[A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long. Studying for finals, then finals week, then a week to catch up on sleep...you guys probably know how that is. Anyway, please remember that I'm still open to plot suggestions, and I've almost exhausted all of the planning I'd had for this story before I started writing it, so suggest away! I'm almost 100% set on this not being E/O. I could go on for hours about why I never supported it, but the short version is that I think the lack of romance between them is what made their relationship so intriguing. Plus, I've always been a fan of the could-actually-happen fanfiction, and as of Elliot's retirement, he was with Kathy. Sorry about my rant, hope you all enjoy the chapter.]

Elliot finally can't take the silence anymore. He'd been somewhat successful at trying not to feel too guilty about not talking to Olivia for a year, but all his efforts had gone out the window after seeing the look on her face. She doesn't look sad, he notices. She looks numb. What's happened to you, Liv?

"How have you been?" Elliot finally asks. He had to say something. Had to show her he still cared.

"Not great," she answers bluntly.

He doesn't know how to respond to that. She always says she's okay, even when she isn't.

Elliot sighs and decides to give her time. She's been mad at him countless times over the course of their partnership… When he called in a safety detail for her without telling her. When he said he didn't believe men could be raped. When she thought he told Munch about her wanting a child…But she never gave him the silent treatment; she always said what was on her mind. Maybe it's different this time.

They pull up to the station, and silently ride up the elevator. Just before they reach the SVU squadroom doors, Olivia points past the squadroom, down the hall. "Interrogation B should be open."

Then she walks into the squadroom without another word.

The first one to notice her is Fin. "How's the captain, Liv?"

"Scared," she answers honestly. "Stabler's in Interrogation B."

"Elliot? Why?"

"Don went to his house after he found the body. You want the interview?"

"It's not like we're friends," he answers honestly. "I never really liked the guy."

Olivia nods, and smirks slightly. "Exactly."

Fin enters Interrogation B with a yellow legal pad and a pen. "What time did Captain Cragen arrive at your house this evening?"

"What, no 'hello'? No 'how you been'?" Elliot says in a desperate attempt to pretend nothing had ever happened between him and his squad.

"No, because I don't care how you've been, and I know damn sure you don't care about anybody else's wellbeing but your own."

"Come on, Fin, don't give me that crap. What's going on here?"

Fin pauses momentarily and speaks in a perfectly even tone. "I'm trying to interview a witness, but he isn't cooperating. What time did Cragen get to your house?"

"You know that's not what I mean. What's going on with Olivia?" He almost sounds desperate.

"If you cared so bad, maybe you should have checked up on her. Last time, Stabler: what time did Cragen get to your house?"

"Uh…Three. No, no, just before three. Two fifty-something." When Fin didn't immediately counter with another question, he jumped on the opportunity to get some more information out of him. "She seemed fine the last time I saw her, what happened?"

Fin sighed. "You did, you selfish son-of-a-bitch. You know, the day Cragen told her you were retiring, a uni went into the viewing room to look for his cell phone and saw her crying her eyes out in one of the interrogation rooms. Came and told me because he was worried about her."

Elliot's stomach drops. "What? I-I thought she would be okay. She's always been okay."

"No she hasn't; you just haven't been there for her. She trusted you, and you left her. Just like every other man in her life. Claim you're best friends and then don't talk to her for a year? What the hell is that? She's really gone downhill since you left."

Elliot's forehead scrunches up in worry. "What do you mean?"

He's upset, Fin can tell. He talks to him not to help him, but knowing that what Olivia really needs is their friendship back.

"Just the little things, man. You know deep down that Olivia's always been a beauty queen. New hairdo every year, outfits only last a season, that kind of thing. For a few months after you left, she'd come into work with her hair looking like she just got out of bed. I don't know if that's the new style or something, but it just wasn't like her. Anyway, that went away once she started dating that ADA."

He ignores the dating comment. For now.

"What else." He says it as a statement, not a question, because he knows there's more to come.

"Zoning out at her desk, being insensitive or getting overinvested. She's hangin' in there though. Cragen's on to her though sometimes; says she's not pulling her weight."

Elliot nods repeatedly, trying to understand what's happened to his partner. "But…her new partner, he's a good guy?"

"Yeah, he watches her six pretty good. Saved her life a few months ago. She's in good hands, Stabler. Now, we really need to talk about Cragen…"