From Hell To Heaven
A/N Story Alert thank yous to MHfanSmoezz, lou3174, maerae93 and JjemIngy. Big thanks for my reviewers- svuobsessed2011, maerae93, lou3174, spacekitten2700, courtneylovejason and EOforevertogether. And a massive smile to the new writers taking an interest x (One quick thing, svuobsessed2011 pointed out my PM had been disabled, I'm not sure how this happened o.O because I didn't intend to. So a sorry for that if it wasn't working for you. Good news, I have enabled it, and will keep it that way, so all feedback welcome x) Also a big hello and welcome to emmy76, a new reviewer and added a story alert xx
This chapter introduces a new victim, I will be going in to more depth about the lab results, Melinda's report etc like I did before, but for now I tried to keep it simple. Look out for the most adorable cop ever (and for once it's not Elliot XD) who gets a bit emotional over the victim. I love this character even though he's only minor, I have named him Luke ^_^ though it doesn't get mentioned.
Maerae93 you superstar, added to favourite stories as I was about to upload this chapter so I thought I'd include it in this A/N
Chapter 16- Another Innocent Victim
Olivia slid in to the passenger seat beside Elliot as her phone beeped. She opened the text message to find it was from Melinda.
"Co-ordinates." was all she said, punching them in to the nav system, only to frown a second later. "That can't be right; it says the crime scene is right around the corner."
Elliot frowned too, but otherwise turned the ignition, causing the car to rumble to life. True to the co-ordinates, the scene was indeed only around the corner. Elliot drove to the end of the road, turned left and continued down. After only a minute or so they turned right and pulled up at the curb. They frowned through the windshield at the yellow tape circling the entrance of an alleyway, wrapped around a lamppost and secured to the walls. A uniformed cop stood behind the tape against the wall beside the entrance, his stance wide. He had his hands clasped in front of him, his badge shining clearly on his chest. He looked pale and shook up; but Elliot guessed standing in the cold was to blame. Scanning the road, Elliot saw Melinda's transport at the curb a few paces down the street, two squad cars and a gathering of people.
"Something tells me this isn't a coincidence." Elliot muttered, unclipping his seatbelt and getting out; Olivia mirroring him.
As they marched towards the alley and ducked under the tape, several people snapped photos, receiving a glare from Elliot. "Don't we get enough grief from the actual media without those amateurs tailin' us." he grunted.
Once behind the tape they spotted Melinda halway along the alleyway, the other side cordened off too, despite the chainlink fence that sealed it off, with an officer stationed there. There were old cardboard boxes, bits of paper, black refuse bags and broken crates scattering the floor.
"Oh so you didn't get lost?" Melinda said sarcastically, when she spotted them.
"Pretty difficult to get lost when the crime scene's on your doorstep." Olivia said.
"That's what I figured," Melinda said. "As soon as I saw her name I called you."
Olivia stepped closer and looked at the young woman's body. She saw the face and sighed, rubbing her forehead. "No," she muttered to herself.
"Liv?"
She sighed again. "I knew her, El. When Cragen said the name it rang a bell but I thought- hoped-" she trailed off.
"'Livia how did you know her?" Elliot asked.
"Police Academy." Melinda interrupted.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Olivia said with a quizzical look.
"She had her ID with her, that's how I got her name so quickly. And plus, the cop up front," she indicated towards the way they'd come in. "-Recognised her. And nearly spilled his lunch at the same time."
"He was the one who called it in?" Elliot continued, as Olivia stood back up, her eyes still on the body.
"I didn't ask." Melinda said, returning to her clipboard.
Elliot stepped over to Olivia, gently nudging her elbow. "You ok?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah,er-I didn't know her that well, but seeing her like this-" She sighed. "We joined the Academy the same year, I only knew her to say hello, catch lunch, that sort of thing. She was an orphan, she never knew her parents; I guess I could relate, then at least." she added. Her relationship with her mother wasn't exactly perfect and her father, well the less said about him the better.
This was often her reaction even if she wasn't fine. "You sure?" he pressed.
"Yes." she said firmly, and for once he believed her.
"Melinda, anything you can tell us from the Prelim.?" Olivia inquired.
"It wasn't a robbery, her purse was in the dumpster along with her body; her money and cards still in it, as far as I could tell." she said, indicating the the dumpster beside the body. "I'm having the whole dumpster searched." she added.
"And for once, it's not me jumping in there." Elliot muttered.
Melinda smiled. "I'll have more once I get her back home." she said, referring to the morgue.
Elliot and Olivia headed back to the entrance of the alleyway. The officer stationed there paled a little more as they approached him.
"You were the one to call it in?" Olivia asked.
"No, Ma'am." he said.
"Well who did?" Elliot asked impatiently.
"My partner did, Sir. He's across the street at-oh, he's coming now." he added, noticing his partner waddling across the road towards them. He had a satisfied smirk as he showed them a black video tape. He had spikey black hair that reflected the majority of light hitting it, thanks to the copious amounts of gel in it.
"Security footage from the store across the street." he said proudly.
Elliot snatched it from him. Despite the officer having saved them a trip; gathering evidence was not his job, and Elliot didn't appreciate having his toes stepped on. "You called it in?"
"Yeah, I went to take a leak-"
"An NYPD officer condoning Indecent Exposure?" Elliot said pointedly.
The uni shifted a little. "Well, we've been on patrol all morning and-"
"Get to the point." Olivia interrupted impatiently.
"Well I was going to pee behind the dumpster and the lid was open a little, I just caught glance inside-"
"You knew the victim?" Olivia said, turning away from the cocky officer to the stationed one. He was pale but beside that, his hair was the sandiest blonde and he had gleaming green eyes, but Olivia guessed the gleam was due more to the moisture in his eyes that the colour.
His features tinted with sadness. "Yes, Ma'am I do-did." he corrected with a lump in his throat. "She er- April and I-" he fumbled.
Olivia caught on. "How long?" she asked softly.
"Only a month or two but-" he defended.
"It's ok; go on, get out of here."
"Ma'am?" he asked confused.
"You're relieved." He smiled appreciatively and ducked under the tape. "Hey, Pee Pants!" Olivia called the the retreating officer. "I said he's relieved, not you. You're filling him spot." She strode away with Elliot before he could argue, as he begrudgingly took up the spot by the alleyway.
xXx
After returning to the squadroom, they filled in Cragen, waiting for the techie to finish cleaning up the video footage from the store. As soon as he called they were at his side, in front of the large screen and multiple devices surrounding him.
"Get something?" Olivia asked eagerly.
"Difficult to tell." he said. "The footage was from a really cheap camera so the picture quality was next to none, grainy to say the least."
"Yeah, but you fixed it right?" she encouraged, eager for some sort of lead, any lead.
"Well, from the photo you showed me, I think I found your victim." He played the footage. There, very much alive, was April Benson. She was walking down the street. As she reached the alleyway she spotted the black bags spilling out on to the sidewalk. She picked them up and disappeared down the alleyway.
"Why does the Good Samaritan always fall victim?" Olivia muttered rhetorically. "Wait! Rewind that."
He did, taking it back several frames. The screen showed someone slipping in to the alleyway a few moments after April.
"Hold on." he said. His fingers danced across the keyboard, bringing the video to a still, zooming in, freezeframing and then taking a snapshot. The pixels seemed to fizz away as he altered several controls and variables, until-
"Ta-da." he finally said. "That's the best I can do."
A person dressed all in black had followed her, concealing their face with a cap. "White, would you say about...5'9?" Olivia conferred with Elliot.
"Yeah, about that." He peered closer. "There's hair visible at the back of the cap, looks black."
"Or dark brown." Olivia muttered to herself.
"Can't tell the length though." Elliot added.
"What do you think? They were tailing her then saw an opportunity?" she offered.
"Must have, there's no way they could have known she's stop the help clean up the streets."
"If that's what it takes to be green, I'd rather not." Munch called from his desk.
"Thanks for the input, John. And I thought Fin was the constructive one." Elliot sarcastically replied, returning to his desk.
"Get us a copy of all this." Olivia said to the techie as he began packing up his equipment.
Olivia slid in to her chair, sitting up dead straight and then relaxing in an attempt to release the tension from her back. Fin caught their attention.
"Heads up, Cap' doesn't look like a happy bunny. Who you beat this time Stabler?" he challenged, receiving a roll of eyes.
"Melinda just called. She was just undressing the victim and found a badge." he revealed.
"What a cop's badge?" Olivia demanded, her intuition in overdrive.
"No, a CO's badge. In her panties." he added.
xXx
Olivia was already heading to their car when Elliot caught up with her.
"And where'd you think you're going?" he joked, jogging to meet her step.
"Don't you mean 'Where am I going alone?" she shot back, knowing they were all keeping tabs on her in order to protect her. Elliot gave her an unashamed shrug at her forwardness. When he didn't respond, she knew he was insisting on an answer.
"I'm going to see Melinda." she admitted.
"Olivia, for once, let it go. Rushing over there isn't going to change anything." he said, striding alongside her as they drew nearer to the car. "That woman isn't going to be any less dead because you're driving over to see Melinda."
"I know that, Stabler." Olivia retorted to his harsh words. "But I have to do something."
But as unlocked the car door remotely and reached for the door, Elliot snatched the keys from her hand. "What do you think you're-"
"I'm driving." he simply said.
She had no choice but to allow it as he slid in to the driving seat. As they drove, there was a comfortable silence. Until Elliot took a wrong turn.
"You missed the turning." she corrected. "Just take the next right; we can circle round."
He drove passed the next right turning, despite the light traffic.
"Elliot, you just-" she began in frustration.
"We're not going to see Melinda. She won't have anything for us until morning anyway." he said.
She sat for a moment, looking at him with an unreadable look on her face, which he dared to glance at only once.
"Elliot, do you even-?"
"Cragen told me-" he tried to interrupt.
"I don't care what he told you; are you going to hear me out or keep treating me like a newbie?" she challenged. He looked at her and recognised the frown on her face, and knew it was not to be challenged back. He didn't need to say anything for her to know he was going to listen.
"Do you even know what it's like to see a friend dead on the ground? To see them completely destroyed by someone you could have stopped?" she dared, intending for it to be rhetorical.
Elliot thought to himself. 'And how many times have we come close to me seeing you that way, Liv?' Though he didn't dare vocalise this, especially not when Liv was gearing up for a confrontation. He'd be spending the night in the same apartment as her, and he'd prefer for it not to be in silence. 'Crap, still have to mention that to her.'
"You couldn't have stopped it." he muttered, trying to ease the guilt she was obviously feeling.
"Excuse me?" she said spinning to him. He rolled his eyes; why was it everytime they were in the car together he ended up causing a dispute?
"I just meant, we couldn't have gotten to her sooner." he corrected, hoping she'd drop it.
She seemed in a milder mood than thought as she let the matter rest; 'uncharacteristic for her', he thought, 'We usually escalate to raised voices before we go in to silent treatment.'
"I'm just pissed, I guess; I mean, this bastard attacked someone I haven't thought about in years and can still get to me."
There was another moment of silence as he turned a corner and she passed him a quizzical glance.
"El, where are you-" she began, noticing the familiarity of the route. When she sighed, he knew she'd figured it out. 'Intuitive as always.'
"Well I guess my apartment is a little messy, huh?" she humourlessly joked, as they finally pulled up outside Elliot's apartment complex.
A/N I'm so happy with the ending of this story and I haven't even written it yet XD Review for Christmas? XD That's bribery but oh well xx This is going to be the last update over Christmas, (despite having already finished the next chapter), to give me (and you guys lol) a break. xx I love the next chapter; Elliot and Liv have that conversation about a relationship or not, the awkwardness of sharing an apartment for the night, how Olivia's coping with the newest victim and her safety. I'll post it sometime after Christmas. For now I'll say Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays for those who celebrate alternatively, be safe. xXx