AN: Tweaked a little bit and now reposting, don't know if this'll affect me reviews. Still the same story (pretty much) just slightly wordier, lol.

Grace

'What have we got?'

Detective Olivia Benson had been called to Mercy Hospital at the ungodly hour of 6AM and was in the process of polishing off a large cup of coffee, trying to banish the last vestiges of sleep as the uniformed policeman filled her in. The staff hurrying back and forth along the corridor looked even worse than she felt: by all accounts it had been a busy night.

'Someone called a bus out to X Street just before five after a woman nearly got run over by a cab driver. She was unconscious when they picked her up but she came round in the emergency room and starting freaking out, wouldn't let anyone touch her.'

'Classic sign of rape trauma,' said Olivia, negotiating her way round a gurney travelling in the opposite direction.

'Yeah, well, they had to sedate her in the end just so they could get a proper look at her. That was when they told me to call you guys in.'

Olivia thought that Officer Patrick suddenly looked very young and inexperienced as he ran his fingers through his hair a little shakily.

'Who called the bus?' she asked, throwing her now empty cup in the bin and pulling out her notepad.

'Cab driver,' he supplied, catching the pull-yourself-together look she was shooting him. 'John Whitny.'

'Have you spoken with him yet?'

He looked startled at the idea. 'No, Ma'am, I came straight here.'

Olivia nodded. 'Did she say anything in the ER?'

'Nothing.'

'No permission for a rape-kit then,' said Olivia, suppressing a sigh. 'I'll need to speak to the medics who treated her, and have we got a next of kin?'

'Not yet but I've got the bus-techs and nurses names for you here,' he said, handing over a loose piece of paper and looking relieved at having been able to provide something useful.

'Okay,' she said. 'Gather up her clothes and take them to the lab,' she ordered, sensing his eagerness to do something useful, and pulled out her cell-phone to call her partner.

'I'm on my way,' Stabler said immediately upon answering the phone, sounding stressed. 'Traffic's a bitch.'

'I know, I just got here myself. I'm going to speak to the attending now.'

'Yeah, I'll see you soon.'

It was half an hour before Detective Stabler arrived, by which time Olivia was ready to question the victim. 'So what's the story so far?' he asked.

'Young woman, mid-twenties, brought in this morning seven shades of black and blue: three cracked ribs, bites, contusions, hairline skull fracture not to mention vaginal and anal tearing. Someone really worked her over, we could be looking at more than one perp. Cabbie found her on X Street around five and called it in.'

'Have you spoken to her yet?'

'Just about to,' she said, nodding towards a blinded door a few feet away.

They knocked before entering, Olivia pulling out her badge. Their victim watched them warily if a little blearily as they approached the bed, apparently still trying to shake off the sedative they'd administered in the ER.

Olivia had to work not to wince at the violent bruises discolouring the girl's face and neck. A gauze dressing disappeared into the collar of the hospital gown but the sheets pulled up to her chest obscured the rest of her injuries. Her dark hair had been pulled back in a messy ponytail.

'Hi, I'm Detective Olivia Benson, this is my partner Elliot Stabler, we're from the Special Victims Unit: can you tell us your name?'

She studied the badge for a moment without really seeming to see it. Nothing seemed real. 'It's Grace, Grace Harringdon. Was Kevin brought here too?'

Benson and Stabler glanced at each other. 'Kevin who?' asked Elliot, notepad out.

'Kevin Green, we were together last night - isn't he here, too?' she asked, looking panicked. 'Oh my god, what if he's still out there? What if nobody found him yet?' She grimaced suddenly, clutching her ribs through the sheets.

'Easy, easy,' said Olivia, frowning a little. 'You need to tell us what happened.'

She swallowed, taking shallow breaths. 'We were walking home when these guys started shouting out of a car window. Kevin told them where to go and they stopped the car and -- and they just attacked him. I tried to stop them but they just -- I couldn't --'

'Can you remember where you were?' interrupted Olivia.

'We were walking home from this café Kevin knew, we were only a block from home, I don't know…' she said, tears in her eyes.

'What time was that?' asked Elliot.

'I'm not sure, one, maybe two o'clock?'

He nodded, 'I'll go make a call.' He pulled open the door again and Grace turned her face away from the light, busy corridor beyond as if it hurt her eyes.

'Okay, Grace,' said Olivia, drawing a stool up to the bed, 'it's important for us to do a rape-kit as soon as possible.'

'Is that really necessary?' she asked, looking unsure. 'Can't you just get them for what they did to Kevin?'

'We want to get them for what they did to you,' said Olivia firmly. 'I'll be with you the whole time.'

What little colour there was left in Grace's face seemed to drain away and her voice was barely there when she confessed, 'I'm not sure I can do this.'

'Is there someone we can call for you?' asked Olivia, in hopes that a familiar face might help bolster her courage. 'A family member?'

Grace wavered for a moment, not sure whether that would make things better or worse. 'You could call Katya for me, Katya Howard, I'll need some clean clothes. She's the only one who can get into my apartment.'

'Is she your room-mate?'

'No, just a friend. I don't know that many people,' she qualified, not looking at Olivia.

'Okay, do you know her number?' she asked, jotting it down when she did. 'I'll just be a sec,' she said, stepping out into the corridor.

Stabler was stood a little way off with his cell-phone stuck to his ear and a bored expression on his face. 'They've got me on hold,' he said as Olivia tore off the top page of her notebook and handed it to him.

'I need you to call Katya Howard, ask her to pack a bag for Grace. Have you seen the doctor? We need to get this rape-kit done before she loses her nerve,' said Benson, scanning the nurses station for a white coat.

'I'll flag him down next time he comes by,' promised Elliot.

Olivia nodded, 'Thanks. See you back in there.'

Grace hadn't moved except to twist the sheet in her hands. Benson gave her an encouraging smile as she retook her seat. 'I need you to tell me what happened last night,' she said gently. 'Where did you go?'

'We were out on a date, dinner and a show, you know, the whole cliché,' she said, voice low but clear. 'We stopped for ice cream on the way home, Marlon's, Marlow's, something like that, I'm not sure.'

'That's okay,' said Olivia. 'Where did you go next?'

'We were only two blocks from my building and it was such a mild night, we thought it would be silly to take a cab…' she shook her head. 'Stupid not to.' She shook her head again, trying not to let those thoughts hold her hostage. Shoulda woulda coulda. She cleared her throat. 'We were almost to Nth Street when this car full of kids started following us.'

'Can you describe the car?'

'Uh, white, four doors, it looked like it was ready for the scrap yard. It was dirty, one of the doors was different colour, it was dark.'

'The door was dark?' clarified Olivia.

'Yeah, dark blue, maybe green,' said Grace, sounding frustrated at her own lack of detail.

Olivia nodded, scribbling away, 'Okay. You said the occupants of the car were young?'

'Yeah, I thought maybe they were college students, late teens, early twenties.'

'Did you see how many there were?'

She shook her head, 'I'm not sure, three or four, I was trying to ignore them, I thought they were just drunk, you know. They were shouting, cat-calling, one of them asked Kevin "How much for a go on your girlfriend?" and he told them to get lost. And then they stopped the car and they - they -' she took a steadying breath. 'One of them hit him and Kevin hit him back but then the others started in and I screamed and I tried to stop them but I got knocked down and I hit my head and there was nothing I could do!' she said in a sudden rush.

'It's okay, you're safe now and we're going to find out what happened to Kevin. This isn't your fault, Grace,' Benson assured her, squeezing her hand. 'We're gonna catch the guys who did this, with your help.'

Grace nodded, pulling her hand away, 'Yeah, I'm s-sorry, I know…'

Olivia looked down at the hand Grace was now trying to conceal under the bed sheets: three of the fingers were missing, but not recently. Grace was obviously sensitive about it and Olivia didn't see any reason to pursue it so she moved on, though it bothered her somehow.

'Can I get you a glass of water before we carry on?' she asked.

'No, thank you, I'm fine. Let's just get this over with,' she said determinedly.

Olivia nodded understandingly. 'What happened after you got knocked down?'

'I'm not sure, I was kind of out of it for a while - the concussion - but I, um, remember being in the trunk of the car and we were moving. I could hear them laughing. And then the car stopped and the engine went off and they pulled me out of the trunk - and they - they, um…' she rubbed at the lump in her throat, eyes welling up. 'They f-forced me facedown on the back seat and I kicked and struggled and s-screamed and they just laughed… And one of them kicked me between the legs from behind while another one pinned me from the other side of the car, and I couldn't breathe where he was pressing my face down into the seat-'

It looked to Olivia as if she having trouble breathing now. 'Take your time,' she advised.

There was a knock at the door and Grace jumped a mile before recognising Detective Stabler. 'There was a call from an apartment on Nth street at 01:21 last night. They found Kevin beaten in an alley - he's alive,' he said, pre-empting Grace's interruption. 'They took him to New York Presbyterian. He's pretty banged up but he's stable.'

'Thank god,' Grace sighed.

'Fin and Munch are gonna interview the woman who called it in now.'

R&R!

Thanx,

2much