AN: 6 weeks of no EO. I don't know about the rest of you, but…I'm gnawing at the bit. Dick Wolf. What is WRONG WITH YOU! LOL. flames.
New Year's Eve Has Been Forgot.
New Year's Eve rolled in like a surprise attack. It didn't take IAB long to release Olivia's shield back to her. Though she wasn't too concerned about being held off the clock more than a few days, as the entire NYPD was low staffed. She watched Fin and Rollins wrap up their grueling investigation for the day and threw her pen on the desk as a final exclamation for closing time. Fin walked out of the room with Rollins behind him.
"Have Dave take that piece of scum downstairs. We have plenty for the ADA to book his ass. You all coming over for Phoebe's NYE party?," Fin asked, grabbing for this coat and keys.
"Yep, got my parents to babysit. Just texted Carisi to pick me up," Rollins smiled. "Liv, Noah's at a sleepover, so you have no excuse. You need a ride? Traffics gonna be a bitch."
Olivia looked at her phone one more time and hesitated.
"He's not coming, is he," Fin replied.
Olivia slapped the phone on her side and sighed in frustration. "I couldn't tell yeah. He's in deep with that city wide cyber hacking thing going on. It really threw them all for a loop this week. He was supposed to take me to dinner the night before last, and he had to reschedule. I then got a text message a few hours ago saying his house was being broken into and his mom was in hysterics. I tried calling Bernie and responding to his text, but radio silence. I almost drove over there to check on them all, but then he texted this-"
She clicked open her phone and read the text aloud.
"'Mom's safe. Call you when I get a chance.' And a T-Rex holding a cake Emoji….."
"A…T-Rex emoji? What the hell is that supposed to mean," Rollins sympathized.
"I think it has to do with something I said about cake once a long time ago…but could just be a typo…or lack of sleep. Let's just say, communication is hit or miss right now with this man. He's either calling me 10 times an hour or falling out of pocket for days at a time."
"Hasn't it always been like that though," Rollins responded.
"Mmmmm, this is definitely a new habit with him," she replied while averting her eyes. The last thing she needed to make this already confusing relationship even harder to navigate was a face full of judgmental stares and opinions.
"But hey," Rollins added. "It could just be a guy thing. Carisi is amazing at using the phone if it's work related, but if I need him to give me an estimated time frame about when he'll be home for dinner or date night, I get a non-response or a 'Thinking about you' text followed by an eggplant emoji."
"A what," Fin chimed in.
"You know the purple eggplant…"
Fin gave her a side eye.
Rollins flustered and moved her hands around like she was in the middle of a pantomime. "Because it looks like a….thing….like a…OH geez, do I really have to spell this out."
"It's code for penis, Fin," Olivia finished with an annoyed unfocused gaze.
"Ah," Fin nodded. "You white people do some weird ass shit with your emojis. I just send Phoebe a picture of my dick."
"Ah God," they both jumped.
"Okay, I'm out of here," Rollins finished. "I will see you all in 40ish minutes at Fin's place. Right, Liv? Because you're coming."
"She is," Fin ended. "Go change your clothes, woman. I'll drive you over and then Carisi can drive you home. You are not starting 2022 sitting alone in your apartment. That's bullshit. And Phoebe has plenty of single friends gonna be all up in that house looking to meet a lady like yourself."
"Eh…see that's what I was afraid of, and really I don't have it in me to deal with single drunk old men on New Year's Eve."
"You're going," Rollins said as she forced her toward the locker rooms.
Olivia hummed "Will you still love me tomorrow" while she sluggishly changed her clothes in the empty locker room in front of the precinct mirror with its horrible day bright lighting. She flipped her hair, combed it a bit, and attempted to freshen up her makeup and take herself in. The long flowing black dress she now wore, hid all of the not-so-flattering curves and accentuated the best ones. Her hair free and wavy around her bare shoulders. She could remember a time when this outfit would have been a little cocktail dress with spaghetti straps and nothing but night air on her thin tight thighs and her perky cleavage. She would never forget Elliot's face when she walked out of the bathroom and past his desk to leave for the night. She wouldn't have admitted it then, but more often than not, she was more excited for that reaction than she was to go out on the date.
Sometimes she would just say she was going out on a date so she could wear extra make up and a low cut top before saying good night to him. He would follow her around for 15 minutes or help her zip the back of a dress and sometimes walk her to her car just to make sure she got to it safely.
She wondered if he would still look at her like that today. There were moments when she could say with certainty that he would, and other moments where she wasn't sure where his mind was. Always a man of mystery.
She looked at the phone one more time.
"Typical," she said to herself. "When I want the phone to ring, it couldn't be more still. Eh. Elliot…what are you doing to me?"
She quickly texted Noah. "Hey sweety. Checking in on you. Hope you're having a fun time with George. Love you. Happy New Year."
SCENE
Elliot was keeping long hours at work this week. The atm hacker jobs started rolling in throughout the city and his entire team couldn't get ahead of it no matter what code or pattern or perp they thought they could predict and follow. Though he was sure the culprit was Wheatley, and he was hell bound on proving it. The days blinked by before he could even look at a calendar or a watch.
He received a slew of text messages from Olivia and Fin that he kept pushing to the side in hopes he'd be able to return them when work ended, but work never seemed to end.
He and Bell now drove toward an abandoned building 20 minutes out of the city. Bell clicked on the radio for a brief moment in the car to listen to the news, and that's when he realized for the first time in days that it was New Years Eve.
"Shit," his heart sank.
"What," Bell replied.
"It's New Years Eve isn't it?"
"It is. Why? You stand up Olivia again?"
"Fuck!," he pounded the steering wheel.
He checked his watch. It was 8:30pm. He could still make it if they caught up with Sebastian.
He drove fast to the area Jet texted them
"There's the Kia. Same plate number," Bell pointed.
SCENE
Olivia stood in Fin's kitchen sipping on a dirty martini. One of Phoebe's work colleagues was heavily hitting on her and droning on about the job and how unfair the system is, and the media going against her during her recent shooting. She was so tired of everyone wanting to talk about her shooting the hate crime bomber. She just wanted to forget about it, and everywhere she turned seemed to feel like a bullet to her brain, because everyone wanted to give her a pat on the back and a piece of their mind.
"The protocols are outrageous! You save New York City and then get penalized for it?," the guy droned on.
"Yeah, it can feel like a punishment for sure," Liv half yawned. "But in the long run, I'm fine with it. The good outweighs the bad."
"Does it though! See the way I see it-"
In the other room Fin texted Elliot for a tenth time. "Bro, you better be bleeding out in an alley. If you don't get here by midnight this beat cop is gonna take your woman." And he texted a picture of the guy hitting on Olivia.
SCENE
Elliot and Bell watched the helicopter with Wheatley and Sebastien fly away.
"Jet, is there any way to follow this helicopter?" Bell called in.
Elliot watched it turn into a spec in the sky and then his phone vibrated for the 10th time. He glanced down to see a picture of Olivia in Fin's kitchen in a gorgeous dress. "Damn it!," He whispered to himself.
He quickly texted her. "I fucked up! I forgot it was NYE! You look so beautiful tonight. I'm out of it this week. Forgive me. Please forgive me!"
Bell got off the phone and nodded his way. "She's seeing if she can track the radio transmissions, but it's a private helicopter, so it could land anywhere off grid. Get me back to the city and let's revisit this in the morning."
SCENE
Liv's phone pinged and she glanced at it.
"Excuse me," she said to the detective hitting on her. "It's my partner. I should take this."
"Oh, you're gay," He answered in a drunken stupor.
"No," she said with an utterly annoyed glare, and quickly made her way back over to Rollins and Carisi. "Do not leave me alone again, or I'm calling you all in at 6am to reorganize the filing cabinets."
They laughed.
"That bad," Rollins replied.
"Oh yeah," she responded as she glanced at Elliot's text and replied with a quick ", I understand. Rain check." and the wink Emoji.
"I saw that," Rollins smiled.
"As much as I'd like to sit here and sulk about not having a date for New Years Eve, it would be extremely hypocritical of me. He's stuck at work."
Carisi handed her a new drink. "Look at this way, he's thinking about you."
Rollins kissed Carisi's cheek. "Glass is always full with this one."
"We should have just had a party with the kids tonight," Olivia said as she checked Noah on the tracker she had for him. "I miss Noah and he's been dealing with some heavy issues with kids at school, and I missed Christmas with him. But he begged for this sleepover, so I gave in."
"Yeah I was surprised you let him have a sleepover," Rollins questioned.
"Well…" she searched for the words. "Part of the bullying was caused by my strict rules, so I'm trying to let go…a little. He's shown me enough times that he can be trusted. I just can't always trust the people around him, and that's the thing that's hard to communicate with these preteens. Not gonna lie, I've checked his tracker over 100 times in the last 4 hours."
"Oh, I'd be doing the same thing," Rollins added. "My oldest keeps asking for playdates and I'm paranoid about it. It's not like I have time to make friends with everyone's parents. I'm definitely not the PTA mom, so what am I supposed to do, interrogate people? Hi, thanks for taking my kid for the day, I know we've only met at the drop-off door, but do you have a gun? Can I see where it is? Is it locked up? Are you on drugs? Do you drink? Is your husband a child molester? How many men actually live here? Are there older siblings in the house and can I trust them? Yeah, that's not awkward at all."
"Oh, and," Carisi added. "If you tell them what department you work for, they look at you like you're a child molester! We should just move to New Jersey."
"Shut your mouth," Rollins said, slapping him on the arm. "It's not that bad!"
Olivia laughed and took a sip of her drink. "Your girls are still young. I've had years to slowly get to know these parents. Noah and their son have been friends since kindergarten. They play the same sports. We've had a few playdates. So it gets easier…but there's always something new. Just wait until they start telling you their sexual orientation."
"What?"
"Yeah, Noah's supposedly Bi. Another reason for the bullying. I'm just glad he was able to tell me about all of it. All you can do is raise them to be kind, inclusive, intuitive, and street smart, and then hope for the best."
Rollins smiled. "What kind of meds are you on, Benson. I'm having a panic attack just thinking about all of that."
Olivia's phone rang, it was Elliot.
"Ha! Zoloft goes a long way," she smiled. "Hang on."
"Liv," Elliot answered.
"I can't hear you," She ducked into the hallway.
"Noah just called me. He said he and George left the house. They're going to the ball drop in Times Square and there is a man that he recognizes from the diner following them."
"What?," Olivia's heart skipped a beat..
"I told him to go back to George's house, but they're with some older kids and I think he's being pressured to stay out."
She didn't even say goodbye to anyone at the party, she ran for the door and put Elliot on speaker phone. "I just texted him. When did he call you?!"
"Just now. He was in a bathroom. He hung up before I could get more info out of him. You have a tracker on him?"
"Why didn't he call me?," She breathed in a panic.
"He said this was the first time you let him have a sleepover and he didn't want you to be mad that he left the house. He was afraid you'd never let him out of the house again."
"Well he's right! And I am never going to trust George's parents after this."
"Liv, breathe. Noah is a smart kid. I'm headed over to your neighborhood, but I'm about 20 minutes out of the city, and roads are closed, so you'll probably make it there before me. Share his location with me."
"It looks like he's on 7th avenue near 34th st headed north. I'm getting on the subway," Olivia tried to calm her heart. She got to the street, it was filled with people and traffic.
"I just shared his location. There is so much chaos. We could both be stuck outside of this for hours….Where are you?," she asked.
"Long Story. I'm in the car with Bell. We're headed to you."
"Was he scared?"
" He was trying to do the right thing, Liv. Said you kept texting him and he felt bad. I'll keep trying to call him back. He's going to be okay."
"Okay…," Liv's mind was reeling. Her thoughts moved from Noah trying drugs to getting kidnapped by Wheatley's goones to flashes of his dead body in Central Park.
"I'll be there soon," Elliot said. "I'm sorry I'm not there now."
"Okay," she said, trying to hold in her panic. "Do you know Wheatley's location? Could he be targeting Noah?"
"I don't know. I won't sugar coat it, he's got it out for me. He was at my house today. Scared my mom out of her mind. But I can assure you he is not in the city right now, so maybe Noah just thinks he's being followed."
"I'm about to go underground. Hurry."
"I love you," he said just as she paused and then hung up.
Bell gave him a look. "Mmph."
"What?"
"Nothing," she said, all high pitched.
"She didn't say it back."
"She's focused," he quickly cut her off and changed the subject. "Check Noah's location."
Bell shook her head and looked at her phone. "Mmm. Mmmm. Mmmm!"
Olivia called Noah as soon as she got off the phone with Elliot and got his voice mail.
"Noah, Elliot and I are coming to pick you up. Leaving George's home was not okay. If a man is following you, please go to the nearest cop and say you're a Captain's son and you need help, and call me. It's not safe. Please leave your phone on, so we can find you. Stick with your group or find a cop."
She pushed through the crowds and started jogging around street signs and drunken NYE party goers. She paused to look at the tracker and went into the subway to get closer to her neighborhood faster. The wait for the subway was grueling and she forced her way into the car.
She anxiously refreshed her phone screen and watched Elliot and Noah's dots move around on the Find My Friends App, until she lost a signal underground.
SCENE
Elliot called Eli, who was at Times Square, a bunch of times and Eli kept ignoring the phone call. He then texted.
"This is an emergency! Please pick up the phone, Son!"
He called again and Eli answered. "Dad, I can't hear, the music is really loud. What is wrong?"
"Noah needs help. I need you to go toward 7th Ave and 28th St.."
"Noah?"
"He was at a friend's house and some older boys convinced them to leave the house. He may be in danger. Liv and I are stuck in traffic. Do me a solid and go get him and wait for us."
"But I've got prime real estate right near the front. And a date. Are you sure he needs help or are you overreacting?"
"He's 10! He shouldn't be alone in Times Square. And if it weren't for Olivia's help you could be in jail right now. Please."
"Fine."
"Thank you. Call me when you're close. And keep your phone handy."
"His location keeps wildly moving," Bell said, showing Elliot the phone and the blinking dot that flickered from one side of Manhattan to the other.
"Siri text, Liv. Liv, Eli is down there. He's going to try to find him."
SCENE
Olivia was slowly making her way from Harlem to Times Square. There were 5 more stops and no internet on the subway. She prayed he stayed between 28th and 34th street on 7th ave. The crowd around her was mostly having fun, but as soon as they got to the 7th Ave station just north of Broadway there was commotion and yelling and pushing streaming in from outside. She could overhear the new passengers loudly talking about the train turntables not working and that the pay stations were spitting out MTA cards with large sums of money on them.
The engineer made an announcement. "Attention passengers. Stops to Times Square, Penn Station, 34th Ave, and 36th Ave are closed until further notice, if you need to exit, please do so at this time."
She pushed through the crowd into a chaotic mess of drunken men and women beating each other up for free MTA cards. She quickly got out of there.
Finally above ground, she grabbed her phone and checked the tracker, he was still on the corner of 7th ave and 32nd st, a mile or so south of the ball drop. Though it seemed odd he hadn't moved the whole time she was on the subway.
She tried calling him and texting again.
"Noah, please pick up, so that I know you're safe."
She called Elliot.
"Liv! We got to Hell's Kitchen and had to park. Bell just got a call about the subway-"
"I know," she interrupted. "The MTA card stations were hacked. The subway is a war zone."
"Are you okay," He yelled.
"I'm fine. Pushing my way through, but I'm still a mile away from where they are."
"I'm at the corner, I can see your dot getting closer."
Olivia jogged by and he caught up with her. "Hey," he said as they made their way down 7th ave.
"Eli, should be there, but he hasn't texted yet," Elliot yelled.
Bell gave them the nod to keep going. "I have to check in on this MTA thing. I'll catch back up with you later."
The music was pumping loud now that they were close to the main event. They were swimming through a sea of people.
Olivia got to a barricade and flashed her badge at the police guarding it. "NYPD, we need through."
They nodded them on. Elliot pressed against her amidst the thick crowd of people. He held her around the waist as she grabbed the back of his arm with her hand. She looked up at the bright lights of Time Square and the ball, and Elliot couldn't help but wish they weren't fighting crime but stopping to enjoy a first kiss.
"I'm sorry this is happening," Elliot yelled over the noise.
She was glad he was there, but she wasn't in the mood for apologies or distractions. "Just text Eli again," she yelled back, all business.
Elliot called.
"Eli?," he yelled. "Liv, check the location."
"32nd st and 7th Ave."
"32nd and 7th.," He yelled to Eli through the noise. "Where are you? …Well, I'm sorry you passed him…..hang on. Liv, what's he wearing?"
"Dark blue puffy winter coat…jeans…curly hair."
"What do you mean he's not there!," Elliot stopped to catch his breath and looked at the phone again. "Eli, the tracker is saying he's right on the corner."
Eli and his date looked at the one guy sitting at the corner of 32nd and 7th ave. "Dad, the only person at this corner is a homeless guy."
Elliot was getting a second call from Sargent Bell. "Eli, just stay there. Keep your eyes open for Noah. We're about a mile away."
"Something is wrong with these trackers," Liv pointed out. "His dot went from 32nd to 28th to 107th, back down to 34th ave, back up to 28th."
"Maybe the MTA isn't the only thing being hacked right now. Let's just get to Eli. He can't be far from that area."
His phone went off again. "Stabler!," he yelled.
"I did a face recognition on Noah. Check your text messages," Bell responded.
Elliot looked at his screen and grabbed Olivia to stop her.
He pulled her in to her body and flipped the phone her way. A picture of surveillance footage came into focus. Noah was being held at gunpoint in the lobby of a building by a man in an NYPD uniform.
"What building is that," Elliot yelled into his phone. "Empire, got it."
Elliot spotted a cop car and pointed Liv to the car. "We need that car."
He pushed the cop to the side and flashed his badge. "NYPD. Emergency, I need your vehicle." He and Olivia were in the front seat and hitting the gas before the cop could even object. They raced through traffic and crowds, while on his phone to Jet.
"Jet, what do you got on that Helicopter?"
"The air traffic systems are down. All flights have been delayed until further notice."
"Shit!," Elliot cussed and swerved the car around some drunk women. "I knew this was going to happen, and nobody would listen to me."
Liv sat in a vibrating silence and pointed left. "6th Ave will be faster, turn here."
And then Noah's phone number flickered onto her phone. "Noah!," she answered.
"It's Eli. The homeless guy had his phone. Said a man with a boy gave it to him."
"Thanks Eli. Times Square is not safe tonight. I'm going to text you my address. Go there. Wait for us. Turn Noah's phone off. It could be bugged."
Elliot touched her hand again. He felt so guilty. His presence seemed to calm her slightly, though he couldn't be sure. He sped up and rounded the corner to the Empire State building. The car bounced up onto the sidewalk causing a hoard of people to scream and jump back.
He and Olivia raced out of the car and as soon as they entered the lobby of the building they could see the security guard was tied up behind the front desk.
Elliot abruptly stopped. "Hang on… hang on…our phones are bugged." And with no explanation he slammed his phone into a thousand pieces on the ground.
"What are you doing," Olivia freaked.
"It's the phones!," He cried as he grabbed for her phone.
"Elliot! You just need to turn it off, you don't need to destroy it."
"He infiltrated the entire system last week and he probably got into your phone at the diner. He knows our every move. He knew I was at his house. He knew I was home. He knew where you lived. He knew where Noah was. He knew we were at that abandoned building."
Elliot went up to the security guard undid his ties and pulled him up. The guy was in shock and slow to move. "Come on, come on, come on. Get up. Where did the man with the boy go?"
"Up," he groaned in pain.
"Give me your phone, get me on that elevator. We need access to the top floor."
"I can't do that," the guard said as he handed his phone over.
"Like HELL you can't?!," Elliot fumed with fury. "Get up, NOW!"
"I'm already in trouble for turning the alarm off-"
"NOW!," He screamed and pointed a gun at him.
"Elliot, stop," Liv breathed and pulled her badge out. "We're NYPD. We need access to the observation deck."
The guard moved to the elevator and let them in as Elliot texted Bell's personal phone. "This is Elliot. The phones are hacked. I repeat the phones are not safe to use. Call me back on this number from a safe line."
The elevator was silent for what felt like a lifetime. The guard stood in the corner sweating from broken ribs and anxiety. Olivia readied her gun and Elliot pulled up next to her with his gun. The doors opened.
The two of them rounded the corner and saw both Noah and Sebastian tied and gagged together at the top of the deck on the floor.
"Noah, " Liv screamed and ran toward him. She undid the mouth gag and the zip ties on his feet and hands. "It's okay," she whispered.
Tears fell down his face.
"I went to a cop like you said, but he wasn't a cop. I'm sorry I lied to you," he sobbed.
"No. No. I'm just glad you're okay. You're okay," She teared up and held him in her arms.
Elliot pulled Sebastian up from the floor and started to pull him toward the elevator. "Where's Wheatley?"
Sebastien started getting hysterical through the mouth gag and Elliot undid the material. "Ball Drop," He gasped. "We're a diversion. You have to stop the ball from dropping. It will start a chain reaction of cyber attacks on everyone within a 10 mile radius of it. Bank accounts attached to every cell phone in the area will be at risk the second they use their phone to take a picture."
Elliot looked at Olivia.
"Go," she cried. "I got this."
Elliot was about to run then stopped and grabbed Sebastien. "You, it's your code. You're gonna undo this."
He pulled Sebastien down to the car, threw him in the back, and floored it to Times Square where Bell, Jet, Malachi, and a team of FBI agents were already on the scene trying to put a stop to the MTA stations and the Ball Drop without causing panic in the large crowd.
Malachi and Jet were switching into the main board under the stage and trying to decode everything.
"We may be able to reset the system and manually have the ball drop, but the timer will go out for a minute and I'm not sure we can reset the timer…so the ball will be a minute or so behind schedule," Malachi said as he voraciously typed.
"Elliot," Bell waved him over as he and Sebastien got closer to the guts of the event under the main stage.
Malachi and Jet turned into mush when they saw Sebastien headed toward their computers.
"Wow," Malachi said. "So nice to meet you. I'm…I'm a HUGE fan."
Jet saw Elliot's eye brows furrow and she slapped Malachi in the gut.
"Sorry," he muttered and jumped out of the way to let Sebastien take over.
Within minutes Sebastien had everything wiped from the computer and the whole team let out a sigh of relief.
"All systems are secure," Sebastien finished.
"You're sure," Elliot glared into Sebastien's eyes with his intense steel baby blues, and tried to make out any signs of foul play, but Sebastien was more docile and genuine than he was expecting.
The Feds were standing by ready to take him in as soon as they were finished, and he looked Elliot straight in the eye and said ",Thank you. I didn't want this to happen."
Bell stood next to him and they watched as he left. "You thinking what I'm thinking," Bell shouted.
"Yeah, he's our ticket to Wheatley."
Elliot felt the crowd going wild as the countdown began.
"10, 9, 8 , 7, 6-"
Olivia and Noah got to the front of their apartment building after recanting the night's events with the FBI, and stopped to watch the fireworks from afar.
"I hope Elliot saved the city," Noah said as he held the side of his mom.
She went to look at her phone and remembered she had turned it off. She looked at him and then back to the tops of the buildings.
"Me too, sweetheart. Me too."
They counted with the muted sounds they could just barely hear from Times Square. "5, 4, 3,-"
Up in Harlem Phoebe was standing on a stool in her living room shouting at the top of her lungs while Fin opened all of the windows and Amanda and Sunny held each other, pink faced and smiling.
"2, 1 Happy New Year!"
Sunny brought Amanda in for a soft kiss.
Malachi and Jet jumped and screamed and then bumped into each other causing an awkward moment that morphed into a clunky kiss and both of them scraping their teeth together.
"Aw!," they both winced.
Jet pushed him away and wiped her mouth. "Dude," she said in a disgusted tone.
"Sorry," Malachi apologized, but then immediately recanted. "Whatever, you liked it."
And she did. They both looked around to make sure no one on the team was looking and continued to make out, this time with a bit more finesse.
Olivia walked into the lobby to see Eli and his date heavily kissing in the hallway. Eli saw them walk through the door and pushed the girl off of him.
"Oh hey, Liv," he said, pulling his coat down over the crotch of his jeans.
"Eli, I forgot you were here."
"Noah. You found him," Eli replied as he pushed back his hair.
Liv nodded. "We did. Thank god. And thank you. I hope I didn't ruin your night."
His female friend smiled. "It's okay. Is this Noah?"
"It is. I'm Olivia," she introduced herself.
"Megan," she smiled. "Eli told me all about Noah. I'm glad you found him."
"Megan, lovely to meet you. Thank you for understanding. I think that your dad's squad got everything in Times Square under control, but I'm afraid to turn my phone back on, and he trashed his phone, so…do you need a cab home?"
"Naw, I turned my phone back on. The world didn't end," Eli blushed.
"We're meeting up with some friends at a diner down the street and we'll uber once the crowd dies down," Megan added.
"Oh, the diner down the street," Liv beamed. "Your dad and I used to go there all of the time…back in the day. Well…anyway, I won't keep you. Have a good night you two, and Happy New Year."
They nodded and headed out.
When the Benon's got inside their safe warm living room, Olivia tucked Noah into bed and sat in silence alone, for a moment. She looked out her window wondering if she'd ever get the chance to really be in love again. To share fries and coke at 2am in a dusty diner. Hold hands without the fear of it ending. To know with absolute certainty that she could trust another human being like she did when she was young and full of hope.
She poured herself some wine, ripped her boots off, and curled up on the couch, still in her black glittery flowing dress.
Elliot stopped at the convenience store down the street from Olivia's apartment and bought Kraft American cheese, Ritz crackers, and a bottle of $10 sparkling wine. A pink rock attached to a keychain caught his eye too, which was a lucky find, since rocks were so much harder to find than flowers, he'd come to realize. He added that quickly into the transaction before paying.
She answered her door, slightly disheveled from the long hectic evening, but she was stunning, nonetheless, with her hair down and that black dress rippling over her shoulders.
"You made it out of there before day break, I can't believe it," she responded leaning on the door.
"Noah's-"
"Fine. He's asleep and we're all alive." She looked down at the plastic bag. "What's all that?"
"Well…it's not expensive champagne, or lobster tails, or fondue and candlelight…and it's way past midnight, but I think that if we were in a parallel universe…or California…the ball would be dropping in about 3 minutes. Want to crack open this $10 bottle of crappy sparkling wine with me, and cheers to a better year?"
"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten again," she warmly smiled and opened the door to him.
"Also," he said as he entered. "I know you hate flowers, so…I hope you'll add this pink rock keychain to your collection as a token of my sincere and deepest apologies."
She took the rock from his hand and looked at him funny.
"I can't believe after all of these years you remember that I hate flowers. That fearless rock I got …how many years ago…that was you wasn't it?"
He blushed and shrugged. "Maybe."
"Stocker," she joked.
He screwed off the wine cap and poured them two glasses. "Sorry…you seem to be stuck with me…something always brings me back to you."
"To a new year," she raised her glass.
"To two friends needing new beginnings," he ended.
They touched glasses and took a sip. Olivia put her glass down on the island counter and waited for him.
He moved in closer to her and brushed her long hair off of her bare shoulder. "I like this dress," he whispered.
"Thanks," she whispered back.
"Especially when you're running down Time Square and taking out drunk people. It's…badass," he jokingly whispered in return.
She gave him a flirty low laugh.
He took his time with her. He was intentionally careful. He knew she was as sensitive as a wild horse. He touched her fingers with his and followed the shape of her arm, shoulder, then neck with his hand as he got closer to her..
"So…you gonna kiss me or what," she softly murmured.
He took her in, it was the moment he'd waited for and he wanted to relish in it. With a mixture of coy flirtation and vigorous intent, the always-so-in-sync partners blossomed into a relationship as they both leaned in and kissed each other with precise timing and effortless ease.
THE END
AN: Thanks for reading. Drop me your thoughts. Review. Lament. Any and all feels, fully welcome. The last few episodes of Law and order. BRUTAL. Absolutely ZERO EO. ZERO Rollsi. Zero love. Just Sex Crimes and Wheatley BS. I'm just writhing inside. Not even a PHONE CALL. What is wrong with these people! It's killing me! So….I may have to get kinky with a sequel, because once again NBC leaves us hanging.