FicWad

Elliot headed to George’s house his mind spinning with images from Liv’s apartment. It was beyond anything he would have imagined. He had no clue what to do.

He knocked on the door, and waited impatiently. The lock on the door clicked and it opened.

“Elliot,” George said as he opened the door inviting him in.

Elliot stepped inside and took in the room. It was a small but comfortable space. The colors of the room were very similar to the hues in Alexander Toppin’s house, with a few differences. This place exuded warmth and comfort. A soft brown cloth couch sat in the middle of the room and beside it sat an over-sized black leather chair. Surrounding and covering every available inch of three of the four walls were neatly stacked books.

“Come in, sit down,” George offered as he led him into the living room, motioning for him to take a seat. “Do you want something to drink?”

“No I’m good, thanks,” Elliot replied taking a seat in the large leather chair realizing his head and neck ached.

“So what’s going on?”

“Uh…” Elliot started and then re thought what he was doing there. What was he going to say? He thought his partner had lost her mind.

“Is this about Olivia?”

“Yeah,” was all Elliot could say. He exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and leaned back into the chair.

“I assume something happened?”

“To be honest I’m not really sure.”

“Well there must’ve been something that made you think to call me at,” George stopped looking at his watch. “Two am.”

“I went to see her after I got done at the House,” he started, as he stood, suddenly uncomfortable, as if he was tattling on his best friend.

“Detective Benson was sent home because of an incident in the interrogation room,” George verified, seemingly having heard of the incident before now.

“Yeah,” Elliot replied the sight of her face and her bloody nose harshly hitting him.

“So you went to check on her. Was she alright?”

“We talked a little, and then we fought,” Elliot said the moments flashing in his mind. He idly wandered around the room inspecting random items along the way. “We do that a lot when we’re both tired. The case is moving slowly. I’m probably making a bigger deal about this than…”

“Elliot,” George cut in, and Elliot took his focus off the book in his hand. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Elliot heard what he said and then heard it again in his mind.

“Was Olivia okay?”

The questions echoed and Elliot took a sharp breath, “I can’t do this.”

“Why?”

“I can’t…” Elliot repeated and he headed for the door as George rose off the couch. “I’m sorry, George. I really…”

“Give me a dollar.”

“Excuse me?”

“I need a dollar.”

“Um, okay,” Elliot replied in confusion. He pulled out a dollar bill from his wallet and placed it in George’s hand.

“Thanks,” George said as he put the dollar in his pocket, “Now come sit down.”

“I…”

“Elliot, you are now officially my patient. Anything you say to me is protected by patient confidentiality.”

“Doc, no offense but I’m a little lost.”

“What I just said means that anything you tell me about you or your partner is protected by confidentiality. It cannot be used or reported against either of you. Unless I have your consent.”

It clicked. Elliot understood and oddly enough, he was relieved.

“So why don’t you come back, sit down and tell me what happened with Olivia,” George said with a smirk. Elliot took a deep breath, sat down, and started from the beginning.

*

Olivia’s eyes opened and she immediately regretted it. A wave of nausea hit her as she sat up, sending her hand to cover her mouth. She took a deep breath and slowly moved off the bed toward the bathroom. After three steps, the nausea took hold. She dashed for the toilet to expel the contents of her stomach.

She splashed cool water on her face, and looked up into the mirror. Her stomach clenched at the reflection. Her face, diluted and pale, made the circles under her eyes overly defined and her eyes looked like something out of a horror movie.

Great, she was getting sick.

She took a deep breath and quickly went to work to eliminate the signs of her sudden affliction. They had an open case, and she couldn’t afford to be sick.

Half an hour later she walked out of her bedroom searching for her keys when her phone beeped. She reached for it and saw a new message from Elliot. She smiled and opened the message.

Tea?

Definitely. .

She moved across the room to the kitchen, still in search of her keys. Her foot hit something hard, and she looked down to see a bookend on the floor. She quickly searched her mind for a reason it should be there. An odd feeling of displacement swept through her. She turned in confusion seeing the vase of flowers from the coffee table lay shattered on the floor.

Her stomach clenched for the second time that morning, and she wondered what was going on. Had she come home last night and been so tired she knocked the flowers of the table and didn’t realize it? That didn’t explain the bookend. She racked her brain trying to remember something, anything, that would explain the anomaly. There was a knock at the door, and she jumped her heart pounding. Quickly moving she checked the peep hole, saw Elliot, and opened the door.

“Hey,” he said with a smile as he stepped into her apartment with two cups of coffee.

“Hey,” she replied as he handed her the second cup. “Thanks, I really need this.”

“You ready to head out?”

“Yeah I just need find my keys,” she said as she walked into the kitchen to continue the search.

“Need help?”

“Um, no. It should just take a second,” Olivia answered as her stomach growled at her in anger. “This place is only so big you know?”

“Did you get a cat?” Elliot asked as she found her keys lying beneath a paper towel on the counter.

“No, why?” she replied to the odd question as she pulled a shake from the fridge.

“What happen to your flowers?”

“I honestly don’t know,” she replied shaking her head as she sipped the shake in her hand. “I must’ve knocked it over last night when I got home. I was so tired I don’t even remember. Remind me not to do that anymore, ok? My body just can’t take it.”

“Right,” he replied as she smiled shaking her head again and he laughed with her. “Ready?”

“All set,” she said tossing the empty shake in the garbage before leading the way out.

They exited the elevator and while Elliot went to the bullpen, Olivia headed to the locker room. She dropped her bag in her locker and checked her make up. Her eyeliner was starting to smudge, and she went to wipe it clean. As she did, she stopped. Her hand shaking in the reflection. She focused on it as it continued to visibly shake. She held it in annoyance before lowering it to her side.

She closed her locker, composed herself, and walked out to her desk.

“So where are we?”

Elliot and Fin brought her up to speed. Their suspect still hadn’t given up a confession, but they now had DNA and motives for two of the three crimes.

“So what are we missing,” Olivia asked as she stood up and walked toward the board. “Why two out of three?”

“Maybe he has a partner?” Elliot suggested.

“What about Lane?” Munch asked.

“His alibi was solid,” Fin replied as he picked up a file off his desk. “Eye witnesses places him onsite at 10 pm thru midnight.”

“Victim one was killed between 9pm and 11pm,” Elliot started, rising from his chair as well, pointing the location of the first victim.

“Victim two was killed between eleven thirty and twelve thirty,” Olivia added as Elliot brought up the second location.

“Victim three was killed between one am and two thirty am,” Elliot said bringing up the location of the third victim.

“There’s a half an hour of time missing,” Olivia said.

“Could Mel have been wrong about time of death,” Fin asked.

“No, we have a witness that checked the area at 12:56 am and the location was clear,” Olivia explained. “So it had to have happened between one am and when we received the call at three.”

“Where was Lane during this time,” Elliot asked.

“Location was 2377 West 58th,” Fin read from the file.

“There was no way he could have gotten to the 9th street bridge and not have been missed,” Fin explained.

“Right, but look,” Olivia said as she pointed to the map. “He’s was six blocks away from the location of victim two.”

“Where was the last place the victim was seen?” Elliot asked her and Olivia turned back to her desk pulling out her notebook.

“According to a witness she was last seen at the Quazar,” Olivia replied. “Address is 1115 Polan Ave.”

She needed water.

She grabbed a bottle from her desk, and gulped down the bottle in a moment. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and her head swam in pain. Olivia took a deep breath as she struggled to focus on the conversation at hand. Elliot brought the address up on the map. They realized the club was between the original location of the suspect and the crime scene.

“The alibi cleared him from the three murders, not just one,” Fin said as he looked at the map. “I’ll have a chat with Mr. Lane.”

“I’ll come with you,” Olivia replied anxious to get out of the building.

“We’ll see if we can jog Toppin’s memory,” Elliot said looking to Munch.

*

Her chest felt heavy and she couldn’t focus on what Fin was saying to her. She stared down at her hands. They shook in her lap and the quake seemed to vibrate through her entire body. Her elbow rested on the car door and her forehead on her hand. She noticed moisture on her palm, and she realized she was sweating. She straightened her back and wiped her hands on her jeans. Fin’s voice abruptly entered her ear.

“Hey, you coming?” he asked, looking at her from outside the driver's side door.

“Yeah,” she replied, silently scolding herself as she got out of the car. She met Fin at the doorstep. She panicked. She couldn’t remember the suspects name? The door opened, a well build man stood before them.

“Detective,” the man said from the doorway.

“Do you have a moment to speak with us Mr. Lane?” Fin asked.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really,” Fin replied as he stepped into the house and Olivia followed.

They walked into the brownstone and followed the suspect into the living room. Olivia listened to Fin question the suspect. Her focus wavered uncontrolled. Her ears rang and a sharp pain shot up through her neck to the back of her head, She fought to remain silent.

Without warning she saw Fin fall back onto the floor. Their suspect was bolting for the door. Olivia’s instincts kicked in and she took off after him. He crashed through the door and down the sidewalk. She leapt over the steps. A few feet behind him, her legs pounded forward. The suspect turned left and then left again. Down an ally. She was getting tired of this, and she needed a way to disable him.

She searched for something to assist. She saw a long piece of PCB piping. She lifted it off the ground as she ran. She was satisfied that the pipe was going to be heavy enough. She was running out of time, Olivia stopped, and threw the pipe at the suspect's legs. The pipe tangled itself and he hit the ground, hard. Olivia quickly seized him. Her knee in his back as she put him in cuffs and read him his rights. Abruptly, a car pulled up and a man got out running toward them.

“Stop where you are,” Olivia ordered as she pulled out her firearm and aimed at the approaching stranger. She clicked the suspects handcuff and had her free hand on the suspect’s arm. “Police.”

The man said something but she couldn’t understand him.

“Police, back up!” she commanded, “Get back in your car.”

Unexpectedly a stabbing agony shot through her brain and she blinked back the pain, focused on the approaching stranger. Blinking again, she saw Fin standing a few feet away his hands raised, looking at her in confusion.

“Liv,” he said as he continued to approach.

“Fin, I…” she stumbled as Fin put his hand on her gun and lowered it. Olivia quickly holstered her gun. Fin took their suspect to the waiting squad car.

What had happened? Had Fin been standing there the whole time?

Olivia walked toward the car. She leaned against it, as her hand ran through her hair. She recounted the actions in her mind.

“Hey,” he said as he joined her. “You okay?”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“After you and the perp took off I got in the car to head him off. When I arrived you were cuffing him,” Fin began to explain, searching her face. “You got confused, with the chase and the adrenaline your eyes were playing tricks. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Let’s get this idiot back to the House.”

They returned to the House, suspect in tow. Fin escorted the suspect to one of the interrogation rooms. Olivia went to the fridge grabbing a shake and a water. She sat them on her desk, before she pulled out a bottle of Tylenol. Her hand shaking, she threw three pills in her mouth and washed them down with water. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fin talking to Elliot just outside the booth. Elliot turned and looked to her briefly as he nodded to whatever Fin was saying. Her stomach retched and she wondered if Fin was telling Elliot what happened in the ally.

What was he saying? Would Elliot ask her about it? Had Fin told Cragen? While Fin said it was no big deal, if she’d actually drawn a weapon on another police officer, there was definitely a problem. She hadn’t though right, not on purpose. She was confused.

Confused?

Her hands were still shaking, and she held them together in frustration. What the hell was happening? She was suffocating and the taste of bile pooled in the back of her throat.

She realized they were all staring at her, giving her sideways glances, judging her. Her heart was pounding. She couldn’t breath and her brain was mush. She had to get out of there. She’d be damned if they were going to gang up on her. She grabbed her coat and headed for the elevator praying no one would notice. As she turned, hitting the button, there was no one there and the doors shut behind her.

*

“Did you guys get anything out of Toppin while we were gone,” Fin asked as Elliot walked out of the booth.

“Not yet. What happened with Lane,” Elliot asked as he scanned the office for Liv. He saw her at the fridge, and breathed in relief.

George listened patiently to Elliot’s concerns the night before. It turned out Elliot wasn’t being paranoid. By the end of the conversation, George was concerned as well. He gave Elliot specific things to look for until he came up with some answers.

He hadn’t known what to expect when he knocked on her door that morning. What happened unsettled him even more than her tirade the night before.

She didn’t seem to remember anything, t music, the conversation, or the argument. She'd forgotten, blocked it out. Elliot knew that meant whatever was happening to her was getting more severe. George told him not to confront her with it. He was to let it play out as if nothing had happened.

It was the hardest acting job he'd ever played. When she volunteered to go out with Fin, he’d hesitated but let it go. He trusted Fin to take care of her no matter what might happen

“The fucker ran in the middle of the interview.”

“What happened?”

“He got the jump on me but Liv went after him. We were able to bring him in,” Fin replied looking hesitant about some part of the story.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Elliot asked his heart in his throat as Fin motioned for him to follow.

“Liv went after Lane. I jumped in the car to block him off at the end of the ally. When I got there Liv was cuffing him,” Fin explained and Elliot looked at him to continue. Fin took a breath still apparently debating if he should be sharing the story.

“Fin, tell me what happened.”

“Look it’s not that big a deal. It could happen to anyone,” Fin setup while Elliot’s patience was thinning along with his available breath. “When I got there, I went to assist and she pulled her firearm.”

“What?”

“She announced herself like I was a perp and she told me to stay back,” Fin continued. “I wasn’t sure what to do so I stopped and put my hands up. She stood there for about half a minute and then snapped out of it.”

“So what? She didn’t know it was you?” Elliot asked trying to understand. “Couldn’t she see you?”

“No, I was in plain sight. It was as if she saw something else. Someone else besides me.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

“Yeah, she was as confused as I was. I told her it was just the adrenaline and she seemed to accept that.”

Elliot processed the information and then looked to Fin.

“I haven’t told anyone but you,” Fin assured as if knowing Elliot’s concern.

“Thanks, man.”

“El, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m working on it.”

Fin nodded and walked past him into the bullpen. Elliot pulled out his phone to call George. It rang and voicemail picked up. He left him a frustrated message and then walked toward his desk. He saw her water bottle, her shake unopened and her cell phone but her jacket was gone.

“Where’s Olivia?” Elliot asked out loud to the group.

There was no response and Elliot’s heart stopped in his chest. He saw Fin go for the bathroom. He vaulted up the steps to the cage.

Nothing.

Fin returned with a shake of his head. Elliot grabbed his jacket and keys off the desk.

“Fin.”

“I got ya,” Fin answered back as Elliot reached the elevator and headed out the door.

*