She didn't want to be at Rikers. At all. Bruno followed behind her as they jumped through all the hoops to get into the interview room. She would have preferred secure transport to the precinct, but that would take time to arrange, and she wasn't planning on sleeping at the precinct.

She felt like she had ping ponged all over the city. The Kelly apartment, aquarium, the Wilson's apartment, back to the Kelly's apartment, home, hospital, and now Rikers. She felt like she had already ran a marathon, and her day wasn't close to over.

It didn't help that she desperately wanted to be somewhere else. She wanted to be home. Beyond sleeping in the same bed, she had interacted with Noah for a total of 60 minutes, accumulated over the past few days. She'd seen a little more of Elliot, but not much outside of work. She felt like she was failing in so many ways, but had no way to fix any of it.

She brought Bruno along, mostly because he wasn't one to fill silence with mindless chatter and he usually didn't try to fill the time with small talk. He seemed just as comfortable with the silence as she was.

He kept his mouth shut until they were finally seated in the interview room and waiting for Marcus. "Are we telling him anything about what happened to Ethan or Lucas I guess?" It was still difficult to keep the name straight. They typically used Ethan when talking about him, but he still insisted on being called Lucas, and his "father" would only refer to him by the name he'd given him.

"I wasn't planning on it. Maybe if he asks, but I think we should play it by ear." She wasn't sure he deserved to know anything, but she figured they would hold it back unless the information became necessary. The man took enough from the kid. He didn't deserve anything more.

When they brought him in, Marcus looked about as worn down as Olivia felt. Prison had that effect on people. He sat across the table and waited.

Olivia looked to Bruno, allowing him to take the lead. He nodded and started in. "I know my captain isn't in the mood for bullshit right now," isn't that the truth, "so I'm just going to just lay out everything, and you are going to be straight with us so we can all get the hell out of here. Okay?" Bruno kept his eyes on Marcus who nodded.

"Great." Bruno pulled out the file. "We haven't managed to get a clear statement from you since you seem to lawyer up every chance you get. Here are the facts…" he laid out a picture of the campsite. "We know you were in the mountains that night. From Abby's testimony we know that you were there right after Clem was hurt."

Marcus opened his mouth to start a defense, but Bruno lifted his hand. "I know you are going to tell us she's a liar, and we might have believed you. Much of her story is made up of lies and half truths, but…" Bruno pulled the picture of the gum, and the correlating DNA report. "But this," he pointed to the pictures laid out on the table. "This tells us you were there, and that gives credibility to at least that part of Abby's story."

Marcus leaned back in his chair, a position that reminded her of Ethan when he acted defensive. He seemed to be thinking, calculating what his next move should be. She waited, hoping he might see the writing on the wall and give them the information they needed. But Marcus didn't speak first.

Bruno leaned his elbows into the table and held Marcus in a stare that made her shiver. "You can think it over. You can lie about everything. But no matter what you say, you're done. Even if we don't stick you on this, Indiana has all they need to throw your sorry ass into jail…but," Olivia waited. She wasn't exactly sure where Bruno planned to take this, but she trusted his gut, and level of experience on the job. "Think about the kid. The kid you raised. I want to believe the worst. I want to think that you are some sociopath with no emotions, but that kid... He was your kid for ten years, and I know you care about what happens to him." Bruno gestured to all the photos spread across the table. "All of this? You did this to prevent him from getting in trouble, because I know you don't give a shit about Abby." Marcus's eyes narrowed as he tried to understand what Bruno was getting at. Olivia knew what card Bruno was about to play, and while she didn't condone using the attempted suicide of a child as leverage she realized it might be what sends Marcus over the edge, crashing to the relization of what damage his actions had done.

"Lucas…" Marcus's eyes lifted at the mention of the boy. "He's in the hospital." Marcus' eyes widened. "He's there because he couldn't deal with all the shit happening around him and he tried to end his life." Bruno's blue eyes bore into his with murderous intensity. "He's just a kid, and we have only a small amount of information about his involvement in all of this. But mental health crisis or not, he has to pay for what he did to that girl, and based on what we know about his involvement, he will pay dearly."

Olivia watched the interaction. Marcus squirmed, and his eyes watered, and she knew Bruno had struck a nerve. She knew that at least on some level, Marcus cared about that kid. The reason he took Lucas in the first place was to replace a child he loved and lost. The kid had to mean something to him.

The only sounds were the echoes of cell doors open and shutting, and the low murmur of voices outside of the interview room. They waited. Turned out the waiting paid off.

"He really didn't do anything. I mean not much. Not this time at least." His eyes darted between Olivia and Bruno, "I wanna talk, but he's not taking the heat for this. I won't say anything unless you assure me that he's going to be left out of it all."

"We can't promise that," Olivia said, "but depending on what you tell us we may be able to get him the help and treatment he needs to get past all of this."

Marcus nodded. "Okay. I don't want…" his eyes bounced between Olivia's and Bruno's faces again. "I know it sounds hypocritical. I'm obviously a shitty person, but I don't want him locked up and forgotten about. He's not a bad kid. Not really."

"We want to believe that," Bruno assured him, "but we don't have much to go on."

Marcus nodded. "Okay. Get him the help he needs and I'll talk. Like you said. I'm done anyway, but might as well give the kid a chance…"

Olivia wanted to hope they'd gotten through to him, but past experience told her that those situations were rare. However, her hope increased as Marcus began talking, and finally they began to craft a clear picture of what happened that night.

-000-

"When's Mom coming home?" Noah asked while pushing his food around on his plate.

Elliot glanced over his shoulder at the oven clock. 6:40pm. He didn't expect Olivia to be back for at least another hour, but it might be longer. He'd called her after she finished at the emergency room. Not to rush her or anything…he just missed her, and like Noah, he wished she could be home. For her sake and theirs.

She mentioned she might need to make a trip to Rikers. He could tell she was less than thrilled about the idea. If she made the trip to Rikers, then they wouldn't be seeing her for a while.

"I'm not sure. She had an emergency come up, and I know she had an interview scheduled this evening." He watched Noah's face fall a bit. "I'm sorry Noh. I know she wants to be here more than anything."

He sighed and pushed his food around some more. "I know."

Elliot tried changing the subject. "Did you have fun with Kathleen today?"

Noah smiled a little. "Yeah she's fun." His eyes lifted to Elliot. "Dickie came over for a minute."

Elliot choked on his water, "What?" He was genuinely surprised. Out of all of his kids he figured Dickie would be the least interested in Noah and Olivia. "When did he come over?"

"When Kathleen and I were making cookies. We needed a couple more ingredients so Dickie brought them for us." He took a bite of the lasagna he had basically mashed into his plate. "He was only here for a minute. He said he came during his lunch or something."

Elliot made a mental note to talk to ask the girls about it. If he asked Dickie he would just deflect the truth and answer with some snarky answer. It wasn't that they had a bad relationship or anything, but it had always been very surface level. They both tended to avoid any sort of serious deep topics so they maintained an easy light relationship. It worked for them, but occasionally he wished he could get to know him a little more.

"He looks kind of like you," Noah continued the conversation through Elliot's thought spiral.

"You think?" He brought his attention back to Noah.

He nodded emphatically. "Yeah. Kathleen and Liz don't look like you though." He took another bite of his food. Elliot found it interesting the types of conversations he ended up having with Noah. He knew Noah liked video games, art and dancing, and he talked about those things, but he seemed to really like talking about people.

"Not really huh. The girls all kind of look like their mom." Elliot admitted.

"Kathy." Noah remembered. "Do you have a picture of her? I didn't see one at your house, but I didn't really look," Noah's tone was light, and Elliot knew he was probably wanting to see what the girls' mother looked like. He probably wasn't searching for anything deeper. At least he hoped not.

"Yeah, I don't have anything on my phone really." It had been three years. The day he removed her photo as his screensaver was tough, but it felt like a big step in his attempts to move on. "I think Maureen has a picture in her Facebook from when she had her boys."

"Is Maureen the oldest? I know Eli's the youngest."

Elliot chuckled to himself. He wondered how much information he had pumped out of Kathleen. He finally found the photo he was looking for and handed it to Noah. "Yeah she's the oldest."

"Oh yeah they look like Kathy. Especially this one." He pointed to Maureen in the picture.

"Yeah she always looked exactly like her mom." Elliot agreed. Noah looked a little closer, and glanced back up at Elliot.

"Their eyes are different. Maybe like yours."

Elliot wondered what this was all about, but he continued to let the conversation run wherever Noah took it. "Yeah my mom always called them the "Stabler eyes," Elliot shrugged.

"That's cool though." Noah picked at his food and Elliot became more curious over the meaning behind the conversation.

"Something wrong," Elliot prodded him a little.

"Not really." His bright blue eyes looked back up from his food. "I don't really know what my parents look like. Well, I mean, my bio parents. I wouldn't know if I looked like my mom or my dad."

Ah. He felt like he was catching on, but he wasn't entirely sure what to say. He didn't want to make some deep insecurity worse, but he was a little curious about Noah's background too. "Does your mom have a picture of either of them?" Elliot knew the answer was probably no.

"I have one of my bio mom. But my mom said my bio dad wasn't a good person. I don't think she has a picture. At least not one she would want to show me."

They were done eating so Elliot stood and took Noah's plate. "I'm going to stick these in the sink, but could you show me that picture of your bio mom." Elliot gave the boy a reassuring smile. "I'm pretty curious about what she looked like."

Noah smiled at his interest, "Yeah, okay."

Elliot dropped the plates into the sink. He'd put them in the dishwasher later. Noah led the way back to his room, and pulled an envelope out of the bottom drawer of his desk. The envelope was unsealed so Noah easily removed the photo for Elliot.

Elliot swallowed deeply when he saw the photo. The girl was a child. Maybe fifteen or sixteen. He didn't know much about Noah's story. Just details he gleaned from random conversations here and there. He figured Noah's mother came into contact with SVU and some sort of connection occurred there. He was suddenly reminded of the many things he missed. He was sure Noah's story was long and complicated, and he doubted the child knew all of it.

Elliot brought his attention back to the photo. "I think you have her nose, and your face is shaped like hers."

Noah scurried over to inspect the photo with him, "do you think so?"

"Definitely." Elliot confirmed. He knew this age was confusing for kids as they tried to find out who the are and who they wanted to be. It must be difficult for Noah not to have any biological context to go on. He knew that Olivia struggled with similar issues on and off even as an adult. "You know what's funny though?"

"What?" Noah asked, genuinely curious.

Elliot handed Noah the picture to put back in his drawer. "If I didn't know better, I would say you looked exactly like your mom."

Noah laughed at the absurdity. "No way."

"Yes way," Elliot grinned. He sat on the bed and patted the space beside him, inviting Noah to sit. Once Noah dropped down next to him, he explained himself. "Genes and DNA only make up part of a person. Your Mom loved you from the time you were a baby and sometimes I swear you look exactly like her."

"Really?" Noah seemed to be searching for some sort of reassurance.

"Really." Elliot patted Noah's knee. He touseled his curls. "Your hair is the same color, and hers is curly too, but not as bouncy as yours, he teased. "You smile exactly like her, and I would know because I spent years on the receiving end of those smiles." Noah rewarded him with one of those heartwarming smiles. "And when you roll your eyes when you're being stubborn? I swear I've seen that face a million times."

Noah laughed at that. "Anything else?" He asked with a hope filled voice.

"You care about people, and I know you got that from your Mom. You love with all your heart, and I know that your mom does the same thing."

However, Olivia kept her heart heavily guarded from years of abuse and heartache. Noah loved freely and easily, but Olivia protected her heart to keep it safe. But even with that difference, once either of them gave someone their heart, they had it completely and fully. He felt incredibly blessed that some time in the past Olivia Benson gave him her heart. He may have broken it, over and over, but she still allowed him to have it, no matter how bruised and broken it was. Even when he hurt her, she loved him with her entire beautiful heart, and that meant everything to him.