Author's Comments: One more day!

Chapter Nine

"C'mon, Stabler, I asked for my attorney. You have to stop the interrogation."

Elliot said forcefully, "It's really loud in here. I'm having a hard time hearing." He looked up at the mirrored window. "Can you hear what he's saying Fin?" After a moment of silence, he said, "Now, where were we? You were saying how you like it rough? You mean like this?"

Elliot decked Tucker in the cheek with a fist, and Tucker let out a satisfying grunt. Elliot pulled Tucker's chair out and to the side as far as he could with Tucker's hands still chained to the table. "Stabler, c'mon. You know I can file—"

"Did you like a little of this?" Elliot jabbed Tucker in the ribs with his knuckles so hard that he was sure there would be bruising on his own fingers later, but then he followed it up with another punch to Tucker's ribcage. Tucker sagged, inhaling sharply.

Taking advantage of Tucker's weakened state, Elliot grabbed the bottom half of Tucker's leg and held it out straight. Just as Tucker began to struggle to pull his leg away, Elliot brought his knee down just above Tucker's knee, and heard a pleasing snap followed by a pitiful howl.

A knock came on the window again, and gratitude toward Fin's unwillingness to intervene washed over Elliot. He turned to the window and held up a finger, his breath labored as he said, "Just one more minute. I promise he'll live."

He half-expected Fin or someone else to wash in and restrain him, telling him the interrogation was over. But the door never opened, and Elliot looked back at Tucker, who was writhing from the pain of a broken femur bone.

Elliot decided to drag it out as long as he could by using Tucker's face and ribs as a punching bag a little longer, and then he prepared for the grand finale by standing over the slimeball, watching as Tucker's battered head rolled up and he pleaded in a whisper, "Please."

"Is that what Olivia said when you beat her?"

Elliot faced Tucker and placed his hands on the man's shoulders, and then dropped all his weight on one knee that landed in Tucker's crotch. Elliot didn't think he had ever heard a scream so piercing in all his life. "That's only half of what you deserve for torturing her," he said through locked teeth into Tucker's ear.

Now the door clicked open, but before Fin could pull Elliot away, he stood and backed up with his hands in the air, saying loudly, "It's alright, Fin. He'll be fine. That's what he gets for trying to assault me."

Then he un-cuffed Tucker's hands and cast one last furious glance into Fin's wide eyes before exiting the room. He paused in the hallway when he discovered two other members of Liv's squad—Rollins and Carisi—standing with mouths agape, apparently having watched him during part or all of the interrogation. "Excuse me," he said, brushing past Rollins with his head held high.

"How could you do that?" she said, following him. "I mean, I'm glad the bastard got what he deserved, but now we can't use any of that against him."

Elliot headed toward the elevator. "I wouldn't have done it if we didn't have enough to lock him up regardless of his testimony."

Rollins trailed him all the way to the elevator, speechless, and then watched him get on. Now the only thing Elliot could hope for was that Liv's fellow officers would keep their mouths shut. But even if he lost his job, or even his freedom, it was worth it to give the asshole his just desserts.

Whoosh-crack . . . whoosh-crack . . . whoosh-crack . . . light pierced through Olivia's eyelids, muffled sounds growing clearer as her aching body forced her into consciousness.

Crack. " . . . said as long as there's no infection, she'd probably . . ."

Whoosh . . . " . . . good, I'll let her rest . . ."

Crack . . . She startled the rest of the way awake, unable to remember where she was, looking around for Tucker, moving her arms to find that they were no longer bound above her head. But now she recognized the voices she had heard, not as Tucker's, but Elliot's and Carisi's. The sound she had heard must have been the door closing, combined with the monitoring equipment she could see now attached to her finger.

Her fingers—and her hand—looked splotchy with dull gray markings, with red marks around her wrists where the rope had rubbed them raw.

"Hey," said Elliot's voice, and she now noticed him sitting next to the bed where she lay on her side, facing him.

"Hey," she said back. She didn't want to look at him, ashamed of the predicament she had gotten herself into, which he had tried to warn her about.

Suddenly she remembered Noah, and panicked for a second, trying to sit up, but the pain, combined with Elliot's hands, kept her down. "What about Noah?" she said. "He needs his mom—"

"It's okay, Liv. The babysitter is keeping him tonight."

"Lucy?"

He nodded. She settled back down and tried to get her bearings in her groggy state.

She didn't remember much about the rescue—only bits and pieces, like Fin's face next to hers as he tried to hoist up her dead weight so he could free her from the hook. Or Elliot's hand, which had held hers the entire time—she did remember that. That hand now rested on the arm of the chair in which he sat, just a short distance from hers, and she wanted it again.

She leaned toward him, reaching out, but he was too far away, and every movement made her body scream.

"Hey, don't try to move," said Elliot, leaning toward her to anticipate her needs. "Your stitches are still fresh—you need to lie still so they won't rip. Just tell me what you want."

She blinked back tears of frustration, not wanting to admit to needing anything right now. What she had been through had already been humiliating enough. But she was desperate, and she was going to suck up her pride and ask anyway.

"I . . . can I have your hand?" she said, her voice cracking.

Elliot leaned forward without hesitation and snatched the limp, cold hand in his, and the transfer of warmth was instantaneous. "Yeah, of course." And then he did something she never would have expected—while clutching her hand tightly, he raised his other arm to cradle his elbow around her head, stroking her hair gently against her forehead. "You can have anything you want right now, Liv."

The calming touch made her feel safe for now, safe enough that the wall of tears that had been lurking behind her eyelids broke, and she released big fat salty drops with each blink. Elliot reacted to them by sweeping one away with a thumb, and then continuing to caress her matted hair. "It's okay, Liv, I'm here, and you're safe now," he said, but that only made the tears come faster.