Elliot walked into the 12th precinct, to see it was even more crowed and chaotic than the 1-6. He had to ask a couple of different people before he located Dani holed up in a small file room. She was focused on some photos pinned on an old bulletin board, and she barely looked up as he walked in. The room was stuffy and warm, but he closed the door behind him anyway.

"Hey." He said, but she didn't respond right away. He took a moment to take in the small room. She had pushed a small table and chairs to the side, but the table was piled with files and notepads. If there was any kind of organization, it wasn't immediately relevant, but he knew she had always been a bit sloppier than Olivia.

He cut the mental comparison short, knowing it was one of the things that had always bothered Dani. What she didn't understand was how hard it was to stop comparing them, when you'd been partnered with the same person for as long as you could remember…and the two of you synced so well.

I'm not your precious Olivia.

That biting comment came back to haunt him more than once.

Especially the word precious.

He tried not to think about it as Dani finally turned to face him.

"Surprised to see you here." Dani said, wearing a small, smug smile on her face.

"Why's that? I said I'd be over." Elliot said, genuinely confused by her statement.

Dani shrugged. "Just seems like maybe you're on a short leash."

Elliot didn't appreciate the comment, and he knew his facial expression reflected that because she put her hands up in a defensive gesture.

"I'm just saying…" She took a step towards him and socked him gently on the shoulder. "Lighten up."

"Can we just talk about the case please?" Elliot asked, nicking a folder from the top of a pile on the desk.

Dan grabbed it out of his hand. "Don't mess up my system." She said with a laugh, placing it carefully back on the pile.

Elliot let out a sigh, realizing that he'd forgotten how challenging it could be to work with her sometimes. He took a deep breath. "OK." He said, crossing his arms in front of him and widening his stance. "Walk me through it."

An hour later, he had a pretty good idea of the people involved, and after watching the videotaped interview with the suspect, he understood why Dani was suspicious that all may not be as it seemed. The woman refused to say much, but her body language and affect was one he'd seen before in many victims, with a layer of fear on top of it.

"So, what's the next step?" Elliot asked.

"I want you to talk to her." Dani. "One on one."

Elliot shook his head. "I don't know." He said. "What makes you think she's going to talk to me?" His thought was that the person they really needed was Olivia. She connected with victims like no one he'd ever seen, but that wasn't likely to happen.

"I don't think she's going to open up to you." Dani said. "But I need to know if you get the same vibe as me. Cap'n and the ADA want to prosecute her for murder, and I just think there's more there."

"Murder is murder." Elliot said. "No matter what happened to her."

"That's bullshit." Dani said. "You know the jury will be more lenient if they know the whole story." She was gesturing with her hands with an earnest expression on her face. "She shouldn't be sitting in a jail cell." She took a step closer. "That's why I need you to talk to her and tell me if you see the same things I'm seeing."

Elliot knew she was right, but he'd seen it happen too many times. "You need someone to back up your gut feeling."

"Yes. Someone that has experience with this."

Elliot nodded. "OK. I'll talk to her."

"Thank you." Dani reached out and wrapped her hand around one of his forearms, still folded in front of him. "I really appreciate it."

"When?"

"No time like the present." She said with a smile. "Ready for a field trip to Rikers?"

Elliot looked at his watch. It was 3 in the afternoon, and with a trip to Rikers, they wouldn't be done until way past 6. Probably even later. He had really hoped to make it back to the precinct before the end of the day. He wasn't happy about how things had ended with Olivia, and he knew they were both going to stew about it all evening. He didn't want that, since things were finally improving between them, but he also knew that Dani wasn't going to let it go.

The sooner this was over, the better.

"Got somewhere you've got to be?"

Elliot narrowed his eyes. "Let's go."

Half an hour later, they were in a sedan and were moving slowly, stuck in the late afternoon traffic of the city. Dani was driving, and Elliot looked absentmindedly out the window, a nervous energy coursing through him.

"So…" Dani started, her eyes focused on the traffic ahead of her. "She came back."

Elliot realized Dani had no way of knowing what had happened after she'd decided she couldn't cut it in SVU any longer. They hadn't stayed in contact, and he had no idea where she'd ended up until she walked back into his squad room and presented him with this case.

"Yeah." He said, not offering any other information. This wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss.

"How's that going?" Dani probed.

"Fine." Elliot said, once again choosing not to elaborate. He also kept his focus on the road and the endless sea of buses, taxis and black sedans.

"What did you tell her about me?" Dani asked.

Elliot looked over at her then. "What? Nothing." He furrowed his brows. "Why?"

Dani shrugged slightly. "She just looked at me like I'd killed her dog or something."

Elliot had seen the expression on Olivia's face, and he knew exactly what Dani was talking about, but he hadn't told her anything about Dani. He'd answered Olivia's questions with the briefest of answers, and he didn't think that was enough for her to have formed any kind of opinion about Dani. "Olivia can be…" He let that sentence trail off because he wasn't even sure he had the right words to convey everything she was. Only that he needed to defend her.

"Protective?" Dani suggested.

Elliot was slightly taken aback. "What? No." He thought about it for a second. "I mean, that's her job. To have my back. Just like I have hers."

Dani let out a small laugh. "Yeah."

"Just like I had yours, when we were partnered up." Elliot said to stress the point.

"Yeah. Gotcha." Dani said.

Elliot could see that she had more to say, but she had obviously decided to drop it. The car was silent for the next few minutes, but they were only about 20 minutes our from Rikers. Elliot argued with himself to drop the entire conversation, but one thing was still niggling at him. He let out a sigh. "When you came into the squad room…and I introduced you to Olivia…" He looked back over at her, and she glanced back at him before turning her attention back to driving. "You said you'd met…" Elliot saw Dani press her lips together as he framed up the question. "Where? How?" His question trailed off because he didn't know the right question to ask. They were both NYPD cops, so they could have met in any number of ways.

Dani glanced over at him again as she stopped at a red light. He could see her eyes searching his. "She came into the squad room."

Elliot furrowed his brows. "What? When?" The question came out a little louder than he'd planned, and he saw her retreat slightly at his vehemence. But right now, his mind was working overtime, trying to figure out how, because the timelines didn't overlap.

"I don't know…" Dani said with a shrug. "A couple weeks before I left maybe?"

Elliot shook his head. "That can't be right." He was trying to rationalize the timeline in his head, because Olivia hadn't come back to the team until a couple of weeks after Dani had left. It didn't make any sense. He looked back over at Dani and repeated his statement.

"I don't know." Dani said. "I don't remember." She backpedaled.

Elliot was surprised to hear uncertainty in her voice. She had never been one to be shy or to back away from any topic. He saw her shift uneasily in her seat. "BS."

Indignant Dani returned. "You know what? I don't need to be grilled by you. I'm just answering your question. I don't know why it's such a big deal that we've met. I didn't even know who she was. She came into the squad room a couple of weeks before I left. She asked for you, I told her you weren't there, and she went and talked to Cragen. She never even told me her name. I didn't realize who she was until I saw her standing at my desk…or what used to be my desk…today."

"She asked for me?"

"Jesus." Dani muttered, rolling her eyes.

"What did you tell her?" He asked.

"I didn't…"

Elliot interrupted her. "Why didn't you tell me that she came into the precinct?"

"What? I'm supposed to tell you about every person that comes in looking for a detective? I told you, I didn't know who she was." Dani said, as they approached the gates at Rikers.

"But she asked for Cragen?"

Dani looked pointedly at Elliot. "Listen. Why is this such a fucking big deal? So what? She came in. I met her." She shook her head. "If that's an issue, I don't know why. But I've told you everything I know, so maybe you'd better go talk to her. Maybe she can answer your questions."

Elliot was pissed off now, but he knew she was too. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the guard at the gate was approaching the car, and the conversation had to end.

The gates opened slowly, and Elliot stewed in his anger. He knew his anger was probably misplaced, but without answers, it was all he had right now.

He needed to talk to Olivia.

They pulled up in the main parking lot and found a spot. Dani get out of the car quickly and slammed the door, coming around the front of the car and standing there with her arms crossed in front of her body. Elliot got out slowly and took a deep breath.

"Listen." Dani laid into him. "I need you to have your head in the game." She extended her arms towards the prison building. "I can't have you go in there all hot-headed."

"I know." Elliot took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"We're going to stand out here as long as it takes for you to get your shit together."

"Dani!" Elliot interrupted her tirade. "I get it. I know." His mind was still going a mile a minute, and he was itching to get back to the precinct, but he knew the only way that was going to happen was to get this interview over with. He stood with his hands on his hips and looked at Dani. She was pissed. Her lips were clamped together…her jaw set. She seemed to be considering if he could really do this or not, and he felt his anger start to spark again.

"I think you're more interested in storming back to the 1-6 and talking to your partner." Dani accused. "Then you are about helping me on this case."

Elliot narrowed his eyes. "I said I'd help and I'm here." He took a step towards her. "The important thing here is your suspect, and I understand that. No matter what. You know that."

Elliot saw her jaw working, but when he saw her shoulders drop and she let out a heavy sigh and he knew she had made up her mind. She nodded slightly and Elliot started towards the building.

He felt Dani's hand on his arm as he passed by and he stopped and turned towards her. "Listen." She said. "I don't want to argue with her. I really wanted to…I mean I want to…work on this case with you. If that's going to be an issue…"

"It's not going to be an issue." Elliot said, reassuring her.

Dani looked dubious, but she nodded and dropped her hand. "OK." She gave him a quick smile. "OK."

Elliot watched her as she walked towards the prison door, trying to get his head in the game. He was still preoccupied with thoughts of Olivia. The emotional ping pong since her return was taking a toll on both of them, and lunch today seemed like a lifetime ago. He fingered his phone that was stashed in his pocket, wondering if he could send a quick text and ask to meet up with her later, but he saw Dani pause at the door.

"Coming?" Dani asked.

Elliot nodded.

Olivia would have to wait.