I own no one but my own people

"The bathrooms right through there," David explained as he shut the door behind them pointing to a room in the back of his condo.

Cragen had suggested after they spoke with her boss that Olivia stay in a hotel room to protect her but she instead had asked if she could stay with David.

David had agreed to her request before she had even finished the sentence.

Thirty minutes later after a quick stop at her apartment so she could pick up a few outfits and hygiene products they arrived at his condo, the first time Olivia had seen his place seeing as the couple had always spent the night to her apartment since it was closer to both her place and his office.

"The kids bedrooms right across from the bathroom and the main bed is to the left of that," he continued as he handed her the small duffel bag that he had slung over his shoulders. "There's a thermostat right in there so if you're too hot or too cold feel free to change it. That's about it... you hungry?"

"Not really," she admitted. "I think I just wanna get some sleep. I haven't gotten a lot these past two days..."

"That's fine. The beds all made up, lemme just double check the windows are locked and grab some bedding from the closet and I'll be all set."

Olivia followed David into the bedroom and as he grabbed a pillow and throw blanket from the closet, his guest glanced around the room.

It was painted white with several framed photos of what Olivia assumed was his family hanging on the walls. The bedding, a deep dark blue that matched the curtains that hung over the windows, adorned the Queen sized bed that she knew without even laying on it would be far more comfortable than her own.

While David checked the windows to make sure they were locked, Olivia disappeared into the bathroom to change into her pajamas, a pair of sweat pants a size too big and a plain baggy white T shirt with a small hole in the right sleeve. So far every time they slept together Olivia would wear some skimpy teddy to bed or just his shirt, not quite ready to showcase her normal unsexy sleep wear to him just yet. But now she never wanted another man, even the one she loved, to see her as attractive much less a sexy sleeping sex kitten. That had changed. Everything had changed...

She walked back into the room just as David finished double checking the windows. He turned towards her and smiled at her, thinking to himself that there was not another woman alive who was more beautiful than her.

"Everything's locked and good to go," he assured her as he walked over to her. "You need anything else or do you want me to just let you get some sleep?"

Olivia shook her head, unable to help the sad chuckle from escaping her lips.

"What?" asked David

"Nothing it's just..." She looked down at the carpeted floor, blinking away her tears. "Hiding out from a psychopathic cops hired thugs isn't exactly what I envisioned when I thought about sleeping over in your apartment for the first time."

Davids face fell for a moment before he raised his arms as if to hug her. "May I?"

Olivia looked from the floor to meet his dark blue eyes, a wave of emotions washing over her thanks to the two simple words he spoke.

He was actually asking permission before touching her. McNulty had grabbed and touched her wherever and however he wanted, like she was his own personal sex toy. Even the nurses in the hospital when she finally had her rape kit done. They told her what was happening before they did it but she didn't bother asking for Olivia's permission before she touched her, either in the more intimate areas or just grabbing her hand or shoulder in what the nurse would think as comforting.

Olivia didn't tell David or Cragen this but Dimes had shoved his hand down her pajama pants on her bed and shoved two of his fingers inside her. That's why she was able to flip the two of them over, because he was only using one hand to subdue her.

They all acted like she wasn't even a human being but something anyone had a right to use however they wanted. But David just now... asking her permission for as something as simple as a hug when the most intimate parts of her had been groped and grabbed and manhandled for anyone who saw fit to use her?

She would never ever be able to thank him for that.

With tears in her eyes she nodded yes and slowly, giving her time to change her mind if she wanted, David wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, fighting back his own tears when Olivia returned the hug and rested her head on his broad shoulder.

"I love you," she whispered so soft he almost missed it. "So much, David..."

"I love you too," he told her, planting a soft kiss to the top of her head.

The two lovers stayed like that for a long while before he finally stepped away.

"I'll be right outside if you need me," David assured her with a soft smile. "I won't let anything happen to you."

Olivia opened her mouth and closed it, casting her eyes to the ground in a nervous sort of way.

"Liv, whats wrong?" asked her boyfriend.

She took a deep breath before she forced herself to speak, unable to look at him. "I... was wondering if you wanted to spend the night in here."

"I'm not giving you the couch."

"No I-... I meant with me."

Davids eyes grew large as Olivia looked up at him, tears brimming in her own brown eyes. "You make me feel safe," she whispered. "When I'm alone or with another guy, even Nick and Cragen I just wanna jump out of my skin at the sound of my own breathing. But with you it's... it's different. You make me feel protected, I can actually force myself to relax when you're near me."

The lawyers blue eyes swam with tears as she admitted this all to him and it took everything it had in him to keep them from falling.

"I don't want sex," she said quickly. "At all, that's not what this is about I just... I want you near me, David."

David had to take a moment to compose himself before he spoke, his voice a harsh whisper that betrayed the tears that were threatening to show themselves. "It would be an honor to keep you safe tonight, Olivia."

With another teary smile from her, she reached up and gave him a soft quick kiss before she climbed into bed with David following.

Settling into the pillow Olivia reached over and grabbed his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before she fell into a sleep she so desperately needed...

…

Amaro took a deep breath as he got out of the car before heading into the shady looking bar which doubled as the Asenios headquarters, the rival gang of The Tribe, and also the ones who had been targeted by McNulty. He had talked to an old Army buddy in the gang unit who not only gave him the address of the bar but also the name of the head of the gang.

Mexican rap blasted from the inside of the building and two Spanish men no more than twenty were posted on either side of the door, each of them in baggy jeans and one had on a dark purple hoodie while the other had on a wife-beater in the same color.

He walked up to the door but the man in the wife beater stepped in front of the door. "You got an invitation?" the guard asked, a Spanish accent shining through his words.

Amaro stared the man down for a moment. "I need to talk to Miguel Santos."

"Ain't no one here by that name, Ese," the one in the hoodie told him. "So why don't you keep walking?"

"Or how about you tell your boyfriend here to stand aside so I can go in and talk to Santos."

"Yo what the hell did you say to me?" the man in the wife-beater barked as he stepped towards Amaro who quickly flashed his badge.

"You sure you wanna do that?" he asked glaring the man down.

He licked his lips as he eyed the badge for a moment before he stepped back away from him.

"This is a no pork zone Ese," Hoodie guard told him before he spat at the ground in front of Amaro.

"It's about to become one, Ese. Now stand aside."

When neither one of the guards moved from the front of the door Amaro sighed, deciding in this case that honey would catch more fly's than vinegar.

"Look I'm not immigration or vice," he told a bit softer than before, knowing those were the two most feared precincts in these kinds of gangs. "My names Nick Amaro, I work in Special Victims Unit."

Hoodie guard crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What the hell does the panty police want with us? I assure you every piece of pussy that passes through these doors is begging for it."

"Oh I'm sure they are. I'm not investigating anyone in your gang, but I need to talk to Santos about another cop who's been targeting you. A cop named Ian McNulty..."

Both mens faces dropped at the name and Amaro saw as his heart racing as wife-beater guard tried to hide the fact he was reaching for his waistband. "You friends with the Mick?" Hoodie guard asked darkly.

"I'm as far away from friends with that bastard as you can get." Amaro spat, his anger surging at the idea that he and McNulty could be friends. "He raped my partner last night. I know he's targeting you to protect The Tribe, I just need to get some information on him."

Hoodie guard and Wife-Beater Guard, who to Amaros delight lowered his hand away from where he was sure there was a gun, looked at one another for a second before Wife-Beater guard stepped aside and Hoodie Guard nodded towards Amaro. "Follow me."

Amaro did as he was bid and followed the man into the crowded bar. It was a dark and dingy bar with two stripper poles in the middle of the floor which were currently being unused at the moment.

Dark purple Christmas lights which hung every which way, a few lamps with dark purple light bulbs, and the regular lights behind the bar showing its patrons what they had to offer were their only light source so Amaro had to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust before he followed.

"Yo Santos!" the guard yelled out as he led Amaro to the back of the bar where a man in his early thirties wearing a dark purple t-shirt and baggy jeans was preoccupied with a curvy Spanish woman wearing an incredibly short leather skirt and a tight dark purple leather top and was sitting on his lap and kissing the crook of his neck.

"Santos!" the man yelled again over the music.

"Can't this wait, man?" Santos asked as his hands ran down the woman's body not taking his eyes away from her body.

"We got a SVU cop here, says he needs to talk to you about the Mick."

Santos whipped his head towards the pair of them and narrowed his brown eyes at Amaro as his arms tightened around the woman as if protecting her from the mere name. "How do you know Ian McNulty?"

"He raped my partner," Amaro repeated again. He felt his heart being torn in two every time he admitted it. "And I need your help to get information on McNulty."

Santos looked at him for a moment and let out a humorless chuckle. "Of course... Don't wanna do shit when my sister gets raped but a fellow pig gets tore up and they got everybody on that shit. Lemme guess, your partners a gringo too isn't she? You think I give a shit about what he did to some white bitch when none of you would help my sister?"

Amaro clenched his fists as the gang member insulted Olivia. "I don't know what you're talking about but if my partner had known about your sisters rape, she would have done everything in her power to get her justice."

"Yeah until she found out it was another damn cop."

Amaros eyes went wide with shock. "...McNulty raped your sister?" he asked in disbelief.

Santos eyes him for a moment before he turned and gave the woman who was sill on his lap a quick kiss. "Wait at home for me, Baby," he told the woman softly. "I love you."

"Love you too," the woman replied back, sealing her words with another quick kiss before she got off his lap and walked away, shooting Amaro a dirty look as she passed.

Santos motioned for Amaro to sit down in the chair opposite him not letting go of the heated glare. "Yeah Ian McNulty raped my sister to punish me."

"Why did he wanna punish you?" Amaro asked. When Santos didn't answer Amaro tried again. "I'm sure you're all boy scouts," the SVU Detective said dryly. "Look I don't care about what you did, I'm not after you or anyone in your club. The only people I care about punishing is McNulty and The Tribe."

Santos eyed him for a moment before he spoke. "Hypothetically... lets say a gang got approached by a pig. Pig wants the gang to deal guns but the gang wants nothing to do with that kinda shit knowing it can get you some hard time. Not to mention you sell drugs to a psycho, nothing happens. You sell a gun to a psycho..."

"So he wanted you to move guns, you didn't want to," Amaro summarized. "That's why he went after your sister."

"She was a good kid, Ese, she wasn't no gang banger," Santos told him, a flood of emotion in his voice. "She didn't even know why he was going after her, but even if she was the nastiest hardest bitch there was that pig had no right to do what he did to her."

"No one has a right to do what he did to her," Amaro told him. Santos eyes softened at the detectives words but he still refused to let his guard drop completely. "Did she go to the police?'

"Yeah." Santos shook his head in disgust. "I told her I would take care of it, that I would make him pay. But she BEGGED me not to touch him, she BEGGED me not to hurt the man that violated her and got her pregnant, That bastard made her drop out her senior year to take care of his baby, a baby my sister didn't even want. Even after all he did to her she still trusted the cops to do the right thing..."

"So what happened?" asked Amaro.

Santos glare returned full force. "The cops didn't even bother finishing the report when she said it was a cop. McNulty already told them some story about how my sister and him hooked up before she even said a word to anyone. He said that she-."

"Got emotional when he said he didn't want to date her," Amaro said softly, already knowing the line that McNulty liked to feed his fellow officers.

Santos glare faltered for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Yeah... That's exactly what he told them. They believed him instead of her, told my sister 'not to expect flowers from every guy you spread your leg for' and sent her on her way. Then I hear hes moved on to The Tribe and has them being his damn errand boys and meanwhile he's planting everything he an get his hands on on my guys, he's killing my crew, he's hurting their families... Hell he tried going after my wife but she managed to get away before he did anything to her.

Amaro took a deep breath before he spoke. "Santos, I am so... so sorry for what she went through, for what you and your guys are going through... But now we have a chance to get him off the street. IF your sister testified in court-."

"You don't get it do you, Ese?" he barked at him. "He's untouchable! He can do whatever he wants just because he carries a silver piece of tin!"

"Well I carry gold," Amaro told him, a fire beginning to burn in his brown eyes. "My partner, the woman he raped the same as your sister, the woman who had she known would have bent over backwards getting this guy for hurting her, the woman who was on her way to help another victim when he hurt her, carries gold... That's not taken lightly I promise you."

When Santos didn't respond, Amaro leaned in closer. "I promise you I will make this man pay for what he's done to you your sister, and your crew. But I can't unless you help me."

"I already told you everything he did."

"I know and I cannot thank you enough but none of it will make a difference if you sister doesn't testify, if you don't testify. I'll make a deal with the ADA, you or your guys wont be charged for anything you admit on the stand. I know the system doesn't always work for people like us but let it this time..."

Brown eyes locked with brown for a moment. Santos pursed his lips for a moment before he spoke. "I gotta talk it over with my crew. That's the most honest answer I can give right now, Ese."

Amaro, knowing full and well how gangs worked and not expecting anything more than that, gave the man sitting across from him a smile. "Thank you."

Santos gave him a curt nod and Amaro took that to mean the conversation was over so both men stood up gave one another a firm handshake, exchanged phone numbers so that they might get in contact with the other, and without another word the SVU detective left and headed off into the night.

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