This is set in the early part of season 9, but I thought I would slot it firmly in before Impulsive, episode three. Which would be a possible explanation for her hair being longer in that episode ;-)

CHAPTER 8

Elliot had gone with Olivia into town this time - and she hadn't complained about needing space. He resisted suggesting that he go with her up until that point - not wanting her to feel he was keeping an eye on her. She was so much more positive now, but he had a slight hesitation that she was growing comfortable with the situation they were in - and leaving might bring it all home to her.

He was enjoying the rarity of a vacation and taking it with Olivia was something he hadn't ever contemplated before. The last week had taken their relationship to a level he had only, admittedly, fantasised about before.

Making love to her, sleeping with her in his arms - the way they instinctively sat closer together - holding her hand - it was so far from how things had been for them both just two weeks beforehand when he was searching for her. He felt like he had suddenly come into an incredible stroke of luck:

The woman he loved, admired and had been such an important part of his life for so many years had returned his love. She had been nothing but open with him in the past week and now, he was seeing an affectionate, romantic side of her that he loved.

He went to get some coffee while she went to the store - but paused as he noticed her filling her shopping cart. Frowning, he walked back to her and watched her quizzically.

"Liv...what are you doing?" he asked

"Shopping?" she said, as she continued placing items in her cart.

Elliot sighed and then he took her hands in his, stopping her as she reached for a large box of cereal.

"Liv," he whispered, "why are you buying all this food? We are leaving in four days...the flight is booked."

Olivia looked away, down into her overfull shopping cart.

"Maybe we could take a few more days."

Elliot squeezed her hands gently as he pulled her over to him and put his arms around her, placing a kiss on her head, "Olivia...you can't stay here. Come on baby, all I want you to do is come home, see everyone, talk to Cragen - work something out. If you don't want to come back to work right now, just don't make a rash decision, you have options that can still leave the door open. We both know how important SVU is to you baby...I don't wanna push you - but I think maybe you need some kind of push to get you to realise where home is."

"OK," she sighed, "but you better help put some of this back then..."

"Sure," he said as he placed a quick kiss on her lips and then started to put some of the groceries back on the shelf.

Sitting on the couch that evening, their dinner eaten, they both leaned back on the couch, glancing at the TV. Elliot watched her as she looked at the on screen TV guide, not finding anything of interest.

Noticing his scrutinizing stare she frowned, "Elliot. What is it?"

"You feel OK?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I?" she replied, a hint of sarcasm just edging into her voice.

Elliot sighed, "You seemed OK last night after you called the precinct.."

"That's because I was ok...I am...I'm just slightly..dreading getting on the plane," she admitted honestly.

"Liv, you can do this - no-one is going to judge you, they are all just going to be happy to see you. Besides the length of time you were on the phone last night, I thought you were pretty relaxed about it,"

"Relaxed isn't a word I'd use, Elliot. I just feel like...I can't just walk out of my life and expect to walk back in again...and I'm not sure I even want to…"

"One day at a time Liv - you'll figure out what you need to do," he said as he reached across and squeezed her hand.

"Besides, I spent most of that conversation talking to Munch - he has been developing a big file of evidence he swears is related. Unsolved disappearances - a lot of them really close to where we are right now…"

Elliot shook his head in astonishment, "You were on the phone for over forty minutes last night - are you telling me you were discussing Munch's secret government base theory for that long?"

"I don't for a minute think it has anything to do with a concealed base. He's sending a copy of the file over - it'll be here tomorrow."

Elliot looked at her incredulously, "OK Liv, what's Munch got you so interested in?"

"Every year for the past four years, there have been two disappearances from the town and surrounding area. It's not a big place, so that's significant in itself...but look...there are distinct similarities with the people who are missing, and the timescale….same time of year every time...they haven't all been flagged up as connected but I think they all are."

"Why?"

"They're all women, within the same age range, and all disappeared in the day time - every single woman was last seen leaving work."

"Ok...but Liv, we have no jurisdiction here...Cragen won't like this - looking into it is one thing...investigating it is something else, you're not cleared for field work till you've seen Huang...and we are hardly equipped...you don't even have your shield."

"You do...look let's take a look and if we have any leads we can talk to Cragen, ask him to contact the local police here. These are cold cases - I doubt they'd have a problem with us..well you...taking a look, and I can 'unofficially' help. If we get Cragen to approve it, then we just keep the local police in the loop and call them out if we need to arrest."

"You've been thinking this through haven't you?"

"Come on El, just humour me, we have three days till the flight, lets just see what we can dig up...John is sending the files that we would need - so we don't need to gain access to anything at this end..."

"So you're thinking we can solve four years of unsolved missing persons cases in three days?"

Olivia smiled, "don't know till we try - but hey...we're a pretty good team."

Elliot smiled and ran his hand down her arm, stopping as he took her hand in his.

"I can't argue with that Liv," he said with a smile.

Elliot woke the next morning, and realised that he had slept late again. He had so little sleep while Olivia was missing, and now that she was in his arms he was sleeping more soundly than he had in years. He knew the same was true for her too - she fell asleep quickly in his arms - he gave a smile as his mind drifted to their now nightly love making, certain that it had something to do with how relaxed they were these days.

Stretching his arms above his head, he yawned before walking in the living room - where he stopped and blinked.

Olivia was standing in the centre of the room - the couch and coffee table pushed to the side. The floor was filled with paperwork. She had arranged them in orderly groups allowing enough space to walk between them.

He watched her for a moment, taking in her level of concentration as she stood in front of a large floor area covered with photographs. She wore only a tank top and leggings, and her now longer hair was loosely pulled back in a band. Finally noticing that she was no longer alone she turned around to face him.

"Hey - Munch's files got here,"

"Yeah...I can see that - wow, Liv you've been busy," he said as he walked through the gap in the paperwork to meet her.

"These are the eight women who are missing - over to the right are the witness statements, behind you are their personal histories; workplaces, friends, family - and medical histories and police records - although I have ruled those out for relevancy, as only two had minor offences as teenagers," Olivia said, as Elliot rubbed the back of his neck as he turned around taking in all the evidence that Olivia had been reviewing.

"How long have you been up?"

"I'm on my third cup of coffee - the courier woke me up delivering this, so I thought I would get started. Every one of these women disappeared within a twenty mile radius - and all between February to March and August to September over the same four year period. John's right - it's no government conspiracy though - but I think these women were all abducted by the same perp."

She paused for a moment, puzzled as to why Elliot was simply smiling at her, but when it became clear that he was not going to speak, she shrugged and continued.

"Three different police departments cover these areas - the abductions have taken place close to borders between jurisdictions, and I think that's why they haven't been connected. Let's read through the case notes and see if there are any suspects or leads in common between the different jurisdictions," she continued, as she moved to a space on the floor and sat down, crossing her legs as she grabbed a file.

Elliot leaned down and kissed her head - she looked up and returned his gesture with a warm smile.

"OK Liv, let's get to it," he said as he grabbed a file and sat next to her, his hand moving to her back and rubbing small circles as they began to read the files. Olivia scooted closer to him, and leaned against him slightly.

Elliot made a mental note to thank Munch when they got home - it seemed an impossibly large stack of paperwork, but Olivia had organised it all and was focused and determined. Elliot sat amidst the paperwork, his hand on her back, and her head resting lightly against his chest, and despite the potentially grim nature of the investigations they were reviewing, he felt a warmth at seeing her regain her drive.

Then he focused again on the file in front of him, and took comfort as he realised that Olivia was going to be OK.

What will they discover?