"When you were examining Toni, did she say anything about her father?" Elliot asked as he and Huang walked down the corridor.

"She remembers little about him," Huang answered, "She doesn't seem to have any actual memories of him…all she knows is that he's in prison for brutally killing people."

"I guess she blocked out all the crap he did to her when she was little," Elliot said.

"I'm not sure that he did," Huang told him.

"What do you mean?"

"Toni knows that her father took her to the house where Carl Johnson lived…she doesn't know why he took her there, though. But she remembers him taking her there and then leaving, and she has a full recollection of the abuse as well. As much of the trauma that she does remember, I would think if she knew that he sold her to Johnson, she would recall that too…but she doesn't."

"So maybe he didn't make the actual deal when she was around," Elliot thought.

"Or maybe he was telling the truth at trial when he said he didn't sell her to anybody. He didn't deny killing three people, did he?"

"No, but he tried to justify what he did, and it was a stupid defense too."

"All the same, he admits to what he did…so why wouldn't he admit to selling out his daughter?"

"Because he knows that child abusers are the first targets in prison."

A thought came to Huang, "Do you know what he's doing in Rikers? How he gets along with the other inmates? The guards?"

"No, I don't," Elliot replied, "I lost interest in him the day he went to prison."

"But you haven't forgotten him," Huang pointed out.

"How can I forget that thing after what he put his daughter through?"

"You said there were two other girls in the house when you found her," Huang said, "Why is this one so important to you?"

Elliot stopped in his tracks and hesitated a bit before answering, "Eight years ago, I was new to SVU, I'd worked a few cases already, none with kids though. I go in the house and I find these three little girls, two of them are scared to death, crying because they want to go home…Toni didn't do that…she didn't react at all. Everybody else who I had worked with on a case up till that point had some kind of normal reaction."

"Normal reaction," Huang repeated, "And what is normal?"

"Something more than just standing around with a blank stare and not saying a word," Elliot said.

Huang looked to the side when Elliot said that.

"What?"

"How many victims have you dealt with since, who try to repress what happened to them? Who don't want to talk about it, don't want to testify, don't want anyone to know what happened to them?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Elliot said, "Usually it's the older victims who do that though, kids still have a tendency to tell what happened."

"Toni Keller is not an average person, she wasn't an average child," Huang reminded him, "We deal with people of all sorts, they have different reactions to what happens to them…she learned a long time ago not to tell anybody about what happened and not to react to it."

"And I'm still willing to bet we'll find her father's behind it," Elliot added, "When she did talk about him…what did you get from her?"

"Her father is the only family she has left," Huang told him, "She hasn't had any contact with him since he was arrested…she really doesn't know anything about him. But when she talked about him…"

"What?"

"It seemed obvious to me that she still has some feelings towards him, she hasn't seen him, she can't talk to him, she's not sure how she's supposed to feel about him…all she knows is that he's her father, like it or not, he helped bring her into this world, he helped give her life."

"So did the bastard who raped Olivia's mother but I don't think…"

"Tony Keller and Marissa Fogarty never married but to my understanding they did have some sort of common law relationship."

"Some relationship," Elliot replied.

"Well whatever there was between them, Toni still seems to have some emotional attachment towards her father," Huang said.

"Like what? She hardly even knows the guy, he's never contacted her, he's a murderer, what could she possibly be holding out for?"

"He is her father," Huang reminded Elliot, "Who she hasn't seen since she was nine, she's 17 now, adolescence is a confusing enough time as it is without wondering where your parents are and what they think about you. I think she's looking for some kind of approval from him."

"Approval, for what?" Elliot asked.

"Keller seems to carry around his brutality like some badge of honor, that's what Toni knows is flowing through her veins as well, she wants something from her heritage to be proud of…kids look up to their parents, and even when they're absent they need approval from them…they need somebody to tell them that it's okay to be what they are…she's never had that and she knows it and it's something that she's looking for…something of a normal relationship with her father, no matter how sadistic he might be."

"Oh boy," Elliot took in a deep breath and quickly let go of it, "I just…I feel terrible for her…this is her life, and odds are it's only going to get worse from here."

Huang looked at his watch, "You've been here a long time, you should probably go home and get some rest…there'll be plenty of time tomorrow to beat yourself up over this."

The front door opened slowly, quietly. The figure cautiously stepped into the front hallway and crept through the hall into the dining room. Halfway across the floor, the lights came on, scaring the hell out of Kathleen Stabler, who held her shoes in one hand and the bottom of her dress in the other. She screamed and turned and saw her father sitting on the couch in the living room with his fingers on the knob of a lamp.

"Hello, Kathleen," he said, almost nonchalantly.

She tried to catch her breath and tried to think of something to say.

"Dad, I…"

Elliot waved her off, "I know, I know, you didn't mean to be late, you're sorry, it won't happen again…just go on up and get ready for bed."

Kathleen took two steps back heading for the hall, then turned back to her father and asked, "Are you mad at me?"

"No," Elliot looked like a shell of the man he ordinarily was, his eyes were barely open after being awake for so long, and the rest of him was starting to follow suit in lethargy, "No," he looked at his daughter, "I'm just glad that you're alright."

Kathleen slowly nodded her head and went up the stairs. Elliot rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. He heard another set of soft footsteps coming down the stairs and Kathy appeared in the doorway to the living room.

"Hey," she said, "Want some company?"

"Yah," Elliot nodded.

Kathy went over to the couch and sat down beside him, "You look about lost…want to tell me what's going on?"

"No, Kathy, I don't want to do that," Elliot said as he rubbed the corner of his eye, "But I guess I should…it's just that…I never told you about this, but when I first transferred to SVU, one of my first cases was this nine year old girl..."

Already he could tell Kathy was questioning whether she wanted to hear this.

"Her father…I don't know, I guess he gave her to this guy, who would charge his friends to do what they wanted with her and two other girls…now she's come back…out of nowhere. Her father is the most despised man in the New York prison system, he's her only living family, he's doing life for a triple homicide. His cellmate got out, and he cut the girl's cheek open with a scalpel, and we're trying to find him to arrest him…now the girl says that she saw this guy kill somebody else."

"Is there anything else to it?" Kathy asked.

He nodded, "Yeah…she still has no family, she ran away from foster care when she was 12 and started sleeping with just…anybody who would take her home and give her a place to stay the night…17 years old and this is how she's still getting by. I thought I'd seen everything in this business…and still I can't believe what I'm seeing with her…I can't begin to imagine the hell she's gone through."

"Where is she now?"

"Still in the hospital…you know, I look at her…and I look at our kids…and I thank God they're as well off as they are, that they'll never have to go through what she has, but…"

"But you still wish something better for her," Kathy said.

"The worst part is she doesn't react…she's…she's like her father…when I saw him, he never felt anything, he never cared about anything, he did not react to anything…and that's how she's acted her whole life…I can handle it when we interview a victim and they get angry, or they cry, or they try and deny it happened. She gave a full statement to our psychiatrist about what happened to her without flinching once. Like it didn't matter to her. How can it not?"

The next night, Elliot went back to the hospital to visit Toni. She was asleep when he entered her room; there was a tray of partially eaten food resting on the nightstand that implied she'd hardly touched her dinner. Toni had turned over on her stomach and was holding onto the pillows like she was holding onto a person, desperate to hold on. One eye opened and she saw she had company.

"Elliot," she said tiredly as she pushed herself up on her hands and turned over, "What brings you here? What time is it?"

"It's 8:30," he answered, "I thought I'd come and see how you were doing."

"Okay considering," she answered as she straightened out on her back, "So, that psychiatrist friend of yours…how crazy does he think I am? How many disorders did he say I have? Do I give Sybil a run for her money?"

"Actually," Elliot replied, "Huang said it's amazing you seem as normal as you are given everything you've been put through."

She smiled and said, "That was smart of him. I could've told you I wasn't crazy."

"I know you're not."

Elliot sat down but felt something that wasn't part of the chair. Standing back up he saw a large teddy bear seated next to the bed.

"Well that's cute," he said, "Where'd you get this from?"

"It was in the room when I woke up this afternoon," Toni answered, "I guess somebody must've sent it, can't think of who would though."

Elliot was quick to notice that there was a small card on the bear's chest but it wasn't signed, it read only: Thinking of you. He moved the bear and sat down.

"Toni," he said, "You know I don't want to put you through anything more than you already have been, right?"

"Whatever it is you need to say, Elliot, go ahead and say it, don't worry about hurting my feelings…after all the crap I've gone through, very little can hurt me anymore."

Elliot hesitated and said, "You might hold that thought, what I'm going to bring up isn't going to be an easy subject."

She sat idly and waited for him to start.

"Uh…" he finally brought himself to say it, "Do you remember…much of anything about your father?"

"Why's he a person of interest in this matter?"

"He's not…it's just…the whole case ended and you disappeared before a lot of questions were answered…I'm just trying to put it all together."

"You'd think for nine, I could remember a lot, but I don't…I remember my mother dying when I was three…and he took over…not very well I might add, but he tried. I don't know…it seems he wasn't around too much."

"Do you know why he took you to that house?" Elliot asked.

"You mean Carl Johnson's home?" she shook her head, "I remember him saying that he was going away for a while, and he couldn't take me with him…hell if I knew what that meant…he never told me what he did."

"You told Huang that you quit going to foster homes when you were 12…why'd you wait so long to contact me?" Elliot wanted to know, "I told you if you ever needed help, to let me know."

"I didn't want to come back and see you," Toni answered tiredly as she rubbed her eyes, "I didn't want to have to bring up again what had happened, and I didn't want you asking me a lot of questions. I'd already gone through that once and I didn't feel like talking about it then, and I sure as hell wasn't about to start anytime soon."

"I wish you would've…I wondered for the longest time what had happened to you…"

"You couldn't have helped me then, Elliot…nobody could."

Elliot, through much restraint, managed to keep himself from saying what he was thinking.

"Have you found Tobias yet?" Toni asked.

"No, but we're still looking for him."

"Well, I sincerely hope you find him soon."

So did Elliot.

"I'm tired," Toni said, "I'm going back to bed."

She laid back down and tried to go back to sleep. Elliot got up to leave and then, not knowing why, an idea came to him and he asked, "Toni?"

"What?"

"…Do you want me to see if I could arrange for you to see your father?"

She looked back at him and seemed to consider the idea for a minute.

"Yeah," she replied, "If that's possible, yeah."

"I'll see what I can do."

When Toni had gone to sleep again, Elliot started out the door when he looked back and saw the stuffed animal. Where the hell had this come from? Based on what Toni had said, there wasn't anybody alive who knew her well enough to send something to her hospital room. And just how could anybody find out what room she was in? Elliot took the bear with him and went to speak to the nurse at the front desk.

The nurse looked up from her paperwork and saw the tall man holding the large teddy bear. "Well now, what vitamins did your mommy feed you?" she asked smugly.

"Can you tell me who delivered this to room 704?" Elliot asked.

"I did, it came in about two hours ago."

"Who brought it in?" he asked.

She shrugged, "Looked like a messenger boy."

Munch read the tag on the stuffed animal, "Doesn't exactly sound like something you'd hear from the guy who tried to kill you."

"No but it makes it a hell of a lot easier to get delivered without much questioning," Olivia replied, "It's vague, thinking of you, could mean he thinks about her being dead." Turning to Elliot she said, "You really think Tobias sent this to her room?"

"Who else could?" Elliot asked, "Nobody knows who she is, nobody gives a damn about her and nobody knows where to find her."

"So how does Tobias?" Fin asked.

"Remember we were thinking he'd be getting checked into a hospital to look at his ribs?" Elliot asked, "Maybe he went to that hospital, maybe he found out."

"So what're we going to do?" Olivia asked, "As we know from previous experience, putting a guard outside her room isn't a foolproof idea and it could just draw more attention to the problem."

"Is she well enough she can be moved out of the hospital?" Cragen asked.

"She'll be hopping like a rabbit to get around but yeah."

"Alright then, we should probably get her out of there and look into finding a hotel room where nobody can find her."

"I'd feel better about this whole mess if we could find Tobias and have him locked up at the time that we move her," Olivia said, "He could be anywhere."

"We've been checking all the free clinics and hospitals from here to the Bronx," Cragen explained, "We've got Tobias's mug shot out AND the sketch composite our victim gave us and showed both to the staff in every medical center…nobody has seen this guy and nobody's talking."

"So how are we going to catch this guy?" Munch asked.

"We'll just have to keep looking," Olivia told him, "Sooner or later something's gotta give."

"We've been asking around about Tobias," Fin said, "Either everybody got amnesia or before he got convicted he wasn't from around here."

"Captain," Elliot said, "I think we need to see about getting Toni into Rikers to see Keller."

"What?" Olivia asked.

"I think you've been working too hard, Elliot, you sound delusional," Cragen told him.

"I know what I'm talking about," Elliot said, "Huang said it, he's her only family…she still has some kind of attachment to him despite the fact she hasn't seen him for almost half of her life. Besides, I've been thinking about this…at first we thought Keller sent Tobias out to hack up his own daughter."

"You don't think so?"

"No, I think shortly before Tobias got out, there might've been some bad blood between the two, he gets out, he wants to make Keller suffer…the only way to do that is to attack his daughter, which Keller is helpless to do anything about. By some coincidence he finds her when she witnesses him killing somebody."

"And if Keller finds out what's happened," Olivia realized, "He might tell us what he knows, if anything, about Tobias's current situation, where he is, what he's doing…"

"Exactly," Elliot said.

"Who's going to be the go-between?" Cragen asked, "He probably remembers you, Elliot, he's not going to do anything to help you."

"I know…but I don't trust anybody else to go see the bastard to talk to him about Toni."

"It might be better if you did," Munch said, "We're pulling his records to see just what kind of life this guy's already had…it's a mile long for assaults and attempted murders on countless guys, no women, no children, very few seemingly innocent bystanders…he might be willing to cooperate with Casey, or Olivia…"

"How bout we put you in a dress and send you up there?" Fin asked, "It's been eight years since he's seen a woman, he probably won't know the difference."

"Ah kiss my tuchus," Munch told him.

"Where is it?" Fin replied.

"Enough the both of you," Cragen warned them.

"What did we do?" Munch asked Fin.

"Got me."

"I don't get it, Elliot," Olivia said, "A few days ago you were dead set against this guy ever seeing his daughter again. What made you change your mind?"

"I don't know…she thinks there's something between them worth salvaging…maybe there is, I don't know…all I know is that there would be six inches of bullet proof glass between them so from a physical standpoint, there's nothing he could do to her…emotionally…I think all the damage that can be done has been, at least I hope it has."

"I think before we do anything," Cragen told them, "We should pull the records on him from Rikers and see what he's been doing behind bars. His violent streak ran in excess when he was out in society…I doubt he's mellowed out much in prison."

The prison files on Keller had come in and Olivia started reading through them. She saw something in the records that made her stop and look again, she couldn't believe it.

"Oh no, Fin," she called.

He looked up from his desk, "What is it, Olivia?"

"Can you come and look at this?" she asked.

"Sure," he got up and went over to her, "What is it?"

"The reports just came in about Keller…look at this."

Fin looked at the papers and saw what Olivia had seen.

"Damn!"

"What's going on?" Munch asked as he came in.

"Come here and take a look at this," Olivia said.

Munch looked at the files Olivia was holding, he saw the object of interest, took off his glasses and looked again. "Is this some kind of joke?"

Olivia felt the muscles in her body stiffen, "I don't think so. I don't believe this."

Elliot reentered the squad room and saw everybody standing around looking horrified, "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Elliot," Olivia said, trying to think how to put this, "Do you remember what Tony Keller looked like when you arrested him?"

"Uh, yeah, tall, scrawny, long hair, he hadn't shaved in a while, why?" Elliot asked.

"We just got the reports on him from Rikers…and it includes a picture."

Olivia handed him the files, he took them and saw the picture on the current page, and his heart almost stopped. There were a few minor differences but otherwise, it looked like Elliot's own picture was staring back at him.

"Son of a bitch," he said.