Pretty Poison

(Chapter Seventeen: Unbroken)

Elliot flashed his badge and entered Olivia's apartment building. The elevator was taking too long so he raced up the five flights of stairs. As he approached the apartment his heart caught in his throat.

The door had been busted in and the chain from the lock dangled against the wall. The furniture was strewn all over the room and a bloody hand print screamed at him from the white wall across the room. Olivia's hand print. This fact was made obvious by the fact that this hand print was much smaller than the one above it on the wall.

Elliot held his breath for a moment to steady himself as the impatient cries of his infant son called to him from the back of the apartment. He walked down the hall passing the crime scene techs as they dusted for prints and searched for evidence. He entered the bedroom where John Munch held his screaming child, bouncing him gently trying to calm him.

"Hey pal," Elliot said softly taking the baby in his arms. He looked down at Noah as tiny little tears fell from his eyes. "It's okay now, buddy. Daddy is here." He held his son against his collar bone and gently patted his back, but Noah continued to cry.

"I tried everything, Elliot. I changed his diaper, but that didn't help. Then I got some milk from the refrigerator and gave him a bottle. No luck."

Elliot kissed his son's forehead as Noah continued to cry impatiently. The baby raised his little eyes up to stare at Elliot as if pleading with him to make it better. Elliot picked up the bottle and looked down at it for a minute. He walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door to stare inside.

"Munch, the milk for the bottle, where did you get it?"

"From the carton, right there. Two percent. Same place you get it."

Elliot smiled down at his son and kissed him again. "Hold on pal, daddy will fix it."

He poured out the milk from the bottle Munch had made and rinsed the bottle. He then reached to shelf and pulled out a plastic cup like container and took off the lid. He poured the milky white liquid into the bottle and sat it into a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.

Elliot picked up the bottle and cradled the baby in his arms as he slipped the nipple into Noah's mouth. Munch watched as the baby raised his hands and placed them on the bottle. Noah drank the milk from the bottle and grunted contently as he stared up at Elliot.

"There now," Elliot said softly as he carried the baby down the hall once more.

"How did you do that?" Munch asked confused.

"He doesn't take regular milk."

"What is that?"

"Breast milk. Olivia breast feeds the baby," Elliot said walking into the nursery. He sat the rocking chair upright and sat down rocking his son as he stared into the little boy's eyes.

Olivia opened her eyes. Her head was pounding and the dark room around her was spinning. The ache in her breasts told her that somewhere her hungry baby was crying for her. She groaned placing her palm against her forehead as she raised up to inspect her surroundings.

She was in a small room. With concrete walls all around her. A basement or a cellar. She smoothed her hands along the wall in the darkness until she found something, anything.

It was a light switch. She flipped the switch as the bulb dangling from the ceiling across the room flickered. She looked around the room.

In one corner was the small cot she had been laying on when she woke up. Above her a large metal air vent that carried heat and air conditioning to the home above her. On one wall was a small metal plate with a handle. It was a coal shoot. She was inside an old coal room.

Olivia pulled on the handle as hard as she could, but it was useless. "Shit," she mumbled as she groaned in pain and raised her hand to the back of her head. She pulled her hand back to look at it and noticed the blood from the wound she had sustained when her attacker hit her with the gun, knocking her unconscious. She stood up and began to pound on the door and call for help. But she quickly became dizzy. Olivia leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor where she passed out again.

Elliot carried his son around the precinct as he did whatever he could to keep himself busy. As Noah drifted off to sleep, Elliot sat him in his carrier and sat it on Olivia's desk in front of him. He sat down at his desk and picked up his cell phone replaying the voicemail she had left him just hours before she disappeared.

"Hey there Detective Stabler," her voice was sweet and sexy. He listened painfully with tears in his eyes as he heard her laugh. "I was just calling to let you know that I took a hot bath and I feel much better. I think I am going to go get Noah. I have already called Kathy to let her know. I will see you later. I love you."

"I love you too baby," Elliot whispered as a tear fell onto the desk beside his hand.

"Elliot," Fin said as he approached the desk.

Elliot wiped his misty eyes and turned to look at his friend. "We gotta find her, Fin. This freak could really hurt her. He is insane."

"We got something," Fin said looking at the baby asleep on the desk. "You're gonna want to see this." He held up a file in his hand.

"What have you got?" Elliot asked.

"We traced the parking tag on the car."

"It's stolen?"

"Yes."

"From?"

"Mercy Hospital. Maintenance department uses the vehicle to run errands. They reported it stolen the morning Liv was chased. An hour later when officers arrived to make the report, the car was back in it's parking place. With a whole lot of damage. Including paint from a 2008 Toyota Camry, in Blue Ribbon Metallic."

"Olivia's car."

"Munch is there running over the footage from the parking garage now. And I am betting if we match the paint samples between the two cars, they will match."

"But is the Camry the only model that came in that color paint?"

"Only one model that sits at the right height to cause the damage we got. Plus we got the black paint on her car."

"That is enough to get me a warrant," Casey said from behind them. "Ballistics should be able to compare the damage between the cars. That with the paint. It will at least look good in court. Give me enough to cover your asses for the security tapes you pulled before the ink on the warrant was signed. You can't keep setting me up like this guys."

"This is Olivia we are talking about here Casey. Desperate times call for desperate measures. She is family. We do what we can do."

"Yes, but if you don't do it by the books then I can't make a case. It could blow a trial and her attacker could walk. Look, I am not saying that I don't support you one hundred percent in finding Liv and bringing her home safe. I am just asking that you give me a heads up before you do something illegal so I can at least prepare a defense to cover all of our asses, should we get caught."

Fin and Elliot both stared at her.

"Hey, we're a team. Besides, Olivia has saved my ass on more than one occasion. Now I get the change to help return the favor. I will do everything I can."

"Thanks Casey," Elliot said with a smile.

"How's the little guy?" She asked nodding in Noah's direction.

"Scared and confused. He's not the only one who misses his mommy."

"Poor little guy must have slept through the entire attack. That was real smart of Liv to hide him like that," Fin said.

"Hide him?" Casey asked.

"When we first arrived we thought this freak had taken the baby, too. Place was trashed and there was blood everywhere. Liv put up one hell of a fight. While we were searching the place for clues Munch heard the baby crying. Olivia must had hidden him before the perp gained entry. We found him lying in a pile of clean towels surrounded by pillows, in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Attacker trashed the place, but he never found Noah."

Casey looked at Elliot as he turned his head back to look at his sleeping son.

"We're gonna find her Elliot," Fin assured him.

"I'm just worried it might already be too late," Elliot said as images of Olivia's blood soaked apartment flashed in his mind.