So. About two months ago I decided I was going to begin watching Law and Order: SVU from the very beginning. Until that point I'd seen a few random episodes, liked the characters - but the prospect of getting invested seemed overwhelming given the sheer volume of episodes. Thanks to COVID and numerous lockdowns, that changed - and I'm so glad it did!
That being said, as much as I've been itching to attempt to write some SVU content for quite some time, I admit I felt incredibly intimidated at the prospect; there's something to be said about the complexity of the characters and this show - and I felt daunted at the challenge of writing them..right as someone who is very much a 'first-timer' so to speak. You get me?
Here's me dipping my toes in with a little introspective ficlet / thoughtpiece, though. Would love to hear your thoughts!
His first thought upon meeting her for the first time - on a dreary February morning in 1998 as she slipped out of Cragen's office with an inquisitive half-smile - had been that she was nothing like his wife. She'd sidled up to his desk and introduced herself before the captain had made it past the doorframe, holding out a hand for him to shake - solid, warm and tanned, with fingernails bitten to the quick.
No, nothing like his wife.
In retrospect, the unfiltered sentiment that his brain had plucked of thin air should have been enough of a sign. He'd interpreted it differently at the time; with a strange sort of relief, perhaps, that he was partnered with the exact opposite of the woman he'd married, the mother of his children.
The contrast between both women had felt safe. She was nothing like who he'd fallen in love with and he'd clung onto that reminder for a little while; as long as possible, really.
Whereas Kathy was slight and fair, classically beautiful and exuding a quiet yet determined gentleness that had weaved delicate tendrils around his heart at seventeen, Olivia was almost Amazonian in stature and gait, and seemed positively boisterous in comparison; all toothy grins and deep belly laughs, liquid-dark eyes flashing with mischief as she slouched uncouthly at her desk during those all-too-frequent nighttime call-ins, delivering quick slaps to his hand when he attempted to steal gum from her desk. Though she was only younger by a couple of years, her heart was relentless and her youthfulness seemed exuberant in a way that he found captivating and unnerving - and made him feel all of his thirty-six years.
If Kathy was slow to anger, simmering to a boiling point punctuated by cold, deafening silence stretched out over days until a tenuous truce was established, Olivia's temper was hot; a quick punch to the gut, an onslaught of insults and words so filthy they'd make a sailor blush, her mouth curling into a grimace with every sonofabitch she spat out. Fights with her dissolved almost as quickly as they'd begun, lingering tension eased with subtle acknowledgements. Their first truly ugly argument, almost a year into their partnership, had left her face flushed with anger. He's long forgotten the cause of their disagreement, but of course (of course) he remembers observing, eyes wide, as the color had bloomed in her cheeks, across her chest, before she spun on her heel and stormed off to cool down.
Not an hour later later she'd returned to find he'd slid a napkin containing a Krispy Kreme onto her desk.
He'd let out a quiet huff. Sorry.
She'd rolled her eyes, quirking a thin eyebrow, and had taken a bite of the doughnut, smirking around her mouthful.
'Thanks.'
'Welcome.'
He'd wondered about synchronization and trust and why sometimes, the smell of metal, gunpowder and her shampoo - lingering after months spent shoulder-to-shoulder scouring monsters and filth from the city's ruthless streets - felt like home.
Don't hold me to this but considering maybe making this into a sort of series/three-shot; if I can get the tone right. This something anyone would be interested in?