A/N: Not much to say here, so I'll leave you to it.

The search for Tony Martin had turned into a department-wide thing by the next morning. Mike and Carolyn had gone straight to the Bronx after talking to Kathleen, only to find that Kelly Martin didn't actually know where her son was and hadn't seen him in a while.

"He's twenty-three years old, for heaven's sake," she'd told them. "You expect me to still be holding his hand while he crosses the street?"

Her sarcasm hadn't gotten her very far; by that afternoon, she was on a desk and facing an inquiry by Internal Affairs. Needless to say, this didn't exactly put either the Major Case Squad in a favorable light with the rest of the department, never mind the fact that they hadn't exactly been there before. SVU had also met with this same problem, but they, like their counterparts, didn't particularly care.

What they did care about, however, was finding out what the Feds were up to, and it was for this reason that Elliot and Olivia found themselves waiting outside of an office, neither of them wanting to be there, but both of them knowing they had to be.

"They're not going to tell us anything," Elliot remarked, finally breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between them. "They already know that we're working against them now."

"That was their fault in the first place," Olivia replied. "Maybe they should have taken a closer look at the circumstances before jumping to conclusions."

It went without saying that the circumstances hadn't become all that clear until recently, but neither of them wanted to think about it. Things were already bad enough as it was, and the last thing either of them wanted to do was make it worse, but it appeared as if that was exactly what was going to happen.

"What are we going to do?" Olivia asked, after another long moment. "If they ever get around to arresting Munch, we're screwed."

"Somehow, I don't think Munch plans on giving them the chance to find him if they come to the conclusion that he's the one they want," said Elliot. Olivia gave him a sideways look.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked. But Elliot didn't answer, and then, just like that, realization dawned. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Like I said, I don't know for sure," he said. "Munch hasn't said anything one way or the other, but do you really think he's going to let them find him when he knows he hasn't done anything?"

In all honesty, the thought had never occurred to Olivia, but now she shook her head. "No," she admitted, "But for the love of heaven, Elliot, doesn't he know it'll only make things worse for him?"

"Know that what will make things worse for him?" asked a voice, and both detectives jumped, before looking to see that the office door had opened and now Dean Porter was standing there, eyeing them both suspiciously. Olivia glared at him.

"Nothing you need to worry about," she said, bluntly. "We need to talk to you about something."

"It wouldn't have anything to do with the investigation, would it?" Dean asked.

"Whose investigation?" Elliot asked, half-sarcastically. "Yours or ours? It occurs to me that we're going in two different directions now."

"And it's perfectly reasonable to work with a man for ten years and believe you know enough about him to know he'd never do something like this," Dean replied, just as sarcastically. "Tell me something, Detective, does any of this actually surprise you?"

"Being a Fed's made you too damn cynical," Elliot retorted. "I might have stuck around SVU too long, but at least I still have enough left in me to trust someone other than myself."

He pushed past the federal agent and walked into the office, without looking back; Dean glanced over at Olivia with raised eyebrows and she glared back at him.

"You brought it on yourself," she said. "I don't know what you and Dana think you're playing at, but you're going in the wrong direction."

"That's yet to be determined."

"Don't assume that two agencies can't play that game. If you wanted to play hardball, all you had to do was ask."

And with that, she, too, pushed past Dean and walked into the office, where Dana had already closed the files they'd been looking over. The Baltimore City Police Department's shield was clearly identifiable on one of them.

"You've got to be kidding me," Elliot was saying, furiously, "You went and pulled his file from Baltimore?"

"We have every right to find out anything and everything about Sergeant Munch, whether you like it or not," Dana told him. "It's all part of the investigation."

He glared at her. "What investigation?" he demanded. "There shouldn't even be an investigation, you have nothing!"

"You don't want to know what we have, Detective," Dean said flatly. "Trust me, it would give you nightmares."

"I have enough nightmares as it is, not that it's any of your business," Elliot snapped. "We came to you asking for help, and this is what you give us? You try to string up a member of our unit on evidence that you know damn well could have been and likely was planted?"

"If I recall correctly, your crime scene unit hasn't turned up any evidence that it was planted, which leaves us all with one conclusion to draw," Dana said evenly. "It would appear, Detectives, that for once, your faith in your co-workers has been misplaced."

"Why haven't you arrested him, then?" Elliot asked. "If you're so convinced that he's the one you're looking for, then why isn't he sitting in a jail cell?"

"There's a lot more to it than just finding the evidence and putting it all together; maybe if you paid attention, you'd know that," Dean remarked.

"Don't you dare stand there and tell me how to do my job! Maybe if you were doing yours properly, you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!"

"And maybe if you weren't personally involved in this case, it'd be easier for you to see the truth!"

"What truth? There is no truth in this! It's you and your partner trying to string an innocent cop up for something he had no hand in!"

Dead silence. Olivia cast a sideways look at her partner, knowing that he'd had enough of the conversation at hand, and sure enough, when no one said anything, Elliot turned and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him. She watched him go, and then turned back to face the two federal agents still standing in front of her.

"There, you see what you started?" she asked, pulling the door open again to go after her partner. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Anyone want to tell me which idiot handed Munch's file over to the Feds?"

Kay's appearance in the squad room in the middle of a shift change was hardly startling to those veteran murder police who were used to her hands on approach to being the unit's captain. Those who weren't used to it, however, watched her walk towards the lieutenant's office without waiting for an answer, wearing expressions torn somewhere between awe and amusement, especially when she barged in, without waiting for an answer.

"You," she said, closing the door behind her. "Explain. Now."

Sitting in the chair behind the desk, Meldrick Lewis looked up at her, frowning. "Explain what?" he asked. "What happened?"

"Someone handed Munch's old personnel file over to the Feds," said Kay. "I don't know who, but when I find out, they're gonna regret it."

"Did they come through with a warrant?"

The sound of the second voice made Kay jump; she blinked, once, and then saw that one of the chairs in front of the desk was already occupied by Tim Bayliss.

"I don't know," she said, sitting in the second chair. "Personnel wouldn't say. All they told me was that they came around asking for Munch's file, and they gave it over, but they wouldn't say who was responsible for it."

"What'd Munch do that has the Feds after him?" Tim asked. Kay sighed.

"You remember Detective Stabler, don't you? From the Charm Bracelets case?" she asked in reply.

"Yeah, I remember him," said Tim, "What happened?"

"His family was abducted, a month ago," said Kay. "They finally started getting somewhere with it, but now the Feds want to string Munch up for it."

"What?" said Meldrick, startled. "And personnel gave 'em his files?"

"Yeah," said Kay. "I was hoping one of you might know who did it, but since you don't..."

"You're stuck," said Tim. "Listen, rumor has it that Whitmore and Kellerman opened a cold case that might have something to do with it. Know anything about that?"

Kay frowned slightly, and leaned back in her seat. "Kellerman wasn't supposed to say anything about that," she said. "How'd you find out?"

"Well, I didn't know for sure until now," Tim said wryly. "What are they hoping to find?"

"They found it," said Kay. "The case was an apartment building fire. One of the two girls died, but the other one made it. Munch and his radio car partner found her in an alley a few blocks away from where the fire was set. They were trying to track her down."

"Then they found her?" Meldrick asked. Kay nodded.

"Yeah, they found her," she said. "She's Detective Stabler's wife. Gee was the primary on the murder, and Mike's old lieutenant from Arson was handling the fire. They never found the guy who did it."

"Are they in on this?" Tim asked.

"Yeah. Mike and Jen didn't really have any choice but to go and ask them what they remembered," said Kay.

"So, do they think it might be the same guy from the cold case, then?" Meldrick asked. Kay sighed.

"I don't know what they think; I haven't had a chance to talk to them myself yet, but I'd assume so." She trailed off for a moment and ran a tired hand over her face. "Munch hasn't told me a lot about this, so I'm flying blindly. You two want in, or do you want to stay out of it?"

"You really have to ask?" said Tim. "Come on now, Kay, we ran with him, too. We're not going anywhere."

Hearing this was more than just a little bit relieving. Kay leaned forward in her seat now, and was about to say something else, when a knock on the office door sounded.

"It's open, come in," said Tim, glancing down at his watch. "Second shift's on now."

"You wanna trade me places?" Meldrick asked dryly. Tim shook his head.

"I'm fine where I am, thanks," he said. The office door opened, and Mike stuck his head in, smirking.

"Am I interrupting anything here?" he asked.

"No. We were just talking about you, in fact," said Meldrick. "Whitmore isn't with you, is she?"

"No, actually, she's in Interview Two," Mike replied. "Listen, Kay, you're gonna want to see this."

"See what?" Kay asked, already getting to her feet. "What happened? Did you find something?"

"Someone, more like," said Mike. "Just come with me, and you'll see. Are these two in on it?"

"Yeah, we're in," said Meldrick, as he and Tim got to their feet as well. The three unit commanders followed Mike out of the office and towards the observation room that sat between the two interview rooms. Sure enough, Jennifer Whitmore was in the second interview room, sitting across from a girl who looked to be no more than fifteen and more than just a little bit frightened.

"Who is she?" Kay asked, the first to break the silence that had fallen between the four of them.

"She says her name is Elizabeth Stabler, but there's no identification on her," Mike replied. "State troopers found her in Cecil County, wandering around a town called Rising Sun."

"And they brought her here?" Meldrick asked.

"Her story is that she got dropped off in Rising Sun last night, and the guy who dropped her off told her she was on her own from here on out," said Mike. "The state troopers found her in a diner after one of the waitresses recognized her and called them."

"That doesn't answer the question, Mike; why'd they bring her here?" said Tim.

"She told them that she knew a cop in Baltimore who could get her home to New York," said Mike. "That's why they brought her here. Guess they figured headquarters was their best shot for finding this cop she was talking about."

"Did she mention to either of you who this cop is?" Kay asked.

"No," said Mike. "She hasn't really talked to either of us, and she won't talk to me at all."

It made enough sense. Kay sighed and turned to look at Tim. "Call Munch for me," she said. "Tell him we think that we have another one of the Stabler kids."

Tim nodded, briefly, and walked out of the observation room to do just that; Kay flipped on the intercom system that would allow the three remaining there to hear what was being said in the interview room. Jen's voice came floating out at them.

"Do you really know someone here in Baltimore, or did you just tell the state troopers that so you could get here?" she asked. The girl sitting across from her glared.

"I do know a cop here," she insisted. "She used to live in New York, but she left when she got out of high school 'cause she hates it there."

"Ok, that's something," said Jen. "Can you tell me what district this cop works in?"

"I don't know. All I know is that she's a cop now, and her dad used to be in Homicide. She called him a murder police." The girl trailed off for a moment, and stared down at the table. "I just have to find her, all right? If I find her, then I can go home."

"What about your parents?" Jen asked. "Don't you think they'd like to hear from you?"

"My mom's still with that freak who kidnapped us in the first place. And my dad..." The girl's eyes closed and she put a hand to her mouth in order to muffle the sob that suddenly escaped her. "He's a cop. I don't want him to know what happened to me, or to any of us. He can't know what happened to us."

"Why can't he know?"

The girl looked up sharply. "Are you insane?" she asked. "If he ever finds out what happened...I can't even think about looking him in the eye anymore. What does that tell you?"

Tim came walking into the observation room again, just as Kay switched the intercom off again.

"What've you got?" she asked. Tim held up his cell phone.

"Munch is going to call me back in about two minutes," he said. "He wants to talk to the kid."

"Don't you think we ought to ask her if she wants to talk to him, first?" Meldrick asked. Kay reached out and knocked on the glass of the two-way mirror. Jen looked up, and then came out of the interview room. Seconds later, the door to the observation room opened.

"What's up?" she said, and then, to Kay, "Morning, Captain."

"Good morning," Kay replied. "We think we might have a way for this girl to prove who she is."

As if on cue, Tim's cell phone rang. He flipped it open. "Hold on a minute, Munch, we're going to ask her if she wants to talk to you. She wouldn't talk to Kellerman."

On the other side of the line, John sighed. "Just give her the phone and tell her it's me, Bayliss," he said. "If she's really Elizabeth Stabler, she'll talk to me."

"You'd better hope this works," Tim replied, but left the observation room again anyway. A few seconds passed before he reappeared in the interview room. Kay flipped the intercom on again.

"I remember you," the girl remarked, looking at Tim. "You came to New York once, to work with my dad's unit."

"I did," said Tim, and sat down in the chair that Jen had previously been occupying. "Listen, Elizabeth, I've got someone from New York on my phone who wants to talk to you, but if you don't want to talk to him, you don't have to."

It was the first time that she'd been called by her name by someone other than her brother in a long while.

"It's not my dad, is it?" she asked, warily. Tim shook his head.

"No, it's not your father. It's an old friend of mine, though. He used to be a murder police here in Baltimore."

"You know Kai, too?"

"Since she was seven. She's on shift right now, but John wants to talk to you. If you don't want to talk to him, just tell me, and I'll let him know."

"No, don't..." Elizabeth paused for a moment, and bit the inside of her cheek for a few seconds before continuing. "I'll talk to him. But...you don't have to be in here, do you?"

"No, honey, I don't have to be," Tim replied, getting to his feet. "I'll be right outside."

He walked out, and back into the observation room. "Switch the intercom off," he said. Kay did so, and leaned back against the mirror.

"Munch tell you anything about the mess with the Feds?" she asked. Tim shook his head.

"No, but somehow, I don't think he's going to stick around waiting for them," he said. "Elizabeth just gave him an excuse to come home."