AN: Okay, so I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while...but at least I've got a pretty long chapter to make up for it! I'm stuck at home alone with the flu, it really sucks, but at least I have a little time to write now. I've been so unbelievably busy! Ugh, and does anybody know if you're supposed to have really crazy dreams when you're running fever? LOL. :) Well, here ya go...
They took a taxi to the address of the party, Elliot inspecting every inch of Olivia the whole way there. Olivia, of course, did not notice this. She was way too busy thinking about what had happened earlier. She still kind of wanted to leave because of the hurt she felt over Sonya's death, but she knew she couldn't after she had seen that look in his eyes. He looked desperate. Desperate for her. She saw something in his eyes she hadn't seen but once in her entire life. The only time she'd seen it before was when Gitano had cut her neck and he'd thought she was going to die. He just had that look that said, 'Please don't leave me'. It almost forced Olivia to agree, whether she'd wanted to or not. But she also knew that Elliot was partially right, and she couldn't leave a department she'd been at for 12 years because of the death of an ADA. She'd worked too hard to leave it all behind. And she could never leave Elliot. She'd realized that when she saw the desperation in his eyes.
The taxi finally arrived at the party, and Elliot and Olivia got out. Olivia pulled a twenty out of her purse-which also contained a gun-and handed it to the driver. Olivia got out and tried-successfully-not to stumble on her heels. Elliot took her arm and linked it in his, and then held her hand. They could definitely pass as a couple. Olivia walked with fake confidence, hoping not to look scared. In front of them was an extremely long driveway that connected to the busy street. It was the one driveway they'd seen the whole time they were in Russia that did not contain snow. Although the street was packed with people walking from one place to another, this driveway was so long that it led away from civilization. They walked farther and were soon in front of a gate, two guards standing at it, guns in their holsters, clipboards in their hands. They stared at Elliot and Olivia expectantly.
"We're here for the party," Olivia said. "Ja-"
"Boris invited us," Elliot said before Olivia was able to get out the name 'James'. Olivia looked at him with a look on her face that said, "Sorry, I forgot."
"Names?" the taller guard on the right asked.
"Katya Petrov and Igor Ostrovsky," Olivia said.
The tall guard went through some papers on his clipboard and then looked back at them. "Go ahead," he said, hitting a button that initialized the opening of the big black gate.
Olivia and Elliot walked in, the tall guard staring Olivia down menacingly. Elliot noticed this and slipped his hand underneath Olivia's coat and onto her bare back obtrusively so the guard would see it. Olivia was really liking this whole hand-on-the-bare-back thing that had been going on. She liked his touch against her skin. It was something rare that she loved but didn't get to feel very often.
They finally reached the house and were greeted by two more guards. Olivia was glad they'd decided to go undercover afterall, because they'd already be dead if they hadn't.
"Names, please," the guard requested.
"Katya Petrov and Igor Ostrovsky," Elliot said.
This man spotted their name on the first page of the list, and stepped aside to let them inside an enormous, two-story house that looked like a doll house with its yellow-painted shingles. They went inside and saw that the place was very large, with dark marble furniture and walls that were so darkly blood-red that they were two shades darker than Olivia's burgundy dress. They couldn't see things perfectly, though, because things were dark and there were just a few lamps in every enormous room. The room they were in was decorated with colored lights and lots of comfortable-looking seats everywhere. The place looked like a club, rather than a house. When Olivia looked up, she saw the upstairs level of the house; it was a huge square of a hallway above her head. Whose house was this? Not James', right? No way...he couldn't have bought this house within just a few weeks. So who let him invite people over?
As they walked further into the seemingly never-ending room, Elliot spotted more guards dressed in black, guns in their holsters, standing against the walls here and there. Olivia followed his gaze and also saw the guards. As she stared at them, they each looked back at her, inspecting her body. One tall guard with black hair stared at Olivia with piercing blue eyes. He held the stare for a long time and then looked down at her chest and licked his lips obstrusively, winking. Olivia, disgusted, led Elliot away from the area near the guard. Elliot had noticed the way the guard had been staring at her. It sickened him and made him mad.
"Pervert," Elliot commented, feeling protective of Olivia. He put a hand around her back and held on to her, hoping the guard saw that Olivia belonged to him. Not that she really did belong to him or anything, but he at least wanted the guard to think that so he'd back off. Olivia looked at him thankfully. But she dropped her smile for a minute and just gazed at him. He stared back at her beautiful face just as seriously, feeling drawn to her.
What Olivia did next was something Elliot had not expected her to do. She leaned forward and planted a soft, gentle kiss on his lips, and then pulled back. She stared at him for another second, and then turned her head away. She couldn't do this until they had somewhere to talk about it. This wasn't the right time, it just wasn't. She loved Elliot, she realized then, and she was willing to be with him and tell him that. But not here. Not now.
She walked away from Elliot, leaving him stunned. She found a guard and asked where the bathroom was, and then went and stood in there for a minute. When she came back out, she tried to forget what she'd done, but the look of desire on Elliot's face made it hard to do so.
"Let's see if we can find James," Olivia breathed.
Elliot stared at her another moment, and then looked around for a minute. "I don't see him," he said finally.
"Me neither. Let's find somebody and see who else is running this party," Olivia said.
Next thing Elliot knew, Olivia had given one guy a seductive look and asked him to come talk to her. Elliot stood by awkwardly, pretending he wasn't listening to them. He kind of wasn't. Instead he was thinking about that kiss Olivia had given him.
"So, who invited you to this party?" Olivia asked.
"My old pal Tyler. This is his house," the blonde-headed guy said. He looked close to their age, and Elliot didn't know how much longer he could stand watching Olivia talk to him like that. He had to remind himself constantly that she was not drawn to the guy and that she was only pretending to be.
"Where's Tyler?" Olivia asked, lifting her hair and flipping it behind her back, even though it wouldn't go down too far.
"He's over there talking to Boris," the guy said.
Olivia looked to where the guy was pointing and saw James, talking to another man who must have been Tyler. Olivia groaned and began to hold her stomach.
"Owhh...I think I may have had something bad to...bad to...e-eat," she faked, trying to get away from the guy without sounding rude. "I, uh, think I'm just going to..." she paused, rubbing her stomach and keeling over. "Go to the...the bathroom," she moaned.
The guy looked concerned. "Yes, of course. Would you like some assistance?" he asked.
"No, no, i-it's okay. Really," Olivia replied, walking away from him and into the crowd. Elliot followed behind her.
"Nice," he said.
"Thanks," Olivia said. "Let's go talk to James, become friendly with him. We can try to lour him away from here," she suggested.
Elliot nodded and they walked over to James, Elliot keeping his hand on her back. When they got to him, Tyler glanced at them, knowing they wanted to talk to James, and walked away.
"Hello," James said, acting like a polite man. Elliot and Olivia knew that he was far from that.
"Hi," Olivia said first. "This is a wonderful party you're throwing. Tyler invited us and we were so excited," Olivia beamed, trying to speak with an accent but kind of failing.
James laughed. "What is your name, miss?" he asked her, completely ignoring Elliot.
"Tatiana. And this is my friend Dmitri," Olivia said, pointing a finger at Elliot. He wondered where Olivia had pulled the fake names out of. He thought it was pretty interesting that she could just think of two common Russian names right off the bat. They probably didn't really need to use fake names anyway, because they were pretty sure that nobody knew their names, but it was safer to use fake names just in case.
"Oh, good to meet you two. I'm Boris," he said, shaking Olivia's hand, and then reluctantly shaking Elliot's as well.
"Nice to meet you too," Olivia said, smiling in a way that only Elliot knew was completely false.
"I must say, Tatiana, that you look very amazing tonight. Are you and Dmitri...together?" he asked politely, raising an eyebrow.
Olivia looked over at Elliot. He didn't give her any hint as to what to say, so she said, "Um, no, not at all. Dmitri is a good friend. I couldn't go to a party date-less!" she exclaimed, laughing like the situation was acutally funny.
"Well, I'm not quite sure I understand how you could not find a date immediately, Tatiana. You look amazing," he said.
"Thanks," Olivia murmured.
"But I must say, your accent sounds very vague. Are you from here?" James asked.
"Yes, but my mother taught me English at a very young age. Her mom was from the U.S., so she didn't really have an accent, so I kind of learned English without an accent," Olivia said, hoping to cover her ass. "You really don't sound like you have much of an accent either, though," she said.
"Amazing, isn't it? I can just turn it off and on like a light switch," he joked, smiling a toothy, terrifying smile.
"Wow, that really is amazing, Boris," Olivia said. She noticed that Elliot was remaining quiet. He'd probably sensed that James didn't really want to hear from him.
"Thank you. Now, Tatiana, are you in a relationship?" he asked her.
He was obviously interested in her. Even Olivia, whose ego was the smallest Elliot had ever seen, could tell that James had the hots for her.
"Uh, no, not right now, I'm not." Olivia figured that if they couldn't arrest him tonight, maybe it would be safe to set up a date with him in isolation so she could definitely get him at some point.
"Well, you have got to go on a date with me. I haven't seen a woman as beautiful as you in all of my years, Tatiana. How about meeting here, alone, sometime?" James asked.
Olivia looked around and squinted. "You know, Boris, I really would like if we went somewhere a little more...romantic. What do you say? Surprise me," she said.
James thought about this for a minute. Deciding it couldn't hurt, he said, "Okay. Sounds great. I will take you somewhere alone. Tomorrow night, maybe?" he asked.
"Sure," Olivia said. She was sure he was about to ask her where to pick her up, and she didn't have an answer for that question, so she continued to speak. "Maybe you could come see my new home tonight. Dmitri here hasn't seen it either, and I'm really proud of it. I'd like to show it to you two," she said.
James looked around. He was too smart for this, too careful. "Not tonight, Tatiana. I think we should just stay here," he said.
"Are you sure? Because I'd really like to show it to you. I mean, I've been dying to show the place to somebody...I would really appreciate it if I felt like I had decorated the new house for a purpose," Olivia said, pretending to be discouraged.
"Not tonight," he snapped, showing a bit of his evil side.
"Oh. Okay. Well, I've got to go to the restroom. I'll be right back," Olivia said. She turned around to leave and gave Elliot a look that hinted that she wanted him to meet her there. He nodded a little and she left.
After about three minutes of Olivia having been gone, Elliot looked at James. He hoped he could pull off this whole Russian accent thing. What he kind of wondered was why everybody at this party spoke English when he and Olivia had talked to them in English. Even the guards had spoken English, and the guards didn't sound like they had an accent at all. Maybe they were from the U.S., like James. And Maybe everybody else really was trying to speak English better, like Olivia had said on the plane. Elliot did hear a few conversations that were in Russian, but he heard plenty in English as well.
"I'm going to go check on her. She's been a little sick tonight," Elliot said finally, walking away from James and going to the restroom. He met Olivia right outside the ladies' room.
"Well, that went great," Elliot said.
"Any ideas?" Olivia asked.
Elliot found himself looking down at her chest for the umpteenth time that night. Olivia didn't notice this. He finally snapped his head up, forcing himself to think. "Yeah," he said.
Olivia looked at him expectantly.
"You could pretend to get sick and have to go home. I'd leave...I mean, James would think I left, and you know what he'd want to do. He'd be in the same exact situation he was in with Katya. He'd definitely come after you. Then we'd bust him," Elliot said.
Olivia looked away for a minute. She shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea," she disagreed.
Elliot understood what she was afraid of. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Liv, I'd be there the entire time. You know I wouldn't let anything happen to you," he said.
Olivia thought for a long moment. "Okay," she said finally, "But I shouldn't pretend I'm sick. That'll be exactly like what happened to Katya; it'll seem suspicious. I can say I got a call and my niece is in the hospital or something," she said.
She still had that unsure look on her face. Elliot kind of felt bad for pressuring her. "Hey, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can set up the date tomorrow and get him then if you want," he said.
Olivia shook her head. "No, it's okay. That would be the same thing, but just a day later. I'm ready to get through with this and go home," she admitted, rubbing a tired eye. "I'm sick of being here."
"Me too," Elliot agreed, rubbing her shoulder. He looked at the rainbow light fixture hanging from the ceiling for a second. "Let's do this," he said.
She handed Elliot her purse. "This has the gun in it," she said, swallowing a lumb of nervousness. She didn't know why she was nervous. Elliot would never let James hurt her.
Elliot nodded and took the purse from her. "You're safe, okay?" Elliot said.
"Yeah, I know. Let's go," she said, beginning to walk back through the crowd toward James.
When they got there, Olivia put a fake look of sadness on her face.
"What's wrong, Tatiana?" James asked.
"I just got a phone call from my mother. My niece was in a car accident, and she's in fatal condition in the hospital. I have to leave, Boris. I'm sorry. I'll meet you here tomorrow for that date," Olivia said.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Elliot asked, already knowing what her answer would be.
"No, stay, Dmitri. Have fun. It's okay. I'm going to go," Olivia said, waving good-bye and leaving.
James looked after her, and Elliot could practically see his brain working, thinking up a scheme to rape Olivia. "I'm going to go make sure she gets home all right," he said.
"Okay," Elliot said, watching as James left.
After James was about twenty feet ahead of him, Elliot began to follow him. He followed him out of the party, and down the drive. When they got outside of the gate, Elliot spotted Olivia between some trees standing on the right, far away from the guards, with big leaves in front of her figure, where they probably couldn't see her. Not that they'd probably care if James raped her, anyway. James saw Olivia too, and began walking towards her. Elliot followed. When he was close enough, Elliot hid behind a tree. James walked towards Olivia. Olivia's back was turned, so she didn't see him. He reached in front of her and put his hand over her mouth, and began to pull at the edges of her dress. But he didn't get a chance to rip her dress, because Elliot pulled the gun out from Olivia's purse and aimed it at James.
"Leave her alone!" Elliot yelled.
James turned around, saw the gun, and let go of Olivia. Olivia looked relieved. James surrendered.
"You're under arrest for the rape of Katya Petrov and the attempted rape of a police officer. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you," Elliot said, pulling some handcuffs around James' wrists and fastening them tightly.
Olivia routinely grabbed one of his arms, and Elliot held the other. Olivia hailed a taxi and they climbed in. Elliot immediately texted Cragen and asked him where to take James.
"Who are you people?" James asked angrily, frustrated that he was finally defeated.
"Detectives Benson and Stabler," Olivia answered in a tone that was much different from the one she'd spoken to James in when she was pretending to be Tatiana.
James looked pissed that he had been fooled by Olivia. He'd obviously been excited to get to rape her. Elliot received a text message from Cragen.
From: Captain
11:27 p.m.
Take him to the Tsentralny Airport. Any taxi driver will know where that is. It's close to Katya's house. You and Liv stay an extra night. I'll send you tickets for a flight at 9:30 tomorrow morning. -P.S. I meant your 9:30, in Russia, not here.
Elliot handed the phone to Olivia. The taxi driver, who had been waiting for an address to take them to for several minutes now, was getting impatient.
"We need you to take us to the Tsentralny Airport," Olivia said, wondering if she'd pronounced the name right. She had a feeling she hadn't, but the driver understood anyway. He turned around and began to drive away from the house. Olivia and Elliot both felt so relieved that they were ridding themselves of the 'bad guy'.
After they had made sure James had been put on the correct criminal flight to America, Elliot and Olivia went back to their hotel. It didn't take too long to get back there, because the airport hadn't really been too far. Elliot and Olivia both were acting so much happier since they'd had the weight of catching a serial rapist lifted off their shoulders. When they got back to their hotel, Olivia quickly changed into her pajamas into the bathroom, and Elliot changed into his in the room. Olivia came out, yawned, and put away her dress in the bag that Katya had given her. Elliot folded his suit and put it in his suitcase. Olivia was the first one in bed. She yawned again, but smiled at Elliot. He flipped off the light and crawled in bed with her.
"I'm so glad this is over with," Olivia said.
"Yeah, me too," Elliot agreed.
They were quiet for a long minute. "You kissed me," Elliot stated, reminding her of their moment.
Olivia sighed. "Yeah," she said.
"Were you serious?"
Olivia put her hand on Elliot's stomach, just below his chest. He shivered under her warm touch on his skin. "Let's not talk about this tonight, okay?" Olivia pleaded.
Olivia hadn't sounded like she was begging him not to talk about it, but Elliot could sense that little hint of desperation in her voice. He didn't want to push her or piss her off, even though he really wanted to know what she had meant when she'd kissed him.
"Okay," he said.
"Thanks," Olivia said, resting her head on his chest, her hair touching his chin, and gently wrapping her arms around his bare torso. Elliot didn't just allow this. He loved this. He put his hands on her back and hugged her close, taking in her intoxicating scent, feeling her soft, silky arms around his body, enjoying the rhythm of her breathing on his chest, and fell asleep.
AN: I'm kind of scared I messed up or something...I really hope I didn't...Please, please review! I can't keep going if I don't know whether or not you liked it! A simple 'good' or 'bad' will do! I would really appreciate it!
