It was the wrong file, sorry about that!
"Jesus Amanda!" Olivia exclaimed as she stared at herself in the mirror. There was a huge hickey on the brunette's neck. Make up would cover it mostly but if anyone saw, suspicions would arise at work. Everyone seemed to love giving Olivia a hard time about her nonexistent love life, or so they thought it was nonexistent.
"Sorry!" Amanda called from the bedroom. The blonde wasn't really sorry though. She secretly liked marking Olivia as her own. This woman was her best friend and lover, she was a woman who had helped Amanda out of her shell and who had been there during her darkest hours. Yes, Amanda loved that she was able to claim Olivia as her girlfriend, and even though they weren't telling people about them, Amanda could still show people that Olivia had someone who claimed her.
Olivia finished her make-up, making it extra thick on the side of her neck and hoping it would last all day. They were both dressed and ready for work. Olivia headed out first, she didn't want people to get suspicious. Her and Amanda had been carpooling a lot lately and she felt they needed a break. The last thing Olivia needed was for the police station to be filled with rumors of her and Amanda just as it had been when she was partnered with Elliot.
When Olivia arrived at the one-six, Fin was already there. He glanced up when she walked in. She mumbled a "good morning" to him and he nodded.
About twenty minutes after Olivia, Amanda and Nick walked in together. Fin gave them a look but continued on his morning paperwork.
They were each at their desks working on one thing or another when Cragen opened his office door.
"Murder/Rape in Chelsea…" he told them.
It was Fin and Amanda's turn to catch so naturally, they both stood up, grabbing their jackets.
"Not you Rollins," Cragen told her. "Olivia, go with Fin."
Olivia bunched her eyebrows together in confusion as did Amanda.
"It's at an underground gambling club. Feds have already taken most of the people in custody, they just need SVU for the murder/rape," he explained.
"Captain, I'm fine. It's not like I'm going to instantly gamble when I get there…" Amanda said huffing.
"I'd rather not chance it and we don't want to risk you running into any of your old gambling buddies that don't know you're a cop…" Cragen told her strictly.
Amanda couldn't argue, so she took a seat.
"Go." Cragen commanded to Fin and Olivia.
Fin was up and out the door with Olivia on his tail.
When they arrived at the scene, they were forced to stay in the car a bit longer. The Feds were finishing up processing the scene so it could be released to SVU. Melinda Warner was there as well. They saw her waiting in her van and gave her a friendly wave from across the street.
Once they realized it would be a little while, Fin cranked the car back up for the air conditioner to come on and Olivia leaned her passenger seat back, deciding she'd take a nap while they waited. This case was bound to give them a late night.
Olivia was leaned back with her hands on her stomach, her fingers laced.
"Amanda's fucking Nick," Fin stated bluntly.
Olivia had been close to drifting off, but she was definitely awake now. Her eyes had popped open vividly and she'd instantly leaned up, allowing her chair to come up behind her as she grabbed the handle on the side.
She swallowed hard.
"What?" Olivia asked Fin as calmly as possible.
"I think Amanda is fucking Nick." He stated again, looking at her and pressing his lips together.
Her eyebrows shot up quickly.
"What on Earth makes you think that, Fin?" she questioned, looking back at him.
"She's been happier lately…" Fin told her.
Olivia was starting to calm down, realizing that Fin actually didn't have any evidence to back up his statement. She didn't think Amanda would cheat on her but she'd been with people in the past who had. There was always that worry in the back of her mind. Either the job broke her relationships apart, or another woman did…but it could be another man in this case.
"That all you got to go on?" Olivia smiled and then gave him a fake scoff. "What kind of detective are you?"
Fin gave her an annoyed look. "I'm serious. She's been happier lately… the kind of happy that comes from getting laid on a regular basis after you haven't gotten any ass in a while…" he told her.
"Geeze, Fin," Olivia started. "How long you been profiling Amanda's love life?" Olivia asked, cocking one eyebrow and throwing him a glance.
"Her and Nick came in together this morning. He's been separated from Maria for a while…" Fin said, making eye contact with Olivia again. "Man's gotta eat…" he said smiling.
Olivia just laughed at him. "You're crazy." She told him.
Fin turned his head to stare back out the front windshield.
"You got a new man too…" he told her, sneaking a glance at her surprised facial expression before continuing his gaze ahead.
"Thought I wouldn't notice?" he asked her.
She cleared her throat, trying to decided just how much information she wanted to share with him.
"What gave me away?" she asked, choosing not to correct him on the gender. Olivia looked out her passenger window. She didn't care to make eye contact with Fin at that exact moment. If she chose to lie to him about something, he'd sense it. He had a way with her, he could look at her face and read her sometimes. It scared her, she didn't like it sometimes. Olivia liked being able to control what she told people and what they knew.
"You've been more upbeat lately too…" he told her. "Plus, that thing on your neck was a dead giveaway."
"Fuck…" She whispered more to herself than to Fin, but he still heard her.
"Baby girl…" Fin called to her, reaching over to put his hand on her arm so she'd look at him. When Olivia finally did turn to make eye contact, he continued. "Why you hiding him? I can understand not saying anything to the squad but… it's me…." He continued, "You know you can talk about this stuff with me… I told you about Melinda when we were together…." Fin reminded her, retracting his hand and looking away.
"I remember…" she told him. "You know what else I remember?" Olivia asked, but she wasn't expecting an answer, so she continued. "I remember how it nearly killed you to know that Melinda went home to her husband every night and only kept your bed warm past midnight when her husband was out of town…" she concluded, giving him a raised eyebrow and a serious look.
It was hard on her to hear about his relationship with their medical examiner. It'd taken her some time to coax it out of him, but when she finally had a couple of years ago, it had almost broken him.
"I've never told another soul about that, you know?" he told her honestly.
"I'm aware…" she replied.
"I trust you with everything…" he added.
"I know, Fin."
It hadn't ended well with him and Melinda. As much as she loved Fin, Melinda hadn't been able to bring herself to leave her husband. Olivia hadn't figured out why, then again, she hadn't figured out how Melinda and Fin had gotten in their predicament in the first place. They were both smart and Melinda was a classy woman. Olivia would have never thought she'd step out on her husband, but it happened. Their relationship lasted several months. While Olivia and Melinda had never spoken about it, it was an understood notation that Olivia was aware of what had gone on between her friends.
"You don't trust me anymore…" Fin stated, looking away. It was indeed more of a statement then a question.
"What? No." Olivia told him, disagreeing. She leaned up further and grabbed his right wrist, giving it a light tug to make him face her.
"Hey," she said. "Where is this coming from?" she questioned, her eyebrows gathered in confusion.
Fin looked at her and took a deep breath in frustration. "We've grown apart lately, I know we have. Yeah, we still talk but it's not the same… we don't hang out as much, we don't really talk anymore aside from small talk here and there…" Fin told her. "Ken barely speaks to me… he's always busy… other than you and him, I ain't got no one else…"
Olivia was taken aback. Fin sounded sad. She didn't know what to do, how could she not have seen it? She didn't mean to let their friendship slip so much and she hadn't even realized it had, which made her feel even worse.
Olivia took a deep breath and swallowed hard, real hard. She shut her eyes tight.
"It's Amanda…" she whispered quietly.
Fin raised his eyebrows in shock. He wasn't exactly sure what she was saying but he was beginning to piece it together. "Excuse me?" he questioned her.
Olivia retracted her hand from his wrist quickly like she had been burned.
"The hickey… it's from her…" Olivia whispered again. She felt like she couldn't breathe, like she was on the verge of having a panic attack, and she was. She hadn't told anyone. They hadn't told anyone. Oh God, she should have consulted Amanda first. What had she done? Now she really couldn't breathe. Luckily for her, Fin knew the signs.
"Woah, hey! Calm down…" Fin stated calmly. "Olivia look at me, look at my eyes…" He knew she was having a panic attack.
"Fin, I can't breathe," she told him shakily.
"I know, baby girl," he replied. "Come on, breathe with me… in and out… in and out… that's right…" he breathed with her until her breathing even out and became regular. It took a few more seconds but eventually she was able to calm herself down, little by little with Fin's help.
She didn't look quite as panicked.
She breathed slowly, counting in her head.
"You okay?" he asked, resting his hand on her shoulder to show her his support.
"Yeah, I'm alright, thanks…" she said looking at him.
Olivia pulled down the visor to look in the mirror and fix her make-up and had smudged during her panic attack.
She fixed her hair and wiped her fingers under her eyes, sniffling before she put the visor back up.
Fin waited for her to collect herself before he spoke.
"It's okay, Liv…" he spoke softly to her. She looked down at her lap.
"I know…" She whispered.
"Did you think I'd judge you?" Fin asked.
Olivia looked up bravely and stared at him. "I… I don't know…" she replied. "It's still new to me…"
"My son's gay, I love him the same…"
"I know," she said again.
"I still love you the same too…" he told her in reassurance, reaching over and lacing his fingers with hers and giving it a squeeze.
She gave him a small smile. Olivia didn't speak. He was getting mushy with her, and that's something that Fin rarely does with anyone.
Their hands stayed together and she was much more calm now.
"We had agreed not to tell anyone… no one else knows yet, I wasn't supposed to tell." She confessed.
"Then I still know nothing, okay?" He told her.
"Thanks," she answered, giving him another smile, this one bigger and more genuine.
"You supported me and stood by me even when I was hooking up with a married woman… I'm gonna support you no matter what, Olivia." Fin firmly stated to her. He wanted her to know that he was truly there for her. He had missed being close to her, he'd missed having someone to talk to and he was glad they were getting back in sync.
They each retracted their hands and Olivia let out a breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding. She propped her right elbow on the window sill beside her, letting her hand rest against her cheek.
"So…" Fin was attempting to lighten the mood. "How's she in bed?" He asked cocking an eyebrow and giving her a side eye.
Olivia snorted with laughter and brought her right pointer finger to her mouth as she laughed, biting down and shutting her eyes.
"Damn! That good?" Fin replied, turning his body to face her and look at her.
Olivia looked at him and smiled, dropping her hand.
"I can't talk about this with you…" she said as blush creeped up her neck. "Not because I don't want to, you know me, I don't mind discussing my sex life with you… but because Amanda is your partner and I can't betray her privacy like that…" Olivia told him honestly.
"I understand…" Fin promised her.
"I didn't know you were officially batting for both teams though…" he questioned. He'd known about her college days. He'd gotten a good laugh about it when she'd finally confided in him about it all those years ago.
"I'm not… I mean, well I wasn't…" she told him. "It just happened…"
"I see…" he said.
"She's only officially been my girlfriend for a little over two weeks… I'm trying not to fuck it up." Olivia told him honestly.
"You said she was asking about Elliot the other day…." Fin stated. "I thought she was just being curious but it was because she wanted to know how close you were with him…" he told her, looking to Olivia for confirmation. She nodded, agreeing with his statement.
"What exactly did you tell her?" he asked.
"Nothing that you didn't," she stated, giving him a side glance. "That I loved him," she told fin, tilting her head sideways and giving Fin a knowing look. Fin had already known she had been in love with Elliot. Fin had known when Elliot was still there.
"I would have never told her that if I had known you were involved with her…I don't fuck with your relationships, you know that…" He told her. "How'd she take it?" he asked.
"She seemed to understand… I made it clear to her that my feelings were with her now and not him… they'll never be with him again." She stated firmly.
Fin nodded. "He burned you, I get it… I'd still gladly kick his ass for you."
"I know…" she smiled warmly. She loved that he'd kick Elliot's ass for her. She loved even more that she knew he could kick Elliot's ass. It'd be a tough fight but Fin could be street, in the end, he'd win and it made her laugh.
Olivia looked up, watching Melinda exit her car and head inside the building. If they had signaled for Melinda to come inside, that meant SVU was about to be allowed inside as well.
"Thanks for this," Olivia told Fin wholeheartedly.
"Anytime, baby girl. I got your back… but blondie has your front…" he busted into laughter at his own joke. Olivia smiled big.
"Oh God, I'm never going to hear the end of it from you…" She replied.
"Nah, it's good. I won't crack any jokes around the others, but when it's just you and me, I can't make any promises…" Fin looked at her, giving her a smile.