St. Catherine's

86th Avenue, Manhattan

March 24th, 3:02 AM

As Elliot rounded the last corner, he spotted Olivia standing at the only window into Debra's room, staring into it with a look of self-contempt on her face. Her arms were crossed over her heart protectively, and her stance told him she was weary and stressed. Her old friend was dead, and she never got to say "hello", much less "goodbye."

He stopped a few yards from her, looked at Casey, who had silently stopped next to him, a confused look on her face. He gave her a sheepish grin, and silently asked her to give them some space. Casey gave him a knowing look, nodded, and walked off.

How do I tell her Deb is dead? Elliot thought to himself. He knew the answer; he just wanted to tell her in a careful way. He had never seen Liv break down, not even when Serena died, but he was sure that something close to a breakdown was going to make itself known here, very quickly.

" C.O.D?"

Elliot's eye's snapped to the back of Olivia's copper-colored head. He gave her a pointless look of incredulity, and walked towards her silently. After a few seconds of contemplating silence, Elliot spoke. " Severe hemorrhaging to the cerebral cortex. She stroked when her heart started pumping all it's blood supply to her brain to compensate for the blood loss, and she died." His voice was formal, but laced with comforting warmth. He couldn't comprehend how Olivia could be so calm at this time, but he knew it was just a façade. Taking a deep breath, he decided to take action.

" Liv? Look at me." He placed a comforting hand on her back, helping her turn around. " Let it out. You need to cry a little."

Olivia gave him a look that could be best described as " a deer in the headlights", her doe eyes searching his for relief. In a matter of seconds, her face was buried in his chest, and her back was racked with sobs.

Elliot held her close to him, cradling her, trying to rock away the pain. " It wasn't your fault Liv. If anything, you helped her live longer." He loosened his grip on her, letting her pull away if she wanted.

A few minutes passed before Liv composed herself enough to raise her head. " What am I going to do? Cragen called me off the case, Deb's dead, and Dani has no where to go." With a shaky hand, Olivia attempted to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Elliot smiled when her attempts failed. He gently covered her hand with his own, and with his thumb, slowly erased all evidence of the salty droplets.

" Casey is working on that. Before you called, I was in the middle of convincing her, which didn't take much." He kissed her forehead softly, and stared in her eyes, willing her to let him erase the pain. " Try not to worry so much, things will work out after we give it some time."

Elliot led her to a cushioned bench, and they sat down in almost perfect unison. Feeling a bit ill at ease with this abnormal situation, Elliot ran a nervous hand over his head, and down his face. When he turned to Olivia, her eyes were glazed over, and her mouth was parted in uncharacteristic shock. Without hesitation, Elliot gathered her in his arms for the third time that day, and began running his nimble fingers through her silky hair. This seemed to comfort her; for Elliot soon noticed her irregular breathing began to slow to a more normal pace.

After a few seconds, Casey swung around the corner, looking frazzled and in a rush. " Elliot," she said, a little out of breath. " Can I talk to you real quick?" She motioned back behind her head with her thumb.

Elliot nodded, " Yeah, sure. Gimme a second." He turned back to Olivia, who by now seemed non-distraught, and was staring, very coherently, from Casey to Elliot.

" What's going on? Is it Dani?" Olivia's tone was hurried, and the pain began to seep back into her features.

Standing up, Elliot smiled reassuringly. " Let me go talk to Casey, I'll be back with some news in a few minutes."

Walking out into the hall, Elliot followed Casey to a neighboring waiting area. Stopping, Casey turned to face Elliot, who stared at her. Elliot waited a few minutes, shrugged his shoulders and asked, " Well?"

Casey sighed heavily. " It took a lot of convincing to get judge Petrovsky to even recommend that Olivia become the guardian of Dani. She isn't even in juvenile court, but seeing as she has a good rapport with Liv, I figured she would be able to help. She has talked to her colleague in juvenile court, and they both see a huge gray area in all this. Liv is still going to be a cop; she's single, she lives in a one-bedroom apartment. She is going to have to change a lot in order to take Dani in." After finishing her sentence, she crossed her arms over her chest, in a very "Alex Cabot" manner.

" And did you explain to Petrovsky that Olivia is aware of all this, and is still willing to take her."

" I did. DCFS should be getting all the necessary paperwork finished and faxed over to SVU in the hour."

Elliot only smiled, hugged Casey, and turned to go tell Olivia. She hadn't had any good news in the last 48 hours, and he wanted to be the one to change all of that for her. Walking past a dimly lit room, Elliot saw that Dani was asleep in the bed. How are we going to tell her about her parents? Elliot thought to himself as he went looking for Olivia.