"I gotta know... How do your neighbors feel about this circus?" Kathleen clutched her overnight bag as she entered Liv's apartment. She dropped it on an accent chair near the kitchen before seeing Olivia camped out on the couch.
Olivia laid her head back onto the couch, lazily. "At this point, I have no idea."
Kathleen headed towards the couch, but then a young voice caught her attention.
"Liza's mom hates when this happens, and she's thinking it's time to move." Noah grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl sitting next to him on the counter and tossed it in his mouth.
Kathleen watched Olivia's eyes widen slightly. "Them or us?" Olivia asked with a groan.
"I'm gonna guess us." Noah said, while writing his name on his sheet of homework.
"Liza's mom sounds like a troll," Kathleen thought out loud.
"She kind of is," Noah grumbled while penciling in an answer on the homework sheet in front of him.
"Noah!" Olivia scolded.
Guess she should have kept her mouth shut. Whoops.
"What?" Noah returned with his mouth full of popcorn.
A laugh tumbled from Kathleen's lips. "Sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to start anything."
Oliva waved her off. "It's fine. We are well into the preteen angst phase." She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.
"Mom!!" Noah sounded offended by the mention of preteen angst.
"Sorry!" She called over her shoulder but shook her head as Kathleen settled onto the couch next to her, communicating that she was, in fact, not sorry. "Liza's mom is kind of the worst," she said, only loud enough for Kathleen to hear.
Kathleen let out a light chuckle. "Thought so." She sat up a little and looked around the room. "Where's Dad?"
"Bedroom," Olivia answered as she wiggled deeper into the couch cushions. "I'm pretty sure one of the nurses slipped him some sort of sedative so they could get his stubborn ass in the wheelchair," Olivia noted, very tongue in cheek.
That sounded about right. Of course, her dad would make the biggest fuss possible. Good forbid anyone remind him he was pushing 60.
"Seriously?" Kathleen rolled her eyes. "Glad I missed that."
Olivia shrugged and chuckled. "He was pretty out of it. Dickie got him to bed."
"Bet he loved that," Kathleen remarked with light sarcasm. Dickie had been gifted the least amount of patience when compared to all of her siblings.
"I sort of forced the issue on that one. I wasn't about to let tiny Liz haul him back there." Olivia rolled her eyes with the sort of exasperation only her father could incite.
Kathleen laughed at the absurdity. Her younger sister was slight in stature. It was a longstanding family joke that Dickie stole all the available nutrients in utero. "Good call."
"I didn't want another Stabler in the hospital," Olivia said ironically.
"No kidding," Kathleen agreed. She looked Liv over, noting her abnormally pale complexion. "How are you feeling?" She asked the question, knowing Olivia would brush it off, insisting she was fine.
"Fine." Holy hell. It was like talking to her dad.
"Liv." She tried to keep the scolding tone out of her voice.
Olivia sighed and leaned her head back on the couch. "I'm pretty sore and achy, but it's honestly not as bad as I thought it would be."
"That's good."
A moment of silence passed between them, but a smile crept across Kathleen's face. "Alright." She rotated on the couch and tucked her legs beneath her. "I gotta know—that hot cop out there..."
Olivia laughed. "Joe Velasco. He's SVU, a detective in my squad."
Kathleen knew she was probably grinning stupidly. "Well, damn Liv. I didn't think you would be one to keep man candy around the office."
Olivia laughed so hard that she winced. "He was brought in by our chief a few years back." She pressed a hand over her wound site before adding, "People underestimate him. He's a great cop."
If Kathleen hadn't watched her mother struggle every day with being married to a police detective, she might have been tempted to give the man her number. She shook off the idea and sat up a little straighter so she could see Noah glaring at his homework. She reached for Olivia's forearm and gave it a squeeze. "I'm going to see what I can do for dinner, and I'll help that cute kid up there with his homework."
Olivia's eyes watered with emotion. "Thanks for helping. I know you have a job and a life, and this…this is kind of a lot."
Kathleen smiled to reassure her. "It's not a problem. You're family."
-000-
"Okay, look. This is the reality. Fabian is old enough to be tried as an adult. Normally, with his age, it could go either way, but he's looking at two attempted murder charges. Even if the attempts failed, the charge is serious. Targeting a police officer will automatically add a significant amount of jail time to his sentence."
Fin watched Bruno work through the two way glass. This had become an all-hands-on-deck situation. Churlish needed to sleep, and Velasco had to take his shift camping out in Olivia's building's hallway.
"This your rich guy?" Ayanna leaned her head in Bruno's direction.
"Yeah," Fin answered, still intent on listening to the interaction taking place.
Ayanna's eyes followed Fin's as they both continued watching Bruno work. "And he still works this job? it's kind of impressive, really," she said as she continued to watch the interview through the glass.
Fin shrugged. "It doesn't always feel like a choice." Someone had to do this work, and while most detectives moved through SVU like a revolving door, some stayed. Some felt like it was their calling. Some felt obligated. Some felt compelled by their life experience or the experiences of their loved ones. Sometimes it was all those things. Everyone had their own reasons. Violence against women and children was difficult to stomach. Not many could manage the sort of violence their department handled on a daily basis, but like Bruno, SVU was Fin's home.
"Hm." Ayanna nodded, but fell silent as they continued to watch the interview take place.
"We don't want to lock you up, but you aren't giving us many options." He turned to Alejandra, who sat next to her brother, wringing her hands nervously. "We know that this wasn't his idea, that he was the weapon, and we want the man pulling the trigger."
Alejandra dropped her head into her hands. "Just tell him," she said weakly, clearly terrified of the repercussions.
"No." Fabian continued his refusal.
"You have to tell them!" She insisted. "You will go to jail, Fabian. Do you want that? Do you want to be locked up for most of your life?" Her eyes met Bruno's with a rekindled fire. "You're looking for a guy named Javi."
"Ali!" Fabian looked terrified.
"No. I'm telling them. You don't get to go down for something you were forced to do." She turned back to Bruno. "If we talk, If I tell you everything I know, I'll be dead the moment I walk out of here. I need you to reassure me that he," she pointed to Fabian, "will be safe."
"I'll talk to the DA, but we will place you in protective custody. They won't be able to touch you." Bruno continued to try his reassurances.
Alejandra glanced over at Fabian, then back at detective Bruno. She didn't seem convinced of her own safety, but she was willing to put it all on the line. "I don't care about me, just make sure he's safe."
"I will do everything I can. You have my word." Bruno's eyes held all the conviction he could muster.
"Okay," she breathed. She closed her eyes as if she were waiting for the firing squad to take their shot. "You are looking for Javier Alvarez. He's the last man standing on the outside."
"Thank you." Bruno scrawled the name on the legal pad in front of him. "Where do I find him?"
-000-
"Hey Liv, let me help with that." Kathleen fussed when she entered the bedroom through the opened door.
Olivia had laid out the bandages she needed to swap out. "It's fine. I think I can get it." She winced when she pulled at the bottom of her black t-shirt.
"No seriously, Liv. Let me help. I've done this a million times at work." Kathleen hurried over to where Olivia stood. She didn't miss the odd look that passed between Olivia and her father.
"Hey Katie. I can do it." Her dad was responding to Olivia's hesitance in typical fashion, but there was no way in hell he would be able to change her bandage without hurting himself.
"El," Olivia warned.
He gave her another look, and Kathleen realized they were doing that whole nonverbal communication thing. God, that was going to get annoying really fast. Kathleen lifted a hand. "Dad, no. Just no." She turned back towards Olivia. The whole thing felt strange. Olivia never struck her as the type that would hold any shame in regards to her body. She had gotten older, but that seemed like an unlikely reason for her hesitation. "Hey, I don't want this to be awkward, but I don't want you to hurt yourself. In a couple days, you should be able to move better, but right now, please let me help you."
Olivia's eyes flicked to her father again, and he answered her silent question. "I don't know. I haven't…" He sighed and looked slightly ashamed. "I never asked them." Her dad looked damn near suicidal.
"Hey," she said softly. "It's okay. I just… I didn't know how much she knew, and it can be…"
"I know," he agreed solemnly.
Kathleen continued standing within arms reach of Olivia without any clue of what they were talking about. After taking a moment, Olivia began toying with the hemp of her shirt. "I have some..." she let out a long, slow breath, "some scarring. A lot of scarring. It happened a long time ago, and I ..."
Kathleen was suddenly slapped in the face with a buried memory, and she felt the blood draining from her face. Oh God. She couldn't remember the man's name—the one who took Olivia—but she would never forget the cold, predatory look in his eyes when his face was broadcast all over the news. Kathleen became awash with guilt and grief. She knew what had happened. She told her mother, and assumed her mom would tell her dad. She never checked in. She never talked about it again, and now the evidence of her attack would be right in front of Kathleen's face. She gathered herself and swallowed the anxiety, tightening her throat. Kathleen reached out to touch Olivia's arm. "I… I think I remember. You know, what happened. I'm sorry. I never. I just." She couldn't put together a damn sentence.
Olivia's eyes filled with an all too familiar empathy. "Katie," she soothed, "it was a long time ago."
Kathleen felt her eyes watering, "That may be true, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never showed up for you."
Olivia let out a small sigh and brushed some hair away from Kathleen's face. "I don't blame any of you. It's in the past. I just didn't want it to catch you off guard."
"Okay," Kathleen said, feeling herself begin to relax. Her eyes shifted back to her dad, who was lying on his side with red-watering eyes. She couldn't imagine how painful it was for him. He would have wanted to save her, but it became clear that he didn't know a damn thing about it. At least not when it happened. Someone must have filled him in sometime in the past few years, but she was certain the situation was a dagger in her father's heart. The heart that only beat for Olivia.
Kathleen gained composure and smiled at Olivia, hoping to ease some of the tension. She tilted her head toward the laid out supplies. "Let's get this over with, and let you get some rest. Yeah?"
For a moment, Olivia's warm brown eyes watched her with a sort of motherly affection before she answered. "Yeah, that sounds good."