Olivia shut her bedroom door behind her and continued to towel dry her dripping hair. She left Elliot behind the door, changing, but she felt antsy about checking on Lizzie.

Noah's door was firmly shut, so Olivia knocked lightly. "Liz?"

She was met with silence, and Olivia hoped it was because she was asleep. Just as she turned to retreat back to her room, a trembling voice responded. "You can come in."

Olivia squeezed the last bit of water into the towel and threw it in the direction of her laundry closet at the end of the hall.

Lizzie lay on her side, facing away from the door. Olivia watched her take slow, deliberate breaths. She wasn't fooling anyone; Olivia could tell that she absolutely had been crying and she definitely wasn't okay.

"Mind if I sit?" She asked gently as she took a couple steps toward the bed.

Lizzie's response was so quiet she almost didn't hear her respond. "Yeah."

Olivia sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, sitting in silence for a few moments before asking. "What can I do?"

A choked sob escaped from Liz's lips. She clapped a hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her unruly emotions, but it took a minute for her to gain her composure. "That's just it," she finally spit out. "Everyone, you, Dad, Kathleen, even Noah, are sacrificing everything because I made this stupid mistake." Another cry caught her off guard. "And I just..." she pinched her eyes shut, but it did nothing to staunch her tears. "I'm not this person, Liv. I've always tried to; I don't know; I guess I always try to do things myself. I try to, God, I don't know."

"You try not to be a problem," Olivia finished for her.

She opened her eyes but kept her focus on the wall in front of her. "Yeah. I hate this. I hate being a problem that everyone has to work around. I can't do that. I can't." She sniffled. "You and Dad need to go back to work, and I need to find a way to deal with this without dragging every person in my life down with me."

Olivia sighed, and a deep sadness began to settle in her chest. Was this what everyone felt when she pushed them away? Did they feel this helpless watching her flounder?

She brushed a lock of Liz's blonde hair away from her face. The hair stuck on her damp cheeks, but Olivia was eventually able to tuck the hair behind the younger woman's ear.

"I know how you feel," Olivia began, "and I was the same. I just wanted to crawl in a hole so the entire world would leave me the hell alone." Lizzie sniffled in response. Olivia brushed the ends of Lizzie's blonde hair as she continued to speak. "But, I learned something, and I hope if you ignore anything else you will at least listen to this."

Liz sniffled again and kept her eyes on the white painted wall, but Olivia noticed the slight nod of her head.

"I pushed everyone away. Everyone. I didn't have a family, but I had people in my corner who wanted to help me." Olivia's heart clenched as memories of her self-imposed isolation came crashing in. She had experienced varied levels of loneliness throughout her life, but in the months after Lewis, she never felt so alone. "Everyone wanted to help me, but I didn't know how to navigate everything, and I just," her voice tapered off. "I defaulted to what I knew how to do, but Lizzie?"

She waited until Liz lifted her blue eyes to her face. "I should have let them help me. I should have," her shoulders fell with the memory of that feeling of total defeat. "This isn't pity, Liz. This isn't an obligation. It's love. Your dad is here because he loves you. I'm here because I love you. We don't want you to crash and burn. We want to be here." She gently rubbed Liz's upper arm. "We want to lift you up and get you through this." Olivia made sure she had Liz's eyes on her when she added, "Please let us help you. Please."

Olivia didn't expect Liz to slowly sit up only to drop herself into her arms. Olivia held her tight as more sobs ripped through Liz's body. Minutes passed while she held the woman, who in another universe could have been her daughter.

Lizzie's sobs began to settle, and Olivia's eyes drifted to the nightstand, where she noticed the packet of resource information that the hospital sent home. She wasn't sure if Liz had flipped through them yet, but there was one thing she knew she needed to push.

She brushed a hand through the younger woman's hair, hoping to get her attention before she asked, "Liz, baby, do you have a therapist you are willing to see? I know it doesn't fix everything, but I really think it could only help."

Lizzie took a deep breath before loosening her arms and pulling back. "Um." She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I had a lady I saw, you know, after my mom died, and she helped a lot with processing, you know, all that."

"Would you like to see her again? I could schedule the appointment for you if you aren't up to it."

Liz thought for a moment. "I don't know. I mean, she was great, and she helped me get through a lot of the grief and stuff after Mom, but..." she thought for another minute. "I think I want someone who, uh, specializes in," she took another breath, "in this kind of stuff. Uh, like sexual trauma, I guess. Maybe."

Olivia nodded in agreement. "That's probably a good idea. It's good to have someone you have rapport with, but if you think she would be out of her depth with something like this, then we want to find someone who you feel confident can handle everything and help you."

"Okay," Liz's eyes dropped to her lap. "Do you have anyone you recommend? I mean, I know you probably have lists for the women you see every day, but is there someone you recommend over the others?"

One name came to mind, and she felt immediately certain that the woman she was thinking of would be a great fit. "I have a friend—a woman—who I would recommend. She's on my list at the office, but I know her pretty well." Olivia swallowed the pump in her throat. "She's a survivor too. I met her early in my career. I, uh, worked her case, and I think," she paused, "I think she could help."

Lizzie wiped her tears with the sleeve of her crewneck sweatshirt. "Okay," she agreed. "Will you, will you call for me?" She stammered a little. "I could do it. It's not a big deal, I just feel, I don't know.

"I can call her," Olivia reassured her. "Don't feel bad for being overwhelmed. Like I said earlier, I'm here to help in whatever way you need."

Lizzie bit her lip that began to once again quiver. "Thank you, Liv. Just… thank you."

Olivia smiled warmly. "I've got you, and your dad does too. We are here, and we are going to get through this together. Just let us be there for you."

Tears welled in her eyes again, but she blinked them back. "Thank you."

-000-

"Where we at, Fin?"

"You're gonna get me fired, you know that, right?"

Elliot chuckled. "Not a chance. I'm not asking for tons of details." He promised he would back off, but he'd be damned if he didn't light a fire under every person associated with Lizzie's case. "Just give me what you would give a relentless family member."

"Relentless is right," Fin grumbled.

Elliot waited, knowing full well Fin would give him the information. He would just bitch about it first.

"Well, Churlish and Velasco are chasing down a bartender who looks shady as hell and one of their beverage providers. I'm trying to track down your girl's ex, but he seems to be laying low."

"Wait, Brandon?" Elliot never liked him, but he hated his daughters boyfriends as a general rule. The man was spineless, and Elliot wasn't sure he could commit an act of violence like Lizzie's assault. Still, he'd been on the job long enough to know that anyone is capable of anything, and you couldn't ever really know anyone.

"Yeah," Fin grunted a little before slamming his car door. "Liz called him that night. We aren't really sure how long they talked, but he's probably her last contact before everything went down."

Elliot felt his hands clenching and unclenching. He knew once he got Fin talking he would probably reveal more than he normally would. It would be habit, bouncing ideas off a fellow officer. Elliot tried rolling some of the tension out of his neck. He promised, and as much as he wanted to track Brandon down himself, doing so would destroy the tenuous trust he was building with Liz and Olivia.

Elliot took a slow breath, and then another: it was one of the few things that had stuck in his brain after all of the bullehit madatory anger management classes he took. It rarely worked—probably because he didn't give it time—but breathing slowly had become a habit nonetheless. When he felt somewhat in control and his voice leveled, he asked, "You want me to ask Liz if they talked at all?" That would be the simplest solution. He could sit her down and ask a question, especially one as simple as 'Did you call Brandon from the bar?'

Elliot heard Fin starting his car. He waited until the Bluetooth picked up the phone connection before answering. "I don't know, man. You should probably stay out of this as much as possible."

Another instinctual flash of anger rolled through his body, and his jaw clenched. He tried to take a breath before reacting, but the biting anger still dripped from his tone of voice. "So I'm not supposed to talk to my daughter?"

Fin let out a heavy sigh. "Look, Stabler, you can do whatever the hell you want. I probably said too much, but before you go in guns blazing' you might want to think about if your daughter needs another cop in her life." Fin swallowed audibly, and Elliot knew Fin's advice was coming from a father—a cop—who felt like he damaged his own relationship with his child. "Or her dad?" He paused before adding, "I think you know who she needs more.

Elliot knew he was right, but it didn't ease the tension flowing through his body. "I know. I know. I just… I hate this." He admitted through clenched teeth.

"I do too, man. I think you and Liv forget that I watched your kids grow up too. In my head she'll always be a bouncing blonde ponytail who constantly got into my paper clip drawer to make necklaces or whatever the hell she was always tryin to make." He sighed. "I need you to let me do my damn job." The air felt heavy even though they were in two different places. "I got you. Just take care of your kid... and let me get these guys."

Normally, Olivia proved to be the only person capable of taming that feral part of him. The part that needed violence and revenge. Almost from the beginning, she knew how to calm his stormy soul. But this wasn't Olivia. It felt strange, but somehow Fin managed to disarm him, ultimately soothing the inner monster. The thought made him chuckle ironically. "Man, you've spent too much time with Liv over the years."

Fin let out a light laugh. "I'll never be as good as her, but I'd like to think I learned a thing or two from her over the past couple decades."

After a beat of silence, Elliot cleared his throat. "Thanks Fin."