<3 PINKY!
Chapter 1—Nothing Ever Changes.
“Do you always feel the need to be early?” the frustrated sigh, not the irritated sentence is what altered Olivia to her partners prescience, so, its going to be one of those days.
“No-had it ever occurred to you that you end up being late? And I’m here on time?” she states indifferently, taking a sip of her poorly made coffee while checking her e-mail.
She had Munch to thank for her morning sludge.
She has Elliot to thank for her bad day, that’ll probably get worse through out.
Great.
A snort behind her is the only answer she gets-not that she was looking for one to begin with.
She doesn’t want to be grumpy today, unlike her partner; he seems to dwell on everyone else’s misery. Olivia can feel the migraine starting when he plops in his chair, cursing the computer in front of him of being too slow for his needs.
Patience is a virtue Stabler, one you desperately need.
She wants to thank god, personally when their Captain calls them out to a crime scene, techs, and policemen, not just Elliot,’ll surround her. But the ride there, is no walk in the park either, the whole ride is full of utter silence, not one word is to be spoken, Olivia knows this, other wise she’ll get her head chewed off by her sulking partner.
She has grown sick and tired of this charade he’s been pulling for the past few months, she doesn’t know what the hell is going on at home. But she doesn’t have to be a detective to know that’s what’s got him so uptight. Why does she always get the annoying feeling that its her job to ask what’s wrong? He’s already made it clear, more than once, that he doesn’t need her to hold his hand, why should she care, when he obviously doesn’t want her to either?
With a deep breath that manages not to get any air into her lungs, she opens the car door to figure out who committed the next crime in New York.
It was better than trying to find out what was wrong with her stubborn-ass partner, that’s one thing she was almost certain.
“What happened here?” Olivia wondered, entering the bedroom of the victim’s apartment.
They didn’t know what the furniture looked like before they came here, but it was obvious everything was tossed carelessly about, not in there normal places, the bed was sideways, propped on its side against the bed, while the dresser, was by the door, what appeared to have been a barrier between it and the rest of the apartment, crime scene techs apparently had to move it to get in.
“Alice Gentry was mutilated, raped and than strangled after coming home last night, her body has been laying there for that long, about 14 hrs, setting it at about 8 o’clock last night. ”
“Thanks Melinda.” Thanking her for answering her question, she never really desired to know all the details, but that is the only way of capturing the victim’s murder/rapist.
“I guess rape wasn’t degrading enough for him.” Elliot comments bitterly, taking a survey of the room.
“Looks like she was working out…” he trails off, a wince overtaking his features as he lifts the sheet covering the body, finally some sympathy and compassion towards someone.
“We can start at the local gyms, see if anyone remembers her talking to someone, or someone following her out.” Olivia concludes, hoping this will end soon, another rapist behind bars, for once, easy enough. But she already knows that’s too much to ask for.
“Don’t sound so optimistic so soon.” Elliot adds, his eyes still glancing around the room.
Olivia snorts and shakes her head, deciding to leave the room and see if there’s anything else around the apartment.
“It looks like most of the attack was concentrated in the bedroom, but he did stop in the kitchen for a snack.”
“How do you know it wasn’t Alice?” Olivia asks O’Hallaren as she follows him into the kitchen. “What we heard from the M.E. it sounds like your perp stuck around after the victim was killed,”
“After the autopsy, that’s the only time I can be positive.” Melinda finishes, walking into the room,
“But I’ll take the food and run the saliva I can get off of it, let ya know.”
Olivia rolls her eyes as he walks off, but not without giving her a flirtatious wink and a smile before leaving the room. She wills herself to ignore the curious look she’s getting from the M.E. before she too, leaves the kitchen. Olivia sighs and leans against the counter, forgetting about the crime scene for a moment as she wonders what the hell she’s let herself get into. That’s when Elliot interrupts,
“Hey, I need you to interview her neighbors with me, see if they heard anything.”
“Okay.”
“But only since you asked so nicely.” She mutters under her breath, following him outside the door.
Olivia sighs in exhaustion as she flops into her heavenly desk chair, thankful to have the weight not concentrated on her legs for once that day. Maybe she should start working out again in the evenings, like she would have anytime to begin with, but still it wouldn’t hurt…
“Come on, we’re not done, we still have to finish what we’ve started,” Elliot states, throwing a pile of papers on her desk, but she takes half of them and gives them back.
“Don’t be an ass Elliot, I am not doing some of your paperwork.” She states irritated, she really does need another cup of coffee, maybe 3 more.
“We’ve got nothing after a day of running around, and we’re still on square one.” Olivia continues, feeling the bitter taste of failure in her mouth, she already cant sleep and its already 10 at night.
Elliot grunts,
“When I said to stop being optimistic, I didn’t want you to start complaining.”
“Stabler, when I start caring about your needs, shoot me.” She states bitterly, getting up out of her chair, needing some air.
Her gaze is concentrated on the floor when she rounds the corner and runs into someone.
“Sorry….I didn’t mean—“ she tries to apologize as the persons hands grip her arms to try and steady her.
“Its fine Olivia, don’t worry about it.”
She can’t help but smile up at him; it’s the first friendly face she’s seen all day. That’s when he holds up a piece of paper,
“If your stressed about the case, I probably just solved that problem, the DNA was the perps, and he was already in the database.” He adds with a cocky smirk.
Olivia sighs, her smile widening, stepping away so there’s a reasonable amount of space between them.
“That’s great, now Elliot and I can go pick him up.”
“Hey, by the way…” Olivia looks up to see his eyes gleaming as he asks,
“I was wondering if you were doing anything tomorrow night, sense you’re tied up tonight, I figured, this date could possibly, go a little smoother this time.” He adds with an all-knowing smirk.
Olivia sighs, her voice softening as she tried to keep it down, even though there’s no one in sight.
“Ryan—I have work tomorrow, and…” she runs her hand through her hair, trying to quickly figure out how to word what she needs to say.
“It was one date, and….I-- normally don’t go out with people I work with…” she tries to reason, Ryan just shakes his head, his eyes softening,
“Liv, you clearly need something more in your life than your job, dinner, tomorrow, I’ll pick you up myself.” Olivia glances down at her feet, a chuckle breaking through her lips,
“Are you propositioning me?”
He pretends to think about it for a while, “Yes, I believe I am.” He adds with a smirk. He runs his hand softly down her arm,
“Come on, free food is pretty hard to pass up, for me anyways.” Olivia’s smile widens and she looks back up at him, hell, he was right, work defiantly wasn’t making anything happy for her, including her partner, but she could have a few care free hours with Ryan.
“Why not?” she sighs, looking down at the ground again, suddenly feeling embarrassed. This was certainly new, especially with Ryan, the local crime scene tech. He nods in approval.
“Good.”
His eyes, scan over her shoulder, and that’s when he turns to leave with one last smile, Olivia sighs, knowing who’s walking down the hall behind her, she knows no one would want to face her partner, he’s like the goddamn father she never had, interrogating her dates to see if they’re fit with going out with her, he’s sure to get a kick out of this one, if he even knows. Olivia would feel comfortable longer if no one knew right away, especially since it was O’Hallaren, nothing has happened so far anyway.
Honestly, she doesn’t think anything will.
She turns to begin, “O’Hallaran got the prints on our perp.”
Elliot nods, his eyes still down the hall Olivia’s anger sparks at that fact.
“Lets go pick him up.” He states, his eyes still not meeting hers, as their making their way down the deserted hall, Elliot grows the balls to ask,
“So how long has this been going on?” trying to feign indifference, Elliot’s a poor actor.
“I don’t know what you mean.” She mumbles, pushing the lobby button in the empty elevator, privacy where she can lash out at her partner, good.
Elliot grunts, obviously not liking the idea of him having to spell it out, good, you should feel uncomfortable about this Stabler.
“How long have you been dating O’Hallaran?”
Olivia meets his cold eyes, a sneer breaking out on her face, “I missed the part where this was any of your business.” She was furious, first of all he had enough courage to ask, and the second, he seemed like he was really concerned, why the hell should he care? When he has been treating her like crap for the past couple months!?
A humorless smile breaks out on his face,
“Nothing, just curious how this one will end.” And with that the ding on the elevator sounded and he was out of the door in a split second.
Of course, Olivia was hot on his heels.
TBC