Chapter 2 - Partners

Her desk was empty.

Her personal pictures still sat there in their frames, her favorite pens still stored neatly in an old coffee cup, her sweater hung on the back of her chair...

Her desk was empty.

The paperwork had been cleared off her desk and shifted to Elliot and Munch. No lukewarm coffee, no glare of her lamp conflicting with his own computer screen, no slight hint of vanilla.

No life, no Olivia.

No one made a joke about Elliot's mood in her absence. It wasn't his fault she had left.

Everyone knew why she had. Why one day she was there, with her sharp wit, her infinite knowledge, her compassion… and then she was gone. It was no laughing matter why.

It wasn't his fault.

"Elliot… my office."

Cragen's expression didn't waiver as Elliot was up and making his way towards his Captain's office.

"Sit"

Elliot followed his orders and anticipated what he was about to tell him.

Cragen sat at the edge of his desk and braced himself for the fallout.

Elliot was never easy.

Especially when it came to Olivia, he was never easy.

"El, I thought you should know I've put word out that I'm looking for you a new partner."

Elliot's eyes froze on Cragen's.

Piercing blue eyes and a flaring temper.

"What? Why? She'll come back. She just needs time and you said so yourself she has personal time and…"

Elliot rambled.

No bullying out of this one.

"Elliot… She's not coming back."

"Yes she will, just let her have…"

"Elliot! She sent in her letter of resignation this morning. She doesn't want to come back."

Stupid boy.

Elliot was sure Cragen had just pulled his gun on him and shot him right in the chest.

He couldn't breath.

He waited for the blood to start seeping through his wrinkled dress shirt. If there were no Olivia there, who would save him?

Silence and then Elliot's own version of a hissy fit.

"This is bullshit Captain! She's not thinking straight! Did you talk to her?"

"She left a message, said she would send her letter this morning and apologized for not being able to do it in person."

"Why can't she do it in person? Why didn't she? This isn't like her Captain. This isn't like her. SVU is her life…"

"Elliot we both know what happened, and it can…"

"But she wouldn't just leave SVU. She would leave me for being a bastard in a heartbeat, but not her job…"

He could rationalize this.

"She resigned Elliot. She said she couldn't do it anymore. I have to respect her wishes and let her go."

"She's my partner."

Pouting boy.

Cragen looked at him with sympathy. He knew Olivia and Elliot weren't just partners. He actually didn't want to know the extent of what they were to each other, but he knew this was killing Elliot.

"She isn't anymore. I'll have your new partner assigned to you as soon as possible."

Rip the Band Aid off as quickly as possible.

Elliot just sat there defeated. His argument was invalid.

"El, just keep trying to talk to her…"

"She won't! She won't talk to me. She won't answer my calls, my texts, she won't open the door…"

"She will eventually…"

Elliot stood up quickly, his eyes burning, his jaw clenching.

"I need a lunch break. I'll be back."

"Elliot think before… " His Captain warned as Elliot slammed the door behind him and made his way out of the precinct.

She was his partner.

+++

Elliot pounded on her door.

He knew she was in there from the faint sound of the TV.

"Olivia, please open the door," he said, trying to be calm.

Nothing.

"Olivia, damn it… you're my partner!" he paused as his forehead dug in to her front door. "Cragen said you resigned…" A lump in his throat. "Olivia please, please just talk to me about this…"

Nothing.

Elliot pounded on her door once again.

"Hey buddy!" Elliot swung his head sharply to the round-bellied man down the hall. "Give it up already! We're tired of you confessin' your lovey dovey shit to her door! Shut the hell up!"

Reality

Elliot clinched the hand that he had been pressed against her door in to a fist.

"Olivia, I won't give up on you." He said a bit quieter, but still hoping she could hear him. "Olivia please."

Elliot took two steps away from the door, giving just a second more incase the door burst open.

It didn't.

No fairytale endings here.

Olivia stood on the other side of the door, biting nervously at her thumbnail.

She heard him. She had heard every word.

Tears were streaming down her face. She couldn't open the door. She had to leave him on the other side.

Elliot was right, they were partners, but she had cut the cord that bound them together. For better or for worse, at gunpoint, silent treatments, being in sync, sometimes too in sync… she cut the cord.

She swiped at her tears and stepped away from the door, hoping that Elliot had given up and was no longer on the other side.

Scuffling her bare feet across the hard wood floor, she made her way to the kitchen.

She poured the last of the Vodka she had left sitting on the counter in to a glass. No second thoughts before her face clinched as the warm liquid ran through her.

Another swallow and another until the glass was empty.

Until her partner was gone.

+++

Elliot stood on the street outside of her apartment building. He looked left, then right, unsure of what direction to take. Turn left and he would be back to the precinct, take a right and he could at least circle the block before he had to stare at her empty desk again.

Right.

He needed more time.

This had been a shit year.

He had signed divorce papers, added two more college tuitions to his belt, lost his partner, and since she had disappeared off the face of the earth he assumed he had lost his best friend too.

Elliot walked past the corner market, grabbing an empty box from a stack on the sidewalk, that were for the taking.

Saying his relationship with Olivia was complicated was an understatement. And it had been complicated for years. When he first met her, he wondered how long she would be his partner; he wondered how long she would last dealing with Special Victims. She was smart and undoubtedly easy on the eyes, but he questioned just how tough she was. Even when Kathy commented what a "looker" Olivia was after their first meeting, Elliot dismissed the comment with his own comments of his uncertainty that she could handle the job and she that wouldn't last long.

Twelve years had passed and he now was certain that Olivia Benson was stronger than he ever would be. Also, in twelve years Elliot Stabler had unintentionally fallen for Olivia Benson. At first it was admiration, a partnership, trust for each other. Then it was guns to the head, separation anxiety, a marriage falling apart and jealousy…

And then the new chapter of dating "the lawyer". Elliot referred to Walker as "the lawyer" rather than by his first name. Olivia had immediately fallen for Walker. He was a handsome, well-educated, successful man that met her while they both sat and waited on a bench outside of a courtroom. She said hello and he charmed her from there. Elliot hated him. He hated even more he couldn't find anything wrong with him. Anything other than he was dating and sleeping with Olivia. But she was happy. Walker understood her profession and he seemed to be just what the doctor ordered when it came to making her forget said profession.

Elliot was divorced and Olivia was in love with another man.

Add to the list of complications.

Add to his list of why he was having a shit year.

By the time he had made it back to the precinct, word had spread that Elliot was getting a new partner and that she wasn't coming back.

Fin and Munch both without comment waited for the infamous rage of Elliot Stabler upon his return. Instead, he walked in silently and stood in front of her desk with a box decorated with cartoon tomatoes by his side.

Munch and Fin both tried not to stare when he sat the box down on top of her desk.

Elliot took a deep breath to steady him self.

He began to place the picture frames inside the box. Her personal belongings, an uneaten dark chocolate candy bar, arts and craft that little kids had made her year after year to thank her, all piled in to the box, and finally her sweater with the last hint of her vanilla perfume scooped up and thrown on top of the now over flowing box.

Her desk was empty.

And so was Elliot.

Next... Ch. 3 - Revelations