Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to review. I'm so glad there are still people there who care about this story.

This chapter contains a non-graphic scene of sexual assault.

"If you've killed her-"

"I haven't killed her, she's breathing. Not so sure about him…"

"It doesn't matter if he's dead, we didn't want him in the first place. "

Olivia closed her eyes, willing herself to hold it together. She had woken what seemed like hours ago with a pounding headache, Elliot lay in front of her, still. He had yet to move, yet to show any indication that he was still alive and the longer that he was still, the more Olivia convinced herself that he wasn't going to wake up. "It doesn't matter if he's dead…" Kieran's words echoed through her mind. It mattered to her, it mattered more than anything had ever mattered in her life.

Fear. As a child Olivia had been fearless, she hadn't been like the other children clinging to their parents, begging to be lifted into the swing. No, Olivia had clambered onto the swing herself, falling occasionally but getting right back up again. Her mother had liked it that way, in fact the more she thought about it the more Olivia wondered if her mother would have helped her even if she'd asked for it.

Now she was afraid, afraid to move in case Kieran and Rogers realised she was awake, afraid that she was moments away from death but most of all afraid that death had already claimed her best friend. She had thought that in a situation like this she would be hysterical, crying, screaming, begging to know that he was okay, instead she simply lay in shock, insure of what to do. She was numb. If Elliot was dead she would have nothing left to fight for, nothing left to live for. Elliot mattered to Olivia more than anyone in her life, more than anyone ever had or possibly could. She loved him, that much she knew, but even that didn't seem important as he lay across from her, covered in blood. Even if she was never allowed to see him again, she would give up everything just to know that he was safe.

Elliot had refused to run, refused to understand that his life was more important than hers. She had no children at home, no husband, no boyfriend, not even a cat, why couldn't he see that he was indispensable? Why couldn't he see that she would die with just a little peace if she knew that he was safe? Why didn't he just run? Olivia knew that she wasn't going to live for much longer, but it didn't seem to matter anymore, not if he was gone.

EOEOEOEOEOOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOE

Kathy sat alone in her mothers' bedroom. The children and her mother were downstairs, she had slipped away for a moment, feigning a headache. She had been sat alone for nearly an hour, sat on the bed clinging to a photo of Elliot. Captain Cragen had promised that he would bring her husband home, that her children wouldn't grow up without a father but the fear in the pit of her stomach told her something different. It had been three days. Three days. Her husband had been missing for more than seventy two hours and there had been no ransom request, she had been the wife of a police man long enough to know that the first twenty four hours are the most important, after that the chances of finding that person alive became slimmer by the hour.

The children had been nothing short of amazing. While Eli was too young to understand, and often asked about his daddy, the older children simply shushed him and promised he was coming home soon. They had been so brave, so strong. They had cried the night that their father had disappeared, but since then they had simply focussed on Eli, and keeping him entertained. Kathy knew that they were scared, that they too knew that there was a chance that their father wasn't coming home at all, but instead of breaking down, instead of crying and seeking comfort in their mother they were doing the exact opposite. They were being strong for her. She wanted to thank them, to tell them that she loved them and that their father would be proud but she knew that she wouldn't make it through even the first sentence without crying. She wanted to be strong for them as well, just as Elliot would want her to be.

She had not cried in front of them, she had instead dashed out of the room when she felt the tears threatening to fall. She knew that she wasn't fooling them, her children knew that she was devastated but she wouldn't fall apart in front of them. Staying with her mother had been a god send, her mother had held her close last night as she sobbed, promising her that Elliot would be okay, just like Kathy had done with her own children just two nights before.

She was shaken from her thoughts as her oldest son knocked on the bedroom door and walked in slowly. "Mom," he spoke softly.

"Hey," Kathy smiled weakly, her heart aching as she looked at her son, who resembled his father more and more every day. "Is everything okay?" she asked. Dickie sat next to her, almost nervously.

"Eli is asleep, I think we exhausted him with hide and seek… I hid in the same place four times and he still didn't find me," Dickie watched as his mother forced a smile. He had been waiting outside her bedroom for a while, ready to charge in if he heard her crying, ready to tell her that he would look after her and his sisters, that if the worst came to the worst he would take charge.

"That's the joy of being three, you forget…" Kathy trailed off.

"He's going to be okay," Dickie lied, placing his hand over his mothers. "He's going to be back soon, and we're all going to laugh about how crazy the past few days have been." Dickie didn't believe what he was saying, not a word, but he would've done anything to make his mother feel better.

"I know." She didn't know, she didn't think that her husband was coming home. He had barely made it out alive that last time that he's come face to face with these people. Kathy forced another smile, "I know."

"Grandma's made soup, I told her you hate chicken soup buts he won't take no for an answer. No wonder Dad's frightened if her," he tried to joke. He swallowed the lump in his throat, he wouldn't cry in front of his mother. If the worst had happened, if his father was gone he would have to be the man of the house. He had only seen his father cry a number of times, usually when he or one of his siblings had been hurt or in danger. If Dickie wanted to be like his father he would have to control his emotions, his siblings and mother would need him and he wouldn't let them down.

"You're a good boy," Kathy pressed her lips against her son's forehead. "He is coming home, you know that?" Kathy asked, not knowing it herself.

"I know," Dickie lied, again. "Of course he is."

EOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOE

"Olivia…"

Her heart stopped. "Elliot," she whispered, relief flooding through every inch of her body.

"Liv…"

"Shhhh, Elliot shhh," she whispered, she hadn't heard from Rogers or Kieran for what had seemed like hours, she was sure they were asleep and wanted them to stay that way. They were just a few yards away from her and her partner. "I'm here, I'm here." She couldn't see him, it was so dark, she could hear him moving, groaning in pain as he woke.

"Where?" he whispered, breathlessly.

"I'm in front of you," she struggled to get closer to him, her hands cuffed behind her back and her feet tied together, just like his. She stopped shifting as she felt his chest against her own. "I'm here," she whispered, relieved that she could touch him, their thighs brushed as they lay facing each other.

"Did they hurt you?" he whispered, his head was spinning. He tried to focus, closing his eyes and concentrating on the fact that Olivia was beside him. Olivia closed her eyes, this was just like him, he was beaten into unconsciousness and the first thing he wants to know is if she was okay.

"No," she whispered.

"Promise me, promise me that they didn't-" he was so angry at himself, he was supposed to be protecting her. How long had he been unconscious? How long had she been unprotected?

"Elliot, I promise you. I've been playing dead, they haven't come near me."

"You were unconscious-"

"Not for long, seconds, nothing happened," she heard him sigh in relief. "What about you?"

"I'm fine-"

"You're not fine, you took a few blows to the head, your breathing sounds shallow… You might have broken ribs. When it's lighter I'll be able to look at your cuts, see if the bleeding has stopped," she wasn't so much talking to him as she was to herself, reminding herself that she needed to check on him, make sure his wounds weren't too deep, that he didn't have brain damage, that he would still walk.

"We're both alive, so I'm okay," he told her, struggling slightly to catch his breath. Elliot shifted, wanting to feel more of her, desperate to know that was okay. Olivia closed her eyes as she felt Elliot's forehead pressed against hers, and felt his breath on her cheek, silently she thanked anyone who would listen for keeping him alive. "You're okay," he whispered. He wished his hands were free so that he could pull her close and hold her. His chest hurt, his head ached and he was finding it harder than usual to breathe but for now it didn't matter, she was okay.

"Elliot," Olivia's tone suggested she'd had a revelation.

"What?"

"They haven't tied us to anything," as she spoke she struggled against the rope binding her legs together. "I can untie your legs, I can… I can try to untie you. Turn on to your other side," she told him. "Elliot turn," she told him, knowing that he was probably still suffering with a concussion. Olivia felt him shift and no longer felt his body against her own. She winced as she heard her partner's groan.

"Definitely broken a rib…" he whispered, struggling to catch his breath.

Olivia's breath caught in her throat as she heard movement behind her. "Shh," she barely whispered, frozen in place. Elliot stopped, barely breathing, not making a sound.

After a few moments she dared to look at the men, they were all still. She turned until her back was against Elliot's and reached for his hands. She felt his fingers entwined in hers and squeezed softly, he held onto her had tightly for a moment and she let him, knowing that it was comforting and that he was probably in a lot of pain.

When she was sure that Rogers and Kieran were asleep she began to untie his feet slowly, terrified of waking their captors, barely loosening the knot. She heard Elliot struggle to take a raspy breath as he lay in front of her and worry built in the pit of her stomach. Suddenly she heard movement behind her, she quickly pulled away from her partner and lay on her back hoping that it had simply been one of the men turning in his sleep.

"You idiot!" she heard Rogers call, followed by a thud, the sound of him kicking Kieran. "You were supposed to stay awake, they could have gotten away!" he exclaimed quietly.

Just like that the hope was gone, she knew that that had been their chance to escape and unless both men were to fall asleep again they had missed their chance. Olivia knew that Elliot would have come to the same conclusion so she went back to lying silently, praying that they wouldn't notice that she was awake.

EOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOE

Elliot struggled to keep his eyes open, his head was pounding and his chest felt tighter with every breath. He head heard Roger's behind him and knew that he and Olivia would have to stay stil and stay quiet until morning when they might be able to find another way of escaping.

EOEOEOEOEOEOEOEEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEO

Olivia didn't know how long it had been since Rogers had woken but she could tell that the man was still awake, hearing odd movements here and there. She also knew that Elliot had fallen asleep, she could hear his deep, raspy breaths. She had panicked slightly, afraid that he had been unconscious but as long as she could hear him breathing she would try to control her fear.

"It's your watch, get up," she froze as she heard Rogers waking Kieran. She closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep, even dead if it meant they would leave her alone. Minutes later the quiet returned and she began to feel the pull of sleep, she slowly opened her eyes knowing that sleep would leave her vulnerable, she would stay awake until she physically couldn't.

EOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEOEO

"Sshhhh."

Olivia felt his body next to hers just seconds after she'd heard movement across from where she was lying. He reached down to untie her feet. Her heart sank as he then placed his hand over her mouth and lay on top of her, his body was pressing her into the hard ground. Her arms were crushed underneath the weight of them both.

"Everyone is asleep, it's just you and me. You want to protect him from seeing this?" Keiran whispered, his head turning to Elliot, who lay with his back to them both. "You stay quiet, and he'll never know."

Her heart was racing, she could feel every inch if Kieran's body as his free hand began to roam across her neck and chest. She thought about screaming, about trying to fight him but she realised that he was right. She did want to protect Elliot, and if she woke him she would also wake Rogers who would either kill him or make him watch anyway. Fear built in the pit of her stomach as she realised that this was going to happen, she closed her eyes as tears threatened to escape.

"Good girl," Kieran whispered, his hand reaching between her legs causing her to gasp. "You like that?" he murmured as a single tear slipped down her cheek. He rolled his hips against hers, his desire evident.

He slid his hand to her pants, unbuttoning them and pilling the zipper down. She stiffened beneath him, barely managing to supress a whimper. He removed his hand from her mouth and pressed his lips against hers, claiming her instantly, aggressively, ignoring how her body recoiled at his touch.

Olivia turned her head, desperate to get his lips off of hers, biting her lip as his mouth found her neck and his hands began to tug at her pants, pulling at them until they were at her knees. She tried to focus on breathing, on anything but what Kieran was doing to her. She stared at the ground, the dirt and the leaves as she heard Kieran unzipping his jeans.

Everything inside of her wanted to lash out, to stop him but the only thing worse than what was about to happen would have been Elliot being alert, knowing what was going on, watching. She couldn't do that to him, she wouldn't. Even if she couldn't protect herself from this, she could protect him. She bit her lip again, fighting to keep quiet as Kieran bit her neck and used his hands to touch her, to violate her.

"Good girl, just stay quiet and stay still. They'll never know," he reached for her panties and she pressed her eyes shut, ignoring the wave of nausea that rolled through her stomach, desperately trying to keep her composure.

Suddenly he was gone. It took her mere moments to recover, to try to pull up her pants and to push herself up onto her feet. She had no idea when Elliot had woken but she watched, eyes wide as Kieran struggled against the handcuffs chain that Elliot was using to crush his windpipe. It had happened so quickly and so incredibly quietly that Kieran was half dead by the time she realised what was happening.

Something shiny fell from Kieran's pocket as he struggled for life. Instantly Olivia dropped to pick it up, unable to see where she was reaching with her hands tied behind her back. As soon as she felt it in her hand she pushed herself up.

Rogers woke to see Kieran in a choke hold, Stabler using the cuffs to strangle with a look of murderous rage on his face. Kieran was kicking and thrashing. Rogers reached for his gun and clambered up off of the ground.

"Elliot!" Olivia desperately tried to push him away from Kieran, her hands still shaking, struggling to get him to let go, knowing that he was ready to kill. She had seen anger from him before but never this, she had never seen him so full of rage, so determined to end someone's life. She screamed his name as Rogers reached for the gun, completely panicked. Again she shoved him, pushing until he'd let go. Kieran's body hit the group with a thud, his eyes were wide open and he was still. He was dead.

Olivia stopped for just a second, staring at his lifeless body before Elliot screamed her name and she shot into action.

They both ducked as Rogers fired several shots but they didn't stop, they ran faster than they had ever run before.

I would love to hear what you think about this chapter. Thank you so much for all of your comments so far.