"Sorry to interrupt whatever hot date you were on but we found the joint where Katz stashed his porn empire," Munch said as he gave Olivia a once over as she approached the scene.
Richard Katz was a wealthy realtor turned film maker but turned one of his abandoned buildings into a brothel with dozens of women most of them barely legal immigrants forced into pornography. The unit had been following countless leads and after the stake out where first non-date proposals happened. Finally they found the women and the base where he was keeping them.
She ignored Munch's comment and tightened the belt on her beige fitted trench coat and ducked underneath the yellow tape.
"Where's El at?" Fin yelled behind him without turning to Olivia as she trailed behind him to enter the abandoned building.
"Right here," Elliott chanted in as he jogged up to Olivia. Both Fin and Olivia turned around to see him.
"Whoa, you two got hot dates tonight?" Fin asked laughing while noticing the pair's attire that was defiantly far from the jeans and sweatshirts. However no one put it together that the dates they were dressed for were with each other, there was no reason for anyone to indicate otherwise.
"Enough. Olivia and Elliott you need to head down to the basement level. So far we got the girls out of here but with all of these rooms we need to do a double check. Munch and Fin you check all other rooms," Cragen said to the group of detectives before they paired off to further investigate.
The building smelt of plastic, moth balls and cigarette smoke combined. However in the confinement of a small room in the dark lower level of the building all Olivia could smell was his cologne. It had been years since she smelt his cologne, D&G to be exact. The only reason Olivia knew what brand he had worn on occasion was when she walked into Bloomingdales on Boxing Day and she walked directly towards the specific scent in the men's aisle and was tempted to spray a small amount onto her sweater. Even one of those little sample sticks that the annoying sales women always offered, "Ma'am you shopping for you're husband? I got just the thing" the annoying chirpy woman said with a faux-smile. She wanted to pretend she had a husband, one that smelt of Elliott just so that she could smell that scent but she politely shook her head and headed back over to get socks.
He only wore that smell on special occasions. It was for black tie work banquets, charity benefits and when he was leaving work to try and catch the last half hour of Kathy's birthday dinner but tonight it smelt different to her.
As he pulled on the latex gloves she found herself staring at him. A crisp perfectly ironed white oxford shirt tucked into black pants. Fuck, those pants. They weren't his regular dress pants that he wore to court; these pants were different, they looked expensive and only further emphasized his muscular sculpted ass. Was that an Italian leather belt with a silver clip? Hey El, did you read GQ this month? Olivia wanted to say it, she didn't because she was on the job but she wanted to. It was the type of detail that would rank high importance to Cynthia but not the type of feature Olivia normally would take note of. Until now. Elliott exuded sex, even when Olivia viewed him as a brotherly figure, her protector, her friend from work during the early years of their partnership she couldn't help but recognize his sex appeal. The sexiest thing was that he had no idea how attractive he was. From his blue eyed glare to his size eleven and a half feet, she thought he was the image of sex but would never tell him that. Half of his appeal was his subtlety
He even rolled down his cuffs even though she knew he couldn't go a full day at work without rolling them up. Was it to show off his forearms and the body art he had on one of them?
She bent down to scope through a large wooden box and this time it was Elliott's turn to catch a few cheap looks.
He couldn't wait to see what was underneath her jacket; all he saw was smooth long tanned legs in black heels that were dangerously high.
"Nothing, all I am finding is condoms" Olivia said as she shut the box and stood up.
"At least he was practicing safe sex on the set, the coast is clear in here," Elliott added. He was trying not to look at her, he was here for work. Here for work, here for work, here for work, he kept repeating to himself as a silent reminder. It was never this hard for him to avoid looking at her, he had been around attractive women while he was married but none of them tempted him like Olivia. She still had the effect on him now as she walked over to him with her heels clicking on the hardwood.
They stood side by side looking around the room at the bare walls, waiting and standing silently to see who would be the first one to speak.
"So much for tonight huh?" Olivia said quietly under her breath, "What do you mean, it's only 10:30" he said quietly as he playfully nudged her with his elbow, she pushed back and smiled.
"You still want to go on our non date?" She asked him quietly, he smiled at her shyness, Olivia Benson was far from quiet but on rare occasion she was and he didn't mind seeing her more vulnerable side.
"Yes, I still want to go on a non date with you, plus I am sure Cynthia will blame me for not taking you to her non-birthday party," Elliott said as he led the way for them to return back up to the main floor.
As they walked up the steps, Olivia stopped. He heard the clicking of her heels stopped and stopped to. "It was her idea for you to come, not me" Olivia said quietly. She liked bugging him; it was their way of flirting.
"Okay well as long as she doesn't have any other bright ideas then I am fine with it since she is already forcing me to take you out" he said in mock disgust. "Yeah, you wish," She said playing his own game back to him as they went back into detective mode as they entered the front foyer.
"So what's the news with the basement?" Captain asked as he just stared down the partners.
"Nothing but a box of condoms in a big wooden trunks, a lot of prints though," Elliott said, "Yeah this whole place is covered in prints. Okay well it looks like we are done here, Munch and Fin took him down to book him, so I'll let you two go to wherever it was you were supposed to be heading off to tonight," The Captain said as he raised an eyebrow to them, he played the role as a father in many ways to Olivia, he was a mentor to Elliott and he was the only man who knew them and their relationship. It would be completely oblivious of Cragen not to pick up on something between them and as long as it stayed out of their work he would continue to look the other way. They had been his best detectives for years and gave their lives to the job so he had faith that whatever it was that they were doing was responsible.
They left the building and headed out to their cars, "are we riding together?" Elliott asked her as he took his keys out of his pant pocket.
"We can just meet there, you know where it is right?", he nodded and they both left to their very first non-date.