Day 6:

Part 6

Author's note: I just thought this would be a good time to say that some of the characters in the story are based on real people, based on a few people actually, Monica being me. Obviously I'm not a best selling author but I aspire to be one. So anyway keep that in mind, truth is stranger then fiction.

The next three days went by, and Olivia was weaseling her way into Mariann's heart. She was sure that Mariann was buying it because she didn't give Olivia to any more men. She was sitting on her bed when Mariann came into her room carrying breakfast on a tray. This was only the second time she had received food in her room, she usually had to come downstairs to get her food. She smiled at Mariann and stood up and walked over to her. She took the tray and set it down on the table.

"Where's your food? Aren't we going to eat together?" Olivia asked as she sat down at the table and picked up the fork that was provided for her. She noticed there was a small but dull knife there to cut her French toast. She did think about using it as a weapon but for it to be threatening in any manner she would have to repeatedly saw at someone until they bled to death and it wasn't worth it.

"I have some bad news Liv." Mariann said and took a seat across from her, "The good news about it, is you get to live. The bad news is, Parminder has been sold to be snuffed." Olivia looked up and nearly spit out her food. She felt tears coming to her eyes, she swallowed hard and reached for her orange juice, suddenly her mouth had gone dry.

"You can't….you wouldn't….Parminder is….Oh god I'm going to be sick." Olivia said and then covered her mouth and ran into the bathroom. She vomited twice, most of it was bile and it burned her throat coming up but she couldn't help it. Mariann rushed into the bathroom after her and pulled her hair back. Olivia couldn't stop shaking, tears were streaming down her face continually. "Please, please just let him kill me."

"But we love each other, right? Why would you want to die?" Mariann asked, at least she was totally oblivious to the fact that Olivia was faking the whole thing. Olivia wiped her face and then stood up and picked up her toothbrush that was on the side of the sink. She put the toothpaste on the brush and put it in her mouth.

"I know, I love you too," Olivia said and a chill ran through her body, luckily Mariann couldn't tell because she was shaking already. It sickened her to think that she was saying "I love you" to the psychopath who was keeping her captive, "But Parminder is a lot younger then me, she's well trained, she was going to be a doctor for God sakes!"

"Well she's not any more," Mariann replied as she started to run her fingers through Olivia's hair, "So deal with it. You still have a few days left with her, maybe you could break the news to her. I haven't yet." Olivia paused and then spit into the sink. She turned on the water and cupped her hands under it. She brought the water to her mouth and sipped some in and started to swish it around. When she was an SVU detective she had to do a lot of things, and break horrible news to strangers, but she knew Parminder and all the girl ever wanted was to be her friend.

"You break it to her."

"Maybe you misheard me," Mariann said and turned Olivia so she was facing her, "That wasn't a request." Olivia closed her eyes, she felt light headed. She began to think that this was some sort of plot to turn Parminder against her. Olivia opened her eyes and forced a smile, she looked down into Mariann's eyes and saw that she was probably thinking they were going to kiss. Olivia glanced down at her wedding ring without being too obvious about it. She took in a deep breath and let Mariann pull her into a kiss. She kept her eyes closed the whole time, it was hard to pretend that she was Elliot because she was probably a foot shorter then him.

"I'll tell her, just let me finish my food first." Olivia said after Mariann pulled away from the kiss. Mariann smiled at her and started to head out of the bathroom, Olivia followed shortly behind. She went and sat down at the table and started to stare blankly at her food. Mariann reached into her back pocket and set down a key.

"There's the key to her room, she's in there until someone unlocks the door. I expect you to break the news to her within the hour." Mariann instructed, "I'll leave your door open. Her room is at the end of the hall, last one on the left." She then walked out of the room, leaving the door open a crack behind her. Olivia brought her hand up and looked at her wedding and engagement ring. She slid them off and then picked the wedding band up and looked on the inside. There was an inscription, and although she knew what it said, she just had to see it. Forever and a day.

Olivia put her rings back on and sighed gently. She picked up the knife and thought about what she could possibly use it for. She thought for a moment and then brought her fingers up to the collar around her neck. It was made of woven fibers, much like a dog collar. She smiled slightly and carefully slipped the knife under the collar and started to saw at it gently. It made progress, but it was very slow progress, and seeing as how Mariann had made Olivia her pet, she couldn't make any changes that would be too obvious. She smiled bigger, she could give the knife to Parminder to use. She took the knife and slid it into her boot, at least something good would come of it.

Elliot sat at home, locked in his bedroom, smoking the last cigarette in the pack. Monica was there to take care of Hope and Serena who had been taken out of school for their own protection. Cragen had sent Elliot home after he got physical with Liz when they brought her in a second time. He didn't want to see his daughters because they looked so much like Olivia and every time he looked at them he would break down into tears. He was slowly losing his mind, and he knew he only had 4 more days to find her. They had absolutely no leads on who attacked Serena even though the city was plastered with sketches of him. There was a knock on the door and he looked up.

"Who is it?"

"Krista." Replied the voice from the other end of the door. Elliot arched an eyebrow and looked at the door. He had instructed Monica to keep the kids away from him for the time being, and as far as he knew Krista was supposed to be on the set.

"Come in." He said and then snuffed his cigarette out in the already full ashtray on the bed. He put the TV on mute and closed Olivia's file, which was sitting on his lap. She opened the door and stepped inside, she was carrying a bag of stuff, and the first thing she did was reach over and turn the lights on. He had all the curtains drawn and until then the only light in there was from the TV. He squinted his eyes for a moment to get them to adjust.

"I brought you some cigarettes, I know Liv wouldn't like you smoking but you do what you have to do. I also brought some donuts, and a bottle of vodka. It would have been tequila but that stuff makes me sick as hell." Krista said and walked over to the bed and set the bag down. Elliot looked at her and then moved over to the bag and took out the box of donuts. He didn't know why she had brought the vodka this early in the morning but suddenly he was glad to have it. Krista took a pack of her own cigarette from her back pocket, took one out, and lit it. She sat down on the side of the bed and exhaled in the opposite direction of Elliot. Because of their time together 7 years ago, Krista and Elliot were very close. The only person he was closer to then her was his wife. They had to suffer through some pretty hard crap together back then and they really bonded. "Look, I won't say I know how you feel, but when we spent that time with the Lovett's, I thought Monica was dead but she came through. Monica isn't even the kind of fighter she writes about but I know that Liv is, she's ten times the fighter then anyone Monica has ever written about and she won't die. Wherever she is, she will make it home safe." She reached over him and flicked her ashes into the tray and took another drag from her cigarette.

"Thanks Krista." He said and then finished his donut, "I know Olivia is a fighter, and I know she's okay, but the girls….I don't know what I'm going to tell them on day ten. There are no leads, and I can't even find the son of a bitch who hurt Serena….what the hell kind of cop am I?" He took out the vodka and opened it up and took a long drink.

"It's 6:00 in Japan I suppose." Krista said to him and then smiled slightly, she took the bottle and took a drink of it too, "And you are a damn fine cop Elliot. You saved me from being dissected alive."

"Yeah but Monica…"

"Monica what? You kicked down the door, you grabbed the gun and the knife, you stabbed Liz, it was all you Monica would have never had to strength, emotional or physical, to do all of that." Krista replied and took another drag from her cigarette. He looked at her and smiled, she was right, he was a good cop but Mariann had money and with that it was easy enough to cover her tracks. He would find Liv, or she would find him, now there was no doubt in his mind.

"Thanks Krista, you're a great friend." Elliot said as he took out another donut. Krista smiled and leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Now for the love of God, get up, take a shower, get dressed and spend time with your daughters before you go back into work." Krista said and then patted his shoulder, "We all love you and we will all see you through this." Elliot shoved the rest of the donut into his mouth and stood up. He headed towards the master bathroom but when he got in the doorway he turned around and looked at her.

"What's Munch like in bed?" He said after swallowing his food. Krista threw her head back and laughed, it was nice to hear laughter again even if it wasn't Olivia's.

"Well," Krista said and then reached over and snuffed out her cigarette, "you'd probably be surprised to know that he's the best man I've ever had. Monica too, and seeing as how no one in this threesome wants to get married to him, the relationship is kept light hearted and casual."

"No one in the threesome wants to marry him huh? So he doesn't want to marry himself?"

"Shut up and take a shower El." Krista said and then got up from the bed, "I'll be around till tomorrow if you need to talk. There are scenes they can film without me there, and they understood that I needed time off."

"Well thanks for making the 2 hour drive up here. You wanna get dinner tonight?" Elliot said after going into the bathroom to run the water.

"Yeah sure, we can take the girls out for pizza and hope that the reporters stay the hell away." Krista replied, "Or we could order in."

"Ordering in sounds fine," Elliot replied with a laugh, this time when he appeared in the doorway he was just in his boxers. Krista licked her lips and fanned herself slightly, with a big smile on her face. "Oh shut up." She laughed and opened the door to the bedroom to leave.

"You might want to open a window in here to let the smoke out…" She called as she heard him get into the shower. He shouted some sort of reply that sounded like an "okay" but she wasn't exactly sure what was said. She shut the door behind her and went down the stairs to spend some quality time with the twins.

It was more like three hours before Olivia went in to talk to Parminder. She had absolutely no idea how to tell her what was about to happen, but with the knife in her boot she had a plan. She knew that with enough persistence, and sawing, the collar would come loose and now that she could give the knife to Parminder she could take the collar off and escape back to New York City and get Elliot. She unlocked the door and walked in, she noticed some quick movement as Parminder shoved something under her pillow. Then she saw it was just Olivia and she sighed with relief.

"What was that?" Olivia asked motioning to the pillow. Mindy smiled and lifted up the pillow and took out two photographs. She crawled to the edge of the bed and held them out to Olivia. Olivia walked into the room more and took the pictures and looked at them.

"My sister," Parminder said in a bittersweet tone of voice, "Our parents died in a fire when we were very young and she's all I've ever had. I'm sure she wonders what happened to me everyday, I don't know if I'll ever see her again." Her lower lip trembled but she took in a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, she didn't want Olivia to see her cry. Olivia was on the verge of tears herself, how could she tell this beautiful young woman that she was about to be killed in a few days. Even with the plan in place, it was still terrible news.

"What's her name?" Olivia asked in a shaky voice, immediately Parminder knew that something was wrong.

"Anchal," Parminder said and then took the pictures back and slid them under her pillow, "What's wrong Olivia?" Olivia felt a tear escape from her eye and she wiped it away quickly. Normally her demeanor would be cool and collected, but with all that had happened in the past few days she was starting to lose her mind.

"Well I have some good news," Olivia said and then pulled the knife from her boot. Parminder looked positively surprised that Olivia had some sort of weapon but she waited for her to continue, "And some terrible news and I need to know which you want to hear first.

"Bad first, then the good news will be that much better, right?" Parminder said with a shrug. Olivia wiped another stray tear away from her face and smiled at her. She took a deep breath and held the knife out to Parminder, who took it and also put it under her pillow.

"Now, don't freak out on me because I offered for her to take me in your place, but she wouldn't and….you're supposed to be snuffed instead of me." Olivia said and then burst into sobs, Parminder looked like her heart had just dropped down into her stomach. Olivia was wiping her face constantly now to keep the tears from showing but as hard as she was crying it wasn't good enough. Parminder came closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"When I told you to get close to her, and pretend like you loved her, don't you think I saw this coming?" Parminder asked softly, she gently brought her hand up to Olivia's cheek and turned it so she was looking at her, "What's the good news?" Olivia sniffled and took in a few deep breaths. Parminder was taking this awful well considering the situation.

"That knife I gave you, you should be able to saw through your collar with that. Once you get it off you tell me and I'll create a distraction so you can get out of the house." Olivia said softly and put her hand on top of Parminder's, "Then you can go to the city and get Elliot and we can all walk out of here." Parminder looked at her and smiled.

"Well, judging by the sharpness of the knife that might take a good chunk of time but mistress hardly pays attention to me since you started to warm up to her. I'll make myself puke, tell her I'm sick, and she'll leave me alone for a day or two. She'll probably have you bring me my food, so this could work out." She replied with a smile, "How are you going to explain the missing knife to mistress though?"

"I have a plan," Olivia said and pushed some of her hair out of her face, "Don't worry this will work okay? I'll find some paper and a pen and write down the address and phone number for Elliot. I don't want you to call the local cops because I'm pretty sure Mariann has them on retainer. You have to get to Elliot….it's an absolute must."

"I understand….thank you Olivia." Parminder said and then leaned in and kissed Olivia gently on the lips and then pulled back. That was the second kiss Olivia had that day but she would have to say it was one of the better ones. "Sorry, I'm not in love with you or anything but that's the only way I knew how to thank you."

"It's quite alright. I have to go meet up with Mariann, get to work on that collar and I'll see you later okay?" Olivia put a hand over hers and then stood up. She was about to walk out of the door when Parminder called her name. She turned around to see what the girl wanted.

"I have something for you," Mindy said and then got off of the bed and lifted the corner of her mattress. Olivia watched as she pulled out a book and opened it to the middle. She took out a photograph and held it out in Olivia's direction. Olivia took a few steps forward and reached out and took the picture. She turned it over to see that it was the one of Serena and Hope that she had in her pocket the day she was abducted. She put a hand over her mouth and she felt the tears coming again, but harder this time. She honestly believed that she would never see them again, even in a picture. Her legs got weak and she fell to the floor, landing on her knees. She clutched the picture to her chest with one hand, and buried her face in the other. The only other person to ever see her get this emotional about anything was Elliot. Parminder replaced the book under the mattress and then came over to Olivia and sat down next to her, she didn't know the right thing to say, so she just put her arm around her and held her gently.