TITLE: Through The Darkness

AUTHOR: Liz Ok, I don't own characters (wish I did, especially Stabler, yum) made this story

up, didn't make any money off it, blah blah, you know the rest.

Feedback: Yes please ;-)

Elliot Stabler had never once run from a fight. He knew how to handle a bad situation; it was what he was trained to do. He'd always been there when someone needed him. He'd always been there whenever she needed him, until today.

Elliot. He heard her voice calling his name and lifted his head from his hands, his heart leaping with hope. But no one was there. He sighed roughly, his heart crashing into the ground, burying his face in his hands.

He hadn't been able to protect her. He'd been forced to stand there and watch as Tom Riccoli, scum of the earth and suspected rapist of more than fifteen victims, grabbed Olivia and used her as a human shield.

Elliot felt a hot tear fall down his face and angrily wiped it away. He had been so powerless. She had counted on him to watch her back and he had failed.

Her face haunted him now. The terrified, trapped look she'd had on her face. Her eyes pleaded with him to do something, anything to save her.

They had gone to the high school where the suspect worked, not really expecting him to be there but needing to start somewhere. They were walking down the hall on their way to the principal's office and Elliot was remarking on the irony of being back in high school on his way to the principal's office. Olivia was laughing and saying something about how it figured that Elliot would've spent a lot of time in the principal's office considering how much he got pulled into Cragen's.

Elliot didn't even hear him come up behind them until it was too late. Tom Riccoli grabbed Olivia around the waist, lifting her off the ground and pulling her away faster then Elliot could even turn around. Riccoli had a needle in his hand and jammed it into Olivia's neck. Olivia struggled, trying to free herself from her attacker, and Elliot drew his gun.

Her name flew from his lips before he even felt them move.

"Olivia."

Riccoli's face twisted into the most horrifying smile Elliot had ever seen. Elliot could see Olivia still struggling, but unable to put up much of a fight, whatever she'd been injected with beginning to affect her.

"Back up right now or she's dead." Riccoli shouted pulling Olivia's gun from it's holster, he put it to her head pressing it into her temple, his finger tightening on the trigger.

Elliot stood there, his gun aimed, his eyes searching for a clear shot. Fear tightened in his chest, his heart felt like it was clamped in a vise.

He'd thought about this moment many times, the moment where it could all end, where one or both of them could die. They were cops; there was no way to get around the possibility that one day it would happen.

'Not now. Not today,' his mind screamed at him.

"Drop the gun Riccoli," Elliot commanded.

"There's no way you're walking out of here," he said, his finger tightening on the trigger a fraction of an inch.

"Let my partner go now, and maybe you'll make it out of this alive," Elliot said through clenched teeth, his eyes flicking back and forth between Olivia and her captor.

Olivia's eyes were half-lidded, her mouth moving but no sound was coming out.

Elliot concentrated on her lips, trying to understand what she was telling him.

Shoot.

She was telling him to shoot.

Elliot shook his head faintly. He still didn't have a clean shot, and there was no way he was going to shoot through her.

"You're in no position to make demands," Riccoli said angrily, his eyes flashing with contempt. One hand held the gun roughly to Olivia's temple, digging in to her skin, her eyes going wide with pain. His other hand snaked down across her stomach slithering lower cupping her brutally, causing her to cry out in pain.

"I'm the one in charge here," Riccoli said gleefully, his eyes dancing with excitement.

Olivia looked terrified and Elliot felt rage surge through him. The familiar emotion swelling through his veins, his blood boiling with hatred.

"You're a dead man!" He seethed, his grip on his gun tightened until his fingers were white with the tension. "You hear me?" He ground out again. "You're dead!" His eyes locked with Olivia's.

He felt, more than heard, her speak his name. "Elliot." It came out like a tiny sob, a desperate plea for help, tearing at his heart.

Elliot tore his eyes from hers, unable to bare the pain he saw there. He saw Riccoli watching him, his eyes glinting with amusement, his mouth twisted in an obscene smirk.

"She belongs to you," Riccoli stated.

Elliot felt his stomach lurch at the look on Riccoli's face. He looked like a child who had gotten exactly what they wanted for Christmas. Olivia's breath caught, a shocked gasp bursting from between her lips. Riccoli chuckled mirthfully, his lips twisting into a demonic smile.

"This, should be fun," he said in a sing-song voice.

Elliot was searching intently for a clean shot, his mouth shut in a thin tight line. Riccoli began walking backwards down the hall, pulling Olivia down the hall with him. Elliot followed him slowly, his gun extended in front of him, both arms holding the gun steady.

Riccoli's head tilted away from hers, and Elliot had the shot. He lined it up and his finger tightened just as the bell rang announcing the end of school. High school students flooded the hallway.

When the kids saw the scene in the hallway chaos erupted, screams broke out, a sea of teenagers separated Elliot from Olivia. The last thing he saw was her terrified eyes as they disappeared around a corner.

By the time Elliot made it out of the school Olivia and her attacker were nowhere to be seen.

"Elliot." Munch burst through the door to the locker room. "We may have a lead on Liv."