Title: One Hell Of A Racket

Authors: Sara And Lizzie

Rating: T for language, mild sex

Disclaimer: It would be nice to own such a vast enterprise, but it's all Dick Wolf.

Summary: Through a series of what can only be described as unfortunate events, Elliot and Olivia become the prime suspects in the murder of several informants who are key witnesses against the mob and a Colombian drug cartel. They're forced into hiding until they can clear their names, the question of whether that is possible, as well as the fact they're endangering everyone around them.

Author's Note: We haven't written SVU fiction in 35 years, approximately. We've been really into Grey's, but this struck us hard.

Attn: This is the actual beginning. We're now backtracking to how we got to the first chapter. Which is more of a prologue, anyway.

And as always….REVIEW.

"We'll do it all, everything, on our own,
We don't need anything or anyone."
-Snow Patrol

The 1-6, Manhattan
3:00 PM

"Benson, Stabler." Cragen called, sweeping through the precinct. "Where are we on the Williams case?"

Olivia leaned back in her chair. "Petrovsky looks the most promising." She called out. "And we think we have witnesses."

Cragen nodded. "Talk to Novak, get the interviews done. I want to close this before the next disaster strikes."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "He's a cheery ray of sunshine." She said dryly. She looked across the desk at Elliot. His eyes were unfocused and his face was set in a morose expression. She got up and poured them each a cup of coffee and set his down on his desk with a sympathetic smile.

Her delicate hand clutched his shoulder. "El…"she started. He looked up at her, marveling at how she didn't know that her hand burned his skin and a way he couldn't even admit to himself.

He looked up at her. "Sorry." He said gruffly, not sure what he was apologizing for. She smiled again.

"You okay?"

"I'll be okay." He confirmed. She bit her lip and nodded, and he knew she didn't believe him. Elliot leaned back in his chair. Kathy's separation wasn't a surprise. He had known it was coming. She had known, their kids had known.

How much she had known, that had surprised him.

"I'm leaving, El." She said.

"Okay." He had said, not having any other words.

She blinked at him. "Okay." She repeated. "I was right."

"Right?"

"It's not just the job, Elliot." She said, looking down. "It's the partner."

He froze; her three words hitting the deepest, most sacred he desperately grasped. "Kathy, that's ridiculous." He said, sputtering, reaching for anything that would help him do what he always did. Deny, deny, deny.

She laughed bitterly. "Please Elliot, I'm your wife. You think I don't know? You think I can't read you? It's written all over your face. Every morning, every night. She makes you…glow."

Elliot shook his head. "No, you're wrong."

"Am I, El?" she demanded. "Am I really? Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love her?"

He looked at her, for what felt like forever, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. And with that short conversation, it was over. And he couldn't deny it anymore.

Olivia smiled at him again before heading back to her side of the desk. She almost sat down again, but the energy coursing through her veins was too much. She had to keep in motion. She'd been doing that a lot lately; not pausing, even for a second.

The thought of Elliot sent adrenaline coursing through her like she couldn't believe. It was easier to keep moving. So now, instead of sitting, she took her coffee up to the roof. It was cool, but not too cold. Spring had come early this year, and the city seemed to be thriving in the warmth.

She could feel warmth stirring in her as well. He was separated from his wife. Her feelings were progressing beyond a secret love. It was no longer a deliciously tragic emotional burden for to shoulder in silence.

She wanted him now, and that pull was strong. She wanted him in every forbidden, desirable way, and combined with the way she loved him, the love that brought her to her knees, it was powerful. And dangerous.

Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
5:22 PM

"Hi, I'm Olivia Benson, and this is my partner, Detective Stabler. We're from Manhattan SVU. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

The pretty blonde waitress looked around nervously. "I can't really do that." She said in her light, pleasing Russian accent. She gave them a tight lipped smile.

"We think you may have been with Ivan Petrovsky." Elliot said. "Last Saturday, in the city?"

She shook her head. "I can't really say."

"Alyssa." Olivia said to the girl. "He raped someone. A twenty year old woman, who he left lying unconscious in a gutter after he was finished. Are you really going to let him get away with that?"

She shook her head and pushed past them. "I'm sorry detectives, I have customers waiting inside. I really can't answer any of your questions."

The ride back to Manhattan was a long one, filled with traffic and words they wished they were saying. "It's odd." Olivia said. "She was just like the guy we interviewed yesterday."

"Jose." Elliot confirmed. "You're right. They both kept saying they really couldn't answer any of our questions."

"What does that mean?" Olivia pondered out loud. "Obviously, Alyssa's in the mob's pocket. But Jose? What's he afraid of?"

Elliot pursed his lips, a sign he was thinking. "Could be anything. Drugs, debts. We should have Fin talk to Narcotics. Find out who controls the corners in Jose's neighborhood."

Olivia nodded, and stared out the window as they continued their ride home in the perfect, easy silence they could achieve only with each other.

It was almost seven by the time they got back to the city. Elliot wasn't sure where to go. He could go back to work, but there was really no need to go back to the 1-6 tonight. He could drop her off, and they could both return to empty apartments.

"Hungry?" he asked.

She looked at him quizzically. "Do you even have to ask?" she countered. He smiled the intoxicating, cocky grin usually mastered by frat boys.

"I try to be polite."

"I'm guessing you don't want me to cook." Olivia said, smiling back at him, her own sassy, assured smile.

"After the infamous home cooked meal incident of 2004? Never again, Liv. How's Italian sound?"

"Perfect." She said quietly, happiness evident in her voice. He was hers for just a little longer. A few more hours that she got to hold onto it, keep it true, keep it tangible. "It sounds perfect."

It was like a disease. The two of them seated across from each other at a table in a dimly lit restaurant? It was like a disease he never wanted to cure. God, she was beautiful. The hair that was growing, that would soon skim her shoulders. Her milky, smooth skin. Her big brown eyes.

Eyes that trusted him, eyes that believed in him, even when the rest of the world didn't. Eyes that sparkled with little flecks of gold. These were not details a partner should notice, but he couldn't help himself.

Not in the least. Her light blue button down was open, revealing a hint of perfect cleavage that he knew he shouldn't want to see more of. She set her hands on the table, and he kept his clenched under it.

Sometimes it was her hands that got to him. Delicate, slender hands that he wanted to take in his own. Sometimes, he cursed her for having fingers that he knew would just fit intertwined with his.

She sighed, a contented sigh, and he smiled at her. The first genuine smile he'd given anyone since Kathy left. It was the ringing of her cell phone that shattered the moment.

"Benson." She answered. There was silence as she listened. Elliot sat on the other side of the table, watching as she nodded and listening to her side of the conversation. It was routine and unrevealing, but he knew her well enough to know it was more than just any old phone call.

When she hung up and replaced the phone in the pocket of her jacket, she was looking at him with a furrowed brow and a mouth twisted into an expression of confusion and apprehension.

"That was Cragen. Our friends at the FBI want to see us in the morning."

Elliot rolled his eyes. "What have we done now?"

Olivia shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

The smile he sent her was reassuring. "The feds are always up our asses about something." He said. "We probably stepped across a street where they think they have jurisdiction on a certain side. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. We'll fix it together."

To his delight, Olivia tipped her head back and laughed. The gold in her eye shone as she smiled back at him. "At least we've got each other, El." She said.

He raised his glass at her across the table. "Thank God for that."