(authors note….this feels a bit…stilted, sorry…it does explain a couple of things though, and is needed for something later in the story. I promise I'll try and fix it though)
Three months earlier
Elliot's stomach always did back flips in cases that were big to him. Some came huge, some came tiny. This one had been a whale to land, and a bitch to prosecute. One victim was refusing to come forward, the one that held the key to the attempted murder case. Six counts of rape was nothing to be sneezed at though.
He glanced across the courtroom at a woman seated in the very back row. She kept fidgeting with her hair, tugging on one black ringlet, pulling it to her mouth and chewing it absently. Alex Cabot, turned around, glanced at him, then her gaze crossed to where he was staring and her eyes widened. Elliot saw the hesitant wave And Alex turning around and murmuring something to her first chair, then glanced back to another member of the audience, jerking her eyes in the direction of the woman. Elliot nearly jumped out of his skin when Jack McCoy turned around and looked over at her. The woman seemed rattled by that, and her gaze dropped. Intrigued, he watched her for a bit. Eventually, she looked up meeting his eyes.
Like being electrocuted, her eyes shocked his normally calm demeanour out of the window. Electric hazy purple, huge, they met his eyes and then skittered off as she rose and practically fled the room. Elliot just kinda sat there, then shaking his head returned his attention to the court.
Once the verdict had been handed down, the knot in his stomach eased somewhat. Adrian Jordaine would be locked up for a long time. He watched Jack leave the room and waited for Alex.
"Ok, I guess you knew her then?" he said, aiming for casual. The purple eyes had rattled him: they looked unreal.
"Who?"
"The woman that bolted when Jack spotted her. Black hair, snow white skin, the most vivid light purple eyes…." he replied.
Alex frowned at him
"She was a previous witness who had gotten really distressed. The judge had conducted her fact-finding in a closed court right at the beginning," Alex said, avoiding his gaze. Elliot nodded.
"Witness to the stabbing?" he said.
"You could say that," Alex said, opening the courtroom door.
Jack McCoy pushed the courtroom door open and looked around. He spotted the black hair first: seated on the windowsill, she had her back to the courtroom door. She was playing with her curls, again. Jack knew why.
"Ceriys?" he said, gently, low, as he approached. She started, jumping off the windowsill and overbalancing and he stepped forward, almost scooping her into his arms. He remembered doing this when she was a child, and suddenly longed to take her back to then, "He can't harm you any more little one," he continued, catching her. She struggled briefly, then fell into his chest. He pulled her up and held her as she cried all fight going out of her.
Alex and Elliot stepped out into the hall a few minutes later, Jack still cradling Ceriys.
"I have to go talk…" she said, walking away. The woman that Jack was holding wasn't fighting; seemed to only be able to cry. Elliot caught the edge of what looked to be a very ugly scar before he turned away. He knew exactly who she was now.
Adrian had tried to murder his ex-wife. She would by Mrs Harper-Jordaine.
What Jack's involvement was though, was anyone's guess.
Present Day – Giannieras eatery
Olivia picked her way through the tables of Alex's choice of lunch places. Twenty minutes late as she was, she still walked slowly to the table. Alex had company, a red haired woman who was sipping her water and looking only at Alex. As Olivia approached, she realised she knew the woman.
"Don't I know you?" Olivia said when she made it to the table. She looked up, intense violet eyes startling Olivia into total stillness. And then she smiled.
"Yeah, I would think so. Around a month ago you attended my brother's apartment. Your partner busted my chops for a bit," Olivia frowned then smiled in acknowledgment.
"Ceriys right?"
"Kara. Most people call me Charisma, though you're right, my first name is Ceriys" she said, moving to stand up.
"Oh, don't stand on ceremony…!" she said, and sat down, then looked at Alex.
"You said I was meeting a friend,"
"And you are," Alex smiled. "Ceriys Charisma Harper Jordaine, I'd like you to meet Detective Olivia Benson. Olivia, Kara joins us as our new Assistant DA," Alex said. "I thought it might be better for you to know so that you can at least temper Elliot a little. Kara isn't the best of people to startle,"
"Alex, don't,"
"You have to tell the people you work with of your limitations Kara. I'm not doing this because I want to, I'm doing this because you might end up hurting one of the men in there,"
"I'm not that bad,"
"You just about broke your assistant's wrist when he snuck up on you a couple of weeks ago,"
"Hang on, Alex….. Harper-Jordaine…?" Olivia began.
"I'm divorced," she said simply.
"Jordaine though. You mean Adrian Jordaine…" she persisted.
"I might, I might not," she responded.
"Please tell me you're not the woman he tried to kill…."
"Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies," she said, peeling back her shirt. An ugly scar ran along her neckline "I'd appreciate it if this wasn't raised when talking to anyone in your unit," she added.
"We prosecuted him last month for the rape of six women," Olivia persisted. "How long have you been divorced?"
"Three years, and I know," Kara said, a hand dropping to her stomach and the other rising to cover her mouth. Excusing herself she left the table, and Alex sighed.
"I don't think its what you said as much as nerves," she called after her, and Kara shook her head.
"She was the unnamed…" Olivia said, rolling her eyes.
"Elliot kept pushing about the closed file, he kept pushing me to make her come forward, kept telling me to get the DA's office to lean on her. Was I supposed to tell you both that it was Jack's goddaughter that he was married to?"
"How did you manage to suppress it?"
"We didn't. Elliot was there when her full name was read in court, and passed her in the corridor. He saw her in court the day sentencing was handed down. Had he been there the first morning he would have seen her pass out and Jack to have reacted the way any concerned family member would. He kept saying her eyes bothered him. She wears coloured contact lenses to cover her real eye colour, and she'd briefly dyed her hair black. He recognised her violet eyes though," Alex said, looking around the quiet restaurant.
"Is she the one that is pregnant?" Olivia bit her lip; the answer had already presented itself.
"Yep," Alex said, taking a sip of wine. "I wanted you to get to know her before she gets thrown in at the deep end. It'll be bad enough for her the first time she talks to Elliot,"
