Pop Quiz

In a moment, the doctor who handed her the black box was gone. She stared at it, feeling its weight, and considered its possibilities. It was a jewelry box. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Why had that guy called Elliot Olivia's fiancée? What was in this damn box? Alex looked at it, appraising its contents without opening it. There was an explanation. Her birthday was over. Christmas was ten months away. The last time she checked, she didn't get presents on Memorial Day.

Alex looked at the box in her hand and then at Elliot Stabler. Immediately, she knew that he knew more than he was saying. He looked at the floor, the wall, and at anywhere else that wasn't her eyes. She watched as he uncomfortably rubbed his neck, and then stared into the floor with an intensity she had not seen from him in her recent memory.

"What is this Elliot?" She asked, deciding to take the direct root with him. It was so obvious he knew and she was emotionally drained. She didn't want to dick around with him right now.

He didn't speak. Instead he ran his hand over his head and held his neck while he stared at the floor. He took a deep breath and then let it out. Then he slowly raised his eyes from the floor, looking at her for the first time. "It's really something between you and Liv."

"Elliot," she said, quietly. "Please."

"It's a present."

She crossed her arms in front of her. "Elliot." She said, warning him.

"She bought it for you." He shrugged. "It's kind of self explanatory."

"I want to know what it is." She said again.

"Alex." He said. "You know what it is."

Alex thought about it. She did know what it was. Or at least, she knew what she hoped it was. She knew that the idea that Olivia may have been planning a future for them was beautiful. But now, standing here, she also found it crushing to know that it could all be taken away from her in a second. "Should I look," She asked him.

"She," he sighed. "She really wanted you to have it. She really wanted…" his voice cut off and he put his head down, "she was going to give it to you." Was all he could manage.

Alex sat down and looked at the box in her hand. She could feel herself shaking.

"What is it, Elliot?" She asked quietly.

"Alex," he said quietly.

"What is it, Elliot?" She asked again. She could feel her whole body tremor.

"Open it." He whispered.

She stared at the box. "I don't want to."

"Then don't ask me to tell you." Elliot answered. He didn't want to be the one to do it—he didn't want to ruin the surprise or the sentiment.

Alex looked at the floor, staring into the same tile that Elliot found so fascinating. "It's an engagement ring, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yes." He said in a whisper.

"Why?" She asked.

Elliot looked at her curiously for the first time. How could she not know the answer to that question?

"What do you mean?"

"Why?" She said again.

"She," Elliot looked at the ground. "She never wanted to be without you Alex. She wanted to be with you forever."

"So this was?"

"She wanted to marry you. She wanted to have you forever. Your promise to be with her forever."

"She didn't know she already had me?" Alex asked, sadly looking into the box.

"I think she did, Alex. But, she wanted you to know you had her too."

Alex stared at the box. She loved Olivia Benson more than anything in the world, but she knew this wasn't how she was supposed to get this. No one was supposed to get a ring in a hospital waiting room, and she wasn't supposed to be proposed to by her lover's best friend. Not while she waited to find out if the love of her life lived or died. She wrapped her fingers around the box slowly and handed it to Elliot.

"When she wakes up, she'll give it to me if she still wants to." She says with a brave smile she didn't quite feel.

"I won't tell her you've seen the box." He says, with a sigh, shoving it deep into his pocket.

"The box is a symbol," Alex sighed, "It's the sentiment I pray I get to hear."

To Be Continued…