As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. To them we owe a vast debt of gratitude for the pleasure they bring us. No infringement of their rights is intended, but thank you for letting us play with them, just for a little while.

Breaking Barriers Chapter 1

Author's Note

Hi and welcome to this story, the latest that sits inside my 'Intersecting Line's' universe of shared stories. The 'verse revolves around the main characters of Rizzoli and Isles but drags in a number of other characters from other crimes shows, including The Closer, Major Crimes, Castle and as here; Law and Order SVU.

You don't need to have read those stories to appreciate this one, it is mostly stand-alone, though other stories in the 'verse will relate back to the events in this story.

The only background you need to know for this story is that Alex Cabot and Olivia Benson, after years of friendship are now a couple and that a long time ago, beat cop Olivia Benson had a young rookie named Kate Beckett assigned as her partner. They have both travelled far from that time and lost track of each other over the years before reconnecting some six months ago at a function, rekindling their former close friendship.

Some of the background to that friendship can be found in my story "Hamptons Hiatus", which deals with a weekend Liv and Alex enjoyed staying at Rick and Kate's place on Long Island.

I hope you enjoy this story..

As always, all rights remain with the creators of Law & Order:SVU, Castle and CSI:NY and the wonderful actors who have brought the characters to life for us. Thanks for letting us add a little more to their stories.

Olivia

Detective Sergeant Olivia Benson was tired of seeing the inside of too many New York alleyways just like this one, they were all the same; miserable, dank and dirty, crowded with dumpsters, discarded cardboard pizza boxes, crushed cans, stray bits of old and broken furniture, smashed bottles and the detritus of modern life in New York City.

They weren't the reason she was called to them though, far too often they also held the remains of a life, left smashed, broken and discarded like so much trash. This one was not that different except in its victim's age, or lack of it.

A young girl, maybe 12 years old, 14 tops, maybe less, lay between two dumpsters, her pretty blonde hair now matted with blood, barely clothed in a stained pair of lace filigree panties and torn silk stockings, shockingly inappropriate for a girl of her age.

The way her leg and arm lay twisted at weird angles suggested violence, Olivia hoped like hell they were done after death, they would have been unbelievably painful otherwise. No one, let alone a child, should have gone through this abuse.

"Hey Liv" Melinda Warner, the 16th Precinct's resident Medical Examiner quietly greeted her approach.

"Hiya Mel, what we got?" Melinda looked down at the small body next to her, sadness in her voice, despite all her experience no one liked dealing with kids.

"Child, can't tell the age exactly yet, but early teens is my guess. Homeless guy found her and told a street cop around five AM. Time of death's about 2.30 this morning" Olivia nodded, so few of her cases happened at civilised hours, in fact…

"How come I didn't get the call until after seven?" Melinda shrugged.

"They thought it was a normal homicide, until I got a good look at her. She shows all the signs of repeated sexual activity, anal, oral and vaginal so it's an SVU case" Olivia winced, so young… She looked around, checking the area, why here?

"So any idea what killed her?" Melinda shook her head as she replied.

"She was dead before she hit" Olivia looked up at the words, frowning.

"Hit?" Melinda gestured up above them both as she spoke.

"She was thrown or pushed from an upper story window" Olivia's gaze immediately rose up the side of the building that formed one side of the alley, taking in five stories of windows. Her eyes flicked back to the body.

"You're sure, I mean if she was dead why the bleeding?" If she was dead before the fall there should be almost no bleeding. Melinda stood and indicated the rear corners of the two adjacent dumpsters; blood decorated one dumpster, while remnants of a torn silk stocking were hooked on the other.

"Pretty sure, her head split open on the dumpster, the bleeding was due to the wound being at the lowest point of the body where she fell and gravity did the rest. She was almost certainly dead before she dropped though" Olivia nodded as Melinda looked around, looking for Amaro. "Hey Liv, where's your partner?"

"Oh him, Amaro's off for at least a month, maybe more, he tore a bunch of ligaments in his right leg chasing that suspect in the Feeny case down a fire escape" She shrugged. "It'll heal, but he's off for a while and won't be running for longer, so I'm flying solo for a bit" Liv made a what can you do gesture. "Everyone else is running their own cases and I caught this one, so you're stuck with just me at the moment, at least until I get a temporary partner" Melinda nodded then continued.

"Un huh, well, I can't tell you much more until I get her down to Autopsy. I waited until you got here so you could see it before we moved her" Olivia smiled her thanks for the ME's courtesy, Melinda had to have been here for at least two hours and it was damned cold, another miserable winter was on its way. Melinda was still speaking. "You'll want to talk to Connolly and Fong from Homicide, they caught the case initially and they've started checking the hotel" Olivia nodded, stepping back to let Melinda's team move in to move the body. 'So small...'

Olivia looked down at the coffee in her hand; suddenly it wasn't quite so appealing anymore. Finally she looked up at the M.E.

"Thanks Mel, I'll go talk to them, see what they've scared up" She smiled sadly at her friend and colleague. "Call me when you've got anything?" At Melinda's answering nod she turned and walked away.

Another dead body, worse, another dead child. They were always the hardest to deal with. Olivia should have been outraged, should have been angry, but what she really felt was tired. Tired and numb, the job was taking its toll, every day was a struggle, getting up, leaving Alex and heading in to face still more death and horror.

She'd been doing this for almost a decade and a half; thought she'd seen everything, but people still found ways to get to her, new ways to demonstrate their ability to set new benchmarks in horror, each leaving their mark on her, like high tide marks on her soul, drowning her in death and depravity and despair. Once she'd been young and full of piss and wind, every case was a race to catch the bastard who'd done it, a chance to help the living and avenge the dead, but now…

She'd managed to build a wall around her emotions, trying to hold herself intact in the face of what she'd seen and experienced over all those years. Now her wall was crumbling, each new horror, each new atrocity and each sickening death chipping away another small portion of that wall, the darkness seeping through the cracks and into her soul.

Sooner or later she was going to have to walk away, get away from SVU. She'd thought about it, talked to Alex about it, but each time she'd had to push it aside as another case had come in, another victim calling out for justice, for her.

They needed her; without doubt she was the best SVU detective in the whole NYPD, with the decorations, the commendations and the psychological scars to prove it, that's why she got the worst cases, but how much more could she give before there was nothing left to give? She didn't have the answer, didn't know how much longer she could do this, all she could do was focus on the case, try and bring some comfort to the living and some closure to the dead.

It was her calling, it's what she did, but at what cost?