Big Girls Don't Cry
So sorry on the delay in posting, but here is Chapter 4! It is quite a long chapter...so it is broken in two parts.
This chapter does jump a bit, to present and past, but it will be clearly labeled when it jumps to the past, if this is very confusing I'm very sorry but it helps explain better.
Oh, I did read the reviews: In some circumstances a person may be discharged early from the marines. In this case, Olivia's only family died, and because of this, the Lt. General felt she had done her duty and now needed to help bury her mother and move on with her life.
I was kind of scared of writing the next chapter of some of the reviews for chapter 3. But here is chapter 4 part 1.
El,
It's weird not seeing you everyday, I miss you terribly. I finished burying my mother yesterday, although she abused me and most likely did not love me, I will miss her, she brought me into this world. I hope that things back at the base have been well. Did you get a new partner or are you switching out with Dean, Nick, Danny and Luke? I've thought about returning to the Marines, but I was honorably discharged, so perhaps I'll use this time to get ready to enter the Police Academy. I guess now is as good a time as ever. Stay safe. I miss you and I hope to see you soon.
Love, Liv
Olivia kissed the letter before sealing it up and stamping it. She dropped it in the mailbox and hoped Elliot would respond to her soon. She was back in New York and while her mother had never shown love to her, Olivia had inherited a large sum of money that her mother willed to her when she died. Not wanting to touch it, Olivia put it in savings and tried not to think about it. She decided like she had said in her letter to join the Police Academy to become a detective. She wanted to be a Specials Victims Unit detective, feeling that as the product of a rape, she would be able to understand the nature of these heinous crimes.
5 YEARS LATER
Elliot Stabler sat at his desk wondering how long this day would take. The day had been slow and not many crimes had happened. He had been working at SVU for about 5 months now and while he often worked with Munch on crimes, it was nice just working on DD5's, but not today.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Detective John Munch called out to him from his desk. One could describe John Munch as an eccentric man who believed in conspiracy theories who thought everyone was out to get him. The truth in the matter was, John Munch had not committed any felonies and besides the one parking ticket had paid late on, he was the last person the CIA or the FBI checked upon; he wasn't important enough to them.
"Somehow John, I don't think my life would really interest you all that much."
"How about you try me. Having problems with the wife?"
"You could say that." "Well, seeing that all 4 of my past wives have divorced me, perhaps I'm not the best person to ask."
"I figured as much." Elliot said laughing. He went back to work on his DD5's when a new person came in. He was about 6 feet, and had a braid on the back of his head and a moustache and beard.
"Hi, I'm looking for a Captain Cragen?" The man said looking around the office.
"That's his office, right over there," Munch said pointing over to the door on the left with big bold letters CAPTAIN DON CRAGEN
"Thanks." The man walked over and entered the office. "Hi, my name is Odafin Tutuola, I'm the replacement."
"Ah, good I was just about to call over, Oda- what?" Captain Don Cragen was a nice man, but names were not his speciality, he never called anyone by their first name, because often he forgot them.
"It's Odafin, but you can just call me Fin, it's easier for everyone."
"Alright, Fin, now it's pretty easy in this office, we treat everyone like family. Your partner will be John Munch, the man who sits in that desk with the glasses. And your locker will be over to the right of the desks. I'll put your name tag up later today. It's been a pretty quiet day, so you can take today to get to know everyone. There is one last person coming in, but she is new." Fin nodded as he took in all of the new information.
"Alright, cap, nice to meet you." Cragen shook his hand and introduced him to the other two detectives.
"Stabler, Munch, this is Fin, he will be your new partner Munch." "Nice to meet you." Fin shook hands with Munch and then Elliot. Cragen left the men and went back inside of his office waiting for his last detective.
Olivia Benson was late for her new job. She had been working for NYPD in Computer Crimes, but her boss had told her that someone had put in for a detective in SVU and she had all of the qualities. Olivia was excited, after working in Computer Crimes for 2 years, she felt she was ready to really go out on the field.
She walked onto the steps of the building, and instead of stopping at the 2nd floor, she went up to the 4th floor. As she entered the office, she saw 6 different desks, two had people sitting at them, 2 looked like they were stacked with different files, 1 was completely bare, and the other one across from it had the startings of a person beginning to use the desk.
"Ah, you must be the new detective Cragen's been waiting for." A voice behind her spoke and spooked her a little since it was unexpected. She turned around to see an older man with grey hair and glasses smiling at her.
"Yes, my name is Olivia Benson." Munch shook her hand and then pointed out Cragen's office.
"John Munch at your service. Cragen's office is right over there." Olivia followed the direction of his hand and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Olivia gasped when she entered. She was looking at the exact copy of Lt. General John Cragen sitting at the desk.
"Hello Olivia." Cragen said smiling.
"Sir, I, you look like someone I know."
"Yes, my twin brother I would assume, he went into the Marines and I went into the Police Academy. He's the reason I requested you. I knew from him that you would make an excellent detective in SVU, he said you were never a quitter."
"Thank you, sir it was an honor serving with your brother."
"I will tell him that, now back to buisness, we are family at SVU so we each others backs. Other than that, this is a really easy going squad and I hope you enjoy your time here, I'll introduce you to your new partner." Cragen walked out of his office and saw Fin and Munch working but no Elliot.
"Hey do you know where Stabler is?" Cragen asked. Olivia paled slightly when she heard the name, there had to be lots of other Stablers in the world.
"I think he went outside for abit." Munch guessed. He hadn't exactly seen where Elliot walked but he was sure that he wasn't far.
"Here is your desk." Cragen led her to the empty desk across from the desk with few files. Olivia sat down and felt her new desk.
"Thank you Captain." Olivia was so focused in organizing her desk and her new files that she didn't even notice someone down across from her. She currently had her head in file cabinet when she heard a voice from behind her. Banging her head against the filing cabinet and cursing, Olivia was able to gingerly get her head out and glance at the electric blue eyes staring down at her.
5 YEARS PREVIOUS
Elliot couldn't believe that Olivia had left without even saying goodbye. He had found out from Nick later that night that Olivia had left without any word to them. It was almost as if she was never even there. Elliot had banged into her room the next day early in the morning to find everything was cleared. He had demanded to know why Olivia left to Lt. Dan later that day in training.
"Why did she leave?"
"I wish I knew." Lt. Dan pondered out loud.
"How about you ask Lt. General Cragen?" Dean suggested.
"Yeah, I'll do that. That afternoon one could find Elliot sitting outside of the general's office waiting to enter. He had become quite bored, as he had been sitting outside for an hour now. He almost left when he heard his name.
"Ah, yes Private Stabler, come in." Elliot bounced up and followed the general into his office.
"You wanted to ask me something?"
"Yes, sir, I wanted to know why Oliv- Private Benson left so suddenly."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that son."
"But sir, I, she was my girlfriend and Olivia is not the type of person to just leave without saying good bye." Elliot's eyes looked like they were about to leak tears and Cragen felt for him and decided to tell him the last known address he had for Olivia.
"She left because of the death of her mother, and I personally felt along with my other esteemed colleagues, that it would be best for her to go home. I only have one address for her.
141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. That's all I have." Elliot took the address and wrote his letter.
Liv,
I wish I could have seen you before you left, but Lt. General Cragen said your mother died unexpectedly. My deepest condolences. This is the address he gave me that would reach you. I hope this reaches you in good health and while my tour lasts another 3 years, I hope that I can see you again before then. I love you.
Love,
El.
He almost didn't write the "I Love You" but he felt that he wanted her to know that. He kissed the letter and sealed it. He then dropped it in the mail box. He hoped that she would receive the letter soon and respond.
5 YEARS LATER
Electric blue eyes stared back at her. Olivia thought that at the moment she saw him, that shewould be ready for the moment. However, here she was squatting on the ground looking blankly at the boy she once knew. He wasn't nearly as boysih anymore, he had definitely grown into a man. He had filled out quite nicely, and while his hair was still teh close cropped length, it appeared to have darkened slightly. He also seemed to have grown slightly, maybe a couple of inches or so.
Slowly she stood up nearing his height, she had also grown a couple of inches. Staring right back, she wanted to show him all of the hurt she had felt when he never replied to her letter. She slowly stuck her hand out, and introduced herself as, "Olivia Benson." He took her hand and while her smile was not warm, her hand was very warm. Elliot shook it and repeated his own name before sitting back down.
He couldn't believe after all of this time waiting for her that he couldn't say anything besides his name. He felt kind of foolish, but what had he expected, she had never responded to hsi letter. While there was some tension in the air, they didn't let them affect their work which like itw as in the Marines stellar.
"Okay, everyone what do we have?" Cragen stepped out of his office and walked up to his 3 new and 1 old detecitves.
"We have a homicide that has some sexual means to it in Brooklyn." Fin said reading off of a report.
"And then, a kidnap case." Elliot said closing the file.
"Okay, Fin and Munch check out the homicide, and Stabler and Benson, check out the kidnapping." All four detectives got up and began heading out.
Elliot drove them to the scene and while each desparately wanted to say something, neither could find the right words without hurting the other. Once on scene, they saw a mother crying and a father holding onto the mother and an indifferent son.
"Hi, ma'am, sir, I am Detective Stabler and this is my partner Detective Benson, we are the detectives assigned to your case."
"Please, you have to find our daughter, she means everything to us!" The mother hung onto Elliot's coat and began crying harder.
"Ma'am, anything you can tell us will help us," Elliot tried to comfort the mother but it seemed nothing he said was helping.
"Look, you have to find our daughter." The father said sternly.
"Is it okay if we look in her room, perhaps something can tell us what happeend to her." The parents willingly obliged letting the two detectives walk in. Once in they saw the house was well furnished and obviously well kept. After seeing the daughters room, they realized how hard this would be.
Her room was filled with barbie posters and rainbows with unicorns on them. It was almost as if Lisa Frank had exploded across the entire room. Olivia saw the computer first and before she touched it, "Is it okay if we look?" Olivia was familiar with some procedures but she always felt bad for looking at another person's computer without their permission first. The parents nodded, anything to help their daughter. Olivia clicked the button and it turned on, showing a password screen. Which seemed unsual for a young girl.
"Ma'am, how old was your daughter?" Elliot asked.
"She was 15." Elliot hid the surprise of her age, the way the room was, it appeared that perhaps a 10 year old lived here.
"Did she have any particular guys that she was interested in?" Olivia asked trying to think of what this girls password could be.
"Well, no I don't know."
"Okay, ma'am and sir we're going to take your daughters' computer and have one of our technician's see if there was any thing that would help us find out who were kidnapper could be." Olivia said looking at the parents.
"Okay." The mother then began to cry into the arms of the father. Olivia and Elliot left thinking of who could of done it. Elliot immediately said the family, but Olivia sided with the mother saying she most of really loved her.
"You don't know that." Olivia stated.
"You don't know anything ." Elliot snapped angrily. Working together made him think of the times in the Marines when they worked together, even then they had problems with agreeing on certain things.
"I don't know anything? You don't, you never responded to my letter in the first place." After that, Olivia stalked off.
5 YEARS PREVIOUS
"Did she respond?" Nick asked.
"No. It's been weeks."
"Perhaps it didn't get to her?" Luke said."
"I think maybe she didn't care as much about me as I did." Elliot stated looking despondent. He clutched the ribbon that she had wrapped around his wrist. While Olivia was not a girly girl, she did have that ribbon for a purpose and she used it to hold her hair back whenever she needed it. Awhile back after winning a challenge, she pulled it out of hair and kissing him, she tied the ribbon around his wrist and left.
"That's not true man, you brought her out of her shell, you meant something to her." Nick stated. Elliot hoped it was true, he was truly in love with her, and it hurt that she didn't answer. Unknown to him, Malone had prevented the letter from ever leaving the mail room and instead shredded it. It was easy for him to do this because he worked
in the mail room and had seen Elliot drop his letter in the mail bin and used his keys to remove it. He had also intercepted Olivia's letter from reaching him when he saw her beautiful script on a letter. There was no way that they were going to be together after she was already gone. Malone would make sure of it.
End of part 1.
The address given for Olivia's address was actually Ziegfield Theatres, I don't know anyone in New York, so I looked up an address.
In case anyone was confused: Olivia left the Marines at 19, Elliot turned 21 later that year. Olivia enters the Police Academy at 20, it's a 2 year course, works for computer crimes for 2 years. Elliot enters the Police Academy at 24 and starts at SVU at 26.
In case anyone has questions, I feel since Olivia has been working in the Police Force longer, it is okay that she gets a rookie while she is technically still a rookie in SVU becuase she is still more familiar with police matters. I consider Elliot slightly a rookie.
[Elliot finished his Marine training in 4 years.] I don't know how long one is in the Police Academy so I made it 2 years, which is why Olivia and Elliot are working at SVU at the same time.] I didn't explain it too well in the story.
Lisa Frank is one of those artist that girls always have those backpacks for and folders. If you don't know who she is, look her up and you will definitely see how kiddy it is.