Close Calls
Summary: See ch1
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: Keep the reviews coming!
What's This?
When Olivia woke up the next morning, her body was screaming. Every muscle hurt.
When she finally made her way into the bathroom, her face looked as bad as it felt. Her cheek had swelled in the night, and her lip was still puffy. The only thing that looked half way concealable was the wound on her neck. She had bandaged herself up before she went to bed, and as long as she wore her hair down, no one would notice it.
She spent almost an hour applying make up, and styling her hair so that no one would notice the punching bag her face was. If one looked close enough, they could still tell she had been in a fight, but she hoped that no one would get the chance. As long as she kept her head down at work today, she figured she'd be okay.
The next task was to dress herself. When she saw herself in the bedroom mirror she couldn't help but laugh. There had to be twenty bandages covering her body. She slowly forced her limbs into her cloths and finished getting ready for work.
She cursed out loud when she realized that she wouldn't have enough time to make a pot of coffee this morning, because she was already late.
When she finally did make it to the precinct, she was relieved to see everyone surrounding Cragen. If all eyes were on him, it meant none were on her. She snuck in the back of the crowd, and listened to hear what was going on.
"Now, the Marshalls tell me that they're not one hundred percent sure, but they think Richard's may have another victim out there." Cragen explained. Olivia's stomach dropped. What did he know?
"So why haven't they hauled his butt in here so that we can talk to him?" Fin asked, annoyance evident.
"Because he claims that he stabbed himself by accident." Cragen explained.
"No one stabs them self in the thigh by accident." Fin continued. "And if they do, they call 911, not limp into an emergency room. Plus, where the hell is the knife?"
"Trust me Fin, I've already asked them these questions myself." Cragen sighed. "Fact of the matter is, they still need him."
"Yeah, and so long as they need him, he sees it as a get out of jail free card." Munch noted. "Just what we need, a perp who thinks he can get away with whatever he wants."
"Except he doesn't just think he can, he knows he can." Elliot huffed. He was furious that a group of people who were supposed to uphold the law was not only letting a rapist run rampant throughout the city, but was protecting him against anyone who tried to stop it.
"Look people, I understand that this isn't the most ideal situation, but it's what we've got." Cragen said, trying to stop a riot among his detectives. "Now, if there is another victim out there, we need to find her. You catch any case that even slightly resembles the Cynthia Rambles rape/homicide; I want you to tell me immediately, understood?" He asked.
The whole squad answered with nods of their head.
"Good, now everyone, back to work." He said, letting everyone return to whatever they had been scheduled to do that day.
"Nice sneakin in there Benson." Fin joked when he saw her putting her things in her locker.
"Like you never overslept before." She joked back, trying to act as normal as possible.
"You just got lucky Dad didn't notice. He's been on the warpath ever since the Marshalls told them there might be another victim, but won't do anything else to help." He warned.
"Imagine my luck lately." She mocked before taking her seat.
She had hoped that no one would notice her defensive wounds, but she had only been around the guys for five seconds when Munch finally noticed.
"Holy shit Liv, what the hell happened to your face!" He asked, truly concerned for his friend.
With his remark, Fin and Elliot both snapped their heads up to inspect her.
"Oh, it's nothing." Olivia lied, trying to play it off as looking worse than it was. "I, um, tripped coming down the stairs of my building this morning. I was in such a rush to get here on time, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. But really, it looks a hell of a lot worse than it is." She tired assuring them.
"Those aren't from that new boyfriend of yours, is it?" Fin asked, warily.
"You've got a new boyfriend?" Elliot asked quickly. While he was worried about Olivia, he knew that they still had to keep up the façade that they were nothing more than partners. Plus, he could tell that Olivia didn't want everyone to know what had really caused those bruises, and while he planned on finding out what it was later, he figured he owed it to her to help her out now.
"You didn't tell Elliot?" Munch asked, changing the topic as Elliot had hoped he would.
"Oh, no I guess it never really came up." Olivia answered; relieved the conversation was off her face. She made a mental note to thank Elliot later, even though she knew he would want to know what really happened.
"How long?" Elliot asked, playing his role wonderfully.
"Oh, I guess, almost two months now." She answered, giving the amount of time she and Elliot had been together.
"Why have I never heard about this guy?" Elliot continued.
Olivia just shrugged her shoulders as if to brush him off as she normally would. She was never one to gush about her personal life at work. "I guess it just never came up." She said again.
"Oh, well, congratulations." He said.
"Now that Stabler's been filled in, those aren't from him, are they?" Fin asked again. He knew that she was lying, no one got that beat up from just falling down the stairs, plus, he could tell by the way she was sitting that she was sore and that usually only set in the day after you get hurt.
Even though Elliot knew that Fin had no idea he was the guy in Olivia's life, he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed, and angry that Fin thought he may have been the one to cause Olivia's injuries. He would kill himself before even thinking about raising his hand to her, or any woman for that matter.
"He would never even think about laying a hand on me." Olivia assured both him, and Elliot. He felt good that Olivia trusted him so much.
"You sure? Because those don't look like the kinda bruises you get from falling down the stairs." Fin continued to push. He would be damned if he let someone hurt one of his closest friends like that. "Plus, you seem pretty bruised already for this happening this morning."
"Fin, I don't know what to tell you. I told you what happened. If you don't believe me, I guess there's nothing I can really do about it." She said irritated.
Fin got the hint that it was time to back off, but he decided that he would be keeping his eye on her for the next few weeks. If anything like this happened again, he would be finding out who this guy was, and paying him a visit.
Later that night, Elliot found himself in Olivia's apartment. She was resting on the couch, with her head back, and her eyes closed. Her body was so stiff, and all she wanted to do was sit there forever, and never move again.
Elliot was in the kitchen, waiting for the pizza they had ordered to get there. He still hadn't approached Olivia about the bruises yet.
Work had been busy. Because they, along with Munch and Fin, had been the lead detectives in the Cynthia Ramble case, they had to accompany all the catching Detectives to the scenes that may have been linked to Richards.
It was no surprise to Olivia that nothing panned out from any of the leads. She knew who the 'victim' was.
"I can't believe the Marshalls are just letting that guy walk around like a free man when they know that he's committed at least one murder, and may have attacked another woman." Elliot commented as he rummaged Olivia's refrigerator for two beers.
There was nothing better than a slice of hot New York City Pizza with a nice cold beer.
"Yeah. Like I said the other day, it sucks." Olivia muttered. Her lip was aching, and the simple act of talking was taxing on her.
"You sure you're okay Liv?" Elliot asked, deciding that now was as good a time as any to ask about her face.
"Mmmhmmm." She simply answered.
"Because, as much as you were mad at Fin this morning for sticking his nose into your business, he had a point." Elliot said cautiously.
"About what?" Olivia asked, raising her head, and opening her eyes to look at him. Elliot was getting on her last nerve quickly.
"Olivia, those bruises don't look like you fell down the stairs." He informed her.
Olivia just shook her head, sighed in irritation, and returned her head back to its previous position, and closed her eyes once more.
"Fin was right, my new boyfriend hit me." She said in irritation.
"Liv, I know when you're lying, and you are definitely lying. What happened?" He asked gently. He decided to ignore he little cut at him.
Olivia was saved by the door bell. She pushed herself off the couch, stifling a moan of pain. She pushed past Elliot and answered the door to get the food.
Elliot decided to hold off on the questioning until after they ate. Maybe then she would be in a better mood. He retrieved paper plates from under the sink, and set them and two beers on the table as Olivia paid the man.
"Hey Liv, you got any napkins?" He called as she made her way into the kitchen with the pizza box.
"If there aren't any under the sink, there may be some in the bathroom." She told him.
He walked out of sight, and as Olivia was putting a slice of pizza onto a plate, she realized something. She froze when she heard Elliot stop rummaging under the bathroom sink.
She silently cursed herself for sending him in there.
Elliot walked out of the bathroom holding up the plastic bag that held the bloodied knife.
TBC... Cliffhanger! Stay tuned to see how this one pans out!
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