Ready to find out what the actual hell happened in those woods!?

Olivia's brain was ready to explode. Just as Velasco handed her his findings, Colton started talking, and her phone rang. All at the same damn time.

She yanked her phone out of her pocket, hoping it was a call she could ignore. It wasn't. It was the hospital. The hospital where Clem was being treated.

She felt torn in every direction, but the hospital seemed the most immediately urgent. She answered the phone.

"Benson," she answered quickly.

"Hello, we are reaching out for the parents of Clementine Wilson. They told us to update the person in charge of the criminal investigation revolving around Clementine's injuries."

"Yes this is Captain Benson. I'm running point on this case." She felt her stomach nervously tumbled. The speaker on the other end sounded so neutral. She couldn't anticipate her next words.

"Unfortunately things aren't improving. She began regressing today. We are seeing less brain activity and we are officially diagnosing her as comatose. We will continue to monitor her status, and hope for improvement as her brain structures hopefully create new connections around the damaged brain tissue." Olivia felt sick, but the medical professional continued. "We are still in the early stages, and if she wakes up within the next ten days she may recover, but any longer than that the statistics show a poor prognosis." Tears stung Olivia's eyes as she thought of that sweet girl. She had to survive. She had to. She wasn't sure she could handle it if she didn't.

"Thank you." Olivia's voice felt heavy. "Will you keep us updated moving forward?"

"Yes. I have parental approval to loop you in on her progress. Call if there are any questions regarding her status."

"Thank you doctor. I'm sure we will be in touch." Olivia couldn't rid herself of the dread building in her stomach.

"Of course. Have a nice day."

Like she could have a nice day after that conversation. She hung up the call, but her brain felt frozen as she tried to remember what she was doing. Then she remembered the paper still sitting in her hand and the conversation happening on the other side of the glass.

She couldn't read and listen simultaneously. She wanted to scream. She wanted nothing more than to hear what Colton had to say, but she knew Fin needed the information she currently held in her hand. She groaned in frustration and stepped out of the viewing room to talk to Velasco about what he found.

"Cliffs notes version Velasco. El…Stabler's got Colton talking, and I want to listen in on that." She rushed him along.

"Okay, yeah, sorry." Her rushing him made him stammer more. "His name is Steven Waddell. Skipped bail on a murder charge in Indiana. Potential human trafficker, but went underground with the pending murder charge. Assumed dead, but obviously he isn't."

"What's the deal with Lucas?" Usually traffickers didn't hang on to kids. As horrible as the reality was, the kids were a commodity and not something they kept permanently.

"I found zero information on that. Hopefully yours and Churlish's profiles help us gain more insight on that." He stood anxiously.

"Anything else?"

"Nothing relevant, at least I don't think so. He was in a car accident in his early twenties. Killed his wife and kid."

"Oh God." Talk about a traumatic experience, and a likely cause for a downward life spiral. Then she had another heart sinking thought. "How old was the child?" She knew the answer before Velasco responded.

Velasco scanned his file, "Two-year-old boy." He confirmed her suspicions. Some of the puzzle pieces began to fall into place.

-000-

Colton nervously bent one of the puzzle pieces between his fingers. "I don't really want to talk about it. I mean, I know I have to." He bent the puzzle piece a little more. "I just feel bad, like I coulda done something different and if I did, maybe Clem would be okay and not..not.." he began to tear up, and Elliot placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Look Colton. I feel responsible too, but the thing is, it's not our fault, okay? It's the fault of whoever did this to her." He wished he could believe himself. He still felt the ache of responsibility for this disaster.

"Okay," the boy whispered. He bent the puzzle piece a little more.

"Let's start with something not scary from that night. What happened when you went to bed?"

The boy took a breath. "Nothing really. I brushed my teeth. Lucas was complaining to Jackson about Clem being a tattle tale. I wanted to yell at him, because that's not true and he was being an idiot, but I didn't want him to do something to me when I was sleeping so I tried to ignore him."

"I think that was a good idea."

"I don't." His eyes were downcast, "maybe if I yelled at him, none of this would have happened."

Elliot wanted to continue to reassure Colton, but he felt exactly the same, and he knew Colton needed time to work through the guilt. Nothing he could say at this moment would make him feel better. Instead he kept a reassuring hand on Colton's shoulder.

"I had a hard time sleeping. Maybe it's dumb or babyish, but Jace and I have always shared a room, and it was weird having him further away, and I couldn't sleep."

"That's not dumb Colton. My twins were the same way. For a long time, actually. Eventually they wanted their own rooms, but I still found them having sleepovers in each other's rooms when they were teenagers. It's definitely not weird."

"Yeah?" Colton looked a little relieved.

"Absolutely."

"I'm not really sure what time it was. I didn't have my phone, and my watch battery died. I heard Lucas say something to Jackson before sneaking out of the tent. I kept my eyes closed so he didn't know I was awake." Elliot heard Colton's breathing start to shake and he knew they were approaching the part that was going to be difficult. "I heard him talking to a girl, but it wasn't Clem. It was Abby." Elliot mentally noted the name Abby. He was almost positive it was the name of the 'mean girl' in Clem's tent. "I really couldn't hear what they were talking about. I don't know what they were planning to do, but that's when I heard Clem. She said something, but she's so quiet, you know?"

"She does have a pretty soft voice," Elliot agreed.

"But then I heard Lucas get mad, and that's when I snuck out of the tent." Colton's eyes focused on the small puzzle piece in his hand. "I was worried they would hurt her or something so I stayed behind them." His whole frame shook as he continued to relay the story. "I was scared. It was so dark and Lucas was basically dragging Clem down to the creek and Abby was following, keeping her hand over Clem's mouth."

Colton glanced up to Elliot, and Elliot's heart broke as the boy's streamed with tears. Colton hurriedly wiped them away with the back of his hand. "I probably should have gotten an adult. Like you said I should earlier, but I was really scared for Clem, and I didn't want her to get hurt while I tried to wake someone up."

Elliot nodded in complete understanding. If it were him as a twelve year old, he would have done the same thing. "I understand Colton. I do. I probably would have done the same thing. It's okay." He rubbed Colton's back lightly, as the boy breathed through his emotions.

"I followed them down to the creek. They didn't see me, but I heard them yelling at Clem, and Abby was calling her some really mean names. Lucas was holding onto her while Abby yelled. I tried to hear, but the creek made a lot of noise and I was a little bit far away."

Colton started sobbing so Elliot pulled him into a big. "I tried getting closer." Colton couldn't stop the tears. He was crying so hard Elliot wasn't sure the boy could breathe.

"Hey hey," Elliot soothed. "Let's slow it down, okay? Let's breathe a little before we get to the next part. I can wait. Can you feel me breathing?" Elliot asked and Colton nodded against Elliot's chest. "Okay, try to copy me okay?" Elliot took long slow breaths. Colton tried to copy, but he was halfway to hyperventilating so it took a minute for him to slow down enough to follow the pace of Elliot's breathing.

Once Colton calmed, he all but slumped into Elliot. Elliot waited for him to be ready to continue. It took a couple minutes of silence, the only sound was the two of them inhaling and exhaling. Finally, Colton began again with a terrified whisper. "Lucas let go of her arm, and Clem tried to run, but Abby grabbed Clem's ponytail really hard, and it kinda made Clem jerk back. It all happened so fast," Colton muttered. "I just stood there, you know, I felt frozen."

"That's normal. It's a reflex, and you can't help it. I'm sure your mom can tell you about the fight, flight, and freeze response."

"Well I just stood there." Elliot could feel Colton's guilt. "I stood there while Abby pulled Clem hard enough to make Clem trip backwards in the water. I think Clem hit her head in a rock because there was a loud sound with the splash." Colton gripped his hands together, his knuckles turned white from the pressure. "That's when," the tears began to hit him hard, "um….um…" he wiped the tears away, and took a deep breath. "She wasn't moving, Elliot. She wasn't getting up, she was just laying there." Colton's fingernails began digging into his knuckles. "I wanted to go get help, but I was scared and I didn't want to leave Clem there if she was really hurt. I tried to get closer but I must have made too much noise because Lucas saw me."

Elliot knew what happened next, but he let Colton continue explaining.

"He looked so mad, and he started to chase me so I just ran." Colton leaned into Elliot. "I just kept running and running. Even when I couldn't hear him behind me anymore I just kept running. When I got tired I stopped, but it was so dark and I didn't know where I was. I wandered around for a little while, just to see if I could find the creek. You know, so I could find the campsite, but I couldn't hear it anymore, and I got really scared because I know there are a lot of different animals out there, so I hid." His dark brown eyes lifted to Elliot's. "When it wasn't dark anymore I came out, but I didn't recognize anything. I thought about looking for the creek again, but I didn't even know which way to go." He let out a shaky breath. "I remembered something from the emergency training they made us read before going on the camp out. They told us if we got lost to stay in one spot so someone could find us. I was still scared though so I stayed under those trees until Noah's mom found me."

"That was really smart and really brave Colton," Elliot praised.

"I dunno. I just felt like I did everything wrong. And now Clem is really hurt and I'm really scared that…that…she might die, and I didn't help her."

"He look at me," Elliot insisted. He kept his eyes down, so Elliot tried again, "Come on, look at me please." Colton carefully lifted his eyes. "None of this is your fault. None of it. Okay?" Colton looked skeptical but nodded. "You did your best at the time. We all do things different when we are really scared, and what happened to you was really scary." Elliot hoped the boy felt validated. He needed to know that the way he acted was okay, and normal, and it wasn't his fault that Clem was so hurt. "Right now you are doing the best thing for Clem. You're telling us what happened. And right now?" Elliot kept eye contact. "Right now, telling the truth about what happened, even when you are scared, is the best and bravest thing you could ever do." He gave the boy a tight hug, "and I'm really proud of you for telling me."

Now we just have to figure out how they moved her body...among many other question marks!

THANK YOU for all the AMAZING comments! I love that you are all so invested in this!!! Your comments are the primary reason I've been knocking out these chapters so fast! You are all amazing!!