Hey everyone!
Thank you for your kind words so far on part one. I'm glad people enjoyed that little introduction. I'm here again, and now here is the second part of 'Back to You'.
Remember, I don't own the characters.
Enjoy xoxo
Back To You
Part 02
Olivia seemed to be frozen for a second, trying to process what exactly was going on. It was bad enough that she was once again out of the office because a new rape had occurred which was bound to take her well into the night. Now, however, the latest rape victim was the daughter of her former partner. Now, after seven years of nothing, she was standing face to face with her former partner.
Well if this wasn't one hell of a fucking Tuesday…
"Olivia, if you want someone else to-"
"No, Maureen, no," Olivia looked back at Maureen, giving her a warm smile, "No, I'm here," he took a deep breath; "Are you up for answering some questions?"
Maureen nodded her head, shuffling around onto her back so she could look at Olivia properly. Olivia took her hand, rubbing over her knuckles with her thumb to provide the young woman with some comfort. Elliot was standing over by the window, staring out in an attempt to give them a bit of privacy but to provide Maureen with the comfort of having him around. Despite the obvious elephant in the room, Olivia did still care deeply for the Stabler children, meaning that this case was a bit personal considering it was someone she pretty much watched grow up.
"Whenever you're ready, sweetheart." She whispered, knowing from years of experience that it was best not to pressure victims to talk. Victims were to go at their own pace, and that was exactly what Olivia was going to do.
After a few deep breaths and some sips of water from the cup on the bedside table, Maureen finally began to explain the events of the evening. She explained that she had been just returned home from the gym and was going inside when she got the feeling that she was not alone. She did a quick look around, and when she didn't see anyone, she proceeded to walk up and unlock the front door of the townhouse she shared with her husband. However, when she was opening the door, a man ambushed her from behind, causing her to hit her head on the doorway. With a gun to her waist, he forced her inside whilst keeping her back to him the whole time. She started crying a little bit when she explained how he pushed her down and raped her from behind, before forcing her to keep her back to him once he was finished. She explained that she waited a few minutes until after the front door closed before she pulled herself up and called for help, as she had been scared that he was still watching her.
Maureen began crying once again after explaining. Olivia softly stroked her arm whilst whispering to her, assuring her that she was safe now and that they would do everything to try and help her. Maureen unfortunately hadn't gotten a look at who had attacked her, but judging by the sound of her attack, this was nothing at all related to the case they had just closed. However, this case did sound a little familiar but Olivia was struggling to figure out why it did sound familiar.
After a few moments of silence, the door opened again, this time revealing Steven – Maureen's husband. The couple shared a warm embrace as soon as the young man wandered over to the bed, leading Olivia to stand up and give a small smile to Steven once Maureen introduced them; "Liv, this is Steven; Steven, this is my dad's old partner and a family friend, Olivia Benson."
"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Benson; Mo has told me a lot about you." The young man greeted, shaking her hand in a gentlemanly fashion.
"The pleasure is all mine, and please, just call me Olivia," she then took Maureen's hand again, the young woman's blue eyes pouring into her brown ones, "Mo, I promise we'll find who did this, I won't let anyone get away with hurting you."
"Thank you Liv." Maureen replied in a small voice. Olivia squeezed her hand and gave Steven a wave, before leaving out of the room. She hurried past Elliot, whom had turned from the window to look over at them and had no doubt seen her leave. She had begun to feel suffocated being in the room with him, and now she just wanted to get away as quickly as possible and pretend this never happened.
"Liv."
Dammit.
She swallowed hard before turning around, looking up at him as he stood before her. He was still tall and muscular, with maybe a few more lines in his forehead and around his eyes, a little more gray hairs mixed in with his dark hair. Nonetheless, he was still as ridiculously handsome as she remembered. I guess looks didn't change much in the last seven years for people like him.
Looks may not have changed, but apart from that, she had no idea who the man was standing before her.
"It's Lieutenant Benson to you," she found her voice again and managed to sound strong and firm; "Listen, I'm gonna catch the bastard that did this to Maureen and then we never have to speak again." She turned to walk away, only to roll her eyes when she felt him gently grab hold of her bicep. She whirled around and snatched her arm away, glaring at him. He gazed back at her, swallowing nervously and scratching the back of his neck.
"Liv – I mean Lieutenant Benson, let's just, can we talk?"
"I'm talking to you right now."
"Olivia, that's not what I mean, and you know it?"
"No Elliot, I don't know what you mean because I don't know who you are," she snapped at him, "Seven years, Elliot, seven fucking years and you…" She trailed off, taking a deep breath and looking around to make sure they hadn't captured the attention of anyone. She remembered where they were and why they were here, and she knew that she couldn't react the way she truly wanted to right here, right now.
"We can go another seven years and not speak after I close this case, or we can just never speak again and I can go back to forgetting about y-"
"Liv!"
She whirled around, seeing Fin rushing towards her. He opened his mouth to say something, but was suddenly sent into shock when he saw the man standing before them.
"Stabler – it's been years man." He kept his voice calm and collected, even sticking his hand out for his former co-worker.
"Yeah, it has been," the two men shook hands as Elliot continued; "I'll um, I'll leave you two to get back to work." He looked back at Olivia, a certain nervousness in his voice as he spoke; "Erm, Liv – Olivia – thanks for helping Maureen through this."
Olivia hardly acknowledged his words; she shrugged and began making her way towards the exit. Fin stared after her for a bit before looking back at Elliot, who sighed and looked at the ground.
"I messed up, Fin; bad – so bad."
"Yeah man, you did; she went through so much hell when you left and we lost the real Olivia for a long time," Fin stepped closer, patting his back, "But, listen my man, I heard some things – you know how NYPD is a gossip mill – and if what I've heard about you is true, then you need to talk to Olivia and maybe she'll understand, and I'm sorry I haven't been there much for you brother."
"Don't apologize man, this is all on me," Elliot shook Fin's hand again, sighing, "Maybe after this case closes, I can get her to talk to me."
Fin nodded, before looking at his phone. He bid Elliot farewell once again before rushing towards the exit.
Meanwhile, outside the building, Olivia was standing against the wall, trying to steady her breathing as she still felt a bit strange from seeing Elliot. There was a wide range of emotions coursing through her; sadness from the years they had missed in each other's lives, anger towards him and how he'd left her high and dry, happiness and seeing him again, excitement at the thought of now being able to fill him in on her life…
Romantic feelings that she once were well and truly gone.
She blew out heavily through her mouth, her breath being visible in the form of a white puff as it was so cold outside. She just wanted to hide away and forget this was happening, but she had a job to do and she wasn't resting until it was finished.
"Liv, come on."
She looked up, seeing that Fin had finally come outside. The two slipped into their vehicle again; Olivia simply sitting in silence with her head against the backrest while Fin drove them back to the precinct.
Once they finally parked, Olivia went to get out so she could go back inside. However, Fin's hand on her arm stopped her, capturing her attention as she looked over at him. However, as soon as she saw the expression on her face – the one she only saw when he was about to talk some sense into her – and she immediately groaned.
"Fin-"
"Liv, hear me out before you say no." he gave her a smirk, to which she rolled her eyes as she looked back at him.
"Liv, you gotta talk to him – if not for his benefit, then for yours." He softly spoke.
"Fin, I don't have anything to say to Elliot – it's not important anymore." She replied, shrugging her shoulders.
"You need some sort of closure-"
"I don't need any closure, Fin; I got over it," she rested her head against the headrest yet again, "I got through so much shit without Elliot, and it was clear that he didn't give a fuck about me else he would have…" She trailed off, her voice wobbling slightly which led to her stopping completely as she didn't want anyone to hear the emotion in her voice. Fin, however, knew her better than anything and simply put his hand on her shoulder, rubbing gently as she looked down at her hands.
"Olivia, talk to him, I promise it'll give you all the answers you need." He whispered.
"How do you know? Has he told you everything?" she asked, looking up at him.
"You know I would never talk to him and keep it from you," he replied, "Rumors fly throughout the NYPD, I've heard some stuff; that's why I'm saying you need to talk to him."
"What have you heard?" she wondered.
"Enough to know that it hasn't been an easy seven years for him either," Fin opened the driver side door to get out, "I'm just saying Liv, talk to him."
"I'll think about it." She muttered as she slid out of the vehicle, wrapping her arms around herself as she and Fin hurried into the precinct.
Once they stepped off the elevator and into the squad room that belonged to them, they found the room alive with the normal slew of detectives and uniformed cops, all working to see what they could gather with this new rape case, Amanda and Sonny were seated at their desks, both of them ruffling through some information to see if they could find any similarities from previous rapes.
"Our latest vic?" Amanda asked as she looked up. Olivia walked over to the screen, pressing a few keys which brought up a picture of Maureen and a couple pictures of her injuries.
"Thirty-three year old Maureen Stabler; attacked from behind at her home near Queens," she glanced back at Amanda and Sonny; "Did you speak to any witnesses? Did CSU find anything?"
"A hair and a fingerprint on the doorway; they're checking for any hits," Amanda stood up with her iPad in hand, "Neighbors say they heard screaming and one neighbor says she saw the man going inside behind her but didn't realize it was forced and so just left it alone."
"You guys got anything else?" Fin questioned, walking towards them.
"Not yet," Amanda replied, "Neighbors weren't able to describe the perp other than to say he was really tall and looked muscular from the distance, but it was too dark to be sure.
"There might be something here though," the squad gathered around Carisi's desk to listen; "Lieu, you and your old partner – you both collared a guy with the exact same MO about ten years ago."
"Round two of the short hair phase you went through." Fin joked, punching Olivia in the arm. She playfully glared before nudging him, then she turned her attention back to Carisi. He had pulled up the mugshot of an old perp. The others gathered around as they looked at the picture, and Olivia immediately remembered his guy – a man named Adam Leeson.
"That Leeson clown, I remember him," Fin chuckled as he nudged Olivia, "Stabler almost threw the bastard through the wall because he said you had a nice ass."
"Elliot would throw anyone through a wall that even looked at me wrong let alone actually say something." Olivia chuckled softly before looking back at Amanda, whom was still looking over some information and comparing notes from their current perp to Leeson.
"Our current guy has a similar MO to Leeson," Amanda explained as she looked up from the screen, "He was convicted for raping a couple teenage girls about ten years ago and was sentenced to thirty years, but was released a month ago for good behavior."
"Do you think it's him?" Amanda asked.
"Could be, but we don't have any solid leads and the rape kit stuff won't be back until in the morning," Olivia glanced at her watch, "Go home and we can pick it back up in the morning, starting with Rollins and Carisi finding the latest address for Leeson and going to talk to him."
"Got it, Lieu," Sonny stood up, stretching his arms in the air, "Rollins, need a ride or catching a cab?"
"I'll happily take a ride home," Amanda grabbed her coat and bag, "Night guys."
"Goodnight!" Fin and Olivia called in unison. Fin then went off to his desk to grab his things while Olivia went into her office to grab her coat and bag as well. As she was shuffling around and placing some files into her bag, she accidentally knocked over a picture frame on her desk, leading her to grab it to turn it over. However, the inscription on the back caught her attention as she really had forgotten it was there;
'Happy 40th birthday, Liv; you're my partner for better or worse. 6313+4015 – forever. – El'
She looked at the picture in the frame; it was one of her and Noah in the park one day. She had never realized the exact frame she used was one that Elliot had given her on her birthday, and being reminded of such now sent chills down her spine. She wondered if some sort of divine intervention was the reason she knocked the frame down and had been forced to look at the back; a sign escaped her lips as she turned it over again and ran her thumb over the inscription. She bit her lip, remembering the day he gave it to her.
"Happy birthday Olivia!"
Olivia's eyes went wide as she walked into the squad room, finding her fellow detectives and friends; Fin, Munch, and Elliot; all standing around her desk with cheesy smiles on their faces. Captain Cragen was standing with them as well, smiling at her as she slowly approached them.
"You guys did not have to do this." She groaned. There were two huge, open boxes of cupcakes on her desk; each box holding twenty cupcakes each. Each cupcake had a lit candle – forty of them combined to represent the fact that she was forty today.
"You're working on your fortieth birthday and you expect us to just let this day slip by; you got it twisted baby girl." Fin remarked, giving her a one arm hug.
"Happy birthday, Olivia; don't let the government take over your mind – they like to do that on milestone birthdays like this." Munch chimed in with a joke, hugging her as well.
"It's the least we could all do especially since you're working today," Cragen gave her a one arm hug before nodding at Elliot, "It was his idea though."
"I appreciate you guy so much," Olivia looked at them all before setting her eyes on Elliot, "I'm going to kill you; you just had to ignore me when I said I didn't want a fuss for my birthday didn't you? Stubborn son of a bitch."
"You should've known I wasn't going to let this go," Elliot gave her a warm hug, squeezing her a bit before moving back to hold her biceps, "Happy birthday; you're getting old." He winked to which she then rolled her eyes.
"Just remember you have two years on me, my friend." She retorted before blowing out the candles on the cupcakes. After the others were given the all clear from her, they began to tuck into her cupcakes which made her giggle as she shook her head. Her attention was captured by Elliot stroking her arm, only for her to gasp when she saw him holding a giftbag out to her.
"Elliot-"
"Just open it and say thank you." He looked back at her with that shit eating grin, and she simply rolled her eyes at him. She then looked into the bag and opened the card first, which said some kind words, had his signature along with the kids and Kathy, and a few – slightly expensive – gift cards to some of her favorite stores. She nudged him before pulling out the other gift, smiling as she saw the shiny silver picture frame wrapped in the plastic. He reached around her and grabbed hold of her hand to turn it over, a gasp escaping her lips when she saw the inscription on the back.
'Happy 40th birthday, Liv; you're my partner for better or worse. 6313+4015 – forever. – El'
"Elliot, this is so great," she wrapped her arm around him, giving him a one arm hug again as she held the frame and the bag to her chest, "Thank you." She felt him squeeze her tighter and stroke her arm before he finally let go.
"Olivia."
Olivia looked up, her thoughts being broken by the sound of Fin's voice. He was standing in the doorway to his office with his jacket on and keys in his hand, but he had a look of concern on his face.
"What's up?" she asked.
"You okay?" he responded. She nodded her head, putting the frame back on her desk.
"I was just thinking about stuff, it's nothing," she brushed it off as she packed up the food she hadn't finished eating before finally picking up her things, as well as her keys to her apartment, "Come on, I'll walk out with you."
The pair walked out of the precinct together, a comfortable silence falling over them. Once they were outside, the two shared a warm hug before going their separate ways; Fin getting into his own car to head home while Olivia flagged a taxi. Once she was in the vehicle, she sighed to herself as she relaxed in the seat, her mind going crazy with thoughts of Elliot she watched the lights of the city go by.
I hope you all enjoyed this. Remember, read and leave the comments! I love you guys!
Until next time xoxo
PS: I'M SO READY FOR THE SVU FINALE!
