A/N: Brody. He's a slippery one. But he don't know who he's messin' with, do he. (there will be appearances by three characters from CSI:Cyber, but this is definitely not a crossover, at all.)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything except the written words. Dick Wolf, please do not sueth me, I ameth merely a fan with a vivid imagination.
"He's not here," Olivia whispered, looking around the crowded cafe with her lip caught between her teeth. She had her cell phone in her hand, a red dot blinking on the screen. "Son of a bitch," she spat, rolling her eyes. She ran to an empty table in the corner, a laptop and obsolete flip phone spread out amidst empty coffee cups and a plate with half of a cookie on it. She picked up the phone, laughed bitterly as she swiped her tongue across her lips, and nodded. "Of course."
"Fill me in, here," Elliot said, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. He smirked, his fingers brushing against a bit of lacy fabric. His mind momentarily drifted to early that morning, when he'd taken her up against the wall of the precinct before their shift, and he'd ripped her black lace underwear off of her body, with his teeth. He'd shoved them into his pocket and, with the events of the day, he'd forgotten about them, until now. He cleared his throat when he heard her begin explaining.
"He knew," she said, grabbing the laptop. "He fucking knew I would come after him, and of course, he leaves the evidence behind, because he knows…" she chuckled. "He thinks we can't trace it back to him."
"The bastard's good," Elliot reminded her with a half-shrug. "Maybe we can't…"
She turned sharply, raised one eyebrow, and tossed her head to the side, making her hair swirl and move.
He watched as she headed back out through the cafe doors, licking his lips again. "Fucking Hell," he mumbled, tugging on his pants with an uncomfortable grunt. He ran, then, to catch up to her, and asked, "What do we do, now?"
"Well, you were right, before," she began, pushing a button on her key-fob. The trunk of their car opened, and she dropped the laptop and cell phone into a cardboard box. She slammed the trunk and looked at Elliot. "We do need to notify the parents, talk to the boyfriend," she told him as she opened the driver's side door, "And then we go back to base and see what kind of footprints Nelson left, because...remember I told you, there was a reason no one wanted to kick him up?"
Elliot nodded as he got into the passenger seat, buckling up fast.
"He slips up," she informed him, backing out of the parking space. "More often than not. Someone else always has to go in and cover his tracks, or fix his mistakes, or re-do everything completely." She stepped on the gas, weaving in and out of lanes. "I can't count the times I had to work two cases at once, simply because he fucked up the first time." She grinned over the console at Elliot. "Bet you anything, he left a trail for us to follow on that computer. He'll lead SVU right to the bastard that killed that poor girl, that's a given, but…"
"Could you watch where you're going?" he asked, cutting her off, and he cursed loudly when she swerved to avoid a pothole.
She laughed. "God, you gotta get used to my driving," she teased. "You think this is bad? Wait till we get into a CCA car. I won't even need to have my hands on the wheel…" she shot him a smoky look, watched his eyes darken, and chuckled again, this time low and almost evil. "Pull up that file, open it," she commanded.
Elliot cleared his throat and grabbed his crotch, pulling on his pants again. "You are wicked, woman," he sighed, and then he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He tapped a few buttons, opened the folder, and read through the first few pages. "What am I looking for?"
"Parents' address," she said, turning down a street. "What number am I looking for?"
He scanned and scrolled until he found the page with Casey Douglas's parents' names, address, and other pertinent information. "Three-ninety-seven." He looked out the window and shook his head. "She came from money."
Olivia didn't respond, she simply parked the car on the street in front of the townhouse, turned the key, and moved quickly, bending over the console and kissing Elliot hard, on the mouth, as one hand moved around his neck. She scratched his scalp lightly, knowing but not caring that it would only make him harder and more frustrated. She pulled away and said, "I love you."
His hazy eyes stared into hers, a drugged look on his face almost hid his goofy grin. "I love you, too," he whispered.
"I know," she said, nodding at him. "Only someone who really loved me...would do...what you did." She exhaled and got out of the car, walking up the stone steps to the front door. She closed her eyes as she rang the bell. Aside from cases involving children, this was the worst part of her job.
The woman who answered the door smiled at Olivia, but when her head turned and she saw Elliot, her face paled and she gasped. "Oh, my God."
Olivia realized, then, that Elliot had his badge held out, notifying the woman that they were police officers. "Missus Douglas?" she presumed. When the woman nodded at her, she gave her a soft, apologetic look. "May we come in?"
Missus Douglas moved aside and opened the door wider, letting Olivia and Elliot into her house to change her life.
They spent almost forty minutes with Casey Douglas's mother, another twenty at the medical examiner's office, and thirty-seven trying to hunt down the girl's boyfriend. By the time they got back to the SVU squadroom, it was half-past five, they were hungry, tired, cranky, and had built up a terrible amount of sexual frustration that was was easily hidden by her, not so much by him. He untucked his shirt in the elevator and prayed it was long enough to hide most of his rather large, obvious problem.
"Please," Cragen snapped, seeing them appearing around the bend of the entrance, "Tell me you got something on this!"
Olivia tossed the keys onto Elliot's desk and walked around to her computer. "This was a paid hit," she told her captain. She typed fast, her fingernails clicking against the keys rapidly. "Someone hired a hacker, for a ridiculous amount of money, by the way, to make sure the girl was alone in that kitchen, and couldn't get away." She moved the mouse, clicking a few spots on her screen, and the large one in the back of the squadroom blinked to life. She turned, explaining. "Our vic, Casey Douglas, is the daughter of computer mogul Grant Douglas. Someone texted Casey at seven-thirty this morning, mirroring her ex-boyfriend's number."
"We found the ex-boyfriend, checked his phone, the last time he talked to Casey was three days ago, when they broke up," Elliot added, knowing that someone would ask. "Liv even checked to see if he deleted any messages, or hid anything, and the guy's clean."
Olivia moved to the large board, pointing. "She got the message, telling her to meet him in the student union's cafe at ten, just between breakfast and lunch, because they know the place is empty." She tapped the screen and an eight by ten photo popped up. "At nine-thirty, a mass e-mail was sent out to everyone except Casey, informing them that the student union was closed for emergency asbestos removal."
"This guy," Elliot pointed to the photograph, "Sam Ponalli, paid the guy to hack into the server, send that e-mail, and then corrupt the college's security system at ten minutes to ten. He turned out the lights, shut off the door-locks, and once Casey got into the cafe, he locked her in...with her killer."
Cassidy blinked. "How did you find that guy? Is he the hacker?"
Olivia scoffed, knowing exactly who the hacker was, shook her head. "No, Ponalli is just the money man. There are three transfers from his account into a corporate account, registered to a Bronels Industries, it's a freelance tech firm. Transactions add up to about eighty thousand dollars." She bit her tongue, holding back the name of the CEO of that company, knowing it was her agency's job to nail him. "There are transfers into Ponalli's account from a man named Craig Franklin, adding up to almost double that. I'm waiting for the guys up in TARU to find him, find a connection to…"
Elliot's cell phone rang before she finished speaking, and he chuckled. "Speak of the devil," he chirped, and then answered the phone. "Stabler." His eyes found Olivia's and the excitement in them gave him goosebumps; she was going to love watching him do the job almost as much as he loved watching her. Almost. "Yeah," he said, listening, walking over to the digital white-board. He tapped a file that popped up, and he grinned. "We got it, man. Thanks." He hung up and slapped his phone against his hand. "That's the connection."
Munch moved forward, tilting his head. "So this Franklin guy gets pissed off at bossman for passing him over for a promotion," he said, reading the e-mail that someone up in TARU had sent them. "Uses what's left in his company IRA to pay this Ponalli asshole to hire a hitman and a hacker. He thinks that since the money is only going into and out-of Ponalli's account, no one could link the hacker and hitman to him."
"Exactly," Olivia said, nodding.
Cragen narrowed his eyes, trying to hide the smirk on his face by forcing himself to scowl. "How the hell did you find all this shit out?"
"Liv," Elliot started, shoving one hand in his pocket and scratching the back of his head with the other, "Figured out that someone who'd gotten into the system could've controlled the locks, cameras, and lights remotely. We, uh, well...she, really, I can't do computers." He cleared his throat, trying to somehow explain things without giving up confidential secrets. "She played around with the computer in the security booth, found out someone accessed the mainframe from a wireless ISP registered to a cafe not too far from the school."
Olivia smiled at him, proud of him, and also impressed by his quick thinking and willingness to dive into a world of necessary deceit and manipulation. "By the time we got there, the guy was gone, but, uh, he left his computer behind. I had TARU dump it," she told the room. She left out the rest of the truth, that she and Elliot replicated the computer's hard drive out in the parking lot, deleted any files and communication relating to the CCA, and gave the cleaned-out computer to Morales, holding onto the heavy stuff for her own agents to decrypt and analyze.
It wasn't obstruction, or withholding evidence. She'd given SVU everything they needed to close their case, get justice for their victim, but everything else? It wasn't the NYPD's problem, and was none of their concern. 'Once we get Ponalli, he can give us the hitman."
Cragen nodded, but he knew he was only getting half the story. "So, what are you waiting for? Go nab the bastard."
Elliot raised a brow at Cragen. "We're waiting for warrants, actually," he said, folding his arms. "You forget how this works?"
Cragen chuckled. "No, I just...thought maybe you had some back-alley workaround, a way to cut through the red-tape." He shot Olivia a hard glance. "Why don't you two head out, I know you have that meeting with the feds, right?" He watched Olivia nod, grinned, and then said, "I'll send Munch and Cassidy out to bring back these assholes once we get the go ahead," he said, pointing to the photo and the e-mail.
Olivia stared questioningly at Cragen, but shouted a quick, "Let's go," to Elliot.
Knowing he couldn't refute, he simply followed her back out of the squadroom. "What the hell was that?" he asked in a harsh whisper. "Cragen doesn't know about…"
"No," she interjected firmly. "Not at all. He just...he knows you and I tend to do shit before it's legal. Or so he thinks." She laughed and said, "He thinks we'd rather ask forgiveness rather than permission." Her head turned, she looked at him over her shoulder as they got to the elevator. "He doesn't know we don't need the permission, or the forgiveness."
He grunted again and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Stop fucking looking at me like that." He slammed a hand against the side of the elevator and dropped his head back against it. "I'm fucking harder than a goddamn titanium rod, and you're…" he narrowed his eyes as he saw her phone in his hands. "Who the hell could you possibly be texting right..."
He stopped talking when the elevator jerked to a stop, the lights above them blinked and turned dark, and he felt her body slam into his with such force, the elevator shook. He couldn't see anything, but he felt her lips on his, her tongue prying his mouth open to invade and tangle with his. Moaning, he grabbed her ass, cupping, squeezing, lifting her, pressing her against him as he rocked his hips out of reflex. "Oh, fuck," he spat on a heavy breath, feeling her right hand shove into his pants and wrap around his aching length. "Jesus fucking Christ," he growled, his hips now thrusting rhythmically as she stroked him fast, squeezing tight, fucking her hand.
"Eager, hmm?" she teased, licking a long line from the bend of his shoulder to behind his ear. She bit, then, making him cry out her name as she tugged faster, harder, tighter. "Come on, baby," she cooed into his ear, smoothing her other hand down his body, into his slacks. She cupped her palm over his tip, keeping up with her furious movements, ready to catch whatever he let fly. She nipped at his earlobe again, her hot breath antagonizing him, hitting him deep, making him shiver.
"Oh, fuck, Liv," he cried, his eyes shut tight. His hands clawed at her body, his knee found its way between her legs and he ground out another fiery curse when she began to move, rocking herself against him, riding his thigh as he held her close. "Holy shit," he whisper-panted, feeling his body tighten and throb as his thigh grew hotter. "Stop. Fucking...stop," he commanded, and he pulled her hands away from him. He muttered something under his breath as he spun them around, slamming her into the back wall of the elevator. He yanked down her black pants, a sinister laugh escaping at the knowledge the she wasn't wearing anything else. He shoved down his pants and kissed her feverishly as he impaled her in one smooth thrust.
Her scream was caught by his kiss, her nails scratched at the back of his head, and she was powerless against his pummelling. Her high-toned moans were swallowed by his greedy mouth, her body completely under his spell, under his control. She felt his fingers leaving imprints on her waist, and she beamed with the realization that he was definitely bruising other parts of her body. "Elliot," she whimpered, rolling her head to the side, allowing him to do what she knew he longed to do.
He latched his lips onto her throat as he hummed a response.
"Fuck, baby," she seethed, his teeth sinking into her skin. "I'm gonna…"
His mouth covered hers again as he pounded harder, slapping sounds filling the small box, and when he felt her clamp and pulse, throbbing around him, he hit into her one final time and spilled over, shooting into her.
They stayed still, slowly kissing, her legs around his waist and her back against the wall, and she sighed when she felt him lowering her to the floor. "Holy shit, that's not what I…"
He kissed her quickly and smiled. "You get to be the boss at work," he said, dragging the pad of his thumb across her lips. "I take control, when I need to, in other ways," he winked as he adjusted his pants, and shoved his shirttails where they belonged.
She took a deep breath as she, too, fixed her clothes and shook out her hair, and she wiped the corners of her mouth with one hand as she pulled out her cell phone again. She laughed at the look he was giving her when, as she pushed a button, the elevator started up again, the lights and cameras blinking back to life. She wiggled her phone a bit, and said, "All you ever need to do is ask."
He let out a loud laugh, shaking his head, and when the doors opened, he leaned over to her and whispered, "I love you, too."
She winked, leading him out of the elevator, and she checked her watch. "Before you ask...because I know you're going to ask...Cragen thinks we have a meeting with Porter, since you're the federal liaison." She let him unlock the car and move toward the driver's seat, figuring they had enough heart-pounding action for the moment. "It's only because you have to be with me on this shit, now. Before, Tucker was my go-to, whenever I needed to…"
"So, wait, all those times Cragen told me you were in Tucker's office, trying to get my ass out of trouble," he spoke, starting the car. "You were in meetings at CCA?"
"Or interrogations, briefings, debriefings," she added. "But, uh, now...it's you and me, El."
"As it should be," he told her, smiling. He drove from memory, having only been their headquarters once, but recently enough to still be fresh. "So, uh, what am I, exactly?" He coughed and turned the wheel. "I have access to your office, which...you said no one else does, right?"
"Thought you said you read your agreement," she teased. "You're my partner." She said it so simply, so plainly, and it encompassed more than she knew he would understand.
He blinked as he turned down another street. "Partner...how? Like, they all have to listen to me, too?"
Her laugh was boisterous, her eyes shutting as her head threw itself back against the chair. "No, uh, no. No, they wouldn't just...hand that to you." She swallowed as she calmed. "You're with me on all of it, though. If I told them to follow your orders, they would have to, and you get to help me run logistics, tactics, you're with me on cases, interrogations…" she pressed her lips together, debating whether or not she should tell him, if now was a good time. "And, um...partner, as in...life." She sighed, throwing her shoulders back, trying to calm herself down.
"Life?" he queried, parking by the curb in front of the ominous CCA building. "These suits know that we…"
"Know? No," she said, her smile growing. "But if we weren't already involved, the, uh, agreement you signed would force you and me to, um, cohabitate." She wagged her brows. "Among other things." She chuckled at his wide-eyed face. "That's not usually part of the contract, don't look at me like that." She got out of the car, waited for him to follow, and once he was by her side, she said, "Nelson saw the video, read about you in my file, and me in yours. He was trying to fuck with your life, he didn't know he was only speeding up a few things." Her smile faded. "It was really me he wanted to trap, with that," she whispered, pressing her thumb to the door's sensor. The doors swung open and she looked at him. "He knows about my, uh, history of failed relationships, thought that by making it part of the job, I'd…"
"Quit," Elliot finished, understanding. "So that's why everything with Kathy happened so damn fast. We needed to be officially, uh, cohabitating," he laughed, making quotes in the air with his fingers as he said the word, "Before I started on the books." He followed her down the now-familiar path, through the busy lobby, the corridor of offices and labs, the center of the technical universe, the ridiculous library, up the spiral stairs to her secluded space. "Can I?" he asked, his eyes desperate and his smile wide.
She laughed at his innocent ambition. She moved aside and held out a hand. "Don't blink," she reminded him. She watched as Elliot positioned himself in front of the laser-light, it's red beam scanning over his face, focusing on his eyes. With a proud rise of her chin and an adoring smile, she noticed he didn't flinch at all. Her door unlocked and she followed him in, gesturing to a second chair now perched behind her desk. "Like I said," she told him. "Partners."
He rubbed his hands together and snickered, and then dropped into his new chair. "How do I get that little robot guy…"
"IAN," she said, sitting on the corner of her desk. "Just ask him to come in here," she shrugged. "The system uses voice recognition, so your bot will know that it's you asking, and where you are."
He eyed her skeptically, cleared his throat, and said, loudly, "Hey, uh, Ian...come in here, please." He looked around as if he expected something to come through the walls, or drop from the ceiling, but instead, he heard a soft knock on the door.
With an impish grin, Olivia got up and answered, letting the small, quick bot roll into her office. It whizzed over to Elliot, gave a small bow, and with his mechanical voice, asked, "How can be of assistance, Agent Stabler?"
"That is so fucking cool!" Elliot shouted, kneeling down to play with the robot. He shook its hand, danced with it, even played a short game of catch with a marble. "Man, this is...this is unbelievable." He watched as the robot tilted it's tiny head, as if he was somehow offended. "Not...no, buddy, um...can you please bring Agent Benson and me a couple of bottles of water?"
"Coming right up," the IAN's tinny voice spoke, and then he zoomed back out through the still open door.
Elliot got to his feet, smiling like a kid in a candy store, and he looked at Olivia. "You really are the woman of my dreams, you know that?"
Laughing, she told him to sit down again, knowing that the man they were meeting with was only a few feet away from the door. "Let me do all the talking," she told him.
"Wouldn't even know what to say," he muttered, his lips stuck somewhere between a grimace and smirk.
Before she could say anything to him, a man appeared in the doorway, he was hunched over, panting, his hands on his knees. His face was stark white and his green eyes wide, hidden partly behind shaggy black hair and partly behind thick glasses. "Apologies," he breathed. "My droid...recorded the time...as eight, not...not seven...so, I...I'm sorry." He wandered into the office and practically fell into the chair in front of the desk. "Who…" he wheezed, pointing at Elliot. "Who are you?"
"Agent Stabler," he said with a cocky stroke of his tie and lick of his lips. "Benson's partner."
"Oh," the man said, managing to lose even more color. "So that...that happened, huh?" He looked over his shoulder. "Missed my shot, I guess."
Olivia scoffed. "You never had one, Decker," she spat, and she slammed the door, making the jittery agent jump. "Why," she asked as she moved slowly toward the man, "Are there monkeys...in...my...lab." She grabbed the collar of his lab coat, her jaw clenched, her eyes fierce.
"Well, uh, see…" Decker coughed, pushed his glasses back up on his nose, and tried to smile at Olivia. "The thing with that is…"
"You had orders," she interrupted, tossing him down into the chair. "And I remember telling you that you couldn't order any fucking monkeys!"
Hal Decker held out both hands, as if pleading with her and keeping her at bay at the same time. "Agent Benson, listen, I needed the monkeys...it was the only way I could...see, their brains are the closest to…"
"Decker, you'd better not be telling me you are performing brain surgery on cute, innocent, little monkeys!" Olivia roared, making Decker yelp and jump again.
Elliot his his mouth behind his hand, hiding his silent laughter. He was greatly enjoying this.
Decker shook his head vigorously. "No, no, Ma'am," he said, and then he cleared his throat. He wiped his sweating brow with the sleeve of his black lab coat, and he took a breath. "I have extensive research that shows the human brain is capable of far more than we realize. I've developed a drug...a safe, effective drug...no side-effects thus far," he rattled off, "That will make the user fully capable of tapping into every, single sector of the brain, thought processing is ten times faster, agility and problem solving and...oh, and the things one would be able to remember and recall! Things...from birth...Agent Benson, the power this agency could have if…"
"Why the fucking monkeys?" she hissed, her jaw still tight.
Elliot looked on, bemused, and he wondered if Olivia had ever been involved in any animal rights organizations or protests. He made a mental note to ask her.
Decker held a hand over his heart and bowed his head. "I know, I know I broke protocol, and I broke the rules, but the drug was ready for testing, and it's against regulation to use human test subjects until we're sure it works, and we couldn't use droids or bots for this, we needed a biological brain, Ma'am."
She bit her lip, hearing the soft knock of the IAN at the door. She saw Elliot get up so she wouldn't have to move, and she leaned closer to Decker. "So, you tested this drug on the monkeys?" She watched Decker nod, afraid but yet proud. "Does...does it work?"
"Oh, yes, Ma'am," Decker said, grinning. "We ran Roger, he's a monkey, down to Control, gave him instructions coming in from a case, and he worked faster and more accurately than…"
"What case?" Elliot asked, appearing at Olivia's side with a bottle of water, opened and ready for her, and the IAN perched on his shoulder.
Olivia stifled a chuckle as she took the water with a nod, and then looked back at Decker. "Answer him."
"Well, um," Decker coughed again. "Yours, Ma'am."
Olivia's eyes narrowed. "A monkey...a monkey was able to find all the intel we needed, including decrypted files and bank statements?"
Decker nodded. "Faster than any of the agents in Recon, Ma'am," he said. "We timed it. Roger worked ninety-two percent faster with one hundred percent accuracy." He pulled down his lab coat. "Not as fast as the bots, but definitely…"
"No side effects?" she asked, cutting him off. "These monkeys, they're completely healthy, happy?"
Decker grinned again. "Absolutely, Ma'am," he said smugly. "The only...well, uh, Hopper, one of our chimps, he...certain muscles and, um, parts, are larger and stronger, and he has a nearly unstoppable libido, but Lucy, his mate, isn't complaining. You should see them doing the New York Times crossword together, every time the find a word that fits, they…"
"I don't need that visual," Olivia said, closing her eyes, holding up a hand, and trying to ignore Elliot's snickering. She exhaled, and she looked Decker right in the eyes. "You let me know when you need a couple human guinea pigs for this." She shot a knowing glance toward Elliot. "I think I can find two for you."
A/N: Whuuuuuuuuut? Does Cragen know more than he's letting on? And we finally meet Brody Nelson, and...someone else?