One Piece

Elliot and Olivia; Olivia and Elliot. They're like peanut butter and jelly or milk and cookies—two things whose existence are meant almost solely to be with the other.

This is the relationship of Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. Yes, it is true that the relationship is mostly platonic (although there are those few instances where something slightly more romantic pops its head out) but that doesn't mean that they aren't meant for each other.

They have one of the strongest friendships around. Without one, the other wouldn't know what to do.

Fortunately, they've never had to deal with this heart breaking situation.

But, it's inevitable that their luck will run out eventually…

—

"Liv, you take the back. I'm going around front. Now don't go in until back-up arrives, understand?"

Olivia rolled her eyes at the voice of her partner coming from the walkie-talkie in her hand. But, no matter how annoying it was, she knew that Elliot was just looking out for her. She smiled, "Don't worry El, I'm not going anywhere." Two seconds later, however, her words were proven wrong when a gloved hand wrapped itself around her mouth and a figure dragged her off into the bushes.

—

Elliot Stabler was standing, half-concealed, in front of the suspect's house when the back-up arrived.

Detective Fin Tutuola jogged up to Elliot and asked, "Where's Liv?"

"Around back," Elliot gestured to the back of the house, "I told her to wait for back-up, and amazingly the stubborn woman listened to me for once."

Fin grinned and then said that he would go back with her while Detective John Munch would stay with Elliot. Fin then took off at a brisk pace around the side of the house to the back. "Liv," he said in a low whisper, "Liv where are you?" Not receiving an answer he tried again in a louder voice, "Liv! Where the hell are you baby girl?"

The detective pulled out his walkie-talkie and radioed Elliot, "El, are you sure Olivia said she would stay back here?"

"Yeah, why?"

"She's not here…why don't you guys just come back here." Fin didn't receive an answer but not ten seconds later Elliot and Munch appeared.

Elliot looked at Fin worriedly, "Where the hell could she have gone? She agreed that she wasn't going to go into the suspect's house until you guys arrived. Something must have happened!"

"Hey, Elliot, calm down, we'll find her," Munch said in as calming a tone as he could muster, "We're detectives, let's do what detectives do and look for clues."

All three detectives carefully searched the area for anything that could lead them to Olivia's whereabouts. As time went on and nothing whatsoever that could help them to find her was coming into light, Elliot became discouraged. If they never found her, he didn't know what he would do. No, he told himself, they would find her. She had probably just gotten bored waiting for the back-up to get there and had gone to get a cup of coffee or something. He was searching the ground when something caught his eye. It was footprints that turned into—

"Drag marks! Guys, over here!" Fin and Munch came running over and stared at the marks that Elliot pointed out.

Fin quickly scanned the ground, "They go over towards those bushes."

Before he even finished his sentence, the three men had started to hurry over in the direction of the bushes. They searched through the bushes until Elliot's gasp paused them. "Liv!"

Olivia lay on the ground, unmoving. Elliot's eyes filled with tears at the sight before him; Olivia's face and arms had multiple cuts and bruises on it, her shirt was ripped up and bloody, and her pants were bunched down around her ankles, leaving only her panties to cover her most private part haphazardly.

Elliot vaguely heard Munch radioing for a bus but his attention was focused solely on the woman lying broken in front of him. Until the paramedics pulled him away, Elliot stayed by his partner's side, murmuring in her ear, coaxing her to wake up. However, Olivia had still failed to awaken by the time she was taken away in the ambulance.

Elliot stood staring at the retreating ambulance even after it ceased to be in his line of sight and only stirred when Fin put his hand on his shoulder, "Come on man, we gotta get to the hospital." Elliot allowed himself to be guided towards the car, all the while thinking about Olivia. How could he have let her get hurt? He was her partner; he was supposed to have her back at all times. Obviously he hadn't or she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

—

The ride to the hospital had been silent with Elliot sitting deep in thought in the passenger seat.

As soon as Fin had the car parked, all three detectives jumped out of the car and ran into the emergency room. Elliot reached the front desk first, pulled out his badge, and said quickly, "Where's Detective Olivia Benson?"

The nurse looked at her computer and then, upon locating Olivia's name, said, "She's still being looked at but the doctor should be done very soon if you would like to wait over there." She indicated a group of uncomfortable looking plastic chairs.

Elliot, Fin and Munch walked over to the chairs and sat down to wait.

Suddenly Fin looked up, "Someone should go call the captain. I'll go." He stood and then went off to make his phone call.

Elliot and Munch just sat there, each thinking about Olivia and worrying about what could possibly be wrong.

Minutes later Fin came back and told them that the captain was on his way to the hospital.

Just then a doctor said, "Family of Olivia Benson?"

All three men stood quickly and waited for the doctor to speak.

"We treated Detective Benson for multiple bruises and lacerations. She also got a nasty bump on the head, but it doesn't look like she has a concussion." The doctor paused and looked slightly nervous.

"What is it?" Elliot asked.

"We normally don't divulge this kind of information but since you are detectives I guess it's alright if I tell you," the doctor took a breath; this was never an easy thing to tell people. "We did a rape kit and it came back positive."

Elliot looked at the doctor in horror—Olivia was raped? This was not possible! She was the one who was supposed to catch the bad guys; she was supposed to be invincible. "Can we see her?" he asked desperately.

The doctor nodded and led them to Olivia's room. The three detectives entered the room and were struck by how fragile and young their strong friend looked.

Elliot rushed to the side of the bed and grabbed his partner's hand, sitting in the chair by the bedside.

"Oh, Liv," he whispered and stroked Olivia's hair. Fin and Munch silently left, reassured that Elliot would take care of their girl.

Suddenly, Olivia's hand moved in Elliot's.

Elliot quickly sat up and called out to her, "Liv? Can you hear me? Open your eyes for me, sweetheart."

"El?" Olivia said with her eyes still closed, "What happened? Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital. You were…you don't remember?"

Olivia thought hard. "I remember we were watching the suspect's house and we were waiting for back-up…but then I don't…" Olivia trailed off as it all came rushing back to her. She gasped and her eyes flew open.

Elliot looked on in sympathy as Olivia's pain-filled eyes brimmed with tears and overflowed. He wanted to take her pain away but had no idea how, short of traveling back in time and stopping this whole situation from even occurring.

"Olivia? Are you ok? Do you want to talk?"

Olivia's eyes flew to his, "No I'm not ok! Did you think I would be ok after I was—" she couldn't say the word; it made it seem too real.

Elliot grabbed Olivia's hand again sadly and opened his mouth to say something when Olivia stopped him.

"Elliot, please can you just leave? I…I just need to be alone right now. Please?"

Elliot was going to argue but one look at his partner's heartbreaking face caused him to nod, give her a small kiss on the head and then head towards the door. He paused in the doorway, "Bye Liv; I love you, we all do. Just remember that, ok? Call if you need anything." And with that he walked out the door, closing it behind him, and started toward the waiting area that he had waited in with Fin and Munch.

The two detectives were sitting with Captain Cragen and all three men jumped up as soon as they saw Elliot coming down the hall.

"How is she?" Cragen asked as soon as Elliot got close enough to hear.

"She's…" Elliot sighed, "To be honest, she's really not good. When she first woke up she didn't remember what happened. But after a few seconds she remembered and she broke down. She asked me to leave…she said she wanted to be alone." Elliot looked thoroughly depressed and on the verge of tears by the time he finished. "I want to be able to help her through this, but if she won't let me, how can I?"

Cragen looked at him sadly, "Elliot, we have to respect what she wants. Victims all act differently; some want all the human contact they can get but others don't."

"I know that…but I still wish I could help her. She's my best friend. I need her."

—

Olivia lay in her bed, under a bunch of comfortable blankets, feeling sorry for herself. She in no way wanted to be her own pity party, but she couldn't help it. All that she felt like doing was to lay in her bed, all alone. On the other hand, she missed Elliot a lot. He was her partner and her best friend and she loved him like a brother.

Every time she thought of calling him she chickened out. If Elliot came over she would have to talk about what had happened. She didn't want to talk about it; she didn't want to think about it. If she was lying in bed alone she could at least try to forget about it.

It was difficult not to, though. Her mind would begin to wander and before she knew it she would be back in those bushes, being pushed down.

She needed something to think about that would push these thoughts out of her head. What was a neutral topic? Then it came to her: Christmas. It was only a few weeks away and she hadn't even begun to think about Christmas shopping.

She would make her Christmas list; that would pass the time. Might as well start with Elliot. Olivia started to think but almost immediately drew a blank. What do you get your best friend?

As she continued to think, there was a knock at the door. Olivia didn't even move; she didn't want to talk to anyone. Maybe if she acted like she wasn't there whoever it was would go away. This philosophy seemed to work when the knocking ceased after a minute or two.

But then the phone began to ring. Olivia lay still until the answering machine picked up and Elliot Stabler's voice came from the living room.

"Olivia. I know you're there. And I know you may not want to see anyone but I really want to see you. Can you please come open the door? Liv, I only want to help you. Please Liv."

Olivia lay unmoving for a few moments after the message turned off, thinking. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to see Elliot. He wouldn't make her talk about anything she didn't want to. It was settled, then; before she could change her mind, Olivia got out from the protection of her covers. She grabbed an oversized sweater from her closet and pulled it over her head before leaving her room.

Reaching the door, Olivia unlocked the deadbolt and then slowly pulled open the door to let Elliot in.

Elliot took in his partner's appearance—her hair was mussed and unkempt, she was dressed in an oversized sweater and old sweats, and her pale face was in stark contrast to the yellowing bruises that still covered most of it.

"How are you feeling," he asked gently.

Olivia paused to think about this. How was she feeling? Physically she was feeling almost normal. Besides a few sore bruises covering her body, she felt like normal. However, she knew that Elliot wasn't inquiring about her physical state as much as he was about her mental state. This was a much more difficult question. Olivia decided to be as truthful as possible.

"I'm not good El." Suddenly Olivia's face crumpled and before she knew it she was sobbing on Elliot's shoulder.

For twenty minutes Elliot whispered soothingly in Olivia's ear while she cried all over his shirt, soaking it in salt water.

Finally her sobs slowed and she lifted her head from Elliot's shirt. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. You needed to get it out of your system."

Olivia smiled at him, "I didn't even think that I wanted to see anyone. But I guess I needed it more than I thought."

Elliot looked at Olivia, "Babe, do you want to talk about it?"

"I…I don't know," she said nervously, "I don't want to think about. I've been trying to push it out of my head all day. When I think about it I feel like I can't breathe. I…I just feel so alone. I feel like there's no one else in the world that knows what I'm going through." When Elliot tried to interject Olivia quickly said, "I know I'm wrong. There's no way that I could be in this business and not know that there are others going through this. But I just…I feel so alone!"

When Olivia broke off, Elliot said, "Liv, you know you'll never be alone. I will always be here for you, through the good times and the bad."

"I know. That's why we're best friends. Without you I wouldn't be able to get through this."

These two friends both knew that their friendship would survive through anything; it had been put through the wringer and had come through in one piece.