AN: So my to "Talking Heads" winners (that was the name of the band) are MariposaAngel18 and Liv-it-up-lov. They will make a brief appearance at the end of the chapter and possibly a few more. This is a long chapter, but there was a lot that needed to be done. Also, I really have no idea if Olivia's job exists. I think it does. I mean, usually the Lawyer takes over as an Advocate, but I think there are also psychologists who advocate and get victims ready for hard cases and courtroom trails. So just believe that it exists, even if it doesn't. I hope you likes. Drop me your thoughts.

Defense Against the Dark

Olivia pulled herself up the cement stairs leading into the 1-6 precinct and got onto the elevator. This time instead of pressing the 4th floor button she pressed the 6th and continued her way to the new desk she now occupied in the victim's advocate office.

It wasn't the type of position she would have originally applied for. The hours were still at random, she didn't get to carry a gun, and the only dangerous part of the day was catching a cold from the victim's that got too clingy.

But when the head of the department begged Olivia to transfer her skills to the sixth floor, she decided that her circumstances deserved a less life-threatening environment.

It was time to test her psychology skills and put away her pistols. The job was right up her alley.

She knew the ins and outs of the courtroom and if anyone was good at making a victim feel comfortable it was Olivia.

Her only draw back was education, so on top of being pregnant, working on a relationship, and starting a new job, she was forced to take advanced psychology courses every Tuesday and Thursday night to bring her skills up to pare.

It was something she'd always wanted to do; she just wished it could have waited.

She had no complaints, though. This was a job that a lot of people were breaking down the door for and the fact that they hired her on such short credentials and a quickly approaching leave of absence, made her feel confident that she could do the job they needed from her.

This morning, like most, started slowly. She made a few phone calls and set up appointments for councilor courtroom meetings. After her fourth bathroom break the phone on her desk finally rang.

"Benson, how can I help you," she asked as she held the phone to her ear and slowly sat in the dark chair behind her desk.

"Hey sweetheart, I have a little girl here at Sinai, possibly molested and beaten, most likely by foster parents. She's being uncooperative with the rape kit process. She's gonna need a state guardian and some Benson finesse."

Olivia smiled at the sound of his voice. It was the added bonus to her perfect mommy job.

She got all the benefits of helping the victims while still maintaining a partnership with all of her old unit members. She was going to miss the interrogations, but every now and again she would over hear the case details and throw in her educated two cents.

"I'll be there in ten," she replied.

SCENE

The hospital was crowded when she got there. Elliot and Chester Lake stood in the hallway guarding the door from the overly hysterical foster mother.

"I can't understand why you won't let me talk to her. She was fine when I left her this morning," cried the thin woman with bad skin and messy hair.

Chester pointed for her to sit and added his deepest regrets in an annoyed tone. "That may be ma'm, but we can not allow you to disrupt our process, before we get a solid statement from the girl."

Elliot watched his glowing Olivia walk towards them.

"Where is she," Olivia asked, already in the groove of things.

He nodded towards the room and opened the door for her.

Olivia walked in with Elliot behind her. She saw the eight-year-old girl watching Sponge Bob and giggling like her world had never faltered. She was thin and had several visible bruises on her face and arms. At the site of Olivia's entrance the girl stopped and hung her head in defense.

"Hi Catherine, my name's Olivia. I'm here to help you feel better."

Catherine didn't answer her.

"I see you like Sponge Bob. He's one of my favorites too. I like Gary. Who's your favorite character?"

Catherine looked at Olivia and softly answered. "I like Patrick the best."

Olivia smiled and sat in the chair next to her bed. "He's silly isn't he?"

Catherine's face lit up.

"So Catherine, I hear you had an accident this morning."

"My teacher made me come to the hospital."

"Do you like your teacher?"

She nodded. "She let me play the lead in our school play."

"Wow, that's exciting. Why do you think your teacher made you come here today, Catherine?"

"Because the hurt on my arm started bleeding."

"How did that happen?"

"I'm not allowed to say," Catherine whispered.

"Is it a secret," Olivia whispered back.

"Joseph told me not to tell."

"Who's Joseph?"

"My foster daddy."

Olivia touched Catherine's hand and gently kept the girl talking. "You are such a loyal friend to keep that secret. But you want to know something about secrets?"

The girl blinked and whispered ", what?"

"Sometimes keeping a secret isn't always a good thing, especially, if that secret is harming you. Catherine, did Joseph give you these bruises?"

She nodded and started to cry. Olivia wrapped her arms around the fragile girl as her little body held onto her large tummy.

Moments like these made Elliot fall in love with Olivia all over again. Under her hard exterior she knew exactly how to love. It was like she'd saved every bit of her heart for the perfect hug and the right words to melt a person's soul.

The little girl sobbed into her body. "I didn't mean to make him angry."

"Oh sweetheart, it wasn't your fault. Joseph is an adult and he was wrong by hurting you. Now honey, I'm going to be here for you to talk to anytime you need me. I know you've already been through a lot but I can tell that you're a brave girl. Can you stay brave for me just a little longer?"

"Yes."

"Good," she smiled. " I have a few friends that I need you to talk to. They need you to answer them as best as you can. Can you do that for me?"

"Ok," she sniffed.

Olivia looked at Elliot who stepped forward and smiled at them. "Hi Catherine, I'm Elliot."

"Catherine, Elliot is a detective and he's a very good friend of mine. He's going to ask you some questions and then I'm going to help you find a house where you won't have to keep secrets anymore. Does that sound good to you?"

"Yes," she smiled.

"I'm glad," Olivia smiled. "If it's ok with you before we talk to Elliot, can you do me one more favor?"

"Sure."

"The doctors need to do one more test to help you feel better."

"No," she cried.

"I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to stay right next to you the whole time and if you feel uncomfortable at all you just squeeze my hand and I will help you to stay strong, ok?"

Catherine whimpered an ", ok," and the nurse came in to start the rape kit.

Olivia held Catherine tightly like she was her own daughter and tried to keep the girl's mind off of the examine by making jokes and blowing bubbles.

SCENE

Not all of Olivia's duties involved hand-holding and hospital visits.

After she managed the victim's in her files she would end her day at the precinct gym with a room full of chatty women.

The city was in a transition to build a more advanced support center for the special victim's unit.

Olivia was asked to be the first person to run the 1-6 precinct's Women's Defense classes.

She was thrilled to be a part of such an invigorating task.

So far, it was her favorite part of the day. Her students reminded her of why she stayed at the Special Victim's Unit for so long.

They idolized her strength and teased her with nicknames like Mama B and Detective Dumbledore.

It was nice to be able to see the system work.

She'd gone through many cases where the victims were left to fend for themselves or dropped into a faceless filing cabinet.

Now they had a place to go and a means to fight for their lives.

Olivia stood in black jogging pants and an extra large NYPD T-shirt. With her belly out and her hands on her hips she held a confident hold on each woman in the room.

"Ladies, grab a partner and go over your arm holds, please."

Olivia walked around the room and helped the women go through their stances.

She got to her two favorite girls in the class, Melissa and Sam.

They were total strangers when they entered the class, but after the first day Olivia could have sworn they were bosom buddies.

Sam was lying on the ground laughing hysterically.

"Ooo, are you ok," Melissa said after tossing Sam over her shoulder. "I didn't realize I could do that."

"I didn't realize this was ass kicking day," Sam laughed gasping for air

Olivia helped Sam off the ground. "Be careful, Melissa. I don't really want you performing these on each other I just wanted you to go through the motions."

"Sorry, I was trying the move and my mind just released this energy that I can't even explain. It felt really great."

"I'm glad you feel great, cause my back has a different perspective."

Melissa winced. "Did I hurt you Sam?"

"No, girl, I'm fine, you're just lucky I like you or I would have knocked your knee out."

Olivia laughed. "Ok everyone settle down let's regroup and talk about how your week is going thus far."

All the women were badly shaken by their attacks. Some of them were raped and beaten by spouses but most of them had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This class was a release of so many things for them and it gave them a chance to fight their up hill battle with people who understood where they were coming from.

The group was a comfort zone and they all looked up to Olivia for her strong encouragement and her ability to move about so freely with a watermelon attached to her body.

The class ended and Olivia gulped down a bottle of water before attempting to roll off the ground.

Melissa and Sam helped her up and pulled the mats to the corner of the room, while the rest of the class said their goodbyes and filed out of the studio talking and cackling like a herd of hens.

"So when are you due," Sam asked.

"Eight weeks," Olivia smiled. She proudly rubbed her tummy and reached for her duffle bag.

"I got it," Melissa said picking up the bag and walking with her and Sam towards the door.

"You must be pretty excited," Sam smiled.

"I'm excited, nervous, anxious, overly happy. I knew that I'd enjoy being a mother, but something about feeling this baby grow in my stomach is indescribable. I love being pregnant," she beamed.

"Can I touch you're stomach," Melissa asked.

"Of course," Olivia grinned.

The two girls felt the round hump under Olivia's shirt and pretended for a moment that they could feel the baby. Sam looked up at Olivia with sparkling brown eyes ", is your husband excited?"

Olivia's smile faded a bit, but quickly she hid her fear with sarcasm. "Well, my baby daddy is very excited…I think."

"Ah oh," Melissa teased with a hint of shock. "Ms. Benson's got a baby daddy? And she thinks he's excited?"

"Well everyone essentially has a baby daddy," Olivia replied haughtily.

"Yeah, but you don't seem the type," Sam continued.

"Our relationship is difficult."

Sam held open the gym door for Melissa and Olivia and shook her head. ", So that doesn't mean he can't bend down and beg you to marry him. You are like one of the most amazing women and I've ever met, and you're carrying his baby."

Olivia blushed and blinked back the weak emotional woman inside of her.

Sam's comment wasn't an original thought.

Olivia had waited for Elliot to ask, but she certainly wasn't going to broach the subject. She didn't need to beg.

"Oh now, you two are much to easy to please and as far as my baby daddy goes, I don't need a piece of paper to verify his commitment. From what I've seen marriage is a dieing practice anyway."

"Wow, I can't believe you just said that," Melissa gawked. "You're not afraid of anything are you?"

Olivia looked down the street ahead of her. She ignored their gazes and lied through the skin of her teeth. "Nope."

Quickly changing the subject she turned to the girls and smiled. "Well I'll see you ladies next week."

"Good night Mama B," Melissa nodded.

"Until then, " Sam smiled.

The girls walked in the opposite direction and waved. Olivia headed down the sidewalk towards her apartment.

There was a cool fall breeze blowing her hair against the night wind. Her thoughts remained hung up on what Sam had said.

She had no doubt in her mind that Elliot would give her the moon and follow her to the ends of the earth and back, but the tiniest bit of anger ate away at her soul knowing that their child was about to take it's first breath of oxygen and he hadn't even hinted at a marriage proposal.

And although, they'd talked about moving in together he didn't really take any sort of action to start the process.

Olivia didn't even have a room for the poor thing. Everything that she'd bought so far was piled in a corner of her living room.

She looked down at her stomach and tried hard not to wallow in her own pity party.

She just wanted her child to have everything that she didn't have growing up, and it seemed as though her efforts were not as solid as she'd hoped they'd be.

Before she could take one more step she felt something behind her.

Her reaction was slow and suddenly the touch of a hand and a knife pressed to her throat.

She gasped and slightly panicked. "What are you doing," is all she could mutter.

The man forced her into an alleyway and she elbowed him in the stomach. He pulled the knife away and fell backward.

"Help," she screamed and ran for the street waving her right arm and holding her stomach with her left arm.

The man chased her and grabbed her hair. Nobody was around. It was like New York had closed for five brief minutes and she was the only one left to hear her own cries.

She could see the gym two blocks ahead of her and she screamed a second time before the man pulled her against him and held his knife against her stomach.

"Scream again and I will use this."

Olivia controlled her anxious breathing and talked calmly to the man. "Ok. Ok, I'll do what ever you need me to, just don't hurt my baby. Please. I beg of you."

The man slapped her in the face and pushed her to the ground. She'd never felt so helpless.

She made sure to take in every inch of his face. The black hair and the blue hoody.

His eyes were bright blue and he unzipped his pants and gripped at her sweat pants frantically as she did her best to make his task incredibly difficult.

"Stop moving," he yelled.

Briefly he placed the knife on the ground to pull at the elastic on her pants.

She took that moment to punch him in the face and push him off of her body.

He yelled in pain and she screamed one more desperate cry of help before he smashed her head into the brick wall behind her.

The empty open alleyway was the last thing she saw before blacking out and slumping over on her side. Darkness consuming her body.