Olivia knew she looked crazy. Lucky for her, Fin had already seen crazy before. She felt like a ticking time bomb of tension, waiting to explode at v any moment. Her knee bounced, and while her gaze stayed out the window, she wasn't really looking at anything. It all seemed like a blur of color dancing across her vision. Her hands felt useless, so she drummed her fingers against the vinyl of the car door. Two and a half hours. Why the hell did she let him go two and a half hours away…into the woods?

Fin knew she was coming apart at the seams. He always knew. And in typical Fin fashion he knew how to mitigate her intensity.

"Tell me about the missing kids."

The case. The facts. He knew when things got too emotionally difficult he could bring her back down to earth with the facts.

"Um… yeah, Clem and Colton are the ones missing." She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. "They are some of Noah's best friends." She focused on the act of breathing. "Uh, Clem turns twelve in a couple weeks. She has a later birthday than most of the grade. She dances with Noah. They've been friends for a few years. She is really quiet and pretty shy."

"Makes her the perfect victim." Fin muttered.

"Yeah." She swallowed. "She likes hanging out with Noah because he isn't the same as the other boys, you know? He's just softer and not quite as abrasive as most boys that age."

"You mean he's not a preteen asshole?"

She chuckled, "Yeah, we'll, I tried really hard not to raise an ass."

"Society thanks you for it," Fin teased. She knew he was trying to lighten the mood, and it did help some.

"Colton is a really good kid. He and his brother really took to Noah. They were new at school this past year."

"Twins?" Fin asked.

"Yeah."

"That's tough. Can't be easy on the brother." Fin shook his head while keeping his eyes on the road.

She nodded and sighed. "Jace and Colton are really close. You kind of expect that with twins. They take care of each other, and are just good smart kids."

"What's family life like? How many parents are we gonna be callin?"

"Clem's an only child. Split parents. Mom lives in the city, and dad lives in Boston. She spends a month with her dad with the summer. I don't know all the details of the custody arrangement, but it all seems pretty civil. They were never married or anything so it's not like her life ever really got uprooted. Civil split parents is all she knows."

"So stable," Fin affirmed.

"Yeah. I have met her mom quite a few times, but her dad rarely comes into the city. Not a whole lot of drama there."

"Colton?"

"Parents are married and living together. Very stable environment. I have met both parents and I have let Noah stay the night there a few times…"

"So they have the Olivia Benson stamp of approval…" he teased.

She rolled her eyes at the jab. "Yes. Mom is a clinical psychologist. Doesn't have a practice, works in research mostly. Their dad is in charge of global data center operations for his company. Techy stuff."

"So their kids are geniuses," Fin teased.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "They are extremely bright, hence the advanced science class." Olivia continued. "The have a younger brother. He's seven or eight I think. The twins were a surprise."

"Aren't they always," Fin joked.

"Well I know that was the case with Elliot's…"

"Girl, 90% of Stabler's kids were 'surprises'." Fin all out laughed.

"You're not wrong," she laughed. She knew Fin wanted to say something about Eli, but he thankfully held his tongue. She loved Eli. She had always loved Eli, but there was always a little twinge of pain that showed up when conversations turned toward the period of time surrounding his birth. Nineteen years later it still stung. She wished it didn't, but it did.

"And Stabler doesn't think the kids just wandered off?" Fin clarified.

She shook her head adamantly. "These kids are rule followers. I don't see them doing anything like that, and then there's…" she let the thought drift off. "I mean I trust Elliot's gut and he thinks something more is going on."

"What were you gonna to say Liv? Before Elliot's gut."

Her eyes drifted out the window again. "The class bully went on the trip," her voice sounded hesitant.

"Maybe bullying gone too far?" The idea rushed to the forefront of her brain the minute Elliot called, but she didn't want to get pigeonholed in one direction.

"Maybe, but his dad went on the trip too." She grimaced.

Fin let out a low whistle. "And you're not a fan of the dad," Fin guessed.

"No. And it's nothing specific really. He's just sort of secretive. He asked me out a couple times…"

"Bet Stabler loved that," he grinned knowingly.

"Of course he didn't. History clearly shows how Elliot reacts when anyone askes me out." She shook her head, "but that's not the point. The guy always felt fishy, and Colton was assigned to his tent."

"Looks like we know who we're talkin to first…" Fin implied heavily.

"If he talks. Which I doubt he will. We need to talk to his kid too, but I'm assuming he'll be off limits."

"Guess we'll be working around them…" Fin muttered.

"That's assuming the local precinct allows us to help…" she bit her lip. It was always hit or miss when working with jurisdictions with low resources. Some are grateful for the help, but others get territorial.

"Oh…they'll let us help." Fin winked.

-000-

Elliot approached the first officers on scene. He only had about five minutes to explain things to the other adults before the police presence showed up. Lucky for him, the parents deferred to his experience and didn't argue. He swore at least one parent always vied for dominance in these situations. Having everyone fall in line was a welcome reprieve.

An officer approached him with a hand extended. "Detective Stabler?"

"That's me," he confirmed as he shook the man's hand.

"Sergeant Anderson." The man introduced himself. "We received the bare bones information from dispatch, but we need more details before we get started.

"Of course," Elliot asked, "What do you need?"

"Anything you got," the sergeant answered.

Elliot laid everything out from the past twenty four hours, providing as many details as possible. He made sure to mention the incident with Lucas, and that Colton was in that tent rather than the same on as his brother. As he finished his statement two more patrol cars flew into the remote parking lot.

"Perfect timing," Anderson said to no one in particular. He turned towards Elliot. "This is my backup, now that they're here we can start a preliminary search, focusing in the area you searched. The search and rescue unit will be here shortly, they are a little further out than us, but they will be able to tackle the more difficult terrain as we widen the search."

Elliot nodded in understanding. This wasn't his first child search, but it was his first experience searching for children in a dense forested area. "I want to help search, but I need to wait for Captain Benson to get here to pick up her son."

The sergeant's eyes widened a little. "What department is she with?"

Elliot tensed, knowing this was the crucial moment he'd been waiting for. Time to find out if the locals would allow outside help. "She's with Manhattan SVU."

The sergeant nodded, "Sorry I didn't think to ask what department you worked with."

"Organized Crime, but I spent thirteen years with SVU."

Anderson chewed on the information for a moment, "Do you think she would help us if this case turns in a more criminal direction?"

Thank God. "As long as her son is cared for she'd be happy to help. All of these kids come from the city, and only a few parents are actually here to consent to interviews. I know her team could meet with the kids and their parents when they get back to the city."

The sergeant relaxed a little. "That would be extremely helpful. We only have so many resources, and dispatching most of our unit to conduct interviews would be use up manpower we barely have."

"I spoke to her over an hour ago, and with the way her sergeant drives, they'll be here anytime," he said wryly.

"Alright, I'm going to brief the officers that just arrived and get them started on the preliminary sweep, why don't you hang out with your kid until Captain Benson gets here and then we can go from there."

-000-

Elliot broke away from the sergeant and headed towards the pavilion. Noah and Jace must have been watching and waiting because they jumped from their seats at the picnic table to meet him.

"What's going on?" Jace's brown eyes looked desperate.

Elliot placed a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder, "These officers are going to start searching the area. Once Noah's mom gets here, I'll go help." Jace still looked sick with worry. "Hey, these guys search for people out here all the time. They probably got lost and they know the places to look to find them. Okay?" Jace nodded and Elliot knew he was holding back tears. "Hey why don't we raid my snack bag I stashed in my duffel. I know I have more candy. Not sure what your favorite is but I probably have it. I bought a little bit of everything."

Jace nodded but kept his eyes focused on the dirt. Elliot couldn't even imagine how horrible this was for this kid. No amount of candy or distraction could make this better.

-000-

The anxiety that had receded during the drive to the campsite now had Olivia in a death grip. With every switchback her stomach churned. She reminded herself that Noah was okay. But okay was a relative term, and physically okay wasn't the same as emotionally okay.

Her heart bled for the families. Usually she could emotionally detach. Some cases got to her, but most didn't. This situation was different. She knew these families. She knew their kids.

She thought of Elliot, and was incomprehensibly grateful he agreed to this. Sending Noah with Elliot was basically the same as sending him with a bodyguard. Things had been strained for so long between them that she had forgotten how much she trusted him. Noah was safe with Elliot. She was safe with Elliot. Now if only she could get her heart to agree.

The car wound around the last switchback and they were immediately met with a flurry of activity. They pulled up to the set perimeter and Fin rolled the window. "Sergeant Tutuola and Captain Benson," he flashed his badge.

"Go on through. I think Detective Stabler's over at the pavilion."

"Thanks," Fin gave him a curt nod before passing through. She let out a long slow breath, trying to mentally prepare for everything that was to come. "You okay?" Fin asked as he dropped the car into park.

"No." She admitted, but didn't elaborate.

He turned the ignition off, waited for a moment before asking, "You ready?"

She stared blankly out the window. "Not really, but I'm going to have to be."

"Hey," he laid a hand on her shoulder and she turned her head towards him. "You got this Benson."