A new case brings a former detective back to the Special Victims Unit after seven years, but not in any way Olivia Benson could have expected. Bensler.
1 - IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Olivia Benson arrived early at the precinct on a sunny Monday morning after dropping Noah off at school. She greeted her detectives, Amanda and Carisi, and her sargeant and old friend, Fin, on her way to her office. They seemed distracted with their computers and cell phones, which told her it was a slow morning so far.
She dropped off her purse on her desk and hung her coat. As she made her way to her chair, her cell phone rang, and Peter Stone was on the other end of the line to let her know the sentencing for their latest convicted rapist.
"That's great news, Peter," she commended. "You did a great job with this one."
"Thanks to your solid case," he retorted, bringing a smile to her face. "Are you free for lunch?"
Olivia took a glance at her calendar and saw no meetings or other appointments around lunch time, so she accepted the ADA's invitation, and he promised to meet her at the precinct around noon.
Peter Stone was a good guy, Olivia had already decided. At first, she didn't welcome his presence as the new Assistant District Attorney for SVU because he was replacing Rafael Barba, who had become a close friend and her latest loss on the job. But after a while, they found their pace for working together and developed a healthy camaraderie.
As he had just arrived from Chicago, Peter didn't know many people in the city, so he quickly seemed to look to her as a friend, especially after losing his sister. She enjoyed his company and had already gotten used to frequent lunches and drinks after work.
Olivia's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the open door, making her look up.
"Liv, we got a case," Amanda announced. "Thirty-one-year-old female, raped and beaten. She arrived at Bellevue all banged up and looking confused."
Olivia nodded, getting up from her chair.
"Let's go see her," she said.
"Are you sure? I can take Carisi."
"That's ok," Olivia replied with a wave of her hand, getting her coat from the rack.
Olivia preferred to have a hands-on approach to her work. Even though she was now a lieutenant and in charge of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit of the New York Police Department, she liked to be involved in the investigations, interviews, interrogations. She figured she'd always be a detective first, and a boss and everything that entailed second.
She was on her twentieth year with the unit and could still remember the beginning, when she had just become a detective. She was green, but eager to learn, and she leaned on her captain, Donald Cragen, and her fellow detectives to learn the ropes, especially her partner, who had already been in the unit for several years before her.
Elliot. Now and then, memories of their twelve-year partnership invaded her, even though it had already been seven years since he had put in his papers and disappeared from her life. She had mourned him for a long time, but she had already decided that the case was closed. He had left, and many other, more important changes happened in her life since then. Training a new team of detectives, being promoted, being kidnapped, adopting a child. In face of all of that, she told herself, the loss of Elliot Stabler seemed like just a small detail.
When she first joined the unit, she could feel Elliot didn't believe she would last. She felt like he was prejudiced by the fact that she was young and a woman, but she quickly gained his respect by showing not only that she could stomach the horrible things they saw every day, but also that she had a talent for dealing with victims. It was really ironic that the one who eventually couldn't deal with SVU and quit was him, not her. She wondered what would have happened if he had stayed. Would he be the lieutenant instead of her? She couldn't imagine him in the position.
She parked the car at the Bellevue Hospital parking lot after the silent trip with Amanda, shaking off any lingering thoughts about Elliot. Amanda looked for the nurse in charge of their victim as soon as they walked into the hospital halls.
"Her name is Jessica Smithson," the nurse described, walking them across the emergency room. "She came to the ER early this morning with extensive bleeding from her rectum and vagina, several bruises all over her body and with her clothes all ripped up. She was in shock, so she didn't say much, but there were clear signs of rape. We did a rape kit and called you guys."
"Thank you," said Amanda to the nurse as she pulled the curtain around the victim's bed, revealing her.
The woman looked younger than thirty-one, Olivia thought, and she was in bad shape. She was crying silent tears and tugging at the hospital gown as if attempting to hide herself. Olivia pulled a sheet up to cover her legs, capturing her immediate attention. She looked thankful.
"Jessica?" Amanda called in a low, soft voice. The woman turned to face her without a word, looking fragile like a little girl. "I'm Detective Amanda Rollins, this is Lieutenant Olivia Benson. Can we ask you a few questions about your attack?"
Jessica nodded almost imperceptibly, looking from Olivia to Amanda.
"Jessica, do you know who did this to you?" Olivia asked, as softly as she could. "Tell us what you remember."
Her crying intensified, and Olivia felt once again like she wasn't as old as her ID said she was.
"I was raped," she said among tears. "I didn't see his face. I'm sorry!"
"Ok, honey, that's ok," Olivia assured her. "We'll find him, don't worry. You're doing great."
"Where and when were you attacked?" Amanda asked.
"In my apartment, last night."
"Do you live alone?" Olivia asked, wondering if there was a boyfriend in the picture.
"Yes, I do," Jessica confirmed, telling them her address in Manhattan.
"Ok, we'll send a crime scene unit over there," said Olivia, texting Carisi the address.
"Jessica," Amanda called. "We need you to authorize us to get your rape kit. We really need that in order to put your attacker behind bars."
"What's that?" Jessica asked, looking at Olivia, and there was that little girl look in her face again.
"It's the evidence the nurses collected as soon as you came in," she explained. "It's really important that we have our lab analyze it."
"Okay," Jessica said, nodding to Olivia.
"Great, sweetie, you're being very brave," Olivia took Jessica's hand, and she squeezed it. "Can we go down to the station now so I can take your statement?"
Jessica hesitated, but nodded, never letting go of Olivia's hand. Olivia nodded at Amanda, instructing her to drop off the rape kit at the lab and go meet Carisi at the crime scene while she dealt with the victim. The detective nodded and left.
Olivia saw a lot of herself in Amanda. She was strong, single-minded and stubborn, yet at the same time had a soft side, just like her when she was a detective. After all the changes in the team over the years, Amanda had become Olivia's number two, a configuration she was very satisfied with. It was almost like having another her as her lead detective, someone she could trust would handle things like she would, for the most part. Amanda was now partnered with Carisi, a young and eager detective who had a sensibility she'd never seen in a male colleague. He studied law, but in her opinion, he was made for SVU. He was good with victims and with perps, and he got the job done without losing his head in the process. She sometimes thought of him as the anti-Elliot.
There was Elliot, popping up in her head again. It had been a while since she had thought of him. She shook it off again as she pulled up outside the precinct and focused on the job at hand as she led the victim through the precinct and into the squad room. Olivia was walking Jessica into the interview room next to her office when her phone rang.
"I'll be right there," she told Jessica, then picked up the phone. "Benson."
"Hey Liv," said Amanda on the other end, checking in. "I was just at the lab, I'm going to the crime scene now."
"Anything on the rape kit?" Olivia asked.
"No fluids, it seems the perp used a condom," Amanda informed her. "But there was some blood under her fingernails, they'll test it for DNA."
"Ok, thanks, Amanda."
Olivia waved at Fin to go watch from behind the glass in her office as she took the victim's statement and walked back into the interview room, where Jessica was standing, immobile in her borrowed NYPD hoodie and sweatpants.
"Here, take a seat," Olivia said, motioning her over to the table in the center of the room and sitting down beside her. "Jessica, I know this is really hard, but I need you to tell me what happened, from the beginning."
Jessica looked at her, tears forming again in her eyes, and nodded.
"I was getting home from work, I work at a cafe" she said, "and I noticed a presence behind me. When I turned around, I recognized my next-door neighbor, I don't know his name.
"Did he attack you?" Olivia asked.
"No, he went into his apartment," Jessica said, seeming confused. "I mean, I don't know, it could have been him, I didn't hear his door close before getting into my apartment and I didn't see anybody else around. I opened the door and that's when I felt someone shoving me into the apartment and closing the door behind us. Then I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and I guess I passed out, because the next thing I know, I was in my bed with my hands tied, and he was getting on top of me."
She started crying. "I'm sorry," she said.
"That's ok, Jessica. Take your time, I know this is hard. So you saw him on top of you?"
"I didn't, he had blindfolded me," she corrected. "I think he used a shirt or something. But I felt his weight on top of me." She paused, trying to contain her tears. "And then he raped me… several times."
"Did you fight him? There was blood under your fingernails."
"My hands were tied at first, but then he said he wanted to see me struggle and untied me."
Olivia grimaced at the rapist's comment, and felt sorry that she needed to push for more information.
"Do you remember what he said exactly?"
"Yes," she cried. "He said… Ok, babe, now let's see you struggle a little."
Olivia blinked her eyes slowly, taking the information in with disgust. She nodded, motioning for Jessica to continue.
"I started fighting like hell and that's when he started to beat me. He was punching me and I was trying to fight him off, and I guess he knocked me unconscious, because when I woke up he was gone and I was a bloody mess."
Jessica cried some more. Olivia put her hand on top of hers and squeezed gently.
"Do you have any idea where you scratched him? That must have been how his blood ended up under your fingernails during the struggle."
Jessica shook her head, wiping her tears on the her sleeve.
"I don't know, I was blindfolded and trying to keep him away from me. I'm sorry."
"That's ok, sweetie, don't worry. The lab has the blood and they'll test it. We'll find whoever did this to you."
"Thanks," Jessica said in what was almost a whisper.
"So, what do we got here?" Amanda said when she saw Carisi in Jessica Smithson's living room.
He finished up talking to a crime scene unit tech and approached her.
"Not much. No prints, no hairs, no fibers. The guy knew how to cover his tracks."
"He used a condom too," Amanda added. "This is no amateur."
"How's the vic?" Carisi wanted to know.
"A mess. Pretty banged up and I think emotionally she's even worse. She did scratch the son of a bitch though, we may still have some DNA."
"That's good," Carisi agreed.
Amanda's phone rang with a text from Olivia.
"Liv says to look for the next-door neighbor, doesn't specify which side."
"Maybe he'll have scratch marks," Carisi hoped.
They knocked on the apartment next door to the left of Jessica's apartment, calling out, but nobody answered. As they walked in the hallway towards the other apartment adjacent to Jessica's, they saw a man coming in towards it, walking slowly as he saw the movement of the police in the apartment. He carried a duffel bag.
"Sir," Amanda called, showing her shield. "NYPD, can we ask you a few questions?"
"What's going on?" the man wanted to know.
"Do you know Jessica Smithson?"
"Who?" the man asked, looking towards Jessica's apartment.
"Your next-door neighbor," Carisi replied, suspicious. "You don't know your neighbors' names?"
"Not really," the man said cautiously. "I haven't been spending a lot of time at home. But I've seen her around. Something happened?"
"She was attacked," Carisi said, not specifying. "Did you hear anything?"
"No, I wasn't home."
Amanda noticed what looked like a fresh scratch on the man's forearm near his hand.
"Sir, how did you get that?" she asked, pointing at the scratch and exchanging a look with Carisi.
The man looked down at his arm and replied.
"Wood splinter. Chopping wood at my cabin. I was there until this morning." The man lifted the duffel bag slightly as if to illustrate.
"Can anyone verify that?" Amanda asked. "Was there anybody there with you?"
The man sighed, getting impatient.
"No. I was alone."
The detectives exchanged looks again.
"Sir, you're gonna have to come with us to the station," Carisi announced.
After taking Jessica's statement, Olivia headed to the break room to get a coffee for the victim and one for herself, suddenly in need of a pick-me-up after hearing the details about the hours of torture that Jessica had been through. She asked Fin to start working on the timeline on her way towards the break room. As she was serving the second coffee, Carisi came into the room.
"Hey lieu," he said, "We just got back from the crime scene and brought a suspect. Vic's next-door neighbor, has a scratch on his arm and no alibi. We're about to question him, do you want to watch?"
"Sure," Olivia said, starting to follow Carisi.
"Oh, and curious thing, he mentioned your name."
"What?" Olivia asked, stopping on her tracks. "How come?"
"Yeah, it was weird. When we walked into the interrogation room, he seemed to recognize it and asked if you still worked here. Maybe you've collared him before?"
"Maybe," she said, starting to walk again. "What's his name?"
Carisi looked down at his file and, when he spoke, he saw the color leave Olivia's face.
"Elliot Stabler."