Pretty Poison

(Chapter Two: Confusion)

Olivia stood at the foot of the bed looking at Elliot. She felt a little dazed for a moment and her head was pounding. She raised her fingers to scratch her head. How the Hell had this happened?

She thought back to the night before and tried to remember anything that may have lead them here, but the events were foggy. Everything that had happened after they had arrived at the hotel lounge had become one big haze of confusion and big pieces of events were just completely missing.

Olivia began breathing deeply as she moved around the room in search of her clothing. A stocking here and bra over there. Why could she not remember this? Even the actual sex dream…or whatever it was, was starting to disappear from her memory. Something was seriously wrong here. She picked up her clothing one article at a time finding everything except her panties then headed for the bathroom to get dressed.

She stared into the mirror at herself half ashamed and half just plane confused at what was going on around her. She clasped her bra behind her back and stepped back into the cocktail dress she had wore to meet Elliot in the lounge the previous evening. She turned on the faucet and cupped her hand under the cold water and rinsed out her mouth. She hadn't intended on staying and didn't have a tooth brush with her. She took a deep breath and stood up straight as she combed her fingers through her tangled hair and tucked each strand back into place.

Olivia opened the bathroom door hoping to escape the hotel room and have a chance to think and figure things out before she was confronted by Elliot. Too late. He sat on the edge of the bed wearing only his boxer shorts and stared doe eyed at her. Apparently she was not the woman he had expected to emerge from his bathroom at six fifteen in the morning after a night of endless, incredible sex.

Just looking at him made her stomach churn nervously for what they had done. Olivia said nothing but picked up her purse off the dresser and headed toward the door.

"Liv?" He called to her breaking the screaming silence between them.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell happened last night?"

She stood there with her back to him staring at the wall and trying to hold herself together.

"I don't know," she said without turning around.

Elliot stood up and walked toward her placing his hand on hers to pull her toward the bed to sit and talk to him. His fingers on her skin felt as if they would burn through her. She turned slowly and looked at him as she sat down beside him.

She raised her hand to her forehead again. "I can't remember much. What I do remember is all hazy like a dream. I have no idea how I even got into this hotel room."

"Were you dressed?"

"What?" She looked at him half confused unable to think and follow his conversation at the same time.

"When you woke up….were you dressed?"

She looked into his eyes and shook her head.

Elliot looked around the room and noticed the condom wrapper on the night stand where she had sat it before heading to the bathroom to get dressed.

"We had sex?" He stared at her with wild eyes. He didn't remember it either.

"Yes," she said fidgeting nervously with her shoe.

Elliot stood up and exhaled as he rubbed his hands over his face. "Why can't I remember?"

"I don't know," she said trying not to show him how scared she really was.

Elliot looked back at her in her white lace mini dress. She was stunning. Even the next morning. He had had a thing for Olivia for quite some time. She had become the subject of many of his fantasies. Surely he would remember if they had sex together.

Elliot walked around to the other side of the bed and searched through the nightstand drawers in search of something that might tell them why they were here. Olivia sat still on the bed and followed him with her eyes as he buzzed around the room. "Maybe we didn't actually do anything," he said looking at her nervously.

"Yes, we did Elliot."

"You remember?"

"No, I can just tell." She placed her hands over her abdomen feeling a little sore from their performance the night before.

"Olivia, did I hurt you?"

"No. I'm fine. It had just been a while and I think we did that more than once."

"I'd say at least four times."

"Why do you say that?"

"I found the evidence," he said tilting the bedside trash can to reveal four used condoms.

"Oh, God," she said softly.

"Well, at least it was safe sex."

"That isn't funny, Elliot."

"I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. I don't do this."

"Neither do I."

"I know, Liv. I didn't mean it like that. I just, I kind of don't know what to say to you to fix this. I have no idea how we got here. We wake up in bed together naked. And apparently had four really good sexual sessions neither of us can remember. I don't know about you but this is definitely a first in my book."

"I thought you didn't remember the sex?"

"I don't."

"Then how do you know it was good?"

"Because Olivia, I didn't put these claw marks up my own back."

She was so humiliated she turned four shades of red and buried her face in her hands. "Oh, my God!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am not trying to be a jerk here. I just honestly do not remember a damn thing that happened last night after we met up at the lounge. Do you?"

"I remember talking to Cragen about this case. He explained the undercover assignment. Somehow couples in the hotel are being robbed while they are in their rooms asleep."

Elliot looked down at the rings on each of their left fingers.

"We are supposed to be married. Guests at the hotel. Did you check your things? Is everything there?"

"Well, my purse was dumped and everything in it scattered across the dresser. But I just figured you did that searching for a condom. But I don't carry them."

"Then where did they come from?"

"You didn't have them?"

"Olivia, I just got divorced. I haven't been laid in over six months. Why would I carry condoms?"

She just stared at him.

He realized how insensitive that had sounded. "I'm sorry. God my head is pounding."

"I know, I feel really hung over. I didn't think I had that much to drink last night. I had like two glasses of wine all night."

"I had one beer. Liv, something really strange is going on here."

Olivia looked up at him as he stared down between their feet. She shifted her eyes to see what he was looking at. Under the bundle of blankets hanging off into the floor laid a small white piece of fabric. Elliot reached down and picked it up. "It's lace," he said looking confused.

He tossed the blankets back and knelt to the floor to look under the bed as Olivia held her knees tight together to prevent him from seeing anything under her skirt. Elliot reached under the bed pulling out her lace panties, that had very obviously been torn off. Olivia shifted uncomfortably as she realized what he held in his hand.

"These are yours?" He asked.

She stared at them and nodded.

"Olivia, are you sure I didn't hurt you?"

The look in his eyes was terrified. What the hell had happened last night?

"Elliot, you would never hurt me." She shook her head. "I know that. If we had sex, I know it was consensual. You wouldn't have…." she pointed at the underwear in his hand looking so confused.

"I don't think I would have. But Liv, we didn't think we would end up in bed together last night either. But we did. We have got to figure out what the hell happened last night."

"How are we going to do that?"

"If we were undercover, then Cragen had to have a team on us right? Let's ask him."

"And exactly how are we going to do that without telling him what happened last night?"

"Olivia, we still don't fully know what happened last night. So there is nothing to tell. Come on." Elliot stood up and started putting his clothes on.

"Where are we going?"

"To Warner for blood work. And I'll bet something turns up in our tox screens."

"You think we were drugged?"

"How else do you explain it. We don't remember anything between sitting down at the bar and waking up naked in bed together. We both have about eight hours of last night just erased from our memory, including sex we don't remember. Neither of us drank much at all, but we both woke up dazed and hung over. I don't know what else it would be."

She exhaled deeply and looked worried.

"We are going to get to the bottom of this," Elliot said looking into her eyes.

"Can you take me by my apartment to get cleaned up first? I look like a ten dollar hooker and have no underwear on because someone ripped them apart last night."

"Liv….I was thinking. Maybe you should have them run a rape kit."

"What? Why?"

"How can we be sure I was the only one here last night. I mean, just to be on the safe side, you know. If we find out something later it will be too late, there wont be any evidence. If someone drugged us last night, God only knows what they may have done."

"Do you really think they would have left the condoms in the trash can, Elliot?"

"Olivia, I don't know that anything did happen. I am just thinking we should rule it out. And you are right about the condoms. We should probably take them for DNA evidence."

"Elliot?"

"It is that or call this in as a crime scene. You go to an ER across town and have the examine. You can give them a false name. At least we will know. If something turns up then we know where to start looking. I can turn these in and just have them tell me if the DNA on all of them is a match from the same guy. Tell them it is from a case. I just need to know if it is a match, not run it."

"You are starting to sound like John Munch with his conspiracy theories. Isn't it a lot more plausible that we had a few too many drinks and did this on our own? Elliot a lot of people have one night stands under the influence of alcohol. They black out and don't remember anything that happened."

"You are right. That is a lot more likely. Except that neither of us was drunk. Liv, I am just asking to check into it. Rule it out. If a drunken one night stand is all this turns out to be I for one will be relieved. But if it isn't, then we only have a limited amount of time before this crime scene is cleaned by the maid."

Elliot walked over to the telephone and picked up the receiver.

"El, what are you doing?"

"Checking out the room another night. We'll put up the do not disturb sign and hope no one enters the room until we find something out."

She sat on the bed and placed her hand under her chin as she watched him.

What if he was right? What reason would anyone have for drugging them both? And if there was someone else in the room with them last night, why couldn't she remember seeing them in her little "dreams."

She sat on the bed with a worried look across her face.

"Hey," he said reaching for her hand. "Are you sure you are okay?"

She looked into his eyes and he could see tears building in hers.

"I'm scared, El."

Elliot laced his fingers in hers. "We're going to figure this out, okay? I am sure you are right. I am probably just over reacting. And it was probably nothing. I just want to be sure."

She nodded her head in agreement.