The open case was bothering the members of the squad and their ADA. With no end in sight, Fin went ahead and abandoned his initial promise of waiting until the case was over to take Casey out on a date. The plans he had in store were a little unconventional. Bowling was not his style. Sitting through a movie would put the pair to sleep, and a Broadway show just wasn't in the budget. The couple ended up at Westside Rifle & Pistol Range.
A gun range. So they can shoot guns.
Perfect.
After a range safety meeting along with an introductory crash course in how to operate and fire a weapon, Casey and Fin stepped foot into the booth that smelled like metal and gun powder.
"Your idea of a first date is interesting, Fin," Casey laughed.
"I like to be original," Fin smiles, "I wanna see what you're made of, Novak. Come on, give it a shot! No pun intended."
Casey rolled her eyes and reluctantly put on the necessary earmuffs and eye protection required. She lifted her pistol and fired off a shot. The round hit the edge of the paper target, not even close to grazing where it was supposed to.
"I'm impressed," Fin said, unplugging one ear.
Casey looked at him perplexed, "Fin, it was a shitty shot. The damn thing didn't even hit the guy."
Fin shook his head, "I'm impressed that as soon as we walked into this place, you didn't walk right out."
Casey shrugged, "Not like I had a choice now, did I?"
"You didn't," he laughs, "You're a beginner. It happens."
"I stayed on my side of the law for a reason, Tutuola," Casey raised her brow, "I won't make a fool of myself, not now anyway," she laughed, "You plan on teaching me how to shoot like Clint Eastwood or what?"
"I'll teach you every damn thing you want, Novak."
"Wonderful," Casey picks up her gun and gestures down the range, "Let's get started then."
There were a million other things Olivia Benson would instead do on a Friday morning off. She could rearrange her spice cabinet, scrub her tiny apartment bathroom floor to ceiling on her hands and knees, or get her teeth drilled at the dentist. Instead of doing any of those things, she was picking her mother up from rehab.
She signed the paperwork for insurance, talked with whoever was in charge, and collected her mother before exiting back to the city streets with her luggage in tow. Unlike most patients, the illusive Serena Benson was dressed in a sandy three-piece skirt-suit and matching stiletto heels. Her hair was neatly pulled back into a twist, held together by a tortoise clip.
For Serena Benson, it was just another day at the office.
"First time you see me in three months, and you're ready to drop me off at my doorstep like a UPS package," Serena scoffed.
"Mom, I have to get back to work," Olivia sighed, "And If I recall, you need to check in with the university," She pointed out.
"That can wait one day, Olivia," Serena exaggerated, "We can go to lunch, just around the corner—"
"I have to get back to my partner."
"Oh," Serena dismissed at the wave of her hand, "You tell that Brian Casanova to hold his horses for an hour."
Of course, Serena mentions Brian, a man that Olivia talked little about before her in-patient treatment at the facility. Brian was persistent, and Olivia said he wanted to pursue her during their partnership, but he wasn't mature. Despite being her age, Brian Cassidy was the furthest thing from being a grown-up, and Olivia isn't sure how he made it to be a detective anyway.
Leaving the homicide division in more ways than one was for the better. Olivia no longer saw him every day hanging over her desk to get her attention. She now worked in the unit she's always wanted to be in, and Elliot was back in her life. Her partner, her best friend, and her lover. Boyfriend was so juvenile, and they were both closer to thirty than not.
"Mom, I don't work for homicide anymore," Olivia said, "My transfer went through."
Serena shook her head, "Haven't you had enough? Chasing these so-called leads, playing telephone tag with geriatric cops for details? You hate me so much you go looking for Daddy?" she kept walking, although Olivia had stopped.
"It's not like that," she walked in more considerable strides to catch up to her, "He raped you."
Serena looked to her daughter, "You think I forgot? Olivia dear, I smell him every time I close my eyes at night. Just drop it," she seethed.
"I just want justice for you," Olivia breathed, "I guess you've made peace with it."
"I have. I just wish you would."
The mother-daughter duo walked to her apartment without another word to drop off Serena's luggage. Olivia called a cab service to have Serena taken to the University for a meeting. With hope-filled eyes, Olivia watched her mother step into the cab and merge into the sea of yellow taxis. She crossed her fingers that her Mom would make the better choices, but little did Olivia know she was about to be dead wrong.
Elliot and Fin were upstairs in the lounge combing through more evidence connecting Olejandra Novelo and Lillian O'Malley. Two women who seemed to have absolutely nothing in common but their mysterious lyrical deaths. Munch was planted at his desk, playing a rousing game of rubber band ball against the linoleum floors when the blonde sharp-dressed fifty-something-year-old woman came whizzing through the precinct doors.
"Excuse me, can you please direct me to the person in charge?"
Munch nodded curtly, "That would be Captain Cragen. I'll escort you in."
Elliot held his breath up the stairs as he listened to the woman's gravelly voice speak to Munch. The pencil in Elliot's hand snapped in two between his fingers, and Fin was confused.
"Was it somethin' I said, Stabler?"
Elliot could pick Olivia's mother's voice out of a thousand while underwater. This was no mistake.
"Liv's mother is here."
"Its been ten stinkin' years," Fin laughed, "What could a choir boy like you—"
"You don't want to know," Elliot got up from his chair and watched Serena and Munch walk into Cragen's office from the balcony. The precinct doors opened again, and in came Olivia, holding a tray of coffee cups and a box of donuts.
"Where is everybody?" Olivia asked, "Fin? El?"
Munch stepped back out of the office. Her question was now to him.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked.
Munch shrugged, "Some woman came into the squad room asking for the Captain. I just brought her into his office."
"What did she look like?"
"Blonde hair, about five-nine, snazzy lady if I do say so myself. No ring, I'm wondering if there's a mister in the picture," Munch grinned, dipping his glasses to the bridge of his nose.
Olivia's eyes widened, "Don't you dare, that's my mother," She bolted to the Captain's door, pressing her ear against the wood.
Serena's voice boomed first, "How could you let her do this job knowing what she is!"
"Miss Benson, I'll admit I was apprehensive at first, but your daughter has proven to be a valuable asset to this unit. She disclosed very early on to me her paternity and that it wasn't an issue," Cragen spoke carefully, irritation riddling his voice.
"But it will be. Just you wait and see."
Olivia couldn't take anymore, and she opened the door unapologetically, "Captain, I'm so sorry!"
"Quite alright," Cragen said with thin lips, "Take her into interrogation room one until she calms down."
Olivia nudged Serena into interrogation and made her take a seat before slamming the door.
"You can't just make a scene in front of my squad, Mom," Olivia huffed.
"Like they'd take you seriously," Serena reached into her purse and took out a compact, "In a male-dominated field, you're not an equal Olivia. You're a prey," she powdered her nose.
Olivia rolled her eyes, "Tell me something I haven't heard before," Olivia leaned in closer, "Try me," she grinned.
Serena slapped Olivia across the face firmly, "Don't you dare talk to me like that, young lady," she said through gritted teeth.
Olivia had been hit harder in her life. At home in her childhood, in the police academy during training, and on the job for the last several years. It had been a long time since Serena raised a hand to her. It felt just like the first time all over again.
"It's time for you to go," Olivia said, trying not to cry.
"Where is this new partner of yours anyway, huh?" Serena asked, unimpressed, "You cops are so busy that he couldn't be here to pick up the slack? Are you giving him a break because he's sleeping with you? Is that it?"
Olivia avoided her accusation and rubbed her cheek in an attempt to diffuse the pain, "He's picking up files that I was supposed to because he's picking up my slack. Someone had to come to get you, remember?"
"None of this would have happened if you'd just agreed to lunch, Olivia."
"Another day, Mom," Olivia breathed across the table, "Don't make this bigger than it needs to be."
"I'm gone for four months, and this is the warm welcome I get from my daughter?" Serena shook her head, "You shut me out, Olivia."
"I'm not shutting you out. I have responsibilities and obligations."
"Am I one of them?" Serena asked.
Serena was a responsibility, a liability, and a borderline burden.
"Of course you are," Olivia sighed, "I have work to do."
Serena was all but fascinated by her answer. She looked at Olivia with disapproval written clear across her features, "Use protection, Olivia," Serena sneered, grabbing her handbag off the interrogation table and marching out the door.
Olivia watched her walk away and into a much bigger problem. The click of her mother's stiletto heels came to a screeching halt. Olivia ran to usher her out of the bullpen, but it was too late. Elliot was coming down from the lounge again, and there was no turning back now.
Elliot tried to breathe as he walked past the blonde woman dressed in beige. Maybe she wouldn't recognize him. His appearance has drastically changed in the years gone by. The last time Serena saw him, he had an earring, more hair on his head, and he was nude under the sheets in Olivia's bedroom. He walked back to his desk and tried like hell to remain neutral.
Serena circled the two desks pushed up against one another like a shark getting ready to attack. Elliot busied himself, but Serena was not going to give up.
"Don't ignore me. Do you think after all these years, I couldn't remember you? I do," Serena laughed scornfully, "Do you remember me?"
"I do, Miss Benson," Elliot addressed her carefully, "Olivia said you would remember me."
"I never forget a face," she smirked, circling his desk again, "You've grown up, I see. How did the Army treat you?" She snickered, "Or maybe it was the Navy…" she trailed on.
"Mom, leave him alone," Olivia yelled.
"Olivia dear, I'm just getting started."
"If you have any more to say to me, now is not the time," Elliot said sternly.
Serena breaks her cold gaze away from his and looks down at the stack of business cards on his desk. She takes one, twirling it between her fingers masterfully like a dealer at a casino.
"You know where to find me," She smiles maliciously, "Unless you have forgotten."
After dark, Elliot made it over to Serena's apartment alone, without the company of the one person who probably should be there, but he needed to do this alone. He hated this woman. The fire in his heart had reignited the moment Serena caught his eyes that afternoon, and it scorched him.
Serena still existed in the same apartment with the scary staircase he seldomly took over a decade ago. He thumped on the door, hoping she would answer.
If looks could kill, Elliot is already six feet under by the way Serena glared at him.
"We need to talk," he said, "Just you and me."
"I'm not afraid of you," Serena bites but frees the entryway for him to pass.
"I'm not afraid of you either," he stepped beside her.
She shrugs, "Let's talk."
"Okay."
Like Olivia's apartment, he remembers certain aspects of Serena's: the floor to ceiling bookcase that housed an open library of English literature, the coffee table with so many water stains ingrained in the wood they all couldn't be from just water, and the notes of cigarette smoke that Olivia miraculously never emitted on her own skin, despite living with her for eighteen years. It made him wonder how much had changed. Has she changed?
"I thought her life would have been rid of you years ago," Serena glared.
"You succeeded," he paused, "For about nine years."
He smiled at that fact. She kept him away long enough.
"How long did it take you to get her back into bed, huh? Did she give up easily? Or did you have to fight her for it?"
What she was implying made him want to die. He'd castrate himself with a rusty steak knife before he ever laid a
"What we have is consensual. It always has been."
"Always? So you are sleeping with her. Present tense, of course."
"I don't believe that's any of your business Miss Benson."
"You were a scared little boy the last time I caught you pants down with my daughter. Except your pants weren't just down, they were off completely."
"You didn't like me, you still don't, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. I'm Olivia's partner at SVU, and I don't expect that to change either."
"I don't like her being there. You know what she is, and you know why she's here, right Detective?"
"I know who she is, Miss Benson, not what. I know the origin story, and I'm one of two people here that knows her paternity. Olivia would like to keep it that way for the sake of her privacy."
"You use your authority over her to get what you want, and that doesn't surprise me in the least bit."
"I don't. I never have. Whatever you think you know about her or me isn't true."
"You're still male, and you want only one thing when it comes to us women. A man's sexual appetite is never truly satisfied."
"It's not true."
"Does Olivia not satisfy you?" Serena clicked closer to Elliot, "Is she still playing games with you, Elliot?" She hissed seductively.
"Whatever game you're putting down, I'm not playing."
"You're attractive, and I see why my daughter seems to be captivated by you. She has good taste."
Elliot laughs nervously, but not an ounce of him had found that funny. He laughs nervously because he's stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He's stuck between Serena and a bookcase.
"Olivia doesn't have to know. We can keep this between us."
"Miss Benson…"
Olivia was, for lack of better terms, on a rampage.
Elliot should have been back at her apartment with her over an hour ago.
She called him multiple times on his cell, but he didn't answer. If he wasn't at the precinct or his home in Queens, then where he be?
Olivia jammed her key into her mother's apartment door and entered forcefully. With one foot in the door, Olivia immediately brought her attention to Elliot, who was backed against the bookcase due to her mother's proximity. Her mouth dropped wide open.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Olivia spoke bitterly, but her mother didn't back off, "I'll ask again, Mom, what the hell do you think you're doing!"
Serena let off of Elliot slightly, "Proving a point, Olivia."
"Get away from him," Olivia growled, leaping towards her mother to push her away, "Haven't you done enough!"
"Not enough, not nearly enough," Serena laughed, "he's just like the others, just wants one thing."
"You don't know him at all. You don't know anything at all about what he and I have, do you?"
"He's no different than any other man you've let drive the highway between your legs, Olivia. He was just the first to do so, or was he?"
"You're chasing away the first and only man I ever gave a damn about all because, what, he took my virginity?"
"You were too young to be doing any of those things. In my home, Olivia, he corrupted you in my home."
"Home," Olivia said, full of disdain, "When I went off to college, did you suddenly forget the eighteen years before it? The cold nights without heat? The strange men that came and went at all hours of the night? How about the nights those same men tried to come into my room with the promise to make me a real woman? All of those things happened in your home. I was scared out of my mind," Olivia looked to Elliot, who was surprised and equally broken.
"You're being ridiculous."
"Allen. Bert. Conrad. Denny…." Olivia listed off.
"Olivia,"
"Edgar, Frank, Gus…." Olivia continued, "I can play this game all night, Mom. I'll go all the way to 'Z' if I have to."
"You think I knew what to do with you?"
"I don't think you knew what to do with yourself."
"I'm trying, Olivia," Serena threw her arms down, "I just don't understand you."
"All I have ever asked is for you to stay sober, to be my Mom. I don't want to be your parent anymore," Olivia wiped a tear off her cheek, "You can't keep me from doing my job, and I will not let you take Elliot away from me a second time. Do you understand?"
"What is so special about him?" Serena whispered.
"Maybe if you listened all these years when I actually spoke to you, you'd know," Olivia looked at Elliot, "You took away the only person who saw me as a human-fucking-being. A fucking piece of my soul was gone."
"He didn't love you, Olivia. He was just there."
Olivia was trying to formulate words, but her brain just turned to scrabble tiles, and no combination of letters could ever make the pieces make sense. She turned her back to her mother, gripped her hand tight to her chest, and held on. Elliot, who stood motionless in the shadow of the bookcase, found his voice, "I was there because I loved her. I am standing here because I still love her, and I don't want to lose her. Your daughter is trying to get through to you because even after all the shit you've done, she still loves you, Serena."
"You were going to take her away from me."
"We were two scared kids trying to get away from a life that hurt us the most— the people who were supposed to love us the most," he paced carefully to Olivia and wrapped an arm around her. She melted right to his chest.
Serena shook her head, "I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that."
"Then don't say anything, just think on it," Elliot looked at Olivia, her eyes reddened and puffy from crying. He reached for her hand, "Liv, let's go home."
Olivia nodded and wiped another stray tear away. She nodded and took hold of his hand, and led them out of the apartment together.
—
The ride back to Olivia's apartment was quiet and void of conversation and music. He hated it. He was listening to her sniffle, knowing why.
"I don't know what to say to you right now," Olivia said emotionlessly.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Elliot said lowly.
"You had me so fucking worried when you didn't pick up the phone, El."
"I felt it vibrate in my pocket. I knew it was you."
"Then you should have answered the phone," she grumbled, tired from her outburst.
"I didn't know she was going to try to tempt me in her living room, Liv. I just needed to talk to her. Nothing was going to happen. I wouldn't let her."
"What did you say to her?"
"I said that she can't make this go away by calling my father and enlisting me again. I said that our partnership and our relationship are the only things that have made sense to me since you came to SVU. As much as I wanted to strangle that woman—she's your mother. I have to find a middle ground with her. I want her to be better for you."
Olivia shook her head, "Too much damage has already been done."
"There's still time," he said.
"It's not worth the heartache anymore. I don't need her to make me feel like shit just because things are going well for me. She spent my entire childhood scattered between drunk and hungover, avoiding me. I mean, what mother doesn't hug her child?"
Elliot stepped forward, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her gently. She held his kiss until she ran out of breath, "You want to get laid tonight, don't you?" she grinned curiously.
He nodded like a five-year-old and smiled, "Didn't think it was in the cards tonight, but if you're offering…."
She laughed, "It wasn't, but you did face my crazy-bitch of a mother today….and I think that deserves a reward."
Elliot smirked, "What's my prize?"
"I'll let you deal the cards tonight."
Elliot's eyes widened, and after her words, Olivia was plucked up off the ground and thrown over his shoulder, walking in a direct path to her bedroom.
God, she loved this man.
A/N: So we met Serena. That's cool, I guess. Finals week is coming up, and I have been behind this computer doing anything but write. Not cool. Let me hear your thoughts in the reviews! Toodles! xoxo