11. Incomplete
It was strange to be back at work. Elliot felt like he'd been gone a month in stead of just four days. Everything was the same in the squad room, yet everything was different for him. Maybe it was the weather too. After the hot weeks they'd had, it had finally started raining a little. His co-workers had had an ordinary weekend. John Munch and Monique Jeffries had been on call and had wrapped up their pedophile case, while Fin Tutuola had visited some family in another state. Elliot couldn't really remember who or where until his partner started giving him the details of all his nephews and nieces in Ohio. Right. A family reunion on his father's side. Elliot could never remember all the names. His family wasn't nearly as big as Fin's. It was just him, his sister Maureen and their mother now. His sister had started dating girls so he expected it would be just the three or four of them for quite a while yet.
His mind drifted to Olivia again and he remembered how good she'd been with little Nina at the diner. She'd make a great mother one day. He couldn't get her out of his mind, even if he tried, and Fin was beginning to notice.
"Hey, Stabler! You with me pal?" his partner said, snapping his fingers in Elliot's face.
Elliot blinked a few times and nodded. He hadn't even noticed that Fin had walked up to him.
"Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I'm just a bit tired."
"Tired! Man, you musta had a hot weekend then."
Elliot grinned, unsure of how much he was going to share with his partner about his weekend. Fin sat back down at his desk and looked at him expectantly.
"So spill man. Found any more mysterious brown-eyes girls this time?"
He sure had and Fin could see it in his face.
"Alright, alright. Gimme names and measurements."
"No no no, I'm not gonna to talk about her," Elliot said quickly.
He didn't want his co-workers to start teasing him with his latest conquest, as they would no doubt call her. And Olivia was too special to be called a conquest.
"Her huh? So it's one girl."
Fin wanted to ask more but just then, Captain Cragen walked up to them, announcing they had a new case. For once, Elliot was glad, although the case would probably make him cringe. It was an attempted rape this time. The woman had fought back hard but was very shaken up, and they had to interview her at the hospital while CSU took care of the alley where the attack had taken place.
...
Two weeks went by. Elliot had hoped that he would gradually be able to focus on other things again, but he still found his mind drifting off regularly. He hadn't gone out at all, and had spent his weekends doing laundry, cleaning his apartment and washing his jeep. He did his job, but Fin was beginning to worry about him. Elliot would zone out completely during stakeouts and behind his desk. Cragen even made a remark after a week, asking Elliot if everything was alright with his mother, because he'd been so distracted. Elliot assured him that his mother was just fine, and promised Cragen to give her his best when he saw her again that weekend. It was Maureen's 26th birthday so they would all go up to Long Beach for a party at Bernadette's house.
On Friday afternoon, Elliot was sitting at his desk, finishing his reports for the week. Fin was on the phone with someone at CSU and Elliot looked at his watch. He'd sent his friend Robert a text earlier, hoping they could meet up after work. He'd met Robert Dumas when they were both rookies and they had stayed in touch ever since. If there was anyone he could talk to about Olivia, it was Robert. His best friend would never make fun of him and by now, he did need to talk to someone.
He had wanted to find more information about Olivia but there hadn't been time to look her up in the databases he had at his disposal at work. He knew those weren't meant for personal use but he was itching to find out more about her. He didn't know how to do some searches without making his partner suspicious though. Fin was unusually curious this time about who he'd met and what she was like, saying that his eyes glazed over every time he asked about her. He smiled and thought about Olivia again, about how she'd stripped down to her underwear and had gone for a swim without a second thought. And how she had pulled him in for a kiss by the fire and had made it very clear to him that she wanted him that night. Twice. It had been all her and he was amazed. Somehow he knew she wouldn't do that with just anyone. He could only wonder why she'd decided to go all out with him. Maybe it was because he was only going to be in town for a few days. Maybe she really didn't want anything serious right now.
He could hardly bear to think that way because it had meant something to him. In fact, it had meant a lot more to him than any hookup he'd ever had before meeting Olivia. He finally felt like himself again. He wasn't really a casual kind of man, or at least he never wanted to be. When it seemed that casual sex was going to be the only way to get some, he'd played along. He was a healthy young man after all, and he did have needs. But it wasn't the life he really wanted, even if he'd always said he was fine on his own. He had just about given up on love and he certainly didn't believe in love at first sight. Until now.
"Man, you're in deep this time."
Fin's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, again, and he looked up at his partner.
"I've been tryin' to tell you what CSU found for the last five minutes El, but you're zoned out completely."
Elliot closed the file on his desk and sighed.
"Sorry Fin. It's been a long day."
"Right," Fin scoffed but he didn't ask any more questions.
His partner wasn't usually one to pry and he knew when to back off. When Robert came into the squad room, Fin stood up and put a hand on Elliot's shoulder.
"Here's your pal. I hope he can talk some sense into you. See ya Monday, El."
...
Robert listened. There wasn't anyone who knew him better than Robert, and maybe his Marine buddy Declan. Declan Murphy had stayed in the Marines and had climbed the ranks. He was overseas again so Robert was the one Elliot talked to the most these days. And he listened. Elliot knew he was rambling a bit but he just couldn't get over how incredible this girl was and how she had affected him.
"So you actually told her it would just be casual?"
Elliot bobbed his head, staring at the label on his beer bottle.
"And she hung out with you for three days before you got laid."
"Don't call it that," Elliot shot back and Robert's eyebrows shot up.
"Wow man. You're really in love."
Elliot sighed and looked up, looking for a waiter in the bar where they usually went after work when one of them needed to talk. He saw the man and raised his hand. The waiter just nodded and they knew he would be right there with two new beers.
"I don't know Rob," Elliot sighed. "There's just something about her. I feel like ... like she's ... what's been missing from my life. Does that sound corny at all?"
He knew it did. It sounded corny even to him, but it was what he was feeling. He had felt incomplete ever since he had left the town that Sunday morning, almost two weeks ago. Rob just nodded.
"Yeah, that sounds corny but I know the feeling. It's what I feel with Pippa. I'll admit I didn't know it after just a few days, but I do know what it feels like to be lost without my other half. If that's what you're feeling about Olivia, you gotta do something about it El."
Elliot pursed his lips. He did feel lost in a way. He just couldn't get her out of his mind. Their new beers arrived and they sat and drank in silence for a while. Then Robert asked him,
"What do you know about her so far?"
"Not much," Elliot admitted. "Her parents are dead, she lives with her half-brother and his mother, she works at a diner and used to volunteer at the local hospital, but she doesn't do that anymore. She babysits her neighbor's three-year old and she loves country music, dancing, lemon ice cream, Sandy's subs and swimming in her underwear."
Robert laughed out loud and slapped his hand on the table.
"Now that's priceless," his friend grinned. "You swam in your underwear?"
"Yeah, we did. She just took off her clothes, just like that."
"Hmmm. I bet that got your juices flowing."
Elliot shook his head and took another swig of his beer.
"You make it sound so cheap, Rob," he said.
"Well, you gotta admit, El, up until now your dealings with the ladies have been a little ... how to put it ... shallow."
Robert was right. It had been and he was sick of it. He loved sex, there was no denying that. But there had to be more than that. He'd just about stopped looking but now? He was back to square one because of Olivia. He believed in love again - even in love at first sight - and he was hooked. Then he remembered something.
"Hey Rob, another thing. She has this scar, right here."
He pointed at the right side of his forehead.
"She said she got it in a car accident a while back but she wouldn't tell me anything about it."
Robert frowned as he took in the information.
"Car accident huh? There should be a record of it somewhere."
They looked at each other and, as was often the case, they were thinking the exact same thing.
...
A while later, they were at the computer in the library. Robert had brought his laptop from work and did his own searches in the police databases, while Elliot scrolled through all the newspaper articles that his search had yielded. He'd entered the town's name, car accident and female injured, and had set the time frame to go back as far as two years. He couldn't believe how many hits he got but each time he read the article, either the age of the female involved was wrong or a name was mentioned that wasn't Benson.
"You said she lives with her half-brother and his mother, right? So they have the same father?" Robert asked as he went over some information on his laptop.
"Yeah. You find something?"
"Well, I guess so. On her birth certificate the father is listed as unknown."
Elliot frowned and leaned over to look on Robert's screen. There it was. Mother: Serena Benson. Father: unknown. He checked the date of birth and did the math quickly. She was going to be 27 in October. But why was her father listed as unknown?
"Oh wait," he said, remembering what Simon had told him. "Her brother told me that they only found out a couple of years ago that they had the same dad. Can you pull him up too? Simon Marsden."
Elliot turned back to the newspaper articles and scrolled down again.
"Marsden, right? He took his mother's last name. She's Sharon Marsden and the father listed is Joseph Hollister. He's deceased."
Elliot nodded. He knew that. He wondered why both kids didn't take his last name but sat up straight when he saw the next article on his screen. The headline hit him square in the chest and made his neck hair stand on end. He immediately knew this was what he had been looking for.
Scorned lover crashes car, loses baby.
...
To be continued ...
