A/N: For everybody wondering when Elliot is going to get his act together... you're going to like this one.
Olivia was done with everything. Done with Stabler, McGrath, the NYPD in general. This entire thing was just ridiculous, pulling her away from a job she'd been good at, punishing her Captain for her mistakes. All of it was wrong.
And the culmination of all of it seemed to hang in the air. Night had fallen across New York City and a drizzle just annoying enough to friz her hair and frazzle her nerves began to fall.
Olivia hadn't considered the nearest subway stop was about a 15 block walk from the 3-7 before she ran out of the place half cocked, but there was nothing she could do about it now as she tried to pull her coat tighter around her, walking into the wind.
She was about to approach an alley when she heard a rustling inside and instinctively reached for her gun… which wasn't there because it was still locked in her desk drawer at the 3-7. In her haste to get away from "the master" she'd grabbed just her coat and phone, and nothing else. Reasoning that it was probably just a rat, Olivia soldiered on as she stepped into the alley's path.
And a man stepped out in front of her.
Olivia was startled by his presence, but even more startled by who it was.
"Dale?" Olivia asked. "Stuckey? Why aren't you in prison?"
"Uh, hi Liv, um Detective Benson," the little twerp said. "Billy and I, um his girlfriend got us out on bail."
"How?" Olivia asked. "The evidence was pretty solid."
It occurred to her that this was weird. That she shouldn't be having a conversation with a known perp in the dark in the rain while she wasn't armed. But she was also confused as hell and wanted answers.
"I don't know," Stuckey said. "She's good I guess. So, uh, crummy night for a walk huh?"
"I actually have to be going, Dale," she said. "So do yourself a favor and stay out of trouble. Maybe get some better friends than Lewis, huh?"
She tried to step around him but he stood up as tall as he could to block her path.
"Ooh, actually I really can't let you keep going," Stuckey said.
Olivia was about to open her mouth to say something, about to shove him out of her way and stop running when a hand roughly grabbed her shoulder and turned her around."
"So this is the woman I've been hearing so much about," the man said.
Olivia had to blink twice because here she was staring at the third man from Stabler's evidence board. The one with the big nose who she vaguely recognized by still couldn't place.
She wrenched herself from the man's grasp and was quickly trying to bring her knee up to connect with his groin, but he caught her thigh first and set her off balance, which made her fall to the sidewalk.
Olivia tried to scramble backwards, away, anywhere, as gravel dug into her palms. She saw the butt end of a pistol heading straight for her face and all she could do was shut her eyes and brace for the impact, but it never came.
Quickly, she opened her eyes again to see Lieutenant Stabler shoving the big-nosed man up against the alley wall. His pistol skittered to the sidewalk, and Stabler looked like he was choking the life out of the man. Olivia was still a bit dazed from it all, but she and Stuckey caught sight of the gun at the same time. She knew she had to get to it before he did, but he was closer.
But instead of rushing for it, like Olivia expected, he pulled a knife from his pocket and charged at Stabler.
"Stabler, look out," Olivia shouted.
It gave him enough time to drop the big-nosed man to the ground and come face to face with Stuckey and his knife. Instead of stabbing Stabler in an organ, he made a few slashing motions across his chest, causing Stabler to cry out and stagger back against the wall.
The big-nosed man finally regained some of his breath and picked himself up off the concrete.
"Damnit Dale," Big-nose yelled. "This wasn't part of the plan. Go. Run."
Knife still in hand, Stuckey did as he was told and took off running down the street, the opposite direction of the 3-7.
Olivia finally got to her feet, but big nose was already up on his own, crouching down to pick up his pistol and taking off behind Stuckey. They hopped into a waiting sports car at the end of the block, but with the rain she wasn't able to catch the plate number.
When they'd finally sped away, she turned to Stabler. He was hunched on the ground, his nice blue dress shirt soaked in blood, and she wasn't even sure if he was conscious.
She didn't let herself think about it too long and she let her cop instincts take over, making it to his side to lift his chin. He was breathing and his eyes were open.
"Hey, Stabler can you hear me?" she said, quietly.
"'S Elliot," he mumbled. "Call me Elliot."
"Okay, Elliot," she said. "Can you stand? Can you walk? Or do I need to call a bus."
"No bus," he mumbled. "Just get me back to the precinct."
"Okay," Olivia said, crouching down to get his arm situated around her shoulders. "You're like a freaking brick wall though, all muscle. You have to help me a bit to get you up."
Olivia did her best to lift what she could of his weight, and he did press off the wall for leverage to get himself upright, groaning the whole way. Luckily, they'd only been about three blocks away from the precinct when the attack happened. The squad seemed to be having some kind of family meeting when the stumbled inside.
"What the hell happened?" Amanda asked.
"We got attacked," Olivia said, gripping Elliot around the waist. "Perps got away, I knew one of them from my last case. But I didn't catch the plate number of the car they drove off in. He needs a doctor. One of you has to call for a bus."
"No doctor," Elliot muttered.
"You just got knifed in an alleyway," Olivia said. "You need to go to the hospital."
"There's a first aid kit in my office," Elliot said. "He didn't get me deep, just hurts like hell. I can patch myself up."
"Oh like hell that's happening," Olivia said, helping him limp towards his office. "If you're going to refuse medical attention I'm at least taking a look for myself to make sure your liver isn't falling out or something."
They eventually made it into his office and Olivia closed the door so they could have some privacy. Elliot instructed her where she could find the first aid kit.
"Shirt off," Olivia said as she popped the lid on the kit. "Going to need you to sit on the desk and I'll sit in the chair so I can clean the cuts."
It was the first time she'd seen Stabler… Elliot listen to anyone since she'd been here.
He shucked his suit jacket to the carpet, unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it to the pile next, then pulled off his nearly shredded undershirt and tossed it in the trashcan. When Olivia looked up from where she'd been readying the peroxide and cotton balls and bandages, she came face to face with his six pack and she had to hold back a gulp. She distracted herself by realizing the rest of the squad was not so subtly peering through the glass windows at the front of Stabler's office.
She readied a cotton ball with antiseptic and began pressing it against one of the slash marks.
Elliot hissed when the solution touched his skin, and he tried to wriggle away. The more he wriggled the harder it was to clean and the more he grunted and groaned.
"That hurts," he roared.
"Well, if you quit squirming it wouldn't hurt as much," she said, pulling at his wrist to try to keep him upright.
"If you hadn't stormed out of here like that, this wouldn't have happened," he said through grit teeth.
"If you hadn't told me you didn't want me here and told me to get out, I wouldn't have left," Olivia said, rolling out a bandage for the first cut.
"Well, I told you not to go into the West Wing," Elliot said.
"Maybe if you learned how to control your temper things wouldn't be so difficult around here," Olivia said. This time she looked up into his face, almost daring him to give a retort. He didn't, instead, they just let their eyes connect, brown on blue, blue on brown. It was intense, and if Olivia was a different kind of person she might have sworn it was almost magical.
Slowly, almost as if someone had turned the dial on the room to half speed, Elliot reached forward and slid a lock of hair behind Olivia's ear, and he let his hand linger at her jaw line for a second before placing it back on the table. She quickly averted her eyes and readied another cotton ball for another slash wound.
"Now, think you can hold still?" Olivia asked. "This may sting."
Elliot closed his eyes and nodded, biting his lip when the solution made contact with his skin. But he was no longer grunting or groaning. It gave Olivia a few seconds to study him without his eyes on her. He looked different this way, more vulnerable, more exposed. More human.
"I wanted to thank you, too," Olivia said. "For helping me. Protecting me."
Elliot opened his eyes and looked down at her, and it was if something in him softened.
"You're welcome," he said in a low voice that made Olivia feel warm all over.
"How did you know?" Olivia asked. "How did you just end up in the right place at the right time?"
"I, uh, was trying to follow you, to apologize," Elliot said. "Jet kind of remended me, in not so many words, that I was a dumbass. And you haven't deserved the way I've been treating you. When I finally caught up to you, Donnelly was behind you, ready to strike."
"Donnelly?" Olivia asked. "I know that man was on your board. So you know him?"
"I do," Elliot said. "I don't really want to get into it tonight. Not when we're doing this, not when I feel like some psycho just tried to butcher me. But, I think, at this point, you have a right to know."
"You know," Olivia said. "I'm not really used to trusting people either. I didn't have a partner back at my old squad. Kind of a loner in life, too. It was nice to have someone have my back."
"I have trust issues," Elliot admitted as she placed another bandage on his chest. "Especially with partners. I just never know who to believe, who's telling the truth, who's going to stab me in the back."
"Or the front, apparently," Olivia said, making a joke, and Elliot actually smiled.
"I really am sorry for the way I treated you," Elliot said.
"We can't change the past," Olivia said. "And I'll take a little of the blame. I wasn't exactly a joy when I showed up either. I was bitter about what McGrath did. So maybe we can start over?"
She fixed up the last bandage and wiped her hands on her pants as Elliot slid off the desk. He spun her chair to face him and extended a hand to help her up, which she took.
"Hi," he said. "My name is Lieutenant Elliot Stabler, CO of the 3-7 precinct."
"Detective Olivia Benson," she said, shaking his hand back. "Looks like I'm your new officer."
"It's nice to meet you, Olivia," he said. "Can I call you Liv?"
"Can I call you El?" she shot back.
"I like the sound of that," he said, smiling.
"Me too," Olivia said. "Nice to meet you, partner."
