Disclaimer: I do not own Law and Order SVU. I stand to make no monetary or other gain from the writing of this story.

Warnings: I think hell just froze over because I just wrote a story where nobody gets raped. There's some language ahead, but not much else. Enjoy.

"Bail is set at two-hundred fifty thousand, cash or bond. Until such time as bail is posted, the defendant is held over for trial." The gavel came down on the wooden block. Olivia was stunned as the court officers took her by the arms and led her to the door on the left side of the court. There was no way she could pay the $250,000 for her bail.

"We have friends at Rikers. I'll make sure they stop by and say hello," said one of the bikers with a smarmy leer. Olivia was still in shock and didn't respond.

Once outside of the courtroom, the court officers handed her over to the waiting policemen. They cuffed her hands behind her back and took her to the elevator that went down to the subterranean parking garage. Olivia was at least a little relieved that they were taking her out through the basement. Being arrested in front of her entire squad was bad enough. It would have been even more humiliating to be paraded out of the courthouse in handcuffs, where she would be seen by all the dozens of people she worked with every time she came to court to testify.

It was distinctly uncomfortable in the cop car. Her hands were pinned behind her, crushed against the backseat, and the seatbelt rubbed against the bare skin at the nape of her neck. One of the officers had had to lean over her to secure her buckle. She didn't breathe while he reached over her. In her usual division of "good guys" versus "bad guys," cops and law-enforcement were almost all on the "good guys" list. But the moment they had cuffed her, there had been a dramatic shift in her perception. Suddenly she was cuffed and vulnerable and anyone who was near her was a threat.

They got to Rikers and the policemen passed her to a waiting CO, who took her to the intake area and removed her handcuffs. There were five people in the room besides Olivia. In addition to the corrections officer escorting her, there was one more behind the desk where Olivia signed in and handed over everything that was in her pockets. Two more CO's waited near the wall where they would pat her down and search her. A captain was there to observe.

Olivia didn't have much in her packets, just her cell phone, her wallet, and her keys. She put those on the counter and waited while the CO wrote out a receipt for her possessions. She signed it and it was attached to her file so that she could claim them later. Olivia looked around. When she had gone through intake at Sealview, she had arrived on a bus with other new inmates and they had gone through intake together. There had been a little bit of comfort in numbers and Fin had been there to watch her back. Now, she was alone with a female captain, one female CO, and three male CO's.

She was taken over to the empty wall. They told her to put her hands on the wall and spread her legs. Olivia waited, facing the wall, her palms sweating. She was flanked by a male CO on her right and a female on her left. One of them stepped directly behind her and began to frisk her. Olivia's eyes were squeezed closed. The person frisking her was professional and thorough, but Olivia remembered another frisking. She remembered Parker's hands groping her, squeezing. She remembered the feel of his breath and the sound of his voice. "Looks like somebody's been working out," he had said.

"Strip," one of the guards ordered. Olivia took her hands off the walls. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She didn't look around as she took her clothes off. After Sealview, she knew it was useless to try to protest the presence of male CO's. She handed her clothing to the CO on her right. It took a few minutes for them to inspect her clothing, carefully running gloved fingers over the seams to make sure that there were no needles sewn into the fabric or items hidden in the pockets. They handed her clothing back to her when they were done and Olivia quickly redressed.

Since she was a remanded prisoner rather than a convict, she would be allowed to keep her own clothing. Remanded prisoners were housed separately from the general population, not required to participate in any of the regular prison work, given extended visiting hours, and more mobility within the prison libraries and resources in order to prepare for their defense.

"Come on," one of the male CO's said as he took her by the arm. "Let's go." He recuffed her for the walk through the prison, though her hands were in front of her this time. Olivia could feel herself shaking as he led her out of the intake room. No, no, no, not again… please not again. Her flashbacks had mostly stopped since she had begun therapy last year, but she could feel one coming on.

Olivia had been in Rikers often enough. Remanded prisoners were frequently held there, so she and Elliot came here to interrogate them after they were in custody. So Olivia knew when the guard led her away from the wing where remanded prisoners were held, segregated from the rest of the inmates. "Wait, wait," she said, her feet dragging on the floor. "What are you doing? You can't throw me in with the gen pop – I haven't been to trial yet!"

The guard shrugged; his fingers dug into Olivia's arm as he pulled her forward. "We're tight on space. You'll go where we put you." They approached the large metal door that separated the women's cell block from the outer hallways. "Open the gate!" the CO called out. The guard in the bullet-proof and sealed-off box that overlooked the corridor hit a button and the door slid open. The CO pushed Olivia through. "Shut the gate," he hollered. He took Olivia to one of the cells. This block was built for four women in each cell. The cells were on three walls of the block, spanning two levels and enclosing a center rec area. During most of the day, the women were free to leave their cells and use the rec area of reading and socialization.

Olivia felt overly conspicuous in her street clothes. She was the only one on this block not wearing the orange prison jumpsuit or the clean pressed uniform of a guard. It made her stand out. And if Olivia had learned anything in her week at Sealview, standing out was a bad thing. Two of her cell mates were in the room, lounging on their bunks and reading magazines. The third appeared quickly, taking up an aggressive stance by her bunk as though to make sure Olivia wasn't going to try to take it from her. None of them said anything as the guard undid Olivia's handcuffs and walked out.

Once he was gone, the other three circled Olivia. They could smell fresh blood. "What are you here for?" one of them asked. Olivia said nothing.

"You're a remand," another one piped in. "So did you kill someone or do you got a private jet and they think you're gonna run?"

"I didn't kill anyone," Olivia said flatly.

The third woman gave a knowing smirk; she turned a little so that she could be sure the others noticed. "Sure, sure," she said. "That's what they all say. But when your trial's over, you'll be back here wearing the same pretty orange as the rest of us."

Another prisoner appeared at the entrance to their cell. "I heard we've got a dirty cop," she informed the others. She looked at Olivia accusingly. "Are you the pig?" She advanced on Olivia threateningly. "Answer me when I talk to you, bitch! Are you the fucking cop?"

Olivia had a decision to make. Every cell block had the alphas who ran the place and everyone else who played politics to stay on their good side. At Sealview, Olivia had been fortunate enough that her cell mate had been fairly high on the pecking order and had taken her under wing. Here, she had no protection. So she had to decide if she was going to answer the woman's challenge or not – if she was going to play it tough or try to just keep low and stay out of the way. "I'm a cop."

The woman stepped back and considered her for a moment. Olivia's three cell mates had suddenly found the floor quite interesting and were staying pointedly uninvolved. There were no CO's looking and they probably wouldn't bother to interfere even if they saw what was going on.

"You're a dirty cop, you mean. I heard you're in here for murder." Olivia didn't respond to that. The woman buried her fist in Olivia's gut. Olivia gasped but fought the impulse to double over. "Answer me!" the other woman commanded.

She drew her arm back, preparing to strike again, but Olivia grabbed her by the wrist. Fire blazed in her eyes. "I never said I was dirty, just that I'm a cop." She threw the woman's arm down and sidestepped her, striding confidently out into the rec area of the block. Here in the open, there were too many cameras for the woman to openly attack her.

Olivia heard the woman spit on the ground at her feet. "Bitch," the other woman hissed. "All you cops are dirty. And you're on my fucking turf now. We play by my rules."

Olivia headed for one of the CO's by the main door. "I want to go to the library," she said without preamble. One advantage to being on remand was that she was basically allowed to be in the library anytime except meals and at night.

The CO called into his radio. "Someone will be here in a minute to escort you," he told her.

When Olivia got to the library, she pulled a couple books out without really looking at the titles and found a chair. She propped one of the books open on her lap, but was not interested in reading. She couldn't figure out who was trying to frame her or how they had managed to get her blood on the murder weapon.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually the guards called out for everyone to pack the books away for the night. Olivia picked up the books that she hadn't even glanced at and headed back to the shelf to put them up. She was between two of the tall bookshelves when another prisoner grabbed her from behind. He pinned her arms down by looping one beefy forearm around her torso. His other hand gripped tight over her mouth and nose, cutting off her scream and her air.

"A little birdie told me you need a lesson," he whispered. Olivia twisted in his grasp, but she couldn't draw in a breath. Her lungs were burning with the need for oxygen. She squirmed and pulled against him, but he pushed her up against the wall at the end of the row of bookshelves. "Lucky me, I get to be the one to give it to you."

Olivia felt her body getting heavy as she frantically struggled for a breath of air. The man released his hold around her torso and spun her around, shoving her back into the wall. His hand dropped from covering her mouth to grip her neck, pushing her against the wall. Olivia saw the tattoo on his forearm: The Death Knights.

"It'll take them another half-hour to clear the library," the man said with a grin. "What fun do you think you and I can have in that time?" His free hand moved to cup Olivia between her legs.

She jerked to the side, finally managing to break his hold on her throat. He lunged forward, using his body to pin her against the wall and keep her from escaping. "What are we going to do with the other 28 minutes?" she rasped.

"Fuck you," he snarled. His hand went for her throat again.

He was entirely too predictable. Olivia blocked his grab for her and spun around him, twisting one arm up behind him and pushing him into the wall. "Sorry," she hissed, "You're not my type."

He broke out of her hold and whirled on her.

"Hey, CO!" a female voice rang out from behind the adjacent bookshelf.

The gang member looked at Olivia one last time as he shoved her hard against the wall. "We'll be back," he threatened. "Watch yourself." He vanished before the guards came to check on the disturbance.

Olivia leaned against the wall where he had thrown her. She was breathing hard and her adrenaline was pumping. For all her bravado, she was terrified. Her heart was threatening to beat its way out of her chest.

Once she had calmed herself down a bit, Olivia rounded the corner of the bookshelf to see who it was who had called out and scared off the Death Knight. She didn't recognize the woman.

"Thanks," she said, offering the woman her hand.

The woman ignored her gesture with a sneer. "Andrea doesn't like it when others mess with anyone from our block. It makes her look weak; it makes our block look weak. She looses cred and there'll be hell to pay." She looked Olivia up and down. "Don't fuck up again."

The corrections officer arrived, looking bored and completely unconcerned with the idea that there may have been a situation that could have required his attention. Olivia got the idea that the criminals in here were largely used to policing themselves. "Yeah?" the CO asked, looking at Olivia and the other woman from her block. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, CO. I'm sorry for causing a bother," the woman replied sycophantically.

"Humph." The guard snorted and turned. "Come on, you two. It's time you were getting back."

When they got back to H Block, the other woman went directly to see Andrea – who Olivia was not surprised to recognize as the woman who had confronted her earlier. Andrea watched her as Olivia crossed back over toward her cell. Olivia climbed up into the bunk that had been left for her by her cellmates. It smelled of stale vomit. "Our last cellie was a junkie." One of the other women said in response to Olivia's wrinkled nose. "Detox was rough on her," she explained.

A little while later, the guards called the out for the women in H Block to start rotating out showers. There were about a hundred women on the block and the showers accommodated twenty at a time. Olivia waited until the last group to go in. She noticed Andrea watching her and waiting too.

Inside the massive bathroom, Olivia slipped over to a shower in the corner. She faced the wall as her arms tried futilely to hide her nakedness. All the other women were naked too, but that didn't make her feel any less exposed. The cold water splashed down over her body and Olivia shivered.

The water pouring down over her head meant that she didn't hear them approaching her. Olivia's first hint that she was surrounded was when a pair of hands shoved her against the wall. Her hands shot forward to catch herself and she just managed to stop her momentum before her head connected with the tile.

Olivia whirled around. There were five women cornering her; Andrea stood a step or two behind them and watched. Olivia backed up as the hands reached toward her, but her back met with wet tile and there was nowhere else to go. One of the women on her left moved to grab her arm, but Olivia jerked away. She was caught by two women on her right.

Their water-slicked hands slipped over her wet skin and for a moment, Olivia thought she would be able to wriggle out of their grasp. But they clung to her arms as another woman got behind Olivia and put her in a chokehold. The group forced Olivia down to her knees.

Olivia gritted her teeth. There was a CO standing guard at the entrance to the showers. He glanced over at the commotion in the corner, but made no move to try to break it up. The other women were busy showering and did not pay any attention to the brewing situation. There was no help coming and screaming for help would just make her look weak.

Andrea walked closer, stopping just in front of Olivia. Her wide hips swung as she walked, scattering droplets of water. She grabbed Olivia's chin, twisting her face upward. The display of dominance was intentional. Olivia got the message loud and clear. Andrea wanted to show that she was in charge, that this was her turf… fine.

Andrea let go and stepped back. "Not the face," she said simply. "Cop here has to look good in court tomorrow."

A knee in her back pushed Olivia to the ground. The water from the shower flowed over the floor toward the drain and Olivia turned her face to the side to keep her mouth and nose out of the flow. Her arms were pulled out to either side of her body and pinned against the floor. Someone's foot connected with her lower ribcage and Olivia groaned but didn't cry out. She tried to twist and roll away, but that only meant that the next kick struck her in the abdomen. From the other side, Olivia felt another kick hit her in the small of her back. It hurt like hell.

The beating didn't go on for long before Andrea stopped it. Olivia looked up out of the corner of her eye, her cheek still pressed against the slimy tile floor. Andrea stood over her for a moment and then stepped on Olivia's left forearm. Olivia could feel her bones rolling painfully against each other as Andrea ground down on her arm. She grunted in pain.

"Cop, you got balls," Andrea observed. "What happened earlier?"

"Guy jumped me," Olivia responded shortly.

"Why?" Andrea pressed down harder.

"They think I killed one of theirs."

"Did you?" Andrea asked with only the slightest hint of curiosity.

It was painful to lift her head, but Olivia twisted her neck as much as possible, trying to look Andrea full in the face. If Olivia said she hadn't, they would think her a liar or a weakling. If she said she had, any of the women who heard would gladly testify against her in an attempt to gain leniency on their own sentences. "Would it matter to you if I did?" she challenged.

Andrea shrugged. "Not really." She nodded at the women who had pinned Olivia down and Liv felt their weight leave her back and arms. She got to her feet, resisting the urge to cover herself. Instead she stood straight, her hands relaxed at her sides. "Who was he?"

"A Death Knight."

Andrea's face turned sour. "They took one of my girls two years ago – fifteen of them. She killed herself a week later." She turned to one of the women next to her. "Let the girls know. If they see a Death Knight and think they have the advantage, fuck him up." She looked back to Olivia. "You're not one of mine, Remand. Come back in orange and then we'll talk. But for now I'm stuck with you on my block. Let me make myself very clear – I don't give two shits what happens to you. But as long as you are on my block, any outsiders who fuck with you are fucking with me." She got right in Olivia's face. "And I don't like to be fucked with. So keep your head down, stay out of my way, and don't get into any more trouble. You don't leave the block without my say-so – you don't breathe without my say-so, got it?"

The rest of that night passed fairly smoothly. Olivia's body was covered in bruises, but she had avoided any serious injury. Everything could be hidden by her clothes, so she wouldn't have to face any questions or concerned looks when Elliot and all saw her in court the next day. After lights-out, Olivia curled on her side in her small, thin, vile-smelling bunk. She was careful not to make any sound as the tears slipped out of her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She kept her breathing even, even long after the sounds around her indicated that her cellmates were all asleep. She knew that she was innocent, but she had no idea how to prove it and murder trials often took months even to get to trial. Since she had no hope of being able to meet bail, she would have to deal with Rikers.

Around 10 the next morning, one of the CO's called out for her. "Benson!" Olivia felt her blood run cold. She wasn't due back in court until that afternoon.

She must have had that deer-in-the-headlights look because one of the women nearby shot her a dirty look. "If you're Benson, you better get the hell over there and see what he wants. CO's don't like to be kept waiting." Olivia still didn't move. "Look, that one is pretty decent. Just go have some fun and maybe you'll get something out of it."

The guard had spotted her and was walking toward her. "You Benson?" he asked.

Olivia's mouth was dry and her tongue darted out to moisten her lips before she could speak. "I am," she replied.

"Come on," His hand wrapped around her arm and Olivia winced a little as his grip tightened over the bruises from last night. Before she knew what was happening, they were back in the main corridor and Olivia was watching the gate to H Block close behind her.

"Where are we going?" she asked. She was embarrassed to realize that there was a noticeable hint of panic in her voice. The guard said nothing as they turned and he led her down another hallway. They went down a flight of stairs. "Stop, stop," Olivia pulled back against the guard. "Where are we going?"

The CO looked at her sideways, a question in his glance. "You're a jumpy one," he remarked. "Don't worry. You must have some good friends – someone put up bail for you. We're going to pick up your stuff so you can check out."

The hallway felt dangerous. It was dimly lit and Olivia felt disoriented. She didn't trust what the guard had said and there was a part of her that expected him to attack her at any moment. They were far away from the regular population of the prison and there were no cameras here.

It wasn't until Olivia actually saw Elliot through the gate that she allowed herself to breathe easy. "Elliot, what did you do?" she asked as she stepped away from the guard.

"What was I gonna do, let you get shivved in Rikers?"

"There are worse fates. Does Kathy know you mortgaged the house for me?" Olivia asked as she signed her name to the release papers.

"It's not at risk. You're innocent."

"Better hope I don't skip bail and run off to Bolivia," she joked.

"I did see that stack of travel brochures on your desk." Elliot quipped back.

Olivia held up her hand to silence him. She paused for the briefest instant, transitioning from prisoner back to cop. She looked up at Elliot. "Where are we on the real killer?"

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