[Couldn't quite get a handle on this scene. Tried it a few ways, nothing really worked 100%. I know this isn't my best chapter, and I sincerely apologize.]

"My partner."

Elliot's stomach drops. She can tell, and it's oddly satisfying. Now you know what it feels like. She pulls her eyes away from him and steps outside.

"Amaro."

"Hey, sorry to wake you," Olivia says kindly. In their line of work, every minute of sleep is sacred.

"You didn't," he responds nonchalantly. "We catch a case?"

"Sort of, yeah." She explains everything that's happened. "Wake everyone up and get them down to the station. Tell Munch he's in charge until further notice. Notify IAB but do not let them take the investigation."

"Alright. What are you doing?"

Olivia takes a deep breath. "I'll be down at the station with a witness in a few. Wait for me there. Send us an ambulance to transport Cragen to the hospital." She gives him Elliot's address and hangs up.

She goes back inside and sits down with the captain once again. "There's an ambulance coming to pick you up so we can collect evidence."

Cragen nods. Slowly, and silently. Olivia has always looked up to Cragen, and it's killing her to see him like this. He'd always been the tough one of the group. Maybe it was just because he never got too close to a case from his position as captain, but when a detective started to lose his head, he was always there to find it for them. Now that he's losing his, the entire squad might fall apart.

Minutes of silence pass. "Everything will be okay, Don," Olivia says as she hears the ambulance pulling up. "You've got the best detectives in the NYPD working on it."

Cragen stands and slowly walks to the door. He waits for it to be opened from the other side as not to get blood on the knob. He turns back and looks at Olivia. "Even that won't help me now." The door opens, and he's gone.

Olivia looks at Elliot, and takes a deep breath before speaking to try to keep her voice even. "I'm going to have to take you down to the station to get your official statement."

"Right," Elliot says quietly. He's still in shock from the events as well. He puts on some sweatpants and shoes, and then they're out the door.

They get in her car, her Mustang, as the call had come in when she was off duty. She starts the car and pulls out of his driveway without a word. Without a glance.

Elliot's guilt hasn't alleviated at all. He now wants nothing more than for things to go back to how they were. "Nice car," he comments, since he never got a chance to see it, hoping that breaking the ice would be the hardest part, and like relatives that haven't seen each other in a while, once the conversation was started it would have been like they were never apart.

When she does absolutely nothing to acknowledge his comment, he realizes it won't be that easy.

Thirty minutes of gut-wrenching silence pass. Elliot's just hoping that things can go back to the way they were. Olivia's just trying not to care that they never will.