A/N: I'm switching a few things up here so that they differ from the show. Hope you like it!
Chapter 4
"So you never thought to mention that you had taken the exam?" Elliot asked when they were finally alone at her apartment. The victim was still in a coma so they had been sent home.
"As I said, we were not in a good place. You know we weren't. Gitano did a number on us, even after his death. You were the one who told me that you thought we shouldn't be partners anymore," she reminded him. She wasn't wrong. Elliot felt guilty that he'd rushed to his partner instead of the kidnapped boy. When the sociopath slit the little boy's throat, Elliot blamed himself. Later, when Gitano got the drop on him, he begged for Olivia to shoot the bastard. She wouldn't do it, too afraid that Elliot would die. He had kids; he was still with Kathy at the time. She wasn't about to take the chance and leaves his family with no father.
Elliot heaved a sigh. The case had almost been the end of them. Olivia had admitted that their partnership had been the longest relationship with a man. Internally, Elliot's heart leapt. Things at his home were not good. Kathy and he were fighting. The kids were caught in the middle.
"Your silence speaks volumes," his partner broke into his thoughts.
"I came that close to admitting to you everything that night," he said.
"As was I. We're quite the mess, aren't we?" Olivia shook her head.
"Correction. We were a mess. Now, we're in this together. Ed promised to see what he could do to help. My guess is that he knew you took the Sergeant's exam but didn't say anything, thinking I knew," Elliot admitted.
"There you go dropping Tucker's name like he's been our friend for forever. I'd never think that was going to happen," Olivia chuckled.
"Me neither but now I'm beginning to see why he thought you and the Commissioner's relationship might come in handy," Elliot said.
"You think that I could use it for our advantage?" She wondered.
"Could be but let's talk about it more over dinner. I'm starving," he told her.
"Well order the Italian and I'll slip into something more comfortable," Olivia smirked and then moved toward her bedroom.
"Keep swinging those hips like that and I'll be eating something other than Italian for dinner," he muttered to himself as he heard the shower come on. Quickly, the detective called up the local Italian place and the order would be delivered within the hour. Elliot went to the fridge, pulled out a couple of beers, and then grabbed the large accordion folder off the kitchen table. He plopped down on the sofa, placing the beers on coasters on the coffee table.
Pulling out the first folder, he flipped it open to find a picture of a current Lieutenant Amy Baker. Her record seemed spotless so Elliot wondered how she managed to get on Deputy Chief Robertson's list. That was going to be the tricky part. Why did the dirty Deputy Chief pick these people for the job?
"I believe those are supposed to be mine to sift through," Olivia spoke up. Her wet hair was wrapped in a towel and she was dressed in an old NYPD hoodie and sweat pants.
"I don't care who he is, he isn't taking my partner away from me," Elliot told her.
"Then we better get to work. No getting sauce on these though. I have to give them back," she waggled her finger at him before pulling the towel on her hair down and squeezing her hair in it.
"We'll split them up. You start with the last five and I'll start with the first five. Maybe we'll get lucky and something will stick out as questionable. If not, then we're going to need to do some deep diving. Did the Commissioner give you special access to the database or something? I mean these candidates think they've already been vetted," he pointed out.
"He did give me a special password to use in the internal database. Let's hope that we can narrow the field without that first otherwise it could be a long time to figure this out," Olivia heaved a sigh.
To Be Continued…