Disclaimer: See previous.
Thanks for all the feedback! This might help with the confusion, but then again it might make things as clear as mud. As for Kairos it is definitely a Catholic thing... I'm honestly not sure if other denominations do it too.
There are a lot of stories I could tell you, but for the sake of brevity I'm going to go with the most recent. I want to tell you about my partner. Like I said, I'm a cop, so partner is at work but it goes deeper than that. In the NYPD we say that partners are like blood. You can tell because we spend most of our time bickering like siblings.
My partner's name is Olivia. We've been working together for twelve years, and she is my hero. (One of several, actually, but that dilutes the effect so let's just go with it.) She never had a father. Her mother was an abusive alcoholic, and they had just begun to mend their relationship when she died nine years ago. All this means that since then, I have been Liv's family. And still, somehow, of the two of us, she is the stronger. I don't have the words to describe how much she has given me over the years, so I won't try.
"So how's Mr. Perfect?" Munch asked Olivia conversationally over the sound of their respective partners arguing.
She rolled her eyes. "I thought my guys had to make it to the one-month mark before you all called 'em Mr. Perfect."
"Well, it's been a long time since we knew about one before you dumped him."
"God, you make me sound like a whore," she groaned. "Tonight's only our second date."
"Now see, that's the first voluntary info we've had on your personal life since I don't know when…."
Olivia glanced at her partner, who was going purple in the face. Fin was off on an apparently offensive tangent. "I think," she said, "joining the fight would be more comfortable."
"Children!" Cragen bellowed from his office door, and all four fell silent. "Fin, Elliot, get in here."
"Damn," Olivia muttered as they and her distraction disappeared.
"Hey," Munch protested. "Contrary to popular opinion, I am capable of shutting up. If you ask very nicely."
"How about if I just ignore you?" She made a point of turning away and spotted a young girl with the Stabler nose. "Hey, Lizzie. Your dad will be out in a minute. I hope."
"I came to see you," Lizzie said. She flew at Olivia and hugged her hard around the waist. "Thanks for the letter," she whispered.
"You're welcome." A little startled, Olivia quickly recovered and draped an arm around the girl's shoulders. She wouldn't have been so dubious about the whole Kairos-letter-writing concept if she'd known it would have such an effect. "I take it the retreat went well?"
Lizzie drew back and proudly held up the cross hanging from her neck. "It was amazing. It was – oh, words can't describe it. I wish you could go."
"Oh, Liz, I'm hardly the religion type. Besides, I think I'm too old."
"Adults can lead." Lizzie grinned impishly. "I'm gonna make Dick go, and then I think I can guilt-trip Dad into leading his."
"Now, Elizabeth," Olivia reproved, "is that the Christian thing to do?"
"Yeah, like he couldn't use a three-day vacation. Come on."
More perceptive than she looked. "He could," Olivia conceded, then glanced up as her partner stormed out of Cragen's office. "Speak of the devil."
Elliot pulled himself together when he saw his daughter. "Lizzie, what's up?"
"Nothing. I was hanging out with Michelle and I wanted to stop and say hi to Olivia."
"She likes me better," Olivia put in, unable to resist.
"Yeah, that's great," Elliot muttered distractedly. "Hang on a second, honey, and we'll go home."
Lizzie nodded and settled at her father's desk, pulling a yellow folder from her shoulder bag. Olivia checked her watch: seven o'clock. She must have lost track of time while stuck in interrogation, trying to crack Jason Ricol.
Trying being the operative word, of course.
Elliot pulled her away towards the windows. "Cap's pissed," he informs her, handing her three file folders. "Just got a call that Jason's alibi checked."
"No." All that time they'd wasted…
"I fixed on him," Elliot said, face set. "We missed a connection. Three arson-murders with similar MOs – "
"You mean the arson part," Olivia clarified, paging through the files. "All set in apartments, single women living alone – "
"If there were rapes, the evidence was destroyed," Elliot continued. "But they fit the type – Kelly was just the first to survive the fire."
Olivia thought of their victim, who had escaped with second degree burns when her rapist torched her apartment. She'd been even luckier than they'd thought. "So now we've got to start all over," she sighed.
"Well, apparently Huang thinks he might come to us somehow – wants to keep an eye on the investigation, that kind of thing. Cap says you and I can get to it in the morning."
"Nice of him," she said, remembering her date.
Elliot grinned widely. "Go have fun with Alex."
She groaned. Of course he'd remember too. "Munch is already calling him Mr. Perfect."
"Well, that's premature," Elliot scoffed. "He hasn't made it to a month yet. You have a very stringent screening process."
"Shut up. I'll see you in the morning."
"I got something," Fin said after a while in the darkened squad room with only his partner for company.
Munch, startled from his papers, didn't seem to hear the words. "Liv and Elliot better take this up early tomorrow," she grumbled.
"I got something," Fin repeated.
"What?"
"Suspicious character from the same delivery service, they like him for those arsons… Kelly's neighbors mentioned him but she didn't."
"We got a picture?"
"Sketch. They never IDed him yet." Fin held up the sketch.
"Maybe jog her memory," Munch suggested, frowning at the amiable-looking man in the sketch. "He looks familiar."
"Hmm?" Fin looked closer. "Maybe…"
"I swear, I feel like I just saw him."
"You're nuts, ol' man."
Olivia studied herself in the mirror and made a final adjustment to her makeup. Hopefully Alex wasn't getting too bored out in her living room. She couldn't abide a man who got bored easily.
"What's that smell?" she called as she stepped out of the bathroom. "Are you playing with my stove?"
Alex, who had wandered into the kitchen, grinned disarmingly. "I'm hungry. Thought about making us some pasta."
"We just ate."
"No," he corrected, "we just saw a movie. We ate all the way before that."
"You still shouldn't be hungry," Olivia said, coming around the counter. She frowned. "You don't need matches for the stove."
He grinned again, without the good humor; and alarm bells went off in her head. It was true that she rarely used her stove, but that smell was still a little much….
Huang thinks he might come to us.
"Give me the matches, Alex," she said calmly.
Instead he lit one and the awful smile grew. Cursing herself in every language she knew, Olivia tackled him.
"Stabler," Elliot mumbled into the phone. Beside him Kathy yawned and rolled over, evidently deciding to go back to sleep.
"Get your ass down here," Cragen said.
"Whoa." Wide awake, Elliot swung his legs out of bed. "What happened? Where's here?"
"Your partner's place," the captain said tightly. "Now."
He gave up on finding decent clothes and threw on the first things he touched. "What happened?"
"Still working on that part."
TBC...
Please R&R!