I don't own anything.
Last time he was in the 16th precinct he was a suspect in the murder of Jesse Crewes. Detective Olivia Benson also pulled a gun on him without meaning it so there's a couple weird memories he has in this place.
One memory that will be plastered in his mind forever is Olivia pulling him aside with sad eyes, apologizing to him for treating him so badly after getting justice for Jesse. Along with that apology she told him something.
"I was sexually assaulted 6 months ago." he remembers the way she looked so vulnerable, her eyes finding her way towards the floor, trying to find something to look at, completely avoiding his eyes.
"Stop kicking yourself." he remembers telling her. Remembers looking at her, trying to figure out why she couldn't look at him. When she finally looked up at him, he could see the shame in her eyes, the shame of guiltiness that burned into his own eyes.
He remembers that say so clearly. That day, 7 years ago.
"Dominic?" Master Sergeant Dominic Pruitt was shaken out of whatever trance he was in. He looked up to see the one and only Olivia Benson walking toward him from the elevator.
"Detective Benson! Long time no see, huh?" Dominic put on a smile as Olivia reached where he was standing. He put his hand out and she followed, giving him a firm shake.
"It's actually Lieutenant now." of course she corrected him. "If you see 7 years as a long time, then yes, I would say it's been a while. What brings you here?" She gave a small smile, exceptionally happy to see a familiar face.
"Wow! Lieutenant Olivia Benson. Congratulations!" he nodded. "I'm in town for a couple of days and I saw you on the news yesterday talking about a missing boy. I decided to come down and see why you're still here, you should be married, had a few kids by now." He's only joking but he can tell Olivia wasn't taking it as a joke seeing her smile fade from her face.
"Anyway.. I see you're heading out, can I interest you in a Nightcap? Catch up?" you could say she was surprised when he completely changed the subject. She was even more surprised when he started to lightly bounce on his heels with a hopeful smile.
"Um, I'm not married but I do in fact have a son. Noah is his name, I adopted him, it was actually just finalized. He's two. So I have to decline the drink offer for tonight and go relieve my babysitter." she answered with an apologetic smile. His smile dying down slightly. "Rain check?" and… there was that hopeful smile again.
"Rain Check it is. Tomorrow night? We can meet at the bar 2 blocks from here."
You could say she agreed without an argument because 7:08pm that night, she found herself standing in front of the bar 2 blocks from the precinct.
Dominic wasn't hard to spot at all. He had on a white dress shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans on. Olivia on the other hand, was still in her work clothes. She made her way over to the stool he was keeping for her and and sat down, ordering a drink. They sat in silence for more than a few seconds.
"How was work?" Dominic asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Open and shut case, then paperwork all day." She gave a simple answer, not wanting to reveal too much.
Completely changing the subject, "A lot has changed since I last saw you. You have a little boy, you're now Lieutenant, you look really good too." he gave her a smile as she raised an eyebrow at the last comment.
"Yeah, a lot has changed, some good, some bad. But that's life right?" Olivia started thinking about everything good that was happening in her life and that's literally two things. All the others ruined her life.
Seeing Dominic here, brought back memories. Memories of Lowell Harris. Telling Dominic, a stranger, what happened to her. Her face fell as those thoughts brought her to thinking about William Lewis. Sexually assaulting her, verbally assaulting her, just assaulting her in general. Everything he did to her, haunts her. She doesn't realize she got so deep in thought she got until-
"Olivia?" he brought her back.¨You good?" he pressed.
¨Yeah, it's nothing. Just thinking about some stuff."
"Care to share?" he had a feeling he knew what she was thinking about because as soon as he stepped into the precinct and saw her, he thought about that too. He's sure his face fell exactly like hers did.
"Just thinking about the last time you were here. A lot of things happened that day." she didn't want to go on, but for some reason she just kept talking, not being able to stop herself.
"I understand, Olivia. I remember."
"What I told you, I only told a number of people what happened. I don't really know why I told you, but I do remember your words helping me." Vulnerability is what she's feeling right now. Olivia Benson doesn't do vulnerability.
"Quit kicking yourself."
"I say that to myself more times than I can count and it always helps me, so why not let it help you too." Dominic, somehow, knows how to make this sound better.
"You remember when I told you I was assaulted 6 months before I met you?" her soft voice broke Dominic's heart and he slowly nodded, not knowing why she was bringing this up completely.
"About a year ago, before I found Noah, There was a rapist, William Lewis." Olivia started to explain, taking a breath. "he burned his finger prints off, so we wouldn't be able to ID him. After we did get an ID, we interrogated him and we had to let him go. That night, when I got home.." she trailed off, blinking tears away. "He was in my apartment with a gun."
"Welcome home. Detective."
"Needless to say, he wasn't very nice to me." she dryly chuckled. "I was gone a few days, he sexually assaulted me in the bathroom, held a gun in my mouth, burned me, forced alcohol down my throat, even killed a cop while I was tied down in the back seat. "Finally, my team found me. I needed therapy, a lot of it. He was found guilty and sent to jail." when she finished she took a very long drink.
Dominic looked like he was about to puke from hearing all of that. "Olivia, I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry." Olivia simply shook her head, her lips curling up at how compassionate he was.
"I'm not done." se simply stated. Dominic literally looked like he was going to fall off the bar stool but, he listened as she told the rest of her story.
"About a month or so after being put in jail, he poisoned himself and was transferred to a nearby hospital. He got out, killing a guard andraped a nurse and took her outfit and walked out of the hospital. He facetimed me as soon as he got out." she closed her eyes, Lewis' face burned behind her eyelids.
"Good morning Sunshine."
"He then took, the little girl of one of the doctors, after killing her mother, and raping her older sister. He called the precinct, only wanting to talk to me. Told me to meet him at a specific spot, so I went, for the little girl, Amelia. When I got there, he assaulted me some more. I let him do what he wanted, I couldn't let him hurt Amelia."
"I can do you, let her watch. Or, I can cut her down, do her, let you watch."
Dominic had enough, he couldn't listen to this anymore. He put a hand on her shoulder and told her to stop. He couldn't listen to her recant what happened to her over the last year. He threw more money than he needed to on the bar and without a word he steered her out of the bar.
The whole time Olivia was talking to him, she didn't even notice how the loud the music was and how many people were in the bar. She was in her own little world.
Once they were outside, in the cool fall air, he put his hand on the small of her back and they just started walking in silence.
Breaking the silence, Olivia threw in, "So, yeah. I was sexually assaulted two more times since the last time I saw you." She chuckled, feeling stupid for actually telling him all of that. "Why are you still here, I thought you would've left, way before i finished talking. Should've stopped me sooner."
"Olivia, I don't want you to be sorry for telling me what happened. I thank you for telling me. Olivia, you survived, you're here and nothing that happened, is your fault."
"Quit kicking yourself." he gave her a small smile as he said those words, knowing they meant something to her. She gave him a small, almost non existent smile back but, it was something.
Finally, realizing they were going the opposite way of her apartment she stopped them, turned to him and gave him a small hug. "Thank you for listening. It was nice talking to you tonight."
Dominic hugged her back, being the first one to pull back. "It was nice talking to you too." He started to walk away when he turned around and told Olivia that this would be the last time she saw him for a while because he needed to go back to work.
"Be careful."
He gave her a look. "I'm a marine. I'm always careful."
That was the last time she saw Dominic Pruitt and she was glad she got to see him at all.
So, yeah, I was on Twitter and I saw the name Dominic Pruitt. I think it would be cool if they could bring him back to "check" on Olivia. This is how I pictured it. Hope you liked it.
