A Beautiful Letdown
Chapter One: Wake Up
A/N: This story has been floating around in my cluttered little brain for a long time. I wanted to finish 'Divided We Fall' but I ran into some major writers block when I changed the story line, so I started this one, knowing that my brain will eventually come around to the other. This is an EO Pairing but it's a developing story so…no wedding my chapter three LOL.
She found her self gasping for air. Her calves were killing her with each revolution she made and she knew she had one more hill to go before she could even attempt to make a move. She forced herself to concentrate on her breathing, forced herself to inhale for two seconds and exhale for another two. She knew as soon as she stood and rocked the high tech equipment under her, left to right, that her quadriceps were going to yell at her, they would feel the searing heat of a workout they weren't ready for but that she would demand from them.
She paced herself at exactly ninety revolutions per minute, reminding herself not to white knuckle the handlebars. She looked up, seeing the hill in the distance and the man with the Rolling Stones bicycle jersey, pedaling, reading himself for the up hill climb. After two years of trying to catch the giant set of lips with petruding tongue, she knew he was cycling at exactly one hundred revolutions per minute, just above average.
If Olivia's calculations were correct she could catch him on the crest of the hill. While it was still early morning, she felt her jersey soak up her sweat. She felt the sweat drip into her eye and cursed inwardly for refusing to wear a handkerchief under her helmet, she fought the suggestion for two years, and she cursed herself for two years for not doing it. She was thankful for the half-fingered gloves that kept her hands dry, and firmly in place on the handle bars, and while she had originally pitched a major fit about the lycra riding shorts she silently praised herself for investing the hundred dollars to buy a few. They kept her thighs free of chaffing and reduced the numbing pain the seat caused on her derriere.
Deciding she was going to have to start the painful climb, she produced ten more solid pushes out of her legs, reached down quickly for the water bottle taking a mouthful of water only to swallow a portion and spit the rest out. She replaced the bottle, checked her shoes to make sure they were snapped in correctly and quickly adjusted her glasses. According to her calculations, she had to move now.
She stood pumping her legs frantically left and then right, grimacing at the pain that was ripping through her body. The Rolling Stones jersey was in sight. Two years and she never caught him. Today she had to, she wasn't sure why; she just knew it was paramount. The hill started and she groaned, pedaling fiercely, then down shifting quickly as the hill steepened. She was gaining. She speed up to a painful one hundred and five revolutions a minute and yelled at the pain in her body as the sweat poured down her brow.
She was at the crest of the hill and he was two, maybe three lengths away, the time for her move was now. She up shifted gaining more speed as she moved downhill, closer. She continued to pump just as he sat to coast. Closer. She grunted feeling her legs weaken even under the demands of her tiny frame.
"Left!" She yelled as her front tire reached his rear. She was merely giving him the courtesy of him knowing where she was, which was right on his tail, never had she been so close. The hunter was slowly catching her prey. He looked back and she saw the shock in his face as the sweat beaded, he turned forward and stood immediately pumping harder. She heard him grunt trying to go faster, it seemed the hunter just became the hunted.
It was a sharp turn that she negotiated daily on the road bike, she pumped harder groaning at the pain that was relentless in her body. She looked through the turn and heard him yell at her to slow down, that she would never make it at that speed, but she had her calculation down to a science, and she had to take the turn or risk becoming the captured prey she once hunted. She slowed minimally and adjusted her gears quickly leaning to the extreme right and taking the turn at a speed that made her heart skip when she realized it was very possible she would crash.
Surprised that she didn't she looked over her shoulder to see him taking the turn. One more minute was all it took to the finish line. She didn't know if her legs could handle it any longer. She sat for only a second until she heard his deep, agonizing voice.
"Left!" he shouted.
He had caught back up with her; she stood immediately and up shifted to gain more momentum. She pulled away only slightly as they both groaned aloud into the atmosphere. Her end was in sight, fifteen more seconds was all it would be and just as she crossed the stopping point it was a damn frisbee that took over her reflexes, she clamped her hands down on the breaks sending her careening over the handlebars and sliding painfully for what seemed to be forever.
"Olivia!" He yelled stopping the bicycle quickly and letting it fall to the ground. "Olivia!" He yelled for her again as she groaned and rolled onto her back. He was shocked to see the blood and chewed jersey but he was surprised to see the faint smile.
"What the heck was that, Olivia?" His gray eyes peered over her face unbuckling her helmet.
She shook her head and winced at a slight tinge of pain she knew to be loose gravel embedded in her shoulder, "Definitely a miss-calculation." She smiled faintly.
"Are you okay honey?" he asked again.
"Jonah…I beat you fair and square," she laughed, "Don't rain on my parade by making me into an accident victim." She laughed and kissed the corner of his mouth.
"I can't believe you took that turn like that…what were you thinking?" he asked looking at her legs and shoulder and knowing she would be okay.
"I was thinking about finally beating you. Besides, it wan't the turn that put me on my butt, it was the frisbee." She raised her hands to him, "You gonna sit there and stare at me or are you going to be a good husband and help me up?" she laughed as he pulled her up gently. She laughed even harder when she looked at her feet.
"What's so funny?"
"My shoe is still clipped into the pedal!" She laughed pointing to the bike on its side and the riding shoe clipped securely in.
"How fast were you going?" he laughed unclipping it and tossing it to her to put on.
"Well, how fast were you going?" She asked him fastening the shoe.
"About twenty-eight, last time I checked," he smiled and stood her bright yellow Cannondale bicycle upright for her.
"Well, then." She couldn't resist rubbing in the fact that she'd finally beat her husband in the sport that he made her fall in love with, "I guess, I was going faster than that, you know…since I beat you and everything." She smiled in victory and straddled her bike waiting for him to mount his own.
"Here, Hot Shot." He smiled picking up her helmet and handing it to her, "Take a spill like that, without this, and things won't be so happy." He smiled and kissed her chastely on the mouth. "Come on, let's get you home to deal with that road rash."
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"Ouch! Jonah! What the hell are you doing?" She barked laying flat on their bed and feeling the stinging pain of him tending to her wounds.
"Well," he smiled and kissed the back of her thighs gently, knowing when he scrapped for the last pebble that was embedded in her skin, she was gonna flip, "It seems that when you slide along the asphalt…you're skin doesn't fair very well."
She groaned and swallowed hard, "Are you almost done, this hurts and I'm gonna be late for work."
"Almost…this is gonna hurt."
"What are we doing ton- Ow! Damnit!" she grabbed at the comforter and closed her eyes.
"That's huge." He smiled showing her the pebble in the tweezers.
"Wow." She raised her brows, "Souvenir huh?" she chuckled, "I'm going to be soar tomorrow huh?"
"Well, we probably won't be making love this week." He told her wrapping her thigh with gauze, "Turn over."
Olivia smiled resting on her shoulders, "Oh," She grinned, "I assure you there are very few things that would make me not want to make love to you…and a little road burn isn't one of them." She teased tickling his abdomen with her toes.
"Hands?" he asked with a smile, wanting to make sure her entire body was taken care of.
She raised them off the mattress as she continued to lie on her elbows, "They're good doctor."
"Olivia, a doctor in chemistry means squat for healing." He smiled kissing a large band-aid he placed on the bright red patch of raw skin that covered her ribs. "Besides," He smiled hovering over her and kissing her mouth, "I don't want to send you to work with an injured trigger finger…what would Elliot think?" he smiled leaning down to touch his lips to hers.
She moaned and lowered herself completely to the mattress as her naked chest reacted to his contact. He slid his tongue into her mouth gently and she felt flush as his tongue massaged hers. She felt his hand slide from her hips to her waist, kneading the skin as he moaned into her mouth and moved up sliding his hand under her back.
"Ahh!" She winced and withdrew her lips immediately, "Ouch, Jonah, that hurt." She felt the tears rise.
"I'm sorry." He said shifting his weight and pulling her up to sit. He looked over her shoulder and saw the large square band-aid, "Sorry Olivia." He whispered into her ear, "I forgot."
She chuckled softly and wiped the moisture from her eyes, "It's okay, I just wasn't expecting it." She smiled and pulled his lips to hers sipping softly from his lower one and separating with a gentle laugh. "Speaking of Elliot, we're having dinner with he and his girlfriend this Saturday."
"Girlfriend?" He furrowed his brows, "really?"
"Yeah," she grinned, "He seems happy with her." She kissed him chastely again completely comfortable in her nakedness before him. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"I suppose." He teased her.
"Can you and I go out tonight…maybe to the beach for a walk, I want to talk with you."
"Uh oh," he smiled, "I could have swore I took out the trash yesterday." He faked nervousness.
She laughed and cupped his face, "You're not in trouble," she kissed him softly, "I just want to talk to you…I need to tell you something, but I'm gonna be late for work."
"Tell me."
"I don't want to be rushed." She grazed her lips against his, "I don't get to work from home like you." She smiled, "Let me up."
"Okay, I think I'll be done with work, I have that presentation today too, but the beach sounds like fun."
"Where are you lecturing today?" she asked knowing that his presentations to high school honor classes was one of his favorite things to do.
"Ah, I can't even remember I have to check my palm pilot." He smiled standing and helping her into her blouse.
She turned to face him, "I really like you, you know that?" she smiled as he buttoned her blouse.
"Like?" He pretended to be hurt, "I though you married me for love?"
She laughed freely, "I did…but I like you too."
Jonah leaned in and kissed her forehead, "I like you too."
"Do you like me enough, to sit through a play this Sunday?" she asked tucking in her shirt and smiling up at him.
"I suppose I can step away from my basement of a lab and take the most gorgeous woman I know out for the night." He smiled and retrieved her badge and gun from her nightstand.
Olivia snapped on the .9mm and badge, "When are you picking up your car from the shop?" she asked just remembering that his car had been gone for three days over the time the mechanics had told them.
"I don't know." He embraced her waist, loving how different her body felt when she was in her work attire, how differently she moved, "I'll have to check my palm pilot."
Olivia kissed him soundly on the mouth, "How did I marry such a geek?"
"Geek?" he pretended to be hurt.
"Yeah," she nuzzled against his nose, "but I like geeky."
"Oh," he whispered, "And here, I though you wanted me for my body."
"Oh, you're body was just icing on the cake." She grinned tracing the muscels of his body through his shirt. "I'll see you tonight." She smiled.
"Hey," he pulled her back as she tried to leave.
"I'm gonna be late." She chuckled as he rested his hand on her backside.
"Tell me what you want to tell me."
"No," she smiled, "I'll tell you tonight."
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Olivia sat at her desk looking at the clock and taking note that it was only noon. So far, so good, they hadn't caught anything and all she needed was to get through five more hours of paper work and she was off to tell her husband some of the best news she possibly could. As she completed a file and stacked it to her left she could have sworn the pile on her right was increasing instead of decreasing. She pulled another file off and saw it was Elliot's; he was slowly sneaking his work into her stack. She rolled her eyes and kept working.
"So how's the girlfriend?" she asked him taking a sip of her coffee.
"Still beautiful…how's Mr. Perfect?" He laughed tossing a paperclip at her, "He owes me fifty bucks from the baseball bet he lost."
"Still perfect." She blushed, "And good luck with that, he still owes me dinner from the Yankees game he lost to me."
"You're disgustingly happy, you know that don't you Liv." He smiled chewing on a toothpick. "It's been what? A year of dating, two years of marriage…the honey moon phase is over!" he informed her, laughing and starting on another file.
"You know something?" She said stretching and yawning before returning to a normal sitting position, "I never thought I'd be happy, much less happily married."
"Well, as long as you're feeding me free food this Saturday, you can be whatever you want." He teased her flashing that smiled that always made her shake her head in wonder, not neccissarily of his sanity, although sometimes it did just that, but mostly she wondered why no one had ever married Elliot, if she was married, that was proof positive that anyone could be.
Olivia looked at her stack of files and noticed it gained another several inches, "Elliot," she took the top four or five files from her stack and stretched tossing them messily onto his desk, "if you slid one more of you're files on my desk, I'm going to shove them square in your as-"
"Stabler, Matthews, you catching?" Cragen called out walking to them with a piece of paper in his hand.
Olivia looked up and rolled her eyes, so much for coming home early, "Yeah, what'chya got for us Cap."
Cragen sighed and handed them the paper, "Child shooting about an hour ago."
"An hour?" she furrowed her brows retrieving her weapon from her desk drawer.
Cragen swallowed hard, "There's a hostage situation, the body count is undetermined, at least three…"
"Why are we going to a shooting?" Elliot asked, "Where's homicide?" he inquired putting on his suit jacket.
"The shooters a kid…the hostage negotiators requested SVU to try and talk to him…go."
"Were on it." They called out in unison as they disappeared.
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Elliot pulled up to the curb throwing the car in park, "This can't be it…it's a school"
"Oh no." Olivia shook her head, "Damnit, you've got to be kidding me." She moaned stepping out of the car and jogging along side Elliot to the man wearing the On Scene Commander windbreaker.
Olivia displayed the badge that hung from the beaded chain around her neck, "I'm detective Matthews this is my partner detective Stabler…what's going on?"
"Detectives," The on scene commander shook his head, "It's too late, kid shot him self."
"What?" Olivia furrowed her brows, "What the hell happened?"
"Negotiator tried to talk him down and the kid shot himself, but not before going on a rampage."
He took his ball cap off and scratched his head, "It's a mess."
"How many bodies are we talking about?" Elliot questioned not wanting to know.
"Well," he said handing him a stack of identification cards, "Looks like three teachers and five students and one person they haven't identified as staff."
"Where?"
"Third Level." He sighed, "It's nasty."
"I can't believe this." Elliot shook his head as he started to go through the identification cards, "What the hell is wrong with this society Olivia?" he asked and looked at the next card only to stop and see her starring across the street.
"What are you looking at?" He asked following her gaze and noticing a crotch rocket motorcycle parked. "Liv…I know you got a think for bikes but we got a ca-" he stopped when he saw her frantically pull out her cell phone and push a speed dial number. He assumed, when she hung it up that there was no answer. She made another call on speed dial and had the same response.
He looked at her growing more frantic, her hands shaking as she searched for a phone number in the phones address book. She finally found it as the mist filled her eyes. She sent the number forcing the phone to call.
"Olivia, what is i-" he stopped when she ran her hand through her hair and turned her back to him as she spoke, her voice cracked and he was surprised to see hear holding back tears as she spoke, "Hi, this is Olivia Matthews, I was wondering if my husband picked up his car today…Jonah Matthews."
Olivia furrowed his brows as he heard her voice sink, "He didn't…okay…bye."
"What is it?"
"Let me see the I.D's" She turned to him.
"Liv tell-"
"Give me the damn cards!" she barked holding out her hands.
He handed them to her as she went through them shakily, "Jonah's car has been in the shop," she shuffled to the next card, "That's his bike." She flipped through again.
"Liv, he's probab-."
"He would have called." She flipped to the next card seeing a young blond girl, and while she knew that having her I.D in her hand meant she was dead, she flipped it quickly and felt her heart stop beating for a fraction of a second before it shattered and fell through her body. "No." she could barely force a whisper, "No." Her voice was louder as she thrust the cards back at Elliot who ended up dropping them as sprinted up the stairs into the school.
Elliot crouched quickly to pick up the identification cards not exactly sure what Olivia was doing until he trotted up the steps and saw the card that had fallen out of her hand as she ran. He picked it up and looked at the picture. "Crap!" he barked, shoving the cards into his pocket and running into the school taking steps almost three at a time until he got to the third floor.
"What room?" he panted brandishing his badge and seeing a young cop point into a classroom at the end of the hall.
He sprinted down the hall and heard the painful silence that exuded from the room. That was unusual, there should be detectives in curious conversation, Olivia should be reading someone the riot act about not caring about the victim, but this time, Elliot knew why the room would be quietness.
Breathless, he stopped at the door just in time to see his partner crouched to the floor with the M.E. he recognized as Melinda Warner kneeling beside her, as he approached he heard Melinda trying to sooth her, he saw the contorted pain inscribed on Olivia's face, he saw the tears that threatened to fall.
He was hoping that at any given moment he was going to roll over in bed and hit his alarm clock and go to work. Elliot kneeled beside her, giving Melinda silent permission to leave. "Olivia." His voice was soft as he tried to embrace her. He watched as her mouth opened to cry and nothing came out, she took a breath as if to scream and still only silence came as she leaned out of his embrace and grabbed at the shirt of her husband, "What the hell were you thinking?" she finally managed to whisper through the lump in her throat. "Wake up."
She pulled at his shirt softly at first then more violently, "Wake up!" she yelled in an agonizing scream that forced Elliot to wrap his arms around her. "Wake up! Don't leave me!" she sobbed uncontrollably and hit her dead husbands chest before sobbing and barely speaking, "Please don't leave me." Elliot pulled her away immediately, almost carrying her as she fought to reclaim her position next to her husband. "Let me go!" She fought and squirmed for her freedom.
"Olivia." He held her tighter, and felt his own tear escape at the loss of her husband, his friend, "He's gone." He cupped the back of her head and held her firmly against him. "I'm so sorry Olivia." He spoke knowing his words were fruitless. He felt her wipe her tears and back away from him. She leaned up against the wall and ran her hands through her hair clasping them behind her neck trying to catch her breath, hoping this was all a nightmare, that she'd fallen asleep at her desk earlier in the day.
When she heard Elliot calling Cragen that's when she realized she was standing in the midst of reality. Since she'd met Jonah, she hadn't run from anything, but old habits die hard. As soon as Elliot turned his back she darted down the hall.
Elliot snapped his phone shut and turned around just as he saw her disappear down the stairs. "Olivia!" he ran after her as quickly as possible. "Olivia wait!" he yelled again as he exited the school building. He searched for her momentarily then found himself shocked to see her swing her leg over the motorcycle she said was Jonah's. "Olivia!" he screamed as a truck went by blocking his vision long enough that when it finally passed he could only see her grab a handful of throttle and disappear into traffic.
Elliot ran his hand through his hair in frustration and anger with the situation, he wasn't worried about her on a bike, she'd been riding with Jonah for years, he was worried about her emotional state. Olivia was next to impossible to break; yet she'd just had her life torn apart. A woman, terrified of love, finally found it, only to loose it. He pulled out his phone and dialed, "Cap, it's Stabler…we got a problem."
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Nearly fourteen hours later Elliot finally got the call from a uniform that he'd been looking for. After calling Cragen, an APB was immediately issue for the bike, not because she was in some serious trouble, but it was the quickest way to find her. He found himself driving across town, his eyes burning from lack of sleep, not entirely surprised of where they had finally found the bike, but slightly ashamed he hadn't thought about that location first.
He parked the car on the curb noticing the bike parked up on the sidewalk. He walked along the path of shops looking for the exact spot she told him about every time they passed it on a case or when they'd gone out for lunch. He stepped out walking along the pier looking carefully for her. It was late, just past midnight and while there were several people there, there wasn't enough to make the search difficult.
Elliot walked away and looked left to right along the path of shops trying to determine where she would be, when his eye caught the 'Jon Jon's bar.' He exhaled and walked to the bar knowing that that was exactly where she was. Walking through the door the cigarette smoke stung his nostrils. He moved through a small crowd of people before being able to take a quick look around and not finding her immediately. He thought it would be easier to show a picture to the bar tender. He pulled out his wallet and flipped through the pictures of his nieces and nephews and stopped at a picture of her and Jonah. He smiled sadly at the photo remembering how happy she was when she handed him the wedding invitation. He was being sarcastic when he put the picture in his wallet, telling her he would treasure it forever, but when he saw the grinn form on her face, he didn't have it in his heart to take the picture out, letting it stay safely in the confines of his wallet for the last two years. It was rare to see her grin, to see her beam, and he wondered if after this, she would ever grin like that again.
"Excuse me." He stepped up to the bar, "Have you seen this woman in here?"
The bartender glanced at the photo and smiled, "Yeah, Olivia…she's plastered."
"You know her?" Elliot asked somewhat shocked at the friendly tone of the bartender.
"Yeah, her and her old man come in here all the time to play pool, but tonight she's sloshed, never seen anything like it coming from her…I took her keys." He said tossing the key ring to Elliot. He looked at the keys and took notice of two motorcycle keys. He had remembered scolding her about being on a bike, but as usual she was stubborn and took to it like she'd been doing it since she was knee high to a grasshopper. That's just how Olivia was, it took an act of congress to get her to change her mind, an act of God to make her cry…and a catastrophe to make her drink.
"She's over there, I tried calling her husband but no one answered." He informed Elliot as he dried a scotch glass, "She's good people, never seen her like this."
Elliot gave a soft smile and walked to the back of the bar seeing her leaned over the table, past out with her head on her forearm, various sizes of empty glasses in front of her. He crouched next to her and unsnapped her gun holster placing it on his belt, he removed her badge from her belt and slipped it into his pocket knowing she would never in her right mind want anyone to see herself like this, she would never disrespect her badge if she were thinking clearly, but, how does someone think clearly when their life has just been shattered?
"Olivia," he shook her softly and received no response. He smelled the inside of one of the shot glasses and was taken back by the strength of the odor. He replaced the glass and sat her up watching her head bob around, "Olivia, let's get you home." He whispered softly pulling the table away from her so he had access to her body. "Lets go." He spoke mostly to himself knowing she wouldn't wake up.
Elliot took her into his arms feeling her head rest against his chest. He walked through the crowd, careful no one hit her body as he navigated through the people and finally made his way out of the bar. He negotiated the car door easily and placed her carefully inside. He brought the seatbelt around her body and belted her in before adjusting her seat so she laid back slightly.
"Excuse me, Sir?" The bartender stood next to his car.
"Yes?" Elliot asked opening the car door.
"She gonna be okay?"
"She'll puke when I get her home and be hung over tomorrow." He informed him as if he'd seen her drunk before, truth of the matter was, the last time he'd picked her up from a bar was when her mother died. He made a mental note and decided that Olivia's life had been cruel to her, far too cruel.
"I'll lock her bike up in the back until someone comes for it." He offered, "Just need the keys."
Elliot dug in his pocket and handed him her keys, then remembered she probably didn't settle the bill before she passed out. He dug out his wallet and opened it, "How much did she drink?"
"A lot." The bartender smirked, "How about we say fifty bucks and call it a night." He said looking past Elliot and onto Olivia who's head was dropped painfully to one side.
"All those glasses amounts to more than fifty." Elliot mumbled, "here's a hundred bucks for the booze and keeping an eye on her…and the bike." He said handing him the cash, "I'll send someone for the bike tomorrow."
"No, problem, you left the helmet in the bar." He smiled, "Have a good night."
"You too." Elliot pacified the man's politeness and got into his car.
Elliot pulled away from the curb and realized that when he gave the bartender her keys he hadn't separated the ring and he had no way of opening her house. He thought of going back for the key but decided she probably didn't want to wake up in her bed without her husband. Tired, he decided it would be easier to take her to his place.
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Elliot picked her up over his shoulders deciding it would be easier to carry her up the stairs of his apartment using his back than his arms. She was a petite woman but he couldn't hold her for five flights in his arms. It was the third floor that she finally murmured something; he was just about to ask her what she said, when she vomited down his back. He stopped and tried to stand her against the wall when she puked on him again, the warmth of her vomit seeping through the front and back of his clothing.
Undaunted he held her against the wall until he was confidant she was done, her eyes still shut and unable to walk by her self, he picked her up over his shoulder again hoping her stomach was emptied by now.
He opened his door and walked her in, careful of her head as he turned to close the door. He made his way to his bedroom and laid her on his bed, frowning when he saw the vomit on her clothing. Dang it. He groaned knowing he didn't want it in his bed. He retreated to the bathroom and ran a washcloth under warm water before ringing it out and setting it on the nightstand. He pulled a tank top and shorts out of his dresser and sat her up letting her vomit clad body lean against his. She mumbled here and again but was nowhere near waking up. He unbuttoned her blouse quickly and washed her throat gently making his way to her chest, careful not to do anything that would make her question his intentions…not that she would remember.
He ran the wash cloth along her abdomen deciding there was no way he would strip her completely, he'd let her roll in her own vomit drenched underwear before he undressed her completely without her permission. He slid the take top over her head and wrestled gently with her arms to get the shirt adjusted correctly.
Letting her torso rest on the mattress he unbuckled her belt, he almost wanted to cry himself when her hand involuntarily covered his and she mumbled Jonah's name. He looked down to see the wedding ring on her finger and knew that she'd never been happier since she had been married. He sighed, knowing she was going to be miserable tomorrow, and the next day, and perhaps forever.
He'd never seen someone so completely in love with another person until he saw Olivia and Jonah. He slipped her slacks off carefully, surprised to see that the hard-nosed cop he was best friends with preferred a skimpy thong. He slapped himself mentally for even caring, then slipped the shorts over her slender body, surprised to hear her giggle…then groan.
"Oh no you don't." he moved quickly retrieving the wastebasket near the nightstand and pulling her up to allow her to vomit in it. When she calmed herself he laid her down and pulled the blankets back before picking her up and laying her directly in the middle of the bed, not entirely sure of how she slept. He adjusted her body and then noticed the shorts were already sliding off her small waist. He tugged on them and pulled the drawstring noticing the two tattoos just below her naval. He smiled gently, knowing he learned something new about her everyday, even in the middle of heartache.
Elliot pulled the comforter over her body and kissed her softly on her forehead. He retreated to the shower taking it as quickly as possible before towel drying and slipping into boxers and an 'A' shirt. He placed a call to Cragen explained the events of the night to which Cragen asked him to stay with her for a few days, to help her through the initial shock.
Elliot looked at his clock, taking note that it was already three O'clock in the morning. He flopped his body onto the couch and draped the blanket over his body knowing that tomorrow would be the beginning of the unraveling of one of the strongest people he knew.