Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
This is my first story so please don't be too hard on me! If you don't like my work, you really don't have to read it. I know this story is very far-fetched, I know, I do, but I wanted to come up with something unique that nobody else would write about. Something different than what we're all used to. I've tried to keep them in character but idk if it worked... once again, if you don't like it, just don't read it. Leave me reviews, please! :)
"You two are traveling to Russia to help with a case," Cragen announced, looking from Olivia's tired eyes to Elliot's.
Olivia wasn't sure she'd heard right. "What?" she blurted, sitting on her desk beside Elliot.
"Russia?" Elliot spat, just as shocked as Olivia.
"Yeah. A serial rapist from Staten Island escaped and went to Russia," he explained.
"Why wasn't he in prison if he was a serial rapist?" Olivia asked, her voice high in question.
"He was out on bail, awaiting his trial," Cragen replied.
"Obviously his bail wasn't high enough," Elliot said, turning around and setting some papers down on his desk.
"It was high."
"How much?" Olivia asked.
"500,000," Cragen said.
"What kind of idiot would leave $500,000 and go to Russia, of all places?" Olivia demanded.
"One that knew he was going to get convicted," Cragen said.
"Name?" Elliot asked.
"Dr. James Davidson," the captain answered, walking over to the projector and pulling up a picture of him. Olivia and Elliot got up from the desk and walked over to see this guy. He had short hair that had once been black, but was now beginning to be gray. His eyes were a piercing crystal blue, a look that very quickly became intimidating and threatening.
"He's a doctor?" Elliot asked.
"Not actually a medical doctor. He has his doctor's degree."
They were quiet for a minute, staring him over. "So, wait...we're going to Russia to catch this guy?" Olivia asked, still very confused.
"Yeah."
"Why? Yeah, so he's from New York, but that doesn't mean anything...Can't authorities in Russia get him?" Elliot asked.
"They don't know much about him. You guys have a profile on him and know his patterns," Cragen said.
"We can fax that information to Russian authorities," Olivia argued.
Cragen was quiet a minute. "Come to my office," he said, walking to his office behind him.
Olivia glanced up at Elliot, got a confused look from him, and then began walking to Cragen's office with Elliot following close behind.
"What's this about?" Olivia asked, settling in a chair beside Elliot.
Cragen glanced out the window of his office. "Look...if the guy isn't brought back here, he won't be convicted. Russian authorities can't handle it because...rape isn't taken as seriously there," he said quietly, reluctantly.
Olivia began to understand. Elliot did too. Cragen obviously wasn't supposed to be telling this to them, but he could see that they weren't going to go to Russia if he didn't further elaborate.
"You mean if he rapes more in Russia, he won't be prosecuted...?" Olivia asked.
"They won't even look into it," he said. "Russia isn't exactly as serious about sexually based offenses as we are."
"Can't we get him in a Russian prison for what he did here?"
"No. Russian authorities don't care about our cases. Not at all. They don't take this stuff seriously. I need you two to go to Russia and bring him back to the U.S."
"If he won't comply?"
"He will not 'comply'. You're going to put him on a special flight only for prisoners-"
"They really have those?" Olivia interrupted.
"Yeah. But there won't be too many people on it," Cragen answered.
"How many women has he raped in the U.S.?" Elliot asked.
"Fourteen," Cragen replied.
Elliot got a look of exasperation on his face. He was not really in the mood to go to Russia. "Does IAB know about this?"
Cragen again looked out the window. "No..." he said quietly.
"You can't just ship us off to Russia without IAB's permission," Olivia said, "Who's going to fund the trip?"
"It's taken care of," Cragen said, limiting the amount of information reaching them.
"By who? Isn't this a matter of foreign affairs? Or the FBI?" Olivia asked.
Don wanted to tell them that yes, it was a matter of the FBI, and they were the ones paying. But he couldn't bend the rules anymore than he already was. "No," was all he said. The FBI had offered to pay for the trip if they caught the guy, but they weren't willing to send any agents out because it was such a minor case. "Just a rapist", they had called it.
Olivia stared at him. "We shouldn't do this, Cap," she said finally.
"Go get your stuff packed, both of you. Pack a variety of things for undercover business. That's an order. You leave tonight," he said, leading them to the door.
This was by far the weirdest situation Olivia had ever encountered. Cragen was getting mad, though. She could tell because he had said, "That's an order." So she decided against arguing anymore. They were going to Russia, and that was that. But leaving tonight? That was short notice. Very short notice for a trip to Russia. But really, Olivia wasn't all that upset about it. They were getting a free vacation to Russia! Yeah, so it wasn't exactly the vacation she'd wanted...she was thinking more along the lines of Bolivia...but she was getting out of the country with her friend, nevertheless, expense-free. Pretty cool, huh? Maybe they could send the guy back when they got him and stay an extra day and relax.
Olivia walked beside Elliot toward the elevator. "What about Kathy?" she asked as she pressed the down button.
Elliot was quiet. He looked to the side and didn't say anything.
"She'll have to understand...he's making us go," Olivia said.
"She won't know," he answered as the elevator doors screeched open and they walked inside.
"You're going to lie to her?"
He chuckled, but it was a bitter, sarcastic chuckle. "Nah. She won't know I'm gone."
"We could be gone for days, though..." Olivia said.
He didn't answer her. He reached into the bag on his shoulder and pulled out a big packet of papers and held them out by her stomach. She took them and began to read. Divorce papers. Again? Poor Elliot...
"She's divorcing you?"
"Yeah," he said as the elevator stopped.
"What? Why?" Olivia asked quietly, obvioulsy very concerned for Elliot.
"She's sick of my job. Sometimes I am too," he said.
Olivia sighed quietly, sad for her partner. She furrowed her eyebrows and handed the papers back to him.
"But at least I've got a good partner," he said, yawning and then grinning.
Olivia chuckled. "Where you staying?" This was how they did things. Even though Olivia wanted to thank him and hug him and tell him things would be okay without Kathy, she couldn't do that because that just wasn't them.
"Got an apartment," he replied.
Olivia just nodded as they walked out the door of the precinct and started towards Elliot's car. Olivia climbed into the passenger's seat as Elliot started the ignition.
"Where's your apartment?"
"Close to yours, actually. Upper East Side. About three blocks from yours," he said.
Olivia nodded again. She would have said, "Cool" to just about anybody else, but she didn't say "cool" to Elliot.
Olivia's phone went off. Elliot glanced at her as she flipped open the phone and clicked a button.
"Cragen said to meet him back at the precinct at seven," Olivia said.
"Okay. That gives us a while to pack, I guess," he said, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the clock on his car's radio, which had the characters 3:45 P.M. in a bold, lime-green color.
They were quiet for a minute. "So, I'm guessing it's pretty cold there in February," Olivia said after a while.
"Freezing, no doubt," he agreed.
They reached Olivia's apartment and she climbed out. "See you later," she said.
Elliot waited at her apartment until he saw her light flicker on, and then left.
Hours later, Olivia walked into the precinct with her huge suitcase and duffel bag five minutes early-6:45-, only to find that Cragen and Elliot were already there. Cragen led them to a car outside and began driving them to the airport, Olivia in the backseat, Elliot in the passenger's. On the way, he handed Elliot their flight tickets.
"Now, listen," Cragen said. "Keep your cell phones on you. Call me when you're in Russia."
"Okay," Elliot promised.
"You two may have to do some undercover work. We believe that James may try to involve other people in his rapes-"
"Like...other perverts?" Olivia asked, confused.
"Yes. This guy is a lot more dangerous than we first thought. I was reading up on him, and I saw that two of the women he raped were police women. With guns. So when you find him-if you find him-you may want to be careful. You might want to pretend you're on his side rather than arrest him immediately, because he's powerful. He could have assassins hired; anything. He's unpredictable," Cragen explained.
Elliot couldn't help but feel like Cragen was talking to them like they were CIA agents or something.
"So we're going undercover?" Olivia asked.
Cragen sighed. "Just...do what you have to do to get the guy and get him on the plane. Elliot, I want you to email me when you have him. I will email you tickets for the flight when you have him. I can't just give you flight tickets to come back for whenever because we don't know how long it'll take to get him. If you don't have him in two months, come back."
"Two months?" Olivia winced. It could take two months to catch this guy? She was thinking more along the lines of two weeks.
"That's the maximum amount of time you could spend there. You may catch him within a week," Cragen answered.
Olivia was quiet. Things were silent the rest of the way to the airport. When they arrived, they got out of the car and Cragen walked them in. He handed Elliot some money and Olivia some money. They'd both been given six thousand dollars. Geez, whose money was this?
"This is for hotel rooms," he started. "And for food or whatever else you need."
"Thanks," Elliot said, stuffing the money in his back pocket. Olivia did the same.
"Good luck, guys. I better not lose my two best detectives to Russians," he joked, although it really wasn't very funny to Elliot or Olivia. "Call me when you're in Russia. Bye," he said, pivoting and walking away, leaving Elliot and Olivia to just glance around the outside of the airport nervously.
Elliot looked down at the tickets he was holding in his hand. They looked like cops. Definitely. What about their guns? Olivia looked down at her pants, where her gun was resting in its holster.
"El...guns."
"Hm?" he grunted, not looking up from the tickets.
"Will they let us take our guns on the plane?"
He looked up now. "Shit. I wonder if Cragen remembered that. They should let us...I mean, we're cops. I'll call him," he said, pulling out his phone. He dialed Cragen's number.
"Hey. Will they let us take our guns on the planes?" he said into the phone.
"They'll take them up and put them at the front of the planes with the pilot. You can get them back when you land in Russia. At security, just show them your badges. I've already talked to them, so they will know it's okay to let you two in," he said. Cragen's voice always sounded so different through the phone.
"Okay. Thanks. Bye," Elliot said, and hung up. He turned around to see Olivia gazing at him questioningly. He explained the gun predicament, and then they walked into the airport and began to go through security. There was a guard standing beside the detector thing that everybody was walking through. Elliot walked up to him, with Olivia following him. They pulled out their badges and held them up to the guy.
"I'm Detective Stabler, this is my partner Detective Benson. We're going out of the country to work a case. Our boss said he contacted you," Elliot said.
"Yeah," the black guy said, stepping aside. "Y'all go ahead."
Olivia hadn't heard somebody say "Y'all" in a very long time. That guy must have been from the south.
Olivia and Elliot walked through the security line, everybody staring at them enviously because they got to go through without the security frisk. When they had made it through the security, Elliot looked at his watch. "8:00. The plane leaves at 8:30. Let's get somethin' to eat before we go. American Airlines doesn't have good plane food," he said with a chuckle.
Olivia, feeling much more comfortable now that they were in a building and it was just her and her best friend, nodded her head in agreement. They walked into a convenience store and grabbed some snacks. Olivia didn't want Elliot to pay for hers so she pretended to look at some magazines while her partner went to pay.
"Liv, come on," he said, motioning for her to come to the register so he could pay for her items.
"I'm looking at something. Go ahead," she said. He checked out and Olivia decided on a magazine about Russia, since that was where they were going. She walked over to the register with her Sprite, RUSSIA TODAY magazine, and chocolate-covered pretzels. Surprised by how expensive airport snacks were and grateful that Elliot hadn't paid for her stuff, she paid and walked out with her plastic bag.
"I'm going to the restroom," she said to him.
He nodded and said, "Me too."
In the bathroom, Olivia made sure she went so she wouldn't have to go later. Then she touched up on her make-up, washed her hands, and exited. She found Elliot waiting on her. She met up with him and they walked over to the waiting area for their flight. "All 2Bs," a voice shouted through a microphone.
"We're 4B," Elliot informed Olivia.
"Okay." Olivia wanted to say "Okie Dokie!" but didn't because once again, she just didn't act like that around Elliot. Although she was always comfortable around her partner and best friend, she also had to watch what she said. She didn't want to be too revealing or say anything that would make her seem stupid. She tried to maintiain a professional relationship with him, although sometimes she couldn't.
Elliot yawned and rubbed his eyes as the voice on the intercom said, "All 3Bs, boarding now."
Not wanting to sit down with her big suitcases, Olivia shifted her weight to her left side. Finally, after about ten more minutes, the voice on the intercom spoke loudly, "All 4Bs, now boarding. All 4Bs."
Elliot and Olivia were the first 4Bs on the plane. They turned in their guns and then reached their seat, which was just a two-person row, luckily, and put their suitcases up on the shelf above their heads.
Warning: I'm just getting started, there'll be E/O, it just may be a while. I have to make it at least somewhat realistic! :) please leave me reviews! That will encourage me to continue!