The Black Market Baby Scandal
(Chapter Twelve: Progress)
Olivia sat in the waiting area of her attorney's office rocking her foot nervously as she flipped through the pages of a magazine. Elliot looked over at her fidgeting and slipped his hand over hers. Olivia took a deep breath and stared down at their hands for a moment before raising her eyes to meet his.
"It's going to be okay," Elliot whispered to her.
"Olivia, I am so sorry to have kept you waiting. The two of you can come on back. Hello again, Elliot." The woman opened the office door and lead them into her office.
"Hello," he replied. "It has been a little while since I was in here."
"So, what can I do for you this morning?" She asked smiling at Olivia.
"I want to reapply to adopt Sarah."
"Okay. But here is the problem, the judge has already turned you down because of the conditions listed in your letter. It is not going to do any good to reapply until they have been met. Unless, you have contacted Sarah's biological father and he has agreed to fill out the papers. I am sure they will want a paternity test and we will have to work out a custody agree…"
"No. He is not involved with her. And at this point, with everything else that is going on, I think maybe it is for the better. He never wanted a baby. He wanted me to have an abortion."
"Olivia, I am not trying to be short with you. But they are not going to let you adopt this child if you cannot provide a father for her. So unless you got married over the weekend, I am afraid reapplying is not going to help you get custody. She has to have a father."
"That is where I come in," Elliot spoke up.
"You? What are you talking about? You're the girls father?"
"I want to be. I want you to help me adopt Sarah. Then she will have a father and they have no reason to deny custody."
"Elliot, that is not the right reason to adopt a child. You already have five children of your own, are you sure you want to do this?"
"I am sure. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. It sounds like you are trying to talk me out of it."
"I'm not. If this is what you want, I think it is wonderful and I would be glad to do all I can to help you both. But this is a child we are talking about, it isn't like adopting a pet that you can just give away when you tire of her. We are talking about you being her father, for the rest of her life. She would be like one of your own children, you would share all legal responsibility for her. Help in caring for the child and provide for her. And if you are not planning on living together, they will probably expect you to pay support on the child. If the adoption is approved for this first step, then we will move to the second."
"There is a second step?" Olivia asked confused.
"A trial period. Before they place the child with you, both homes will have to be inspected and approved. She will need her own room and her own space. Once the homes are approved there will be a trial period. Sarah will come and live with you, Olivia. A social worker will make scheduled appointments to check on the residence and to make sure you are providing adequate living conditions. They will want to make sure she is attending school. Sometimes they will make surprise visits as well, so you have to be expecting anything. You need to be able to tell them, where she is every moment of the day. Who stays with her while you are away at work? Who will watch her if you get called away for work during the middle of the night? Things like this. They want to see some kind of a support system."
"Okay. I can work all of this out. I just need to be with my child. I need to bring her home."
"Well then, lets get the paperwork started."
After lunch they headed back to work. Dr. Warner's DNA results on the bodies of the children who were found in their caskets told Olivia that Dana Shaw's son Devon was not found among the remains. She took a deep breath and picked up the phone on her desk.
"Yes, this is Detective Olivia Benson. I am calling to speak with Dana Shaw, please." She waited for a moment as Dana's husband went to get her. This was not the type of thing that a mother should hear over the phone.
"Hello," Dana said.
"Dana? Hi, it is Detective Benson. My partner, Detective Stabler and I came to your home and spoke to you about your son, Devon."
"Yes, I remember you."
"Well, I have been working on this case and I think that I may have some new information about your son's case."
"My son never had a case."
"Actually, ma'am I came across the information about you and your son while working on another case. We have found some information in continuing the investigation that I would like to talk with you about. I was wondering if maybe I could meet with you tomorrow afternoon, I would like to buy you lunch."
Dana was quiet for a moment. "Would you like me to come into the city and meet with you?"
"Or I could come there. Anywhere you would like to go is fine with me."
"There is a little café a few blocks away, Café Noir, they have great food there and it will be a good place to talk."
"How is one o'clock for you?"
"One o'clock is good."
"Great! Then I will see you tomorrow. Dana, thank you."
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Olivia sat in a booth at Café Noir waiting for Dana to arrive. Just as she was sure she had been stood up and was heading to the counter to pay for her cup of coffee she heard a soft voice behind her.
"Detective Benson?"
Olivia turned and looked over her shoulder. "Dana, I was sure you had changed your mind. It is after two o'clock."
"I almost had," Dana said as they sat back down in the booth.
"But you are here now."
"My husband didn't think I should meet with you. He said I should just let it go and let it all be in the past. He said that we need to focus on the children we still have and not the one we lost all of those years ago. But he was my son. I cannot not think about him. If there is any information that could help me make sense of his death, I need to hear it. I guess he just doesn't understand, I was his mother. That baby was inside of me for nine months and I know what I saw. I saw the baby move and I am sure I heard him cry."
"Dana, that is what I have come here to tell you. The case I am investigating revolves around the doctor who delivered your son and my daughter. This doctor had an unusual amount of stillbirths and infants who died shortly after they were born. We obtained permission from a judge and exhumed the graves of several of these children to examine the remains. We have reason to believe that this doctor stole many of these infants and sold them on the black market to couples who could not conceive."
"You dug up my son's grave?"
"We had to. We had to make sure that the children assigned to these graves were actually the ones buried there. Several of them were empty graves, a teddy bear was placed in the casket instead of the body of the child who had purposively died."
"And Devon's grave….was it empty as well?"
"No." Olivia watched as Dana's saddened eyes fell to stare down at the table. "Dana, your son's grave did actually contain the remains of a newborn."
"So you called me and had me meet you here just to tell me what I have known all along? My baby is dead. And now his grave has been dug up and disrupted and…."
"Dana, there is more. I got a copy of your medical records from the hospital where the baby was born. We ran DNA tests on that baby and there is no way that…. You and your husband could not have been the biological parents of the infant who was buried in that casket."
"He was not my son?"
"No."
"So where is my baby? Where is Devon?"
"We are not exactly sure yet. But we have been able to locate some of these children and start proceedings to reunite them with their biological parents."
"You think you can find my son?"
"We already found my daughter. The daughter I thought was dead for the last twelve years. And I have been able to hold her and talk to her and get to know her. I am now in the process of trying to adopt her, to bring her home. Three months ago I would have never thought that someday I would see my beautiful healthy child again. There is hope, Dana. Don't give up on Devon, yet. I promise you that I will do everything that I can to find your child for you."
Dana was crying, but they were tears of joy and uncertainty. "Olivia, I have no idea how to thank you, for this. For not giving up. You just gave me the news I have waited over twelve years to hear. That I am not crazy. My son is alive. And there is a chance that someday we could be reunited with him."
EOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEO
Eight days later Olivia sat at her desk at work. Because of her stubbornness and progress on this case, Cragen had agreed to let her come back to work. But this didn't come without conditions. Right now this case was she and Elliot's main focus and the only case they were allowed to work on, until they had figured out some way to resolve at least some of this mess. Olivia, was on probation as far as Cragen was concerned and walking a think line.
The truth was, he needed her help to solve the case. Olivia and Elliot had made more progress in their own little investigation in searching for Emily than the three other teams who were assigned to work the case had made all together. So to keep her on suspension not only hurt him as their Captain, but it also jeopardized the entire case.
"Olivia," Cragen said leaning out of his office and motioning for her to come to him.
"What's up?"
"This came for you while you were gone to lunch. I signed for it." He handed her a large envelope. "Thanks."
"Everything okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, it is probably just my copy of the adoption papers."
"Any news on that yet?"
"Not yet. She said it will take about a month before it will even go before the judge. I guess they are pretty busy."
"Well, we are all crossing our fingers for you."
"Thanks. I really hope it works out. Now that I have found Sarah, I cannot imagine my life without her in it."
"Elliot says she is an amazing kid."
Olivia smiled. "Yeah, she is."
"Well, she definitely got that from her mother." Cragen squeezed her shoulder gently in support.
"When this all goes to court, over the adoption, they may call some of you as character witnesses. Or they may send a social worker to ask you a few questions. To make sure they are not placing her with a crazy person."
"I only have the best things to say. If I leave out the fact that you are a headstrong pain in the ass who cannot seem to follow directions. But I wouldn't have you any other way. You are a great cop with amazing instincts and I am sure you will be a damn good mother. Besides, she's your kid. She's probably just like you," he said with a smile. "I cannot wait to meet miss Sarah."
Olivia laughed. "Thanks."
She walked back to her desk and tossed the envelope on her desk. She sat down in front of the computer and returned her attention to the information on the screen. Half an hour later Elliot returned from court carrying a similar envelope to the one Cragen had handed Olivia.
"What is that?" He asked looking at the envelope on her desk.
"I'm not really sure, I have not opened it yet. I think it is my copy of the adoption application papers we sent in."
"I got one, too. And I already have my copy of the papers."
Olivia wrinkled her brow and looked down at the envelope again. She looked back at Elliot who shrugged his shoulders and began to open the envelope. He pulled out the papers inside and skimmed his eyes over them for a moment.
"What does this mean?" Olivia asked looking at her copy of the documents.
"Liv, it is a subpoena. They want us in court tomorrow morning to discuss the adoption."
"Does this mean that we were approved?"
"It doesn't say."
"I'm going to call the lawyer and try to find out what this means." She picked up the phone and dialed the number.
Elliot watched from across the room as Olivia carried on her conversation over the phone. He felt a little uneasy at the worried look she had on her face. Finally she hung up the phone. Elliot walked back to sit across from her at his desk.
"So what is going on?"
"She got one, too. She said that the judge has not made any decision yet. This is so that he can speak with us before he decides."
"So is that good or bad?"
"I would have much rather it meant that the adoption went through."
"Me too, Liv. But at least it doesn't mean that it didn't. We still have a chance. And he is letting us speak. That means that he at least cares enough to find out if we are fit to adopt her. And you and I both know that we are."
"I guess you are right. It just makes me nervous. Being subpoenaed to appear in front of the judge who will decide if I am fit to raise my own child. A judge that does not know me or Sarah. She said that he also sent one out requesting to speak with Sarah, in the presence of the Jensen's attorney of course."
"That is good. You know she will tell him that she wants to come live with you."
"I know she will tell us that, Elliot. But she is a scared eleven year old child. And God only knows what they have told her about me. She is afraid of hurting anyone. She wants so badly to be able to please the adults in her life that I am afraid that she might not say what she truly feels. Especially not with their attorney sitting right there."
"I know. But this judge deals with custody cases all of the time. I am sure he can tell when a kid is just saying what people want to hear and when they are speaking about what they really want. "
"I hope so. I just hope that Sarah gets what makes her happy, what is best for her. Even if that is not me."
"How could being away from her mother possibly be the best thing for her?"
Elliot smiled at Olivia until she smiled back at him.
"I think I am going to wrap things up here and go home a little early. I just want to have a little time to think all of this through and think about what I want to say to the judge tomorrow. If this is my only chance to tell him my side of this story, I want to make sure what I tell him is strong enough to make him understand how I feel about all of this."
"I'll call you a little later after we have both had some time to think about this court thing."
"Yeah, I'll talk to you later."
Olivia turned shut down her computer and draped her jacket over her arm as she headed for the door.
"Liv, I am sure things will work out for the best. This judge would have to be completely blind not to see that you have Sarah's best interest at heart. This child belongs with you."
She wiped a tear from her eye and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Thanks, El." Moments later the elevator doors closed and she was gone.