Author's Note: Thanks to iansmom for being such a faithful reader. I really appreciate it, hun.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Elliot..pouts


"Whoever the hell this is, Elliot's definatly pissed them off." Cragen stood with his arms crossed, in the hospital waiting room. Elliot, Olivia, Fin and Munch stood in a circle near him.

"He's pissed me off before, I haven't tried rape his wife." Fin replied.

"I say we call every florist in town." Olivia said.

"Yeah." Elliot agreed. "I doubt that very many of them got an order for a dozen black roses."

"Black roses?" Cragen shook his head. "I never even knew they existed."

Munch let out a chuckle and sat down in a nearby chair.

"What's so funny?" Fin asked.

"I just can't get over the fact that all of us are stumped by the existance of black roses," he replied.

"They're definatly unheard of." Olivia remarked. "Kinda ugly, too."

"Red roses stand for undying love," Elliot replied. "Yellow roses stand for friendship. All roses have some kind of meaning...what's black mean?"

"We're detectives." Fin chuckled. "Not florists."

"Elliot's right, though." Cragen replied. "They have to mean something. Munch and Fin...I want you to hit every florist in the next two blocks." He turned to Olivia and Elliot. "I was gonna place a uniform outside Becca's room-"

"I'm not leaving."

"I know that, Elliot. That's why you and Olivia are gonna stay here and call every florist you can find in the yellow pages. But, I am gonna put a call in to get a uniform outside Kathy's place," he placed his hands in his pockets. "In the meantime, I'm gonna go to the station and go through the evidence from yesterday."


About an hour later, Becca sat with her arms crossed across her chest. Watching and listening to Elliot and Olivia work. Olivia was sitting in a chair, a phonebook open across her lap and the phone to her ear. Elliot paced back and forth infront of the bed, his cellphone in one hand and a list of numbers in the other.

"Yeah..thanks." Elliot clicked his phone shut, then looked to Olivia.

"Thanks for the help." Olivia grumbled, hanging the phone up. "This is useless."

"This is boring." Becca replied.

Olivia simply smiled back at her.

Elliot sat on the edge of the bed next to Becca and sighed. "Half of the florists didn't even know about black roses."

"I can't imagine why," Becca remarked. "After all they're so-" she paused for a moment, thinking of what to say. "Ugly."

Olivia giggled. "I said the same thing."

Dr. Lynemach entered the room with a smile. "Good afternoon, guys." she smiled. "How's it going?"

"Great." Olivia smiled.

"How are you feeling?" she moved to Becca's side and started reading the monitors.

"Pretty good." Becca replied.

"Dr. Jerlin showed me her notes from the past twelve hours" she remarked, reading through the papers on her clipboard. "You're body is incredibly fast at healing."

"What's that mean?" Elliot raised an eyebrow.

"Well-" she started. "Dr. Jerlin checked the sutures from the surgery yesterday and they're healing really well. The vitals on the baby are absolutely perfect."

"Great."

"So, Becca, if you can promise to stay on bed rest for the next couple of weeks, I can start discharge papers and you can leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Anything to get out of here," she replied.

"Detective Stabler, can you make sure she keeps to her promise?"

"Definatly," he smiled.

"Alright then. I'll start the paperwork," she turned to Becca. "Are you feeling any pain right now?"

"Not yet."

"Okay," she started towards the door. "Let me know when you do and I'll get you some pain medication."

"Thanks."

"How'd you pay her off?" Olivia raised a suspicious eyebrow at Becca, after the doctor left the room.

"Excuse me?" Becca laughed. "I did no such thing."

"Oh come on! Major surgery and you're already being discharged tomorrow?"

"First off, the surgery wasn't that major. The incision isn't even two inches wide," she said, entwining her fingers with Elliot's and playing with his wedding band. "Second, I have my ways of getting what I want.." She grinned, deviously.

"You're so bad." Elliot grinned, pecking her lips.

"And you love it."

"I love you.." he smiled, kissing her again.

"Ew." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Get a room."


"I'm gonna go see if I can catch up with Munch and Fin." Olivia stood up and pulled her coat on. "They had to have found something out by now."

Elliot looked up from the magazine that he was reading over Becca's shoulder. "Alright."

"I'll be back." She opened the door to find Kathy and Kathleen on the other side. "Hey guys.."

"Hey." Kathleen smiled.

"Hi." Kathy replied.

Olivia nodded back in Elliot's direction and left the room.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Kathleen moved to give Becca a hug.

"Thanks, sweetie." Becca smiled, hugging her.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah. I feel great." She replied, as Kathy put a vase of pink orchids on the table. "Those are gorgeous. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Kathy smiled. "Where'd the black ones come from?"

"We won't talk about that.." Elliot replied, standing up and stretching.

Kathy gave him a look. "Okay."

"Where's Maureen?" He asked.

"Detention." Kathleen answered.

"What?" he groaned. "What'd she do?" he sat back down on the bed where he was before.

"Put gum in her English teacher's hair." Kathy replied, sitting down in the chair that Olivia had just left.

"Why the hell would she do something like that?"

"Gee. I don't know," she placed her purse in her lap. "Needing her father's attention, maybe?"

"Did you just come by to start your sh-" he stopped, when he felt Becca's hand on his neck, signaling him not to let Kathy get under his skin. "Nevermind." he sighed.

"It's true ya know." Kathy said, matter-of-factly.

"Whatever you say." Elliot snapped back at her.

"It's not true, mom." Kathleen came to her father's defense. "Dad spends as much time with us as he possibly can."

"When he can take a few minutes away from work." Kathy replied. "I don't see how you could be satisfied with that."

"Can we please not do this?" Becca sighed.

"You always complained about the hours, but never about the money." Elliot gave Kathy a look.

"Well, the money made up for the other things that you lacked."

Becca crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Kathleen, both of them shaking their heads in unison.

"That I lacked?" Elliot countered.

"Yeah. We won't go there, though."

Elliot made 'pfft' sound. "You need therapy."

"I need therapy?" she laughed at him. "You need anger management."

"Funny, now that I'm not married to you, I have no anger."

"Sure ya don't."

"Only time I have to deal with any anger is when I'm anywhere near you." he snapped. "It'd be great if you weren't such an instigator."

"Instigator? That's a big word. You need some ice before your brain overheats?"

"Sure. Think you could chip some off your heart for me?"

"Screw you."

"Right back at you, bi-"

"Elliot Stabler!" Becca glared at him. "Don't you dare!'

Elliot's cheeks flushed. "Sorry sweetheart." he pecked a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Yeah. Sorry, " Kathy sighed. "The last thing you need is to listen to us.."

"I swear to god, the two of you are like mixing whiskey and milk." Becca looked back and forth at the two, sternly.

"That explains the divorce..." Kathleen muttered.

Becca looked to Elliot, giving him a stern look. "Behave yourself."

"Sorry."


Across town, Olivia, Fin, and Munch stood inside a floral shop on 23rd street. Olivia flipped through the catalog on the counter, while they waited for the sales clerk to finish up with the customer ahead of them. Fin and Munch watched as the sales clerk handed the customer a bouquet of daisies. The customer paid and left.

"Can I help you?" The sales clerk turned to the detectives.

Olivia held up her badge. "I'm Detective Benson. These are my partners Detective Tutuola and Detective Munch. What's your name?"

"Anna," she replied, raising an eyebrow "Is there something wrong?"

"Can you tell us if you had a dozen black roses purchased from here in the past twenty-four hours?" Munch asked.

"I just started my shift," she moved behind the counter. "I don't know if Emily sold any this morning or not."

"Is there any way that you can look it up somehow?"

"Yeah," she reached for something underneath the counter. "Let me check the sales book." she opened the book and flipped through a few pages. "Emily sold an order of two dozen and an order of one dozen."

"Did the customers leave a name?" Fin asked.

"One of them did, because it was an online order," Anna replied. "Marcia Renoldo."

"What about the other one?" Olivia asked. "What method of payment did they use?"

"Both of them used a credit card."

"We're gonna need the reciept and both credit card numbers."

"Okay," she picked up a stack of reciepts and flipped through them. She grabbed a pen and paper and scribbed down the information for the detectives, then handed it to Olivia. "There ya go."

"Thanks." Olivia said, shoving the paper into her coat pocket. "We'll give you a call if we need anything else." The three detectives turned to leave.

Munch stopped and turned on his heel. "Anna," he started. "Can I ask a kinda stupid question?"

"Okay." She replied.

"What's the meaning of a black rose?"

"It signifies vengeance or revenge."