"If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" she asks, and he looks over at her.
"Home," he tells her, and she gives him a startled look.
"Thought you grew up in the city," she says, and he nods.
"I did, but I didn't mean my childhood home," he replies.
Realization dawns on her suddenly and silence lingers between them for a long moment, and then she speaks again.
"You know, when I was a kid, I used to think about traveling all the time," she remarks, and he gives a faint smile.
"I think most people do, when they're kids," he says. "Elizabeth informed me yesterday that one day, she intends to go to England."
"Random place off the top of her head, or is there a reason?" Olivia leans back in her chair and waits, and after a moment, Elliot answers.
"Her class is taking a look at different cultures from around the world," he says. "That's where it came from."
Olivia mulls it over for a moment, and then continues the conversation.
"Does it scare you when they tell you they want to leave home?" she asks, and Elliot nods.
"Yeah. It scares the hell out of me," he says, and then, "I don't get it. There she is, with one kid, and she's a single mother, and yeah, she works, but you'd think she'd know what her own daughter was up to."
"Well, Virginia was pretty good at staying under the radar," Olivia replies, but Elliot shakes his head.
"You know, when I think about it, I can't really blame her for wanting to get away," he says. Olivia looks at him with raised eyebrows.
"Even though she fell for a guy old enough to be her father?" she asks, and he shakes his head again.
"I'm still not all right with that, but I can understand her wanting to get away. Wanting to find something better."
"She only had two more years left to wait before she could've left without worrying."
Silence. Elliot mulls this over for a moment, and knows that Olivia has a point. Virginia Hayes did only have two years left. And then she could have been free, of her mother, of her life, of everything. And there would have been no worries about anything.
"I ran away from home once when I was that age," he remarks, and she looks at him.
"Where'd you go?" she asks, and he shrugs.
"Got as far as Jersey before I decided there wasn't really anywhere I wanted to be but home."
"I read travel books," she says. "Kept my mind off things."
"I can imagine," he replies and leans back in his own seat. "You ever wonder what it would've been like to get away as a kid?"
"All the time." Olivia twirls her pen between her fingers and goes on. "That was my thing with the travel books, though."
"What was?" he asks, and she gives a half-hearted smile.
"It was a chance to escape, without going anywhere. I was sitting in the apartment, but…"
He cuts her off, and at the same time goes on with her train of thought.
"But the walls could never hold your soul."