Law and Order: SVU is the intellectual property of Dick Wolf. CSI is the intellectual property of Anthony E. Zuiker. The use of the characters, settings, and plotlines is not malicious. This is a work of fiction.

"Blood in the back of the van tested positive for blood," Catherine yelled, holding up a thin swab. She held it by the plastic cap and dropped it into its box as she stepped closer to Olivia and Elliot. "Fin and Nicky are vacuuming the carpets and checking for prints." She pushed her sunglasses up further on her nose with her middle finger and asked, "What'd you get?"

"A whole lot of nothing," Elliot said, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the glaring sun, one hand shuffling around in his pocket for his shades. "Hanlin isn't here, the guy running the show in his place doesn't know where he is, but, uh," he paused to slide his sunglasses onto his face. "He very kindly gave us Hanlin's home address."

Catherine raised a brow and grinned, but the gleam in her eyes was hidden by the dark lenses. "He just offered that up, huh?"

Elliot licked his lips and smirked. "I can be very persuasive."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Intimidating and threatening, is more accurate." She hit him in the stomach with the back of her hand. She looked back at Catherine. "We were told that Hanlin came to work this morning, grabbed a black bag out of the trailer, left the van here and took off in a red pickup." She wagged a small spiral notebook in the air. "Got the tag numbers, it's a company car."

"Wow," Catherine said, impressed. "You really are, uh, persuasive, huh?"

The three of them shared a laugh, and then looked up at the other two people heading for them. There was loud chatter echoing their way, and both men looked ready to drop the boxes and mags in their hands.

Catherine held up both hands and ran, getting between the two of them before any of the evidence could be compromised. "Hey! What is going on here?"

"Professional differences," Nick spat, glaring at Fin. He looked to his left, catching Olivia's eyes, and he seemed to relax. "We got a lot of trace to go through," he jostled the box in his hands, wiggling the plastic and paper bags around. "Hodges is going to have a field day."

Fin held up the large paper bag in his hands. "Cut out a good chunk of the bloody carpet," he said with a nod. "Stokes called Brass, they're sending a tow truck out here to grab the van."

Elliot licked his lips and rested his hands on his hips. "That guy," he shook his head. "Smug bastard." He exhaled harshly and then said, "We need to head out to the…"

"Bookstore," Nick said with a nod. "We know. It's less than a block from here, that's the whole…"

"No, we got a lead on Hanlin," Olivia interrupted. She ignored the bit of annoyed hurt appearing in Nick's eyes. "He isn't here, we need to head out to his place before he makes a run for it."

Nick took a step toward her. "What? We're not done here! We have to go through everything they poured since last night, and we have a mountain of evidence, here, we have to get it all back to the lab before…"

"Hey!" Catherine yelled. When all of the heads were turned in her direction, she tossed her keys to Elliot. "You two, take the ride to Hanlin's, we will finish up here and then walk over to the bookstore and see what else we can get, and I'll call Sara to meet us with another car." She shrugged. "Problem solved."

"Thanks, Cath," Olivia sighed, shooting her a grateful look. She gave Elliot a shove toward the black Jeep, hoping to avoid any more awkward moments with Nick. They got into the car, and almost immediately, Olivia flipped open the notebook to punch the address into the GPS.

"Is that what I was like?" Elliot started the car and backed out of the makeshift space as carefully as he could, avoiding piles of wood and concrete. He shot a quick look over toward Olivia. "You know, uh, when I was...before we…" he cleared his throat. "Well, I know I was jealous, but was I ever that obnoxious?"

Olivia chuckled. "You were worse," she told him. "Whenever a guy hit on me, you'd move in like starved panther. You'd act like I was yours, and he had no right to even breathe the same air as me."

"You were," he shrugged, turning the wheel when the robotic voice told him to, "He didn't." He took a deep breath, finding a bit of solace in how much easier it was to do so now, and he said, "That's what I need you to understand, here," he gave her another furtive glance. "I always thought of you as mine, that's why we...happened. The way we did wasn't exactly something out of a Nicholas Sparks novel, but we…"

"You know who Nicholas Sparks is?" she interrupted him, a humored expression on her face.

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Only because I have daughters," he told her. "I'm trying to tell you...the reason I would bare my fangs for any guy who gave you that kind of attention...was because I knew we weren't...official. We were, technically, having an affair...for a long time, I was afraid that...no, I knew that it wasn't enough. I wasn't enough for you. I ran them off to give myself more time."

"And you honestly think I didn't know?" Olivia spoke. "El, I played the game right beside you. I only went out with them to scare you into making a choice. Either let me go or find a way to…"

"Keep you," he finished for her, and he reached over to her side of the car and grabbed her hand, letting his thumb run lightly over the rings on her finger. "That's exactly what I fucking did." He let out another extensive breath. "And now he's looking at me the way I always looked at Porter. And that reporter, who…" he caught a glimpse of her out of the corners of his eyes. "I really don't have anything to worry about, I know that."

"Good," she said, and then she said, "You're gonna miss the turn, you talked over the GPS." She pointed and then laughed when he turned the wheel hard, making the Jeep swerve and tires squeal. "You want one of these, don't you?"

"If we ever move to a place with rough terrain, yes, but these aren't exactly practical in the city, baby," he chuckled. "We wouldn't even need a car if we didn't live in Queens."

"Correction," she said, raising a finger. "You live in Queens. I still have a place in Midtown." She tilted her head. "I suppose I have to call my landlord, huh? Officially break my lease?"

Elliot nodded and gave another happy sounding laugh. "You haven't spent a single night there in months, and that last time was because Kathy took the kids to see Hamilton and they spent the night at her place." He furrowed his brow. "Why were you still…"

"Security," she told him with a small shrug. "We weren't...um, you know there was always that thought in the back of my mind, one day you'd wake up and realize that I wasn't what you wanted. I thought I needed a place to go if…"

"Never," he spat harshly. "That would have never happened, even if we didn't…"

"Get drunk and get married?" she chimed in, running her hands through her hair. "My headache's finally going away."

He rolled his eyes and smirked at her. "You really thought I would…"

"Yeah," she said, but her tone was somber, her mood dark, her eyes focused on her lap. "El, you don't...you don't get it, okay? You getting jealous of Kurt Moss made very little sense, he meant next to nothing to me, and I had absolutely no problem dumping his ass. But I had to sit in the shadows of your life, watching you with a wife, and kids, and there was always that fear...that even if I managed to drag you away from her, the ties you had to her, because of your history and your children...would be enough to drag you back.

He pulled the Jeep over to the curb, parking it in front of Hanlin's place. Turning fast, he took her hands in his and looked at her, a serious stare. "No one is ever going to pull me away from you," he whispered to her. "No one is ever even going to try. They know better. Because all they have to do is look at me, see me looking at you, and they'll know they don't have a fucking prayer."

She smiled at him, slanted herself forward, and kissed him quickly. "Then we're good," she said with a wink. Her focus was pulled toward the house and the driveway, and she said, "Red pickup. He's home."

Instantly, they were in cop-mode, hands reaching for their badges as they exited the Jeep. In step, they walked up the path to the front door. Elliot held up his badge as he knocked on the door. "Mister Hanlin, police! Open up!"

They were met with silence, and Elliot pounded on the door again, causing it to creak open slightly. "That's not good," he whispered, clipping his badge down and picking his gun up, then stepping slightly in front of Olivia. He kicked the door open and aimed the gun, looking around the front room.

Olivia had her gun in her hands as well, readying it and walking with him. She tapped on the shoulder, then jutted her chin, telling him to head into the next room while she went forward into the kitchen. "Mister Hanlin?" she yelled, cautiously raising her gun and moving slowly.

"Liv!" Elliot yelled for her, "In here."

She turned and ran toward Elliot, gun high, but as soon as she walked into the bedroom, she lowered her gun. "Awesome," she scoffed. She slipped her gun into her holster and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She dialed as she said, "This is just fucking perfect."

He wrapped his hand around her arm as he stared down at the body of Roger Hanlin. He popped his head around to her when he heard her voice.

"Gris," she said, and then she smiled slightly. "Yeah, I am. Listen, we, uh...we found Hanlin. No, well, he's dead. We need another team out...no, they're all still at the construction...she did? Great, okay. No, we'll look around here, and when they get here, I'll call you. Thanks." She noticed the befuddled expression on Elliot's face. "Catherine already called and told him where we went, so he has the address. He's sending Warrick and Greg out here, and told us to see what we could find on our own, as long as we don't touch…"

"Same rules as home," he nodded. "Don't touch the body." He ran his hand up and down her arm. "You sure you're okay? You feeling better about...everything?"

She nodded. "This is gonna take longer, now, isn't it?" She looked at him, worried.

He smiled at her. "You'll have more time with Grissom," he said with a shrug. "Look at the silver lining." He let his hand fall away from her and he checked his watch. "I need to call Cragen, we told him we'd check in."

Olivia watched him make a phone call of his own as she slipped her cell into her pocket. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that he was about to start the cycle, the first lie in what would be a snowball effect of them. She blew a slow breath out through her mouth as she dropped her gaze. "What the fuck happened here?" she asked softly to no one, but someone was about to give her an answer, loudly and clearly.

Peace and Love

Jo