Loose Ends and New Beginnings
Summary: See ch1
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: Okay, so this is the last chapter that I had pre-written so the updates will take a little longer, sorry!
His Secret
"You okay in there?" Elliot asked when he heard the box fall to the floor. When there was no response he walked into the closet.
He found Olivia standing in the center of the closet with IDs scattered on the floor around her feet and the box lying overturned.
"What's wrong?" He asked. She was staring at an ID in her hand.
She slowly turned her head to meet his gaze. There were tears in her eyes, and her breathing was quick and frantic.
"Liv, what is it?" He asked, growing concerned.
"It's... it's my mother's." She said hoarsely.
"What do you mean?" He asked, hurrying over to her to get a look at the ID.
"It's my mom's." She repeated, more clearly this time.
He took the ID from her so that he could look at it. "Why would Judge Anderson have your mom's ID?"
Olivia felt her legs giving out under her. Fortunately she had brought the chair in. She let herself fall into it.
Elliot's attention went right back to her when he noticed the way she was reacting.
"When she was raped… he… she told the cops on her case that he took her ID, to remember her by." She told him, staring off into space. "He knew. He knew the whole time." She rambled.
"Liv, what are you talking about?" He asked, kneeling in front of her to try to get her attention.
Olivia sniffed, and attempted to blink her tears away. "In court, when the bailiff swore me in. Anderson questioned me on my last name. He knew who I was. That's why he was at the wedding. That's why he has that picture. That's why he reacted so strangely."
"We don't know that he was your father." He said, trying to calm her down.
"My mother was only raped once Elliot." She sanapped, almost yelling. "The bastard took her ID card when he was done. Why the hell else would he have it?" She demanded. She looked to him with pleading eyes glistening with tears.
When he couldn't answer her she just shook her head, and stared down at the card. "I think I'm gonna be sick." She said suddenly.
Elliot quickly helped her up and chased her down the stairs and out of the brown stone. She proceeded to get sick in the first garbage can she could find. Elliot decided to give her some space; he knew she hated people seeing her like this, especially him.
"Is everything okay over here Detectives?" A CSI who was processing the scene asked.
"We're fine." Elliot answered as Olivia wiped her mouth with a napkin from her pocket. "You find anything?"
"The lock was definitely picked, and it looks like our perp surprised the judge being that it doesn't look like there was much of a struggle." The young man answered. "As far as an identity for our killer, we're not having much luck." He sighed. "The whole place was wiped clean; we can't get a single print off any surfaces in the house."
"We're probably looking for a rape victim, or family member." Olivia chimed in; she was still standing off to the side of the Elliot and the CSI, attempting to settle her stomach by breathing deeply.
"What makes you say that?" The CSI asked.
"I found a box of college IDs in the Judge's bedroom, and I know for a fact that at least one of the women who belonged to them was raped. My guess is so were all the others." She told him.
"Would explain the sodomy." The CSI said. "I'll go bag the IDs." He added, excusing himself.
"You got any gum?" Olivia asked once the other man was back in the house.
Elliot reached into his pocket and pulled out an open pack. He extended it to her and she gratefully accepted a piece and popped it into her mouth.
"You okay?" He asked.
She simply deflected the question with, "We should let Cragen know about this", and walked back to the Sedan that was parked on the side of the road.
The partners rode back to the station house in silence. Elliot made the call to Cragen, but didn't say anything about Judge Anderson's relationship to Olivia; that was her secret to tell.
When they got back, the two immediately made their way to the squad room to attend the informal meeting Cragen had called to spread the information.
When they got there Cragen was already sitting on a desk in the squad room with a few detectives standing around him; Munch and Fin were among them. He had already set up a board with crime scene photos of the court house shooting on it, and a picture of the late Judge. They didn't have much information yet.
"Benson, Stabler, now that you're here, why don't you tell the class what you found." Cragen called out to them when he saw them enter the room.
They quickly hung their coats and headed into the middle of the group. Elliot decided to take this one.
"Well, it seems Judge Anderson wasn't as clean as we thought. We found a box filled with IDs of women we suspect were raped." He sighed.
"What makes you think they were raped? For all we know the judge liked IDs more than he liked panties." Munch noted.
"For one, our good Judge was sodomized before he was he was shot in the head, which to me reeks of revenge. For another thing, we know for a fact that one of the women was raped, and the perp took her ID after he was done." Elliot explained.
"Was she one of ours?" Fin asked.
Elliot simply shook his head.
"So how do we know she was raped?" He continued.
Elliot glanced over to Olivia and could see that she was starting to lose her cool.
When there was no answer Cragen pushed the issue. "How do we know she was attacked Elliot?"
"Because she was my mother." Olivia finally answered under her breath. She had her arms folded protectively across her chest, and looked like she wanted to just crawl into a ball and disappear.
"She what?" Cragen asked. He was shocked.
Olivia cleared her throat and forced her emotions to stay in check. She was going to treat this like any other case. "When I was looking through the Judge's closet I found a shoe box filled with college IDs. As I was going through them I noticed that one of them... were my mothers." She explained slowly. "After she was… after she was attacked, she told the detectives on her case that the man took her ID. They never recovered it."
There was silence for a long moment. It was hard to comprehend what Olivia was telling everyone.
"Okay people, this means we're looking at potential victims or victim's families for our doer. Munch, Fin, I want you to run down those vics and their families, see if anyone looks good for this." Cragen managed to say. He had to say something to end the silence. He knew that he had to talk to Olivia, but he wasn't about to call her out in front of the entire squad.
"Elliot, Olivia, I want you two to head over to the IT (a/n: I think that's the abbreviation for the Technical people) unit to see if you can get anything from the Judge's e-mails or phone records that'll point to a suspect." He ordered. "When you get back run Anderson's MO, see if there are any other victims we don't know about."
Everyone nodded and got up to leave right after Cragen finished giving out tasks. As Olivia was about to follow Elliot out the door Cragen called her back nonchalantly.
"What is it Cap?" She asked, acting as if she had no idea why he would want to talk to her.
"Can I keep you on this case Benson?" He asked, approaching her closely to avoid eavesdropping ears.
Olivia just sighed. "You always say you can't pick the Vic." She answered.
"That's not what I asked you." He told her. He kept his tone understanding, but firm enough to let her know that he wasn't about to compromise his case for her feelings.
Olivia took a deep breath to keep her emotions in check. "Look, Cap, I found out that my mother was raped when I was 12, and she was drunk." She took a moment to make sure she wouldn't lose it before she continued. "I told her I wanted to live with my father after she came home plastered again one night, and she told me what he was." She explained. "I finally realized why she was the way she was. That night… I vowed that I would find the man that did that to her. When I graduated the academy, I promised her that I would bring him to justice. I need to stay on this case." She said in a whisper, almost pleading with him.
Cragen sighed heavily. "You're a good detective Benson. I'll keep you on for now, but if I see one thing that could possibly compromise this case, you're off." He warned.
Olivia nodded her head. "Thank you."
"If… if you need to talk to Huang…" He began.
"I've had a long time to deal with this. I'm fine." She told him before turning to the door.
"Remember what I said Benson." He warned one more time before she disappeared outside.
Elliot was waiting for her in the hall. "What'd he say?" He asked.
"He just warned me to stay in check." She answered.
"Think you can?" He asked as they made their way down the stairs.
"Thanks for you vote of confidence." She said, shocked and a little hurt that he would even ask her that.
"Liv, you know I wouldn't ask that if he you hadn't been through so much because of him." He said, trying to redeem himself.
"I can handle it." She simply said harshly, pushing past him and walking away.
TBC... tell me what u think, and like i said, I'm working hard to get the next update done, so have patience!