Chapter Ninety Six – Hell to Pay

Ben just stood there watching as Olivia was loaded into a cop car and driven away. He was in too much shock to register what he was supposed to be doing next. Suvi eventually looked up at him and shocked him back to reality.

"Ar-oo-ooo. Roo!"

"Oh. Right. Right." He had things to do. "Come on, Suvi."

He led Suvi out of the jewelry store that he'd hoped would give him some insight into a potential important purchase down the road. Now instead of worrying about jewelry styles he was worrying about bailing his girlfriend out of jail. Ben pulled his cellphone out and immediately called Olivia's former captain. Unfortunately Cragen didn't answer. Ben almost swore. He was going to have to go with plan B, which meant actually going down to the 16th precinct. Well, hopefully the cabbie he was going to have to flag down wouldn't realize that he wasn't Suvi's real master. That would just be awkward.

Luck hadn't been on Olivia's side, but it was on his. He managed to get to Olivia's old precinct easily enough and had to wonder if Olivia had already arrived to the precinct she was headed to. Ben nearly speed walked to the squad room. All the extra time to think had made him even more uneasy than he already had been. He really wasn't sure how much time he had to get to Cragen and get back to Olivia before something happened that couldn't be undone.

The sound of paws and claws was not a common noise in the police squad room. It immediately drew attention. Amanda looked up and frowned. Ben was here without Olivia, and what was more, he was here with Suvi and without Olivia. She'd never seen Suvi without Olivia.

"Ben… what…"

"Where's Cragen?" he asked, cutting her off before she could even finish asking the question.

"His office," she returned, her forehead wrinkled.

Ben nodded and didn't give her a second look. Instead he hurried through the room right toward the captain's office. The door was closed, but he didn't care. He had no intention of wasting time knocking either. When he simply walked right in Cragen looked up in annoyance. He was just about to snap at whichever detective had decided to unceremoniously walk into his office when he realized it wasn't a detective. It was Ben, and he looked like he was bordering on panic.

"Olivia was arrested," he stated without wasting any time.

"What?"

Every admonishment Cragen had been considering using in response to Ben's rudeness flew right out the door, and all work was completely forgotten.

"She was arrested when she wouldn't leave a store. The cop didn't believe Suvi was a service dog."

Cragen immediately got to his feet. He was definitely going to stop this. Of all the ridiculous things…

"What precinct?"

"Uh…"

That was something he hadn't thought about asking, and it could easily be a big problem. If they didn't know where to go they couldn't help Olivia.

"Did you see the numbers on the pin on his lapels?"

"Twenty six."

Cragen nodded and searched out a number. Once he got it he ushered Ben out of his office. Ben didn't feel bad about speed walking into the squad room now since Cragen was moving at the exact same pace to leave.

"Fin, you're in charge," Cragen called out.

"Me?" Fin asked in shock.

"Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone."

In a normal situation Ben probably would have laughed and thrown in some ridiculous comment about everything Fin could do to the squad room that didn't involve burning it down. This wasn't a normal situation though, and he was too worried about Olivia to even manage a smile.

As they headed out to the lot with the unmarked squad cars Cragen called the captain of the 26th precinct. He could hopefully keep Olivia from being booked before he could get there and clear everything up.

"Charlie, this is Don Cragen from the 1-6. One of your unis brought in a former detective of mine. Olivia Benson. I'm not sure if you know any of her history, but I'm giving you a heads up on this one. Don't book her. It could easily come down on your head. I'm on my way there now and can explain more then."

Once they got on the road Ben turned an uneasy eye on Cragen.

"You think you can get her out of this?"

"Do you think she did something wrong?"

"Besides standing up for her beliefs to an almost obnoxious level? No."

Cragen nodded. He'd expected as much. There was no legitimate reason why she should have been arrested in the first place. Even if she had done something to deserve arrest he probably could have gotten her off the hook. Doing that when the arrest didn't even stand up would be easy, and he would like to make sure the uni that had put Olivia through this travesty was punished for it in some way too.

Ben found himself spending the rest of the drive in silence, worrying about what could have happened since she'd been taken away. If something medical happened Suvi wouldn't be with her. Plus, all of her pills were in Suvi's vest, so she wouldn't have those either. Suvi was keeping his head on the console, so Ben began petting it. It didn't take him long to realize why Olivia did it all the time when she was uneasy. Amazingly enough, it helped. At least a little bit.

Even once they reached the precinct and headed inside Ben was visibly anxious. Cragen reached out and patted Ben's shoulder.

"Relax, son. We'll get this taken care of."

When they walked into the squad room Ben's eyes immediately scanned around to find Olivia and the uni that had brought her in. It wasn't hard to spot the uni. He was camped out at a desk doing paperwork. Olivia was a bit harder to find, but he finally spotted her in a holding cell. It almost made him sick.

"Come with me," Cragen told him and started toward his fellow captain's office.

They'd only gotten halfway across the room when the precinct erupted.

"Hey, Kendall. Your girl in lock-up's seizing."

The young uni that had picked Olivia up glanced upward and toward the holding cell. Ben and Cragen followed his gaze and found Olivia on the ground, her body jerking spastically. They all ran toward her.

"Someone call a bus," one of the unis called out.

"Hold off on that," Cragen corrected.

During all of the commotion Suvi yanked his lead out of Ben's hand and raced toward Olivia. He weaved between cops and shoved the man closest to Olivia aside so he could take his place protecting her head. There was no way he was going to let anyone near her. When anyone tried a fierce growl rumbled from Suvi's chest. They'd separated him from Olivia once already today. That was not happening again, especially since she needed him right now.

"Kendall, this your woman with the fake service dog?" Charlie, the captain of the 26th, said.

"The dog's as fake as that badge on your belt," Cragen corrected.

It had been a long time since Cragen had seen Olivia have a seizure. Nearly two years. He didn't want to witness another one, so he focused on the other captain instead. Olivia had Ben and Suvi with her, and it wasn't like he would be much help anyway. It was better for his sanity not to see Olivia like that if he could help it. Keeping his sanity and dealing with the police part of the situation would be the most help to Olivia anyway.

"You're Cragen?" When Cragen nodded he continued, "And this is why you told me to hold off."

It wasn't a question. Seeing Olivia in the middle of a seizure was proof enough that his officer might have gone a bit too far.

"Captain, she's got a pretty bad cut on her head. We really should get a bus," one of the officers said when Olivia's seizure ended.

Charlie glanced over at Cragen, leaving the decision up to him.

"Just get your building medic. We'll see if we need a bus when she wakes up."

While Cragen was dealing with the medical situation, Suvi had rolled Olivia over, curled up next to her, and begun licking her fingers. Ben had sat down next to her as well, waiting for her to come around. When she did her memory was a bit blurry.

"Ben?"

"Hey, Sunshine."

"Where am I?"

"A police precinct," he answered.

She blinked for a moment and looked around despite the fact that her head hurt. Everything slowly clicked into place.

"Ah, right. Think I managed to convince them I'm not a fake?"

Ben almost laughed.

"I think you did, but Cragen could have handled that for you. You didn't have to be so dramatic."

That time it was Olivia's turn to hold back laughter despite how much pain she was in. Ben grinned and gently brushed her hair away from the bloody gash on her forehead. She winced in pain. When she reached up to inspect her head Ben quickly grabbed her wrist before she could.

"Don't touch it."

"We have a medic coming to look at that, Liv," Cragen told her as he stepped into the cell. "Looks like you hit your head on the edge of the bench."

Olivia's eyes immediately flickered up to him.

"Please don't tell me that medic is an EMT."

"No. I wouldn't let them call," he reassured her.

"Thanks, Cap. I owe you one. Or maybe more than one."

It didn't take long for the medic to get Olivia patched up. Once that was done Charlie sent all of his officers back to work, except for Kendall. The kid had a bit of a reckoning coming after this fiasco. While Charlie was doing that, Cragen and Ben helped Olivia back up onto the bench. When the area around the holding cell was clear Cragen started introductions.

"Charlie Cratos, this is retired detective first grade Olivia Benson."

"Detective first grade?" His eyes shifted rather coldly to Kendall. He'd been told Olivia had lied about having a service dog and about being a cop. It was turning out she hadn't lied about anything.

"She was one of mine before an accident on the job put her on disability."

Charlie glared at Kendall, his face going a deep red.

"You are damn lucky Captain Cragen asked me to hold off on booking her. If you had booked her, I guarantee you it would have been a damn cluster. Every victim's rights and disabilities group would have been on the whole department. You would have lost your job and it still wouldn't have been enough."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Go wait in my office. We aren't done."

Charlie watched his officer, ice chips glittering in his eyes, until Kendall made it to his office and closed the door. Then he turned back to Cragen, Ben, and Olivia.

"Captain Cragen, Ms. Benson, you have my most abject apologies for this mess. If there's anything else I can do to make this up to you."

"Remind all of your people what the laws are pertaining to service dogs. Please," Olivia said softly.

"I'll do that, ma'am."

Olivia might have been satisfied with just that, but Cragen wasn't. This officer had just put his detective, his friend, through a terrible ordeal, and she'd been through more than enough of those.

"Let me join you in your office so I can make sure he knows what he's done and that will be enough for me," Cragen stated firmly.

"Done. I'll meet you in there."

"Ben, you can get her home?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Thank you, Cap," Olivia added as she pulled herself to her feet.

"Take care of yourself, Liv."

She smiled slightly and wrapped her arm around Ben so he could help steady her. They walked out together, Olivia leaning heavily on Ben. She was tired and still hurting.

"Please tell me we can just go home, Ben."

"Of course we can, Liv. After all of this we can do whatever you want."

All she wanted was to go home and curl up with Ben and Suvi for the rest of the day. That would be more than enough for her.