He stared at the back of her head and wondered if she was sleeping or if her brain was as full as his. His mind seemed to be content running scenario after scenario, when all he wanted to do was sleep. He was worried about tomorrow. He knew he would be pressured to interview Colton, and he wasn't sure either of them were ready. Unfortunately, Colton was their only witness, leaving their current narrative full of assumptions and holes. They needed his statement, but Elliot still wasn't sure he was the right person to take it.

"I can hear you from all the way over here." Olivia mumbled. She laid just in front of him, and his hand rested on her hip. Getting into bed hadn't been awkward as he thought it might have been. He still had stuff in his overnight bag so they moved around each other in the bathroom, much like they had years ago in the locker room after a string of all nighters. Olivia slid into bed first, claiming the side of the bed she felt most comfortable on. Interestingly enough, it left him the side he felt most comfortable on.

He tucked himself under her comforter on "his" side of the bed, and she scooted her body closer to the center of the bed. He followed her lead, and moved close enough to reach his hand out for her. She settled further back into him, and his hand comfortably drifted to her hip. It felt intimate, but not overly so. There was an inch or two between their bodies, but he was close enough to smell her shampoo and the smell was intoxicating.

"Sorry," he sighed. "I'm trying not to overthink everything."

"Doesn't seem to be working," she teased lightly.

"Not so much. No." His chest rumbled with a soft chuckle.

Her hand reached for where his hand laid on her hip. She threaded her fingers through his, and kept their hands resting comfortably where he had them. "What are you worried about?"

Her back was still to him. It made it easier somehow, admitting his fears without the intensity of her deep brown eyes. "A few things, I guess." He really wasn't a good communicator. He knew that. It probably caused more problems in his marriage than anything else. He struggled to know what to say and how to say it. His inability to find words made his departure from SVU that much worse. He never told her why. He just abandoned her, avoiding communication altogether.

The thing about Olivia though, she knew him. She knew what questions to ask to get him to open up. He might suck at communication, but she knew how to make him suck less.

"Colton?"

"Yeah." Not much of an answer, but it was honest.

She squeezed his hand. "You will do just fine, El."

"I wish I had your confidence…" he hesitated. "I havent had to interview a kid in years, and maybe I'm too close to this. And I…"

"You what?" she prodded.

"Going back to the station…"

"You've been back plenty of times." She reassured him.

"Not for something like this. I came as a visitor from a different team. I wasn't SVU anymore, but this…"

"Is a very SVU case." she finished for him.

He swallowed. "Yeah."

She suddenly rolled towards him so they now laid face to face. She guided his arm around her, so it could settle on her back. "Why does it make things harder?"

She was asking the right questions. Questions they'd avoided for years. Why did he leave? Why did he never come back? She deserved to know the answers,

"The last time I stepped into that precinct as a SVU detective…I…shot a child." He couldn't meet her gaze so he stared at the lamp behind her. "I was so messed up after that Liv. So messed up."

She stayed quiet, letting him think through his explanation. Her hand drifted to his side and her fingers started patterning circles on his skin.

"It broke me. It didn't matter if I was cleared, or it was called a good shoot. What mattered was that a teenage girl, mourning the death of her mother, died because of me. I couldn't live with that so…"

"You left." he barely heard her because her voice was so quiet.

"Yeah," he whispered. "And when I came back and worked on OCCB cases with SVU, it was fine. I wasn't SVU anymore. I could still separate myself from…all that."

"But this is different," she provided.

He blew out a tired breath. " I know it's silly, but I'm taken right back there, to.." he gulped back his emotions, "that moment, and it feels impossible to deal with."

Her hand drifted up to his face as she guided his attention to her. "Listen to me." she said firmly. "Being triggered, having PTSD, isn't weak." she shook her head adamantly, and for some reason he felt she might be speaking from personal experience. "I know you're triggered, and I know you don't think you can do this, but El," she rubbed her finger across his cheekbone. "You can. And I wouldn't force you into this if I didn't feel like this would be the best possible thing for Colton." She teared up a little, "that boy trusts you, and my first priority is for him to feel safe again, and I know that's your priority too." She leaned in, and her nose brushed his. "What can I do?"

And this was one of the many reasons he loved her. The need to give up everything for the ones she loved. Sometimes at the expense of herself. Maybe there was something to be learned from that. Even the thought of this interview made him die inside, but if it made things even a little better for Colton… "I'm not sure there's anything you can do. I just need to do what needs to be done, and let the personal ramifications come as the will."

She bit her lip, and her eyes teared up even more.

"What?' he asked, worried he said something wrong.

"Nothing," she wiped her cheeks, "Um. It's just," something like pride shone through her eyes, "You're not running."

He hated how thoroughly his abandonment wrecked her, and now he wanted her to know, he wanted her to be sure of one thing. "Liv," her name came out in a desperate whisper. "I'm never running again, and if I have to, I'll spend the rest of my life proving that I'm here. Forever.

-000-

Olivia made it into the precinct a little before ten. It was already a bustle of activity, and she was incredibly grateful Fin got things moving for her this morning. She gave her detectives a nod, as she made her way to her office. She recognized several parents from the school there with their kids. This was going to be a long day.

Fin waited for her in her office. She dropped her bag, and he immediately jumped in to the questions she asked yesterday.

"We had two other adults and one kid throw some red flags during our background checks. By the way, you might want to inform the school to be a little more thorough on those things."

She drank her coffee, and waited for his continued explanation. The caffeine needed to get her brain moving before she could do anything resembling banter.

"One mom. Nothing violent, but some possible gang connections, but it didn't look like she had been an active member for years, still…"

"It's something to double check." She agreed.

"Yeah. The other one was a dad. We had to dig pretty deep for this one, but he did have a statutory rape charge back in his early twenties."

"How old was the girl?" She sat behind her desk, and dropped a couple papers into the files in her drawer.

"Fifteen, almost sixteen." Fin grimaced.

She leaned back a little in her chair. "Well, I don't love that."

"Didn't think you would. It was a long time ago, but it's not like we haven't seen people give it up and come back."

"Especially, under stress. Anything unusual show up with work or his personal life?"

"Nothing that stuck out, but I have Churlish poking around."

"Good. And the kid?" She assumed something came back on that Jackson kid.

"Kid is actually a girl. Bullying. Basic mean girl stuff. She's never been physically aggressive, but…"

"But?" She prodded.

"She was assigned to Clem's tent."

Olivia's eyes darted up from the papers she was trying to find a file for. "That's something."

"We thought so too. She's comin' in the afternoon with her dad."

Olivia nodded. "Who do we have out there now? I recognize the faces, but I'm not exactly super active in the PTA…"

Fin chuckled at that. "One is a girl from Clem's tent, and the mom from that chaperoned. Wendy or somethin'."

Olivia vaguely remembered Wendy. "And who else."

"Just some miscellaneous kids from other tents. We wanted to cover all our bases."

"Great, and you said the people who threw red flags are coming in later?"

"Yeah, obviously that Lucas kid and his dad are comin' in soon. Our others are comin' in after lunch." A slow smile crept across Fin's lips, "how bout Stabler? He comin' in today?"

Her heart pounded furiously as she tried to stay nonchalant. There wasn't a point to it really. Fin always knew everything. "He called Colton's parents this morning. Colton's mom decided to come in with him. His dad is going to pick up Noah, and take him and Jace to get ice cream and to check out an old electronics store. Something about building a computer." She waved her hand, "he lost me on the tech jargon."

"I bet." Fin still had that smirk, and she knew what he was going to ask before he asked it. "So…Stabler called this morning huh? He spend the night?" Fin wasn't being even a little bit subtle.

She rolled her eyes. "Not sure it's your business really." She side eyed him. Fin wasn't just being nosey. He cared about her, and the light jabs were his way of making the situation less heavy. "But Noah wanted him to stay. He's been a little bit of a safety blanket."

Fin raised an eyebrow, and she knew he knew she was full of shit. "Noah wanted him to stay, huh?"

She felt her cheeks pink. "Yep." That's all she could admit for now. Anything else would feel…like too much.

Fin still had that stupid grin. "Well, let me know what time he wants to come in. I'll make sure the kids' interview room is ready."

"Thanks." She dropped her attention to the work she'd left all over her desk the morning she left. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

-000-

Olivia's eyes kept anxiously flicking to her office windows as the clock ticked closer to 11. Even with considering other suspects, she still felt weird about Marcus and Lucas. She wanted the interview done. She wished they could get Colton in sooner so they had more questions to ask, but Colton's mental health was her absolute first concern.

She considered conducting the interview herself, but she felt like she needed to hold herself back. There may be a better time, a more strategic time for her presence. For today she would observe. She assigned Fin and Bruno for the interview. She was pretty sure they wouldn't get much, but they really only needed something so they could compare accounts with Colton's.

At 11:05am the pair (and their lawyer) entered the squad room. All eyes followed them as they approached Bruno, "We're supposed to meet with Sergeant Tur.." they stumbled over the name.

"Tutuola." Fin had already sauntered up to the group. "Let's go then," he flicked his head towards an interview room, and picked up the newly made file off of Bruno's desk.