SVU - katie/bonnie/matt - out - PG
title: out
fandom: Law & Order SVU
pairing: elliot/katie (ofc), contains Matt Vaughn, OC of ciaimpala - thanks for letting me borrow him, again!
letter: q for quick-tempered - table # 11 for a_to_z_prompts
summary: Katie is released from hospital; and her affair becomes known to two important people in her life.
rating: PG
word count: 2062
warnings/spoilers: none really ;)
a/n: Katie Summers is an original character of mine who I'm pairing with Detective Elliot Stabler for my fic's in this challenge. You'll get to know more about her as you read :) SVU timeline wise is set during the time Elliot is separated from his wife, around seasons 5-7.
disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Law and Order SVU. This is purely written for entertainment only.
Out
Katie spent a week at hospital, mostly just for observation. Thankfully, since she had been part of the whole operation to get the rapist for his crimes, she didn’t have to testify. The police had witnessed his crime; Katie didn’t have to leave her hospital bed until her attacker had been sentenced, and was now awaiting trial in The Tombs. Olivia had assured Katie that with her positive ID, DNA evidence and the fact that police had witnessed him attacking her; it would be a smooth, clean trial and soon he’d be away for life.
On Katie’s last day in hospital, Bonnie was with her helping her pack up her things. Her sister was counting down the days until she reached her eighth month of pregnancy, Bonnie and Katie had both been born in the first week of their mother’s eighth month; so they were expecting the little one to arrive soon enough.
Bonnie was young; so her body responded youthfully to the pregnancy. She had the kind of body Katie knew most women would die for during those nine months. If you looked at her from behind; you wouldn’t know she was pregnant. She didn’t even have to change her jeans; her legs didn’t get any wider, she just stopped buttoning up the very top button so her bump was sticking out and wore slightly bigger shirts or dresses; but she just looked so healthy. Katie knew, should she ever become pregnant, she wouldn’t be as lucky as her freak-of-nature sister.
“Ugh,” Bonnie made a disgusted face as she pulled a shirt from the drawers that Katie’s clothes had been stored in. “What is this?”
Katie gave her a withering look. “It’s Ben’s; he gave it to me to sleep in. It’s comfortable.”
“Comfortable like a bag of garbage,” Bonnie muttered, folding the shirt and placing it into Katie’s rucksack.
“Ok,” Katie mentally went over the list in her head and checked off the items in her hands. “Toothpaste and brush, shampoo, conditioner, soap, hairbrush... I think I’ve got everything.”
“Do a second sweep.” Bonnie suggested as she tried to stuff one of the towels from the bathroom into Katie’s bag.
“Are you stealing?”
“They expect you to take a few things.” Bonnie said casually.
“This isn’t a hotel.”
“May as well be; they make you pay through the nose. And with what you did to help put that creep behind bars? They can spare a towel.” She tucked another one under her coat. “Or two.”
Katie didn’t disapprove; it’s hard to argue with an adorable pregnant sister. She just turned a blind eye to it and went back to do one more look through the bathroom.
“Hey, Katie, can I pack up these cards and flowers and stuff?” Bonnie called.
“Yeah; go for it.” Katie replied, spying one of her favourite earrings behind the tap on the sink. “Got you,” She muttered, going to her bag to find the other one and immediately putting them on so she wouldn’t lose them again. She checked her watch; 1:45. Bonnie was reading through the cards as she stacked them in a shoebox. “Matt’ll be waiting for us outside at two, Bon,” Katie reminded her. “No time for reading.”
“You have so many sweet friends,” Bonnie said. “One from Olivia, Finn, Munch, Matt... the whole precinct...” She paused at one card and laughed. “Ha - I miss your ass, love from your desk chair.”
Katie rolled her eyes. Matt, or Olivia. Or both of them. “They gave me a week of paid leave,” She said. “That desk is going to be overflowing by the time I get back.”
“You love it, Katie, everyone of these cards says the precinct wouldn’t run without you.”
“Yeah; without my coffee and prompt mail delivery the NYPD would simply fall apart.”
Bonnie giggled and kept packing up cards. “Where’s Elliot’s?” She said offhandedly.
“What?” Katie said a little quicker than would appear normal.
“Elliot’s card... unless I’m missing it; he’s like the only one who hasn’t sent you one...” Bonnie re-checked the cards she’d already put away.
Katie knew Elliot hadn’t sent her a card; in lieu of that he’d spent most nights after visiting hours closed beside her bed until she fell asleep; it was hard for her to sleep in a dark room, it reminded her of being in that alley with that cretin on top of her. He was always sure to leave before the visiting hours started up, and Ben or Bonnie would be waiting to come in.
“Weird, he was totally freaked out when they brought you in here,” Bonnie chuckled, it was easy to see the comical side of things now that Katie was totally fine. “He was so pissed, I thought his head might blow off, kept pacing... then, of course, Ben showed up and acted exactly the same way...” Her comment was just that; a comment that had just come into her head, and she hadn’t realized the connection between the two men’s actions until that second. She looked to Katie; waiting for her to say something, anything, that would prove her mind wrong. Instead; she saw guilt all over her sister’s face. “Katie... are you... and Elliot... is there...?”
Her mouth squirming into a twisted smile, Katie nodded. “Yeah.” She admitted; feeling the weight of the last few months lift up off her shoulders, and immediately it was replaced with fear. “We’re... seeing each other.”
Bonnie’s eyes were bulging out of her head, her mouth hanging open as she tried to form a coherent sentence. “But... he’s... you two... what.... he’s married!” She snapped in a harsh whisper, pushing the door to their room closed so they had some privacy.
“They’re getting divorced.” Katie said, even she knew how desperate and weak that sounded.
“And what about Ben?”
“I know, ok?!” Katie suddenly snapped. “I know! It’s a terrible thing that I’m doing! And I know how bad it is; and I keep doing it,” She laughed at herself. “It’s insane!”
“Yes, yes it is insane.” Bonnie wholly agreed. “Ben is a good man and he adores you; how can you do this to him? What did he do to you?”
“Nothing! He did nothing!” Katie cried. “He did absolutely nothing. He loves me, and I love someone else, but I stay with him,” She laughed again, even less humour than the first time. “It’s like some pathetic, sad, Lifetime movie.”
Bonnie was speechless for all of five seconds, her face morphing into what could only be described as disappointment.
“Please don’t do that.” Katie begged. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Bonnie couldn’t wipe the expression on her face. “I can’t... I love you, Katie. But I can’t be around you right now.”
With that, she was gone, out the door, leaving Katie alone with her box of Get Well cards, wilting flowers, and half-packed bag.
Feeling tears in her eyes, and grateful she was alone; Katie sat on her bed and wept out her sorrows. Bonnie wouldn’t tell Ben; Katie knew that, and it was one of the reasons she was so angry; she would now have to lie to Ben.
“Katie; what’s wrong?” Matt was suddenly in front of her, she hadn’t heard him come into the room. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Katie sniffled, smiled and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m sleeping with Elliot.” She said, laughing, and then dissolving into a fit of tears.
xxx
Matt didn’t ask Katie anything more until they were out of the hospital and had pulled into Katie’s guest parking spot under her apartment building. He clicked off the engine, and turned to her. “So?”
“I don’t wanna talk about...”
“Too bad; you have to.” Matt pushed. “Not only do you work together, but he’s in the middle of a divorce and you are completely attached, from the way Ben was hanging off of you at the hospital.”
“I don’t need you to tell me how wrong it is, Matt.” Katie snapped.
“But then why?”
“I don’t know!” Katie suddenly cried so loud she felt her own voice reverberate off the closed windows. “I don’t know! And I do not need this from you, ok?! I don’t know why I did it; why I’m still doing it, and why I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna stop anytime soon, alright? So I need you to just stop judging me and stop asking the World’s Stupidest Questions.” Her voice hung in the air, Matt just giving her a strange look, her sudden rage having completely discombobulated him for the moment.
“Let’s get you upstairs.” He said a moment later.
Cheeks burning both in anger and embarrassment, Katie climbed out of the car with her purse and her pillow, Matt took her bag from the back of his car and the pair silently rode the elevator from the parking lot right up to Katie’s apartment level. At her door was a basket of muffins from her neighbour and best friend, Alexis, who said in a note that she was at work but would stop in on the way home.
The muffins being there struck Katie as a little odd. Why hadn’t Bonnie brought them in? Even if she was mad, she would have done something, like eat them all; or bring them into the house and toss them in the bin; not just leave them out in the hall. Katie let herself into the apartment and saw nothing was different, so Bonnie hadn’t come home at all after their argument. It wasn’t uncommon; she was big on the ‘take a walk after a fight’ thing; especially now that she was pregnant. Plus, she was always walking around Central Park since she’d moved in with Katie; so she let her worry switch back to what she was going to do now. She could count on Bonnie to keep the secret. She trusted Matt, but she didn’t know if he had an obligation to tell the Captain; who would then have to talk with herself and Elliot... and seeing as everyone around Katie at work was a detective; it wouldn’t take them long to put two and two together.
Matt stashed Katie’s back in her bedroom and then joined her in the living room; she was curled up on one of her couches and looked dejected. “Do you love him?”
Katie didn’t see the point in lying anymore. “Yeah, I think I do.”
“I was talking about Ben...” Matt said, eyes narrowing. “You’re in love with Elliot?”
Exhausted, Katie could only shrug and sigh at Matt, knowing her eyes were about to betray her and spill with tears again. “I love Ben... but I don’t... Elliot... it’s different.”
“I... dunno what you want me to say.”
“Nothing. I want you to say nothing; because there is nothing I haven’t heard from myself in the mirror. And I don’t stop... because I don’t want to... and I know it’s not fair to Ben.” She paused. “Or to you and Katie to have to keep it a secret...”
“Katie...”
“Please, Matt, please do not tell anyone yet. I don’t know if Elliot’s wife knows, or his kids... and it should come from him because he wants to tell them, not because he has to.”
Matt pursed his lips together. “You should take your own advice.” He said slowly. “Tell Ben.” He picked up a folded, blue blanket off the loveseat, spread it out and laid it over Katie’s small body; she looked so tiny since she’d been in the hospital. Leaning in, he gently kissed her forehead and tucked the blanket up under her chin.
“Thank you, so much... for everything.” Katie managed to say as her eyes grew heavy; she hadn’t had one good night’s sleep at the hospital, the nurses woke her every few hours to do a blood test or take her blood pressure, now she just wanted to sleep; properly, in her own home, with no one, not Matt, not Elliot or Bonnie, to bother her.
Vaguely she heard Matt leave, calling out as he did, but after she heard the door shut, she pressed back on her chair so it reclined, cuddled her blanket to her chest and fell into what must have been a very heavy sleep; because she didn’t hear Bonnie come home.
xxx
fandom: Law & Order SVU
pairing: elliot/katie (ofc), contains Matt Vaughn, OC of ciaimpala - thanks for letting me borrow him, again!
letter: q for quick-tempered - table # 11 for a_to_z_prompts
summary: Katie is released from hospital; and her affair becomes known to two important people in her life.
rating: PG
word count: 2062
warnings/spoilers: none really ;)
a/n: Katie Summers is an original character of mine who I'm pairing with Detective Elliot Stabler for my fic's in this challenge. You'll get to know more about her as you read :) SVU timeline wise is set during the time Elliot is separated from his wife, around seasons 5-7.
disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Law and Order SVU. This is purely written for entertainment only.
Out
Katie spent a week at hospital, mostly just for observation. Thankfully, since she had been part of the whole operation to get the rapist for his crimes, she didn’t have to testify. The police had witnessed his crime; Katie didn’t have to leave her hospital bed until her attacker had been sentenced, and was now awaiting trial in The Tombs. Olivia had assured Katie that with her positive ID, DNA evidence and the fact that police had witnessed him attacking her; it would be a smooth, clean trial and soon he’d be away for life.
On Katie’s last day in hospital, Bonnie was with her helping her pack up her things. Her sister was counting down the days until she reached her eighth month of pregnancy, Bonnie and Katie had both been born in the first week of their mother’s eighth month; so they were expecting the little one to arrive soon enough.
Bonnie was young; so her body responded youthfully to the pregnancy. She had the kind of body Katie knew most women would die for during those nine months. If you looked at her from behind; you wouldn’t know she was pregnant. She didn’t even have to change her jeans; her legs didn’t get any wider, she just stopped buttoning up the very top button so her bump was sticking out and wore slightly bigger shirts or dresses; but she just looked so healthy. Katie knew, should she ever become pregnant, she wouldn’t be as lucky as her freak-of-nature sister.
“Ugh,” Bonnie made a disgusted face as she pulled a shirt from the drawers that Katie’s clothes had been stored in. “What is this?”
Katie gave her a withering look. “It’s Ben’s; he gave it to me to sleep in. It’s comfortable.”
“Comfortable like a bag of garbage,” Bonnie muttered, folding the shirt and placing it into Katie’s rucksack.
“Ok,” Katie mentally went over the list in her head and checked off the items in her hands. “Toothpaste and brush, shampoo, conditioner, soap, hairbrush... I think I’ve got everything.”
“Do a second sweep.” Bonnie suggested as she tried to stuff one of the towels from the bathroom into Katie’s bag.
“Are you stealing?”
“They expect you to take a few things.” Bonnie said casually.
“This isn’t a hotel.”
“May as well be; they make you pay through the nose. And with what you did to help put that creep behind bars? They can spare a towel.” She tucked another one under her coat. “Or two.”
Katie didn’t disapprove; it’s hard to argue with an adorable pregnant sister. She just turned a blind eye to it and went back to do one more look through the bathroom.
“Hey, Katie, can I pack up these cards and flowers and stuff?” Bonnie called.
“Yeah; go for it.” Katie replied, spying one of her favourite earrings behind the tap on the sink. “Got you,” She muttered, going to her bag to find the other one and immediately putting them on so she wouldn’t lose them again. She checked her watch; 1:45. Bonnie was reading through the cards as she stacked them in a shoebox. “Matt’ll be waiting for us outside at two, Bon,” Katie reminded her. “No time for reading.”
“You have so many sweet friends,” Bonnie said. “One from Olivia, Finn, Munch, Matt... the whole precinct...” She paused at one card and laughed. “Ha - I miss your ass, love from your desk chair.”
Katie rolled her eyes. Matt, or Olivia. Or both of them. “They gave me a week of paid leave,” She said. “That desk is going to be overflowing by the time I get back.”
“You love it, Katie, everyone of these cards says the precinct wouldn’t run without you.”
“Yeah; without my coffee and prompt mail delivery the NYPD would simply fall apart.”
Bonnie giggled and kept packing up cards. “Where’s Elliot’s?” She said offhandedly.
“What?” Katie said a little quicker than would appear normal.
“Elliot’s card... unless I’m missing it; he’s like the only one who hasn’t sent you one...” Bonnie re-checked the cards she’d already put away.
Katie knew Elliot hadn’t sent her a card; in lieu of that he’d spent most nights after visiting hours closed beside her bed until she fell asleep; it was hard for her to sleep in a dark room, it reminded her of being in that alley with that cretin on top of her. He was always sure to leave before the visiting hours started up, and Ben or Bonnie would be waiting to come in.
“Weird, he was totally freaked out when they brought you in here,” Bonnie chuckled, it was easy to see the comical side of things now that Katie was totally fine. “He was so pissed, I thought his head might blow off, kept pacing... then, of course, Ben showed up and acted exactly the same way...” Her comment was just that; a comment that had just come into her head, and she hadn’t realized the connection between the two men’s actions until that second. She looked to Katie; waiting for her to say something, anything, that would prove her mind wrong. Instead; she saw guilt all over her sister’s face. “Katie... are you... and Elliot... is there...?”
Her mouth squirming into a twisted smile, Katie nodded. “Yeah.” She admitted; feeling the weight of the last few months lift up off her shoulders, and immediately it was replaced with fear. “We’re... seeing each other.”
Bonnie’s eyes were bulging out of her head, her mouth hanging open as she tried to form a coherent sentence. “But... he’s... you two... what.... he’s married!” She snapped in a harsh whisper, pushing the door to their room closed so they had some privacy.
“They’re getting divorced.” Katie said, even she knew how desperate and weak that sounded.
“And what about Ben?”
“I know, ok?!” Katie suddenly snapped. “I know! It’s a terrible thing that I’m doing! And I know how bad it is; and I keep doing it,” She laughed at herself. “It’s insane!”
“Yes, yes it is insane.” Bonnie wholly agreed. “Ben is a good man and he adores you; how can you do this to him? What did he do to you?”
“Nothing! He did nothing!” Katie cried. “He did absolutely nothing. He loves me, and I love someone else, but I stay with him,” She laughed again, even less humour than the first time. “It’s like some pathetic, sad, Lifetime movie.”
Bonnie was speechless for all of five seconds, her face morphing into what could only be described as disappointment.
“Please don’t do that.” Katie begged. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“I’m sorry,” Bonnie couldn’t wipe the expression on her face. “I can’t... I love you, Katie. But I can’t be around you right now.”
With that, she was gone, out the door, leaving Katie alone with her box of Get Well cards, wilting flowers, and half-packed bag.
Feeling tears in her eyes, and grateful she was alone; Katie sat on her bed and wept out her sorrows. Bonnie wouldn’t tell Ben; Katie knew that, and it was one of the reasons she was so angry; she would now have to lie to Ben.
“Katie; what’s wrong?” Matt was suddenly in front of her, she hadn’t heard him come into the room. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Katie sniffled, smiled and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m sleeping with Elliot.” She said, laughing, and then dissolving into a fit of tears.
xxx
Matt didn’t ask Katie anything more until they were out of the hospital and had pulled into Katie’s guest parking spot under her apartment building. He clicked off the engine, and turned to her. “So?”
“I don’t wanna talk about...”
“Too bad; you have to.” Matt pushed. “Not only do you work together, but he’s in the middle of a divorce and you are completely attached, from the way Ben was hanging off of you at the hospital.”
“I don’t need you to tell me how wrong it is, Matt.” Katie snapped.
“But then why?”
“I don’t know!” Katie suddenly cried so loud she felt her own voice reverberate off the closed windows. “I don’t know! And I do not need this from you, ok?! I don’t know why I did it; why I’m still doing it, and why I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna stop anytime soon, alright? So I need you to just stop judging me and stop asking the World’s Stupidest Questions.” Her voice hung in the air, Matt just giving her a strange look, her sudden rage having completely discombobulated him for the moment.
“Let’s get you upstairs.” He said a moment later.
Cheeks burning both in anger and embarrassment, Katie climbed out of the car with her purse and her pillow, Matt took her bag from the back of his car and the pair silently rode the elevator from the parking lot right up to Katie’s apartment level. At her door was a basket of muffins from her neighbour and best friend, Alexis, who said in a note that she was at work but would stop in on the way home.
The muffins being there struck Katie as a little odd. Why hadn’t Bonnie brought them in? Even if she was mad, she would have done something, like eat them all; or bring them into the house and toss them in the bin; not just leave them out in the hall. Katie let herself into the apartment and saw nothing was different, so Bonnie hadn’t come home at all after their argument. It wasn’t uncommon; she was big on the ‘take a walk after a fight’ thing; especially now that she was pregnant. Plus, she was always walking around Central Park since she’d moved in with Katie; so she let her worry switch back to what she was going to do now. She could count on Bonnie to keep the secret. She trusted Matt, but she didn’t know if he had an obligation to tell the Captain; who would then have to talk with herself and Elliot... and seeing as everyone around Katie at work was a detective; it wouldn’t take them long to put two and two together.
Matt stashed Katie’s back in her bedroom and then joined her in the living room; she was curled up on one of her couches and looked dejected. “Do you love him?”
Katie didn’t see the point in lying anymore. “Yeah, I think I do.”
“I was talking about Ben...” Matt said, eyes narrowing. “You’re in love with Elliot?”
Exhausted, Katie could only shrug and sigh at Matt, knowing her eyes were about to betray her and spill with tears again. “I love Ben... but I don’t... Elliot... it’s different.”
“I... dunno what you want me to say.”
“Nothing. I want you to say nothing; because there is nothing I haven’t heard from myself in the mirror. And I don’t stop... because I don’t want to... and I know it’s not fair to Ben.” She paused. “Or to you and Katie to have to keep it a secret...”
“Katie...”
“Please, Matt, please do not tell anyone yet. I don’t know if Elliot’s wife knows, or his kids... and it should come from him because he wants to tell them, not because he has to.”
Matt pursed his lips together. “You should take your own advice.” He said slowly. “Tell Ben.” He picked up a folded, blue blanket off the loveseat, spread it out and laid it over Katie’s small body; she looked so tiny since she’d been in the hospital. Leaning in, he gently kissed her forehead and tucked the blanket up under her chin.
“Thank you, so much... for everything.” Katie managed to say as her eyes grew heavy; she hadn’t had one good night’s sleep at the hospital, the nurses woke her every few hours to do a blood test or take her blood pressure, now she just wanted to sleep; properly, in her own home, with no one, not Matt, not Elliot or Bonnie, to bother her.
Vaguely she heard Matt leave, calling out as he did, but after she heard the door shut, she pressed back on her chair so it reclined, cuddled her blanket to her chest and fell into what must have been a very heavy sleep; because she didn’t hear Bonnie come home.
xxx