FACING THE PAST

AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER

Yes, I know I shouldn't be starting another story but, I got inspired. Got this idea from the three-way crossover and starts at the end scene of "Nobody Touches Anything" and deals with the background I created for Matt in "Debt or No Debt?". Will start out the same, but will go in a different direction. I may add in SVU later. Haven't decided yet. Belongs to Dick Wolf and NBC. I only own Matt's background.

Erin could feel the pit in her stomach growing as she sifted her way through the photos. How could anyone want to hurt a kid? And how could something like this be going on at this level? Didn't anyone care about them? Why would anyone let them fall through the cracks?

"This is grim," she said.

"Yeah," Hank agreed tightly as he put his jacket on. Maybe he shouldn't have agreed to let her look through all those photos. Despite her tough demeanor, the woman was one of the most sensitive people he knew and going through picture after picture of abused kids had to be taking its toll on her. Not that she would admit that. No, she'd just plug on through, pretending that it didn't bother her.

"So, uh, the federal kiddie porn databases, they search for the kid and for the background so that they can identify the work of different offenders, so I figured we'd do the same thing," she continued and the man nodded. That made sense. If they figured out what made each perp tick, they'd know how to track them and then take them down. Erin placed a photo down. She picked up the next one and-it was like she couldn't breathe.

"Oh, my god," she said. Was she seeing this right? Was this really who she thought it was?

"What?" the sergeant asked, his body going on high alert at her action as he went to stand beside her. "Oh, my god," he said.

"It's Matt," she stated.

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"Do you think he remembers this?"

"Most likely."

"Well, why wouldn't he say anything?"

"I barely got him to cop to Cordone pimping him out to keep him hooked. No way he would mention this." Damn, what am I going to do? Matt's going to freak, he thought to himself. Not that he could blame the kid. He had just basically wanted to do forget everything that had happened to him. And he had gotten enough bad breaks as it was.

"What are we going to do?"

"I'll give him a call. Tell him we gotta talk."

"He's not going to like hearing about this."

"Better he hear it from me than somewhere else." Erin nodded. She couldn't even imagine what Matt had gone through. Yeah, she had gotten hooked on heroin and she had been involved with Charlie, but from the little she had heard, Matt had been hooked on a lot of different things and been desperate enough to do whatever Cordone wanted him to. But to keep something like this bottled up…she couldn't even imagine something like that. Don't worry, Matt. We'll catch these guys. We won't let them get away with this, she thought to herself. They'd make sure that whoever had done this to him got put away. Maybe she could call the SVU squad in New York. Maybe someone could tell her where this photo had taken place. Hank went to his car, as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Casey," he heard a few moments later.

"Matty, meet me at the Long Branch. We need to talk," he told him.

"What's going on, Hank?" Matt questioned.

"In person, Matty," Hank told him and then hung up. He arrived at the bar and sat down at a booth. A moment later, a waitress came up to him.

"Get you anything, Hank?" she asked.

"No thanks, Ellen. I'm waiting for someone," he responded. Ellen nodded and then walked off. A few moments later, Matt walked in, spotted Hank, and then walked over to him.

"What's going on, Hank?" he asked, sitting across from him.

"This isn't easy for me, Matty. Your name came up in an investigation," the sergeant told him and the firefighter shot him a look.

"And you think-"

"As a vic, Matty. The guy your house saved, he had a box full of pictures. Erin was sorting through them when she came across a picture of you." When he heard this, the younger man let out a scoff.

"It was probably just an old pic that Cordone kept to get himself off and then gave it to a buddy. Probably not connected to anything"

"Matty, this guy is a part of a ring." Matt let out a sigh and averted his gaze. "Matty, look at me." Matt did as he was told. "Tell me straight: did Cordone ever pass you around?" Matt blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. Damn, how can he ask me that? he wondered. "Matty?" Matt let out another breath. Then he slumped his shoulders and leaned back in his seat.