A/N: Here is Chapter 2. Trigger warning- talk of Lewis in this chapter, and what Olivia went through. Thank you guys for reading, and plz review!
"I will get to Ed. But there's somewhere else I want to start." She paused, searching his face for his readiness to listen, and then proceeded. "After you left, I was hurt. I was angry. And I wanted nothing more than to not have to work with a green detective. I was not easy on Cragen, and he was not having it. So, I bit my tongue, took the new partner, and threw myself into work." She took another sip of her coffee, though the caffeine was doing nothing to calm her insides. She took a breath and forced herself to continue. "My new partner, Amaro, he was a good partner, and he helped me grow in a lot of ways. He encouraged a new side of myself. He was good for me. Different, but good." And now here came one of the parts she was dreading. Lewis. "This next part is not going to be easy for me. So, just bear with me."
"Liv, whatever it is, just take your time. I'm right here." Elliot rubbed on her shoulder a little, sensing her difficulty with whatever was coming. He knew it had to be bad for her to have this reaction, so he internally calmed himself and made a mental note that whatever it was he would remain calm, for her sake.
"A couple of years after you left, we caught this case. A flasher. But he was off, Rollins saw it. He had burned off his fingers so we couldn't get prints. When we finally identified him, William Lewis, he was linked to several kidnap/rape/torture/murder cases. He'd never been convicted. We tried him, but he got off. It pissed me off, and Cragen gave me the weekend off." Olivia looked at Elliot and took a breath. "El, when I got home, Lewis was there. Waiting for me."
Elliot POV
My stomach dropped. I breathed, and urged her to continue. "It's ok Liv. What happened?" I knew that it couldn't have been good, but surely Cragen and her partner- what's his name- Amaro, surely they would check up on her. I kept my hand on her shoulder, watching her face. The face I'd dreamt about for 12 years. She opened her mouth to continue. "He disarmed me. Held me there for two days. He burned me, beat me, kept me tied to a chair and force fed me pills and alcohol. Then we went on the road. He kept me tied up in the back of vehicles. He took me to his lawyers house, and killed the father and raped and tortured the mother and made me watch. And then later he killed a cop. Kept me drunk and drugged. We ended up in a Long Island beach house, and he had me handcuffed to an iron frame bed."
Dear God. I breathed. I grabbed her hand and held it. She continued. " He was going to- but there was a knock at the door. It was the housekeeper and her young daughter, she was just a little girl. I heard Lewis trying to get them to come inside, and when he came back in the room, I got free, and I hit him with a bar from the bed frame." That's my Liv. I felt anger, mostly at myself for not having been there for her. But hearing this part of the story, I felt relieved that she broke free, and hit him. I squeezed her hand. " I handcuffed him to the footboard, went out to the living room where the lady and her daughter were and got them out, and then I went back. I knew I should've called for back up- he was subdued, I was free- but something in me just couldn't. I was not done with this ordeal. I wasn't done with him. I -" she paused, closing her eyes. I waited. "I thought about you- about what you would do to him. And I told him. He came back to, taunted me, we had banter. And then I just broke. Everything, all the rage, fear, helplessness, and hope- he brought me down to his level. And I beat him with that bar. I beat him until no sound escaped his mouth." That's when I realized two things- one, she was the strongest woman I've ever known. And two, this is how she knew that I was post-traumatic. She knew what to look for because she had been there. Once again, Olivia Benson- my partner, my best friend, my everything- had saved me again. And I had no idea at what cost her knowledge came. Until now.
