I own no one but my own people.

Elliot stormed back towards the waiting room, fully preparing to demand Amaro's number from her. He was angrier with Olivia then he had been in a long time. Even knowing she was under the worst stress she had ever been put through and had gone through the most traumatic experience of her life.

He had been her best friend and partner for 12 years. How the hell could she turn him away like that? He honestly thought she would have embraced him with open arms, not tore him a new one while demanding to see her new partner...

Elliot rounded the corner and opened his mouth to bark at Amanda to give him Amaro's number when his eyes landed on the sight in front of him.

Amanda was embracing an older woman who appeared to be crying on the blonde's shoulder while the younger blonde gently stroked her hair and fighting back her own tears while a Doctor stood by patiently waiting.

Must be Cassidy's mother Elliot thought to himself as he forced himself to hide his anger as he stood in the room silently with his hands clasped in front of his chest. Amanda saw him out of the corner of her vision and pulled away from the woman, spoke a few final words with her with a sad smile on her face and the Doctor stepped in and said something before he led her down the opposite wing.

Once the older woman was safely out of ear shot Elliot walked over to Amanda. "Cassidy's mother?"

Amanda nodded, sniffing away tears as she did. "Joanne Cassidy. Doctors are trying to get the swelling down but so far no luck. They're not sure if he'll wake up again and if he does wake up what kind of condition he'll be in."

"He's dating Olivia, he's got a lot to live for. Don't worry, he'll snap out of it."

Amanda sighed as she ran a hand through her disheveled hair. "God I hope you're right. I don't want to imagine Olivia having to go through losing her boyfriend on top of everything else. How is she by the way?"

"I don't know, I wasn't in there long enough to get a proper read." Elliot shrugged.

"Gotcha. I'm gonna go see her."

Amanda went to walk past him but Elliot held out his hands to stop her. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Amanda narrowed here eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And why not?"

"Because the moment I mentioned your name, she started crying, saying you weren't supposed to see her like that, saying how you'll only see her as a rape victim instead of a mentor... I know you wanna see her but I really don't think it'll be a good idea."

Amanda's face fell as Elliot's words washed over her. How could she think she would look down on her for what had happened? It wasn't her fault over what had happened, Lewis was a total and complete psychopath, had tortured her for hours and she had survived it. How could she think that Amanda would only see her as a victim or think what had happened would lesser her opinion of her brunette mentor?

If anything the fact she survived this made Olivia more of a hero in Amanda's eyes...

But if Olivia wasn't ready for Amanda to see her, then she would respect her wishes.

"Okay," Amanda told him, "She has to talk to someone though, did she want anyone in particular?"

"She demanded to see her... current partner. She probably wants to chew his ass out for not protecting her and honestly I can't say I blame her."

Amanda rolled her eyes at Elliot's words. "There's nothing to blame."

"Oh okay," he said dryly. "Why the hell wasn't there a protective detail on her?"

"Lewis acted no different then any other perp. Yeah it was obvious he had a hard on for her but he made no threats, there was nothing linking him to attacking Olivia, and there was no reason for any of us to be worried."

"I think it's obvious you had plenty to worry about and this went way beyond him just having a hard on for her," Elliot snapped. "He raped her and no one did anything!"

Amanda had far more then enough. She wasn't going to sit her and listen to this ass bad mouth their squad, even if he, at one time, was a member of it. He was judging things he had no right to judge and judging wrong for that matter.

She wanted to scream and yell and shout that Elliot had never once saved Olivia. The one time he did she was in no real danger and if it had gone the way it appeared to, Olivia would have been electrocuted.

But she didn't, and the only reason for that was because her phone began ringing. Throwing a look of agitation to the highest degree at the man standing in front of her, Amanda pulled her from from her front pocket and answered it with a surly 'what?'

"It's me," Amaro told her. "How she doing?"

"I haven't seen her yet but she's awake and-."

"She's awake?"

"Yeah, she woke up about ten minutes ago."

"I'll be right there."

The next sound she heard with a tiny beep telling her that Amaro had hung up the phone. Amanda put her cell back in her pocket and saw Elliot looking at her with expectancy. "So? What's going on, who was that?"

"Amaro. He's on his way right now."

"Good, I can give the sorry son of a bitch a piece of my mind," Elliot muttered before he stormed off. Amanda wanted to follow him but she had to stay close by in case there was any news on either Olivia or Brian. So instead of creating a scene she walked back over to her chair and sat down and sulked, wondering how in the hell Olivia survived him for twelve years.

Fifteen minutes later Elliot had returned and they both sat in an awkward silence until Amanda heard running footsteps and a very familiar voice asking what room Olivia was in.

Both Amanda and Elliot looked up and spotted Amaro at the nurses station. "Nick, over here," Amanda called out, making both Amaro and Elliot look towards her.

He hurried over to the group who quickly stood up. "Is she still awake?" he asked, panic in his voice that he had missed her.

"I don't know, I haven't been into see her yet but no one's come out to tell me anything."

Amaro nodded. "Brian? How's he doing?"

Amanda glanced down at the floor for a moment before she returned her gaze back to Amaro."He's... he's in a come at the moment, his mother's in with him."

"Jesus Christ," Amaro muttered. "Does Liv know?"

"We're telling him he's still in surgery," she explained. "But we can't tell her right now, it'll be too much for her."

"What if she asks to see him?"

"I doubt it she only wants to see you," Amanda told him.

Before Amaro could respond Elliot spoke. "You're her partner?"

Amaro turned towards Elliot and looked him over briefly. He was taller and more built then him and looked far more imposing then Amaro but he could stand his ground just as easily. "Yeah. Why, who are you?"

"I'm her old partner." Elliot told him.

A stroke of realization hit the younger male. "You're Elliot Stabler?" Amaro stuck out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you, Olivia talked about you all the time."

"Wish I could say the same."

Amaro furrowed his brow. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you were supposed to watch out for her and you let her get raped."

Amaro took a step closer to him. "You're saying this is my fault?"

"You catch on real quick."

Amaro narrowed his eyes at the older man. "None of this was my fault! There was nothing saying he was gonna go after her!"

"Well clearly he did and it was your fault! You're her partner, you're supposed to have her back! Not leave her to fend for yourself!"

"I did look after her!"

"Not from where I'm standing!" Elliot shouted. "You let her be raped and tortured and put through hell because you could care less about her! This is your fault, Amaro! It's your fault she was raped!"

Amaro glared at Elliot. "Go to hell," he spat before he turned back towards the nurses station.

He demanded Olivia's room number and the second he was given it he stormed off down the hall. Amaro came to a stop right outside the door and he leaned against the wall, fighting back tears.

He knew Elliot was right. He was right there outside her apartment. He was right there, he should have realized something was wrong or he should have called her or gone home with her or something.

This was all his fault and if Olivia was looking for him and him alone, then obviously she felt the same way. She blamed him for her torture, and she was right too.

Amaro wiped his tears, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Olivia glanced over at Amaro and swallowed hard. "Hey," she greeted softly.

"Hey," he told her just as gently as he shut the door behind him. "I um... I met your old partner. He seems like a little bit of a hot head."

"Yeah that's Elliot," she said with a lifeless chuckle. "He tell you I wanted to talk to you?"

Amaro swallowed hard and nodded. "He did. Look, Liv, I-."

"I'm sorry," she told her in a soft whisper.

Amaro stopped dead in his sentence as Amaro processed Olivia's words. He opened and shut his mouth several times, trying to find something to say to her but instead all he could manage was, "what?"

Olivia sniffed and wiped her tears away. "For earlier. I didn't mean anything I said to you, I love Gil and I adore Cynthia and you're an amazing father, and I- I didn't mean-!"

"Wait..." he interrupted, still attempting to process her words. "Are you talking about what you said to me?"

"I couldn't stand what I said but he told me if I didn't he would take you in my place and I couldn't let you go through that!"

Amaro hurried over to her and sat down next to her bedside. "Olivia, I don't care what you told me, I should have known that you never meant those things," he told her, pleading and begging for her to believe him as obvious as he could make it. "I should have realized you were in trouble, I should have gone in and done something. This is all my fault."

She shook her head, "no it's not, it's mine, I should have fought harder and I never should have let him do what he did to me."

Amaro shook his head. "None of this is your fault. You didn't do anything."

"Exactly. I didn't do anything. He... he grabbed me I tried fighting but he had a gun and then..." More tears fell down her face and she took a shuddering breath. "And then he- he showed me Brian and he was covered in- in blood an- and I thought he was de- dead and I ju-... I just froze and let him throw me on the bed and... And... and then... "

"Liv it's okay. You don't have to tell anyone what happened yet."

She didn't seem to hear him so he reached for her hand to comfort her.

"Don't touch me!" screamed Olivia as she yanked her hand away.

Amaro held his hands up to show that he wasn't gonna touch her again.

Olivia shook her head as tears streamed down her face as she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for anything," he told her. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

She merely nodded and wiped away her tears only to have more replace them. "Um, ca- can you go see if Brian's doing okay? Elliot told me he's in surgery."

Amaro bit his tongue to keep from telling her the truth and nodded. "Sure. Want me to go right now?"

"If you wouldn't mind. I just- I gotta know how he's doing."

Amaro offered her a gentle smile. "I gotcha. Anything else?"

Olivia gave a silent shake of her head and settled back into bed.

Amaro stood up and gave her a soft grin before he walked out of the room.

Five Days Earlier

"I'm sorry I gotta work tonight."

"It's fine," said Olivia as she set her plate on the coffee table along with her drink. "I gotta get up early tomorrow anyway so I'm just gonna eat a late dinner and head to bed."

"Court for the psychopath?"

"Yeah," Olivia sighed as she sat on the couch. "He faked a suicide so he got out of a lineup and now he's in a mental institution and a hell of a lot more comfortable then Alice Parker is at her apartment."

"She's still sleeping where she was attacked? That's... odd."

"Yeah but her and Cragen decided that it would be good for her that if she was determined to stay in her apartment that he wold stay with her."

"Cragen has a date?"

"Yup," Olivia said with a smirk. "My Captain is getting it on."

"Rock on, Cragen," Brian said with a laugh. "The old man's still got it."

Olivia chuckled as she grabbed the plate full of chicken and rice and set it on her lap. "He's finally getting someone, it's adorable."

"Not as cute as you are though."

Olivia smiled as she took a small bite of chicken. "Aww, thank you. You're cute as well."

"Why thank you, Olivia. Speaking of cute..."

"Yes?"

"What cute little outfit are you wearing right now?"

Olivia couldn't help but smirk before she took another bite of chicken. "Well let's see," she mused after she swallowed, glancing down at her flannel pajama pants and over sized Yankee's T-shirt. "I'm wearing that little red teddy you like so much."

"The one with the black lace?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Perfect because you look smoking in that get up, Baby. Are you on the bed or the couch?"

"The bed, of course," she told him with a hint of slyness in her voice as she stretched out on her couch. "That's where I always am when I think about you."

"Mmmm... Sounds fun. I wish I was with you right now."

"I know, Baby, I wish I was with you too."

Brian sighed, his tone full of exasperation. "I gotta get a new job. Or a new shift. I hate working nights, I hardly ever get to see you."

"You've been doing good on Days, maybe they'll let you switch permanently sometime soon," Olivia offered hopefully.

"Maybe. But right now the only thing I'm thinking of is how much I wanna be with you."

"You're off Monday right?"

"Yeah but that's too far away."

Olivia smiled as she took another bite. "I'm sure we'll both survive it."

"Yeah yeah." There was a collection of background noise and what sounded like Brian shouting at someone before he turned his attention back to her. "Hey, Babe, I gotta go," he told her hastily. "Some asshole's drunk and looks like he's about to piss on the courthouse."

"Sounds exciting."

"Always. Have a good night, Baby."

"You too. See ya."

"Bye, Liv."

They both hung up at the same time and Olivia turned back to her dinner, unable to hide the smile as she put her phone down on the table. Maybe she was wrong for judging him so harshly about saying 'I love you' because right then, ending the conversation with that that would have felt more right then anything else.

The next time I see him, she promised herself as she took a forkful of food into her mouth. … Maybe.

After the conversation and a few flirty text messages, his partner was back in the car, exchanged between her and Cassidy, she quickly finished her dinner, double checked the locks as well as making sure the stove was off, texted Brian 'good night' and headed to bed far later then she would have liked but with a smile on her face.

The next morning however her smile had completely disappeared. She couldn't find her 'court shoes' and she was almost late.

However after the ass chewing Barba received, she almost wished she had missed the trial.

She watched as Barba sank miserably in Motions court while Lewis' legal aid, Vanessa Mayer, played her cards exceptionally well. She got the judge convinced that he needed a psych eval, even with Barba showing clear cut obvious evidence contradicting it.

The whole time she sat there she couldn't get the thought out of her mind that he wold get away with what he had done to Alice Parker.

So the moment the judge dismissed them Olivia all but ran up to Barba, fear in her eyes. "Is there anyway he can get away with this?" she asked, a twinge of fear shining in her eyes.

"Are you asking if he can fake incompetency? Oh sure, this is his MO. Another delaying tactic," he sighed as he looked towards the now blank screen where Lewis had been moments ago.

"It's not his first time."

Both Barba and Olivia turned towards Amanda who had walked up to them who had her phone in her hand and a smirk on her face. "Finally caught up to him."

Olivia and Barba shared a look before they turned back to Amanda who beamed at Olivia. "I took your advice and we got at least one other prior."

"Good job," Olivia told the blonde as she looked over her phone. "This is really gonna help us out."

"You realize that priors aren't gonna be admissible, Vanessa told them with a smirk."

The trio turned towards the smirking Legal Aid who had interrupted their conversation. "This is an A, B, and C conversation," Barba informed his rival, "so you need to distance yourself from it right about now."

"Oh grow up!" she snapped.

"I'm not the one with fire engine hair you can find on the eighteen year old cashier working at Hot Topic, which, by the way, doesn't work for you as well as you think it does."

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she pushed past Barba, purposely slamming into his shoulder.

"What a bitch," Amanda sniped when the red head was out of earshot.

"Maybe but she's smart, even if she is just legal aid," Barba muttered. "Email me those case reports. He may have gotten away before but the only place he's going after this trial is a jail cell and living with cell mate who loves his sixty year old Mother more than anyone."

Olivia couldn't help but feel comforted at Barba's words. He was confident that he would put Lewis away and she was grateful because as strange as it sounded, Olivia was scared of him.

She knew she had no real reason to be but the way he talked to her during his interrogation... Even if he was just trying to frighten her it had worked and the last thing she wanted was for Lewis to be free.

Olivia gave Barba a smile before she turned towards Amanda. "You ready to go?"

Amanda nodded and after they both bid good bye to Barba they headed out if the court house.

When they were out in the open Amanda glanced over at her. "You ever talk to Cassidy? About the whole 'I love you' situation?"

"I did and it worked out perfectly so thank you for that advice," answered Olivia with a smile. "But it was weird last night I was talking to him and it... I almost wanted to say it to him, ya know?"

"Did you?"

Olivia shook her head. "After the fuss I made about it, I don't think telling him the first time over the phone would be the best idea."

Amanda nodded. "I gotcha. But are you gonna tell him soon?"

"He has Monday off so he's gonna come over and do something special," Olivia told her with a grin. "I think then might be the best time."

"Completely agree," said Amanda with her own smile. Her phone vibrated again and Amanda picked it up, her face falling as she read it, "he has another prior. Another rape torture case. A pair of roommates in Alabama."

"Jesus," Olivia muttered. "How many times has this guy gotten lucky?"

Before Amanda could answer there was another vibrate on her phone. The blonde swallowed hard as she opened her Email again. "Three times. Only... only he was involved in a murder with this one along with rape and torture. I- I mean I knew I had a bad feeling about this guy but this is way beyond what I thought anyone was capable of. This is just disgusting.

"I've been in SVU for fifteen years and I'M disgusted at what he did." Olivia gave a look of determination to Amanda. "We can't let him get away with what he did to Alice Parker. I refuse to let him do that to another woman."

Amanda nodded in agreement as they reached their cars. "Email Fin and Amaro those files, tell them I want everything on each of those three cases by the time we get there."

Amanda nodded and began at once carrying out the order Olivia had given her.

Both thoroughly sickened at the news, they each got in their cars and drove away.

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