Chapter 10 – Part 2 – 2009

Elliot heals quick, or maybe he just can't stand to not be working, so he comes back in what seems to be record breaking time. After receiving a bullet to the chest, Elliot took a step back, not necessarily by choice. He had spent the time recouping at home, which Olivia knew was probably killing him.

She could tell he was bored, irritable even. He would text her every once in a while during the day to see how things were going at the office. She didn't reply to the questions at first, opting instead to ask him how he was or if he needed anything. She thought it might be better for him to not be thinking about all of it for even a little while.

But he's nothing if not a stubborn son of a bitch. After a couple days of keeping him out of the loop on the cases, he took to calling her. It caught her off guard the first time. Seeing his name come up on her phone at half past midnight made her body go rigid, her natural response was thinking something was wrong.

She had answered hurriedly but was met with a calm, whispered voice. "Heya, partner."

"What the fuck, Elliot?" She wasn't particularly mad, but this was the time for sleeping, not for having a heart attack because her brain thought instantly to gun shot wound complications.

"I just wanted to know how things were going. You weren't talking about it." She rolls her eyes for a second before giving in. She gave him the run down on all the open cases she had sitting on her desk. The days following, she gave him any new updates she had. It became a routine for the couple weeks he was off.

Olivia was really never a huge fan of talking about work when she was off, not wanting to think about it anymore than she needs to, but she was willing to make an exception for the time being. His voice was always low and she was positive Kathy and the kids were asleep by the time he was calling. The first couple times made her slightly uncomfortable, the slow, quiet undertones making her think back to the times she would try and keep her boyfriends' conversations hidden from her mother.

She got over that feeling quickly enough, instead landing on how funny the whole thing was. She thought back to a time she would have let Elliot Stabler's call go straight to voicemail - a time she where she all but loathed even having to hear the man's voice. Now, here she sits at one in the morning, answering all his questions and gossiping about what he was missing at the office.

"When are you coming back?" She had asked one night when she felt the conversation starting to dwindle. She's missed him while he was out on injury… missed the normalcy of him.

"Miss me already?" He had responded with a little chuckle.

"Psh. Miss not having to pick up all the slack around the place while you're busy sleeping, sure." She fired back.

"Yeah, well, it's no picnic here either."

She stopped before asking... she always stopped herself from asking him anything personal. Ever since the Gitano case, she's felt hesitant, nervous even. She remembers the conversation they had in the hospital often, her desperate 'What about me?' rings through her ears whenever they approach the line.

She must have been quiet longer than she thought because he gives a quick "I should be back soon," followed by, "Alright, gotta go. Night."


Olivia hadn't realized how slow time went without Elliot around. While he was gone, she was more or less on her own – Fin and Munch had their own cases they were working together. She realized in the time that Elliot was gone that she had come to rely on him, come to actually enjoy being partnered with him more than she enjoyed working alone.

She almost hated that about herself.

When he finally returned to full duty, they fell right back into their routine. He helped her wrap up the cases she had told him about over the phone and in turn they got another pile of cases to start on.

One case was particularly frustrating for the whole team. They had found a woman in central park with the word 'guilty' written across her forehead. The case should have ended as soon as it started, Fin and Munch having found a bloody knife at the scene of the lead suspect's apartment. That was, until the new forensic technician went and messed it all up, cross contaminating the sample or some shit.

Now it's not that no one can make a mistake, everybody has at some point. But it's so difficult to not get upset when that mistake forces a judge to throw out any evidence and let the man who most likely murdered an innocent woman go.

It gets even harder when the murder is more or less repeated and they find another body on Coney Island – another woman killed with the same word written on her forehead. This all could have been prevented, they know it, and it hits the office like a brick.

The squad takes their anger and frustration out the new forensic tech, the one who contaminated the sample. He was early twenties, probably right out of college. Elliot was laying it on him the hardest, surprise, while Olivia kept mostly out of it. She tried her best instead to keep Stabler off the kid's back but even she's unable to stop him from running his mouth most of the time.

From there on, the case took a bunch of twists and turns. Munch had to meet up and talk with his ex-wife, a conspiracy theorist who got them in touch with some anonymous people who could help the case. Then, they weren't able to find any DNA on the newest victim, but instead found a mosquito that may have bitten the perp, so they were running tests on it to see if it matched the previous DNA. Who knew a bug could be used to convince someone?

And in the latest turn, they uncover a message that was left at the crime scene that leads them to believe the original killer may be after the judge who is trying the case: Judge Donnelley. They had a team sent over to search the place, make sure it was safe. Even after deeming the place ok, they tried to urge the judge to go to a hotel for the night, for safekeeping, but she wouldn't go… said she 'didn't run'.

Not even two seconds later, the woman goes to sit down and ends up finding the pointed end of a loaded syringe hidden in her office chair. She goes limp immediately, Elliot thankfully being close enough to catch her. At the hospital, they find her to have been injected with potassium chloride, same thing they use in lethal injection. Thankfully, they got her there before the effects were irreversible.

She was going to be okay, but soon after hearing the 'good' news, Benson and Stabler got a call back to office, from the forensic lab. O'Halloran had something he thought they should see, something that couldn't be discussed over the phone.

Olivia chose to stay back, ask some more questions, and make sure the judge didn't have any further complications when she woke up. She had been busy at the hospital, asking doctors questions about the injection and the judge's condition, seeing if she could get any information that would help the case. When she was wrapping up, she thought to check her phone, see if anything Elliot had said needed expanded on by a medical professional. But oddly enough, Elliot hadn't called yet. Looking at the time, she thought the results should have been in by now, so she gave him a quick ring, see what gives.

"Hi, Liv!" Her first thought was something along the lines of what the fuckfollowed shortly with that's not Elliot.

"Dale? Where's Elliot?"

"Oh, he and O'Halloran went for a bite to eat, left his phone on the desk. What a dummy right?"

"Weren't they waiting for the DNA?" She wasn't going to say anything, this was obviously off but she wasn't going to give her suspicion away.

"Hasn't popped yet. But they shouldn't be long, popped out for sushi." He replied back so coolly, but she was triggered. The words alone made her whole body go rigid… something was wrong.


Elliot wakes through blurry eyes. It takes a moment, but they finally focus on none other than Dale Stuckey's ugly twerp face a couple of paces in front of him.

"Surprised huh? Yeah, I bet you are." He's got that stupid grin on his stupid face and he wonders for a moment how he got in this situation, how he let Stuckey get a leg up on him. "You didn't think I could do anything right, huh?"

He's still trying to regain his bearings. He can feel the lump on his head forming and the blood running down the back of his neck. He wonders for a moment how long he had been out, obviously long enough to be duct taped to a lab chair.

"You shouldn't have been mean to me. You were always making fun of everything I do and say." He's getting more and more agitated as he talks and starts showing how crazy he really is.

He won't stop talking, even confesses to murdering the girl on Coney Island as well as Dr. O'Halloran. That's when he tells Elliot he's going to be next… as if he was just tied up to this chair for no reason.

"You gonna kill anyone who ever hurt your feelings?" It's a distraction technique, a dangerous one for someone who is no position to be taunting this guy.

It's weird for a second, out of all the perps he's ever encountered, never did he think someone like Dale fucking Stuckey would be the one who does him in. Hell, he just got shot clean in the chest by a group of mobsters and here he is, about to be slashed to death by a dorky man half his size.

His internal frustration causes him to miss the sound of the lab doors opening. Stuckey clearly hears it though because he takes the gun and runs out of sight.

He hears her before he sees her and his heart sinks even more.

"Elliot?"

She's getting too close; she needs to leave. He tries to shake his head as big as he can, hoping he can convey something to her since he can't say anything.

"Don't move!" Stuckey yells from behind her and she freezes. She gives him a weird look before he sees the worry flash in her eyes. She pushes it down before slowly turning around.

"Dale? Dale."

"Put you gun down." He says sternly, holding Elliot's gun at Olivia. Elliot heart clenches at the thought of his weapon hurting her.

She lowers her gun before finally meeting Dale's face.

"What are you doing here Liv? I didn't want to have to you to hurt you too." They can both see the look on his face and knows that's a genuine reflection. Olivia was nice to him... Olivia is nice to everyone.

"You don't have to."

"I don't have much of a choice now, you've seen a little much."

"Let's all just calm down." She says in that whisper register she uses all the time. It's so calming even Elliot is able to take a breath. But then she continues. "You did good, really good."

"What?"

Elliot's eyes shoot back up… his sentiments exactly.

"Well, it's pretty clear what happened here. One of Harrison's crazy followers must have got in here, he attacked these two… You found them, you secured the scene, and then you called me."

"I did?" The younger man's face is contorted in confusion. Elliot is trying to remain calm; he trusts her, but this is taking an odd turn and he's can't help but wonder where she's going with it.

"That what I'm gonna tell Cragen. And you can finagle the forensics so everyone else believes it too." She's turned to look at him now, her original worried look gone.

"SVU hero killed in the line of duty. It's perfect." She's oddly convincing, enough that he can feel the sweat building in the palm of his hands.

"You're lying. You're lying." Dale cries out from behind her. He's not looking at Stuckey though, he can only look at Liv. Her eyes have since changed; her lips turned up in what could be taken as pure disgust. He swallows, the duct tape over his mouth tugging at the hair on his face with every move he makes.

"You think that you're the only one who's life is hell because of this prick?" She slaps him, hard. "Liv, do this." Another slap, this one harder than the last. "Liv do that. I'm sick of it." Her voice is stern, unwavering through all of it.

She pulls the duct tape from his mouth, Stuckey objecting behind her. Their eyes are still locked and he's searching for something to tell him that this is all a ploy. She looks angry and he almost recognizes this look. He's seen it years ago when he took her punching bag at the gym, when they all but took each other out in the bureau's locker room. He swallows hard.

"I want to hear him scream."

"Both of you shut up!" Stuckey breaks their connection. "Hit him again."

She does and this one is hard enough that it almost knocks him back out.

"If you only knew half of what he's done. Someone needs to take him out." She says as she turns back to face Stuckey. He's more worried now that he can't see her face. His brain is still swimming somewhere in his skull from the last slap and he's unable to really grasp onto a single focal point, but he listens intently as she talks.

"And when he's out, I'm gonna need a new partner." He catches and his head reels again, not from the pain this time. His heart thuds again at her words. New partner.

He picks back up somewhere in the middle of her monologue… "We get each other, we're connected."

She's got Stuckey by the hand at this point, holding it, running her thumb over the pale skin at the back. It's probably soft, unlike his own. Elliot hears his heartbeat in his ears, feels it in his head. He honestly feels like he wants to either throw up or murder this guy.

He sees Stuckey turn over his shoulder, aiming the gun straight at him. He urges his body not to flinch, not to let him see it, but it's something he can't control. His body all but curls in on itself and sucks in a breath as he closes his eyes.

"Wait, wait a second… I want him to watch." Olivia's soft voice draws him out. He knows he's not out of the woods but something about it calms him too.

"Watch what?"

"Watch this."

He wishes he hadn't opened his eyes. Fuck, he wishes he didn't have eyes.

Olivia is hesitant and she can almost see the moment she thinks about backing out, but she goes for it. She leans in and presses her lips firmly against the other man's. The moment they meet, Elliot feels all of the air leave his body. It feels like sinking, it feels like burning, it feels like he just got shot in the chest again.

His lungs feel deprived of air for the duration of the kiss. He can't control his body and he's sure his face has something unmistakable on it, something he hopes she doesn't see.

She opens her eyes slowly and gives him a look, one he almost misses because he's still so focused on her mouth. But he sees it enough to react. Olivia has fully moved Dale during the kiss - must have been a damn good kiss for the dude to be so lost in.

He's so fucking bitter about it and he takes it out on the kid's balls. It's enough to get his hands off his fucking partner and enough for Olivia to deliver the knockout blow.

He's still stunned when she cuts him free, he'll blame it on the blood loss. His wrists are sore but he's standing now and she's placing his jacket back on his shoulders for him. Her arm gently touching him as she moves.

"How'd you know?" It's all he can think to say, afraid of anything else that may come out of his mouth. They both are looking down at Stuckey… he resists the urge to beat the shit out of him.

"Stuckey said you went to get sushi. You and raw fish?" He looks at her then, wants to say something about how good of an actress she is, but he refrains, worried to break this moment between them. Instead, he gives a small laugh at her joke and let's everything else remain unspoken.


A/N: Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a good day. I got to watch this ep again and I always forget how amazing it is (and also how Jealous I am of Noel Fisher :P). Also, the look on El's face at the end of this just absolutely sends me... THAT MAN IS IN LOVE.