For the Love of Bunnies
Jezyk
Disclaimer: Not mine, or they'd be on HBO and you'd be seeing a lot more of this.
Summary: PWP. 'nuf said.
Dedicated to all the bunnies out there, especially Flooper, just for being bunnies.
AN: No smut in this part, but it's coming. I promise. :)
The snow had been coming down for hours. Normally, she loved the snow, enjoyed the cozy feeling of wrapping herself in a thick sweater and watching something pure and clean blanket the city of perpetual filth. For a few hours, the city was absolutely beautiful and pristine. The idea of softly falling snow made her giddy inside like a little kid who hadn't yet been jaded by her life.
But she wasn't in the city where the trains promised her a safe ride home despite the wet streets.
She was smack dab in the middle of bumble fuck, tearing down a winding country road at an obnoxious speed, with Elliot pressing the accelerator harder and harder as the snow continued to accumulate on the unsalted road. She understood his anger and was thankful he wasn't taking it out on her. They'd caught a case that morning, the details of the child's disappearance so much like that of an old case that Cragen had sent them to go re-interview the parents. Except that after their daughter had disappeared five years earlier, they'd packed up their other two children and moved away, convinced that a small town three hours away from Manhattan would save what they had left.
And maybe it had. Their other two children remained healthy and happy.
The parents, however, hadn't done nearly so good a job patching up themselves over their missing baby. And so, while they allowed Elliot and Olivia into their home, they had nothing to say. Every question they were asked was met with either uncertainty or the utter conviction that the police already had the information.
Just when they thought they were leaving with nothing, the father had lit into them, cursing them for never having found their daughter, for having stirred up his wife's emotions once again. They didn't give a damn about saving another kid, he said, not when no one had ever saved theirs, not when no one had ever been able to tell them if she was alive or dead. And so they wound up with less than nothing, feeling slightly worse about the new case than they had going in.
Olivia didn't try to draw Elliot out. It wasn't worth getting blasted for asking him to talk. She knew kids upset him, especially the ones that never got solved. He was always touchy about kids, even more since his divorce, which gave him even less of an opportunity to protect his own kids since he rarely saw them.
Instead she gripped the arm rest and tried not to give away how terrified she was of the way he was driving. If he saw that she was scared, he'd assume that meant she didn't trust him and that would set him off too. Besides, she did trust him. It was the slick surface of the twisting road that she didn't trust.
After the third time she felt that sick motion of the car sliding sideways and he still didn't let up, she couldn't help it anymore. Survival instincts kicked in.
"El, you should probably slow down a bit." She bit her lip, waiting for him to snarl and scream.
He seemed perfectly calm when he replied without easing his foot up off the gas pedal. "I'm trying to get us back to civilization before we get stuck out here."
She held her tongue for a few moments, until the car fishtailed around the next turn. "Jesus, El, come on. What good is it going to do to get both of us killed out here?"
He did snarl that time. "It'll put us both out of our misery."
She concentrated on looking at the road, what little of it she could see in the seconds the windshield wipers cleared it before it was immediately obscured again. "Just in case only one of us dies in the wreck, it's really going to suck for the other to be out here alone in a busted up car with a dead partner, you know?"
"You keep bitching about my driving, but I didn't see you volunteer." He turned to look at her and she wanted to yell about him taking his eyes off the road, but she knew it didn't matter much. It wasn't like he could see any better than she could.
Refusing to give him the point that she hated driving, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "Of course not. I have the sense not to drive in this."
"Back off, Olivia."
His words, his tone, were enough of a warning.
But the way he glared at her really drove the point home.
And in that second, she saw a flash of brown in the whiteout before them. "El, watch out!"
His reflexes were lightning fast, allowing him to jerk the wheel to the side in plenty of time. As the car slid off the road, Olivia watched as the bunny, disoriented by the weather, hopped happily the rest of the way across the road.
Bunnies were like snow. They made her smile.
"Is something funny?"
She shook her head, craning her neck as she watched the bunny disappear into the woods on the other side of the road. The rabbit didn't get run over and didn't have to deal with pissy Elliot. She wished she was so lucky.
He waited only long enough for the adrenaline rush to wane a bit before he reached for the gas pedal. The car barely moved an inch before the snow started flying up around the spinning tires.
He glared at her again while he shifted into reverse, trying to get back onto the road the same way he'd gotten off. The car rolled about six inches that time, but in the end, the effect was much the same.
"Oh, this is just fucking great. Thanks, Liv." He tried again, shifting into drive and reverse each once more before he threw the car into park and growled at her. "Get over here and steer."
She looked at him like he was insane. "What are you going to do?"
He didn't answer her. He didn't need to as he climbed out of the car and braced himself against the open door and the frame.
Sliding across the seat, she tried the same as Elliot had, hoping the addition of his strength would be enough to coax the car out of the ditch. But the snow had been falling for some time and the ground was thoroughly wet underneath. When the tires ran out of snow to throw at the car, they moved onto mud slinging.
She wanted to giggle at Elliot, at the mud splattered all over his dress pants, at the mud that had made it up onto his face as well. But she didn't dare, not when he had that look in his eyes. Instead she tried to play on his softness for the damsel in distress, and looked at him hopefully. "Maybe we can try again in a couple of minutes. You'll be able to get it moving." Stroking his ego usually helped too.
He sat down beside her, not even bothering to warn her before he nearly plopped on her lap. "We're in a fucking Oldsmobile, Liv. We're not going anywhere without a tow."
She slid back to her side of the car, hoping he would close the door to keep out the cold. The display on her phone was disappointing, but not exactly surprising. "I don't have a signal." She glanced at him, as though his phone on the same network might have better luck a foot to the left.
"Let's go. We're burning daylight." Rather than shutting the door, Elliot stood up once again, pulling his suit coat on before his winter coat.
"Are you kidding?" They were exactly nowhere. She was sure they'd freeze before they got anywhere.
"We don't have enough gas to run the heater all night." He pulled his gloves on as soon as he was finished zipping his coat. "Freeze in there alone or out here with me. Take your pick."
Grumbling, she followed suit, pulling on her coat and hat and gloves. As she fell in step beside him, she noticed the smug grin on his face. Like following him had anything to do with his charming presence and her desire to be with him. It hadn't. The fact was, Elliot was a tough guy and she knew he'd go above and beyond to keep her from freezing to death just because she was a woman.
She tried to wear sensible shoes to work. Although she usually attempted to make a nod to fashion, she mostly picked low-heeled shoes or flats so she would be able to run or climb or fight if she needed to. But shoes that she could sprint in for a few minutes weren't the same as shoes that she could hike through the snow in. Her toes were numb and her feet were aching, though she wasn't sure if it was from the cold or the pointy toes. Her fingers were numb too and though she tucked them under her arms to try to keep them warm, it really wasn't working.
And snow was blowing into her face and somehow slipping between her scarf and her skin, leaving her neck positively freezing.
The only good thing about the moisture from the snowflakes on her cheeks was that it masked the frustrated tears.
She wondered how the bunny could stand to be out in such weather. She suspected a full body fur coat might have something to do with it.
It had been almost an hour and besides muttered grumbling to themselves, nothing else had been said.
So it came as a shock when Elliot turned to look at her with a scowl. "I should have hit the fucking rabbit."
Olivia glared back and tried to stop her teeth from chattering. "I would never have spoken to you again if you tried to hit that bunny."
He rolled his eyes and kept walking, trudging down the road at a terribly slow, yet still exhausting rate.
An hour after that, Olivia's tears had long since frozen into icicles and she sincerely wished she'd opted to take her chances in the car. At least there was no wind in the car, even if she hadn't been able to run the heater.
He stopped walking, leaning against the guard rail for a rest. "I'm not wearing suits to work anymore. I'm going to find some flannel lined jeans."
She grinned, cheered to know he was cold, and that he had to be suffering like she was if he was admitting that he was uncomfortable. She perched on the railing next to him, happy to give her feet a rest. "I'm wearing snow boots. No more dress shoes for me."
He laughed. "You and me both. That is, if my feet aren't amputated from the frostbite." He reached over, his hands tightening her scarf, tucking the ends into her coat. "You've got to be freezing."
"Nah, I'm mostly numb now." She smiled at him, recognizing that the workout had burned away his anger and he was back to being her partner. "But if you decided to build a fire, I wouldn't complain."
He stood up. "Better keep moving before our butts freeze to the guard rail."
"You've got mud on you." She reached up, her glove clearing off the mud splattered on his nose.
"Thanks for telling me now." He reached out a hand to help her to her feet.
She let out a laugh, his humor warming her insides the slightest bit. "I didn't have to tell you at all."
He smiled at her, keeping her hand in his as he walked. "I'm glad I didn't hit the bunny."
"Me too." She squeezed his hand and decided she'd had worse days.