A/N: A shout out to SVUSHIPPER4EVER. Glad you liked it. More psychiatrist is coming up soon. :)
Chapter 19
There was a knock on Olivia's door and she headed over to it, knowing who it would be out in the hallway. Smiling, she let her partner in and he smiled back before toeing off his shoes and shrugging off his jacket.
"I really should get you a key," she said as she headed back into the kitchen. Elliot froze, not sure how to respond to that. There were things he wanted to say… he just let it slide and moved into the living room and popped down on the couch.
Opening the fridge, Olivia grabbed him a beer and pulled out the leftover pizza. Tossing the leftovers into the oven to warm up, she moved into the living room, where she handed him his drink. He noted that she had apparently gone out shopping.
"While I would appreciate that, this is only until I find myself a place," Elliot said as she sat down next to him on the couch.
"You make it sound so easy. How are you going to find a place that will have room for the kids and be within your budget?" Olivia wanted to know.
"Well as Kathleen pointed out – Dickie and Lizzie are almost eighteen, so I really only need an extra room for Eli," he told her.
"Do they even like to be called Dickie and Lizzie anymore?" She asked.
"No. I just can't seem to break the habit," Elliot admitted.
"So, we're not going to talk about the visit I had today?" Olivia addressed the elephant in the room. Her partner swallowed hard.
"I'm sorry. Let me guess, she assumed you and I were shacking up together," he said.
"I think she's thought that from the moment I became your partner," Olivia said.
"Probably. So, what did you say?" Elliot asked.
"Told her that the only reason I'm functioning right now is because of your help and that you've taken up residence on my couch. I may have pointed out that you wouldn't be on my couch if she would have let you back in the house to grab some personal things. That didn't seem to satisfy her. I really thought that after I helped her and Eli that we'd be on better terms," she admitted.
"Yeah, you will always be a threat. You're smart, funny, good looking, and you've always been good to her and to the kids. Also, you basically were being the bigger woman by taking her to her doctor's appointment because I was out on that call. Then you saved her and Eli. I mean really you're hard to compete with," the words just tumbled out and after he said them, he wondered how she would react.
"Well I am quite the catch," Olivia chuckled before heaving herself off the sofa, obviously letting his comments roll off her back. It was almost an automatic reaction. The oven timer was ringing, and she didn't want the pizza to get burnt. Pulling it out of the oven, she split the four leftover slices on a couple of plates and brought them over.
"I'm starving. Thanks," he smiled, taking one of the plates from her.
"Welcome. So how goes the case?" She shifted gears without blinking. Making herself comfortable, she tucked into her pizza.
"All over the map. Pretty sure our girl stole Sarah Marvin's identity and used a couple of aliases and fake IDs to survive. Also, pretty sure that she was running some sort of brothel out of her apartment. I thought Fin was going to barf when the techs used the black light in the bedroom," Elliot told her.
"Ok so she's totally trying to live under the radar but manages to use her own place as a brothel? Odd," Olivia commented, wiping her mouth on a napkin that had been left on the coffee table from the night before.
"That's what we thought. Cabot managed to win her legal battle about the hospital staff and we finally got to talk to them. Turns out a nurse recognized our visitor – Jeff Haggerty. He had come to visit Sarah before she was moved to the psychiatric unit. Given that she was unconscious for the bulk of the time before the move, we're thinking that she was either running from Haggerty or he might have been her pimp. Anyway, Melinda is running the victim's DNA and fingerprints through the system to see if she pops as a missing person. Kenny and Munch checked in with the landlord and found that Sarah always paid the rent in cash. Paid her utility bills with money orders from the post office," he explained before eating some pizza.
"So, she was really off the grid. Not easy to do in this day and age," Olivia frowned, drinking some of her iced tea, which she'd been drinking before Elliot showed up.
"No, not at all. We think it helped that she looked a lot like the actual Sarah Marvin," her partner said.
"Back up a tick. No one who knew the actual Sarah Marvin noticed activity on any of her personal numbers? How the heck did she rent an apartment without some sort of real ID? Not every landlord does background checks, but you can be damn sure they do a credit check," she gave him a look.
"Right? So, we asked the landlord. He actually ran both - it came back mostly clean. When he asked her about the gaps, she told him that she left home because her father was abusive. He felt bad so he promised to not say anything. The bigger issue are the cops in Maine. Her folks had no idea that the landlord had run checks. Apparently, the cops weren't keeping an eye on things," he said before taking a swig of his beer.
"Well how long has the real Sarah Marvin been missing?" Olivia wanted to know.
"Kenny looked it up – could be the Maine cops didn't see the activity because Sarah Marvin has been missing for five years," Elliot admitted.
"So logically they figured she was dead. Ten bucks says they never got an alert from her bank or anything because any accounts she had were closed. The use of her social security number probably didn't get noticed right away. Did the FBI get involved in the case?" She wondered.
"Munch was trying to reach someone in the Bangor, Maine FBI office when I left," he said before polishing off the rest of the pizza on his plate.
"My guess is that it wasn't hard for this person to get Sarah's social security number. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she was a friend or family member," Olivia said.
"I'll text the detectives from missing persons and the fraud department. Maybe the Marvins didn't recognize her because of the shape she was in," Elliot nodded thoughtfully, placing his plate down on the coffee table and grabbing a napkin. He wiped his fingers and quickly whipped is phone out of his pocket and fired off a couple of text messages.
"Official cause of death?" She asked.
"Overdose of the painkillers they'd been giving her for her broken wrist. I would have liked to get her tox screen from when she was brought into the hospital, but we don't have a rape kit so…" he heaved a sigh. Olivia reached over and patted his knee before standing up and collecting the plates. She headed for the sink and put the plates inside.
"How'd your appointment go?" It was Elliot's turn to switch topics.
"Well, I think. She tried to dig into my relationship with my mother. I'm not about to give the department ammunition though," Olivia said as she moved back to the sofa and sat down.
"It might not hurt to get everything out in the open. Besides, Valentino can't actually share all the details with the brass," he said.
"If I appear too damaged, they won't let me back on the force. This psych eval is now the only thing preventing me from going back to work. I can't lose my job. It's the only thing I have," she shook her head. Elliot reached over and took her hands in his.
"No, it isn't," his eyes seemingly bored a hole into her soul. He meant what he said.
"El…" there was hesitation.
"Liv, I'm here. Let me be everything you need," his words were barely above a whisper.
"We… I…" she was flustered.
"Just let me be everything you need. I can be what you need," he wasn't going to pressure her into anything, but he wanted her to open up. He wanted her to be able to release all that weighed her down. The words for just how he was feeling could come later.
"El…" again she started but this time, her words were stopped by Elliot's lips on her cheek. It was a signal that he was in no rush. There was no pressure. Just love. As he pulled away from her, she stopped him, having pulled her right hand free. It found his cheek and he leaned into it, turning to kiss her palm.
"All in – no halfway. I can't do halfway," she whispered.
"Never anything less than one hundred percent," he promised.
To Be Continued…