A/N: I couldn't get this idea out of my head! Yes, I will continue Full Circle (in fact, the next chapter is almost complete as I type this note) but this was nagging me. It will be a longer story and although you may think you know where it's going, it will take a sharp turn left. It's not the same ol' typical fic and the title will make sense soon. Constructive criticism is always appreciated and I love reviews!

That being said, here's the obligatory disclaimer: the only characters I own are the ones you've never heard of.

Chapter 1

Olivia Benson's apartment

203 West 89th Street, Manhattan

May 31st, 2004

A very loud, high pitched, repeating rhythm was blaring in her ears. It could only be heard vaguely because the throbbing behind her eyes and the incessant pain in her head drowned out almost all other stimuli. She slowly came to realize the blaring she heard was her alarm so she tried to silence the offending mechanism. Unfortunately, she was unable to move her arms. She wasn't tied up or restrained in any way, but damn her arms were too heavy to lift. Using all the strength she could muster, she flared up her arm and hit the button, effectively throwing her back into silence. She wanted to fold herself back into the bliss of sleep but now that she had been disturbed, the silence was deafening, magnifying the pain in her head. What the hell?

Olivia began to take inventory. Okay, massive headache, check. She tried to pry open her eyes and once she was successful, she immediately slammed them shut from the blinding light that came shining through the open curtains that she neglected to close before going to bed last night. Last night? She always closed her curtains before getting into bed. Why didn't she remember getting into bed last night? In fact, she didn't remember where she went let alone how she got home. Wait, was she even home? Olivia eyes flew open at that thought and she fought through the painful haze of light to try and focus. Yes, she was home. Good. Okay. She turned her head into the pillow and slowly tried to lift herself up. She almost never slept on her stomach—only on the rare occasion when she fell asleep after sex if she rested her head on the lucky guy she happened to share her bed with. She always woke up before him, on her stomach out of his grasp and always successfully made it out of bed, either to leave herself or wake him in order to kick him out. As she pushed herself up, she turned to her side and saw that she was alone. Damn, if only her head would stop pounding she might be able to focus. Almost every muscle in her body ached in some way.

As she tentatively lowered her left foot onto the floor in an attempt to stand, her comforter fell away and the first thing Olivia noticed was she was naked. That was new. She didn't like to sleep naked, even after sex because she never knew when she would get an emergency call in the middle of the night. She would just throw on some jeans and sneakers when that happened because she couldn't be bothered with finding undergarments when a victim was waiting. The second thing she noticed was the soreness between her legs. Now, she was fully awake, aches forgotten. She did a quick visual inspection. No bruises or scratches on her inner thighs. No bleeding. Okay. As she straightened, she noticed her breasts were sore; her nipples swollen and red. She made a beeline for the full-length mirror on the back of her bathroom door. She felt stretched and used and hungover but she didn't remember drinking. In the mirror the only thing she could see besides her breasts was some redness on her upper arms, her knees were red and there was some bruising on her neck consistent with a hickey. A hickey? Fuck. Rough sex? Every aching muscle in her body and the soreness between her legs led her to that conclusion but why did she feel so out of it? Without realizing what she was doing, Olivia picked up her phone and dialed.

"Hello?" came a very drowsy voice on the other end. Shit. She forgot how early it was.

"Hi Melinda, it's Olivia" she said as she noticed how hoarse her voice sounded and it hurt to swallow. Then again, everything hurt so why not? "I'm sorry to wake you but I need a favor."

The M.E. on the other end of the phone was instantly alert. Olivia didn't call for early morning favors. In fact, Olivia never asked for favors. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" Melinda asked with concern in her voice.

"Yes, I think so. Can you meet me in your office before my shift this morning? There's…I…please? Olivia was vaguely aware of how desperate she sounded and didn't want to make her friend worry until there was reason to. "I'm fine Melinda, really. Can you please meet me?"

"Of course, let me make sure everyone is up and ready and I'll meet you in an hour."

"Thanks" Liv said as she hung up. Add the fact that Melinda had a family to take care to the list of things Olivia didn't remember. She felt bad but she had to make sure that she hadn't become the thing she fought so hard to protect-a victim.

-SVU-

Stabler Residence

72-12 Castleside Street

Glenoaks-Queens

Same Day

"Elliot!"

He was having the greatest dream. She was shouting his name over and over and, wait. This sounded different.

"Elliot, come on! You're going to be late!"

This time he heard it more clearly as he felt someone shaking his arm, hard enough to move him side to side. Oh, he was no longer dreaming. Kathy sounded irritated, which wasn't so unusual nowadays but this time he couldn't figure out why. He was sleeping, what the hell did he do to irritate her? He couldn't focus too much because his damn head hurt. Fuck! What hit him?

"Mmmmph" he managed to say. After a moment he became a bit more coherent. "What time is it?" He managed to open his eyes and immediately knew that was a mistake.

"Time for you to take the kids to school. I have an early shift today, remember?" Kathy was all ready for work, in her scrubs with keys in her hand. As soon as she saw her husband's bloodshot eyes and truly assessed his demeanor, she had second thoughts. "Are you hungover Elliot? How much did you drink last night?"

"I don't remember drinking anything Kath. What time did I come home?" This didn't make sense. Elliot didn't drink himself into a stupor. Apparently, his wife knew this as well as became troubled. He slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position with his back against the headboard. He kept his knees bent and leaned forward onto his elbows in order to hide the raging hard-on he was sporting. It's been a while since he woke to one of those. No sense in getting Kathy any more irritated.

"Around 1. I didn't think anything of it because you didn't smell like liquor when you kissed me goodnight but obviously I missed it since I was exhausted myself. You literally fell into the bed, kissed me, rolled over and started snoring-loudly. How do you feel?" Her voice went from irritation to concern.

Elliot became a bit distressed and as was his habit, he began to knead the back of his neck. "I don't think I drank anything! God, my head is pounding, my neck is killing me" he complained. "Wait. 1:00? Where was I coming from?" He furrowed his eyebrows as he frantically tried to piece together his actions last night.

"El, you're sounding crazy right now and you're scaring me. If you didn't drink last night, and now that I can see you clearly, I believe that, then what the hell happened to you?" Elliot looked so out of it that if she didn't know better, she'd swear he was coming down from a high. "Honey, were you drugged?" she asked timidly.

Drugged? Fuck! It would explain a lot right now but how could he not know? "Jesus" Elliot scrubbed his hands down his face, only accentuating the throbbing in his head. "Kathy, I need to get checked out."

"Okay, come on. I'll get the kids moving and you can come with me to the hospital."

-SVU—

"Hi Melinda. I'm so sorry to pull you away from your family so early." Olivia managed to pull herself together and arrive at the M.E.'s office just after Melinda got there. The cab ride was a horror show since the driver managed to find and hit every pothole on the way downtown. The ride took 25 minutes in morning traffic and the pain between Olivia's legs intensified as each block passed. She felt like her tailbone was bruised and no amount of Excedrin would relieve her headache right now.

"It's nothing they're not used to Liv; but I must say that I have a feeling this isn't work related." For the past three years, Melinda has always been the one to call Olivia.

"Right. Melinda, I need a favor but I need it kept off the record for now." As Melinda looked skeptical, Liv explained everything she knew, but more importantly, everything she felt. "I need to know if I was hit over the head causing me to black out, if I was drugged, if I was…assaulted (although she said the word rape repeatedly every day, she couldn't apply it to herself). Did someone break into my apartment or did I invite them in? Melinda please."

"Stop" Melinda interrupted. "I'll do anything to help. First, you should call in because you're going to be late for work. Tell them I need you or something, I'll back you of course. Then give me a urine sample so I can run a quick analysis while I check the rest of you over. It's much faster than the blood screen so we'll know where to start." As her friend called in to Cragen, the M.E. was meticulous as she took urine, blood, and saliva and immediately ran the lab analysis. She then checked Liv for a concussion, various bruises, etc.

After what seemed like forever to Olivia's throbbing head and fired-up nerves, but was in reality only about a half-hour, Melinda finally took a step back. "Well, you don't seem to have a concussion but there was quite a bit of bruising. You have contusions on both triceps, friction burns on your knees and upper back, broken blood vessels in your right eye commonly known as 'pink eye' but definitely not conjunctivitis. There are bite marks on your breasts and neck. The pain you're experiencing between your legs is most likely tightened or pulled muscles and you could possibly have a bruised cervix and some tearing. Without an internal I can't be sure." Melinda couldn't rule out rough sex. "Liv, do you want me to run a rape kit?"

Olivia wasn't going to put herself through that unless she absolutely had to. "Shit Mel! What the fuck happened last night? I don't remember going out let alone having sex, rough or otherwise. No, I'm not having a kit Melinda. My clothes from yesterday are still on the floor so I'll bag them with my sheets. This is so embarrassing!" Olivia was mortified, and confused, and she still couldn't think straight. "God Melinda, can you give me something for my goddamn headache?" She was shouting now. Her heart was racing and it caused the pulse to bang in her ears. She started to breathe quicker.

"Yes, I'll get you a banana bag. It'll not only hydrate you, but it'll also help flush out whatever's in your system. I'll have the urine test results rather quickly, but the blood tox will take a while. You need to calm down Liv, sit here." Melinda led Olivia to the sofa in her private office. It was considerably softer than the exam table so she was able to sink into a cushion and spread her legs a bit to relieve the pressure. After Melinda inserted the IV into her arm, Olivia bent her head to lean on the back of the couch and closed her eyes, trying to regulate her breathing as she tried to piece together the last 12 hours from a blank slate.

-SVU—

Thanks to his wife, Elliot sat in a private room in the ER attached to his own banana bag. Kathy had to start her shift, especially since thanks to him she was already late. She was able to make sure he had his bloodwork taken but now that they were alone, the doctor was giving him the oddest look.

"Mr. Stabler…" the doctor who could be Elliot's grandfather began before being interrupted.

"Detective Stabler doc."

"Yes, of course" the doctor said nonplussed. "Detective Stabler, your wife said you came home in the wee hours of morning and fell right to sleep. You two didn't have relations then?"

Elliot and Kathy's 'relations' were few and far between nowadays but Kathy gave no indication that they had sex last night. "No, between our schedules we haven't had sex in at least a week." He wasn't about to admit it had been way longer than that.

"Other than whatever is in your system, you have scratches on your upper back and the back of your thighs consistent with fingernails. You also must be in a bit of pain from the erection you've had since you came in. How long has it been exactly?" The doctor didn't look accusatory; he just looked bored like he's seen it all, which he probably has. Elliot chose to throw on sweats because ever since waking up, his member has been standing at attention. He didn't want to draw Kathy's attention to that fact. Yeah, he's woken up with boners before, but this one is different, and yes, it damn well hurt.

"Umm, I woke up with an erection. A full one actually, along with the train wreck in my head."

"Well whatever drugs are in your system might explain the prolonged erection but the marks are indicative of rough sex. What you do in your private life is your business, but if the drugs caused you to act differently than you normally would, well detective, I don't have to finish that sentence do I?" The doctor looked Elliot straight in the eye knowing Elliot knew what he meant.