A/N: Okay I promise next chapter is going to have some major action, but this one is mostly a dialogue type thing…

Oh, and I discovered that I have two Sandra's in this story- oops! My bad! However, they are NOT the same people. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused!

Disclaimer: I don't own them… yet…

Flashback Continued…

Sandra turned brightly to Elliot and said, "She never told you about him? Well I can. She got caught with him at his apartment one night. IAB tried to hush it up because Officer Davis was one of the best instructors, so not many people know about it."

"That's not what happened!" Olivia exclaimed, standing up and glaring at Sandra.

Sandra looked back over at her with disdain and said, "You really aren't that pretty you know. I am better looking by far."

Munch, who was sitting at his desk watching the fight, suddenly piped up, "I beg to differ, Sandra."

Sandra wheeled around to yell at him when Cragen walked out. "This is not high school, children! You all sit down and get back to work!"

Elliot was thoroughly furious with his stupid temporary partner and gave her a heap of paperwork to do while he made some phone calls. But he couldn't help but wonder what had gone on with Olivia and Davis. Olivia didn't say a word the rest of the day, and kept herself extremely busy with paperwork. It was quite the relief when they were allowed to go home. Elliot, of course, went to Olivia's apartment with her.

As Olivia shut the door she turned back to Elliot. "Do I really look fat?" she questioned him, placing her hands over her stomach.

"No! You are really small for five months, actually." Elliot replied, walking over to her.

"Okay." Olivia answered, running her hand through her hair.

"Liv… what was Sandra talking about?"

"Nothing." Olivia said dismissively, walking away.

Elliot went after her, seizing her wrist. "Tell me."

"Elliot, I really don't want to talk about it." Olivia replied, looking quite upset as he pulled her around to face him.

"You told me you hadn't slept with anyone before." Elliot said, knowing that his jealousy was beginning to impair his judgment.

"We didn't sleep together!" Olivia exclaimed, jerking away.

"I am supposed to believe that? It sounded like Sandra knew what she was talking about." Elliot snapped back, immediately regretting it.

"Oh yes? Then you think I am a slut too, right?" Olivia said, backing away from him.

"That's not what I said! I just want you to tell me the truth!" Elliot exclaimed.

"Okay, fine. He tried to get his hand down my pants. I told him no and shoved him off. He turned around and hit me. I don't remember anything else." Olivia said, finding herself on the verge of tears.

Elliot stared and said, "He raped you?"

"No. The rape kit didn't turn up anything. I think the neighbors heard the ruckus and called the cops before he had a chance to do anything." Olivia replied softly.

Elliot stood in silence for a moment and then said, "Sorry. I didn't know." Olivia nodded and sank down onto the couch, all of her energy now gone. Elliot walked around to sit beside her, feeling more than a little bit guilty. He put an arm around her shoulders and pressed his forehead up against hers. She sighed and leaned up against him, feeling his hand slide down to rest on her stomach.

Early the next morning Elliot left Olivia's and headed out to the outskirts of the city. He thought that there might be one person who knew what really happened. As he turned his car onto the dirt road he looked up at the large stable in front of him, the NYPD shield guarding its gate. Elliot got out of his car and walked up to the edge of the field where two horses were standing tethered, their NYPD gear gleaming in the early morning sun. He walked beyond them and saw a man trotting back in from the outer edge of the field on a large gray. Elliot leaned up against the fence and watched as the man rode the horse through a variety of police maneuvers. After a few minutes the man rode back into the fence, smiling down at Elliot. "Hello, what brings you here?" he asked, sliding down off the horses back and handing it to a stable boy who had run over.

Elliot flashed his badge at him and said, "I am Olivia Benson's partner. She tells me you were her mentor?"

The man smiled and held out his hand. Elliot shook it as the man responded, "That's right. I am Weston Andrews, Captain of the NYPD Mounted Unit. Olivia's a good girl, isn't she?"

Elliot smiled and nodded before saying, "Someone brought this thing up the other day and I was wondering if you would know more- Olivia was really upset when I tried to ask her and I didn't want to push it."

Weston looked at him curiously and asked, "What was it?"

"Officer Davis at the academy." Elliot said simply.

Weston's face immediately clouded angrily and said, "Yes, I know about him. Bastard. Well- can you ride?" Elliot looked at him in surprise but nodded. Weston smiled in approval and indicated to the small black horse closest to them. "He's a good horse."

Weston got on the larger brown horse and rode up alongside Elliot, the horse's hooves clipping gently against the moist grass. "How did you find out about him? That was a confidential file." Weston questioned, glancing over at Elliot.

"My temporary partner went to the academy with Olivia and brought it up." Elliot answered.

"I see. Why do you have a temporary partner? Is Olivia okay?" Weston asked in great concern.

"She's fine. She's five months pregnant." Elliot replied, looking down at his horses neck and patting it gently.

"Really? Well tell her she had better call me! I didn't even know she had a boyfriend." Weston said, sounding slightly confused.

Elliot didn't answer and only played with his horse's mane to focus on keeping the flush from his cheeks. But when he looked up, it was clear that Weston already knew.

"Okay, well Officer Davis... I don't know a lot of the details beforehand, but I guess the gist of it was he had been hitting on her constantly, and was more than a little upset when she didn't want to have anything to do with him. I was on call that night, and by some lucky coincidence happened to be riding only a few minutes from the academy when I got the call. I rode over to the academy and was immediately greeted by Officer Davis outside his door. I told him that I was there because neighbors had heard a fight. He said that it was a misunderstanding and that they must have heard the TV. I wasn't convinced but didn't have much of a choice- he was a cop after all. But when I tried to turn away, my horse went nuts. That settled it and I told him to let me inside." Weston said.

Elliot looked over at him and asked, "What happened?"

"I found her in there, unconscious. Davis had beaten the shit out of her. We got her to the hospital where they found she had a broken wrist in three places, two fractured ribs and a severe concussion. She was bruised up around her face and her skirt was ripped, so I had them do a rape kit, but thank God nothing came up." Weston finished, pulling his horse to a stop.

Elliot rode up beside him, completely appalled. "What happened to Davis?"

"He got his badge ripped, but no formal charges were filed- it wouldn't have looked good." Weston answered bitterly.

Elliot rode the rest of the time in silence, unable to comprehend why anyone would ever do that to her. When they finished up their ride Weston put a hand on his shoulder. "Take good care of her, okay?"

"I will." Elliot replied, "I love her." He surprised himself with his forthrightness and shut his mouth quickly.

"Come here, I want to show you something." Weston told him, and Elliot followed him up to the stables. They walked in and headed straight for the office. Weston swung open the door and indicated to the wall in front of them. Elliot walked forward and saw a picture of Olivia jumping a great white horse. She was in her full police uniform and the horse was decked out in NYPD gear as they leapt over a jump that was designed to look like a three foot crowd barrier. But it was her smile that caught Elliot's attention the most. In the photo next to it was a picture of her and the horse standing, and again, her smile was quite broad. "She graduated from the academy a few months after the episode with Davis, so I had her come ride with us. She rode in college, and so had some good experience. We gave her that horse, a seasoned veteran. Because of what happened to her, I figured that it would be therapeutic for her to ride as opposed to go straight to the streets. Well, she and Major, that was his name, made quite the team. They collared more suspects than you would even believe. Perps never get any smarter- always think they can outrun a horse."

"I didn't know she was with the mounted unit." Elliot said, finally turning away from the pictures.

"For about a year. Then one night we were out on duty and went about our usual business of chasing down a perp running on foot. Well this one pulled a gun on us and before we had time to do anything he fired. Bullet would have killed her, but Major reared up and took it himself. After that she transferred out, but she comes out usually once a week to ride." Weston said sadly, running a hand down the edge of the picture.

"Why didn't she tell me any of this? I feel horrible now." Elliot muttered, furious with himself for getting so angry with her the night before.

"It's alright. You couldn't have known. But I wouldn't worry too much, when she came out here a couple months ago all she could talk about was her partner." Weston said, with a smile at Elliot. Then he seemed to remember something. "Oh! I almost forgot- the real kicker for Davis was the night after he beat Olivia he was caught having sex with another girl from the class."

Elliot abruptly froze. "What was her name?"

"Sandra."

Elliot gritted his teeth and shook his head. Weston looked at him curiously, but didn't ask. "Hey, could I get a copy of these?" Elliot questioned, waving to the pictures.

"Sure." Weston responded.

Elliot raced to work after leaving the stables and found Olivia researching while Sandra commented on her lack of boyfriends. "Sandra! Leave her the hell alone!" Elliot yelled, grabbing the back of her jacket and hauling her up out of the chair. Olivia looked over at Elliot, quite stunned.

But Elliot didn't release her and marched right into Cragen's office. "Captain, I can't have her as a partner anymore." He said, finally letting go of her jacket. Sandra scowled up at him.

Cragen looked at him and said, "What happened?"

"She just doesn't work very hard and spends the majority of her time harassing Olivia." Elliot said, glaring at Sandra.

Sandra swelled angrily at his statement and shrieked, "The little bitch deserves it! She knew I liked Davis so she thought she would go screw him to rub it in my face!"

"She didn't 'screw' him! He beat her up when she wouldn't!" Elliot yelled, turning around on Sandra.

Cragen sat in dumbfounded silence, having absolutely no clue what they were talking about. By this time the ruckus had been heard throughout the precinct and Fin and Munch both turned to look at Olivia. A few moments later, Elliot walked back out, looking quite victorious. Sandra came out a little while later, officially out of a job.

Elliot would often wonder, however, what would have been different if he let her stay just one more day.

End Flashback…

Elliot awoke to find that he had been asleep on Olivia's bed. It was nearly midnight and the glow of the moon through the window was quite bright. He yawned and slowly got up, his side protesting loudly. Closing his arm around it to try to dull the pain, Elliot made his way down the hall. When he reached the living room he found Olivia dozing on the couch, Court TV playing softly in the background. He smiled to see her sleeping so peacefully and gently reached out to brush a stray lock of chestnut hair from her face. She opened her eyes and looked up at him with her dark chocolate eyes. "What are you doing up, El? You need your rest."

"I just wanted to check on you. How come you are sleeping out here?" Elliot questioned.

"Well I didn't want you sleeping on the couch!" Olivia exclaimed, sitting up.

"Why don't you come sleep with me tonight?" Elliot said, his blue eyes pleading.

"Are you sure?" Olivia asked, and he nodded firmly. She helped him back down the hall and then crawled in on the opposite side of bed. He rolled over so that he was facing her and took her hands in his, rubbing them gently.

Olivia smiled at him and scooted closer. He kissed her gently, releasing her hands so that he could run his fingers through her hair. She felt him move so that he was on top of her, sliding his hands gently up and down her sides. Slowly she raised her hand to his chest and softly pushed him away. "None of that until your well again." She told him with a slight smile.

Elliot looked slightly disappointed but settled to wrap his arms around her and fall asleep with her curled against him. It took him a while to fall asleep, though it wasn't due to pain or restlessness. He was deep in thought, remembering the past and thinking about the future. His eyes fell upon the pictures framed on her wall. They were side by side, one of her jumping a white police horse and the other of her smiling with her head pressed up against it's neck, while it looked back at her with pricked up ears. He smiled at them and stroked Olivia's back. There were those times in life that everything just seemed to fall apart, and then there were the times like these. For once the sand in the hourglass of life seemed to fall slowly, as though attempting to redeem itself for moments it had stolen.

A/N #2: Please read and review, and I promise next chapter is going to wrap up some of the loose ends in one!