I own no one but my own people

Amaro sighed heavily as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He slowly stirred in the creamer along with the sugar and reached for a lid only to find there wasn't any.

"You gotta be kidding me," he grumbled glancing around the counter designated to coffee. He was about to give up when someone held out a clean lid.

"Thanks," said Amaro as he turned towards the person offering the lid. His grateful smile fell when he saw the man who was offering the lids. "What the hell do you want?" Amaro snapped as he pulled away from Elliot's hands.

Elliot shrugged as he held up a handful of plastic white lids. "Nurses station always have their own stash." He placed them next to the industrial coffee maker.

"So you're a thief?"

"Tell that to victims parents or husband who only want a cup of coffee and you gotta wait for some disgruntled cafeteria worker to refill the stock before you can give it to them," Elliot told him as he reached in his hoodie picket and pulled out another large stack and also placed it next to the coffee maker.

Amaro said nothing as Elliot grabbed a cup and made his own cup. "You talk to her?" asked Elliot as he filled the Styrofoam cup with the hot steaming liquid.

Amaro shrugged. "Yeah I did. What's it to you?"

"What it's to me is my partner was raped and tortured and I wanna know how she is." Elliot put a lid on the cup and took a sip. "I don't think that's asking for much."

"Like you said, she was raped and tortured. How the hell do you think she's doing?" Without another word Amaro began walking away back to the waiting room but Elliot stood in front of him and Amaro raised his brow. "We really gonna do this right now, Stabler?"

"Oh please, we both know I could snap you like a twig if I wanted to," Elliot told him as he gave him a look that was yelling 'come on".

Knowing that Elliot's words wasn't completely wrong he stood where he was and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What the hell do you want then? Unless it's an apology then I don't wanna hear it."

Elliot opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. After several moments of silence Amaro rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Stabler; look, MY partner wants some kind of information regarding her boyfriend so see ya."

Amaro went to push past him but Elliot placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder to stop him. "Get your hands off me!" Amaro snapped as he slapped Elliot's hand away.

"Look, you don't know how hard this is for me right now," Elliot told him a bit louder then he had intended. "She was my partner and best friend."

"And you abandoned her."

"Because I didn't want her to look at me like I looked at myself after what I did!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Elliot leaned back and eyed him carefully trying to gauge if he was telling the truth or not. "She never told you. Liv never told you why I left."

"No she never told me anything about why you left and frankly I don't care. You left her without so much as a good bye and I was the one who had to see that... that emptiness in her eyes every time she talked about you those first few months. There's no excuse for making her look like that and now you're blaming me for something I already feel like shit about-!"

"I blame myself too!" Elliot yelled earning stares from everyone in the cafeteria. "You think I don't know this is my fault as well?"

Amaro narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about, Stabler?"

Elliot took a deep breath and shook his head. "This is gonna sound horrible but I should have been there to save her. She's had guys take her or tried something with her before and I was always there to save her. Now I left and this happens... I know it's stupid but I feel like if I was there I would have known to make her flash her lights or get her a detail or stopped by to make sure she was okay or... or something. I know hind sight's 20/20 but I can't imagine this guy gave no indication he was going to attack her."

"Well he didn't. And once again you're saying it's my fault?" Amaro snapped.

"No. Maybe. I don't know, Amaro! I- I just wanna know why the hell no one checked in on her or walked her home or anything. If I was there I know I could have helped her and I wasn't because I was afraid of her judging me."

Amaro shifted guiltily in his spot and Elliot narrowed his eyes at him. "What?" he demanded as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Amaro, what the hell aren't you telling me?"

Amaro swallowed hard as he glanced down at the floor. "I... I did check up on her," he sighed. "She answered the door and I knew something was wrong but I assumed it was issues with her boyfriend. She said some hurtful things which I know now were only because Lewis said that if she didn't get rid of me he'd kill her and... And have me take her place."

Fire burned inside Elliot's eyes as Amaro's words ran through his mind. "You... you went over while he was there... and you didn't shoot him dead because she... she hurt your feelings?" he spat, his words trembling dangerously.

"I didn't know he was there," Amaro argued. "If I did-!"

"You didn't notice something was off? You didn't notice she was a little scared over the fact she was in the middle of being raped and fucking tortured!" Elliot yelled, throwing his coffee and letting it splash over the usually gleaming white cafeteria.

"I thought she was having issues with Brian!" Amaro shouted. "I thought she was having boyfriend issues and that's what had her messed up!"

Elliot shoved a finger in Amaro's face but this time the younger Detective knew well enough not to slap it out of his way. "You stay away from her," Elliot growled, "you hear me? You stay the hell away from my partner!"

"She isn't your partner anymore," Amaro spat. "She's mine, and I did everything I could to save her, so why don't you just stay the hell out of my way!"

Without another word Amaro pushed by him and stormed back down the hall, Elliot's words he knew to be true ringing in his ears.

5 Days Earlier

After they had explained the previous crimes that Lewis had done, all three previous crimes cruel and senseless, to the rest of the squad, Cragen had ordered the four of them to get every single scrap of evidence from each of those cases.

He, Cragen told them while Olivia tried to hold back a smirk, was going to be working with Alice even more on trial prep. When Barba pointed out that was his job, Cragen just told him to get to work and disappeared into his office.

"I don't get it," Amanda sighed as she sat down at her desk. "If I went through what Lewis did to her, I wouldn't even wanna look at another man ever but she's already ready to back on the horse? Much less get on the horse with Cragen?"

"How you deal with an attack is a case by case basis," Olivia offered as she took her own chair. "One time we had a victim who after she got home from the hospital, she started stripping right in front of my partner."

"You know you never did tell us why he quit," the blonde said as she signed in to her computer.

"Not my place," said Olivia without missing a beat. "But my point is recovering from rape isn't a one size fits all so you need to get that out of your head and never let a victim hear you say that whatever they're doing isn't a 'normal' reaction."

Amanda nodded eagerly. "I gotcha. But isn't that one of the ways we look at to determine if they're telling the truth."

"Always assume the victim is telling the truth until you have concrete evidence otherwise. And someone acting out of the scope of what you consider normal isn't concrete evidence."

"She's right," Barba added as he looked over the case board. "Everyone deals with things differently, being a victim of a crime is no different. When I worked over in Brooklyn, I had one victim who was assaulted and beaten, refused to come out of his house, had severe mental issues, became a hoarder. Another victim who used to go bike walking every day down that same path was attacked by the same guy, same place, same exact type of attack, same exact things did to him... he went biking that same route the next night, started dating the lawyer involved in the case."

Amanda's eyes went wide. "Oh my God... He actually started dating his attackers lawyer."

"I didn't say defense attorney did I?" said Barba with a smirk.

Amanda narrowed her brow in confusion. "One of your assistants?"

Olivia had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing and Barba cocked his head to the side a little. "Sure... Lets go with that."

He turned to Olivia and rolled his eyes who had to put a file up to her face to hide her grin from a still confused Amanda. "You'll be sure I get copies of everything," he said, more of a demand then a question.

Olivia cleared her throat and made sure "Of course."

"Good. Walk me out."

Olivia got up from her chair and over to Barba and the two began to walk away from the bullpen. "Is she serious right now?" he muttered loud enough for only Olivia to hear him.

"She's from the South, she probably hasn't been around that many," she said as they reached the elevator.

"I know but come ON!"

"Maybe her gaydar isn't up to New York City speed yet."

Barba turned towards her and raised his brow. "Gaydar?"

Olivia nodded and turned towards him. "Yeah. I mean... I mean you are gay right?"

Barba scoffed in disbelief. "I can't believe you think I'm gay! What on earth would make you think that?"

Olivia was slightly taken aback for a moment . "I... I'm sorry, I just... I'm sorry."

"I am not Gay," Barba told her as the metal doors slid open. He turned on his heel and smirked at the apologetic Detective. "I'm Bi."

Olivia rolled her eyes, unable to hide the grin. "You're such an ass sometimes."

"What can I say, I'm greedy," he said with a shrug and a wink.

"Secret's safe with me," she said with a slight laugh before he got on the elevator.

"Make sure you get me those files," he told her as the doors slid shut.

"Will do," she told the now shut elevator doors. Shaking her head at the lawyer she made her way back to the desks where Amanda was blushing a deep scarlet. "I take it you figured it out?" she asked as she retook her seat.

"Took her a while but she got it," Fin said with a smirk towards his new partner. Amanda rolled her eyes but remained quiet.

Olivia laughed at the blondes embarrassment but for the same of Amanda she decided to let it go and instead concentrate on the cases they had been given.

Hours later, and every single report forwarded to Barba, the squad had decided to call it a day. Cragen hadn't been seen or heard from since he left to go do trial prep with Alice, and apart from the initial reports, there was nothing of any use anywhere else.

So when it was nearing eleven Olivia, once again being the senior in charge, ordered everybody to go home and be in bright and early the next morning.

Olivia stayed a half an hour later then the rest to make sure she hadn't missed anything. When she was finally sure that nothing new would come from tonight she stood up from her comfortable office chair and grabbed her phone from her pocket.

But when she unlocked the screen she frowned at the expensive phone. There wasn't a sing;e missed call or unanswered text from Brian. When he worked his normal shift he would get up around ten, work out for an hour, get ready for work, and be at the court house by midnight. But he would find time to send at least two or three flirty text messages.

With the thought firmly in her mind that she was over reacting, Olivia quickly dialed the familiar number and waited once, twice, three, and finally on the fifth ring did a voice picked up.

"Hey, Babe," answered Brian slightly breathless. "How you doing?"

"Good. How are you, you sound a little out of breath."

"I'm fine, I just got done with my work out," he told her. "You just get off work?"

Before Olivia could answer a voice from Brian's phone rang in her ear. "Hey, Bri, I'm thinking the red with the black trim," a young female voice told him. "I think it looks a lot sexier, what do you think?" the unknown woman finished, Olivia being able to see the seductive smirk from here.

Olivia stopped dead in her tracks as the voice reached her ears. She took a shot moment to compose herself before she spoke. Maybe Brian had a logical explanation for the reason why a seductively speaking woman was talking about what would look sexier late at night. "Who... Brian, who's that?"

There was a short pause. "Who's who?"

"The woman in the background," Olivia said a bit more tense then she would have liked.

Another much longer pause, "Oh... oh that um... that would be my partner."

"Your partners a forty year old man," she told him.

"...They changed me up?"

Olivia shook her head in disbelief, unable to help the tears that was flooding her eyes. "When you come up with a better story be sure to let me know."

"Liv, wait!"

But she was already gone.

Drama in the past, drama in the present, drama in the future... no one can seem to catch a break. Please Review :-)