Chapter 3
xoxo
A/N: Posting chapter 3 while chapter 4 is giving me a fit. Still planning to have that one up before the 16th. Thanks for reading!
Saturday–10:00 pm
Destin, FL
Olivia turns and hurries toward the elevators.
Panic is welling up inside her. She's getting Noah and getting the hell out of here.
She reaches the elevators, hits the up arrow, and waits.
After a minute or two, she assumes someone's holding the door open on the 3rd floor because it's taking forever for the elevator car to move from that floor.
Elliot walks up beside her. "Is there anything I can do?" he asks.
"We'll be fine."
"Are you going to see if you can get out tonight?"
"Yeah, if we can. Probably too late."
"Good luck."
"Thanks. What about you?"
He shrugs. "Staying put for now. Whatever I've got to do. Might leave in the morning after I check in with my lieutenant."
The elevator finally arrives and the doors open. A few people exit and she and Elliot step inside. She hits the 6th floor button.
Elliot looks over at her. He gets her fear right now. He'd hate it if he had one of his kids or grandkids with him and had to worry about their safety. He doesn't know Noah too well, but he already likes the kid. Plus, he's Liv's son, which makes them family.
The elevator doors open on the 6th floor, Olivia steps out, and he follows.
She looks over her shoulder at him. "Elliot…?"
"I'm on this floor too," he explains.
She goes to room 617, stops in front of the door, and digs her card out. Elliot stops in front of room 619. "Guess they're putting the cops together at this place, huh?" he smirks.
Next suite over from Elliot… Could this trip get any more bizarre?
"Liv, the phone number's still the same. Call or text anytime," Elliot tells her.
She gives him a nod in response, then swipes her card in the slot and opens the door.
xoxo
Olivia steps inside the suite. The adults look over at her and then resume their conversations. She's later than expected, but no one seems concerned.
The Riordans have two children; a son 'Josh', who is Noah's age, and a daughter 'Callie', 3 years old. The Changs have a daughter 'Lily', who is Noah's age.
Noah, Josh, and Lily are sitting on the couch watching videos on someone's tablet. Callie's asleep in her dad's lap.
The adults seem unaware of the latest storm update, but it's just been released. TV's off and aside from the kids, no one is using any devices.
Olivia fills the parents in and says she plans to leave as soon as she can get a flight or a way out. The other parents collect their kids and leave the suite, determined to do the same thing.
She looks down at her outfit, realizes she's still wearing Elliot's hoodie, and smirks. He may not get it back.
Noah is disappointed that he'll have to miss the competition. Although with the TV on, he gets interested in watching the storm footage of the hurricane passing through Haiti and Cuba hours ago.
Olivia retrieves her phone, selects the app for Delta, and looks for a flight out of Destin. A red-eye going anywhere, but there's nothing.
The flights in the morning will probably be delayed. Lots of people are going to be stranded due to canceled flights.
She tries United and American next and finds nothing. It's late. Rental car places are closing.
Shit.
There were no concerns about the weather when they left. All of this just blew up.
She's used to the nor'easters that dump a foot of snow around the city. She'd stay home and have a snow day with Noah, or get a sitter and make her way to the 16th precinct when SVU has something going on. Maybe there's an occasional power outage on her side of town, but nothing they can't manage.
Hurricane Sandy was bad, but she didn't have Noah back then. This already looks like it'll be worse and she's not prepared.
It takes a few minutes of self-talk to calm herself down.
They'll be fine. They'll get out of here at the first opportunity.
She may never go to Florida again.
xoxo
Elliot opens the door and steps inside the suite. Although he isn't crazy about riding out a storm of this size under these conditions for a minor assignment, he's more worried about how Olivia and Noah are doing.
His job is to track down this potential lead, which would require visiting a few bars and restaurants and then snooping around to see if he could get enough on them for the NYPD to set a trap.
This town is going to be quiet for a few days after the storm passes. Knowing his lieutenant, he feels confident in saying they would be better off scrapping this plan and redirecting their energy toward rounding up the New York group of suspects to get one of them to crack. If this potential lead turned out to be an actual lead, it might have provided them with more evidence to support the New York arrest.
He sends a text to the lieutenant with his thoughts on the best course of action given the storm conditions, then sits in front of the TV with his phone nearby.
xoxo
Sunday–12:00 am
Olivia sits up on the couch, now dressed in a t-shirt, cotton pants, and Elliot's hoodie. Her hair is up in a loose ponytail. She's watching some TV movie while Noah sleeps in the bedroom.
She's exhausted, but the likelihood of falling asleep is uncertain. She doesn't bother opening the couch, but finds an extra blanket and pillow in the wardrobe area, and will end up dozing off and on until morning.
The storm already sounds bad. She keeps checking the windows and looking out through the balcony door, wondering when things will get worse, but also wishes she could stop because it does nothing to settle her nerves.
Her phone keeps pinging weather alerts.
After too many pings on her phone, she picks it up and discovers a couple of unread texts from Elliot.
Any luck finding a flight? - El
Hope you're okay. You're both welcome to come next door anytime. - El
She texts him back.
No luck. Still here. - Liv
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have another adult around to help her navigate her way through this.
They send a few texts back and forth.
Noah's asleep. You can come here. - Liv
I've got leftover Chinese food. You still like egg rolls, right? - El
Bring those egg rolls. - Liv
Be right there. - El
Don't forget the mustard sauce. - Liv
Wouldn't dream of it. - El
A minute later, she opens the door and Elliot holds up the paper bag containing Chinese food. The scents of garlic and ginger waft toward her.
She stands back to let him in. "Thanks, Elliot."
"Sure."
They change the TV to a weather news station, with the volume low, and settle on the couch with egg rolls and a couple bottles of water that Elliot also brought.
"Sorry… Short notice, or I would have brought beer," says Elliot.
"There's a minibar if things get…much worse," she jokes.
"Yeah," he chuckles.
"Water's fine." She opens the bottle and takes a few sips of it before setting it down and picking up some mustard packets for her egg roll. She fixes it and takes a bite.
Elliot smiles while watching her.
"What?" She looks up at him while chewing her bite and there's a drop of mustard sauce on her cheek.
He'd give anything to lean in and kiss that mustard sauce off her cheek.
"Oh, nothing…" he says in response. "Just thinking about how much I've missed this."
"Missed what?"
"This. Having Chinese food with my partner."
"Good Chinese food, too."
"Yeah. So, you just got here today?" asks Elliot.
She swallows her next bite, then answers. "Early this afternoon. You?"
"Late last night."
They continue eating their egg rolls in silence while watching storm updates. As they finish, Elliot takes a couple of fortune cookies out of the bag and sets them on the couch cushion between them. "Your choice."
She grabs one, and he takes the one remaining. Both open their cookies and read their fortunes.
"Mine says… 'Your happiness is before you, not behind you! Cherish it.'" Elliot smiles and sets it aside.
"Mine says, 'Your love life will be happy and harmonious.'" Olivia rolls her eyes, chuckles, and tosses it aside.
"At least neither of ours said we'd be stranded in a hurricane, right?" Elliot jokes.
"Oh, I got that one last week," she teases and gets up to wash her hands in the kitchen sink.
"Funny."
The winds pick up, causing the balcony door to rattle in its frame. It draws their attention to the door and the storm activity outside.
Elliot goes to the balcony door for a closer look and Olivia follows from the kitchen area. He opens the door and steps out onto the balcony, looks back at her with the door still open and she comes out there with him.
As their eyes adjust to the darkness, Olivia looks out at the turbulent gulf water, noticing higher waves breaking at the shoreline. She looks toward the pier and then the condo units to the right of the hotel. The street lamps between the buildings cast light on the heavy rain and mist.
He leans close to her ear so she can hear him over the storm noises. "I think we're fine for now. But it's just starting."
Olivia nods.
While still looking at her, he says, "Liv, about what happened at the pier… I—"
She shakes her head and cuts him off. "It's fine Elliot. It's forgotten."
"I don't want it forgotten."
She folds her arms, feeling cold from the wind gusts and mists. Unable to form a response just yet, she gazes ahead.
She sees about 5 or 6 small groups of people on different floors of the hotel standing out on their balconies to watch the storm. Some have their phones out to record it.
A real estate advertising sign that had been flapping in the wind suddenly stops after it breaks at the base. The wind gusts toss it into the side of a beach chair rental booth.
Palm trees are tilting hard from the wind, but they hold on. It's kind of mesmerizing to watch.
Without looking over at him, she asks, "Elliot, why did you leave SVU?"
He raises his voice a little to be heard over the wind gusts. "I left because… I thought it was the right thing to do. Because of Jenna. Plus, I didn't want to go through all the IAB stuff. The mandatory counseling. Talking about what happened that day in the bullpen with a shrink," he shakes his head. "I couldn't take it."
"Did it ever cross your mind that I might want to get a goodbye from you? I had to find out about it from Cragen," she huffs.
The winds suddenly shift and the mists get heavier. She could turn toward Elliot to avoid them. Instead, she shields her face with her hand.
"Yeah, Liv… I regret that. But I wasn't prepared."
"Prepared for what?"
"For whatever would come out if we had that conversation."
"Instead, you never gave me a choice."
"If I heard your voice, I wouldn't be able to leave."
"I left you voicemail messages. I sent you texts. You could have reached out days or even weeks later," she states.
"I didn't know what to say."
"Well, I guess you did what you had to do then," she smarts back.
She reaches for the handle of the balcony door, prepared to walk back inside, but Elliot puts his hand over her wrist to stop her. She lifts her eyes to his.
"It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made, Liv."
She opens the door anyway and walks back inside.
Elliot follows her, closing the door behind them.
She hadn't realized how loud it was outside until they were inside with the door closed, and there was only a muted sound coming through.
He comes up behind her; she spins around to face him. "Elliot, my son is sleeping," she whispers. There's a warning in her tone if he says or does anything to wake him up.
He nods. Keeping his voice down, he finishes his thoughts. "I get it, Liv. I am sorry for the way things happened."
"So am I."
"But it's great to see you now. I'm glad you're doing well. You've got a wonderful kid. You're a captain. You've got a great family at SVU and the NYPD. Probably did better without me there than with me."
"Maybe I did."
"Just saying that I admire you. And I want to be part of your life again."
She feels her frustration rising as he's tossing accolades her way and it does nothing to fix what's been screwed up.
"Why? Because we booked two hotel suites next door to each other? What if we hadn't run into each other? Would you still be keeping your distance?"
"I came back to New York wanting to start over. And wanting to make amends. I've made mistakes."
Olivia sighs.
"I know I've got to earn your trust again. And I plan to do that."
"I need to get some sleep, Elliot. Or at least try."
"Then, I'll go. But I'm next door if you need me." He pauses, then says, "And you can keep my hoodie. It looks better on you. Good night, Liv." Elliot turns and leaves, closing the door carefully behind him.
xoxo
Sunday–2:40 am
Olivia stirs awake. She hears the heavy wind gusts outside, then the sound of creaking and metal scraping against cement, and a low rumbling sound.
And then.
"MOOOOM! MOOOOM."
She jumps up off the couch and hurries toward the bedroom. "Hey… Noah… Hey, it's okay."
He's sitting up in the bed, looking frightened.
She sits on the side of the bed. Noah reaches for her and she pulls him into her arms. "Getting too loud out there, huh?" She tries to keep her voice calm for his sake, but it's scaring the hell out of her, too.
"I've got you, sweet boy," she says, kissing his head. "I've got you."
Noah leans against her, shaking. Crying a little too, which makes her eyes tear up.
What the hell was she thinking coming to Florida during hurricane season?
Olivia looks over her shoulder and out the windows. All she sees is a fogged-up window and beads of water running down the glass.
The rain is coming down heavily and wind gusts continue. The metal scraping and creaking sounds are making her head hurt.
It dawns on her a few minutes later while she's thinking about it that hurricanes sometimes produce tornadoes.
Shit.
Then, suddenly, there's someone pounding on the door to her suite. The person is also yelling something in the hallway, but she can't make out any words.
She suspects it's about the storm and it's time to go somewhere safer.
"Come on, Noah," says Olivia, helping him get out of bed. She hurries toward the door to answer it and Noah follows.
As she opens the door, she sees other hotel guests with their doors open. Heads poking out. Emergency lights are on to light the hallway and exit signs, which means the power is out.
A member of the hotel staff yells out, "Everybody downstairs NOW! Take the stairs, the elevators are closed!"
Olivia looks over her shoulder at Noah. "We've gotta go downstairs. We'll be safer in one of the lower levels. Go put on your shoes. Hurry."
Elliot knocks on the door, and Olivia goes to answer it. Without a word, she lets him in while she finishes putting on her shoes.
When Noah turns back toward the bedroom for his shoes, he feels nauseous and leans over to throw up. "Mom, I don't feel good."
"It's okay, sweetie."
Elliot enters the suite a few steps. "Hey Liv, I can take Noah downstairs. That okay?"
Olivia nods her approval and Elliot approaches the boy. "Hi, my name's Elliot. I'm a friend of your mom's. Do you remember me from the restaurant?"
Noah nods.
"I'm going to pick you up. That okay?"
Another nod.
Elliot lifts him and carries him while Olivia follows. They soon begin descending six flights of stairs with other guests, most barely awake and not moving very quickly.
Although Olivia may have been frustrated with Elliot earlier in the evening, she is grateful for his help. He keeps him calm, speaks in that comforting tone, and continually reassures him with, "You're doing great." Or "We're almost there," even as Noah feels distressed and fed up with the stairwell. The circular motion of descending the floors isn't helping his stomach.
They reach the bottom of the stairs and enter the main floor. It's dark aside from a few emergency lights along the perimeter.
Hotel staff are sending guests into the conference rooms.
Once in the lobby, Noah gets down from Elliot's arms, then promptly leans over and throws up on the floor and partially on Elliot.
Other guests walk around them, some making comments, or tossing pity glances toward Elliot and Olivia.
"It's okay, Noah," says Elliot. He scoops up Noah again and carries him to the nearest men's room.
Olivia stops in her tracks. She's worried about Noah and wants to wait for the guys, but a member of the hotel staff rushes over and reminds her to go to the conference room to wait with the other guests.
Olivia glances down at the mess Noah made, feeling guilty.
"I'll take care of this. You go on ahead," says the hotel staff.
Olivia lingers behind to wait for the guys. As she stands near the men's room door, her attention is drawn to the windows in the lobby area, in particular, the one leading to the back patio and pool area.
A couple of emergency lights line the patio area.
Patio furniture is getting picked up and tossed around. A lounge chair lies on its side and is visible through the glass doors. The wind keeps knocking it into the door frame, then pulling it back and it's knocked into the door frame again. And again.
Olivia jolts each time it hits, thinking the thing might come through the glass.
Meanwhile, the rainwater from the drains and the roofs pours onto the concrete pad. Scraps of metal and wood swirl around on the patio or are tossed into the air.
Elliot and Noah exit the men's room. Noah rushes over to Olivia.
"You feeling any better, Noah?"
"Uh-uh," he groans, shaking his head.
"Just too much excitement and nerves," Elliot comments.
"Let's go to the conference room. It'll be over soon."
The guests sit on the floor along the perimeter of the room once the few empty chairs in the space are filled up.
Elliot and Olivia squat down on the floor, with Noah settling between them.
"Elliot, I'm sorry," she says, looking at the spots on his blue t-shirt and gray cotton pants where Noah threw up and Elliot tried to clean it off.
"Oh, believe me. Not the first time I've been puked on."
Olivia chuckles.
"Probably had it coming too," says Elliot, smirking a little.
"What?"
"I upset his mom."
"El…" She shakes her head. "I don't want to talk about that here."
"I understand. Liv, your friendship and our partnership meant the world to me. You still do, if there's any hope of fixing things."
"There is."
"Good."
"And thank you for stepping in and helping." She drops her gaze toward Noah and then back to Elliot.
"Oh, of course."
"Yeah. He woke up screaming when he heard the tornadoes."
"I think I did too," Elliot says to Noah. Then to Olivia, "He'll feel better in the morning."
"Hopefully."
It's another 15 minutes before they're given the all-clear to return to their rooms.
xoxo
7:45 am - Sunday
Olivia stirs awake and sits up. Her head hurts.
It takes a moment to remember where she is and what's going on.
She's curled up on her side, her legs half on and half off the bed. The covers are wrapped around Noah, who is sleeping soundly beside her.
They got back to the suite after the tornado. Rather than sleep on the couch, she stayed with him until he fell asleep. Then she fell asleep herself.
She gets out of bed carefully, trying not to wake him. Until she figures out what the plan is, she'll let him sleep.
She leaves the room and goes toward the balcony window.
Clouds are still thick, but it doesn't appear to be raining. Maybe just drizzle and fog.
There are piles of sand along the pier and walkways that had blown over the beach barrier wall. Loose trash, pieces of wood, and unidentified pieces of scraps are strewn along the beach. Some patio and deck furniture were picked up from the condos and tossed around. The gulf waters look choppy. There are a few large puddles of water on the beach.
Glancing toward the side of the building, she sees some palm trees leaning, and some broken; a few palm trees with leaves missing. Signs that post warnings about riptide or restrictions about dogs on the beach are bent or falling over. Roofs of condos are littered with more trash and debris. There's damage to some roofs of condos, hotels, and other buildings.
That's just the damage she can see from her window.
While figuring out what to do and what's available, she checks her phone to read any weather alerts.
About six more came in concerning the Hurricane, which is now a tropical storm. The last advisory canceled it as of 7:00 am this morning as it moved out of the area. There were three alerts about a tornado that came through between 2:30 am and 3:00 am. The weather forecast is for more rain and wind gusts throughout the day.
They'd survived this. Just have to get home.
She looks over at the kitchen where a microwave that had displayed the current time is now blank.
No power.
Shit. She forgot.
She needs to get food for her and Noah. Probably find something at the hotel breakfast bar that doesn't require cooking. She hopes Noah's stomach is better because that's another obstacle. Fortunately, one of the hotel staff brought her a package of crackers and some Pedialyte for Noah.
She sees a new text from Elliot.
Text when you wake up. It's important. - El
The text came through a few minutes ago. She texts him back.
I'm awake. - Liv
It takes about five minutes for him to reply.
I've got us a car, Liv. Let's go home. - El
xoxo