"Come here, my baby, let's get you out of these things." Olivia spoke kindly as she gently helped her sobbing submissive strip out of her clothes down to her underwear. With that accomplished, Olivia guided Grace to the couch where she sat down and guided the brunette submissive to lie down in her arms in a relaxed, reclined position. Through the tears in her big blue eyes that blurred her Mistress's face, Grace gazed up at Olivia trustingly as Olivia gently took Grace's hand and placed it over her own heart, and then Olivia placed her own hand gently on Grace's belly.
"Try to make your heartbeat feel like mine, sweetheart. Take a deep breath in; one, two, three, four. And hold it; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And let it out slowly; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's my good girl."
Olivia guided Grace through several rounds of breathing exercises, and Grace tried to focus her attention on Olivia's hand on her belly and Olivia's strong, steady heartbeat underneath her own hand. Gradually, Grace's belly began to rise and fall calmly, and once Grace was breathing normally Olivia began to lovingly rub Grace's belly to provide further soothing. Olivia began to notice Grace growing heavy in her arms until Grace's big blue eyes finally closed and she drifted into a deep sleep, mentally and emotionally exhausted by recent events. Olivia decided to just keep Grace in her arms and let her sleep instead of taking her to bed, wanting to be right there when Grace woke up again. About forty five minutes of peaceful silence passed until Olivia's phone beeped and the brunette detective reached over to answer it.
"Benson." Olivia pressed her phone to her ear.
"Hey, Liv." Carisi's voice came over the line, "Day two is over, Grace did a fantastic job. I'm just giving you a heads up that you've been added to the list of witnesses to be called to the stand, probably tomorrow."
"All right, I'll be there." Olivia sighed, "I'm not going to make Grace come with me, I promised her that once she testified she wouldn't have to go back, so I'll have to figure out what to do with her while I'm gone. Thanks for the heads up."
Olivia set her phone aside and smiled when she looked down and saw Grace gazing up at her.
"There's my beautiful baby girl, you're awake." Olivia lovingly stroked Grace's face and Grace melted under the affection.
"Please don't leave me, Ma'am." Grace whimpered.
"I will never leave you, little one. Tomorrow I have to go for a few hours to the courthouse because I've been called to testify, and then I will come straight back to you. You get to choose, do you want a sitter tomorrow or do you want to stay home by yourself? Eileen isn't available tomorrow, so if you want a sitter I'll take you to the dungeon and one of the Nannies will look after you until I come to pick you up."
"I would like a sitter, Ma'am." Grace decided. She didn't relish the idea of being looked after by a stranger, but she wasn't comfortable being left at home on her own until Dr. Lindstrom's verdict came through, and the dungeon was a safe place so she knew that she would be protected there.
The next morning, Grace found herself draped across Olivia's lap, and her spanking lasted for less than two minutes as Olivia's strong right hand gave her incentive to behave at the dungeon. Olivia guided Grace up and held her until the young submissive stopped whimpering, and then Olivia took Grace to get dressed and loaded her into the car.
"She hasn't had breakfast yet, so she will need to be fed. She's allergic to cherries. She isn't an ageplayer, so she won't need a diaper change or a sippy cup or anything of that sort, but please give her all of the cuddling she wants. I'm not sure exactly when I will be back, but I will call the front desk when I am on my way." Olivia rattled off her list of instructions to the Nanny who would be looking after Grace while she was gone.
"Yes, Madam Benson, I will make extra sure that nothing she eats today contains cherries, and we always give cuddles on demand around here." Nanny Laura agreed.
"If she acts up, she can kneel in a corner for ten minutes, but only kneeling on the carpet, not kneeling on sandpaper or rice or anything else like that. If she needs a spanking, feel free to do so, and I will be checking her bottom when I return to make sure that any spanking was given within the legal limit." Olivia handed over the bag of things she had packed to keep Grace entertained.
Grace found herself wrapped in Olivia's arms as Olivia kissed her forehead, told her she loved her, and reminded her to be a good girl. Grace promised she would and watched as Olivia left the room to go to the courthouse, then the young brunette looked up at Nanny Laura and burst into tears, trying to kick the memories of her time in Melissa's care from her mind.
"Oh, sweetheart." Nanny Laura cooed sympathetically, "I promise you are very safe here. Your Ma'am loves you so much and she will be back as soon as she can to take you home. Come here, let's have a nice cuddle on my lap and see if we can get you calmed down, and then it will be time to find you some breakfast, as per your Ma'am's instructions. I certainly have no intention of getting myself spanked for disobeying your Ma'am." Nanny Laura teased, and Grace giggled softly through her tears.
An hour and a half later, Grace had been fed a properly nutritious breakfast and was sitting on the couch playing a game on her phone with the live-action version of Aladdin playing on the TV in the background while Nanny Laura hovered nearby to watch over her. Suddenly feeling lonely, Grace attempted to rub her own belly to soothe herself, and when that didn't work, she crawled back into Nanny Laura's lap seeking comfort.
Meanwhile, Olivia sat in a holding room at the courthouse with a cup of coffee and a magazine while she waited to be called to testify. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when the door finally opened and an officer appeared to escort her to the courtroom.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" the bailiff recited his line.
"I do." Olivia replied and then sat down on the witness stand.
"Captain Benson, please tell us what happened on the day in question." Carisi stood up.
"I took Grace to her appointment with Dr. Lindstrom and sat in the waiting room as usual while she went into his office. While I was sitting there, I got a call from Ruben Morales who works for TARU. He had been trying to help us figure out who had been texting and calling Grace from an unknown number, and he told me that he had a name for me; Peter Lindstrom. My first instinct was to pull Grace out of her session, so I got up and went to walk into Dr. Lindstrom's office and found the door locked. I kicked in the door where I found Dr. Lindstrom on top of Grace, having just finished raping her, and he was quickly placed under arrest."
"What was Dr. Lindstrom's and Grace's state of dress when you entered the room?"
"Dr. Lindstrom's pants and underwear were down around his knees. Grace's jeans and panties were also down around her knees, her panties and her shirt were torn and she had various scratches and bruises."
"Was Grace taken to the hospital?"
"Yes, I took her immediately to Mercy hospital for a rape kit, and she was found to have Dr. Lindstrom's DNA inside of her."
Carisi finished his questioning and sat down, and Dr. Lindstrom stood up. Olivia took a deep breath, reminding herself to stay calm.
"Captain Benson, what was Grace's emotional state when you entered my office on the day in question?"
"She was sobbing."
"Isn't it possible that she was upset because you had interrupted us engaged in consensual activity?"
"That's not the way she tells it."
"Has Grace ever lied to you?"
"No. Once we had to have a discussion about the danger of hiding important information from me that I need to be aware of, but she's never flat out lied to me."
"We heard Grace herself testify that she gets spanked as punishment every few weeks on average. I'll ask you the same question I asked her, how do we know she isn't lying?"
"Everyone in this courtroom has lied at some point in their life, and everyone in this courtroom has told the truth at some point in their life, both things can be true at the same time. I believe my girl."
"In your career, have you ever seen anyone make up a rape allegation?"
"Yes, but less than a handful of times. Maybe once or twice in my entire career."
By the time Dr. Lindstrom was finished with his questioning and Olivia was released from the stand, the brunette detective wasn't sure whether she should feel annoyed or amused. Dr. Lindstrom clearly knew that he had no evidence to prove him innocent, all he could do was accuse Grace of lying and try to plant seeds of doubt in the mind of the jury, and Olivia was confident that the jury was going to come back with a 'guilty' verdict. Olivia made her way out of the building to the parking lot, and as she walked she retrieved her phone and dialed a number.
"The Pleasure Domain. How can I help you?" the receptionist at the front desk at the dungeon answered the phone.
"Yes, this is Madam Benson. Please have someone inform Nanny Laura that I am on my way to pick up my girl." Olivia spoke into the phone as she slid behind the wheel of her car.
"Yes, Madam, I will see to it personally." the receptionist replied.
"Ma'am!" Grace jumped up and happily hurried into Olivia's arms.
"Hi, baby." Olivia wrapped Grace in her arms and kissed her forehead, "Were you a good girl today?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Grace replied honestly.
"She was an angel. I wish all of my clients were so well behaved and polite." Nanny Laura smiled.
Grace was delighted when Olivia took her downtown and surprised her with a scoop of her favorite cheesecake flavored ice cream drizzled with caramel as a reward for being a good girl, and when they arrived home Grace smiled when Olivia sent her off to the bathroom with a love spank to get ready for a bath.
Three days later, Carisi stood outside the courtroom pacing impatiently as the tall man ran his hand through his gray hair. It had been years since his days as a detective in the Special Victims Unit, but his friendship with Olivia Benson meant a great deal to him, and he was confident that he had done everything within his power to protect his former boss's submissive, both from Melissa Steele and from Dr. Lindstrom. He looked at his watch and noted that it had been only forty five minutes since the jury was sent to deliberate, but it felt like it had been hours. When it was finally time, he made his way back into the courtroom and took his seat as the jury was escorted back into the courtroom.
"The defendant will please rise." Liz Donnelly instructed, and Dr. Lindstrom stood up.
The bailiff handed Liz a piece of paper and she glanced at it before setting it aside.
"We the jury find the defendant…"