Iwas hoping to write a longer chapter but I've been really busy ( for some reason they seem to make you do a lot of work at medical school). Anyway here is the next (albeit short) chapter.

Enjoy and review please.

The drive to the precinct was spent mostly in silence. The traffic was light and it didn't take them long to arrive. As they parked the car they noticed that Cragen had already arrived.

They entered the squad room and Elliot gave Olivia's shoulder a slight squeeze.

"Do you want me to come in with you?"

Olivia thought about it for a moment.

"No it's o.k., I need to do this by myself, but thanks for the offer"

"o.k. I'll be right out here if you need anything"

With Elliot's reassurance that he would be there if she needed him Olivia headed over to Cragen's office. She lightly knocked on the door and entered the office, pausing only to take a deep breath.

"hey, sorry for calling you in so early"

"That's o.k., did I hear Elliot out there?"

"yeah, he came in with me"

"oh, o.k. so what is this about, you two catch a case I need to be worried about?" Although he was usually the one handing out cases, out of office hours any one of his detectives could get called in and he usually didn't know about it until the next day, unless the case was likely to attract a lot of attention.

He was curious when Olivia didn't answer him right away, she wasn't usually one to hesitate before speaking.

It was at that point that he first looked at Olivia properly, when she had entered he had spoken without really looking at her. Now he saw her properly he was shocked, something had clearly happened. Although she was now dressed in her normal work clothes she couldn't hide the bruises on her face. She was just glad that he couldn't see the marks under her clothes.

"Olivia, what happened?" the words were spoken softly and with concern, but she still took a moment before she spoke. Deciding it was best to just say it and get it over with before she changed her mind, she said the words that somehow held so much power.

"I was raped"

The silence seemed to last forever. The look on his face was a mixture of shock, horror and devastation. Olivia felt guilty, she had done that to him, made him look like that. Maybe reporting this had been a mistake after all. Before she had been thinking about her feelings, how she would feel once everyone knew. Now she was thinking about was how the others would feel once they knew, she didn't want to hurt them.

"maybe you should sit down" was what he eventually managed to get out.

Olivia took a seat, and waited for him to say something else.

"Elliot knows?" now realising that was probably why he was here, for moral support.

"yeah, I called him, after.., he took me to the hospital."

He was relieved that at least she hadn't been totally alone.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked, not entirely sure he wanted to hear about it, but knowing that it was his duty as both a cop and a friend to hear what she had to say.

She wondered for a minute if she should wait until she knew who would be handling the case, before telling the story, minimising the repetition of the night's events, but she knew that was probably pointless. She ought to get used to describing what happened, she was probably going to have to do it many times.

She also realised that Elliot didn't really know what happened, she hadn't really talked to him about it, and he had been out of the room when they had done the kit. She realised she should probably have told him before coming in, she didn't want him to hear it second hand. If she was going to describe what she could remember she wanted him to be there, he deserved to hear it from her first.

"Would it be ok if I asked Elliot to come in, I want to tell him at the same time"

"ok, stay there, I'll get him" he offered, taking this opportunity to see how Elliot was doing, he could only imagine how hard this must have hit Elliot, he knew how close they were.

He stepped outside his office and observed Elliot for a moment. He was sat in his chair, head in his hands, looking like his world had just caved in.

"You ok?" he asked, doubting he would get an honest answer.

"Shouldn't you be asking Olivia that?"

"I'm sure she'll get asked that enough from everyone else, and she'll hate it, and she'll probably lie, just as I expect you will"

"I'm fine"

"Really? you know what happened, you saw her, she's your best friend, your partner, you'd take a bullet for her, you're really feeling fine right now?"

"No, but that's not important now, how she's feeling is what's important."

"She's gonna need you to be there for her, to support her, to let her know she's not alone, that she will be ok. If you're going to really be there for her you can't ignore you're feelings, as much as you want to. I'm gonna be here if you need to talk too. Don't forget that. Now she wanted you to come in, you ready?"

"What if I can't handle hearing it? What if I let her down?"

"You won't let her down, I know you and I know you'll handle this."

"o.k. I'm ready." He got up and both men headed back into Cragen's office.