I do not own the characters. They belong to Dick Wolfe and NBC.
As she laid there the numbness sweeping throughout her body shielded her from the harsh icy texture of the concrete beneath her. With each pump of her heart the pounding from the knot on the back of her head became more unbearable. The pain was agonizingly drifting her in and out of darkness, into the abyss of her own mind. The pain from the blow she took to the cranium whenever she fell was almost enough to make her forget the bullet lodged into her abdomen. The blood steadily seeping through her olive green tank top was not easily forgotten though. Detective Olivia Benson has spent the last ten years of her life fighting for the lives of her victims, and here she was in a damp, abandoned building, alone fighting for her own life.
Not knowing how much time had passed since lost consciousness, Olivia opened her eyes to see the sun had set long before she had come to. The building's temperature experienced a rapid decline since she was last awake. As much as she wanted to fight off the pain cascading throughout her entire body and rush for help, she realized there was no way for her to grant her own wishes. She was past the point of fight. As the minutes painfully ticked by, the blood steadily flowed out of her taking with it her fight for survival. Her own loss of life was not what scared her the most. It was those she would be leaving behind. Munch and Fin would never be able to handle having a new detective in the building. Cragen loved her as his own daughter. The thought of the man who helped her reach the most of adulthood with a strong moral broken at the sight of her dead body caused a tear to flow down her face. Before it could hit the floor beneath her, the freezing temperatures caused it to kiss her cheek in an icicle. And Eliot, her partner for the last seven years. His blue eyes piercing into her soul was the only thing keeping her from giving up all hope and letting herself drift into eternal darkness. The only man who had ever managed to show any signs of real love toward her. He told her he'd always be there to protect her, but her she lay dying. Alone. Wrapped in blackness and freezing temperatures instead of his strong arms. And it was all her fault. It always was. She felt herself drifting out of consciousness and relapsing back to previous occurrences at the station.
The station was empty except for Olivia and Eliot. Everyone else had steadily trickled out of the station after nine o'clock hit. The case they had been working on for the last week closed earlier that day; however, something the victim's father, James Giovanni, said on the stands caused Olivia to second guess who the real guilty party was.
Twenty year old Talia Giovanni had been found raped and murdered on the outskirts of the city. Her body had been beaten and mutilated almost beyond recognition. Her dental records and DNA had been used to identify the young woman's broken body. The medical examiner discovered during the autopsy Talia recently underwent an abortion weeks earlier. The abortion resulted in a horrendous infection, which would have left the woman unable to mother children in the future. All evidence pointed to the woman's stable boyfriend Ryan Brady. Brady was a construction worker with complete access to both the dumpsite and materials found there. The investigation revealed the tools found in Brady's company van were identical to the murder weapons used. Brady claimed to not known of Talia's pregnancy or abortion, but at that point, it didn't matter. A sonogram of Talia's fetus was found in the company truck issued to Ryan Brady. All of the evidence lined up for an open and shut case of murder. Ryan Brady would be facing up to life in prison. Everyone, including Eliot and Olivia, believed Ryan Brady to be the murderer until Talia's father made a statement about Talia not being able to have children because of the forced abortion Brady caused her to have.
No one except for those who had seen the case file knew about Talia's inability to conceive children after the abortion. Unless Talia had told her father about the pregnancy, abortion, and infection, James Giovanni should not have been aware of them. He had given the detectives statements saying neither him nor his wife knew of Talia's pregnancy. Not even her closest friends or roommates knew when they were questioned. After James Giovanni made the statement Olivia's mind began to reevaluate the case that was being tried in front of her. Olivia left the courtroom before the case was decided to look over the files at the station.
When Eliot returned from the courthouse Olivia told him of her idea of Talia's father being the real murderer, pulling evidence up on the board to show how easily the evidence pointing to Ryan could have been manipulated by James Giovanni. James owned the company Ryan Brady worked for. He owned all of the same tools. He knew about Talia's abortion. He could have easily switched the tools and set Ryan up for the murder.
"Liv, you've really got to stop watching these crime dramas on TV at night. You're starting to sound like Munch. We caught the bad guy. He's in jail. We've had a rough week. Let it go." Eliot responded after Olivia was finished giving her presentation. Her nostrils flared and pupils dilated in response to her partners apathetic outlook.
"Let it go? Let an innocent man go to jail because you had a "rough week". Go ahead and leave, Eliot. Run home to your wife and kids!" Olivia spat. She could not believe he of all people would be so callus towards a wrongfully accused man. Something in Eliot's eyes changed. She saw the pain seep into his eyes at her commands. This was becoming a reoccurring look for him, but as much as she had seen it in the last two months, she couldn't get used to her partner looking so defenseless.
Without saying a word Eliot began looking over the case files looking for anything to help Olivia. She sat down at the desk across from him and continued her own search for any stable evidence to prove James Giovanni murdered his daughter. Three hours later, after everyone had abandoned the station, Olivia realized the abortion clinic said to had botched the procedure had been writing checks for ten thousand dollars to Talia Giovanni every week since her abortion. Six checks were received in total. The first two were deposited into Talia's account. The next three in James Giovanni's. And the last went back into Talia's; however, the day of her death the check was stopped and deposited in James Giovanni's account. Olivia looked up the area surrounding the crime scene noticing $1,200 every month was coming out of James Giovanni's account to pay for an apartment two blocks from where Talia's body had been found.
"Eliot! The bastard killed his own daughter! She was being paid off by the abortion clinic to keep quiet about her botched surgery. James was taking her money from her for himself! He has an apartment two blocks from where her body was found. He killed his own daughter for money. And we sent the wrong man to jail!" Olivia was both disappointed in her poor detective skills, which landed an innocent man in jail, and proud she had finally pieced everything together.
Eliot laughed. "Liv, that's a wild goose chase. Nice story, but that'll never hold up in court. All of the real evidence still points to Ryan Brady".
Olivia was pissed and on a mission to prove him wrong. "I'll do this by myself then," were the last words she said as she stormed out of the station.
Eliot's phone rang before he had a chance to chase his partner. It was his oldest daughter Maureen calling to make sure he was coming back to his apartment that nigt to her and her siblings, who were there from his ex-wife's house. It was strange to call Kathy his ex-wife. They had been together since high school. The divorce was finalized two days ago, but he had yet to take off his ring or tell any of his collegues or Olivia even, that his wife had left him for a much younger man. His damn ego always found a way hurt him.
"Yeah, Mo. I'm leaving the station now. I'll be right to my apartment. Go ahead and order the pizza. Tell Dickie not to order any movies. Love you, too." With that he hung up the phone and got ready to leave. Hoping his partner would call him to tell him why she stormed out of the office like that. Hoping she'd call in general. He had something he needed to tell her. Know that he already broke one cardinal sin of his Catholic religion with his divorce, why not break another.
Olivia pulled up to the apartment James Giovanni rented and spotted a van identical to Ryan Brady's outside. She made sure her badge and gun were firmly on her hip before she descended the stairs to Giovanni's apartment. Whenever she arrived she found the door was wide open. Instinctively she made her way into the apartment. The apartment was no different than any other family homes she had seen in the city. She checked each room until she saw a room at the end of the hall where something caught her eye. In the room was a crib put together. A picture of Talia Giovanni with her hands over her stomach in a heart shape was sitting on the dresser. Next to that picture was a frame with 'Daddy + Mommy = You" painted on the front. In that photo was Talia standing with the baby's real father… James Giovanni.
Olivia's stomach dropped. A bang behind her caused her to turn in time to see James Giovanni standing in the door frame smoking gun in hand. He had shot Olivia before she had time to draw her own weapon. The stinging in her abdomen created enough pain for Olivia to be instantly knocked out.
"Dumb bitch. Couldn't mind her own business. That's what happened with Tally too. Think they have to control everything! I showed them both who was boss. Trying to control me!" James huffed as he picked what he thought was Olivia's lifeless body up and carried downstairs to the waiting van. "Looks like I'll have to find a better place to dispose of this one."
He took Olivia to an abandoned building his team would be renovating in a month and threw her body down two flights of stairs into a musky basement. He figured in a month whenever the renovations began his crew could find the bitch's body. With a mouth like her's, it wouldn't be a shock if he did the whole world a favor. He saw how she degraded Ryan in the interrogation room. How cussed and yelled during the investigation. He hated women who thought they deserved power. He made sure he showed Olivia exactly what he showed Talia.
Once she turned eighteen she revealed to him she found her adoption papers while going through records for college. James never even wanted kids. It was his damn wife Sylvia. He never raised Talia like a daughter. He couldn't help but wonder what kinds of naughty things she did whenever his wife was out of town with him and Tally had the house to herself. After he installed nanny cams in their house he found out. He decided right then and there she would be his. With a body like she had, who could blame him? Their love affair was kept a secret. From the outside he looked like a loving father. His wife loved how much of a bond had developed between him and their daughter. He was in the clear until that damn bitch got pregnant. That was enough to ruin him. She refused an abortion. He biggest a scummy clinic and slipped crushed up pain pills in Tally's vitamin water one night at dinner. Took his pregnant mistress/daughter to the clinic, where the abortion was done without a second thought. Whenever Tally woke up in her own house the next morning she knew something was wrong. James had a story ready about how she miscarried the baby the night before, but received too much pain medication to remember. Tally laid in bed crying about her lost baby for days until one day he walked in to her passed out. Against his own better judgment he took her to the ER only to have her find out about her infection. He promised her he'd make the doctor's who messed her up pay, and they did. Ten thousand dollars a week. She never figured out she had an abortion and not a miscarriage or where the money was actually coming from. Talia thought the money was coming from a clinic who caused problems during the miscarriage. Once she refused to continue giving the money to him, he knew he had to kill her. Ten grand a week was enough to kill anyone for. Plus, he knew eventually she'd open her damn mouth. The night he killed her she refused to have sex with him. He became so frustrated with her believing she was good enough to deny him of anything, let alone money and sex, that he forced himself on top of her and beat her to a pulp after she said she was calling the police. He noticed her breathing was shallowing whenever he picked up his work hammer. At that point, there was no way out of it. He had to kill her. He would have gotten away with it to if it wasn't for that bitch detective. He knew she caught his slip up whenever she rushed out of the courtroom after he said it. It was only a matter of time until she arrived at the apartment.
"It's a good thing she's out of the picture now," James Giovanni said to himself as he drove home to his grieving wife.
Olivia Benson wasn't one for religion. At this moment it was pray to God for strength or let the dark abyss engulf her. She knew she had to stay alive for Eliot. She refused to die until she told him how she felt. In words lower than a whisper she prayed, "God, don't let me die without him." She silently waited to see if Eliot was right about the all powerful God he worshipped. Waiting and fighting was all she could do. The pain overcame her body, and against her own will her eyes began to drift shut. Olivia Benson was going to die in an abandoned building.. alone.