But they had each other, and nothing else mattered.

~We can face it together

The way old friends do~

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Time had stopped. The world had stopped. Not a sound was heard, the raging wind had quieted down, silence had fallen around them.

For a moment Olivia thought they were dead. But then she felt Elliot's breath against her lips, felt his hands in her hair.

They weren't dead. She didn't understand how that was possible, as she was sure they had had no chance.

But then why did she feel that she was more alive than ever before?

She slowly opened her eyes, touched Elliot's cheek, and her words broke the silence as she whispered:

"Are we… Are we dead?"

"I don't know," Elliot answered in a whisper, and then pulled her closer. "But if this is the afterlife, it's not so bad."

"Yeah.." Olivia buried her face in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath. For the first time since arriving at the farm, she felt like she had gotten Elliot back completely. He remembered. He was no longer a shell of himself, he had found himself. Olivia didn't understand how that was possible, but in the end it didn't matter. She could have stayed there forever, in Elliot's arms, and her every cell seemed to scream that she belonged there, but eventually the gravity of the situation began to reach her awareness, and she raised her head. "Do you have a light?"

Elliot felt his pockets, and also to his own surprise realized that he had taken his phone with him. There was no signal, but the light from its flashlight lightened the basement, and they looked around. The basement was surprisingly large and in good condition considering the house above it, and it had saved them. But then Olivia grabbed her ex-partner's arm and looked at him scared in the light of the phone's flashlight.

"What if... The house has collapsed?" She whispered hoarsely. "What if we can't get out?"

Elliot swallowed and glanced at the small window that still cast a narrow beam of light into the basement. However, the window was so small that there was no way they could fit out of it. He slowly got to his feet, shook his clothes and took a deep breath.

"There's only one way to find it out..."

But the moment he got up to his feet, the light from the flashlight hit something. It was colorful and stood out clearly in the dusty and old environment.

"Wait," she squeezed Elliot's arm, which she hadn't let go of yet. "What's over there?"

"Where?" Elliot swung the flashlight around quickly, and Olivia took the phone from his hand.

"Here…" She slowly walked over to the colorful thing and crouched down to look. But when she realized what it was her eyes widened in astonishment.

It was a child's sneaker.

"How…" But then the pieces fell into place, and she turned to look at Elliot, who seemed to realize the same thing.

"The murderer… He has been keeping children here."

Speechless, they stared at the lone shoe, its cheerful colors warring against the truth. The basement might be a refuge, a salvation for them, but for the children this had been a prison, a horrible fate, a real house of horrors.

"Liv," there was Elliot's voice, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Look."

And when she turned to look at the wall he was lighting, nausea began to rise in her throat. The wall was covered in blood. There were tools, knives, various blades lying on the floor, and it goes without saying that the basement had not been just a prison.

It had been a torture chamber.

Hidden enough, far away enough that no one would have heard the screams of the children in pain. Dilapidated enough that its existence would have been remembered or considered relevant.

A perfect place for a murderer.

"I have to get out of here," Olivia whispered hoarsely, as she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore, and the dust from the basement started to burn her eyes. Elliot seemed to agree because without saying a word he leaped to the basement door, detached the broomstick from the handle, and carefully pulled the door open.

Dust greeted them as soon as the door opened, causing them to cough and they had to pull their shirts over their faces. However, there was less damage than expected. One wall had collapsed, and the house had leaned ominously, but otherwise it still looked like a house. It was squeaking and creaking in its joints, as if moaning in pain, and suddenly they felt that it was still standing just for them. However, they didn't stay to wait to see how long the three remaining walls could support the gravity-defying building, and as lightly as possible they moved across the floor, opened the front door, and jumped to freedom.

But the sight outside the house made them freeze.

The tornado had really torn everything from its path. In addition, it had left behind the things it had been tired of, like a careless hiker throwing rubbish from his pockets. The area around the house was full of loose vegetation, soil and scraps of wood, and it really looked like they hadn't had any chance.

Until the tornado had decided to change direction.

Based on the tracks, the determined and unstoppable force of nature had gone straight towards the house, but about 100 meters before it had suddenly turned left. It was as if it had suddenly remembered that it had forgotten to pick up its kid from kindergarten, or as if it had realized that it didn't want to destroy a house that had stood in the same place for so long that it had had to withstand countless tests of natural forces.

One way or another, they were safe.

And it was a miracle.

She felt Elliot's hand in hers, her shoulder touching his arm as they stared at the sight in front of them in silence. Death had whispered in their ear, merciless and ruthless, but at the last moment it had decided to spare them.

It had given them a new chance.

And they weren't going to waste it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A light rain was watering their hair, but the thunder had subsided, and the sky had begun to brighten. The journey to the car was not nearly as long as it had felt a moment before, and soon the light-colored car came into view. It really looked like it had seen its best days; it was so muddy it almost blended in the environment, and its plastic parts had cracked as it had raced down the field road against time. The hole it was stuck in wasn't very deep, and Elliot asked Olivia to get behind the steering wheel while he was going to push the car.

At first it felt like the car wouldn't budge, but then the back-and-forth movement made it release from the mud, and it bounced out of the hole backwards so fast that Elliot didn't have time to prepare for it. Because he had leaned on the car with all his strength, he staggered forward, but the muddy ground gave him no mercy, and he fell on his nose.

"Damn it!"

Olivia, who was sitting in the car, only saw that her former partner disappeared from view, and a moment later stood up at least as muddy as his car. She got out of the car and had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. Elliot looked at his dirty clothes, wiped his face with his hand, and then realized that his face was also muddy.

"I swear to God…"

But then Olivia couldn't hold back her laughter anymore. It erupted from her like a volcano as the emotions she had dammed inside of her for two years burst out uncontrollably. Sadness, pain, confusion, joy and relief all merged together and set off like a tidal wave, happiness illuminated her heart that had been in darkness for a long time, and she laughed. She laughed properly for the first time in two years, she laughed from the bottom of her heart, tears of laughter rolled down her cheeks, and she couldn't catch her breath.

"What?" Elliot's expression had softened, and he grinned. "Do you think this is funny, Detective?" He pointed to his clothes, making Olivia laugh even more. She wasn't able to answer, she had to use all her strength to catch her breath between laughs, and eventually Elliot started laughing too.

And after a few minutes they were leaning against the car, panting, their abs destroyed, but their hearts cleansed, lightened, warmed. They were looking at the brightening sky, and Olivia took a deep breath. She could have stayed in this light feeling forever, when there were just Elliot and her, but they had a job to do. She turned to look at her former partner, who looked at least as content as she did, and said:

"I'll call the sheriff about what we found. And you…" She hesitated, but then took Elliot's phone from his pocket, typed a number from memory and handed it to him. "You call your children."

Elliot's face tightened as he looked down at his phone, and he began tapping it against his leg.

"I don't… Know…"

"El," Olivia put her hand reassuringly on his shoulder. "They don't hate you. They'll understand. You have no idea how much they've missed you."

Elliot looked at Olivia hesitantly for a moment longer, but when she smiled, pressed a kiss to his cheek, took her phone from the car seat and got into the car, Elliot let out a deep sigh and pressed the call button.

And his heart felt like jumping out of his chest when after a few seconds a familiar voice answered the phone:

"Kathleen Stabler."

"Hi, kid, it's…"

The descending silence could have been cut with a knife, and for a moment Elliot thought the call had been dropped, but then there was a stifled:

"D-Dad?"