3 MONTHS LATER
Monday, September 24
Several months had passed since Olivia and Brian's argument, and Olivia had made a solid vow to try to work less hours and spend more quality time with her daughter before she started Kindergarten. As the day days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months, Olivia established a set schedule at the office where she was able to make it home for dinner and story time every night. Not to mention her and Brian's relationship was going surprisingly….well?
The couple had always had a great sex life, it was nearly impossible for them to go more than a few days without intimacy. But something changed that night, something that Olivia couldn't put her finger on. It was almost as if something had snapped in Brian that made him so possessive and jealous. And she was not going to complain about it, the sex was just WAY too good!
BEEP BEEP BEEP
"Mmm, turn that fucking thing off." Brian grumbles, nuzzling his head further into his pillow. Olivia reached to silence the alarm and turned to face her husband. She cupped his face in her hands and traced his lips with her thumb.
"Good morning, Mr. Grumpy Pants." She whispered, leaning in and meeting his lips with hers. She gave him a few quick pecks before making her way down his neck. She started lightly sucking as he moaned and cupped her ass. She let this carry on a few more moments, groaning as she felt Brian's hands massaging and kneading her bottom.
As she pulled away, Brian reached for her again, "Hey, hey, hey! Don't start something you can't finish, babe…" he drifted off, now making his way down her neck with sloppy kiss. She let out a giggle and pressed her hands against his chest.
"We can't Bri, I have to get El up for school and you have to make breakfast." She gets up, pulling on her robe, swaying her hips all the way to the bathroom.
"How come I always have to make breakfast?" He whines.
"Oh honey, you are MORE than welcome to go wake up that sweet little angel we call a daughter. I'm sure I could manage breakfast this one time!" Olivia jokes. I
f there was one thing their daughter loved, it was sleeping in. Brian could remember the times he would sit in Elliot's room, just watching her, listening to her snore. He and Olivia had always joked that she could sleep through anything, which wasn't all that funny when she fell asleep during her first birthday party…. and her second. But, as happy and loving as his sweet baby was, Brian knew the horrors of waking her up. He recalled just last week as he watched his daughter uncontrollably sobbing while her mother brushed her hair into a ponytail. After it was fixed, Elliot threw a fit, took it down, and Olivia chased her through the house trying to put it back up.
Brian smiled at the memory, but seeing as it was already 7:30 and his daughter had to be ready to go in less than an hour, he wasn't taking chances. Besides, Olivia was a pro at this by now.
"How do pancakes sound?"
"Bye Daddy, I love you!" Brian reaches down to pick up his daughter, kissing her on the forehead.
"I love you too El, you be a good girl for Mommy, okay? Have a great day kiddo," He sets her back down and watches her run to take Olivia's hand. With a wave 'goodbye' they are gone and out the door.
Taking a look around, he gathers the dishes and begins to load them into the wash. As he hits the "Start" button, he hears something.
Bzzz Bzzz
He looks around, not yet able to find where the noise is coming from. As he walks closer to the sound, he arrives at the coffee table. A phone. Olivia's phone. Someone from work must be calling her. As he goes to pick it up, the call ends and a message appears on the screen.
"You better hurry your little ass up, boss is waiting for you ! ;)"
Brian lets out a chuckle as he reads the message. The message was from Emily, one of Olivia's coworkers. For as long as he could remember, Emily had always worked closely with his wife at the office. They organized meetings together, threw pitches as a team, and were willing to work all hours of the night to get the job done. Olivia and Emily had always joked to him that their boss was an ass, so the text came as no surprise. He set Olivia's phone back down, got dressed, and was off to work.
"I cannot believe you left your phone at home!" He starts while unbuttoning his pants.
"I know, it was just so hectic this morning and El was almost late to school and…." He interrupts her by kissing her lips, slipping his tongue into her mouth. Her hands come up to cup the back of his head, while his slide down to grab her ass. He gives it a light smack and she moans into his awaiting mouth.
"I offered to give you a towncar, Olivia, you know I don't like you two walking the streets of Brooklyn everyday." He tells her, barely above whisper. She sighs, putting their foreheads together.
"Cole, I appreciate it, it's just, don't you think it would look a little sketchy? You lending me a car and all?"
"What, a boss can't look out for the well being of his employee and her kid? You're taking the car, no point in arguing now." She smiles then. Cole was only looking out for her.
"Thank you." Olivia says before leaning in for a kiss.
"You don't ever have to thank me, I just want what's best for you, you know? Now, how about you go lock the door and we can reconcile on our agreement, huh?" He raises an eyebrow and chuckles as she makes her way to the door. She turns the lock and he is on her in seconds.
Olivia Benson, now straddling her boss in his office chair, her skirt bunched around her hips, head thrown back as she rides him to oblivion. He leaves a bite mark on her left breast and he finishes inside of her. As she pulls her skirt down and buttons her blouse, she catches a glimpse of herself in the office mirror. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she promises this is the last time she will do this to her family. She is out the door before he can even get dressed.
When she makes it to the bathroom she sits down on the toilet and cries.
She cries for herself, for the terrible mother she is, for the fucked up wife she is, for the disappointment of a woman she has become.
She wipes the tears from her face, combs her fingers through her hair, and re-applies her lipstick. She leaves the bathroom, grabbing her purse and coat out of her cubicle, and makes her way for the elevator.
"Alright now you gotta fuck one, marry one, and kill one." Brian and the rest of the squad let out a laugh as his partner, Detective Jason C. Graham, explains the rules of the game they're playing.
"Come on JC, everyone knows how to play the fucking game, alright!" He tells him.
"Sounds like Cassidy wants to go first!" One of the other officers says, striking a triumphant 'yeah' from the rest of the table.
Brian holds up his middle finger and the rest of the men laugh.
"Alright, alright! Ya got 'The Jessica's' so Alba, Biel, and Chastain?"
"Uhh you better be fucking Jessica Alba and that's all I'm sayin," Brian's friend, Charlie Hager says and the group lets out another roar of laughter.
"Nah he's into brunettes, ain't ya 'Bri-baby'" One of the detectives jokes, mimicking the nickname Olivia had given him years ago.
"Yeah, fuck off!" He grins and shakes his head.
"Uh oh, speaking of the devil!"
"Hot mama alert!"
The huddle of men let out a few whistles and chuckles before separating from the table.
"Hey boys, I can only assume your doing some real hard police business, right?" Olivia kids as she makes her way next to Brian.
"Hey babe, what're you doing here?" he asks her, standing to meet her.
"Well, I was in the neighborhood and I thought maybe you and me could go grab a bite to eat…"
"You were in the neighborhood, huh?" He teases.
"Okay, so I really just wanted to have lunch with you. Is that so hard to believe?"
"You paying?" Brian asks as Olivia lets out a chuckle.
"Yeah, right." Brian grabs his keys and takes Olivia's hand, walking out of the precinct.
"You left your phone this morning." Brian mentions in between bites.
Olivia nods, taking a sip of her drink. "Yeah, I realized when I got to work but by then I was already late and it was just a shit show to say the least."
He lets out a laugh and mumbles an "I bet".
It starts to rain, so the couple eats quickly. They talk about the weather, about their upcoming dinner with Brian's mom this weekend, about their daughter's field trip tomorrow. This didn't usually bother Olivia, she knows she lives a busy life that is revolved solely around work, her husband, and her daughter. But lately she feels like she isn't her. She feels like she is just a mom, just a wife, just a worker. Her and Brian have been through it all, but it seemed now that they didn't even know each other, that they only had a relationship because they shared a child.
"Do you want to do something tomorrow? Just you and me?" She blurts out. Brian looks up from his plate giving her a questioning look.
"Uhhhh, what do you mean?"
"Just you and me, Bri. We can do whatever you want, we'll call into work and we can spend the whole day in bed if you wanted to, or we could go to a museum, or we could go to the park, or we could…." She rambles on.
"Woah woah slow down Liv, I would love to, you know that. But I really don't think I can do it tomorrow. We're tight schedule as is, and if we don't catch this guy then I'm gonna be pulling overtime for a week." He gives her a sad smile.
Leave it to Brian to be practical
"Yeah, you're right, it was just a dumb idea." She pushes her food back and forth on her plate. She hears Brian call for the check, and soon he is paying the bill and they are parting their ways. They mutter their "I love you's" and "See you later's".
As they walk off in seperate directions, she can't help but think there must be some kind of God who really hates her.
Friday September 28th
"Hi baby, how was school?" Olivia waves her daughter to her and they begin to walk down the sidewalk.
"It was fun, we learned the letter 'L' today!" Elliot squeezed her mother's hand as they hurried across the busy street, talking about her day of school all the way home.
Finally arriving home, El insisted on helping make dinner. Grabbing ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry, Olivia realized she didn't have enough milk or eggs. Shooting a quick text to Brian for him to stop by the store on his way home, the mother daughter duo began setting the table.
Brian walked into the Kwik Stop strolling the aisles until he found the milk and eggs. Opening the carton and making sure there were no cracks, Brian put the items in his cart. As he went to turn the cart towards the checkout line, he accidentally bumped into someone else.
"Oh shit, my bad, I wasn't paying attention." He grumbled as he picked up some of the bags he had knocked down.
"Brian?" A familiar voice asked.
Looking up, he let out a laugh, and smiled. "Hey, Emily!" The pair gave a quick hug and said their apologies.
"It's been so long since I've seen you! You look great! How is everything?" Emily asked.
"I can't complain! How are you? You and Olivia stay so busy it's like I never even see either of you anymore." Brian chuckles. He notices Emily doesn't. Maybe she thought he was being an ass. As he went to apologize, Emily spoke again.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean?"
"Look Em, I didn't mean to sound like a dick. I know you and Liv are hard workers, I was just messing with ya." Brian laughs again.
"Listen Brian, I appreciate that, but I don't work at ReMarc anymore…." Emily gives him a confused look. "I quit about 6 months ago, I have a job in Manhattan now working in a marketing department. I'm sure Olivia must have told you I left."
What the fuck?
"Alright Em, it was great seeing you. Have a good one!" Brian cuts her off and hurries out. This had to be a joke right? Why would his wife not tell him that her best friend and partner had left the firm? And why would they still be texting about their boss 6 months later?
At that exact moment, Brian was downright fucking mind blown.
When Brian arrived home, he was greeted at the door by his mother.
"Oh, it's so nice to see you Brian, you look great! Tell me, how have you been?" Joannie asked, giving her youngest son a kiss on the cheek.
"I've been good, Ma. Tell ya what? I'm gonna go give this stuff to 'Livia and then I'm gonna go change and I'll be back down to chat, alright?" Brian said motioning to the grocery bags he was carrying. As he made his way into the kitchen, he set the groceries on the counter and ruffled his daughters hair.
"Daddy!" She cheered and he kissed the top of her head.
"Hey honey, how was work?" Olivia asked, cracking open an egg.
"It was, uhhh, it was fine. Busy day."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just fine." He reassured her, kissing her lightly.
Brian then made his way up the stairs into the bedroom. Stripping his clothes, he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes.
Olivia's phone.
He looked around the room, peeking his head outside the door to see if anyone was coming. When he was met with silence, he walked over to the nightstand. Tapping the home button the phone lit up. No messages. Nothing. He tapped the button again and a new screen appeared.
Fuck.
A password.
Racking his brain of everything he could think of he typed 0518, their wedding date.
Incorrect.
He typed 0316, Ellie's birthday.
It unlocked.
There he sat, alone in his bedroom that he shared with his wife of 10 years, snooping through her phone. Should he do this? Maybe he was being unreasonable. Maybe his wife had mentioned that Emily had left. Maybe there was a new Emily? He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. The screen lighting went down, meaning the phone was about to lock again. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and set the phone back down. Quickly changing into jeans and a t-shirt, he threw the dirty clothes in the hamper and made his way back downstairs.