They were wrapping up at quarter to nine. It was a least an hour before she had planned on getting out. "Thanks for the help, El," she said as she grabbed her coat. He'd been chewing on what to say to his partner all day. He was dying to figure out what the hell she had been keeping secret. It could be nothing or it could be something huge.

They were gathering their things, about ready to leave when Elliot asked "So, are you going to tell me about your elderly visitor or not?"

Olivia stopped what she had been doing and stood still for a minute. She looked up at Elliot and then went back to gathering her things. Without looking up at him again she said "Do you want to go grab a beer or something? It's a story that goes better with alcohol."

"Sure," he agreed, and followed her out of the building.

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting at a small table at the bar down the street, beers in front of them. They each sipped their beers in silence.

"So..." Elliot looked at her.

She looked at him and sipped her beer. She made a face and then said "Elliot, when I was 17, I got married. Jack Rhodes used to be my father-in-law."

He stared at her blank faced, beer half-way to his mouth, frozen.

Instead of waiting for him to force out a response, she just continued. "I met him when I was fifteen, almost 16. He was actually a student in my mother's freshman English class. I fell for him hard. And the crazy thing was that he loved me back. His parents didn't know how old I was, and I could pull off acting older than I was; I hadn't been a kid for ages."

"My mother didn't know for a really long time. Things with her had gotten really bad. She didn't notice when I didn't come home a lot of the time. I just made sure I left a note saying I was staying at a friend's house for her in case she did notice. And then one day I forgot. When I got home from school that day she screamed at me and demanded to know where I had been. It was the first time she ever got mad at me for the stupid things teenagers do to freak out their parents. And... I was secretly glad that she was yelling at me. But then she started drinking, and screaming some more...and she...she threatened to hurt me," she left out the details of that particular incident, "so I left. I spent 4 days at Steve's parent's house. I eventually went back, but I knew I couldn't stay there. By that point I was almost 17, Steve was almost 19, finishing up his second year of college. I met with a lawyer...God, it feels so long ago, like it was a different life. I don't know if it's still true, but in the 80s, in New Jersey, if you were over 17 and could prove you could support yourself, you could get a marriage license. I got a part time job, Steve had a job and his student loans. We got a shitty little studio apartment upstate near the trains so I could still get to school, and when I turned 17...we went to the court house and got married."

Elliot still hadn't said anything, but was looking at her with a look of expectation. Olivia could barely stand to meet his eye. "We had no money. We literally survived on noodles and egg salad sandwiches. We went to his parent's once a week for dinner. They weren't thrilled with the idea, but they loved their son, so..." He still hadn't said anything. She didn't want to stop now, it would just make it harder.

"A few months later, during the summer, we decided to go to one of the free concerts they held in the fairground upstate. We sat in the back and couldn't hear a thing and had a wonderful time. It was one of those gross summer days where everything is brown and so muggy. On the way home it started to rain. I've never seen it rain like that before. The car...it was old, really light-weight and it just spun on the water. I'm not sure what we hit, maybe a post or a tree, but we ended up off the road. I remember waking up, I couldn't move, was pinned in the car. I could see Steve and he wasn't moving. It seemed like ages before someone came to get us out. When...when I got to the hospital, they told me he had died, probably on impact or shortly after. I actually hadn't seen my mother for 5 months at that point. The hospital called her, but she was too...she couldn't come get me. I went home with the Rhodes and then back to the apartment for a few days. Eventually I moved back in with my mother. In the fall, I went away to college like every other teenager. Steve's parents didn't want much to do with me, especially his mother. She was upset from the very beginning. They didn't exactly blame me, but I think I represented everything that had gone wrong with their son and they didn't want me around to remind them. I haven't seen Jack since then."

She stopped and took a long drink of her beer, finishing it and then getting the bartenders attention for two more.

"Why did he come find you today?" Elliot asked.

"It's Steve's birthday. His wife died a few months ago and I think he didn't want to be alone with his memories, so he decided to trek into Manhattan to find me."

"Why didn't you tell anybody this, Liv?"

She shrugged. "Why do you think? I basically ran away from home, got married. MARRIED, Elliot, the holy covenant and all. I lived in a hovel for 5 months. People judge, Elliot. I was just a kid, but I loved him dearly. I don't want people judging me for that. Plus, I've been a widow for more than half my life. I don't like to think of MYSELF like that." She took another sip of her beer.

Finally Elliot said "So basically, the crazy guy in the station was right, Munch and Fin were right, the woman at the hospital was right. It was just me and I was wrong because everything you told me was a lie," he said, sounding bitter. He was mad at her for keeping a secret; his ego was bruised. He thought he was righteous in his indignation because she was the one who had been untruthful, but deep inside, he was upset that she hadn't trusted him enough.

"Everything I told you was a lie?" She was incredulous. "Come on Stabler, the only thing I lied about was never having been married, and I don't even think I told you that, I think I let you assume that. You thought what you wanted to think about me." She said it accusingly.

"I...Ah, I guess, yeah. I'm sorry, Olivia." She knew it wasn't so much an apology for his accusation, but an expression of his regret for what she had gone through. It didn't help to sweep away the awkwardness of the moment though.

She shrugged and didn't look up. "Look, Elliot, I kept this quiet because it's a part of my past that I don't like to think about. I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring this up at work."

"Sure, whatever you want, Liv. What are you going to tell Fin and Munch. They're going to be nosy about this Jack character too." Elliot was looking at her, as if reading every line on her face.

She shrugged again. "I'll just tell them he was an old neighbor who gets confused sometimes. It's mostly true."

"You going to see him again?" he asked.

"Ah, I dunno. I always had a soft spot for him, but he reminds me of a lot of things about my life, about me that I don't like to remember. Probably why they didn't wanted to talk to me for 23 years too," she replied. She polished off the rest of her beer and fished some bills out of her purse. She threw the bills on the table saying, "Thanks again for you help. I think I'm going to head home. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure…" Elliot replied. Olivia was up and out the door before he had finished the sentence. He quickly threw a few more bills on the table and got outside just in time to see her hunched against the drizzle, disappearing into the sea of humanity walking down the street. She looked like someone who had experience far too much tragedy in her life.