The Best Bensler Moment In Law & Order: SVU Season 2

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" is a police and crime drama that stands today as the longest-running live-action series on television, with 23 seasons. The show has won multiple awards, including several Emmys (via IMDb), and reached such a level of acclaim that it's sometimes easy to forget it's a spin-off of the original "Law & Order." Having first aired in 1999, "Special Victims Unit" follows a team of NYPD Detectives into the dark world of some of the most heinous crimes, with two of these detectives, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), leading the team side by side until Stabler's exit from the show in Season 12. 

Benson and Stabler might not always work together seamlessly. They have disagreements and don't always see eye to eye on how a situation should be handled. Still, the two of them have a partnership based on trust, and know one another possibly better than anyone else. Their bond helps them make it out of dangerous situations and make it through the sometimes emotional aftermath. 

There are plenty of episodes showcasing the tight-knit partnership between Benson and Stabler, and one episode in Season 2 holds one of the best "Bensler" moments in "Law & Order" history.

Season 2, Episode 11, "Abuse," revolves around a family with a unique situation. After the death of a small boy, Benson believes that the family is to blame. In order to protect the family's daughter Ashley Austin Black (Hayden Panettiere), Benson takes the girl into her own home while the parents are thoroughly investigated for child neglect.

The girl's mother, Ricki Austin (Christine Andreas), finds Benson's relationship with her daughter inappropriate and takes out a restraining order against her. A defeated Benson gives up the girl, who doesn't understand the situation.

After this, Benson heads to her desk, to find Elliot waiting for her. He's ready to discuss her emotional reasoning behind wanting so badly to protect the child, tracing it back to the neglect that Benson herself experienced as a child when her mother was too busy to be home with her.

Typical of Benson and her tough as nails — and walls-high — exterior, she tells Elliot that he's wrong and her taking in the child is in no way a result of her own trauma. His words seem to put things in perspective for her, though — in a way she was refusing to do on her own — something that he wouldn't have been able to do if the two didn't share such a powerful bond.