Olivia walked out of the bathroom and turned to her right into the hall. She was in another world when Elliot appeared in the doorway at the other end of the hallway. Olivia stepped her pace up just a little it as Elliot started to slowly jog his way to her.
"I'm really glad you're back." Olivia said as they got closer, the tears apparent in her voice. Once she reached Elliot, he immediately pulled her into his arms. His heavy breathing in her ear was somewhat comforting to her as she pressed her cheek against his shoulder.
"I should've come back sooner." Elliot breathed the words into her ear, still out of breath. She whispered an "I'm fine" as she pulled away from him, resting her cheek against his for a second before completely pulling away. Before she could pull out of his embrace he held onto her upper arms holding her in place in front of him. Raking his eyes up and down her body, as if looking for any injuries on his partner, he said "Yeah? Like hell you are."
"Did you check the security logs from Harding's office?"
"That's why it took me so long to get here. I checked on every male who signed in, in the last six months. One name rang a bell."
"Whose?"
"David Adams, but he doesn't exist."
"So whose the ghost there to see?"
"Alicia Harding's assistant, Rachel Gray." Olivia patted Elliot's shoulder and walked past him down the hall. Elliot gave her a sad and slightly worried look as she disappeared out the door.
Later that night, around 11:30, Olivia was sitting on her couch when she heard someone knocking on her door. She got up and walked to the door to see Elliot through the peep hole.
"What are you doing here?" she said confused as she opened the door. Not even waiting for her to invite him inside, Elliot walked right past her and towards the kitchen.\
"I brought Chinese."
Elliot continued to search through her cabinets and drawers for plates and silverware. After spooning the food out onto the plates he opened the fridge hoping to find something to drink on the usually empty shelves. Olivia stood in the kitchen doorway staring at her partners back as he moved about her kitchen like he lived there. As much as she wanted to believe she was fine, she knew she wasn't. She hadn't eaten all day and since she'd been home she'd sat in front of the television in a daze. Elliot coming over unannounced was what she needed to distract her from all that had happened in the past few hours.
"Thanks." She whispered as Elliot handed her a plate full of food and a glass full of whiskey. He hadn't been able to find anything in her fridge to drink. All he found was a single egg in an egg carton.
She carried her plate back over to the couch and set it on the coffee table in front of her. She sat quietly poking her food with her fork as Elliot sat down next to her, immediately digging into his food. After a couple of minutes sitting in silence Elliot finally spoke up when he noticed Olivia wasn't eating anything.
"Liv, you gotta eat something. I'm not gonna leave you alone until you start eating." Elliot put down his plate to turn and look at her. Her eyes briefly met his before turning away to put a forkful of chicken into her mouth. Satisfied that she had started eating, Elliot turned back to his own food and resumed eating. When he looked at Olivia a couple minutes later her plate was empty and she was holding her drink to her mouth, with a spaced out look on her face. "Liv, you okay?"
"I'm fine." She said quietly. Elliot put his plate and scooted over closer to Olivia and pulled her into a hug, pressing his face into her hair. He knew Sonya's death had to be hard on her. She just lost Calvin and now Sonya. She didn't say anything, but she didn't protest the hug either. She just laid there against his chest letting him hold her. After a couple minutes she pulled away and grabbed the remote. "Let's watch a movie."
After finding a movie to watch Olivia settled back into a comfortable position on the couch. About ten minutes into the movie Olivia put her hand on top of Elliot's that rested in between them on the couch.
"Thanks, El. I needed the distraction." She never turned her head to look at him. When she went to move her hand away though, he held onto her hand, keeping it in the middle with his.
"No problem."
They only got an hour into the movie before they fell asleep on the couch, each on separate sides of the couch but their hand joined together in between them. At some point in the night Elliot had shifted into a somewhat laying down position and Olivia had ended up lying squished between his body and the back of the couch. Her face was pressed into the crook of his neck and her arm was draped over his chest while his hand held her arm in place on his chest. Elliot stirred in his sleep and turned his face sideways so that his lips rested against Olivia's forehead.
Olivia was the first one to wake up. Upon opening her eyes she realized she was not in her bed. She moved her head to look up and ended up lining her lips up with Elliot's. Before he could move, Elliot's eyes opened. As soon as his eyes opened Olivia's face turned red and she scrambled to extract herself from the space she was squished into. When they had both gotten off the couch they stood a few feet away from each other in silence.
"Li-"
"I have to go get ready for work." She cut him off before he could even say her name. A second later she had disappeared into her room and closed the door behind her. Elliot grabbed his jacket and headed home to do the same, thinking that the rest of the day at work would be interesting.