A/N: Bored, LSM...this is for you.
But it isn't the next day that she sees him. Rather, it's three days later before she hears footsteps and looks up just in time to see Munch walking into the squad room.
"Nice to see you've finally decided to grace us with your presence," Elliot tells him dryly. "Where've you been?"
"Nowhere that concerns you," Munch replies, glancing at the paperwork on his desk. "There's no way in hell this is all mine."
"You want to take off for two weeks, that's what happens," Fin says, smirking in his partner's direction. "It builds up."
"Why do I have the feeling that half of this is yours?" Munch asks in reply, and Fin shrugs.
"You want to go through it, that's on you," he says, "But I'll tell you now none of it's mine."
"We'll see," says Munch. He leans forward as if to start going through it, but the phone rings and he reaches for that, instead.
"There's a fine way to start your first morning back," says Elliot. He pushes one of the files on his desk onto Olivia's and she looks over at him.
"What?" she asks.
"Look at that one and then look at the one we have now," he says. "See any similarities?" Olivia sighs and opens the folder, holding it next to the one already open on her own desk.
"Yeah," she says, "Both victims are brunette with green eyes."
"Think it could be the same guy?"
"Might be." She closes the file and pushes it over to him again, glancing to the desks across the room. Munch and Fin are both gone, presumably to answer the call that just came in. Elliot notices her looking and rolls his eyes.
"What is it with you and them?" he asks.
"Nothing," Olivia replies, "There's nothing." Not with Fin, anyways, she adds silently.
"Then why do you keep looking over there?" Elliot asks. She gives him a look.
"There something wrong with that?" she asks coolly.
"No," he tells her, "It's just weird. You've been doing it for the past two weeks."
"Maybe I have a problem with colleagues disappearing for no reason," Olivia says vaguely.
"But you know why they're gone," Elliot points out. "They went to answer a call." Olivia rolls her eyes.
"I'm not having this conversation with you," she tells him bluntly. "You want to think there's something going on, go ahead."
"Is there?" Elliot asks, more than likely just to be annoying. She scowls at him.
"I already told you there wasn't," she says. "Why can't you just believe me?"
"I never said I didn't."
"Well, you're acting like it." The phone on her desk rings before he can answer her back and she reaches for it.
"What?" A few seconds pass in silence as she writes down an address and then hangs up. "You coming with me, or not?"
"I'm your partner, aren't I?" Elliot asks in reply. He reaches behind him for his coat and rises to his feet. "Let's go."
Olivia glares at him, but doesn't reply; reaching for her own coat, she rises to her feet and follows him out of the squad room.
"Where are we going?" he asks. She shoves the address at him, pushing the precinct doors open before he can do it for her and stepping outside into the cold, ignoring him as he walks behind her.
"Why are you doing this?" he asks, and she turns to face him, startled as she yanks the driver's side door open to get it.
"Doing what?" She knows what he's getting at. She just doesn't want to give him an answer, and now it looks as if she doesn't have much of a choice.
"Oh, I don't know, Liv," Elliot says sarcastically. "We were just fine a few days ago, and now you're acting like you want nothing to do with me. What is that?"
"Nothing that concerns you," says Olivia. "Let it go, Elliot. If you needed to know, I'd tell you."
She realizes the irony in her words as soon as the last one leaves her mouth. If anything, this new development between her and Munch is something that her partner needs to know, but she can't for the life of her figure out how to tell him. And she isn't sure she wants him to know.
"Would you?" Elliot asks, as they leave the precinct to head for the south side of the borough. She glances at him briefly, sighing.
"Yes," she says, "I would. You know I would." When Elliot doesn't reply, she turns to face him, for once, grateful for a red light.
"I haven't lied to you yet," she tells him, "And I'm probably never going to start, either, so will you just calm down?"
"Fine," says Elliot, "I'll calm down if you promise not to keep acting like you hate me."
"When did I ever say I hated you?" Olivia asks, startled, but the light has turned green and she turns back towards the road as Elliot shrugs.
"You didn't," he says, "But you act like it, and that bothers me."
"Yeah, well, a lot of the stuff you do bothers me too," she mutters dryly, and he casts her a pained look.
"Liv," he says, "That isn't what I meant."
"I'm aware of that. And if it bugs you, I'm sorry. I think work is finally starting to get to me." Elliot snorts.
"Likely excuse," he says, and she rolls her eyes.
"What else did you think I'd say?" she asks, trying not to laugh as they arrive at their crime scene. "Work's the only ting it could be at this time of day."
"It's not even eleven yet," Elliot points out as they get out of the car. She smirks, saying nothing as they cross the crime scene tape, flashing their shields at the uniforms that come to make them go away. Melinda looks up as she hears their footsteps and sighs.
"This isn't good," she tells them.
"When is it ever?" Olivia asks in reply, and Melinda pulls back the sheet covering the body. Both detectives exchange glances before shaking their heads.
"Anything you can tell us?" Elliot asks, once the initial shock of what they're seeing wears off.
"Overkill," says Melinda. "From what I can tell the initial cause of death is strangulation, but I won't be able to tell you any more for a few hours."
"Was there an ID or was she just lying there?" asks Olivia. Melinda rises to her feet and hands her a battered leather wallet before motioning to her nearby assistants. Within moments, both they and the body are gone. Olivia opens the wallet and finds herself staring at a school ID and a smiling face.
"Her name was Cassie Matthews," she says to Elliot. "Eighteen years old today." He shakes his head in disgust, ignoring CSU as he crosses the tape again, swearing under his breath. Olivia closes the wallet again before following him.
"You ok?" she asks. He looks at her over the roof of the car, sighing.
"Yeah," he says, "I'm fine. It's just…." He pauses for a moment, looking away before continuing. "She's the same age as Kathleen."
"You going to be all right with this, then?" Olivia asks. "If not, I'll just get one of the other two to…" Elliot cuts her off.
"I'll be fine," he tells her, "I just...I haven't seen my kids in a while." Olivia fishes the keys out of her pocket as both of them get into the car and then turns to face him.
"Tell you what," she says, "I'll take you to the precinct and when we get there you can take your car and go see them."
"They're all in school," Elliot points out, and she shrugs as they leave.
"So take them out of school," she replies. "You're their father. No one's going to stop you, and besides that, they're probably wanting to see you, too."
Slightly cheered by this remark, Elliot gives a faint smile, leaning back in the seat. "You're probably right," he says. "I think I will go see them."
"Good," Olivia says teasingly, "Maybe you'll stop coming to the squad room in such a bad mood every day."
"I haven't been that bad lately," Elliot protests, and she gives a derisive snort.
"My ass," she says. "You can ask anyone in the squad and they'll probably tell you the exact same thing I'm saying now."
"Yeah, but I'm not asking the rest of the squad, I'm asking you."
"And I'm telling you that more often than not, you look like you're ready to kill someone when you come in."
"I look like I'm ready to kill someone. There's a fine thing to tell a cop, Liv." says Elliot.
"You're talking to a cop," Olivia replies dryly, "And besides that, I know you're not actually going to go out and do it, so it doesn't really matter, does it?"
"No," Elliot remarks, "I guess it doesn't. But do I really look like that when I come in?"
"You didn't this morning, but you sure as hell did yesterday," Olivia tells him, trying not to laugh. "I still don't see why you can't come in just once with a smile on your face."
"You know what?" he asks. "I'm going to do that. Tomorrow. Just to watch your reaction."
"I'll bet you would," says Olivia, "And what are you going to do if I don't happen to be looking up when you walk in?"
"Then I'll keep walking in and out until you do look and ask me what the hell I'm doing," Elliot replies smugly. She swats at him as they reach the precinct and both of them laugh.
Once they've stopped and she's turned the car off, Elliot reaches into his pocket for his own keys and glances over at her. "You sure you're all right with me taking off like this?"
"Hey, I'm the one who suggested it," she tells him, "If I had a problem I'd have told you before we got here."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Go see your kids and leave me in peace, will you?" He laughs, and walks away; she gets out of the car and watches him go, wondering why she feels relieved when he's finally out of sight.
When she finally goes into the precinct and down to the squad room, Munch and Fin are already there, arguing over something that more than likely has nothing to do with the case they've just been landed with. She glances over at them for a moment, looking away only when she catches Munch's eye.
