"A false sense of security is the only kind there is."

-Michael Meade


Diminished Capacity

-1-

Olivia Benson was surprised. She'd just had a call from the ADA for cybercrimes, who had informed her that her testimony had helped to convict a prolific child pornographer whose unrepentant soul belied the innocent-choirboy act he'd performed for the jury. She wasn't surprised that he'd been convicted, really; Collette Zimmer was a talented prosecutor, and Olivia and her team did their jobs well. They had the guy dead-to-rights, no matter how well he cleaned up and polished his halo.

Not that Benson would admit it, but it certainly hadn't hurt that the detective made an excellent witness, projecting a perfect mix of focused passion and quiet authority that made the jury believe her. More importantly, perhaps, they trusted her.

"It didn't matter what happened after your testimony, Olivia," Collette praised. "He thought he had you on cross, and then you managed to make his client look even worse somehow."

"You can thank your boss for that," Olivia quipped. "I was a terrible witness before Alex came to SVU. She showed us how it's done."

"Well, I'll have to let her know that her wife came through for me yet again," Collette said. "This guy was evil, Olivia. He wasn't doing this because he was mistreated or misguided or misunderstood. He was doing it because he could."

"And because it was a very efficient way to ruin people's lives and damage their souls." Olivia had no doubt that evil existed in this world. There were a lot of people who would do the wrong thing if they could, if they thought they wouldn't get caught, but there was a certain percentage of people who would never, ever do the right thing if they could avoid it. It was a small percentage, thankfully, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in malevolence. They would hurt anyone they could as often as possible. Like the human equivalent of a "cop killer" bullet, they weren't content to tear into you-they had to rip you apart in the process.

"It's a Friday afternoon and one more bad guy is off the streets, Benson," the attorney said. "Take that with you into the weekend. We do what we can."

"You're absolutely right," Olivia agreed. "You did a great job, Collette. Thanks for letting me know we got a win."

They signed off the call and Olivia looked at the time in the corner of her computer screen. Just a shade after four o'clock,

and she'd put in a full day already. She thought about cutting out a little early, but knew that Alex wouldn't be able to do the same, so there was really no rush. No more real work was going to get done, though, and she was smart enough to realize that. She'd spend a few minutes cleaning off her desk and sorting the amazing amount of crap that accumulated there throughout the week. As she pushed reports and stacked files, pausing occasionally to wave at colleagues who passed her office door to wish her a good weekend, Olivia had time to ponder the surprise she'd felt earlier when talking to Collette. What struck her was how happy she was, not just at work but in general. She had moved to computer crimes primarily for Alex, though she wouldn't have admitted that. She hadn't expected to like it, but in fact she loved it. She sometimes missed the physicality of her old job-the occasional chase or takedown, the practiced body language involved in questioning, or intimidating, a suspect-but she bore the scars, both literal and figurative, from times when that physicality had turned on her.

Alex bore them, too. She'd spent too many years worrying about Olivia's safety, and she deserved some assurance that the woman who kissed her goodbye in the morning would be home sometime that night, safe, sound and in one piece. Olivia's surprise at how much she enjoyed her job was exceeded only by her surprise at how good it felt to give Alex what she needed and what she wanted, and what she deserved. They'd taken the long way around to be together, and they'd both made mistakes that threatened to tear them apart. But they had stuck it out, and Alex's happiness was now such an intrinsic part of Olivia's own that the two concepts were inseparable.

"Something's wrong here." Olivia was startled out of her reverie by the voice of her squad's newest member, Dominique Jordan.

"What is it, Dom?" Olivia didn't need anything to be wrong at the end of the day on a Friday.

"You're the only person I've ever seen who was smiling while she was pushing paper around a desk," Jordan laughed. "Thinking about the weekend, Sarge?"

"Something like that," Olivia smiled. "You heading out, Dom?"

"If that's cool with you," the young woman replied. "I've got a big weekend planned."

"Something fun, I hope."

"Oh, hell no," Jordan laughed. "I'm moving to a new apartment this weekend. But the sooner I start, the sooner I'm sitting on my my old couch in a new living room drinking a cold beer."

"Then get going," Olivia ordered. "I'm wrapping things up here myself."

The young woman gave a mock salute and executed a perfect right-face in the direction of her own desk. She was a rookie, fresh out of the Academy as part of an NYPD recruiting initiative to fast-track former military intelligence personnel into cybercrimes work. The program was controversial because the graduates went straight to a desk without ever walking a beat-Fin had voiced his disagreement over drinks with Olivia as soon as the whole things started.

Look Fin, she'd told him, I hear what you're saying, but the alternative is that we just hire civilians or outside contractors. We don't have enough experienced cops on the force who are interested in doing this work, and we don't have enough time to either train the few who are, or to make these people work a beat for a year just to prove a point. We are understaffed and the crimes we work are growing a hell of a lot faster than my squad is.

You're gettin' soft, Benson, he chided her. You been off the streets, what, a year?

Not even, she laughed.

Think about yourself when you were a rookie in uniform, he argued. You were wet behind the ears and didn't know your ass from a hole in the ground.

Speak for yourself, she said. Maybe women have an advantage.

What's that?

We don't confuse our guns with our dicks, she teased. We can spend all our time at the Academy figuring out the question of what is our ass and what is a hole in the ground.

Touche', Fin laughed. But these people have badges and no idea what an actual cop does. What if they have to suit up and hit the street?

They won't, Olivia said. That's the whole point. This cyber-shit isn't going away. It's only getting worse. These people have job security, Odafin.

Them and me both, he said.

Exactly, Liv affirmed. People won't stop committing sex crimes and they won't stop committing computer crimes. I'm in the Venn diagram sweet spot, investigating child porn and sex trafficking.

The intersection of geeks and perverts, Fin observed.

You've got it.

'Cyber-shit?' Fin asked. Is that a technical term, Sergeant Fancy Pants?

No, Olivia clarified. It's just what we call it when we speak to the ignorant masses.

Her smile was huge as she ducked to the side to miss the onion ring Fin threw in her direction.

She understood where Fin was coming from, for sure. But Olivia's squad now had three new members as a result of the new Commissioner's mandate to think outside the box, and all of them were excellent at their and the other seven officers on her team were all seasoned cops and detectives, and it was a good balance. She'd been leading the group for nearly ten months and they had caught six really bad guys, and ten times that many run-of-the mill scumbags.

Really bad guys, she thought to herself, laughing a little at her own childlike distinction. That was how she thought of them, the ones whose evil reach went both far and wide; the other guys were bad, too, without a doubt, but more in a small-potatoes way. She could hear Alex's voice in her head-they had been talking about the case Zimmer was trying this week a few nights before when Alex had suddenly grown quiet. You have that light in your eyes when you talk about this, she'd remarked. That fire in you is something I love and admire, Liv. Olivia had only been able to smile shyly; it was true, and she knew it. And, Alex had continued, you've done all this great work without getting shot at once.

Olivia realized that she had been pushing paper around for over an hour-the clock said 5:15 and she decided to head home. Alex probably wouldn't be there yet, but she could pour some wine and start a nice dinner that, with any luck, would be the start to an even nicer weekend.