Disclaimer: I do not own Law and Order: SVU. It belongs to a genius named Dick Wolf. No profit is being made from this story.
The shrill, annoying shriek alerted the other residents. Doors began flying open and people came scrambling down the hall toward them. Elliot looked around and made a quick decision.
"Come on, Liv," he said urgently.
She felt herself being propelled down the hallway before she could react. He gripped her arm and led her in the opposite direction, back toward his apartment. Continuing past it, he kept going and took a left at the end of the hall.
"There's stairs leading to the laundry room in the basement," he explained as he opened the door. "The fire escape stairs are going to be mobbed."
Olivia followed him down four flights of stairs, and outside once they reached the basement floor.
A massive cluster of people had formed in the parking lot when they cleared the building. The two of them went to join them, and upon doing so, Olivia suddenly lost track of Elliot.
She looked around, bewildered. He had been standing right next to her not two seconds ago. Moving off to the side, she got a little ways away from the crowd, and was able to spot him immediately. He had come around to the side of the building furthest from the parking lot and was standing on top of the small grassy hill that overlooked the side windows.
Quickly going to him, she was surprised to see the horrified look on his face. When she followed his gaze, she suddenly saw three fire trucks parked at the back of the building, with hoses out. Firefighters were scrambling to position them.
Elliot felt nauseous. This was real. The building was actually on fire.
The door to the captain's office came flying open. Munch looked up from the stack of papers he was busily weeding through.
"Captain," he said. "I've got two-"
"Never mind that," Cragen said quickly. He hurried over to the small TV mounted next to the refrigerator and flipped the channel. Fin and Munch looked at each other in confusion and got up.
The image of a male reporter filled the screen. "Everyone shut up!" he ordered, and turned the volume up. The room became instantly silent, and the other detectives got up to huddle around them.
"…and no word on any other victims at the moment," the man was saying. "For anyone just joining us, we are on the scene at the Greenbrier Estates apartment complex in Queens, where a fire of unknown origin has broken out. Firefighters are working to get the blaze under control, but we have been notified that it is now officially contained at the sixth story and has not spread."
Don looked at Munch and Fin anxiously. "That's Elliot's apartment," he said. "He and Olivia went there a little over an hour ago to pick up his notes."
"Ok…let's not panic," John said quickly. "There's a chance that they left before this happened and are on their way back here."
"I can't get a hold of Elliot," Don continued, striding over to Fin's desk. "I'm going to try Olivia."
Fin's cell phone rang as he was dialing. "Tutuola," he answered. After listening a minute, he suddenly called out, "Captain, it's Olivia."
Cragen dropped the phone at once. "Liv, what-?" Fin began, but the captain snatched the phone from his hand mid-sentence.
"Olivia, are you guys alright?" he asked immediately. They saw his face droop considerably in relief, so obviously the answer was affirmative. "Yeah….ok."
She turned away from watching the firefighters and covered the phone with her hand, trying to hear what the captain was saying over the roar of the water hoses.
"We're fine, sir," she said loudly, walking a few feet away. It became considerably easier to hear. "Yes, Elliot's here, he's with me….no, it was probably on a higher floor." She listened for a minute. "Probably…yeah. Ok, I'll tell him…will do. See you in a bit."
She hung up and walked back over to her partner. Elliot tore his gaze away from the firefighters and looked at her.
"What did he want?" he asked.
"He says he tried calling you," she replied.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Right away, he saw two new messages flashing. "It must be on silent," he said absently, before letting his eyes wander back to the scene in front of them.
"He says you can stay here until things are under control," she continued. "But I need to get back to the station…I wanted to check with you first, though, to make sure you-"
She trailed off as she realized that he wasn't even paying attention.
"Hey," she said, firmly, gripping his arm. Startled, his eyes shot to hers, and she saw how upset he was, even though he was trying not to show it. She looked at him in concern, her hand still clasping his forearm. "You want me to stay here for a while? I can call him back."
Her words registered in his daze. "No, no," he stammered, trying to focus. He turned toward her. "It's fine. You go ahead."
Clearly not agreeing with him, Olivia nevertheless released his arm. "Alright," she said hesitantly. "I'll call you when I get to the station, ok?" She looked at him worriedly. He didn't reply. "Elliot?"
Once again, he appeared startled as he looked at her.
"Ok?" she repeated, eying him hesitantly.
"Sure, ok," he said absently. Then he turned back and continued staring silently.
Olivia walked into the squad room fifteen minutes later and poked her head in Cragen's office to let him know she had arrived.
She was surprised to see Sean sitting at Elliot's desk when she came out.
"What are you doing?" she asked cautiously.
He looked at her blankly. "What?" he asked. "Can't a guy sit down?"
She eyed him for a minute, but before she could say anything the captain came in. "Olivia, you have those notes?"
Still eyeing him, she reached into her pocket and withdrew the folded notes that Elliot had given her before she left. She handed them to Cragen.
He looked them over for a minute and handed them to Sean. "Ok," he said, addressing everyone. "Sean, why don't you go ahead and brief us, since you're here anyway?"
Sean nodded. "Sure," he said coolly. He looked at the three detectives. "The agency here has been doing a great job keeping track of our arsonist….they knew things that Chief Hammond wasn't even aware of."
"Such as?" Cragen asked.
"Like…" He thought a minute. "The guy drives a red Ford Focus when he's looking for prostitutes, with Florida tags." He looked to Don with raised eyebrows, silently asking if he approved.
"Ok," Don said, after a minute. He went to the chalkboard and wrote this information down. "Right now, I'll take what I can get…potential vehicle description. What else?"
Sean looked down at his notes. "They suggested spreading out small surveillance teams around the area instead of using a few large ones….we can cover more ground that way. Also, possibly recruiting a few working girls to be moles for us."
"Now, that's not a bad idea," Fin spoke up. "We could get more to nail him on and he won't get suspicious."
They were startled to hear Elliot's voice then. "I disagree," he said, walking in. He came over to where they were huddled around the desks. He looked at Sean suspiciously for a minute when he saw him at his desk, but didn't comment. "He made the last cop undercover as a prostitute….he'll be more suspicious of everyone now."
"What are you doing here?" Cragen asked. "I told you to stay until things were straightened out at your place."
"They already were," he answered. "It wasn't as big as it looked…turned out to be a kitchen accident on the fifth floor. Everyone was cleared to return inside. "
Olivia looked relieved. "So, no chance of this being the work of our guy, then?"
Elliot shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Unfortunately, this time it was just plain bad luck." He was quick to turn the conversation back to the present problem. "But, really…I think that it would be too much of a risk to endanger civilians for this."
"Why didn't you say something at the meeting then?" Sean asked incredulously.
"It didn't seem like my place," he answered. "You guys know more about this stuff than I do."
"Ok," Don interrupted. "We'll just hold off on that idea for a minute. Did they mention anything about contacting us? So far, I haven't heard a word from anyone about setting this thing up."
"I'm just waiting for Chief Hammond to confirm the plans," Sean said. "He should be calling tonight. As soon as I hear from him, I'll let you guys know."
The captain nodded. "Well, let's hope for our sakes that he calls soon," he said wryly. "We're still in the dark, and this guy is in our back yard."
A beeper went off. Sean reached inside his pocket. "Speak of the devil," he said, looking at the number. "Captain, can I use your office?"
"Of course," he said, gesturing.
Sean got up and went inside the office, closing the door behind him.
The captain checked his watch. "Tell you what," he said. "It's quarter to five…you guys go take an hour for dinner and we'll get back to this when Sean is finished."
Elliot's eyes lit up, and he met Olivia's gaze. He smiled gleefully, and she giggled.
Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting on the roof with the bag of re-heated Chinese food between them. It was a beautifully clear night, and there was a cool breeze blowing.
Once they had both taken their share, Elliot began wolfing down the food like he hadn't eaten in a week.
Olivia looked at him in amusement. "Easy, tiger," she said. "It's not going to run away, you know."
"I'm starving," he said, with his mouth full. She shot him a disgusted look. He smiled goofily and opened his mouth wide to give her a view of his half-chewed fried rice.
"Gross," she said, slapping him. Her eyes twinkled with laughter, though.
She dipped a spoon in the container of egg drop soup and swung it in front of him in an exaggerated fashion. "Yummm," she teased. "Sure you don't want some?" She waved it in front of his nose.
"Sick!" he cried, and slapped at it instinctively.
She wasn't expecting it, and ended up with a lapful of gooey yellow soup. His eyes widened in horror immediately and her head shot up to look at him in shock. They stared at each other for a minute before he started cracking up.
"I'm sorry," he gasped, trying to stifle his laughter. He reached for a napkin, but ended up dropping it when he looked at her expression and started laughing harder.
Olivia snatched the napkin and indignantly wiped up the mess from her pants. She tried to appear mad, and realized she had succeeded when she looked at Elliot again. His face flooded with guilt. He looked at her pathetically, and she ended up letting out a snort before cracking up herself.
"Peace offering," he said, once she was cleaned up. He held a fortune cookie out to her, and she accepted it. Breaking the cookie in half, she pulled out the slip of paper and laughed when she read it.
"What?" he asked, in the middle of breaking his own cookie.
" 'You will invest in a new wardrobe'," she read.
His mouth dropped open as he laughed. "You're lying," he said, grabbing the hand that held the paper and trying to pry it from her. "It doesn't say that!"
"Yes, it does!" she cried, letting him read it.
"Damn," he said in surprise. "That's a little scary."
"What does yours say?" she asked.
He pulled out the slip of paper. " 'Beware of a female companion'," he said. At her defensive scoff, he grinned. "Just kidding." He brought the paper up to his face. His smile vanished.
"What?" she asked.
His eyes were narrowed. " 'An unplanned visitor will bring much strife'." He scoffed in disgust and hurled the small slip of paper away. "Tell me about it."
Elliot fell silent. Olivia looked at him cautiously. Even if he hadn't said it outright, she could tell that his brother was a sore subject.
"You said the other day that I don't know what kind of person Sean really is," she said carefully. He looked at her sharply. "What happened?"
He shook his head and sighed. "We were close growing up," he said sullenly. "I worshipped Sean. He taught me how to drive, how to play football…he was the one who introduced me to Kathy."
Biting his lip, he continued. "He always said he would be a cop like Dad, and went to the academy when I started high school…so of course, when I graduated, the first thing I did was apply too. Sean was already a sergeant by then…he went up the ranks almost as soon as he joined the force. He was that good."
She noticed his eyes darken. "He had experimented with drugs a little in high school, but it was never anything serious…Dad would have killed him. I thought he'd stopped once he joined the force. When I became a beat cop, I found out that he hadn't…he had been doing them the entire time he was in the academy. The only reason he graduated was because my dad pulled some strings with the commissioner….he had to promise he would never touch them again, or he would be kicked out of the department."
Elliot sighed. "Time passed, and he was clean. I mean squeaky clean…not even a traffic ticket on his record. And then, here I come into the department with like five speeding violations and a reckless driving citation."
He caught the sharp look she threw at him and flung his hands up innocently. "Hey, I was 21," he said. "Give me a break."
She smiled. "Anyway," he continued, fixing her with a mock glare. "That's not the point."
"Of course," she teased. He glared at her again, and she chuckled. "Sorry," she said. "Go on."
"So, things went great for a while….a long while actually. Right around the time I moved to Special Victims, Sean got offered a job in Georgia. We lost touch for a while, but I talked to him on holidays and stuff." His face hardened. "And then, Dad died."
He went silent, and she knew that the wound was still raw. She remembered that day as clearly as she did when her own mother died. It was then that she realized that she had an easier time being in pain herself than seeing her best friend hurting. It about killed her.
"When I called him, he told me he wasn't coming to the funeral," he said after a minute. "I asked him why, and he hung up on me. I got so pissed that I called his boss…that's when I found out that Sean had been fired. He had marijuana in the trunk of his squad car." Elliot shook his head, clearly disgusted.
"That night, I get woken up at three in the morning by someone at my door. There's Sean, looking like hell, and he says he's being framed by one of his ex-academy buddies. At first I didn't believe him…but he promised me that he had been clean since he had graduated the academy. So I go down to his station and go off on his captain….I swear to God, Olivia, I thought I was going to get my ass kicked by his squad mates."
The memory still made him so mad…he felt his hands clenching into fists. "His captain said I had just blown my chances of ever working with the NYPD again, and said he was going to call Cragen. I tell him to fuck off and walk out to find Sean."
Olivia was surprised to see his fists trembling slightly. His teeth were clenched, and he looked so mad that she thought she heard him growling. "I go into the bathroom, and he's standing there snorting cocaine with two of his loser academy dropout friends." His tone conveyed the disbelief that he still felt. "I wanted to scream at him, hit him. All I could do was stand there. I was so shocked I couldn't even think straight…I had truly believed him when he said he was clean."
He dropped his head into his hands with a bitter laugh. "Of course, Cragen calls me about two seconds later…I'd never heard him so pissed before or since. He suspended me for two months, and told me he would be looking for someone to take my place."
Olivia was shocked. She had never known about that. "Luckily, I was forced to make a formal statement about what I saw to IAB, so Cragen found out what happened. Sean quit the police department and applied for a spot at ATF," he said. They hired him only after making him sign a contract saying he would attend rehab, and was promised he would be fired immediately if he broke it."
The pain was evident in his voice, and it made her breath catch when he spoke again. "He called me the day he got to Jersey," he said softly. "Told me that I was a traitor and that as far as he was concerned, I might as well have been dead."
His words dried up, and he lapsed into silence. Olivia was silent as well, trying to make sense of what she had just heard.
Sighing suddenly, Elliot got to his feet. "We better get back," he said abruptly. He gathered up the empty cartons.
Olivia got up as well and silently began helping him. Their hands met when she reached to take the plates from him, and she held the contact. "I'm sorry, Elliot," she said quietly.
Anguished blue eyes met hers. "Me, too," he said. His smile was sad.