Prompt: Drive by Valerie Broussard

A Change of Scenery

Chapter 1

~oOo~

Sometimes, she wonders where her courage disappears to, and other times, she wants to know where her bravery appears from. Noah is spending spring break with the McCanns and tonight, well, tonight she's been sitting in her office staring at the window to Interrogation Room 1 when it hits her like a MTA train going full-speed on the third track.

She rubs her finger along her lower lip, sucks in a breath of air, and slams her laptop closed, reaching for her keys and bag on the way out the door. Muncy has watched her with her brows tightly knit together, calling after her, asking her if she's okay, and the echoes of 'Cap' follow after.

The entire way across the bridge, she tightens her fingers around the wheel and listens as the radio plays the Spotify playlist she'd thrown together months ago of songs she used to love when she was younger, songs that made her happy, sad, and everything in between. She should call him, ask if he's busy, but to be honest, she doesn't care if he's busy or not. Maybe it makes her slightly crazy and a whole lot reckless, but she's been so damn tired in her bones that she finds herself lonely and not giving two solid fucks about her current actions.

She pulls up to the gate and presses the intercom. Jet's surprised tone as she buzzes her through tells her all she needs to know; no one is expecting her. (To be fair, she didn't announce she was on her way. In fact, she just got in her vehicle and drove here.) Ayanna and Elliot appear at the same time, Elliot's expression one of worry and curiosity, and Ayanna looking as though the unexpected visit from the Manhattan SVU Captain is throwing her off. It isn't normal to receive visits without calling ahead of time, and Olivia isn't one to just pop in. She rolls down the window and leans over the center console, staring right at Elliot, and she doesn't even ask permission to see if she can borrow him. No, she just takes a deep breath and says, "Get in, Elliot."

She doesn't even know if he has a jacket upstairs, if he has everything he needs, if he carries a bag into the building daily and stows it away in the locker. She doesn't really care. Obviously, he doesn't either, because he strolls forward and, without asking any questions, he opens the door and glances to his right out the window at his Sergeant who's watching him and taking note of the way Olivia has already turned her face away.

Olivia knows that Ayanna's not going to get any answers—not from her, not today. She's not going to give any even if the other woman asks.

Meanwhile, Elliot is fastening his seatbelt as Olivia puts the vehicle into drive and presses her foot down on the gas pedal, exiting the lot. Once she pulls onto the street, she heads for the bridge, and Elliot doesn't know where they're going or what makes her decide to take him with her. Honestly, he looks as though he doesn't care.

The playlist plays three songs before he speaks to her. "Liv, not that I'm complaining here, but where exactly are we going?"

That is the crux of it all, honestly. She doesn't know where they're going; she is just driving until she needs to refill the gas tank and until she finds the place that feels right to her. She's not been this impulsive in a long time, not since her more manic days following Lewis. She just knows that she wants him next to her. She can't explain it to him; she isn't ready to try, either. She just adjusts her grip on the wheel and clears her throat.

"Wherever we end up."

Elliot's blue eyes study her carefully, and it only takes him a moment to accept this as an answer. But when he speaks this time, he sounds a little wary, as though he thinks she's gone off her rocker (and maybe she has). "Okay."

~oOo~

The sky above them is getting darker, and it looks a little like rain, but neither of them seem to mind. She's driving north in the direction that he'd gone to retrieve Noah a few weeks ago. She turns the lights on and glances over at him, a soft smile crossing her features as she increases her speed to the 65mph limit.

"You doing okay?"

He watches the way her jaw clenches, the way her chest rises as she inhales a long, slow breath. He watches as she presses her lips into a thin line and purses them out slightly, then she clicks her tongue off the roof of her mouth.

"Elliot, do me a favor? Can you… not say a word until I'm ready?"

He clenches his hands into fists on his lap but just nods, swallowing nervously. She's never made him nervous, not during the twelve years they were partners, but right now? This new version of her makes him feel as though he's awaiting soil liquefaction, standing on solid ground but then suddenly encountering quicksand. They're on the thruway headed north, and he tries to reason with himself that maybe they're going to get Noah, but when they near that exit, she blows right by. His blue eyes look over at her, the way her hair is pulled back at the base of her neck in a messy bun. She moves over to the right lane, and as she checks the mirror, she reaches for his wrist, grabbing his hand in her own. He stares at their hands on the middle console just as the sign for Albany pops up on the side, the distance getting closer.

When his thumb traces small circles on her thumb, that's when she finally sighs loudly and clears her throat.

"Everyone I've ever known has left me and lately, it's gotten… worse. And I sat there in my office this evening and stared into the interrogation room and couldn't help but feel like… if I didn't get out of there, out of my office with my name on the door and drive…" She pauses, and he understands the reason she practically kidnapped him is, because she doesn't want to feel pressured into planning this impromptu discussion. She wants it on her own terms; she's always been like that. "...that I was going to explode."

"So, you came and got me?"

"I was thinking, as I rode the elevator down to the parking garage, that if I was going to get out of the city I wanted someone in the passenger seat next to me. And then, as I turned out of the garage… you popped into my head."

He presses his lips into a thin line, swallowing.

"You ever want to just… do something spontaneous and… feel alive?"

He smiles, nodding as he looks over at his former partner. "I have."

"That's what I'm feeling. Spontaneous, and I want to feel like I'm alive. Lately, things have made me feel so empty and tired, and I don't want to live like that."

"Okay." He nods, and then, she's pulling into the service area and pulling up to the gas pump to top off the tank, because she doesn't know where she's going, but she knows they're going to need gas, and when she finally sees it, she's going to know.

After filling up the tank, he returns to the truck with two sweatshirts he's bought inside. Shrugging on his own, he raises his eyebrows at her as she rolls her eyes. "I figured we'd get cold eventually."

She takes the sweatshirt, a shy smile on her face as she nods. "Maybe," she answers. "But that's why I brought you." As she slips it on her shoulders, he chuckles, lowly. And there, at the rest stop gas pumps, she takes a step closer to him and presses herself against him; he's immediately taken back to a few weeks ago in her kitchen when she'd nuzzled against his cheek and abruptly backed away, retreated, and mumbled how she wasn't ready but she wanted to.

Then, she'd ghosted him.

But now, as he gets lost in the feel of her body pressed against his and his back against the side of the SUV, she wraps her fingers around the back of his neck and steps up on her toes slightly, her lips lightly brushing against his. But before he can register that she's kissing him, she's gone.

He blinks.

She slides into the seat, and Elliot is left standing outside the door, mouth parted, speechless. "Get in, loser." The flirty smile on her face throws him slightly, but he does as she says and slides into the seat ."I needed a change of scenery. Just me and you." She shrugs.

They drive away, glancing over at one another every few minutes, and she gets off at the Albany exit and follows the signs for Saratoga. However, she passes by those as well, and almost five hours later, she's pulling into the parking area of a hotel at Lake George.

He wants to ask what she's doing, but as they park and she pulls him after her, it's clear to him that she doesn't want to talk about her plans, that she's being spontaneous, that for some reason she wanted to come here five hours outside of the city (with traffic), that she'd driven all she was going to drive for the night and had made a decision. Without consulting him (not that he was going to complain), she was going to get them a room. He hangs back while she speaks to the woman behind the counter. He watches as she slides her card across the counter with a smile and signs the paper the woman hands her, and he's surprised when the woman slides two room keys across the counter.

She spins around to look at him, a smile on her face as she tilts her head towards the elevator. Dutifully, he follows her.

He'd follow her anywhere.

"I got a room." She tells him, and he can't help but think, 'Well, duh.' But that's when he realizes she's said a room – as in singular. "With one bed. But we're not going to have sex tonight. We're going to kiss, absolutely… and we're going to go to bed together. I just… thank you for taking the drive with me. I've… I think I built this thing between us to be a be-all-end-all thing, and it scares me. But as we were driving and I looked over at you? There's no one else I want next to me. Sorry if that seems too presumptuous, but…"

He steps forward, and as her back comes into contact with the wall next to the door, his lips meet hers in a passionate, forceful, insistent way.

"I'd drive anywhere with you, Liv."

That's how it's always been, how it will always be. She's in the driver's seat from this day forward. If it's alive she wants to feel? He's more than happy to comply.

The author of this SVU Love in the Air story will be revealed in March