"What do you mean he's gonna be working here with us again?" Fin questioned.

"Look, I spent the better part of an hour arguing with him over this last night," Olivia said, silencing him, "he won't be deterred. And, I just got a call a little while ago from the Chief saying that he'd approved him working with us. We don't have a choice."

"His kid is accused of the crime, how did he convince them to let him work the case?" Fin asked.

"You remember how he is, he probably pissed someone off enough to get his way." Olivia said with a weak laugh. "I'm not happy about it myself but I don't have a choice. Just, help me out here, okay?"

Fin sighed and nodded. "I take orders from you. I am not his squad."

"I understand." Olivia agreed. "In any case, you are my second-in-command so regardless of rank you won't have to take orders from him. Just help me keep things running, like always."

"I got your back." Fin said with a half-smile.

Olivia smiled gratefully. "You always do." She rose and they went to her office door. "He's bringing some of his squad with him. At least we'll have extra manpower."

They watched as six new detectives and a handful of uniformed officers entered the squad room with their files.

"Let's go." Olivia said. Kat and Amanda fell in behind them. Olivia stopped before the new squad. "Well, uh, welcome to the 1-6. I'm really glad to have you guys. We've freed up some desks for you so find an empty one and make yourselves at home. If you need anything my squad can help. I don't need to tell anyone that it's of the utmost importance we really, really work our hardest to get this case solved in a timely manner." She clapped her hands together and smiled. "Thanks." She and her squad stepped aside and watched the squad room fill up.

"It's nice seeing the squad room filled up like this." Amanda remarked.

"Yeah." Olivia agreed. She ignored the sensation of dread that filled her.

Elliot strode in with two boxes of files in his hands. "Hey, how's it going."

Olivia I nodded briefly. "Welcome."

Elliot shifted the boxes. "Where can I put these?"

"Find a desk." Olivia said stiffly.

"A desk? No office?" Elliot questioned. "What about Cragen's office?"

"You mean my office?" Olivia countered.

"Oh, yeah," Elliot said, "it would be, wouldn't it?" He nodded at Fin. "Hey, Fin."

Fin crossed his arms and gave Elliot a dangerous look.

"Okay." Olivia said with false-cheer. "Let's get to work." She went to her office.

Fin followed and shut the door. "I can't stand that son of a bitch."

"Just," Olivia said brusquely, holding up her hands, "please just help me out here and try and keep your temper in check. If we're lucky this'll be a quick case and they'll be gone."

Her office door opened and Elliot poked his head in. "Hey, had an idea."

"I'm out." Fin said abruptly. He left through the door to the media room, slamming it.

Elliot's eyebrows shot up and he chuckled quietly. He came in. "If we're going to be running this case together then we should work closely. You mind if I set up in here?"

Olivia's jaw dropped in surprise. "What?!"

"It just makes sense," Elliot shrugged, "we need to be able to coordinate and cooperate seamlessly."

"Wh-but-there's no room in here for you!" Olivia stammered.

Elliot put his stuff down on the floor. "Sure there is, just squeeze another desk in here."

Olivia hopped up. "This is my office! You are not going to come in here and just decide you're making changes!"

Elliot gave her a look. "Okay. Just trying to make things easier. But, if this is going to bother you." He started to pick his stuff up.

Olivia sighed raggedly. "No, it doesn't bother me. Just, ugh, fine. Fine." She sat down and shoved her hands through her hair. "Fine."

Elliot smiled optimistically. "Thanks, Liv." He went out to the bullpen.

Olivia groaned dramatically. "Someone shoot me."

Elliot returned pushing a desk in the office and put it perpendicular to Olivia's. "Just like the old days." He smiled at her under his beard.

Olivia rolled her eyes and put her chin in her hand. "Joy of joys." She logged into her laptop and pushed her glasses on.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who needs them." Elliot said.

Olivia glanced at him. Why did he have to look so good in glasses. She smiled unemotionally. "Yep."

Elliot set up his desk and watched her surreptitiously. He put his lamp on the edge of his desk and knocked one of her framed photos over. "Sorry." He picked up the photo. A little boy with large blue eyes and curly hair. "Hey, he's a cutie. This your kid?"

Olivia took the picture and put it back. "Yes."

Elliot looked at the windowsill behind Olivia's desk where there were several photos of the little boy, and Olivia and the boy, Fin and the boy. "How old is he?"

Olivia grabbed her ringing desk line. "Olivia Benson." She took a memo and hung up.

"So, tell me about your son." Elliot requested.

"Why don't we just focus on the case." Olivia suggested. She rose. "Let's go."Elliot followed her out to the bullpen. "Okay, so to review: Courtney Taylor, twenty-six, was found beaten to death in an alleyway on the Lower East Side several days ago. She was known to be part of the drug scene and may have been part of the sex scene as well. Now, as everyone is aware, Lieutenant Stabler's son, Richard, was our main suspect but we have reason to believe that is no longer the case. So, we are back at square one. We have two suspects: a drug dealer by the name of Madd Dogg and a pimp by the name of Daddy Hook. Now, Richard Stabler owed a great deal of money and drugs to Madd Dogg and according to friends of his he may have made a deal with the pimp to pay off that debt. They are both considered suspects in this case."

Fin came to her. "I can talk to my buddies over in Narcotics and try to get some info on the drug dealer."

"Thanks." Olivia said. "I'll parlay with Vice about the pimp." She went to the computers and studied everything.

Elliot stepped up next to her. "You gonna wanna talk to Dickinson again?"

"Probably." Olivia mused.

"I'll have him brought in." Elliot said. "What are you thinking?"

Olivia crossed her arms. "I don't know. Could be either."

"What has he told you?" Elliot asked quietly.

Olivia glanced at him with furrowed brow. "He hasn't talked to you?"

"Uh, we're not exactly no good terms." Elliot said awkwardly.

Olivia looked away and scoffed quietly.

"What?" Elliot questioned.

"Nothing." Olivia said saccharinely. She shrugged.

"Nah, I get what you meant." Elliot said irritably. "Don't jump to conclusions."

"I'm not jumping to any conclusions." Olivia said. "Look, just have him brought in, I want to go over everything with him."

"Fine." Elliot said simply.

"It goes without saying that you won't be in the interrogation." Olivia said behind him.

He stopped for a moment before returning to the office.

Amanda came and stood beside her. "So, that's Stabler. It's so cool. I mean, you two are still legendary in the department."

Olivia smiled patiently. "Another time, another era, Rollins."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I know this is hard," Olivia said gently, "but, I want to start from the beginning. I want to know about the debts, the drug deals, everything.."

Dickie pressed his thumbs on either side of the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Do I have to?"

"Yes." Olivia said. "If you want to clear yourself and find whoever did this."

Dickie sighed loudly. "Okay, after I got out of the Army I tried to work a normal job. By that point I'd already been on pills for a while. A couple friends from high school were still hanging around, I was broke, I'd gotten fired, they offered me a quick way to make money. I started out as a corner mule, dime-bags and stuff. I kept working my way up until I was running a crew. Then I met Dogg. We hung out, we were cool. He started having me run errands for him. Deliveries and whatnot. For the last couple years I'd be working pretty closely with Dogg. When he had me take the shipment and deliver it to the buy, that was just business as usual. I picked it up from the piers and I was taking it to my car. Because of where the pick up location was I had to park and walk. I was almost there when someone hit from behind and took the shipment. It was in a suitcase, one of those oversized rolling bags. When I came to, they were long gone."

"Can you think of anyone who would want to harm you?" Olivia asked.

"Before this, no." Dickie answered. "I mean, rival dealers but I don't think I was high enough inn the ranks to get the attention."

"What about Courtney?" Olivia asked. "Could she have had any enemies that might have targeted you for revenge?"

Dickie shook his head. "She was into drugs but she wasn't a bad person. She had a lot of friends. I can't think of anything she might have done to piss anyone off like this."

"What did she do for a living?" Olivia asked.

"She worked a few days a week at a diner." Dickie answered.

"What diner?" Olivia asked.

"Uh, Delvechio Diner, on 9th." Dickie answered. "It's below the overpass."

"What about you, is there anything you can think of that precluded this?" Olivia asked. "Anything at all?"

Dickie shook his head. "As ironic as it sounds, I was literally just doing my job. I never stole from anyone, I never took anything that wasn't paid for, I paid my debts. I paid my people. I did everything right, if you can live with that word."

Olivia sighed. She smiled tightly. "Okay. If I need anything else I'll give you a call."

"I can go?" Dickie asked.

"Yeah. We'll have a uni give you a ride." Olivia said. She walked out with him.

Elliot gave his son a rough, awkward hug. "I'll talk to you tonight, okay?"

"Okay, dad." Dickie said quietly. "Bye, Liv."

"Bye, hon." Olivia said.

Elliot turned to her. "Wanna take a ride with me?"

"The diner?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah." Elliot said.

"Fine." Olivia sighed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Courtney?" Gloria, waitress at Delvechio Diner, questioned, "haven't seen that girl in ages." She turned to the pass-through and holler for her order. She turned back to them. "She was a sweet kid, but messed up. She was always either coming off a high or she was jonesing for a fix. But, the customers liked her, so we kept her."

"Did she make an enemies while she was here?" Olivia asked.

"Enemies?" Gloria questioned. "Honey, we serve hookers and pimps and all sorts of seedy types looking for a quiet place to have breakfast or dinner. This is one place where nobody makes an enemy. She did her job and she went home."

"Did her boyfriend ever visit?" Olivia asked.

"If she had one she never mentioned him." Gloria said. She turned and called for another order. "You got anymore questions? We're busy."

"That's all, thanks." Olivia said.

They went out to the car and got in where it was warm.

"What are you thinking?" Olivia asked.

Elliot shrugged. "I haven't been sure of anything in years."

Olivia cocked her eyebrows. "That's helpful."

"You know what," Elliot began irritably.

"Let's just go back to the House." Olivia interrupted. She drove them back to the squad room. "Fin, your Narcotics guy get back to you?"

"Not yet." Fin answered.

"We got nothing from the diner." Olivia said. "Courtney was a apparently a very nice girl who had a very bad drug problem."

"Maybe the dealer will give us something." Elliot said.

"Fin." Olivia prompted.

"I'll call him again, light a fire." Fin said.

Olivia went to her office and took out her ringing phone. Elliot sat down at his desk and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

Olivia turned her chair around and laughed at her son on the other end. "I know it's spaghetti night. I bought noodles and sauce and I'm gonna make great big meatballs, like the movie."

Elliot put his chin in his hand and listened in with a smile.

Olivia laughed again. "Did you? Was it fun? I can't wait for you to show me. I gotta go, buddy. I love you, too. I'll be home in a little while." She hung up and turned back around, a smile faint across her face.

"You never told me about your boy." Elliot remarked.

"He has nothing to do with this case." Olivia stated.

Elliot nodded once and scoffed quietly. "Noted."

TBC