Conducting a proper search was time consuming. It consisted of walking slowly, while trying to maintain focus on every detail within one's sight line. So that's what they did. Slowly. Back and forth. Back and forth. They conversed occasionally, but they mostly just watched, and listened to the sounds of foliage crunching beneath their feet. They had done this for hours. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Olivia tried to stay focused, and not let her mind wander to the worst possible scenario. But with each passing hour she knew their odds dropped steadily.

Elliot's voice jarred her out of her spiral. "How's that boot Liv?" He was only a couple yards away and he started in her direction.

She wanted to say it was fine, and they needed to just keep looking, but he was already kneeling down to unlace the top section of her boot. Once loosened they let her ankle breathe for a minute. She felt his hands in her ankle, lifting her bangs slightly to better inspect it. "Is it hurting?" He asked while lightly pressing his fingers against the bones and ligaments of her ankle.

To be honest, it was getting a little sore. She would be stiff tomorrow for sure, but it wasn't bad enough to stop all together. "It's fine." He pressed a little harder and she winced.

"Liv," he scolded.

"It's really not bad. It swells like this just from sitting at work sometimes." He kept his hands on her ankle and looked up at her skeptically. He obviously didn't believe her. She sighed and looked at her watch. "Just lace me up, we have an hour, MAYBE two before it's dark. I can make it that long," she promised. He still gave her that look. "I promise to ice it and elevate it when we get back to camp okay?"

"Sure Liv." She could hear his eye roll, but she didn't care because she was getting what she wanted. He laced her up, just as before, checking the tightness before standing back up.

His stormy blue eyes were on hers, and she held his gaze until she broke under its intensity. "Let's keep going." She stepped away, and back into the path she was sweeping. "When do we loop back?"

He returned to his position a few yards away. "We should be coming up to the drop off soon. Probably twenty minutes at our pace."

She nodded but stayed silent as they continued the mind numbing sweep. Back and forth. Back and forth.

-000-

Not long after fixing Olivia's boot, they began to approach the decline. Up till now they had given it some wide space. They could hear the search and rescue teams working below, so they typically turned around to sweep back before ever coming too close to the edge.

However, this time, Elliot was a little curious, and drew closer to the edge. He glanced over his shoulder to see Olivia giving him a look of consternation. "El, search and rescue is taking care of things down there. Get back here before you kill yourself."

"I'm not going to kill myself." He rolled his eyes. He wasn't that close, and he was on sure footing. He'd be fine. Olivia hung back and watched him as he walked carefully to the edge.

He let out a low whistle. "That is pretty steep."

"No kidding,"Olivia said sarcastically. "Anderson just warned us about it two different times."

The drop off was pretty steep. There was a seven or eight foot drop followed by a steep decline towards the bowl of the valley. One could slide down the decline but it was far too steep to walk up and down it. It also looked like random areas dropped off into more sheer edges.

He could feel her nerves from where she stood. He took a step back, hoping to appease her some, but as he shifted backward something caught his eye. Damn it. "Liv?" He called over his shoulder.

"What?" Her voice sounded nervous in response to his tone.

He waved for her to come closer. She moved closer to the edge and Elliot kept a steadying arm around her waist.

A boot.

Her eyes remain fixated on the boot wedged against a boulder. "Do you remember what boots the kids were wearing?"

He closed his eyes and tried to remember. He shook his head. "I have no idea. I really wasn't paying attention to that."

She rubbed his arm for a second, providing some comfort. "It's okay. It would be a weird detail to remember."

The boot was partially obscured, but it was loose, like it had been kicked off. From their vantage point, it was difficult to tell if the boot was a new fixture against that boulder or if it had been there for months. They just couldn't see it well enough.

Elliot stood up straight and tugged on Liv's waist, pulling her away from the edge. "Do we call it in?" He asked, not sure if a loose boot was cause for alarm.

She nodded. "Yeah, call it. So far no one has come up with anything. This gives us some direction to look."

He picked up the radio. "This is Captain Benson and Detective Stabler. We are east of the creek near the small cliff edge. We see a boot. Appears to be a child's size." He swallowed, "or maybe a small women's shoe size. We can't access it. Requesting back up."

The radio crackled and another voice came through. "Backup is on the way. Stay put. Search and rescue will be there shortly."

Elliot clipped the radio back to his belt loop and backed away further from the edge. He found a sandy spot on the edge of the tree line and sat. He patted the space next to him. "Sit down Liv. It's going to take them a bit to get all the way over here, and you need to get off that ankle."

She folded her arms across her chest. She was pacing. "Liv, come on," he tried again, but she continued to pace. She seemed like she was somewhere else. He picked himself back up off the ground, and dusted his pants off before standing right in front of her. She stopped pacing and lifted her eyes to his.

"This isn't good." She shook her head.

He stepped towards her, and his hands rubbed up and down her upper arms. "I know." His voice was low, echoing the strain in hers.

He saw her eyes begin to water, and in true Olivia fashion she tried to hide the emotion by leaning her head into his shoulder. The position effectively obscured her face, but he wouldn't complain about her now close proximity. "What am I going to tell Noah," she paused to breathe and control her emotion, "what am I going to tell him if this goes badly." She shook her head, still leaning her forehead into his shoulder. "What the hell happened?"

Instinctively he dropped his hands from her upper arms and wrapped them completely around her. He sat for a moment, testing the waters, waiting for her to withdraw. She didn't.

His hand rubbed up and down her back as she bit back the emotion he knew she was experiencing. "I wish I knew Liv. Everything was fine, and then they were gone."

She finally lifted her face from his shoulder, but right as she began to say something the radio clicked and they heard voices coming from the trees. He watched her take a shaker breath before stepping completely out of his arms.

It was impressive, really. Her ability to shove her emotions away into a box far from her surface. She could go from emotional to stoic at the flip of a switch, and he wished she didn't have to. He wished she could be her, all of her, emotions and all. Because he knew the real Olivia Benson, and while she absolutely was a bad ass powerful NYPD captain, she was also so much more than that. He counted himself as one of the lucky few who got to know the real her. The one she kept locked away. The one whose heart bled with empathy for every battered soul she came in contact with. The one who he loved.

The arrival of the search and rescue team and the commanding Sergeant broke him away from his pensive thoughts. It was back to business.

Sergeant Anderson stepped towards him, "We've got our climbers here, and there is a second team at the base. This is a long slope so they will work upwards while this team works down." The man patted Elliot on the shoulder. "Good work detective," he nodded at Olivia, and worked his way over to the climbing team.

Both Elliot and Olivia felt superfluous during this part of the search. All they could do was watch and wait. And neither of them were ever comfortable with watching and waiting.

Elliot rocked back and forth from his toes to his heels until Olivia's arm shot out, stopping the movement. "You're making me nervous."

"I thought you were already nervous," he joked. It was mildly effective at lightening the darkening atmosphere.

"Well that," she motioned towards his whole body. "Isn't helping."

"Better than the pacing…" he muttered.

"What?"

He knew she heard him, but he settled for, "Um nothing…"

She gave him a self-satisfied grin, "That's what I thought."

He shook his head, "Always so bossy."

That earned him a bigger smile, "Well…I am Captain after all…"

He grinned back, but a ruckus near the edge caught their attention.

The climbing team were in position to begin their descent, but they were suddenly stopped by the Sergeant. Elliot couldn't hear what was going on. He saw the sergeant talking on the radio, and noticed somehow his got turned off. He flipped it back on as they both hurried to see what all the commotion was about.

-000-

"Yo, dudes seriously." Fin wasn't sure what he did to earn babysitting duty, but here he was in a crappy hotel, trying to keep two twelve year old boys from destroying the place. While he was happy they were messing around, effectively dissipating the dark ominous cloud that had followed them, he was really not interested in paying for the cheap motel furniture. "Woah GUYS!" his raised voice finally caught their attention, and they stopped whatever rambunctious game they had made up in the hours they had been cooped up. "How 'bout pizza?"

Both kids nodded eagerly. "I want pepperoni," Noah volunteered.

"Me too!" Jace agreed.

"Okay. I can do that, but here's the deal. I'm only making this call if you guys just sit on the bed and watch the TV or somethin'." Both boys settled against the headboard and Noah reached for the remote.

Fin prayed there would be something child appropriate on the TV screen. From the looks of the motel, there was a pretty good chance someone could be dealing in the next room. That, combined with the fact they already had two lost kids, made him hesitant to take the boys outside of this room.

He glanced back over at the TV. The kids found some dumb ass sitcom to watch which was perfect. He snatched his phone off the dresser, and googled the nearest pizza place. It would have to be delivered. Hopefully he could find someone who delivered all the way out to this godforsaken motel.

Just as he found the number for the pizza place, his phone screen lit up. Stabler. He slid the screen to answer, hoping that for once in his life, they would have good news.