"Amaro, tell me what you know so far."

Nick Amaro tried to steady his shaking breath enough to explain a situation he didn't understand to a man he greatly respected. "Not much, Cap. Olivia's doorman hasn't seen her since Sunday when she left to go for a walk. I found her tea thermos on the side of the road about a block and a half down the street from her apartment, DNA just came back as a confirmed match from the saliva on the lid. I have TARU looking into who sent the text but it doesn't look promising, Morales said it was sent from a disposable cell."

"And the blood?"

Nick swallowed. A trace amount of blood had been found smeared across the back of Olivia's phone. "It's Benson's."

Amaro saw his captain literally bite back the curse that left his mouth.

"How much do we like Aaron Miller for this?" Cragen asked the four anxious detectives standing before him.

"I called his lawyer first thing when Amaro got back here; Miller's bail was revoked early Saturday morning when he violated one of his bail conditions, Judge Bartens shipped him back to Elmira to await trail," Fin responded. "Unless Miller organized this from the inside or can be in two places at once, he's not our guy."

"And the text? What do we make of that?"

"Ask my partner?" Munch injected. "Sounds to me like we should be looking back into perps that have had it out for Liv and Amaro lately."

All eyes darted back into Nick's worried face. "The first thing I did when I read that text was ask a uni to pull all cases of mine and Benson's that were flagged as having made threats against either of us. There's six that stood out, but I glanced them over when I got back here, five of the perps are still in jail, one of them is dead. So unless one of them organized something from the inside, I'd have to say that the partner that text is referring to, it's not me."

"Well that certainly complicates things, doesn't it," Munch said.

"Let's not go bothering Stabler in his retirement until we know for sure that we need him," Cragen announced.

"Don't you think he'd want to know that Liv is missing?" Fin asked.

"What he doesn't know won't kill him," Cragen replied. "Munch, take a hike up to Attica, Sing Sing, Elmira, wherever those perps from Amaro's five cases are serving their time. Talk to the wardens, talk to the inmates, see if there's any one of them who might have the brains to pull off something like this."

Munch nodded and hurried away.

"Amaro, I want you back at the scene where you found Liv's phone and mug supervising CSU. You make sure that any spec of dirt that may be a clue is rushed through processing. Rollins, start pulling any of Benson's old cases with Stabler that were flagged for threats, starting with the most recent."

"And me?" Fin asked.

"You're with me."

Cragen led Fin back to his office and closed the door behind them.

"I'm worried, Cap. This isn't like Liv. Something's wrong here."

Cragen sighed, hoping the terror consuming him would abate with the release of this breath, but all it did was tighten the band of tension around his chest.

"I've got all available uni's searching the blocks surrounding her apartment. I notified 1PP as soon as Amaro notified me, half the force is out there looking for her, Fin, we're going to find her."

"With all due respect, Cap, I think we need to bring Stabler in on this. Whoever this guy is, he clearly wants Elliot involved. He might be able to give us insight into whatever is going on better than anyone else. Besides, who knows Liv better than El?"

Cragen's lips tightened into a small line and tired eyes gazed into the face of a trusted mans. Fin could see the anxiety this situation was causing his boss, pulling at every last nerve he had in his body. Fin worried that Cragen's unraveling would likely be tied into the state they found Olivia in.

"We gotta find her, Cap."

Cragen buried his face into the palms of his cool hands, searching for a moment of clarity that would never come. "Go notify Stabler."

EOEOEOEOEO

The rhythmic ticking of the wall clock alerted him to each passing second that he lay awake in bed. Seconds into minutes, minutes into hours, until at last he conceded defeat and left the warmth of his bed to bask in the bulb of his refrigerator light. He wasn't hungry, there was just something comforting about staring into the abyss of the fridge when sleep was evading him.

Elliot Stabler found such monotony in the fact that the hardest decision he made daily was what to pull out of his fridge to eat. A dull ache settled over him as he closed the fridge door with a slice of bread in his hand and made his way to the couch, unconsciously wondering what Olivia was doing in that moment, then hating himself for his curiosity. He had lost all right to think about her when he cut himself out of her life. There wasn't a day that went by that he didn't struggle with his decision.

From the front door down the hall, the rap of heavy knuckles sounded. Adreneline instantly spiked through his veins, wondering who would be visiting him at two am on a weekday. Hands instinctively reached for a gun that wasn't there. Elliot felt naked without it. Slowly he crept to the door as the visitor knocked again. Checking to make sure the deadbolt was securely in place, Stabler closed one eye and peered through the peekhole into a very unlikely face.

He slid the lock from its holster and opened the door. "Fin?" His surprised was evident in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

The man looking back at Stabler had aged many years in the short time it had been since he'd seen him last. Stress and worry had permanently etched themselves into the lines of his face. And with one simple sentence he turned Elliot's world sideways.

"Liv's missing. We need your help."