Chapter 32
The next morning Olivia woke up noticing that she'd gone to bed in the clothes she'd been wearing the night before. She could feel her head pounding and it lessened only slightly when she turned off her alarm. They had probably remembered Munch a little too much for a work night, but he deserved to be celebrated. For all of his quirks, he was a great detective, a good man, and a great friend.
Stumbling out into the kitchen to start the coffee pot, she was surprised to hear someone snoring on her couch. Looking over at her furniture, she found Elliot there. He'd taken off his dress shirt and covered himself up with the Afghan blanket she had on the back of the couch. It had been a gift from a victim, the crocheting had been part of her therapy, and Olivia treasured the homemade item. Leaning down, she gently shook her former partner awake.
"Morning," she said quietly.
"Morning," Elliot held his forehead in between his index finger and thumb on his left hand.
"I'm starting the coffee," she told him.
"Good. Aspirin in the bathroom?" He asked.
"Yes," Olivia said. He carefully got up off the couch and folded the blanket into a nice square, before setting it down on the back of the sofa. Grabbing his shirt, he headed down the hall, went into the bathroom, and closed the door.
Olivia worked on the coffee wondering how he somehow knew the inside of her apartment as if he'd been there before. She and Noah had moved after he'd left and she could count the number of times he'd been there on one hand since he'd been back. Still, the layout of the apartment wasn't that complicated so maybe he figured it out, like a good detective would.
Hearing Noah's bedroom door open, she poked her head down the hall. She couldn't remember when or how he got home, but she knew that she hadn't picked him up. The young boy saw the bathroom door closed and headed into the kitchen, almost having a heart attack when he found his mother already in there.
"Morning Mom. Who is…" he trailed off. It was early for him too, though school would be starting sooner than they both probably wanted.
"Elliot made sure I got home ok and then I told him to take the couch," it was a simple answer for a situation that she somehow doubted was so simple. Noah nodded and gave her a look before disappearing back down the hall after hearing the toilet flush and the bathroom door open. Elliot said good morning to the little boy before letting him duck into the bathroom.
"How'd we get here? How'd Noah get home?" Olivia asked him as she poured him a cup of coffee.
"Taxi for us. Your vehicle is still at the bar. As for Noah, his friend dropped him off here and your wonderful neighbor, kept an eye on him until we got here," he admitted, handing her the bottle of aspirin from the bathroom. She frowned at the thought of Noah having to wait at the neighbors before she asked,
"How much did I have to drink? I went to bed with my clothes on?" The raised eyebrow told him that she was curious as to why she would have done that.
"Liv, you've been working a lot of overtime. You were tired, probably hadn't eaten much, then emotionally… besides, my tolerance is a little higher after spending all that time in Italy," he heaved a sigh before continuing,
"As for your outfit, I suggested you take some clothes off and you said – 'of course you'd want me to take my clothes off'. To which I said – 'not like this I don't'. You chuckled and then closed the bedroom door," he told her. She blushed – something he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her do. Though, admittedly, he had just said something that he'd never said to her as her partner. There was nothing standing in their way now except maybe the elephant in the room – the decade that he'd been gone. A lot had happened and while Fin refused to give specifics, as it wasn't his story to tell, Elliot knew that he and Olivia still had to talk.
"We have to get a move on. Phil and Abigail will be in the precinct in two hours," there she was shifting the focus away from the conversation at hand.
"Will do. See you at the precinct. Thanks for the coffee," with that Elliot put his empty cup in the sink, gave her a slight smile, and then he was out the door. Olivia finally heard Noah turn the shower on and she headed back to her room to get her outfit picked out. She couldn't keep putting off the conversation. It wasn't healthy for her and it wasn't healthy for her relationship with Elliot – no matter what that looked like after she told him about William Lewis.
To Be Continued…