A/N: Warning for mildly graphic self-harm.
"But, Ma'am!" Grace whined.
"Little miss mischief, if I hear one more whine out of you today, you'll spend the rest of the afternoon writing lines." Olivia scolded. She was trying to be sympathetic to the fact that after four days on the couch Grace was bored out of her mind, but there were still rules to be obeyed. Tears welled up in Grace's big blue eyes and her lower lip trembled as she hung her head, and Olivia softened a little as she bent down to lovingly stroke Grace's face.
"I'm sorry." Grace whimpered.
"I know you're bored, and I promise we will find something to do, but you know your rules and I expect you to obey them. Do you understand?" Olivia spoke kindly, gently lifting Grace's chin.
"Yes, Ma'am." Grace choked out.
"That's my good girl. Come here, my baby." Olivia sat on the couch and cuddled Grace on her lap, gently rubbing her pajama-clad bottom and cooing to her lovingly as Grace snuggled down into her arms, "There's no need to cry, lovey, I'm not mad. I know you're just frustrated. I promise after tomorrow you'll be a free woman, only one more day of hanging out on the couch."
"Emily still won't talk to me." Grace said sadly. Emily had sent her one text message to curse at her after the SVU detectives had shown up at the hospital, but so far all of Grace's attempts to make amends with her new friend had been ignored.
"She'll come around, sweetheart, you'll see. Just give her a little bit of time to be angry, she's probably scared." Olivia explained as she rocked Grace in her arms. This wasn't her first rodeo, she had seen victims behave in all kinds of different ways in her years at SVU. She was just grateful that in the end Emily had admitted to both the beating at the hands of her Mistress and the rape at the hands of an unknown man, for whom they had no DNA because all the evidence on Emily's body had been washed away when she was brought in for surgery.
"Yeah, I know. Maybe I'll leave her alone for a while and try again in a few days." Grace decided, and received a kiss to her forehead.
"That sounds like a good idea. Now, how about we break out the Monopoly board?" Olivia offered, knowing it would take up about three hours of their day to complete a full game.
"Yes, Ma'am." Grace nodded her agreement and crawled off of Olivia's lap onto the couch, receiving an affectionate pat to her bottom as she did so. Olivia then got up to retrieve the game from the hall closet.
In the middle of the game, Olivia's cell phone rang and she glanced at the caller ID.
"Sorry, baby girl, I have to take this." Olivia pressed her phone to her ear, "Benson. Hey, Carisi."
"Hey, Liv. Listen, I'm afraid I've got some really bad news. I need you to put me on speaker." Carisi sounded exhausted and distressed.
"Sure, one second." Olivia turned to Grace, "Come here, my baby, Carisi needs to talk to us." Olivia settled Grace to cuddle on her lap and set the phone to speaker, "All right, we're here. What's up?"
"Grace, I am so sorry about this." Carisi apologized immediately before he said anything else.
"What happened?" Grace asked fearfully, cuddling into Olivia for security.
"It's a long story, I've been in Elizabeth Donnelly's chambers all day doing everything I can think of to fix this mess. We still don't have a date for your trial against Dr. Lindstrom, but a lot has happened and Dr. Lindstrom has decided to fire his lawyer and represent himself in court." Carisi said reluctantly.
"No. Absolutely not." Olivia growled protectively as Grace felt sheer terror grip her heart.
"It's not my call, Liv. By law, Dr. Lindstrom has every right to refuse counsel and represent himself in court if that's what he wants to do." Carisi tried to explain.
"I don't care. You need to figure out some way to stop this from happening. I won't have my baby subjected to that monster again."
Without saying a single word, Grace unwrapped herself from Olivia's arms, got up from Olivia's lap, and disappeared down the hall toward the bedroom, and Olivia let her go.
"At this point, the only way to keep him from representing himself is to settle out of court, and I've already tried that. He has no interest in settling out of court. I even offered to take life without parole off the table, and he still won't settle."
"Carisi, there's got to be something, anything you haven't tried yet. This sicko is just using this as an excuse to torment my baby!" Olivia argued.
"I wish there was something I could do, Liv, but I'm out of tricks."
"Well, she just walked out of the room, so I've got to go make sure she's all right. Thanks for the update, keep us in the loop and let us know when you have a trial date."
"Will do. I've got to go, I've got court in twenty minutes."
Grace ran to the bedroom and dropped to her knees in the middle of the room as she began to sob deeply. She wasn't sure how long she stayed on her knees before she jumped up and ran into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She rummaged through cupboards and drawers before she found what she was looking for and began to slash at her arm, wincing and watching with tears streaming down her face as blood trickled from the wounds she created.
Olivia tossed her phone aside and hurried down the hall toward the sound of Grace's sobbing. She didn't see Grace immediately when she walked into the bedroom, and then she saw the closed bathroom door and hurried to it, finding it locked and knowing exactly what was happening on the other side.
"Grace, I'm coming in." Olivia used her shoulder to ram the door open, "Oh, sweetheart."
Olivia grabbed a towel and went to apply pressure to Grace's wounds, wrapping Grace in her arms. Feeling Olivia's arms around her, Grace instantly began to struggle and fight and scream, dropping the razor into the sink as she gradually lost her grip on it.
"You promised! You promised he wouldn't be allowed to talk to me!" Grace screamed, struggling to fight off her Mistress and retrieve her razor. She almost managed to get loose and run toward the sink, but Olivia grabbed her again and held her tight, once again attempting to apply pressure to her wounds, "Let me go! Screw you! You promised! Let me go!"
"Calm down, baby, you don't need to do this to yourself. You just need to breathe, I know you're afraid."
"You don't know jack! You promised! Let me go, you bitch!" Grace screamed, continuing to struggle and fight with renewed energy.
"Grace Elizabeth, that is enough." Olivia managed to turn Grace to the side and land one sharp spank to her thigh.
It was enough to shock Grace into silence and stillness. In a situation like this, Olivia normally would have let Grace fight until she exhausted herself, just as she had done up at the cabin, but in this case Grace was bleeding quite badly and her wounds needed to be tended to immediately. Shocking Grace into obedience was the best way to get things accomplished quickly.
"Good girl, calm down. I'm just going to apply pressure to your arm to stop the bleeding." Olivia explained as she pressed the towel to Grace's wounds.
Grace suddenly went limp in Olivia's arms, falling to her knees on the bathroom floor and taking Olivia with her. Olivia's heart shattered when Grace began to wail as if someone were ripping her soul apart.
"That's it, just let it out, my baby." Olivia soothed, "Now, if I let go of you so that I can tend to these wounds properly, will you stay still like a good girl?"
Grace didn't stop wailing, but she nodded after a moment or two.
"That's my good girl. Just relax and let it out, lovey." Olivia soothed.
Olivia carefully tended to Grace's wounds, being as feather gentle as she possibly could as she washed, medicated, and bandaged them.
"You promised!" Grace wailed from where she sat on the bathroom floor, but she was no longer screaming.
"I know, sweetheart. I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so sorry." Olivia replied genuinely, "There, all better now. Good girl, calm down. Take a deep breath in; one, two, three, four. And hold it; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And let it out; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Good girl."
"I'm sorry I called you a bitch, Ma'am." Grace whimpered a genuine apology.
"Thank you for your apology, honey. You are absolutely forgiven, and when you are completely calm we'll deal with the consequences. Right now you just breathe and relax, and we are going to talk about how you feel about what we just heard."
"I'm afraid. I don't want to talk to him." Grace whimpered.
"I know, baby, I'm scared too and I am so sorry that this is something I can't protect you from." Olivia lovingly stroked Grace's face.
Grace looked up in confusion and amazement upon hearing Olivia admit that she was afraid, and upon seeing Grace's expression Olivia chuckled.
"You didn't expect me to be human, did you?" Olivia teased.
"Why is he choosing to represent himself?" Grace whimpered.
"I don't know, baby. Personally, I think it's an intimidation tactic, but I know it's not going to work because you are so strong."
"I don't feel strong. I feel helpless and weak, like he stole something from me and I can't find it no matter how hard I try. It's like I'm back in Melissa's dungeon all over again" Grace admitted.
"Look at me, little one. You are safe right here with me, and we are going to get through this together." Olivia promised.
"You said something about consequences?" Grace sniffled.
"Yes, I did. I understand that you're scared, and you have every right to be. But you are in complete control of your tongue, and calling me a bitch was out of line." Olivia scolded.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am." Grace apologized again.
"I know, and as I said, you are forgiven. Normally, I would spank you for speaking to me like that, but you aren't supposed to have spankings for the rest of this week, so instead, I am going to wash your mouth out with soap and you are going to write lines. And while you do that, I am going to call Kat and cancel your boxing lesson next week, since you have new scars."
"Yes, Ma'am, I understand." Grace agreed reluctantly.
"Come on, let's get it over with."
Grace sat on the closed toilet seat lid and watched with tears in her eyes as Olivia prepared the soapy cloth. Olivia placed her hand on the nape of Grace's neck, and Grace squeezed her eyes closed and obediently opened her mouth. Olivia spent several minutes scrubbing Grace's mouth, including her tongue, the sides of her mouth, and against her teeth. When Grace's mouth had been sufficiently scrubbed, Olivia placed the bar of soap in her mouth, guided Grace to lay her head against her hip, and spent the next five minutes delivering a scolding lecture on the importance of speaking with a civil tongue. By the end of Olivia's lecture, Grace was weeping miserably, feeling chastised and embarrassed.
"All right, little miss mischief," Olivia finally removed the bar of soap from Grace's mouth, but she did not kiss her forehead, "Go to the sink and spit as much as you want to. You can rinse your mouth when you finish writing your lines."
Grace stood up and spent several minutes spitting out as much soap as humanly possible. She finally accepted that the disgusting taste of ivory wasn't going away anytime soon and turned back to Olivia with her head hanging in shame and tears streaming down her face. Olivia guided Grace out to the kitchen table where Grace sat down with a pen and several sheets of paper and began to write her lines, blinking through her tears so that she could see the page. Olivia called Kat and then busied herself in the kitchen, staying nearby so that Grace would know she was still there. Grace's lines seemed to drag on forever, but finally she was finished, put her pen down, and gently massaged her hands as she whimpered and sniffled while Olivia glanced over the pages she had written. Olivia said nothing for a long moment, and that made Grace nervous, causing her to cry a little bit harder. Olivia finished looking over Grace's work, and she turned to her sweet little submissive, making everything about her facial expression, tone of voice, and body language extremely gentle and loving.
"Such a very good girl. Come here, my baby, let's go rinse that awful taste out of your mouth and then you get cuddles."
"I'm sorry! I'll never speak to you like that again!" Grace wept.
"I know, sweetie. My good girl is all forgiven. Come on, let's go let you rinse your mouth and then I will hold you." Olivia cooed.
Grace rinsed her mouth with water for several minutes, and then Olivia took her out to the couch where she sat down and cuddled Grace on her lap while Grace finished her crying. Olivia knew that Grace was mostly crying out of fear of the future rather than the current punishment, but that was fine. Given everything they were about to endure, Grace deserved to have a good cry in her Mistress's arms.