Continued appreciation for reviews... for those E/O readers, stand by your beds because we're starting to see both that and Livid from now on. Angst a-hoy!
Full credit to The Airbourne Toxic Event for their lyrics to Sometime Around Midnight which I've used in the flashback :)
xx
"Stabler? You still here?"
"Here..." replied Elliot, shaking himself awake and grasping exhaustedly for the coffee mug at his desk, "... just finishing up these JDC records. No luck on Carrie's roommate."
"CSU called, they found a second set of prints with Carrie's at the hotel..." said Fin, a little breathless with relief at finally having something to get their teeth into, "... he's Wall Street and he's loaded."
"I wish I was surprised." Said Elliot, world weary and too long in the job not to feel the familiarity of a young girl and an old millionaire.
"You wanna come check him out with me? I can't believe a guy like him isn't still up at this time..." offered Fin, his eyes suddenly fixing on the photograph in Elliot's hands, "... what you got there?"
"Nothing, nothing I was just going through my old draw earlier and..."
"Go change your shirt, we'll wait for you in the car."
"Thanks, thanks I will do actually..." nodded Elliot appreciatively, tossing the photo back into his top draw and hurrying off to change. Waiting a moment Fin narrowed his eyes, crossing the room and reopening the draw he fished inside it and pulled out the source of Elliot's melancholy.
Suddenly, as his friend had been a few moments earlier, he was transported back in time to the night of the NYPD ball. His eyes settling on the vivacious smile of the woman in the photograph. Her olive skin set alive by the deep emerald of her gown, arms ethereal in their lightness as she danced with her partner, and her deep brown eyes burning with desire for the man whose arms she was held lovingly in.
And it starts
Sometime around midnight
Or at least that's when you lose yourself
For a minute or two
"Where's Liv?"
"Had to work late. David picked her up and they were rushing home to change but probably caught traffic on the way back."
"It's getting late, we'll all be snoozing at our table by the time they get here!" laughed Rollins, her black gown a stark contrast with her yellow blonde hair and an unconscious rebellion against southern debutant routes.
"Oh here they are..." smiled Cragen, nursing his ginger ale and a weary tolerance of his increasingly intoxicated co-workers.
"You want another drink, Stabler?" asked a very dapper looking Odafin Tutuola, on seeing Elliot's face fall as Olivia entered the room on David Hayden's arm.
The deep green of Detective Benson's floor length dress was as heavenly as Elysian Fields in warm sunlight, her curves and relaxed smile stealing his breath. As she slid her arm out from the crook of David's arm and turned to the side Elliot swallowed hard, watching intently as gentle curls of hair fell from a loose chignon at the nape of her neck and teased bare shoulders. Blue eyes piercing the space between them he exhaled slowly and finally acknowledged that which had always been thus. Olivia was beautiful and he was hopelessly, helplessly, devastatingly and illicitly in love with her.
"Double, straight up..." jaw locked, teeth clenched, pulse racing Elliot's eyes were unwavering in their stare, "... thanks."
As you stand
Under the bar lights
And the band plays some song
About forgetting yourself for a while
And the piano's this melancholy soundtrack
To her smile and that green dress she's wearing
You haven't seen her
For a while
"I see Novak and Cabot in the distance. They look like they're making quick work of their table wine so I should be quite entertained..." smiled David, pressing a light kiss against Olivia's cheek so as not to disturb her immaculately made up face, "... go see your friends. They're waiting for you at the bar."
"D its fine I can come with you to..."
"Here, take this and smile..." grabbing a gin and tonic from a passing waiters tray, perplexing him slightly as he arrived at the next table one short on his order, David spoke with a measured calm, "... I think there's someone who wants to see you."
"I don't have to talk to him."
"I know how close you guys get as partners. You were his for 12 years, darling."
"I'm not a possession, David."
"That isn't what I..." he began, before realising it was beside the point. Be it in thought or in deed Olivia was indubitably the object of a possessive war, whether she was accepting of it or not. " The point is that you're not mad at him for leaving; you're hurt because you missed him so much..." sliding his hand to the base of her spine and giving her a gentle shove in the right direction David added, "... so go make it right."
But you know
That she's watching
She's laughing, she's turning
She's holding her tonic like a crux
"What was that, Hayden?"
"Don't give me that look, Cabot. You're self righteous indignation is putting me right off my salmon puff." Replied David, his eyes fixed on the bar where Olivia was being greeted by her SVU colleagues. Elliot Stabler remaining back turned, glued to the bar, resisting her.
"I thought you had more fight than that, is all."
"I have a nasty habit of not fighting for lost causes..." popping the remaining bite of canapé into his mouth David's morose expression added bitterly, "...and those two are a fait accompli."
"You practically threw her at him!"
"Alex she hasn't let me touch her since the moment that son of a bitch rocked back up at the 1-6..." shaking his head defeated David sighed, "... are you honestly telling me that's a two month long coincidence?"
"So that's it? You're just gonna give up?"
"I've already lost her, Cabot. She was only ever mine as long as he was out of the picture."
"You haven't lost her David..." replied Alex, finding her inexplicably rooting for the underdog despite years of working with Benson and Stabler and watching the same sparks fly that were now lighting up the bar, "... you're giving her away."
The room suddenly spinning
She walks up and asks how you are
So you can smell her perfume
You can see her lying naked in your arms
"Olivia."
"Elliot."
"That dress isn't doing you any harm."
"You don't ruin the line of a tux either."
"Drink?" he asked, as Munch and Fin took a step back and dissolved into their own conversation as Olivia moved to join Elliot at the bar.
"House white?" she replied, the hairs of her arms prickling to attention as skin grazed skin and they stood close enough at the bar to feel each other's body heat.
"I didn't think you'd make it." He said, after giving their order and holding a few moments of electric silence. His eyes were on the bar, dancing along the empty glasses still uncollected and fighting the constant draw to the flush of tan cleavage peeping out from the low V of Olivia's dress.
"Me either, we were late already and then hit a roadblock." When he evidently had nothing further to add to that particular conversation she accepted her glass from the waiter and turned back to face the party. Heart hammering a steady beat in her chest she pursed her lips, held another quiet moment before venturing, "How are things?"
"Not great..." he replied, turning his head and finding her eyes, "... but improving by the minute."
And so there's a change
In your emotions
And all of these memories come rushing
Like feral waves to your mind
Dream the curl of your bodies
Like two perfect circles entwined
And you feel hopeless, and homeless
And lost in the haze
Of the wine
"I swear to God I don't know how I ever let you talk me into this!" cried Olivia breathlessly, as Elliot span her under his arm in a secluded corner of the dance floor. The flash of a camera distracted them only momentarily as Fin, three sheets to the win, snapped a candid of their delight.
"Not the first time you've said that, detective..." as he caught her twirl, his hand slid along the satin material of her dress, feeling the warmth of her back, "... we have a habit of getting each other into trouble."
"Is that right?" she replied with a non committal smile. Her face falling, captured, as she stared at him and felt his hands slide south, two possessive grips on her low back as he drew her too close for friendship.
"You don't belong with David Hayden..."
"Elliot..." she protested, breaking free from his grip and sobering rapidly.
"Tell me you don't love him?" pushed Elliot, reaching out and grabbing her hand. "Tell me that idiot will never mean any more to you than Kathy does to me? Tell me you only feel alive when..." tugging at her arm and seizing her brusquely, coiling his arms around her waist and holding her clutched against his chest, "... you're part of me, Liv. A part I can't let go."
"You have to, Elliot."
"I don't want to..." he rasped gutturally, their mouths a breadth apart and their eyes staring so intensely into one another's it was as if any moment they might open the soul, "... don't make me?"
"El..." she gasped, as their lips found each other and melded as one. Hot, binding passion kissing hungrily from years of frustrated denial. As their minds had thought as one on the job, so now their bodies melted into one and transcended all barriers physical and emotional.
"Liv I lo..."
"No!" she cried, her palms spreading wide on his chest and pushing him away with the full force of her strength. "Don't!"
"But..."
"I have to go..." she panted, wiping smeared lip gloss from her mouth still swollen and hot from his kiss, "... I have to go."
"Liv, wait..." moving to go after her Elliot was caught between party guests as they emerged from their seclusion and lost her in the crowd, "... Olivia!" he called again, as he caught sight of her across the room entreating David Hayden that they might make a swift exit.
And she leaves
With someone you don't know
But she makes sure you saw her
She looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
Your blood boiling
Your stomach in ropes
And when your friends say, "What is it?"
You look like you've seen a ghost.
"Elliot, bro, what's going on you're all sweaty and..." bumbled Fin, his eyes struggling to focus as he stood between Elliot and the door.
"Not now, Fin. I'll catch you later, okay?" propelling the broad shoulders of his colleague out the way, Elliot took the hotel steps two at a time and catapulted himself out onto the street.
"Elliot!"
"What's up with Stabler?" asked Cabot, wandering out of the hotel lobby nursing her champagne flute and a quizzical smile.
"Benson." Said Fin, simply. A candid précis of his co-workers' twelve years of denial.
"I thought she just left with Hayden..." ventured Alex, seeing only Olivia waiting a little further down the street and Elliot headed in her direction.
"He went to validate his parking..." replied Fin, staring at fate playing out in front of his eyes, "... he probably should've just paid."
And you walk
Under the streetlights
And you're too drunk to notice
That everyone is staring at you
And you don't care what you look like
The world is falling
Around you
"Don't leave with him."
"Elliot go back inside."
"No."
"Are you drunk?" she asked, not entirely sure how to read his demeanour.
"Not drunk enough to believe that wanting you as much as I do right now is a good idea..." he half whispered, half growled as he reached out and grabbed her hand, "... but drunk enough not to give a damn."
"Elliot I'm with David now and..."
"I don't care."
"I..." she faltered, shaking her head and feeling his warm fingers interlock tightly in her own.
"Don't leave with him tonight, Liv..." bringing her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss against it and breathing in the scent of her familiar perfume Elliot entreated, "... leave with me?"
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
And you know that she'll break you
In two