Peter & Mariska - Fourteen [A Short Story]

Twelve - Savior

Peter and Mariska were chucking to themselves and kissing every now and then as they continued to reminisce about significant parts of their relationship. Their love story was something so perfect and beautiful; perfect to them and beautiful in every way. They had disagreements of course, but they were usually small and resolved within an hour because they could never stay mad at each other. Love radiated off of them and surrounded them and their family constantly, bringing them closer together as time went on.

There were definitely some tough moments, dealing with loss and other aspects. But perhaps one of the toughest moments that Peter remembered didn't really have to do with their personal lives, but with their professional lives - hers specifically.

"Remember how you stuck around on set every day that I was filming for the William Lewis arc with Pablo Schreiber?" She asked after she had taken another sip of wine. He nodded. She had been fine really. Pablo made sure she felt safe, but the subject matter and the script was so heavy that having Peter there provided her with the extra comfort she needed to get through that, especially the very first time.

"It was hard for me to watch, but I can't even imagine how hard it was to film it." He replied. She nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder, snuggling into his warmth.

"It was hard, but Pablo made me feel safe and plus you were right there all day and you held me that whole night, so everything was okay..."

She tilted her head up and pressed a kiss to his lips;

"You always make everything okay."

******

May 2013.

When they first got the script for the season fifteen premiere of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, they knew that it would be tough to act out.

But when the time came, they didn't realize exactly how mentally draining things would be.

Mariska remembered when they first got the scrips, how all her cast mates' eyes shifted to her as she read over it. She remembered looking back at them with wide eyes and uttering a quiet 'Holy shit' before scanning over the papers again.

The premiere was picking up from the finale of season fourteen, where Detective Benson comes into her apartment, only find herself with a gun pointed in her face at the hands of serial rapist and murderer William Lewis. William Lewis was a sadistic rapist and murderer that had terrorized his way up the east coast, moving constantly and escaping jail time and living under different aliases. Pablo Schreiber was playing the sadistic character, and with any storyline of this nature, there had to be a level of trust between the actors. He and Mariska and rehearsed a few times just to get comfortable with each other as it was so heavy, and Pablo assured her constantly that he would never intentionally hurt her and all she had to do was say stop to him and he would. The trust between them built quickly and Mariska felt safe acting with him. Besides, off camera, he was a pretty funny guy with a sense of humor similar to hers, so it made things a little better.

Still, all of this didn't ease her anxiety completely, which was why on this first day of filming, she was so glad her husband has come to work with her.

She eyed her appearance in the mirror on set as Peter sat to the side, watching her. The realistic movie makeup was done to the fullest effect, allowing her to look as though she had a bruised face and split lip and burns across her chest which were the signature for the William Lewis. Her shirt had been ripped slightly, and her hair had been dampened enough so that it was wavy, enough to look like it was wet. They would be calling her to set in a few moments and she was nervous; Peter could tell.