The Holidays have my life all crazy, but I'm trying to sneak in writing time for all of you. Enjoy!

Marcos sat back into the couch and reached for the hand of the long haired girl next to him. "Diego, he uh," he scrubbed his hand over his face. "He thought that I was just, I don't know…leaving our family behind?"

"You know that's not true baby." His girlfriend rubbed circles on his back comfortingly.

"Do I?" Pain ached from his expression.

She flipped her long dark hair, almost curtaining them off from the detectives. "You had to get out if you're ever going to get them out."

He groaned and pulled his hand from hers in favor of dropping his head into his hands. "That's the plan. I send everything I can back to them, but…I wish I could do more."

Jet treaded carefully. "You asked us what he had done," she lifted her eyes to Marcos', "has he been in trouble a lot.

Marcos sighed. "Not until I left really, and it's all been small stuff. Things like staying out too late, and ditching school. Mom's been crazy over it all, but what can she do? She's working all the time."

Jet continued her delicate questioning. "The neighborhood where your family lives…"

Marcos' face darkened. "He's not part of BX9. No way. He's not stupid enough to get caught up in that shit."

Jet and Churlish exchanged a look. They both knew that sometimes kids from the neighborhood didn't really have a choice. "Okay. Does he have friends, or people he spends lots of time with?" Churlish asked.

Marcos nodded. "Yeah. Fabian lives a couple floors down. They've been inseparable since they were in grade school. Can you please just tell me what's going on? Is he hurt? Did he get himself into something worse?

"Um, we can't answer that specifically now, but it's really important that we find him." Jet kept her words soft. The kid looked like he was going to spook.

Marcos eyes them warily. Up to this point he had been cooperative and helpful, but their inability to provide him with answers pricked his concern. "I don't really know. I'm not there anymore."

Churlish pressed a little more. "How bout your mom?" Could we talk to her?"

Marcos slapped his hands on his knees and stood. "Mama works two jobs and is rarely home. I doubt you'd be able to meet up with her."

It became clear that the conversation was over. They wouldn't be getting anymore information from Marcos. "Well uh," Jet stood up. "Well get out of your hair then."

Churlish handed the girlfriend and Marcos her card. "If you see him or think of anything that might help us out. Give me a call."

Jet resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It seemed like a pointless action, but Churlish appeared to be some sort of overly perfectionist kind of person. She slung her bag over her shoulder and led the way out.

They were nearly to the car when the text came. It listed an address and two other locations.

This Address is where his family lives, his mom works at those two places. Good luck. Please don't hurt him when you find him. Marcos couldn't live with that.

One of the listed establishments appeared to be a restaurant. "Need some lunch?" Churlish grinned.

-000-

"We are ready to discharge Captain Benson…"

Elliot jumped in before the doctor could even finish his thought. "No way she's going with out me. We go together or not at all."

"El," she scolded. "Let him finish."

He was already ready to fight. "What? You want to go home on your own. Plus our security detail?" He rolled his eyes. "I'm not letting you go home without me."

She began to wish they had a chance to work all of this out before they had an audience. "Our security will be fine, and what are you gonna do if someone enters the apartment? I can at least move, you're worse off than I am!" She bit the words out with frustration.

It wasn't that she didn't want him to be home with her. She would infinitely prefer her partner to come home with her, but his mobility was limited and she wouldn't be able to help him. For now the hospital was the best place for him. Whether he liked it or not.

His eyes burned into her skin, and she knew he was furious. She held his gaze in all to familiar silent battle of wills.

The doctor cleared his throat. "Um. As I was saying Captain Benson is ready to be released. "You will need to take it easy for a few weeks," Olivia internally grimaced. She was going to go crazy if she had to stay down for weeks. "But I don't anticipate any long term complications. I think it's in your best interest to finish your recovery from the comfort of your own home."

She had to admit, her own bed sounded amazing. There was a lot to figure out, and she would need a lot of help. Noah could help with a lot of things, but she definitely needed an extra adult in the house to help with everything. Preferably an adult who could walk on his own.

She braved a glance in Elliot's direction and found that he looked more devastated than angry. She wished she could reach out for him but their beds were too far apart. "How," she cleared her throat, "how long until Detective Stabler can be discharged?"

The doctor sighed and pulled up Elliot's chart on the tablet he carried in his arms. After scrolling through a few screens he tucked the tablet under his arm. "We still need to watch that swelling. He's regained most sensation, but we want to be sure we don't push too much too fast and inadvertently cause irreversible nerve damage."

Her heart sank. She had hoped for a more hopeful answer, but she wasn't messing around with something so important as his ability to walk. "How long?" She proded.

"It might still be a few more days for Detective Stabler."

Elliot clenched his fists and released them. She could tell his temper was flaring, and the thought of more days in a hospital bed was intolerable for him. Much of his exercise routine was done as a sort of anger release valve, and she knew the physical inactivity was slowly killing him. There was no place to throw that anger, and she worried the doctor might become the target of his fury.

She decided to jump in before he could mouth off to the doctor who only wanted to get them both healthy. "What if…" she started. She silently hoped the doctor would go for her plan. "What if I stay here one more day, and we can see how his swelling is. If he just had to lay around then I think he'd be better off doing it at home."

The doctor thought for a moment. "I think we can do that, but," he emphasized the last word. "If he goes home he has to strictly follow instructions. If we aren't there to keep an eye on him someone else will need to monitor him closely, and make sure he is following our instructions."

God help the person who has that job, she thought.

"My girls already agreed to help out," he volunteered eagerly.

"Alright. I'm not making my promises, but I'll allow the Captain one more day here to recover, and we will see what your labs look like tomorrow."

"Thank you," Olivia said kindly. She laid back into her bed. Mediating that potential disaster zapped all her energy.

"If you guys don't have any other questions, I'll check on some other patients." He backed towards the door.

"I think we're okay for now." Olivia shifted her weight as she tried to find a comfortable position against her pillows.

The doctor gave them a nod before slipping out the door.

-000-

Hours later Fin and Reyes joined Liv and Elliot in the joint hospital room. Fun made himself comfortable, kicking back in one of the arm chairs. Reyes seemed a little more wary, and leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"Let me guess, he gave you a whole lotta nothin." Elliot guessed.

"Pretty much," Reyes affirmed.

Fun waved his hand to shush Reyes. "Hey. It wasn't a wasted visit."

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.

Elliot's ahead flipped around at the exhausted sound of her voice. He wished the hospital would stop with all the goddamn interruptions and let the woman sleep. He suddenly felt a little guilty. The only reason she still laid in the bed adjacent to his was because she was trying to placate him. He should have just let her go home.

Fin laced his fingers together and dropped his hands on his chest. "He obviously didn't say anything important." Fin's eyes drifted between the pair. "It was less about what he said and more about how he said it."

Olivia rubbed her temples, "Explain please."

"He seemed surprised by the individual chosen for the job," Reyes piped in.

"The kid?" Elliot shook his head. "He's used kids before."

The man had to be a true sociopath.

"Sure," Fin conceded, "but that first attack against Liv," he nodded in her direction. "It was methodical and well rehearsed. The machetes are their trademark thing. They have a pretty damn clean operation plan."

"But this was different," Elliot thought out loud.

"I kinda got the impression that he might have ordered the hit," Fin paused, "but someone down the totem pole must have changed his orders."

"Kinda par for the course though right?" Reyes stepped closer to the group. "He couldn't have expected that the gang would operate the same as it had before. He's not there to keep people in line."

"And in turn this got messy," Elliot notes.

"Okay. It's all a great theory," Olivia jumped in, "but we obviously can't prove anything. I'm assuming he's found a way around prison visitation and outside communication so there's unlikely to be any sort of paper trail."

"Maybe not, but we could check his visitation log," Elliot suggested.

"And the guys who are locked up with him," Reyes added. "He's smart. He keeps himself one step removed from everything."

Fin shook his head. "No way we get any of his guys to flip. At least not the ones on the inside with him."

"No joke," Elliot commented solemnly. "That's asking for a shivved in the shower…"

"Exactly." Fin pointed a finger in his direction.

"But… what if we follow the communication to the outside?" Reyes took a couple steps back and forth. "He's got less control on the outside."

"Assuming there's a trail to follow," Fin grumbled.

"Ever the pessimist are we?" Elliot chuckled darkly.

"How 'bout a realist. I'm just saying it's a long shot."

"It might be," Olivia sighed, "but what else do we have?

"Well there's that Diego kid…" Reyes dropped.

"Wait." Elliot's gaze flicked between the men. He and Olivia clearly missed that update. "Who is Diego?"

Fin leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "We think he's your shooter." He tilted his head towards Elliot. Fin quickly summarized what Jet and Churlish put together.

"So maybe we don't need anything from Papa?" Liv said with too much hope in her voice. Elliot wondered if the pain killers were still digging her up. She knew as well as he did that Diego wasn't enough.

"No, we need him." Fin stepped in.

"Diego might get pinned for all of it." Reyes shook his head. "No way he'd flip on the gang, and if he did….he'd be dead before the day was over.."

"So we still need to check those prison records," Elliot suggested. He sat himself up a little and winced and the throbbing pain in his lower back.

"Sounds like it." Olivia agreed.

"Oh and just a heads up…" Fin shot the pair a sheepish smile. "I pushed some buttons…."

Elliot groaned, "Come on Fin. He might send someone else…" he motioned for his prone position. "I can't take anymore bullet holes."

Fin chuckled. "Sorry man. He might make a move or maybe not. But I'm hoping he's pissed enough to get messy."

"Well." Elliot's gaze shifted to Olivia. "Good thing we're staying here another night."

"Seems like it," she agreed.

Fun pushed himself up from the chair and pulled his phone from his pocket. "Imma talk to Bell, and see if we can double down on security for the next little bit. Plus, I think your techy whiz kid is probably the best person to get those prison logs."

Elliot grimaced at the idea of more babysitters, but remained silent. He hated being so dependent on others. This was a nightmare to say the least. Still, at least Liv was with him, and she was safe. That's all he really cared about anyway.

Fin tapped the door frame. "Rest up. Well check back with you two in the morning." He grinned. "Don't give the doctors too much hell Stabler."

No promises," he grumbled as the door clicked shut