"You must be a pretty weak man, you won't even challenge me to a fair fight. You have my wrists bound, I haven't eaten all day, I have no weapons, and you have drugged me."
He doesn't say anything. He takes a step back. She tries not to think about what he's going to do next, now that she has foolishly challenged his manhood. Several seconds pass, in silence.
Finally he speaks, "You're right. I like someone who can fight back."
He moves away from her. His footsteps head towards the door. He flips the light on, as he's on his way to the door. The bright light hurts her eyes. Her eyes are still trying to adjust, as he exits the room, and closes the door. Finally her eyes come into focus. She grabs her shirt, off the floor. And slides down the wall. She's on the verge of tears, when the door opens again. He steps in briefly, just to set a plate inside the door. The door slams, and he's gone again. After a moment, she regains her composure, and rises to her feet. She walks over to the door, and finds a plate of food sitting in front of it, on the floor. She grabs the plate, and carries it over to the cot. She removes the foil that it is wrapped in. She finds that the food is still warm. She too hungry to even care what it is.
Nick, looks up, from his desk, at his exhausted co-workers. He hangs up the phone. He shakes his head, discouraged. John looks over to him.
"Anything?"
"They found a vehicle matching the description of the one that we saw on surveillance around her apartment."
"The plates matched?"
"Yeah, they were the same stolen plates."
"Was she in it?" John wonders.
"No, it was abandoned at a park and ride, along the interstate, just this side of the Pennsylvania line."
"So, now we think that he took her out of state?" John tries to clarify.
Nick nods, "Yeah, it's looking that way. How are we ever going to find her? We have no idea who this guy is. We don't know his motive for taking her. We don't know what kind of vehicle he was in. We don't know where he took her."
"We'll find her," John insists.
"We have to," Fin adds.
He sits at her desk, staring at the pictures, in front of him, in his own world. He doesn't hear anything anyone is saying, around him. He looks at the pictures, and it hits him that he may never see her, again. Footsteps bring him back to reality. He looks up, at Cragen.
"Elliot did you hear me?"
Elliot makes eye contact, with his former Captain, "I didn't hear you, sorry. What did you say?"
Cragen points to a man, in a suit, nearby, "I want you to work with agent Rodriguez, to help find Olivia. Ok?"
"That's fine, but can we talk, for a minute?"
Don nods, "Yeah. My office," he agrees.
Elliot follows him into his office. He closes the door, and Don waits for him to start the conversation, but he doesn't. Elliot doesn't make eye contact.
"El, what's on your mind?"
"The way that I left things with her. This whole thing has really gotten me thinking. What if we never see her again? How am I going to live with the fact that I never fixed things with her? I walked out on a twelve year partnership. I turned my back on her, and I don't know if I can forgive myself for that. I made a mistake."
"Then help us find her."
She lies there, wide awake, in the dark. It's late, and she's exhausted, but she can't sleep. She listens to the clock ticking on the wall. Her mind churns with thought. She wonders where she is. Who is holding her captive? Is she ever going to make it out alive? Can she make it out of this place, unscathed?
She rolls onto her side. She is covered by a sheet, and a single thin blanket. She wants to curl up into a ball, and just give up, knowing that this is only the beginning. Even though she doesn't want to admit it, she knows that he's right. She may never be found. If she is, it won't be soon.
Nick lies on a lumpy mattress, in the cribs. He stares up at the ceiling, even though he should be catching a few minutes of shut eye. Footsteps come towards him. He looks over, at the figure standing in the doorway.
"You asleep?" Elliot asks.
"How could I sleep? My partner is missing. Some piece of scum took her, and I don't know where she is."
"I know how you feel."
"We have to find her," Nick insists.
"I have to apologize to her."
"For what?"
"Being an asshole. For leaving, the way that I did. That is just the beginning of the list. There are a lot of things."
"I just want my partner back. She's the best partner I have ever had. She and I, we have our differences, but I respect the hell out of her. I wish she knew that. I wish I had told her that."
"Don't go there yet," Elliot warns.
"Where?"
"That she's gone, and she's not coming back. Olivia is a fighter. If there is a way, she'll find it. She'll come back to us."
"I want to believe that, but we have no leads. We have no idea who this guy is. We didn't see his face on any of the cameras. All we know is that he is a medium build caucasian male."
"I got a list from Barba of releases from the last two years, if you want to go through the files with me," Elliot reveals.
"Yeah, sure. I'm not doing any good in here."
She wakes up, suddenly. It's dark, and it takes her a few seconds to figure out where she is. She is sweating. For some reason the thought crosses her mind that she isn't wearing the clothes that she started out in. At some point, while she was unconscious the previous day, he had put her in the orange prison garb. And, he had also managed to get her out of a vehicle, and into this basement. She shudders at the thought of what else she has missed, while she was in a drug induced state of non-consciousness. Her breath hitches, and the hair on the back of her neck stands up. Suddenly she realizes that she's not alone. She hears breathing, that isn't her own. The breathing comes from a few feet away.
"Sweet dreams," he whispers, and then he heads for the door. She listens to the door open, and close. It automatically locks behind him.