Authors note: Please note I actually haven't seen these episodes other than skimming through them on Netflix earlier today so things may be very different from how they actually happened in canon. But I know I wish Elliot would have shown up to find Olivia
The text had come without warning as he wandered around the supermarket, his cart pathetically empty save for a few quick meal items.
'Liv's missing. Kidnapped. Two days.'
The box of cereal he had been holding in the other hand clattered to the ground, thankfully not breaking open as his heart seemed to stop in his chest. Blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights, he re-read the message over and over, trying to force his mind to process the reality of the five words that were still emblazoned on the lockscreen of his phone, printed neatly in a grey bubble beneath the name Fin Tutuola.
Abandoning his shopping cart, he stormed towards the entrance of the store, grabbing a package of protein bars and a case of energy drinks before dashing to the self-checkout, scanning the items before shoving his credit card against the reader, never more thankful for tap in his life as he made it out of the store in under two minutes. He threw himself into his car, shoving his phone on the charger and clicking the Bluetooth on before peeling out of the parking lot.
"Siri, get me directions to New York City," he barked, hands shaking as he wrenched the wheel to the right, heading for the Interstate.
'Getting directions from Albuquerque to New York City. The distance is 2,003 miles and will take you approximately 29 hours. This route includes tolls. Do you wish to proceed?'
He had never said yes more viciously in his life.
XxX
He called in every single favour he had with every person he could think of while he was driving, speeding down the I-70 more often than he was obeying the speed limits, only slowing down when he would catch sight of a cop car or through some of the more winding parts of the interstate.
Most gave him nothing other than an apologetic response or the occasional bit of information that he figured the NYPD already had. All he knew was a man had her. William Lewis.
Elliot spewed venom every time he heard the man's name, feeling nearly ill when someone emailed him a picture as he stopped for gas just outside of St. Louis. The man's eyes stared back at him with a cockiness that made his blood boil and his stomach churn to the point that he had to double over, struggling not to gag as his years in Special Victims allowed him to conjure all the horrible things that could be happening to Olivia while she was missing.
Fin texted him again while he was driving through Pennsylvania, telling him they still had nothing. No updates. No clue as to where Lewis was holding Olivia. He had to stop on the shoulder of the interstate then, knuckles completely white against the steering wheel as he tried to breathe through the rage he had spent over two years learning to control. Trying to tamp it down into a manageable level even as his heart thudded painfully whether from anger or the result of the amount of caffeine he had been consuming while driving he wasn't sure. The five minutes it took to calm himself were five minutes longer than it would have taken him if he was in control of himself and he cringed, knowing it was time wasted now.
"Just hold on Liv," he muttered into the silence of the car as he pulled back onto the road, glad that it was still the tiny hours of the morning and that merging was easy for a change.
He was just about to enter the Lincoln Tunnel when one of his rogue contacts sent him a message. The man was sketchy at best, having kept off the grid as much as possible, but something told Elliot to listen to the message
'Someone says they think they saw the car in Long Island. Beach house. Sending you the approx location now. Can't promise anything. Good luck.'
The message was accompanied by a few street names and coordinates which he jammed into the GPS while stuck in traffic. Silently, he prayed that it wasn't a dead lead. That it was something useful. That he wasn't too late.
XxX
By the time he got to the neighbourhood, he found is relatively quiet, the time of year meaning many of the homeowners weren't around during the week. There are no cars in the area that look like the one from the report, but he noticed the way a woman was rushed into a house at the end of the block through an only partially opened door and his heart started hammering.
He hadn't done police work since he left. Instead, sticking to profiling and paperwork. Things he could do with little interaction with perpetrators and victims. Things that wouldn't get him in trouble. That allowed him to work on his anger problems without taking anyone down with him. Albuquerque had been good for that. So different than the hustle and bustle of New York and the realities that he constantly witnessed working Special Victims. But it didn't stop him from taking a deep breath as he pulled a gun from beneath the driver's seat once he'd come to a stop outside the house.
"Please don't let me be too late," he prayed, nodding once to himself before he climbed out of the car, making sure not to let the door slam as he crept up the walk. He hoped he had enough muscle memory to do what he needed to do, hands trembling around the gun as he clicked the safety off.
XxX
She'd been kicking at the bar on the bed while Lewis was in the other room, desperate to try and break free of her restraint. She thought she had it moved enough, despite the protest from her knee. He had thrown her to the ground after the last time he let her use the bathroom, her knee twisting painfully as she fell, the binding on her legs making it impossible for her to correct her fall, her cheek hitting the edge of the bed frame as she went down until she had seen stars.
She hastily stopped when she heard him coming back, rope in his hands as he rambled about them having company. Olivia felt her heart start to pound at the thought that there was a little girl a few rooms over. That he could be planning to rape a child as well. Desperate to distract him and to gain the upper hand and trusting that she had loosened the beam on the headboard enough she started goading him. Telling him he was afraid of a real woman. Afraid of her. That he couldn't get it up.
He snarled, going for his belt as he moved towards her in response, Olivia's heart pounding as adrenaline kicked in. She jerked her hands down, nausea filling her when the beam didn't budge, her hands remaining stiffly above her head as her wrists screamed in pain.
"Fucking bitch, I'll show you who's afraid," he smirked. Olivia closed her eyes, thrashing her head to the side and trying to ignore the dizziness that swam through her at the sound of his zipper being undone. She had never been more terrified in her life.
XxX
He managed to slip through the door with little trouble, having picked the lock quickly and glad he didn't need to break it down. Ducking into the house, he found the woman and her daughter looking distraught in the kitchen, the little girl's eye wide with fear. Elliot put his hand to his lips, praying that they would stay silent. The woman nodded, slipping a hand over the little girl's mouth to keep her from making any noise, whispering hastily to her in Spanish.
"You need to get out. Quietly. Get in your car, drive away, and then call 911," he hissed as softly as he could, watching how the woman nodded, tears building in her lashes. "Did you see where he went?" He queried, nodding when the woman lifted a shaking hand to point towards the back of the house before she picked up her daughter and fled. Elliot took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders before he moved to the back of the house where he could hear a man talking.
"Fucking bitch. I'll show you who's afraid."
The angrily hissed words barely made it through the door that separated the hall from what Elliot could only guess was a bedroom, but it was enough. He took one last breath before letting instinct take over.
His foot collided with the door, splintering the wood as it shoved forward, breaking into the room. He was in the open doorway a heartbeat later, gun held up and pointed towards the man who was attempting to loom over the bed.
"FREEZE!" He bellowed, barely allowing the man to turn slightly towards him, a look of shock on his sinister face, before he discharged the gun, the bullet slamming into the man's shoulder and sending him to the floor in a scream of agony. Seeing the rope on the floor Elliot grabbed it, throwing the man onto his stomach before tying his hands behind his back, making sure to leave the bulletwound pulled taut by the position before he moved to the bed.
Olivia blinked up at him, her expression one of shock.
"Hold on Liv," he breathed, reaching down to brush her sweaty bangs out of her face as he managed to pick the lock on the handcuffs, releasing her wrists from above her head. Gingerly, he brought her hands down towards her chest, knowing that her shoulders would be protesting loudly at the change of the position but more concerned by the raw skin on her arms and the obvious signs of trauma on her face. Her face held bruises and dried blood, her one eye showing burst capillaries. He could see the remnants of adhesive on her cheeks, her lips chapped and torn from what he could only assume was the repeated application and removal of duct tape.
"Elliot?" She asked, seeming to have trouble processing his presence. He didn't blame her. He had left so abruptly and with no word those few years ago that he wouldn't be surprised if she thought he was a figment of her imagination.
"Yeah Liv, I'm here, I've got you," he replied, gently rubbing at the abused skin on her wrists with one hand while he went for his pocket knife with the other, making sure to make sure she was with him before he cut the duct tape off her legs. "Do you think you can stand?" He questioned. She shrugged, clinging to him as he tried to pull her up off the bed. Her knee protested wildly the minute she tried to put weight on it, the joint buckling beneath her as she let out a yelp. Elliot instantly pulled her into his chest, sweeping her into his arms as he moved to the living room, ignoring the pained and anguish filled screams that Lewis threw at them while he writhed on the floor.
As he carried her towards the sofa he could see the hazy look in her eyes, her breath smelling strongly of alcohol. The was she struggled to focus told him she had been drugged at least once. The way her hands trembled as she reached out to try and cling to the fabric of his shift told him how terrified she really was. Olivia had always been standoffish of physical affection but she seemed desperate to keep him close in that moment. He cringed, the part of him that wanted to be at his best for her wishing he had had time to shower and change. The larger part of him, the part that was just so damn relieved that she was safe and in his arms didn't care that his shirt was from nearly three days prior and that he probably smelled of stress sweat and terror.
He sat next to her, trying not to jump when she let out a sob, practically crawling into his lap despite how her tired and aching body protested the movement, her knee, swollen and throbbing shifted until she bore little weight on it.
"Elliot. You came - came back," she hiccuped, dry lips brushing against the skin on his neck and she buried her bruised and battered face there.
"I couldn't leave you. When I heard - Christ Liv… I had to find you," he breathed, wrapping his arms around her back and holding her close as the sound of sirens started sounding nearby, the amount of varying tones telling him that it wasn't simply one cop car and an ambulance but rather an entire squadron that was racing towards them. He felt her crying a second later, shaking fingers scrambling to hold tight to him as the sound of footsteps and yelled instructions blared around the house, the front door crashing open a second.
"Thank God," Fin's voice sounded, the pouring out of the man the minute he laid eyes on them. "Is -"
"He's in the back bedroom. Needs a doc to see to him. Nasty bullet wound in his shoulder," Elliot explained, not bothering to feign real concern as Fin nodded, motioning for the other officers to head further into the house.
"Liv, I'm going to get one of the medics to come take a look at you, okay?" Fin offered, keeping his voice low and gentle as he crouched down next to the sofa. She nodded minutely in response, not moving from where she held tight to her old partner, not willing to be separated. Even when the paramedics came to tend to her she refused to let go of Elliot, keeping his hand tightly in hers as she tried not to panic at the feeling of someone else touching her.
"You're okay. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere Livvia, promise," Elliot assured her, stroking tender fingers over her hair as he walked towards the ambulance with the paramedics, keeping his expression as calm as he could while trying to ignore the looks of the cops he had worked with as their eyes followed him to the bus, watching how he climbed in next to the stretcher. Olivia swallowed thickly, her eyes fluttering shut from exhaustion as she fell asleep just as the ambulance pulled away.
XxX
Olivia blinked her eyes open, taking in the white walls and dim sunlight filtering in through the window to her right. Wincing, she tried to sit up only to flop back against the pillows, huffing out a pained sigh.
"Hey now, take it easy," Elliot said, drawing her attention to where he was sitting in the chair next to her hospital bed. Someone had taken pity on him and given him a set of scrubs to wear in the time she had been unconscious.
"You're actually here," she muttered, voice rough from sleep and abuse the last four days had caused her. Elliot smiled sadly at her, taking her hand in his and stroking over her knuckles.
"Yeah Liv. I'm here," he responded.
"How?" She asked, struggling to process the thought that her ex-partner, who had disappeared from her life more than two years before, was suddenly there when she needed him most.
"Fin. He… he told me you… that you were missing. I - God, Liv, I couldn't think about anything other than making sure we got you back safely. I got in the car the minute I heard and tried everyone I knew to help find you. Thank God someone had a lead. If I hadn't found you when I did -" his voice broke then, his blue eyes dropping to where their hands were intertwined on the bed.
"Thank you," Olivia breathed, squeezing his fingers in her own. "You saved me El." He scoffed slightly, shaking his head as he sniffed, trying to keep his emotions under control.
"I never should have left. Fuck Liv, if I had been here he might have never -"
"Shh, it's okay. I… I'm not going to pretend to truly know why you left but…. but I don't hold it against you. Not anymore. If you had stayed… we don't know what might have happened between now and then," Olivia murmured. Elliot nodded, playing with her fingers. "Can I… where were you?"
"Albuquerque."
"You didn't-"
"Drive all the way here from Albuquerque? Yeah Liv, course I did. The woman I love was in danger and I -" he sucked in a breath then, realising what he had said without meaning to.
"Oh," Olivia whispered, feeling her cheeks heat and her heart pound at the words. "You… but… even after all this time?"
"Yeah. I never stopped. My marriage ended a long time ago. Officially and unofficially. And I didn't want to ruin you. Ruin things here. I wasn't in a good place. I needed to back away from everything for a while. But getting that message… God, I've never been so scared. I felt so helpless. The entire time I was driving here I was just praying that you'd be okay. That I wouldn't be too late." Olivia reached out with her free hand, ignoring how her body ached, until she could cup his cheek, pulling his gaze to her face.
"El?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you too."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Now, come cuddle me. I want you here when I wake up." He grinned sheepishly at her before he stood, back cracking slightly before he climbed onto the narrow mattress, careful of the numerous bandages that littered the body of the woman next to him even as she curled into his chest. "I'm glad you came back."
"Me too." He held her as she drifted back to sleep, his own exhaustion from being awake for close to sixty hours finally taking hold until he nodded off as well.
That was how Munch, Fin and Barba found them an hour later, the two detectives sharing a smile.
"About damn time," Fin snickered as he snapped a quick picture with his phone before motioning for the other two to follow him back down the hall.
"Too bad it took a kidnapping for Elliot to finally get it together," Munch commented, shaking his head even as he smiled. Barba shot each of them a confused look before shrugging.
"Yeah, well, they got there eventually," Fin said. "I'm gonna send this pic to Cragen. I'm sure he'll be happy to see they finally figured themselves out."
"Oh copy me on that email. I want to see his head explode," Munch laughed.
Back in the hospital room, Olivia snuggled closer to Elliot, feeling him press a kiss into the crown of her head. Both of the two sleeping individuals knew it wouldn't be an easy path ahead of them but they would be facing it together. And that was what mattered in the end.