DISCLAIMER: I do not, in any way shape or form, own the characters from Law & Order: SVU. They are created by Dick Wolf and I will forever love him for it. I am using these characters and the basis of this television show purely for entertainment and am not making any form of profit off of the writing of this piece. (AKA: It's not mine. Don't sue. Thanks.)

Fix You

A/N: I know this took me forever. Last week I experienced an unexpected run in with the man who ruined my life, and I took a few days as mental health days and just kind of left the city and spent some time with my friend Jackson in his house in the country. We just took some time to relax…and I realized that the man who raped me didn't win. He didn't win because I can see him and still move along with my life. So that's where I've been, and I'm really, really sorry it took so long to get this up. But here it is.

I wanted to write…but I couldn't for a while. I couldn't bring myself to work on another person's story when I didn't have my own under control. And then my dad got sick and I had to have another ultrasound because I tend to get ovarian cysts and I can't get rid of this one, and now I'm justifying not writing to you peoples, even though you probably won't read it. Ok. Whew.

Thanks for reviewing last chapter. I'm really glad that pulling Alex in was reciprocated well.

Without further ado…

Chapter 10: She's Every Woman

The ride from the airport consisted mostly of small talk. Elliot took it slow, not knowing what the comfort level of the woman sitting beside him was. Yet, nothing was more reassuring than the glimmer in her brown eyes that gave him hope for her recovery. Then again, simply having the brown haired woman sitting next to him, holding his hand, and stroking his palm with her thumb ever so slightly was ample comfort in and of itself.

He pulled up outside of his apartment and pulled her bags from the trunk. Olivia slung her black carry on bag over her shoulder and followed him through the doors, a smile playing on the corner of her lips. For her, the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. She knew that there was still a journey ahead of her, but now she saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

Stabler tossed the suitcases in their bedroom, Benson allowed the carry on bag to follow suit and moved out to the couch in the living room. Collapsing into the plush material, she stared at her partner with big eyes until he smiled softly and lowered his body next to hers. Olivia fell into his chest and his arm wrapped around her torso protectively.

"I missed you," his deep voice rang out coolly.

Olivia nuzzled her head into his chest, "I missed you too, but I'm here now."

"I'm glad."

"Me too," she whispered. "What did you do over the last couple of weeks?"

A grin graced his features as he spoke, "I spent some time with the kids, put a few bad guys behind bars, and caught up on paperwork that was way too late for Cragen's liking."

Olivia chuckled quietly, "How are your little ones?"

"They're good," Elliot answered fondly. "I've missed them, lately."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing he had spent more time caring for her than worrying about his own family.

"It's not your fault," the man growled with finality to the tone. However, his voice maintained a soft and caring lace. "Did you have a good time?"

Olivia's head bobbed up and down against his chest.

"What did you do?"

"I saw a friend from college," she whispered. Part of the conditions for visiting Alex had been that she couldn't divulge who she visited or where she went to anyone. Yet, once Olivia realized Elliot was waiting for more information, she allowed her voice to fill the living room once more, "I hadn't felt normal in a very long time. Getting away to someplace where no one knew of my weakness was refreshing. It was nice."

Elliot nodded slowly, "It helped?"

"Very much," she whispered, kissing his cheek gracefully. Elliot gazed into her brown eyes, allowing his lips to capture hers in a tender kiss. His tongue gently ran across her lips and her mouth parted willingly, granting access for exploration. Moving slowly and comfortably, realizing it had only been about four months since the day she was attacked. Yet, as she pushed her own body closer to his and returned his motions, the comfort level increased.

He felt her pull away, both hand still on his shoulders, eyes shining with some form of comfort and joy. Elliot looked at her questioningly, silently telling her that it was all right to stop, but his mind and body praying that she would at least continue with the level of physical intimacy they had reached. Olivia grinned coyly, "I missed that more than anything."

"Good to know," Stabler whispered seductively. His lips again crashed into hers as one hand cupped her cheek. His eyes fluttered closed and his other hand began gently began an exploration of her curves with care. Elliot felt for moments of discomfort or fear, but was not greeted with anything that led to such a conclusion.

The persistent physical exploration continued from both members of the party until Elliot played with the hem of her shirt. She pulled back at that next step and looked him in his blue eyes. As quickly as Stabler's feeble attempts to further their contact started, they stopped one he realized that her eyes had clouded with trepidation. Until he kissed her cheek and simply embraced her tightly, whispering that it was all right her entire body had filled with terror. Yet, at his soothing, she visibly relaxed.

"We won't do anything else until you're ready," he whispered. "I promise."

He felt her nod into his shoulder as her chin rested gently upon it. Sitting together until he was positive she had fallen asleep, Elliot braced her body against his own and stood from the couch. It was nearly 11:30 at night, and both of them had to work the next day. He carried her into the bedroom and gently laid her on top of the covers. Maneuvering slowly, the dark haired man managed to pull the covers down and drape them over her small frame.

He changed into more comfortable clothing and curled in next to her, compassionately snaking his toned arms around her smaller, muscular body. Elliot felt Olivia cozy up next to his larger body and he protectively held her close.

Together, they slept until their alarm sounded the next morning. Begrudgingly, the female detective pulled her body out of bed, prepared for the day ahead, and made coffee for her and the man she loved. As he wandered out of their bedroom, she handed him a warm mug.

Smiling graciously, Elliot took a sip, "Perfect."

"Good," she answered. He looked her over, realizing for the first time how much the time away had done for her. Olivia's posture was a completely different stance – straighter, more confident – than it had been prior to leaving.

The smile that graced her tender features was warmer and more sincere. He examined her hair and realized for the first time the red highlights that subtly shone as sunlight graced it through the open window in the kitchen. They were definitely a new touch – one he liked very much.

"What are you staring at, Stabler?"

Pulled from his silent reverie, he gently placed the mug on the counter before taking a step closer and placing both hands on her waist, kissing her softly. He pulled away to see that Olivia had only stepped closer to him, fully closing the gap that had once separated their bodies.

"I was just thinking," Elliot answered, "That you're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on, that I love your smile more than anything in the world, and that the red highlights were an excellent choice."

She chuckled softly, brushing his lips with hers again. Goosebumps filled his body as he thought of the possibility of having these moments with her each and every day. Olivia stepped back, placing two empty mugs in the sink to be dealt with at a later time. Elliot watched as she stepped from the kitchen and followed her to retrieve their jackets from the closet.

Benson's hand rested on the door knob, but before she opened it, her head turn and Elliot faced her brown eyes. She spoke softly and calmly, but with confidence, "Thank you for waiting and being here. I couldn't have done this without you."

"Anytime," he whispered, knowing that without Olivia his life would be meaningless. They locked eyes for a short time and communicated wordlessly – each expressing their love for the other and Elliot silently affirmed her strength. He was able to convey that she was his everything and always would be. Olivia's eyes smiled in return, telling him all he needed to know and assuring him that all would be fine.

She opened the door and he followed her to his car. He drove to the precinct in companionable silence, with her fingers laced into his and her thumb stroking his palm as it always did. Smiling to himself, Elliot realized that their lives were finally on an upswing – and was taking complete advantage of the opportunity.

Olivia grinned broadly when Cragen addressed her within seconds of entering the squad room. She dropped her contact with Elliot to move to the older, bald man and accept the hug he willingly shared. Elliot felt a wave of comfort well within him as he watched the brown haired detective accept hugs from the other members of their unit.

"Glad you're back, Olivia. We all missed you," Munch's voice softly told her as he wrapped arms around her body. Benson hugged back, allowing the grey haired man to welcome her properly.

She pulled back from him and moved to Tutuola. She fell into another embrace, burying her head into his shoulder. The brown eyed woman let out a deep breath and fought tears as Fin whispered to her, "Good to have you back, Baby. But next time, you need to talk to us before you have to resort to skipping town for two weeks. You not being here drove everyone nuts."

The female detective chuckled lightly, letting her worries and overwhelming sense of thankfulness wash away. Pulling back, she stepped closer to Elliot once more. The warmth of his body and comfort of simply knowing he was nearby eased her mind. She looked around and noted that very little had changed in her two week absence. Olivia took in a breath and glanced at her captain, "So, gentleman. What have we got today?"

Cragen nodded and smiled as she took her seat, crossing one leg over another and waited for someone to fill her in. Eventually, Elliot took over, "Two priorities today – Sequoia Tiffit. She's a seventeen year old girl, reported a rape two nights ago. She appears to be the first to get away from him-" The brown haired man's hand extended to a sketch of a white man who was laced with broad features, dark hair, and blue eyes. "-who just so happens to be our latest serial rapist. It appears he's hit three times in the last two weeks, and Sequoia makes four."

Olivia's eyes scanned the board, searching for the pattern. Four sixteen and seventeen year old females had been raped, all had offered the same description, and all were honor students. Each one of them had been abducted leaving a city library. All of them were dead, save Sequoia, and all had the date of their attack carved into their upper left thigh. The three deaths had been suffocation, the attacks were three days apart and all of the girls attended the same school – Dwight School, a private preparatory school on the Upper West Side.

As soon as she heard Elliot's voice ringing about their second priority, Benson's eyes quickly flittered back to his and she focused with all of her might. He began the explanation, "Next up are Nathaniel and Theodore Forero. Twin boys, 7 years old, abducted last week, found four days later – on Saturday. Nathaniel is in a coma, not expected to recover. Theodore was lucky. He was severely dehydrated and had been given no nutrients the entire time away from home. Both boys obviously sodomized. They were found in an alley with no signs as to who took them or where they went. Theodore won't talk to anyone, even his parents or Huang."

Olivia glanced at Elliot as his eyes lingered on her for a few moments. She raised her eyebrows, silently asking him to say what was on his mind, "I was thinking that, Liv, if you interviewed him – made him feel safe – he might open up."

"I'll give it a shot," she whispered. "Just fill me in on details prior to the interview."

Cragen nodded and thanked Elliot for briefing everyone. He glanced at Munch and Fin, "You two are still on the Tiffit case. Figure out who the hell this guy is and get him off of the streets. He'll hit again tonight if we aren't on top of this. I don't want another homicide on our hands."

"We're canvassing again," Fin muttered as he grabbed his partner and headed from the bull pen.

The captain watched the two leave and then looked to his other detectives, "Elliot, get your partner ready to interview Theodore. I've already set up a time with his mother at 1:30 this afternoon. This was personal, and I want to know what the hell happened to those two boys."

Elliot nodded as his weight was placed on the top of Olivia's desk. She rolled her eyes when his knees almost collided with her jaw and glanced up at her supervisor, "Your wish is our command."

"Don't suck up," Don lectured. "It's not very becoming of your character. Just get the kid to open up so that he and his brother can get some kind of justice."

"Count on it," Olivia answered solemnly. The effects of working sex crimes were already catching up with her mind and body, and the last thing she needed was to get too attached to another case.

Cragen returned to his office, shutting the door behind him. Elliot looked at his partner and gave her a minute to comprehend everything she had just been told. Two weeks away was a long time, and the difficulties of jumping back into the game were unavoidable. Yet, when she looked into his blue eyes, he could tell that she was ready to put someone behind bars. Olivia was ready to fight for justice again.

Elliot nodded and hopped off of her desk, sifted through the folders on his own, and pulled up the Forero file. He opened it and showed the pictures of the boys' injuries that had been taken a week prior. Slowly, they went through every detail that had already been uncovered and searched for potential leads.

They took lunch at their desks – Olivia had a salad with Italian dressing and Elliot had a turkey breast sandwich. He was pleased to see her eat nearly three-fourths of the leafy meal. By the time one o'clock rolled around, the two were out of the door, agreeing to meet their captain at the hospital.

As Olivia sat to talk to a battered boy inside of a child's playroom in the pediatric wing, she began slipping into a caring detective mode – one that allowed the boy to tell her things that he was scared to tell anyone else. Benson pulled information out of the child with ease, but allowed for him to take his time. Within an hour, she had finally managed to draw the boy out of his shell enough to talk about his attacker.

"Theodore," Benson started calmly. Her voice was laced kindness and concern, "Can you tell me who hurt you and your brother?"

The little boy shook his head, a blond bowl cut whipping about his small head and his blue eyes shutting in an attempt to void out the sound of her voice.

Olivia moved so she was kneeling next to the young child and holding his hand gently, "Honey, I know it's really hard, but if you tell me who hurt you, we can put him in jail so he won't hurt you or Nathaniel anymore."

"Call him Nate," the child whispered.

Benson nodded and muttered something almost inaudible to the child, who wrapped his arms around her neck and began crying. Olivia sat back, her own body enveloping his in a gentle embrace

"It's all right, Sweetheart," she whispered soothingly. "Tell me who hurt you, please."

The pleading Olivia continued to carry on seemed to get through to the child in some way. He pulled back from her and wiped his eyes dry, "If I tell you, he can't hurt me?"

"We'll protect you," she confirmed.

"And Nate?"

Smiling softly, Olivia nodded, "We will keep both of you safe, I promise. But you have to tell me, it's really important."

Theodore contemplated her words, "He said he'd kill us if we told."

"I promise that he will not be able to hurt either one of you," she whispered.

The boy narrowed his eyes before speaking, "His name was Todd and he said he was our real daddy."

Olivia looked slightly confused at the child's words. Gracefully, she prompted for more information, "Did he tell you anything else about himself?"

"He was a nice man, at first, but then he hurt Nate and made me watch. Then he hurt me. He said that it was because he loved us," the boy whispered. "He said that this was how real daddy's love their sons."

She inhaled deeply, controlling every emotion that was flooding her system. The female detective knew better than to allow her feelings to interfere with the interview. She spoke to the child again, "This is really important, and you're doing great. But I need to know if he told you his last name."

The boy shook his head. Olivia smiled, believing that he had given her all of the information he could. Standing from her spot on the floor, she offered her hand to Theodore, "Let's go see your mom and dad, alright?"

"Miss Olivia," he prompted. Immediately, the detective crouched next to him again and he continued talking to her, "Was that man really my dad?"

"No, Sweetheart," the detective whispered. "Your dad is here and waiting to see you again. He loves you very much and anything that other man said to you about your family or you and your brother wasn't the truth. None of what happened was your fault, okay?"

The boy nodded and again attached himself to Olivia's neck. Not wanting to break the connection and liking the feeling of being needed, Benson wrapped her arms around and under the body, lifting him with her as she stood up. Despite the added weight, she walked to the door and opened it, stepping out with the boy's head nuzzled against her neck and tears wetting the blue button down shirt she was wearing.

Theodore's dad stepped up to her and took his son into his own arms. She smiled and rubbed his back. The man thanked her and then Elliot and Cragen, who had been watching from a monitor that had been set up in the hall, and then left. She watched as the young child balled his fists into his father's clothing and cried the entire way down the hall. Shaking her head gently, Olivia cleared her mind of the thoughts that were racing through it. Elliot placed a warm hand on her shoulder, soothing the pain coursing through her veins, "Good work."

Olivia nodded her gratitude and glanced at her captain, "Is it possible there's an adoption we don't know about? Or maybe an adulterous relationship that the mother refused to reveal? This was personal, Cap, and I want to know why we weren't told about it."

"The birth certificate for both boys' states Mr. and Mrs. Forero as the biological parents, but perhaps there was another man in the picture," Cragen replied.

The female pursed her lips and crossed her hands over her chest, "I want to speak with her. I want to know if this man had standing to think that these children were truly his."

Cragen nodded as Elliot voiced a concurring opinion. Glancing at his watch, Cragen ruled that it was too late to bother a family whose son was lying in a hospital in a coma, but promised Olivia that first thing the next morning she could interview the woman.

Succumbing to her fatigue and superior's judgment, she grabbed Elliot's hand and suggested they go out for dinner. Stabler agreed willingly and invited their captain along, but he politely declined.

Walking to their vehicle, Olivia wrapped her coat around her small body and pressed herself as close to the other detective as she could. Elliot wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders. As they sat in the vehicle and pulled into traffic, Olivia once again grabbed his hand. It was a gesture that comforted both of them.

Elliot was the first to break the silence as he drove to their favorite Italian restaurant, "Are you okay?"

"You never get used to it," she whispered. "The children who don't deserve to have the horrors of this world thrown on them have to face it anyway, and you never get used to it."

"I know you don't," he answered, not knowing what else to say.

Olivia shrugged, "But I come back and do it anyway. Why? Because someone has to." Elliot sat in silence, waiting for her to continue, sensing that there was more. Once she was ready, Benson's voice filled the vehicle again, "And as much as it hurts, as hard as it is, I love it. I love it because I can fight for justice. I can be strong for them even if I wasn't strong enough to stop it myself."

Stabler squeezed her hand gently and parked the car. Before leaving the vehicle, he delicately placed a hand under her chin and turned her face to meet eye-to-eye with his. After gracing her lips with his for a few seconds and warming her body with the simple contact from his, he spoke to her with compassion and love in his voice, "You are the strongest person I know, and I will always be proud of you for fighting back like you did. Promise me you'll remember that."

Olivia nodded, her brown eyes conveying gratitude that could only be perceived by him. Kissing her one more time, he opened the door to the car and quickly moved to the other side, opening her door and offering a hand, "Now, my Lady, would you join me for supper?"

Smiling sweetly, Benson accepted the hand that had been offered and pulled her own body from the vehicle, "I would love to, Handsome."

A/N: Not much happened. I know. But I kind of liked it and I needed to get something out….and I wanted a little bit of EO time – I wanted him to affirm his love for her. So there ya go. PLEASE review so that I have some motivation to continue! Thanks