Fragile (Broken #2) SVU

Chapter Nine

**Livs POV**
Sky doesn't even say goodbye to me before she leaves for school. I'm worried about her but she's got this massive block of steel around her, like it'll protect her from anything.

I'm walking towards the squad room when I see Elliot standing at the coffee machine, laughing with Nick. He makes me sick, but I can't help feeling that old spark of passion towards him, and I hate myself for it.

"Oh hi Olivia." Nick says, far too cheerful for 8.30 in the morning. "I'm putting you and Stabler together today."

"Are you shitting me?" I say, disgusted, coming to stop next to them. "I'm not working with him."

"Olivia. You don't have a choice. You either work with Elliot or you're on desk duty. You decide."

And with that last remark, Nick turns around and struts back into the squad room. I take a deep breath and turn to face my new partner for the day.

"This doesn't change anything." I say. "We work together and that's it."

****
We're on our way to another suicide. Elliot is driving, and I am staring out the window, tense and angry. I can't believe Nick has forced me to work with Elliot freaking Stabler. I'm not the one who abandoned their child - yet I'm the one getting punished.

"Olivia. Will your at least look at me?"

I won't. I don't care that I'm acting like a spoilt teenager. Elliot always did make me feel like I was 2 feet tall, always second best, always left out in the cold. I'll be damned if he ever makes my daughter feel like that.

We spent the rest of the journey in silence. When we arrive at the scene, I release my seat belt and get out the car. I'm halfway to the officer in charge before Elliot is even out of the car.

"What have we got?" I ask, as the police officer looks up from his papers. He's as white as a ghost.

"It's an apparent suicide of another girl who we rescued from the trafficking ring." He says, a lump forming in his throat. "Except we're treating this as murder, and we believe the other suicide was murder too."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"The killer was sloppy. They didn't clean up the job properly like the last one. There are fresh footprints leading away from the body, which are too big to be the girls. Also, there are defensive marks."

I let out a breath of hot air, my heart pounding in my chest as worry starts to grow for my own child.

"Do you know who it is?"

"It's Carolyn Prescott." He says, looking down at his shoes.

**Sky's POV**
My pathetic attempt at rushing off to school so I wouldn't have to ride with my mom or a police officer failed. When I arrive in Math class, there's a cop standing outside my classroom door.

He smiles at me but I can't bring myself to smile back.All this fuss is over nothing and I don't need a babysitter.

I don't even bother going to the cafeteria at lunch. Instead I spend the whole hour squeezed into a cubicle, doing any exercises I have room for. When the cop asks if I'm ok, I yell that I'm having woman issues, and they don't argue.

I open up my backpack and feel around until I find what I'm looking for. Before my mom woke up this morning I stole her credit card and I'm planning on ordering some diet pills off the internet. I feel like the worlds worst daughter but I can't bear to stay this size. I'm disgusting. After several internet searches I find what I'm looking for and I hope my mom won't check her transactions until they've arrived.

By the time the bell goes for afternoon classes, I'm tired and achy. As much as I want to skip class, I have to keep up school or my mom will know something is wrong.

The police officer smiles awkwardly at me as I head towards my English class. Kids standing at their lockers gawp at me like I'm a museum exhibit. If I didn't hate confrontation, I'd have punched them in the face.

As I turn the corner, I'm stopped in my tracks. My mom is standing in the corridor and my sorry excuse for a father is standing behind her.

"Mom, what are you doing here? I say glancing around, not wanting to add this to my embarrassment accomplishments.

"Sky. Something happened and you need to come home."

Panic starts to rise in my chest. What could have happened that was so bad that my mom was pulling me out of school?

"What happened?."

"It's Caroline. Bonnie's sister. She's dead."