Little Girl Lost

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.

Chapter 14: Undercover and Peeking Out

Rollins noticed the Hispanic detective as he approached the desk, even as it became clear that he was trying not to be seen. For his part, he seemed to notice her eyes on him, winked, and put a finger to his lips before pointing at Fin. She nodded, smiling, as he approached her partner from behind.

"Getting soft in your old age, Tutuola?"

The detective jumped a mile, spinning around at the familiar but unexpected voice as Rollins dissolved in laughter. "Damn, Sandoval. Haven't you learned not to sneak up on a cop yet?"

"Sorry," he said insincerely, laughing too. "Couldn't resist." He looked back at the blonde, who was almost doubled over her desk. "Well, you've certainly upgraded from Munch."

Fin laughed now too. "Detective Mike Sandoval, Detective Amanda Rollins. Munch dumped us all for the DA's office. But what brings you here? Somehow, I have a hard time believing you dropped in for a chat after nine years."

"Yeah, no," he replied with a smile. "I'm here for professional reasons. Your lieutenant borrowed me for this task force, they said you needed a UC."

"We do." That was Olivia, who had entered the room during Sandoval's explanation. "But I didn't realize they were sending you," she added with a warm handshake. "I hear you're a big hotshot over at Organized Crime now; I'm surprised you even found time for us."

He shrugged. "I owe Declan Murphy a favor. Just tell me I'm not going to get blown up or shot this time, please." He winked at Rollins again when she gave him a confused look. "I have the worst luck with these guys."

Olivia laughed lightly, shaking her head. "Good news is, as undercover assignments go, this one's relatively low-risk."

"And the bad news?" he asked skeptically.

"Bad news is, you'll be playing a bit of a long game, and we don't know exactly how long. Good news on that front, though, is that it's not exactly going to be strenuous."

"So the bad news is that I get to spend at least a few days, exact time indeterminate, on a cushy assignment?" he translated. "I think I can live with that. What's the assignment and what's my story?"

"You're a stockbroker," Olivia told him. " You're married, happily for the most part but you suffer from a bit of a roving eye. In addition, things at work haven't been going so well for you."

"Sounds like a recipe for trouble," he commented wryly.

"It should," Olivia confirmed. "That's what we want the target to think."

She bent over the projector for a moment, bringing up an image on the screen. "This is Linda Marquez. We need to bring her in as soon as possible. We have enough to arrest; trouble is, we can't find her."

"So how does my undercover play into this?"

"I'm getting there. Starting tonight, there's a new piece to your alter ego's daily routine. You stop by a bar to drown your sorrows, and catch a little eye candy while you're there. You never do anything, but people in the bar should be aware that you're eying these girls up. See, our target is a major blackmailer. Her usual MO is to seduce a wealthy man and then force him to pay for her silence."

"Wait." For the first time since entering, Sandoval looked just the slightest bit unsettled. "Just how far am I supposed to -"

"Not nearly that far," Olivia rushed to assure him. "Like I said, we already have enough to arrest, so we don't actually have to take this to the point where she commits a crime. The point of this operation is to bring her to us instead of us having to hunt for her. As soon as she shows up to take the bait, we take her. In the meantime," she added with a smile, "you basically live your alter ego's life. We don't know if she watches potential victims first, so you need to play the part convincingly. We'll work something out to get you from your supposed office to your precinct and back, but you'll live in a cover house, go out to eat at the kinds of places he would frequent, the whole works."

"Sounds like fun." Mike's confident smile was back. "When do we get started?"

xxxxxxxxx

"They're going to want her to testify, aren't they?"

The momentary relief Zach had felt at hearing that Andrea's captors had been taken into custody had quickly faded when he'd realized what the next steps were likely to entail.

Olivia gave a sigh that resonated through the phone. "I'm afraid that's likely, yes."

He looked over to where Andrea lay asleep beside him. "I – I know she's capable," he whispered, trying not to do anything that might disturb her. "She was a rock-solid witness in that case last year. But this...making her relive it..."

"I know," Olivia replied softly. "But...I don't know if this is going to help or not, but in my experience, children who testify against their attackers are often glad they did in the long term. They feel like they had a chance to fight back."

He looked at Andrea again, laying a protective hand gently on her head. "I can believe that," he said after a moment. "In the long term, I can believe that. It's putting her in a room – even a secure courtroom – with those monsters that bothers me. Just seeing them is going to hurt her, and no amount of prep is going to change that."

"I know, I do," she said with such certainty that Zach knew in that moment that she did know, truly, what he was fighting. "And I know there's nothing I can say to change that."

"Lieutenant," he asked suddenly, "if you were in my position, what would you do? Would you ask her to do this?"

Silence filled the line for a long moment as Olivia considered his question. "No," she said finally, "but I wouldn't shield her from it either. I know it's hard to think this way with a child so young, but she's the one directly affected by this, and as such...I would give her the facts and let her make the choice."

"Let her choose," he repeated. Even as the words left his mouth, he knew she was right. Andrea was a smart little girl, and it had always been his policy to let her make decisions that affected her life when possible. "Of course. Thank you, Lieutenant."

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"Heads up," Fin whispered into his wrist mike, pretending to take a drink to cover the motion. "Target just entered the room."

"Copy that." Olivia's voice came through the earpiece.

At the same time, Mike turned to Fin, nodding once. Fin replied with a subtle nod of his own. "Sandoval's got a visual. She's approaching him."

"You know the drill."

"Circle around from behind," he confirmed. "Copy that."

He set his glass down as though he was going to leave and headed for the door, making sure he was outside her range of vision before he doubled back to approach her, making momentary eye contact with Sandoval. "Linda Marquez?"

The woman turned, her irritation at being interrupted visible. "Excuse me, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?" She gave him a distasteful glance. "Do I even know you?"

"Maybe this rings a bell." He turned his hand around so that she could see the badge clasped in it. "Linda Marquez, you're under arrest -"

"What? No! This is a mistake." She turned back to Mike, an almost desperate look on her face. "Tell him -" But her voice broke off abruptly when she saw that he too was now holding a badge.

Fin grinned at Sandoval over Linda's head. "Actually, I think my friend here has something to tell you."

Sandoval smiled back. "You have the right to remain silent," he said as Fin pulled her hands behind her back and locked the cuffs around her wrists. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you..."

xxxxxxxxx

"Andrea," Zach said softly, sitting down beside his young daughter, "I have something to tell you."

She looked up, her eyes meeting his, reading the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

Despite the heavy weight he felt hanging on him, he barely suppressed a smile. Yep, that's my girl all right. "Andrea, the police found your mother. And, I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this...she's been arrested."

A dozen emotions crossed her face in the span of a second. "Is she...is she going to jail?"

"Probably."

"Because of me?"

"Because of what she did," he corrected her. "She broke the law. You were the person she hurt when she did, but that doesn't make it your fault. She make a choice."

"I know," she replied. "I just..."

"Just what, honey?" he prompted after several moments' silence.

"She went to jail before because she hurt me," Andrea blurted out all at once.

"You mean, when you were little?"

Andrea nodded. "When she took me...she was so angry. She talked about all the things she said I had to pay her back for and going to jail was one she kept saying over and over." She dropped her head, letting her long hair fall over her face. "I didn't even say anything that time. But this time I did. I told the detective that she was the one who took me." She reached one small hand out, gripping his long fingers tightly. "She'll be even more angry at me now."

"And you're afraid of what she might do," he realized.

Another nod, and then a shiver went through her small body. "She knows how to find me. She already did once."

"Oh, Andrea..." After a moment's silence, struggling to find the right words, he opened his arms to her. "Come here, baby."

She threw herself into his lap, letting go of his hand to wrap both arms around his waist. He hugged her close. "Andrea," he began softly, "your mother should have gone to jail for a long time for hurting you the first time. That she didn't isn't fair to anyone, especially not you. But I don't think that's going to happen this time. She's looking at being locked up for a very long time, if not the rest of her life."

A spark of hope flickered in her dark eyes as she finally looked up. "Really?"

"That's what the prosecutor told me."

"Prosecutor..." the word seemed to register in her mind, triggering a thought. "Does that mean she's going to have a trial too?"

"Probably," he replied, hearing the subtext as clearly as if it had been spoken aloud. Do I have to see her in court? "You remember what we talked about, right? In every case, it's your choice whether or not to go to court."

"But..." she replied a little hesitantly, "you said that there was lots of evidence against the men even without me."

"Yes, I did, and there is."

"But not her."

Of course. Andrea's point suddenly became clear to him. The downside of a child her age having that level of reasoning skills. "There is some other evidence. Not as much as against the men, but there is some."

"If I go to court, will she definitely go to jail for a long time?"

"Well, there's no one hundred percent guarantee, but it is very likely, yes."

"I'll do it."

"Andrea...are you sure?"

She nodded with a determination he remembered from the first day he'd met her, a determination that he hadn't seen since before that horrible day in December when everything had changed. "I'm sure."

Sorry for the delay, everyone! It took me awhile to decide where exactly I was going with this.

I've been thinking a lot about this story, and I think it's a lot closer to a natural end point than I had originally thought it would be. As such, I'm retracting my earlier statement about this story potentially having 4-5 chapters left, even if this chapter is included in that number. At most, there will be two after this, and depending on how the story line falls out, it may be just one.

Mike Sandoval is a guest character who appears in two episodes of SVU. I know it's a little weird having two characters in this story with the same name, but he was the best option I could think of. And he does, in fact, have an injury record with his guest appearances on SVU; in his first episode, Haunted, he's just outside a house that blows up, and in his other appearance, Ghost, he's shot in the arm protecting a witness.

Please review!