T Minus 1 Day

T Minus 1 Day

It took Munch and Lake almost five hours to find Avery and drag him back to the 16. Everyone expected Elliot would be chomping at the bit, ready to tear the man apart. Instead, he watched silently while his coworkers led the unhappy, whining man into interrogation. It wasn't that he didn't notice; he did. It was that he thought his cold stare with an almost inhuman hate illuminating it might disturb Avery considerably.

And he was right. They'd heard him coming, bitching all the way from the elevator about false arrest and police brutality. Elliot had plenty of time to turn around and stare at Avery. And Avery, after taking one look at Elliot's cold, hard stare, shut up.

Elliot waited for ten solid minutes, knowing the time would drive Avery crazy. Plus, he needed to convince himself he was calm. He knew killing Avery, no matter how many people were willing to help cover it up, wouldn't help him. He grabbed the picture and stood up, pausing to look at Cragen as the older man stared through the mirror at Avery.

"Get Casey down here. We need to search his place."

Cragen nodded. "Already called her. Fingerprints and the picture should be enough to get us inside his place."

Taking a deep breath, Elliot opened the door and faced Avery. Avery's dark eyes met his, curious, questioning. Elliot said nothing. He simply pulled out the chair across from Avery and sat down before sliding the photograph across the table.

Avery's eyes slowly dropped down, widening when he saw the image, but he said nothing. Neither did Elliot.

There was a knock at the door and Cragen was leaning in by the time Elliot turned to look at him. "Casey got it. You want to go or you want us to take it?"

Elliot's eyes moved back to Avery. "We have a search warrant for your place, Avery. What are we going to find when we get there?"

Avery frowned, shrugging his shoulders as though he didn't care. "Nothing. You won't find shit. Go ahead and look."

Grabbing the picture, Elliot lifted it up and held it in front of Avery's eyes. "You lied the last time you were in here. You saw her. You knew where she lived. Why should I believe you now?"

Avery shrugged again, looking away. "I don't care what you believe."

Elliot leaned across the table, grabbing Avery's collar and shaking him. "She'd better be ok, Avery. Cause I swear, if you hurt a hair on her head, I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!"

Avery's face moved slowly, the corners of his mouth turning up to grin. "I knew you were tapping that piece of ass." He puckered his lips, blowing a kiss at Elliot, laughing at the detective's reddened face. "I always wondered what it would be like to hold her down and teach her who was in charge. Bet she liked it when you did it. Did she scream for you too?"

Luckily, Cragen and Fin were there, holding Elliot back when he tried to lunge across the table.

Their combined strength could barely keep him back, but they couldn't keep him quiet. "Fuck you! You fucking asshole! I'll kill you! I'll fucking tear you apart!"

Avery laughed as they pulled Elliot out of the room, fighting and screaming all the way.

There was little doubt that Elliot was serious about the death threats, so Cragen thought it would be best to send him to serve the warrant on Avery's apartment. The dump was a ground floor studio that probably had once been part of a larger place, having been cut off and made a studio by a rent-hungry slum lord. Rather than knock or give any kind of warning, Elliot kicked through the front door and stormed in.

There was a woman there, her full-figure fighting to, and damn near succeeding in, escaping the confines of her lacy black negligee. "Mark, baby, you home?" Her approach, inhibited by the black patent leather stilettos her chubby feet barely fit into, stopped when she saw Elliot. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Where is she?" Elliot was blind with rage, not even noticing the woman beyond the idea that she was not Olivia. He closed the distance between them, bullying her into backing up by crowding into her personal space. "Where did he stash her?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! I'm calling the cops!"

"We are the cops." Fin grabbed something off a chair, shoving Elliot slightly to the side, thrusting the fabric at the woman. "Go get dressed, lady. We need to have a little chat down at the station." He was prepared for Elliot to turn on him and had his hands up to fight or soothe, whichever he might need to do. "She probably doesn't know anything, Elliot."

Elliot snarled, quite displeased for having lost someone on whom he could take out his anger. "Why don't you just hire a lawyer for her too?"

"I'm not taking IAB heat for harassing a woman with no clothes on, Elliot. 'Sides, Avery probably didn't bring Olivia here where he'd catch hell from his girlfriend."

The woman emerged a bit later, wearing what could have been described as clothes had they covered more than her negligee. "What do you want? Mark isn't home."

Elliot crowded into her again, pulling the photograph of Avery and Olivia from his shirt pocket and holding it in front of her. "We know he has her. Now where is she?"

The woman scoffed at the picture. "No way. Mark don't do skinny chicks and he definitely don't need no white bitch. You think I'm not enough woman for him?" She put her hands on her hips and thrust her chest at him, her ample cleavage leaving little to the imagination. "I got everything he needs right here."

Elliot smirked at her. "Funny how he talked about banging every bitch he saw then, isn't it?"

Her face fell for a moment before she launched herself at Elliot, blood red nails aiming at his face. "Liar!"

Fin grabbed her, pulling her back. "All right, you're under arrest for assaulting a police officer."

As two of the other officers cuffed her and led her away, Elliot looked around the apartment. The floor was covered with half-empty pizza boxes, empty beer bottles, and overflowing ashtrays. Dirty clothes littered every surface. Stained sheets tacked on the wall served as curtains. The kitchen, at least what appeared to have once been a kitchen, held a refrigerator whose door was attached with duct tape and a stove without a door. The trash covering the floor seemed much older than Avery's parole date.

Elliot found more of the same in the bathroom, the shower and sink covered with thick black mold, the linoleum on the floor curling up on all sides. The smell emanating from the toilet indicated that it hadn't been working in a long time. There was only one closet in the tiny apartment, and it was completely full, causing an avalanche of dirty clothes and broken electronic equipment when Elliot opened the door.

Clearly, Olivia wasn't there and nothing would lead them to her. Furious, Elliot grabbed the first thing he saw, a lamp without a shade, and smashed it into the wall. "Damn it!" Fin and the other officers there to search watched as Elliot kicked aside the coffee table and threw the broken armchair onto its side. "God fucking damn it!"

His energy had burned out and the late hour had started to catch up to him. Leaning against the wall, Elliot watched quietly as the rest of the men went ahead with the search. There wasn't much for them to search, but they tried anyway, tearing the place apart as best they could and somehow managing to leave it in slightly worse condition than it had been before. With nothing except a very mouthy and irritated Tisha Jones in tow, Fin and Elliot returned to the precinct a few minutes before two in the morning.

Cragen's disappointment was obvious as he met them. "Fin, can you take care of the paperwork work for Ms. Jones?" As soon as Fin nodded and went to his desk, Cragen turned to Elliot. "It's late."

Elliot missed the point entirely. "Yeah, I want to talk to Avery. See what I can get out of him."

"No, Elliot, you've been here just over twenty hours. Go home or to the crib. Either way, you need some sleep." Cragen's face was drawn and tight, his red eyes revealing that he needed sleep too, but they both knew he wasn't willing to risk leaving Elliot anywhere near Avery when he wouldn't be there to prevent any trouble.

Elliot closed his eyes, sighing when he did so, realizing how tired his body was even though his mind had no intention of resting. "Cap, I don't-"

"Leave, Elliot. I can't order you to actually sleep, but I can order you to leave." Cragen shoved him toward the hallway. "And I just did."

Whether or not his mind needed the rest, his feet were dragging as he made his way to the doors of the precinct. For that brief period, he'd been so excited, so convinced that he was gong to find Olivia in Avery's apartment. The letdown was considerable, leaving him even more drained than he had been before. More disturbing than the fact that he was going home to face another night without knowing where or how Olivia was, more disturbing than the fact that he had grown used to the pattern of going crazy and eventually being sent home against his will, was the fact that the letdown, the sudden realization that all his worry and work and energy had been futile, had become familiar. He was used to it. The painful grip around his heart and lungs that told him he wouldn't be finding Olivia that night was constant, a regular feeling that filled him with dread and pain.

Preoccupied as he was, he nearly tripped over the woman on the steps. Her blonde hair hung forward, obscuring her face, but Elliot could see her hands wrapped around her calves. He shifted easily back into cop mode, forever looking for someone he could protect. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

The head bobbed up, the hair suddenly shifting into a familiar shape around her shoulders. "Daddy!" She jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing him tight before he had quite figured out who she was.

He pulled back from the embrace, shifting into dad mode just as easily. "Maureen, it's the middle of the night! What are you doing out at this hour?"

Grinning, she took his hand and leaned over to grab the paper bag at her feet. "I'm twenty-two, dad. When you were my age, you were in the Marines."

He rolled his eyes, trying not to see her as a pig-tailed three-year-old sucking her thumb. "And the Marines didn't let us out roaming the streets all night."

"Any news about Olivia?" Her brown eyes were tinged with sadness, yet still shining with hope.

He shook his head, thankful for the small hand in his that he could squeeze. "Not yet. We thought we had something tonight, but it- uh- nothing panned out."

"I'm sorry. Maybe you'll find her tomorrow." Maureen shook the bag in her hand at him. "And I'll bet you haven't eaten today."

As if taking sides, his stomach growled loudly as soon as the smell of the burgers reached him. "No, actually, I haven't. How'd you find out about Olivia anyway?"

Rolling her eyes, Maureen dropped her father's hand in favor of wrapping her arm around his waist. "Mom told me the other day, but then tonight she said you sounded really bad. We figured you weren't eating or sleeping and that you were only going home when Cragen made you."

He was blushing as he shrugged, refusing to admit that his ex-wife and eldest daughter knew him so painfully well. "Where'd you get the burgers?"

"Nick's, of course."

"Nick still giving you free food?" He grinned, remembering how proud she'd been of dating the proprietor's son when she'd been in high school, when free food was the epitome of cool.

"Not since I dumped his son."

He chuckled. "Not worth free food?"

"Not by a long shot, daddy. You have no idea." She reached out, taking the keys from his hand. "Let me drive. You're dead on your feet."

He wanted to argue, but when he opened his mouth, a yawn escaped in place of words. He was sound asleep by the end of the block.

Maureen had already poked her father in the shoulder three times and hadn't gotten anything out of him. She'd even tried waving the burgers in front of him. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him harder. "Daddy!"

"Liv!" He jerked upright, painfully slamming himself into the seatbelt. His heart was racing as images of his nightmare continued to flash in his mind. Being awake was no better, not when the nightmare didn't end. He finally realized where he was and scrubbed his hands down his face. "Sorry, baby."

His scream, the terror in his voice, the pain in his eyes, broke her heart. There were tears in her eyes as she shook her head. "It's ok, daddy. You'll find her. She'll be ok."

He felt bad already. Making his daughter cry didn't make him feel any better. He forced out a smile. "Let's go inside and eat."

Maureen's cringe was priceless as she scoffed at him. "Are you kidding? I'm not eating that grease! I like my arteries unclogged, thanks."

He couldn't help but laugh at her health conscious tendencies. As many times as people declared that Maureen was very much her father's daughter, the love of rabbit food was definitely her mother's influence. "Good, then you can take Eli after I have a heart attack."

She shook her head, letting them into his apartment with his key. "As soon as Olivia's home, we're going to have a sit-down about your eating habits, young man."

He recognized the stern stare as one he'd given her a million times. "Oh, no, not a sit-down. Please don't ground me."

She giggled, dropping the burgers on the coffee table and going into the kitchen to get a drink. "Beer, beer, beer, and two diet Cokes." She returned to the living room with the sodas. "Seriously dad, when's the last time you ate a salad?"

He'd already downed half a burger, chasing it with a third of the soda before he could answer. "I eat salads all the time."

"Uh huh, sure." Maureen shook her head and looked around the bachelor pad. "Ok, so we'll have to make a date. I'll take you to the grocery store and then we'll go to Ikea."

Elliot looked around, seeing the cheap furniture and drab empty walls through his daughter's eyes. With a smile, he recalled the way Olivia's face fell when she was there for the first time. The only relief from the dull beige was the occasional piece of Eli's clothing or toys scattered about the room. "Why don't you and Olivia go shopping with my card, since you two are the only ones that actually care?"

Maureen's eyes widened. "You're teasing me, aren't you?"

With a nod, Elliot scarfed down the rest of his burger. "Olivia hates shopping. More than I do."

"That's not possible."

"She orders her groceries online." The lengths to which Olivia would go to avoid a store amazed him, especially when he thought about how much money she would waste to do so.

"Wow. That's bad." Maureen sipped at her soda. "So when, exactly, do you eat salads?"

Elliot had moved on to the second burger, shoving slightly less than half of it into his mouth as a nod to tact. Once he swallowed it, he smiled. "I eat salads three or four times a week."

Finally catching on, Maureen started to laugh. "Food that you pick off Olivia's plate when she's finished does not count as a salad, daddy."

"Oh." He snickered and drank the last of his soda. "Never mind then."

With the first food in his stomach in days, he actually felt a little better. He checked his watch and saw that it was almost three. "We should really get to bed, hon."

Maureen nodded, pushing the single throw pillow to the edge and fluffing it a bit. "I'll take the couch."

Elliot grinned. "Good idea." He'd been meaning, ever since he moved out of the house in Queens, to get around to buying furniture for the second bedroom so his kids would have somewhere to sleep when they came over. Of course, he'd been meaning to do a lot of things that pretty much never got done.

He grabbed a spare blanket from the closet and returned to drape it over Maureen. As grown up as she was, as much as she tried to parent both he and Kathy, she was still very much a little girl, as evidenced by the tattered stuffed lion she pulled from her backpack. Elliot smiled as he tucked her in, happy that she was letting him baby her.

He tapped her feet. "Lift up." Obediently, Maureen lifted her legs, allowing Elliot to tuck the blanket tightly around her legs. When he was done, he patted her knees. "Good girl."

She grinned up at him and squeezed her lion. "Good night, daddy."

"Night, baby." He leaned down to kiss her forehead. "Thanks for dinner."

As he rounded the corner, he heard Maureen's voice call out, bidding him sweet dreams. He said nothing, expecting his nightmares would plague him again. But they didn't. His dreams were sweet, just as Maureen had hoped; sweeter than he could have ever predicted.