Part Four
Olivia got very little sleep. The couch wasn't very comfortable and her dreams were tortured. Most of the night she lay awake, staring at the ceiling, jumping out of her skin at every imagined noise. She was glad to see the morning. She locked her bathroom door while she showered, sticking her head out of the curtain every two seconds to make sure no one had snuck in. She was terrified as she opened the bathroom door, gun in hand, half expecting someone to be waiting for her.
She put on the morning news while she got dressed because she couldn't take the creepy silence anymore. So she listened with half an ear to the sing-song voice of the weather forecaster calling for snow in the afternoon and the dire warning of a possible impending storm coming in the next week. Uncomfortable and nervous, she sat on the edge of the couch until it was close enough to a reasonable time to leave for work.
Her skin crawled as she stepped onto the sidewalk. It felt like there were a million pairs of eyes watching her. Paranoia took hold of her, leading her to check over her shoulder continuously. She was sure she was being followed, convinced that every man on the street was a threat. About halfway between her place and the precinct, she noticed the sedan. It stayed with her through every turn, somehow managing to stay slightly behind her all the time. At first, she thought that Elliot must have gone ahead without her consent and put a detail on her. Except that a protective detail would have been two officers, and she could only see one body in the car. It was too far away to see much, not even to positively identify the make of car. But it was the same dark blue color as Elliot's car. And all she could see of the driver was a tall, thick frame, concealed behind a coat, hat, and scarf.
She felt a spark of anger in her belly, allowing her to not be afraid. He had offered to stay. But she'd refused and she thought it was reasonable to expect he would do as she asked. She also figured, had the bastard been determined to follow her, that he might have volunteered to drive her rather than forcing her to walk in the cold. She hurried the rest of the way, anger and irritation fueling her steps and squashing any concern whatsoever over the man who'd been in her apartment. At that moment, she was just as pissed at Elliot.
She was furious when she got to work. Just so she could beat Elliot to the punch, she knocked on the captain's door. By the time he was up to speed, Elliot was settled at his desk. Her mug was freshly filled with steaming coffee. Part of her wanted to throw it at him. Part of her was happy to see him looking like himself without any signs of a hangover.
He nodded at her as she sat down. "You told him?"
"I thought I told you to go home last night."
He sat back, narrowing his eyes. "I did."
"I saw you." She hadn't slept and some crazy man had been in her apartment more than once. She was not in the mood for bullshit from her partner.
"I went home, Liv. I didn't want to, but I did." He had the nerve to look angry. "You should have taken a better look, cause that's the guy stalking you."
"I saw you." Her repeated words had no effect on him. She grabbed the phone and lifted it to her ear. "How about I call Kathy and see if you were home last night?"
Elliot was on his feet in a flash, leaning across their desks and snatching the receiver from her. "Why don't you leave Kathy out of this?"
His outburst shook her, but she didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing it. Instead, she played it cool, smirking at him. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
She waited for him to admit it, to give that she'd won the point. But he didn't say a word. He kept looking at her, staring when he thought she wouldn't notice. Even while he was driving. Even while they were conducting interviews to follow up on cases. Just to take a break from being watched, at least so obviously, she headed into a convenience store to buy a bottle of water. She dragged her feet the whole way to buy herself more time.
When she returned to the car, he was on the phone, reading his credit card number to someone. Not that she really cared who he talked to or what he bought, but she didn't like how he suddenly hung up and stashed away the phone when she got in. She wasn't the prying sort, but she didn't like that he was suddenly so secretive.
"So, who was that?" The short trip outside left her hands painfully cold and she rubbed then together to warm them up.
"It's getting cold out there. They said it might snow tonight." Elliot wasn't exactly the master of subtlety on a regular day, but the change of subject was abrupt, even for him.
She fixed her stare on him, determined to know what he was hiding. "What's going on?"
Elliot shook his head, shoving his wallet into his pocket. "I heard there might be a blizzard next week."
"Damn it, Elliot! What the hell?" She already had enough trouble, what with some fucker playing games with her; she didn't need her partner to start even more bullshit. It wasn't like he didn't have enough shit going on himself.
He shrugged, seeming surprised at her insistence. "I forgot to pay the light bill. Jesus, what business is it of yours?" To prove his statement, he pulled the special pink-colored past due envelope out of his blazer.
Realizing his embarrassment, Olivia closed her eyes. He hadn't wanted to tell her because he wasn't proud of the fact that he could barely make ends meet. She felt bad for making him tell her. "I'm sorry, El. I just-"
He reached out, his hand closing over hers on the seat between them. "It's ok." His fingers rubbed across her skin, warming her immediately. "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"
For a moment, she let herself revel in the warmth of the contact. "Not really."
"Like I said last night, Liv, I can stay with you tonight if you want."
And suddenly, the way he'd been staring, even the way he'd followed her, didn't seem so awful anymore. She didn't like the dishonest way he'd tried to pretend it hadn't been him, but she understood the motive. He was worried about her. And he didn't want her to be scared. It wasn't so creepy as she'd thought the night before.
Still, she shook her head. "Nah, I'll be ok." Old habits were hard to break. "But I wouldn't say no to a ride home."
With a warm smile and a firm squeeze of her hand, he turned back to the road and pulled into traffic. "Good, because you weren't getting out of it anyway."
They were almost ready to leave for the night when the delivery showed up. A young, eager guy pushed sideways through the doors, nearly tripping several times as he tried to see around the large arrangement of roses.
"Excuse me," the man said, pausing by Elliot's desk and setting the vase down to check his list. "Is there a Detective Benson here?" He followed Elliot's gaze and smiled at Olivia. "These are for you, ma'am."
Elliot asked him to wait while Olivia checked the card. Her eyes stared at the words, her brain unable to comprehend what she was reading at first. Elliot could read her expression, sending Munch and Fin back to the florist to find out who'd ordered the flowers. Olivia heard the words, but she wasn't paying any attention. She didn't notice when Elliot walked around the desks to read over her shoulder. She only heard his sharp intake of breath when he read the words, shocked to realize someone was so close. She jumped, afraid of the contact of his hands on her shoulders, afraid of the threat written out on the card.
I want to see you in your purple panties when I come to fuck you.
He must not have realized how upsetting his presence, his touch, was to her, she thought. She knew he was only trying to make her feel better, as with his suggestion of spending the night. He couldn't have known, she told herself, that his voice in her ear sent chills down her spine.
"We'll get him, Liv. He won't get a chance to touch you."
She nodded, stepping away from him and sitting down before her legs could give out. Cragen was on his way over to see what was going on. She wanted to ball up the card or shred it into a million pieces. It was too personal, too intimate, to share with her coworkers. She supposed that was part of the thrill for the prick, knowing that she really didn't want her partner and boss reading about the color of her underwear, knowing that he could make her when she had to reveal it. It was just another invasion, another violation, that she had to suffer.