Chase
PREMIS; This story is NOT romantic. The following takes place between a four day period around Christmas time. The main focus of this story is Olivia Benson who while working on Christmas eve gets a call in about a rape, a released rape kit but a missing rape victim who willingly left the E.R after letting them notify the police she was there. In the four day period Olivia frantically tries to find her even though she is repeatedly told to drop it since no real complaint is made. Things only get more twisted when the DNA from the rape kit is a match to an ex-con and Olivia debates pursuing him to find her victim, and puts her job on the line.
DISCLAIMER: In creating this story, I, the author intend it for entertainment purposes only. I do not own anything.
DAY 1 – December 24th, 2009
It sure hadn't felt like the Christmas spirit around the precinct, the cases were up, everyone had a desk full of paperwork, and few had little minds to do it. People were in the moods for their own families, thinking about their kids, and the upcoming holidays. The days seemed typical, the mood seemed a bit more stressful, but the mindset was lacking, for some.
Elliot arrived into the squad room, he was eager for tomorrow, Christmas home with is family, the holiday mess made him almost an hour late for work in the morning. He came to his desk put his stuff down at his chair.
"Sleep in?" Olivia asked him not picking her head up from her paperwork.
"We had a baking malfunction, Cathy needed some assistance in the kitchen, …..I thought I sent you a text." he said scratching his head, going over to the side of her desk and picking up her coffee mug.
She looked up at him. "I guess I missed it." she smirked at him, but more about the moment he was about to experience. Elliot took it upon himself to take a drink of coffee, he took a gulp but opened his mouth and released the contents back into her mug.
"Gross. That tastes like flat diet coke." he made a face a extreme distaste.
"Merry Christmas." she smiled at him.
"That was too well planned for you to have done it on purpose." he smirked placing the cup back at her desk.
"Well you know I have that inane ability to accurately predict the days when you're going to welcome yourself to my cup of coffee, but I didn't, I left it on my desk from last night." she paused "Uhm, you want to wash that out and get me some actual coffee now that you've disregarded your backwash into it?" she looked at him wide eyed and hopeful.
He took the cup off her desk, and held it, but instead of going over to fix her some coffee he sat down at the side of her desk. "What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked.
"You asked me that everyday for the last week. Do you think you can guess by now?" she cleared her throat and rolled her eyes merely at his predictability.
"I thought maybe your plans had changed." he shrugged at her "You can still come by. You can have dinner with us if you want. Cause you did say there was a possibility about your plans changing and since they haven't..." he topped in his tracks.
"No my plans haven't changed, I'm going to work, like I do pretty much every Christmas." she told him monotonously.
"Well if that's what you want to do." Elliot shrugged at her standing up with her mug.
"It is." she told him. "It really is." maybe this time he would buy it and stop bothering her with sympathy attempts of getting her to do something or go somewhere.
"Okay." Elliot chimed leaving to finally get her, her cup of coffee.
The day went steadily and everyone proceeded to give each other holiday greetings and the precinct was even visited by Christmas Carolers at one point. It got to be around eight at night when people started to wade in and out of the squad room. Even Captain Cragen was heading out for the night, leaving Olivia and Munch in charge.
"Tomorrow when we get off shift do you want to watch some Japanese horror movies with me? I have a whole shelf full. It makes the holiday time go by much faster." Munch offered across the room to Olivia, who smirked at the idea, but was internally disgusted at the idea of gory horror movies at Christmas time.
"I actually have to clean my apartment tomorrow." she answered, with her lame but suiting excuse.
"That's a way to spend a holiday." he laughed at her.
"Well I bought people gifts but I just don't know where they are." she said reasonably concerned, this was true, she really did need to do a thorough clean out of her flat.
"If you insist, it's your loss you know." Munch advised her, but she shrugged and kind of laughed, because for some reason she didn't feel like she was missing out too much.
As the evening went on, it was filled with Munch trying to make comfortable small talk between himself and Olivia, but most of it was unfulfilling, since neither of them were too entranced by the holiday season, and it seemed for some people while the holidays went by too quickly, tonight, for them, minutes were feeling like hours. However, paperwork can provide that feeling quite easily.
Around eleven, Olivia's phone actually rang.
"Special Victims Unit, this is Detective Benson." she answered in the same orderly fashion she usually did. She started to write things down on a note paper. "I'll be there soon." she hung up the phone and stood up from her desk.
"What'd you catch?" Munch asked.
"A rape case." she sighed a little bit, she hadn't a taken a break for the season, so why should the criminals? Though the entire thought of this seemed ultimately depressing. "You going to man the phones?" she asked, putting her coat on and slightly teased him.
"Of course." he said determined and noticed a half done soduku puzzle under the papers on his desk.
When Olivia arrived to the ER, she looked around almost shocked by how moderately empty it was. She approached the desk. "Detective Benson, Special Victims, I got a call about a rape." she said to the nurse on desk, who looked up at her, then at the computer.
"Yeah that's right over-" the desk nurse was interrupted.
"Detective." said a woman's voice from behind her, a short woman, with blond hair, she was specially trained sexual trauma nurse who Olivia had had many runs in with. "I just got on, I was going over to that room right now." the nurse and Olivia went over to where the victim had been waiting in the company of C N A, the nurse handed Olivia a sheet of paper with the victims name on it.
"Ilene Garcia, 25." she said to herself reading over what the nurse could write about her. "Uh.." Olivia paused as she read over her address, "this address, it puts her apartment in the middle of the East Ri..." she stopped when she got into the room and there was an empty bed.
"Maybe she's in the bathroom." the nurse said heading over to the door on the side of the room to check.
"Did someone run a rape kit?" Olivia asked, a bit frantically.
"Yes, before you got here." the nurse replied.
A woman in her mid 30's appeared at the door with a bottle of water, she wore maroon scrubs and white shoes, her hair pulled back. She looked shocked at the empty room, with the two other women looking back at her.
"Where's Ilene?" the nurse asked the C N A.
The C N A paused, in shock she only left her alone for two minutes to get her some water. "I just...for two minutes she wanted a bottle of water." the woman turned ghostly white.
"You left a rape victim alone?" Olivia said sternly.
"I'm so sorry." The C N A was in near tears.
"I can't help her if she didn't release her rape kit. Since her address is fake, I wouldn't be surprised if her name is fake too." Olivia sighed in a bit of distress, but the C N A pulled a form off the night table near the hospital bed.
"She did, she signed the form, she was distraught while doing it and asked me to get her some water, so I thought maybe if she could take a minute to herself and breath it would help." the woman handed the papers over to Olivia, and then left.
Olivia took the form, the signature was entirely illegible. "Well. That definitely doesn't say Ilene Garcia." she sighed. "Somebody could have forced her out, I need your security tapes from the last half hour or so." She told the nurse, the nurse nodded.
"We'll need that nursing assistant." said the nurse, the nurse rushed into the rooms following, and around the ER, when she found the assistant she sat her down. "I need you to give a description to Detective Benson about Ilene, and point her out on the security tapes." the nursing assistant nodded and did as she was instructed.
DAY 2 – December 25th 2009
After collecting the security tapes, and the rape kit, it was only minutes after midnight, and Olivia rushed to Warner's lab to get a rush on her rape kit, hopefully, their victims DNA was in the system so she could find her. Warner had been planing to call it in for the night, but with Olivia's arrival she knew her plans were going to be unsuccessful.
"Don't uniforms usually drop off rape kits?" she asked Olivia, feeling this situation was a bit familiar.
"I was close by, I have the paperwork. It's legit." she assured the ME hoping that would sell her enough to get her started.
"Let me guess, you need a rush on it?" Warner smirked. Everyone always said that.
Olivia nodded, "The victim went missing, so I would appreciate it."
"I'll run the DNA samples but if they have matches it'll take a few hours, probably be done around ten." Warner said starting to open and examine the kit and the documentation.
"In the morning....?" Olivia asked making sure her assumptions were correct.
"Yes, in the morning, but it could be sooner I'll call you as soon as I know anything." Warner stated giving her the reassurance she was hoping for.
"Thanks." Olivia said, turned and started to walk out her mind engraved with finding this victim before something even worse happened to her.
"Olivia." Warner called down the hall, and Olivia turned around "Merry Christmas." Warner said to her, Olivia waved merely.
"Merry Christmas." She repeated back, finally heading out.
Olivia returned to the precinct, she explained the situation to Munch, who was now accompanied by his partner Fin.
"The name's gotta be fake." said Fin, "I just ran Ilene Garcia, and out of the bunch not one of them was 25. Or matches the photos" he sighed, these were the kinds of things that really bothered him.
"I assumed it was but, thanks for checking." Olivia said.
"So all we have is a 25 year old hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes?" Munch asked.
"She's 5'3 and weighs 118 pounds." Olivia added in.
"And a blurry picture and bad quality security video, that shows 'Ilene' leaving the ER by herself willingly." Fin said looking down at the overly pixelated photo on Olivia's desk.
"But she told the nurse she wanted to call the police, and she released her rape kit, why would she do that if it wasn't her intention to press charges." Olivia said, staring at the security video that was repeating on the screen every 15 seconds.
"Intention isn't the same as a complaining witness." Munch pointed out.
Olivia had no argument to this, but merely a statement; "She's a rape victim." and focused her attention back on 'Ilene' "All I had to do was get there a few minutes sooner......" Olivia stressed herself, what took her so long to get to the hospital, where did she waste time? "We could look in missing persons or maybe she knows an Ilene Garcia and we should go talk to them, we could show them her picture."
"You want to knock on people's doors at 2 AM Christmas morning?" Fin asked her
"I will if I have to." Olivia glared at him.
Fin nodded, "Well you just let me know and I'll be there."
"We gotta find this girl tonight before she becomes the next body pulled out of the Hudson." Olivia huffed pushing both her palms up against her forehead brushing her hair back, she looked back at the replaying security video on the screen in front of her.
The screen was blurry, black and white, taking film of the ER desk, the girl who during her examination called herself Ilene, approached the desk, backed away, looked around shyly, only once giving a look in the direction of the security camera, and then she was gone. Olivia felt the scene was all too familiar, she was afraid, she was alone, and utterly terrified of what was going to happen to her. It was that empty fearful look that caught Olivia's attention so much. She could recognize that look on anyone.
Between the three of them, they spent the night sorting through recent missing persons files of women with a similar description, but nothing solid had come through, and they all felt it had been turning into a real waste of valuable time. And when the sun finally started to come out, she started to lose her hope in this resulting at all.
It was early about eight, in the morning when the assistant district attorney Alex Cabot, walked in through the doors. To a merely empty squad room, and the three of them huddled around files looking glumly.
"Well it looks like you three had a regular party." Alex said placing her bag on an empty desk. The three of them turned to look at Alex slightly unamused.
"Hmm okay." Alex huffed to herself the group unresponsive to her presence. Alex paused "Merry Christmas to you guys too then." she observed them curiously, things had been glum sometimes but even when they were annoyed with each other she could at least get a hello out of one of them.
"Yeah." Olivia said, shaking her head and standing up. "Sorry, Merry Christmas." she sighed, she was getting sick of Christmas, she was getting sick of everything.
"You guys have a long night?" Alex asked looking over at Munch and Finn
"You could say that." Munch said standing up, "now, I don't know about you guys but I'm heading home to get some sleep." he exited from the desk, and into the locker room to grab his things and leave.
"Are you going to fill me in, or I should I talk to Cragen?" Alex asked Olivia who seemed to overlook her presence.
"It, I don't think, I don't know." Her words were jumbling, disjointing, and though she could make a full sentence in her mind, when she tried to talk just a mess came out.
Alex crossed her arms, "Fine." she said stubbornly, "Do you have the paperwork on the Tiffany Wittila case done?"
Olivia shook her head, "Things came up. I'll have it soon, I'm almost, close to it." She said, she didn't want to say she was almost done, since that would be a lie. Her plans to have that done for this morning and go home for the day were not seemingly coming true, but Munch took off, and Fin would too, and she was eagerly debating running across the city trying to find a connection somewhere to this girl.
"You better, or Judge Walden's gonna hold you contempt of court. Sooner rather than later." Alex said, a bit high strung this morning apparently. Alex turned over to the screen that was still replaying the security tape. "What is that?" she asked.
Olivia looked over at it, then at Alex. She hesitated to answer. "It's a missing rape victim, It was called in last night." she said, she sighed.
"What's her name?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. She gave a fake name, fake address." Olivia answered her, merely annoyed, not at Alex, just at the situation.
"Did you take her statement?" Alex asked. Olivia glared up at Alex, clearly this time annoyed with her.
"I'm just asking." Alex cleared herself of any intensities that were going to occur.
"I'm waiting for the DNA from her rape kit." Olivia said, she huffed and sat down at her desk.
"How can you have a rape a kit and not know her name?" Now Alex was starting to get irritated. "If you ran a rape kit that wasn't released you can be in a lot of trouble." She threatened Olivia, these sorts of fast and loose games were really getting on Alex's nerves.
"I know how to do my job." Liv stated frustrated, standing up she had to walk away. She spent the entire night wasting her time, she wasn't even an inch closer to finding this girl. She could be dead by now. Really who knew.
When Cragen arrived Alex and him spent the better part of the morning in his office, going over the facts of the case that Olivia took from the evening.
Olivia, interrupted Fin's study toward his paperwork, "You want to canvas these Ilene Garcia's with me?" she asked. In the city eight women had registered drivers licenses with the name 'Ilene Garcia.' Though none of their photos resembled the photos of the victim, there could be a relation and her fake name was the only thing they had to go on, and still it could be nothing.
Fin nodded, "We can split it up, cover more ground faster." he said, and she agreed.
Olivia was at her first stop on her list the apartment of Manuel and Ilene Garcia, a rundown apartment building in Harlem, and she wasn't about to make their wish list interrupting them on Christmas morning. She knocked on the door, and momentarily a man answered.
"Well you certainly aren't my wife's sister." he snickered, "I don't want what you're selling." he said ready to close the door. Olivia flashed her badge. "Eh, you cops persecuting people on christmas now too." he sneered.
"I'm Detective Benson, and I need to speak with an Ilene Garcia, only for a second." she said a bit apologetically to be ruining their family's holiday so early in the morning. Ilene came to the door, after her husband called to her from the living room where their two children were opening presents.
"Feliz Navidad." she said as she approached the door to see Detective Benson, she was a tall thin woman with long hair pulled over her shoulders.
"Last night a woman used your name after telling nurses at an ER that she was assaulted, I just need to know if you've ever seen this woman before, or have any relation to her." Olivia said she handed her the picture, and the woman eyed it only for a moment.
"I have never seen her before. Can you go now?" she responded.
Olivia nodded, "I"m so sorry to have interrupted your holiday." she took her photograph back, and left as they shut the door. She went back to her squad car, but her phone rang as soon as she sat down.
"Benson." she answered, it was Warner.
"I have your results." she said
"I'll be there soon." Olivia said, and hung up before Warner could even fit in a goodbye, or any more detail. This was it, she had results, that meant her victim was in the system. Well, it meant something, because if there was nothing she would have just told her straight out.
Olivia arrived at the Medical Examiners office, only to be greeted by Alex, and Warner looking a bit irritated.
"What are you doing here?" Olivia looked at Alex, but then turned to Warner "What are the results, was she in the system?" Olivia asked.
Warner looked at Alex, then back at Olivia, "She wasn't in the system." Warner said.
Olivia's jaw dropped, her expectation of this trip was now ultimately low "You called me here to tell me there was nothing?" Olivia snapped at her.
"If you would let me finish Olivia, I was going to tell you, that her DNA isn't in the system. But his is." Warner looked back at Alex who was biting her lips, because the following news Olivia really wasn't going to like. Olivia looked wide eyed, for a period she practically forgot she was also looking for a perp, her whole focus had been on her victim.
"Who is it?" Olivia asked, this was her break in the case, all she had to do was find this guy and she could find her victim and put him in jail.
"She can't tell you that." Alex said.
"Why not!?" Olivia exclaimed, entirely irritated.
"Because, she signed and released her rape kit under the name "Ilene Garcia." and you told me that was a fake name. Which nullifies it." Alex looked at the floor. And Olivia's jaw dropped and she scowled her eyes.
Olivia thought for a minute, but now with this information she had to get around it. "It's possibly a fake name." Olivia said, she was clarifying her statement. "Her name could be Ilene Garcia, and she just might not be documented, or have a drivers license...we.. wouldn't know that.." she offered up, hoping this pleading, or reasoning would be able to pass by Alex.
"That's a tough sell." Alex said, biting the inside of her cheek.
"Alex it's all I got." Olivia said.
"Fine. I think I can pass it off." Alex shrugged, it would be hard but she did have a point. Warner kept her brow raised the entire conversation.
"So I can give you the results now, and go home?" she asked half jokingly.
"Yeah, who's our perp?" Olivia asked her, Warner handed her a file.
"An ex-con named Charles Brent." Said Warner, Olivia opened the folder.
"Thank you." she said, heading out the door not even waiting for Alex.
Back at the squad room, Alex, Cragen and Olivia were in Cragen's office, talking over their alleged case.
"You can't talk to Brent without giving yourself up, then you'll never get anywhere, and if you can't identify this victim soon, you're not going to have a case." Cragen pointed out.
"This case doesn't technically exist, you have no complaining witness." Alex continuously pointed out.
"She called the cops to the scene, so her intentions were to be a complaining witness, and she got scared. You both saw that video she is scared for her life." Olivia, continuously pointed out back at her.
"I know you think this is a break but you're a the same dead end you were before. You can't just knock on his door show him the picture and say 'do you know this woman?' he'll know. It could even make things worse, tipping him off then you might really never find her." Cragen said.
"Let me tail him." Olivia practically ordered.
"No." Her captain answered.
"She could be his girlfriend and maybe we can dump his phones." she offered the idea up to Alex and her captain.
"That could work, but you'll probably have to wait to tomorrow." Alex sighed. "or maybe not I can see what I can do." Alex grabbed her bag from the chair and left Cragen's office.
Later in the afternoon, Alex had pulled through getting Brent's phone records Olivia had six months of phone numbers to look through, she was glued to her desk going over them, noting suspicious numbers and calls, he had several names written down to check out, before she knew it it was already turning to evening, it was dark outside again. Another day was going, and going quickly too.
"Hey." she heard Elliot's voice from behind her.
She turned and looked at him from her desk. "Hey. What are you doing here?" she asked him, happy at his arrival but a bit shocked.
He was holding a small tupperware container and he placed on the edge of her desk. "It's ravioli." he said.
She laughed at him, "You had ravioli for christmas dinner?" she smirked.
"Homemade." he added in.
"That's impressive." she laughed. It really was, she couldn't make homemade ravioli. "You didn't have to do that. You should be at home." going back to highlighting calls on her papers.
"Yeah well." he paused, "I had to get some stuff, this was just making things convenient. You know 'tis the season and all." he mumbled.
"Yeah like what?" she asked, looking at him, really what did he need to come back for that he couldn't wait until tomorrow? He reached over to his desk, and took a pen from the corner. He waved it in front of her. It was pink, with a breast cancer ribbon engraved in it, though he didn't know that until it was close to him.
"See, my lucky pen." he said childishly giving the same grin he always did at his tactics.
"Uh, that pen would be mine." she pointed out pressing her lips together.
"Must be why it's so lucky." he got up put the pen in his pocket, and left. "See ya." he added.
She smiled, it was probably the first time she smiled all day. She didn't even tell him about the case, but part of her didn't want to, not today. She would tell him tomorrow, first thing when he came in. After she got her pen back.
DAY 3 - December 26th, 2009
Olivia spent the night again, she got six months of calling records down to the essentials that she needed, to identify her victim, Charles Brent had a number of calls going to a Marcia Ramos, that could be his girlfriend, with the amount of calls they were exchanging it had better be.
Elliot arrived, right on time, 8 AM as he should have. He put a large coffee on her desk. And sat down at his taking a sip of his own.
"People are going to start to think you're my delivery man." she told him.
"Then I guess you better start tipping me." he joked. "Any news?"
"I think her name is Marcia Ramos." she said, not realizing Elliot had no stake or knowledge in this case yet.
"I meant on the ravioli, but...sure, who? You want to fill me in now?" he asked.
Her eyes widened, and she raised her eyebrows at him, "I'm so sorry I forgot. I'll eat it for breakfast." she said.
"You forgot to eat?" He looked over at her.
"No, I mean I think I feel asleep, for a few hours I'm not totally sure..." she said a bit embarrassed. The tupperware was still sitting on her desk untouched.
"I guess I should have brought you a muffin too." he sighed.
"Then I really would have tipped you." She smirked at him, and he smirked back.
"So Marcia Ramos?" he asked curiously.
"Yeah, Charles Brent lowlife who lives in Queens, works for a construction company did a nickel for aggravated assault against his girlfriend Catherine Rivera." she still hadn't filled him in entirely. "He has repeatedly called Marcia Ramos for the last six months at least once a day." she told him, that had to be a lead in the case.
He raised his brows, looking over at her, "You got a case file on this so I can actually acquaint myself with the other details you haven't shared?" he asked her.
She pulled up what she had in paperwork, and handed it to him, "C'mon you read and I'll drive."
Olivia and Elliot drove to the listed address they could find of Marcia Ramos, it turned out to be a dingy grocery mart, after parking, the entered suspiciously. The store was empty, and there was one woman, and older woman placing fruit in a bin.
"Hola." she said not looking up.
"Good Morning Ma'am, I'm Detective Stabler this is my partner Detective Benson. We're looking for a woman named Marcia Ramos, this was the only address we could find." Elliot said, taking the lead on the moment.
"Si, I'm Marcia Ramos." She said, looking up at the two of them.
"Have you ever seen this woman?" Olivia said showing her the picture. Marcia took the picture and looked at carefully, she studied everything about it, the bruises on her face, and sad look in the girl's eye. She handed the photo back and looked down at the ground.
"No. I have not seen her before." she said sheepishly, but both Elliot and Olivia knew that wasn't the case.
"." Elliot said, "This is a police investigation, if you know this woman we need to know, we're looking for her."
Marcia paused, she looked up at him. "I do not know her name." she clarified.
"But, you know her? Do you know where we can find her?" Olivia asked, sounding all to hopeful.
"If I tell you, what happened to her will happen to me. Please go." she said, going back over to her fruit.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'what happened to her.' Where is she, we need to find her." Olivia said, now extremely frustrated.
"I don't know anything, go away." Marcia ordered.
"What is your relationship to a Charles Brent?" Olivia asked ignoring her order.
"GO NOW." Marcia said angrily.
This time the two of them took her suggestion and left the store.
"Someone has Marcia on a very tight leash, and arresting her would just make it worse." Elliot said to Olivia as they got into the car.
"Arresting her might be the only way to get to our victim." Olivia reminded him. "She might feel safer in an interview room than in that little shop." she looked at Elliot as though she was seriously considering bringing her in. Elliot just shook his head.
"We'll find a better way in Liv." he said, she just looked at him unsatisfied, she turned her lips in against each other and pressed them together.
When Olivia and Elliot returned to the squad, Fin greeted them with some news.
"You know Marcia Ramos?" he asked, and they looked at him. "Turns out, she's Charles Brent's mother." Olivia looked shocked and pulled the paperwork from Fin's hands. "That's not all." He added, Olivia looked up at him. "She has two daughters also Eva, and Rosa Ramos, 29 and 32." he said, her eyes widened.
"It has to be one of them." she said, going over to the computer to pull up any information on Eva and Rosa.
"You think he raped one of his sisters?" Elliot asked.
"Half sisters." Fin corrected. "Marcia is married to a Hector Ramos, but Charles Brent's father is a man named Andrew Brent, he lives on the upper east side. Marcia used to be their cleaning lady until she was fired, six months before Charles was born." Fin reported.
Olivia just nodded, because she felt she was getting so unbelievably close, but then she became immediately disappointed. "It's not Rosa." She said. "Rosa Ramos has been in prison for the last 2 years, she was part of a drug smuggling ring." Olivia sighed.
"What about Eva?" Elliot asked her, when Olivia pulled Eva's photo up on screen, it was clear she was not the missing victim. Eva was short, 5'1, and heavy, she worked at a laundry matt near the grocery store her mother owned.
"And if Marcia isn't talking, I doubt Eva will." Elliot said.
"This is the only thing that we have." Olivia fired back, "We have to go talk to her." she added.
"It'll be a waste of time. We're still at a dead end here." He sat down as if to dismiss this case from his interest.
"You're not even gonna try?" she asked him, she looked shocked. "What about Rosa, she might talk to us." she offered.
"Listen, Brent's mom knows we're after him now, she obviously tipped him off and we're even closer to nowhere than we were before." He reasoned with her.
"Then maybe we should just go get him. We could just ask him some questions." she proposed back to him, but again he seemed uninterested and laid back from the case. She tilted her head and gave him a look of a disbelief, she sighed, and pulled her coat off her chair.
"Where are you going?" he asked finally being a little interested.
"To talk to Eva and Rosa myself." she said sharply turning around and putting her coat, exiting from the building.
Elliot had been right, talking to Eva and Rosa had been a complete waste of time, everything she had been doing was a complete waste of time. This whole day, another entire day was gone. She slumped in her seat. People were leaving, but Elliot had made plans to stay the night and catch up on his mountain of paperwork he'd been putting off like everyone else. Olivia itched her forehead, she was tired, and annoyed, but mostly concerned, and still at a road block.
"We should bring Marcia in." she said finally "We can get her to tell us what she knows and then we can nail Brent to the wall." she wasn't sure if she was really talking to Elliot or just kind of talking out loud.
"Olivia...." he said looking up, but an immediate and almost overlapping "Olivia" came from Cragen who was standing outside of his office. She looked over at Cragen and got up from her desk entering his office.
"Where's the paperwork for the Tiffany Wittila case?" he asked. "Alex needs that by tomorrow morning." he reminded her. "There's no way you can get it done by then."
She looked at him, she was a mess from this one case she hadn't thought about any others. "I'll have it done tomorrow. I just--" she started but Cragen cut her off.
"There aren't any excuses, I'm not supposed to be playing catch up when you decide to chase ghost victims into the night sky. Now go home sleep for a few hours and come back here and get your focus back on Tiffany Wittila." he ordered her. But she only looked at him in a bit of detest.
"Olivia, if she wants to report she will. You can't force her, and you can't spend any more of your time or this department's time on it." he clarified his position for her, but instead this only made her more frustrated.
"Obviously...." she exasperated her eyes glazed across and were ready spill over. Olivia tried to regain her ability and strength in the conversation.
"Obviously, she wants our help, she needs us, this is who we protect." She made her case, bit on her lip and tried more than ever to hold back from anger and crying. She knew if she broke he could see it was getting to her in more than a typical manner, but it was already becoming evident to Cragen
"Olivia, there are half a dozen reported cases sitting your desk, when she wants our help she will come to us, there isn't anything I can do, and neither can you, now go home and get some sleep." Cragen stated, knowing fully that she would be filled with resentment.
Olivia who had been working for three days straight, in the same attire seemed shocked by this request she opened her mouth to speak but no words would come out, she took a deep breath. "Captain." she started, but he quickly interrupted her appeal "Detective that is a direct or-" but she fired back before he could finish his statement.
"Captain I need you to let met tail him, and I will find her or a link or just a lead if you just let me sit on him I can do my job. That woman is afraid for her life it's been 3 days and she's wondering why no one has come to arrest him she did what she was supposed to do didn't she, she went as far as she could. She could have known that he was in the system, if I can get to him I can get to her, why aren't you letting me pursue a rapist?" she finally started to cry, she closed her eyes grabbed her hand to her forehead, it was coming to an end, her hand started to shake at her side, and then she started to fear some kind of retribution from her Captain based on her outburst and her unwillingness to follow his command.
Captain Cragen familiarized with this moment of dedication and determination, but there was nothing he could do, and nothing she could do, and her emotional involvement in this had gone too far, "Detective Benson, go home." were his only words before he put his head back down to his paper work dismissing her from his office.
It had been better than she thought, she wasn't reprimanded which she actually seemed rather afraid of at that particular moment. She held her head down nodded, and exited his office, turning back into the squad room she swallowed the enormous sharp pain that had been lurking in the back of her throat, and made back to her desk to get some things.
Elliot looked up from his paperwork, "Liv." he started, but she interrupted again,
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
The were a momental pause because he was sure it was rather obvious... "Paperwork on the-." he started but she interrupted him again.
"C'mon we're gonna tail Brent." she whispered to him.
Elliot paused dropped his pen and itched the back of his head, giving her a look of concern, "There's no way Cra-" and then he stopped, how many times had he pulled this before, how many times had he taken the lead over something like this with or without Cragen's permission, but he was concerned about her welfare, no sleep or bathing for three days straight, she needed to go home, that he agreed with, and he wanted to make on her play, but when he saw her, and the stress that clung onto her body and her face like an illness he took away from the idea. "Liv, you should go home." he said regretfully. "and I mean, go home. Take a shower, eat something, get some rest." he pleaded with her but he knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear, but it was the truth.
Her mouth dropped, and she rolled her eyes at him, and his attempts to push aside her rape case for a shower and nap. "Unbelievable." she muttered at him, and outrightly frustrated left her desk into the locker room to get her stuff, and for a moment she really did see herself going home, but if he wasn't going to come fine. She opened the lock from her locker. When she heard the door open, she didn't turn to look, and maybe they wouldn't look at her either.
"C'mon I'll drive you home." Elliot said he moved out from the door way.
"I'm a big girl El, I can walk." She took her purse and her coat from her locker and slammed it shut.
"It's late." he said
"Yeah big deal." she huffed at him turning her attention toward him with a sharp strenuous glare.
He was almost intimidated by this look, but he knew if he didn't take her home she'd spend the night outside of Brent's apartment building by herself. "It's also below freezing." he added.
"Well I guess that's why I bought a coat." she said, her voice was sharp and irritated, and it sent a shrill up Elliot's spine, but he wasn't going to stop.
"Olivia, c'mon. You know, You know I want to-" he started but interrupting people was becoming a new habit of hers.
"How many times Elliot have I put everything on the line for you, how many times have I followed your hunches, even when they were wrong, and how many times did you keep going no matter what anyone said, or who told you to go home—and you know, you know that the worst part is, you know I'm right, and you know what'd you do if the positions were reversed--" she started to choke on her words, but he took on right where she left off.
"I'd do exactly what you're thinking about doing, and can't let you do that, not right now, you'd be saying this exact same thing to me. I know you would because you use your head, so use it now." Elliot glared at her for a moment, trying to make his point clear to her.
"Let me--" she paused she wasn't even going to start on that one, "and that's the point isn't El, that I wouldn't be in here offering you a ride home, I'd be geared up ready to go with you at every whim, ….at every second." she licked her lips and looked at him a bit puzzled for a moment, but he was right she had to start using her head, and it made sense, it all made sense. He was offering to drive her home to get away with going to sit outside Brent's, and it took her this long to see it? Or had he only changed his mind. Or maybe she was so tired she was missing the signals, but she went with her gut, she had to trust him, he had to help her he was the only one left, "Yeah, then I guess you'll be driving me home." she picked her head up a bit higher, and she was satisfied with this arrangement, but only a bit irritated that he couldn't just come out of the woodwork and say it.
After the two of them had safely left the precinct, they sat in Elliot's car, drinking their hot large coffees keeping close tabs on his apartment building. It was a rough part of town, and seemed note worthy that two people were keeping tabs on the street. Or so had thought the teenage wave of gangsters and drug dealers who voluntarily evacuated. If this didn't work, then the only thing left would be to talk to Brent, or drop everything. But she was going to explore every possibility until there was nothing left, officially, or unofficially.
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[AN: I was going to only keep this as a one chapter story but there is a lot so far. And I wanted to get it up. Day 4, chapter two—the final part, will be up shortly. Hope you've enjoyed it reviews are great.]