"I don't think you realize the seriousness of what you've gotten yourself into, Toby," Elliot said as he looked across from the unaffected man, "Even if you do walk on the murder charge, you still have to answer for assaulting Toni Keller. That crime occurred in Manhattan…meaning when you're convicted you'll return to the Manhattan Rikers…and for all we know, Tony Keller, her loving father who snapped three guys' necks without a second thought, could very well wind up your cellmate again."

"He's going to know what you did to his only child, you think that's going to go over well with him?" Casey asked.

"You'll never send me back to Rikers there," he insisted, "You don't have anything to send me back on."

"Maybe you'd like to explain then how Toni came to SVU with a sample of your DNA."

"Perhaps your," the defense attorney cleared his throat, "'victim' dug it out of his trash."

"She just so conveniently found a Kleenex with his hacked up mucus in it?" Elliot asked, then said to Tobias, "By the way, how's your infection coming?"

"That punk bitch beat the hell out of me," Tobias replied, "I ought to be the one pressing charges against her."

"Yeah that would go over real well, you explaining how she hit you to obtain your DNA after you cut up her face like a frog in science class," Elliot said, "Only thing I can't figure out is your record shows nothing for having a taste for knives…only guns, so what made Toni such an exception to the rule?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Wentworth," Casey said, "Don't screw with me, I'm not in the mood for it. Now, as detestable as I find you, I really don't think you're worth Keller having another bashed skull under his belt…you cooperate with us and I'll recommend sentencing at a facility where Tony isn't…otherwise you take your chances with him."

"Lady, I didn't do anything," he insisted.

"Famous last words."

"Miss Keller," Casey addressed Toni on the stand at the trial, "You've given testimony to witnessing a man shoot and kill Danny Beck, and you've testified that this same person is the one who attacked you. Do you see this person in the courtroom today?"

Elliot sat near the front, watching Toni. They'd gotten her cleaned up and gotten her a presentable change of clothes to wear in court. But she still looked like hell. She looked and acted like she hadn't slept for days, it was a wonder her testimony was as coherent as it had been.

"Yes, the defendant," Toni pointed at Tobias, "Tobias Wentworth."

"Nothing further."

Arthur Manion for the defense, stood up and headed over to the witness stand.

"Were there any witnesses to this alleged shooting?" he asked.

"Me."

"Besides you."

"If there were, they didn't bother reporting it obviously," Toni said.

"And there weren't any witnesses to the alleged attack on you either," he added.

"You see this?" Toni had peeled off the bandages before court so the jury would always be looking at the forming scars on her cheek, "You have the gall to call this alleged? You don't think this is real?"

"Did anybody see my client attack you?"

"I saw him."

"Anybody else?"

She shook her head, "No."

"Doesn't look very good for your testimony right now, does it?" he asked.

"Okay Perry Mason," Toni said, her 'normal' tone gone and her regular, cynical, smartass self returned.

Elliot watched Toni as he saw, rather than just heard, the change in her, wondering what she was going to do now.

"You tell me," she continued, "If your client, the not so honorable Tobias J. Wentworth, isn't the one who attacked me, then who did? And why out of all the people in the state of New York did I finger him as my attacker? Him, who I have not seen at any time in my life until the day he murdered Danny Beck? And why was I able to take his DNA to the police to analyze to match it to his identity for arrest of my assault?"

The judge banged his gavel a couple of times to shut them up.

"Miss Keller," he said, "You testified that you saw my client shoot and kill Daniel Beck. Correct? But it took you a week to report this alleged murder, why?"

"The murder took place in Queens, the only cop I knew that I could trust worked in Manhattan."

Elliot heard the doors open behind him. Turning around he saw Jack McCoy enter the room and stay in the back.

"Why didn't you just call 911?"

"Who would believe me? They badger you for your name, somebody hears Toni Keller and they're not going to take it seriously. Only that detective would."

"This detective whom you hadn't seen for eight years, correct?" Manion asked.

"That's right."

"How did you find him after that much time?"

"I had his card."

"What card?"

Toni reached into her pocket and pulled out a small white card and gave it to Manion who looked it up and down and said, "There's a phone number on this card, why didn't you just call him?"

"And stay in Queens with Wentworth knowing he was armed and would kill again? Are you crazy?"

"So, just so I have this straight, Miss Keller," Manion said, "You saw my client, in a dark alley no less, shoot and kill Danny Beck, you decide to report this only to Detective Stabler from Manhattan SVU, of whom you haven't seen for eight years but his card you kept?"

"Yes, and..."

"It took you a week to get from Queens to Manhattan, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I didn't have any money for the subway."

"And somehow, my client just happens to be in Manhattan at the same time you are? And he attacks you, also in a dark alley, with no witnesses. Is that right?"

"What're you implying, that because nobody else saw it, it didn't happen?" Toni asked.

"Well it certainly doesn't look good for your case, does it?"

"Nobody saw Kitty Genovese being stabbed either, are you saying that didn't happen either?" she asked him.

"We are talking about you, now, is all of this true according to your testimony?"

"Yes, and…"

"However," Manion cut her off.

"Shut up!" Toni told him, "You wanted my answer but you won't let me give it. How then do you expect to get the truth you so claim to look for? Look over there, Mr. Manion," she gestured to the jury, "You see those twelve people? Do you think they're idiots? They're not stupid, Mr. Manion, they know what's what and how things go in this world. It doesn't matter that nobody witnessed the attack because I witnessed it. I remember every minute of it. I witnessed him shooting that young man, I'm the only eyewitness to both crimes so it would be very convenient for Wentworth to try and get me out of the way. Or in the very least try and get me shut up or made out to be a liar or a damn fool. At least one of them knows what that's like, and they're not going to be very sympathetic to your client, who got out of prison a year ago after he murdered two people. He's now killed another one and attempted to kill a fourth…juries tend to look down on those kinds of actions."

"If they happened," Manion replied, "There's only your word."

"Oh really? In the murder case the D.A. has his fingerprints on the gun that matches the bullets that killed Danny Beck."

"And how did the police get that gun?"

"It was sent to me when I was in the hospital recovering from the attack."

"And who sent it to you?"

She shrugged, "Nobody knows. Whoever did it didn't leave any trace evidence."

"You really expect the jury to believe that?" Manion asked.

"Objection," Casey said.

"What reason have I to lie?" Toni asked, "My prints aren't on that gun. What have I got to gain from lying? I have no family, no home, no money, your client doesn't even have enough money to hire a good attorney, that's why they called you, the public defender in. Odds are anybody who hears about what happened to me will say I had it coming, or they won't pay any attention to the story because it happened to me and not to some daughter of a rich family. All I have to gain from my testimony is maintaining my sound state of mind, which has been teetering near the edge for years."

"If she could control herself when she spoke, she'd make one hell of a lawyer when she grows up," Jack told Casey and Elliot in the hall during the court's recess, "Shifting focus to the jury in the middle of her testimony, pointing out their intelligence, points for originality there."

"It still doesn't look good though," Casey noted.

"Why?" Elliot asked, "She's already pointed out she has nothing to gain by this one way or the other."

"Which just says she didn't do this intentionally, but there's still not enough hard evidence to convict Wentworth. They see a timid man who can't catch a break."

"Those pictures that were leaked to the press," Jack said, "Is that what she looked like before or after the doctors treated her?"

"After," Elliot said.

Jack's eyes widened a bit and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Then blow up the before ones and let the whole courtroom see them."

Jack disappeared down the hall and Elliot and Casey stayed where they were to discuss the case. A few minutes later they heard a high pitched scream emanating from the men's room at the corner of the hall and Elliot and Casey automatically identified the voice as being Toni's. Elliot took out his gun and went down the corridor; now hearing two separate voices. After a minute the voices died down, he kicked the door in and headed in. Immediately he saw Jack standing backed against a wall, looking over at the scene opposite them. Elliot saw Toni on the floor unconscious, her clothes torn, her body just barely supported up by the wall. Next to her was the body of Tobias Wentworth, he was dead.

"What happened?" Elliot asked as he put his gun away and went over to her.

"She broke his neck," Jack explained as he got to his feet, "I saw her break his neck."

Elliot wrapped Toni's arm over his neck and helped her to her feet.

"He threw her up against the wall," Jack said, "He said he was going to kill her for trying to ruin him…she grabbed him and she broke his neck. Just like her father." Almost in shock, he said, sounding nonchalantly though he looked petrified, "I watched her break his neck."

Elliot looked in through the two-way mirror and saw Toni sitting on the floor of the room, her arms wrapped against her chest like she was in a strait-jacket, rocking back and forth on her heels, not saying a word, only looking straight ahead with a blank look on her face.

"What the hell happened to her?" he asked.

"If I had to guess," Huang said, "A mental breakdown. What happened up till the point she killed him?"

"He must've dragged her into the bathroom, he tore her clothes."

"McCoy said Wentworth told her he was going to kill her."

"The way her clothes were torn," Elliot said, "It's not like when you just fight with somebody…I've seen it before, a lot of rapists rip women's clothes like that, get them off as fast as possible, they're left with no protection, no dignity."

"As many times as she was raped before, this could have just been her breaking point. Either that or…"

"Or what?" Elliot asked.

"The last time he attacked her, she knew that it wasn't enough to kill her…but this time she knew he intended to do just that, it could've pushed her over the edge."

"Is she going to be okay?" Elliot asked.

"I don't know," Huang replied, "They're going to examine her tomorrow morning to see if she's suffering from any mental disorders."

"But we know she's not," he said.

"She wasn't, they might find this to be more than just a one time breakdown," Huang said, "If she stays like this…"

"I don't even want to think about that. What's going to happen to her?" Elliot asked.

"Well, with McCoy's statement, it's unlikely she'll be charged for the death. Self defense mixed with a mental breakdown, no matter what she felt towards him I doubt anybody will find premeditation in that."

"But?"

"They're going to move her to Bellevue," Huang said.

"For how long?"

"Until she shows sign that she's recovered."

Elliot went into the room and shut the door behind him. Toni was still on the floor with her arms folded over her chest, but she'd stopped moving and her gaze had moved to the floor.

"Toni," he said as he got down on the floor beside her, "How're you feeling?"

She laughed and replied, "That's just it, Elliot, I'm not. I don't get it, I thought I would feel something. I thought killing him would wake up something in me. I still don't feel anything…I haven't felt anything for years, not love, not happiness, not ecstasy, not disappointment, not excitement, not anger, nothing…and I still don't…I can't feel anything anymore. I killed a man with my bare hands and I can't feel a damn thing about it. What does that say about me?"

Elliot didn't know. Even when Tony was on trial for triple homicide he at least seemed ecstatic at what he had done, he seemed proud, not his daughter though.

"They're going to send you to the hospital tonight," Elliot told her.

"The mental hospital?" she asked, "The psycho ward?"

"The doctors want to examine you to make sure you're alright," he said.

"But they won't let me out, they'll never let me out…they'll say something's wrong with me, and I'm going to stay in there until I die." She laughed again, with no humor, and said, "I lied, Elliot…all these years I've felt something alright…one thing…only one thing I've ever felt…a large, empty void inside of me…and it's eating at me from the inside. All I've felt for years is this raw, gnawing anger inside of me, because there's nothing in my life, it's all empty. And, nothing is ever going to make that go away…it's never going to leave me…there will always be that huge gaping void and that raw, bloodthirsty fury in me…and nothing more."

The next night, Elliot entered Toni's room at Bellevue. She had been examined by all sorts of mental doctors who all agreed she suffered from no exact disorder but rather had just suffered a breakdown brought on by years of extreme duress and painful experiences. However she also showed no signs of recovering anytime soon, so until further notice she had to stay where she was.

This was what he dreaded seeing; she was in bed asleep, only, he knew, because the docs had her so doped up she didn't know where she was or what was going on, to the point she didn't have the strength for anything but to sleep. He didn't want to but he thought about if it were Maureen or Kathleen in this place right now instead of Toni, how differently he would react, if differently at all. As horrible as he felt for this girl lying before him, he wasn't sure he could feel any worse about it if it was his own daughter.

He almost laughed as he thought about what would happen if Toni would ever get acquainted with his kids. He'd never live that one down. His heart went out to Toni for all she'd gone through but he knew he would never recover if any of her would rub off on any of them. Then he thought about what would happen if his wife would ever meet this girl. Over the past few days he'd told Kathy a lot about Toni, but he knew it couldn't compare to coming face to face with her and seeing the actual damage done. Looking down at this helpless, hopeless, teenaged girl who was devoid of feeling anything other than pain and wrath, incapable of anticipating anything of any worth entering her life, and knowing that the only surviving family she had was incarcerated for life, Elliot knew the unfortunate truth; that unless something drastic did happen to knock some sense back into Toni, this was the highlight of what her life was going to be like from here on out.

"Elliot?"

He looked and saw she was slowly coming around. Toni opened her eyes and looked up at him, "Elliot? What's going on?"

How could he answer her?

"You're in the hospital, Toni."

"The mental hospital? No," she said, looking up at him, her eyes widening as she realized what had happened, "No!"

"I'm sorry to say," he responded.

"How…how long are they going to keep me here?" she asked.

"Until they think you're recovered."

"They're never going to think that about me, Elliot, you know that!" she pulled herself up in the bed, "They're not going to let me out of here, they want me locked up."

"Toni," he told her, "The D.A.'s not pressing charges against you for murder, and if Jack hadn't been there to see what happened, they could very well have tried for that…now the doctors said you're not crazy, but you had a mental breakdown. You're going to stay here until they're convinced you've recovered from it."

"But Elliot!"

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave for the night," he told her, "I'll come back and see you tomorrow. In the mean time, the most important thing for you to do is calm down, and rest, understand?"

"Yes, Elliot," Toni replied as she laid back against the pillow, "I'll try."

"Good, I'll come and visit you again tomorrow," he said, "Right now I have somewhere else to be."

The minutes ticked away like hours. Elliot felt his heart climbing into his throat. He hadn't felt this nervous for years. He waited anxiously with the phone already in his hand; finally he saw a guard approaching on the other side of the glass, and Keller was with him. Tony Keller sat down and looked at Elliot and Elliot looked at him and was awestruck at how much of a resemblance there was between the two of them. It was almost like looking in a mirror.

Tony picked up the phone on his side and said, "Well this is one hell of an April Fool's joke."

"Tony Keller," Elliot said, restraining himself from saying what was really going through his mind, "You remember me?"

"Yeah, I remember you…you're that cop who bashed me into the wall eight years ago," he answered, "What do you want?"

"I'm here to talk to you about your daughter," Elliot said.

"What about Toni?" he asked.

"She's in a lot of trouble right now," Elliot told him, "Your old cellmate Tobias got out and went after her. He cut her up…at the trial, he forced her into the men's room and tried to rape her…she killed him."

"How bad is she?"

"The damage was minor…physically, but the experts at Bellevue said she suffered a nervous breakdown, after everything she's gone through over the years."

"Oh here we go again," Tony said, clearly not amused, "How I did everything wrong as a parent, how I didn't give a damn about her, how I whored her out…what was it you said at the time? To pay for my habit…"

"You were a junkie."

"Yeah, how many needle marks did I have last time we met? Thirteen? You want to find out how many I have now?" Tony stood up and started to undo his jeans.

"Keller!" Elliot said in his no-nonsense tone, "Keep your damn hands out of your pants, sit back down and shut up, I'm not done talking to you yet."

Keller did sit down and picking up the phone again he told Elliot, "I ain't touched the stuff in seven years. Got a bad batch one night and that cured the hell out of me."

"Did you know Tobias went after your daughter?" Elliot asked.

Keller looked at him and responded, "The story broke on the news about her attack, when they got the pictures from the hospital. I saw what the bastard did to her."

"Did you know at the time it was Tobias?"

"I had a guess. He's the only one I know who would do it…always had to spite me in here and he got out, no more rehabilitated than when he came in," Tony answered.

The next question Elliot asked was one he had been dreading to find out the answer to, "Did you send Tobias's gun to her?"

"I had it sent to her," he answered.

"How did you find out about it?" Elliot asked.

"I have my sources, detective," he said, "I'm not going to tell you. I'm already serving life, you can't do anything to hurt me."

"Maybe not," Elliot replied, "But Toni's hurting. She's locked up in the nuthouse, going out of her mind…she knows nobody's going to help her…and the only thing she wants is to see you."

Up till now, Keller's general attitude and body language had been very sarcastic, very easy going, now he was dead serious as he told Elliot, "You keep her away from here. Don't you ever bring my daughter into this place, you got that, detective?"

"You don't want to see your own daughter?"

"Toni doesn't need to see me…she doesn't need to be brought into this place. You do whatever you have to to make sure she never comes here."

"Alright, I'm just going to ask this," Elliot said, "Do you love your daughter, Keller?"

"What the hell kind of a question is that? Do you love your kids?"

"This isn't about me."

"I love Toni enough not to drag her into this."

"Either way her life is hell," Elliot said, "She has no family, she has no home, she has no stability."

"You think I don't know that?" Tony asked, "Every day I'm stuck in this hellhole I'm reminded of that fact. But seeing me isn't going to do her any good either."

Elliot was just on his way out of Rikers, wondering what to do next, when his cell phone rang.

"Stabler."

"Elliot," it was Olivia, "We need to get to Bellevue right away."

"What happened?"

"Just hurry."

When Elliot arrived at Bellevue, Olivia and Casey had pulled in beside him.

"What happened?" Elliot asked.

"I know one of the doctors here," Casey said as they hurried up the steps, "He called me about 15 minutes ago and said something had happened with Toni, but he wouldn't say what."

They got up to Toni's room but had to make their way past police and doctors to get in. When they did they saw she wasn't there; the covers to her bed were pulled down and the sheets were covered in blood.

"What happened? Where's Toni?" Elliot asked.

"In the ER," a doctor told him.

"Why?"

"It seems that," one of the CSU members said, "She tried to kill herself."

"What!?" Elliot couldn't believe what he'd heard.

The man held up a folding knife that was covered in blood, "Nobody knows how but she somehow got a hold of this. She set it on the bed and dug the handle into the mattress so it wouldn't move, then she threw herself backwards on it with full force and stabbed herself right in the back."