A/N: I'm so very sorry that I am late with this. The basement flooded Friday so needless to say I never got anywhere near a computer until about 8 pm and by then I was exhausted. I hope you like this chapter. :)

Chapter 12

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Elliot asked as he and Olivia waited out in the hallway at the courthouse. Both he and Calvin had testified the day before and now she was to be called as a witness shortly and Barba had wanted her to make a dramatic entrance.

"Of course I'm ready. I'm not wasting months of prep and all the work that everyone has done to make sure this case is airtight," she sounded slightly annoyed with him and he worried that he was pushing her away again, it wasn't intentional and they both knew it but it was still a sore subject. In the beginning as the therapist had brought up the wounds she had so very carefully tried to hide, she closed herself off to everyone except Calvin and Charlotte. Elliot was having trouble getting through and eventually he'd snapped at her. He didn't mean it and immediately apologized. But snapping at her worked and they spent the next few hours alternating crying and talking. Since then, things had begun to get back to normal. Well as normal as they could be.

"I know you wouldn't, I just don't want Barba's pushing to cause you to do something you don't want to do," he pointed out. She immediately softened and grabbed his hand.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just… I'm nervous," she admitted. Olivia didn't get nervous at trial. She never had. On the other hand, she hadn't really had to do anything like this before except after Sealview, something she still refused to talk about at any length and some of that had come spilling out with the therapist. Of course the major difference between the two cases was the fact that fear ruled every decision she had made for the last few months. A fear that she couldn't go to bed at night without Elliot checking the locks twelve times or the fact that their new apartment door had three sets of locks, each with different keys. There was also the fear of letting the kids out of her sight. Calvin had been very understanding throughout her fears and he had made sure to not ask for things like hanging out with his friends unless he was getting a ride with someone who Elliot had promised he'd run a background check on. The Captain promised he'd give Calvin rides and that alleviated the problem. Charlotte had been easy as Olivia would just keep the almost one year old home with her.

"It's ok. That's why I'm here," Elliot smiled and pulled her close to kiss her forehead.

"There are my two favorite detectives," a familiar voice spoke up as it approached them.

"Casey," Olivia smiled as the redhead sat down next to her and gave her a hug.

"Good to see you," Casey smiled back.

"Sneaking out of court?" Elliot asked.

"The defense asked for a ten minute recess. I can smell a plea deal coming," she smirked.

"Nice," Elliot smiled.

"Detective Benson?" The courthouse officer called out.

"That's my cue," Olivia smiled slightly.

"You just remember that I'm thinking of you and I'm taking you out later," Casey said as they slowly stood to their feet.

"I'll see you later," Olivia nodded. Casey gave her another quick hug before watching her friends head into the courtroom.

"Do you need any assistance ma'am?" The court officer asked.

"Just hold the door for me?" She wondered.

"Anything for a fellow officer of the law," he winked and Olivia smiled. He opened the door wide and she took her first few steps into the courtroom. There was an audible gasp from a few people as she walked through the gallery and toward the witness stand. There was no doubt what she was doing looked painful but Barba was hoping that the jury would most definitely feel that the Detective had suffered enough. Her kidneys and ribs had healed fine. They would not be noticeable but the fact that she walked with the help of a pair of forearm crutches would tell them that the damage to her spine was something she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.

Elliot got the gate next to the prosecutor and defense tables and Lewis's lawyer, Miss Hardgrove, immediately stood up and objected.

"Your Honor, this is highly irregular. Could the detective not sat in the gallery to lessen her walk to the stand?"

"Detective Benson had therapy this morning, your Honor, and could not be here before the proceedings began. She did not want to cause a ruckus during anyone else's testimony," Barba immediately came to her defense. He chuckled inside at the fact that Hardgrove was doing her best to make it look like she was actually trying to defend her client. The fact of the matter was, she couldn't do much. Vanessa Mayer's testimony had practically put the final nail in the coffin but only Olivia could finally drive it home.

"I think we can allow one of NYPD's finest a little leeway when it comes to her therapy," the judge gave the defense attorney a look. Olivia, almost unsteadily, got into the witness seat and was quickly sworn in.

"Detective Benson, thank you for coming today. Do you recognize the defendant?" Barba asked.

"That is William Lewis," she nodded.

"How do you know him?" Barba wanted to know.

"He is a sexual predator and he caused the death of Alice Parker before breaking into my family's apartment. He also had my son, Calvin, kidnapped," Olivia said.

"Objection. My client was never convicted of Alice Parker's death," Hardgrove spoke up.

"Prior bad acts judge that I intend to show led to her client's assault on Detective Benson," Barba explained.

"You're walking a very fine line Mr. Barba. Make your connection quickly," the judge told him. The ADA nodded and continued.

"How do you know that Mr. Lewis killed Alice Parker?"

"I got him to hypothetically confess to me and my partner, Detective Amaro. Not only that, Alice gave us a description of him trying to commit a lewd act in front of a couple of girls. Once he knew who talked to us about the act that Detective Rollins caught him at, he tortured and raped her over the course of eighteen hours," Olivia said.

"So why would he come after you?" Barba asked.

"I got into his head. Lewis did not like it that the team had been able to figure out who he really was and what he had done. During my interrogation of him, he tried several times to get into my head but I did not let him. When he got away with Alice's death, I was not in a very good frame of mind and headed home," she replied before swallowing hard.

"Detective?" The Judge asked, seeing that she was pausing.

"Sorry Your Honor," she quickly apologized. He nodded and she continued.

"He was already inside the apartment. He pointed a gun to my head and tried to force me into my daughter's room. He knew that my husband would be coming home in about thirty minutes and he intended to catch him and my daughter when they entered her room. He said that I was always trying to be a hard-ass and that he wanted to see how much of one I was after we had… fun…"

"And by fun he meant…" Barba hated doing this but he had no choice.

"Assaulting me in front of my husband and daughter," the words came out and she could do nothing about the tears that slowly started to roll down her cheeks. It was painful and Olivia was beginning to realize just how painful as the jurors looked at each other. The words said out loud in front of a crowd of people she did not know, who would feel sorry for her, made her stomach turn. She hated pity, even if she deserved the smallest bit of it.

"What happened before your husband got home?" Barba cursed himself for having to ask but he knew that Olivia could keep it together.

"We fought. I thought I could win but then he told me that he had Calvin and that if I didn't do as he wanted me to that he'd take the place he'd hidden Calvin to the grave. I saw no other option and I gave him my weapon," she paused and wiped her cheeks with her hands.

"He then forced me into Charlotte's room and started hitting me. First with his fists and then his feet. It seemed like an eternity before he stopped and when he did, he started to tell me all the things he intended to do to me while Elliot was forced to watch. At some point, I almost passed out from the pain but he pulled my hair and told me to get up. I couldn't get to my feet fast enough and he kicked me again just for good measure before pulling me up by my hair. Then I heard the key in the door and knew Elliot was walking into this and that it was really going to happen," she said.

"What happened instead?" Barba asked.

"I blacked out when the door hit my head. The next thing I knew I could feel an immense jolt of pain and then I woke up in the hospital," Olivia said.

"What were your injuries?" The ADA wanted to know.

"I had severe bruising which included my kidneys. The doctors had removed my spleen and repaired my lung where one of my four broken ribs had punctured it. The gun shot had damaged my spinal cord," she replied.

"Are you able to return to work?" Barba asked.

"No," Olivia said.

To Be Continued…