Nutn' much to say. Besides…Enjoy:)

Elliot walked back into Olivia's room and looked over at her. She was staring out of her window, silently watching the day go by. She had been down since Elliot had told her about the death of their child, but she seemed to be holding up well. He walked over and stood in front of her, then stooped down and brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ear.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied back softly.

"The investigator from IAB wants to talk to you now. I tried to get him to go away, see if he could do this later, but he says he won't wait. Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah, I just want to get this over with."

"Ok, but know that you don't have to do anything that you're not ready to do."

"I know. Help me sit up?"

"Sure." After helping her sit up he walked over to the door and let the investigator in. The man walked in and took a seat beside Olivia's bed. Elliot stood in the corner, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned back against the wall. There was no way that he was going to leave her alone. He'd already made that clear to the Investigator and had agreed not to interfere.

"Hello, Detective, I'm Agent Richardson," he said offering her his hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you," she replied shaking his hand.

"Well, we'll just get started. I have to let you know that this will be recorded."

"Yes, I know."

"Ok, please state your name for the record."

"Detective Olivia Benson," she said strongly.

"Thanks, What happened when you first entered the building?"

"We walked into the building and didn't really find anything. Just some old abandoned reservation stuff."

"Eventually you and Detective Stabler split up, can you tell me why you two did that?"

"We came to a point where if went one way the suspect could escape, and if we went the other same thing, and we did not want to let him go. We had been chasing him for weeks."

"So you two went your separate ways tell me what did you find?"

"Nothing. Just empty rooms and stairs."

"At some point didn't you think that it would be a good idea to call your partner or call for back up, since you were going so far into the building?"

"I did, but then I got distracted."

"Distracted by what?"

"I heard something so I went to investigate."

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes, I found Tommy standing there with a knife."

"And at that point did you think to call Detective Stabler?" he asked accusingly.

Elliot did not like the tone he was taking with her. "No, I was more focused on the knife that he was pointing at me."

"Is that when you shot him?"

"No, I didn't even want to shoot him."

"Then why did you?"

"He was about to kill me!"

"So if he was about to kill you, where does Vince come into the picture?"

" He tried to kill me, too. In fact he, was the one who pushed me onto the knife Tommy was holding."

"Did you see him?"

"No."

"Did you clear the room before entering?"

"Of course I did."

"Are you sure? If you cleared the room you should have seen him."

"I did clear the room, but there were several other rooms connecting to the one that I was in. I couldn't have possibly cleared them all with Tommy there aiming a knife at me."

"Or maybe you didn't want to see him. Maybe he was there the whole time and because you failed to do your job right, one man ended up dead and another one paralyzed."

"I did to, and they were both trying to kill me. Vince stabbed me twice!"

" I thought you said Tommy stabbed you."

"Vince pushed me onto the knife that Tommy was holding, and then later stabbed me with the same knife. How dare you insinuate that I wasn't doing my job right!"

"You made several mistakes. Had you done what you were trained to do, you would have both suspects would be in jail right now!"

"I did everything I was trained to do. Some things you just can't predict and-." She hissed as she tried to sit up straight."

"Alright, this is done," Elliot, said walking over to Richardson and yanking him up by his collar.

"Unhand me!" Richardson yelled as Elliot dragged him out of the room.

Elliot shoved him out the door. "The interview is over."

"I still need to finish getting her statement." Richardson tried to brush past Elliot who stopped him.

"If you need her statement that badly then I'll get it," he said snatching the tape recorder out of Richardson's hand.

"I don't think so," Richardson said trying to grab it back.

"Either I take it or you'll have to wait until she's released from the hospital. By then, she might not remember what happened," Elliot said mocking what he had heard Richardson said before.

"No-"

"Excuse me, sir, but is there a problem?" A nurse asked stepping up to them.

"Agent Richardson here was upsetting one of your patients, but he's leaving now. Isn't that right, Agent Richardson?"

"Fine! But you better get that statement, Detective, or I'll have your badge!" Richardson said angrily before stalking off. Once he was gone Elliot walked back into the room.

"Are you okay?" Elliot asked. She nodded. "You sure you don't want me to get a doctor or something?"

"No, Elliot."

"Maybe I should. What if you popped a stitch or something?"

"No, I checked. I'm fine."

"Okay. He's gone now, but I made arrangements to finish taking your statement. I didn't exactly say when I'd take it, so we can do it later if you want."

"No, lets just get this over with."

"Alright start after you got stabbed the first time," he said taking a seat in front of her and turning on the tape recorder.

She took a deep breath before starting to speak. "After he stabbed me I fell. Then Vince walked up and started coaxing him to kill me. His exact words 'finish her'. Tommy didn't want to, he was too afraid. Elliot, I don't think he did it."

"Liv, that's not important right now."

"Yes, it is. He doesn't have the… capacity to do what was done to those girls. When I was on the ground he said he was only doing what Vince said and that he didn't want to go to jail."

"Ok. I'll be sure to tell the Captain. Continue."

"Vince finally convinced him to kill me and he tried. That's when I shot him. My gun was nearby and I managed to grab it and shoot him before he could stab me again."

"Ok, then what happened?"

"Vince got mad, and started yelling. He was about to shoot me when we heard your footsteps. He got scared, grabbed my arms and started pulling me. I started to fight him off and call for you so you could find me more quickly and I was also trying to by you more time to get there. I knew I couldn't win in my condition, but I figured I could help."

I heard you and you did help." He didn't let he know how her calling for him and him not being there hurt him.

She nodded. "Anyway, that made him mad He let me go only to come around and climb on top of me. He straddled my waist and held the knife to my throat," she said as she absentmindedly touched the spot where she had felt the knife's blade. " He told me to shut up or he'd kill me, He moved to get up but then something came over him. I don't know what it was, but instead of getting up he grabbed my shirt and used it to pull me up until I was sitting. That's when he stabbed me the second time." She got a distant look in her eyes as she remembered the exact moment. "He enjoyed it. He had this evil look in his eye and a horrible smile on his face when he did it. When he was done he began to pull me again towards the stairs that led to the roof. I didn't fight back because I was in too much pain to fight back. I didn't have any strength left. He pulled me; I think there were some stairs and then a bright light. The next thing I knew I was lying under him, and he was saying something to me. I was too out of it to remember what he said. I heard a gun shot and then you were there," she said, looking up at him.

Elliot sat there, stunned by her story. So many emotions were racing through him that he didn't know what to do with himself. Guilt, for not being there. Sadness for hearing what he she had to go through and not being there to help her. Anger at the men who did this to her. Happiness, that one of them was dead. He wished that he could go over to the other hospital and beat the shit out of the one he had failed to kill. Finally he came back to reality and turned off the tape recorder. No one needed to know about the conversation they were about to have. "Liv, I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Elliot, I already told you that it wasn't your fault."

"I know, but… I'm your partner in so many ways, and each of them tells me that I should have been there and I wasn't, and every partnership that we have tells me that I should have been, and I'm sorry that I wasn't. As your partner, as your friend as your lover, your boyfriend. I should have been there Liv and I'm sorry that I wasn't."

"Elliot, please stop blaming yourself. Stop, for me, please," she begged, reaching out for him. He went willingly to her; taking her hand in his and bringing it to his lips and brushing a gentle kiss over it.

"Liv, you scared me back there. I though-, I thought you were gone. There was just so much blood." He lowered his head as he physically tried to shake the mental image from it.

She reached out a gentle hand and used it to raise his head. "But I'm here now."

"I know." He brushed his lips softly over hers. "I know and that's why I fought so hard for you. The doctors were ready to give up on you, but I fought for you 'cause I knew that you would come back to me."

She smiled warmly. "Always," she said before covering his lips with hers, she made love to his mouth before breaking the kiss.

"Always."

Olivia sat alone in her hospital room. Elliot had left a while back to change and to pick up some things for her. He'd been afraid to leave her, but after a half-an-hour of coaxing finally left. As she stared at her tray of hospital food, she regretted not asking him to bring her back something decent to eat. She decided to go with the Jello.

"Can't go wrong with Jello," she said to herself. She reached for the spoon, but quickly pulled back her arm when her body protested against the movement. After regaining her composure she tried again and got the same results.

"Let me help you with that,"

She looked up and saw Elliot stride over to sit beside her bed, putting down the small duffle he brought with him. He had watched her, giving her the chance to help herself, before he stepped in. He took up the spoon and the bowl of Jello then scooped some out and put it to her mouth for her to eat but she turned her head away.

"Elliot I'm fine."

"C'mon, Liv, let me help you. I know you're hungry."

"True, but I can do it myself."

"Liv, I watched you. Just let me help you for now, and then tomorrow I'll let you try again."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "You'll let me?"

"I mean I'll sit here and watch you while you while you successfully feed yourself."

"That's what I thought. Nice cover, but I'm not letting you feed me."

"Fine, I hate to resort to this but in my bag I have something that you would like considering that I can hear your stomach growl… I think you might want to take my offer."

"Bribery! You're resorting to bribery. Better not let IAB hear this."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you in or out?"

"I'm listening."

"Ok. In that bag," he said pointing to his bag on the floor. "I have a turkey sandwich with your name on it. Stacked with all of your favorite toppings: American cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, honey mustard an-,"

"Ok! Ok! You've got me what's the catch?"

"You have to let me help you out while you're here. Not just with the Jello, but with other things you have problems in doing. In return, I will not only give you that sandwich, but also be your personal errand boy and I will le- I mean give you a chance to do it yourself first."

"Now, how I can I say no to that. C'mere," she said opening her arms out to him. He accepted her hug then pulled back. "On one condition," she said.

"What?"

"I get the sandwich first. And if I need help with that, I'll gladly let you help me. Because I am starving."

"You know. You drive a hard bargain, but I think we've got a deal."

"Deal?" she asked as she held out her hand.

"Deal." He replied shaking it.

"Now where's my sandwich?"

So you know the drill review for the next chapter and I'll be sure to keep up my end of the deal as always. :)