A/N: Well, hello everyone! So long it's been! Yeah, I'm terribly sorry for that, I really am, but... Well, okay, I have no excuses except that real life got on the way. So let's head for today's installment. I listened to this song today and, when I started paying attention to the lyrics, I knew I simply had to do it. I hope you like it. Oh, and by the way: in this story, set on season 15 (and for the record, #SAVEBENSON!), Elliot has left.
Law & Order SVU isn't mine, neither are the songs.
Olivia remembered everything as if it was yesterday. The last NYPD annual ball they had attended together, as partners. It had been on summer, three years earlier. They had danced for a while, each one holding the other on their arms, and when they decided the ball sucked and they had been there for enough time, Elliot drove his truck halfway to Connecticut, parked it on an empty spot of the road and the two of them just laid on the trunk of his car talking and watching the stars. She remembered the time he told her that he used to do that a lot as a teen and promised her one day they'd do it together.
All the (little) time they had to spare those three months, they spent together. That is, until that fateful September afternoon, when he left.
You said the way my blue eyes shined,
Put those Georgia stars to shame that night
I said: "That's a lie"
Just a boy in a Chevy truck,
That had a tendency of gettin' stuck,
On back roads at night
And I was right there beside him all summer long
And then the time we woke up to find that summer gone
One of the songs they had danced that night, from Tim McGraw, was one of Olivia's favorite. She told him when it started playing, half expecting him to laugh at her and say how cheesy it was for Bad Ass Benson, but he didn't. He asked her to dance so that the dress she had bought especially for the ball wouldn't go to waste, even though she said she would put her most comfortable jeans on at any minute. She didn't really like fancy clothes.
But when you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think my favorite song
The one we danced to all night long
The moon like a spotlight on the lake
When you think happiness,
I hope you think that little black dress
Think of my head on your chest,
And my old faded blue jeans
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me
But then again, fate tore them apart. Olivia never got the chance to tell her partner she loved him, and she didn't get to hear him say it back either. After that summer ended, she wasn't the same for a very long time. For a few months, she was more emotional than she'd ever been her whole life, and God knows life had already given her plenty of reasons to cry. A couple weeks after Elliot had left, Olivia wrote him a letter showing her support and saying a bit more, but she never had the heart to send it. She had kept it hidden on a box under her bed. Until now.
September saw a month of tears,
And thankin' God that you weren't here,
To see me like that
But in a box beneath my bed,
Is a letter that you never read,
From three summers back
It's hard not to find it all a little bitter sweet,
And lookin' back on all of that, it's nice to believe
So here she was. Queens. Glen Oaks. Near Elliot's house. Inside her car parked across the street, precisely. She had left the letter on his doorstep, rang the bell and ran to her car, hoping he would be the one to answer the door. He was. He looked around and you could see he was upset nobody was there. But then he noticed the envelope, and opened it quickly, taking her letter from inside.
And I'm back for the first time since then:
I'm standin' on your street,
And there's a letter left on your doorstep,
And the first thing that you'll read is
ELLIOT'S POV
It was Olivia's handwriting. His heart started thumping the minute he saw it. Holding his breath, Elliot started reading.
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think my favorite song
Someday you'll turn your radio on,
I hope it takes you back to that place
When you think happiness,
I hope you think that little black dress
Think of my head on your chest,
And my old faded blue jeans
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me
He looked at her car across the street and smiled. He did remember.
A/N: Okay... I have to admit it, as I wrote it, I couldn't help but think it was a little weird, but like I said, I just had to go with it. I hope you like it :) Please review!