Olivia knocked lightly before slowly opening the door. She could feel Elliot directly behind her, his hand protectively ghosting her lower back. She stepped into the room first, and Elliot followed, but as she moved deeper into the space, he hung back.

She glanced over her shoulder to see him leaning back against a counter with his hands clasped. She knew he was trying to make himself appear smaller and less intimidating for the victim, at least at first. The last thing this girl needed was some huge cop barreling toward her. Elliot knew how to play it and would approach when it wouldn't startle or further traumatize the victim.

Olivia remained mostly quiet, only making enough noise to alert the girl of her presence so she wouldn't startle her when she approached. The staff had the girl laid mostly flat with several warming blankets draped over her body. Even beneath the blankets, the bulky support keeping her shoulder in place was visible. Gauze covered the corner of her forehead where Olivia suspected a severe head laceration lay hidden.

As Olivia approached, she got a better view of the girl's face. She was beautiful, but not in a traditional way. The hospital gown and blankets swallowed up her entire petite body, but all the dirt and grime had been removed from her face, illuminating a pair of wide blue eyes with thick dark lashes. Her skin was lightly tanned and littered with small abrasions. A small configuration of freckles lightly dotted her nose. The hospital must have done the best they could with her hair, but her inky black curls had been tossed around and matted in some areas, but something about those wild curls made her seem fierce. She was a survivor.

Olivia spied a chair tucked near the hospital bed, and she pulled it over so she would be in the girl's natural line of sight. From the doctor's description, she half expected a vacancy behind her large eyes, but that couldn't be further from the truth. She appeared to be well aware of her surroundings, even if she refused to make active eye contact.

She sat but didn't force eye contact. "Hey," she greeted gently.

The girl blinked in response.

"My name is Olivia." She kept her voice light but not patronizing. "My friend Elliot is here with me."

The girl didn't even try to move her head to find the other person in the room.

"I know this is all... a lot, and it's hard to see so many faces of people you don't know, but I want you to know that my number one job is to keep you safe. I don't know what happened to you before, but we've got you now, and you're safe."

Elliot's phone received a notification somewhere in the background, but she ignored it and kept her focus on the scared pair of blue eyes welling with tears in front of her.

"Liv, I'm sorry, but I gotta check on the boys."

Something registered in the girl's expression when she heard Elliot speak. A sort of recognition. Her head whipped around, making her wince at her own sudden movement. Elliot was reaching for the door, but his voice woke this girl up in a way she hadn't been able to with her quiet reassurances.

"Elliot, wait."

He looked up from his phone, eyes quizzical, until he noticed how their victim was watching him. She recognized his voice.

Olivia slowly stood up. "I need to speak with Elliot for a minute." She made sure she met the girl's eyes when she spoke. "Just a minute, okay?"

The girl didn't answer, but there was a silent acknowledgement in her gaze. Olivia moved through the room quickly, grasping Elliot's forearm and tugging him towards the door. "What's going on with the boys? I think you should stay here."

The look on Elliot's face was not at all reassuring.

"What?" She prodded impatiently.

"Uh, yeah, so Eli lost Noah. Dickie went to the bathroom. "

This could not be happening. "Are you serious!?" She could understand losing a six-year-old in a hospital, but Noah was turning thirteen in a couple weeks. "How the hell did they lose a teenage kid?" She whispered harshly.

"I don't know," he snapped back. "Eli has never babysat anyone in his life; maybe he expected a preteen kid to stay put!"

Olivia groaned and dropped her head into her hands. "Fine. I'll go track him down. Stay with her."

She slipped through the door and resisted the urge to scream the second she made it into the hallway. What was Noah thinking? He knew they were all uptight right now, and he thought now would be the time to make some sort of great escape? She was pissed at her kid. She was pissed at Elliot's kid. Hell, a small part of her was pissed at Elliot even though he had nothing to do with any of it.

She was more than ready for this hellscape of a day to end.

-000-

Elliot shoved his hands into his pockets and made his way to the edge of the bed. He unintentionally obtained more experience talking to traumatized kids last year, but pummeling crime bosses felt low stakes compared to something like this. It wasn't like he didn't spend thirteen years talking to victims, or raise five kids, for that matter. There was just so much more to lose when working with kids. So much more to screw up.

He meandered to the chair where Olivia previously sat. "I'm sorry you're stuck with me. Liv is much better at this sort of thing." The girl seemed a little more relaxed when he spoke, so he continued talking. "It's got to be weird having random people asking you to trust them. I'm probably more like you. People need to prove it to me first. Liv is like that too. I think people who have been hurt before don't really trust easily." He shifted his weight a little to get more comfortable. "But you can trust Olivia. She's helped a lot of people. Lots of kids and women who were hurt by other people."

Her blue eyes remained fixed on his face. It would be unnerving, but he understood that his voice was the only thing making her feel even a little safe. He had no idea what sort of hell this kid went through, but if he could provide at least one positive interaction with a male, he would feel successful.

"You scared the hell out of all of us. I don't think you realize how grateful we are that you are alive. God,Noah. My kid lost a friend last year. It was really hard on him. Finding you brought up a lot of stuff for him. Me too, if i'm honest." He shook his head, and his voice broke slightly. "I guess I'm just really really glad you are alive."

-000-

By the time she met up with the boys, she was less mad and more scared. The hospital wasn't huge, but there were a thousand different places to look. When she made it back to the cafeteria Dickie rushed over. "I'm sorry, Liv. I had to go to the bathroom, and I was gone for like a second, and I THOUGHT he would be fine with Eli," he glared in Eli's direction.

"This isn't my fault," Eli began defending himself. "He was playing on his phone across the table from me! What was I supposed to do? Stare at him the whole time we sat here?"

"Well, you could have at least looked up from your phone for a second to make sure he was still there, genius." Dickie was pretty pissed, but yelling at each other wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Enough," her captain's voice effectively shut down the bickering. "Has either of you alerted the staff that he's missing?"

"I just got back from letting the front desk know," Dickie volunteered.

"Great. They can keep an eye out for him while we look. What were you guys talking about before he took off?" She was hoping for any clue as to where he would take off to.

"I told you, we were just playing games. We weren't talking." Eli said in frustration.

Dickie looked like he was about to get after Eli again, so Olivia tried to reroute him before the conversation devolved again. "What about you? What were you two talking about before you went to the bathroom?"

Dickie closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think. "Uh, we were talking about Sarah and how I felt when she was in the hospital six months ago." Olivia had forgotten that Dickie's fiancee had been in the hospital unexpectedly a while back. She had been there a few days, and in the end they landed on a diagnosis of ovarian cysts, but she remembered how terrified Dickie had been at the time.

"Anything else?" She prodded gently.

"Um. We talked about the cafeteria food. Uh, and I think we talked about how the gift shop had some of the most random things, but I found this dumb plush toy as a gag gift sort of thing. I'm trying to think. I think that was it. Um. We might have talked about Sarah wanting a dog? I can't remember."

"No, no, that's good. Has anyone checked the gift shop? Where is that?" She glanced around, searching for a site map.

"I think I saw it near the entrance when I went to grab something from the truck earlier." Dickie started heading in the direction of the main entrance, Eli and Olivia trailing directly behind him.

The shop wasn't far from the cafeteria, just through one set of double doors at the end of a short hall. The shop had a wall of windows on one side to display floral arrangements, toys, and blankets. Somewhere behind the display, Olivia thought she saw the top of Noah's head. "I think he's in there. You guys mind waiting here?"

"Uh yeah, I'll pass on that yell fest," Eli impulsively muttered.

Dickie smacked his shoulder. "Yeah, we are good. I'll let reception know we found him."

"Thanks," she said as she speedily walked towards the entrance to the shop.

The heat must have been cranked up in the store because when she opened the door, a flood of heat rushed through the door. The strong smell of an apple cinnamon candle made the air feel even more thick as she stepped through the displays. When she finally made it to the back of the store, she found Noah paying for whatever the cashier was handing him in a very pink gift bag.

"Noah," she called.

He startled and flipped around. "Mom. Hey." She wanted to scream at his nonchalant behavior. It was like he didn't even realize the panic he had caused. He took his bag from the cashier and walked to Olivia. "Whats up?"

She mentally facepalmed. He had literally no idea that he scared the crap out of everyone. "Noah. You can't just run off without telling anyone! You scared me to death! You could have been anywhere!" She kept her voice low as she urged him towards the doors of the gift shop.

"Im not a baby," he scoffed. "I can go down the hallway without needing a chaperone."

She was getting a headache. "No, you can't. Not right now, okay? The boys didn't know where you went, and for all I knew someone could have taken you."

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, Mom. You let me walk to the bodega all the time. Im pretty sure there are more murderers in the city than out here."

"The bodega is literally across the street from the apartment, and you know that this is different."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just wanted to get something, and I didn't think it would be a big deal. I'm sorry." She didn't love his tone, but she decided not to push it. They were all running on high levels of stress, and she decided to let it go.

She sighed and eyed the apparent gift he bought. "What did you get for her?" It was obvious who he had bought it for.

He shrugged. "It's probably dumb."

"I'm sure it's great, baby." She wrapped an arm around his shoulder as they walked.

"It's just a little stuffed animal. A Dalmatian. It looked cute, I don't know. She probably doesn't even like dogs."

"I'm sure she will love it. That was a really nice thing to do, Noah." She didn't condone scaring the crap out of everyone to do it, but it was still a nice gesture.

"Do you think I could give it to her while she's awake?

"I don't know, baby. She's pretty beat up and tired. I'm not even sure she will still be awake when I get back there. Maybe we should try for tomorrow."

"Please mom? I'll be fast, and if she's asleep then I'll just wait, please?" His big blue eyes were pleading. "I just keep seeing her, laying on the ground in the trees. I'll only stay a minute. I promise."

She wasn't sure it was a good idea, but maybe it would give him some peace of mind. "We can go see if she's even up for an extra visitor, but if she is asleep or says no, then you will have to wait."

He surprised her with an impulsive hug. "Thanks."