A/N: Here's another chapter, guys. I hope you like it. Oh, and at the end of this chapter there's a flashback to a scene in the episode Rescue. I don't know the exact transcript for that particular scene (trust me, I tried looking it up for forever!), so I kind of just did it based on memory. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own SVU *huddles in a corner and cries for eternity*

Chapter Two

Olivia paced around the Bellevue Hospital hallway impatiently, waiting for Elliot to get to the hospital. She had called him ten minutes ago; why was he taking so long?

Finally, knowing that she was going to drive herself crazy with pacing so much, she sat down in the chair that the nurse had dragged out for her. The girl still had not identified herself and Olivia was trying to give her some breathing space before pressing her for her name and information. She also didn't want to begin anything until her partner got there.

"Would you like a bottle of water, Detective?" the kind, older nurse that had assisted them earlier asked, walking over to Olivia with the bottle already in hand.

The detective nodded. "Thank you," she said quietly, deep in thought. Where was Calvin now? Still in the social worker's car, heading off to his grandparents' house in God-knows-where? Maybe he was already there. She tried to imagine him smiling, hugging his grandparents, settling into his new home with the few possessions and clothes that he had. But somehow, her mind kept wandering back to a more realistic version of what he looked like at the moment: staring out the window in the back seat of the social worker's car, his eyes red from crying and his throat aching from screaming her name, finally giving up his losing fight.

Olivia swallowed the tears that were threatening to come forth. "How's she doing?" she asked, standing up suddenly, almost startling the nurse. Just then, Melinda Warner walked into the hallway from the teenager's room. Melinda had arrived at the hospital shortly after Olivia and the ambulance had. Cragen had probably called her after handing the case over to Detective Benson.

Olivia asked the question again, this time directing it toward the medical examiner she'd known for years. "I'm not sure at the moment," Melinda admitted, pursing her lips sadly. "She hasn't said a word yet. We wrapped up the cut on her leg; looks like it came from impact. From the looks of it I'd say she was pushed or maybe fell onto the corner of a coffee table with sharp corners."

"Why do you say that?"

"Bruises had formed all around the cut, and it didn't look like a hasty incision, like a knife or blade wound would have. We also gave her an ice pack for her black eye, to keep it from getting any worse. We can't do anything else until she's identified and has an adult family member or guardian approve."

Olivia sighed. "I'm waiting for Elliot before we start to question her."

Melinda nodded. "Where did you say you found her again?"

"Alleyway behind an office building on Akers. Next to a dumpster."

The ME chuckled. "What the hell were you doing back there?"

Just then, Elliot Stabler rounded the corner and walked quickly over to the two women. "So, Cragen sends you home and you somehow find another mess to get into," he laughed. Olivia chuckled along with him for a few seconds before debriefing him on everything that had happened.

"Well, I say we get her to ID before we do anything else, that way we can get a rape kit done," Stabler said, taking off his overcoat and placing it on the chair his partner had just been sitting on.

"What do you think I was waiting on you for?" Olivia retorted, shaking her head and smiling. She walked over to the door and turned the handle slowly, not wanting to startle the victim.

She and Elliot walked in not too fast, with the warmest smiles they could muster on their faces. They had this kind of stuff down to a science.

"Hey, you remember me, right?" Olivia asked the girl as Elliot shut the door. The girl looked even worse in full light than she had in the alley: her dark brown side braid was disheveled and coming undone, and her black eye was turning a cringe-worthy dark purple. The nurses must have given her a wet paper towel for her face, because there were only a few faded lines where her mascara had run when Olivia had radioed the precinct and the ambulances.

The teenager had curled into a ball on the cot, one arm around her knees while the other held the ice pack under her eye. She nodded. "Yeah," she said after a few silent moments, not looking at the two detectives.

"Okay. Well, if you can't remember, I'm Detective Olivia Benson, and this is my partner, Detective Elliot Stabler.

"We're going to help you get this all figured out," Elliot promised.

"I don't want to figure anything out," the girl said calmly. All of the sudden, she looked up, her eyes lighting up. "You called Holly, right?" she asked. "Where's Holly?"

Olivia turned and looked at her partner. She turned back around. "No, I haven't called her yet, sweetie. I can't until you tell us your name and who Holly is."

She saw the teenager's eyes start to glisten. "You haven't called her yet? I just want Holly here."

"If you tell us your name we can help you," Elliot promised. "We'll call her as soon as you tell us who you are and who we're calling."

She looked down at her feet for a good thirty seconds, thinking things over. Olivia and Elliot waited patiently, letting her collect her thoughts.

"My, uh, my name's Rachel Wall," she said quietly. Elliot took out his notepad and scribbled the name down. "Holly's my sister. Holly Michaels. Just please, call her."

Olivia nodded, smiling. "Okay. Thank you, I'll be right back in a minute. Are you comfortable with Elliot being in here with us, or do you just want me?"

"What do you mean?"

"We have to ask you a few questions about what happened to you," Elliot answered, placing his notepad and pen back into his pocket. "It'll help us help you, if that makes any sense."

The girl shifted uncomfortably. "I, uh, I don't really want to talk about it. I thought I was just coming here and going back home."

Olivia sighed and leaned against the wall. "Sweetie, we have to know what happened so that we can bring justice to what happened. You didn't deserve whatever happened to you, and we can make sure that whoever did it doesn't get away with it."

Rachel said nothing; instead, she set her ice pack down on the bed and wrapped both arms around her curled up legs. She turned away from the detectives and buried her face into her knees, sniffling a few times. Olivia's heart broke for the girl.

She carefully went and sat next to her on the hospital bed. Elliot took it as his cue to leave and quietly exited the room, keeping the door open a crack.

Olivia put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

She sniffed again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cry," she said stiffly.

Olivia rubbed her shoulder. "No, no, it's okay to cry. It'll feel good to let it all out."

For a few minutes, there was only silence and some light sobbing from the teenager. Olivia wanted to say something, not being able to focus on the matters at hand in such stillness, such silence. Her thoughts kept on going back to the little boy who was hers until a couple of hours ago.

Not yours, she had to keep reminding herself. He's not yours, he wasn't yours, you were his temporary guardian. Stop saying he was yours.

"What happened?" Olivia whispered suddenly.

"Where's Holly?" Rachel retorted, looking up suddenly. "I just want Holly here."

"I know, sweetie, she'll be here soon, I promise. But you're going to have to tell me what happened either now or tomorrow morning, after you get some rest. You understand that, right?"

Rachel sighed but nodded. "I'm too tired," she said. She burrowed herself more into her sweatshirt. "Can I be alone now?"

Olivia nodded. "Yeah," she said understandingly. She stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door gently.

"Anything?" Elliot asked, snapping his phone shut. Olivia exhaled and put her hands in her back pockets.

"Nope, not a word. All she keeps asking for is for her sister. I don't think we're getting anything out of her until we get her what she wants. Besides, until she says 'rape', we can't have a rape kit done, so we need to get ahold of her sister fast."

"Way ahead of you," Stabler said. "Fin's back at the precinct. Got me a number for a Holly Wall Michaels. Just got off the phone with her, she's on her way."

Olivia smirked. "Look at you, taking initiative."

Elliot shrugged. "It's my job."

"What did you say to her?" Detective Benson asked her partner. They started to meander down the hallway towards the emergency room entrance.

"Told her who I was, asked if she knew who Rachel was. She said yes, that's her younger sister and that she has legal guardianship over her. Told her exactly what happened, not to panic and to meet us at hospital."

Olivia turned her head to the side. "She's legal guardian? That's odd."

"Why? It's not really that uncommon. Maybe the parents are bums. Holly said that she's 25, and Rachel's sixteen. It's a perfectly plausible situation," Elliot explained.

"I'm not a retard, Elliot, stop treating me like one," Olivia snapped at him. She instantly regretted it, but had too much pride to apologize immediately.

Fortunately, Elliot understood. "Sorry. Not to side with Cragen or anything, but I really don't think you're in the best place to be dealing with cases right now. Fin can take your place, I'll stay on. I'm just looking out for you, Liv. You need some time to cool off. Anyone would, after what you went through tonight—"

"You know, as much as I appreciate your concern, I think I can handle myself," Olivia said coldly, every word dripping with bitterness. She felt bad talking to her best friend like that, but she was tired and worn out and the last thing she needed was someone to tell her she wasn't capable of doing her job when life threw her curveballs.

Not even thirty seconds after the partners reached Bellevue's emergency room lobby, a redhead that looked about in her twenties ran through the automatic doors.

"That our girl?" Olivia asked. Elliot shrugged, taking a few steps forward. That's what Olivia loved about her and Elliot's friendship: they understood each other. They could be bitching at each other one moment and be completely fine the next.

The redhead plowed through worried pacers and people dozing off in the waiting room to get to the front desk. "Holly Michaels," she said hastily, throwing her license onto the counter. "I'm Rachel Wall's legal guardian. Oh god, is she okay?"

"Holly?" Olivia asked as she and Elliot approached the young woman. She whipped her head towards them, her messy ponytail swishing in the air. It looked like she had hastily thrown on a pair of green running shorts, and her white t-shirt was inside out. She must've been in the shower or asleep, Olivia figured.

Elliot held up his badge. "I'm Detective Stabler, this is my partner Detective Benson. You're Rachel's legal guardian?"

"Yes, I'm her legal guardian. Take me to her, where is she?" Holly begged breathlessly. Stabler motioned for Holly to follow him down the hallway and the young woman practically sprinted after him. Olivia signaled at her partner that she was going to stay put for a minute. He nodded understandingly.

Olivia swallowed and leaned against the wall in the hallway. She wished everyone would stop saying those two words. Legal guardian. It was something that she had just been a few hours ago, and now it felt like she had been punched in the face over and over.

She shook her head, willing herself to forget. She had to forget. She knew that the brain had a way of protecting itself: when something bad happened, it could black it out from its memory. Olivia knew it wasn't a myth; she'd dealt with it a hundred times before. Victims would know that something had happened, but the actual event was all a blur or even completely blacked out from their memory. Olivia wished that her brain would start doing its fucking job and black out the past few months already. She wanted to forget all of it.

So why did she keep revisiting it, over and over?

She could feel the handcuffs dangling against her hip. She knew what she had to do, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to arrest Calvin's mother just yet. Vivian had allegedly murdered a man, she was stealing pills from open houses, she was living homelessly with her druggie girlfriend. Olivia knew she had to arrest Calvin's mother, and yet she couldn't seem to move.

"Don't arrest me," Vivian pleaded, shaking from lack of pills in her system. Olivia could see the tears streaming down her face. "Please, don't arrest me."

"Vivian, you murdered him. I have no choice," Olivia tried to reason with the broken woman.

Vivian began to sob. "Olivia. If you don't arrest me, and just leave, you can keep Calvin. Isn't that what you want? You can have him forever. I promise. I won't ever cross paths with you two ever again. You can be his legal guardian forever. He can be your son. Just please, don't arrest me..."

Olivia gulped and didn't move. She knew what she had to do. But...

"Your call, Liv," she heard a familiar voice behind her. She turned around and her mouth fell agape when she saw Elliot standing there. "Your choice," he said. "I won't stop you either way."

At that moment, she had no time for what-ifs and what-will-happens. In one swift motion she unclipped the cuffs from her belt and took Vivian's hands, turning her around and snapping them shut.

"Vivian Arliss, you are under arrest for the murder of Walter Burlock. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

She recited the rest of the Miranda rights in monotone, knowing that this was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to do.

A/N: So, sorry if it wasn't very good. I had the flu when I wrote this, sooo I may have screwed up something or other. Oh well. Please please review on what you thought! Thanks!