. She's never been in trouble, she's never let her grades slip. I didn't really have a choice. . . if only I had known." She put her head in her hands and started sobbing. Olivia exchanged glances with me, then sat down beside her and put her hand on Eleanor's small shoulder.

"Mrs. Manning, do you have any other children?"

She nodded. "Andrea's in her second year at NYU, and Alyssa's just started her Masters at Syracuse. . . oh God, I have to let them know."

"We can take care of that for you. Were either of them close with Angela?"

"She and Andrea never got along. . . they just didn't have anything in common. She's close with Alyssa though. Took it kind of hard when she moved last month. Spent last weekend with her." She started sobbing again.

"Did Angela have a boyfriend?" Olivia asked.

She shook her head. "Angela is. . . not picky, but specific. She doesn't really take mediocre. She had gone out with some guys a couple of times, but never anything serious. Was specific. Was. . ."

"We'll need their names. Had Angela ever been in trouble?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, did she have a habit of staying out all night without calling, get into fights, come home drunk. . . anything like that?"

"She has. . . had. . . never been in trouble. Never a problem with school, always let us know where she was. She came home drunk a couple of times over the summer, but it was harmless teenage experimentation. . . she was just down the street with some friends. One of the parents would always walk her home."

I sighed. There wasn't much coming from her, and I couldn't help but wonder how much she didn't know about her daughter. We could ask her again later, when she'd had more time to process.

How the hell did you process something like your daughter's murder though?

"Do you mind if we look around her room, see if we can find something?"

She shook her head. "Go ahead, it's the first door on your right up the stairs. She had just redone it too." I nodded, and silently made my way up there. Olivia followed, and as we reached the top of the stairs, I heard her mother start to cry again. I wondered if she'd ever stop.

Her room was painted a bright blue, drapes wide open. Beside her bed I recognized a poster, one that Kathleen had on her door. Jack Johnson, whoever that was. Olivia was already rummaging through things, trying to find anything that might help us find an answer to her death. Or to who killed her. You could never find an answer to why she died.

"Laptop," she said, unplugging it and tossing it on the bed. "That alone will give us everything we need." She went over to the bookshelf and starting looking through. "Birth control pills, perfume, make-up. . . nothing you wouldn't find in any other teen's room in America."

I nodded, but didn't say anything. Here I was in the bedroom of a girl who yesterday had dreams, had a future, and who left here to never come back again. A girl who could have been any other girl. Including one of mine.

Fuck. It was going to be one of those kinds of cases.

Olivia

Lincoln Memorial High School

"This is horrible," Samantha Ortega, the principal of Lincoln said, closing the door to her office. "How did she die?"

"She was murdered," Elliot offered roughly. "What can you tell us about Angela?"

"Nothing off the top of my head. I have over three thousand students here, Detective. Unless they cause major trouble, I don't have much exposure to them. Angela had never been in here. I'll make sure that my secretary has all her files put together for you before you leave."

"Have there been any problems here lately? Gangs, rivalries, fights, drugs, anything like that?"

"All of the above. But no more so than any other school. And I've been involved in those problems, I've personally intervened in all those matters, and Angela has not been involved."

"Angela's mother mentioned she was with a friend of hers last night. . . Jenna Mason. Is she in class today?"

The principal went over to her computer and punched the name in. "She signed in late this morning. She's in Spanish right now. Do you want me to call her down?"

"Please," I said before Elliot could get any snarky comment in.

"Sure. You're welcome to use my office, I'll give you privacy. Whenever you're done with her, could you send her over to the guidance office though? I want to make sure I tell her close friends first. . . they don't need to find out over the loudspeaker. I'll call in some grief counselors the board keeps on hand as well."

"Thank you."

She nodded, then swiftly made her way to the door. She opened it, then stopped and looked at Elliot. "Detective Stabler, right?"

"Yeah."

"Any relation to Kathleen?"

"She's my daughter."

"Thought so. She has your eyes. I'll get Jenna for you."

"Mrs. Ortega said that detectives wanted to see me. Why are you here?" Jenna asked. She was a tall, serious-looking brunette. Her eyes gave away her nervousness beneath her cool exterior.

"We want to talk to you about Angela."

"What about her?"

"We understand you were with her last night."

"Yeah, she came over to work on a project. Is she in some kind of trouble?"

I sat down beside her. "Jenna, I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but Angela was killed last night."

"That's impossible. She was at my place and went straight home. She said she had to get back for dinner. You must have the wrong person."

"She didn't spend the night with you?"

"No, she never does on school nights. My parents would never let her."

"Then why would her mom say she spent the night with you last night?"

"Oh my God." Her shoulders sank, and her eyes began to water. She quickly bit her lip and looked down at the carpet. "She always told her mom she was staying with me if she needed a cover."

"Do you know where she might have gone?"

She shook her head. "She likes a guy. . . Daniel something. . . over at Glen Oaks Private. She's been spending more time with her friends there lately. Maybe one of them would know."

Elliot

SVU Squad room

"What do you have so far?" Cragen asked.

"Angela Manning, age 16," I said, putting up one of the pictures her mom had let me take on the wipe board. Beside it, I put up a picture of the crime scene, and the photo of her face, dead, that I had picked up from Warner when we took her parents over to ID the body. "No criminal record, no disciplinary problems at her school. Autopsy's not done yet, tox screen hasn't come back. She was shot in the head and stabbed repeatedly with at least two objects. Warner believes that she was dumped in the park post-mortem. She had told her mother that she was spending the night at her friend's house, her friend doesn't know where she actually was. We have a laptop down at computer crimes seeing if they can find something that tells us where she was last night."

He nodded. "Well, it's going on five, there's not much more you can do right now. Why don't you call it a day?"

I nodded, and he went back into his office. I looked over the board again.

"You heard him," Olivia said, coming up behind me. "We can get out of here on time for once. We're heading over to Malone's. Why don't you join us?"

I shook my head. "I've gotta get over to Kathy's anyways."

"Right. The Kathleen conversation. Good luck with that."

We all said our mumbled good-byes, and I finally picked up my jacket with the intention to leave. But I found myself back at the board, staring at the picture of her from only a month earlier. It didn't make sense. A beautiful young girl who had her whole life in front of her was gone.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Cragen had come out of his office and was studying the board beside me.

I shook my head. "Why would it be?"

"You've been wound a little tight lately. You had finally gotten used to Dani, and now you're back with Olivia, who you haven't gotten along with properly in months."

"Ancient history. We're fine."

"And you and Dani?"

"What about her?"

"Small unit Elliot, people talk."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to compromise the unit's reputation. Besides, it's over."

He nodded. "And the victim being from your daughter's school. . ."

"Captain, you've trusted me for 13 years. Why are you doubting me now?"

"I'm not doubting you Elliot. I'm just making sure."

I nodded. "I know. Just doing your job."

"Yeah. You'll talk to me if this gets too much?"

I nodded, but didn't say anything. That was the good thing about Cragen- he didn't need many words. I didn't need to explain. I stared at the picture a minute longer, then set off to argue with Kathy.