Chapter 5

New Lead

"Captain, I think we might have a new lead." Olivia ran to catch up with Craigen before he entered the elevator. As the doors closed right in front of his nose he let out a groan, repeatedly pressing the button.

"Make it quick, detective. I'm on my way to a conference." He turned and Olivia had his full attention.

"Amanda told me that she remember another house that she was in. It was only for a brief moment but she think she knows roughly where the house might be located. Its definitely worth checking it out."

The cap nodded. "Okay. Take Ms Rollins with you and Elliot. Get her to locate the house. If she is certain that it's the right one you have to drive her home or back here. She can't be present during your investigation." The elevator came back up but before Craigen stepped through the opened doors he said, "Get solid proof and be careful. Do not do anything drastic on your own."

Liv nodded. "Of course captain." The doors closed.

Amanda was certain that the house they were looking for was located very near the one she was arrested in. She had a vague memory of the outside of the house and hopefully something would come up to jog her memory. After about twenty minutes of circulating the same couple of blocks something caught Amanda's eye. "Stop!"

Elliot slammed the breaks and the car came to a stop. Amanda pointed towards a run down red brick house that was slightly hidden behind a bigger building that looked deserted. "That's the one, I'm sure of it." Without thinking twice the blonde opened the door, got out and started walking towards the house.

Olivia and Elliot quickly got out of the car. Elliot ran straight up to her and grabbed her arm trying to stop her. "Not so fast."

Olivia gestured for Elliot to let go of her and replaced his hand with her own. "Amanda, are you absolutely sure that this is the house?"

"I'm positive. I know I was only in the house once for a short period of time but I am sure that that," again she pointed towards the building, "is the house."

The detectives started to lead the blonde back to the car. "Okay." Olivia said. "You did great, Amanda but you can't be a part of what's comin next. We're taking you home to your place so you can get some proper rest. Me and Elliot will have the house under surveillance during the night and we won't let it out of our sight. If this is the house we'll find something."

Amanda wanted to protest but knew that Olivia was right. She nodded and reluctantly got into the back seat. After dropping the blonde off Olivia made her promise to eat something and get some more sleep. Amanda was too anxious and restless to sleep. Knowing that Kim could, for some reason, be in that house and she was also afraid of what Olivia and Elliot might find inside.

She shook her head, trying to shake the horrible images, she was building in her head, away. Opening all the cupboards, the fridge and the freezer she realized she was out of anything that would even come close to edible. Groaning she opened the top drawer and pulled out a Chinese menu and rang in her order. While waiting for the food she decided to change into more comfortable clothes. Not that the sweats that Olivia had given her weren't comfortable but she had to wash them before giving them back. Taking them off she got a whiff of the older detectives perfume and she found herself enjoying it as she brought the sweater up to her nose. Closing her eyes she inhaled the scent and was surprised when she felt her whole body starting to relax and a feeling of calm came over her.

Deciding that the washing could wait until later on she got into her own pair a slacks and a t-shirt. Chills went up her arms and she felt a bit cold. Looking at the NYPD hoodie laying on the bed she put it back on to keep warm. That's what she tried to tell herself, not wanting to admit that all she wanted was to be able to smell detective Benson's sweet scent.

The doorbell rang. Looking at the clock on the wall the blonde was surprised how quickly the food had arrived. She grabbed her wallet on the way to the front door and pulled out a twenty. As soon as she pulled the security chain off and unlocked the door the heavy weight from it smashed into her face. Searing pain shot through her whole face and she immediately felt blood trickling down her throat and neck.

She brought her hand up to assess the damage but was stopped when a dark figure stepped in front of her. A quick glance at the intruder's face, an earth shattering loud bang and then everything went black.

"We'll have better luck getting something in the dark El." Olivia hadn't let the house out of her sight since they got back after dropping Amanda off. Elliot was getting frustrated with the cold and looked at his watch.

"Its been almost two hours. I'm freezing my balls off."

Olivia chuckled. "Didn't realize you had any to 'freeze off'." Their amusing banter was a daily thing they both enjoyed and never took personally. Working on hard and stressful cases almost made it a necessity to joke around and make fun of each other.

"Well, you know what they say, 'less is more'."

Liv was just about to say something smart back but was interrupted by her phone ringing. Her screen said 'Cap'. "Captain, anything new on the case?" She was secretly hoping they had a new lead or new evidence so they didn't have to sit in the black Sudan and freeze.

Elliot watched Olivia's face drop and turn pale. "Okay, I'm on my way, Cap." She hung up and turned towards her partner who as waiting for an explanation of what had just happened.

"Amanda has been shot. She's in the ICU at mercy. Cap wants me to head over there and he wants you to take Munch with you and come back here. Go."

Elliot quickly got his speed up and looked at Liv. "They must have seen her from the house earlier on, probably though she was a cop undercover or that she snitched." The brunette just nodded, still in shock, hoping the blonde was still alive and would make a full recovery. "She's in trouble, Liv. She's not safe."

The rest of the ride to the hospital was quiet with same thoughts running through their heads. What would happen now? What if Amanda is dead? What if they can't protect her? What if they figured out that Kim was Amanda's sister and will punish Kim for her sister's mistakes? The thoughts were endless. Finally El pulled up by the accident emergency bay shouting to an already running Liv to give him a call as soon as she knew what was happening.

The detective flashed her badge at the receptionist. "I'm detective Benson from SVU. There was a patient brought in a couple of hours ago with GSW. Her name is Amanda Rollins. How is she?"

The red headed woman eyed her from behind the desk. "Are you family? I can only talk to family members."

"She's got no family." Already frustrated with this woman Olivia slammed her palm down right in front of the stranger to get her full attention. "Look, she's the only key witness in one of our sex trafficking cases. If you don't work with me I'm gonna have to arrest you for obstruction."

That seemed to have given the woman a freight. "Wait here, I'll see if I can find her doctor or surgeon."

Pacing up and down the corridor running her hands through her hair she could feel her heart beat strongly against her chest. "Please, let her be okay. After everything she's been through, just let her be okay." Olivia mumbled. Spotting an empty chair a bit further down the corridor she took a seat, placing her head in her hands and let out a sigh. After a couple of minutes she found herself trying to shake away the image of Amanda's face but to no good. Liv couldn't stop thinking about the beautiful pale complection belonging to the blonde, her blue eyes and the blonde hair that looked so soft. A strange feeling shot through her. A feeling she couldn't identify because she'd never felt it before, it was an all new emotional feeling that she couldn't put a word to. It scared her a bit to feel so out of control of her emotions. She was usually one of those people who was very in touch with herself, her feelings, her emotions and her thoughts. Not being able to name a feeling or emotion was not like the stoic detective.

"Detective Benson?" Her head snapped up and a male surgeon was standing before her, fully dressed in blue scrubs. He reached his hand out and Olivia firmly grasped it. "I'm Dr Wyatt. Before I say anything else and for you not to worry, Amanda is stable and pulled through the surgery just fine. She was shot once in the chest and once in her left shoulder." He made a pause so the detective could keep up and absorb what he had just told her.

"The shoulder wound was a through and through, no major arteries, muscles or tissues were damaged. We managed to extract the bullet from her chest cavity and stop the bleeding." Sighing, he continued. "However, the bullet left some bone fragments and we were not able to take them out because of her blood loss. She lost a lot of blood and a longer surgery would have decreased her chances of survival significantly. She is stable for now and we are hoping to perform a second surgery in a couple of days when she is stronger."

Liv closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Is she awake? Can I see her?"

"She's in room 411 down the hall. She's still under anaesthetic but should come out of it soon. She will be in pain when she wakes up. Just press the button and a nurse will administer some pain relief."

The brunette once again shook his hand and thanked him. Before heading into the room she decided to give Elliot an update on Amanda's condition. John and El were on their way back to the house and promised to inform Olivia if anything new came to light. After hanging up she braced herself by inhaling deeply, preparing for what's to come, and opened the door.

The first thing she noticed was that Amanda's face almost matched the white bed sheets she was surrounded in. She was so pale she very much resembled a delicate china doll. Her thin frame was hooked up to various machines, wires and tubes and from the heart monitor a steady repeated beeping filled the otherwise so quiet room. A chair was placed next to the big hospital bed and Olivia slowly sat down not taking her eyes of the sleeping woman.