Sep 27, 2007 12:08
Title: Evidence Locker (CSI:NY/L&O:SVU)
Author: mbnola
Rating: T
Warnings: Technically femslash, but it is really vanilla
Summary: Sometimes a trip to the pit of an evidence locker at the NYPD isn't so bad. Olivia Benson may have found a little more than she was looking for in the form of Lindsay Monroe.
Evidence Locker
Lindsay Monroe scowled as she descended into the pit known as the evidence locker. Bad enough she was still considered the “new girl” after being there for more than a year, but then she had to be chastised by her boss in front of everybody and now she was being sent down into the seventh layer of hell to find a box of evidence from a cold case that appeared to be on the lam. “I don't know what to tell ya sweet cheeks” the man behind the cage was telling her, “we try to keep track of this stuff, but sometimes it gets misplaced or some jerk off takes out his anger on the filing system we got going here.” The uniform shrugged and buzzed open the door to let Lindsay into the pit. “Thanks for all your help” Lindsay quipped , tacking on with a smile, “ and it's Detective Monroe, not sweet cheeks”. “Whatever” the portly man at the desk drolled, going back to his crossword puzzle and coffee.
Olivia Benson smirked at the exchange in front of her between the blasé uniform and the spitfire detective. Olivia recalled what it had been like for her so many years ago when she started with the force and it seemed like not much had changed since then. “Hey Chuck” she greeted the man as the younger detective made a point of letting the door clang shut behind her. “Detective Benson, what brings your beautiful face all the way down here?” the uniform greeted her with a smile. “Trying to figure out if a case we caught is connected to an old one and Stabler won the coin toss” Olivia said with a smile spreading across her face. “How's the crossword coming?” Charles “Chuck” Clarke shook his head, “Damn things is two weeks old, I should just give up. You don't happen to know a 10 letter word for forestalling starting with P do you?” “Preventing?” Olivia suggested. “Well crap, why didn't I think of that?” Chuck said, filling in the boxes with Olivia's answer. “Good luck in there, and I would watch out for the young one she's a tiger” Chuck smiled, pressing on the buzzer once more.
Olivia descended deep into the rows and rows of boxes. It boggled her that so many cases remained cold, no matter how many hours they clocked out there on the streets. Why she was still amazed at human capacity for evil was another topic for her nonexistent therapist. Searching for a box in the Coxe case was proving to take a lot longer than she had originally expected. She called up to her partner and kept hunting, finally finding the box in the 'K' aisle. “Well that sort of makes sense” Olivia sighed. A noise caught her attention, perking her ears up as she turned and started walking.
Lindsay balled her fists up in frustration, the evidence box was nowhere to be found. Now she would have to slink upstairs with her tail between her legs and most likely get teased yet again by Danny Messer, the resident Casanova of the lab. “Fabulous, why the hell did I come to this stupid city anyway?” she muttered, lashing out at the box in front of her. Feeling a sense of release. Lindsay struck out again and again at the box, anger welling up and flowing out of her in a combination of punches and tears until a voice came from behind her.
“We have a bag in the gym for that, ya know” Olivia quipped to the young woman currently beating the crap out of a cardboard evidence box.
Lindsay sniffed up her tears and snot, turning to the voice with a wide eyed look of shame. This woman must think she was a complete lunatic, but better crazy than incompetent, Lindsay mused. “Yeah, I know, but I figured I could actually win against the box” Lindsay finally responded trying to lighten the mood. The other woman smiled; she had very pretty teeth and kind eyes, Lindsay thought.
Olivia found the younger woman's grin infectious. While her round young face portrayed a pretty innocence, her brown eyes hinted at a doleful past. Those eyes drew Olivia in empathetically, something she was used to in the victims she encountered in her work, but not something she was used to seeing in her co-workers. “I would say you won” Olivia laughed putting her hand out, “I've Olivia Benson, Special Vics”.
Lindsay was relieved by the woman's laugh; it had been nothing but doom and gloom in the lab since Flack almost got blown to bits. Not that most of the team was anything but serious during the best of times. “Lindsay Monroe, Crime Lab” she said shaking the woman's hand, shocked at how soft it was, seeing as the woman looked tough and street worn.
Olivia nodded knowingly, “Ah the new girl, though I don't think you are so new anymore, are you?”
Lindsay shrugged, “New enough to still get dumpster duty and other unpleasant tasks.”
“Like shunned to the evidence locker?” Olivia's eyes sparkled in amusement.
A grin lifted the corners of Lindsay's lips, “Yeah, kinda like that.”
“It gets easier, I swear” Olivia said, holding up her hand in the three fingered scout's sign.
Lindsay flopped against the wall of boxes, “I wish I could believe you. It's just everything seems so much harder here than it did in Bozeman. I guess it's the big fish/small pond syndrome. I felt like I was on top of everything there, I knew everyone, I knew what was expected, I knew how to succeed and here...I feel like I know nothing”. Lindsay heaved a huge sigh, trying to keep a second wave of tears at bay.“And now I am acting like a spoiled lunatic in the evidence locker in front of a complete stranger who is probably thinking I need my badge pulled”.
“Not pulled exactly” Olivia deadpanned and then hid a snicker at the look of shock on the other woman's face. “Believe me, I have done a thing or two on the job that caused me to look like I was completely unhinged. You learn how to cover that as well. So what are you looking for?”
Lindsay drew a scrap of paper from her pocket with a name and case file scrawled on it. She handed it toward the other woman with a look of hopeful gratitude.
“What?” Olivia asked seeing the look on Lindsay's face, “Don't look at me like that, kid, I'm not a miracle worker”.
Lindsay bristled, another person calling her kid, as if Stella and Mac weren't enough.
“I see your problem, this case number isn't in the right format for homicides, it's in the format for major case. I'm shocked nobody caught it upstairs” Olivia said, making a correction on the scrap and heading down another aisle. She scanned up and down the rows, locating the box quickly. “Here you go” Olivia said, reaching for the box above her head.
Lindsay watched as Olivia effortlessly located the missing box of evidence and with equal grace pulled it from where it was wedged in the stack and handed it to her. Lindsay felt even more like a bumbling idiot when she dropped the proffered box with an unceremonious thud. “Dammit!” Lindsay cursed as the box disintegrated as it hit the concrete floor.
Olivia sprung to action, reaching for a pair of gloves and a new box. “Must have been one of the boxes that got caught in the pipe leak” she said, scooping the contents from one box to another.
“I swear I am not normally this much of an airhead,” Lindsay sighed, crouching beside Olivia to help transfer evidence bags, her ears burning with embarrassment.
“Mac Taylor isn't in the habit of hiring airheads” Olivia retorted.
“That's a relief,” Lindsay said tapping a lid on the new box, “but I guess there is a first time for everything”.
“I hope you don't think I am offering unsolicited advice Lindsay, but you might be trying too hard. Just relax and do your job well and everything else will fall into place. One day things will just-” Olivia cut off searching for the right word, “click” she ended.
Lindsay stared at Olivia with a degree of uncertainty; nothing seemed to be clicking so far, no matter how hard she tried. She studied the other woman carefully, gauging her for sincerity. The woman's eyes were full of knowing and sympathy. Lindsay nodded in careful assent, “I guess I just have to let it go. Huh?”
Suddenly, a spark caught between them, temporarily suspending everything else in the universe. Lindsay felt her mouth go dry, she licked her lips and tried to swallow. Olivia felt as though her heart had been plunged in icy water and then thrown in a microwave. Their eyes met and seemed to mirror each other, twin pools of molten chocolate.
Before she lost her nerve, Olivia brushed a loose curl back over the younger woman's shoulder, and moved into those full pouting lips for the softest of possible kisses. “See ya around sometime,” Olivia whispered into Lindsay's ear.
“Nice chatting with you, Benson,” Chuck teased as the Detective sailed passed him.
If it hadn't been for the massive butterfly trying to escape her stomach, Lindsay would have thought she imagined the kiss, so quick that the clanging of the locker door was the only sound filling the air as Lindsay opened her eyes. “Damn,” Lindsay breathed and smiled as she felt the corner of Olivia's card pressing into her hand, “maybe the evidence locker isn't so bad after all.
“I like to think it's not so bad,” Chuck Clarke called out as the second woman left the evidence locker.
Back up in Special Vics, Stabler studied Olivia.“What's up with you, Liv?” Stabler asked his partner with a wry grin, “Normally you hate going down to the evidence locker.”
“Don't know what to tell ya, Elliot,” Olivia shrugged, “Maybe I just happened to find what I was looking for.”