Dropping her glasses on to her desk Olivia sighed, her eyes hurt from staring at her computer screen for as long as she had and she realised she had spent the last hour reading the same paragraph over and over and still not made any headway.
" Are you ready?" Elliot smiled knocking on the doorframe.
Looking up from her laptop Olivia smiled. "Is it that time already?" she asked
"Yeah" he smiled "you still okay to do lunch?"
"Just give me 5 minutes," she smiled, walking out into the squad, "Rollins! Anything from TARAU?" she said
"Still waiting. I will call again but they said they are swamped"
"Great" Olivia sighed. "Um Okay I will call them when I get back" she said heading back into her office to grab her phone and bag. "I am on my cell if anyone needs anything" she said following Elliot towards the elevator.
Walking out she wrapped her arm under his, his fingers intertwining with hers . Looking up she smiled resting her head against his shoulder as they walked along the sidewalk.
"So where are we going for lunch then?" she asked her stomach letting off a little growl, she hadn't realised how long it had been since she had eaten.
"It's not too far" Elliot smiled "In fact we are here" he said coming to a stop in front of a Hot-Dog stand that was on the corner.
"Great" Liv grinned, trying to sound enthusiastic. "Umm when you said you would take me out for lunch I did kind of imagine somewhere with seats and a table" she said.
"There are picnic benches over there" Elliot smiled pointing to the small park over the other side of the road."and this is good grub. Remember all the times we used to have one when we were on stake-outs or tracking a perp"
"I think I would rather forget thanks. I have had one too many dodgy hot dogs"
" Never with me though am I right." Elliot smiled as he ordered two hotdogs.
"I suppose this will do. '' she said,"but it's going to cost you" she grinned "oreo ice cream. And I don't mean the cheap knock off in the bodega. I want proper Oreo ice cream from the ice cream parlour on 10th" she said, folding her arms pouting like a child.
"You drive a hard bargain,captain." he grinned, "But I think we can manage some decent ice cream although it may have to be from around the corner as I don't think we have time to get across town."
"Fine" she grinned, taking the first hot dog and adding ketchup and mustard.
Darting across the road Olivia sat on one of the benches watching as Elliot crossed the road joining her.
Taking a bite of her hotdog Olivia sighed, it had been ages since she had had a hotdog from a street vendor. She tended to avoid them with Noah and there were some around the city that didn't have the best track record with the Health department. But to her surprise this one was actually quite nice. The bread was fresh and more of a french baguette than the usual bread roll.
"So" Elliot grinned sitting next to her.
"Okay so they are not that bad" she smiled "but if I get food poisoning Detective" she grinned.
"How was it at Compstat?" he asked.
"Ugh" she sighed.
"That bad?" he questioned.
"The commissioner has given us two weeks to make some headway. But Mcgrath had no clue about the case. He said there were 6 dead when our sixth vic is still alive all be it in a coma." she sighed "i just.." she yawned.
"You okay?" Elliot asked, looking at her. He hadn't noticed this this morning but she looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes that she had tried to hide with foundation and concealer.
"Fine" she forced a smile taking another bite from her hotdog sauce smearing around her lip.
"You look exhausted," Elliot said softly.
"Well you did keep me up most of the night" she said softly sliding closer to him.
"Why don't we get away this weekend. Somewhere secluded, a cosy cottage with an open fire. No cell coverage" he said.
"Sounds perfect" she sighed leaning back against the bench, she would love a secluded escape where she could hide away not thinking about anything and spend the weekend in his arms. "But what about Noah? And work? There is too much…" she said.
They were interrupted by her cell ringing loudly from her pocket. "I have to get that" she said, pulling it out seeing Amanda's name flashing up on the display. "Rollins! What is it?" she asked.
The conversation was short and sweet and he could only really hear her side.
"Okay I will be back in 10" she said ending the call and stuffing her phone back in her pocket "that was Rollins something has come up with our vic" she sighed leaning in kissing him softly "rain check on the ice cream?"
"Sure" he smiled "I hope everything is okay" he said, kissing her softly.
Walking back in to the precinct less than 10 minutes later Olivia met Rollins by the elevator
"Rollins!" she called "what's happened?"
"Hospital called Kiera is awake and they said we can talk to her." she said.
"That's good news" Olivia said "so me and you will go to the hospital,Finn Velasco keep working on the other vics timelines we need this to be solid any names and things that match even if it's small and seems insignificant" she said heading in to her office.
"So even if it shows they went and peed in the same toilet? things like that" Velasco piped up.
"Ummm" Olivia sighed, turning trying to resist the urge to say something sarcastic "I'm going to let you figure that one out yourself detective" she said walking back into her office.
Grabbing her keys from the desk along with the file with some of the people they had narrowed down as suspects she walked back out. "Ready?" she smiled at Amanda.
Walking into the hospital they walked along the ward till they found Kiera's room. Knocking softly Olivia smiled as she walked in.
"Kiera?" she said softly unsure how the girl would be "I am captain Benson this is Detective Rollins." she said showing her shield "we would like to ask you a few questions about what happened. Is that okay"
"She has just woken up! Can this not wait?" Mrs Smith said from her daughter's bedside.
"Mrs Smith, it is important we get the information as soon as we can so we can try and catch the guy who did this"
"Mum I want to do this" Kiera said pushing herself up slightly in the bed
"Okay then" Olivia smiled softly, taking a seat on one of the hard plastic chairs in the room and pulling a notebook from her pocket.
"So Tell me. Why were you in New York?" Olivia asked.
"I umm I came to look at Juilliard for the dance and ballet program. It's the best school for that. I did a couple of tours of the campus and a few taster classes." Kiera said.
"Okay and what led you to the park?" Olivia asked softly.
"I had joined a forum for the school to talk about auditions and what the school is like. There was a guy on there who was really helpful and said as I was in the city we could meet…"
"Kiera! What have we always told you about meeting people you don't know" Mrs Smith said
"I know mom," Kiera sobbed, "but I wanted to go to that school. It's amazing and leads to big things. I just wanted to dance!"
"This was not your fault okay" Olivia said, reaching out, taking the young girl's hand and giving it a squeeze. "Now this guy did he have a name"
Brushing a tear from her cheek " I only knew his screen name. BillyElliot2006. We met by a castle and we walked around for a bit."
"If I showed you some pictures we have, do you think you would be able to pick this guy out?"
"I don't remember my mind is a blank" Kiera sobbed, hitting the bed in fistration willing her brain to remember
"That's okay" Olivia smiled softly looking round at Amanda. "I think we have enough for now. We will let you rest" she said, standing to leave.
"I just wanted to dance" Kiera sobbed "and now I can't"
Looking up at Mrs smith Olivia sighed
"The doctors have said she has permanent nerve and ligament damage. They have also said she may have slight brain damage from being unconscious in the park" she said.
"I am so sorry," Olivia sighed.
"It's all she ever wanted to do. She was dancing around before she could even walk properly" Mrs Smith said. "Do you have any idea on who did this? Someone said Kiera wasn't the first person attacked but she was the only living victim.
Closing her eyes Olivia let out a frustrated sigh, she hated the gossip that went on in the hospitals especially when it concerned a case, it was not helpful to the victims or them but she couldn't lie, honesty was the best way to build trust especially in cases like this.
"So, there were other attacks that we do believe are linked with what happened to Kiera and we are following all the leads and we will be adding what Kiera has just told us and following everything up."
Heading back to the car Olivia sighed they had some good leads from Kiera but if she couldn't remember what actually happened then she knew this would be a hard one to prosecute and then they had to prove a concrete connection between all 6 girls. They were one step closer but they were still by no means at the end yet
thanks for reading i really hope you are enjoying this. your comments really help