Author's Note: This is for iqtwo over at TV . com, but I hope the rest of you enjoy it, too.

Disclaimer: SVU is not mine. No profit is being made from this story. Please review.

Kidney

Chapter One

Changes

SVU Squad Room

January 17, 1:34 P.M.

Olivia placed the sandwich in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and smiled. She knew what her partner liked, and when he was ready to eat, he would find it very satisfying. She'd written his name on it so people would know it was for him, and she had drawn a goofy little smiley face on it to give him a laugh.

God, how she loved the sound of his laugh! She wished she could hear it more often, but because of the nature of their job, she knew that would never happen. Sometimes she really envied his wife and kids. He let his guard down around them, let them hear him laugh and see him smile.

She got two bottles of water from the stockpile she kept in the refrigerator, and deliberately turned away from her melancholy thoughts as she exited the break room. Captain Cragen and Fin were coming toward her, but they were deep in discussion about the stakeout Fin and Elliot had worked last night, so she just greeted them with a nod and a smile.

She saw her partner coming from the direction of the crib, so, instead of going straight to her desk, she walked over to greet him.

"Well if it isn't sleeping beauty!" she teased.

He smirked at her and then smacked his dry lips in an effort to get rid of the cottonmouth feeling he always had when he woke up. He accepted the bottled water she offered him and took a long swallow. They crossed the room side by side, so close not a breath could pass between them. She could feel the heat radiating off his body and wondered if Kathy knew how lucky she was to sleep next to his warm, solid mass, at least when he wasn't working all night.

Olivia had to work hard to suppress a chuckle as they settled into their facing desks. With that dopey look on his face and his beautiful blue eyes peeking out from half-closed lids, all he needed was a blanket and a teddy bear, and maybe a pair of pajamas, to complete the image of a sleepy-headed little boy at bedtime. Again she felt a twinge of jealousy. Kathy got to see that face every morning.

"Did the nap help?" she asked.

"Ohhhh, some," Elliot yawned as he stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "But what I really need is to get off these damned swing shifts."

"Tell me about it," Olivia said, her big, chocolate brown eyes melting in sympathy as she gave him a compassionate look. "They really mess with your sleep-wake cycle. I brought you a sandwich whenever you're ready for it. It's in the bottom left drawer of the 'fridge, roast beef, American cheese, and spicy brown mustard on whole wheat."

"I think I love you," Elliot smirked. "Thanks."

Olivia warmed at his comment.

"You're welcome, but don't tell Kathy I know what you like," she winked playfully and spoke in a seductive tone.

They always told themselves their mock flirtation was all for the benefit of the creepy new guy, Chester Lake, who was just walking by their desks, chewing on the handle of a plastic spoon and carrying a steaming bowl of something for his lunch. They hadn't given his joining the unit a second thought because, quite frankly, they needed the help; but then Munch had gone on a paranoid rant about him spying on them for IAB. Now they all viewed him with a certain amount of suspicion and Olivia and Elliot particularly delighted in making sure he overheard lots of comments that were open to various interpretations.

Olivia shuddered when Lake was past them, and Elliot noticed. "What?" he asked her.

"That's just disgusting," she said quietly with another shiver of revulsion.

"What?"

"He has to be chewing on something all the time," she said.

Elliot grinned.

"What?" Olivia asked now.

Elliot looked very full of himself. "I chew on stuff and you've never said it was disgusting."

She blushed slightly and gave him a rueful smile. "Well, you're special."

Elliot laughed, and then, even though Lake wasn't close enough to hear, he said, "I really do love you, Olivia."

The truth was, Elliot really did love Olivia, in a big brother sort of way, he always insisted, and Olivia really did know what he liked. She knew what he liked to eat and drink, his favorite color, the shows he TiVoed, his football and basketball heroes. Everything and anything a best friend should know about him. She'd even bought him Tool's 10,000 Days CD and a band T-shirt for Christmas last year. By the same token, he knew her favorite wine, her preferred brand of chocolates, the books she liked to read, and the perfume she wore. She'd also told him the story behind that little rectangular necklace she never took off.

So, neither of them could understand why Cragen had been splitting them up recently. There had been a lot of changes thrust upon the squad in the weeks following Darius Parker's trial, including closer supervision from the brass, an obsessive demand for up-to-date paperwork, and ongoing psychological evaluations for all of them; but by far the most embarrassing and degrading change was separating Benson and Stabler like a couple of errant school children. At least Elliot got to work with Fin, who was cool, and Munch, who was as funny as he was annoying. Poor Olivia was usually stuck with the creepy, too-silent Chester Lake. The only thing keeping them sane was the fact that Cragen had let them keep their usual desks.

"Anything new on the Mendoza case?" Olivia asked as she got up to put some folders in the file cabinet behind her desk.

Isabella Quintana-Mendoza was a fourteen-year-old classmate of Elliot's daughter Elizabeth who was dating a twenty-two-year-old college senior. The age difference prompted Elizabeth to warn her friend that her boyfriend could be arrested for statutory rape, and IQ, as the girl liked to be called, responded that he wasn't doing anything her brother hadn't already tried. Elizabeth, who was not nearly so naïve as her father would like her to be, understood immediately what the girl was implying. It took Liz two weeks to convince her friend that the police could do something to stop the abuse, and two days ago she had cut school to ride into Manhattan with IQ because she would only talk to "Lizzie's dad" about it.

Elliot shook his head. "Fin and I staked out the boyfriend's house last night, but she didn't show up. I have a bad feeling that she didn't run. I think someone did something to her. And she prefers to be called Quintana, remember?"

"That's right. Sorry," Olivia apologized as she flipped through the folders in the cabinet looking for the ones she wanted. She knew Elliot was taking this case more personally than most because one of his children had brought it to his attention. If the system failed IQ, Elliot would feel like he had failed Elizabeth, and he needed so badly to be a hero in his daughter's eyes. "Any idea who got to her?"

"Well, her brother molested her for seven years, her wife-beating father covered it up, and she disappeared less than twenty-four hours after some idiot judge gave them bail," he reminded her. "I think it's a safe bet at least one of them had something to do with it."

With her folders in one arm, Olivia came around the desk and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. With as much conviction as she could muster, she said, "You'll find her, El."

Elliot looked up at her gratefully. She smiled down him and patted his shoulder before returning to her seat. He sighed and nodded. "I sure as hell hope so. Where's Fin?"

"In the break room, briefing the Captain on your stakeout, I guess," she said. "At least that's where they seemed to be headed when I last saw them."

"Stabler! Get your ass over here NOW!" Captain Cragen roared from the vicinity of the interrogation rooms, which were between his office and the break room.

The volume and anger in the Captain's voice caused Elliot to jump. He exchanged a What did I do this time? look with Olivia, and, receiving a shrug and concerned look from her big, brown eyes, he walked as quickly as he could to where Cragen was waiting for him. Without preamble, Cragen grabbed him by the back of his collar and his elbow and shoved him into the door of the interrogation room. It was slightly open, so he wasn't hurt when he ran into it, but being slammed up against it was still jarring enough to rattle his teeth in his head. He stumbled into the room, and a furious Cragen shoved him again.

"Get in there and sit down!" the captain bellowed, pointing towards a chair.

Elliot was too stunned for anything but meek obedience. He entered the room and sat…in the suspect's chair facing the mirror.