-CHAPTER 1-
"I need a drink, that's for sure. Wanna join me?"
Elliot looked at Olivia, who was still staring into the darkness, expectantly, but didn't get an answer.
In fact his partner didn't react at all.
He stepped closer and put his right hand on her shoulder carefully to get her attention, "Liv?"
"Hm?"
She sounded absent.
"I really could use a drink and I just wondered if you'd possibly care to join me?", Elliot announced in a warm tone and this time Olivia nodded in response.
-
The drive back to the city had been silent, Olivia had done nothing, but stared out of the window, her thoughts obviously miles away and Elliot was highly alarmed.
He was sure that something was going on, he just couldn't name it and his partner didn't seem to be willing to talk about it.
So he would be patiently waiting until Olivia would come around 'cause Elliot knew there was no point in pushing her.
That way she would just shut him out completely.
-
Sitting in the very last corner of a bar not far from their office, Olivia stared into her glass filled with whiskey, lost in her thoughts once more.
Elliot had raised an eyebrow when she had ordered the brown liquid instead of beer, which he would have expected her to order, but that night Olivia didn't care.
Everything about her job and her life seemed pointless and it would take a lot more and heavier stuff to deal with herself.
For a while the two detectives sat there in silence, Elliot Stabler watching the crowd and sipping on his beer, Olivia Benson emptying her whiskey in two big gulps, ordering another one without even looking up.
But then, all of a sudden, she looked her partner straight in the eyes, "I just don't get why it was so important to her to say good bye to us. To let us know that she is okay..."
"I think Alex meant for you to know. And that's why she told us. 'Cause that way you don't have to carry the burden of knowing alone. That way you have somebody to talk to", Elliot answered sincerely, smiling at Olivia, who nodded and took another gulp of whiskey.
"It's not fair that she had to give up her whole life, that she had to leave. That she has to hide 'til God knows when", she added after a while.
"No, Liv. It's not fair. Not at all. But we should be glad that Alex is okay. At least she is still alive".
He for himself felt better since he knew that Alexandra Cabot hadn't died, but Olivia obviously didn't.
And when Elliot recognized the tears, which were welling in his partner's eyes, it hit him that the situation was a lot worse than he had expected.
"She might be alive, Elliot. But her life has been taken away from her. And we lost Alex anyway..."