Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. CSI is the intellectual property of Anthony E. Zuiker. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.
Grissom stood between Olivia and Nick on one side of the table, while Elliot and Catherine stood on the other. On the table, lit from beneath, were the dismembered parts of Richard White. Elliot swallowed hard in disgust, thinking that it reminded him of a cannibalistic jigsaw puzzle, with a lot of missing pieces.
Catherine Willows, stern-faced, pulled on a pair of latex gloves and slowly turned the leg over. "Anyone see anything?"
There was a moment of silence as Nick squinted and rested a hand on chin, while Grissom grinned, waiting for what he knew was coming.
Olivia spoke, then, taking hold of the leg just beneath Catherine's hand. "This looks cauterized," she said. "There's no discoloration. The body was hacked up post-mortem. With a very sharp, very hot tool."
Elliot beamed proudly at her, seeing Grissom grin, and he said, "Damn, Liv."
"What are you thinking?" Grissom asked her, pride in his eyes as well.
Olivia leaned closer to the limb, turned it, tilted her head, and then said, "Handsaw saw, maybe? Or a laser-cutter, like the ones they use in industrial manufacturing." She looked at Elliot. "To cut steel sheets and beams."
"Good," Grissom said with a smile. He turned to Elliot, then, and raised one eyebrow. "Anything to add?"
Elliot narrowed his eyes. "I'm not good with this stuff," he said. "I didn't even know she was."
"I'm sure you know more than you think," Grissom said. "Look at the skin, look at the veining, the marks. Do you notice anything?"
With his bottom lip caught between his teeth, he leaned down to take a closer look, scanning the limb with his goggled eyes. "This," he said, pointing one finger to a spot on the ankle, "This doesn't look like the other cuts. And it's, um, fuck, what does Warner say all the time?" He snapped his fingers and said, "Blood pooling."
"Impressive," Grissom said, and he rested a hand on Olivia's shoulder, as if giving her his approval. From his left, he heard Nick scoff and mumble something. He turned, curious and knowing, and asked, "Something to say, Nick?"
"About this?" Nick returned, acting innocent, pointing to the leg. "No, no, I'm good." He smirked and said, "I'm more interested in that." He flipped his finger and angled it toward the severed tongue, lying on a thin sheet of plastic.
Olivia shuddered. "That's just…wrong, Nick," she said with a slightly disturbed laugh.
"Why is it blue, here?" Elliot asked, staring at it and indicating the edges it, where the tissue looked purplish-grey. "Wait, no, don't tell me, I know…" he scratched at his head for a moment, and then he smiled. "This was, uh, removed…when he was still alive." He looked at Olivia. "Perimortem, right?"
She smiled at him, nodding. "Right."
Again, Nick scoffed, crossing his arms. "I knew that," he said under his breath.
Grissom turned to look at him and asked, "How do you think this happened, Nick?"
Nick blinked fast twice, and then his eyes darted from Olivia, to Catherine, and then to Elliot, where they seemed to flare and narrow, and then he looked at the tongue. "Well, uh, it…there's bruising near the tip, there. Looks like maybe some kind of clamp-marks, so someone…" he moved his hands, demonstrating how he envisioned it happening. "Someone clamped his tongue, pulled…and…sliced. A very sharp, clean edged blade." He pointed to the tongue again. "No jagged or torn tissue, here, and no serrated marks."
"Good job, Nicky," Catherine said, nodding once at him.
Elliot rubbed his hand over his chin. "I got a question," he said. "Not that I've had a lot of experience, I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about, here…but if I was going to chop up a body…I'd make it easy on myself, break at the joints, bend and snap, and slice through softer tissue. Like, uh, carving a turkey." He looked from the table of parts to Olivia. "These bits a pieces…look at the foot, now wouldn't someone's first instinct be to cut it off above the ankle? This is…severed right above the heel. And the arm…we got the full shoulder, like it was cut off…" he swiped his hand, in a straight, clean motion, from the crook of his neck down to his armpit. "Like that. Isn't that…odd?"
"Well, I'll be damned," Catherine said, balling her hands into fists and setting them on her hips. "He's right."
Grissom chuckled. "I knew you'd see everything I needed you to see," he said.
Nick turned and furrowed his brow at Grissom. "You knew all of that, and instead of telling us, you just stood there and let us look stupid?"
"I'm having the worst case of déjà-vu," Olivia said, chuckling. "Oh, that class was…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "So what do we do now?"
Grissom, peeling the gloves off his hands, started speaking. "Olivia and Elliot, you two find Fin. The three of you, find any connection you can between White and someone who would work in construction. Nick," he looked at Stokes as he pulled off his goggles. "You and Sara head out to the bookstore, and see if there's any construction going on in the area. The primary crime scene and the dump site have to be close, there's limited elemental exposure here," he said, waving a hand over the table.
"What do you want me to do?" Catherine asked, looking up at him as she took off her own gloves and goggles.
"You…" Grissom caught her eyes and tried to hide the smirk on his face. "Come with me."
Grissom and Catherine walked out of the lab, leaving the three younger investigators alone. Olivia felt the tension fill the room immediately, and she snapped off her gloves to break the silence. "I don't remember anyone from our first round with White having any ties to Vegas. Do you?"
Elliot shook his head, taking off his safety glasses. He tossed them onto the counter behind him and said, "You know, I have been trying to hold this in, I don't want to sound crass, here, but…" he sighed. "I'm glad he's dead."
"I know you are," Olivia said. She walked over to him, dropped her goggles next to his, and then stood beside him, looking down at the table. "This is, so far, all that's left of the son-of-a-bitch."
"No one told me," Nick spoke, "Exactly what happened between you and this pile of bones, here?" He was looking at Olivia, not Elliot, and asked, "He hurt you?"
"Tried to," Elliot answered. His nostrils flared as he continued. "We were after him for a string of rape-murders. He used to stalk his victims, terrorize them, then rape and slaughter them. We brought him in, and after Liv questioned him the first time, he…she became his next target."
"What?" Nick asked, air leaving his lungs so fast it burned. "You just let him…"
"I didn't let him do anything," Elliot said, sneering. "I made sure she was very well protected, believe me." His eyes darkened in mild fury, and his lips curled at the corners, into a vile smirk. "I planned it, I admit it. How I'd kill him if he tried anything. When we finally had enough on him, the night we arrested him, he…he threatened her, told her he'd never stop fixating on her, and it…killed me, instead. Knowing he was still breathing, and if someone ever opened his cage, he'd go after her."
Nick took a slow, deep breath, looked from Elliot to Olivia, and said, "God, Olivia. You okay?"
Olivia nodded. "I never even give him a second thought," she said with a shrug. "A lot of the humps we put away make threats like that, and they never follow through, either because they never get out or get themselves killed or someone else pisses them off more than we did." She looked up at Nick. "With White, I just…thought he'd never get out." She turned slightly toward Elliot. "And if he ever did, I thought someone would tell you."
Elliot's head snapped, his eyes wide, shocked. "You…you know? How the hell do you know?"
She laughed and folded her arms. "I'm your partner," she said, rolling her eyes. "I get the same e-mails and dockets that you get, and if you're not in the room, I have to take your messages and memos." She lowered her eyes a bit, staring at his mouth as his stunned slack-jaw reworked itself into an apologetic grin. "Why didn't you just tell me? All this time, I was...waiting for you to tell me."
"Oh, and relive the last time I had someone on your six?" he asked, making a disbelieving face at her. "Every time I pull shit like that, to protect you, we have the same fucking fight. You're a big girl, you don't need a babysitter, you can take care of yourself." He shook his head. "If you knew I was paying a guard in Rikers to keep track of White's every move, so I'd be ready for him, you'd have had me committed."
She let her head drop to one side, eyeing him. "No, El, with White…it was different. I would've..." she paused. "You know, whether I wanted to admit it or not, it would have been a lot easier to forget all about him if I had that certainty behind it."
"You…you're not mad at me?" he questioned.
"Oh, I'm pissed," she laughed. "But I understand it, and I never brought it up because I knew how important it was...for you to think you were…saving me."
Nick cleared his throat and when the two other people in the room, he grinned and waved at them. "Hi, guys, I'm still in the room."
Olivia, rolling her eyes, said, "You shouldn't be. None of us should. You need to get out to the bookshop. El, we need to find Fin…and find out who White got involved with out here."
Elliot nodded and headed for the door, listening furtively as Nick whispered to Olivia behind his back, literally.
"You two look pretty close," Nick hissed, not hiding his jealousy.
Olivia nodded. "We are," she said. "I don't see why you're so…"
"You know why, Olivia," Nick said, now sounding hurt. "I thought it was obvious, the minute I saw you, that…"
"Nick," Olivia said, stopping in her tracks and stepping in front him. "We haven't really seen each other in years. Our past is…our past. I didn't come out here with any intention of picking up where we left off. I think you know that."
Nick shook his head. "No, if your partner wasn't here…"
"I would still be turning you down," she interrupted. "Look, I don't want this to get in the way of the job we have to do, or the relationship that we do have, Nicky. Please? Just…let it go?"
He was silent, staring into her eyes, but he nodded. "Does he know?" he asked her as they started walking. "About me? Us?"
Olivia tugged on the clip in her hair, retightening the grip it had on her locks. "Yeah, Nick. He does. But he understands that…we happened before I even met him, and besides I'm not the same girl I was in college."
"No, Benson," Nick said with a sigh. "You're exactly the same. Are you with him? Like with him, with him? How long's it been?"
"I am not doing this with you," she said, frustration building as she tried to keep her voice low. She looked through the windows and doors of labs and offices as they walked. "Where the hell is Fin?"
"Is it serious?" Nick asked, prodding, a desperation in his voice now. "You could be here for a while, things could change, I could prove it to you." He had to walk a little faster to keep up with her, now that she'd sped up. "Olivia, I'm willing to give it a shot, here, you know, part of me always knew we'd find our way around again. We got a second chance, here!"
"Nick, it's not going to happen," she said, gritting her teeth, "It's never going to happen."
Nick stopped, he reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her, too, and he asked, "Olivia, what the hell did this guy do to you?"
Elliot heard it, and he turned on his heels, a fire in his eyes. He let his head drop just a bit as he gave Nick a face he usually only reserved for people he was about to physically hurt. He looked at Olivia, smirked, and turned back to Nick. "I married her."
Peace and Love
Jo
