Layover
Chapter 8--A Little Tour
A/N: I'm taking a little creative liberty with this chapter. I know we don't know anything about Olivia's mother except the fact that she was raped, so I'm making up a history for her. Hope you like it!
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Since Olivia had never been in the D.C. area, Elliot led the way even though he himself was somewhat lost. Sure he had been to the city before but it had been nearly eight years since his last visit. Still, some things you never forget.
"So where shall we go next?" Elliot asked as he and Olivia made their way across a road and onto a gravel path.
"Well first where are we?"
Elliot stopped and took in his surroundings. "Well right now we are at the National Mall," he said. Grabbing Olivia's hand he pulled her forward into the middle of a large grassy expanse. "Look to the west and you have the Washington Monument," Elliot instructed.
Olivia let her eyes graze the horizon, immediately noticing the large, protruding structure stretching towards the sky. "Wow," she gasped, "I bet you can see that thing from anywhere in the city."
"Pretty much," Elliot laughed. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her 180 degrees until she was facing due east. "And in this direction we have the Capital Building. So where to?"
Olivia stared at the huge building in the distance. She had seen it numerous times on the news, there always seemed to be a reporter or two from the major news stations in front of it. It seemed bigger in person. "Can we go to the Vietnam War Memorial?"
Her question caught Elliot off guard. He had expected her to want to see the White House or maybe Union Station to do a little shopping. "Sure," he agreed a little warily.
They hailed a cab on Constitution Avenue and took it west to the site of the numerous war memorials. Elliot paid the driver and stepped onto the curve as the yellow taxi sped away.
"So which way O fearless leader?" Olivia laughed.
"Hmm," Elliot looked at his surroundings. "No idea."
"Oh well that's just great," Olivia threw her arms up in mock defeat.
Fortunately Elliot spotted a large map of the area a short distance away. "Come on," he said pulling his partner along behind him. Making quick work of the color coded map, Elliot decided they were not far from the memorial and immediately started down a concrete path surrounded by trees. Elliot's hand was still clutching Olivia's, their fingers intertwined with a sense of familiarity and trust.
As the dark, granite wall rose before them Elliot could feel the muscles in Olivia's hand tense with nerves. He tore his eyes away from the memorial and stole a glance at her noticing her teeth worrying her bottom lip and the furrowing of her eyebrows. She looked as though she wanted to tell him something, her lips pursing, but she couldn't find the words.
"It's pretty big isn't it?" Elliot asked once the wall was in full view. It's polished, charcoal front spread outward like out stretched arms ready to envelope its visitors into a much needed hug. The somber, etched names were cruel reminders of those who had fallen in that foreign land fighting for something they weren't sure they believed in.
Olivia couldn't speak as she grazed her hand along the edge of the chiseled edge. There was one name she was looking for in particular, but felt it wrong to pass over the others. Each other these men and women had given their lives, they deserved her respect as well as that of each and every person whose eyes fell on this wall.
Elliot studied his partner from a few feet back. 'What are you looking for Liv?' he wondered as he watched her fingers trace the edge of the first panel and slowly move to the second. She seemed to be enticed by the words etched into the granite, her fingers slowly tracing the random names. Elliot continued to watch her closely as she passed the third and fourth sections slowly before coming to a dead stop. He watched as her fingers trailed down the first list of names and back up to the top of the second. Half way down the fourth list of names, Olivia's hand stopped.
"Liv?"
She didn't answer. Elliot walked up behind her and peered over her shoulder at the name that had her so transfixed.
Robert A. Benson
"My uncle," she stated in an even tone.
Elliot was taken back. He didn't know she'd had any family other than her mother. "How did you know where his name was?"
"I was looking through my mother's photo album when I was younger," Olivia recounted, her eyes never straying from the wall. "I found an old black and white photo of my mother and a boy that looked a little older than her. When I asked her who it was she got upset and tore the picture out of my hands. When she finally calmed down she managed to tell me the boy in the picture was her older brother."
Elliot moved to stand in front of her but still off to the side so as not to obstruct her view. Even though her eyes were boring into the granite, he could tell that she was not really seeing the wall in front of her.
"He ran away and joined the army when he was seventeen," Olivia continued. "My grandparents were so upset they told him not to bother coming home, but my mother wrote to him every week begging him to visit her before he got shipped out. The week before he left, my uncle came home in the middle of the night to say goodbye to my mother." Olivia's voice was thick with emotion, almost as though she were reliving the event through telling the story.
"What happened?" Elliot asked.
"He was killed two months into his tour," Olivia said, her hand dropping from the wall to fall limply at her side. "My mother said her parents were never the same. My grandmother blamed my grandfather for being so harsh and kicking him out; my grandfather blamed himself for the same reasons. He killed himself on the three year anniversary of Robert's death, my grandmother lived another ten years before the depression finally became too much."
Elliot watched in awe as this woman whom he thought he knew everything about divulged secrets that she had carried with her for nearly her entire life. It only served to make Elliot wonder what else he didn't know about his beautiful partner.
"I'm sorry," he whispered pulling her into a hug.
Olivia let her head rest on Elliot's shoulder, feeling his arms wrap around her waist. She closed her eyes and brought the image of that old photograph into her memory. It was the one time she had seen her mother look truly happy. She held that image in her mind as she felt Elliot's arms tighten around her. She needed to stop living in the past and start enjoying what she had in her life. Now that she had been to the wall, Olivia felt as though she would be able to put her need for a family connection behind her.
"Can we go home now?" she asked quietly.
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An hour or so later, the pair arrived back at their honeymoon suite. Olivia grabbed her pajamas and headed into the bathroom as Elliot called up the airport. He was able to reserve them two first class tickets from Dulles International back to JFK.
With a deep sigh Elliot thanked the ticket agent and hung up. He could hear the soft sounds of Olivia humming from the shower. 'I could get used to that sound,' he thought. But in the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder if everything would come to a crashing halt once they returned to their lives in New York.
Shaking the thought from his mind, Elliot pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it onto the bed. While he was in this hotel room he intended to savor the experience. Maybe it was time for another round in the shower…
