Cragen stood outside the interrogation room, watching Fin and Olivia with the suspect. Though she'd changed back into regular clothes, he was still getting flashbacks of her in that dress. He sighed as he imagined the next few days ahead of him were going to be difficult. Melinda Warner appeared next to him then, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Seems I missed the show," she said, her little smile firmly in place.
"It made it all the way down to the medical examiner's office?"
"News like that dress? She'll be lucky if her desk isn't papered in pictures of it in the morning" she said. Cragen nodded, a little smile on his face now.
"She will be hearing about it for a while," he said, but Melinda picked up on the discomfort in his voice and thoughtfully changed the subject.
"Pull them out, he's not the guy," she said.
Cragen stuck his head inside the interrogation room,
"Can I talk to you two for a minute?" he said. Liv and Fin filed outside.
"I think I know what killer means," Melinda told them.
"Yeah, him," Fin gestured toward their suspect.
"Doc doesn't think so," Cragen said.
"Lydon Grant had AIDS, just like Robin Weller," Melinda said.
"Well, that's not a surprise. They were lovers," Liv said.
"They both had the same strain of HIV, the so-called killer strain. It progresses from infection to death in less than a year. It's resistant to most drugs, first time I've ever seen it," Melinda explained.
"If Robin and Lydon had unprotected sex with anyone else they could have infected other partners," Liv realized.
"Making them both killers," Cragen said, nodding.
"Damn it," Fin cursed and stormed out of the room. Cragen followed him.
Cragen found Fin staring out at the rain.
"Fin, everything okay?"
"Yeah…yeah, I'm good," he said. The two men fell into silence. Voices drifted down the hall,
"You saw her?" asked the first voice.
"I was there, man!" said a second voice, giving a whistle, "she looked so hot, struttin' around the street. And then she chased down and tackled that perp! You should have been there."
"Wish I had been…"
The voices drifted away. Fin could see a hint of a smile on Cragen's face.
"She did look good," Fin said as they headed back into the squad room, but Cragen didn't answer. Fin continued, "and the way she was running in that dress, perp didn't stand a chance." Fin smiled as he spotted his bag hidden under Liv's desk, secretly pleased.
"She flew when you gave the signal," Cragen said eventually, "I was going to tell her to stay behind, but she was already gone."
"She wouldn't have listened anyway. Can't stop her."
"I know," he said, then turned to look at Fin, "I'm still impressed she ran that fast in those shoes though."
Liv turned to watch their 'killer', while Melinda watched her.
"Everything okay?" Mel asked.
"Oh, yeah. Fin just found out his son is gay, he's taking this all a little rough," Liv said.
"I was asking about you," Melinda said. Liv's eyes shot up,
"Fin told you about the guy in the alley?" she asked, incredulous. By the surprise she saw in Melinda's eyes she knew Fin hadn't broken her confidence. Liv turned and walked a few steps away.
"What happened?" Melinda asked softly. Liv was silent for a while.
"On the way to the stakeout a guy grabbed me. I fought him off," she said eventually.
"Did he hurt you?" Melinda asked, coming up beside her.
"No, I'm fine."
"But he scared you," Melinda said. Liv looked up at her then, her eyes glassy, biting her lower lip.
"Yeah," she said.
"Oh, baby," Melinda said, enveloping her in a hug. Liv wrapped her arms around Melinda too, after a moment. She took a few deep breaths but wouldn't let herself cry, not in the stationhouse.
"Thanks Mel," Liv said when she felt her control returning. Melinda let her pull out of the hug but she stayed close.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay now. Had a little trouble when reality settled in after it was all over though. It could have turned out so differently…" Liv's voice trailed off as her lip trembled. Melinda rubbed her arm.
"You're not going to be alone tonight, are you?" she asked Liv.
"No, Elliot got home a few hours ago. Called me while we were on our way to the stakeout," she smiled, "didn't like the idea I wasn't wearing a wire." Melinda smiled, but then they were interrupted by their captive,
"Hey!" the guy yelled, pulling on the doorknob, "anybody out there?" Melinda raised her eyebrow at Liv, who just shrugged her shoulders and headed out of the room. Melinda followed her out.
"Do you need a ride home?" she asked.
"Yeah, thanks," Liv nodded, then raised her voice, "Fin! I'm heading out," she called. Fin stuck his head out of Cragen's office,
"K, I'll dump him back in the tank."
"Thanks," she said as Fin disappeared back into the office. Liv bent to retrieve a small bag from under her desk.
"Is that it?" Melinda asked, peeking into the bag. Liv nodded, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Come on, let's not keep Elliot waiting."
a/n: general consensus here seemed to be our special friend should be Elliot. I'm submitting another version with another pairing elsewhere (passion and perfection - O/M).
hope you liked it :)