Disclaimer: I, of course, don't own anything...it's NBC's.
AN: Sweet little story, my second fanfic...I hope you like it! If not, then sorry! :)
They'd been working on this case for days.
Actually, it'd only been three days, but three days was two days too many when Elliot and Olivia were working the case. They were the best detectives in the Special Victims Unit. Cases were not supposed to take more than one day, usually, unless they were simply looking for somebody but they at least knew who they were looking for. But this case was different. They had two people, and they had no idea which was the victim and which was the perpetrator. The worst part about this case was that Olivia was on one side and Elliot was on the other. Elliot found it pretty hard to believe that an eighteen-year-old boy with the muscles he'd seen had been raped by a twenty-year-old woman.
She was a woman.
Her name was Amy. She'd claimed that the eighteen-year-old boy Holton had raped her.
And Holton claimed she'd raped him.
Olivia found it pretty hard to believe that a woman two years older than the boy could have been raped and not shown any signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or anything else. And this boy was pretty convincing. He looked like he'd been raped to her.
Amy's story was that she'd been walking to the girls' bathroom at a party when Holton had grabbed her from behind, turned around their path, and taken her to the boys' bathroom and raped her. Holton said nothing about the bathrooms. He said that he'd drank one too many at the party-the same party Amy had described; at least they knew it was at a party...-and gone to lay down in a bedroom. He claimed that he'd just taken off his shoes and was going to sleep when Amy had come in and raped him. Their stories of how they were raped matched. Matched. So whoever really was raped was telling the truth about how it happened, and the person doing the raping was telling the truth in an opposite form. Neither of these young, stupid people would 'fess up. They were both convincing, and they both stuck to their story like glue and wouldn't budge even a single little detail. Usually in cases like these-not that there were too many anyway, but when they did occur-the liar would slip something. The liar, the perptrator, would at least mess up on one feature of the rape. But these stories were both completely plausible, and both crime scenes were completely clean, and looked nothing like a struggle had taken place there. It was kind of confusing for everybody, and it really got Elliot and Olivia into some 'heated discussions'-they weren't really willing to call them fights.
Olivia looked up from the papers on her desk and across at Elliot. It was late-eleven o'clock-and it looked like this case would be taking up their time tomorrow too. Earlier that day, Elliot had yelled at her really badly concerning her 'ridiculous, incorrect' thoughts on the case, and not only had it just pissed her off, but it embarrassed her in front of her squad. It embarrassed her because her cheeks burned and got red and she could feel everybody looking at her, and when she tried to yell back, it came out much quieter and squeaky. This wasn't something that was okay to happen when you worked in an environment with only men. All Olivia had ever wanted was for them to see her as a true detective, a woman who could hold her own just as well as they could.
Since the fight, they'd been very short with each other, snappy, and didn't make any eye contact. It was kind of hard because they both depended on each other for so much and when they were mad at each other, they couldn't ask one another for favors, advice, help, suggestions, or anything else, really. So Olivia hated it when she was crossways with Elliot, and he hated it just as much. Olivia felt that she was right in the matter. Amy had to have raped Holton, right? Not only was she two years older, but she was also not like any other rape victim Olivia had ever seen. Rape victims don't just spit out the details of their rape like nothing ever happened. Unless nothing ever did happen. And that boy had plenty of tears running down his cheeks, and Olivia just knew he had been raped.
Elliot knew he had to be right about this case, though. Holton's tears were alligator tears. He wasn't any victim. He was a very strong 18-year-old with a six pack who could easily have raped that young woman, two years older or not. Two years didn't make a difference. Olivia was wrong. Two years...Elliot was two years older than Olivia. It really did not make a difference in this case, and Elliot didn't see how Olivia didn't realize that. There was no way this strong young man was raped by that woman. No way.
Olivia suddenly stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm out," she said quietly, walking away towards the elevator. Elliot just looked after her for a minute and got back to his paperwork. She'd get over herself. Yeah, so he felt a little guilty about yelling at her that afternoon. Actually, he felt ten times more guilty than he was willing to admit. The humiliated look on her face crossed his mind about every three minutes or so. He told himself that he really didn't care that much because he was right and that was the way things were, and Olivia was wrong and she needed to realize it, but if he didn't care, then why couldn't he get her facial expression when he was yelling at her to stop circulating through his mind? And why did he feel ashamed every time he thought of what he'd said? He was right, anyway. He pushed it out of his mind and got up and left. Olivia would forget it anyway, and so would he, right after this case was over.
The next day at work was their last day to squeeze the truth out of Holton and Amy. If they couldn't get the truth out, they'd both walk free because of their rights not to be held too long. Olivia interviewed Amy because she was against Amy, which gave her a mental advantage when interrogating, and Elliot interviewed Holton, because the same interrogation techniques of Olivia's applied to him.
Olivia walked into Amy's interrogation room. She was about to try a new technique. Lying. "Now, Amy, are you sure he raped you? Because he's telling my partner the truth right now. I cracked Holton wide open, I scared him really good, and he's telling my partner everything right now. He's telling him exactly what really, truly happened. So if you want to get a deal, I suggest you tell me the truth of how he didn't really rape you. You might not have any jail time at all if you tell me right now."
Amy stared at her a long time. Olivia felt like she may be getting her to crack, but then Amy just said, "You're crazy, okay? He raped me! He raped me! I already told you the truth!" She screamed these words, but she didn't have any emotion in her rage. She was probably only screaming because she was sick of sitting in the dull interrogation room.
"No, you're not telling the truth. You aren't. I've seen rape victims. I am a rape victim," Olivia said, and watched as Amy's eyes widened. Yeah, so she was stretching the truth. A whole, whole lot. But she was kind of raped. Almost. No, she wasn't really raped raped. But she had come close. And Olivia didn't really care if she lied anymore. "I know what it feels like to be raped, and if this happened to you just Monday night, then there is no way that you could possibly be this calm and collected. I know that months, months after I was raped, I still cried all the time. It was horrible. There's no way you were raped."
Amy just looked to the side. She looked very affected by Olivia's words, but still not like a rape victim by any means. "I was raped."
She was seriously still going to lie? Now it was time for Olivia to get this out of her. Now. Olivia forced herself to cry. Any time she wanted to cry these days, she just forced herself to think of Harris's face and she immediately felt hot tears burn down her face. That's exactly what happened. Little sprinkles of tears flooded out of her eyes slowly. "Do you have any idea how much of a disgrace I consider it when somebody lies about being raped? It's unfair, it's sadistic, it's selfish. Because I know what you really have to go through when you are really raped. I know what it's like!" she screamed, standing up and slamming her fist down on the cold, steel table. "So don't joke around with me! Don't joke with me, Amy! It isn't funny!" Now Olivia was crying harder because she was remembering how horrible her attack was, whether she'd really been raped or not. She'd come close enough.
Now Amy was crying from the pressure, and she looked scared. She still didn't say anything. But she cried. Hard. Olivia had one more lie that she thought would push Amy over the edge.
"And you know what?" Olivia screamed very loudly, hoping Elliot wasn't watching her interrogate. But she was pretty sure he was. "You have about one more hour to tell me the full truth, or else you both go to jail! Both of you, raped or not, will be taken to prison and locked up, most likely in solitary confinement!"
"Under what charges?" Amy demanded to know, standing up to meet Olivia's height.
Now Olivia was stuck. She had to think of a bogus charge. "Filing a false report, lying to police officers-"
"That could never get us solitary confinement!" Amy yelled. She wasn't quite as stupid as Olivia had thought she was.
"You didn't let me finish. You'll be locked up for filing a false report, lying to police officers, and...entrapment!" Entrapment? Smooth, Benson. Where'd you pull that out of? Your ass? She'll never believe this...will she...?
"Entrapment? What's that?"
"It's a law, Amy, that says that if you make up a bunch of B.S. about somebody, knowing that they can suffer jail time or worse consequences, and you don't change your story within two days, you can be charged with it. You'll have an extra twenty years added on, and that'll get you your solitary confinement." Amy seemed to be believing this. Horror and realization filled her features. "So it's your choice, Amy. Tell me the truth right now-"
"I'll tell you everything, everything, if you'll get me no jail time," she cut Olivia off.
Haha, Stabler, who's right now? Huh? Who? Me! "Okay, not a bit of jail time, but I can't promise you won't have community service," Olivia said triumphantly.
Amy sat back down and looked at Olivia reluctantly. "Look, there was no sex. Ever. We never had any intercourse, nothing. I got mad at Holton because he told everybody I was a slut when I wouldn't date him. Everyone hated me. The pressure was intolerable. So I told Holton that I was going to tell the police that he raped me if he didn't stop. I told him every detail of my story, what I'd say, everything, which I guess was kind of stupid since he was able to use my story against me. He didn't stop telling everybody I was a slut and that I'd screwed five people one night at a party...so I filed the charges."
Everything fell into place like a puzzle in Olivia's mind. That was why Amy hadn't gotten a rape kit. Because there hadn't been any evidence anyway. Because a rape never occured. That was why there wasn't any sign of a struggle at either of the 'crime scenes'. Olivia's triumphant look faded off of her face because she realized that they were both wrong. Her and Elliot had both been wrong, and they'd gotten into a fight so bad that Olivia was considering abolishing their partnership because of Amy's and Holton's lies. Olivia didn't say anything to Amy. She just got up from the silver chair and walked out of the interrogation room, wiping away her fake-well, somewhat fake-tears she'd had to use to convince Amy to tell the truth. Olivia saw Elliot, and knew he'd watched the entire interrogation. She walked past him, glancing his way but not saying a word.
AN: Please, please, please review! I don't write more until I'm assured that somebody's reading my stories!
