As the car stopped outside the 16th precinct, Olivia tightened her grasp on the two children sitting contentedly beside her. As much as it troubled her to do this, she knew that she had to give the children to ACS so they could investigate them as their new case. These children looked so innocent and angelic, that she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt them.
Josh filed out of the car first, followed by Olivia and Bella. As they walked up the steps toward the precinct, both children tightened their grasps and Bella quietly whispered, "Uppie".
Olivia gently lifted the child into her arms, and reached down to take a hold of Josh's hand, which he immediately clung to tightly. Elliot followed the three, gently placing his hand on Olivia's lower back for comfort.
The party of four stopped momentarily outside the squad room, before walking in, headed in the direction of Olivia's desk and ignoring the strange looks and whispers following them.
Munch was the first to approach the children.
"Hey, how are you today?" he gently asked the little boy, who was standing in front of Olivia, but attempting to hide behind her legs, while the little girl had buried her face deeply into Olivia's shoulder.
The little boy didn't respond, except to attempt to crawl into Olivia's lap as well.
"Honey," she said quietly "No one here is gonna hurt you, I promise. They're just like me; we all want to help you."
"Men hurt you" the little boy said stubbornly.
"You met Elliot," she said softly, while rubbing soothing patterns on both children's backs, "He didn't hurt you. I promise no one will hurt you here, okay?"
The little boy nodded gently and looked at Munch and Fin, who had come over following Munch.
"Hi, my name's Fin, and that's Munch" Fin said pointing toward his partner. "Would you like a snack?" He added gently.
The little boy shook his head but leant further back into Olivia.
"Would you and Bella like to go into the kid's room to play?" Olivia asked gently.
Josh nodded his head and slid off Olivia's lap grasping her hand tightly once more. Olivia stood up, still carrying Bella and walked in the direction of the room.
As soon as she was out of ear shot, both detectives looked at Elliot for an explanation.
"Look, I know just about as much as you. I got a call from Liv, said to bring bagels, apple juice and a coffee to the hospital. I got there and Josh and Bella were with her. We got them checked out and headed here. As far as I could tell from how they reacted, both were abused, physically, emotionally and sexually. You need to talk to Liv for more information."
"You do realize that she isn't going to be able to work this case. Neither of you are." Fin stated, looking embarrassed as he did so.
By the time this had been stated, Olivia returned in time to hear Fin's comment. "You can't be serious Fin. I found them, I deserve to be able to find out who hurt them." She said angrily, though still keeping her voice level.
"Liv," Munch said gently, "You know that you would too emotionally vested in the case to be objective. It's too person for you both."
"It's always personal Munch, especially with children. You know that." Elliot responded before Olivia had the chance.
At this point, Cragen had noticed that his four best detectives were huddled together, and as they had no major case currently, he knew that this would indicate some sort of personal dispute, which he knew had to be resolved immediately.
"What's going on?" he asked authoritatively.
"We got a new case, Captain." Olivia said before any of the other detectives could get a word in.
"Oh?" asked Cragen, surprised. New cases usually came through to him, not his detectives.
"I found these two children outside, dumped in an alley. They hadn't been fed for two days. From what they have told me, both have been raped, abused and sodomized and assaulted. They're only three." Olivia stated, her emotion getting the best of her, when she heard her voice break.
"Olivia," Cragen barked, "call ACS and get statements from the kids. After that, you're off the case. Elliot - "
"Captain," Olivia protested, "I need - "
"You don't need to anything. You're too emotionally involved in this case. Now you can either follow my advice on your own or I will order you to."
Olivia shook her head, obviously not satisfied with his answer, and grabbed her notepad before stalking off to the kid's room to interview the children.
"Captain, what - " Elliot started.
"Don't you start, or you will be taken off this case also." Cragen said annoyed, "Elliot observe Olivia. Fin and Munch the clothing that the children wore is in those bags, get them down to the lab." No-one made an effort to move. "NOW!"