Chapter Ten: Something Unexpected

Unlike the other times that Olivia and Elliot were in their cop car together, this ride seemed rather quiet, until Elliot had broken the silence.

"Olivia, why did you blame Rhonda in the first place for hurting Kelly when we had absolutely no proof that it could have been her?" he asked.

"Elliot, sometimes I can sense things. What I'm trying to say is that I just had a large feeling that she had something to do with it. And, I turned out to be right."

"Liv, I know that all these years we've been working together you've been hiding something from us, maybe it's about your past. I think it's what made you be so pissed off at Rhonda and blame her for everything when we had no evidence."

"Elliot, I really don't think that right now is the perfect timing for this conversation. And right now you're beginning to sound like a counselor more than my partner."

"Olivia, I now that after you had talked to Carrie Eldridge when you found those birth control pills, there was something that caused you to tell Casey to plead her out to a five-year man slaughter in a juvenile facility, instead of charge her with murder."

This time Olivia didn't respond to Elliot; instead she just sat still in the passenger's seat, until she gave in. "It all had to do with my mother. It was just something that happened when I was sixteen, which was long ago Elliot, why bring it up?"

"There's got to be more than that, Liv; the reason why you told Casey to plead her out."

"Well, I started dating a twenty-one year old. He was one was of my mother's students; she was an English professor. He was a senior. One day he asked me if I would marry him, and I told him that I would. The reason I did was because I wanted to move away from my mother. Once she found out, I had told her that I was moving out of the house and there was nothing she could do about it. She was in the middle of drinking a bottle of vodka, when it dropped on the hard floor. It shattered all over, and she picked up the jagged edge of the vodka bottle, and came at me screaming. She told me that she'd never let anyone else have me. I kicked her, twice, and she went flying across the room. She slid down to the floor, but I just ran out. I'd never hurt her before, and I was just so afraid of what would happen. "

Elliot was hesitant of what to say. He just kept driving, unable to respond to something he just heard from his own partner, which made him have great sorrow for what happened in her previous years. He never actually considered Serena Benson to be as violent as Olivia had just told him she was. Right now he could see the haunted look in her eyes; the look that came from a young girl long ago, pleading for someone to help her because of all the painful experiences she had been through. And now Elliot was able to understand why she was against Rhonda all along.

Finally they came to a stop, in front of the Como's house. Rhonda's Subaru was parked in front of the house, so they knew that she had to have been home.

"Rhonda Como! Open up right now! It's the NYPD- again!" roared Elliot Stabler.

Unlike the last time Olivia and Elliot had come to the Como's to speak with Rhonda, she didn't answer.

"We know you're in there, Rhonda! Open the door immediately!" hollered Olivia.

Again, there was no answer.

"We're coming in, then." said Elliot. "The door's unlocked." Elliot then opened the door to the Como's house, which was unusually quiet inside.

Elliot and Olivia made their way into Rhonda's house slowly but surely. They were able to, once again, see all the bottles of liquor that were scattered on the kitchen counter.

"Rhonda? Where are you?" said Olivia.

Olivia and Elliot had made their way up the stairs into what lead to her bedroom. And there was Rhonda, who lay on the unmade bed, dead.