Part Six
In keeping with his pattern, Elliot had no recollection of being at her apartment. She'd avoided mentioning it for as long as possible, not particularly wanting to face her own reaction any more than she wanted to talk about his. But he'd returned to his over-protective, over-bearing ways and after a few days of being smothered, she couldn't take it. He'd stepped up too close behind her one too many times. And when he'd asked what the problem was, she'd reminded him that she'd had to throw him out of her apartment. He'd been so alarmed at the prospect that she nearly believed him when he swore whole-heartedly that he hadn't been anywhere near her apartment since the night she'd found the rose.
Except she knew it wasn't true. She'd brought up the way he'd sworn he hadn't followed her the next morning, reminded him of how quickly he'd changed his mind about that. He'd tried to argue that point all over again as well, swearing he'd never admitted to following her because he had done no such thing. It only took yet another threat of discussing the issue with Kathy for Elliot to change his mind back and declare that Olivia was right about everything.
Winning hadn't felt like much of a victory, not when he made it clear that he was only conceding because he didn't want to argue anymore. She didn't want to argue either, but she'd have preferred to hear him admit that he was lying. Instead, the conversation ended with Elliot's smiling assurance that one of them was completely fucking nuts.
Not at all comforted, she snuck out to head home, trying to avoid having to deal with Elliot babysitting her all the way. But when she reached her door, she couldn't find her keys. She searched her pockets, her bag, then both again. She always left her keys in her bag in her locker. The only possibility was that they'd fallen out, hopefully while the bag was still in her locker. She sighed, not looking forward to the effort of dodging Elliot again, but she had no choice. She couldn't get in her apartment until she found her keys.
About a block from the precinct, she heard, and ignored, a car horn. But a moment later, a familiar voice called out.
"Liv!"
Expecting a lecture about not waiting for him, Olivia reluctantly turned back to face her partner. "Yeah, what?"
His hand lifted, accompanied by a jingle. "Forget something?"
She closed the distance, grabbing her keys from his hand. "How the hell did you get them? They were in my locker."
He shook his head. "No, they were sitting on your desk."
"No, they weren't." She folded her arms across her chest, convinced that she wasn't the crazy one. "I didn't look for them until I got home or I wouldn't have gone all the way home without them."
He shrugged. "If they weren't on your desk, I wouldn't have come looking for you." He smiled at her, annoyance obvious in his handsome features. "Of course, I would have come looking for you sooner, but you didn't mention you were leaving."
She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't aware that I reported to you."
He looked hurt. "Next time, I won't bother bringing you your keys then."
The guilt welled up immediately. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired." She smiled, knowing he had taken the time to come find her when he'd had work to do. "Thank you."
He nodded toward the passenger seat. "I know you were trying to lose me, but since I'm here, you want a ride home?"
She didn't mind walking, not usually, but the extra trip had left her tired. "I'm not trying to lose you."
Elliot didn't reply, only cocked an eyebrow at her to convey his disbelief. It was a rare occasion that she didn't say goodnight to him.
She shrugged. "I just want things to be normal again." She got into the car, buckling her seatbelt and laying her head back to relax for the ride. "Shit is complicated enough, you know?"
His hand reached out for hers, calming her frazzled nerves with the chaste touch. "Yeah, Liv, I know."
Besides goodnight, they didn't say anything else.
The following morning was relatively quiet. Cragen was keeping Olivia on a short leash, claiming he was only looking out for her safety. Olivia suspected, however, that the man was simply afraid of Elliot's reaction should she be put in a dangerous situation, since Elliot had already nearly gone through the roof when Cragen hadn't insisted on a protective detail. So she was fuming silently, waiting for something to give, barely noticing when Munch's phone rang.
It was impossible to miss when he hung up though. "Woohoo! We have a winner!" All the eyes in the bullpen turned to him as he'd intended. "It seems the elusive Miss Rosa has returned."
Cragen, who'd been pouring a cup of coffee, piped up. "As in the MIA florist?"
Munch smiled. "None other." When Fin and Munch had gone back with the delivery guy, the owner, and the one who'd personally handled the rose order, was out and no one was sure when she was coming back.
"Shit, man! That's the second time this week." Fin pulled a bill of some sort out of his pocket and handed it to his partner. "I was sure there was no fucking Miss Rosa." Everyone in the department, in fact, had pretty much assumed that Miss Rosa had been a figment of the imagination of whoever had pocketed the money for the order without writing it down.
Munch made quite a production out of smoothing out the cash before putting it in his wallet. "Indeed, I was right. As always. Miss Rosa is real."
Cragen interrupted by clearing his throat. "You know, I really don't care who's right about what. Just tell me Rosa has something useful for us."
Munch's dramatic pauses were nothing new, but they were about on Olivia's last nerve. Rather than complain, which she knew would only serve to slow him down, she waited for anything he could tell her.
"It seems Miss Rosa remembers the order well. Apparently few men order flowers in person and fewer still pay cash." Munch paused again, holding up his notepad to be sure everyone knew he was reading from it. "Olivia's roses were purchased by a nice-looking man going by the name of Elliot."
Olivia's eyes turned accusingly toward her partner, seeing how his face paled several shades.
Munch continued, his words ominous and painful. "Elliot, she says, has striking blue eyes." Munch's gaze turned expectantly to the pair of detectives across the aisle, waiting for fireworks.
Fin chimed in immediately, choking back a laugh. "Damn, are you hitting on Stabler? You're making me sick."
Munch picked up the first thing he found and launched it at Fin, pages from his notepad flying all over the place. "Miss Rosa's words, not mine."
Cragen, Elliot, and Olivia barely noticed the relaxed joking between their coworkers. Cragen was staring at Olivia and Elliot, who, in turn, were staring at one another. While Elliot's face revealed surprise and distress, Olivia's only registered pain.
Elliot's expression turned to anger as he took in Olivia's stare, as well as the growing number of anxious faces around them. "You can't seriously think it was me, Liv." He waited, giving her ample opportunity to dispute his conclusion. "Fuck, Olivia! I'm broke. I can't pay my bills. I couldn't buy you a fucking hot dog, let alone two dozen roses!"
But his words, like so many others he'd offered her in recent days, didn't seem to ring true.
"Both of you, in my office, now." Cragen's harsh voice broke through the fog in Olivia's head, but she still could only stare.
It didn't compute. None of it. It didn't make any sense. And that was what Elliot was harping about when she finally realized she'd been issued a command by her boss.
"Why the fuck would I stalk her? I fucking see her all damn day." He turned to look at her as she closed the door behind her. "You think I've got nothing better to do than follow you around? I don't see enough of you during the day?"
His outrage over the idea bothered her as much as the idea itself. Because he hadn't been so bored with her that he hadn't tried things. Because he certainly hadn't minded putting his hands all over her. Because he had taken to following her around, even if he claimed he didn't remember it.
She glared at him, anger beating out the crushing disillusionment she felt threatening. "You do follow me around, dumbass! You follow me around all the time! You got drunk and tried to tear off a piece of my neck the other night and then you came in and swore you didn't remember it. You were reporting your car stolen, remember that?"
His face flushed red, though she couldn't swear if it was due to fury or embarrassment. The indecision resolved itself as soon as he met her eyes, the rage evident there enough to make her step back. "I'm not running around, sneaking into your place, stealing your damn underwear and then sending you flowers. I have better things to do!"
"Yeah, like drinking yourself into a fucking fugue state every night and beating your son!" She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but she couldn't stop herself. She hated the way he made it sound like she was ridiculous and pathetic and unattractive and so desperate for his attention that she was making the whole thing up. And he hadn't given any indication that he thought she was unattractive when he was trying to screw her. Either time.
Elliot's eyes narrowed and she could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. "You miserable bitch! I didn't hit my son!"
"All right, both of you, shut the hell up!" Cragen stepped between them, leaning out of his door. "Munch, Fin, get Rosa down here right now." He turned back to the partners with a sigh. "That should settle that. Either Elliot bought the flowers or he didn't."
Elliot flopped down in one of the chairs, fixing his boss with a cold stare. "And when she comes in here and assures both of you that I didn't, are you going to think I bribed her?"
Cragen watched Olivia, his eyes not wavering until she settled down in the chair beside her partner. Finally, he looked at Elliot again. "Hopefully, Rosa will settle any fears Olivia may have." He turned back to Olivia, his face softening when he saw the discomfort there. "I think the real problem here is that someone obviously wants us to believe that Elliot is coming after you."
It took her a minute to think about it, to realize what was going on, to fully comprehend that she'd just been standing there, in front of her boss, accusing her partner of stalking her. Her partner. Her closest friend. Her real family. She shook her head, trying to hold back the tears that were trying to break through.
"It's ridiculous. Elliot would never hurt me." Maybe he'd been drinking and maybe he'd come on to her a few times when he was so intoxicated that he didn't even remember it, but he hadn't hurt her. He wouldn't hurt her. She felt like shit for alienating the one person in the world she knew she could count on.
"Well, I'm glad we have that settled." Cragen paused to look between them, at Olivia who was staring at her hands and at Elliot who remained pissed beyond words. "So, I'd like you both to start reviewing cases you worked together, since this prick seems to have it in for both of you."
Quietly, both detectives rose to their feet and moved toward the door without looking at one another.
"And if you can't work together, I can reassign you, you know."
The threat that Cragen could easily make sure they never worked together again usually was frightening enough to scare sense into both of them. But Elliot was harboring too much resentment over Olivia's words and Olivia was growing more and more afraid of whoever it was stalking her. Discrediting Elliot might hurt his career, but losing her relationship with her partner would be a devastating blow to Olivia, it would kill her. It scared the hell out of her that someone knew it.
In less than an hour, Rosa had been there and gone, taking one look at Elliot and shaking her head, assuring everyone that he was positively not the man who'd bought roses from her. Elliot glared at Olivia, too angry to respond to her quiet apology. He spent the rest of the day ignoring her, slamming things around on his desk in case she ever started to think maybe he wasn't mad anymore.
A little before four, Olivia decided she'd had it. Elliot wasn't speaking to her and someone was out to get her and she felt like an ass for falling for it. She let Cragen know she was ducking out early, nodding in acceptance of his request for her to be safe and get some rest. Elliot, who'd sulked off somewhere an hour earlier, hadn't come back.
She found him in the crib, laying on one of the beds, staring at the ceiling. "I just wanted to tell you I was leaving."
"Fuck you."
"I said I was sorry." She knew it wasn't enough. She knew how much her initial response had hurt him. She knew what it would have done to her had their positions been reversed.
"Fuck off."
She sat down on the bunk across from his, searching for something she could say to make things better. "El, I was scared. I don't know why I flipped out, but I knew it was wrong and I apologized."
"You apologized when someone came in here and told you it wasn't me." He hadn't looked at her, his furious glare melting the ceiling tiles.
"I knew it wasn't you before that and I said so." She wasn't used to Elliot holding a grudge. Sure, they fought and picked back and forth, but that was just how they were. The barbs didn't mean anything.
"I didn't hit my son." As soon as he spoke, she realized why he was so upset. She wasn't sure he'd ever forgive her for throwing that in his face.
"I know that." She felt like shit. A few words from her partner would go a long way toward lessening her guilt.
But he seemed to know that and was determined not to give it to her. "When did you stop trusting me?"
"Never. I'll never stop trusting you. I got mad and I said something I shouldn't have, but I said I was sorry and I meant it. You know I trust you." She stood up, her hands on her hips. "Now will you just drop it? Please?"
He stood up too, staring at her with an expressionless face. Stepping forward, he leaned down, leaving mere inches between them. "Go fuck yourself, Olivia." He stormed through the door, leaving her teary and stupefied in his wake.
Her hands were shaking as she let herself into her apartment. The knowledge that someone was watching her, following her, aiming to hurt her, stayed with her and forced her to double check the locks were fastened. But the moment that was done, the enormity of the day's events caught up with her. Not even just the day's events, really, more like the previous couple of weeks.
She sat down heavily on the couch and dropped her face into her hands. Elliot was good and pissed and he was likely to stay that way for a long time. And she couldn't say she didn't deserve it. She'd hurt him terribly, she knew that. Normally, although she normally would never have been so cruel to him, she would have begged for mercy, gone out of her way to make it up to him, sat outside his house and bugged him until he forgave her.
But she was too fucking tired for any of that shit. Living was just fucking exhausting her. She felt like her apartment was dirty, filthy from the presence of someone who truly wanted to hurt her. She wasn't sleeping well because of the memory that the creep had been in there himself, touching her bed, taking her panties. The one person who she always counted on to be strong when she felt like she was about to break hadn't been acting like himself and even if he had been, he wasn't about to comfort her.
Her living room was dismal, even with all the lights on. She refused to open any of the curtains because she didn't want anyone peeking in. It had been a wonderful few days since her obsessive friend had shown himself last, but it was hardly a relief. Until she was able to catch him, identify him, she'd have to live in the darkness. Finally, an hour after she'd sat down, she realized she was never going to relax just by letting her thoughts run free.
She made her way to the kitchen for a bottle of wine, drinking most of it before she stopped shaking. After she polished it off, she slowly picked her way to the bathroom, filling the tub with hot water and an excessive amount of bubbles. She needed some sleep and she knew that a nice, long bath, coupled with the wine, would send her happily off to dreamland. Thinking that with a little rest she might be able to come up with a way to convince Elliot to forgive her, she stripped and climbed into the delicious smelling water.
When she was almost asleep, she got up and toweled off quickly. She didn't want to lose the sleepy, calm feeling she had. It wasn't even six in the evening when she curled up beneath her covers, content to sleep through the night for the first time in a long time. She let out a happy sigh, shifted her pillow until it was just right, and shut off the light. Sleep came so fast she didn't even have time to think about Elliot.