"Where has this girl been?" the doctor asked Elliot.

"Hell, doctor," he answered simply.

"Looks about right…she obviously hasn't had a good meal in quite a while, she's not underweight, in fact she's a little over a healthy weight but she shows quite a history of malnutrition. She has untreated cuts, minor infections, her feet are cracked almost to the point of bleeding, most likely from walking around all day without any shoes…she has several bug bites that have been untreated and left to grow to rather large sizes."

"What about the cut on her face?"

"That's more permanent, my guess, whoever cut her did it with a dirty scalpel, the incision marks are too small to be a common kitchen knife or even a pocket knife. No doubt the surrounding area of the cheek will be excruciatingly sensitive for a long time…after which it will scar."

"And she'll always look like that?"

"The scar will get darker in time…cosmetic surgery might be able to superficially repair the damage but…it's obvious she doesn't have the money for that."

Elliot swallowed the lump in his throat as he said, "She was sexually abused as a child…do you know if…it's happened again recently?"

"We ran a rape kit…nothing recent, the scarring looks at least over a year old…we're also running tests to see if she has any drugs in her system."

"She wasn't drunk, I know that," Elliot said, "What about her feet?"

"I would recommend staying off of them for a while until the blisters can heal," she replied, "Probably a week or so."

Elliot knew that Toni would never agree to stay in a hospital for a week's time.

"Did she say anything while you were examining her?" he asked.

She started to fall asleep a while ago…she was still talking though…saying something about…witness protection…I couldn't really understand it though, maybe you'll have better luck when she wakes up," the doctor said.

Elliot heard the door open and he woke up with a start.

"Sorry, it's just me," Olivia said.

Elliot leaned back against the chair that rested next to the hospital bed.

"How's she doing?" Olivia asked.

"Eh…lot of wear and tear, nothing serious though," Elliot replied, "Doc says she was saying something about witness protection when she fell asleep. I'm waiting for her to wake up to see if she remembers. Did you find anything?"

"Officially, nothing on Tobias Wentworth since he got out of prison last year," Olivia answered, "Elliot, how did you know that Tobias and Tony were cellmates at Rikers?"

Elliot waited a minute before answering, as if he was trying to think of how to explain the situation.

"Toni was one of my first cases in SVU, I didn't know what to expect from it," he said, "I saw this little girl who had been abandoned by her own family, sold to a dealer, and…and she would not talk to anybody about what had happened to her. She wouldn't talk to the police, she wouldn't talk to the psychiatrist, or the doctors, not the people from ACSU…she wouldn't tell anybody what her father had put her through."

"Must've been hard to draw a conviction," Olivia said.

"Didn't need it," Elliot replied, "At the same time he was being tried for the brutal murders of three people…they convicted him on that instead. I saw this guy in the courtroom, insisting again, and again, and again, that he didn't do anything wrong. That he didn't sell his kid to that bastard…when they hauled him off to Rikers, I just had to go and make sure that he was put behind bars where he belonged. I talked to the warden, asked him about Keller, asked him who he was rooming with, if anybody. The warden said Tobias Wentworth, he said Tobias was doing a stretch for manslaughter…I asked the warden 'when's he getting out?', the warden replied 'too damn soon'. I never forgot Keller, and I made sure never to forget the name of his cellmate incase I ever had to meet him."

"And what happened to Toni?"

"I don't know…she was supposed to be put in foster care but…I don't know, I lost all contact with her after the trial."

"We ran her name through the system…she's done well over the years not to get arrested for anything," Olivia said, "She's never even gotten a ticket."

"Well," Elliot tried to laugh, "I guess there's that if nothing else."

"How long is she going to have to stay in here?" Olivia asked.

"Doc said she has to stay off her feet for about a week," Elliot said, "She'll never go for staying in a hospital for that amount of time…but if there's a reason she's asking about witness protection, we could put her up in a hotel."

"Might not have to wait that long…if she's asking in regards to Tobias, DNA match should come back at any time, and if it does match, we can arrest him with that, can't we?"

"Can we?" Elliot asked, "I hope we can…but we weren't able to find any of his DNA on her. All we have is his phlegm, which she confessed to literally beating out of him. If I didn't know her…and she didn't have the skin cut off of her cheek…we'd be arresting her for assault of a man, a sick one at that, judges usually look down on that kind of behavior."

"Witness protection?" Toni repeated when she woke up, "I said that?"

"Did you witness a crime?" Olivia asked.

She nodded, "Tobias killed a man."

"When?"

"I'm trying to think," she said, "I…have a hard time remembering, dates, times…it all blurs together…I think it was…a week ago."

"A week ago?" Elliot asked.

"I…I would've reported it when it happened," she said, "But I…my father, he…I had a hard time finding your card."

"You kept the card I gave you for eight years?" Elliot asked.

She nodded, "It took me a long time to realize that someday I would have to call on you for help…and I didn't want to admit it when it had happened. Nobody has ever helped me in my whole life…I don't know what it's supposed to be like this far down the line."

"Toni, what did you see?" Olivia asked.

"Tobias and this other man were arguing…it was night…they were in a back alley behind a block of run down buildings. I think it was 18th Street."

"18th Street in Manhattan?" Elliot asked.

"No," she shook her head, "Queens."

He and Olivia looked at each other but didn't say anything.

"I knew I had to tell the police what had happened…but I wasn't sure how credible they would think me considering I am my father's daughter. And everybody knows who my father is. I remembered you, and I remembered you said if I ever needed any help, to contact you. I found your card, but it said Manhattan, so I knew I had to get to Manhattan…but he must've followed me, I guess…I didn't think he'd seen me that night but today, there he was…and I was hoping against all hope he didn't recognize me, or hadn't seen me at the time. But I guess he must've because he came after me."

"Do you think that's why he attacked you?" Olivia asked.

"Could be, Tobias is crazy though," she replied, "I don't know he'd need much provocation to do something."

"Well, as soon as the DNA match confirms it's his blood, we're going to haul him in," Elliot told her.

The look on her face told them both that she wasn't entirely sold on the idea.

"What's wrong?" Elliot asked.

"I know he has to be arrested, and locked up…ordinarily that would mean something, but this is Tobias Wentworth we're talking about…he's spent seven years in Rikers right here in Manhattan…I don't know that locking him back up would do much to stop him, especially before the trial."

"We can have you put in protective custody," Olivia said.

"What's that mean exactly?"

"It means we'll get you a hotel room somewhere where nobody can find you," Elliot said, "And there'll be an officer on guard at all times until you give your testimony at the trial."

"Swell…"

"It's a match," Warner confirmed, "DNA was identical to the sample taken at the time of his arrest, this stuff came directly from Tobias Wentworth."

"Based on what she got out of him," Olivia said, "Do you know if he has any diseases or anything?"

"Bloody mucus is often a good sign of infection, but," she said with a knowing smile, "Sorry, Elliot, he's clean for anything major. I'd say he's just suffering from a sinus infection."

"Maybe next time."

"Great," Munch said unenthusiastically, "Now we just have to find him and we don't even know what he looks like."

"We pulled his mug shot from when he was arrested," Fin said as they left the lab, "A good basic idea but it leaves a lot of potential gaps with all the time that's passed."

"Even if we knew what he looked like," Munch said, "The alleged murder took place in Queens, who knows where this guy's going to run off to, especially now that he knows he'll be identified?"

"Well we're just going to have to take that chance," Elliot said, "There's a chance he's still in the city, and if he is we have to find him."

"We're having Toni talk to a sketch artist to come up with something more recent," Olivia added, "Now, she said he's sick. But Warner says it's nothing serious."

"Well she tore the hell out of that desk with her fist," Elliot said, "She might've cracked one of his ribs, so we might start looking in the hospitals…"

"Free clinics should probably be our first start," Fin replied, "Everybody knows what he did, he won't want too many people having his name."

"Alright then, let's go."

"You know what I'm thinking?" Elliot asked Olivia.

"To hell with lethal injection, bring back the firing squads?" she asked.

"Besides that…we haven't been able to find out where Toni's been for the past eight years, I'm wondering if we'd better have Huang talk to her to find out what kind of mental health she's in at the moment."

"Might be a good idea."

Elliot sat on the foot of the hospital bed and looked at Toni, who without saying a word, was inquiring of why he had come back so soon.

"A man's going to come in here in a few minutes and talk to you, he's a friend of mine," he started to explain.

"You mean a psychiatrist?" Toni asked.

"Well…yeah."

"I saw a psychiatrist once," she said, "Right after you found us in the closet. He asked me a bunch of questions, but I wouldn't answer any of them, I wouldn't say anything to him. I wouldn't say anything to anybody, I didn't want to tell anybody what happened."

"Is that why you waited so long to come back?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah, I didn't want to see you either, because I didn't want to bring up what happened before…but I finally realized I couldn't be angry at you forever…soon I'd have to come back. This psychiatrist of yours, what's his name?"

"George Huang, if it's any consolation, he's also an agent of the FBI."

"Beats just being a psychiatrist I suppose," she said, "Alright, Elliot, if he's a friend of yours, I'll talk to him…"

Elliot noticed she was smiling like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking, this must be so hard for you," she said, "Him questioning me here in the hospital, instead of back in the interrogation room, meaning you can't listen in and watch through the mirrors."

"Toni," Huang said as he entered the hospital room, "My name is George Huang."

"Yes, Elliot told me," she said, "I think we should get along just fine so long as this whole session isn't you asking how everything makes me feel," she smiled, "I assure you now, doctor, I feel nothing, never have."

Huang sat down in the chair by the bed, "How long have you known Detective Stabler?"

"I met him when he found me in Carl Johnson's closet," she answered, "I was nine. I was there with two other girls, Janie, she was 10, and Marla, she was only seven. Carl was on the verge of getting rid of Janie and myself."

"How come?"

"Because he said we were getting too big, too old, he didn't have any use for us anymore."

"You were small for nine, weren't you?" Huang asked.

"I'm small for any age," she replied, "When I was two my mother measured me and multiplied it by two and figured I should be 5'10 when I finished growing. I'm 17, I haven't grown in three years, and I'm only 5'3, do you have any idea…oh I guess you would know how embarrassing it is." Then she realized what she'd said, "Sorry, it's just sometimes I get so angry about that, I was supposed to be taller than I am, I got cheated somewhere."

"Do you think that compromises you in certain situations?" Huang asked.

"Not really," she replied, "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have longer legs, though wouldn't we all? But Charles Manson is only 5'2 and he's responsible for the deaths of 35 people, so height doesn't have anything to do with how you make out in life, unless you're a stewardess."

"I don't understand," Huang said, "Why did Carl Johnson say you were too big to keep around? If you were small for your age…"

"I was small, but that didn't do anything to stop me from getting my period when I was 9. At that point, he had no use for us."

"What exactly did he do?"

"Not what you think…we were sold to him, he…rented us out to other people…all hours of the night people would come over…and they'd size us up, see if we looked right for what they wanted. Mainly it was women, which I guess was lucky for us…"

"What would they do?" Huang asked.

She looked at him with a gaze that warned him to be careful. "You're not getting off on this, are you, Doc?" She disregarded her own statement and said, "We had to take our clothes off…and they would…feel my arms, see if they were too big…they'd feel my stomach, see if I was too fat for their liking, and they'd feel my breasts…see how big they were, and they'd feel the inside of my thighs, to see...I don't know, how well built they were. At the time I got a good idea of how a horse feels when somebody buys one, they want to make sure everything's in perfect order."

"What happened after Detective Stabler found you?" Huang asked.

"They hauled us off to child services…I got sent to another family…they weren't much better, one night the father of that household snatched me out of bed, blindfolded me and dumped me off with some other people so I could never find my way back. I've just gone through life since, going from one family to another, out of the system."

"Where are you living now?"

"Nowhere…I quit going to different families when I was 12."

"Where have you been in the meantime?"

"Eh…I went home with a lot of people," she said.

Huang got the picture.

"Don't ask me for recollections of that, I really don't have any…I must've blacked out a lot because I just remember scraps from that time…blacking out, and waking up with people on top of me, some guys, and a few girls. Though, in all honesty, from what I do remember, they were okay, they were...gentle...they were all messed up too...hoping that in what they did they could be close to somebody else who wanted them...I just needed somebody to give me a place to stay for the night, and maybe a place to shower."

"When you went to the police the other day, why did you ask to be locked up?" Huang asked.

"I'm not safe from Tobias as long as he's out walking around, behind bars would be the only really safe place for me until further notice," Toni answered, "Besides…after what he did to me, I was so angry, if I wasn't locked up, I would've hurt somebody and I didn't want to."

"Tobias was your father's cellmate in Rikers, wasn't he?"

"That's what they say."

"Do you remember much about your father?"

"I knew we'd get to the Oedipus complex sooner or later," she said, "No, I don't remember much about him. Should I? He was hardly ever around and I last saw him when I was nine, even that's much of a blur. I don't remember what he was like…I just know that he's a violent man who was given a life sentence for killing people. That's really not much to go on, is it?"

"For being put through everything she has, I'm amazed that she only appears to suffer from such little mental defect," Huang said.

"What's she got?" Elliot asked.

"After examining her, it seems she suffers from schizotypal personality disorder and she seems to borderline near paranoid personality disorder as well. Of course it's nothing definite, most people in the world do express some symptoms of one type of personality disorder or another, but that doesn't mean they all have a disorder."

"Translation please, doc?" Munch asked.

"As much as is her ability, she's a loner, she only gets involved with another person when it means having a place to go to for the night. People with schizotypal disorder generally don't do well with relationships of intimate or even friendly natures. She made a few comments during the exam that, while they may have just been a stress release for her, sound like she's grown to question the intentions of anybody trying to help her, she's always looking for the ulterior motive, the other shoe to drop."

"Somebody wants to help her but she thinks they want something out of it," Elliot put it in laymen's terms.

"She thinks I have my own agenda for asking her the questions I did, granted it can match that of the typical misperception the average person has of psychiatrists."

"Anything else?"

"Schizotypal disorder victims do sometimes to be flat in their emotional reactions to what's going on around them."

"Let's see, no relationships, crazy theories, and deadpan expressions," Fin said, "Damn, Munch, sounds like he described you to a T."

"Ha ha ha," Munch dryly replied as he scribbled out something on a notepad, "Eat my pen."

"What about the other disorder you mentioned?" Olivia asked.

"Paranoid personality disorder…people who have it are hesitant to confide in people things they consider to be private, for fear that it will be used against them. She didn't tell anybody handling her case eight years ago about the abuse she endured because she didn't want anybody to talk about it and she didn't want to have it come back at her. Child victims don't confide in the police sometimes because of their intimidating position of authority…but few children are untrusting enough to completely clam up on a trained psychiatrist."

"Maybe Daddy Dearest trained her not to tell anybody what was going on," Elliot said.

"You think Tony was abusing his own daughter?" Olivia asked.

"I wasn't there but I don't doubt anything that monster would do," Elliot replied.

"How would you say her sexual health fares?" Olivia asked Huang.

"That's uncertain at this time…first she was raped by adults who paid for her…then she went home with other teenagers and 20-something men and women and slept with them for a place to spend the night. But since she has no real recollections of those occurrences, I can't say positively that she wasn't raped then as well and just tried to black it out from her mind. From what I gather, she's had no real relationships to date; she doesn't seem to get anything out of trying to be intimate with people so she just doesn't bother. A lot of people in this situation develop the mentality that love doesn't exist and everybody just uses and exploits everyone else for their own purposes."

"But you don't get that from her?" Elliot asked.

"She seems to be a realist, to an extent, she's aware that love is real, she just accepts that it's never going to happen for her."

"But does she have these disorders?" Casey asked Huang.

"She expresses some of the symptoms but," Huang shook his head, "I really don't think she specifically suffers from any disorder…her overall being is traumatized by the physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse she endured her whole life so she's going to display very unusual behavior in certain situations…"

"Yeah but a lot of schizoids are that way because of the abuse and neglect they suffered as kids," Munch butted in.

"That's right," Huang replied, "However, as I said, just because a person displays some of the symptoms doesn't mean they have it. A person with a fever and chills and fatigue doesn't necessarily have pneumonia. And if she does have the disorder, it's minor enough she would require little treatment for it if any."

"Can you say that for certain?" Casey asked.

"Very little is for certain…psychiatry isn't foolproof, we've been outsmarted by sane criminals pretending to be psychotic. Now she confessed to beating the man who she saw kill somebody…but we don't know if it was just Tobias, or if she could lash out at anybody in a moment's notice."

"So in other words, it's too soon to tell," Olivia said.

"Could be…right now things are running pretty smooth for everybody involved, but I'd watch her behavior to see how she does when she's put under extreme duress again," Huang told them, "She was right about one thing, she is her father's daughter."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Elliot asked.

"What is and isn't genetic is still an ongoing study," Huang answered, "We know people get their blood type and can get their hair and eye color and even their skin type from their parents…and we also know people are more likely to suffer from mental illness when it already runs in the family…we don't know yet the full extent of the theory that violence is genetic as well. She said her father was a violent man…what all do we know for certain about Tony Keller?"

"Very violent man indeed," Elliot answered, "He's doing life for murdering three people, they had their skulls bashed in and their necks broken."

"He's a strong man," Olivia noted, "Kill three people like that, in the same place at the same time?"

"What was he like before the murders?" Huang asked.

"Now that's the part nobody knows too much about," Elliot said.

"You better see what you can find," Huang told him, "If there is a chance that what's in him was passed onto his daughter, we could be dealing with a ticking time bomb."