Illusive Perception

(Chapter One: The Assignment)

Elliot watched her as she stood across the room fixing the strap on her shoe. Her long tan legs stretched to heaven and back as his eyes followed them up to meet the thigh high slit in the sexy white gown she wore. The gown fit her body perfectly, with its sweetheart neckline and rows of beaded and sequined appliqués. And the silver straps that crossed over the golden skin of her back.

Olivia raised her eyes to catch him staring at her from across the room. She smiled and pressed her lips together as she made her way to his side in her super sexy dress that screamed I am female.

"So tell me again why your wife is not your date to this?" She asked with a smile.

"I got the tickets. You know, it is for charity. Then we started having problems. She doesn't like me much right now."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. She'll be fine. We'll be fine. In a week this will all be in the past. And it will be back to normal. Until we fight again. It is kind of our thing."

"It is, huh? I still cannot imagine any woman passing up the chance to attend one of these over an argument."

"Trust me, it's better this way. Kathy and I would have been miserable if we had gone to this thing together tonight. Besides, she isn't really a dress up in an expensive dress and got to a ball kind of girl."

"What does that mean?" Olivia tipped her head and stared into him with her big brown eyes.

"It means, the last time I saw Kathy in a dress was at our wedding twenty two years ago. She isn't a make up and dress up kind of girl. She's more blue jeans and tee shirts. Not like you."

She blinked her pretty eyes demanding an explanation.

"Don't give me that look. You know what I mean."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"I mean, you are more into having your hair and nails done," he said raising her hand to look at her French manicure. "You are more of a girly, girl. Even at work. You are strapped with a badge and a gun and your hair is neatly tucked into place and your make up perfect. You just pride yourself in your appearance, that's all."

"Well, I am sure it would be a little harder to keep up with things like getting my nails done if I had five children to look after. Give her a break, El."

"I love her, Liv. I didn't mean anything by it. I am just saying Kathy isn't really interested in stuff like this. She didn't even want to go to prom with me in high school. Of course she was four months pregnant with Maureen."

Olivia smiled at his attempt to be funny. "And you are sure she isn't going to mind me going with you instead?"

"She doesn't mind. Of course if she saw you in that dress, my divorce papers would be as good as filed."

Olivia smiled. "You like it?"

"You look amazing."

"Thank you. You are not so bad yourself," she said straightening the tie from his tuxedo. "You know, you are going to have to dance with me?"

"Dance?"

"Elliot, it is a black and white ball. People dance at a ball. It will be fun."

"It is dinner and a little dancing, then at midnight I turn back into a pumpkin."

Olivia smiled again. "It wont be that bad, Elliot."

"Let's go Cinderella," Elliot said extending his arm for her to take. "We don't want to be late for the ball."

They sat at a table in a large ballroom. Dining with city officials and other detectives and officers from different departments across the city. After dinner they danced together.

"Look at him. Eating this up," Elliot said nodding his head in Brian Cassidy's direction.

Olivia smiled. "Cassidy is here with a date, Elliot."

"Right, but he cant take his eyes off you. He's still hung up on you, you know."

"I have no control over that. It isn't like I provoke it."

"Do you blame the guy?"

She exhaled. "It isn't like we even dated. It was one night. If I had known he was going to follow me around like a little lost puppy for the rest of my life, I never would have let it go that far. He has finally gotten over it. He has moved on, Elliot."

"He transferred departments, Olivia. It isn't the same thing."

"I am just saying, I really don't think he has a thing for me anymore."

"And I am just saying that if that blonde on his arm could see the looks he was shooting you over her back…"

"Zip it Stabler. We're here to have a good time and raise a little money for charity. Not to talk about my love life…. or lack there of."

Across the room Cragen sat at a table of his old poker buddies. A group of head honchos from other precincts in the area making small talk. As they were talking one of the men made a comment about how Detective Stabler and his wife seemed to be having a good time.

"Well, I am glad that you think so. But that is not Detective Stabler's wife. That is Detective Olivia Benson. His partner."

"They are close," the man said. "Good chemistry. To look at them you would never know they weren't a couple."

"They have worked together for many years. They are like family."

"I have a proposition for you. My department is working a case. And I would like to borrow your detectives, those detectives, for a little undercover detail."

"What kind of detail?"

"It would require them to live as a newlywed couple for a few days. Just long enough for us to get some inside information on a suspect. I can have a copy of the case file sent to you in the morning. I, of course can loan your department a couple of bodies until you get your detectives back."

"Don't you have anyone you can send in?"

"I have tried. Believe me I have tried. But none I have seen have been as convincing as those two. And they work together. So they trust each other. And they make quite an attractive couple. Come on Cragen, it would be a big favor. I'll owe you one."

"Send me the file. Give me some kind of idea what I am committing them to and then we will talk."

The next morning Cragen called them into his office. They took their usual seats in front of the desk and watched him as he flipped through a file that had been sent to him from another precinct.

"I have an offer for the two of you. Not an offer, really. A job, an assignment. Undercover. I have already accepted."

Olivia leaned forward intrigued as Elliot groaned and mumbled something about the case they were already working on.

"Munch and Fin will take over your caseload for now. This should only take a few days. You will be working with the two seven on this case. They have been so close to getting this guy for a while and he hasn't taken the bait."

"So now we're the bait?" Elliot scoffed.

Cragen glared in his direction and laid the file down on the desk in front of them.

"Our suspect is hotel mogul and billionaire Drake DeLuca. He himself is best known for his chain of fancy hotels, including several here in New York. But his family owns several top quality restaurants as well and one brother is a famous attorney to the stars out in L.A."

"What exactly do we want him for?" Elliot asked.

"Rape," Cragen replied clearing his throat. "Four, that we know of."

"So this billionaire gets his rocks off raping women?" Elliot shook his head. "With his money and power he could have any woman he wanted."

"Rape isn't always about sex, Elliot. You know that." Olivia looked up at him from the file. "For him, my guess would be control. He feeds his ego on the power trip he gets from controlling other people."

"He makes these women drop to their knees and beg him not to harm them. While he is raping them he talks all sweet to them telling them how beautiful they are and making them tell him how good he is, how much they want him and how lucky they are to be with him. Stroke his ego. It is definitely about power for him."

"So how does he operate?" Elliot asked, curious to see exactly what it was he and Olivia were expected to do.

"He attacks guests at the Ivy. Women staying there on their honeymoon. He usually picks out his couples in the dining room. Wealthy couples. The women covered in expensive jewelry and labels, the men usually too busy to notice. Husbands are successful business men, always working, even on their honeymoon. He starts out by sending a complimentary bottle of champagne at dinner. A few hours later he arrives at the couples table and offers them a free upgrade to the penthouse suite. A room on the roof that never rent out. It is reserved for other billionaires and celebrity guests only. Over a few days he showers the couple with gifts and gets friendly with them. Then he waits."

"Waits for what?" Elliot asked.

"For the new hubby to get called off to business or some meeting he can't get out of. Sometimes it is a work out in the hotel's extravagant gym with a personal trainer. Something where he knows hubby will be gone for a while, allowing him at least an hour or two alone with the new wife. He will send a signal from the front desk to reset the code for the door of the room so the husbands key wont work. He arrives at the room with another bottle of champagne and tells the wife the clerk made a mistake on the registration for the room. He asks her to correct the paperwork. By this time, she usually sees him as a friend and lets him in. If she doesn't, he uses the master key to get into the room. And he attacks her. Raping her right there in the bed where she spent her first night as a new bride."

"What a freak," Olivia said crossing her arms in front of her.

"It is about the power. About control. And about taking something that belongs to someone else. In some sick way for him it is more about hurting the husbands than raping the wives. But he always uses a condom. So we have no DNA. No solid proof. Just testimony from the four women he raped."

"What about a line up?" Olivia asked.

"They tried that. He must have gotten to them somehow. Because none of the women were able to identify him in the line up. They know it is him. They just have to find a way to get him. They have tried this with three other couples. But apparently they weren't to his liking. A buddy of mine is the captain of the two seven. He saw the two of you at the ball last night and asked us to help. He said he thinks the two of you make a believable couple and might be able to help us nail this jerk."

Elliot laughed as he looked at Olivia. "So because we danced a couple of times we make a believable couple?"

"Elliot, he thought Liv was your wife. The two of you have great chemistry together. And you trust each other completely. That is a vital part of this investigation. It is worth a shot. We will know with in a few days if he takes the bait. And if he doesn't, I pull you and they try another approach. I am talking a week tops."

"Yeah, just a week to you. But my real wife is liable to divorce my ass if I run off to some luxury hotel with Liv for a week. I am already walking a thin line with her Cap."

"This is your job, Elliot. I could just send Liv. Pull some random stranger from the two seven to send in as her husband. But I don't like sending her in not knowing how trust worthy our hubby is. And she can relax with you. She is comfortable with you. I know she is safe with you. I don't know any of these other guys on this case. If you back out I might as well be sending her in alone."

"No pressure," Elliot said as he looked out the window of the office.

"I can talk with Kathy for you and explain this to her. I am sure she would rather you be undercover with Liv than with some strange woman she doesn't know."

"No. I'll take care of it. But she is going to be pissed. One week. Then we are both out," he said looking over at Olivia.

"You check in to the Ivy tomorrow."

That evening while driving her home Elliot parked the car in front of her apartment building to talk to her for a moment.

"No one even asked you how you felt about this," he said as she turned to look at him.

"It is our job, El. And frankly checking into a luxury hotel for a few days to set up a scum bag like DeLuca and bust him on rape is by far not the worst undercover operation either of us has had to do."

"You almost sound like you are all for it."

"Elliot…"

"No, it's just that after Sealview I figured you would want to lay low on undercover stuff for a while."

"Elliot, I am fine. Sealview was nearly a year ago. I'll be okay."

"You never did tell me what happened there."

"Nothing happened. Fin got there before anything….I guess I just hoped you would eventually stop asking."

"You mean stop caring."

She looked up at him.

"Never," he said. "If you say nothing happened, nothing happened. But Olivia, nothing doesn't cause nightmares for months and put you in therapy."

"I can do this, Elliot. It isn't anything like Sealview. Besides, it sounds like you are the one with the problem with the assignment. I could ask Munch to do it."

Elliot laughed. "Right."

"What is so funny about that?"

"Nothing. Just this guy would have to be a real schmuck to believe that a woman like you would marry a guy like Munch."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, Olivia, that in any situation you are more than a little out of his league. It isn't believable."

"You heard Cragen. These are very rich men."

"So."

"So, money makes a lot of women attracted to men who wouldn't otherwise be in their league. And Munch doesn't have a jealous wife at home."

"She isn't jealous."

"Oh, no?"

"Okay, she's jealous. But I can handle her. Cragen is right. If you go in, I need to be there with you. Especially after Sealview."

"It is Munch, Elliot."

"Right and at Sealview Fin had your back. But it still got out of hand. And you still got hurt. I know that either of them would do anything to protect you. And I know that Fin will always kick himself for whatever it was that did or didn't happen to you at Sealview. I a just not willing to take that risk again. Not in a situation like this. If you're in, I'm in. We're a team, Liv."

She smiled a soft smile. "What is Kathy going to say about you being off pretending to be my husband for a week?"

"She's going to kick my ass. But she can only stay mad for so long. I think she understands it, she is just hurt because I have to leave her and the kids. Anyway, I will pick you up in the morning and head over to the two seven. They are supposed to have all of the goodies there for us to pick up while he fills us in on details. I hear your wedding ring is huge."

"Nice," Olivia smiled nervously.

"Good night, Liv."

"Night, El."

Elliot watched from his car until the lights came on in her apartment and he knew she was safe inside. He put the car into gear and headed for home.