A/N: The climax of the plot. I know the ending kind of makes it sound like it's the end of the series, but it isn't, there is more to come.
"Who's that clip-clopping on my bridge?"
"Is jus' me, the li'l baby goat." Gracie smiled in delighted anticipation of what she knew was about to happen next in the much-loved game.
"Then I'm coming to get you, and I'm going to tickle you on the belly." Olivia cackled in her 'evil troll' voice as she chased Gracie through the apartment, caught the giggling little one in her arms, and teasingly wriggled her fingers, slowly inching towards Gracie's belly, "This is what happens to those who dare to cross my bridge. Tickle, tickle, tickle."
Gracie pouted when her quality playtime with Mommy was interrupted by the sound of Mommy's cell phone ringing. Olivia gave Gracie an affectionate pat on her diapered bottom as she set the brunette little one back on her feet and went to retrieve her cell phone.
"Benson." Olivia greeted professionally.
"Hey, Captain, it's me. Just giving you a head's up not to let Muncy go outside by herself." Fin's voice came over the line.
"What happened?" Olivia glanced over to see that Gracie was happily lost in her imagination playing with her toys scattered on the floor and she stepped into the kitchen away from little ears.
"A note was delivered for Muncy here at the precinct, from Duarte. Looks like it's written in blood. He claims to know where she's staying, but as of right now we're not sure if that's true or if he's bluffing to scare her. I'm sending you a photo now and then I'll send it to the lab. The creep didn't even have the guts to deliver it himself, he paid some kid fifty bucks to do it for him. Velasco and Rollins are interviewing the kid now."
Olivia sighed, rubbing her forehead. They had been chasing Duarte for weeks, but so far he had evaded them at every turn. Olivia was concerned and Grace was frightened and the whole situation was a mess.
"I want to know everything you know when you know it. Do you understand?" Olivia spoke sternly.
"Copy that, Captain."
Olivia hung up from the call and looked at the photo Fin had sent her. It did indeed look like it was written in blood, but it could just as easily be red marker. The lab would be able to tell the difference. If it was blood, then they had to figure out whose blood it was and whether or not they were still alive. Duarte was angry that he couldn't force Grace to go with him when he had caught up with Amanda and Grace in their car, and now he was on a killing spree. Olivia sighed as she put her phone on the kitchen counter on its charging station. The weather was nice outside and Olivia had been planning to take Gracie to the playground later that afternoon to let her have some fresh air and sunshine, but she immediately dismissed that idea as much too dangerous. Olivia smiled lovingly as she walked back into the living room.
"Mommy, dat bad man gonna get me?" Gracie looked up from her collection of My Little Ponies with fear in her dazzling blue eyes, instinctively knowing that Mommy's phone call had something to do with her.
"No, baby, you are very safe right here in your house with Mommy. But in order to keep my little girl safe, I think the playground will have to wait for a few days. I think instead of going to the playground this afternoon, we can cuddle up with popcorn and watch a movie." Olivia explained kindly, gently stroking Gracie's face to soothe her.
"Snow Why!" Gracie cheered happily. As a consequence for being naughty, it had been several days since she was allowed to watch a movie. Her 'no movie' consequence was supposed to be over tomorrow, and Gracie was excited that Mommy was letting her off a whole day early.
"Yes, we can watch Snow White. Are we done playing with the bridge? What do we do when we are done using things?" Olivia pointed to the 'bridge' they had created in the middle of the room.
"Put dem 'way." Gracie crawled over and began to disassemble their creation.
"That's my good girl." Olivia praised, and walked over to help her clean up.
A little while later, Gracie was happily cuddled in Mommy's arms on the couch with her sippy cup filled with milk in one hand and Jewel clutched in the other. Gracie happily sang along with the seven dwarves on the TV screen, but she couldn't quite get a hang of the whistling part despite Mommy patiently trying to teach her how to do it, so she clapped her hands instead. The brunette little one giggled happily when Mommy gently took her wrists and playfully clapped her hands for her.
Meanwhile at the precinct, Velasco and Rollins were still interviewing the kid who had brought the note in, and the young man was getting frustrated.
"Look, I keep telling you guys I've never seen this dude before. All I know is he comes up to me on the street and offers me fifty bucks to deliver an envelope here. I'm no dummy, that's a good payday where I come from."
"This guy's face was all over the news not that long ago for killing three people, and before that he was arrested for battery and assault. You're telling me that you've never seen him before today?" Velasco questioned.
"Do I look like I have money to buy a TV?" the young man shot back.
"Well, you've got some pretty expensive tennis shoes, there." Amanda observed.
"I got these for my birthday, my Mama saved up. Can I go now?"
"You're not under arrest, you're free to go at any time. Just one more question, did you see where this guy went after you talked to him?" Amanda asked.
"Last I saw, he was headed east."
Duarte was indeed heading east toward the Hudson river, sauntering along as he reached into his pocket for a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it with his lighter as he leaned against a lamp post and took a long drag to calm his nerves. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen his Gracie and the lack of control was making him nervous. It was sheer dumb luck that he had come across her name in the paper naming her as one of the detectives at the Special Victims Unit. During all their years together, she would never tell him where she worked no matter how many times he beat her over it. Now that he knew where she worked, he still had no idea where she was living and he hoped that his threatening message that had been delivered to her precinct would be enough to scare her into running back to him. Grace craved dependency, there was no way she was living on her own, he knew that for a fact, and he was already making his plans to take care of whoever's protection she was currently under so that she would have no choice but to come back to him. Tossing his used cigarette aside, Duarte continued walking until he reached his destination and slipped inside unnoticed.
With his back to the door, O'Halloran carefully studied the various screens in front of him and typed on his keyboard and forwarded all of the results of all of his various research and testing to the detectives of the Special Victims Unit. The red writing on the paper was indeed blood, but according to all the tests it was Duarte's own blood. The handsome lab technician heard rustling behind him, and he discreetly reached down to press the panic button hidden underneath his desk just as he felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of his head and he slowly raised his hands in surrender.
"O'Halloran hit his panic button." Fin observed, reading the notification on his phone and getting up from his desk.
"Right behind you, Sergeant." Velasco said as he quickly followed Fin out of the squad room and to the elevator. They could be there in less than four minutes.
Fin and Velasco burst into the lab and found O'Halloran on the floor looking dazed, but otherwise unharmed. The lab appeared empty aside from the three of them, but Velasco drew his gun to do a sweep of the area just in case, while Fin hurried over and helped O'Halloran to his feet.
"You okay, man?"
"It was that Duarte guy, the one you're looking for. He drew a gun on me and made me give him all of Detective Muncy's information. He threatened to kill me… I… I have a baby on the way…" O'Halloran panted.
"It's all clear. Don't worry, O'Halloran, you did good." Velasco came walking up to them.
Fin immediately picked up his phone to call his Captain.
"Mommy, I wiked dat cookie! Mine belly is happy!" Gracie smiled, patting her satisfied belly.
"I'm glad you liked it, my little cookie monster." Olivia gave Gracie's belly a tickle and went to answer her phone when it started to ring.
"Benson." Olivia greeted.
"Liv, it's Fin. Velasco and I are on our way over, you need to lock your door and-"
"MOMMY!" Gracie screamed when suddenly there was violent pounding on the door as if someone was trying to kick it in. The door suddenly flew open and Gracie was greeted by Duarte's cold eyes.
Olivia's reaction was instantaneous as she grabbed Grace around her waist and the two of them ran into Olivia's bedroom where Olivia locked the door and held it closed with every ounce of her strength as Duarte tried to break in. Grace found herself curled up fetal on the floor sobbing hysterically and wet her diaper in her agitation.
"10-13! 10-13! Officers in distress!" Olivia spoke urgently into the phone.
"We're a block away, Liv. Hang on."
"Grace! Come on out and let's just talk!" Duarte pounded on the bedroom door, and Grace began to sob harder.
"Duarte, get out of here now!" Olivia ordered, struggling to keep the door closed against him. She had dropped her phone to the floor to use all of her strength to keep the door closed.
"You stupid little bitch! You never did love me, did you? You were just using me to fulfill your sick, twisted fantasies. Didn't I give you everything you wanted? You wanted someone to be in control of you. You don't get to say that I abused you because you asked for everything I did to you." Duarte growled, addressing Grace who was still on the floor, now with her thumb in her mouth.
"Shut up!" Olivia growled through the door.
The door suddenly flew open and Olivia fell to the floor as Duarte finally managed to push his way into the bedroom. Seeing the man headed straight for her baby, Olivia did the only thing she could do, she reached for her weapon and fired. Grace let out a blood-curdling scream as Duarte's dead body fell on top of her. Hearing a shot ring out from their Captain's apartment just as they stepped off the elevator, Fin and Velasco pushed their way into Olivia's apartment. Not immediately seeing them, they ran down the hall. They burst into the bedroom and saw the broken door, Olivia's gun in her hand, and Duarte's dead body on top of Grace. Panting, Olivia took a moment to calm herself before she moved Duarte's body off of her baby and guided Grace away from the body.
"Mommy!" Grace sobbed, visibly shaking, not even caring that there were others in the room as she desperately reached for Olivia. She looked down and saw that her hands, shirt, and part of her face was covered in blood.
"I'm right here, baby. You're safe now. Mommy's here." Olivia soothed, guiding Grace to sit up and cuddling the frightened little one in her arms as she knelt beside her on the floor.
Fortunately, Fin and Velasco were too busy doing their jobs to pay attention to anything that was being said between the two brunettes, and it seemed like they hadn't even noticed the way Grace was dressed. While Fin was on the radio talking to his colleagues, Velasco searched through Duarte's pockets and discovered a piece of paper with Olivia's name and address on it, along with a taser and a knife.
"Don't worry, Liv, the department will pay to get your carpet cleaned." Fin said.
"I might just have the landlord rip it out and replace it. How the hell did he even get up here? I gave his picture to Jorge in the lobby and told him that he is not to be allowed up here."
"Jorge's dead, looks like Duarte stabbed him."
With all of their duties completed, Fin and Velasco let themselves out of the apartment. Olivia and Grace were still on the floor in the bedroom. Olivia knew that since she had fired her weapon, IAB was going to be all over her tail, but she could worry about that later.
"Mommy, wet diaper." Gracie whimpered, seemingly in shock.
Olivia set aside her own shock to give her undivided attention to her still trembling baby.
"How about a nice, warm bath to wash away this yucky day?" Olivia suggested lovingly, although it wasn't really a suggestion. Gracie was getting a bath whether she wanted one or not.
"Bubbles?" Gracie whimpered, her dazzling blue eyes staring at nothing.
"Of course with bubbles. What kind of monster do you think I am?" Olivia teased lovingly, hoping to elicit a giggle, but her teasing was met with silence.
Olivia drew Gracie a lavender-scented bath, gently stripped the brunette little one out of her clothes and wet diaper, and gently guided Gracie into the soothing warmth. She put Gracie's bath toys in the water, but Gracie didn't feel like playing with them. She was questioning whether Olivia should even be giving her a bath in the first place. Duarte's cruel words about her "sick, twisted fantasies" had struck a nerve with her and once again baby girl Gracie found herself at war with big girl Grace. Baby girl Gracie just wanted to be loved and she didn't understand what was sick or twisted about wanting Mommy to cuddle her and tickle her and be in charge of making most of the decisions. Big girl Grace was just confused; the more she thought about it, the more she realized it was true, she really had asked for Duarte to do everything he did to her, so how could she dare to claim that she was abused. She thought about all the women she saw at SVU on a daily basis who were truly abused and she couldn't see any similarities between herself and them. Maybe Olivia had been wrong to take her in; maybe she deserved every beating she got. "Stupid" was Duarte's favorite thing to call Grace, and after all these years she had come to believe him. Olivia was helping to undo his brainwashing, but it was a slow process. Olivia could see the wheels turning in Grace's head and knew that they were starting over at square one, exactly where they had started all those months ago. Grace hadn't uttered a single word since she asked for bubbles in her bath, and Olivia was surprised that Grace was even allowing her to bathe her in the first place.
When the bath was over, Olivia carried Grace into her room and gently laid her down on the bed and dried her off with the towel.
"Do you want your yellow ducky pajamas or your pink princess pajamas, sweetheart?" Olivia asked lovingly, trying to give Grace choices to focus on to bring her out of her own head. She could see the inner battle going on inside of Grace, the struggle for dominance between big and little.
"Pink, peeze." Grace replied softly, and put her thumb in her mouth. Neither option felt safe to her at the moment, but if she had to choose, she would rather be a baby girl. Olivia gently removed Grace's thumb from her mouth and replaced it with a pacifier.
"Such a good girl. Mommy's good girl." Olivia cooed lovingly as she finished getting Grace dressed and warm in her pajamas.
"Mommy, no more goats?" Gracie looked up at Mommy with a trembling lower lip, pain and confusion radiating from her dazzling blue eyes.
"Do you want to play the billy goat game again?" Olivia asked kindly. They had taken down their 'bridge', but Olivia would absolutely take the time to put it up again if that's what her baby wanted.
"Da bad man say I's no good. Baby bad, hafta go 'way. No mo'e baby." tears filled Gracie's eyes.
"He was lying to you, sweetheart. You are allowed to have your little girl fantasies, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and he took advantage of you when you were vulnerable. Wanting to be little sometimes doesn't make you bad, you aren't hurting anyone."
"But I axed him for bad fings. My fault."
"You may have asked to be his baby girl, but you didn't ask him to hurt you. Do you remember all the bruises all over my sweet girl's delicate skin, and the scars on her back? Did you ask him to do that to you?"
"No. He did dat cuz he was mad at me cuz I didn't wanna have sex when I was feelin' little. I was bad."
"You absolutely were not bad, he was bad for not listening to you when you said no. And even if you were naughty sometimes, let's think about that for a minute. What kinds of consequences does Mommy give you when you deserve them?"
"Tie-ow, or 'panking mine tushy, or soap, or no movie." Gracie pouted, not liking any of those consequences.
"And when I give you a consequence, do I just give it to you because I'm mad and not tell you why or do I explain why I'm giving it to you to help you learn the difference between right and wrong?"
"You 'splain." Gracie replied.
"And after your consequence is over, do you ever feel degraded or worthless or bad?"
"No, you give me hugs and I feel like a good girl." Gracie replied.
"And when I have to spank you, do I ever leave bruises or spank anywhere other than this cute little tushy?" Olivia gently patted Gracie's bottom.
"No, is jus' red an' sore a little while."
"Nobody ever asks for abuse, baby. That's why it's called abuse. Duarte was very mean to you, he hurt your body and he hurt your heart and your mind by making you believe things about yourself that aren't true. Tell Mommy, why do you like being a baby girl? What goal does it accomplish for you?"
Gracie paused in thought for a moment or two, and while she gathered her thoughts Olivia picked her up and carried her out to the couch where she sat down and settled Gracie to cuddle on her lap.
"Baby girl is safe. Big girl fings is too scary sometimes, too hard. I wike not havin' ta make so many 'cisions all da time. I wike playin' wif mine toys and colorin', is relaxin' when big girl Gracie gets off work. I wike when you give me baff. I wike bein' tickled. I hadda take care of mine brover an' nobody ever taked care of me." Gracie started to cry.
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with you for wanting to be taken care of, little one. You did such a good job taking care of your brother, and now it's Mommy's turn to take care of you. Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes and I am so honored that you trusted me enough to let me see this sweet side of yourself and let me take care of you. I will always be here to take care of you and to love you, whether you are my big girl or my baby girl. And I will always be here to tickle you." Olivia teased, gently tickling Gracie's belly and finally getting a giggle out of her.
"Mommy, gun too loud. Hurt mine ears." Gracie rubbed her ears.
"It was very loud, wasn't it? Mommy's ears are still ringing too, they'll feel better soon. Let's go to the kitchen and decide what we want to have for dinner tonight. And since we've had a hard day, I think tonight would be a great night to go have a sleepover with Amanda and Frannie." Olivia said, thinking about the bloodstains in her bedroom.
"Doggie!" Gracie beamed happily.