Hers To Bear - An SVU fic

21.Resurfacing

'Motherhood agrees with you" Nick said. Seeing Olivia looking so happy warmed his heart.

"She's amazing. Can I get you guys anything?"

"No, we can't stay, just wanted to drop this off to you" Fin said as he handed her the small package.

"What's this?"

"We don't know." Nick answered" A guy came by, said his sister instructed him to deliver that to you if he didn't hear from her in two weeks…that was a month ago"

"And he's just now getting around to it? Who's his sister and why does she want me to have this?"

"The sister is Sara Harris" Fin answered

"Amanda's friend? What could she possibly have that I need to see?"

"No clue, but she may or may not be missing, brother hasn't heard from her in a month but he says it's normal and he doesn't wanna file a report" Nick added "we're gonna keep an eye on him."

"I think that's a wise thing to do, considering the circumstances" Olivia agreed.

"Well, we better get outta here" Fin said as he stood up. You'll let us know if it's anything serious?"

"Of course" she promised and hugged them both.

"You know, we miss you around the squad room" Nick confessed

"I'll be back soon enough" she smiled. "Won't be the same without Rollins but…"

"Yeah; you getting anywhere with convincing her to press charges?" Fin asked

"She won't do it, turns out there are some major players involved and she's convinced that these people will come after Noelle to retaliate – and to be honest, I can't say it doesn't scare the hell out of me too!"

"Well that's never gonna happen so don't even think about it" Nick said

"That's right, our baby girl is exactly where she needs to be and this is where she's staying" Fin assured her.

"I just wish there was another way. " Olivia said sorrowfully "Someone needs to pay for what happened to her."

"Don't worry, somehow, some way, it'll happen." Fin promised. Kiss baby girl for us when she wakes up."

"I will" Olivia smiled.

After locking the door behind her detectives, she went to the nursery to check on Noelle before returning to the living room and picking up the small package, taking a seat on the sofa as she opened it and emptied its contents onto the coffee table. From the thick brown envelope, a folded letter and two flash drives came and she was suddenly alarmed. Olivia looked around the living room before carefully picking up and unfolding the letter and she began to read.

Sergeant Benson,

I'm sending this letter because in doing so, I'm hoping that I can right a wrong that I've done and if you're reading it, well it's more than likely that something terrible has happened to me.

I've failed at a lot of things in life but none so much as I've failed Mandy as a friend. She told me about her rape in an attempt to protect me after finding out that I was dating one of her rapists and for my own selfish reasons, I called her a liar only to find that she was telling the truth about everything. I went looking for proof and I found it. Amanda wasn't the first, he and his friends have done this to dozens of women and girls and they recorded every sick encounter. The original files are on Chad's computer but I copied as many as I could. I know that Mandy doesn't want to press charges but if you can find one of these other girls, get them to talk to you, maybe you can put him away and get justice for all of us.

-Sara Harris

Olivia couldn't believe it, was this letter serious? Did these drives have proof of the crimes that had been committed and would it help her to put Amanda's rapists away without Amanda having to be involved and without Noelle's paternity coming to light? She was almost afraid to believe it as she reached over to pick up her laptop from the coffee table and opened it before picking up one of the drives and inserting it into the USB port.

***

AMANDA'S APARTMENT…

Amanda had just returned from her morning run and was on her way to the shower when her phone began ringing just after she'd tossed it onto the sofa. Sighing first, she went back to the living room to grab it.

"Liv, hey"

"Hey, you busy?"

"Not really, what's goin on?"

"I know your reasons for not wanting to pursue prosecuting Chad and his friends, but what if we could without you being involved?" Olivia asked

"I'm lost"

"Uh… something fell into my lap today, something I need to talk to you about…it also concerns your friend Sara" There was a long silence on the phone before Amanda spoke again. Whatever this was would lead to her having to talk about that night again and she felt dread in the pit of her stomach.

"Let me grab a shower first, I'll be there soon." She said quietly and ended the call.