This is set in season 8, following Choreographed, shortly after Liv returns from Oregon. EO friendship and mutual angst, headed to EO, as I really want these two to find some happiness, but it's a hard case, so they wont have full on fluffy moments! I own nothing, sadly.

Big thanks to Mrs-Amy-Lee - you are an inspiration :-)

MONDAY

Elliot was angry. It was 8.30 AM and he had already had a full blown argument with Kathy, who had called him the moment he was about to leave. He was annoyed at himself for answering the phone in the first place, but he couldn't avoid Kathy forever - especially as he had been managing just that, quite defty, for days now. She had wanted to know when he was going to sign the divorce papers - again. He didn't know why he hadn't signed - he had looked at them - mostly from a distance, where they had been sitting since he first received them - on the table next to the door. He couldn't explain to her why he hadn't done it yet.

After that conversation somehow turned into a twenty minute argument, he was not only in a bad mood, but late for work - he skipped breakfast and rushed to his car, only to hit traffic within five minutes of leaving.

He cursed, when startled from his thoughts by the ring of his cell phone, he glanced at the display and saw that Cragen was calling.

"Stabler," he answered, trying not to let the frustration he felt that morning show in his voice.

Captain Cragen gave him the location of a victim - raped and left for dead in her home, while, assumingly unknown to her attacker, her six year old daughter remained hidden in a closet.

He apologised for running late and made his way straight to the crime scene.

Another bleak case awaited him, and after months of having no contact with Olivia, the cases had begun to feel bleaker, but that had started to change again. He smiled slightly for the first time that morning as he thought about her :

Olivia Benson was back in his life.

He felt a stab of guilt for feeling such warmth and reassurance at the thought of her, but he tried not to think about that too much. Taking apart those feelings was complicated and he didn't have the headspace to try to do that right now…

All he knew was that she was back, and things were starting to feel comfortable between them again. He had fallen into an uncomfortable acceptance at the lack of her presence, both in the precinct, and in his life, but she was back, and everything just felt that little bit lighter...

As Elliot parked on the opposite side of the road he spotted her standing by a car. He caught a glimpse, and noticed that she was leaning down slightly, talking to a child who was seated in a squad car. He shifted his position slightly so that only Olivia was in his immediate field of vision, because his mind was set - the choice may as well have been set in stone :

He would prolong opening himself up to whatever horror was inside that apartment, and now in the mind of that child, if he could, for a moment, just watch Olivia.

He felt a guilty pang at watching her like this, but it was hardly inappropriate - she wasn't in the locker room after all, she was at a crime scene, and just taking a moment to let her empathy and compassion warm him from a distance, could surely do no harm to anyone else.

She stood up, a slight smile of reassurance, and spoke a few words, before closing the car door and turning to talk to the uniformed officer.

Unbuckling his seat belt, he prepared to leave his car, but let his hand linger on the door handle for a moment longer as he watched her walk back inside the building.

He allowed himself to watch her until she had disappeared inside the building, and then he gave a sigh as he opened his car door. The sound of it closing behind him changed his mood, and he stood up straight and began to walk over to the entrance, ready to face whatever horror was inside that building.

APARTMENT OF MADELINE THOMPSON.

He walked briskly over to the building, it was already attracting a lot of attention, with members of the public gathering around the taped off entrance to the apartment building. His eyes wandered over the people gathered, and then rested on the entrance. Approaching the barrier, he pulled his jacket back slightly, revealing his badge to identify himself and then went underneath the tape.

He noticed immediately that this was going to be a messy crime scene. There was blood on the door frame, and along the floor, leading to the victims apartment.

He didn't need to ask where the victim had been found - a door was open and as he approached he could see more blood stains, and a buzz of activity from police and crime scene officers.

Wasting no more time, Elliot walked into the apartment.

Olivia was talking to an officer, and writing something down in her notebook. She looked up as he entered and their eyes briefly met, an unspoken acknowledgement passed between them that this was bad.

"Madeline Thompson, age 29, lives alone with her six year old daughter. She was attacked sometime last night - raped and badly beaten. Someone really did a number on her - multiple stab wounds - her blood is literally smeared all over this apartment, with most of it concentrated in here," Olivia said, as she moved over to stand next to him.

"Who called it in?" Elliot asked, as he looked at the largest concentration of blood, on the couch.

Olivia sighed.

"Her daughter. She stayed in the closet throughout this, but saw a lot of what happened through the slats in the door."

"Christ," Elliot said.

"She saw all this? How is she?"

"Unharmed physically, but who knows how this will effect her. She was calm enough to talk with some clarity just now - I don't think the reality has hit her yet."

"All this blood belongs to the vic and she is still alive?" Elliot asked, as he let his eyes take in the messy crime scene, the apartment had become.

"So far it's looking that way. She's alive, but she's critical. She was taken in thirty minutes ago. EMT's had to do a lot of work here before they could even move her," Olivia sighed.

"That poor kid," Elliot said, as he surveyed the crime scene.

PRECINCT

Olivia sat at a small desk with the little girl, while outside, Elliot observed from behind the two way mirror. There were crayons scattered around the table, and loose sheets of paper that Sarah had been drawing patterns on. She had not spoken at all since their conversation in the car that morning, but she was talking again now that Olivia had joined her in the room.

"I can get you something to eat soon - what's your favourite?" Olivia asked.

"Pizza, but I'm not that hungry," Sarah replied, swirling her crayon around on the paper, and leaving big green spirals on the white paper.

"I need to talk to you about the person who hurt your mom honey. I know this is horrible to think about, but my friends and I want to catch whoever did this, and put them in prison." Olivia said, her voice emanating warmth and compassion.

Sarah tensed as soon as her mother was mentioned, her hand pausing as she put her crayon down and stared at the edge of the table.

"Did you see who hurt your mom Sarah?"

"Yeah. I mean I didn't know him. I just know it was a man I hadn't seen before, he was big, real tall, and he said her name and said bad things to her. He hurt her, she was bleeding, and I was so scared. I just hid, I didn't help her," Sarah's voice began to take on a panicky tone.

Olivia hated making her talk about something which terrified her so much, but the only way that she could help Sarah would be to find out what she remembered.

"If you had tried to help her, he might have hurt you too, your mom would not have wanted that sweetie. You did the right thing, you kept quiet and safe, and i'm sure that is what your mom would have wanted you to do. She will be so proud of you."

"I'm scared Olivia," Sarah said, tears brimming in her eyes.

"He tried to kill my mommy, will he try and kill me too?"

"We will keep you safe, we will catch this man, and we wont let anyone hurt you Sarah," promised Olivia.

"Everyone says my mommy is still asleep - when will she wake up?" Sarah asked, her voice shaking.

"The doctors are working real hard to help her Sarah," Olivia reassured her.

They were both silent for a moment, and then Sarah stood suddenly and moved quickly toward Olivia, throwing her arms around her and burying her face in Oliva's shirt. Olivia could only hold her as she began to sob. Her heart broke for Sarah, but she spoke slowly and quietly to her, asking her questions, and held her tighter as she began to describe the attack in detail.

When Sarah had told her everything that she could remember, Olivia remained with her, holding her, and then once she had calmed, she continued sitting with, talking softly to her and reassuring her. Olivia did not leave until arrangements were made for Sarah and someone had arrived to take her.

Elliot had heard the girl's vivid, detailed description, of the brutal rape and attempted murder of her mother from behind the mirror, and as soon as he saw Sarah leave with Child Protective Services, he looked for Olivia. Noticing that she was not in the interview room, he went to the crib where he found her.

Olivia laid on a bunk, staring at the ceiling, Cragen had told her to get some rest, but she couldn't close her eyes and sleep when they were so early into the investigation. Her mind whirred with possibilities - who the suspect may be, his motive, whether Sarah really would be in any danger. Mostly though, her thoughts were filled with Sarah and the horror that she had witnessed. Olivia felt tired. Physically she could not shut off and sleep, but her mind and her heart were just plain exhausted from holding Sarah while she sobbed and described every sordid, violent detail of something that no child should ever see. Olivia needed to shake off these feelings so that she could get back to work and get the bastard that had caused all this, but right now, all that she felt was profoundly saddened.

She looked up as Elliot walked in, and sat down on the bunk opposite her. She knew that he had heard Sarah's words also, and would be the only person who would have the slightest idea of how she felt at this moment. His presence was a comfort just in itself, and a part of her wanted to move over and sit next to him, rest her head on his shoulder and relax her body into his. She felt wrong, very wrong at that moment, to be allowing herself to desire his physical presence, but as she allowed her eyes to meet his, her need only intensified, as did the guilt which came with it. She wanted to just push these feelings aside, he was Elliot - he was so many things to her, and crossing such physical boundaries would be wholly inappropriate and would be sure to damage their relationship, he meant far too much to her to risk that. With his divorce impending, she was aware that what he needed from her was support - not her dependence on him emotionally.

Damn it - she just wanted him to hold her right now and do something to ease this pain even just a little bit, because it was just so hard to shake it off and not become consumed by it when a child was involved.

Olivia took a deep breath. letting it out slowly.

"I just need some time to get myself together. It was hard for Sarah in there."

Elliot watched her carefully as she spoke, his expression full of empathy but also determination. She knew he would ask her how she was, she knew he had seen her try hard not to cry along with Sarah. She had done an epic job of withholding her tears as she held Sarah and did her best to be strong for her as she sobbed and recounted such horror, but she felt so deflated and tired.

"Are you ok Liv?" Elliot asked quietly, not taking his eyes away from hers as he waited for an answer.

When he looked at her so intently, she felt that he was trying to look right inside her, and see her feelings for himself, knowing that she would not easily let them come out or even admit to them.

Olivia sighed.

"El, really i'm fine, i just need a moment to process everything she said."

"Maybe don't process it. Don't take it all in - you want to help her, but all we can do is hunt this son of a bitch down. It'll consume you Liv, it's too much."

He stood and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I got take out, it's on your desk," He said.

Olivia instinctively reached out to her shoulder, and placed her hand on Elliots. He squeezed her shoulder gently and she tightened her hold on his hand. They remained there for a moment, both reluctant to leave the warmth of the others touch, before Olivia stood, Elliot's hand falling away from her shoulder as she rose.

"Chinese?" Olivia said, feeling a little more composed.

"Yep, let's eat," Elliot placed his hand lightly on her back for a brief moment as she stood, guiding her towards the door, then dropped his hand, following her out of the room.

In the next chapter - the case becomes more complicated when they have another attack to deal with, and Olivia makes a discovery which gets Elliot worried.