Vegas Adventure

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Law & Order: SVU or CSI, and I make no profit from this story.

Note: Seriously guys, I'm a wee bit disappointed that I didn't get any reviews for chapter 2. How am I supposed to know if I'm writing well? If there's something you guys don't like, please tell me and suggest ways that I can fix it. Or if there's something you did like about the chapter, please tell me so I can try to write something similar to it later on.

Please, please, please, please review!

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Chapter 3

Sunday morning, May 28, 2006

"I can't believe we couldn't get seats next to each other!" Munch complained while shuffling down the aisle, along with the rest of the other passengers.

"Well, we did book our tickets at the last minute John," Olivia said from in front of him. "I'm sure we probably knocked a couple of people off of this flight because we had to tell them it was for police business."

"But seriously! It's only the end of May. How can there possibly be this many people going on vacation already? Don't these kids still have school to finish up?" John ranted, while helping Olivia put their carry-on bags in the upper compartment.

"I guess they're finished," Olivia replied, not really caring. "And some people are leaving on business, like us."

"Business? In Las Vegas? Oh Liv, you can't possibly tell me you don't know that's a cover-up for other certain happenings." John began. "For instance, let me explain, the 'business meetings' are held in the most expensive hotels because…"

"Oh Christ," Olivia mumbled, as she rolled her eyes and caught Elliot and Fin out of the corner of her eye, making their way further down the plane. She caught Elliot's glance and gave him an annoyed look, motioning to Munch who was one seat over from her. Elliot laughed as he heard Munch making some comment about drug rings and soliciting sex, or odd forms of it anyway. This caused Fin to roll his eyes in embarrassment, and he gave Olivia a look of understanding.

"Like we don't have that here, Munch?" Fin said, trying to get him to be quiet.

"Yeah, but see, we don't exactly try to cover it up like they do," Munch replied. "They try to hide it by calling it 'entertainment'…"

Olivia turned her head to look out the window as Elliot and Fin left her to deal with Munch on her own. God, I hope the person in this seat is nice and quiet. Someone who doesn't say a word. That would be nice...

"Um, excuse me sir, can I get through to my seat?" a tall man asked.

Munch stood and moved to the aisle, allowing the man to sit in the seat between him and Olivia. As he was getting himself situated and comfortable, Olivia studied him out of the corner of her eye. The man had short, smooth, dark brown hair and had on a pair of black-rimmed rectangular glasses that sat atop a steep nose. His jaw bone was broad, giving him a slightly wide face, with pale-pink lips. Eh, average guy, Olivia thought to herself as she set her gaze towards the window.

The plane began slowly moving as the flight attendants began advising everyone of the safety precautions, just before the plane was about to take off.

Once in the air, the flight attendants began going around serving drinks to the passengers.

"Would you three like anything to drink?" a blonde-haired woman asked.

"I'll just have some water," John replied.

"Uh, I'll have a coke," the man said.

"I'd like some orange juice, please," Olivia answered.

The attendant served them their drinks; Olivia finding the orange juice to be a little too sour for her liking, and then the man between her and John introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Damon. Damon Rundell," he said, putting his hand in front of her.

A horrible noise was heard immediately, not far from her, and Olivia and Damon looked over to notice John had slightly choked on his water. I bet I know why, Olivia thought.

"Wrong pipe," John wheezed, holding up a hand in protest of help. As soon as his "coughing fit" came, it was gone, and John unlocked the tray in front of him and put his water as far away from him as possible.

"Rachel. Rachel Miller," Olivia said, shaking his hand. She heard Munch horribly attempt to hold in something that could only be described as a cross between a snort and a laugh.

"So why are you heading to Las Vegas?" Olivia asked. Maybe I can get him to mention Adrian somehow…

"Eh, family emergency," Damon said, his eyes clouding over a little darkly. "Or at least that's what my brother's calling it. He always exaggerates everything, so I'm probably wasting my time and money right now. But that's enough about me. Why are you heading to Las Vegas?"

"Business conference," Olivia lied. She heard John quietly excuse himself to the restroom after covering up what was probably yet another laugh. "The company meets about three times a year with other companies in the same field comparing all sorts of things."

"I'm sorry. I don't think I caught what you did for a living?" Damon asked.

"I'm a realtor." Olivia answered.

"Really?" Damon said, surprised. "I would have figured you to be a dancer of some sort, you know, heading to Las Vegas and all."

"Why would you think that?" Olivia asked.

"Well, you have the look of one. Perfect, well-toned body…" Damon started, going on and on about her body. By this time John had just come back from the restroom and heard what Damon was saying. He also noticed that Damon was eyeing her from head to toe, and taking a little too long to examine her in certain areas. Olivia saw John glaring daggers from behind Damon, who didn't seem to notice John behind him.

"Well, I've been known to do some dancing. I wouldn't say I'm a pro at it, but I did practice in high school and occasionally kept up with it in college," Olivia lied. Smooth, Benson. You better hope he doesn't want you to turn tricks for him. You don't know jack about dancing.

"In that case, let me give you my card for where I'll be in Vegas," Damon said, pulling out small business card. "After I deal with my brother, maybe you can come by and show us what you still remember. We recruit dancers for a small employment opportunity. It's not much, but it's extra money though. This is wear I'll be staying if you want to drop by," he said, as he wrote down the address of a small hotel and casino. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to use the restroom."

Olivia stared at the card in shock. It can't be this easy, she thought. That's when she felt another set of eyes staring at her. She looked up and stared right back at Munch, a grin beginning to form on her face.

"So, do you like your new boyfriend?" John asked sarcastically.

"Yes and no," Olivia answered. "He just gave away wear he and his brother, Adrian, are hiding out. But, he seems to be in on it. Says he helps his brother recruit dancers for a small employment opportunity. Whether he helps torture and rape them, we have yet to find out."

"Well, I doubt you're going to get much more out of him right now, so why don't you go switch seats with Fin before this guy comes back, I don't like the way he looks at you," Munch said. Olivia glared at him.

"John, I don't like it either, but he can't possibly try anything on a plane," Olivia said, trying to reassure him she was fine.

"Well then do it so you can fill Elliot in on what you found out," Munch tried again. "You two are both the leads on the case, and he needs to know this stuff too."

"Fine," Olivia muttered, knowing full well that John could have cared less about that right now. "What are you going to tell Rundell when he comes back?"

"That you found a friend of yours from the realty company," John replied smoothly. Olivia glared at him again.

"You were waiting for me to say that, weren't you?" She sassed, in which John grinned and nodded his head.

She made her up the aisle and came to a stop next to Elliot and Fin, the latter in the aisle seat.

"Hey, Fin, switch places with me will you?" Olivia asked.

"Munch driving you insane already?" Fin asked, sitting up to look over at John a few rows up.

"No, it's not him," Olivia sighed. "Munch will explain it to you if you get there fast enough; now go before the middle man comes back from the restroom."

"Alright, alright," Fin muttered, standing up to go sit where Olivia had been moments earlier.

"What's up?" Elliot asked after Olivia had taken Fin's seat.

"You won't believe who occupied the seat between John and me," Olivia said, pulling out the business card and showing it to Elliot.

"No way!" Elliot said, reading the card that had both Damon and Adrian Rundell's names printed on it. "Adrian's brother? Of all the coincidences, this has to be the biggest."

"I know," Olivia said, beginning to explain what she found out from Damon. Soon the conversation began to turn away from the case onto other things, such as Elliot's kids and how amusing it was the way Munch and Fin interact with each other.

A couple hours later, the plane had finished landing and slowly pulled up to the gate to let the passengers off.

"I'm going to head off in a separate direction from you guys at first, just in case Damon sees me. Can't let him see me with a group of cops, or he'll put two and two together, you know," Olivia said to Elliot as they were exiting the plane.

"Okay, wait around for about five minutes before finding meeting up with us. Find something that would distract you from going to get your luggage," Elliot suggested as Olivia stopped near her original seat to get her carry on bag from the upper compartment.

"Yeah," Olivia agreed, as Elliot continued down the aisle to get off the plane with Munch and Fin.

Olivia grabbed her bag and exited along with the rest of the passengers. Damon seemed to have already left before her, but Olivia browsed around near a stand of brochures advertising popular attractions in Las Vegas. After about five minutes and no sign of Damon Rundell in sight, Olivia thought it was safe to meet up with Elliot and the others. She looked around and scanned the room to Elliot, Munch, and Fin standing with two people whom she did not recognize.

The first person, a man appeared a bit shorter than most, but not by much. His face was round, with slightly squinty brown eyes and a hairline that sat almost at the top of his head. He held a brown suede jacket on his arm, and wore a black shirt, slacks, and shoes, with a sports watch on his left wrist, and his Captain's badges slung around his neck.

The second person, a woman with long dirty blond hair, stood slightly taller than the Captain next to her. Her light blue eyes stuck out the most, as they were brought out by her navy blue, three-quarter length sleeved, buttoned up shirt, tucked in to her black slacks, with black shoes. Her badge was clipped to her belt.

"Detective Olivia Benson," Elliot said, introducing Olivia as she pulled out her own badge to show them, "This is Captain Jim Brass and Detective Sofia Curtis of the LVPD."

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So, you guys still like it? I'd like to make a note that all that stuff at the beginning about Las Vegas being "horrible" and what-not, strictly a joke. On the contrary, I absolutely love Las Vegas, and I hope I did not offend anyone who lives in or around Vegas. Just thought it would be acceptable with Munch's character to start coming up with some outrages conspiracy theories about Vegas.

Like I said in the first note…. Please, please, please review! I need to know what you guys like and don't like and ways to improve on it.