Disclaimer: See previous.
I must admit to being disappointed that you're all too busy hating Kathy to catch what's going on... but you'll find out... mwahaha.
It's what you learn after you know everything that counts.
– Earl Weaver
Everybody, it occurs to her, is trying to fix them. Olivia eyes the empty desk across from her. Without Elliot the rest of the unit is cheerful. Is it really a holiday to them? Do they affect their coworkers that much? She ponders this. Certainly it isn't a holiday for her. Whether or not her partner is physically present, she can't escape what has come between them. The fact that introducing him as "my partner" now has a cold, hollow ring to it.
And since it doesn't make a difference either way, she'd rather have him there across from her. That's either selfish or pathetic. Or possibly it's just that when he's actually there she can watch his back properly. That's it, Olivia decides, and sits up a little straighter.
When she looks up Cragen is standing over her. "Earth to Benson," he says, unamused.
"Sorry, Cap."
"Where's your partner?"
"Kathy called. He's taking a sick day." Olivia bends over a file, then realizes he's still standing there. "It's not a problem, is it?"
"Stabler never takes sick days."
Well, when you get right down to it, no-one in this unit takes sick days if they can help it. Olivia would be worried if she hadn't remembered something Lizzie said a few days ago. "You know what I think, Cap?"
"Do I want to?"
Ha, ha, ha. "I think it's really a baby's-crawling kind of day. Lizzie said he was close."
The captain thinks about this and shrugs. Like all of them, Elliot has plenty of sick days piled up to take if he needs them. Cragen sits on her desk. "Maybe," he says, "this would be a good time to talk about you two."
"Or maybe not." It's an epidemic. First Lizzie, then Casey, now this.
Predictably, he ignores her protest. "I'm not worried about you," he says, holding her gaze. "I'm not worried about him. Much. How this war affects your personal lives is none of my business. But I'm worried that I'm losing my best team."
"You're not." She's right here, after all, and Elliot will be back tomorrow.
"Aren't I?" He's still looking at her steadily, until his eyes become a mirror and she sees.
She shouldn't be surprised to realize that he's right.
When she looks down he carries on, "You're doing perfectly competent police work. You're not pulling any crap, you're not making me defend your asses to IAB. And I'm afraid you're losing it."
"Losing what?" she asks her desk.
"Whatever it is that makes you two better than all the rest." Cragen stands. "And if you haven't figured out what that is, I'm not gonna say."
As if she could possibly not know what he means. Olivia watches her captain disappear into his office, and she looks across again at Elliot's empty desk.
She misses him. It's unsettling to admit, even to herself, but eventually one has to face these things. She misses the partner she could trust to see her weakness and think of her the same the next day. She misses the only person in her life who was always on her side when it counted.
If only he hadn't become a stranger.
"Liv! Your lab results are in."
"Already?" Bewildered, she takes the folder from Munch. "I just sent that in."
"Apparently they were already testing two other samples of the stuff; it's popping up everywhere. Get this: it's an extract of – "
"A mushroom," Olivia reads off the report in amazement. "A mushroom?"
"A highly toxic fungus that appears to be the new fad among those who favor poison."
"Like we need one." She's immersed in the report. "Gyromitra periculenta. That sounds promising."
"Periculum. Danger."
"Thank you for the Latin lesson. Can you tell me why Marcus Howard had a bottle of this stuff disguised as vodka? Speaking of which, where the hell is Howard?"
John sighs. "Fin just called. He must know we're on to him – "
"He skipped. Great." Olivia heads for the captain's office. "Possession of this stuff has got to be illegal," she's saying as she nearly runs into the emerging Cragen.
"Warner called," he informs her.
"If that's the autopsy on Kaitlin, it's perfect timing." She hands him her folder. "I think we can get a warrant for Howard off this."
Cragen glances it over and nods. "Go see Warner. John, you can call Novak."
"Where's your partner?" Melinda frowns. "Or arch-enemy, or whatever he is these days."
"If you mean Elliot, these days he's the guy I have to sit across from every damn day." Olivia says it lightly, as though maybe this will make the words hurt less. "And he's home sick. Or baby-watching. Either way we don't have to deal with him, and the whole unit is thrilled."
Melinda thinks they're probably more excited about the lack of animosity than the lack of Elliot, but for the sake of preserving said lack of animosity she doesn't dare say this. Instead she just smiles, glad to have one of them to herself, and pulls back the sheet over their body. "Like I suspected, she was poisoned."
Olivia nods: this is not news to her. "Please tell me it was Gyromitra periculenta."
"Nice work."
Around a large grin Olivia says, "Lab was fast. We found it in our suspect's apartment. Tell me more about it."
"A drawn-out death, and not a pleasant one." Melinda lists some of the symptoms and lets the detective mull it over.
"Kaitlin was found in the park three days after she was last seen. So he had to have somewhere to keep her . . . but his apartment is too far from either site."
"She would have been incapacitated enough to prevent escape," Melinda points out.
"The whole time . . ." Olivia holds up a hand as she is interrupted by her cell phone. She frowns at the caller ID. "Hey – "
Melinda watches the color drain from her friend's face. "Is he all right?" Olivia asks urgently, then, disappointed, "Right, of course not. What happened?" She listens, face growing more drawn by the second, and says, "Stop. I'm putting you on speaker, okay?" She punches the button and nods to Melinda. "Honey, can you give me those symptoms again?"
The voice that tumbles from the phone is a woman's, scratchy and panicked. "He was sick last night, feverish, kind of confused, this morning was worse, I made him stay in bed – I could tell he was hurting but he couldn't say where. I left the room and he tried to get up and passed out cold so I called 911."
Olivia is looking at her desperately, seeking answers. Melinda nods. "Textbook Gyromitra. Make them test for it right away; it's not in a standard tox screen but time is crucial."
"I'm on my way," she says into the phone, making for the door.
"Liv. Who is it?"
Already outside, Olivia looks back at her briefly. "Elliot," she says, and then she's gone.
TBC...
:ducks: So Gyromitra is a real genus of fungus, and it really is poisonous. The particular species I made up; I was looking at Gyromitra esculenta and tweaked it a little for the story... and also so that I'm not going against fact, since I am far from a fungus expert. Pleasepleaseplease R&R.
Oh and I'm going out of town for a few days but I'll update as soon as I'm back.