T Minus 5 Days, cont'd

Elliot couldn't find his voice. He couldn't find voluntary control of his muscles either. While he found himself catching up with Munch, he wasn't sure how he was walking or why he wasn't beating the living shit out of the man. Instead, he choked on the unreleased fury, the ire that rose in him, the hatred he felt coursing through him at the idea that someone, even unintentionally, had violated the privacy, the intimacy, the connection. Olivia had allowed him to touch her, had accepted what he was able to give her at that moment, had given him what he wanted to take. But the consent she'd given had only extended to him, she'd allowed him to see her like that, but she never consented to anyone else seeing that, never agreed that anyone else know what she'd done.

Elliot was terrified that he was going to have to tell her, after they found her and rescued her from probably being raped and tortured, that everyone she knew was well aware that she'd let Elliot fuck her. And depending on what Munch had seen, the rumor mill might know way too much about how it had happened. He thought he might be sick, thinking of all the stories and jokes that would be told about Olivia liking it rough, about why she stayed in SVU, about the two of them getting off on acting out some sick rape fantasy, about Elliot nailing her in such an undignified way for years.

Just as they reached the building, Elliot's rage boiled over. He grabbed Munch's jacket, shoving him hard into the stone wall, showing no mercy when Munch's unsuspecting head bobbed off the hard surface. His fists were tight on Munch's collar, shaking him as he yelled in his face.

"What did you see? What?" Had Olivia been there, she might have pointed out that his explosive reaction would give away anything that Munch hadn't already seen. But Olivia wasn't there. Olivia had been kidnapped. Olivia was hurt, had been hurt by him and someone else too. And Olivia's character was about to be assassinated by gossip while she was away. Elliot hadn't been able to protect her, neither from himself nor from whoever had taken her, but he wasn't about to stand by and watch as people belittled her.

Fuck that, he'd confess to raping her, false or not, before he'd let Munch spread that rumor about her.

He shook the shocked man harder, trying to force an answer out of him. "Tell me what the fuck you saw, damn it!"

Munch was well aware that he was no physical match for Elliot, but he also knew that Elliot's emotions usually had control over his thought process. His eyes darted to the side, making up something that would cause a slight grin to appear. "Campus Security is on their way."

Elliot immediately let go, fearing that Cragen would catch wind of his reaction. He turned to the side, to judge the risk for himself. There was no one coming. No one had noticed anything out of the ordinary. He faced the older man with renewed anger. "You lying son of a bitch."

Munch shrugged, having slipped to the side and moved out of Elliot's reach. "True, but I'm not bleeding."

Not about to let it go, Elliot thought of Olivia, of her mortification should the tale spread. He moved to block Munch's path and spoke through clenched teeth. "I want to know what the fuck you saw."

With a raised eyebrow, Munch continued to tease. "What exactly are you afraid I saw?"

"You said you wanted to protect her. If you don't want to see her hurt, you'd better fucking tell me what you saw."

"Why does what I saw matter?" Munch's eyes were bright, as though the idea of spreading the story was undeniably exciting.

"Because whatever you saw, you probably misunderstood." He was resigned to it. He'd have a hell of a time facing Huang, but he didn't care. If Munch had seen them, if Munch had been there while he was using her body for his pleasure, if Munch had witnessed the brutal way he'd pounded himself into her, if Munch had heard her screaming her pleasure into his hand, Elliot was going to fix it the only way he knew how. He'd confess right to Munch's face. Hell, he could have himself a plea bargain and be serving time by the time anyone found Olivia.

Anything would be worth it. Anything was worth protecting her. Because she'd given him all she had in those few minutes. She'd given him herself and he wasn't going to let that ruin her reputation.

Shaking his head, Munch looked thoroughly amused. "Judging from your calm demeanor, apparently I only saw part of the show."

Elliot swallowed hard, refusing to give another damn thing away. He spoke slowly, making each word seem like its own sentence. "What did you see?"

Munch chuckled. "I saw a kiss that damn near peeled the paint off the walls. I mean, damn, I've tamer Harlequin covers. Fabio would have been blushing."

Once again, Elliot's jaw fell open, utterly stupefied. "You only saw us kissing?"

And then, only then, did Munch finally get it. His mouth dropped open as well, his eyes closing as his brain tried to process the information. Gathering himself, his brow furrowed as he sized up Elliot's angry scowl. "What didn't I see?"

Elliot shook his head, unsure which one of them he was angrier at. "I'm going to fucking kill you, Munch."

"Come on, Elliot, that kiss I saw, well, really, after my four ill-fated marriages, I thought things like that only happened in romance novels." He was pushing for more details, desperate to know what more there was, knowing it had to be something to explain Elliot's furious response.

"You read a lot of those?" Although laughter found its way past his lips, he didn't feel it. He was too pissed off at himself, at Munch, to find any true enjoyment in the moment.

"Whatever it was, Elliot, my warning still stands." Munch pulled open the library door.

Elliot followed him, still wanting to hit him to drive the point home. "If you don't want her hurt, maybe you should keep what you saw to yourself."

With a conspiratorial grin, Munch leaned back to whisper in a voice conscious of their quiet surroundings. "What about what I didn't see? When am I getting the low down on that?"

"Low down? You were partners with Fin too long." Elliot ignored Munch's question entirely, nodding at Angela Andrews and bringing the woman to the counter. "Is Howie upstairs?"

Her eyes widened as her glance shifted nervously to the steps. "Oh my god, was it him? I just spoke with him yesterday! Is he a rapist?"

Aware of all the stares Angela's shriek had caused, Munch shook his head. "No, ma'am, that was all a misunderstanding. We'd just like to talk to Howie."

Her eyes moved from Munch to Elliot, as though having seen him previously made him more reliable. "Is Natalie ok?"

"Natalie's just fine, Ms. Andrews. There were some things we wanted to follow up on with Howie." Elliot watched the way her eyes darted back to Munch and he wanted to kick himself for having acted like an ass the first time they'd met. Had he not been busy acting like a jerk to Olivia, the librarian might have trusted him.

He shook his head at himself, realizing there were quite a lot of things he might have gotten besides the librarian's trust had be not been busy acting like a jerk to Olivia. He wondered if Hallmark made cards that started out 'Sorry I've been a pompous ass for all the years we've known each other.' Olivia certainly deserved something for putting up with him.

Slowly she nodded. "He's upstairs in the periodicals, like always. You're sure he's not a rapist?"

Certain of no such thing, considering they were there to question him about Olivia, Elliot smiled instead of answering. "Thanks for your help."

As they climbed the stairs, Munch went back to the fun he'd abandoned. "So if you were worried about me seeing something that would make that lip lock seemed like nothing, I'm quite curious as to what else might have been going on up there." He leaned on the door at the top of the stairs, blocking Elliot's path as he pretended to ponder the thought. "The windows were up, so I wonder what you might have been trying to hide by getting a little fresh air in there."

"Know what I'm wondering?" Elliot shoved Munch aside and pulled the door open. "How is it that none of your wives ever killed you?"

Munch smiled in a manner that Elliot found entirely annoying. "They might have tried, except I was never knocking boots with my partners." He slowed down as he walked, once again blocking Elliot's path. "Of course, none of my partners were any where near as attractive as Olivia."

Seeing a chance, he took it and tried to laugh. "You got a thing for Liv? I'll put in a good word for you." He stepped around Munch, hoping the conversation would die.

But Munch was having too much fun, especially since Elliot hadn't dismissed the kiss as having meant nothing or being a mistake. "I doubt she'd think much of me beside a strong, handsome man like you."

Glaring at him, Elliot grinned. "If you have a thing for me, however, we're going to have a problem."

Munch leaned in, invading Elliot's personal space. "As much of a problem as I'm going to have ever setting foot in the crib again?"

Elliot pointed to the last row of cubes against the wall. "That's Howie." Then he smiled. "And if you don't forget what you saw, you're going to have a lot of problems doing a lot of things when I put you in the hospital, are we clear?"

Sensing that the joking was well over, Munch nodded. "Crystal. As long as you know I wasn't kidding about turning you in."

Letting out a sigh, Elliot rolled his eyes. "How the fuck is that going to not hurt Olivia?"

"It'll hurt less if I scuttle the ship than if you do."

There was something in Munch's expression, in his dark eyes, that told Elliot he would do anything he thought might help. Someday, Elliot was going to take a lot of pleasure in teasing Olivia about the loyalty she inspired in her male friends. Until then, he found it really fucking irritating that everyone was stepping on his toes to protect his partner. So he turned to honesty, hoping it was what Munch was seeking. "I would die before I hurt her."

Munch stared at him for a moment before he offered a curt nod. "That's what I wanted to hear."

"Fuck you, Munch." He didn't dare give Munch another chance to continue the conversation. Instead he crossed the room, pulling out the chair next to Howie and sitting down. "Hi, Howie."

The man was startled, jumping in his seat and glancing between Elliot and Munch before he awkwardly set his book down. He quietly cleared his throat, ignoring Munch when he took the seat on his other side. "You're that detective from before. You work with the pretty lady." At Elliot's nod, he smiled. "How are you?"

Elliot was sizing up the man, giving him a much more intense inspection than he had previously. Munch, in the meantime, was looking at Howie's accumulated reading materials with an amused smile. Elliot tried to find something in Howie's face that would indicate anything other than his initial impression that Howie was pretending to be a lot smarter than he really was. He wanted to think he was that much closer to bringing Olivia home.

He didn't find any hope. "I'll tell you what, Howie, I'm honestly not very good."

Howie's eyes widened further before turning to Munch. "Is something wrong?"

Munch held up the top book, large silver letters indicating that it was the Encyclopedia of Female Reproductive Anatomy. "A little light reading?"

Elliot noticed the next book, a string of incomprehensible words meaning nothing to him besides that they had something to do with the diagram of an airplane wing underneath them. "So, Howie, which is it? Women or planes, which are you into?"

Howie shrugged. "Both, I guess." His fingers grazed the cover of the smaller book, tracing the outline of the wing. "Airplanes are neat, aren't they?"

Elliot glanced at Munch, who shrugged. "Yes, airplanes are neat."

Munch leaned in, dropping the graphically illustrated encyclopedia back on top of the plane. "But women are neater?"

Howie cheeks turned red and he shrugged. "Sure."

Elliot was ready to storm off again. "Munch, let's go." There was no point in wasting time with someone who'd probably faint if a woman like Olivia touched him.

But, just as the first time talking to Howie, his partner didn't budge when Elliot stood. Instead, Munch smiled at Howie. "You remember who talked to you the last time you saw Elliot?"

Howie glanced at Elliot and then looked at Munch. "Is that Elliot?" When Munch nodded, Howie smiled. "Yeah, she was pretty."

Munch nodded again. "She certainly is."

Howie leaned closer to Munch, lowering his voice to a whisper. "She had a bruise. Right here." He reached up and indicated his cheek.

Elliot bent down, trying to listen in without letting Howie know. But the mention of Dr. Phil's handiwork caused him to growl.

Howie shrunk closer to Munch. "I think he did it."

Munch looked up at Elliot, smirking that even a moron like Howie had come to the same conclusion as Munch regarding Elliot somehow hurting Olivia. "Now why would you think that?"

"He was treating her like shit. He was mad at her." He gestured at the pile of books on his desk. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know when someone's getting hurt."

Munch's glare stayed on Elliot's face until Elliot felt awful enough to look down. Then Munch turned back to Howie. "Have you seen her since then?"

Howie reached out, pulling a tattered bookmark out of one of his books. "Olivia gave me this."

Munch looked down, recognizing the business card stamped with Olivia's name and number. "Did you call Olivia?"

Howie shook his head, another blush rising to his face. "I don't usually know what to say to pretty girls."

Munch shook his head. "Me either."

"Is Natalie ok? I haven't seen her since a while ago." Howie carefully replaced the business card in his shirt pocket.

Elliot nodded, wishing Munch had taken the card when he'd had the chance. The card was a little too worn for having been so recently distributed and it bugged him that Howie might be staring at it, thinking about Olivia, doing god knew what to settle any feelings he might have about the pretty lady he wasn't sure what to say to. "Natalie's fine, Howie."

He was already back at the stairs when he heard Munch thank Howie for his time. When they were heading back to the precinct, Elliot looked over at Munch. "That was a complete waste of time."

Munch shrugged. "At least we know we're not alone in thinking that Olivia's pretty." He smiled at Elliot.

Elliot shook his head. "Pretty is for teenage girls, Munch. Olivia's fucking gorgeous."

With a snicker, Munch nodded. "Amen to that."

They barely set foot back at the 16 before Cragen handed them their half of the suspect list. "Fin and Lake are already two down. Get to work."

But that time, Elliot snatched the keys from Munch's grasp and settled himself behind the wheel. No one else was going to take charge of the investigation. Cragen and Huang had been right, Elliot knew; Olivia was going to need him when they found her. And he'd be damned if he wasn't going to be the one who got there first.