"I've just never known you to half-ass a case is all I'm saying."

"And all I'm saying, due respect, Alex, is where the hell you get off suggesting that's what I'm doing here?" reacted Elliot, defensive at the accusation.

"You think there's more to it than what I'm about to go in there and present to the jury..." pushed Alex, staring him square in the eye through dark rimmed glasses and remaining unflinching in her suggestion, "... if that isn't half-assing it then I don't know what is Detective Stabler."

"So what if I did tell you that I think Carrie set Nathan George up?" suggested Elliot, the weariness he felt at merely allowing the notion to resurface proving her case in point.

"I'd tell you to prove it."

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?" once Alexandra Cabot was spoiling for a fight there was little point in attempting to stem the inevitable dam burst. She wanted answers and Elliot was in no mood. "Is it really an impossibility or do you just plain not want to?"

"Are you questioning my professional integrity ADA Cabot?" asked Elliot, now as irritated as he was exhausted by her tone.

"If what you're suggesting is true then Carrie Eldridge is a shrewd, self-assured, calculating young woman who lured Nathan George to her hotel room so she could blackmail money from him and run away with her boyfriend on his dime."

"She was pregnant and scared out her mind! She was just trying to do the right thing by her kid, she didn't mean to hurt anyone!"

"Who didn't?"

"I..."

"What is this really about, detective?" asked Alex, the corners of her mouth twitching to a tight but reluctantly smile of acknowledgement. "Or rather should I say who is this really about?"

"Alex..."

"Because I'm not so sure that you haven't lost your due north on this one, Elliot. I didn't work this case last time around but from what I hear there were more than a few parallels to be drawn between Carrie and a certain..."

"You're wrong."

"Tell me you don't look at Carrie and see a lost, frightened little girl whose mother failed her in every way possible and who has no family or support system. The whole world let her down more times than most people could bear and yet somehow she survives it. Tell me honestly that you're not going easy on Carrie because when you look at her you see..." failing to finish that particular sentence but not missing a beat in mind or in her delivery Alex added, "... and you can protect her the way you couldn't protect..."

"This isn't about Benson."

"Who are you trying to convince, Elliot?" she asked with a expressive shrug and knowing sigh. "Because the way I see it, with you it is always about Benson."

"Where are you going?" he asked, as she pivoted on her heel and headed out down the court room corridor.

"To do my job Stabler..." turning back Alex shot him a withering look and delivered a weighty blow, "... you might consider doing the same."

"That isn't fair, Alex."

"Isn't it?" closing the gap between them once more so that he might speak freely without prying ears Elliot answered.

"It doesn't matter whether she's a criminal mastermind or a scared kid. It doesn't matter whether Carrie invited George to that hotel room or why. Rape is rape. He's the only one in the frame for both the sexual assault and the reason she fell three stories onto concrete and lost her baby."

"You're right."

"Yeah?" he asked, surprised to have seemingly turned her and won so easily.

"I was out of line to question your motives the way I did before. I had no right to doubt your judgement I just..." closing her eyes and then opening them with a composing sigh Alex smiled steadily, "... well, just accept my apology?"

"Consider it accepted."

"I'll see you in there..."

"Hey Alex?" he called after her, knowing full well that despite her being the one to apologise he was proving her right by simply asking the question that followed. "Did you know?"

"Did I know what?" though she was fairly sure she didn't need clarification as to his meaning, it was a lawyer's instinct to evade initially and buy herself more time.

"Did she tell you?" he swallowed uneasily. "Did you know the baby was mine?"

"No, no I did not." She answered clinically, and with technical honesty.

"Okay, okay sorry I just..."

"At least not really..." she seesawed, her eyes filling with sympathy as she softened, "... but now looking back I wonder if some small part of me..." shrugging almost with regret Alex finished, "... sometimes I wonder if deep down I suspected, you know?"

"Yeah..." nodded Elliot sadly, "... I know."

"So we're saying that from Ming Chi and her friends leaving the bar at 3am to the bread delivery guy finding her in the alley at 6am we have no clue what happened?"

"Except that we know that either she barely made it two blocks in three hours..." offered Rollins, tapping her pen against the desk she was sat on as she processed her thoughts and delivered them to the group, "... or we can assume the attack happened right after she left the bar."

"To assume..." smiled Munch wryly, "... always an encouraging verb in a police investigation."

"Oh can it Munch..." came the smiling reply from Benson as she stood in front of their glass evidence board, her swollen baby belly no longer concealed by loose blouses and strategically cut jackets, "... unless you've got a better theory to bring to the table?"

"What we do know is that these girls weren't in that club to hang out with their girl friends and discuss the latest episode of Top Model. They were working that night and under some fairly terrifying duress. If this was just the prostitution ring we'd have our work cut out but there's a hell of a lot more going on with the guys pimping them out."

"Good news..." announced Cragen as he emerged from his office grave faced, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "... that was the Feds. They're circling and they want in. If we don't crack this soon it's gonna be out of our hands."

"Crack being the operative word." Offered Munch, who had been in one of those moods ever since his local bakery had failed to provide his morning bagel order.

"John has a point..." sighed Rollins reluctantly, "... maybe we've gotten a little off key because we're so desperate to help Ming Chi. Maybe if we wanna help all the girls we need to look at the bigger picture here."

"I've got Fin on the phone to his old buddies in narcotics and see if we can't put a rush on the drugs element in this." Said Cragen, his mind clearly still ticking over their options and strategising, even as he gave direction to his team.

"We don't need their help..." said Olivia, almost a little too quickly, "... we've got evidence of money changing hands, we've got names and witnesses, we've got the drug element in the bag if we just raid their den and prove..."

"You think you can work this case better than trained, experienced experts, detective?" challenged Cragen, not unaware of the way Benson's hands had gravitated unconsciously to her waist the moment there had been mention of involving the detectives in narcotics.

"No I just..."

"If this goes federal then it'll be out of NYPD's hands entirely. SVU and Narcotics. I don't want that to happen. If you say we've got enough evidence: do the raid."

"Captain..." cautioned Munch, wisdom of experience nervous that they were jumping the gun.

"We just ran out of time, people. Raid that den and get Ming Chi and those girls the hell out of there before we've got another pair of eyes pleading at us up on that board..." gesturing to the string of Asian faces pinned up behind Benson's right shoulder Cragen sighed, "... but we play this by the book. We're looking for drugs. This is narcotics bust and anything else we stumble on when we get in there is purely concicidental."

"You think the DA will buy it?" asked Amaro.

"He will the way I intend to sell it to him." Assured Cragen.

"Great, great then what are we waiting for then? If we head down there can you put a rush on the warrant, Captain?" asked Olivia, moving to her desk and grabbing her jacket and cell phone.

"No, no you can." Replied Cragen steadily. "Amaro, Rollins, get to Chinatown and I'll have Fin meet you there..." his hands in his pockets Cragen lifted his forehead, with a don't even bother arguing with me expression etched in fine lines across it, "... and Benson you head over and clear this all with ADA Cabot."

"But..."

"Reduced duties, detective."

"I know that..."

"Say 'but' to me one more time Benson and you'll be pushing paper till the day you go off on maternity leave. Now get your ass over to see Cabot..." narrowing his eyes warningly Cragen stated, "... that's an order, detective."

"Hey Captain, we've got something!" announced Fin, bursting into the squad room brandishing a phone in one hand a sheet of paper scribbles in the other. "Horowitz and Stabler have connected our guys to drug cartel in Beijing. There's a container coming in this afternoon."

"They're gonna be there to meet it?" asked Cragen, as Fin nodded to the affirmative. "Then so are we. Find out when and where and tell them we're gonna be joining them. Let's see what, or more interestingly who else they're bringing in with that shipment."

"Stabler and Horowitz are sitting on it from around 3 this afternoon."

"Then so are you two..." instructed Cragen, gesturing between Benson and Tutuola, "... you can pick Benson up from Cabot's office when she's done clearing this warrant and head down there together."

"You sure about that, Captain?" asked Fin, unsubtle in the way he looked first to Benson's stomach and then her face.

"You can handle a stakeout and a container search with narcotics can't you Detective Benson?" smiled the Captain, heartened by what felt like a noble gesture of compromise after their earlier spat with regards the grey areas of restricted duties.

"I... ermm... well actually you know Captain you might be right..." eyes flickering between Cragen and Fin, Olivia brushed a fringe of hair from her eyes with one hand and encircled her stomach with her free arm, "... it's probably best I sit this one out."

"But it's only..."

"I'll get right on that warrant, Cap." Closing down the discussion and caring little for the knowing look Fin was gifting her Olivia made a hurried bid for the door.

"Did you know?"

"No."

"Liar." Replied David Hayden, his lazy smile cast jadedly across the office at Alexandra Cabot who had been lost in recollections of her awareness of Olivia Benson's pregnancy the entire time he had been regaling her of his latest courtroom battle. So many times she had seen Olivia during those months, and so many times she had held back questions she knew would have provided answers she didn't want to hear.

"I swear to you, David. She didn't tell me until I had coffee with her the other day."

"You've seen her?" he asked quickly, sitting suddenly forward in his chair and bracing his elbows attentively on his knees.

"I'm sorry."

"How was she? How is she? How's Eve?"

"Fine!" she replied, with tellingly uncharacteristic vim. "They were both just fine. Eve is the brightest, cutest little thing I've ever..." then, flushing slightly Alex mumbled, "... gosh, I'm sorry. I guess you know that already."

"Alex stop apologising, none of this is your fault!"

"I knew." She replied suddenly, realising that though it were indeed not her fault in any way she felt culpable. As if somehow she had, unconsciously or otherwise, conspired to conceal the truth.

"But you just said..."

"I didn't know but maybe that's because I didn't want to. I know Olivia too well to not have, on some level, sensed something was off. The way she found any excuse not to work a case with narcotics. How little she talked about her pregnancy to anyone close enough to read between the lines. She'd waited her whole life for this but somehow she seemed distracted. It all seemed to be falling into place. A great guy, a baby, it was everything you could ever want for."

"Not everything..." said David sadly, his eyes failing to hide the truth depth of his sorrow, "... and not Olivia."

"David I know there isn't anything I can say to make this easier for you but you have to know, you have to believe that they never had what the two of you had. Don't think for a minute that they were good for her. Don't let anyone tell you that they didn't put each other through hell every minute, every second that they were partners."

"I'm not naive, Alex..."

"She was truly, truly happy with you and I know without a doubt that she wanted it to work out."

"Maybe she did want it to work but was it ever for the right reasons? It was the perfect picture postcard life. It was the life she never thought she could have. She's a smart woman with a quick wit and beautiful by any measure. She could've had any guy in the city if she'd only asked. Did she ever really want me or was it just convenient?" and then, the bitter, brutal but cuttingly honest reality of his situation came as David stated regretfully, "I deserve more than being the guy she wants to want."

"Oh David..."

"He might put her through hell but she comes alive around him..." he sighed, closing his eyes and realising defeat, "... and so long as he's in her life no other man stands a chance."

"I can't."

"I have the entire day off and the weather is awesome..." arching his eyebrows temptingly Elliot pushed, "... how often does that happen at this time of year?"

"I have a bunch of stuff to do..." maintaining her position as she hung off her apartment door, shifting weight between bare feet Olivia added, "... it's your day with Evie. Enjoy it."

"Tell me you don't need to just blow life off for a few hours and get out of this apartment?" he challenged, knowing that far off look in her eyes all too well.

"I'm saying no, El."

"Oh come on, Liv..." switching Eve from one arm to the other Elliot protested, "... you love Coney Island!"

"Where does Kathy think you are today, Elliot?" asked Olivia, shooting an arrow straight to the heart of his childish excitement and causing his bubble to fall, burst with reality, to the ground between them.

"Out of town visiting a friend." He replied with a calm, steady defiance and refusal to engage.

"See you tonight..." she sighed, leaning forward and brushing a parting kiss against Eve's forehead, "... be good for Daddy, baby girl."

"Don't tell me you're not tempted..." kicking his foot out and sticking a toe between the door and it's frame to delay goodbye Elliot flashed an impish smile, "... you know Evie is gonna go mad for all the rides and colours, all that sugar and ocean air?"

"Eve only just figured out she has toes..." replied Olivia with an acerbic wearying of patience, "... do you really think she's gonna care about the bumper cars?"

"Fine, fine okay if you're gonna be like that..." surrendered Elliot, visibly deflated and no longer caring to encourage the torrents of rain falling on his parade.

"Oh and Elliot?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning back from halfway down the corridor.

"Evie and sugar and ocean air?" she scoffed bitterly. "Don't you dare use her to play me like that."

"I just wanted you there with us, that's all..." he shrugged sadly, hurt that she mistook his light-hearted attempts to coax her as something more sinister, "... there was no game being played."

"Elliot..." she murmured with a heavy sigh, when she knew with confidence he was out of earshot and safely in the elevator, "... ugh why can't I just..."

"Lift your arm up, Mouse. That's it. A little more? Gosh you're a big strong girl aren't you, and look at those chubby little guns..." holding two podgy hands in his fingertips Elliot moved Eve's arms back and forth as she giggled, "... you're a regular little bruiser in the making Evie Grace, check out that left hook!"

"Elliot?"

"Olivia?" he asked, ducking back out of his backseat and turning to meet her as she dashed out of her apartment building.

"You forgot her spare pacifier."

"She needs a spare?" he asked, unable to read between the lines of her reappearance at first. "I mean, right, sure, she does need a spare." He added quickly, on seeing she had applied lipgloss and pinned her hair up in a clip.

"Right, ermmm, well, I guess..." she stalled, shifting her weight between feet as her eyes darted uneasily between his smiling gaze and Eve waving from the backseat.

"So I can't help but notice..." he began slowly, his face open and encouraging of her trust in a time of obvious vulnerability, "... well, you've got your jacket and purse there."

"You haven't won. That isn't what this is."

"What is it?" he grinned, as his jaw refused to remain unreflective of the delight he felt both at seeing her stubborn pride surrender and the excitement of realising she was coming with them after all.

"I just thought better of trusting a big kid to take my daughter to Coney Island unsupervised is all..."

"Well okay then..." beamed Elliot, unable to resist teasing further, "... am I driving?"

"The hell you are." Replied Olivia, seizing the car keys dangled from his hand and heading around to the driver's door.