A/N: Muse is back to bouncing between fandoms; it's picked up a fic for CI and one for TOS as well. I'm hoping it won't leave me hanging on this one, and it's not likely to, but I figured I would give you all a reason as to why updates might be a few days apart. Anyway, that's about all, so there you have it.

Two days after Elizabeth had been found by the Maryland State Troopers, she was back at home in New York, where she was hiding out with her older sister and baby brother on Staten Island, refusing to talk to anyone except for Kathleen. It had thrown Elliot off quite considerably, but if she didn't want to talk to him, then he wasn't going to push her. It didn't, however, mean that he wasn't going to worry.

"I don't get it," he said, finally, to Erin one night. "They'll talk to everyone else, but they won't talk to me."

"Elliot, think about it," Erin replied. "Do you really think they'd feel comfortable telling you what happened to them?"

"No, but...I'm their father, for heaven's sake! They should be able to tell me anything."

"Be that as it may, it doesn't mean that they're going to tell you everything. Even if you already know some of what happened to them, it doesn't mean you know everything, and they don't want you to know."

"That would explain why no one seems to be able to look me in the eye anymore." Elliot trailed off and sighed. "They know, and they're not going to tell me."

"Well, of course they're not," said Erin. "They must have promised the girls that they wouldn't."

"Kathleen wouldn't even talk to anyone in the unit. I'm surprised Mike and Jimmy got her to talk to them."

"Does it make sense that she would?"

"Actually, yeah, it does. She and I haven't had a real conversation in a while. Every time we tried, we always ended up in some kind of shouting match. It just...it got to the point where neither of us wanted to try anymore."

"So, Kat's talking to them doesn't bother you?"

"I didn't say that. It bothers me, but not in the way you're thinking. I wish she still trusted me enough to talk to me."

"It's not about trust, kid. My guess is that Kat and Lizzie don't want to talk to you because they think you'll look at them differently."

As far as Elliot knew, Erin had never spent any time in any of the Special Victims Units. Granted, he didn't know much about her career before he'd become a cop himself, but there had been reasons for that, and both Erin and Bryan rarely talked about those days. He'd always gotten the feeling that they had lost something in those years that they couldn't get back and after a while, it had gotten to the point where he didn't want to know. Even so, what she'd just told him made perfect sense, whether or not he liked it...and he didn't.

"How can they think that?" he asked. "They're still my kids, Erin. I'm not going to...to disown them or whatever because of something like this. How can they think I'd look at them differently?"

"I don't know," Erin replied. "And I don't think you're ever going to know, either, so it's no use dwelling on it."

"Do you think they'll ever tell me?"

"No." At the almost startled look that crossed Elliot's face at this blunt answer, Erin sighed and went on. "I don't necessarily mean that you're never going to find out. But they're not going to tell you. They'll tell everyone else, but...You've been a cop for how long, now?"

"Twenty years," Elliot replied, wondering where she was going with this, but not daring to ask before she finished.

"There, you see?" Erin said. "You've been a cop for most of their lives. Sure, you'll retire before you lose any of them, but they see what the job does to you. You went straight from a beat into SVU, love. According to the department, you should've burned out fifteen years ago, but you're still there."

"I have my reasons for staying."

"I know you do, but my point is that if you think about it, d'you really think they'd want to tell you something that would haunt you even more than everything you've already seen?"

Elliot didn't answer. Whether or not he liked it, there was a truth in what Erin had just told him, and it was one that he didn't want to face. Things had changed, yet again, and not for the better, either. It was one thing for Kathleen not to talk to him; he was used to that, even if it made him feel somewhat guilty that neither of them had really made an effort to fix things. But the fact that Elizabeth hadn't said much of anything to him either was throwing him for a loop, and it wasn't one he was sure he'd come off of anytime soon.

"I don't know what to do," he said finally. "It doesn't make any sense. I mean, it does, but it just...it doesn't. I want them to talk to me, but I get why they won't, and it bothers me."

"Well, of course it does. You might be a cop, but you're still their father. Even if they shouldn't keep what happened to them a secret from you, they're going to, because there are just some things a girl doesn't want her father to ever know about."

"And you'd know this because you have five sons, right?"

"Elliot, contrary to whatever it is that your father told you, I wasn't actually born thirty-five years old." Erin trailed off and shook her head, amused. "I'd know it because there were a few things I didn't want your grandfather to know about, and no, I'm not going to tell you what they were."

"Brad's right, you are a mind reader. No wonder you always knew what everyone was up to."

"I'm not a mind reader, I just have too many friends in the department. But you already knew that." Erin reached across the table and took Elliot's hand, squeezing hard as she went on. "Everything's going to be fine, kid. You just have to wait and let things take their course, but everything's going to turn out all right."

Elliot glanced over at her and sighed. "I wish I could believe you."

"You and Whitmore have got yourselves a hell of a mess here, Kellerman."

"Morning, Lt. What brings you down here?"

"This case of yours. I heard you found another one of the Stabler kids two days ago."

Nathan Pearson stepped into the interview room and closed the door behind him, glancing down at the table that had become Mike and Jen's unofficial desk. There were old open files spread out across the surface, along with the current file that had been sent down from New York. He pulled out a chair and sat down before going on.

"The Annellos still live here in Baltimore," he said. "Same house they were living in when their daughter disappeared."

"You tracked them down?" Mike asked, and Nathan nodded.

"Yeah, I did. All they could tell me were the same things they told Missing Persons thirty-two years ago. They actually asked if I thought the passage of time might have made them remember something they didn't before," he replied. "Can't say I blame them. No one forgets losing a child."

"Jen and I tracked down Phoebe Mitchell's parents, down in Annandale," said Mike. "They gave us a description of the guy who took their daughter, same one they gave to the cops down there."

He reached across the table for a thirty-two year old sketch that had been faxed up from Annandale and went on. "It's not much to go on; obviously things will have change about the way this guy looks, but it's something."

"Melanie's not in on this, is she?" Nathan asked. Mike shook his head.

"No, and she's not happy about it, either, but rotations, y'know..." He trailed off for a moment and then continued. "They sent her over to Narcotics and pulled me back over here from Homicide. Everyone's all over the place."

"So that's where she disappeared to. You know, the apartment building where that fire was set was a known drug house," said Nathan. "When it got rebuilt, it was like nothing had changed. As far as I know, the place still exists."

"Munch and his lot in New York think it's a possibility that the rest of the family is somewhere in Maryland, if not here in Baltimore," said Mike, and then, as his former lieutenant's comment hit him, "You're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?"

"Narcotics isn't going to be very happy with you, but hey, if it's a drug case, it's a drug case," said Nathan, smirking now. "My advice would be for you to keep it under the radar, and you might want to let Jen in on it before you ask Mel along."

"I'll do that, then," Mike said, amused. "So, did you and Gee find out anything else from the Annellos, or was that all they gave you?"

"That was all they gave us. I really don't think they know any more than that, but when we talked to the next door neighbors, they said they'd noticed someone sitting outside the Annello place for two weeks straight before Katherine disappeared."

"Staking out a target?" Mike asked, and then, "Had to be it. This guy knew who he wanted, and he wasn't going to be stopped before he got her."

"Then why take Katherine if he already had Phoebe?" said Nathan. "Unless he wanted her to have a companion..."

"Phoebe was five years old when she disappeared from Annandale in '74, about six months before Katherine Annello was taken," said Mike. "Katherine was nine. Could have been he wanted an older girl to be there to keep an eye on things whenever he disappeared. Did the next door neighbors have anything to say about this guy they noticed outside the Annellos' place?"

"Nothing much. They figured he was visiting them, because they only saw him in the car a few times, usually coming or going. No one suspected that he might have had anything to do with the disappearance until he stopped coming around a few days after Katherine was taken."

Silence fell between the two of them. After a while, Mike leaned back in his own chair and sighed.

"I get the feeling that the answer is in New York," he said. "Katherine Annello is Katherine McCormack, the girl that Munch and his radio car partner found that night in the alleyway, and now she's Kathy Stabler, but if all of this leads back to the original disappearances and the fire..."

"Then we're looking for the guy who was behind it in the first place," said Nathan. "There's no statute of limitation on murder. When we find him, we'll still be able to nail him."

Mike offered up a half-hearted smile and turned to reach for another file. "Yeah, if New York doesn't hang him first."

"You know, I have to admit that it was pretty damn clever of you to send Sergeant Munch down to Baltimore with Detective Stabler, but that leaves you with a problem, Captain."

The door to the office was closed, but in all honesty, Don Cragen would not have been surprised if the detectives outside in the squad room could hear every word that had been said thus far. There was no denying that the Feds were pissed, and the fact that both Dean Porter and Dana Lewis were standing there in front of him only pointed further towards that conclusion.

"What problem would that be?" Don asked, before Dean could pick up where he'd left off. "Detective Stabler and his daughter are back home again."

"But Sergeant Munch isn't," Dana replied, annoyed. "That's your problem. Why didn't he come back to New York when Detective Stabler did?"

"Because he requested time off before they went to Maryland. That's why he didn't come back. Considering the fact that you haven't yet made the move to arrest him, it shouldn't matter to you where he is," Don said evenly. "That is, unless you've turned up irrefutable proof that what you found hasn't been planted."

No answer. He'd figured as much, and had also figured that neither federal agent would actually admit to it. When neither of them had said anything after a few more minutes, Don picked up where he'd left off.

"There's evidence that someone has been into Sergeant Munch's apartment that wasn't supposed to be there," he said. "I don't know if Benson and Stabler have handed you that evidence yet, but it's there if you want to see it."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Just because someone was there that shouldn't have been doesn't mean that he isn't guilty in one way or another," said Dean. "I know you want to put your faith in your squad, Captain, but there's still a chance that their faith is misplaced."

"The last I looked, this was still the United States, Agent Porter. The law states that all people are innocent until proven guilty, and you and your partner haven't proven a damn thing," said Don, casting an exasperated look in the other man's direction. "If the two of you want Sergeant Munch back in New York, then I suggest you go to Maryland and find him."

"You are aware that we could string this entire squad up for obstruction of justice, aren't you?" Dana asked. He glared at her.

"If you're going to do it, you'd better make damn sure you can prove it," he said, his sarcasm not at all lost on the two agents. "Until you can do that, get the hell out of my office."

Silence. After a short moment, both agents left, both of them wearing expressions that clearly stated that this wasn't over. The door closed again behind them, but a split second later, it opened again.

"Got a minute?" said Olivia, and before Don could answer, "CSU got a hit on a set of prints from Munch's apartment that aren't his and aren't Rowan's."

"This person's in the system?" Don asked, and she nodded, holding up a manila folder.

"O'Halloran knows someone in the federal crime lab who owed him a favor, so they ran it and came up with this," she said, stepping into the office. "Guy's name is Samuel Garret, goes by Sam."

"Where did the prints come from?"

"Baltimore City Police Department's database. You wouldn't happen to know how to get a hold of Munch, would you?"

"No. All he said was that he was going to stay down in Baltimore for a few days after Elliot and Elizabeth came back to New York. I haven't heard from him."

"Damn." Olivia trailed off and sighed. "I tried his cell phone, but he's not answering; Rowan's back in Manhattan, but she hasn't heard from him, and neither has Kai."

"Did you talk to Fin?"

"Same there. Fin hasn't heard from him, either. It's starting to look like the only way to find him might be to contact the Homicide unit down there."

"Then do it. He needs to know about this, and it's likely that he doesn't know yet. Have you gotten a chance to talk to Elizabeth?"

Olivia hesitated, then, just enough to let Don know that she had talked to Elizabeth, and wasn't particularly sure how much she could actually say without giving away too much.

"I did," she said, finally. "She's...having a hard time coming to terms with everything, and so is Kathleen. I don't think it's really hit them yet, but it's going to, and hard."

"They still won't talk to Elliot?" Don asked. Olivia shook her head.

"No. Elizabeth even asked me not to tell him what she told me," she replied. "I hate keeping this from him, Captain. He needs to know what happened so that he can help them, but neither of them want to say a word."

She trailed off and sighed. "I can't say I blame them," she said. "If I were them, I wouldn't want Elliot to know what happened, either, but...he's the one that's going to be there. The rest of us can only go so far before we hit a line, and he's the only one of us that can go past it."

"Liv, you know it's up to them what they tell him and what they don't. Technically, he shouldn't even be a part of this case," Don started, but Olivia cut him off, nodding.

"I know," she said. "I know. It just bothers me to know that they don't trust him enough to know that he's not going to look at them differently because of this."

"Is that what they told you?"

"Not in so many words. They're afraid that whatever relationship they already had with Elliot is going to change for the worse, and I don't know how to explain to them that it's not going to do that without letting him in on what they've said."