Author's comments: I can't believe I just dropped it right there. I'm so sorry. I think I got exhausted with this story. It was long and had many twists, and I wasn't sure which way to go next. But let me see if I can finish it now. I think I have a few ideas how to wrap it up.
Funhouse
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Part 1.
The next two days were rough. Elliot slipped in and out of consciousness, and his lungs were still weak. Most of the time Olivia just slept on a chair in his room, going to him in times when he was lucid. At one point, she held his hand while he was sleeping and begged, "Don't leave me, El. I don't think I can make it without you." No matter what she'd told the others, she doubted whether she would have the will to live if he slipped from this world.
But by the third day, he was awake most of the time, back to his usual crabby self. "Will you get the nurse in here? I need another pain pill."
"All you have to do is push the button, El."
"Oh, right."
But she held his hand, and he looked at her appreciatively, rubbing one eye. "Have you been here this whole time?"
"No. I went home to take a shower once, kissed Noah."
He nodded groggily. "You should go home, get some real rest."
She shook her head. "Not a chance. The doctor said you might go home later. I brought your car so I can take you."
He rubbed her hand with his thumb. "You're so good to me, Liv."
"It's just payback."
When it was time, she helped him get dressed, and then went to get the car. The nurse brought him down in a wheelchair, and Olivia went to his uninjured side, careful not to touch his sling, and helped him into the car.
He looked tired, but he sat up most of the way home and held her hand. "Elliot, I'm really sorry about what happened."
"It wasn't anyone's fault. I shouldn't have gone in there without making sure it was clear first."
She squeezed his hand. "I'm just so glad you're okay now. I was…" She choked up on tears, and managed to eek out, "really worried."
He rubbed her hand and said, "It's okay now. I'm okay."
She smiled a weak smile and finished the drive home. In the apartment, he made it upstairs fine, only having to stop and catch his breath once. And then she helped him get into bed, and got him a glass of water, got him his pain pills. It was only when she'd stopped to sit on the edge of the bed and run her fingers over his hair while he slept that she realized she hadn't thought once about her ordeal in the hotel, for the first time in days. Maybe this was what she needed—taking care of him—to get her mind off her dark memories.
She pulled herself away to take care of Noah, who had very obviously missed her, as he demanded her constant attention. When Noah was in bed, she slid in behind Elliot and put her arm around him, falling asleep without flashbacks.
Part 2.
The next day, Barba came by to check on Elliot, but she had a feeling it was to check more on her. Her suspicions were confirmed when he said, "But, how are you, Liv?"
"Surprisingly, okay."
"Okay, well you ready for some news?"
"Should I sit down?"
"Probably. Nothing horrible, though."
She sat at the kitchen table, and he took the seat next to her. "That city counselor, the one you saw in the coffee shop, his trial for solicitation is coming up. Thing is, on these cases, I've been able to add charges of conspiracy, because most of them knew who you were and they all knew you were kidnapped. The handcuffs would have made that obviously clear. If we win with this strategy, they'll go away for a long time."
Her chest squeezed tight, making it hard to breathe. Still, she said, "I want to testify."
He patted her hand. "Good girl, Liv. I don't want to push you, but I was really hoping you would say that. We have a much better chance with your testimony."
"I just…after seeing Rylee, how much she's suffering, and then I know what she did to Elliot must be tearing her up."
"Yeah, and because of all that, she doesn't want to testify in any more of these cases, and I don't blame her."
"Right." She sighed. "It's all up to me now."
He squeezed her hand. "You'll do fine, Liv. The trial starts in a few days. Are you ready to go over testimony tomorrow?"
She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed, but nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, let's do this."
Part 3.
Elliot wanted to go with her to practice her testimony with Barba, but she argued that he was too weak still, and they settled on a compromise—he would go watch her at trial in a few days. Barba thought he could win this one without Elliot's testimony about what he witnessed in the hotel, so he didn't request to continue the trial long enough for Elliot to recover.
Barba had decided it would be best to rehearse testimony in his office, free from distractions, so she made her way there by herself, and the streets of New York never felt so massive and suffocating as they did when she walked them alone. At his office, she settled into a leather-covered chair and collected her breath.
"So, can you tell me what happened in the hotel, Ms. Benson?"
"I went there to meet with Jim Groves about evidence I had on a prostitution ring, and he lured me in by sending a fake e-mail from you that you were going to be at the meeting as well. When I got there, the room we went into looked like it had been slept in, so I felt something was off."
"Don't say that. It implies you should have done something differently."
"Right." She closed her eyes as the images from that day swept over her, practically stopping her breathing. "I went in, he and another man held a gun to my head, and they made me take off my clothes." She licked her lips. "They made me wear lingerie, handcuffed me to a bed, and then they let one man after another…"
Barely able to catch her breath, she remembered the first man, and then the second, and how each one had been progressively harder to bear. "There were so many…"
"Liv, do you need to stop?"
She panted, but said, "No."
He hesitated before continuing. "Do you remember counselor Sparks coming in?"
She nodded, eyes squeezed shut. "Yes. Not that day but maybe a few days later."
"And what did he do?"
"He…he was the one who grabbed me by the neck and started choking me, while he was on top of me, while he was raping me…" She had a tight hold on the arm of the chair, her whole body rigid. "I felt myself about to pass out."
Just then she noticed a tear rolling down her cheek. "Liv, let's stop for a minute. Get you some water, okay?"
She nodded tersely, opening her eyes to discover that she was not in the hotel, chained to the bed, but in Barba's office, and he was staring at her with disturbed eyes. "It's okay, Liv, you're safe," he said, rubbing her back. "Let's just take a break."
Part 4.
Her performance in Barba's office worried her, and she could tell that Barba was concerned too. Would she really be able to say all that in a courtroom full of people, when she could barely get the words out without a panic attack in the privacy of his office?
But it was too late now—she either testified, or this man walked free. And now she sat in the courtroom, in the hot seat, body clenched and ready to fight off enemies from her imagination. The only difference was that Elliot sat right behind Barba this time, and she tried to keep her gaze on him at first, so that she could relax a little.
She delved into her story, and when she reached the part about his hand around her neck, glanced over to see the city counselor sitting at the defense table, next to his lawyer, staring at her with a smarmy smile. He knew he was going to get off. What the hell was she even doing up here?
But she forced herself to keep going, even with her body as stiff as a board. "And he just kept on penetrating me while his hand was around my neck. I think I passed out maybe a couple of times from him squeezing my neck, but each time I woke up, he was right there, and he kept on going until he was finished."
Elliot's face said it all, angry and brooding—his body rigid like he wanted to get up and beat the shit out of the man right now, damaged lung and all. Barba rested his case. The defense attorney stood now and said to her, "Ms. Benson, you said you were handcuffed that night, right?"
"Correct."
"And yet nobody else has testified whether the handcuffs were put on you voluntarily, correct?"
"Nobody who…no."
"And so, this could have just been kinky hooker sex, correct?"
Barba said, "Objection."
"Sustained."
"Let me rephrase that—there are no other witnesses to testify that you were there against your will, correct?"
"Not…no."
"And you refused to do a rape kit?"
"I was too traumatized."
"So let me understand this—we have no witness evidence, and no forensics evidence, that this was anything other than you voluntarily participating in a prostitution ring, one that involved S&M, with a group of men you already knew well?"
Her body tied itself up in knots. "I was restrained against my will, forced to have sex with multiple—"
"Your honor, please instruct the witness to limit her answer to the scope of the question."
She clamped her mouth shut, and angry tears began to spill from her eyes.
"No further questions, your honor."
The judge said, "You're free to step down, Ms. Benson."
Her legs, filled with adrenaline, moved of their own volition, carrying her off the witness stand and past the crowd of people in the courtroom, into the hallway, and halfway down it before Elliot caught up to her, panting. "Hey, slow down," he said. "My chest—I can't keep up."
She started to slow but didn't stop until his hand grasped her shoulder. "Please, Liv, stop."
She just stood there and stared into the distance. How was life fair when she had to live every second terrified for her life and her safety, and yet a man like that could smile, knowing he was about to walk free?
"Liv, it's okay now. It's over." Elliot's voice soothed her, and she turned her head in his direction, but not her body. But it was okay, because he stepped in front of her to face her, and rubbed the tops of her arms. "It's over. You're done. Barba's giving his closing argument, and hopefully this guy will go away for a long time."
"You don't know that, El," she said, her voice trembling.
"No, but you did your best."
Part 5.
She sat next to Elliot in the courtroom as the jury came into the room after deliberations. It had only taken them an hour—that could be good or bad, Barba had said. She clutched Elliot's hand.
"We the jury, find the defendant…guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping." She exhaled air that she'd been holding in for what seemed like hours. "Guilty of conspiracy to commit rape one. Guilty of solicitation."
She covered her face, as Elliot stroked her back. They stood, and she hugged him while Barba came over and patted her on the back. "Good job, Liv. Well done. Now we can get the others too."
They shuffled out into the hallway, where Barba said, "With this conviction, I should be able to get the others to plead guilty, and hopefully you won't have to testify again. If you do, this time we'll have Elliot's testimony too, from his undercover stint. And there are only four perps left—the rest of them perished in the fire."
"Good riddance," said Elliot.
Barba moved to leave, and Olivia said to Elliot, "Can we just…I need a minute."
"Sure," he said.
Her legs felt like jelly, and she could just collapse on the floor right now, but instead she fell into his arms, and he held her tight. And then she lost all the control she'd been hanging onto, and started to sob into his chest, and despite his injuries, he didn't complain, just held onto her so that she could release the fear and distress from the last several weeks.