"How are you feeling, Olivia?" Melinda asked her, after finishing the blood panels and rape kit. She looked at her friend with compassion, knowing that the past hour or so had been rather traumatic and most uncomfortable.
Olivia had just gotten dressed and was clinging to her jacket for warmth. "I'm frozen to the core."
"Sorry about that. Don't get a lot of live patients in here. Or any. I can't remember the last time I examined a living person."
"Yeah, er, now that you've gotten up close and personal with me, I'm feeling a tad embarrassed," Olivia admitted. "Mel, you can't let anybody see the photos you took of my, er, bruising. Not even Huang. Please."
"I won't. They're on file officially, but I'm the only person who can access them. I will however, write a report to Dr. Huang explaining my findings."
"What are you going to tell him?"
"There weren't any fluids or hairs, so I can't source DNA. And while you did show signs of bruising, they were not inconsistent with consensual, albeit rough sex. I can't prove rape."
Olivia exhaled and nodded. "Thank you, Melinda. Thank you so much for your help and care. I really appreciate it. Hopefully this will get George off my back and he'll reinstate me at work."
"Glad to help, Liv. Do you want me to drop you off at home? It's getting late."
"Thanks, let's go."
"Who's the new hump in the tombs?" Cragen inquired, upon learning that Fin and Elliot had arrested a suspect. "Weren't you two off the clock?"
"Yeah, um, can we go into your office Cap?" Fin asked. He and Elliot had just come up from the lockup, more than happy to let Max stew in there overnight.
"Alright. Close the door." The three men crowded into Cragen's smallish office, competing for space. "Want to tell me what this is about?" Cragen sat at his desk, leaving Elliot and Fin standing before him.
"This is very sensitive, Captain," Elliot said. "It's about Liv."
"Liv? The guy in the tombs has something to do with Olivia?"
Fin and Elliot gave each other a side glance, then went silent, unsure how to proceed.
"Hello? I'm asking you a question. What's going on?" Cragen could sense the detectives' discomfort.
Fin bit the bullet. "Ok, it's like this. Last night, I tried to call Liv and this man answered her phone. Said she was in his hotel room, sick and to come pick her up." Fin swallowed and looked to Elliot, who nodded for him to continue. "When I got there, she was freaking out, crying, and had been in the shower for over an hour. Her clothes were on the bedroom floor."
"What happened next?" Cragen probed. His face had just gone a shade paler, though he tried to maintain an even tone.
"I got Liv back home, but she was drunk. I mean, really, really drunk. Too drunk to consent, drunk."
Cragen absorbed the information and closed his eyes. He ran his hands over his forehead and said nothing for a long time. His face was grim when he locked eyes with them. "And that's the guy you arrested?"
"Yeah," Elliot said. "He admitted to not stopping when she told him to."
The Captain's eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair, thinking. "Does Olivia know you have him?"
"Not yet." Elliot shrugged and looked away from Cragen's probing eyes.
"Well, did she press charges? Because no paperwork has come across my desk to that effect."
"No."
"So you arrested this guy based on what Fin saw last night?" Before either man could answer his question, Cragen continued. "You didn't consult Olivia. She didn't press charges and she doesn't know you have him." He shook his head. "I wouldn't want to be you when she finds out. You jumped the gun."
Elliot flinched at the Captain's words. In his haste to seek justice for Olivia, he hadn't actually thought about Olivia herself, or her reactions. She'd be pissed. She'd bite his head off and probably try to shoot him. "Huang's giving her a hard time with it if she doesn't get a rape kit or acknowledge what happened to her," Elliot blurted out.
"And how is it that you were aware of this? I wasn't even aware of Huang's reasons for putting her on leave." Cragen stared at Stabler, narrowing his eyes slightly. The younger man blanched.
"We found a note in the cribs," he started to explain.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Cragen stood up and slammed his fists on his desk. "You went and arrested a man because you were in possession of a note you had no business reading? And the so-called victim hasn't even lodged a complaint? Let him go."
"What?" Both Fin and Elliot jumped back at their Captain's imperative.
"Cut him loose. Now! They'll throw his arrest out at the arraignment. And you're not going to bully Olivia into coming down here. If she decides to press charges, we'll reassess the situation."
"But Cap …" Elliot began to plead but was abruptly shut down by the steely glint in Cragen's eyes. The older man exited his office and began making his way down to the tombs. Fin and Elliot followed closely on his heels.
"Which one is he?" he asked when they arrived at the lockup. There were various suspects lounging in the cells, and the smell of stale alcohol, sweat, urine and bleach lingered unpleasantly in the air. Fin pointed out the tall blond man cowering in the corner of one cell, desperate to avoid contact with the rougher looking cell mates.
"His name's Max Nelligan," Fin told his Captain.
"Mr. Nelligan, we're voiding your arrest," Cragen told the terrified man. He assessed the handsome middle-aged man, noting the bloody tissues and swollen, bruised nose. Straight away he looked to Elliot.
"How'd that happen?"
Elliot shrugged and Fin looked away. He went to get the key and unlocked the cell.
Max studied the three men before him; the way the oldest one was staring daggers at the one called Elliot. "Your cop broke my nose," he told Cragen, with a look of abject pathos on his face. "He tried to force a confession out of me with his fists. I didn't rape Olivia. She consented." Max exited the cell and pulled himself up to his full height, towering over the detectives. He looked down his bloodied nose at Elliot and sneered. "I have a good mind to sue you for police brutality," he threatened.
"After what you did to my partner, you deserved it, scum!" Elliot made as though to lunge at Max but held himself back under the watchful eye of his captain.
"Elliot, go home!" Cragen shouted. "Now!"
Cragen was pissed. He had to clean up this cluster fuck, protect Fin and Elliot, make sure Olivia was okay, and prevent a lawsuit from the Nelligan jerk. He rubbed his hands over his smooth head, trying to plan his next move. "Fin, take care of Mr. Nelligan's paperwork. Mr. Nelligan, you're free to go, with our apologies." The Captain clenched his teeth and swept out of the tombs. When the doors had shut behind him, he sagged beneath the weight of his position and responsibility. He looked like an old man.
Olivia finally began to relax. Melinda had reassured her, and helped her get her sanity back. She was in control of her decisions, and she wasn't going to let Huang or Max, or anybody bully her. While the rape kit had been rather humiliating and uncomfortable, at least it was over. She wondered if a doctor who usually dealt with live patients might have been a bit gentler, but going through unofficial channels was her best, no, only option now. She'd already taken her first dose of levonorgestrel and was feeling slightly nauseated but it wasn't too bad. Afterwards, she'd had a hot bubble bath, complete with scented candles, and was now relaxing in her jammies, sipping herbal tea. The TV was on, some stupid reality show dulling the edges of her anxiety and lulling her into television induced stupor.
The knock at the door didn't register at first. Olivia was in a drowsy twilight, existing halfway between the nonsensical yammering on the TV and her own dream world. She stretched out on her couch and moaned, then pulled the worn afghan over her head. Knock, knock, knock. Tappity tap.
"Olivia?"
Elliot.
She opened her eyes and slowly sat up, wrapping the afghan tightly around herself, and trudged to the door. As was her habit, she checked the peephole. Yup, Elliot. She unlocked the chain and opened the door.
He entered her apartment with furrowed brows, wearing an apology on his face. "Did I wake you? I'm so sorry."
Olivia let him pass and shut the door behind him. "I was dozing in front of the TV. What time is it?" she croaked. Through bleary eyes, she followed him as he sat on the couch.
"It's past eleven. I'm sorry, Liv but I had nowhere else to go." Elliot twisted his wedding band and held his breath. "Earlier, you said I could crash on your couch."
"I …er, yeah, you can. But I thought you were going to sleep in the Cribs. Won't Kathy give you a hard time?" Olivia sank into the cushions beside Elliot and leaned her head back, then yawned.
Elliot swallowed hard and took a few shallow breaths. He stole a glance at Olivia, noting how exhausted she looked and he felt guilty. "Cragen told me to go home. He's pissed."
"Why? What did you do?" She turned to face him. "What did you do, El?"
"It's nothing. You should go to sleep; you're halfway there already."
"Actually, you woke me up. What's going on with you?" she persisted, head tilted as she studied him through narrowed eyes.
"I may have broken a suspect's nose," he admitted. "Can we leave it at that?"
"What suspect? What case were you working on?"
"Liv, you're on leave of absence. Don't worry about it."
"How did you know that?" Her head shot up and her tired eyes opened all the way. "Did Cragen tell you?"
Elliot cringed and let out a mirthful chuckle. "No, Liv, I, um, that is we, Fin and I, we were upstairs by the lockers and we found it."
"Found what?" Olivia swallowed hard and pressed her fingers to her temples.
"Huang's note." His treacherous words hung in the air between them like a bad smell. Olivia gasped and clutched her afghan tightly.
"You read that?" Tears sprang unwillingly from her eyes, and she bit down on her lip, to stop herself from crying. "What did you do?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Liv?" Elliot's concern for Olivia overrode the guilt he was feeling. He put his hand on her arm but she flinched and shrugged him off.
"There was nothing to tell!" Olivia stood up and looked out the window, her back to Elliot. "Whose nose did you break?"
"You know whose," he admitted.
She shuddered. "I can't believe you went behind my back and saw him. Did Fin lead you to him?"
"Yeah, but don't get mad at him. I forced it out of him."
"Forced, huh?" Olivia turned back toward him and sat on the couch. Her eyes were brilliant with suppressed rage, the dark irises melding with her pupils so that Elliot stared into an abyss of darkness when she glared at him. He shirked back.
"Liv, you have to understand …"
"No! I don't have to anything," she cried. "You had no right." She paused and then slammed her palm against her forehead. "Oh my god, how did Cragen know you busted Max's nose?"
"Because he was at the station."
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," she chanted. She hugged her arms around herself and began to tremble. "Cragen knows? Elliot, what did you do?" she gasped between erratic breaths.
"I was only trying to get you justice, Liv. I never meant to hurt you. You've got to believe me!" His voice cracked, "Please."
"I think you should leave," she said. "I can't deal with this right now. With you."
"But Liv!" Elliot reached out to comfort her but drew his hand back when he saw the warning flash in her eyes.
"I'm leaving," he told her, his voice quiet and gentle. "I fucked up, Liv. I'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry too," she whimpered. "Please just go." Olivia faced away from him, wringing her hands. She heard his footsteps leading to the door, and the sound of the door closing behind him. She drew a deep breath and burst into tears.
Elliot stood in the empty corridor of Olivia's building. "Where the hell am I supposed to go now?" he whispered to himself.
A/N: Oh the pathos, the tragedy of it all. Writing when I have the flu makes for dark fic. Don't worry, it's always darkest before the storm. Wait. . .