A/N: To all of my US readers, Happy Thanksgiving! I am definitely thankful that I get to write this story that I love and have wonderful, loyal readers who look forward to reading my ramblings! Here's Olivia's testimony—of course she's going to be a little terse, but hopefully she will do well on the stand. Again, thank you all for continuing to read. Trust me, I will wrap everything up that has been introduced: the reporter, Carolyn's comment about the disclosure paperwork…it's all coming around! Thank you all, and enjoy! PS: I was just doing a little research and learned that apparently it's a commonly known fact that Olivia's middle name is Margaret. Umm I don't like that. So, sorry! Haha.

Chapter 73

Benson

Alex watched as Olivia walked through the back of the courtroom, making her way down the hall. She spotted Alex and sat down next to her quickly.

"Hi baby." Alex whispered, smiling at Olivia. She timidly smiled back at Alex, touching her hand.

"I love you." Olivia hadn't even said hello, and Alex couldn't help but feel that that remark wasn't just a normal 'I love you.' It made her heart melt.

"I love you. Are you ready to go?" Olivia nodded as Donnelley entered behind the bench and made her way to her seat. She sat down and all the attention was on her.

"Alright. Ms. Novak, Ms. Maddox, is the prosecution ready?"

"Yes, your honor." Carolyn stood. Donnelley waved her hand, motioning for her to continue. "Prosecution calls detective Olivia Benson." Olivia stood and winked at Alex before she walked to the witness stand, swearing in.

Carolyn started her line of questioning. "Detective Benson, how long have you been a member of the Special Victims Unit?"

"About 15 years."

"And, what division were you in before that?"

"Homicide, for 5."

"We heard a little bit of this from detective Stabler, but if we could corroborate this, how many hours of continuing education are you required to go through each year?"

"Well we have several seminars that we have to attend, and on average, those add up to about 25 hours a year."

"What subjects did these seminars cover last year?"

"Last year, specifically, was focused mostly on necessary force and how to detain suspects that may be struggling or armed."

"And, can you talk to us a little bit about what happened right after you lost sight of Mr. Conrad on September 5th?"

"I spoke into my mic and informed the other detectives that I had lost him. I encouraged them to help me look around because I knew he had to be in the area somewhere."

"What did your partner, detective Stabler, do?"

"I saw him nod and turn around at the top of the hill. I presumed he was looking up there, around that area, for the suspect."

"Then what happened?"

"When I turned around I saw Mr. Conrad step out from behind the tree in front of me and I felt a pain in my face. I fell to the ground and realized that he had hit me. I stood up and wiped my face on my shirt and continued to pursue the suspect."

"Did you eventually catch Mr. Conrad?"

"Yes."

"Tell the court how that happened."

"I was able to catch up to him and I subdued him by taking him to the ground. He turned over beneath me and struggled, pulling my hands, trying to overpower me. I pulled my hands free and struck him." She didn't know if she should have said it, but she wasn't going to lie.

"Why did you hit him, detective Benson?"

"Because I thought if he could tie up my hands he could get to my gun. I wanted to be able to subdue him until detective Stabler or any other detective could come help me detain him."

"Would you say you were scared for your life?"

Olivia wasn't expecting this question. "No. I was afraid of what might happen if he would have overpowered me." She paused. "I would have been scared for my life if he would have been armed. And, I felt like if he would have incapacitated me, he could have taken my gun, easily."

"Detective Benson, I'm reading from Mr. Conrad's medical records," she paused, looking at a folder in front of her, "looks like he's 6'4", and weighs about 265 pounds." Olivia listened, nodding. "If you don't mind, what's your height and weight, detective?"

"Objection," Miranda stood up. "Relevance?"

"Goes to detective Benson's state of mind during the struggle, your honor." Carolyn Maddox almost sounded offended that opposing council even tried to object.

"Overruled. Go ahead, detective."

"I'm about 5'6" and, as of this morning, I weigh 138 pounds."

Carolyn nodded. "Seems like a size mismatch, to me." She paused for a moment and continued. "So what happened after you hit Mr. Conrad?"

"We continued to struggle and he landed on more punch to my face, so I retaliated. Soon, detective Stabler came down the hill and was able to help me detain him."

"Can you detail your injuries to the court, please?"

"I had, well have, a broken nose and had a bone bruise around my left eye. I also sustained a broken finger that required surgery to fix." She displayed her cast to Carolyn. "I'm currently recovering from that."

"Detective Benson, overall, do you think you responded with necessary force?"

Olivia looked at Conrad: the hate she felt for him was overwhelming, but she tried to ease her mind. She glanced toward Alex and saw, sitting there, her future wife. She got lost for a moment in her beauty, and knew that she was going to propose to her soon. She shook her head a bit, realizing that now might not be the best time to be thinking about Alex, but it did exactly what she wanted—she didn't feel any hate for Conrad anymore.

"I believe I responded appropriately, yes."

"Thank you, detective."

Olivia looked back toward Alex. The blonde was smiling toward her on the stand, encouraging her. Quickly, though, her attention turned back toward the defense table as Miranda Pond stood up.

"Detective Benson, you experienced a blackout, correct?" She came out swinging, but Olivia was ready.

"Yes."

"Has that happened to you before?"

"No."

"How do you know?"

"I'm sorry? What?"

"How do you know you've never blacked out before?"

"How do you know you've never set your kitchen on fire? You don't have the memory of it happening." Alex scoffed a bit, knowing Olivia probably shouldn't have responded like that.

Miranda didn't like it either. "Well, how would you know? Because blacking out creates a memory issue. I've never blacked out before, but you have. So, no, I've never set my kitchen on fire, and I know that's true because I haven't experienced a memory issue about it. But you have. You experienced a blackout during the events in this exact hearing."

"Objection, your honor." Casey stood, scoffing out her words. "This is circular logic at best."

"Agreed. Sustained." It was almost as if Donnelley was waiting for her to object, her ruling was so quick.

Miranda turned around and started a new line of questioning. "Detective Benson, could you explain to the court how Eric Plummer died?" Alex's blood was boiling: she couldn't believe that Pond was bringing this up, but she was surprised by how Olivia answered.

"Yes." She cleared her throat and leveled her voice. "I shot him and killed him."

"How many suspects have you wounded or killed in your time at SVU?" Olivia opened her mouth to respond when Carolyn objected, and Donnelley sustained it.

"Nice try," Alex whispered under her breath.

Miranda continued her line of questioning. "So, just to make sure I understand what you are testifying to, you say you remember jumping on the defendant and pinning him to the ground. You then punched him twice in the face and blacked out. Is this correct?"

"Yes." Olivia knew it wouldn't do any good to try to argue. Miranda nodded and sat down, as Carolyn stood up.

"Redirect, your honor?" Donnelley nodded and she continued. "Detective Benson, remind us again why you felt you needed to use the force that you did?"

"Mr. Conrad had hit me in the face to subdue me and he was continuing to struggle against me. I was worried he would overpower me and eventually get to my gun."

"Thank you detective. Nothing more, your honor."

Donnelley looked at Olivia. "You may step down, detective." She did so, walking by the defense and prosecutorial tables before making her way to the first row of the gallery, taking a seat next to Alex. The blonde patted her leg, smiling. Olivia smiled meekly back at Alex, eager to hear who was going to be called next.

Casey stood and pulled her blazer together. "Your honor, the prosecution calls Dr. Melinda Warner." Melinda walked through the courtroom, emerging from the back row of the gallery. She swore in and sat down.

"Dr. Warner, we understand you were not a witness to the event, but we would like to talk to you about the medical evidence regarding this hearing." Warner nodded. "Could you first, please, list your qualifications as a medical professional?"

"I received my undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and continued to medical school at the University of North Carolina. I worked for four years in the US Air Force as a tending physician, and have been a medical examiner in my current office for 13 years."

"Thank you, Dr. Warner. Were you able to examine both detective Benson and Mr. Conrad's medical records?"

"Yes."

"Was there anything you noticed on either of them that struck you as odd?"

"Not necessarily odd, however, it is obvious to me that detective Benson struck Mr. Conrad twice, and it seems that he landed the same amount of blows to her as well."

"So there's no medical evidence that shows that detective Benson repeatedly struck Mr. Conrad, say three or four times?"

"No. Especially since her first two did the damage they did, if she would have hit him any more, he would have probably had significantly more damage." It happened again: Alex looked toward Olivia and couldn't help the wetness gathering between her legs. She noted Olivia's strong shoulders and traced her eyes down to her forearms and hands, remembering the other night when that arm was the only thing supporting her against the wall. She knew she shouldn't be thinking about this right now, and as hard as it was, she tore her eyes away from Olivia and tried to listen to Casey's next question.

"You mentioned that detective Benson was hit twice. How do you know that?"

"The break in her nose is right on the bridge, concentrated in the center of her nose." Dr. Warner motioned to the area on her own nose. "And, the bruise on her cheek bone is on the far left side. There's no possible way these injuries could have been inflicted by the same trauma."

"Mr. Conrad has testified that he only hit her once."

"Well, the medical evidence does not support that theory."

"And none of her injuries could be attributed to tackling Mr. Conrad?"

"The injury to her finger could possibly be attributed to this, but even still, she has two more trauma areas unaffected by that. In my professional medical opinion, her injury to her finger was probably partly from tackling Mr. Conrad and then she may have further exacerbated that injury when she struck him."

"Dr. Warner, you were able to examine the clothing that Mr. Conrad wore that day, correct?"

"Yes."

"What did you find?"

"There was a large streak of blood on the back of his shirt, near the right side armpit."

"What blood type is Mr. Conrad?"

"From his medical records, and from my own tests, Mr. Conrad has O positive blood."

"And what blood type was the streak on the back of the shirt?"

"A positive."

"What blood type is detective Benson?"

"A positive."

"So what does that tell you, Dr. Warner?"

"It was obvious that detective Benson was bleeding before Mr. Conrad was taken to the ground." If there was a smoking gun, this was it. This whole time, the defense had tried to say that Olivia had attacked Conrad for no reason. Alex couldn't help but see the smirk pull at Olivia's lips.

"Thank you, Dr. Warner." Casey walked back to her seat, making eye contact with Alex and smiling.

Langan stood up, looking towards Warner. "No questions for this witness, your honor." They were shocked: normally Langan would at least try to get some sort of doubt in as far as hearsay or speculation, but he didn't even try. Olivia raised her eyebrows toward Alex, and the blonde shrugged.

Donnelley nodded toward the prosecution table as Carolyn stood. "Your honor, the prosecution calls Tanya Kellerman." Alex and Olivia looked at each other—neither of them knew who this woman was, but if she was going to help Olivia's case, they couldn't wait to hear what she had to say. A middle-aged brunette sat down on the witness stand, awaiting the prosecution's questions.

"Ms. Kellerman, what were you doing on September 5th around noon?"

"I was chaperoning a field trip for my son's second grade class. They were on a trip to the park for their science class. They were examining different types of leaves on the ground." She smiled, and wringed her hands together—she looked extremely nervous.

"Was there an event that caught your attention while you were there?"

"Yes." She took a breath. "My son and his friend had wandered a little bit off the path and I was corralling them back towards the group when I heard someone yell something."

"What did you hear?" Tanya Kellerman looked down towards the ground, shying away from answering the question. "It's ok, Ms. Kellerman, you can say whatever you remember hearing."

"It was a swear word, and I remember being uncomfortable about it being said around the kids—not because I don't say it too, but because I don't want to have to explain it to second graders." She laughed a bit.

"What was the word, Ms. Kellerman?"

"Motherfucker." Olivia grimaced and smiled a bit toward Alex, who rubbed her leg sympathetically.

"What did you see next?"

"Well, when I turned to see who had said it, I saw a woman stand up and wipe a large amount of blood onto her shirt. I remember because her shirt was white and it was such a huge contrast."

"Do you see the woman in this room?" Ms. Kellerman replied that she did, and Casey continued. "Could you point to her, please?" The woman did so, pointing directly at Olivia. "What happened next, Ms. Kellerman?"

"Well, I took my son Luke and his friend over to the group and told the teacher that I was going to be right back, but that something was going wrong and to keep the kids over with her." She took a breath and continued. "As soon as I started jogging over to where I saw the scuffle, a large man ran down from the hill and asked me to step back. He pulled the detective off of the man on the ground and turned him over to handcuff him."

"Thank you, Ms. Kellerman. And, did you stay to give a statement?"

"Yes, I did."

"Did you see both the detective and Mr. Conrad before they went to the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Can you describe how detective Benson looked when she got up off the ground?"

"Well, she didn't look good. She had blood running down her face from her nose, and that's about all I saw. Her eye looked like it may have been swollen, but I wasn't close enough to her."

"And, Mr. Conrad?"

"He didn't have any blood on him, except a smudge on his face…" She paused, unsure of how to word her next thought. "I could tell it wasn't his blood because he wasn't bleeding from anywhere on his face."

"What did you think, then?"

"I thought that it was the detective's blood."

"What would that tell you then Ms. Kellerman, as an eyewitness to the event?"

"I think what happened was that Mr. Conrad hit the detective and that prompted her response that I heard. She chased him and when she pinned him down, the blood from her injury dropped on his face while he was struggling underneath her."

"Thank you, Ms. Kellerman. You've been very helpful."

Miranda stood up and cleared her throat, speaking unenthusiastically. "No questions, your honor." Olivia was happy—she knew that even just the testimony she had heard would surely prove she was in the right. She smiled at Alex as Tanya Kellerman was dismissed and left the courtroom.

Donnelley took a breath, shuffled her papers, and begin to speak. "Thank you to both sides for making this hearing extremely thorough, and easy to get through in one day. I'm going to take the rest of the day to think this over, and I will have a ruling either today before 5PM or tomorrow. I ask, of course, that you do not discuss the inner workings of this hearing with anyone until a time when I can make a ruling. We're dismissed for now." She pounded her gavel and stood up, exiting the courtroom with her papers in her hand.

Olivia turned to leave, but she was stopped by Alex's hand on her back. "Liv, wait one second." Alex called Carolyn and Casey over quickly, lowering her voice.

"Can you both meet in my office for a few minutes?" They exchanged looks: surely there was no way she was unhappy with the hearing.

"Sure. Now?" Casey was the first to respond. Alex nodded and began walking out of the courtroom, Olivia, Casey, and Carolyn behind her, all wondering what could be the cause for this meeting.