A/N: Sorry this is so late! Things have been busy...
Chapter 20
Later that night, there was a knock on Olivia's door. Despite Oscar Papa being in custody, the guards outside the Captain's apartment remained. It was obvious to everyone that his reach was far and wide with the deaths of Bugbear and Benny.
"We have to stop meeting this way," Olivia said as Elliot walked inside the apartment. The officers outside in the hall had grown to expect him. They seemed to accept that he was a former partner coming to check up on the Captain. Having partners of their own, they would do the same thing.
"Is there another way to meet?" He smirked, making sure the door closed.
"I hope you had a better day than I did," she said, heading for the alcohol that was stashed in the fridge.
"I brought Chinese," he held up the bag in his hand.
"I knew something smelled good," she remarked, grabbing some napkins off the counter to go with the two beers in her hand. They made their way to the couch and the coffee table. Splitting up the drinks and the food, they tucked in, silence fell between them.
"How bad was it today?" Elliot finally asked ten minutes later, setting down his chopsticks into his food container.
"Albert and his mother are done with the NYPD and BX9. He won't be helping us," Olivia told him.
"Ah. So, what does that leave you?" He wanted to know.
"Velasco and Rollins were trying to get Sacrilege to talk today. She told me that they didn't have much luck, but Velasco seems to be making some small inroads. That'd be great, if we didn't need whatever he's going to give up the day after tomorrow," she heaved a sigh before eating some more noodles.
"Well, you have Duarte and the rape tree. Hopefully Carisi can work his magic tomorrow in court," Elliot said.
"With any luck," Olivia nodded. She set down the Chinese food container on the coffee table.
"How empty is your fridge?" He changed the topic. It was probably an unnecessary question as he knew what she was going to say. They'd been eating takeout every time he'd come over. He wasn't sure what she'd been doing on the other nights though.
"Oh, bachelorette empty. No point in filling it until I can get Noah home," she leaned back up against the back of the couch.
"Almost there," Elliot patted her knee before setting down his own food container and leaning back.
"Even if we convict Oscar Papa… how safe can we be? Benny's mother killed him – to prove how loyal she was to BX9. She's our age, maybe a little older," Olivia's nerves were getting the best of her. Elliot wondered if that was because she was more worried about Noah or something else. The Olivia he knew before he left, would not have been worried for her own safety, but her tone… Something had shifted. She was still badass Benson – she managed to hold her own against three BX9 members – but…
"You have your unit. You have me. None of us would ever let anything happen to you two," Elliot reminded her.
"Where were you all when I needed you?" The words cut deep, but he had a feeling that they were suddenly talking about something else. No one had known that BX9 was targeting her. The case she'd worked on was long over by the time they tried to enact their revenge.
"When?" His question cut her back to the moment they were in. She noticed that he'd turned onto his side so he could look at her. He'd taken her hand in his, hoping that it was calming. She had multiple emotions bubbling beneath the surface and she finally broke down. Tears flooded over her cheeks and she could feel Elliot pull her close. Her head was in his chest.
"Let it out. You're safe," he whispered, before kissing the top of her head. She'd been bottling this up for a while or maybe it just floated back to the surface.
"Four days El. Four days…" he wasn't totally in the dark now. Fin had warned him about this and that was all. The Sergeant refused to tell his commanding officer's story. Olivia was talking about William Lewis.
To Be Continued…