Chapter Sixty One – Still Useful

When Olivia had taken on her newest project, a request for an article in a women's magazine, she hadn't expected it to be easy. Dating violence covered a lot of information, and it was difficult to condense it all. She hadn't even gotten past that part to actually deciding the best way to phrase things for maximum impact. The whole article would be a lot of work. With the extra money it would bring in through it would be worth it. Plus, if this article went over well it could open up the opportunity for her to write more. Of course she had to get through this one first (and get it done on time). Considering how things were going that could be a bit of a challenge.

She was curled up on the couch with her laptop perched on her lap and Suvi licking her leg. While she kept trying to pull her leg away he was managing to find it again every time. She had no idea why he thought her leg was so delicious all of a sudden, and his tongue sliding over her skin wasn't easy to ignore, especially since her eyes were starting to burn from exhaustion. She couldn't work much longer even if Suvi had been leaving her alone. A break was definitely needed. She rubbed at her eyes and groaned before turning back to her screen a final time to save her work and shut down the laptop. After putting her laptop on the side table out of the way she stood and stretched her arms over her head. There were a few pops, but she felt much better. She'd been sitting in the same position for way too long.

"Ugh. We need to go for a walk, Suvi. Get some of this stiffness out."

Suvi was more than happy to gather up what they needed for a walk as quickly as possible so they could leave. When he reached Olivia he danced in a quick circle before finally stopping and standing still. Olivia ruffled his ears strongly enough for Suvi to consider it playing, and in response he curled into her touch and pressed into her hand. She let him playfully push her hand around for another second before shoving his head lightly away.

"Come on, you. Let's go."

They headed out onto the street for a short walk and a good stretch. Her body might have wanted to move, but her brain wanted nothing more than to shut down. When they got home she would be happily curling up on the couch again, though this time she'd be doing something that didn't require deep thought. If she could find something on TV that was totally mindless that would be even better. Once they got home Olivia grabbed two treats for Suvi and flopped out on the couch. After turning the news on she started breaking the treats into pieces. Suvi was already sitting in front of the couch with his tail sweeping across the floor and his eyes locked on her hands. Every time she moved a piece of the treat his eyes followed it like they were connected by a string. She tossed a piece into the air. Suvi was a rocket complete with homing device. She shot up and snapped the treat up before it even came close to hitting the ground. Olivia continued tossing one treat at a time, and Suvi kept bounding into the air to gobble them up. She still had a few more treats in her hand when the news sifted from mindless background to something she wanted to pay attention to. The mere mention of SVU had drawn her focus. Something big was going on with the unit. As she listened to the growing story Suvi began to get impatient. There were still treats, but she wasn't doing anything with them. Apparently she could use a little reminder of what was supposed to happen to them. When he bumped his nose against her hand she simply held the treats out to him instead of throwing them. Well, fine. At least he was getting them.

Olivia hardly felt his tongue lapping against her palm as he searched out every last crumb. She was too focused on the news of the case. It involved one of the major high schools in the city so it made sense that the media would pick it up. One of the girls on the basketball team claimed that the boys' varsity team had come into the girls' locker room and assaulted her. The news anchor covering the story said there were other girls involved as well, all members of the basketball team. Olivia wasn't sure if that was anything more than speculation, but it would certainly make sense. If the entire boys' team was involved, or even a group of them, they probably had targeted more than one girl. The squad was definitely having a hell of a time sorting through everyone involved, especially since both victim (or victims) and suspects were high schoolers. If the news had it right, the case had already been open for a few days, which meant she was likely correct about what the squad was facing.

Suvi bounded up onto the couch with Olivia, carefully avoiding her legs as he found himself a nice spot to settle down. Olivia shifted her foot so she could rub his back with her toes while she watched the last of the segment. When it ended she didn't bother changing the channel or turning the TV off even though she wasn't watching it anymore. Her thoughts were still focused on the case. She wanted to help somehow, but she hadn't been called in. Of course that wasn't the only way to help. Her other plan required her to know if everyone was still working at the office, and the best way to find that out without revealing what she was going to do was to use the fact that she hadn't been called in yet. Now that her plan was fully formulated she smiled and twisted to reach for her cell phone; only it wasn't there.

"Crap."

She started searching around for it but quickly realized she wouldn't find it by the couch since she'd left it in the kitchen to charge. Groaning, she began to get off the couch, but that didn't get very far either. Suvi was sprawled across her legs and had no intention of releasing them. When she tried to slide her legs out from under him he pressed his head harder against them. She made a decent pillow, and he didn't want said pillow going anywhere.

"Suvi."

He looked up at her, completely innocently.

"Do you want to go get my phone?"

His only response was a noise somewhere between a sneeze and a snort. He still didn't bother to lift his head off her legs though. Olivia sighed. Either she was going to need to basically push him off her legs or she would have to give him the command to retrieve her phone. Except her phone was still plugged in. That meant she had no choice but to get up and get it herself. She held Suvi still while she slid her legs out from under him. He whined in displeasure but obviously wasn't that upset since he still didn't really move. Olivia grabbed her phone and called the captain as she headed back into the living room. She stopped dead when she got to the couch. In the time since she'd gotten up Suvi had stretched out across all of the cushions, taking up all of the room. The little…

There was no chance to finish that thought before the phone stopped ringing and Cragen picked up.

"Olivia, this isn't the best time."

"I heard about the case."

"I'm sure everyone has heard about it by now. You know how much that helps."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"I would love your help, but the chief isn't going to let me call in extra people on this. Too complicated."

Meaning there were probably some high level people involved, or at least kids of high level people. The chief of police was surely on Cragen's ass and had no intention of bringing outsiders into the investigation. It was too much of a risk, even if that outsider used to work for the department and therefore wasn't really an outsider.

"Alright. Good luck."

They both hung up, and Olivia shook her head at Suvi. The phone call had totally saved his butt. Oh well. She wanted to focus on the squad anyway. Normally Cragen's refusal would have bothered her, but since she hadn't been trying to get involved as a consultant in the first place she wasn't upset. The call had given her exactly what she'd wanted. With a case this big nobody would be getting the chance to take a break. That worked just fine for her though, and she would use it to her advantage.

O . o . O . o . O

It ended up being a lot harder to navigate the busy sidewalks of the city with two bulging plastic bags and a service dog than she'd expected. When she got close to the precinct she found her path completely blocked. She should have guessed that the media would be there even though it was edging toward early evening. Either she could push her way through or head toward the back entrance and hope someone would let her in. She'd just decided to roll the dice with the back way when she was spotted. So much for that plan.

"Detective Benson! Are you here to help with the case? Do you think there are more victims?"

Media.

"I'm not a detective anymore, and I'm not working this case in any form. You probably know more about it than I do," she replied as she began weaving through the gathered people to reach the door.

"Yet you're here at the precinct, Detective."

Olivia had to fight not to roll her eyes. Hadn't she already made it clear that she wasn't a detective anymore? Thankfully she was close to the door so she wouldn't need to field many more questions.

"I haven't had that title in years."

She was just opening the door when another reporter chimed in with a question.

"So what's in the bag? Something to help the case?"

Olivia stepped through the door with Suvi before shooting an answer back over her shoulder.

"Just sub sandwiches. Nothing special."

When the door closed behind her she relaxed. Finally out of the snake pit she could actually enjoy herself and help with the case despite what she'd told the reporters. She headed down to the squad room and was immediately recognized when she walked in. Before any of her friends could say anything Cragen ordered them back to work. Once he was satisfied that they were on task again he came over to her.

"What are you doing here? You know the department hasn't called you in."

He didn't sound angry, but he wasn't thrilled to see her either after telling her she couldn't investigate this case. Olivia had never been very good about following orders when she already had her mind made up about something, but he'd never known her to openly defy orders when it would create more trouble with the brass at a time when they were already in way over their heads.

"Relax, Captain," she said and raised her two bags slightly. "I'm just here with dinner and some furry therapy. Get everyone fed and calm so they can refocus."

"You better get to work then," he told her, a smile now on his face. That sounded just like Olivia. "Everyone here could use that."

"I bet. Now, I have turkey, ham, or Italian."

"At this point I'll take just about anything."

Olivia pulled out a random sub and handed it to him happily. After all of her years working there she knew what the squad would need during a case like this, but she still hadn't been all that confident. It was nice to see that she'd been right. Bringing dinner had been a great idea. Before handing out any other subs she unclipped Suvi and gave him permission to wander. He would handle visiting everyone without any kind of direction. It was in his nature to seek out any hands that would be willing to pet him. At first he only took a few steps forward before coming to a stop, head swinging back and forth. There was far more activity in the squad room than he was used to seeing in the hospitals. People were scattered throughout the room and moving in various directions. Suvi didn't look like he could decide where to go first. Finally he wandered right into the middle of it. Let them decide who wanted to come over and pet him first.

Olivia headed toward her friends and began dropping sandwiches onto their desks. She knew them well enough to have an idea of what they liked, and when in doubt she based her choice off Cragen's statement that he was hungry enough to eat anything no matter what it was, so they would take whatever she gave them too. No sooner had she set Fin's sandwich down then he was on his feet and pulling her into a half hug.

"You are a Godsend, know that?"

"I'm just a delivery girl."

"Same thing right now. Where's the furball?"

Olivia took a quick look around and pointed to the case board where two detectives were working on some kind of time line (she suspected any overlap between the two basketball teams' practices and games). Suvi had planted himself between the two and was continually getting a brief ear scratch from each detective as they moved back and forth.

"Makin' himself useful too, I see."

"Of course," she paused for a second. "Where's your partner?"

"Interview room."

"Ah. Will you make sure she gets this when she's done?"

"Sure. Thanks, Liv."

She nodded and walked over to Amaro's desk. When she got there she dropped down onto the chair he used for taking reports. Without a word she handed him and his new partner subs. Miskee merely nodded his head in thanks. He'd been paired with Nick for almost two years now, but Olivia still couldn't help thinking of him as anything except Nick's "new partner." From her limited interactions with him he seemed like a good guy and had settled in well with SVU.

"Thanks. I'm starving," Nick told her.

"I figured you would be."

"Let me pay you back for this," he said as he reached for his wallet.

"Pay me back by figuring out what's going on and nail these kids."

He stopped his reach and sat back up fully to look at Olivia.

"Don't worry. We're not letting this one go until we have the truth."

Olivia smiled in appreciation and left him to his work. As she headed back toward Cragen she glanced over to check on Suvi. He'd moved on from the detectives at the case board and had his head resting in Fin's lap. Olivia was pretty sure he'd chosen to hang by Fin because his sandwich was open. If there was any possibility for a snack to be had, Suvi would be there for sure. He had an eye (and a nose) for that kind of thing. The only way he'd be getting any this time though was if Fin dropped something. Suvi would be fine even if he didn't get anything, so Olivia stepped into Cragen's office. He looked up at her.

"Thank you for coming and bringing everyone dinner, Olivia."

"I can still help. It's not in the same way, but…"

She shrugged. At the moment she'd done everything that she could to help with this case. That just had to be enough. Cragen saw even more in what Olivia had done to help than she did. Maybe it was the demonstration of how far she'd come. Instead of looking at everything she wasn't capable of doing anymore she was focusing on what she could do, even if it seemed small.

"I'm proud of you, Liv, and you should be proud of yourself. You've come a long way. You're far more of a help thank you think."

"Thank you, Captain. That means a lot."

Author's Note: I know, I know. It's been forever and I'm sorry. This would have come a few weeks earlier only I got sick right after I got back into revising. Oh well. On a positive note though, I officially wrote the very last chapter of this story! Never fear though, there are still 39 chapters left to post. I swear finishing with 100 chapters exactly was not intentional.