Thankyou to those who are reading. This is the final chapter - they had to sort this mess out so lets see how they deal with the heinous crime of attempted character assassination...
It was late when the detectives, now joined by three ADA's, Nick Amaro, Huang, and their former captain, finally convened in the squad room.
"Thank you all for getting here so quickly, you've all had time to read Carisi's...comprehensive report on the situation...thanks Carisi.." Olivia began.
"Yeah, the bar graph was great - i'm not liking the 5% chance that i'm responsible though," Nick said.
"Nick is not responsible, he had no knowledge of Elliot when he arrived," Olivia said glancing at Nick, "Carisi has us all on his bar chart...there's a 2% chance that I did all this," she continued.
"Ok, we need to keep this between us - we don't know who else is affected...whoever is doing this is trying very hard to alter our memories, particularly of Elliot...and people are starting to believe it." Olivia said.
"Should we call Cassidy?" asked Munch.
"Why would we call Cassidy?" Elliot asked confused.
"Liv kinda hooked up with him after you left," Fin said.
"Really?!" Elliot asked, "Cassidy?"
"Ok, let's focus here," said Olivia, deftly changing the subject. There are twelve years of video evidence here...going take a while to watch through it.."
"Amanda, Nick and Barba, you need to concentrate on the DVDs, Alex and Casey - could you sit in, ensure these records are accurate and catch up on anything you missed? It will take eight days of continuous viewing to watch all these."
"Sure thing Liv, come on Alex, this is gonna take us a while...I brought popcorn," Casey said.
"Thanks, ok the rest of us need to locate the person responsible and bring them in..." Olivia said.
"What can we charge them with?" Carisi said.
"Attempted character assassination for a start, I'm sure we can bring a few other charges too if we think about it," Barba said before sitting down with the other ADAs, Nick and Amanda, to start going through the DVDs.
Eight days later….
Everyone gathered around in the bullpen, tired from the eight day long DVD watching marathon. Olivia and Elliot had just been shown highlights of their relationship which Carisi had compiled, they sat side by side staring at the screen as the video ended.
"You'd give each other a kidney?" Amanda said softly, "how could anyone forget that?"
"Elliot," Olivia whispered, "How could I have forgotten? How could I have ever wondered what our relationship was...what I meant to you?"
"Why did I walk away so easily and not return your calls? I would never treat you like that," said Elliot as he sat back in his chair looking dismayed, "I hurt you Liv."
"I only called a few times then gave up El!" Olivia said, equally as dismayed.
"Guys, stop it! Focus, we have a particularly heinous crime to solve here - we need to bring in the person responsible for the attempted character assassination of Elliot Stabler!" Munch said wisely.
"We traced his IP address and although it was cleverly routed, we got a trace on him - his account is registered to Mr. Puppet Master - we have an address, so Fin and Amanda, go pick him up..but be careful...we don't know what he is capable of...what he could make happen next.." Olivia warned.
As Fin and Rollins left to pick up the man responsible for the heinous crime, Olivia noticed that George appeared deep in thought.
"What are we dealing with here?" Olivia asked.
"I would not normally agree with such a stupendous theory, but I am afraid I have seen too much not to agree. Elliot," he said, glancing at Stabler to ensure he had his attention as well as Olivia's, "you were Olivia's closest friend for well over a decade - you were so close that Captain Cragen had you both undertake a Psych evaluation to determine if you were too close to work together as partners...you had problems, you fought, you upset each other, but the crux of your relationship was a strong, unbreakable bond of mutual respect, friendship...and I have to admit, love."
Olivia and Elliot exchanged a fleeting glance, and a small smile escaped Olivia as she felt Elliot's hand slip into hers. Uncaring that they might look unprofessional; having had their minds controlled they knew how much they had lost already. She grasped his hand with a gentle squeeze, as Elliot smiled at her response.
"You memories of your relationship and everything you meant to each other was confused and then over time, erased. Now you have seen the video records, you have that knowledge back; you know what you have lost and you can ensure that it doesn't happen again."
"How can we do that? What if Elliot disappeared again?" Olivia said.
"Well," said Barba, "what if we just have some kind of mutiny?"
"Liking your train of thought Barba, any idea how?" Munch asked.
"Well, how about we reinstate Elliot...no one else wants to be Liv's second in command...let's put him there before anyone else appears - let's just put him back in. Take the control from the Puppet Master and put it in our own hands- would that work?" Barba said.
"An uprising?" Huang said, "Not quite what I had in mind, but if we not only bring Elliot back, but also give him a promotion then it might be enough to change the course of events. There are two other issues though…" Huang mused.
"I'm assuming you mean the DVD's - we have to find a way to change the altered perception of everyone else too…." Casey said, as she approached from the area they had all camped out in for over a week while watching DVD's.
"Well, I have some friends at computer crimes still...let's see if they can help," said Olivia, "we need to take over a major TV network...have nothing but these videos playing non stop until they have all been seen again…" Olivia suggested.
"Wow, could we do that Sarge?" Carisi asked.
"Course we can," said Casey in annoyance, as she kicked Carisi, "how else can we solve this case?"
"Ok, so we have another problem solved..but what about the final one?" asked Huang, "Fin and Amanda are bringing the Puppet Master in - he is not your standard perp...what will you do to ensure that your plan of reinstating Elliot comes to life?" Huang said.
"Well," said Nick, "Liv and Stabler once locked someone in a closet...I saw it on the video footage...can't we just lock him in a closet?"
Olivia folded her arms and exhaled, pondering Nick's plan, "Actually that's perfect, we bring him in, Elliot and I will face him together, then we lock him in a closet and take over a major TV network. The truth will be out there and Elliot's name restored."
Elliot smiled as he looked at her with affection, "and if you're the boss..does the no dating co-workers thing still stand?"
Olivia laughed, "I'll reverse that one detective," she smiled.
"Hold on, reverse it.." Carisi said, "does that mean it'll be compulsory to date co-workers?"
One hour later
Olivia and Elliot stood outside the interrogation room looking in at the man who had come between them.
"I would never have cut you out of my life...you know...that I love you, don't you?" Elliot said earnestly.
Olivia smiled, "I know El, of course you wouldn't and I love you too. I would never have given up on you so easily and questioned what we were to each other had the man in this room not come between us. Let's go take down the man who did this to us, partner," she said.
Moments later Amanda and Fin watched as Benson and Stabler walked into the interrogation room and closed the door behind them. Standing in front of the table, they faced the man who was seated there, casually sipping a coffee.
"You're forgetting I know what your next move is going to be," he said, as he observed Benson and Stabler warily," this is where Stabler slams me up against the wall in an act of barely controlled rage, right?"
Elliot folded his arms and leaned back against the interrogation room window, a slight smile crossing his face.
"There's something you are forgetting," Olivia said, as she placed her hands on the desk and leaned close to his face.
"Oh really? What's that?" he said.
"We have watched our history played out for eight days straight, we have our memories back...but you," she said with a smile as she stood up, and opened the interrogation room door, "do not know our next move, because you have not seen the footage that we have - you don't know how we work together."
"I created the perception everyone holds of you Stabler, it doesn't matter what you are really like - I can fool them all into thinking you were bad for Olivia, noone will remember the truth!" he said with an evil laugh.
"You're free to go," Elliot said, gesturing toward the open interrogation room door.
"Free to go? Shouldn't you be attacking me about now?" he asked, confused.
Elliot smiled and turned around, walking out of the room.
The Puppet Master stood uncertainly...looking at Olivia but was met only with a shrug.
"Sergeant Stabler will see you out," she said with a smile as she turned and headed out walking toward Elliot who stood blocking the view of the open cupboard door.
He followed Olivia out as she led him in the direction of Elliot. Stopping once they were right in front of him the Puppet Master froze and spun around to see Casey and Alex among the rest of the squad gathering around them.
"Sergeant Stabler?! You can't do that! I have plans! Evil plans! Elliot Stabler is a distant memory, and I made sure no one would ever want him back!"
"You don't know our next move because you don't know us," said Elliot as he stepped aside, giving Olivia room to take the Puppet Master by surprise and shove him into the closet.
Elliot slammed the door and locked it leaning back on it casually as he smiled at Olivia.
"Olivia," said Cragen with an air of curiosity, "you can't keep him in the closet indefinitely..."
"I have it covered Don, character assassination is a pretty heinous crime, feds are picking him up later..they are on our side here for once."
Later that night the team all sat gathered around the TV as they shared Chinese food and watched the scenes unfolding in front of them.
"You run things round here now Olivia," smiled Huang, "and we know we are all safe in your hands. Tonight, and for the next week, the whole country sees the truth - twelve years of non stop video streamed all week long."
They all sat back preparing to watch the marathon of their history for a second time, but now with Elliot Stabler's history restored and Olivia's memories returned.
Suddenly Carisi coughed, looking at Olivia.
"Um...so Sarge...about the compulsory dating of co-workers thing..."
I really needed to write this and I feel better for it! Thank you for reading my first attempt at parody and please have a look at all the awesome writers on here - especially those who write Bensler. ;-)