And before the door closed behind them, the last thing she saw was her partner lying on the ground, and only her heart was able to scream as her soul was ripped to shreds.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elliot is dead.

It was the only, only thing Olivia's brain was able to think of as Father was dragging her across the empty yard towards the farthest outbuilding. Even the birds had quieted down, only the distant sounds of fighting could be heard from somewhere inside the house, police car sirens were screaming somewhere in the distance, and Father was cursing next to her as he quickened his steps and tightened his grip on her arm.

Elliot is dead.

"If you scream, I won't hesitate to use this," she felt the gun press against her belly, and nausea rushed into her throat, but she managed to swallow it back down. Her legs were moving like automation, tears clouded her eyes, and when they arrived at the outbuilding and Father began to open the lock, she whispered:

"Why did you kill him?"

"Who?"

"My partner."

"Because we don't need him anymore, do we?" The lock opened easily, too easily, and then he pulled her into the dark building, dug something out of his pocket, and the car's lights flashed brightly. He opened the back door of the car, pushed her in, rushed to the driver's seat himself, locked the doors and started the engine. "And besides..." He glanced at her quickly from the rear-view mirror. "I have a feeling that he would have complicated my plan too much."

And then he hit the gas, the tires dug into the sandy surface, but then the car jumped forward. Olivia clung to the seat of the car as Father recklessly sped across the yard, she didn't understand where all the cops had gone, and she squeezed her eyes shut, afraid but also hoping they'd hit something, and the getaway would be over before it could even begin.

But when they arrived at the gate of the house, it was open, and in front of it stood only two police officers, who turned to look at them in surprise. Father had no intention of slowing down, instead he stepped on the gas harder, and a couple of bullets ricocheted off the hood of the car before the cops had to jump out of the way, and the road was open.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but we have to use a slightly worse road. Your friends must have closed all the major roads."

"I'm not your sweetheart," Olivia hissed between her teeth, wrapped her arms around her belly and squeezed her eyes shut again.

"Ah, don't be so grumpy. I think we will have a really nice 9 months together. Like a husband, wife, and their baby on board."

If Olivia had a gun, she would have shot Father in that spot. But the anger didn't last long as his words caused it to be replaced by a completely different feeling.

Their baby on board.

And at the same time a memory flooded her mind, a memory of Elliot who had just heard that he was the baby's father. Of Elliot, who had kissed her and spun her in the air, genuine, all-encompassing joy and love sparkling in his blue eyes.

Of Elliot, who was gone now.

Only a strong lip bite kept a sob from escaping her lips.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cragen, Fin and Munch had arrived at the farm a little after the first cops. Even though the time difference was only about 15 minutes, the scene literally looked like a battlefield when they got out of the car and looked around in amazement.

There was no doubt if they were in the right place.

"Captain Cragen!" A police officer running towards them caught their attention, and he stopped in front of them out of breath. "I'm Officer Williams. Did you see a gray Mitsubishi?"

Cragen glanced at the detectives standing next to him, who shook their heads.

"Well, how so?

The cop raised his hands and rubbed his face. "The operation was successful: we were able to make a surprise attack, no one had time to prepare. But someone got away, a man, someone was in the back seat. We have notified the roadblocks, but no one has seen the car."

"How…" Cragen's expression revealed an impending tantrum, but at the last moment he took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and nodded briefly. "Okay. What else?"

The police officer shook his head. "I've never seen anything like this. We found about twenty people here, all in similar gowns, and they…" He swallowed. "I don't know what has been done to them, but based on initial information, they apparently imagine that they are part of some mission that will save humanity from the apocalypse. They're all right, except for one of them, because we had to open the fire, there were some kind of guards here. Several ambulances are on the way."

"Show us."

Officer Williams nodded, and they started walking after him towards the large house. On their way, they were met by several cops, who were leading black-clad and handcuffed men towards police cars, guards, as Fin concluded. They entered the front door of the house, encountered more officers, and then Williams waved his hand.

"Here."

They entered the large room, looked around, and then their eyes caught on a person lying on the ground, surrounded by a couple of cops.

And then they recognized him.

"Elliot!"

Fin and Munch froze in place, their bodies momentarily ceasing to obey, but Cragen rushed next to his detective and knelt beside him.

"Is he alive?"

"Yes, but he has been shot at. Not fatally, apparently, since it's been a while since the shooting, but he's lost a lot of blood."

Cragen nodded, turning his gaze to Elliot, who grimaced, opened his eyes, and when he recognized his captain, his eyes filled with distress.

"Liv…"

Fin and Munch had finally gotten their feet moving as well, and they frowned as they looked at their colleague.

"Where's Olivia?"

"He…" Elliot grimaced again and tried to sit up, but the cops helping him pushed him back to the ground. "He took her!"

"Who?" Cragen asked, but Elliot's sudden movement had made his face contort in pain, and he didn't answer. "Talk to me, Stabler! Who took Olivia?!"

"He calls himself… Father…"

"Father?"

"The boss."

"The boss took Liv?" Fin asked, anger, desperation growing inside him, and Elliot nodded.

"And… The baby…"

"What baby?" Cragen asked, and Fin could almost hear Munch frowning beside him.

"Our baby."

The silence that settled between Cragen, Fin, and Munch was so dense, so palpable, it could have been cut with a knife. For a moment they just stared at Elliot, then they slowly looked up at each other, speechless. Munch was the first to regain his ability to speak.

"Your baby? Your and Olivia's?"

"Yeah."

"But…" His completely confused brain quickly tried to do calculations. "You've been here less than a month, how..."

"She's pregnant, you idiot!" Elliot snapped, the louder volume obviously adding to the pain.

"Did you have an affair before this?" Fin asked, his voice full of disbelief, and Elliot groaned.

"No!"

"But… You don't mean," he started, but Elliot didn't let him continue.

"Why is this so important right now?! Don't just stand there, goddamnit, save Liv and our baby!"

And as he squeezed his eyes shut again, a single tear rolled down his cheek, and it was clear to everyone that it was not just because of the physical pain.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ambulances had arrived in the yard a moment later and given Elliot emergency blood as first aid. In addition to the blood, he had also received pain killers that had restored his ability to function, and it had been necessary for Munch to go with him to the hospital, as he had begun to protest against leaving.

"Damn it, man!" Fin had shouted when they had been forced to hold their colleague, who had wanted to leave to help his partner. "You need a hospital before you can go help others! You're no use to Olivia, and… and your baby if you die yourself!"

Eventually the paramedics had had to give Elliot a sedative to keep him in bed, and Cragen and Fin had been left shaking their heads to watch in the courtyard as the ambulance had started to drive towards the hospital, lights flashing.

"Don't," Cragen stopped Fin already as he turned his head towards his captain as if he guessed what he was going to ask.

"Do you think he was telling the truth? He couldn't hold himself back though and got a glare from Cragen. "I mean, we don't know what has happened here, and he was shot at. Maybe he… Imagined the baby?"

"Maybe," Cragen directed his eyes to the on scene commander approaching them. "But no matter what, we have to find Olivia."

"I wonder if she saw that Stabler was shot at?" Fin muttered but his captain shook his head.

"Keep your focus on finding Liv, don't think about anything else."

And Fin couldn't help but sigh and nod weakly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Okay then, we have roughly a couple of days to think about our next move," he announced as he turned off the engine. Olivia glanced at the cabin standing in front of them, in the middle of the darkness, and the resistance within her began to grow exponentially.

"I'm not going in there."

"Oh, yes you are," he announced neutrally and opened the car door. Escaping crossed Olivia's mind for a second, but the gnawing hunger in her stomach, screaming thirst, and exhausted body made her change her mind at the last moment, and at Father's command, she slowly got out of the car on her shaking legs. He was immediately next to her.

"Careful."

"Don't touch me!" Olivia snapped, but his hands didn't leave her waist. Instead, they began to push her towards the cabin. "Please, let me go."

"Oh no, sweetheart, this baby is my ticket to freedom," Father's hand landed on her belly. Where Elliot's touch had made her feel safe, comforted, loved, this hand made her feel almost physically sick, and instinctively she pushed it away. In the darkness she couldn't see his face, but judging by the tightening of his grip, it hadn't pleased him.

The cabin door creaked open, and the stuffy, stagnant air flooding out made her almost cough. Father ushered her in, the gun firmly in one hand, closed and locked the door, and apparently began to search for some kind of lamp with the light of his phone, because soon a dim light turned on in the cabin. Olivia collapsed exhausted in the corner of the cabin, Father put the gun on the table and opened his phone.

"Let's see..." He tapped his phone and sighed. "Your partner seems to be in the hospital."

That made Olivia's eyes snap open, she straightened her neck, not sure if she had heard correctly.

"What?"

"Your partner, he's in the hospital."

Olivia blinked, feeling her heart rate start to pick up, and she began to clutch her knees with her hands.

"He's alive?"

"Well, yeah. It was the plan after all."

Relief made the tears cloud Olivia's eyes, a trembling breath escaped her lips, and she dropped her head to her knees.

"Your daddy is alive. And he's gonna save u-…"

But then she raised her head again as doubt began to creep in to replace relief.

"What do you mean? The plan?"

"Yeah," Father shrugged and turned his eyes to her. "I know more about you two than you might think, Detective Benson. I know that your partner would jump under a train to save you, and yeah, I got confirmation of that a moment ago," he raised his eyebrows pointedly, and guilt pierced Olivia's heart like a knife. "My original plan was to prevent you from escaping, but it evolved a bit over time. I already have a buyer for your child, and I can tell you that they will pay a lot. I wanted to make sure the baby didn't escape my clutches, and I figured if something went wrong, I'd need something that would reveal the cops movements," he smirked, obviously pleased with himself, and a bad feeling started to grow inside Olivia.

"You mean…"

"Yes," Father leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I wanted to slow Detective Stabler down enough that he could join the other cops. Because I know he's the first to rush to find you. The app immediately alerts if he's within 3 miles of my phone, so no one can surprise us."

No no no no…

"But how…"

"An open stab wound and a tiny GPS tracker?" Father grinned. "What a match."