He knew he wasn't supposed to go into her closet, or to open any boxes, or to look inside them. But the last time he found something about Elliot, he was going through one of her drawers. Sure, she said he should never do that again, but technically he wasn't going through a drawer now. It was a whole closet. And he also heard his mom and Uncle Fin talking about Elliot's Box and that for sure piqued his interest. But it just happens that all the boxes were on the higher shelf.

Ugghhh, why couldn't I be taller?

Anyway, his mom was basically forcing him to do this, always acting so weird everytime he asked about Det. Elliot Stabler. She told him so little, yet the man showed all the way up in Woodstock to pick him up, having met him only once.

He finally managed to pick one of the boxes, and it was full of photographs. His mom with really short hair, a younger uncle Fin and even Grandpa Don. And sure, there was detective Stabler, right next to his mom, a lot younger and with much more hair. He keeps digging and sees his mom with an abnormal amount of different haircuts.

Oh, we'll have to talk about this. He thinks when he finds the pixie cut.

Then he suddenly stops, in the bottom of the box he finds a drawing. Not any drawing, a kid's drawing. And it is not his. It was signed by Calvin Benson. His brows furrowed just as he heard his mom coming into the bedroom. He didn't have time to put everything back into place, nor would he if he could as he was so intrigued by the drawing.

"Noah, what are you doing?" She asks reproachfully. "You know I don't like you going though my closet without my permission."

"Who is Calvin Benson?" He asks bluntly and she pauses midstep, like the name knocked the wind out of her.

"What?"

He holds the drawing up and sees her eyes filling with tears. He immediately regrets bringing it up. He hates seeing her crying. "Oh no, don't cry, forget I asked anything." He pleads hurriedly, putting everything back into the box.

Her hand stops him just as he was putting the drawing in. "No, honey, you didn't do anything wrong," she pauses. "Well, besides going into my closet, of course," She adds. "We'll talk about that later."

She gets up and invites him to sit on the bed with her. He snuggled against her side and turned his big blue eyes toward her.

"A few years before I got you, we had a case. It was a hard case and this lady, she asked me to take care of her little boy, you know?"

"She did?"

"Yeah, honey. She was in a really bad place and she wanted him to be taken care of." She explained.

"So she asked you, because you are the best mom ever!" he concluded and her eyes filled with tears again.

"His name was Calvin, Calvin Arliss. He stayed with me for a while. Then," she took a deep breath, remembering all she felt at the time. "Then she changed her mind, and he was taken away. He drew this for me. He said I saved him."

"Just like you saved me, right?" he asked in a small voice, noting the emotion of the moment.

"Kinda of like how I saved you. But it was really hard when they took him from me. They didn't give me a warning. And he kept screaming for me, but there was nothing I could do." She explains. "That's why I never mentioned him."

"You never saw him again?" he asked.

"I did see him once, and we exchanged a few letters. But then, his grandparents felt like it was better if we stopped talking to each other." She reminisced.

"But why?" Noah asks confused.

"Just… something happened that made them feel it wasn't safe for him to stay in contact with me anymore." She absolutely wasn't starting the Willian Lewis talk with Noah.

Noah squeezed her tighter. "Did you love him?"

"Oh, my sweet boy," she kisses his curls. "I did, yeah. I really did. But now I understand that it wasn't meant to be. And I was always meant to be your mother." She angles his head up, taping his nose with her finger, making his giggle.

He lays down again, and gets pensive for a while.

"Mommy?" he says in a small voice. She notices the title he barely uses anymore, it's always 'mom' now.

"Yes, sweetheart," she looks down at him and his eyes are full of tears. "Oh, Noah, what's wrong?" he hiccups, starting to cry.

"What- what if someone takes me away from you too? I don't want another mom!" He says scared.

"Noah, honey, breath. Breathe for me,"she calms him down. "No one is ever, ever taking you away from me, ok?" She wipes his tears.

"But they took Calvin, and he wanted to stay with you,"

"That was a very specific situation, honey. I adopted you, that means you are forever mine. Uncle Trev made sure no one would ever take you away from me, ok? You are all mine." She hugs him until he stops crying.

"Do you want some dinner?" She asks and he nods against her chest, not feeling like talking. "Okay, I'll call you soon." She rises from the bed, to get dinner ready.

As soon as she is gone, Noah picks up the drawing she left behind. Having an idea, he takes her phone looking for a specific number and copies it to his phone. He puts her phone back just as she calls for him.

"Dinner is ready!" She called from the kitchen.

"I'm coming!" he answers.

He quickly types "Hello, this is Noah Benson, I could use your help in a project. Please, text me back."

He hits send and joins his mother in the kitchen.