- Fast Food Manager: Two other detectives were here yesterday asking about Maria. Don't you people communicate with each other?
- Detective John Munch: That would be much too efficient for a bureaucracy like ours.
- Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola: [When Luis refuses to tell the police where his mother is] That kid's hanging tough.
- Donald Cragen: Can we hold him?
- Alexandra Cabot: For cutting class?
- Donald Cragen: As a material witness. We know he saw something.
- Alexandra Cabot: We put him in the system, they put him in juvenile detention which just terrifies him further. He didn't do anything. Let's try harder.
- Alexandra Cabot: [about Maria] Fredo has her spooked.
- Donald Cragen: How many times have we seen this, Counselor? Woman trapped in a violent relationship and doesn't want to press charges.
- Alexandra Cabot: Yeah, but she left him. That takes courage.
- Donald Cragen: And no doubt pissed off the bastard.
- Elliot Stabler: [to Eddie Fuente] You know something? Running your mouth like that, you're gonna wish you'd shot me.
- Alexandra Cabot: Murder one, life without parole.
- Eddie Fuente: What kind of deal is that?
- Alexandra Cabot: The kind that keeps you breathing.
- Maria Ramos: [to Stabler] I never should have gone to those cops or talked to you. We could have disappeared and Miguel would still be alive. I killed my own son because I didn't know what to do.
- Elliot Stabler: Let us help you.
- Maria Ramos: You can't help me. He could be one of Fredo's people, or him or them or anybody. You can't stop them.
- Elliot Stabler: If you just work with us, we can protect you.
- Maria Ramos: That's what the other cops said and look what happened. I'm not testifying against Fredo.
- Elliot Stabler: Listen to me, as long as you're out there, you're a threat to Fredo. He can't afford to leave you alive. He'll never leave you alone. Now, you refuse to testify, we'll subpoena you. If you still refuse to testify, you go to jail and you lose Luis to a foster home.
- Maria Ramos: Then take him! Put him in someplace where they can never find him. We can't live like this anymore.
- Olivia Benson: [after Maria shoots Fredo Garcia] What's going on?
- Donald Cragen: Alex wants to indict Maria.
- Olivia Benson: For what?
- Donald Cragen: Attempted murder.
- Olivia Benson: Are you kidding me? Fredo terrorized Maria and her sons for two years.
- Alexandra Cabot: That doesn't give her the right to become a vigilante.
- Olivia Benson: This isn't about revenge, Alex. It's self-defense.
- Alexandra Cabot: No, Olivia, Fredo's gun was two rooms away. Unless Maria had reason to believe her life was in immediate danger, she had no justification for shooting him.
- Olivia Benson: How about extreme emotional distress?
- Alexandra Cabot: Doesn't apply here. Maria knew exactly what she was doing. She dropped Luis off at her mother's, she ditched the Bronx detectives, she bought the gun and she went to kill Fredo.
- Olivia Benson: We put her in that position because we couldn't protect her.
- Alexandra Cabot: No one could guarantee Maria's safety 100%.
- Olivia Benson: Look, she is scared for her life and her boys.
- Alexandra Cabot: Maria committed a crime.
- Olivia Benson: Which we are partly responsible for. Alex, cut her a break.
- Alexandra Cabot: I have to enforce the law.
- Donald Cragen: Maria is your only eyewitness to Fredo executing Joey Stapleton. Convict her and her credibility is shot along with your murder case against Fredo.
- Alexandra Cabot: The law is not always about justice. Your words, remember?
- Donald Cragen: Maria didn't kill anybody, but, Fredo. Fredo's got two bodies to his name that we know about. We don't lop his head off now, he will kill again. And if anything happens to Maria or Luis, it's on you.
- Olivia Benson: Maria, Luis is going to a shelter until we can place him in a foster home.
- Maria Ramos: You can't take him away from me. He's my son.
- Olivia Benson: So was Miguel, but where were you when he needed you?
- Detective John Munch: Fin bolted a couple of minutes ago, didn't say where. That usually means a covert meeting with one of his operatives in the drug netherworld.
- Detective John Munch: You don't have to be scared, Luis.
- Luis Ramos: I don't want to talk about it.
- Detective John Munch: Talking can be good. Make you feel better.
- Luis Ramos: It'll get you into trouble.
- Fredo Garcia: [after Maria shoots him] It's killing me!
- Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola: It's *just* a knee.
- [walks him out]
- Olivia Benson: Maria, where'd you get the gun?
- Maria Ramos: On the street, I bought it.