From the author's desk: Hi there. I'm no newbie to fanfiction, but this is the first time I've ever written in this fandom. (Most of my work can be found in the Rurouni Kenshin section.) I do hope that this piques your interest, and that you enjoy what you see.
Disclaimer: Dick Wolf owns them, not me.
Dedication: This chapter and story is dedicated to Kelly of the Midnight Dawn, because she's the one who finally convinced me to start writing in this fandom. And she came up with the title:D
Men of Honor
by IceAngelKaoru
Chapter One
Elliot wasn't sure if he was allowed to laugh at the sight in front of him, because for the first time in his many years with Manhattan Special Victims, he was seeing his partner and best friend asleep on the job, with her head on her desk, her ponytail covering most of her face, and her eyes closed to the world.
Olivia Benson never slept on the job, especially when working a case.
But today, there was no case, no rush against time to catch a perp, no need to be out on the streets questioning the victims or the people who knew them; just tons of boring, seemingly unnecessary paperwork.
And Elliot Stabler hated paperwork with a passion.
Thus, he found a large dose of amusement in throwing small, wadded up pieces of paper at his partner to see how long it took to get her attention. In the corner, Munch and Fin looked on amusedly as they gathered some documents relating to the case they were working and made their way out the door.
He knew throwing paper was a juvenile thing to do, but boredom had to be cured, and paperwork only made the disease worse.
However, right after he'd thrown another wad of paper at the sleeping Olivia, her eyes opened slowly, and she lethargically turned her head to stare at him.
"Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty," he quipped, a playful smirk on his face.
She looked at him sourly, then covered her mouth as she coughed a few times, the action wracking her body. He felt concern flood him as he took notice of her ashen face, flushed cheeks, and glossy eyes.
"Are you okay?"
She shook her yes, stopped a second, and let her shoulders slump as she shook her head no. She frowned at him, the expression on her face childish and cute, even with her pale complexion.
"I'm sick," she croaked out. Glancing at her computer clock, she picked up her pen to continue working through the small sea of files on her desk.
He stared at her for minute as if she'd grown two heads. "Shouldn't you go home?"
She shook her head again. "Nothing I can't handle," she mumbled.
Elliot frowned slightly; she'd been overworking herself lately. The Marsden case had really crushed her; learning that Simon Marsden, the one blood relative she had in this world, was just like her father was one of the most painful things she'd had to swallow in her time as an SVU detective.
That fact alone had torn her apart.
On top of that, she had taken some serious heat for her actions once she'd confessed to Cragen that she'd illegally run her DNA through the system. Luckily, she'd only received a couple weeks worth of suspension and a temporary partner switch.
Elliot had gotten into some trouble as well since he'd gone along with the whole thing; he got of with a couple days of suspension and a partner switch, but that was it.
Cragen seemed to realize, though, that even though he and Olivia were close—closer than was seemingly appropriate for such a job as theirs—it was that closeness that made them such a successful pair. He had always treated them as if they were his kids, and like any father, he got over his anger at them for doing something stupid, and forgave them.
The damage had been done, however; Olivia could not help but feel that she'd majorly screwed up, and she continued to harbor that guilt to this day.
Elliot sighed, and went back to work; it was useless to dwell on something that was already done. All he could do was pray that one day, she would find the peace she deserved.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye when another round of coughs shook her in her seat.
"I think you should see a doctor," he said.
"I'll be fine," she threw back.
"Not without help, you won't. Go home, Olivia," Cragen said from his doorway.
"But Captain—"
"No buts. Go see a doctor, take a few days off to get better, then come back. I will not have anymore germs crawling around my precinct in the middle of November if I can avoid it. Go home," he said, his tone stern as he crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a don't-argue-with-me look.
"But what about all this?" she said, pointing to the piles of folders stacked on her desk.
"It'll eventually get done," he said, and pointed to the elevator bank. "Out. Now."
She pouted, and muttered a "Yes, Dad" under her breath.
"I heard that!" she heard her boss call back, and she sunk a little low in her seat as Elliot chuckled at her.
She sighed, coughed again, and slowly gathered her bag and coat, and trudged a little unsteadily toward the elevator as she got on her cell phone to make a quick phone call.
"Hi. May I please make an appointment for this afternoon with Dr. Morrison?" she asked the person on the other line, her tone tired, croaky, and defeated.
He shook his head at her, and signaled that he'd call her later. She nodded at him and stepped into the elevator.
000
Olivia slowly trudged to her parked car, a small white bag of prescription meds in one hand and her car keys in the other.
She hated being sick, because of the lack of functionality it caused her. It was all she could do to drive steadily on the slick New York streets, and the fever raging inside her body made her feel like the wind was twice as cold as she shuddered violently from chills.
She still couldn't understand how she'd gotten both pneumonia and the flu at the same time. Her doctor had prescribed medicine to keep down the nausea she usually felt when se had a fever and help her sleep, which she generally hadn't been getting enough of ever since her "punishment" for the Marsden case had ended.
She'd probably been overworking herself. She shook her head lightly; leave it to her to not realize it ahead of time.
She fumbled with the keys to her car, trying to figure out which key went into the lock without making herself sick. She'd just managed to open the door and put her meds inside the car between the driver's and passenger's seats when she paused to catch her breath from a sudden dizzy spell; she really was in need of sleep, she realized. She was so out of it that she didn't notice anyone had come up behind her until she felt the cool yet deadly metal barrel of a gun at her temple.
A bit shocked, she turned slowly to face her attacker as she tried to keep the panic coursing through her from coming up and out of her stomach.
"Get in the car, and don't make a noise or I'll blow off that pretty little head of yours," he said, his lips moving freely through the mouth hole in the ski mask he wore, while narrow and cold jade eyes glaring maliciously at her from the peepholes.
Telling this guy that she was a cop would do her no good at this point in time, she realized.
She had to find a way to get in touch with Elliot.
She nodded slowly at him and sat down in the driver's seat. She heard the back door of her car open and felt the car shift as he sat down directly behind her. The doors closed, and she started the car to warm it up from the November chill.
Slowly, she slipped her hand in her coat pocket where a pack of cough drops and her cell phone lay.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked her, jamming the barrel painfully into her head painfully.
"Nothing," she croaked, moving her fingers quickly to speed dial Elliot's phone. "Just getting a cough drop; I'm sick." Grabbing a small cherry cough drop after pushing the call button, she quickly withdrew her hand from her pocket to throw off his suspicions.
He seemed to buy it, and ordered her to start driving. As she turned the key in the ignition, she could only hope that Elliot realized that she was trying to lead him to wherever this creep was leading her.
TBC…
