1(Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The show, the characters, etc., all belong to that creative genius, Dick Wolf and that big corporation called NBC. Don't sue me!)
(Summary: What happened, after the screen went black on the episode 'Bound?' A little one-shot in Elliot's POV.)
I watch her step out of the interview room, with five-foot-three Emma Spevak, the one person we'd never looked at as a murderer in handcuffs. Olivia's voice has changed - she's not Emma's ally, now. She's arresting her. She hands the nurse off to a uniformed officer to be booked, then slumps against the wall, hand over her eyes. "You okay?" I ask, softly.
She glares at me, the tears still shining in her eyes. "Go away."
"Liv. . . . " Maybe she thinks I was serious, when I yelled at her. "You know I didn't mean that."
"Whatever."
"Talk to me. I know this one hit home."
"What? Just because we both had screwed-up mothers, you think I'm going to be her pen pal when she goes upstate?"
"Tell me. How much of that was fake and how much of it was real?" I cross my arms over my chest.
Olivia throws me another dirty look. "It was a tactic. To get her to admit to things. Don't tell me you've never done that."
"But you put on a pretty damn good show for faking it."
She rolls her eyes, impatiently. "So I was in her shoes. It doesn't mean I believe she has any right to get away with murder, Elliot! I know how she felt, when she was a kid. I know how it feels to be shoved aside, shunned, put into a corner and forgotten about for someone or something else. Emma's mother favored Matt and ignored her daughter, who was always the good girl. My mother would completely forget about me, when she was on a bender. I've been there. And I've been taken for granted more than once."
I raise an eyebrow and Olivia throws up her hands. "You weren't listening, were you? When Matt took off to med school, Emma took care of Mom. Took it for granted that she'd always be there. My mother always expected me to be the good girl, bring home good grades, lie, keep the place clean, take care of myself, and when I got older, I had to clean up her messes, pay her bar tabs - she expected me to be there, no matter how badly she treated me. I can understand where Emma's coming from, but does that stop me for seeing her for what she is? A serial killer? No."
"Liv. . . . " I protest.
"I'm not involved in this one. I just happened to be the one with a screwed-up past. And you treating me like crap reminded Emma of her and Matt - it made her feel like she had an ally, and it convinced her to open her mouth. Her mother didn't love her. Neither did mine. She's a killer. I'm a cop."
I watch her walk away, still unsure if the tears in her eyes were faked or real. She's never turned on the waterworks for a perp, before - hell, I've hardly ever seen her cry. "Olivia?"
"What?" She turns around, glaring at me.
"I'm sorry." I shrug, thinking I owe her some sort of an apology for the way I went blowing in there, even though we'd planned it. I watched her tense, when I got in her face, when we were outside the door. I don't know what that meant, if I was bringing up some bad memory, or if she was just trying to bring up tears, to win Emma's sympathy.
She looks at me, and shakes her head, then keeps on walking.
