The Path to Love: A Sonny Carisi Love Story

10: Words and Accusations

During the process of the trial it was revealed that one of the witnesses was paid to say Shakir raped her by Mr. Bauer. Barba called us, almost out of his mind claiming we didn't vett the girls hard enough and to figure this whole thing out and fast. Olivia calls us in for overtime and we meet together to go over what we know. "Keep it" Sonny pays the delivery man and takes the pizza box from him. "So Carla and Macie-Lynn aren't changing their stories."

He drops the box on the table, "they definitely got paid more. Is that for all of us?" Rollins asks.

He goes to open the box, "oh, yeah. Goat cheese and sun-dried tomato."

Fin, Rollins and I eye the pizza. "I made you for a pepperoni guy." Fin comments flatly.

"I'm full of surprises." Sonny replies with a smirk.

"Don't let that goat cheese get caught in that stache of yours" I joke and chuckle, taking a slice.

Sonny laughs as well but gets back to the job, "this whole case is a crock. I mean, I kinda called it. Hello?"

"Yeah, we still don't know what happened." Rollins disagrees.

"How do you ever really know what happened? I mean, a man and a woman, alone in a room... There's a hundred different stories how that plays out and most of them aren't criminal." Sonny says to us all. "Not good, either."

Olivia comes over to us and asks him, "Carisi, remind me why you're SVU, again?"

"I worked homicide, couple years. It's... it's the women who get you." He starts to explain, truly knowing what he is saying is how he feels. "I mean, they're dead, but... But their hair's clean, they're nicely dressed, they're made up. And that means their husbands or their boyfriends did it. It's like they knew. They knew it was coming, they don't even look surprised. Just- Just finished." He looks to me when he finishes his story. It's silent for a few moments before he adds on, "it doesn't, you know, make me treasure every moment or any of that crap, but..."

"Okay." Olivia breaks the silence, "meanwhile, Carla Cannon is on her way up."

"Will she hold or will she fold, huh?" He says, picking his tone back up. "I got this" he stands up, dropping his half eaten pizza on his plate.

"Grey, go with him." She tells me and the two of us walk to get ready for her. I meet her at the elevator, thanking her for coming in on such short notice and playing into her every move.

"Tell me again what happened?" Sonny asks as soon as she sits.

She looks frantically between the two of us, "he raped me. I don't remember the details, just that I had a drink and when I woke up I was naked in his bed and sore."

"So you went to Mr. Bauer?" I remind her of the details, playing the good cop.

She nods, "he told me it was okay, it was a misunderstanding. We talked about my future at his company. I thought everything would be okay after that, he would move me where I wouldn't have to work with him anymore." She gets out in a hurry.

"But you already got money once from Orion Bauer, right?" Sonny pushes her hard.

She nods agreeing to what he said. "Yes, to keep quiet, but I couldn't get over what Shakir did to me."

Sonny harshly tells her, "you're in a lot of trouble if you're lying here, Carla."

"No, actually, you're not, Carla." I sit closer to her, "listen to me. The important thing is that you come clean now."

She shakes her head again, "Shakir raped me. I swear to God."

I look to Sonny who looks to me and we know to leave the room as she is frazzled. Olivia is meeting us outside the door, "she won't change her story." I say once the door is closed. "Where do we go from here?" I ask her.

"Wait and see what everyone else says." She moves to go back to her office.

"What's going on?" I ask as Olivia calls us into her office the next morning. "Rollins and I just came from Barba's office. We we're played a tape of Mr. Bauer confessing to paying off the girls to claim Shakir raped them. We're uhhh, dropping all the charges." She tries to simply explain.

"Wait, what?" I spit out loud, "he paid them off. Are we going after him?" I ask, knowing how many hours we all spent on this case.

She shakes her head, "we're just going to meet Barba outside the courtroom in an hour and move on from this." She simply says, clearly telling us the conversation is over for now.

We walk over to the court house and wait for them to leave the room. Barba comes out after Shakir's attorney. "I'm gonna go upstairs and-- duck calls." He ducks away before the crowd of reports gets too busy.

"So Bauer just gets away with this." I ask again, wanting some kind of justice in all of this.

"My bet?" Olivia responds, "a tape like that? Sooner or later it comes out."

"Well, what about these three girls? They lied, under oath. They just get to skate?" Sonny asks as well, clearly not happy with that. He may be new to the squad now but we both still have questions regarding how things go here.

"General policy for the D.A. is when you go after girls when a case falls apart, it can prevent real victims from coming forward next time." Olivia explains to us.

"I get that." Sonny says.

I nod, trying not to roll my eyes. Amanda comments, "yeah, usually I do, but this time?" I nod with her now, agreeing with that sentiment. "Carisi, you were right about those girls all along." She gives him credit.

He doesn't accept it, "not really. I missed Bauer paid them off. They were just his pawns."

I them off, "like Shakir, like his daughter."

Rollins beats herselp up, "I should have seen it. Just right in my blind spot."

"No, he was good. That old man act of his? He played us. What is that expression? "There are no accidental billionaires." She deflects her train of thought.

We turn to see Cordelia and Shakir meeting, holding a tough conversation with all eyes watching. Afterwards, when he bows down his head and takes a seat, clearly distraught Fin breaks our silence "all that hate and they're still talking."

"Gotta be a tough conversation." Sonny agrees.

Amanda says, "I know, right? Where to begin?"

I tell them what's going on, having gone through something myself. "One of them is saying: "Let's start over," and the other one is saying, "It's too late."