Chapter 7

Well I thought about leaving you all hanging for a while, wondering what's going to happen to Liv, but lucky for all of you, I love writing and posting this story even more than you like reading it. So here ya go. Enjoy! Oh, by the way, I'm up to chapter 15 and still going!

"Hey El, where's Liv?" Fin asked a few days after Olivia had left. He had noticed her absence but everyone had assumed she would be coming back.

"She left," He said, not looking up from the files on his desk.

"She go on vacation?" Lake asked.

Elliot shrugged, "Sort of. I don't think she's coming back."

"Not…you mean she left SVU?" Fin was shocked, along with everyone else. Suddenly no one knew what to say. They all stood or sat in silence. They couldn't believe Olivia had actually left. Her work had always been her life. What was she going to do?

In a small hotel room in New Jersey, Olivia was wondering the same thing. She had no real reason for wanting to go to New Jersey; she just wanted to get far away from New York. She had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to go, but she didn't care. She felt like she'd just thrown her whole life out the window and it sent her mind spinning. She only knew once thing that could calm her thoughts and let her forget her worries; alcohol.

She spent most of her first afternoon in and out of bars. By the time she got back to her room at 10 she could barely walk straight, and she was content to just collapse on her bed and let the alcohol carry her away.

Olivia almost never got hangovers no matter how drunk she got, so when she woke up the next day she had a minor headache that she barely noticed. She went out to explore the area and buy some food and some new shoes because she'd left all but the sneakers on her feet behind. Eventually she would have to go back to deal with her apartment, but she would think about that later. At that moment she was actually starting to forget her life in New York and that's what she wanted.

She bought some movies and 2 bottles of vodka before heading back to her hotel room. She was hoping not to drink more than a couple glasses of vodka and orange juice, just to take the edge off, but after 3 glasses her mind was still spinning with thoughts of victims and numbers and photos of herself and her co-workers. She poured herself glass after glass, increasing the concentration of alcohol, until it once again carried her off to sleep.

The next 3 days were much of the same. She spent the day walking around, going in and out of stores. When the sun started to set, she headed for the bar for martinis. She knew she had to stop drinking so much before it got out of control, but she just couldn't. Without alcohol she was afraid she wouldn't be able to sleep. Or, if she did manage to sleep, she would have horrible nightmares. She decided she would rather deal with a possible alcohol addiction than face what she was running from.

"Hey, babe, why ownchew aneye get outta ere, uh?" Olivia nearly fell off her stool trying to get away from the man's sickening breath. He was slurring his words heavily and was extremely unsteady on his feet.

"Greg, Greg, come on, get off her," Another, slightly smaller man grabbed the drunk's arms and dragged him away from Olivia, who had covered her nose with her mouth. Normally she would have punched him, but she wasn't quite drunk enough to think that was a good idea. The smaller man sent his friend wobbling in the opposite direction, then turned back to Olivia, "Sorry about that. He's on vacation. Guess he got a little carried away. I'm Tori." He held out his hand.

"That's nice," Olivia said dryly, turning her back to him. The last thing she wanted around her was a man, after all she'd been through. She knew she could probably use a friend to lean on, but she had absolutely no trust in men anymore.

I couldn't let her just lie there. I'd been watching her for quite some time, but I knew I shouldn't go near her. Not yet, anyway. She was clearly in a downward spiral, and she needed help. Should I risk getting close to her? Would she even let me? And if she didn't let me, should I push my way in? But she saved me from making a decision at all. She needed my help and took away her own control. I had no choice but to take her back to her room. I knew where she was staying, of course, I'd seen her enough times. I set her on her bed and considered leaving, but decided not to. She would be angry, but this would probably be my only chance to get truly close to her. Just watching her from afar was torturing me. So I used this opportunity to drink in every minute I could until she woke up and kicked me out. I hoped she wouldn't, but I wasn't naïve. For what seemed like forever, I'd been like her shadow, watching and waiting, trying to get close. Maybe that sounded a little stalker-like, but I couldn't help being attracted to her.

SVUSVUSVUSVUSVUSVU

"Have you talked to Olivia at all lately?" Munch casually asked Elliot one day, almost 2 weeks after she had left.

Elliot's jaw tightened, "Not since she left."

It was no secret that Elliot was scared out of his mind. It wasn't just because he had most likely lost his partner, but no one had heard from her in a long time. And what was even worse, it seemed like the serial rapist had stopped attacking women after Olivia left. Elliot was going crazy, he wanted to rush to her side and make sure she was safe, but he had no idea where she was. No one in the unit knew.

"She'll be alright, Elliot, she just needs her space," Fin assured him. He didn't look up from his desk. He'd gone over it hundreds of times in his head, asking himself question after question. Where might she have gone? Is she coming back? Would she call if something were really wrong? Would it be on the news if something bad happened to her? What if he dumped her body somewhere and they didn't find it for weeks? He couldn't handle that. He'd tried to track her through her debit card and credit card, but she hadn't used either of them since she left New York. She'd taken out enough money before leaving to support herself for at least 2 months.

And just to tease you all a little…

Olivia ran full out, but there was nowhere to go once she reached the tiny room. He was on her heels and she had no hopes of getting away. She jumped over the bed and struggled to open the balcony door, her heart pounding from adrenaline, but her fingers wouldn't open the lock. He skidded to a halt and put his hands on either side of her, smearing his sweaty handprints onto the glass. She whipped around to look into his eyes, the sound of his panting almost drowned out by the pounding of her hear, "Gotcha," he said, his voice rough in his raw throat.

I've been thinking about taking a nice long vacation lately, somewhere with no internet access, what do you all think? No, bad idea? Alright, maybe I'll stay if I get some nice reviews from all of you :P