Melinda Warner and Munch entered the hospital room and saw Olivia curled up in a ball on a chair next to Elliot's bed. She was in a deep sleep and holding Elliot's hand. Her hair was messed up and she wore some scrubs that the nurses gave to her.

"She's been here for 3 days." Melinda whispered to Munch.

Munch grabbed a blanket from a closet next to the bathroom and gently placed it around Olivia.

"Any sign of life from Elliot?" Munch asked Melinda as he watched the machine monitoring Elliot's heart.

"Nothing yet. They said he's going to be out of it for a few days. He lost a lot of blood. I keep checking in every chance I get. Liv's been holding in quite well, but you can never tell with her."

"She's too proud."

"Yeah, but how much more can she handle? I don't know how you guys do it." Melinda said with a sigh.

Olivia's arm fell from Elliot's hand and she jerked awake. "Elliot?"

"It's just us Liv." Munch said.

"Oh." She said through a yawn. "Did I miss anything?"

Melinda grabbed the blanket that fell to the floor, "No darlin. How you feeling?"

"I'm fine. What time is it?"

"It's 6am. You hungry? We could go get some food. There's nothing like a good old hospital meal to start the day on." Munch said with a smile.

Olivia starred at Elliot in thought.

"Or we could bring you something back." Munch said as if he were speaking to a wall.

"Yeah, let's go get food. I need to stand." Olivia eventually replied as she stood.

John motioned to the door and Olivia and Melinda lead the way.

Scene

Olivia walked back to the room after she finished her breakfast. As she neared the nurse's station the woman behind the desk motioned to her, "Olivia, Elliot's awake."

"He is? Of course he is." She ran down the hallway and walked through the door. "Ellio-" Olivia stopped in her tracks.

The nurse stood on one side of him checking his breathing machine and all of his vital signs. Kathy and the kids were all standing on the other side. Kathy was holding Elliot's hand. She looked up at Olivia and Olivia's heart stopped. The kids had been in and out of the hospital since the incident, but this was the first time she saw Kathy in years. "Hi guys, you're up early. Kathy, hi." Olivia said after taking everything in.

"Hi Olivia." Kathy half-heartedly smiled and looked back down at Elliot.

Dickie stood over Elliot's head. "Dad, Livi's here."

Elliot blinked his eyes and attempted a smile through the tube on his breathing machine.

Kathy squeezed Elliot's hand, "Well we should probably wait outside. Daddy needs some breathing space. "

She picked up her purse and headed towards the door.

"You don't have to leave. I can go get some coffee or something. Let the kids be with their father." Olivia said to Kathy.

Kathy glared at Olivia. Her stare was enough to send knives into Olivia's face. "Oh no Olivia, you should stay. He should be with the people he likes to surround himself with. We'll come back later."

"Ok." Olivia said softly.

Kathy nodded and left taking Dickie, Elizabeth, and Kathleen with her.

Maureen remained next to the bed. Elliot squeezed Maureen's hand and reached out his other hand towards Olivia. Maureen watched as her dad's face light up to see Olivia. Olivia slowly walked over and grabbed Elliot's hand. He looked up at her and winked. Olivia kissed the back of his hand softly. She glanced over at Maureen who stood with a stone face.

Olivia felt out of place, but she threw on a smile for Elliot's sake, "Good morning, sunshine. You're looking good."

He raised an eyebrow at her and rolled his eyes as if to say, "Don't patronize me."

The nurse touched Olivia's arm, "We're going to have to take him to another room for the doctor to look at him. He'll be back in an hour or so."

Olivia nodded.

"Is he going to be ok?" Maureen asked.

"If we can keep infection out of his lungs he should be fine. We'll see what the doctor says," The nurse said before rolling his bed towards the door.

Maureen kissed him on the cheek, "Love you Dad."

As the bed rolled away Olivia rubbed Maureen's back and she pulled away from her to stand alone by the window. Olivia watched her and was reminded of Elliot. They both had the same stubborn temper tantrums. Olivia and Maureen stood in silence for what seemed to be an eternity. Maureen sniffled every now and again.

"Maureen, it's ok to be upset. Do you want to talk about it?"

"With you? No."

"Ok, that's fair enough. Can I talk about something with you?"

"I don't care what you do."

"Your dad is a good man. He's not trying to upset you. He's been struggling with depression and anger for some time now. I'm sure seeing him with other women is the last thing you want to see, but you have to understand that he's just trying to move on and be happy."

"I don't see how dating is going to help him move on. We can make him happy. He just chooses to be unhappy."

"You know, I remember when my mom started dating. I hated it. She would bring home men from the bar and they would try to butter me up. I use to feel like they were trying so hard to make me like them, so that they could get closer to my mother. Some men would stay longer then others. Some of them beat her. Some of them only wanted her for sex. But out of all the men, I remember there was one guy that I really liked. Nobody would have known that by the way I treated him. He probably never knew that. I was 13 when my mom started dating him. He was genuine and kind. He took us places and bought us gifts. I will never forget the trip to the amusement park he took us to. I road a roller coaster for the first time. My mother stopped drinking. I thought he was going to marry my mom and that scared me. I didn't want a dad. I was used to being in charge at home. I did everything I could to get him to leave. I was rude to him. I would ignore him when he asked me questions. I even destroyed one of the presents he gave me to make him angry. Then one night I came home and found him and my mom in the living room fighting. He was trying to break up with her. She was drunk. When he left she told me it was my fault and then she slapped me. It was the first time she ever hit me. After that, things went back to normal, but they weren't better. I found myself wishing that I had allowed myself to change. It took me a long time to stop blaming myself for the choices my mother made."

Maureen was looking at the floor, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to know that your father and mother have made choices that you don't like or understand, but none of those choices are under your control and none of them are your fault. Sometimes the hardest choices are the right choices. You're father was devastated for years about breaking your family up. Don't you think he deserves some happiness? Don't you want to just release this cloud on your shoulder?"

Maureen snapped her head towards Olivia and looked her in the eyes, "Of course I want my father to be happy. And you know nothing about my cloud. How would you know what happiness is. You're the one who messed everything up."

"Maureen, I don't know who or what made you believe that I caused your parents to break up, but it's just not true. Marriage is a serious bond. I would never put myself in a situation that messed with that bond. Ever."

"Oh, please, just because you didn't act upon it doesn't mean you didn't get in the way. He constantly talked about you."

"We work together. I'm sure if I was a guy named Bob you would have heard about Bob all of the time, too. "

"So you're telling me that over all the years you two worked together you just now decided to be attracted to each other?"

Olivia didn't really know what to say to that. She was right in a way. Olivia always found Elliot to be the kind of guy she wanted to be with. She even remembered dumping some of her good boyfriends because they just couldn't compare to the things that Elliot provided for her. Finally she replied, "Well, you know, if I told you that I never found your father attractive until recently I would be lying, but I never made my thoughts apparent. Your father and I have been through a lot of heinous situations together. We've put our lives on the line for each other. We're best friends. We could both be fired for even having these thoughts and that scares me every time we're together. And, no, we didn't start out as two people who care for each other the way we do today, but things change. Maureen, I never wanted to hurt you or your family. I'm really sorry if I did, but right now your father is going to need all of us to help him get better. He needs your support. He wants you to be happy. Can you tell me how I can help you?"

Maureen started crying and Olivia stood beside her and placed her arm around her shoulder. Gently Olivia said to her, "You know I would never try to take your father away from you. Without you guys he's an empty shell. Can we call a truce?"

Maureen wrapped her arms around Olivia tightly, "I'm sorry Liv. I didn't mean to-"

"Shhh. It's ok. I would have felt the same way. It's ok."

Olivia and Maureen both shed a few tears and laughed off their awkwardness. Suddenly there was a vibrating sound coming from the corner of the room. Olivia found her red phone moving in the corner and answered it, "Benson."

"Hey, Liv, it's Cragen. How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"Just fine?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I kinda need your help. Can you work today?"

"Yes. Please. How soon do you need me?"

"I need you now. Can you go to the 3rd floor? There's a rape victim there. He just came in."

"He?"

"Yeah, victim is Jason Halgrin."

"Ok I'm on top of it."

She flipped the phone closed. "Maur, can you call me if anything changes?"

"Yeah. I'll see you later."

"Thanks." She smiled and left.

Scene

Jason sat on a hospital bed next to his wife. His face was bruised and swollen. His wife was crying and holding his hand. Olivia walked in with her scrubs on and her badge.

"Hi. Jason Halgrin?"

"Yeah", he said in a deep voice.

"I'm detective Olivia Benson. I was told that you wanted to report a rape."

"Jenny wants to report a rape. I want to go home."

His wife Jenny stood up, "Jason, you have to do this. That man is going to do this to other people. He needs to be caught."

Olivia butted in, "Jenny were you with him when this happened?"

"No I was in the grocery store and Jason was smoking outside while I shopped. When I got out of the store I couldn't find him and I drove around the building. He was lying on the ground, passed out, and his pants were down. Oh god, this is so awful. If he did this to my husband what do you think he could do to a woman." She started to get hysterical.

Olivia took her by the arm and headed towards the door, "Jenny, can you wait outside. I need to talk to your husband privately."

"Yeah"

"Thanks."

Jenny left and Olivia closed the door.

"Can you describe what happened?"

"Not really. I was smoking and a woman asked me to help her lift a bag of kitty litter into her car. The next thing I know something smacked me on the head and I woke up behind the building with my pants down and my face all beat up."

"What did the woman look like?"

"She was in her 30's maybe. She had brown hair and a great set of tits. I mean, boobs or breasts."

Olivia raised her eyebrow and cleared her throat, "And did you notice anything else?"

"She had on a tight black skirt and a red top with the straps on the shoulders. She was in good shape."

"What kind of car did she have?"

"I don't know. We never actually made it to the car."

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"We walked to the last aisle of cars and then I remember nothing."

"Would you mind giving a description of this woman to the sketch artist?"

"I guess not."

"If you don't feel comfortable doing it today we can do it another time, but the quicker you do it the better you'll be able to remember all of the details."

"Yeah, well I just want to forget this ever happened."

"I understand. Why don't you get changed and I'll send someone by before you leave. Thanks."

Jason nodded and Olivia went to speak with the Doctors.

Scene

Olivia walked in the forensics lab to find Melinda going over some charts.

"Melinda, what can you tell me about Jason Halgrin?"

Melinda turned to find Olivia in her scrubs. "Don't they allow you to go home and shower before they send you out?"

"I think they're a little swamped. I'm going to stop by my place after I finish getting some info from you."

"Good cause I was starting to wonder if you still had an apartment." She smiled and pulled out the file filled with Jason Halgrin's lab tests. "Ok, so Mr. Halgrin, was raped, but not by a man. He had traces of skin from a banana and then something that was metal. The other thing that I found was your victim's sperm all over the front of him."

"So are you saying he could have been rapping the woman he was helping?"

"It's possible. I mean, if anything they were having sex and it was consensual. The only other way to make a man ejaculate is to probe him, but there were no signs of probing."

"Great, so he's lying to me. He was having sex with that woman."

"Yes, but someone did hit him from behind. I found some glass in his head wound. I'd say he was knocked out with a glass bottle."

"Good. Thanks this is helpful."

Scene

Olivia was feeling good about officially being back on the job. She especially liked the distraction it gave her from all of the stress in her life. She called the Captain and they took Jason in for interrogation. Her heart was racing with excitement and nerves as she walked into the room for the first time in over a month.

"So Jason, tell me again what happened while you waited outside the grocery store?"

"I already told you. I had a smoke and I helped Megan to her car."

"Megan? She has a name now?"

"Well she told me her name when she came up to me for help."

"Yeah, Jason see that's the kind of inconsistencies we've found all over your story. Did you and Megan have sex?"

"What?! No. I'm married. Why would I do that?"

"Because she had…Oh what did you call them…" Olivia threw a picture taken from the grocery store security camera at him. "Great tits. Is that what I remember you calling them? If you were helping this woman to her car then why did you go to the side of the building?"

The picture was of Jason and the woman, Megan, walking around the building. Jason threw the picture down.

"Ok. Ok she told me I looked cute and one thing led to another. We went to the side of the building and we did it. But I swear I never knew her before that conversation. I didn't tell you cause I didn't want my wife to know."

"Nice. So do you do this kind of thing often?"

"What?! No. I don't know why I did it. What can I say; we had a lot in common. I was being stupid."

"Did you have common interests or did you have your own agenda?"

"Are you saying you think I raped her?"

"Jason, right now the evidence is looking that way, now I need to know all of the facts this time. What happened before you blacked out?"

Jason pulled at his hair and sighed, "She asked me why I was so lonely looking and told me she just had her breasts done. She kept asking me sexual questions like if I liked them. What was I suppose to do? I'd like to see any man in his right mind ignore her. I didn't force her into anything. She was the one who provoked me. She asked me if I wanted to see them and before I knew it we were behind the building. We did it and when I finished someone behind me smashed something against my head. That's all I remember. It's the truth this time."

"Ok. Thanks." Olivia got up and left the room. Cragen was behind the mirror.

"Nice work, Liv. You think he's telling the truth?"

"Unfortunately yes and we don't really have anything to keep him on. I have to find out who this mystery woman is. She had to have left her prints on something."

"I'll let this guy go. You got a new partner waiting for you. Take him with you and find me some evidence. "

Olivia's mind immediately flashed to Elliot. She walked slowly to her desk and images of the shooting stuck to her brain like a bad nightmare.

"Excuse me, are you Olivia Benson?"

Olivia looked up to see a tall thin dorky looking guy in his early twenties with bright blonde hair standing in front of her. "Yeah, who wants to know?"

"I'm Craig Garner. I'm you're new partner. It's my first day." Craig held out his hand.

Olivia shook it with a puzzled look on her face. "Nice to meet you." She looked at him and then at the empty desk in front of her.

"Are you all right Ms. Benson?"

"Yeah. Call me Olivia." She grabbed her coat off of the chair. "Uh, come on we've got to check out a crime scene."

Craig followed like a young puppy, "Great! This is so exciting. I read the reports already it's a pretty juicy case, but not as juicy as the cases you're probably use to."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh well when I got the call for the job I did all my research. You're famous for putting away so many of the big serial killers in the past ten years. I mean, there was the DKA serial killer and then John Rusher. What's it like to interrogate a killer like that?"

Olivia stopped in her tracks and angrily replied, "Craig, if we're going to seriously work together I need you never to ask me questions like that again. You got that?"

Craig stood stock-still and shook his head, "Sure. Yeah. I'll never bring it up again. Anything you say. You are so worthy."

Olivia closed her eyes hoping the kid in front of her would disappear, but he didn't, so off they went. Craig talked none stop the whole time. He had more topics of conversation then a room full of old Jewish men.

Scene

After a long long long day of dealing with the new-be at work Olivia walked through the hospital doors to find Elliot asleep. She stood in the doorway watching him breath. He didn't have the breathing machine on anymore, so she figured he must have been doing well. Quietly she placed her things to the side and crawled in the hospital bed next to him. She placed her head lightly on the side of his chest. He took in deep breaths of air and his fingers twitched like he was having a dream. "Ruff day at work?"

Olivia jumped a bit. "Huh?!" She let out all of the air in her chest and replied, "You scared me."

"I'm good at that." Elliot said gently.

Olivia rested against him again, "You sure are."

He hugged her with his other arm. "Maureen told me you were at work."

"Yep."

"Bad day?"

She sat up and kissed him on the cheek, "Let's not talk about it. I want to know how you are."

He looked into her eyes and touched her hair, "I'm alive."