I am incapable of writing anything longer than 1,500 words. I've tried, just don't have the patience. I also lacked any inspiration for a different title, so "Beef" it is.

This is a very short, pre-ep for Beef.

Yup, can't come up with orginal stories at the moment, so I will stick with writing about the episodes they give us. This is just my idea of what I think could happen in tommorrow night's episode. I'm actually interested to see how far off the mark I am with this one.

Enjoy, as always, constructive criticism is appreciated.

Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.

Beef

"Mmm, you're making me hungry."

Olivia heard Elliot's voice in her ear piece as she stepped around an old mop that had been left on the floor, "You're kidding me, right? This place is disgusting!" Olivia almost couldn't believe a place like this existed in the city. She continued to move about the room while fighting the urge to vomit at the sight and smell of rotted meat that hadn't been properly disposed of.

"What are you doing in here?"

A flash of panic shot through Olivia. She thought she would be alone in this part of the building. She mentally told herself to remain calm and turned to the face the man that had walked in on her, "I'm cleaning."

"Really? It looks like snooping to me."

The next thing Olivia knew, the man's fist had connected with her face, and she was knocked back off her feet into the desk behind her. She turned around just as the man rushed her. Olivia put her hands up and attempted to push the man away, but he used his weight to over-power her. He managed to wrap his left hand around Olivia's throat to hold her down, while he brought his right arm back and formed a fist preparing to hit her again.

The room went silent at the sound of a gun being cocked. Olivia looked over her attacker's shoulder to see Elliot, standing stock still, both hands firmly gripping his weapon, with his eyes and gun trained on the back of the perp's head.

"Don't...move."

The man slowly unfisted his right hand as a sign of surrender.

"Get your hands off her now, unless you want your brains to wind up in the meat grinder with the rest of the garbage here."

Olivia broke free of the man's grip and stepped away.

"Get your ass on the ground!" Elliot commanded as he kicked the man in the back of the leg, sending the man tumbling to the floor. He holstered his gun, then, taking out his cuffs, he put his knee on the perp's back, firmly pressing him into the bacteria riddled floor, "You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer." Elliot read the man his rights, then as he began to haul the man to his feet, he turned back to Olivia, "Are you...okay?"

Olivia caught the strange expression on Elliot's face as he led the man away to the other side of the room and handed him off to a couple of uniformed officers.

"I'm fine. What's that face for?"

"Your lip's bleeding."

Olivia immediately brought her hand up to her mouth and felt the sting of her own touch. When she moved her hand away she saw the blood on her fingertips. Looking around for something to stop the bleeding, she suddenly remembered where she was. She wouldn't want to come within ten feet of anything left in this room longer than ten minutes, let alone have any of it come near her lips.

Sensing her distress, Elliot stepped toward Olivia, "Here...," he reached behind her and gently tugged the bandanna she'd been wearing out of her hair. He bunched it up and pressed it to her split lip. Olivia gave a little hiss at the pain, then put her hand up to take control of the bandanna.

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, it really doesn't hurt. He barely touched me."

"Really? 'Cause I can already see a bruise forming on the side there." Elliot said indicating one side of her jaw. "Great." Olivia replied sarcastically.

"It's not so bad. I've always thought that purple was a good color on you." Elliot said with a smile. Olivia started to smile, then winced at the pain the smiling caused her lip, "Don't make me laugh, Elliot."

"C'mon, let's get back to the house. We can get you a nice, clean ice pack there. And whaddya say after that we go for a couple of burgers?" Elliot laughed as Olivia lightly swatted his arm as they walked out of the room together.

The End