Elliot on Trial
Chapter 4: The Witness And The Hero
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Dramawitsvu17 who helped me not be so depressed that my birthday is on Saturday and none of my friends are able to do anything with me. Kid, you are so helpful to my bruised ego.
Holly Curtis brushed her long dark hair back and pulled it up into a ponytail. She gathered her books together for her day of classes. She was a graduate student at NYU, studying to get her masters degree in communications. She strolled into the kitchen of her apartment and popped a frozen waffle in the toaster.
She reached for the remote and flipped on the small TV that sat on the kitchen counter. As she reached into the refrigerator for the apple juice she sighed. The news stations were still running the same story. Holly hated herself for not coming forward but that man had been going to kill her; he had nearly killed that woman who had helped Holly out that night. She knew they had arrested the wrong man but she was so unbelievably terrified of the man who had grabbed her that she just couldn't come forward.
The waffle popped out of the toaster and Holly took a deep gulp of her apple juice. If it weren't for the fact that she had class that day, she wouldn't even be leaving her apartment. She reached for the waffle and took a bite. Suddenly, she stopped mid chew. On the news they were saying that the man that they had arrested had been released. On the screen was a picture of the man, whose name was Elliot Stabler, being hounded by reporters.
Holly's mouth dropped open; the man looked like a ghost. She wondered if he had always looked that way or if prison had done that to him. She suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. She dropped the rest of the waffle in the garbage and poured the remainder of her apple juice down the sink. She knew now that she couldn't be responsible for sending this man back to jail. She grabbed her coat, knowing that she would most likely miss class that day.
Before she left the apartment, she grabbed the nine millimeter that she had gotten the day after she had narrowly escaped. She remembered reluctantly waiting for the permit and not sleeping a wink until she had the gun under her pillow.
She left the apartment and locked the door behind her. She knew she had to come forward, if only for that poor man and that woman in the hospital who had helped her even though she didn't have to.
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There wasn't enough mouthwash in the world to make Casey forget how he tasted. She spit the fourteenth mouthful of scope into the sink and wiped her mouth. It was worth it, she tried to tell herself. Elliot was out of jail and back at his apartment and safe from the inmates.
Casey hadn't gotten the courage to go talk to him yet. She hadn't really had the nerve to face anyone since yesterday after she had left Rockwell's office. She hated Rockwell. She still remembered when he had come to her just after Branch had reassigned the case to him. He had informed her in no uncertain terms that he would be ruthless in court and that if she ever wanted leniency for her friend, there was one thing that she could do for him. She had tried to tell Branch about Rockwell's inappropriate behavior but Branch had been unwilling to accept her word.
Branch had never not trusted her before but he had never had reason to doubt her before. The fact that the accused and the victim were both detectives from the unit that Casey worked exclusively with was reason enough for him to believe that she would be angry enough to make up false allegations against the man who had been assigned to prosecute.
In that moment, Casey hated Branch. She was down right angry at the whole God damned world. Another twenty mouthfuls of scope later and she finally decided that it was useless. She walked out of the bathroom and into the living room just in time to hear the phone ring.
She walked to it and picked up the receiver "Hello?" she began in a questioning tone.
"Casey," it was Fin "Are you all right? You sound…" he couldn't describe how she sounded.
"I'm fine," she answered simply as she sank down into the chair beside the phone "What's up?"
"Just wanted to tell you that Elliot's out," Fin had no idea that Casey had played a roll in getting Elliot ROR. Casey almost told him but she stopped herself. It was too embarrassing, even to admit it to Fin or John.
"That's great," she said instead.
"Wanna go pay him a visit?" Fin asked. Normally he would have asked John to go but as he stared across his desk at his partner, he remembered John's words two days earlier in Casey's office 'What if he's the perp?' that doubt was not something Fin wanted to impose on Elliot at this time.
"Sure," Casey responded "When?"
"I'll pick you up when I get off work," he told her.
"Okay," she smiled a small smile into the phone "See you then."
"See ya," Fin responded "Bye," Casey heard a click and she held the phone in her hand for a few seconds longer before hanging up, herself.
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Fin stood up from his desk "I'm gonna go to the lab and see if they've got any hits from the fingerprints that CSU found at the Landon crime scene," he told Munch as he headed out the door.
"Okay," Munch muttered in response as he turned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk. He continued to work in silence for nearly a half hour before the sound of someone softly and nervously clearing their throat echoed through the empty space.
He looked up and saw a very pale young woman standing in the open double doors. She was trembling almost imperceptibly. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her dull green eyes told Munch that this woman had a story to tell. He stood from his desk and approached her, careful not to startle her. "Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes," the woman said softly "I'd like to speak to captain Cragen."
"He's in there," Munch motioned to the captain's closed office door and watched in curiosity as the young woman knocked and disappeared inside.
Munch returned to his desk and continued to do his paperwork, looking up occasionally at the door to Cragen's office. He wondered what that woman wanted.
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"Captain Cragen?" Holly said nervously. She didn't know where she was supposed to go. She had heard on the news that both Elliot and Olivia were detectives in the Manhattan SVU so she had come to Cragen in hopes that he would know what to do.
"Yes," Cragen said in a soft voice as he motioned for Holly to sit down. "Can I help you Miss…"
"Curtis," Holly said softly "I'm Holly Curtis."
"Well Ms. Curtis," Cragen continued "Is there something I can help you with?"
"I think I can help clear an innocent man," Holly whispered.
Cragen's eyes widened. Immediately he thought of Elliot but mentally slapped himself. The chances that this woman was referring to Elliot were slim to none. He took a pad out of the top drawer of his desk and uncapped his pen. "Okay," he prompted Holly gently "What happened?"
Holly took a long time before speaking next. She was nervous and ashamed. Now that she was here, she couldn't believe that it had taken her so long to come forward. "A little over three weeks ago I was walking home late at night," she began.
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"Good morning Lila," Heather Rockwell smiled at her younger sister. Both women made it a point to get together at least one morning a week for tea. Heather often enjoyed bragging about her son to Lila.
Lila White in contrast, rarely mentioned her son and secretly resented her older sister for never being able to shut her mouth. "Good to see you again Heather," she smiled politely as she beckoned her sister inside.
Heather strolled past her sister and into the sitting room with a sort of flourish that Lila absolutely despised. Even as an old woman, whenever Heather walked into a room, all eyes were instantly drawn to her. Lila sometimes found herself thinking that it would have been absolutely wonderful if her son had killed his aunt instead of some prosecutor that had crossed him.
Heather sat down and smiled at her sister "You know," she began "Theodore is prosecuting that big case. You know, the one that's been all over the news."
"That's wonderful," Lila forced a smile as she poured tea for her sister.
"Isn't it though," Heather said blissfully. "This will be such a wonderful stepping stone in his career."
"Of course," Lila put in as she sat back in her chair and just prayed for this visit to end soon.
"Of course the defendant swears he didn't do it," Heather continued at lightening speed, barely acknowledging her sister as anything more than her audience "But that doesn't matter. Theodore will get the conviction no problem."
"What if he really is innocent?" Lila asked curtly, hoping to take some of the wind out of her sister's sails.
"What?" Heather snapped her head in Lila's direction as if she had only just noticed that her sister was even there. "Oh, does that even matter?" she asked.
"I suppose not," Lila replied coldly, allowing her eyes to drift closed for just a second.
"Oh," Heather said suddenly as if something had just occurred to her "How's Richard doing?" she asked snidely, knowing that she had touched on a sensitive topic. "He hasn't been attacked lately in prison has he?"
"I wouldn't know," Lila responded coolly. The truth was that she avoided having any contact with her son if she could. He called her on her birthday and on mother's day like a dutiful good natured child would but she made no attempt to reach out to him. She knew that he only called her to embarrass her. To Lila White, appearance was everything and having a son in jail did nothing but make her look bad.
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Elliot sat on his couch simply staring off into space when he heard the knock on his door. He groaned, pulling himself into a standing position and crossing the few feet to the door. He swung the door open to see Cragen, Casey, Munch and Fin standing there. He was instantly suspicious. For some reason, the first thought that flashed through his mind was that he was going back to jail. "Yeah?" he questioned.
It was then that he caught the gleam in Cragen's eye. It wasn't the flicker of doubt that he had occasionally seen during those visits in prison. This time it was a gleam of hope, a flicker of happiness and the sort of fatherly warmth that Elliot hadn't sensed from his captain in too long.
"We found a witness," Cragen said quietly as he tried to maintain a professional exterior, while inside, he wanted nothing more than to jump up and down with joy like a little kid.
"What?" Elliot asked. What Cragen was saying seemed almost to good to be true "Have you caught the person who did it yet?" he asked. He wanted to wrap his hands around the bastard's neck and kill him slowly and painfully.
"Not yet," Cragen told him "But the witness is providing us with a sketch. We'll get him Elliot."
Elliot sighed in relief as he stepped away from the door, allowing his friends to enter. Cragen gave Elliot a quick hug and a pat on the back. Fin did the same. Casey smiled but remained standoffish. When it came to Munch, he hesitated.
Munch looked Elliot up and down. He felt so guilty that he had ever doubted him. He finally gave Elliot a quick handshake "Good to have you back," he said simply.
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Cragen and Elliot walked through the ICU. The judge had lifted the order of protection based on Holly Curtis's statement. Elliot felt his heart beating faster the closer they got to Olivia's room; he hadn't seen her since that night, just before they had left the station house. They had been so angry with each other; they had both been working way too many hours without sleep on a case that had been bleeding them dry, a case that, in the weeks since that night, Munch and Fin had been able to wrap up for them.
"Right in here," Cragen said softly to Elliot as they reached the room where the two uniformed officers stood guard. "I'll let you go first," Cragen gave Elliot a small nudge in the direction of the door, knowing that Elliot had been wanting the chance to talk to her for weeks.
"Thanks," Elliot smiled softly at his captain in appreciation before entering the room.
The second he saw her, he felt the air leave his lungs and it took him a long time to get it back. He nearly fell to the floor right then and there. He pulled the chair close to her bedside and took her hand. "Hey Liv," he began as soon as he could find his voice again. She was so incredibly pale. It broke his heart to see her this way. He didn't know how lucky he was that he hadn't been allowed to see her back before the bruises had faded.
"They found someone who cleared me," he whispered, rubbing his thumb over the palm of her hand gently as he spoke. He had been told the gist of what the witness had said. Olivia had saved the young woman's life. "You did a good thing Olivia," he told her. It was probably the most unnecessary thing to say. He just wanted to let her know that he knew.
"I'm so sorry that I wasn't there," he whispered as tears came to his eyes "I'm so sorry that this happened to you." His guilt had been crushing down on him since the day that he'd found out that she had been hurt but for some reason, it had never been stronger than it was right there, actually being able to see for himself what had happened to her.
"That night," he continued "We were both so angry. I didn't mean to… those things I said before Cragen sent us both home… You know I didn't mean them right?" he wanted her to wake up then and tell him that she knew that what he had said that night was out of frustration and anger and fatigue and that he didn't mean to direct it towards her. He desperately needed her forgiveness for all of his sins.
"Why were you near my building?" he asked. Part of him was truly expecting an answer. "Were you coming to see me?" he didn't want to think about it. She had been attacked on her way to apologize for an argument that wasn't her fault. God, he was a horrible human being.
"Please wake up Olivia," he whispered "I need to tell you so many things." He began to cry softly.
A soft moan came from the bed followed by several different machines beeping all at once. Elliot felt his heart in his throat. In that instant, he couldn't move fast enough, he couldn't yell loud enough as he leapt to his feet. "I need a doctor in here!" he called out desperately.