Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm simply a writer
And do not own SVU
"Hey wait a minute; don't I know you from somewhere?" Erin said inquisitively to the person holding flowers on the other side of the door.
The person smiled and shrugged. "You do look sort of familiar," he replied, wrinkling his eyebrow. "Hm…oh!" he snapped. "Aren't you that gorgeous girl I saw a few months ago? The amazing kisser?"
Erin played along. "I guess there's only one way to find out," she said, placing the flowers on the table and leaning in for a kiss.
"I missed you," he said into her hair, inhaling her familiar scent he was long-deprived of, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"I missed you too," she said, locking her fingers together behind his neck, running her fingers through his hair.
After a few moments of the embrace, they made their way to the couch, kicking their feet up on the coffee table.
"So, how was your day?" Erin asked, casually propping her arm up on the back of the couch.
"Oh, you know, a bunch of boring rules to go over. I mean we're sophomores in high school, but apparently we still need to review the basics like 'no copying off of your neighbor's paper.'"
"Hey Chris, you know you're not supposed to run in the hallways by now, right?"
He flashed a mischievous. "Yup, but I guess I'm just a rebel," he shrugged.
Erin whistled a shook her head. "Dang, that's pretty badass. Not sure if I can keep up with or even approve of those crazy antics."
"Pretty much living on the edge nowadays."
"Switched over to the dark side?"
"Just about."
"Then I guess I'll just have to keep my eye on you."
"Guess you will."
"So besides this, what are you doing tonight?"
Chris put on a wide smile and reached into his pocket. "Funny that you mentioned that, but I kind of made plans for the two of us. I wanted to surprise you, but I think it's time you experienced this. I know you've never done it before, and I wanted it to be with me, make it special, you know? Obviously there'll have to be safety precautions, for both of us, but I think we can handle it," he gave his little speech, looking right at Erin, and wrapping his arms around her, giving her a little squeeze.
Erin looked up at him questioningly. "What are you talking about?"
"Think about it. You know," he said, prompting her, the extreme smile still frozen in his features.
"Oh my God," Erin said, shock evident in her disgusted voice.
Chris' face dropped, his shoulders slumped. "What?"
"I can't even believe this. Elliot was right about you being a pig?" She questioned, though realization was seeping in her tone. She jumped up from the couch, putting her head in her hands. How could she have missed something like this? Here she thought she knew him, and yet he turned out to be the opposite. She thought he was this sweet innocent guy, and yet he's proposing his sex plans in the middle of her apartment. "You know, I think you'd better go. Door's that way," she spat, pointing at the exit.
"Well, I'm not just leaving without an explanation," Chris said, standing up as well, his face now matching hers.
"You seriously need a freaking explanation?" Erin asked harshly. "Then you're an idiot," she accussed.
"Erin, what the hell is going on with you? I thought you wanted this. I thought every girl wanted this," he explained, a mixture of anger and confusion in his voice.
"Oh, so now I'm just another girl to you. Gotcha."
"No! I'm saying it's normal. It sounds like a fun time. It's really not that big of a deal!" he explained.
"So then I'm slut?" She questioned, arms crossed, liquid, white hot rage and hurt boiling in her tear ducts. But she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting him watch them spill.
"What are you talking about?"
"You think that this is what I wanted? Because I think I made myself perfectly clear with all of my comments. When we watched TV, remember?" she explained, recalling his attention to her remarks when they flipped to a show about teenage mothers and how difficult it must be.
"Exactly!" He pointed at her. "That's exactly my point! You hinted it at so many times it was impossible not to see! You verbally said that you wanted it! So excuse me if I don't see why you're so upset!"
Then, she just about lost it, the anger bubbling out full-force.
"You freaking drove over here with a condom proposing that we should do it, saying that I basically flat-out asked you for it, and you honestly thought I wouldn't be upset?" She yelled furiously. By now Delilah, Olivia, and Elliot were probably watching this entire, hopelessly embarrassing situation taking place. Although on second thought, maybe it was for the better. One of them might have to hold her off of Chris soon.
She looked at him, noticing an awed look on his face. "Yeah, got no words for that, huh? Just get out of here," she said, starting to walk away, not noticing her surroundings, her entire environment blurred by tears and pain, only feeling the blows of betrayal.
And out of the blue, he started laughing.
He actually had the balls to laugh at her after all of this? He just needed to put the last nail in the coffin? Rub the final remains of salt into her stinging wounds? He didn't even have the decency to leave her with a small amount of dignity? Couldn't even afford to spare a shred of pride?
She was so surprised, she didn't even know what to say, what to do, how to react. All she could do was look at him, eyes narrowed and jaw dropped, the final question on the tip of her tongue. "Why. Are. You. Laughing?" she said with hostility. Her tone was a mixture of a growl and a hiss, the pitch made disoriented by her sore and tear-filled throat.
"That's what you thought the surprise was?"
"Obviously," she retorted harshly.
"For God's sake, Erin, they're movie tickets," he said, holding his hand out with a small slip, allowing her to snatch it. Sure enough, the paper revealed itself to be a ticket to the midnight premiere of 'Haunted Heart'.
"You told me you'd never been to a movie premiere before, and this movie's supposedly really popular, so I assumed all the girls were like obsessed with it. You kept saying you wanted to see it when the trailers and ads played on the TV, so I thought I'd surprise you. I was going to have you clear it with Olivia and Elliot, but I just wanted to give you a little gift. A welcome home surprise, you know? We were going to double date with Jack and Becca."
Erin said nothing for a few moments, letting it all sink in, switching her gaze from the ticket in her hand to the boy right in front of her.
"I'm the biggest douche bag ever," she finally said with conviction.
"No you're not," Chris reassured.
"Oh yes. Yes I am," she nodded. "I am so…God…sorry sounds so weak for what I just did to you. But I can't think of anything better, so I'm sorry, I'm sorry, feel free to punch me, or dump me, or yell at me, or break up, or tell your friends how awful of a girlfriend I am. Have them egg my house, or TP it or egg my person or-"
"Erin, stop."
"Not let me finish apologizing! Feel free to do whatever you need to do to get me back because I am a freaking idiot that needs to shut up for once and get all the facts before passing judgment. Seriously, do what you need to do. Whatever it takes."
Chris wrapped his arms around her. "I think that this will suffice," he chuckled, holding the embrace.
"I'm sorry," she whispered again.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I respect you. I'm just hurt you think that I'd pressure you. I won't do anything you don't want me to do, you know?" he said, scratching his head. "We have plenty of time for that," he said smiling.
"I know, I know, I don't even know what I was thinking. I was just being stupid I guess."
"It's not stupid."
"No?"
"No. It's good you know what you want. It's good to be assertive. Now, I'll admit that argument probably verged on the aggressive side, but it's better than being walked all over. Plus, it didn't surprise me all that much. And I take responsibility for wording that in the worst possible way," he laughed again.
"Not your fault."
"Eh, I'll take partial responsibility. That did sound rather…suggestive."
"Just a little bit. But now that we've got that out of our system and Elliot and Olivia are probably wondering who's dying in here, let's go ask them about the movie, shall we?"
"That'd probably be a good idea before you try to accuse me of attempted murder," he teased, but was silenced at Erin's glare.
"Olivia?" She called out, walking with Chris and finding her in Delilah's room. "Hey, how are those fractions coming along?"
Olivia looked up from her chair next to Delilah's own seat and desk scattered with pencils, erasers, papers, and a calculator.
"Well, it's going well, right De?"
Delilah popped her head up briefly, "yup," she said, before promptly putting her nose back in the book, tongue slightly out in a sign of intense concentration.
"Cool. Sorry about that um, little fiasco out there."
"Yeah, seriously, what was with the screaming? It's a pity we couldn't make out the words very well. Unfortunately these walls aren't very good for snooping."
"Just a misunderstanding," Erin brushed it off, not exactly wanting to go back into the uncomfortable subject mixed with her own foolishness.
"Oh, okay," Olivia said, wanting to respect the privacy. "But you're fine, right? No one's hurt, nothing was broken, no one was physically injured?" she asked nonchalantly, giving a quick glance over at Chris, wondering if she was covering for him.
"No, no, we're all good," Erin said convincingly.
Olivia nodded, her instincts telling her Erin was telling the truth, overriding the omnipresent fear of someone she loved becoming a victim, having to go through what she saw, heard, and worked with everyday.
"All right then, it's all good with me. My only request is you're slightly quieter next time. I doubt the neighbors enjoyed the free screamo concert."
"We can comply," Erin reassured.
"Understood. Sorry, Ms. Benson," Chris apologized nervously, talking for the first time. Olivia sensed just a slight squirm in his demeanor, allowing herself to be slightly humored by his intimidation at her position.
"It's okay, Chris," she attempted to ease his anxiety, though not being able to fully contain the smallest hint of a smirk.
"Oh, and we came here to ask you something," said Erin.
"No, you're not allowed to get married."
"That's not what we were going to ask."
"Oh, okay then proceed."
"Well, Chris here got his hands on these amazing tickets for tonight, and we were wondering if you'd allow us the honor of going."
"What are they to?"
"The premiere of a certain 'Haunted Heart' movie," Erin said, excitement lacing her voice.
At this declaration, Delilah's head snapped up, her pencil dropping, and a glare replacing the focused look on her face. She looked up at Olivia, being met with a look of anguish and exhaustion.
Olivia sighed. "Though I would love nothing more than to let you two spend time together, and while I think it's very sweet he would do that, I already told Delilah no. So, I'm sorry, but I don't think tonight's going to work."
Both teenagers' faces dropped.
"While I understand that, I am older than Delilah," Erin pointed out.
"I know, I know," Olivia said, putting her hand up to her temples. "But it's still a school night, and I really don't feel comfortable letting you be out that late."
"It's not that late," Erin tried one last thing.
"I'm sorry, I just don't think tonight. We're going to see it Friday though, and Chris is welcome to join us then," Olivia tried to point out a positive.
"Yeah, I'll see it with you then," Chris stated. "Hey, if it's any good, I'll want to see it twice right?"
Olivia thanked her lucky stars for Chris right now. God bless that boy.
"Exactly. It'll be great," Olivia said.
Erin nodded. She still wasn't fully convinced, and still disappointed, but she decided to suck it up and be optimistic. She was a little tired. And did she really want to see the movie when she was exhausted and stressing about school the next day?
"You're right," she said. "Friday then. It'll be fun."
"Good," Olivia said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Glad you'll be able to join us."
"Thanks for the invite," Chris said. "Well, I should really get going. Got to do some homework. Walk me out?" he asked Erin.
"Obviously," Erin replied, moving into the hallway with him.
"Hey," Chris whispered. "I'm going to leave this here, just in case she changes her mind," he said, placing the movie ticket on the top of Erin's purse. "Just to be safe."
"You're not going to give it to someone else?"
"Nah, you're the only one I wanted to go with."
"I'm sorry," she said guiltily.
"Don't apologize. You or Olivia. I get she has her reasons. She really cares about you. It's nice you found someone like that." Though he didn't directly say it, she knew who he was referencing. He wasn't only making allusion to Erin's mother, but also his own parents. It wasn't that they were bad people, they were just uninvolved. They didn't really know how to care, when to set rules or when to engage in their son's life. Remembering this she made a mental note not to take Olivia for granted.
"It is nice," she admitted.
"Well, I really should crack open a book or something," he said.
"Eh, I guess."
"Bye, babe."
"See you," she said, sending him off with a final kiss before the door closed behind him. Now bored for the time being, she decided to go bother Olivia again, preparing to go back to Delilah's room, realizing there was no need when she saw the detective coming into the living room.
"Hey there," Olivia greeted, grabbing a drink out of the fridge before collapsing on the couch and turning the TV on.
"Hi," she replied.
"You mad?"
"Nah, we're cool."
"Good. I hate it when you're pissed. You make me feel bad and you scare me."
Erin laughed. "Fair enough," she replied, taking a seat next to Olivia.
"Hey, about the yelling, are you seriously okay?" Olivia asked earnestly. She couldn't help it. There was still that tiny ounce of nagging doubt.
"I'm seriously okay. It was a misunderstanding."
"About?"
"Sex."
Olivia merely missed the mark of full out chocking on her soda, managing to swallow it just in time before coughing, Erin looked over at her reaction with amusement, more than proud at the timing at her announcement, anticipating an effect like this.
"Excuse me?" she asked, her eyes watering from the lack of oxygen caused by the fizzy bubbles.
"That's the thing, I thought it was about sex, but he was just talking about a movie."
"Do I even want to know the path of that conversation?"
"Probably not."
"Okay then, next subject."
"All right…well…I don't really know what you want to talk about."
"Anything, nothing, I don't care."
"Where's Elliot?"
"Sulking in your bedroom."
"Why?" Erin asked slowly.
"I sent him there. When he heard you two yelling, I kid you not, he actually pulled out his taser and almost stomped in here."
"Dear God…"
"Yup. So I told him to calm down and go to an isolated area where he couldn't hurt anyone."
"Gotcha…"
"Yeah. Anymore questions?"
"I don't think so. Oh! Well I should tell you that the movie ticket is still here. Chris left it here just in case you changed your mind."
"I won't."
"I know, I'm just warning you that it's not some big secret plot to sneak out and go against you will. I'm not climbing out my window with Chris there to catch me at the bottom or anything. I just wanted to warn you about the reasoning so you don't jump to conclusions."
"Hey thanks, that's nice to know."
"I thought it was in the best interest of my life as well."
"Smart girl."
"I try."
"Olivia! What's one-sixth plus ten-eighteenths?" Delilah yelled from her room.
Olivia sighed. "Well, I guess that's my cue to leave."
"Nice talking to you."
"Same. Wish me luck in there."
"Go get 'em, math champ."
"Oh, don't worry, I got this," Olivia nodded, walking away, leaving only Erin to ponder.
SVU
The clock flashed the angry red numbers of 3:16 simultaneously with the constant, redundant and repugnant beeping of Olivia's work cell phone.
Rubbing the sleep and temporary confusion out of her eyes, she flipped her arm over her torso to grab and heed to the sound and ceased the obnoxious noisemaker.
"Hello?" she answered groggily, propping her head up on her free arm to yield more attention to the other end of the line.
"Olivia, it's Cragen," her boss' voice replied.
"Captain, what's going on?"
"Caucasian male, mid to late teens, found dead in a choir classroom inside a school. Discovered when the night janitor found him and immediately contacted the authorities," he said, briefing her on the matter.
"Okay, and why is this an SVU case?"
"Marks found on his body suggest ongoing abuse," he explained.
Olivia inhaled sharply to compose herself before seeking further information.
"Do we know his identity?"
"There was a school ID found in a book bag on him. Says it belongs to a Benjamin Stanton. Look, can you get down here? We need you and Elliot to go over the crime scene."
"Yeah sure, just let me call someone to stay with the kids. What's the address?"
"2168 East Redwood, St. Genesius,'" he explained.
"All right, thanks Captain," she said before hanging up the phone and standing, realization hitting her like a bullet, comprehending freezing her blood cold. St. Genesius. Erin's school. One of her classmates. Dead. Not allowing herself any more time to ponder this, she forced herself to get up, silencing the swirling thoughts.
"Casey," she said into the phone while tugging a pair of socks on.
"Olivia, hey, as much as I love you, I have to say these calls are becoming despicably frequent. The phone company probably thinks I'm pretty popular for booty calls," she sarcastically spitfired. Even the morning couldn't kill her wit.
"I'm sorry, it's just-"
"I'm kidding, Benson, I'll be over there in ten minutes tops, just hang tight."
"Thanks, Case, I appreciate it."
"Don't mention it," she said killing the line, getting ready to drag herself over to the detective's apartment.
Olivia, now already up, dressed, and having a few minutes to waste, pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail and sauntered to wait in the kitchen, turning a few lights on as she went.
"Morning, Benson," she heard Elliot behind her, adjusting his belt as he walked to join her in the kitchen.
"Morning," she replied.
Grabbing a glass and filling it with water; she rolled her eyes at the painstaking activity, almost tapping her foot at the slow, thin line of water leaking from the refrigerator's spout. She yawned and glanced around the room, looking around the surfaces underneath the dim artificial light mixed with the sparkles of the stars and moon. A shimmering of the counter coming from the direction by the stove caught her eye, and she made her way over to examine it.
That light was hardly ever turned on, and she hadn't flipped it on just a second ago. It was barely ever used, so why was it on now?
"Did you turn this on?" she asked over her shoulder.
Elliot shook his head with an innocent look.
She nodded and looked back at the clutter on the counter around the stove, spying nothing out of the ordinary. A candle, a half-eaten bag of chips, Erin's purse with the movie ticket still atop it, a can of cooking spray.
She wrinkled her eyebrow, now honestly curious as to what the cause of the light was. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was off with the arrangement of items. Something just felt suspicious.
She gingerly picked up the movie ticket, handling its corners and flipping it over. Upon further inspection, she noticed that the ticket was not only folded and creased (which she rationalized could have been Chris' doing), but that it was partially ripped. No, not ripped, she corrected, used. The side part used for admittance was nowhere to be found under, by, or next to the ticket. And she could bet that it wouldn't be in the house at all, just like a certain someone less than an hour ago.
"Be back in a minute," she said to Elliot, "I have to take care of something."
SVU
"Get up," Olivia demanded, harshly shaking Erin's bed.
"Mm," she was answered with an annoyed moan and the action of Erin pulling her blankets up above her head.
"Now," she commanded again, pulling the blankets down.
"What," Erin whined in a whisper, irritated at her niche being disrupted, "could you possibly want from me at," she glanced at the clock, "3:30 in the morning?"
"You mind telling me what this is?" Olivia prompted, holding up the evidence.
"A rectangle, math genius," Erin answered, slipping under the covers again.
"Erin," Olivia said annoyed.
"Fine. It's a paper rectangle," she clarified.
"Dammit Erin, I'm really not kidding," Olivia replied exasperated.
Hearing and processing the soberness of her tone, Erin bit back her sarcasm and sat up, her eyes dry from sleep. She took the mysterious object in her hand and squinted to make out its propertied. "Oh, that's the movie ticket Chris left here. Remember, I told you earlier not to worry about it."
"Yeah, and you also told me you wouldn't use it," Olivia accused.
"I know…and I didn't use it," she said slowly.
"It's missing the entrance stub."
"So it is…"
"And the explanation for that is…?"
Erin shrugged candidly. "I honestly don't know. I wouldn't lie to you, I've been in here all night," she said, her eyes locked with a blank, straightforward expression.
Olivia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She was usually a pretty good judge of truthfulness, and she could sense the frankness of the defense. Finally she gave a sigh. "I believe you."
"I am telling the truth," Erin said, just to be clear.
"I know you are. Which is why this is doubly bad."
"Why?"
"Because you didn't use it and I didn't use it, so it must have been Delilah."
"Sure it wasn't Elliot?"
Olivia smirked. "Somehow I doubt that. No, it was probably just my thirteen-year-old adopted child with the skills of a ninja apparently. No one in this house heard her leave?"
"I have to say, I do find that rather impressive."
Olivia gave her a look.
"Okay not impressive, more like remarkable. You have to admit that is quite a feat."
Olivia did have to agree with that. "We need alarms or something. You know what, I'm too tired for more confrontation right now. I'll have to handle her tomorrow. Sorry to bother you," she said, getting ready to leave.
"Wait, where are you going? And why were you up in the first place? What, did your spidey-senses tell you something was array?"
Olivia gave a little laugh to cover up the true seriousness of the situation. She really didn't want to bring this up. Not only was this a murder, but it was a murder of someone she quite possibly could have seen only a few hours ago. In a place she'd just been in. A place that was supposed to be safe. "Just a case, don't worry about it."
"What case?"
"Erin, I really don't think you should-"
"Olivia, I just worked with you on a case a couple months ago. What's gotten you so worked up about me knowing about one?"
Olivia bit her lip, wanting to protect her from the news. No doubt she'd learn about it tomorrow, but she wanted her to have just a few more hours of naivety. Some more time with peace. Although she did have a point. She herself was just working on a case a little while ago. There she'd proven herself mature and strong enough to handle things like this. Situations and natures that were never pleasant.
"There was a teenage boy found murdered with traces of child abuse." There. That should be enough information.
"Where?"
Damn her curiosity. "A school."
"Which one?"
Olivia cleared her throat. "…yours…." She could almost see Erin's heart drop. You could tell she wasn't in a million years expecting to hear that. "But I don't want you to worry, okay? You're going to be -" she rushed to reassure.
"Who?" she asked, shooting straight up.
"Erin, please, you need to-"
"Who?" she asked again, her voice harder and more demanding.
Olivia took a step back, taking another deep breath. "Benjamin Stanton?" she said, almost like a question, praying that they had no affiliation.
Unfortunately, by the way Erin's face paled, she knew that wasn't the case. "You knew him," she said.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "Well, sort of. He's my friend's boyfriend…was my friend's boyfriend."
"I'm so sorry…"
Erin shook her head, trying to swallow the pill of this new information. How would Fernando take this? Well, she already knew that. He would be devastated. Distraught. Just the way he talked about him warmed her heart, and now the news he'd never be able to do that again broke it. Why would someone do this? Jealously? Fear? Hate? Ignorance? Her mind was racing. She had to figure this out. She needed him to have justice, if not for the mere fact of Fernando, the boy that was nice to her on her first day.
"Maybe it was a hate crime. He was gay, and prejudice plays a huge part of violence especially in high schools," she suggested.
"Erin-"
"Stereotypes. They cause people to do really horrible things. Maybe it was a student or-or a faculty member or something. Who found him this late at night? Question them because they could be covering-" she said quickly, breathing fast.
"Erin. Erin stop, okay? You need to calm down," Olivia said softly, taking her hands. "It's going to be okay. I know that this is scary and sad, and you want to do everything in your power to get him justice, but listen to me, all right? Stay out of it."
"But -"
"I mean it. Don't get involved. We don't want you or anyone else in danger. You need to be a good friend, but nothing else. You understand?"
Erin nodded with slight reluctance.
"Good," Olivia nodded back with finality. "Casey's going to be here in a few minutes, Elliot and I need to go. You going to be okay?"
"Fine," Erin swore. "I'll be fine. Promise."
Erin faintly remembered Olivia kissing her forehead and walking out, whispering something to Elliot and then to Casey, and the door closing behind them. She dimly heard the lock jingle on the door as she flipped and tossed and turned, trying to sleep. But all she could think of was the faceless criminal, and how much she needed him to get reprisal.
She'd promised she'd be fine, and she would, right after order was restored and justice was brought. It didn't matter to her who brought him down. She didn't care how he fell. She just needed someone's hands to pay him back for what he did.
Even if those hands were hers.
Hey, it's me! Yeah, me, TheTBone! You remember me, right? I know it's been awhile, but in my defense I have been busy actually being productive. I'm sorry this has taken this long, but I hope you liked it! Reviews are my heroine. Seriously, I appreciate them and love them and cherish them so much! (And I just realized that sounded like wedding vows…eh, I guess that shows just how much I love them!) So yes, please review, folks! Thanks so much for your support this far! I couldn't do it without you! =)
**All grammar errors are mine and only mine. If you notice any, feel free to point them out (no hard feelings, I swear) and I'll fix them! =)
