Part 2: The Turnaround

Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

"They made you captain?" the man in the chair scoffed, eyeing Olivia with slight disdain. "How the hell did that happen? Did you even..."

"I took the exam," Olivia interrupted, sitting on the corner of the large, silver table. She crossed her arms and gave her head a jerk to the left, trying to get an errant strand of hair out of her eyes. "Won fifty bucks when I passed," she added, grinning, remembering the bet she'd made with Elliot a year ago. "Though, I'm just filling in...for now."

Elliot gave a single, hard laugh. "Yeah, okay," he said suspiciously. He knew the truth, even if his wife couldn't admit to herself. "This isn't a social visit, so can we cut the crap?" He moved fast, taking a seat across from the man. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves and began to roll them up. "Goren," he said, clicking his tongue, "Bobby Goren, recently retired from the Thirty-Sixth precinct...got bored, huh? Came back, dropped your ass here, up in Narcotics now, right? This doesn't look good for you, man, and as your IAB..."

"This has to be a mistake," Goren snapped, shaking his head. "Wait, were you trying to tell me you're in charge of Internal Affairs? When the fuck did that happen?"

Elliot gave him a flat smile. "You need to talk, now," he said, leaning forward. He took a few photos out of a folder, and he tossed them in front of Goren. "You're a cop," he said, gritting his teeth. "It was your job to protect this little girl...but, being a cop, you knew how to get what you wanted, and get away with it."

Goren stiffened and went completely white. "What? You don't think I...I would never! She's just a little girl!" He turned, aghast, to Olivia. "You know me, Benson, would I really..."

"I spent two days working with you, over a year ago," she interrupted with an incredulous squint. "For all I know, you would." She pulled an evidence bag out of her pocket, holding it up between two fingers. "Does this look familiar?"

Goren narrowed his eyes. "Where did you...how did..."

"Our lab rats found it at the bottom of a gin bottle," Olivia said, cutting him off. "In the alley where this little girl's body was found. There were no prints or DNA anywhere on the bottle, just this stuck on the inside. It took them three days to clean it up enough to run it, but...as soon as they did, it led straight to you." She slid the small medallion over to him. "Yours, isn't it?"

Goren picked up the small, plastic bag, his lip caught between his teeth. He stared at the medal, given to him when he was discharged from the Army. He ran his thumb over the detailed etching, tracing the numbers with his fingernail. He nodded slowly. "This is mine. I knew her, okay, I don't deny that. But I didn't kill her." He sighed and slid the bag back to Olivia. "She...Benson, she's..." he rubbed the sting out of his eyes.

"Goren," Elliot said, "I can't help you if you don't open up and tell us the truth." He leaned back. "You've got a history of getting yourself into some pretty deep shit. Don't let this be what takes you down for good. if you're innocent here, we can help you."

"Daughter," Goren whispered. "She's my daughter. I didn't even know about her until three months ago. When I found out...when her mother told me...that's when..."

"You had to go back to work," Olivia surmised. "What happened? Did her mother come after you for support? Did she..."

Goren stopped her, holding up a hand. "No, she...she was sick." There were tears hanging on the edges of his eyes, but they weren't yet falling. "She needs...needed...there were treatments, blood transfusions, an operation, and Sarah couldn't afford any of it, they didn't have insurance. She called me...I...she's my responsibility. Or...she was."

Olivia tilted her head, perplexed. "Goren," she started, sending a cautionary glance in Elliot's direction, "Our medical examiner didn't find anything to suggest she was sick." She sat up a bit straighter and picked at the cuticles of her fingers with her nails, a nervous habit. "She was perfectly healthy."

Goren shook his head, his eyes opening just a bit wider. "No, that...no, Sarah wouldn't have lied to me. Not about...not about this!"

"I'm sorry," Olivia said, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. "Valerie was absolutely healthy."

"Maybe you found that out," Elliot said, rolling his shoulders. "You have a wicked temper, just as bad as mine, and I know I'd want to kill the person who lied to me about something so terrible. You found out she wasn't dying, and you made sure..."

"You are out of your fucking mind, Stabler!" Goren yelled. "I didn't kill her! I only met her twice, and she was my daughter! I was trying to save her life, why would I take it?"

"Then how did this get inside that bottle?" Elliot asked, snatching the medal off of the table and brandishing it in the air.

Goren narrowed his eyes. "Ask her mother," he said. "I gave it to her, almost twelve years ago...the night we...I guess, the night we made that beautiful...little...little girl." And with the last word, he broke down. His head hit the table and loud, heavy sobs filled the room.

Elliot looked at Olivia, she met his gaze, and he nodded at her. Together, they rose from their seats and walked out of the interrogation room, leaving Goren to cry in solitude. "What do you think?" he asked her, getting close to her.

"I think we need to send Fin and Amaro back to see the mother," she said with a sigh. "He's too much like you, El, and you wouldn't cry like that unless..."

"Yeah," Elliot sighed. "Walk me through it, Cap." He turned to her and winked.

"Don't call me that," she said, rolling her eyes. She heard him chuckle and focused on Goren, watching him through the double-sided glass. "Sarah calls, out of the blue, says its important. She tells him the girl is his daughter, maybe she is, maybe she isn't, we need to find that out." She bit her lip, trying not to feel sympathy for Goren; it would cloud her judgement. "He believes her, and then she tells him...something no parent ever wants to hear. She's sick, and probably dying. He panics, she was just given to him, he doesn't want her ripped away. Not yet." She licked her lips and shook her head, turning away from the sight of Goren's slumped shoulders rising and falling with his cries. She looked at Elliot. "He goes back to a job he hated, fills out new..." one eyebrow moved and she put her hands on her hips. "Find out if he filled out new insurance forms. If he thought she was sick, then..."

"Then she would be on his policy," he nodded once. "On my way." He raised his hand and slipped a finger under the gold chain around her neck. "I know why he gave her that medal," he whispered, pulling on the links. He dragged his fingers down to the pendant and held it gently in between his thumb and forefinger. What seemed like a lifetime's worth of memories flickered in fast-forward, through his mind, as the pad of his finger traced the outline of the globe, wing, and anchor, the same symbol that was permanently inked into his skin. "It's the same reason I gave you this...Semper Fi, baby. You know, that means..." he paused and smiled at her.

"Always faithful," she whispered, nodding. "I didn't know how I'd get through it, when you left, and then you gave me this."

He nodded, letting the metal fall back to her skin, under the collar of her shirt. "Seems like so long ago."

"Not that long," she smiled back, "Sergeant."

"Well, things worked out, huh? I came back, got a promotion, got you," he made a seductive growling sound. "Worked out perfectly," he whispered. He moved slowly, bending his head, and just as hips lips were going to press into hers, a light knock on the door made him jump away from her. "Yeah?" he called out.

Fin opened the door and stuck his head into the small meeting room. "Something you need to see, Liv." He gave her a small, beckoning wave.

She looked at Elliot, and then Fin, before moving toward the door and following Fin into the squad room. "What's the matter?"

Fin led her over to Amaro's desk, pointing to his computer monitor, and said, "Melinda called while you were in the box. Tox came back on Valerie Bramson. She had a MedicAlert bracelet on when we found her, said she was a diabetic, but her panel came back, and everything was normal."

Rollins stepped up next to him. "Nick ran her name through the national registry," she said, resting a palm on the top edge of the computer screen. "Her mother was collecting three-hundred dollars a month from the NJDF, the foundation provides things like insulin pumps, monitors, testing strips, even the insulin for families who can't afford it."

Olivia shook her head in disbelief. "But Valerie didn't have diabetes," she said, making sure she was following.

"Nope," Amaro said, sitting back in his chair and lifting one leg, resting his ankle on his other knee. He flicked his pen around in circles between his fingers. "This kid was the picture of health."

"Melinda couldn't find any injection marks or any trace of synthetic insulin in her system," Fin added, a knowing look on his face.

"Son of a bitch," Olivia spat. She turned and looked at Elliot. "Where the hell did all that money go?" She whipped back around and pointed at Fin. "Run her financials, find out."

Fin nodded, stepping over to his own desk and picking up the phone.

Elliot furrowed his brow. "So she tells Goren the kid has terminal cancer, tells the National Juvenile Diabetes Foundation she's a diabetic, and the kid was the poster child for America's Healthiest Kids."

Olivia shrugged at him. "Munchhausen's? Or just working every system she could, using her daughter as a cash cow?"

"Could be both," he said. "I'm gonna run and make a few calls, I'll be back for Goren as soon as I get his records pulled." He looked at Fin, who was babbling into the phone, and he nodded a goodbye. He shook Amaro's hand, shot a polite wave to Rollins, then gave Olivia a warm smile. "Later, Cap," he said, giving her a mock salute.

Olivia rolled her eyes again. "Quit it!" she shouted after him with a laugh. She turned her head toward Amaro. "I need you and Fin to go ask Sarah Bramson more questions. Ask her about this," she said, waving a finger at the computer, "and...ask her about Valerie's father. If she gives you a name other than Bob Goren, you haul her lying ass back here. I've got a few questions I wanna ask her, myself."

Rollins watched Amaro get up and Fin hang up his phone. She eyed the men as they grabbed coats and keys, rushing to get the answers they craved, and then she saw Olivia heading toward her office. "Hey! What am I supposed to do?"

Olivia stopped in her tracks. She took a deep breath, turning on her heels, and as she exhaled, she said, "Bring Goren a glass of water." Her eyes closed and she sighed again. Lifting her lids, she said, "And then...ask him for a DNA sample. Run it down to Warner. Have her compare it to Bramson's." She saw the eagerness on the blonde's face. "Please," she added.

Rollins nodded. "You got it," she said, moving over to the water cooler.

Olivia brushed her bangs out of her eyes and rerouted herself, again heading for her office. She walked through the door, closed it, and sat behind the imposingly large desk. She picked up Valerie Bramson's file again, starting from the first line of the first page. She read every word, carefully, knowing she must be missing something. She flipped page after page, searching through clipped in notes and stuck on Post-Its, hoping something would hit her.

When it did, her eyes widened. She grabbed her phone and dialed fast, drumming her fingers on the surface of her desk. "Hey! It's me. I know you just left, but I...I love you, too, but that's not why...you know what I'm wearing, can you stop fucking around? This is serious, baby." She softened at his response and said, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, too. Listen, uh, I read back over some of the notes from the last few days, and...El, we have a bigger problem than we thought."

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Peace and Love

Jo

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