You will probably hate me at the end of this chapter...Forgive me please!?

Olivia's alarm went off at the same time it did everyday, but this time it was met with groans and voices grumbling, "Turn it off!" She silenced her phone and chuckled to herself. She forgot Elliot wasn't a morning person…coincidentally, neither was Noah.

She yawned and sat up. She slid towards the end of the bed to avoid the ottoman Noah slept on next to her the previous night. Her toes pressed into the soft carpet of her bedroom. She padded over to Noah and dropped a kiss on his temple. "I love you," she whispered.

"Mooooom," he groaned and threw his pillow over his head. She chuckled and left him in peace. She stood at the end of her bed with her hand resting on the footboard. Elliot fell back to sleep, and she wished she could give him the same greeting. She wished she could get the words out of her mouth.

His lips smirked into a smile and she realized he wasn't asleep. "You're the worst!" She tried keeping her voice low so as not to wake Noah.

His eyes popped open and danced with mischief. "Do I get the same good morning greeting?" She stepped towards him shaking her head, trying to hide her smile. He caught her hip and pulled down to him. She landed her with her hands catching herself against his chest.

"You're such an ass," she teased.

"Shhh," he said exaggeratedly. His eyes flicked to Noah, "little ears remember."

She rolled her eyes and couldn't help pressing a kiss to that smirking mouth. God, he was infuriating…but she kind of loved it. She pulled back and propped herself up on her forearm. "I need to get ready." She sighed and dropped her head on his shoulder. "I don't want to do this day," she admitted.

He lifted her face, and brushed her hair out of the way. "I know. I don't want you to have to do this either." He pecked her lips, "but I know you can."

He made it harder to leave when he said endearing crap like that. She kissed him again, and sighed. She pushed herself up. "I need to shower," she groaned.

His hand drifted from her lower back to her ass and gave it a squeeze. "I could join you," he said suggestively.

She smacked his chest in faux indignation. "Definitely not happening right now." Her eyes shifted to Noah still laying closeby. She leaned in, her mouth brushing his with every word. "Maybe later," her voice was low and flirtatious.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise and she just chuckled as she rolled off the bed. She made her way to the bathroom and she was fairly sure he was checking out her ass as she left.

-000-

She sat in her car, aimlessly staring out the windshield. She'd been in the parking lot at work for a solid five minutes now. She wasn't mentally prepared for this day. Realizing she might never be prepared for this day, she undid her seat belt and threw the door open with a sigh.

The moment she stepped into her squad room she was immediately pulled in several different directions. Everyone needed something, and she wished she could go back to this morning and stay in the warm serenity of her bedroom.

"Lab samples should be here by lunch," Churlish started.

Velasco was up next, "CPS brought Lucas back. He's got a child advocate with him. Does that mean we can interview him?"

Fin at least handed her a coffee before diving in, "Abby and her mom will be back in this afternoon, they'll have a lawyer I'm sure."

She already had a headache.

Churlish jumped in again. "The principal from Abby's last school is going to call me back in twenty minutes. I gleaned a little info from her records, but nothing terribly helpful. I'm hoping the principal can enlighten us. I got the contact info for Ella mom. I haven't had a minute, but I'll call her and see if she'd let us talk to Ella…"

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she wished she could mute all the madness. She lifted her phone and nearly cried at the text she found waiting for her.

E: Take two deep breaths. You got this Benson.

That little reassurance. That minute gesture made her feel like at least one person in the godforsaken world cared about her. It was enough to assure her that she could, in fact, do this day.

-000-

Fin wasn't a good fit to interview a preteen mean girl, but he was absolutely qualified to interview a punk ass kid. She watched the dance. The sizing each other up, deciding how much their opponent might give, and how much they might take. Lucas sat with his seat tilted back on two legs, arms crossed, face defiant. Fin looked amused. He leaned forward, his elbows on the table with his fingers laced. He wouldn't not be intimidated. In his years on the job, he'd seen way worse than whatever this kid could dish out.

"Now, I want you to understand Lucas. You don't have to say anything. You're a minor, and currently in state custody which means we can leave whenever you want.

She watched Fin internally roll his eyes. She knew that look. "Your advocate is right. I'm just gonna ask some questions and you can answer them, or not, but if we clear this up m, maybe you can go home and this can all go away."

Lucas shrugged his shoulders and picked at his fingernails as if this was just an inconvenient part of his day. Fin mirrored the kid's devil may care attitude. Olivia knew the tactic. If Fin didn't seem invested, if he didn't care, Lucas might trip up on details, thinking they were not important, and hopefully they could pull the truth from the lie.

It was an appropriate tactic for Lucas. Intimidation wouldn't work. He had obvious oppositional defiance issues. Defying an authority figure would just be another fun day for him.

Fin didn't even bother making eye contact. "So what was the deal with sneaking out of the tent that night?"

"Who said that I did?" Lucas picked at his fingernails aimlessly.

Fin wasn't going to throw Colton's name out there. Not yet. "Parent on duty saw you leaving the tent." Obviously untrue, but hopefully painting the cops as inept would build his confidence.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "They must have been lying because I didn't leave the tent until Noah asked me for his stupid water bottle."

"Hm. Well that's a problem then. We like to believe the adults over kids." Also not true. "Why don't you stop with the BS so we can all get out of here. The parent saw you. Why'd you leave your tent?"

He stood his ground adamantly. "Dude must have seen someone else because it wasn't me. Ask my dad. I was sleeping like an angel." The grin was nauseating. He knew his dad would back him up to make the problem go away.

"We'll ask him." Fin nodded in confirmation. "Let's backtrack." Olivia knew he would eventually circle back. "Why did ya knock Clem's pencils on the ground?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Did your cop buddy tell you about that? Everyone's making such a big deal over nothing. She's such a baby."

"Okay so no reason."

"Nope," he answered shortly. This little shit was already getting on her nerves. Luckily Fin had a better tolerance level with this sort of thing.

"Come on man. There had to be something. I mean is this one of those pulling on the pigtails things?" Lucas looked confused. "Do you like her? That's why you were buggin her?" Fin was pushing buttons. Part of her wondered if he secretly enjoyed that part of their job.

"No way. Seriously? She's such a baby about everything. And her voice is so annoying. She doesn't do anything wrong. Everyone thinks she is perfect," Lucas made a face, but didn't really finish the thought.

"Oh okay," Fin faked understanding. "So you're jealous of the shy kid in the class. I'll make a note of that."

The advocate gave Fin a warning look. She knew Fin was baiting the kid. He would need to tread carefully if he wanted to continue without the advocate shutting down the whole thing.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "I'm not jealous. I'm annoyed. She dropped a pencil on the hike. The whole class had to stop while her and her little friends searched for it. She held up the whole hike to search a stupid pencil."

"And that made you mad?"

"Well yeah. It was so dumb. We could have got out of the heat sooner if the angel girl didn't need her blue colored pencil."

Olivia was beginning to see why Colton called this kid an ass.

"Ooh okay. So you got back to camp, saw the pencils and?"

Lucas rolled his eyes, "I tossed them all over the ground. Figured if she made our hike take forever she could dig through the dirt for her pencils. I don't know why everyone made a big deal about it. They were just stupid pencils."

"But Colton made it a big deal," Fin prodded.

Lucas' face contorted in distaste. "Yeah, that little… That kid is so," Lucas couldn't find the word so he changed directions. "He had to make a big show because he thinks Clem is the best. Probably had a crush on her. I dunno." He waved his hands a bit, exaggerating his point. "And because he had to be a sniffling tattle tale, Noah's…what is that guy? Did his mom seriously send him to camp with a bodyguard, cuz that…" he shook his head and laughed sarcastically. "That's a little extra. That kid's moms so tightly wound. My dad says she needs a good fff…"

"Captain!" Churlish called, and bursted over, phone in hand. "I'm talking to Abby's old principal. You need to hear all of this." Something in Churlish's eyes pulled her away from the interview from hell going on behind the glass. She motioned for Churlish to bring her phone into her office so they could speak with the principal privately.

Once the office door was closed Olivia reached her hand out for the phone. Churlish dropped it into her hand and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Olivia's desk. Olivia hit the speaker button so Churlish could chime in when needed.

"This is Captain Benson," she kept her voice short and clipped.

"Oh hello," the principal greeted. She sounded a little nervous, but that wasn't abnormal when she spoke so authoritatively.

Olivia softened. "My detective said I need to speak with you concerning Abigail Wilson and her expulsion from your school. We are looking into a case and it may be relevant to our investigation."

"It probably is…" the principal said cryptically. She sighed. "Elementary school can be rough on some kids, and as they get closer to Middle school, they sort of change. Abby had always been a little…" She searched for the word, "kind of a queen bee. Everyone wanted to be her friend. There's usually one in every grade. That kid that is so damn manipulative that everyone wants to be their friend. Sometimes it's for their own protection. It's messed up but it's the way it is."

Olivia appreciated the woman's matter-of-fact attitude on the matter.

"Abby was friends with Ella. I spoke with Ella's parents and they said I could share the situation with you. They said they would be speaking with you later today?"

"That's correct," Olivia confirmed.

"Ella changed. Which happens, you know, as kids grow into themselves a little. She seemed reluctant to stay friends with Abby. Her parents encouraged her to make friends besides Abby. They worried that if Abby was Ella's only friend it would be damaging if Abby ever "dumped" the friendship. Ella did what her parents said. Distanced herself. Found a friend who enjoyed art and spent more time with her."

"Abby didn't like that." Olivia guessed.

"Not at all. You see in Abby's world, she's in control. She couldn't seem to handle Ella moving on to someone else. That's when things uh… they spun out of control rather quickly."

Olivia's phone buzzed and she resisted the urge to cuss aloud. It was the hospital. They seemed to have a six sense on when it would be incredibly inconvenient to answer a call. She glanced at her phone and back at Churlish. She resisted the urge to scream. This juggling act was beginning to get old. She stopped the principal. "I'm sorry. I have a really important call to take and I can't miss it. I'll be just a moment."

She motioned for churlish to pick the phone off of her desk. Olivia stood and headed towards the door, putting the phone to her ear as she stepped into the squad room.

"Benson," she answered.

"Hello Captain. We were told to pass updates along to you as we continue Clementine's care, but uh," the voice on the other end sounded nervous. Olivia knew that time. She used that tone all the time. It's the tone people use when bad news is pending. "I'm afraid it's not good news."

In that moment Olivia's stomach knotted and her heart stopped. She knew. She knew the next words would wreck her completely.

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