So here's the rest of the story. I didn't want to leave you hanging with the final chapters (I know how irritating that is) so I finished them all at once. There's a SWAT team making an appearance but I have no idea if that's the right procedure for a situation like that but I just love the word SWAT and it felt cool to use. Bare with me. Hope you like the finish...
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It was getting close to noon when Fin decided to drive by the hospital to show Amanda some photos from the bar. They still weren't sure who the bartender was that Eric had talked to the other night. It wasn't that crucial but he felt the need to see her and even though he was used to doing the legwork it was draining in this case. He wanted Eric off the streets now. As he walked in to her room Bonnie was just helping Amanda get a pair of pants on and Fin immediately turned his head in the polite manner that was proper when a woman was getting dressed.
"No worry Fin." Bonnie said in a happy tone. "We're just putting things over her gown to cover it up some. I've managed to talk her into having lunch down in the cafeteria with us you see." Fin dared to turn back around. Justine and Corinne were in there too and he nodded a hello to them. He then met Amanda's eyes. She looked at ease but as though her mother had talked her into something she really didn't want to do.
"I don't know what to do about this though." Bonnie took a swipe at her IV line as she had picked up the sweater.
"Take my cardigan." Justine offered and started to take it off. "You can just put it over your shoulders," Justine helped her get her hair out after she'd draped her sister's shoulder with it.
"Perfect. If we could just…" Bonnie stroke her bangs away but Amanda had enough.
"Mom," she begged.
"Could I just have a moment with Amanda? It won't take long," Fin asked.
"Has something happen?" Bonnie asked concerned. Fin shook his head.
"I just want to show her some mug shots." They eventually left them alone and Fin stepped over to her. She held out her hands like in a 'don't I look grand' gesture and he smiled at her.
"You make everything work."
She sat down on her bed and he pulled out some photos. She looked through them.
"It's him," she said as she spotted the bartender from the other night and gave the pile back to him with the right mug shot on top.
"Matt." Fin whispered as he took them from her. "I'll text Liv," he got his phone up.
"Where you here last night?" She suddenly asked and he looked up at her briefly before he hit send. He nodded as he put his phone down. He watched her.
"Good. I thought I was going crazy. Or crazier," she shyly smiled.
"You're far from crazy," he smiled but it didn't seem to convince her.
"You've met my family?" she said and looked at him from underneath her bangs with a questionable face.
"I can see the family resemblance but I can't feel it."
"You're saying that to be nice right," she said with some wit but he could hear the honesty in there too.
"When am I ever nice?" he said and winked at her. She didn't smile though and he got concerned.
"You're not crazy Amanda," he said with a serious face.
"How do you know?" she looked like she could cry but kept it in.
"I've worked by your side for almost a year now. I'd know."
"But you didn't know," she said quickly and kept her head down. He knew what she was hinting at.
"Hey," he said to get her to look up at him. "That doesn't make you crazy Amanda. He's the fucked up one. And your parents to some extent. Not you. The fact that you managed to keep it inside for so long proves you got some kick ass defense mechanism working for you and that's actually a sane thing. Not necessarily a good thing but still sane." It looked like he was winning her over.
"Once we get him off the street, out of your life and you out of here we'll get you the help you need to move on. Anything you need."
"But what if I have what my sister has?" Again she kept her eyes off him. He wasn't sure how to answer that but tried anyway.
"I'm no expert, far from it, but I just can't imagine that would be the case. And what if? Not that I can say I know your sister but from what I've seen of her she doesn't seem that bad."
"She's medicated," Amanda whispered.
"We'll deal with it okay?" He had to repeat okay once more before he got her to look at him. She tried a smile but he could tell this was something that worried her.
"Come here!" he said and pulled her up before she could object. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. First she felt stiff in his arms and he feared he'd gone too far. When her arms snaked around his waist a moment later though he relaxed.
"We better head out before your mom starts eating her offspring," he said after about a minute. He could feel the chuckle in her body just before he let her go. He couldn't help himself and touched her cheek just briefly as he stepped away from her.
"You'll be fine," he said as he got down on the floor to help her get her slippers on. They headed outside. She didn't need more than the support from the IV stand today even though he could tell she still moved somewhat restricted. That probably had something to do with the grim workout she got yesterday as frantic overtook her body and paid no respect to pain. He held the door open for her but Amanda didn't even make it outside before her mom had come up by her side to grab her arm for support.
He decided to ride down with them. The guard at the door and then the guard at the elevator rode down with them too. Amanda wasn't thrilled about all the fuzz but tried to hide it. The entourage filled the whole elevator. Her mom kept insisting to hold on to her arm and Justine stood on her other side. Her dad kept in the background as usual. Corinne stood next to Fin while the guards took position by the door.
"Are you gonna eat too?" Corinne asked Fin.
"How's the food?" he asked since he felt hungry.
"For a hospital cafeteria not bad actually."
"Okay. I'll grab something then," he met Amanda's eyes briefly. She gave him a smile before she looked away. Then he met mom's eyes and they weren't so much smiling. It looked like she didn't want him to interfere with their family lunching. He wasn't planning to either but he wasn't going to tell her that in advance.
The guards remained at the door while the family went to stand in line. Fin let Corinne pass and as he picked out a steady snack he kept an eye on Amanda and the interaction with her mom. Bonnie really was an unbearable mother in his eyes. At least to a daughter like Amanda. She didn't need or want the fuzz she kept stirring. Sure this situation was special and strained but he had a feeling this was her usual way. Maybe it was a result of the wrong doing in the past? Maybe she tried to make amends for one time when her daughter really needed her and she wasn't there to do the right thing? Once Fin had gone through the cashier the family had taken a table further in. A table for four. He spotted Corinne by a window table and headed over there with his tray.
"Can I?" he asked. She immediately pushed out the opposite chair with her foot as she said:
"Please." He sat down with a smile on his face.
He unwrapped his meaty sandwich as he threw a few looks Amanda's way. He felt a need to make sure she was doing okay. Bonnie and Justine seemed to be the ones talking while Bonnie was doing something over at Amanda's plate. Amanda seemed to just deal with it. He met Corinne's smiling eyes as he went back to focus on his task at hand, to get food in his system. She too had some sandwich on her plate.
"How long are you staying in town for?" he asked after he'd swallowed his first bite. Corinne shrugged her shoulders.
"Not sure really. We weren't sure how she would adjust to the change of scenery along with the stressful news but she's dealing rather well with it actually. She had to step up. In a twisted way it's been good for her I think." He could tell on Corinne's face she was afraid to step over the line but Fin got it. It wasn't a situation anyone of them wanted for anyone in the Rollins family but since they were here there was nothing wrong to see at least something good come out of it.
They ate under silence for a while but Fin was thinking about something. He decided to try it out.
"You're a shrink right?"
"Not quite there yet but that's what I'm aiming for," she answered with a smile.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot. Oh that wasn't even funny", she mumbled and he had to smile. He looked over at Amanda and got serious.
"How do I help her best?" Corinne looked over at her too and then their eyes met back at the table.
"Nothing but the truth right?" she asked and Fin nodded.
"She's gonna need an ass load of couch time. Her parents didn't really help her at all. But that's not your job," she looked at him with a friendly but serious face. "I think you're already doing your part. Have her back, be ready to listen once she's ready to talk about it. The hard part will maybe be when she's feeling really fragile and whether you should push or not." Corinne took a pause.
"But I have a feeling perhaps you are the one that will know that the best. Probably even better than her herself." She gave him a smile.
Fin caught himself thinking he wished she could be the one that would "shrink" Amanda. Damn, he himself could see himself actually opening up to her. His thoughts got interrupted by his phone.
"Excuse me," he said as he saw Olivia's name in the window. "Hey Liv," he answered quickly. "Aha." "Okay." "Where?" "I'll be there." He was already standing.
"I'm sorry but I have to run. We might have him," he took a step to leave but stopped and turned his head to her.
"Thanks. For the advice," he said and got a big smile back.
"Any time Fin," she said and he headed out. He caught Amanda's eye as he passed a few tables away and he gave her a quick smile and a nod. He had a feeling she knew why he was in such a rush. Fin nodded at the guards as he almost ran out of there.
The bartender had turned out to be the best lead. His address was a well-known drug spot and once they'd sent two detectives from narcotics over to check it out they'd run into both Eric and Dale in the staircase. At least three men were now trapped in the apartment with the police outside. They were clearing the floor as Munch, Nick and Liv arrived. Cragen was en route, he would take the lead. Just as Cragen arrived the bartender Matt came out of the apartment with his hands in the air. A couple of uniforms cuffed him and took him downstairs so Cragen could hear him. Fin arrived just as Matt spilled that Eric, Dale and a guy named Spencer was still in the apartment. And they had guns.
"They are only protecting some drugs. That's all. It's just…" Fin interrupted Matt by coming at his throat.
"That's not it. He raped my partner. Eric is a fucking psychopath." Fin screamed as Liv and Nick pulled him off. Cragen told everyone to calm down.
"Matt, are they on something?" Cragen asked the stunned bartender. He nodded. Cragen rubbed his forehead.
"Okay. Liv. Nick. Go up there with SWAT and see if you can make contact."
"I'm going too captain." Fin said immediately. Cragen looked at him seriously for a couple of seconds and then gave him a nod.
"But remember we want to get them out alive. Especially Eric."
They all got vests on and then headed out to the SWAT leader to have a look at the building plan. He showed them the apartment after that. They had managed to get a camera under the door and through the window next doors and had a fairly good view of where they were hiding out in the apartment. The third guy, Spencer, seemed to be the jumpiest of them. Liv soon got a sheet handed to her with his records. He had numerous assault and drug charges on him. She read the list out loud. Assault with a deadly weapon and attempt to murder were on there. To top it all off he had a warrant out for his arrest for failure to appear in court on his latest drug charge. They already knew Dale's rap sheet. It was only a step lighter than Spencer's. And then they had Eric. The one whose brain probably helped him escape the law for this long. It felt like they had a deadly combination facing them in that apartment.
They took the stairs up to the third floor. They had decided downstairs that Liv would take point and try to initialize a dialog so she was now in front only preceded by a SWAT member. Once at the door the SWAT team got ready with their shields before Liv knocked on the door.
"Eric? Eric Salinger?" she called out. She'd been scared once they headed up the stairs but now adrenalin was pumping and all she could think of was bringing this guy in so he could stand trial for what he'd put their partner through. They got no answer so Liv tried once more.
"Eric? My name is detective Olivia Benson. I'd like to talk to you. Can you hear me Eric?" They knew the walls were thin and even though they were two rooms away they should be able to hear her.
"We don't want to talk to no cop," came a voice from the inside. They had no idea which one it was.
"Get out of here. Leave us alone," the voice continued.
"We can't do that. Who is this I'm talking to? Dale? Spencer?" The second after a gunshot came through the door and everyone hunched down. Liv caught both Fin's and Nick's eyes briefly just to make sure everyone was fine.
"Just talk to us okay? We want you to be able to walk out of here," Liv tried.
"You're lying. You'd kill us in a heartbeat."
"No. That's not true. All we want is to talk to Eric. Can we do that?"
"You're lying," screamed the voice and another shot followed by three more rang out through the door. They kept still outside the door. According to Matt there were at least five guns in there, more if anyone of them already were packing. The SWAT guy had a brief look through one of the gun holes. He shook his head to Liv as to let her know he saw no one.
"Eric?" Liv tried again. "Just talk to us Eric." Another shot rang out.
"Shut up." Someone screamed from inside. Liv looked back at Fin as to get some input on what to do. He didn't know though. She didn't know he was just waiting for a chance to pull the trigger on Eric.
Suddenly another voice was heard from the apartment.
"What do you want?" It was darker. Sounded more mature.
"Eric?"
"Yeah."
"I'm Olivia. We're here to bring you in for what you did to Amanda." Silence.
"I didn't mean to hurt her. She fell. It wasn't my fault." The voice got a touch of desperation to it. Liv knew what role she had to play even though she didn't like it.
"I know Eric. Amanda is fine, she woke up. She told us that it was an accident when she hit her head. We still need to talk to you though." There was a long pause.
"She's really awake?" It sounded like he was relieved to hear this.
"Yes. She's fine Eric. Why don't you come out here and talk to me?" Another long pause but then they could hear two voices arguing with lowered voices.
"Eric I just want to talk to you," Liv tried.
"Shut up bitch. You just wanna put a bullet in his head for what he did to your cop friend."
"That's not true. I want to hear Eric's version to what happen."
"Yeah right." They heard the two men talk again but couldn't make out about what. It was clear this other man tried to convince Eric that Liv wasn't being truthful though.
Outside they had discussed the possibility to use a stun grenade if the dialog failed. The apartment was located so that they had no use of snipers but they had men ready on the roof to lower themselves down to enter through the windows. Liv wasn't quite ready to give up yet though.
"Eric. Please just talk to me?"
"Shut up," the other man screamed and another shot came through the door.
"Spencer? Is that you?"
"So what?"
"We just want to talk to Eric."
"Right. So you'd just let me walk out of here then?" Liv didn't know how to answer that, she knew with the warrant they couldn't just let him go.
"Didn't think so." Liv cursed to herself and shot Fin a look over her shoulder. She felt as she was losing the situation even before she got a chance to grab it. Fin came up behind her.
"Let's just wait them out a while," he whispered and she nodded. They sat put for a while and the apartment fell silent. "They're all in the back room" came a brief voice in their earpieces. There was always an eerie silence in situations like this. With the floor cleared all the normal background noises were gone and the police had the street blocked off so all traffic was missing. Liv rested her head on the wall behind her. She would not lose this situation.