After sending Whelan and Reyes to check out the pest control lead, Ayanna and Jet returned to the hospital. Ayanna originally planned on coming alone, but Jet's big brown eyes oozed disappointment, so Ayanna asked her to come along.

Jet kept in step just behind Ayanna. The sound of Ayanna's heeled boots echoed through the quiet hospital hallway. She looked over her shoulder, making sure Jet was still there. That girl could walk silently no matter her pair of shoes. Usually, Jet maintained a flat, well-controlled affect, but she actually looked nervous as the approached Stabler's room.

Jet was damn near impossible to read, but Ayanna knew she had forged some sort of father/daughter bond with Elliot. She cared about him, and that obviously caused a high level of discomfort.

Ayanna wondered about Jet's family, and realized she knew nothing about them. Honestly, she only knew Jet on the most minimal level. She was good at her job, incredible really, but she kept most of the team at arms length. She kind of reminded her of Olivia Benson, and that probably explained the unlikely bond between the two. She always figured Elliot's somewhat overprotective behavior had to do with Jet's age. She assumed Jet reminded Elliot of his own daughters, but maybe it was more than that. She reminded him of a young Olivia Benson. Ayanna realized Jet was different on so many levels, but that impenetrable exterior carefully guarding an empathetic heart was exactly the same. That, and the apparent daddy issues both women must have made them feel emotionally similar.

They arrived at Elliot's room and Ayanna softly knocked before opening the door. "Hey," he grinned. "No gifts? Come on." He teased.

"You don't need gifts," she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "If I brought a gift every time you found yourself in the hospital I'd be broke….I did bring Jet though." She motioned for Jet who had been making herself small next to the door.

"Oh good. Reyes or Whelan would have been a crappy gift." They all laughed.

"You good for a minute? I need to get your statement."

"I'm a pretty shitty witness. I didn't see much, and I don't remember a lot."

Ayanna nodded, "I know, but you know the drill. I need anything you can remember." Ayanna looked up, knowing this first question would have an infinite number of answers, "Who've you pissed off lately."

He laughed, but winced with the tightening of his abdomen. "You know as well as I do that pretty much every questionable organization in the city would want me dead."

She waved him off, "I know that, but think outside of that arena. Captain Benson and I think it was way too messy for a sophisticated operation." She almost laughed. The man had no subtlety whenever Benson was name dropped.

"Uh…" he thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I got nothin'. I literally work and go home. I have a pathetic social life beyond my mom and kids. Pretty sure none of them hate me enough to kill me," he said wryly.

She knew her next wave of questions would be uncomfortable, and he was bound to be evasive. She sighed and dove in. "I wouldn't ask any of this if I didn't think it might be relevant…"

She eyed him for a moment, and he shrugged, "I really don't have people outside of our squad and family so ask whatever."

She almost laughed. There was one important person on the outside of both those groups and they both knew it. "Benson…" she drew her name out. She started to feel pretty damn uncomfortable, particularly when his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah?" His voice sounded suspicious.

Ayanna rolled her eyes. He was going to be evasive, and she didn't have time for that shit. "Um, I need to know… you have to know I don't want to go into all of this…how involved are you?" She rushed the words out. "I ask because I need to know if this is a vendetta with her, not you."

He seemed agitated, as she knew he would be. Everyone, well, except Jamie, knew better than to poke that hornets nest.

"It's not relevant," he shook his head adamantly, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Fortunately for her, Jet didn't mind being blunt with him. "God, Stabler. Just answer the damn questions, and we will decide what's relevant. You guys aren't as subtle as you think so just tell us so we can move on."

His eyes widened, and Ayanna couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips.

"Fine," he groaned. "We are involved, but it's a pretty new thing, and I don't think it's had enough time to fly through the rumor mill." His eyes narrowed on both of them, and Ayanna knew there was some sort of threat buried under the surface.

"Even so, do you know if any of her cases got complicated? Or bad enough for someone to dig deeply into her personal life?"

He dropped his head into his hands and let out a frustrating groan. "I promise this doesn't have anything to do with her." He lifted his face up from his hands. "You can ask her about her cases, but really…this thing with us is days old."

"Look, I didn't want to ask, but I gotta cover all our bases." His eyes softened with understanding, and he finally seemed to be listening to reason.

"I doubt she has anything to do with anything, but yeah we are involved. Its new, but if anyone dug deep enough they could figure out and infer a lot of things." He continued, "Aside from that, I really don't remember much. I went for a run. I was distracted and they attacked me from behind. All I remember was hitting the ground and the stab. I woke up on a cement floor, staring at a cement wall. It was cooler, so my guess would be basement, maybe warehouse, but the space didn't feel big. Two maybe three people involved. I don't think the stabbing was intended. From what I overheard, I think it was supposed to be an abduction that got out of hand." He shook his head. "That's really it, and even that is pretty foggy."

"Thanks Elliot." Even if he had to make this way more difficult than necessary.

"Yeah. I'll call if I can remember anything else."

"That would be helpful," she affirmed.

Just as she turned to leave, the door opened without a knock. "I had to walk two blocks to find a decent coffee cart, and I doubt you need this caffeine…" her words trailed off when she noticed Ayanna and Jet in the room. "Oh," she said with surprise, but quickly recovered. "You guys found anything yet?" She walked over to the edge of Elliot's bed, handing him a small coffee.

"I have Whelan and Reyes chasing down a couple leads. I hadn't had a chance to touch base with Stabler, so we thought we'd check in."

Benson nodded, and Ayanna felt like her eyes were digging into her. That woman could be all kindness and empathy, but damn, she could be intimidating as hell. "Do you need me to leave, or…"

"No I think we have what we need," Ayanna paused, not wanting to do this now, but knowing it was the best time. "But while we have you, can Jet and I talk to you for a minute?" Jet's eyes bugged out a little. She obviously didn't want to be dragged into any of this. She would have to suck it up. She wasn't thrilled about interviewing an NYPD captain who valued privacy either, but it had to be done.

"Yeah, I have a bit before I need to get back to the office." She sat her coffee on the counter, gave Elliot a quick look (that probably meant way more than anyone could know) and followed Ayanna into the hall.

-000-

Whelan and Reyes sat on the pest control building for what felt like forever. No movement in or out made this an intensely boring stake out.

Whelan laid his head back, "I'm hungry."

Reyes rolled his eyes but grabbed his bag from the back seat. He dug around for a minute. "I got a granola bar, fruit snacks, annnnnnd," he dug a little deeper, "looks like a bag of cereal." He held it up and squinted, "cheerios I think."

"Are you serious," Whelan asked in disbelief.

"What?" Reyes asked while popping open the bag of cheerios. "I got kids." He ate a handful of cereal. "Dude. They are always hungry. This is my emergency stash."

Jamie chuckled and held his hand out, "Hit me with that granola bar."

Reyes tossed it to him, and continued to munch on his cereal. They sat quietly, only the sound of chewing passing between them. Whelan wolfed down the granola bar, and before he looked over Reyes held out another one. "This is my last one bro. If you're still hungry you're gonna have to settle for the fruit snacks." Reyes studied the fruit snacks bag. "Looks like they're zoo animal themed." Whelan already had half of the second granola bar in his mouth before they both busted up laughing. "Bro. I feel like I'm feeding my kid!"

"Sorry! I didn't think we'd be sitting here so long!" Jamie eyed the fruit snacks. "You gonna eat those?"

They burst into laughter again, and Bobby handed over the zoo animal fruit snacks. Just as Jamie popped what looked like a monkey into his mouth they finally noticed movement at the store front.

Reyes lifted his camera and snapped a few pictures of the man, his van, and the plates. After giving a cushion Whelan put the car into drive and began to follow.

The van took a winding, roundabout path to its destination, but the driver didn't appear to notice the tail. They kept their distance when the van pulled up to an ordinary looking house. The man exited his vehicle and hurried up the steps. He pounded aggressively on the door, and another man answered. Reyes snapped some more photos of what turned into a heated exchange.

"That doesn't look good," Whelan muttered.

"Not so much," Reyes agreed.

Reyes snapped some pictures of a suspicious duffel bag hand off. "Think this has to do with anything?" Reyes snapped another picture.

"Absolutely." Whelan looked closer, "cash or go bag probably."

"Well they kidnapped a cop. So I'm guessing both."

After the bag exchange and some more heated conversation the men parted ways. "Let's get back to the office." Whelan said, "When we get there we'll have Jet run facial recognition on these guys. There's no way these idiots are clean."

Guys. Every bag I own has granola bars and fruit snacks. Every. Single. Bag. I don't even like fruit snacks... #momlife